Finally more or less recovered after a nightmare experience two days ago

How a Hong Kong Island street looked less than

 an hour after I had been tear gassed

The dismaying sight that confronted me on my way home 

from dinner in a nearby neighborhood this past Sunday

Like the previous Monday and Tuesday, yesterday and today saw calm return to the streets after a tumultuous Sunday, which began with a peaceful rally outside the British consulate here in Hong Kong and was followed by a peaceful march by tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of protesters calling for the five demands to be met but ended with fights and arrests in Fortress Hill and North Point, with a barrage of tear gas also having been fired late at night in the latter neighborhood.  And while the big news this morning involved the now much vilified MTR, it's thought far more likely that today's train derailment at Hung Hom station was caused by ageing train tracks rather than sabotaging protesters.

Even though they occured just two days ago, some of my experiences this past Sunday now can feel like they took place in a different universe and were merely a nightmare rather than actual, lived reality that I have needed some time to recover from.  More specifically, that afternoon found me enjoying a pint of beer and a shared cheese platter at a favorite pub in Central.  So far, so good until it was time for the friends I was with and I to go our merry way home.  

Since we weren't trusting that the MTR would be a safe transport option on a protest day -- not least because we had received word of the riot police appearing in a number of nearby stations -- and over-ground public transportation were not operating in the areas where we lived, a friend and I decided to make our way back to our respective residences on foot. While walking past Three Pacific Place, a team of riot police suddenly emerged from the parking lot behind the office building and fired tear gas into the street and in our direction.  The friend I was with estimated that they were just five meters away from us at the time -- so yes, we did feel the effects of the tear gas pretty strongly.  

While this was not my first tear gas experience of the summer, it certainly was far more intense.  Even an encounter with the Tai Hang fire dragon the night before had not prepared me for how much my eyes would sting and water, and certainly not for how much mucus would pretty much immediately stream out of my nose and mouth as a result of a close encounter with that which is supposed to be used for crowd dispersal rather to attack people.  

So I am really grateful to the helpful stranger who came over and directed me to a safe area after noticing I was having problems seeing and the first aider who was near enough to come over to rinse my eyes with water and saline solution soon after the area was buffeted by tear gas.  (As an aside: it really can be amazing how many Hong Kongers will extend much kindness and generosity to complete strangers turned comrade-in-arms or "merely" fellow humans caught up in the same bad situation.)  

After that unpleasant experience, I decided to avoid the major thoroughfares where I figured the riot police would be more likely to be in favor of walking home via the backstreets. This meant my routing would be less direct but I figured it'd be worth it if this meant that I could avoid experiencing further tear-gas buffets.  

For the most part, this new strategy did result in a less incident-filled passage home.  I still did pass by three groups of riot police -- at least two of whom were being implored by upset area residents to "go away" and such -- along the way though.  And upon reaching the home stretch of my journey, I was met with the sight of a disconcertingly large number of police vans lined up at my home MTR station all the way almost to the neighboring MTR station. 

As it so happened, my area was one of the major problem areas that night.  Coupled with clashes having occured in my neighborhood on Saturday, I get the distinct feeling that my part of Hong Kong is now being perceived as a "no go" zone by many.  Ironically, it's one of the increasingly rare urban sections of Hong Kong where tear gas has not been discharged as yet.  But in view of how "generous" the police are in their use of that particular weapon at this disposal, I fear that it's just a matter of time before the likes of me will be catching whiffs of this substance which was previously such a rarity in our homes rather than "just" out on the streets in other parts of town. :(