Hong Kong 94 Revisited

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  Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Thursday, April 15, 2004

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot."

When I was 2 my family and I moved to Hong Kong, and I spent the next 13 years there. At this point, over half my life was spent there. It's almost 10 years exactly since I left and I haven't been back until now.

I assumed everything would be completely different. I can't really describe what it was like getting back there. The closest I could think of was that it was like smelling a familiar smell, or seeing someone you recognised that you couldn't quite remember where you knew them from. Or my favourite analogy is that it was like seeing an ex-girlfriend with a new haircut and a new boyfriend.

I wasn't sure if I ever missed Hong Kong because I missed the place, or just because I missed being a kid...careless and beardless.

The tourist attractions didn't really appeal to me...these are the places that I was made to go on school trips...so a lot of my time here has been spent on The Simon Scriver Reality Tour...wandering around my old haunts and getting to know the place again. I can't believe how quickly I got my bearings and how everything flooded back.
Leaving H.K. was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, and probably messed with my head more than any girl possibly could. Coming back has been really difficult too.

My apartment building looks exactly the same from a distance...but the lobby is completely done up.

1 - The Hong Kong sykline today

Looks more like a hotel now. They've gotten rid of the names of people who live there, so I couldn't see who's in my old place now.
They've put blinds up in my room. There's a plastic guard on my balcony so Jack could no longer poke his head out.

Our pool is gone. So's the play area and the kindergarten I got expelled from...replaced with a new apartment building.

The basketball court in Tavistock is gone...I wonder when they cut down all the foliage did they find my ball?

The tallest building in my day is now dwarfed by several others. And every night there's a tacky light show of all the buildings choreographed. Fairly ridiculous.

The Star Ferry is exactly the same...minus the weight machine.

As a backpacker taxi's are now unaffordable. The Peak Tram is a tourist attraction rather than a way for me to get to primary school. Meals are now determined by how much I can afford...not how much I can eat.

When I tell people my surname they no longer recognise it. It's no longer infamous here. People don't reply "Oh, you're Fliss' brother?" or "Oh, you're Tim's brother?" (said is completely different tones of voice).

They seem to have squeezed buildings in to places I didn't think possible, and filled in alot of the harbour with land.

Pacific place is pretty much the same, expect I no longer bump in to 5 people I know when I go there. Landmark is snazzier. Princes building is the same. Olivers is still there. KPS is replaced with Blockbuster (whether they still show you the magnetic tape I don't know).

The MTR is the same, but with a few extra lines.

I went to Lan Kwai Fong for the first time.

2 - Me, Tom & his WIFE! on The Peak

It's smaller than I imagined from my brother and sister's stories. I asked a guy where Thingummys was...he said If it ever existed it doesn't know.

The 'Rat' between May Road and Magazine Gap Road is still there. I couldn't beleive it.

Dan Ryan's is exactly the same...but I think the portions are smaller. The sundae is $25. I can't remember what I said, Fliss, but I'm fairly certain I was very wrong.

My best friend, Tom Read, is back here. Married now. I met him a few times. Imagine how strange it was for me sitting in his apartment while his wife is cooking dinner in the next room. I still see a kid when I look at him.
Derek Ma is back, and Tom Ayres is back. We all went out for dinner. Mr. Bailey came in for a beer. We reminisced and they went through what a bunch of people are up to now...married, moved, in prison, dead, dying, working, on T.V., etc. etc.

The stories of what we got up to in school were so funny. I'd remembered most of it, but some of it was classic. I couldn't believe how much the boys remembered, and that they looked back on those days as fondly as I did.

Tom bumped in to Kai Yu the other day. He's married with a kid and a decent job. He asked Tom if he remembered him. "Yeh, you spread a rumour I was gay in first year."
Craig had his own art exhibition on display recently.
Michelle went to one of Tom's gigs the other day.

Popped into my old school...a lot smaller than I remember but pretty much the same. Spoke to Mr. James, Mr. Jackson, Eva Bannon, Mr. Reeves (aged terribly Mum will be pleased to know).

On the last night a bunch of us went out and on Queens Road Central I said goodbye again to Tom, Tom and Derek...3 of the guys who waved me off when I left in a Big Yellow Taxi 10 years ago. How surreal is that?

Alot is different here. But there's so much the same. And I still love it. I definitely get some weird feeling here. Me and Tom spoke about me moving back. How shit is it that the place I feel most at home at I'm not legally allowed to live in?
I thought I'd get back and realise I don't belong here and I'm ready to move on, but I didn't think that at all. I think I could live here again. I think I'd like to try it, until I got sick of it, then happily move on.

Or maybe I'm just talking shit.

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3 - Branksome Lobby	4 - The Infamous Rat	5 - Dinner At Dan Ryan's	6 - Derek, Me, Tom R. & Tom A. at Lan Kwai Fong

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