The first notification came in a little after midnight. James, who's out in Japan, sent out his customary "Happy Birthday from tomorrow!" greeting, and for a brief moment, I wished that I was in Melbourne so that I could reply, "I'm two hours ahead of you, dude." But I settled for saying that I was in Hong Kong and locally it already was my ( Read more... )

The tailor's shop was easy to miss, nestled as it was inside a warren of stalls hawking cheap electronics and cheaper souvenirs. ayun and I had walked past it twice while wandering Nathan Road, dodging South Asian touts whispering offers of knock off watches and grey market goods. Once we found it, we were greeted by an elderly fellow with callused ( Read more... )

We were walking around a block of Kowloon, killing time until we were supposed to be seated at this dim sum restaurant. To hear the foodies talk about it, Tim Ho Wan earned its Michelin star based purely on the virtue of its barbecue pork buns, but it never let fame get to its head, so unlike other Michelin starred places, it never pumped up its ( Read more... )

In my mind, right now, there are two Hong Kongs. One of them is the city that I visited when I was young, to see cousins who lived in Kowloon and to have my first taste of riding on a subway system. The flights from Manila were brief, so long weekends there were an indulgent possibility. My parents took us to high tea at the Peninsula, where I ( Read more... )

Home now. Though my head's still in China. I've got journal entries to write, photos to sort through and jet lag to recover from. To tide you over, here are a few tidbits that haven't been posted to Facebook or Instagram yet.


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one of the perks of traveling in Asia on one's birthday?  36 hours of Facebook birthday notifications.

this is a placeholder for memories of fresh mangoes and nerding out on menswear, high tea, hotel cocktails and impromptu reunions that were way more fun than my 20 year could have been.  more later, but for now know that life is awesome.

Posted via ( Read more... )

"Hey, do you have stuff for washing clothes ( Read more... )

I was, maybe, twelve years old when I first noticed the way my mom would order food in a Chinese restaurant. Her voice got clipped, and she'd put on this weird imitation of Cantonese accented English, like "we want wan' ohdah frie' rice, and wan' ohdah soy sauce chikkin." When she'd finish, I'd ask her why she was making fun of our waiter, and ( Read more... )

Melbourne, Australia is fond of their rooftop bars as they are proud of their weather. A place that is generally pleasant all year-round needs open air spaces that let you sip a glass of wine outside as the aura of the city envelops you. I was sitting at a tapas bar with a coworker, two days into a work gig and the space between us was littered ( Read more... )

"Oh, dude, they have chicharones here. I'm putting in an order of that."

I was with fsfitz amd strange_quark at Chifa, a Peruvian Chinese place in Philly. Peruvian-Chinese might sound odd until one realizes that American Chinese has its own weird and idiosyncratic adaptations. After all, it's not like anyone eats fortune cookies in Shanghai. Whether it's stir- ( Read more... )