Öööörrrrrrrrggääääääääääähhhhhhhhh!*
The weekend was crazy.... and sleepless!
(I know, the adjective is soon completely overused, I’ll try to come up with a synonym)
I decided that after one week of intensive studying it could be reasonably justified to allow myself to mentally switch back into “tourist-mode” although this does in HK not resemble the general excitement and adrenalin usually encountered with “real” travel but rather comes with more practical implications. The idea is not to get too comfortable falling into and getting trapped by the easy way of living through a daily routine but to constantly seek to explore other parts of this city.**
After a nice (and expensive) dinner in Soho, which back in Hesinki would be classified as “ordinary” (nice pasta, wine, bruschetta, olives), the 10.000 Buddhas monastery was the next “item” on my list. The monastery is located a bit north of Kowloon, in the new territories and near the big horserace course in Sha Tin. We left in a group of five (2 Finns, our Czech-Austrian couple and a Norwegian girl) and quite late which is why –by the time we got there- half of the people were dying of hunger. Usually I hate that part of trying to do anything in a group of more than one – conflicts of interest one could name it. This time however I could not do anything but agree- it was raining as it had been the whole past week and I had only gotten up ten minutes before leaving. I joked about craving meatballs and cranberries and –surprise- the next thing we saw around the corner was an Ikea: we decided to go look for umbrellas since I reckoned the possibility of this Ikea having a restaurant when the one closer to the centre did not have one, as inexistent. But it had one. And I got meatballs (which were by the way cheaper than the food in the university)!!! The best food so far!
We also bought umbrellas- they only had blue ones with a yellow Ikea inscribed –very distinctive. We walked up a path lined on both sides with little yellow-colored Buddhas (since some were golden, it might have been that the color of the others had just bleached). The atmosphere creeping into me when walking up the path an then eventually seeing the temple and the red pagoda was very weird, even creepy, or this is how I at least experienced it. The place was erected sometimes in the 1950s, judging from the “monumentalism”, but completely run down, shabby, sad. Created for a different time, a different society, and as such completely out of place. Created for the sake of creation, but without meaning or message. A spiritual but spiritless place.
Does that make sense? And can I justify asking such a question? The monastery was for me a HK in a miniature format- the city where money rules and fake is real at large but only in the definition’s immediate context.
After a small rest in Kowloon Tong – a huge mall- we continued via Central to Aberdeen, a little expat-dominated township in South of the Peak on HK island. We had no clue where we were going –the only direction being to find “the warehouse”- upon hearing this I hope you will never suspect I would do anything like this! The plan was to go to rock concert- a rare event in HK, as there are no rock clubs but most “western” (excluding the popular karaoke and other such places) entertainment establishments follow the “Sedu Koskinen concept”. The warehouse was an old Chinese police station on the top of a hill, surrounded by old trees and overlooked by huge residential high rise buildings. There were five local bands playing that evening- the concert turned out to be an underground hard core rock concert!!! The whole audience knew each other- we really stood out- and people went crazy jumping around in moshpits. I have never heard such music nor been to such an event- it was amazing! Whether the music was good or not remains to be seen- once I can draw comparison with some other similar event!
Half of all the band members were non-Asian locals as was a big part of the audience: we met five people with whom we went to dinner back in Central. One of them was a Swiss-German guy who had lived all his life in HK- a very interesting conversation (why are all whites regarded as rich; who goes to the HK German school- and why its British line is more posh; why do white HK locals not speak Cantonese; why does HK society not accept white men dating HK Asians…). The night continued in a club named Insomnia and I was home at 6 a.m. the next morning.
After sleeping for a couple of hours (since I had not been drinking anything but water, I was pretty fit) I spent the day planning my spring break: now it is official! The destination is: Malaysia! To give you a rough picture: we, i.e. Sarah (from the U.S.) and me, will leave on Apr. 8 for Kuala Lumpur. From there we will continue to Borneo and spend about 2 weeks there after which we will have another 4 days for Peninsula- Malaysia. Highlight: climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Asia between the Himalaya and the mountains on Java. I will not reveal anymore- but I can say that it will be grande (and this is officially confirmed by Erkki who returned this morning from his 10-day trip to the aforementioned location)!!! A lot of things to plan and to take care of before that though! (and now I will stop the hehkutus before it gets too transparent) Back to reality- class starts in 7.5 hours and in between I should get a so called “good nights sleep”…. (does the math add up?)
* This is supposed to resemble a certain genre of music. Guess which? Find out by reading on…
** Note: this little newly adopted principle will be enforced after me returning to Finland, or so I have decided now!
(I know, the adjective is soon completely overused, I’ll try to come up with a synonym)
I decided that after one week of intensive studying it could be reasonably justified to allow myself to mentally switch back into “tourist-mode” although this does in HK not resemble the general excitement and adrenalin usually encountered with “real” travel but rather comes with more practical implications. The idea is not to get too comfortable falling into and getting trapped by the easy way of living through a daily routine but to constantly seek to explore other parts of this city.**
After a nice (and expensive) dinner in Soho, which back in Hesinki would be classified as “ordinary” (nice pasta, wine, bruschetta, olives), the 10.000 Buddhas monastery was the next “item” on my list. The monastery is located a bit north of Kowloon, in the new territories and near the big horserace course in Sha Tin. We left in a group of five (2 Finns, our Czech-Austrian couple and a Norwegian girl) and quite late which is why –by the time we got there- half of the people were dying of hunger. Usually I hate that part of trying to do anything in a group of more than one – conflicts of interest one could name it. This time however I could not do anything but agree- it was raining as it had been the whole past week and I had only gotten up ten minutes before leaving. I joked about craving meatballs and cranberries and –surprise- the next thing we saw around the corner was an Ikea: we decided to go look for umbrellas since I reckoned the possibility of this Ikea having a restaurant when the one closer to the centre did not have one, as inexistent. But it had one. And I got meatballs (which were by the way cheaper than the food in the university)!!! The best food so far!
We also bought umbrellas- they only had blue ones with a yellow Ikea inscribed –very distinctive. We walked up a path lined on both sides with little yellow-colored Buddhas (since some were golden, it might have been that the color of the others had just bleached). The atmosphere creeping into me when walking up the path an then eventually seeing the temple and the red pagoda was very weird, even creepy, or this is how I at least experienced it. The place was erected sometimes in the 1950s, judging from the “monumentalism”, but completely run down, shabby, sad. Created for a different time, a different society, and as such completely out of place. Created for the sake of creation, but without meaning or message. A spiritual but spiritless place.
Does that make sense? And can I justify asking such a question? The monastery was for me a HK in a miniature format- the city where money rules and fake is real at large but only in the definition’s immediate context.
After a small rest in Kowloon Tong – a huge mall- we continued via Central to Aberdeen, a little expat-dominated township in South of the Peak on HK island. We had no clue where we were going –the only direction being to find “the warehouse”- upon hearing this I hope you will never suspect I would do anything like this! The plan was to go to rock concert- a rare event in HK, as there are no rock clubs but most “western” (excluding the popular karaoke and other such places) entertainment establishments follow the “Sedu Koskinen concept”. The warehouse was an old Chinese police station on the top of a hill, surrounded by old trees and overlooked by huge residential high rise buildings. There were five local bands playing that evening- the concert turned out to be an underground hard core rock concert!!! The whole audience knew each other- we really stood out- and people went crazy jumping around in moshpits. I have never heard such music nor been to such an event- it was amazing! Whether the music was good or not remains to be seen- once I can draw comparison with some other similar event!
Half of all the band members were non-Asian locals as was a big part of the audience: we met five people with whom we went to dinner back in Central. One of them was a Swiss-German guy who had lived all his life in HK- a very interesting conversation (why are all whites regarded as rich; who goes to the HK German school- and why its British line is more posh; why do white HK locals not speak Cantonese; why does HK society not accept white men dating HK Asians…). The night continued in a club named Insomnia and I was home at 6 a.m. the next morning.
After sleeping for a couple of hours (since I had not been drinking anything but water, I was pretty fit) I spent the day planning my spring break: now it is official! The destination is: Malaysia! To give you a rough picture: we, i.e. Sarah (from the U.S.) and me, will leave on Apr. 8 for Kuala Lumpur. From there we will continue to Borneo and spend about 2 weeks there after which we will have another 4 days for Peninsula- Malaysia. Highlight: climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Asia between the Himalaya and the mountains on Java. I will not reveal anymore- but I can say that it will be grande (and this is officially confirmed by Erkki who returned this morning from his 10-day trip to the aforementioned location)!!! A lot of things to plan and to take care of before that though! (and now I will stop the hehkutus before it gets too transparent) Back to reality- class starts in 7.5 hours and in between I should get a so called “good nights sleep”…. (does the math add up?)
* This is supposed to resemble a certain genre of music. Guess which? Find out by reading on…
** Note: this little newly adopted principle will be enforced after me returning to Finland, or so I have decided now!
posted by Crazy Night Rider at 5:28 PM
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