My lasting impression of Hong Kong will probably be the tower blocks. Actually, I'm not sure if the tall apartment buildings are called exactly that, but I heard that term used in a song and thought it was cool ("It's 6 o'clock in the tower blocks/The stalagmites of culture shock"). In Hong Kong, they really tower - they're huge, and it's no wonder considering space restraints.
I think I was kinda lost at this point. Remember, I was sleep deprived, and my usual reliable ability to keep my bearings must have been fried. I only went a couple MTR stops up from Mongkok, but trying walk my way back, I was led astray by signs pointing to an MTR station on a completely different line. But wherever I went were these monstrous tower blocks.
Ah, yes, it all comes back to me. These shots were from right in front of the MTR station. The wrong MTR station, but at this point I thought I was home free to get back to Hong Kong and get my student visa. The shot below would have been better if I had crossed the street, because that line of tower blocks was particularly impressive, if I remember correctly.
Once I found I was at the wrong MTR station, I managed to find a bus that took me back to Mongkok, and from there it was no problem getting back to Hong Kong, no problem getting my "student visa", only a little problem getting back to the airport because of an asshole bus driver who only let me on without paying a whole new fare by convincing him I was a total foreign idiot (after how many years of British rule and he still doesn't speak English?! j/k - colonization is not a joke, kids), and no problem flying back to Taiwan to get the real student visa at the airport in my U.S. passport. Damnit, I'm American. Ain't no way I'm gonna be drafted in no Taiwanese army because of a useless Taiwanese passport.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Silver Strings (Helium)
2. Do It! (Sakura)
3. When the Saints Go Marching In (Rebirth Marching Jazz Band)
4. Witness (Sarah Mclachlan)
5. Forgiven (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
6. Sequelles (MC Solaar)
7. When a Woman Loves a Man (Rebecca)
8. Far From Now (Engine Down)
9. So What? (Ani DiFranco)
10. Jamming (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
2 comments:
those tower blocks are quite impressive!!
it was mind-blowing thinking how many lives were in these given spaces, stacked, crammed. and the motion of all those people going about their daily lives.
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