And He Had Room for More

Hong Kong taxi drivers are an interesting breed.

Some are surly while others are gregarious; you never know which you'll get, even when you use the same stand over and over again. And no matter which you encounter, you're likely to find nearly all are decorators, their dashboards festooned with all manner of personal items, including multiple mobile phones, radar detectors and fragrance dispensers.

But few will top the guy who drove me home one fine afternoon. On his dashboard, in no particular order: the Gingerbread Man from Shrek, Pinocchio, Donald and Daisy Duck, Dumbo, a bobbleheaded Old Master Q and Big Potato (local comic characters), Astro Boy, Pluto, Buzz Lightyear, two monkeys, a cow, a chicken shaped like an egg, a variety of turtles including one riding atop another, three frogs (one progressively larger than the next), a lucky Chinese cat, the odd sprinkle of cartoon characters I couldn't identify including two in race cars, and finally, a miniature Cup of Noodles, a Chinese hot pot, and a bowl of soup noodles.

Either he never grew up, or he has a little boy at home and all of those things are good luck charms.

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