There's no doubt about it, the rat race sucks.  Hong Kong is the rat race on steroids.  While we all bemoan such an existence, the sad fact is some of us are forced to partake in this for various lengths of time.  In my case, I was running like a rat to accomplish key errands with limited time.  These errands would then pay off later.  

Besides the fact that space is limited, Hong Kong will squeeze you for every dollar that you have.  Due to these realities, I seldom spend more than two days at a time in Hong Kong but have probably made over two dozen trips in total.  These Hong Kong trips are always tacked onto the beginning, middle, or the end of longer trips so as to use the rat race as leverage.

Today the main order of business was to procur a whole bunch of $20 bills for Cambodia.  This is because they'll take USD but will find any excuse not to change $100 bills.  Smaller bills make life a lot easier.

Once at the bank I skipped the queue and went to the Premier section.  I asked how to get the $20 bills and one guy said "Just withdraw $100 bills from the ATM and we can change them at the counter."  I did this, but the counter clerk said, "We can't give you $20 bills unless you first withdraw the money from the counter."  

I said, "But the guy at the desk told me to withdraw from the ATM."  She then sighed and said, "Here's what you can do, deposit the money into your account.  Then withdraw the amount again, and select how many $20 notes you want from the withdrawl."  I agreed to this but wondered why they didn't just tell me that in the first place.  Anyways, it got done.

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Next errand, off to the bike shop.  I went back to my shoebox and got the bike out of the bag.  Thankfully the air was still in the tires so it wasn't too hard to lug it downstairs in the elevator and then start riding.  Still, it was a horrific experience riding a bike in Hong Kong.  There was nowhere to ride, and I was constantly getting honked at by cars and cut off by all sorts of buses.  It was ruthless out there.

Besides that, the traffic lights favored cars so I was never quick enough to catch them on a bike.  They would turn red at ever intersection.  There is no way in hell I would ride a bike in Hong Kong on a regular basis, especially if I ever lived here God forbid.  

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The mission was to simply make it to Flying Ball Bicycle Shop alive.  That I did and then explained to the guys what I wanted done.  They knew me by now, and as a fun fact, this is the exact shop where I bought the Montague in 2012 and had now come around full circle.  They were thrilled!  I even recognized the older lady today who was working there when I bought the bike 12 years ago.

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Unfortunately they couldn't do everything I wanted, but I settled for what they could do.  They were not able to install a rack on the folding bike which puzzles me since the new Montague (i.e. the Black Mistress) does indeed have such a rack.  That's something to figure out later. 

The shop was helpful in three things:  a new soft handlebar grip, a soft gel seat cover, and an adjustable seat quick release.  I also asked them to fix the brakes but they said, "We can get the bike back to you next week."  They were apparently quite busy and I told them it would have to be done in Cambodia instead.  They thought it was just a backpack trip and asked, "When are you coming back?"  I said, "No, I mean it's a bicycle trip with this bike to Cambodia."  Anyways, it doesn't matter.  I got some stuff done, thanked the workers, paid the bill, and was on my way.

This time the suicidal return ride back to my shoebox got even worse as I entered deeper into Kowloon.  Eventually it was completely unrideable and I walked the last 500 meters.  Even on the sidewalk I couldn't push the bike with all the people.  Somehow I ended up lugging the bike back into my shoebox and was cursing myself for doing this the entire time.

It was time for a short nap then onto my fitness class in Central, making sure to leave the bike behind and take advantage of the MTR system. 

After that I was famished and also so exhausted.  I tried brief sightseeing but I gave up on the idea with the crowds.  Instead I wanted to source out a bus ticket for tomorrow.  Then I just found some barbeque food on the street, drunk beer, and consumed a wee bit too much of the duty free alcohol mixed in.  I passed out around 10pm and crashed, then woke up on Sunday morning.

And that was only a day.