Hong Kong

After arriving on the plane from Hanoi we took the airport express train to Causeway Bay, a neighborhood in downtown Hong Kong. After searching for what seemed a long time we found the hostel. It was a minimalist and clean little place called Still House. During the day it was a cafe and work space but it had rooms for people to stay in but we were the only guests. It was tucked away in a building, and the door was in the back of a key stall. A few blocks away was a tall building with lights that lit up in such a way that it looked like an animation on the side of the building, sometimes people walking, other times abstract blotches of light. Inside the hostel they had a simple harp that a woman would come and play every Wednesday. I had fun playing on the harp and making up pieces. We went out for a dinner of fried tofu and tempura, and then went and found a park. We played and exercised on public exercise machines. Then we went back to the Still House to sleep.

The next day we went to a larger park,Victoria Park, where we walked around. We stopped at a model boat pond where people would bring small boats (about two feet long) and drive them around with remote controls. The park was very clean and organized. There was a walking path, and a jogging path, and a bike path and everything was defined clearly by signs. We walked around and started noticing that the people were mainly older people and children. We wondered and eventually came to the conclusion that older kids were at school and adults were at work. The park people were closing a flower show so there were flowers and tents and dirt fenced off from the general public. We walked over to the public library. It was massive. It was 6 or 7 floors tall, and looked a lot like the New York public library on the outside. The inside was very comfortable and modern. I explored the young adult fiction and read several good short books. The view from the floor we were on was great. We could see the park and even across the channel between the two islands that make up Hong Kong

 One day we went hiking on one of the nature park mountains in Hong Kong. Our camera was dead so we couldn't take any photos. We had lunch in a strange sushi place where the sushi came on conveyor belts and you grabbed as much as you wanted, then the waitress would count how much you had and charge you. At the base of the mmountain was a Christian cemetery. However, the graves were decorated with small dragons and other Chinese funerary symbols. The cemetery itself was built diagonally, with many terraces and stairs, the newest graves were at the top and the oldest were at the very bottom. We explored a bit and tried to find the hiking

path. Once we found it we walked for a while and noticed that there were people from the water department doing... something. We assumed that the water for Hong Kong came from the mountains and so the water department people were doing something with waterways. The ocean-ward side of the mountain had short, stooping trees because of all the wind. The top's trees didn't even reach my knees. We had cake when we reached the top. Afterwards we hiked down to the highway where we took a bus to a small beach town where we walked on the beach. We then took a bus back to Hong Kong.

Originally Art Basel was an art show for art collectors to go and buy art in bulk. Then it moved to Miami, and then Hong Kong. We were just in time to see Art Basel kind of a supermarket but for art. We withstood a few hours of art before out legs and brains hurt. During this time we noticed several trends, mainly circular, concave, reflective surfaces. Basel wasn't all new art though we saw photos from the 90s, as well as Kieth Haring paintings. One piece that really caught my eye was a kinetic structure with so much going on I sat for several minutes trying to figure it out. It had an air blower that was on a small track propelled by a motor It blew air to play a harmonica. I couldn't really figure out everything that was going on because there was so much happening. Once we got exhausted enough we went back to the hostel and had dinner.