Category: traveling

what do all the filipino girls in hong kong do on their day off?

well, as we found out in our recent stay there, they camp under the hsbc building and on parks and empty streets in central for the purpose of socializing. they’re literally everywhere you can look at!

we had a bit of a hard time “understanding” why so many people were there (especially hsbc’s plaza?), but as we discovered, they stay there all day, doing each others nails, having picnics, chatting, dancing and singing, exercising, knitting, doing business, playing cards… it’s really quite something and a big surprise to see that the government actually cuts some roads for them to “occupy” on that day!

we didn’t get any good pictures of the phenomena, but here are a few from flickr (by furiousgeorge and ljubisa):

impressive, isn’t it?

Post author By ana
Post date November 1, 2008
6 Comments on what do all the filipino girls in hong kong do on their day off?

in singapore photography traveling

haw par villa

haw par villa is a sort of a theme park built in 1937 in singapore by aw boon haw and aw boon par, the inventors of tiger balm (an ailment extremely popular in asia, used to cure all sorts of muscular pains). the extravagant park contains hundreds of statues and dioramas, “depicting scenes from Chinese folklore, legends, history, and illustrating various aspects of Confucianism”. an educational experience.

it’s a bit rundown, but still quirky, fun, and with lots to explore. as an highlight, it includes a 60-meter cave which depicts the “10 courts of hell”, the gruesomely detailed fate of those who have fallen in disgrace. christian hell is nothing compared to those who don’t listen to the doctrine of confucius, i tell you. and they have it all explained for you, in explicit nightmare-inducing detail.

for instance, “drug traffickers and addicts” are “tied to red hot copper and grilled”, while “money lenders with exorbitant interest rates” are “thrown into a hill of knives”…

you get the picture. or, if you don’t, you can see a ton more pictures on this flickr set!

it would have been nice to have a chinese person to tell us all the stories behind the statues and scenes, but all in all, a highlight of our stay in singapore. for me, it’s always the quirky places that make the best memories!

in malaysia in singapore traveling

here she comes!

another snapshot from the september trip to singapore/malaysia (still catching up on those pictures and stories)…

in singapore rants traveling

annoying extras

if we wanted to take pictures of this hindu temple we had to pay a fee (on top of the entrance fee). i dislike extra fees, so i tucked the camera in my bag and only shot this one from the outside.

same thing in the hotel we stayed in hong kong last week. if you want to use the internet, you have to pay an extra fee. compared to the price we were paying for the room, the internet fee was so insignificant, why not just include it in the price? if this was a hostel or cheap hotel, i would understand. there? not so much.

in china in portugal traveling

澳門 = àomén = macau

The name Macau is thought to be derived from the temple. It is said that when the Portuguese sailors landed at the coast just outside the temple and asked the name of the place, the natives replied “A-Ma-Gao” (Bay of A-Ma). The Portuguese then named the peninsula Macau.

from wikipedia

macau, the most densely populated territory in the world, is a little city that used to be portuguese – until the portuguese gave it to china in 1999 or so. it’s a short boat ride from hong kong, so we decided to hop on the ferry and spend a day there last week… and well, what a difference a boat ride makes.

macau is a million years from hong kong. it thrives on casinos (and pawn houses) – i believe it is the only place in “china” where gambling is legal (1 country, 2 systems policy). our companions on the ferry? loads of old chinese people, eager to hop on the first bus that drove them to a casino. which is a bit sad… but then again, the overwhelming feeling i got in macau was precisely sadness. macau looked old and depressed, with the same chaotic urban planning reminiscent of a neglected mid-sized portuguese city.

the fun part though, was checking all the double translations in portuguese/chinese that give macau a very peculiar feeling (even though only 0.6% of the population speaks portuguese), counting our patacas, and walking in a portuguese “calçada” again, surrounded by semi-familiar facades.
closing our eyes and pretending, just for a second, that we were in portugal.