Hong Kong

Under the influence of Sami, we found an opportunity to slip away to Hong Kong. We spent the days roaming the streets, those that tourist trudged and those that we stumbled upon, all the while avoiding the puddles made by air-conditioners. The locals were mostly very impolite and impatient despite me speaking in Cantonese. Hong Kong was Orchard Road on a Sunday, everyday. If I closed my eyes, I could visualise people nudged off overcrowded buildings and plummeting onto the streets. We intoxicated ourselves with Hong Kong cuisine, which was seriously vegetable deficient.


"Chinese eat everything with 4 legs except a table, anything with wings except an aeroplane, and everything underwater is fair game." I tried pigeon(above) and roasted goose on this food pilgrimage to HK! I even had a recommendation list of food from my mum=) Meals were planned properly to ensure that there were sufficient opportunities to try the wide array of food! It was crazy!




Lan Kwai Fong-the clubbing bar clark quay area in HK!


The ability to speak Cantonese gave us an advantage to shop and eat without being rip off and we blended in well until nic started speaking in English! When our legs could carry us no further, the MTR snaked us around.



We made a journey to "the enchanted land of Walt Disney" (as said through the train PA), but since we were unwilling to pay the entrance fees, the gates of Disneyland were forbidden to us. So we lazed outside the walls and listened to the magical music in fairyland.







After 3 days, we made exit to Macau, and weathered a raining day on the streets. Egg tarts, nice architecture and milky Taiwanese milk tea were exceptionally memorable! 4 days that seemed like a week. Perfect.




Michael volleyed this question once: Why do people travel when it is such a waste of resources? Would it not be better if we all sat in front of the TV and watched travel programs? Perhaps he is not completely off the mark. I judge, that there are quite a number of "travelers" who fall into this category. In fact, even when you ask me, what did I learn about HK, I dare not type anything for fear that it is not 100% factual. We did not visit any particular place, building, or attraction that I can brag to anyone about, and the brief write-up on the history of HK from the travel guide is already blurring away. What has been (sort of) internalised are the neon infested streets, rough and rowdiness of the crowd, harried expressions on people's face, a sort of distant madness, the stinging taste of salted meat, and the air that ties a nook around one's neck... and there are many many more fragments. Sitting in front of a TV watching local actors doing a Cantonese food tour, I will immediately know that my HK wasn't as rosy as that portrayed in the pixels. That is, of course, not to put a negative connotation on HK. For the HK I am left with is sure to be an outlier against many many other opinions or writings. But so what? Honestly, I don't know. So what if I know a bit more about HK? I just want to ok? Besides, the act of traveling itself is something that I like doing. If I can use what I learn to make the world a better place, then perhaps, from a larger context, my traveling can be justifiable. Put from my own point, if I think it is enriching in a way, then, isn't that a good enough answer Michael?

"Partially adapted from Eternal Pilgrimage"