Uncharted territory

I wanted to see the Hollywood remake of Shall We Dance, the highly popular Japanese movie in the 90's that jump-started my love for dancing. The original version played at the Varsity Theater in Honolulu for over six months, and the word-of-mouth was unanimous: Everyone loved it.

The new movie is playing today at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong. As usual, I take the most direct route, which takes me 10 minutes to walk to the Hung Hom train station, then a 5-minute, 2-stop ride to get to the mall.

Hung Hom station is the first station on the KCR line--Lo Wu being the last--so it's never a problem finding a seat, not that I need to sit down for a 5-minute ride, but an incentive, nevertheless. While waiting in the almost empty train cabin, I have a habit of checking the time to see how long before the train starts, and how many minutes required to reach Mong Kok station, then Kowloon Tong station, even though I already know them by heart. But before I get a chance to laugh at my own odd habits, the train takes off. Good, I got on just before it's set to go. I just slashed a minute off my time.

A moment later the train reaches its first stop. I pay no attention, because I'm getting off at the second stop. But then I hear the arrival announcement asking everyone to leave the train, because we're at the last stop. What in the world? I quickly look up to see the few people that were on the train all got off. I spring from my seat, then stare in bewilderment at the outside platform. We're not at Mong Kok station. This station looks way too nice and new to be the Mong Kok station. Then cleaning ladies come into each cabin with a broomstick and dustpan in hand to sweep up the trash. I take a few steps outside of the train to look around the station, still daze and confuse. Then, I see a sign:

East Tsim Sha Tsui

Finally, the other sign in my head lights up: This is the station that was forever under construction, blocking off major streets in TST, causing continual inconvenients to cars and pedestrians alike. I walk back inside the train, then look up at the overhead map to confirm. Yup, this is the brand new KCR station that interchanges with the TST MTR station (metro). It also happens to be the new official first (or last) stop on the KCR line. It's finally finished!

I ask the cleaning lady when the train will start again and she says a minute. I take a seat and immediately call my sister about my discovery. She tells me the station is in operation for over 10 days already. I look around the train and see only a few people trickling in, so I don't think everyone knows of its existence, yet.

The train starts then goes back to Hung Hom, from there it's the usual route again. From now on I have to remember to look at the signs to Lo Wu's direction and not to East TST, and not hop on just any train, taking for granted that it's all heading the same way.

By the time I get to the theater, I'm only 5 minutes late, but I'm glad for the little detour to discovery.

Filed Thu - November 4, 2004, 10:10 PM in

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