Photowalk in Fleet Arcade

Fenwick Pier used to be by the seafront serving as a front-door to Hong Kong to military sailors until the 2010s, when the pier diconnected from the coastline by land reclaimation. Situating at Fenwick Pier is the 4-story tall Fleet Arcade serving as a shopping mall for visiting sailors with no lack of language support and friendly guides.

Now they leak plants on the left.

The pier and Fleet Arcade were to be vacated and likely demolished to make way for the a new fire station, plus a bit of decolonization for the ones who know what Hong Kong has became in the recent years. In an attempt to exhaust the residual value of the historic site, me and 2 of my friends organized to go there for our first and final visit.

There is no nostalgic juice in me about this place. I go there because it's going away and everyone else is going. So maybe, they decolonized (or re-colonized?) us well.

First, of course, we are to visit what killed Fenwick Pier. From Central we walked along the new Harbourfront promenade towards Fleet Arcade, now at the center of reclaimed dry land. Along they way, as if to see if my camera was working, I took the shot of the traditionally cheap, easy and tasteless Old man and sea photo.

There is even a PLA's pier awkwardly and unwelcoming occupying the middle of the promenade. Not suggesting anything.

Probably because of the overflowing of visitors like ourselves, the mall gave up on enforcing their "member only" rule. Becoming a member anyway requires only to fill in a form with name, email and a signature, so why bother of the whole thing is going away soon.

Inside is the kind of old, dark and messy mall of the 1990s and 2000s. Childhood nightmare reincarnate, or rather a particularly long nightmare. There was sales going on everywhere, many were browsing, I doubt any was buying. There's a documentary being projected on the wall, and people stood/sit down outside the shop to watch.

I should have brought my Insta360 One X2 to better capture the general atmosphere, but unfortunately I forgot and packed lightly with only the Optima 1535. You may go watch those tour videos people put on YouTube to get a general idea what it looks like, while you still can.

Contrary to the typical phenomenon, many came for the painting, not the washroom.

My companions were wearing matching top wear.

Despite Kodak Vision3 500T film has enough sensitivity to capture passable exposures in the dimly lit interior, shutter speed had to drop to dangerously slow for handheld shooting (observe slight vertical shift and mention blur of moving object) and focusing on rangefinder became difficult.

Different corners of the space did provide a range of atmospheric lighting conditions, or call them nostalgic beams if you want.

Those chairs all look familiar. They are the remnants of the McDonald's that closed down in 2004, one slight connection to my childhood, in addition to the dim mall lighting.

Going back to the entrance out we took the elevator up to the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor is a restaurant. Some people brought 2 parrots to watch them eat, reminding me of the Monty Python sketch of dead parrot.

This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be.

— John Cleese

So is the pier.

The 3rd floor is mostly out of business. The tailor shop was still open, and vinyl record player is playing some music that immediately reminded me of the music from Fallout 3 New Vegas. Old small things are scattered around in the display, and the shop was an absolute mess.

The owner of the tailor shop were amused to talk to visitors, showing off the green kilt that surprized the visitor of how heavy it is. The owner then went on to share anecdotes about soldiers falling on the ground during training wearing the kilt because how harsh the training and how heavy the kilt was.

But pretty much that's it. No more nostalgic juice can I grind out of this place. I did find relation to my childhood in the dim mall lighting and the McDonald's chair.

Eventually, we all outgrow them.