Day 2 in Hongkers

After going to sleep at midnight the previous night - I was wide awake by 3am. This wasn't a good situation at all - mainly due because I wanted to do a day trip to Macau today. I try and try to get back to sleep - but fail miserably. This is probably partly due to jet lag - and partly due to caffine..

I go down and have breakfast and am in a zombie like state. At least they have changed the CD from bad seagull music to just bad 80s music. I wanted to avoid getting botchalism and avoid all the half-warm chinese sausage and eggs.

I blog for a bit - writing a couple of days on Venice - then I head back to my room and drop dead - waking up at 2:30pm... There goes my day trip to Macau!

Feeling rather pissy with myself - and drag myself out of the hotel and grab a quick bite to eat at one of those asian bakeries. They still haven't really catched onto the whole "Inconvenient Truth" thing and still place every single item you buy into an individual plastic bag - then put everything into a plastic carry bag...

I head down Nathan Road to the Hong Kong Art Gallery (eg: one of the ugly pink tiled buildings at the north end of Kowloon). It was a complete bargain ($10HK entry - which was the same price as in my 2002 edition of LP) - and was well worth checking out. There were a few exhibitions on traditional Chinese art which were prrudy, a contemporary exhibit on Hong Kong artists (including a guy who paints frames from famous Chinese/Hong Kong movies including their cantonese and english subtitles), and an excellent decorative arts exhibit. Plus if you ain't a big art fan - you can take advantage of the excellent views of the harbour from the gallery.

Feeling like I want to vegetate (despite sleeping until 2:30pm) - and had a desire to go and see a trashy hollywood movie at a cinema. I check LP for the nearest cinema. I head there only to find out that they are only showing one film - and it is some Korean movie about an ET style alien... Great... I don't think Multiplexs exist in HK - where land and space is at a premium.

I go a little crazy and HMV and buy some DVDs and some bargain CDs (including some for about $5AUD) and head back to the hotel for a bit of a chill and blog.

Still wanting to go to the movies - I look up LP and there appears to be a cinema at nearby Canton Road. Although - when I get to the alledged location of the cinema - it wasn't there. Perhaps it closed down - or perhaps LP got it terribly wrong with their maps. Anyhow - in the cinema's place - I found a cool trendy department store (sort of like the youth ones in Tokyo) - everything was quite crampped but quite kewl. I resist buying more clothes for the minute and head back to the Happy Garden Noodles for dinner to give it another shot at reprisal. Unfortunately - it was still a pretty dish that I had ordered (curried beef with rice) - perhaps my days of great hong kong food are finally over...?

After dinner - I explore a few areas of Tsim Shu Chi which I haven't been before. It's sort of funny with all of those neon signs that are up 30 meters in the air - you never really see them from the street level - so I'm not sure on their effectiveness in advertising. Although I did see a sign for the Ballarat University...

I've also noticed that all of the non-legit DVD shops in Kowloon - appear to be selling legit copies now. The only place you can buy the dodgy stuff now are the night markets. Perhaps the Chinese crack down on piracy has made an impact?