Hong Kong, Part 4: Yes there are still even more pictures

mr softee!

best snack: fresh egg tart (it was still warm!) & fresh handmade taro milk boba

James got a haircut

to look like the guy in the middle

japanese popstar heyyyyy!

crazy dim sum

Patrick Dougherty

I LOVE LOVE love this sculptor. I rediscovered his work while perusing through Paxton Gate in SF. I wasn't going to blog about him until I mentioned him to Kevin who told me HE'S WORKED WITH HIM. When Kevin & I started dating, I remember him going to the arboretum in Arcadia to do 'work.' I had noooo idea it was to help Patrick Dougherty with an installation. Man... the points he could have earned if he mentioned that little detail. ANYWAY! I just love that Mr. Dougherty only uses tree saplings (no glue or nails), weaving in and out to create whimsy, swirling forms. Gahhh... I want to go to there.

nyt described him as 'an ebullient and rapid speaker whose sentences unfurl and coil around one another like vines.' Kevin's response:

Kevin: hahaha cool description, ny times! as i was talking to him i was like 'WHAT VINE LIKE SENTENCES!'

Hong Kong, part 3: Tung Chung to Tai O

We took a 9 mile hike along the coast of Lantau Island from Tung Chung to Tai O, a small village built on stilts.

ngong ping 360. we decided to save the 140+ hk dollars & hike instead

the ideal work station

chinese 'pizza'

Mmmm... there's something magical about floating villages

Hong Kong, part 2

airing out the laundry

best pan fried bbq buns ever

wedding time.

happy chinese new year festival

Hong Kong, part 1

in no real particular order

A solid kick in the butt

Cheers for the last day of january and the first 31 days of 2011! Heyoooo! This month has unfolded in ways unimagined and unpredictable and just plain magical. I'm off to a solid 31 days of growth and understanding not the new but the already known. I feel ready to jump back into work not because the hunger for travel has been satiated but because of restlessness. Ironic. I still have a solo adventure in me. It's not a knock against Varnum or anything but I do crave the self-sufficiency, ultimate vulnerability and limitless freedom. I feel like this trip was to prove I could travel via business funds. The next will be to simply do it the way I love.

I think this lovely trip to hong kong (which I'll explain in detail w photos later) was the kick in the butt i needed to remember why I make and save money. It's not for an eventual downpayment on something expensive, but to spend on something vague and intangible... Adventure!!

Switchin' it up like whoa

I've noticed that this trip is quite different than others. First and the most obvious, I'm not traveling by myself. Second, I'm not staying in Asia for more than 6 months (dawwww major sad face). Third, I've listened to no music on this trip. And last, I've got my iPhone. Part 'wah wah' and part 'oh sweet'.

Before I go on I'd like to note that hong kong is unlike any city/state I've ever been. In a good way! Elements of it remind me of new york city (diversity, food), Tokyo (mrt, organization, near cleanliness), Mumbai (the crowded alleys and living) and none of it reminds of mainland china. I'm continuously amazed that my nostalgia for the Philippines has been cured by hearing tagalog or some Philippine dialect around me. Most people speak English (lazy American dang). They even have their own version of teh tarik! Gahhhh... I had some with a toasted buttered brioche w sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top. Oh brother what a world!

I have to say having my iPhone is kind of a buzz kill. I should have self control but there is just free public wifi everywhere! Trying to figure out where I am via gps vs squinting at street signs and trying to match characters and foreign words on a map... Oh I kind of miss the simpler times. I feel like I'm cheating. My old travel sketch books used to have travel notes, directions, hastily scrawled maps in between the sketches. This one's pretty clean and orderly. Having the phone definitely has its perks like not paying to use an old computer in a coffee shop or hostel lobby. But there is charm to complaining about slow internet or getting that last email out before times run out. I mean, i left america to be in a place completely different so does it count if i bring the luxuries with me? I pride myself in sleeping in cheap hostels with a backpack's worth of clothes, showering with a bucket of cold water but having this fancy phone, i feel, undoes all that. I cant hate it entirely though because i am blogging from my phone (but sadly can't post pictures lamecore fest 2011). I can chat with my friends, check on my etsy and business emails. So I wonder if that's a compromise I have to make to maintain a functioning business as I travel. Shrug. Perhaps!

Ok this is getting long (that's what she said!). Skeedaddle yankee doodle.