Page 23 - Exile-ebook

22 AN EXILE OF THE MIND CASTING OFF WITH A BANG 23

A hair-raising flight into the infamous Kai Tak airport. Le Voyageur was ready and then and sampans lashed together in a
motored to her berth at the Aberdeen Brobdingnagian raft.
notorious airport of Kai Tak. to the movie, The World of Suzie Boat Club. The clangour of the city I found some work helping an
We clutched, white-knuckled, Wong. Much of it was under noisy was left for the bedlam of the Tanka Australian mechanic resurrect salt-
the armrests for a close-up view construction and bursting at the people’s floating village, sardine- damaged outboard motors from
of housewives cooking noodles in seams with refugees from the south. tossed in their garbage-strewn bay. a sea-dunked container. Ignorant
their apartment blocks. A dramatic It had the familiar English imprint Generations of Tankas had of the island’s dangers, I was sent
experience for passengers and a of double-decker buses and Brits never set foot on dry land for fear to a far off bay to fetch his dinghy
nightmare for pilots. Years later a sporting bowler hats and swinging of landsickness. Rotting vegetables powered by a small outboard.
China Airlines Boeing 747 overshot their umbrellas along Connaught and drowned rats floated past Nigel was genuinely astonished
the runway and ended up cruising Road in the financial sector. They Le Voyageur’s anchorage twice to see me roar into view intact.
down the harbour. This inspired the nervously watched a plummeting a day on the tide without fail. As Steering amidst rocks in a churning
authorities to build a new airport stock market with news of Chairman compensation, fish ball noodles sea, the light boat was near to
out of town. Mao’s death soon after we arrived. wafted on the breeze from a thous- capsizing several times. He believed
Hong Kong bore no resemblance We stayed at the YMCA until and cooking pots aboard junks I was a skilled sea dog because of my