also mong kok is rather cosy on weekends
― ― ― ― ― ― ― (^_^), Monday, 5 December 2011 03:52 (twelve years ago) link
yo dylannnnn how long you gonna be there? I can send yer contact info to a cool ilxor, webmail me (remember to include yer e-mail)
xp yeh mk on a weekend is a zoo, there was a fire there recently and 9 ppl died, rip ;_;
― dayo, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
oh god, that's horrible (and most people wouldn't know what was going on or where)
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Monday, 5 December 2011 21:24 (twelve years ago) link
i would like to go to HK
― river wolf, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 00:11 (twelve years ago) link
The thing I miss most about Hong Kong is staying in the Four Seasons. By far the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in.
― Jeff, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 00:33 (twelve years ago) link
HK is awesome, and so very easy for an English speaker.
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 00:51 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inMdaxWZ9EA
aahhhh I miss it so much
― dayo, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 12:48 (twelve years ago) link
Have done Singapore.
HongKong seems to be in the same bracket.
― Bela Lugosi's Derrida (MarkG oo la showaddywaddy), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 12:54 (twelve years ago) link
Hong Kong is not a fascist country, for one
just yr traditional oligarchy
― dayo, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 12:57 (twelve years ago) link
HK is also cultured and interesting and looks lived in, whereas Singapore looks mostly like a business park imo.
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 21:34 (twelve years ago) link
I stress ~~~imo~~~
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 21:35 (twelve years ago) link
i went for work recently. the company i was visiting was based in the hk science park up towards the mainland which is actually kinda beautiful since it's right next to the water but prob. not much to do there.
i went to an AMAZING restaurant which was like beijing-style food but i can't remember the name. best food i had in HK. my japanese colleagues took me there and i'm in an airport waiting for them now so i'll ask them for the name when they arrive actually.
wholeheartedly recommend doing the trip to shenzhen but check whether you can buy a visa (sometimes they don't let uk ppl in, not sure about u.s.). i can't give any tips for once you get there - we just walked around the train station and got offered sex and fake watches and looked at restaurants with huge tanks of fish outside.
i also saw some of the seedier side of hk and it was pretty interesting if creepy
― gucc_ebooks (tpp), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
nah i live in the mainland so shenzhen sort of blew my mind with how green and alive it is and everyone looks to be in their late teens. i actually decided i probably want to live in shenzhen in the near future.
but crossing the border to hk (man the train from lowu the first half = what??? where hong kong at?? its all jungle???)... in comparison to this city, (I stress ~~~imo~~~) no city on the mainland can claim to be international... modern... anything.
stayed in a hourly rate hotel in wanchai last night overheard long argument between dude wtih accent like top gear presenter and filipina hooker about when an hour really begins.
dyao i walked by where the fa yuen street fire was today.
i'll be here a week or so. not set.
my fucking china telecom phone went into emergency only mode as soon as i crossed the border though. so, if anyone wants to chill email me at addresss connected to my name.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 05:51 (twelve years ago) link
man i walked from the art museum all the way to where nathan road bisects and all the wholesale clothessellers are and i didnt see goddamn chungking mansions what's wrong with me. maybe i should look at a map.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 05:54 (twelve years ago) link
i dig the lived in thing, dyaoooo. mainland cities just kick people out, bulldoze old shit then put up things that sort of look old but are bigger and prettier.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 06:00 (twelve years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_House_(Hong_Kong)
walked by that yesterday, too... government putting multimillions into upgrading it, etc. in chongqing... shanghai... xi'an... it would be a li ning store/kfc right now.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 06:05 (twelve years ago) link
just messaged you dylan. deerhoof are playing tonight in sai wan ho if youre interested.
― tent, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 07:04 (twelve years ago) link
just messaged you, buddy ;))))
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 07:19 (twelve years ago) link
haha only mainland china could make hong kong's preservation efforts look good
― dayo, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
this is a city, tho, that tore down a pier and moved it 100 feet down the harbor and built it up the exact same way as it was befroe
― dylannnnnnnnn, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 12:54 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark
lol chungking mansions is at the very start of that route, it's on nathan road near the southmost MTR exits
sounds like you walked all the way to sham shui po - neat! SSP is one of the most 'lived-in' parts of HK imo, go into the golden computer arcade on a weekend if you want to experience animal fear at being body to body w/ 10000 crazy computer nerds in a 500 sq ft place
― dayo, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 12:18 (twelve years ago) link
chunking mansions is easy to miss.. but yeah it's like 1 minute from the harbour (it's on your right if you're walking up from the arts centre)
― ken c, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
i live SSP, that's my go-to place every year when i go back (usually it's go home "hi mum", and then off to SSP and buy loads of guitar leads and lightbulbs and SD Ram.
― ken c, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 13:56 (twelve years ago) link
if you have time to kill, make your way to aberdeen (you need to take a bus from causeway bay) I grew up in that neighbourhood. It's all very 70s and there is a promenade with like junks and stuff, it's cute, and you get to see Ap Lei Chau which is like the 3rd most densely populated island in the world or something.
― ken c, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
oh go and eat skewers of curry fishballs (big hot) for $6 or however much it costs now.
there's one I like in SSP (after buying lots of guitar leads and SD Ram)小食部深水埗欽州街114號地下http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~s0962685/%A9@%AD%F9%B3%BD%B3J.htm
― ken c, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 14:06 (twelve years ago) link
this place is a bit hyped but the baked char siu bun really is exceptionalhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/foodandwineholidays/7145607/Tim-Ho-Wan-restaurant-Hong-Kong-the-hottest-meal-ticket-in-town.html
(if there's a queue - get a ticket from the lady and then go wander around ladies' market round the corner for 45 mins then come back)
― ken c, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 14:08 (twelve years ago) link
re chungking mansions – as per previous instructions, stay on nathan road and look up (east side), it's the building that looks conspicuously like it was beamed in from johannesburg and is about to fall on you
http://images.travelpod.com/users/johannesjudith/1.1247624404.chungking-mansion.jpg
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
or, just follow your nose
was that a subtly aimed insult
― The Love Song of L. Alfred Sotosyn (dayo), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:49 (twelve years ago) link
well i mean it stinks
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
at least the shopping area downstairs did when we were there
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
lol yeah - the place doesn't get good ventilation
― The Love Song of L. Alfred Sotosyn (dayo), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
despite that i wanted to go upstairs ('er indoors said no)
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
dylannnnnnnnnnnn where in the mainland do you live? i was discussing shenzhen with a chinese colleague today and it sounds like my experience of it pretty fucking limited. i really want to spend more time in mainland china. i spent a week in beijing but just found it completely impenetrable.
― gucc_ebooks (tpp), Wednesday, 7 December 2011 22:40 (twelve years ago) link
have you guys checked the chunking mansions website? i liked the descriptions of the different areas.
― ken c, Thursday, 8 December 2011 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
particularly Block B and Block C
― ken c, Thursday, 8 December 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
A BlockMost popular block in Mansions. B BlockThis block has many guesthouses like A Block. C BlockIndian people likes this block. D BlockThis atmosphere is very calm, not noisy. E BlockThere are few guesthouses in this block.
B BlockThis block has many guesthouses like A Block.
C BlockIndian people likes this block.
D BlockThis atmosphere is very calm, not noisy.
E BlockThere are few guesthouses in this block.
― (^_^) (^_^) (^_^), Thursday, 8 December 2011 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
i thought i was in the wrong part of nathan road because it never seemed blinged out. apart from tgifriday's and 500 neon LEICA/CANON/NIKON signs and chow tai fooks blasting mustardy cold a/c out onto the street... i dunno... i was expecting it would be like what you see in shanghai or beijing or any other mainland city, a simcity2000 arcology shopping mall and a wholly artificial bigbrand development landscape. it was pretty humanscale and not that blinged out even compared to other spots in hk.
when i came out of the tsim sha tsui mtr station the first thing i saw was four nigerian girls getting bombed with a couple six packs of heineken laid out like a picnic. it was a really unhong konglike scene because while i stood there chillin a dude smilingly reminded me to butt my lucky strike in the nearest wastebin instead of lettin the ashes fly. and i found chungking mansions pretty quick once i knew where to look (ya i did walk to ssp!!). i walked through a few times, got some dal and rice.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Friday, 9 December 2011 12:45 (twelve years ago) link
i'm back in shenzhen at the moment. getting on the mtr at wanchai (actually poss. admiralty or something) and not surfacing again until lo wu, walking across the border... shit's crazy. i love paul theroux drive-thru comparisons of places but i would be embarrassed to go back and read what i said later.
anyways.
tomorrow i'm going to dongguan to gawk at the world's largest (and 99% vacant???) shopping mall.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Friday, 9 December 2011 13:03 (twelve years ago) link
tpp i live in dalian. i don't think any place should be anything but impenetrable after a week. especially beijing.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Friday, 9 December 2011 13:18 (twelve years ago) link
If there's any way you can wangle getting on to the sun deck of the Peninsula Hotel that overlooks the bay, do it. The view is absolutely remarkable.
― ShariVari, Friday, 9 December 2011 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
what is the cheapest place one can stay in hk?
one of the reasons i dig shenzhen is because i am in a chain hotel for 130rmb (160hkd) a night watching donnie brasco, but in hk i can't find anything liveable for anything near the price.
― dylannnnnnnnn, Friday, 9 December 2011 14:56 (twelve years ago) link
I have very low standards so was ok in Nathan Mansions / Chungking Mansions but any decent hotel is going to be much more expensive than across the border. It might be worth looking at hostels. I've heard the Venetian is meant to be vaguely ok.
― ShariVari, Friday, 9 December 2011 15:12 (twelve years ago) link
there are guesthouses in yau ma tei/jordan that are about 160 HKD. obviously 10x smaller than anything in the mainland xp
― dayo, Friday, 9 December 2011 18:08 (twelve years ago) link
http://i63.tinypic.com/r216qa.jpg
― jergins, Thursday, 25 April 2019 05:14 (four years ago) link