Wednesday, September 26, 2007
HK is Very OK
For the record, i took a sleeping pill tonight, so it's a race against time to see if I can finish this post before I zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Yeah, I'm still here. Anyway...
Hong Kong was a blast. It was a short trip, but a very fulfilling one. I got to meet one long-time online friend and one recent acquaintance. Yes, like KL, this was a trip about meeting people more than about seeing things or buying stuff.
First there was Eric. A charming lad who studied international relations and who is now doing graduate work, we met up on Fridae in Summer '06 while he was doing an internship at Disneyworld in Florida. We never met while he was in the US but I knew we would someday. He is an absolute doll, a real sweetheart who took an afternoon out of a busy day to take me around Kowloon, go out for a great lunch (I didn't always know what I was eating but he took good care of me) and then he tolerated some shopping in the ultimate tourist areas. I'm glad he did, I needed his advice on some clothes, cuz lord knows I can't figure that out for myself. I just had a great time with him, and I hope someday to return the favor here in the US. Oh, and he's really cute too. Not that it matters, he just is.
Then of course there was Tony. I've only known Tony online a couple months but we really clicked and knew we wanted to meet someday. the chance came sooner than expected. After some trouble getting in touch with each other we met up Friday night and hit a few straight bars with Filipino cover bands. They wer playing music from the 80s, music I remember from high school, though back then it never occurred to me I'd be dancing to that music with a hot guy in a straight bar in Hong Kong. Seriously, I never expected that. We then went out to dinner Saturday night, which was a very different experience that clubbing. I loved spending an evening with him, and some guy someday will be very lucky to spend a lifetime with him.
The unexpected meet up was with Antonio, who works in a clothing shop there. We got to talking and I ended up staying there for at least 2 hours. We got to talking about boys, HK culture, relationships, education, business, all sorts of things. Funny thing is, he's on Fridae, so whereas Eric and Tony were Fridae friends who became real world friends, Antonio was the other way around.
I liked the city. I felt comfortable there. It was easy to get around...looking at the map I thought "I'm going to be walking all day" but I guess I should have checked the scale...everything was very close by. And of course, there was a very convenient train system. I love good mass transit.
Didn't buy much. A lot of the prices were more in line with the US than with what I'd seen in the previous three countries. Food was an interesting experience, as there wasn't a lot of English going on in the restaurants. One day for lunch I walked into a restaurant and just pointed to a couple things on the menu...got a pretty good soup, so yay that. At dinner one nioght I'd ordered some lamb, then dumplings started showing up. At first I thought that I'd accidentally ordered them when I nodded along to whatever was being said to me. As the second order arrived, though, the original waiter came over and told the second guy no, that these were supposed to go to another table. I hope they didn't notice that I'd already eaten two of them.
The gay bars were pretty good, and my hotel was in a great spot. One nice place, Rice Bar, was a 5-minute walk away, and Thursday was College Night, so I think we all know where I was. M Bar was on the same street as my hotel, and Volume was 3 minutes away, while the mentioned-in-an-earlier-post Propaganda was within 10 minutes. Yes, i was in gay central.
Next time I want to stay longer, see a little more, and meet up with Lucas, another Fridae friend who tried to see me, but we had communication problems (had all sorts of trouble getting text messages through over there). I was very sad to miss him.
The sleeping pills are kicking in, so I'll just close with some photos of Hong Kong and Hanoi. Oh, and I added some new photos to the Kuala Lumpur album. (reminder: if anyone in those pics doesn't want them made public, let me know and I'll adjust)
Yeah, I'm still here. Anyway...
Hong Kong was a blast. It was a short trip, but a very fulfilling one. I got to meet one long-time online friend and one recent acquaintance. Yes, like KL, this was a trip about meeting people more than about seeing things or buying stuff.
First there was Eric. A charming lad who studied international relations and who is now doing graduate work, we met up on Fridae in Summer '06 while he was doing an internship at Disneyworld in Florida. We never met while he was in the US but I knew we would someday. He is an absolute doll, a real sweetheart who took an afternoon out of a busy day to take me around Kowloon, go out for a great lunch (I didn't always know what I was eating but he took good care of me) and then he tolerated some shopping in the ultimate tourist areas. I'm glad he did, I needed his advice on some clothes, cuz lord knows I can't figure that out for myself. I just had a great time with him, and I hope someday to return the favor here in the US. Oh, and he's really cute too. Not that it matters, he just is.
Then of course there was Tony. I've only known Tony online a couple months but we really clicked and knew we wanted to meet someday. the chance came sooner than expected. After some trouble getting in touch with each other we met up Friday night and hit a few straight bars with Filipino cover bands. They wer playing music from the 80s, music I remember from high school, though back then it never occurred to me I'd be dancing to that music with a hot guy in a straight bar in Hong Kong. Seriously, I never expected that. We then went out to dinner Saturday night, which was a very different experience that clubbing. I loved spending an evening with him, and some guy someday will be very lucky to spend a lifetime with him.
The unexpected meet up was with Antonio, who works in a clothing shop there. We got to talking and I ended up staying there for at least 2 hours. We got to talking about boys, HK culture, relationships, education, business, all sorts of things. Funny thing is, he's on Fridae, so whereas Eric and Tony were Fridae friends who became real world friends, Antonio was the other way around.
I liked the city. I felt comfortable there. It was easy to get around...looking at the map I thought "I'm going to be walking all day" but I guess I should have checked the scale...everything was very close by. And of course, there was a very convenient train system. I love good mass transit.
Didn't buy much. A lot of the prices were more in line with the US than with what I'd seen in the previous three countries. Food was an interesting experience, as there wasn't a lot of English going on in the restaurants. One day for lunch I walked into a restaurant and just pointed to a couple things on the menu...got a pretty good soup, so yay that. At dinner one nioght I'd ordered some lamb, then dumplings started showing up. At first I thought that I'd accidentally ordered them when I nodded along to whatever was being said to me. As the second order arrived, though, the original waiter came over and told the second guy no, that these were supposed to go to another table. I hope they didn't notice that I'd already eaten two of them.
The gay bars were pretty good, and my hotel was in a great spot. One nice place, Rice Bar, was a 5-minute walk away, and Thursday was College Night, so I think we all know where I was. M Bar was on the same street as my hotel, and Volume was 3 minutes away, while the mentioned-in-an-earlier-post Propaganda was within 10 minutes. Yes, i was in gay central.
Next time I want to stay longer, see a little more, and meet up with Lucas, another Fridae friend who tried to see me, but we had communication problems (had all sorts of trouble getting text messages through over there). I was very sad to miss him.
The sleeping pills are kicking in, so I'll just close with some photos of Hong Kong and Hanoi. Oh, and I added some new photos to the Kuala Lumpur album. (reminder: if anyone in those pics doesn't want them made public, let me know and I'll adjust)
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hey hey! oh wow, i'm being known around! anyhow, i'm emcee-ing/hosting an AFS event in One Utama Shopping Center this weekend =)
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