HK and Singapore

Yooo,
So last week I went to Hong Kong and Singapore for a little over a week and here's what it looked like:

I first went to Singapore to visit my dad for a few days. In keeping with one of my new years resolutions (hang out with nature more), I went to this small island off of Singapore, Pulau Ubin and hung out there for a day.


Bike that I rode around the island with. fyi, I rented it from an old guy who was getting no business (or so I thought, and thus felt kind of sorry for), and this bike, as like chill as it seems, was shaky (in a not good way).


A few dogs running around the island. I almost ran over a lizard with my bike as well. Almost!

Note to self and anyone who walks around in Singapore for more than 10 minutes: wear sunscreen and a hat or have a sun-burned face and have all people in Singapore look at you weird because Singapore Asians do not get sunburned (they know better than to walk around in the sun all day unprotected, or even, at all).

Then I went to Hong Kong and stayed with my aunt on Discovery Bay:

Discovery Bay is...from what I can see, a place where all the somewhat rich to very rich and lots of non-chinese people live in. It's an "environmentally friendly" island. Meaning that no one on the island is allowed to own a car (kind of impressive). They are however, able to own a golf cart. My aunt said, the golf cart only costs 100,000 (or something like that) Hong Kong dollars (HK dollar to 1 CDN dollar roughly: 7 to 1). But that the licence is 1 million Hong Kong dollars. 1 MILLION HONG KONG DOLLARS?! And apparently also the golf carts, at least the newer ones, are solar powered and don't even go that fast. 1 millon dollars to hang around the island on a golf cart. My cousins (the sons of my aunt) said that a few years ago (they are in high school), would sneak out at night and steal these golf carts (apparently it's really easy because the owners leave their keys in the glove compartment) and ride around the island on them and (I am directly quoting them) "drift". lol.

Okay. Went to Ocean Park. This trip to Hong Kong for me was definitely the most tourist-y I've been in all the times I've been to Hong Kong. Usually I just hang out with family, shop, and eat, but I dunno, I did that last time and got sick of it fast (the shopping, eating part), and there's a few tourist things in Hong Kong that I haven't seen (i.e, the pandas in Ocean Park), and I am there, so might as well. And, haha, erm this is a benefit of being me on my dad's side of the family, I am the only girl cousin/niece, and I am one of the youngest, and so my older cousin paid for Ocean Park (which, is eep, like 30 dollars to get into). Thanks Alvin!


A big reason why I went to Hong Kong. To see my cousin get married. It was interesting, the first wedding I've been to ever. I didn't really understand what was going on because it was all in Chinese, but I am glad I got to see it.

Got peaceful on my last day in Hong Kong. Tian Tan Buddha. The first time I saw a large scale Buddha was in Nara with Jane (here). I think I was only really interested in going to Nara because of all the deer running around and seeing the Buddha was kind of an afterthought. When I saw it though, have to say, it's quite moving. Instant calm and humbleness from standing before something just so massive both literally and metaphorically. I am not really much of a religious person and I never really think much of monuments, but once seen in real life, it's like oh, man, yes.

Then I went on a plane where I sat next to a baby who kicked me periodically and liked to play with stickers and stick them on her mother and on my tray.

Ones with little happy faces on them.
:)

A-S-I-A TOUR IV

Trip is winding down, I'll be back in Van on the day before the big ol' 2010.

It sure has been nice here in Kuala Lumpur spending time with my family, drinking milk tea (both HOT and COLD!), being in hot weather (and not sweating too hard, something that I am kind of proud of, ahaaaaa) and just experiencing and navigating a new city.



A lonely mall.



This little girl was beautiful!

Hey Van did you miss my face (leaf face!?), cause I kinda missed yours. See ya soon tree face!

A-S-I-A TOUR I:

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong was a blur of shopping malls. I saw a buttload of Uniqlo's and Muji's and now I wonder how much I'll be craving seeing them in person once I am back in Van.

Seeing so many shops and so many people, and sadly getting kind of bored of looking at the clothes (all becomes a blur after awhile...a very monochromatic blur), I started looking harder at the people. And I think this: the fashion sense in Hong Kong, after being to Japan (albeit briefly so this observation could be very superficial) and talking to my Aunt, I am thinking that it is motivated and defined mostly by status and huge well known brands, rather than in Japan it seems to be motivated more by true self expression (you see a lot more 'stranger' looks in Japan than you would in Hong Kong and a variety as well, extremes like over the top outfits seen in Harajuku and then clean looks like Muji and Uniqlo). It doesn't matter what you are wearing, but who you are wearing, and it seems like the opposite is more found in Japan. I know brands and who you are loyal to is a big thing around the whole world, but it seems to be a really dominating and deciding factor in how a person's appearance is defined in Hong Kong.

Kuala Lumpur:

KL's Twin towers! My dad works on one of the lower floors of one of these buildings. I don't know which one.

Aren't we?!

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Okay I am not closed minded or anything (or whatever), but I didn't think I'd be at all interested in seeing this museum, but faced with a bunch of time in my hands and not really knowing what to do in Kuala Lumpur, I went to this museum on a whim because it is one of those big tourist things to do. I say that I wouldn't be interested because I don't really know much about Islamic Art and it just never really held any interest to me. But this museum was beautiful! There was a section that showed various mosques around the world (little perfect models with insane tiny details that just thinking about make my eyes cry), and holy shit some of them are amazing, AND THEY WERE BUILT FOREVER AGO! Really nice and impressive.

I feel like I've paid more attention to the architecture in Kuala Lumpur than in most places I've been to. Maybe because I had/have few notions about the place and to see impressive structures here and there is neat and a bit of a surprise.

I have been drinking like gallons of cold milk tea, god, so! delicious! And everything that I've eaten in Kuala Lumpur (Chicken Rice, Laksa, Chicken Biryani, etc) has been awesome and super good, and is great when you first eat it, but I am beginning to feel the effects of the heaviness/greasiness of it, like feeling mega tired afterwards and thinking, "Man what did I just eat." Anyways.

A really sort of nerve-wracking thing about Kuala Lumpur is the taxis. With most, okay well, EVERY, place that I've been to, you can hail a taxi, and that taxi will take you wherever you want. But here! HERE! They sometimes don't want to take you there (because they want to stay on a certain side or whatever), and if they do take you, they might put it at a set fee, which is higher than if they were to just open the meter and let it run. I don't really understand why they do it and it just makes for a really nerve-wracking experience, especially being a foreigner because I am super not good at haggling and when you want to get somewhere, you just want to (or at least I want to) get there as soon and as easily as possible, even if it means spending like a few dollars more.

Tiny bit of Singapore:

Went to the Singapore Art Museum. It's in a really neat building, (a restored old school building) and I was really impressed with this piece by Donna Ong (beautiful!) and also this collective (Vertical Submarine) and their stuff made me laugh.

Hey!

It was nice catching up! Let's do this again sometime!

#9

KEEP ON KEEPING ON.

Photo done by Maggie Chok, who I hear and see has a nice new portfolio website that you should see if you have not already.

unknown songs

polaroids and maggie and cannon beach.





that really was a beautiful day.

i was absolutely there.

I went to Portland and Seattle with Maggie this reading week and this is kind of what it looked like:



I end on Red Lobster. First meal there in yeeears, and it was good for about 5 bites. But the biscuits, still as good as ever.

I am trying to switch to Wordpress because I want to show you guys songs I really love and Blogger has an insanely ugly app for it. But man, Wordpress is confusing, yes? Or is it just me. For now, it's Blogger for life.