Concrete jungle

Hong Kong skyline

"... the whole world is moving, while I'm standing still ...", were the words of one of the songs that is on heavy rotation in my iPod lately and I as listening to as I felt the cool breeze on a hill, overlooking the Hong Kong skyline. HK is truly a bustling city; it's alive, it's full of people, it's busy. In my eyes even almost too busy. It's definitely an impressive place but at least for me, for now, not an option for a longer time. I guess it's great to spend some time there to earn a lot of money (or at least try to), to party a lot and experience a different way of life, but that may be it - well as I said at least for me. As with many other Asian cities I've seen on my trip I wouldn't see myself mixing in with the locals and I'm not that comfortable witht the average expat crowd, so I guess, I'll stick to Europe.

Having said that, I have to mention, that my trip to HK was amazing anyway. I orginally did not intend to visit this place as it is not that close to Southeast Asia, but then again - everything is relative and after an invitation by a friend of mine who spends his exchange semester there, I decided to even traumatize my bank account further and jumped on an Air Asia plane to HK. First of all it was great to reunite with Meet whome I started my trip in Brazil with in July and worked together with on the CC of IC in Sao Paulo. He was a great host and tourist guide. We started our tour of the city with a night out on town in the notorious Lan Kwai Fong area. Had a good night with his friends in a fun club and made good use of the open bar.

Going out in HK

The next day was started with an early morning trip to Lantau island and visited the Buddha statute and the nice little fishing village Tai Po. The perfect weather made the trip even more enjoyable and I was able to see a different part of HK and got a beautiful view over Lantau island and the airport as we were making our way to the top in the cable car.

the trip to the Buddha statute

stillt houses in Tai O village - the good old times

In the evening we tool the Star Ferry from HK island to Kowloon and I admired the "Symphony of Lights" - a daily light show that puts even more glamour on the HK skyline as the buildings lightnings are "performing" a symphony; a spectacle that brings in huge crowds every day to the Avenue of Stars. The rest of the day and the night was spent with exploring the nightly streets of HK, seeing a usual 1-person appartmetn (soooo tiny), hanging out, dancing Salsa, visiting the night markets and discussions about quantity and quality in AIESEC.

Symphony of Lights

the lights shine so brightly at night - i wonder about that electricity bill

On my final day I set out to wander around the streets of HK island on my own in the morning and was later on joined by Meet. We had a nice afternoon lunch in HK's revolving restaurant on top of one of the many highrise buildings. That was not the only nice view over HK we got that day as we continued the sightseeing tour with a trip to the peak - my highlight of my visit to HK. I loved spending the evening hours up there - chilling, listening to music and just admiring the skyline.

thx Meet, for a great weekend

And once again, time was passing by so fast so that I had to leave HK again after a couple of days. My jounrey to HK was the first out of the country trip after the swineflue came up, which was highly visible on the airport and the city. I had to fill in health forms, was screend by a thermic camera and saw so many people waring protection masks. Also I had some challenges reentering Malaysia as I didn't bring a printout of my onward flight to BKK and VIE, respectively. However, after spending some time waiting at the Immigration counter and talking to the friendly people there, I was set to go and headed back "home" to the suburbs of KL.


current music: The Cab - Disturbia