September 4: Traveling in Twos

Catherine drove Eleni and me to the airport this -- well, I guess it was yesterday -- morning. We had scheduled to meet at 5:10; Cath showed up at ten of, given, she explained, her own fears of Oh, no, something will go wrong and I'm going to be late because I'm going to not hear the alarm clock, I'm going to run out of gas, the lights aren't going to be with me, etc. As Eleni and I are equally concerned with being on time, this made total sense to us. . . and so we ended up sharing all of our travel anxieties on the -- surprisingly easy since well, no one is on the road at 5 AM -- drive to Dulles.

Catherine has dreams that she shows up at the airport and her passport has expired. (Which led her, poor girl, to start worrying about that even though she was only flying to California.) Eleni quite simply doesn't like the length of time she has to be on a plane, unable to get up and move around. And me, here's what I'm anxious about. After years of these travelogues in which I talk about my occasional concerns traveling alone, I'm suddenly worried that maybe I won't be interesting if I'm NOT traveling alone. Really. Swear to Buddha, I couldn't sleep the night before I left, because what if I didn't have anything intriguing to write here? I mean, what if the whole trip was all just simple and easy and painless? Eleni and Catherine explained, of course, that I was being an idiot, and that was the end of that.

And, well, the fact is that the trip so far has been simple and easy and painless. We landed in Hong Kong five hours ago. Together, each of us catching signs the other one missed, we made it through the bustle of the Hong Kong airport. Once through customs, we divided chores. Eleni exchanged money; I called the hotel to confirm our reservations. Then, since there were two of us, we were brave enough to hop on the city bus, instead of taking a taxi, which was a great way to see the city at one tenth the price.

Once we'd checked into our hotel, we went for a walk down Nathan Road, which is a shopper's heaven. Imagine Times Square, except for with that much neon and ad space decorating a street several miles long, with corridors branching off for several blocks in every direction. The guide book said that no matter your intentions, you will purchase something here -- window shopping gives way to price comparisons gives way to buying something you didn't intend to. I scoffed, as I am the least shopping-oriented person in the world.

I bought a new pair of shoes within 15 minutes.

I blame Eleni. She was wearing these cute green suede sneakers all day, and I had comfortable-shoe-envy. I don't know, we are just going to have to see how this whole traveling with someone thing works out.