HK Oct 2007 Day 6: journey to Nam Sang Wai

Turns out to get to Nam Sang Wai, you walk along Nam Sang Wai road, which is along the Kam Tin and Shan Pui river. The walk there, all 4 km of it, is very easy to describe.

The way ahead and back is road:





There are electric wires once in a while.



Right is the Kam Tin River, with flocks of cranes and ducks.



Left is the fenced up mongrove-y area, Nam Sang Wai proper.





Towards the end is a big empty field where people play with model helicopters:


or with their dogs [Keith and Toby, Keith is the one in the picture]:


When it gets bored, I disregard signs like that:


And go to the edge of the river.

HK Oct 2007 Day 6: entrance to Nam Sang Wai

So I managed to shake off my traveling companions for the day. Rather than spend the day moping and sulking in the room over the internet, I decided to visit Nam Sang Wai, where I can mope and sulk by the swamp and jump in when I've had enough of moping and sulking. I heard it is infested with crocodiles. Sweet deliverance.

Got off the bus at Ang Mo Kio [really!] and this big big sign so deceptively greets you..

From HK October 20...

suggesting that my destination is just around the corner.


Of course, I have read the guidebook and I know better.





I need to walk past all this highways before my journey can really begin: 4 km of road all the way in along the Kam Tin River.

HK Oct 2007 Day 6: HK Wetlands Park redux

More pics from the Wetlands Park.

HK Oct 2007 Day 6: HK Wetlands Park

I had the day all to myself after I ditched my travel companions to Shenzhen. I took the chance to go back to the Wetlands Park, where I had previously attempted to go the day before but it was closed.

From HK October 20...

The park itself is basically a free-for-all viewing area built around a nature reserve, which is what you see no touch because pretty to look at, once broken it's a real shame but there's no need to pay. The nature reserve consists of a mangrove ecosystem.


There is the usual visitors' centre, with it's fair share of real and fakeko exhibits including a mudskipper up close!


And some species of swamp crab, where the male is differentiated by a larger right pincer.


The crabs in their somewhat more natural habitat.




There were huts built on the edges of the park to allow people to get closer to the wildlife in a more comfortable position. Oh gosh. I felt so out of my league. Look at all the lenses. HK must have one of the highest rates of dSLRs in the world.


But of course, I will not be outdone so easily.

Picture taken from the telescope provided in the visitors' centre.

I remember talking to a friend long ago about zoos and nature reserves. I used to feel that concepts such as zoos and nature reserves are pretty hypocritical. Firstly, it's implying therefore that the right to defile the land is totally ours and defiling the land is okay because we have nature reserves set aside. Secondly, it's kinda half-fucked to want to preserve something you purport to love, and still allow people to go in even if there is some sort of barrier.

If you really love something, sometimes the best is just to leave it alone. Well, obviously, I don't love it that much.

HK Oct 2007 Day 4: Mei Foo

Some random park at Mei-Foo.

From HK October 20...

HK Oct 2007: Saw IV

To capitalize on the cheaper rate if you watch shows before 11 am, my travel mate decided we should watch Saw IV, to which I obligingly agreed even though I get really freaked out during horror shows.



The theatre was really small. There is only about 10 rows, and the room was flat and non-sloping, which meant that you get full view of the head of the guy infront of you. For once, I was actually glad for that.

I think I get freaked out during horror shows because I can almost imagine myself being in the poor victims' shoes.

After a while, I think the movie kinda grow on me. Basically, the movie is about some dude who goes around setting up contraptions for bad people to put themselves into where they have to choose between death or cutting off an appendage, either of which they truly deserve. I think the show, and its prior prequels, is about karma or more specifically that karma doesn't exist though people think it does, and the only karma is the kind you put into your own hands.

Karma doesn't exist. It's really just a myth.

I'm indignant. You can live your life the best way you should, but as always, it's the scummy garbage that gets what you deserve, and they're probably laughing at you about it.

So yeah. I was not afraid during the show because I know I will never find myself in the trap to be judged. I will be the judge.

HK Oct 2007: academic life

My unfortunate affiliation with HK also extends to its universities.

HKU:


Been here way too many times, but still dragged my sorry behind down. I didn't realize how trouble it was to get here; the route was direct enough but traffic was so bad it took almost an hour to get there, the whole way I was feeling pissy because Odie says that co-ops tend to close at 4:30, her basis being the NUS one.

City U:

On the day we went, there was a convocation going on.


The very nice City-U canteen.


City-U pond.

From HK October 20...

The City-U window and my matching outfit.

HK Oct 2007: Chungking mansion

The HK interns I had in July met up tonight at Chungking mansions for Indian food, because Indian food was the closest thing they had that reminded them of Singapore.


One of the features in HK is that a simple doorway opens up into a whole new world and Chungking mansions is no exception. Located right along Nathan Road, which is somewhat like our Orchard Road, only classier, the building looks just like a dirty building from the outside but once you get past the main doorway, you enter into a whole different world. There is a totally different eco-system consisting of people, ang-mohs and Indians.

HK is a truly multi-faceted place but I am totally freaked out by Chungking mansions. When I was interning at the CDC, one of my colleague is an Indian who spoke Chinese [alot better than I]. The first few weeks I was at the CDC, I took the long way to avoid him as much as possible [today we are super good friends]. If there is anything more freaky than Chinese-speaking Indians, it's Cantonese-speaking Indians, and half-fucked ones at that. It took me a while before I could figure out they were speaking Cantonese, and even then, each Indian required individual acclimatization.

So the Indians stick onto any unfortunate passer-by, professing in their horrendous Cantonese that their room or food is the cheapest and bestest around. And the ang mohs get stuck on by the Indians and attempt to outwit those Indians for the sake of a few dollars using their limited euro-centric wit. Symbiosis is such a wonderful thing.

I don't know why anybody would want to remember Singapore. It's just a shitty little hellhole with people who think it's more than just a shitty little hellhole.

In any case, there really is a nicer non-Chungking mansion-y way to remember Singapore and it's called Food Republic.

HK Oct 2007 Day 2: Big Buddha

Having spent the afternoon at Tai-O, I cannot imagine a worser experience. Thankfully, the powers that be saved me that chore when we went to the Big Buddha on Ngong Ping.


HK is not a place I would have liked to visit ever again, it being filled with so much painful memories, especially in places I have been to before like the Big Buddha.


Want to take the cable car also cannot.


I have actually deleted every picture I have ever taken in HK, for the strangest reasons, the new ones I have taken look strikingly similar.


The good thing was unlike the previous time, there wasn't so much people crowding around the place. However, even though there were lesser people, the average intelligence around the place doesn't seem any higher.

From HK October 20...

Unfortunately, there's a reason why there wasn't so many people there: it was pouring rather heavily, as this half-covered pic of the Big Buddha shows. So yeah. How smart am I to be here.

Not very apparently.

HK Oct 2007 Day 2: Shaolin@Tai-O

Shaolin Monastery at Tai-O.

Complete with directional signboard.

So evil members of the demonic sects can find their way easily to Shaolin.



Loud-speaker.

No need for the monks to practise 千里传音 anymore.


And there's nothing like some Haagen-Daaz ice cream to train constitution. Eat liao swords and spears also cannot go through your body.

From HK October 20...

So yeah. Shaolin at Tai-O. There's training courses for small friends, and separate classes for those above 18 too.

HK: the journey so far

Currently I'm at this guesthouse somewhere in the middle of Mongkok, straddling Argyle Road and Western Vegetable Road South. It's not a bad place, location wise. Compared to Causeway Bay or Tsim Sha Tsui, it's not nearly half as populated but it's near to lots of good places, near in my vocab meaning no more than a 5 minute walk. Western Vegetable Road runs parallel to Nathan Road and is full of toy shops and shopping centre with toy shops and other fashion shops selling all sorts of cool linglinglonglong. Ladies market is somewhere perpendicular to the vegetable street so that's cool too. Coolest of all is Krispy Kreme is once again just a friendly 5 minutes from my door step.

The bad thing? Well there is internet connection in the room, but I suspect it's heavily fire-walled. Msn, bittorrent and mail clients don't work. I have to access msn from facebook, and it is in beta, not the google 'it's beta cuz beta is cool' but beta is the true sense of the word: it doesn't auto-refresh and I have to refresh if I wanna see if there is any new messages. For people who are responsive that's not too bad; it gets very irritating talking to people are are unresponsive fucks.

The first day in HK [i don't count arrival day] was super hectic. We ate alot of street food, shopped around Western Vegetable street, walked from Mongkok to Tsim Sha Tsui where we proceeded to Lan Kwai Fang for Halloween. Today the plan is to go to the Tiantan Buddha, before going for karaoke and then sit the ferry to Victoria Peak. Friday, the itinerary includes City University.

My travelling philosophy is this: travelling is not about cramping your itinerary with everywhere. Sometimes doing nothing is also travelling.

I am missing Singapore already.

leopard

Oh gosh. I don't mind re-installing every 6 months just to watch this video.

i hate

New Balance Real Run 2007.

15 km.



As the map shows, the run consists of 4 too long stretches of road. Straight road. Straight endless road. I can't do running on straight roads. It's look you put in so much effort and then you look up, the place still looks the same; it's like you're not moving at all. It's like you put in so much effort and you get nothing out of it. I have a phobia for that.

I freak out.

I run faster. Try to overtake more people. I get more tired. But the road still looks the same like nothing happened.

And then i sprained my ankle.

I can't do straight roads. It's too much like life.

japanese toilet training video

Piaget is gonna have something to say about this.

vanna white and pat sajak discusses font choice

surreal.

porn for the pain, hawthorn for the heartaches

Today, we have so many many pills for so many many things. There's stuff for preventing HIV, for psychological conditions and as I have just learnt, we now have a forgetting pill.

I wished it worked on me, but unfortunately the pill specifically targets only traumatic experiences, like rape or war. You don't forget that you were raped of course, you simply forget what it feels like to be raped, which apparently makes affective issues more easier. Not like the 'pop a pill and forget the last X minutes of your life where X is the dosage in miligrams' usage that I quite imagined but cool nonetheless.

How does the forgetting pill work? Apparently to remember something, you need to strengthen it. When we experience something traumatic, adrenalin rushes through our body and strengthens the memory. So our dear pill works by blocking the production of adrenalin. [By this same token, if you have an exam, you could try hanging on a cliff and studying]

I can easily think of so many things we need pills for.

How about a pill for loneliness? Right, we have ecstasy. How about a pill for what happens after the ecstasy wears off? And another one for when that goes off too.

Or a pill that makes you just know things. You would pop it and then realize you shouldn't really be eating this pill in the first place.

Let's make a pill to cure gayness. Conversely, we can have a pill that induces it. Imagine, being gay on demand. Why? Because in certain situations, it's good to be gay. For the rest, we can just pop a pill.

Bryan would really like a pill that induces orgasms. No comment.

We could have a pill to makes people fall head over heels for you. Money seems to be losing its sheen these days.

And this is my personal request: a pill that gives you broadband internet connection upon consumption. Don't ask me how it's supposed to work. I need internet connection.

How about a pill that prevents one from hoping? Or a pill that cures stupidity? Actually they could be the same pill 'cuz only the stupid hope.

I think we could really use a pill to stop us from ever eating pills.

-

I think it's so cool to just pop a pill and have sadness, or loneliness or insecurity or uncertainty or whatever unbearable negative emotion just vanish. It would make life so much more livable. Vincent Van Gogh certainly wouldn't have ended his life and would have gifted the world with much more beauty.

But would Vincent have been brilliant without his pain? I would like to think not.

I like to think that pain makes us human because pain differentiates us from other animals, from other people. No one is going to care about our own pain but us. How we transcend our own pain makes us a better person, because we made ourselves.

-

Want a pill of happiness? Take arsenic.

sailor moon

Some things should stay animated.

oversleeping

by 'I'm from Barcelona'




Damn! Oversleeping again
Damn! I can't believe I did it once again

I can make it in time
if I jump out of bed
if I skip to wear clothes
and get running instead
if I get on my feet
if I skip to hit snooze
if I don't care to eat
and get running instead
I can make it in time

Been oversleeping on Monday
I don't care let's pretend that it's Sunday

-

This is so my official song.