“I think it's special what's behind your back, So turn around and I'll pick up the slack”
-Sexy Back, Justin Timberlake

“Sexy Back” has become the new theme song for Eve and I. Even better as it made its karaoke debut last night. With our mad harmonizing skillz we impressed our friends who couldn’t believe we had never sung it before despite our large alcohol intake for the evening. I’m really going to miss karaoke.

As for my trip to Hong Kong, I still haven’t unpacked my things. I dug out some of the good stuff, threw it around our humble abode and basically left everything else on the floor in my room. Today will be unpack and clean day. It was my fist time travelling alone and actual having a solo vacation. I’ve either gone to a city like Tokyo for a night on my own or to hang out for a bit until I meet up with friends, but have never actually boarded a plane and taken off to another country for the sole purpose of having a sightseeing vacation on my own. It was pretty successful, and since I like being on my own anyway and often show a disdain for people in general, I got along fine with myself.
Now I feel like if I can hit random spots in Asia on my own and come out unscathed, I feel like this crazy trip I am casually planning in my head to the UK in the spring will work out for me. That and Nat is considering Reading or Leeds with me in August because she’s cool.

Getting to and from HK was no problem and its actually an easy city to get around in. I think I spent more money on transportation between the subway, trams, buses, and ferries than anything else. I arrived in the afternoon and checked out the Cat Street Market (no, no cats, and I didn’t go because of the name- I went for the Maoist kitsch), the escalators in Mid-Levels which just run uphill so you don’t have to walk, the zoo and botanical gardens, and then took the peak tram up the mountain on HK island. The Peak had a great view of the city and I had timed my arrival to catch the sunset as to get a view both in the daylight and as the lights came on at night.

My next day I ventured off of HK to Lantau Island to visit a monastery and one of the world’s largest seated bronze Buddha statues. It took forever to get there but was worth it. I took a very choppy ferry ride then a very long and winding bus ride to get me there. The Buddha seems bigger than the one in Kamakura in Japan, but that also might be owing to the fact that its sitting solo on the top of a mountain. Hiking all the way up to the top via the numerous steps was almost unbearable- not really for the physical effort but because it was so damn humid.

After the Buddha and my visit with nature, it was contrast time as I hit up Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tsui on the mainland part of HK. I just keep thinking, “Thank God Dan warned me not to stay in Kowloon.” It was a big, loud dirty Chinatown which is the only way I can describe it. Torontonians: multiply our Chinatown by 1000 on a Saturday, thrown in an extra 5000 people, turn up the heat, and deck the street out in neon lights and you’ll understand. It was almost overwhelming. Men constantly yell at you to buy things: “Missy miss, Copy bag, copy watch, DVD movie, tailor, suit, perfume, I make you a nice dress” is basically what I heard in one sentence as I made m way up the street, going gin and out of shops. I didn’t last too long there and made a retreat back to HK island to wait it out a bit longer before going back to Kowloon for the night markets. It was admittedly much better at night since the amount of people had gone down, as had the touts yelling things, allowing my to load up my arms with random purchases I’ll never be able to fit in my suitcase back to Canada.

Monday I booked a 5 hour tour to Macau and Shenzhen in mainland China. First sign that something was wrong: they were 45 minutes late to pick me up. Second sign: “So miss, you already have a Chinese visa?” I didn’t. They were supposed to arrange one for me. But it all worked out in the end. Macau is an odd place- colonized and settled by the Portuguese and handed back over to Chinese control in the 1990s it has odd European architecture in some places. All in all, and I was warned about this beforehand, it’s kinda of the slums of the area. Despite the nicer buildings and Portuguese style squares and buildings, it just can’t shake off the seedy and decrepit look overall.

After Macau it was off to Shenzhen on my virtual private tour: it was just me and a couple of Aussies, Stuart and Kelly who were 28 and just on their way home from a 3 month European tour. Needless to say, that we all got on great, especially since our guide was 26. So having a private tour in a van is pretty cool because we were able to dictate what we were interested and get our guide Gavin to show us the goods in the crazy shopping mall of knock-offs. This Lo Wu Shopping Mall is targeted to tourists but it is very sketchy. It’s the least safe I have felt in Asia. Its filled with beggars and thieves and people who follow you. Gavin told us all to stay close and said that its not somewhere that you should ever go on your own. He led us down some back hallways to a warehouse where they had “grade A” knock-offs so my Aussie friends could buy golf clubs and I picked up a Fendi purse. In general and in case you were wondering, the faux merchandise in Seoul was top shelf quality while this wasn’t as hot.

Odd side note: Stuart and I were in a long and engrossing discussion over countries and Aussie’s impressions of Canada (apparently I say “Out” funny) and how others view Australia, leading us onto a lengthy conversation about the Crocodile Hunter. 20 minutes later as we step off of this ferry and his cell phone goes back into range, he gets the email about Steve Irwin’s death. We were both a little shocked that we had just been talking about him- someone who doesn’t come up in conversation often and I haven’t thought about in years. Like Heidi, I too find the whole story sad- My dad loved his show. But I digress….

Tuesday I went back to Kowloon and hung out along the harbour, visited the art museum (which as you can see in the picture below, had a room made out of human hair), and went to the bird garden where men bring their caged birds, and a few more markets. I wound up my last morning there on Wednesday getting lost in a mall while looking for a park with an aviary (the sign said the park was on the 2nd floor, but then it stopped giving directions to it. It was actually off the 5th floor. And I went up the crazy Bank of China building to their “observatory” which is just a hallway with a window.

And then it was back to Japan for a night where the hotel receptionist laughed at me when I said I lived in Fukushima. Everyone knows there is nothing to do in Fukushima. Hence the frequent karaoke visits. And as usual, I'll have more travel photos up on my travel blog eventually.

“I'm bringin' sexy back”