The Great Hong Kong Loon Adventure
It took me forever to write this damn thing but here it is. Finally.
First of all, let me just say that going to a different country with your bestest pals is THE ONLY way to travel. Ditch your families if you can. A trip can only get crazy when you have Loons with you.
So anywayz, I wanted a day by day account of everything that happened in our trip but my brain is a bit woozy all thanks to the cold medicines I have been taking since we came back. So instead, imma just give everyone the “crack highlights” in a semi-travelogue style.
I’m warning you though, this is gonna be one looooong post.
Chun Bi?
CHUNBI HONGKONG!!!!
How to get to Hong Kong:
There are a lot of ways you can get to Hong Kong. But I suggest you take a plane. Eez a lotta fun.
Get an airline like Cebu Pacific to take you there. They have really low-rates for people who travel on a budget. Plus you get to use the newly opened NAIA 3.
Cebu Pacific airplanes have a very ‘exotic’ smell: a cross between Orocan plastic drums and feet. The seats are comfortable especially if you like them cramped. I’ve never been in a plane where my knees would touch the seat in front of me but thanks to Cebu Pacific, I finally got that experience. If you’re feeling tired or sleepy, reclining is not an option since some of their seats wouldn’t recline even if you press the recline button and pushed the seat really hard. So I suggest that you rest your head on the table. By the way, if you pull down the table, you’ll find a great number of artwork written on the back of the seat in front of you. It’s amazing really. It’s like riding a G-Liner. With wings.
If you’re adventurous like us, try and book your flight when there’s a storm around. The usual travel time of 1 hour and 30 mins will be doubled plus, you get to enjoy a free rollercoaster ride filled with stomach dropping air pockets and ear shattering air pressure.
Once you get to Hong Kong you’ll immediately get that feeling that you’re in Hong Kong. It must have been the huge flat screen TV where you can see Andy Lau welcoming you and inviting you to the touristy places in HK. Or it could be the air. Ohmygod you guys, the HKIA smelled like a Chinese restaurant. I love it. I only had thoughts of Canton noodles while going through immigration. Hmmm~
Around Hong Kong:
Getting around Hong Kong is easy. Our hotel is at the Kowloon side so we had to take a train and a bus ride. But it’s really hassle free. Hong Kong has an amazing transportation system. Everything is so convenient and efficient. Subway stations, bus stops, signs and directions are written in English so it wasn’t really a problem. Plus if you carry a map with you, there’s really no way you’d get lost. Unless of course you’re looking for a god forsaken almost non-existent street (more on that later)!!
Most bus and taxi drivers are polite and friendly. Some of them can speak English so you don’t have to worry about giving them the wrong street name or something. However, there are the occasional crazy bus drivers that will drive you directly to your grave but as long as you don’t have any heart problems; then it’s all good.
Hong Kong Sights and Sounds:
There’s really a lot to see in Hong Kong. The skyscrapers in Central will leave you at awe but also give you a slight crick in the neck. So I suggest that you take the double-decker when you’re sight-seeing in Central. Just make sure the driver isn’t in a Fast and the Furious mode.
The one we rode was having road rage that day. Which was very unfortunate for us three since we decided to sit on the first row of the top deck, we got to feel every intense moment like falling off our seats every time he swerves and almost hitting my head on the window in front of me every time he hits on the brakes.
But despite all that we really enjoyed that unsafe ride. The bus route took us to really cool places like Lan Kwai Fong (where all the cool bars and restos are located), the corner of Queen’s Road (where you can see BAPE and Gucci), and it also stopped right in front of the old Hong Kong police station! The three of us went crazy, shouting, “HOMG INFERNAL AFFAIRS!!!” We were getting ready to take a picture when Manong Driver Ajjushi stepped on the gas. Rearry hard. Next thing I know I was already sitting on the floor lauging my ass off and the other passengers were looking at us funny. Best part of the ride is when we drive downhill. Every time we go downhill, crazy!driver picks up extra speed and you can clearly see the people below you scurry about like ants. The frightened look on the faces of those poor citizens as they run for their sweet lives was just golden.
If you want a more relaxed atmosphere when viewing HK, Victoria Peak can provide you a breathtaking view of the city. We went there via a slow tram and took pictures with the cardboard cutouts of the Beijing mascots. >.<
But none of these sights can compare to our favorite sights. First, there’s the giant picture of Takeshi Kaneshiro for Emporio Armani at the corner of Nathan Road. People let me tell you, that picture is just pure *________*. It really is the most glorious thing ever. We would just gawk at the picture like gawkers on gawk tablets. Espi was even moved by such strong uncontainable emotions that she ran to the picture and hugged it. I wanted to do that too but I had a bit more dignity in me.
Our second favorite would have to be Fahrenheit’s “Fahrenheit Fantasy Tour” posters plastered all over the subway. Even if we get tired from a day’s worth of walking and shopping, we can always count on those posters to makes us smile. Wu Chun~
As for sounds, we had our hotel TV glued to MTV Hong Kong. Canto Pop is the way to go ‘yo if you want to fully immerse yourself in the culture. Unfortunately though, none of us can read Chinese. So I don’t really know who or what we’re listening too. All I got is this cracktastic song that goes "Ladies Nite~ LET'S CELEBRATION!" Pwahahaha~ (Listen/watch it here.)
Hong Kong Fashyown:
I. Love. Hong Kong Street Style. The kids here are really creative when it comes to dressing up. Lots of gladiator’s sandals paired with pegged jeans, slouchy boots mixed with peekaboo shorts and layers upon layers of accessories. And the pregnancy shirt! Zomg they’re everywhere. It’s amazing.
I know we dress up really nicely back home but next to the fashyown crowd in HK, the three of us felt like middle-aged women trying to look for what’s trendy with the youth. Case and point: we were looking for this 168-type of mall called RISE somewhere in Granville Circuit but it was already 10.30 pm and the road signs are getting difficult to read, simply put we couldn’t find the place. Just when we were about to give up, we saw a bunch of girls wearing really trendy outfits and carrying shopping bags filled with goodies. That’s when we hatched our brilliant plan which involved following the "youngsters" since they know where the "hip" stores are.
Sure enough, those cool kids led us to Granville Road. My new favorite place on Earth. The whole stretch is just lined-up with colorful stores selling the awesomest looking clothes I’ve seen. The prices aren’t bad either. Tops are usually priced at 50-80 HKD (300 - 480 PhP) while jeans start at 100 HKD (600 PhP). The store clerks are really friendly too. And young. And pretty. We went to one shoe store where Abi ended up buying a pair of mary jane moccasins (it sounds weird but trust me it’s cool), and the girl manning the store was just super cute. At first we kind of slightly hated her because she was really pretty and then the hate morphed into a slow re-evaluation of your sexuality as you wait for your size 8 to be fetched. O.o
Side Note: There are A LOT of pretty people in HK. Boys and girls alike. And even if some of them aren’t really that good looking, it’s compensated by their style. When we were in Granville, we noticed that as the pretty girls shop inside the stores, the pretty boyfriends usually wait outside the stores. And that’s where you can find Espi. Outside the stores. Doing this *o* to the boys. While Abi and I are going crazy with all the clothes, Espi just stands there trying to build her make believe “Casting Agency”. She just stares and points at people and say stuff like, “I wantz him! I wantz him in my agency!”.
So anywayz, if you wanna go bi- HK is the place for you.
p.s.
We saw a lot of lesbian couples in HK. PDA-ing. A lot. It eerily reminded me of high school. >_>
Store hours in Hong Kong are crazy. They usually open at 11.30 am, 12.00 noon or 3.00 pm and they close on midnight or as late as 3.00 am! And as you most of you know, I’m already asleep by 9.00 pm so this late night shopping was all new to me. It was really fun though. Hong Kong is most alive during the evenings. If you walk around Kowloon at 8.00 am you would barely recognize it. No lights. No people. No colorful stores.
Hong Kong Food:
We suck when it comes to sampling the local flavors. Our tummies were filled mostly by Japanese food and McDonalds. Loser I know. I wanted to try Hong Kong street food. I love food in general but kanto food has that special appeal. Hepa trip!!! XD
Anyway, I would have tried one when we passed by a stall in Haiphong Road. My eyes lit up when I saw the pork intestines, chicken’s heart, and this mysterious looking fried ball thing. I told Espi I was gonna buy some but she held me back and went all, “YA! ARE YOU CRAZY? WANNA DIE?” --in Korean. O.o
Apparently, Espi saw the lady vendor use her hands-without any plastic gloves-to mix the food and drop those fried ball thingies into the frying pan. Espi had to lecture me about hygiene and how she doesn’t want to be in a trip with a hepatitis patient.
Fine.
I had to stick with Cantonese food bought from inside the hotel and malls. They’re really good though. Lots of noodles, mixed veggies, steam buns, (Beijing) fried rice, and dumplings. ZOMG dumplings~ I had so many dumplings during that trip that I don’t think I would be able to eat siomai again. Siomai~ *sways to the side*
Hong Kong Dos and Don’ts: Strictly for Noobs
DO eat a huge breakfast before you start your day. When I say huge I’m talking about Michael Phelps breakfast ‘yo. I don’t want to gross everyone out but here’s what I eat for breakfast. DON’T JUDGE ME!
Asian plate:
1 ½ cup fried rice
3-4 pcs siomai
1 serving of mixed vegetables or
1 serving Canton noodles
2 pcs Chinese sponge cake
Continental plate:
1 serving of scrambled eggs
2 pcs pancakes with syrup and whipped cream
4-5 pcs fried bacon
2 pcs of pork/chicken/veal sausage
6 pcs tater tots or
2 pcs hash browns
1 grilled tomato
2 cups of coffee
1 glass of orange juice
1 small plate of assorted fruits
It takes me almost two hours to finish two plates. Ahoy! But don’t judge me! It’s not really a lot considering that our next meal would be around 3.00 pm. So having those two plates helps me not be hungry. Which I constantly am. Blame it on the anaconda people!
DON’T ever ever EVER go to Hong Kong’s Lomography Store. My brother is a lomographer-or as Espi would like to call them, “lomo freak”-and so he asked me to go to LomoAsia Store to buy him some stuff for his camera. According to his "lomo friends", the store is pretty easy to find. We just have to take the MTR, get off at the last station at Sheung Wan and it’ll be easy breezy from there. LIES! Everything was a LIE! We followed the instructions and ended up getting lost! For about 40 mins! At high noon! We asked everyone from the information center at the subway station to the folks at mini-marts and no one seem to know where the street of the Lomo store is. Heck, no one even knows that there’s a Lomo store around. Ro make it worse, the street was not listed on any of our maps. It was hell going uphill around Sheung Wan and wandering around under the blazing heat. And it did not help that our theme for that day was Big Bang and we were walking around in our NEON SHUTTER SHADES looking like frickz!!! So if you ever plan to visit the Lomo Asia store…
DO carry a cellphone equipped with internet or GPRS. That’s how we found the store. Thank you technology. Or better yet, just
DON’T ever ever EVER go to Hong Kong’s Lomography Store. On our last day, we found out that the same exact stuff that I bought at the Lomo Store was being sold for the same exact price ON THE 2ND FLOOR OF OUR AIR CONDITIONED HOTEL! You can actually go to any bookstore like Page One and find Lomo stuff over there. So when the lomo freaks tell you that you can only buy lomo stuff at the Lomo Store, don’t believe them. It’s all lies, LIES! KOH! JIT! MAL!
DO visit the Ladies Market at Mongkok if you’re into bargain hunting. We had to go there twice because a day isn’t enough for shopping and haggling. If you’re planning to go there just make sure that you
DON’T leave your hotel without a calculator. That’s one mistake we made. Nothing good can come from three Humanities students when computing for prices. We are so much fail when it comes to math that we end up getting the wrong computation every time we convert the prices. Also, a calc comes really handy when you want to haggle. Vendors speak minimal English so they usually just ask you to punch in the calculator the price you want to pay for an item.
DO travel with someone who can speak Chinese. Are you reading this KELSEY CHENG???? It helps a lot if you’re with someone who can communicate with the people. We only know a bunch of Chinese phrases and they’re all useless.
The Loon Squad Chinese Vocab:
Chun Bi~
Chun bi was the first Chinese phrase we heard. We hear it all the time from the commercials for Hong Kong’s Beijing Olympic Cheer: “Chun bi Hong Kong!” I think it means ‘ready’ or ‘are you ready’. But then again I could be wrong.
Jia You!
More or less, I know what ‘jia you’ means. You know how Koreans say “Fighting~!” when they’re cheering for someone, well this is the Chinese counterpart.
Da Jia Hao~
It means 'hello everyone'. Canto Pop stars say this all the time when we see them on TV. At first, I thought that this was just a simple 'hi'. I almost greeted our concierge with this. Good thing I didn't 'coz it'll be weird saying HELLO EVERYONE to just ONE person.
Aiya~
I don't know what it is but it’s my new favorite word. I now begin my sentences with ‘aiya~”. You should too. Eez a lotta of fun.
So you see none of the phrases we know really helped us in real life situations. If we all knew Chinese, the events you are about to read would never have happened.
Abi buying a cardigan at the Ladies Market
Abi: That one (points to a pink cardigan).
Vendor: Ping? Ping?
Abi: WHAT PING-PING?!??!
Moony: Abi, I think she’s asking you if you’re taking the PINK cardigan.
Abi: Oooh! Ah, yes. Pink please. (whispers to Mon) I thought she was asking me if I’m from a country called Ping-Ping.
.........
Vendor: You Philippines?
Abi: Huh?
Vendor: You (points to Abi) Philippines?
Abi: Yes, yes. Philippines.
Vendor: You Philippine China?
Abi: WHAT?!
Moony: Abi, I think she’s asking you if you’re Filipino-Chinese.
Abi: Oooh! Ah, yes. China. Mother. A little.
.......
Moony buying lunch at the food court.
Moony: I’ll have one chicken with mushroom please.
Vendor: (stares blankly)
Moony: Chicken (points at the menu) Mush~ room~
Vendor: (looks at the menu for a long time) Ah~ Chicken!
Moony: Yes, yes! Chicken!
Vendor: Chicken! (gives Moony a bowl of chicken feet)
........
So there. That was The Great HK (Mis)Adventure. A lot of fail, a lot of crack. Typico for a Loon Squad trip.
There were still a lot of things that happened but this post is getting ridiculously long and I don’t want anyone to die of boredom reading all this shiz.
Imma post an edited versh of this on my multiply as soon as I get the pics from Espi.
XD!
-m-
First of all, let me just say that going to a different country with your bestest pals is THE ONLY way to travel. Ditch your families if you can. A trip can only get crazy when you have Loons with you.
So anywayz, I wanted a day by day account of everything that happened in our trip but my brain is a bit woozy all thanks to the cold medicines I have been taking since we came back. So instead, imma just give everyone the “crack highlights” in a semi-travelogue style.
I’m warning you though, this is gonna be one looooong post.
Chun Bi?
CHUNBI HONGKONG!!!!
How to get to Hong Kong:
There are a lot of ways you can get to Hong Kong. But I suggest you take a plane. Eez a lotta fun.
Get an airline like Cebu Pacific to take you there. They have really low-rates for people who travel on a budget. Plus you get to use the newly opened NAIA 3.
Cebu Pacific airplanes have a very ‘exotic’ smell: a cross between Orocan plastic drums and feet. The seats are comfortable especially if you like them cramped. I’ve never been in a plane where my knees would touch the seat in front of me but thanks to Cebu Pacific, I finally got that experience. If you’re feeling tired or sleepy, reclining is not an option since some of their seats wouldn’t recline even if you press the recline button and pushed the seat really hard. So I suggest that you rest your head on the table. By the way, if you pull down the table, you’ll find a great number of artwork written on the back of the seat in front of you. It’s amazing really. It’s like riding a G-Liner. With wings.
If you’re adventurous like us, try and book your flight when there’s a storm around. The usual travel time of 1 hour and 30 mins will be doubled plus, you get to enjoy a free rollercoaster ride filled with stomach dropping air pockets and ear shattering air pressure.
Once you get to Hong Kong you’ll immediately get that feeling that you’re in Hong Kong. It must have been the huge flat screen TV where you can see Andy Lau welcoming you and inviting you to the touristy places in HK. Or it could be the air. Ohmygod you guys, the HKIA smelled like a Chinese restaurant. I love it. I only had thoughts of Canton noodles while going through immigration. Hmmm~
Around Hong Kong:
Getting around Hong Kong is easy. Our hotel is at the Kowloon side so we had to take a train and a bus ride. But it’s really hassle free. Hong Kong has an amazing transportation system. Everything is so convenient and efficient. Subway stations, bus stops, signs and directions are written in English so it wasn’t really a problem. Plus if you carry a map with you, there’s really no way you’d get lost. Unless of course you’re looking for a god forsaken almost non-existent street (more on that later)!!
Most bus and taxi drivers are polite and friendly. Some of them can speak English so you don’t have to worry about giving them the wrong street name or something. However, there are the occasional crazy bus drivers that will drive you directly to your grave but as long as you don’t have any heart problems; then it’s all good.
Hong Kong Sights and Sounds:
There’s really a lot to see in Hong Kong. The skyscrapers in Central will leave you at awe but also give you a slight crick in the neck. So I suggest that you take the double-decker when you’re sight-seeing in Central. Just make sure the driver isn’t in a Fast and the Furious mode.
The one we rode was having road rage that day. Which was very unfortunate for us three since we decided to sit on the first row of the top deck, we got to feel every intense moment like falling off our seats every time he swerves and almost hitting my head on the window in front of me every time he hits on the brakes.
But despite all that we really enjoyed that unsafe ride. The bus route took us to really cool places like Lan Kwai Fong (where all the cool bars and restos are located), the corner of Queen’s Road (where you can see BAPE and Gucci), and it also stopped right in front of the old Hong Kong police station! The three of us went crazy, shouting, “HOMG INFERNAL AFFAIRS!!!” We were getting ready to take a picture when Manong Driver Ajjushi stepped on the gas. Rearry hard. Next thing I know I was already sitting on the floor lauging my ass off and the other passengers were looking at us funny. Best part of the ride is when we drive downhill. Every time we go downhill, crazy!driver picks up extra speed and you can clearly see the people below you scurry about like ants. The frightened look on the faces of those poor citizens as they run for their sweet lives was just golden.
If you want a more relaxed atmosphere when viewing HK, Victoria Peak can provide you a breathtaking view of the city. We went there via a slow tram and took pictures with the cardboard cutouts of the Beijing mascots. >.<
But none of these sights can compare to our favorite sights. First, there’s the giant picture of Takeshi Kaneshiro for Emporio Armani at the corner of Nathan Road. People let me tell you, that picture is just pure *________*. It really is the most glorious thing ever. We would just gawk at the picture like gawkers on gawk tablets. Espi was even moved by such strong uncontainable emotions that she ran to the picture and hugged it. I wanted to do that too but I had a bit more dignity in me.
Our second favorite would have to be Fahrenheit’s “Fahrenheit Fantasy Tour” posters plastered all over the subway. Even if we get tired from a day’s worth of walking and shopping, we can always count on those posters to makes us smile. Wu Chun~
As for sounds, we had our hotel TV glued to MTV Hong Kong. Canto Pop is the way to go ‘yo if you want to fully immerse yourself in the culture. Unfortunately though, none of us can read Chinese. So I don’t really know who or what we’re listening too. All I got is this cracktastic song that goes "Ladies Nite~ LET'S CELEBRATION!" Pwahahaha~ (Listen/watch it here.)
Hong Kong Fashyown:
I. Love. Hong Kong Street Style. The kids here are really creative when it comes to dressing up. Lots of gladiator’s sandals paired with pegged jeans, slouchy boots mixed with peekaboo shorts and layers upon layers of accessories. And the pregnancy shirt! Zomg they’re everywhere. It’s amazing.
I know we dress up really nicely back home but next to the fashyown crowd in HK, the three of us felt like middle-aged women trying to look for what’s trendy with the youth. Case and point: we were looking for this 168-type of mall called RISE somewhere in Granville Circuit but it was already 10.30 pm and the road signs are getting difficult to read, simply put we couldn’t find the place. Just when we were about to give up, we saw a bunch of girls wearing really trendy outfits and carrying shopping bags filled with goodies. That’s when we hatched our brilliant plan which involved following the "youngsters" since they know where the "hip" stores are.
Sure enough, those cool kids led us to Granville Road. My new favorite place on Earth. The whole stretch is just lined-up with colorful stores selling the awesomest looking clothes I’ve seen. The prices aren’t bad either. Tops are usually priced at 50-80 HKD (300 - 480 PhP) while jeans start at 100 HKD (600 PhP). The store clerks are really friendly too. And young. And pretty. We went to one shoe store where Abi ended up buying a pair of mary jane moccasins (it sounds weird but trust me it’s cool), and the girl manning the store was just super cute. At first we kind of slightly hated her because she was really pretty and then the hate morphed into a slow re-evaluation of your sexuality as you wait for your size 8 to be fetched. O.o
Side Note: There are A LOT of pretty people in HK. Boys and girls alike. And even if some of them aren’t really that good looking, it’s compensated by their style. When we were in Granville, we noticed that as the pretty girls shop inside the stores, the pretty boyfriends usually wait outside the stores. And that’s where you can find Espi. Outside the stores. Doing this *o* to the boys. While Abi and I are going crazy with all the clothes, Espi just stands there trying to build her make believe “Casting Agency”. She just stares and points at people and say stuff like, “I wantz him! I wantz him in my agency!”.
So anywayz, if you wanna go bi- HK is the place for you.
p.s.
We saw a lot of lesbian couples in HK. PDA-ing. A lot. It eerily reminded me of high school. >_>
Store hours in Hong Kong are crazy. They usually open at 11.30 am, 12.00 noon or 3.00 pm and they close on midnight or as late as 3.00 am! And as you most of you know, I’m already asleep by 9.00 pm so this late night shopping was all new to me. It was really fun though. Hong Kong is most alive during the evenings. If you walk around Kowloon at 8.00 am you would barely recognize it. No lights. No people. No colorful stores.
Hong Kong Food:
We suck when it comes to sampling the local flavors. Our tummies were filled mostly by Japanese food and McDonalds. Loser I know. I wanted to try Hong Kong street food. I love food in general but kanto food has that special appeal. Hepa trip!!! XD
Anyway, I would have tried one when we passed by a stall in Haiphong Road. My eyes lit up when I saw the pork intestines, chicken’s heart, and this mysterious looking fried ball thing. I told Espi I was gonna buy some but she held me back and went all, “YA! ARE YOU CRAZY? WANNA DIE?” --in Korean. O.o
Apparently, Espi saw the lady vendor use her hands-without any plastic gloves-to mix the food and drop those fried ball thingies into the frying pan. Espi had to lecture me about hygiene and how she doesn’t want to be in a trip with a hepatitis patient.
Fine.
I had to stick with Cantonese food bought from inside the hotel and malls. They’re really good though. Lots of noodles, mixed veggies, steam buns, (Beijing) fried rice, and dumplings. ZOMG dumplings~ I had so many dumplings during that trip that I don’t think I would be able to eat siomai again. Siomai~ *sways to the side*
Hong Kong Dos and Don’ts: Strictly for Noobs
DO eat a huge breakfast before you start your day. When I say huge I’m talking about Michael Phelps breakfast ‘yo. I don’t want to gross everyone out but here’s what I eat for breakfast. DON’T JUDGE ME!
Asian plate:
1 ½ cup fried rice
3-4 pcs siomai
1 serving of mixed vegetables or
1 serving Canton noodles
2 pcs Chinese sponge cake
Continental plate:
1 serving of scrambled eggs
2 pcs pancakes with syrup and whipped cream
4-5 pcs fried bacon
2 pcs of pork/chicken/veal sausage
6 pcs tater tots or
2 pcs hash browns
1 grilled tomato
2 cups of coffee
1 glass of orange juice
1 small plate of assorted fruits
It takes me almost two hours to finish two plates. Ahoy! But don’t judge me! It’s not really a lot considering that our next meal would be around 3.00 pm. So having those two plates helps me not be hungry. Which I constantly am. Blame it on the anaconda people!
DON’T ever ever EVER go to Hong Kong’s Lomography Store. My brother is a lomographer-or as Espi would like to call them, “lomo freak”-and so he asked me to go to LomoAsia Store to buy him some stuff for his camera. According to his "lomo friends", the store is pretty easy to find. We just have to take the MTR, get off at the last station at Sheung Wan and it’ll be easy breezy from there. LIES! Everything was a LIE! We followed the instructions and ended up getting lost! For about 40 mins! At high noon! We asked everyone from the information center at the subway station to the folks at mini-marts and no one seem to know where the street of the Lomo store is. Heck, no one even knows that there’s a Lomo store around. Ro make it worse, the street was not listed on any of our maps. It was hell going uphill around Sheung Wan and wandering around under the blazing heat. And it did not help that our theme for that day was Big Bang and we were walking around in our NEON SHUTTER SHADES looking like frickz!!! So if you ever plan to visit the Lomo Asia store…
DO carry a cellphone equipped with internet or GPRS. That’s how we found the store. Thank you technology. Or better yet, just
DON’T ever ever EVER go to Hong Kong’s Lomography Store. On our last day, we found out that the same exact stuff that I bought at the Lomo Store was being sold for the same exact price ON THE 2ND FLOOR OF OUR AIR CONDITIONED HOTEL! You can actually go to any bookstore like Page One and find Lomo stuff over there. So when the lomo freaks tell you that you can only buy lomo stuff at the Lomo Store, don’t believe them. It’s all lies, LIES! KOH! JIT! MAL!
DO visit the Ladies Market at Mongkok if you’re into bargain hunting. We had to go there twice because a day isn’t enough for shopping and haggling. If you’re planning to go there just make sure that you
DON’T leave your hotel without a calculator. That’s one mistake we made. Nothing good can come from three Humanities students when computing for prices. We are so much fail when it comes to math that we end up getting the wrong computation every time we convert the prices. Also, a calc comes really handy when you want to haggle. Vendors speak minimal English so they usually just ask you to punch in the calculator the price you want to pay for an item.
DO travel with someone who can speak Chinese. Are you reading this KELSEY CHENG???? It helps a lot if you’re with someone who can communicate with the people. We only know a bunch of Chinese phrases and they’re all useless.
The Loon Squad Chinese Vocab:
Chun Bi~
Chun bi was the first Chinese phrase we heard. We hear it all the time from the commercials for Hong Kong’s Beijing Olympic Cheer: “Chun bi Hong Kong!” I think it means ‘ready’ or ‘are you ready’. But then again I could be wrong.
Jia You!
More or less, I know what ‘jia you’ means. You know how Koreans say “Fighting~!” when they’re cheering for someone, well this is the Chinese counterpart.
Da Jia Hao~
It means 'hello everyone'. Canto Pop stars say this all the time when we see them on TV. At first, I thought that this was just a simple 'hi'. I almost greeted our concierge with this. Good thing I didn't 'coz it'll be weird saying HELLO EVERYONE to just ONE person.
Aiya~
I don't know what it is but it’s my new favorite word. I now begin my sentences with ‘aiya~”. You should too. Eez a lotta of fun.
So you see none of the phrases we know really helped us in real life situations. If we all knew Chinese, the events you are about to read would never have happened.
Abi buying a cardigan at the Ladies Market
Abi: That one (points to a pink cardigan).
Vendor: Ping? Ping?
Abi: WHAT PING-PING?!??!
Moony: Abi, I think she’s asking you if you’re taking the PINK cardigan.
Abi: Oooh! Ah, yes. Pink please. (whispers to Mon) I thought she was asking me if I’m from a country called Ping-Ping.
.........
Vendor: You Philippines?
Abi: Huh?
Vendor: You (points to Abi) Philippines?
Abi: Yes, yes. Philippines.
Vendor: You Philippine China?
Abi: WHAT?!
Moony: Abi, I think she’s asking you if you’re Filipino-Chinese.
Abi: Oooh! Ah, yes. China. Mother. A little.
.......
Moony buying lunch at the food court.
Moony: I’ll have one chicken with mushroom please.
Vendor: (stares blankly)
Moony: Chicken (points at the menu) Mush~ room~
Vendor: (looks at the menu for a long time) Ah~ Chicken!
Moony: Yes, yes! Chicken!
Vendor: Chicken! (gives Moony a bowl of chicken feet)
........
So there. That was The Great HK (Mis)Adventure. A lot of fail, a lot of crack. Typico for a Loon Squad trip.
There were still a lot of things that happened but this post is getting ridiculously long and I don’t want anyone to die of boredom reading all this shiz.
Imma post an edited versh of this on my multiply as soon as I get the pics from Espi.
XD!
-m-