Concert at Grappa's Cellar

Tonight I decided I’d try a story in pictures because to show Hong Kong I need both. So, this is thus the story of an ordinary Saturday night in HK.
We (us, the exchange students) had already gone out in the famous lame clubs of LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) on Friday, so Saturday we tried to have an easy night. First we had dinner at the residence. Great dinner. With Scottish Baileys for dessert. Then around midnight we started to shake ourselves and went toward HK Central to assist a rock show that my friend Lara had told me about; and it was actually quite fun to see a concert here. But since we were slightly late there was only half an hour of the show left, so we headed toward LKF to see this place while being sober, for once.

After hours

On the way I stopped and took this picture of a [late] worker. It was 1:30 a.m. Hong Kong literally never sleeps; everyone run 24h non stop.

Lan Kwai Fong

Anyways, we still made it to the busy LKF which we found quite more trashy now that we weren’t feverishly drunk. The place was packed, since it was Saturday night. It’s funny how perspectives change with alcohol. So we had a beer from 7/11, wandered among the crowd, and headed back to the residence.

Horny horns, and incredibly enough people buy and wear them...

I also noticed this peculiar phenomenon: I saw many people – boys and girls – wearing this astonishingly beautiful party accessory… and then I found the dealer. Why???

Finally we took a cab, one of these big Toyota that I haven’t seen anywhere else than here in HK. They must have a special factory producing these cars because they all look old fashioned, and yet some of the cars are brand new. I guess it gives a special ‘touch’ to Hong Kong.

Half an hour later we were back at the dear City University student residence, which I already find annoying. The walk between the university campus and the residence (5 min uphill) is the most tiresome: it’s almost impossible to reach at the residences without being soaked in your own sweat. And there are no shops around the residence, so one end up going up and down quite often.

Another critic (I like to criticize, of course) would be to the lack of place ‘to be’ on campus or at the residence. Since it’s bloody hot it’s not really nice to sit down outside, but there’s nowhere to go except the miniature bedroom and the Homey Kitchen!

Which of course leaves the pool; the fantastic 50m open-air swimming pool where I go almost everyday to swim and tan… And then beside the pool I also have to work on my homework: practicing portrait photography and write short stories… So I can’t really complain about my life in HK!

Today Sabrina and me went sight seeing in Central, Hong Kong Island. After walking a bit we got tired so we took one of the double deck tram: best way to visit Hong Kong! Here are some pictures. Writing is too tiring tonight…

At the Airport

Hong Kong! Where to start from?
Maybe from the start then. This is a story that begins to be repetitive but once again I should first say that my original plan did not include Hong Kong for 2009-2010! Sabrina and I wanted to go in exchange to the American University in Cairo for a year, but we got to go only for one semester; so we had to chose another destination – anywhere – to spend the fall 2009 semester. And Hong Kong was our choice. Our ‘exchange manager’, Pauliina Rouleau (now in maternity leave), suggested Hong Kong, as there was spots available, so we said: “why not?” And here am I.

I was never really interested in discovering HK. I always though that it was much more interesting to go to rural China, which I would lamely but truly say is ‘more Chinese’. I also always said that cities did not interest me, specially the huge ones. But Hong Kong is just amazing, crazy, crowded, busy, shiny, big, traditional, western and eastern in the same time.

Hong Kong Harbour

The harbour, for example. It was the busiest in the World for some time, and it is definitely the busiest I’ve ever seen. It’s immense. It also constitutes the ‘introduction to HK’ as one kind of has to go through when coming from the airport to go downtown. And the view in the background of the forest of skyscrapers is almost surreal. Wowowiwow.

The view from my dorm...

Talking about skyscrapers, I could also go on with the superlatives, but I won’t, because it’s getting boring. Just look at the view I have from the roof of my student residence at City University. Luckily we are situated in one of the most expansive neighborhood in HK, so I pay 500 US$ rent for an entire semester instead of billions per month. Good. On the picture above, in the very center, you can see some fierce light. That’s Mongkok, the busiest area in the world (I have personally compared every square inches). On the right of the center the Bank of China building can be seen, and even more on the right is the tallest building in HK, still in construction, the ICC tower (International Commerce Center, for the ignorant ones). Sweet stuff.

A

And then that’s what I do on Friday evenings: floor dinner party (7th floor, hall 9), with KFC buckets and Pizza Hut delicatessen.