January 9, 2005
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…Mong Kok-ed out…
YAY! I just woke up and it’s 11:35 am over here! I’ve been having difficulty sleeping past 8 am over here this whole week, so I finally forced myself to try to sleep beyond that today since I didn’t have anything to do; I’m happy to report that it worked and hopefully my sleep cycle will be much more normal now…
I’ve been going to Mong Kok a lot. Mong Kok is where people go to get a lot of cheap stuff like cell phones (although it’s not really cheap at all, just cheaper than the stores), clothes, good food (of course), and great desserts! There’s this one dessert place called Healthy Desserts that’s just fabulous! OMG, their mango jelly drink is just sooooo good, I can’t get enough of it!! I need to find one that’s closer to campus though, I’d prefer to not have to travel all the way to Mong Kok (about 5 KCR stops from the University), but if I can’t find it, then I don’t mind it so much since it’s sooooo good. I really have to limit my dessert intake though, I’m having so many sweets, not to mention food, hehe. Argh, the difficulties of trying to gain “good” weight (i.e. muscle). Ah well, in the mean time, food is my friend, hehe.
I finally went clubbing on Friday night. We went to Wan Chai first to these bars to celebrate my friend, Thomas’ birthday. He got trashed a bit too quickly, and within an hour’s time or so, he could hardly walk by himself. Don and Jamil had to carry him down to the MTR because he still wanted to go clubbing with us. Eh, whatever, it was his birthday, guess he could get smashed if he really wanted to. So we headed out to Lan Kwai Fong after the bars because we all wanted to dance. Thank goodness we went because it renewed my hope for cute bois in HK, lol. There was definitely a concentration there, although I wasn’t sure which ones were straight and which ones were gay still, hehe, give me another week!
We went to C Club. Aside from the smoking inside and the horny and nasty straight boys there, the music was totally great and it was an awesome venue. Straight boys are funny though. My friends and I totally took over the dance floor and made a big circle in which we battled in the center. The straight guys watched from the outside and kept scooting in closer to the girls to try to dance with them, hoping that some would respond and start backing their asses up, but to no avail, hehe. Just when the guys were about to touch pelvic to ass, my friends would pull me and we’d start freaking in front of the guy, lol, good times, hehe. This one local girl was hitting on me though, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was gay, lol. She kept trying to talk to me and pulling me in to freak with her, poor clueless girl, lol. Anyhow, we took a taxi home and it was soooo cheap. There were 5 of us and we split the bill, HK$35 each, which was like $6 US each–craziness! Yes, that was good times, but bring on the gay bois and the gay clubs!!! 
So we went on a tour of HK yesterday, visiting various historic sites and temples like Man Mo Temple, Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree, and Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail. Man Mo Temple was where they honored the Gods of Literature and War. I was kind of irritated when we went here because I knew that people were going to be true tourists and snap pictures of everything…
DISCLAIMER: you DO NOT take pictures OF or IN the temple, it’s sacrilegious.
Additionally, you don’t take pictures of people while they’re praying. I don’t go around taking pictures of you praying to your gods, why would you take a picture of me praying to mine?! Ugh, I swear, just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you can turn off your common sense. Please people, stop perpetuating the stereotype of stupid Americans! I don’t mind that people come visit these temples, but at least have the decency to respect what it stands for and not treat it, or the people who pray in it, like novelty items just so you can have something to remember the place by–not cool.
So after the temple, we went to the Wishing Tree. This was an interesting place because it’s definitely the only of its kind. So supposedly, you go to this tree when you want to have your wish granted, whether it be for love, money, or whatever. So when you get there, you’re supposed to buy these ceremonial papers that are tied to an orange. You’re supposed to throw the orange up into this tree and hope that it hangs on the tree somehow. If it stays in the tree, then your wish will more than likely be granted. If it falls, then you can try again, but you get no more than 3 trees, after that, you might as well give up, hehe. I got mine up on the 2nd try, so I’m looking forward to getting my wish granted! The real fun was in watching the people try to get their oranges into the tree though. It was such a hilarious sight. As soon as I figure out how to add a QuickTime file to my journal, I’ll post up a clip of what was going on there. It was fun though. There’s nothing like the sight of people getting pelted by oranges to make your day!
The heritage trail was the last thing on our list. They advertised it as a hike, but it really wasn’t. We were walking on a cemented road the whole time, and we were just passing by people’s homes and what not. Eh, I got some good pictures that juxtaposed industrialization and rural life though, so it wasn’t a total bummer.
So that was the end of the tour. All in all, it was a pretty interesting day and I did get to meet more people in the program. This semester is starting to really take form, and looks to be pretty darn cool. I think I’m going to join the tennis team here, but I need to find a hitting partner to warm up for try-outs. I also want to take an archery class as well, so watch out people! Soon I’ll be able to shoot an arrow through an apple! Yay, there’s nothing like the realization of a fantasy–Robin Hood, men in tights, here I come!
The adventures continue…
