Won't You Take Me to Honkie Town

Wow so I'm like, totally surprised that I am not surprised by this city. (The Special Administration Region's tenth birthday just gone). In the past my first day at any new place is full of fascination from feeling how different they are from things I knew. Everything is just sooo familiar here - pretty much like walking in downtown Taipei except its all much more compacted and accessible by foot or a few metro stops. The sights (traditional chinese characters, fashion, physiques), smells (BBQ'd all sorts of goodies on sticks), even sounds (maybe too much Cantonese TV...) and mandarin pretty much gets you everywhere.

The place is very multicultural and touristy, and the Honkies are relatively professional and harmless bunch (explains the political apathy?), so I don't stick out like a sore thumb anymore and just blend into the crowd. never thought I would appreciate anonymity so much, given that I prescribe to Oscar Wilde's "Being talked about is better than not being talked about" theory. But this is a relief from Bangladesh and India.

Floating from one British ex colony to the next means that I also have the luxury of not switching my stay-left mentality. But yes, it is frightening to think how much of the world those Brits had got their dirty little hands into, and managed to fuck all of them up some way or another. Not that Beijing has done or would have done a better job but you know. Or do they just chose funny'ol places to pillage... like, who else would name a street as blunt as "Water Spinach Street" and "Soy Sauce Road" and "Laundry Street". And no, I've never heard visitors giggling at names like Top Ryde (NSW) and Whakapapa (NZ).

I am currently staying in a tiny shoe box, one of hundreds inside this big maze like building in the bustling market area of Mong Kok in the Kowloon side of town. Its all I need though and for the first time in ages I'm watching TV!! I just watched ten minutes of a Hong Kong gangster movie that has the gunned-down-on-the-street scene filmed right downstairs from my hostel, so scary I was hiding the duvet. I know cos the shops are exactly the same. Not eating there I guess. I will have to make a Wang Kar Wai pilgrimage to Chungking mansions and those underground noodle shops soon though.

Meanwhile, I am catching up with a bit of news around the world, and have added a few Hong Kong cents worth of comments:
1) South Korean Christian-love-spreading hostages returned from Afghanistan - maybe you should learn from this girl I met in Munich - read a guidebook next time, not the Bible.

2) Climate Change on the agenda at APEC - yep, Howard is not genuine in what he's saying, like he will be the first one to put his hand up for a target, he's pulling shit out of his arse for the election don't believe a word he says, you've heard it all before the little scoundrel. Well done Greenpeace I was waving the flag for the paint job - it got beamed over a 10 meter screen in the busiest shopping areas in Hong Kong.

3) APEC summit leaders' uniforms - have voted for the Debman inspired Budgie Smugglers.

WISH I WAS THERE WITH A LOUD SPEAKER TOO SYDNEY!!

Oh, and found these cutesie-boos outside a Siamese restaurant... so cute...