I’m now at a rooftop club called Red by myself. I just split up with Candace, she had to go home so she could wake up early for school. She took me to Lan Kawi Fong, which was a huge area of bars and clubs that looked very much like a larger Georgetown. The place was packed with white people, pretty much all Australians and Brits, judging from the conversations that I heard. Unfortunately I haven’t met up with Jason, I gave him Candace’s number but he didn’t call while I was with her, and he’s not available at his hotel. I’m trying to hop onto someone’s wireless internet connection but nothing is available for free here. I’m right outside of the IFC building on Hong Kong island, by the way, which is I believe the 4th largest building in the world at 101 stories. I can see inside some of the windows of room and floors that have the lights on and it looks like an office building, but my understanding is that a large portion of it is for shopping. I went to a ridiculously large shopping area earlier today that had 13 levels. I told Candace and she told me that it was only a mid-sized place and that there are much larger. The scope of this city is pretty much incomprehensible. I spoke with Candace at length about many things, it’s fascinating being able to speak normally with someone from and living in Hong Kong. We had a lot of information to exchange. She told me that citizens of HK look down on those from the Mainland. While not really a surprise, it was interesting to hear. She told me that I should get a cell phone, and I should look into getting one here instead of waiting until I get to the mainland. I’ll take her recommendation and look for a chain store called Fortress which carries them. She said that I can acquire one for about $2,000HKD which she says is cheap. I told her about the place that I’m staying and how much I paid to stay there and she said that it’s reasonably priced. I’m glad to hear this because I got the impression that I was being ripped off when I arrived and dropped just over 2/3 of the HKD that I had on me ($400USD worth). I guess it’s reasonable for 5 nights, considering this seems to be the NYC of Asia. Non-stop human traffic, shopping, thriving business. I can’t wait to see more of the city. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be completely over my jet lag and I’ll be ready to spend the entire day enjoying the city. I’m leaning toward going to Lantau tomorrow to the temple of the giant buddah. Candace tells me that the local government has invested quite a bit of money into this sight and it’s made to be a popular destination for tourists. I’m particularly drawn to it because it’s a Buddhist landmark, and somewhat a combination of notable architectural and artistic merit. They’re playing “As the Beat Goes On” here at the rooftop, and the wind is blowing. The weather is very nice here, during the day wearing a t-shirt is perfect, and a you’re very comfortable in a light sweater in the evening. Jason said that Shanghai is very cold, similar to the DC weather right now. This is not good news, and I dearly hope that Chengdu is not as cold. My latent fear tells me that it is. Depending on how things go in Chengdu I might look into making plans to spend more time in Hong Kong. Like I told Candace, if I had a choice between Hong Kong or the mainland, I would commit myself to HK right now, even without having been to the mainland. The logistical problems presented by this place are similar to NYC. It’s prohibitively expensive and I’m not sure if I have the requisite skills to survive here. I’d like to DJ, and I think this would be a good place to do that, instead of Chengdu. This place has a very powerful American and Japanese influence. The bar that Candace and I went to had a DJ that was playing CD’s and he was playing American hip-hop. He played Snoops “Drop It Like It’s Hot” twice in the span of 30 minutes. The song is extremely popular in the states, but it’s an unspoken DJ rule (where I’m from, at least) that you do not play the same song more than once in at least a 2-hour period. Additionally, Chinese here think that Americans and Brits are “cool”, and this goes a long way in leading the dancefloor in a club, for example. This is something that I’ll have to further investigatae, and I think the only way to do that is to meet more local people. I’m going to get out of here now and take the MTR back to Kowloon where I can hopefully acquire a wi-fi signal. I still have all of my images to upload to my website so I can send the link to friends and family. Till later.
