for the love of pandas...

...so it took me 7 months to finally blog about the trip to hongkong... maybe i'm just forced to finish this so i can start blogging about the recent trip i made... or maybe i'm just plain bored... *pffft*

god help me get a life...
here goes...

after deluding ourselves that we were in italy, ron and i rode the venetian shuttle bus to get to taipa pier. we got there an hour early so we were able to change our ticket reservation and got an earlier departure. the trip was basically fine. i'm not used to traveling by ship so i pretended to sleep... (this is the part where i insert a picture of ronnie and i but it was so long ago that i forgot where i placed the dang thing)

day 1: after we got through the immigration in hongkong, ron and i had to walk to IFC mall to meet my aunt, my sister and her boyfriend and have lunch. i totally forgot what i had but i can still remember what ron ate because i liked it better. lemon chicken! after that, meliza and ryan decided to go somewhere while ron and i go to my aunt's house to drop off our bags and change clothes. after that, we went back to central and combed the place for the olympic village of some sort. we didn't find it, whatever it was. but we saw this...

in front of this olympic park thingy is the old lighthouse. from what i heard, this is about to be torn down...

since we got to kowloon area quite early for the symphony of lights, we opted to just wander around the seaside. about 5pm, people started trickling in so we found a nice place to sit and waited for the blasted lights to dance.

and so the symphony of lights began...

it could have been better if not for the pollution, seriously... and for those posers who feel like they are professional photographers just because their lenses are longer than their appendages combined, please... throw yourselves overboard. i saw your pictures from where i sat and i can tell that they are ugly...

after the light show, ron, meliza, ryan and i went to nathan road. we knew there was nothing we could do there since its a posh shopping place and we didn't have money. but we went there anyways just to tire ourselves to get a good night sleep.


*meme na*


day 2: i woke up with a smile on my face knowing i'd have my favorite breakfast of congee and fried noodles. i waited 5 years to eat those again. try as i might, i cant find that congee and that type of noodles anywhere here! yum!!!

so we were having breakfast and all when suddenly, my cousin told me there was a storm coming. i told him no, there was no storm coming because we were scheduled to go to lantau island that day. the first time i went to hongkong, there was sars and so i did not see the buddha. this time, i won't let any storm get in my way... so despite the budding storm we rode the cable car to lantau island. approaching the place called ngong ping village, i saw an apparition...



i just knew that the risk of being stuck inside the cable car while the storm raged outside is nothing compared to finally seeing the largest outdoor buddha in the world... i'd say meeting him was magical.


so we rounded the village,


climbed the 268 steps to reach the buddha,


went down and visited the po lin monastery,


ate frozen calabash and the most life changing experience of all...


starbucks...


of course even with the storm, we still took the cable car back to the city. after that, we ate this filthy filthy filthy noodles. i had to appease my tastebuds with egg tarts we bought at lord stow's. then ron and i went back to the mall and splurged on zara clothes. back at the house, we waited for my mom whom i havn't seen for a year and a half. *insert hugs and kisses* after the dust settled, we went to the apartment in yuen long and spent the night there.


*meme na uli*


day 3: we woke up and typhoon nuri has arrived in hongkong. it was the first time in what? 5 years? that the highest storm warning was hoisted again... like that's going to stop us? while my mom and my sister and her boyfriend stayed at home, ron and i went out of the house and violated some rules...


day 4: is a blur... but i know that we went to ocean park to see PANDAS!!! well, it was still raining and going there involved another cable car ride which was more than what my mom could bear. ladies and gents, she cried...


and of course, the family picture...


i'm never a fan of theme parks. i'm petrified of park rides. i'd probably scream if one shoves me in a ferris wheel. pfft! the only thing i can stand is the carousel. but i can't keep on riding carousels. i need to move on... *sighs* so we watched acrobats and kung-fu masters, saw the baby seals and flamingos.

but the real reason why i went to hong kong is this...



I DIED OF CUTENESS!

after i got recusitated from the encounter with the most huggable creature on earth, we went back to the city. we had lunch with my aunt, went to stanley market to buy more things. what they are, i forgot. we went back to my aunt's house to fix our things and then prepared to go to the airport. (notice how i just want to get this over and done with...)

and so the travel ends and the reality begins... i still can't get over the pandas... i swear i will get one when i go back to china... you babies will me mine! *evil laugh*

on sadness...

"the tormented heart doesn't just find happiness, it becomes happiness".

¬umeed merchant. "the ground beneath her feet" by salman rushdie

my feet draws me to the sound of rock. and you, i am not so sure. but it must be a constant sadness that made us roam around the streets of angkor, trying to gather all that must make one long for something that would transform tormented hearts into a peaceful lullaby.

there are some sadness that only strangers can understand. i am probably trying to escape a past that wouldn't let go of me. and you, i am not so sure. but it must be a kind of burning to make us not want to read each other's stories to create something new that would transcend the complications of asking the ultimate question of why.

why?

have i become so sad to rest my challenges on a bench, the faint streetlight illuminating the place beside the river, your quarter-bottle of mekong whiskey rocking us? so sad to let myself feel the grass on my bare back, your arms cushioning my head as your words drowned in mine? are we both so sad to meander noiselessly into the night, trying to find solace inside each other's skin?

maybe this longing of being anything else but empty can be quenched tonight.

and so we tried...

and so we did...

or did we?

this is the sadness that only strangers can understand.

we succumb to it, hoping to make sense of fleeting things such as happiness.