Scent of a Woman

I am considered lucky for not having to work on Saturday, unlike most employees in Hong Kong, so I spent most of the afternoon walking and people-gazing in downtown Mongkok. In case you’ve never been to downtown Mongkok in the Kowloon region, it is packed with people all the time, especially during the weekends. That’s what happens when 7 million people are trying to live in an area roughly one-third of Rhode Island.

There I was – walking and minding my own business amidst throngs of Chinese (Hong Kong residents are 95% Chinese) on the busy streets of Mongkok. I stopped in front of a plain looking building and saw a sign “Fa Yuen Street Public Library”. I love libraries; so I followed the crowd, crammed with 22 other Chinese in a 10-person-capacity elevator that took us to the library located on the 4th floor. The library pretty much looked like the waiting room of a DMV office. The place was packed. Half of the people were reading on rows of chairs without desk, while the other half, with desks.

All of a sudden, I saw a cute girl, 20 feet away, walking towards me. She’s one of those girl-next-door type Chinese girls you often see on campus – above-average look, casually dressed, and light make-up. I was holding a book on Italian cuisine when she passed by… How should I describe the experience? I lost my appetite on all kinds of food. It felt like a garbage truck just passed me by after picking up leftovers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after Mardi Gras…

Okay, maybe I’m bad in choosing adjectives but you get the point. And my point, after all, is that smell is very important in the attraction between opposite sex. Hack, it is important in all kinds of engagements. First you see the physical appearance, next the scent, and finally the character. I know, it’s a trivial and common point. I just think it is funny to share this story – a brief encounter with stinky beauty in a city which never sleeps.