(no subject)
Happy New Year everyone! I had two new years in the space of 1 month in two different countries...awesome.
Hong Kong is starting to grow on me. The crowds suddenly aren't so huge and even the smell and humdiity is tolerable.
Transport is expensive but food in HK is cheap! (Apparently McDonalds in HK is the cheapest in the world). There's so much crazy food, yesterday i saw a shop that sold various cow offals parts served with rice and noodles...appestising. There's a candy store called Aji Ichiban that sell these pudding marshmallows that i'm obsessed with!
Last Tuesday was New Years Eve. I went with my cousin to see a Chinese action film called 'Seoul Raiders'. It was pretty bad, i can't even remember what it was about now. There was something to do with people stealing a US currency plate...the 'American' police in the movie were played by aussies which i found highly amusing. After the movie we went to the night flower markets. Each different type of flower brings a different good fortune, so people buy flowers to put in their homes in the few days leading towards the new year. The flower markets are set up in community basketball courts and school yeards and are taken down on New Years Eve. As well as flowers there were various items of year of the rooster-themed parahenalia...I bought a rooster cushion.
On Wednesday we went up to Victoria Peak, which is the highest public lookout point in HK. There was heaps of cloud so couldn't see very much. Victoria Peak is EXTREMELY tourist-y. There's a huge shopping mall and a Madame Tussaud's Wax Musuem. Wax figures are fkn scary, hey. There were a few Chinese movie star wax figures and people posing to take pictures, so i couldn't tell which were real people and which were wax figures...creepy. I took a picture with the wax John Howard :). That night was a New Year Parade with Lion Dancing and other stuff...
On Thursday there were Fireworks...again not very good because there was a lot of cloud.
On Friday we went to visit the 'Che Gung' god at his temple. The third day of the Chinese New Year is his birthday which coincides with the 3-day new year public holiday, so HEAPS of people go to visit him. We decided it would be interesting to check it out. There were SO many people. I have never seen so long and thick a queue in my life. Chinese people like to burn alot of stuff on New Years, as offerings to gods and the deceased can be transmitted by by smoke and ashes. So yeah, alot of people=a lot of burning. I nearly died...but it was very interesting.
Yesterday I went to buy my laptop...I bought a Toshiba A200. It's small and pearly white and extremely hot...and cheap [er than Perth]. Go the duty and sales tax free status of HK. I got it beefed up to 512MB of RAM... how sweet life is.
Hong Kong is starting to grow on me. The crowds suddenly aren't so huge and even the smell and humdiity is tolerable.
Transport is expensive but food in HK is cheap! (Apparently McDonalds in HK is the cheapest in the world). There's so much crazy food, yesterday i saw a shop that sold various cow offals parts served with rice and noodles...appestising. There's a candy store called Aji Ichiban that sell these pudding marshmallows that i'm obsessed with!
Last Tuesday was New Years Eve. I went with my cousin to see a Chinese action film called 'Seoul Raiders'. It was pretty bad, i can't even remember what it was about now. There was something to do with people stealing a US currency plate...the 'American' police in the movie were played by aussies which i found highly amusing. After the movie we went to the night flower markets. Each different type of flower brings a different good fortune, so people buy flowers to put in their homes in the few days leading towards the new year. The flower markets are set up in community basketball courts and school yeards and are taken down on New Years Eve. As well as flowers there were various items of year of the rooster-themed parahenalia...I bought a rooster cushion.
On Wednesday we went up to Victoria Peak, which is the highest public lookout point in HK. There was heaps of cloud so couldn't see very much. Victoria Peak is EXTREMELY tourist-y. There's a huge shopping mall and a Madame Tussaud's Wax Musuem. Wax figures are fkn scary, hey. There were a few Chinese movie star wax figures and people posing to take pictures, so i couldn't tell which were real people and which were wax figures...creepy. I took a picture with the wax John Howard :). That night was a New Year Parade with Lion Dancing and other stuff...
On Thursday there were Fireworks...again not very good because there was a lot of cloud.
On Friday we went to visit the 'Che Gung' god at his temple. The third day of the Chinese New Year is his birthday which coincides with the 3-day new year public holiday, so HEAPS of people go to visit him. We decided it would be interesting to check it out. There were SO many people. I have never seen so long and thick a queue in my life. Chinese people like to burn alot of stuff on New Years, as offerings to gods and the deceased can be transmitted by by smoke and ashes. So yeah, alot of people=a lot of burning. I nearly died...but it was very interesting.
Yesterday I went to buy my laptop...I bought a Toshiba A200. It's small and pearly white and extremely hot...and cheap [er than Perth]. Go the duty and sales tax free status of HK. I got it beefed up to 512MB of RAM... how sweet life is.