Wednesday, January 03, 2007

26 December 2006: Meeting Elvis

My objectives in Hong Kong are as follows:

1. To meet up with friends in Hong Kong by minimizing the amount of disturbance or interruption caused to their daily lives. I still want them to welcome me when I go over to Hong Kong next time!
2. To suit my friends' itineraries or schedules as and when circumstances allow me to. I had planned nowhere in particular to visit and I simply went along with whatever they had proposed with almost no objection on my part. This objective offers me a glimpse into my friends' hobbies and interests, and thus an opportunity to understand them better. After all, I don't really meet them often, and it helps if I know more about them from an objective angle.

Paul loves nature, and Kieron likes to savour Indian food. I met Elvis today, and we went for window-shopping in the busy districts of Kowloon Tong, Kwun Tong and Mong Kok. Elvis has always been one of my best friends from Hong Kong, and we always bicker on petty issues for the fun of it. I usually lose in such arguments due to my poorer command of Cantonese. Elvis here is not a King of Rock n' Roll, but a King of Shopping, and I didn't realize this from the outings we had together in the Lee Shiu Summer Programme. He reasoned that both China and Singapore offer fewer brands and less variety of products to choose from, and I have to admit that Hong Kong is truly a shopper's paradise; Taipei most definitely loses out in this aspect as well. Elvis is a business student, and had tried to spur me on to splurge on Hong Kong's commodities, but my strong willpower not to contribute further to Hong Kong's robust economic growth had prevailed in the end.


Amid occasional stops for desserts and street bites, we had talked and walked through the night, and parted ways at a subway station. I hope that this would not account for our last outing together, because we had enjoyed our days in Beijing and I wish to relive those moments as soon as I am done with my honours thesis in the months ahead. Meanwhile, take care dude!

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