People, people

Hello!

For those of you who don’t know, I am and will be in Hong Kong for the next month, exploring and working as I go on. I always knew that this blog - which has always been about an un-edited stream of consciousness and occasional rambled thought - would inevitably be turned (albeit temporarily) into a travel journal. At least until I get back.

For those of you who do know - namely my friend Dom, my family, and a pour soul seemingly lost in the disjointed mumblings of an untold billion that, collectively, make up this vast sea of media which we call the internet.

In any case, for the next while I will be posting content mainly relating to my traveling, so for those of you whose quality of life hangs - like a thread - to the thought of having regular access to the recycled postings of The Wooster Collective; unpredictable and largely irrelevant references to the masterful works of the Old Empire;and, lastly, the occasional blinding insight that - in its very existence - transcends all aspects of modern linguistic architecture and sheds light on the human condition, are out of luck.

It’s 8:04 AM in my mind right now - like, before having slept. And I am owned.
Therefore, in the spirit of sanity, I will refrain from writing my first post today, as the Flickr and Picasa uploads for my photos have both utterly failed (yes, Dom, it was an Epic Fail.) This, being an event of unmarked tragedy, has left me demoralized and about as tired as a hungry rat with a slight hangover, wenched seven feet deep into a large French pastry. Goodnight.

Ahh, but that was last night. I mentioned the photo uploads failing but didn’t know at the time that my Internet was going through a phase of temporary insanity (an epic fail) due to the late night gallivanting through Asia’s “World City” (an epic win.)

Or, in other words, my post failed last night.
So here I am.

I’ll begin this first post with the plain ride - at several points during which I was quite sure I was going to die. Apparently, clouds can cause massive flying cylinders - propelled forward at 500 mph by jet fuel - to reel and dive like a naive donkey; unsettled by a throaty scream.

The 13 hour flight was long and drawn out, but between 7 movies, a slew of in-flight shitzines and a vagrant triangular object named Beatrice; I was entertained for hours. I’ll admit the plain ride was extremely boring and so I’ll spare you the details. We arrived in Hong Kong in its winter time, which looks unmistakably like Vancouver’s summer time. Being in Hong Kong gives me a whole new perspective on Vancouver (the aptly named “Hong-Couver” by the Hong Kongers) ‘s Chinese community; many of which immigrated from greater Hong Kong. The city is massive and hugely over-populated. Downtown, it is rare to not have several hundred people in your view at all times, and on the busy roads several thousand. A city of 6 million people, Hong Kong’s central district - Kowloon - is a prime example of cities taking to the skies. A dense network of sky-scrapers dot the concrete jungle as the cutting edge are juxtaposed with the old and seemingly abandoned.

Many “sub-cities” surround central Hong Kong, several of which are renowned for their various cultural traits. For example, Mongkok - a district that I visited yesterday - is renowned for its bustling market for electronics. Small, hole-in-the-wall businesses have access to the latest and most elusive products - such as the iPhone - that are considered rare and exclusive in the West. Actually the iPhone is a perfect example of this. Although extremely difficult to find in the West (even in the massive chain stores), small local businesses stack them in pyramids to catch the eyes of passerbys. Hong Kong is a city so completely inundated with everything, that it induces a sense of deep culture shock even on the grounds of pure consumerism.

These mini-cities seem to have been created out of the massive wealth generated by Hong Kong’s central financial district, and serve as actual living areas and places of civilian life. Speaking of which, I am currently sitting in the South Horizons district of Ap Lei Chau - one of the many islands that make up greater Hong Kong. In these types of cities, it is very common to see large towers - still in construction - that are being built with bamboo scaffolds. And this juxtaposed with other parts of the city, that are home to the kind of wealth that would make Donald Trump soil himself.

I remember walking along in the Mongkok district only to hear myself say: “this is so fucking weird!” Which sums it up quite nicely. One of the main reasons for this abundance of goods is that until recently (2004, to be exact) Hong Kong had the single most active port in the entire world. Even today, it maintains a status as one of the world’s most active ports. And guess which city holds the crown? It isn’t American or European, it’s Shanghai.

As the massive advertising campaign surrounding central Hong Kong’s famous financial district says so simply; “I can see the future.”

And so can you if you click here.

*NEW!!!* Updated photo album!