No good deed

No good deed goes unpunished, Sure, I meant well

No good deed goes unpunished

I woke early on my second morning and made myself some coffee, returning to my room to do a bit of writing. I finished another blog post then quickly checked my email and Facebook. I had a friend request from someone I didn’t recognise. I flicked back through my journal to see if it was someone I had met recently but the name didn’t ring any bells. I clicked on their profile and noticed we had one mutual friend, N, a guy that I had dated for a few months before I had left on my travels. I dropped N a message to ask if I had ever met the person who was now trying to befriend me. I heard Brian and Pavlo up and about so went to join them for some breakfast.

Over breakfast Brian & Pavlo gave me some suggestions of things I should definitely see and do in my remaining time in Hong Kong.  On their list of suggestions was a trip to see the Big Buddha up at Ngong Ping.  They told me I could get the subway to Tung Chung and from there it was either bus or a cable car. They recommended taking the cable car for the views and the comfort of the ride, assuring me it was worth paying that bit extra compared to the bus. When I arrived at Tung Chung I found out that the cable car was closed for repairs so I was left with no choice but to take a bus. I found the bus stop, noted the sign saying that they only accepted the exact fare in cash and joined the queue.

  

The bus arrived and we slowly filed aboard. I found a seat about halfway down the bus, next to an open window, which was providing a nice breeze. The bus was just about full to capacity when I heard an American woman talking to the driver, her voice getting increasingly louder. It wasn’t hard to hear what the issue was. She didn’t have the exact fare and was trying to get him to accept a large note. It was clear that he wasn’t going to let her on without the exact fare and she wasn’t going to get off the bus to go get some change as that would mean the bus would leave without her. I checked through my wallet. I had enough change to pay her fare. I headed up to the front of the bus and gave her the change for the fare. She thanked me profusely and I politely allowed her in front of me to go find a seat. By the time I turned to go back to my seat I saw that someone had moved into it. I was left having to make do with the seat right in the centre at the back of the bus, which meant no nice window seat, no breeze, no view and a rather uncomfortable journey. Thanks karma.  

The journey up to Ngong Ping was up a windy mountain road and took an age. I could see how a cable car would have been a lot more appealing. The Big Buddha lived up to its name. The place felt eerily remote, surrounded on all sides by wooded hills with little signs of civilisation. The Buddha sat atop a hill with a long set of stairs to climb up to it. Even before I got to the top I knew that this would be another place where I wished I had someone with me to share in the experience. I spent about an hour wandering around the Buddha and the surrounding area, taking in the sights before steeling myself for the bumpy bus ride back down.

Once back in civilisation I found a spot to have some lunch. I still had the pay as you go SIM card from Australia in my phone and so I was able to get online as I used up the last of the credit on it. I had a quick check on Facebook to see what was happening as a distraction whilst lunching alone. I saw a message from Brian inviting me to dinner with some of his friends that evening. My only plans for the rest of the day had been to do a spot of clothes shopping so I ditched that in order to go meet Brian and make some new friends. I made my way back to Brian & Pavlo’s place to freshen up and change into something more suitable for dinner than the shorts and t-shirt I was sporting.

Having showered and changed I checked out where I needed to get to as I wasn’t entirely sure where I was headed. I had a street address and had looked it up on Google maps, taking a photo of the screen as a reference for if I got lost. I headed out, stopping en route to buy a bottle of wine and then took the subway downtown. I was soon in the area I thought I needed to be in but couldn’t see the street or building number I needed. I checked the photo of the map a couple of times, retracing my steps and checking the streets off as I went. I still couldn’t find where I needed to be. I tried to get online to message Brian but I had clearly used up my credit, which meant I was unable to call him either. As I stood thinking what the best thing to do was I spotted Pavlo, looking similarly lost. Thankfully he could call Jack, whose place we were headed to and soon we had the directions we needed.

I was introduced to Jack and the wine was cracked open. Jack was British and had been in Hong Kong with work for a couple of years. We chatted for a while about the things we missed from back home. Brian arrived a little later with another friend, Tina. More introductions were followed by more wine. Over dinner I regaled everyone with tales of my travels, answering the usual questions I would get from strangers – favourite places, strangest moments, best host so far. As my travels got longer it was becoming increasing more difficult to answer the questions. By the end of dinner and a lot of wine I was ready for the taxi home.

Sure, I meant well

Just before I climbed into bed I checked my messages and emails. I had received a reply from N. It turned out that the friend request was from his new boyfriend. I didn’t realise he had even started seeing anyone. Apparently the new boyfriend had looked through N’s Facebook messages and had seen some flirty messages we had shared a few months previously. It turned out that N was already seeing the new boyfriend when we had been messaging. He asked me to ignore the friend request. The old, pre-travel me would have felt bad and apologised for the flirty messages, even though I had no idea the new boyfriend was on the scene. The new, post-travel me figured I had done nothing wrong – the messaging had been mutual, he could have told me he was seeing someone but he didn’t. I didn’t bother responding to him, I just defriended him. I had made so many new friends on my trip that I wouldn’t miss losing one.

“No good deed goes unpunished, Sure, I meant well” 
Lyrics from No Good Deed from the musical Wicked