OMFG -- Take Me Away!

I've got Asia on the brain. There's a potential trip for me in the very near future and after almost two years since I was in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Malaysia last, it's consuming my thoughts. The culture, the food, the partying -- oh my! I'm hoping this trip gets finalized soon because I am thisclose squealing obnoxiously with excitement whenever anything to do with Asia comes up. (Are those rice crackers you're eating?!! EEEEEeeeeeeaaahhh!!!!)

A born and raised Toronto girl, Asia's always been a place I heard my family talk about all the time but somewhere I never had a tangible feel on. I had been once when little, but have no recollection of (well not no recollection but very little; mostly of Hello Kitty. I was two, go figure.) and then several times in recent years only to discover that the cities of Asia are even better in person than I had imagined all these years. They are spec-fucking-tacular, to put it mildly. The first time the plane I was on descended onto Hong Kong in the evening, I remember being absolutely entranced by the gazillion lights of a spectrum of colors that covered the incredible skyline of the city, all the while being in juxtaposition against majestic rolling mountains. A feeling of excitement crept up my insides; there was a whole new city -- no, a whole new side of the world -- I hadn't experienced yet and the feeling of the (awesome!) unknown and how you're going to conquer it is probably one of the best in the world -- right up there with the "Damn, I just sealed that business deal!" feeling and the "Damn, I look like a million bucks in my new dress and heels and just saw my ex-boyfriend wince in the corner!" feeling. 

The unknown is always exciting but there was something even better about walking around Hong Kong for me than that: it was like seeing everything I had heard about as a child come to life; a fairy tale come true. All the exotic tales of my childhood were suddenly living and breathing and it was beyond fantastic. As some one who adores cities, Asia is like the mecca of all mega-cities. The sheer amount of infrastructure and the pace at which it multiplies is a marvel in itself. It's progress at it's quickest speed and just to look around in the city can inspire one into pro-activity. It's state-of -the-art mind-boggling architecture next to old-world slummy apartments. It's slick, sterile, brand new malls surrounding shantytown-like markets. It's the newest Lamborghini speeding through the streets while rickshaws pace themselves along pedestrians. Old and new mesh seamlessly in Asia and especially in Hong Kong. I had the biggest urge to just reach out and touch everything when there for the first time as an adult, to take it all in and assure myself that yes, this endearingly noisy and perpetually crowded land was in fact real. 

A quick hint for all of you non-Asians or Canadian-born Asians who plan on traveling to the East: if you're not going to try new things, don't bother. I'm mainly speaking of food here because the food is...orgasmic. I haven't been back since becoming meatless and I can imagine it to be somewhat of a form of torture to be there and not be able to indulge in all the delicacies that waft from every corner. Everything that sounds weird or disgusting is usually the tastiest, and if you let your preconceived notions of what usually makes for good food stand in the way -- well you're missing out. Get rid of the overly-sterilized, overly-packaged Western notion of pizza and burgers food and dive right into preserved sausages, congee (rice soup) with duck egg and fish, beautifully fluffy egg tarts, hot-pot style meals, and a array of animal innards that, no matter how lovingly I describe, will just sound unappealing. To experience Hong Kong is to take it all in, visually and through its vast edibility. To get past the initial gross factor is to understand why the Chinese eat like this; they lust after certain textures and flavors now matter where from. Something I dearly miss in Toronto are Chinese desserts. Sure we have the little pastries that dole out sweet buns and whatnot, but in Hong Kong there are entire restaurants devoted to mango tapioca puddings, sweet lotus seed pastes and tofu done so delicately sweet you hardly know it's tofu. 

Foodie ogling is a great part of the city -- almost as good as the night life. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but I've walked around Hong Kong at 4 in the morning only to just realize it's the middle of the night because everything is still lit up and paved over. Unlike here in Toronto, you can go to the same club night after night and it's an entirely new crowd. Not just new, but vastly international. It's models in town for a couple months from America, business men from Europe, expats from the world over and locals. It's beyond refreshing to be meeting people who have incredibly different lives that the one you've lived and an easy way to meet them is out and about in the nightlife scene. The internationality of it all also attracts top-billing when it comes to club entertainment (no, not that kind!) with top DJ's like Guetta and Aoki ensuring the city stays in a perma-stage of dance fever. For those who worship house music like I do, it's a definite pro since the last time I tried to catch Guetta in Toronto, I was packed more tightly into ex-club Circa's "VIP" area than fat sardines in a too-small tin. If there's no room to dance, what's the point? ...Exactly. Hong Kong's nightlife is legendary in its variety but not cohesive enough in image to have generated a lifestyle, like for example Nikki Beach in St. Tropez. It's variety I'm on the hunt for right now -- or you know, a chance to see Guetta where I don't get hit in the face with badly done bleached extensions every time I want to bust a move!
Hong Kong is just one of the many cities I've been to in Asia and there are a countless number more I have yet to visit. Experiencing the new is essential to..well everything! If you don't know everything that's out there, how are you supposed to make decisions about what you want? Oh, it's like Biggie rapped ever-so-wisely all those years ago: and if you don't know, now you know! I'm sure he wasn't referring to my escapades around the world, but his words have meaning when it comes to experiences of anything you haven't before.

The Hong Kong skyline...just beautiful!

I can hardly wait to hop on a plane again and arrive in a world I know nothing about but want to dive into. Until then, I'll have to settle for being excited by the sight of rice crackers (chopsticks, Pocky sticks, Sailor Moon, you name it, it's all doing the trick right now!) and know that soon enough, I'll be blogging from across the world.
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