According to this report, PS3 prices around the world (in Euros):

  • London 627
  • Europe 600
  • NYC 487
  • Tokyo 381
  • HK 363

Or are there other reasons?

Another question that will probably remain forever unanswered: Girls in Wanchai always tell me they think I have a good heart. I know this is just a sales pitch. I always respond by saying I have no heart. Why should this be a point of pride for me?

My mother always ends every phone conversation with me by saying “I love you.” My answer used to be one I stole from Albert Brooks, “I know you think you do.” She remains either unaware or is in denial of how the psychic damage she inadvertently inflicted on me during childhood has completely twisted me. However, at this point, she is old, and there are, I suppose, very few people left to whom she can say those three words. And, compared to a great number of others in my extended family, I have turned out, if not “well,” at least “better.” So now I either respond in kind or just remain silent, depending on my mood.

At the age of 14, the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” became my credo. Decades later, it’s so well ingrained that I wonder if I have any love left to hide.

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Check this excerpt from an entry (last one on the page) on life in HK during the 7s by Hemlock:

Those with a taste for greater carnage will make their way to Wanchai, where Mainland and Thai hookers lie in wait. Some Sevens attendees will emerge with five-figure credit card bills they can’t remember signing for. Others will simply come out of it with no credit cards – the plastic will have been put through one last mega-transaction in an all-night jewellery store. Some of the ladies of the night specialize in peering over the shoulder of drunk male clients as they punch their PIN number into an ATM and memorizing the number without writing it down for however long it takes to go to a cheap hotel, put baby to sleep and sneak out with his wallet. My idea of fun is to observe the battlefield after the smoke has cleared and the gore dribbled into the gutter.

Hemlock always likes to appear to be holding the world at arm’s length. And he seems to hold particular contempt or amusement for the goings on at Wanchai. Any reference to bar activities in Wanchai always refer to “wild American friend Odell.” And yet, he seems to be so knowledgeable about the range of choices and activities. Could it be he has more firsthand experiences than he cares to admit? His older entries are more explicit:

I am developing quite a taste for working class women, possibly as a result of my dalliance with one of the cleaners on the Mid-Levels escalator last month. Passing a construction site this morning, my eyes met with those of an extremely fetching Thai lady who was guiding trucks out onto the road with a red flag. Within a minute we were urgently at it behind a yellow metal hut next to the site. She was very grateful, and it was a delightful start to the day.

or this one:

Wake up in my bed next to a Chinese lady who may, I suspect, be older than me. Nothing odd or wrong with that, of course, but this one, in the cold light of day, seems to be older by a significant margin. (By about a third, it later emerges.) She mounts me, pins me down and has her way with me with great vigor, not to mention a lot of fearsome noise that brings back vague memories of the same thing happening several hours earlier.

and:

On the subject of migrant workers – wake up next to one. Selly, by name. A nice girl, who sympathises when I explain that the secret nature of my work forbids me to reveal my telephone number to anyone.

Those entries are from 2002. I started reading him in 2005 and never went back to the older stuff. With little to do today and little desire to do the things I actually need to do, perhaps I’ll read more of his older stuff.

I’m home with the dogs today, literally. Have some cleaning up to do and a deadline tomorrow. I expect to get out for meals but not much else.

Hongkie Town
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