Odds and Ends

There is a not insignificant subset of the population in the areas we frequented in Hong Kong, who felt it of utmost importance that I know at all times what time, in fact, it was. To this end, they would approach me and ask if I wanted a watch. An invitation to join them in their shop invariably followed. To a degree, I found this rather odd, as I was at all times sporting a watch large enough to consume most of my wrist. An impressive and, I might add, elegant device.

I would have preferred to be left alone by these well-meaning individuals, but could not devise a strategy for accomplishing this. So I did the next best thing. I invented a game: Watch Salesman Photo Safari. The way you play is the moment someone asks you if you want a watch, you take their picture. The conversation goes like this:

Watch Salesman: “Watch? You need a watch?”

Me: “Do you sell watches!?” (pulling camera out of pocket) “May I take your picture?”

The initial response was always the same – a bemused pause.  The non sequitur of offering to sell watches being followed by a request to have one's picture taken simply takes a moment to recover from. Sort of like having whatever you are doing interrupted for the fifteenth time that morning by someone offering to sell you a fake Rolex.

Typically, the watch salesman would remain stunned until I had a camera poised in front of his face, and then would recover in time to try to smile. I would snap a picture, say thank you, and then we would continue on our way without a further comment.  In a few cases, the watch salesman failed to appreciate the jest.  It never failed to crack both of us up, though.

Did not see the humor

One of our guidebooks singled out Mak’s Noodles as a nifty hole in the wall where you could get excellent noodles and awesome wontons, for a great price.  Naturally, we had it on our hit list.  The food was in fact delicious, and I got a chance to work on my noodō (the Way of Putting Noodles Inside).  It’s not as easy as they make look on television, but it’s helpful to think of imitating a seven year old doing things with pasta that your mom would have asked you to stop doing.  It was just as much fun, too…

Trying to put noodles in

We’re chilling in Kathmandu now.  Tomorrow we helicopter to Lukla to begin the trek proper. Before I left Norman, I teased a coworker who is from Kathmandu, asking him to recommend the best place to get pizza while we were there.  He smiled and simply said, “No. Momo.”

Chicken momo with a pepper sauce

Wise advice.