Monday August 2, 2004

Arrived back from Hong Kong and Singapore safe and sound (for those of you who haven’t figured that out yet).  Actually, I’ve been back for just under a week.  Sorry to those of you who actually bothered to check in at this site once in a while only to be disappointed by the sad entry about my arrival to Hong Kong.  Email and web access were strangely scarce this time, even though I had a laptop in the apartment, and I never got desperate enough to call upon desperate measures.  Anyway, some highlights about Hong Kong:

This is the first time I have been in Hong Kong with most of my immediate family together in years.  The past three times, I believe I traveled here by myself.  Somehow, being here with my parents and Timothy seem to induce the lazy bug in me, such that I was fairly disinclined to think of fun things to do on my own during my week in Hong Kong.  Can I blame for weather for making me feel like a unmotivated bum?  Well, I suppose that if you define “vacation” as “time where you mostly do nothing but rest (veg)” then I think the majority of my Hong Kong trip was like this.  At least that’s what I remember.

We got to experience just a little bit of Hong Kong’s typhoon season.  Sheets of rain seemed to come from nowhere before letting up just long enough to entice unsuspecting souls back outdoors before the drenching commenced again.  Okay, it wasn’t that bad.  In fact, the rain really made the whole place considerably cooler, though not much less humid.  Regardless, the A/C was constantly on and cold showers were in order.

My Aunt Eunice’s (2nd) wedding reception was extravagant.  (The first reception, held probably a month ago in London, where the wedding took place, was probably just as extravagant, only featuring waiters who spoke with British accents.)  I think it was roughly a 10-hour ordeal, though my immediate family was only invited to the latter 6 hours.  I don’t think the waiters let my glass of oh-so-pulpy, fresh-squeezed orange juice remain half-empty on the table for any longer than 5 seconds during the entire course of the meal.  Really, the place was teeming with waiters.  As expected, I didn’t exactly get to chitchat with the very busy bride and groom.  But, of course, I got totally stuffed with food, to the point that I simply could not take another glass of that sweet, sweet orange juice.

I had tons of dreams while in Hong Kong.  I think I was merely more aware of how much I was dreaming because I was actually getting enough sleep for once.  Sadly, I don’t recall any of them anymore.  It’s definitely been more than one second since I woke up, and you know how it is.

On the day I planned to meet Chris, our meeting place was Hong Kong’s The Landmark, a beautiful shopping complex full of high-class designer fashion stores like Bvlgari, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and plenty of others that I will probably even think about buying anything from since it will involve skipping at least 100 meals.  I was there early, so I walked a loop on every floor of its four buildings without stepping into a single one before finally slipping into a bookstore to find comfort.

Finally meeting up with Chris was really fun and encouraging.  We went to eat at a suspiciously cheap wonton noodle place where we both ordered two bowls just to convince our wallets that we were actually having a meal.  There, amongst other lunch-hour professionals crammed together at the same tiny table, Chris and I wasted no time in delving into the gritty muck of conversations about dating and spiritual life and other fun topics to discuss while others tried to just eat in peace without eavesdropping.  Then we went to a Haagen-Daz where he bought me a milkshake, only to discover that the cashier wanted to charge us an extra 10% when we tried to sit down.  Chris was not fazed, paying the extra fee with a smile, just so he could sit down at a cramped little Haagen-Daz to chat with me.  What an awesome friend!

Okay, more photos in my new photo gallery.  Now you can add comments and upload your own albums to my site if you register and login.  =]

My Singapore notes will come later to entertain my three readers.