February 17, 2004

• …reflections of my vacation…

  24 hours ago, I was in a completely different country about 7,000 miles across the Pacific, and now, I’m back home…

  Last Wednesday, I took a short little vacation from school and work to go to Hong Kong. I hadn’t been to Asia since I left it when i was about 4 or 5 years old, so this was like being there for the first time for me. The flight itself took about 16 hours–not as long as when I flew to Australia, but it was still long nonetheless. I had an aisle seat in the exit row, so I had plenty of stretching room–not that I needed all that much room, but it was nice to have. We landed there Thursday evening and decided to go check out the night life there. There are basically 3 clubs that we went to throughout our time there in HK: Works, Propaganda, and Rice. So Works was kind of boring and drab for me. There were a lot of older men there and hardly anyone to really capture my attention. Let’s just say that it was tragic, just tragic. Propaganda and Rice on the other hand were pretty cool. Propaganda is like the HK version of GAMeBoi, but with every song remixed to the dance version. It was pretty cool because they had two separate rooms: one for dancing and the other one where the bar was. Most of the older crowd hung out around the bar while the younger crowd was in the dance room. Anyhow, there was this really cute guy that was there–well, there were a fair amount of beautiful guys there, but this one in particular took my breath away. He just had this aura around him; he was a snazzy dresser, had this really cute hair cut, and was just adorable looking. Anyhow, there was a missed connection and I didn’t get to see him again…

  On Valentine’s Day, we hung out with some of John’s friends, Sonny and Steven, and Sonny’s son, Clement. We had lunch at Stanley’s Island/Market and then went to do some street shopping. I got this nifty little personalized stamp that has my name in Chinese characters and in English, so that was cool. I wanted to do more shopping, but didn’t have enough time because we had to leave. We went to visit one of their friends, Jimmy. He was apparently some famous writer who had won an award for one of his screenplays. Anyhow, we basically chilled for a fair amount of that day at the southern tip of Hong Kong island at the headlands. It was nice to just relax and chill, although I was getting a bit antsy about getting my shopping done. I had a long list that I had to get through and all this sitting around wasn’t exactly helping. Whatever though, I had a good time. We went clubbing that night again. We hit Rice first, which was surprisingly cool, then went to Propaganda. So Rice is this cool little bar that was packed with a good amount of cute bois. I found one, but unfortunately, he had a bf already, ah well–he was really cute though. Anyhow, I found out just how small our community was though. I ran into an X20 member at Rice. He approached me and was like, “hey, you’re Ty right?” I was like, holy shit, how does someone from HK know me?! Anyhow, yeah, he was apparently on vacation as well, so that was cool, but yeah, our community is so utterly small that even if you go half way around the world, chances are that you’ll find someone there that you’ll know as well. Anyhow, a couple of cosmos later, we headed off for Propaganda and it was cool. So apparently, HK bois are a bit timid and subtle in regards to flirting and showing interest. They play this whole staring game where they stare at a guy to try to make eye contact, then they smile, then they stare some more, then you have to initiate the conversation or go over to talk to them in order to get them to realize that you’re interested in them as well–games! So there were a couple of guys that I was looking at. The first guy was well built and rather cute, but he was with his group of friends. We made eye contact often, but nothing ever materialized because I’m such a chicken. One of his friends in his group though noticed me and started to stare at me as I was staring at the cute boi; I was trying not to look at his friend, but he just kept staring and made me feel so uncomfortable. As if that weren’t enough, then he told all of his friends and they all started to stare and smile at me, and here’s the rude part: they started to talk about me in Cantonese as if I weren’t even there. Granted it was flattering stuff, it’s still rude nonetheless. I eventually walked away to another side of the room where I met another guy who was from SF and who had apparently recognized me as well from some of the clubs in SF. Geez, do I frequent the clubs that much?! Whatever, he was cute and had a nice body and so we exchanged contact info. Perhaps we’ll hang out now that we’re both back on this side of the Pacific…

  So that was my clubbing stint, on to shopping…

  Shopping was great. Because the first couple of days were spent chilling with John’s friends, I didn’t have much time left for shopping, but that’s ok, I’m a good power shopper. So I allocated US $1000 just for shopping alone, and I definitely went beyond that on this trip. There were just so many great stores and clothes that I couldn’t resist, but then again, I wasn’t just shopping for myself, I was shopping for my family and friends too, but I digress. The style over there is very colorful and wild. They’re into the European/Japanese look where you mix and match vibrant colors with outrageous hair and high-top shoes! I might go so far as buying some high-top shoes, but the hair thing was just too much. Anyhow, there are some great stores there: G2000 (a chic Banana Republic), U2 (comparable to Structure), Esprit (a mix of Abercrombie and Express for men), Giordano (Express for men), etc. To make a long story short, I basically got a lot of clothes that actually fit for great prices. I went over there with one duffle bag with the intention of buying a large suitcase to bring back all the stuff that I had bought, and everything went as planned. I filled the new suitcase to capacity and really had to do some creative packing, but in the end, it all fit–just barely. So another thing about shopping is that a lot of people do that as a hobby over there, mainly because there’s nothing else to do, lol. There’s a mall at every MTR station (their version of BART, but waaaaay the fuck better!), so it was convenient to shop so much, albeit a bit financially scary, oh well…

  Speaking of finances though, everything was indeed very cheap there though. I got great meals for like really cheap. I think that if I stayed there for about a month or so, I could actually gain weight, hehe. I got to visit my friend Robert while I was there, we hung out and got to reminisce about the good old days, so that was cool. I tried sea urchin for the first time and let me just tell you, sea urchin is soooooo freakin’ good! No wonder it’s so damn expensive! Whatever though, it was all worth it!

  So that was the basics of my trip, the flight back on the other hand is another story. Let’s just say that I had to sit next to the passenger from hell. He was an old fart who was utterly rude, inconsiderate, an armrest hog, and a disgusting asshole who needs to be neutered!

  I got in early this morning and had to go in to work today, so I’m a bit jet-lagged, but hopefully it won’t be too bad tomorrow. I had a great time in Hong Kong, and I would totally visit it again, but I don’t think I’d want to live there. Too many damn people smoke, I couldn’t deal with the humidity, and things are so damn crowded there that I’d begin to suffocate. I’m glad to be home, I missed my independence, my car, my friends, my computer, my CELL PHONE!! and some certain people as well…it’s good to be back.

  • 10:08 pm
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