Hong Kong!

I am not kidding, this is the hostel we are staying in. It's not as bad as it looks. I got this picture from the internet for dramatic purposes.

This is the ChungKing Mansion building, refered to as the "black tooth" of this neighbourhood - otherwise filled with high end designer stores. But the price is right, y'all.


We're now in HK, and it is pretty cool/nuts. Taipei is to Victoria as Hong Kong is to Vancouver in terms of city comparisons (like my SAT phrasing?). We're staying in this infamous, old, grimy building called ChungKing Mansions, and there are all sorts of dubious (but most likely harmless charaters in the lobby/mall/entrance area. The room is small, basic but clean enough.

The skyline from Kowloon bay, where we are staying, is unreal - the buildings are all lit up and they go on forever. This city is bonkers. They had this (sorta cheesy) laser light show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpfBlW4vuLI&feature=related) where the buildings light up and there are laser beams (pew, pew, pew!) that shoot into the sky in time with music. At the beginning they "introduce" the participating buildings and as they say their names the buildings do this little light flashy display, and I swear it is the building equivalent of the introductions made on this video (http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccae/country-hip-hop-dancing). I was giggling to myself with the mental imagery of it all.