中華／中华
W3C’s TPAC was held in China for the first time . This was my first visit.
香港
I took UA869 from SFO to HKG, a very long flight (something like 15 hours), and I was jet-lagged to all hell that first day. I managed to work out how to take the MTR Airport Express into town, at least.
Hong Kong, I am in you.
So there I was, standing on a platform at Central, waiting for a train to my hotel (the Park Lane in Causeway Bay). The train I’d been waiting for pulled up, the door I was standing in front of opened, and Sam was standing right there on the train, directly opposite me. What are the odds‽‽‽ She was at the tail end of her visit; we only overlapped the one day. It turned out her hotel was near mine, so she took me there while we caught up.
The next morning, I wandered over to Victoria Park, right across the street from my hotel, where Hong Kong Pride was taking place. I wasn’t out yet, back then, but I was halfway around the world and entirely among strangers, so I lingered.
I visited Hong Kong Pride Parade 2013 and said “Happen to be in town for Pride.”
I took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak, where I enjoyed a coffee and the SCMP while taking in the view.
After coming back down I wandered the city. I accidentally crashed a wedding at St. John’s Cathedral later that day. At some point that day I read a plaque about Gander, a very good boy. Later that night I fell in with a fun crowd of regulars at The Phoenix, a pub most of the way up the Central–Mid-Levels escalator. It was one of those nights where you go from not knowing each other to sharing some pretty deep truths about yourselves.
I spent the next day exploring Kowloon with rniwa. We visited the Avenue of Stars and had multiple rounds of dessert. Ryosuke even helped me find a yarn store so I could get Erin some souvenir yarn.