12/31/15,
“New Year’s Eve”
Aboard
Turbojet Terceira, Pearl River
Estuary, En route Macau-Hong Kong
It is here,
the last day of the year. In about ten
hours, I will be counting down the minutes until I can start singing “Auld Lang
Syne” and ring in the new year in some exotic location, as has been my
tradition for four years now. 2013 in
Quebec, 2014 in Vienna, 2015 in Antarctica, and now 2016 in Hong Kong. Just as I have my Christmas traditions, I
also have my New Year’s traditions.
I
get all dressed up, find the big spot in the foreign city, and, just exactly at
12 o’clock, light up my Davidoff Special Edition cigar of the year, pop open some
sparkling wine, and sing “Auld Lang Syne” at the top of my lungs, not caring if
people are looking at me. They’re
not. It’s New Year’s Eve. Everyone is going crazy. I then text all my friends back home (it’ll
be 11 AM on the East Coast) my New Year’s greetings in the local language. Although, I guess that’s English here. I always have a great time, drink too much,
and wake up hungover. It’s a grand
tradition. There is not much to recount
about my morning in Macau, but I will need to pause before I do so, as my lunch
is here.
Okay, so
after I closed last night, I published my entry and passed out. It was almost 4 AM. I slept in big time, not getting out of bed
until past 9 AM. That was okay. I didn’t have much to do today, and I figured
as long as I got to my hotel in Hong Kong by 4 PM I was good. I’m on schedule for that. I had no appetite, having eaten such a grand
dinner last night, so I put on some casual clothes, not needing any extra
layers in this tropical climate. I
really just needed one picture to cross off the Macau WHS, which would also
make me feel as if I had seen both the old and the new Macau. Which one.
I read that the souvenir shops were by the Ruins of Saint Paul, so I
figured that was the best bet.
I grabbed
my cigar and went to take my Nexium.
Where was that? I had left it
Beijing. Oh, fuuuuuudge. Yep.
That could ruin the rest of my trip.
Surely I could find a drug store in Macau. I asked directions to the Ruins. It was a fifteen minute walk. Perfect.
I also secured a late check out of 1 PM.
I lit up my Churchill as soon as I got outside and headed towards the
ruins. There were plenty of drug stores,
but they only had like chalky antacids, not the stronger stuff I use. It would have to do. It was better than Chinese herbal
medicine. I found my first souvenir shop
not far from the Ruins. All the
souvenirs prominently featured one building.
I pointed to magnet and asked what that was. “Magnet,” she replied. Wonderful.
“What building is it?” She had no
idea what I meant. I kept walking. Then I saw it. The building was the Ruins of Saint Paul,
just a façade remaining, but it was certainly iconic. That would do. I took my ceremonial pictures
I then saw a little snack stand. I got the famous snacks: a pork chop bun and
an egg tart, along with some coffee.
That was breakfast. I sat down
and ate it. That was delicious. I was loving this city. Top 10 maybe.
New York, London, Vienna, Quebec, Macau.
Maybe Top 5? I’ll try a more
comprehensive list on the flight home, after I’ve considered Hong Kong, Taipei,
and Seoul. I found a perfect souvenir
shop on the walk back. They had
everything. I got the assorted presents
for friends too. They even had the flag
pins. If get them in Hong Kong and Taipei,
too, it’ll make up for screwing up in Beijing.
Ironically, I have been to all P5 Security Council capitals. The only flag pin I have is America, and I
don’t even display one. Germany, same
story. It’s like I always screw up in
the big countries.
I called my parents
on the walk back to the hotel, updating them on the trip and them updating me
on their progress. They had driven from
Scarsdale to Jacksonville in the time since I left. Their trip was going well, too. I got back to the hotel, packed and changed
into my suit, checked out, and took a taxi to the ferry terminal. Just as my day trip by plane to Xi’an was
something unique for me, so too is this, taking a passenger ferry as a form of
onward (rather than round trip) transportation.
In other words, I have never wheeled a suitcase onto a ferry
before. I have done vehicle ferries like
that, but never passenger ferries. I
have done day trips by ferry, but never, wait, I have done like Isle Royale,
where I leave the car in the parking lot and do an overnight trip by boat, but
it was round trip, not onward. I got
bought a Premier Class ticket and bought some cigars at the shop. Before long we were boarding.
The premium price for Premier Class was
definitely worth it. It came with a meal
and free drinks, not that I was in any mood to drink anything stronger than
coffee. I’ll do enough drinking once I
get to Hong Kong. I chose a better seat
once we were en route, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now
close. If they ever make a TV series out
of my Travelogue, that phrase, “where I proceeded to write this entry, which I
will now close,” will probably be the equivalent of “Elementary, my dear
Watson” or “Just the facts, ma’am” or “Book ‘em, Danno” or, perhaps most
iconic, “These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.” Anyway, 2015
has been, for the most part, an amazing year, even for the adversity that began
it. I will do a proper Year in Review
from Hong Kong tonight, but for now I’ll just say it’s been a great year.
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
I am sitting
in my hotel room in the Mandarin Oriental.
THE Mandarin Oriental. The
original one. I am staring out at HSBC. THE HSBC.
The original one, I believe. I am
smoking my 2011 Christmas Pipe on New Year’s Eve, just as I did three years ago
in Quebec and last year in Port Lockroy, Antarctica. This is the least interesting place I have
smoked it of the three, and that’s saying a lot. When I smoked this pipe a year ago today, I
said that 2014 was the best year of my life.
2015, not so much.
I vowed to be
true to myself, and I have been. I am
glad that I kept that resolution, despite everything that I went through this
year. 2015 was a rough year, and I’m
hoping 2016 will be much better. It
started with a breakup that was 2 months overdue. We had both given up on the relationship by
the time the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, but we should have ended
it long before that. Neither of us were
ready for what we needed from that relationship, the only reason why our
particular coupling had made any sense.
We were both unready for different reasons, though. It was over almost as soon as it began, and
it never really stood a chance, maybe a fool’s chance, and that’s we were,
fools in love. We had given up on it a
year ago today, maybe a few days earlier, even.
It didn’t matter who said what or when once I got back. It was already over.
I then spent three months in deep
depression. I revitalized and cemented some old
friendships and made new friends, while other friendships began to fade
away. One friendship in particular was
the one thing that kept me going. More
often than not, her first text in the morning was the only thing that got me
out of bed. The constant back and forth
we had about the Oscars race and my obsessive watching of almost every
nominated film, even the foreign films and documentaries, gave me a sense of
purpose when I needed it most.
After the
Oscars, we found new things to talk about, and my other new friendships continued. Just when I thought I was clean, I wasn’t,
and I sank into an even deeper depression.
I almost lost my job. I put
everything back together again, started dating again, got back together with an
ex, the ex I never should have broken up with, not the one I left her for. There was just no spark, and there was
nothing to be done. It ended.
I asked out a girl from my philosophy class. Never in my entire life had I ever dated
someone who was so perfect for me. She
was starting a new school the next semester, and she was about to go on
vacation to Ohio. Falling in love with
someone who was about to go to Ohio.
Boy, isn’t that familiar? Yes, I
am referring to the aforementioned friend, the one who saved my life more times
than she will ever know (unless she is reading this entry).
I got into a nasty dispute with my cousin
that caused a schism in the family, and it was only through my mother’s
pleading not to spoil my brother’s wedding that it wasn’t an even greater
schism. My mother and I went on our last
great summer road trip adventure together, then came the wedding. I was fully healed by that point, but the
emotional investment I had put into the relationship in June, along with the
fallout from the situation with my cousin had left me emotionally scarred.
I invested instead in my friendships, people
whom I knew actually genuinely cared about me more than anyway I had ever
dated, and for whom I genuinely cared, far more than I cared for all but one of
my cousins. My two closest female friends,
I have told them they are like sisters to me, and I mean it. My male friends, they’re like bros, for
sure.
My oldest friend got married, and
our friendship has started to fade a result, despite our trip to Cuba together
for his bachelor party. The year ended
almost as soon as it begin it feels like.
This trip, which will close out the year and start the new one, is one
of my more epic trips yet. It is unique
in that I am doing so much commercial air travel. As I said, I have done my last great road
trip.
In five hours, I will be ringing
in the New Year, and I will be glad to take a fresh start. I suppose it is almost cliché to resolve to
lose weight, but that is really the only resolution I have for the New Year,
and I suppose it’s actually a relatively easy one. Alright, by the numbers, this year I have
been to 17 countries, 6 continents, 3 Olympic Stadiums, 48 World Heritage
Sites, and a Wonder of the World from each category (Ancient, Natural, and
New7). I said “Mainland US Complete,”
not knowing a new US WHS had just been inscribed. I said “Central America Complete.” I said “Cuba Complete.” I was in two weddings, my brother and my
oldest friend. He came to my brother’s
wedding, and my parents came to his. If
any friend is to be considered family, it’s him. It has been an epic year of travel, and I
hope 2016 will be just as epic.
The
Oscar nominees will soon be announced when I get back, so that will dominate
the six weeks or so until the awards. I
got a good head start this year, but there will still be plenty to see. A year from today, I should be in Sydney, by
which point I will, hopefully, have been inside every Olympic Stadium. Australia will mark my 7th
continent, the Great Barrier Reef the last Natural Wonder of the World. I will have visited the sites of all 6 (not
7) Wonders of the Ancient World, and I will be entering the home stretch of my
travel goals. I may never have another
trip as wonderful as last year’s New Year’s trip to Antarctica, but I expect
next year’s to Australia should compete, especially if I am completing three
goals in that trip.
Alright, so how have
I spent my five hours (has it really only been five hours) in Hong Kong so far? After I closed, we soon landed in Hong
Kong. There was a long line for border
control, but it moved quickly. I got a
taxi to the hotel, but I did not have any Hong Kong money yet. I figured I could pay in Macanese money. I figured wrong. The hotel said they could pay the driver and
charge it to my room. That’s good
service.
The service was over the top,
too much so, in fact. I got all the
information I needed, and they said they’d make a dinner reservation for
me. They also needed to change my two
twin beds into a king bed, since I wanted a smoking room, and there were no
king smoking rooms left. I asked if they
could launder my dress shirts. They
could, but I was wearing one of the shirts, and there was staff coming in and
out, so I had to change in the bathroom.
They brought some tea and chocolate too.
After I recovered for a bit, I headed out. The city was so overwhelming. At first I thought to myself, “This must be
what a tourist feels when they visit New York for the first time.” Then I realized a better metaphor. “This is Coruscant.” Coruscant is, of course, the capital planet
from Star Wars, an entire planet that’s just one giant city. That’s how I felt. I headed out, stopping at the cigar store to
pick up an Asia Pacific exclusive El Rey del Mundo. It was overpriced, but I really wanted
it. I headed out and lit up the
cigar.
I first went to the HSBC, which
was an experience. The H in HSBC stands
for Hong Kong, and they practically run the city. They even mint the money. I looked at the banknotes. Wait.
That lion. It was familiar. It was the same lion from the plaza of the
building. Nice. I then walked along the street looking for
souvenir shops. I couldn’t find my flag
pin, but I will try again in the morning on the other side of the river. I got some keychains and new charging cords
for my phone. I then headed to a wine
store to get a half bottle of champagne for tonight.
I made my way across the highway to the new
Legislative Council Complex, discovering a very nice park right there, where I will
go for the fireworks I think. I took
some ceremonial pictures and ditched the cigar.
I then headed back to the hotel, and I sat in the chair overlooking the
city out window, where I lit up my 2011 Christmas pipe and proceeded to write
this entry, which I will now close, along with closing out 2015. Here’s to a better year in 2016.
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