Night Time

Things shut down here at night. By 10PM, most of the shops are closed. By 11PM, they're all shut, and the homeless people have set up their makeshift beds on the street.

However, i'm a night owl. I'm now fully back to my schedule of waking up at 2PM, and so I stay up at night. I'm not content to just sit in my room and read (the hotel turns the TV channels off at midnight - probably to save electricity, not for some decent reason).

Thus, I've been surfing the net, late into the night. The internet shop that I frequent is 24 hours. Last night, for the first time, I decided to try it out, and stayed online till 2:30AM. However, at midnight - suddenly, the lights were turned off. Figuring this was yet another attempt to save electricity, I complain. They then tell me that strictly speaking, it is illegal for a shop to be open past midnight. They break the law, but keep the shop lights off to avoid police problems (in a way, a cost saving measure, as to be caught just means they'll have to pay a bribe, or "on the spot fine").

I'm really not so happy about walking home at night though. It's not that i'll be robbed or anything. More about the creatures out at night.

In the country, it's the wild dogs that, while during the day are calm and lazy, at night suddenly start barking and chasing you.

However, in the city - it's the huge bloody rats. The stories of the New York subway system having huge rats may be true. However, they can't possibly be as big as the rats I saw last night. These things were bigger than a well-fed cat, ran rapidly, were hairy, and didn't look very pleasant. Worse, they were hiding under a car RIGHT OUTSIDE of my hotel. Wielding my umbrella as a defensive tool, I quickly ran for my hotel, with my eyes facing behind me, just in case they decided to come out and bite.

I'll repeat that again tonight. Oh, the things I do for internet access.