In Tia’s attempt to adhere to self-imposed, journalistic deadlines, she’s neglected to mention a couple important things in Hong Kong. See the door in this picture? Tia didn’t either. Caitlin and David’s building came complete with a gym that, aside from having an indoor pool where a smiling, old Chinese man with a whistle watches you do laps (I was assured he was a lifeguard), was enclosed by immaculate glass walls. So clean, in fact, that Tia made a full velocity attempt to disbelieve their existence and now has a walnut-sized nugget on her forehead to show for it.
Eschewing said gym, I went for a run on the 4K loop Caitlin suggested that skirted a neighboring mountain. Trees rose from both sides of the trail and construction workers gently carved perfect Chinese characters into bamboo stalks for some unknown purpose. Only signs every 100m punctured this tranquility by warning of some deranged individual leaving piles of poisoned bbq pork for unsuspecting dogs.* Weird. Before I knew it, I was in central Hong Kong and realized that the track wasn’t going around the mountain. Two hours later and many failed attempts to find my starting point, I hobbled back to the apartment where Tia informed me that Caitlin never said it was a loop. They have both since adopted the phrase “10 mile run” as code meaning that David or I haven’t been listening to anything they’ve just said (apparently, this is a common occurrence).
* - a quick Google search reveals that a serial dog killer has been on the loose since 1989!
