Friday, June 03, 2005

Getting off the ferry from Hong Kong, I was approached by a number of taxi drivers and bicycle-with-carriages-behind-them operators offering me tours of the city. One old man was particularly persistent so I ended up paying him HK$50 to take me to the ruins of St. Paul. HK$120 would have gotten me a 2-hour tour of the city, but as I was riding in the carriage, I quickly realized I had made a good decision not to do the 2-hour tour. The poor old guy was sweating profusely and clearly laboring under the effort and the oppressive heat. I could feel the stares of passerby, probably wondering what kind of heartless soul—clearly an American!—would make this poor old man drag her around town in a bike carriage. I wanted to stop him but I didn’t want to offend him, since he was telling me how he had been doing this for many decades. Luckily the church wasn’t too far away. I slinked off the carriage in embarrassment.

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