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date/time Monday, October 13, 2008,6:37 PM
Because I'm Loco Over Lomo
UPDATE: 3505 pictures from a while back, and random shots of Italy.
For ages I've been trawling the web to find out more about how to achieve a certain vintage effect on photos. I've finally found out how to do it. 2 ways - the real way involves buying a cute little camera called the Holga, and the fake way involves, well, faking the effect. In any case, this style of photography is called 'Lomo Photography'. And it's so fun, because it involves shooting from the hip (quite literally!), taking spontaneous portraits of people, and just random bizarre snapshots of the things or people you encounter in your life.
Because the holga film is so expensive, I had to take the cheapskate route and create these effects digitally. I only had a few minutes to tinker around with it though; my projects are kinda waiting for me to complete. So here goes, a special little 'ta-da' picture as a taste of things to come.
From this:
To this:
I plan to embark on a 'Loco For Lomo' project, finding interesting shots of places, objects, and people I know, and creating that effect :) Such photos will be filed under this post/tag. I intend to bring this idea over to Sweden as well; one photo snapped a day will keep the boredom away.
Hello, hello, hello. I know it's been awhile since I last updated; the updates just get more sporadic don't they. I don't actually know why, but from now on, I think I'll make a concerted effort to write more like I used to. Writing is always therapeutic; it's been a favourite activity of mine for ages now. So then I guess I'll take this opportunity to blog about Hong Kong before I drag it on any further, especially since I'm finally done with my first round of the dreaded cors system (for those who don't know it's my college's system of obtaining the modules we want for each semester).
Speaking of cors, I did get what I wanted, but I've run into a couple of problems regarding cors and my (hopefully upcoming) exchange which have made me very distraught indeed - to the point of toying with the idea of dropping the entire exchange itself - but that's a worry for another time.
I've posted before about my 1st trip to Hong Kong, and this time I went again with a different group of friends, at a different time (i.e. different weather and that is a very, very important part of the vacation for me).
The budget this time was tighter, because the three of us who went together were pretty much broke. So we stayed in Mongkok's Stanford Hotel, which was pretty clean and comfortable. Overall we were satisfied with the hotel room; save for an exceedingly noisy neighbour who, er, made many embarrassing noises for all the 3 nights we were there. Being the kaypohs we are we practically stuck our ears to the wall separating our rooms to hear what was going on! Hilarious experience.
This was the view from our hotel room. Not exactly the most glamourous landscape but I think it showed Mongkok for what it really was; and I liked it that way. As I said before HK is very non-clinical, and I think this picture shows you why. There are a LOT of old buildings in Mongkok, some look like they've seen better days and some look like there have been fires that have broken out before. But scattered amongst this old buildings are these shiny new skyscrapers.
So we went to Ocean Park on the 2nd day of our visit. We figured it was the last year we could ride kiddy rides and get away with it, you see. Honestly, the sole rollercoaster in Disneyland is not as thrilling as those found in Ocean Park. Of course Ocean Park doesn't really have all that Disney magic, but I'll admit their rollercoasters make up for it. The blue one you see is the scarier one with loop-a-loops and steep, steep drops, but! We didn't get to ride in it. It seemed as if it was destined that we wouldn't get to ride on it because EVERY SINGLE TIME we queued for the darn ride, it would rain, and the operators would close the ride. What the heck, right. We did however get to sit on another coaster which was pretty fun as well, with the downward spiralling helixes. I was screaming all the way, and I think at some point I was yelling "shitshitshit!" because I felt like I would explode if I didn't.
We also tried the freefall tower. And to sum up that experience? Exhilarating. We were raised pretty high up, so much so we could see outlying islands in HK. And the best (or worst, depending on how you see it) part was that it started raining whilst we were at the highest point of the tower. It was surreal; and a part of me enjoyed that because, how often do you get to do this? When we finally plunged down, I felt like my organs left my body first, and it was so fast, I had to close my eyes and scream. When we got off though we were drenched and cold, so I guess that's not the fun part of it...
Then we went to do some touristy things. We had our caricatures drawn! It's something I normally won't do in SG; but I thought it'd be nice to have a memento of my time in Ocean Park so I just went ahead with it. It was a bit funny because when the old guy whipped out his pen and started drawing us, people would walk by and stare, and you can't help but feel very self conscious since you have to pose a certain angle for the artist. I was smiling for mine, so basically my jaw muscles felt like they were going to snap after smiling for so long. I thought Marilyn's (the middle friend) caricature was most in her likeness; mine not so much heh.
Wipe the drool off your keyboards now, folks. Heh. This spread is what we had for breakfast, almost every single day. There was cha cheung (I finally learnt what it's really called in Cantonese, I butchered its name before), which is essentially fried dough sticks wrapped in delish rice rolls, seasoned with some soy sauce. Century egg porridge was a no brainer when deciding what to order because, hello, it's HK. And there was the big juicy prawn chee cheong fun (prawn bits wrapped in rice roll), and their homemade lemon tea. Gorgeous breakfast to kick off our day, every day. I was grinning like a cheshire cat everytime I popped a cha cheung in my mouth. Awfully happy in that little eatery.
Told you. I look like a kid who managed to get more candy.
And to our utter glee we found a very empty hui lao shan ( a pretty good dessert outlet in HK ) just round the corner from our hotel, and every day we'd head there to chill and eat mango-ish desserts. I swear they have the nicest mango ice cream everrrr.
I guess this time the vacation was a tad different, shopping was slightly worse than the last time I went because I guess I didn't have Amande the super tourguide to bring me to the warehouses we went to last time, and to add to that the weather - intermittent rains which lasted pretty long each time - was really irritating. We were always caught in the rain and since some of the markets we visited were outdoor ones, I think it really dampened the mood for shopping. Nonetheless I think it was an OK vacation; at least I got to eat some really amazing food in HK, and at least I got to check H&M out. And of course, the unwinding and relaxing part is always welcome. :)
I'll stop here for now. I'm falling asleep already.
I'm a little restless now, because I drank a whole pot of Chinese Tea. So, I am sleepless for tonight and I decided to stop procrastinating and start typing the second part of the HK travelogue. Here it is.
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I'd never been to Disneyland until this year. I'd heard a lot about Hong Kong's Disneyland - about how it's too small and unable to compare to its counterparts in Florida and Japan. Partly true, because you can cover the entire park within a day (and that's so wrong!) But we figured, what's an adolescence without having SEEN Disneyland? So despite all the negative press about it, we just decided to include it in our itinerary.
We took the MTR to Lantau Island, and from there we hitched a ride on one of those specially designed Disney trains. Cute, and I bet they probably spent a bomb on them. They had windows in the shape of Mickey's head, and even hand-rings ( Those things you use for support hanging from the ceiling ) in the shape of Mickey's head. Plush blue velvet seats lined both sides of the train, and they had really interesting sculptures and various Disney memorabilia on display in glass cases beside the seats.
OK, maybe a photograph paints the picture better.
The ride was short, though, and when we stepped into the entrance, we saw banners of Disney characters. As if on cue, all of us rushed to our respective favourites and cam-whored away. And being the 'swakus' ( or 'noobs', for the uninitiated in hokkien!) we were, we spent at least 15 minutes there...
...Not knowing that we were just in time for the afternoon parade. Basically, the theme park would hold a parade 2-3 times each day, and they'd showcase really detailed floats, each starring a specific Disney licensed character/cartoon. They'd have dancers at their front, back and flanks, and as we discovered, it was a rather magical spectacle. I'm not exaggerating. Perhaps it was too long since we saw something so, well, cartoonish and cheerful. I mean, they were playing the zipper-dee-doo-dah song! How could we not bop along! I don't know about the others, but for Pam T. and me, we just stood there, mouths agape. We almost wanted to burst into tears. This might sound so over-the-top, but no, it's true. When you see it for the first time, it's an amazing feeling. Perhaps we were recalling our childhood, *shrug*, but unfortunately, it only lasted for a fleeting moment :( For me, at least.
Flowers on stilts. What made this hilarious was that the mascots were grown men. :) Gotta give it to them for managing to look so funky while on stilts AND while dressed in ridiculous outfits.
Which brings me to mention that the entertainers were all pretty professional. What made them stand out was that they actually responded when we waved, or smiled to them, or if some kid tried to grab their attention. They'd wave back, smile back, wink back, even breaking formation momentarily to dance closer to us. Nice.
See, that's what I mean.
So after ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the procession, we went crazy with the rides. Let's just say that er, the rides cater more to wee kids. The only ride we actually found thrilling was the ONLY roller coaster in the themepark. And that wasn't even too nauseating. We had fun nonetheless, and I've got to credit those lovely travel-mates of mine. Without them, Disneyland wouldn't have been so entertaining.
We took a ride on the carousel. It's one of those 'compulsory' attractions. You haven't been to a theme park if you haven't sat on their carousel, especially if you're talking about a Disney theme park.
Eek, er, I wasn't aware someone was stealthily taking a photograph whilst I was laughing like an idiot on the carousel. But seriously, it has been a long time since I actually looked this happy!
Amande petrified me whilst we were on that Jumbo-ish ride. Actually, maybe it was vice versa. I was the one who kept pushing the lever up so that we could make the darn elephant rise to its highest possible level :þ She kept laughing throughout the whole thing. There she is with that lecherous smile.
And Amande was raving about the go-karts - she was really excited about cars, you see. And, hee hee, we did get to sit in a car all right... but this was no go-kart. Basically, they put you in a car, either alone or in pairs, and all you do is step on the pedal. No need for any steering though there is a steering wheel provided in addition to those annoying 'zoom zoom' accelerating noises whenever one stepped on the pedal (just for the sake of realism I guess), because there was a fixed rail which the car is attached to. To make matters worse, a clueless auntie was right in front of us, and she stepped on the pedal every 3 seconds. So, we crashed into each other very often. Amande's pissed! Naw, just caught her in a 'hrmmph what is that Auntie doing!' moment.
And this, in my opinion, is one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen of my friends and I. (You have to click on it to see our expressions up close) It was one of those coaster-cams which attempt to capture your most embarrassing moments on the coaster. Don't ask me why Elke and Zhu Hui are grinning away like Cheshire cats on a roller coaster ride! Pam T and I were just, 'Ahhhhh!' all the way. Amande looks, I don't know, a cross between shocked and amused.
And then Disneyland lit up at night! This was the part which made me melt into a fuzzy mess of warm goo. The night parade was really a disappointment, though. It was supposed to be a Chinese New Year special, but it only lasted all of 30 minutes, out of which 20 were spent getting a good seat (on the floor, actually.)
Yup, warm and fuzzy all right.
Anyway, as I said, the Disney experience was made much more memorable by my travel-mates. Just look at them! Disney should hire them as ambassadors already. Well, without them, queuing up would be incredibly frustrating. Why? All I'll say is that we were disturbed by rude Mainland kids trying to jump the queue. Even worse, the adults allowed them to, and even had the intention of doing so - too bad they weren't as small as their kids, and too bad we were so annoyed that we formed a human wall to prevent any sneaky kids from squeezing past. There's only so much we can tolerate, you know.
That building there on the left (with the lanterns) was our hotel. It was posh, but the fun part was staying in a posh hotel with your friends doing not-so-posh things. Like soaking our dirty, smelly feet in their bath tub. MASS soaking, in fact. We really had to do that because of all the walking.
And yeah, we did silly things. Like this.
Yah. It was cozy.
Amande's not present 'cos she wasn't staying in our room. But she did have her share of her fun, staying in our room until the wee hours of the night :)
You know, with travel-mates like that, what more could I ask for? Often times it is the people who determine whether you have fun on a trip or not. And these people really made the trip something I'll remember for a long, long time.
Oooh, by the way, this is so random, BUT YOU MUST EAT THIS if you ever go to Hong Kong! It's the most delicious thing I've ever sank my teeth in! It's called cha leong, not sure of the intonation though, just trial and error your way through there! That's what we did anyway, and er, we did get some weird looks and I'm not sure if we accidentally uttered a swear word, but the locals there are pretty understanding.
As always, I'm late with my travelogue. And this time there is no 'story' behind the attractions - if you can so call them. If you haven't ever been to Hong Kong, the fundamental premise is that it's a lot like Singapore in terms of its urban jungle concept, and its niche tourist attractions of shopping and eating. There are a lot of similarities - it's probably pointed out in your Social Studies/History/Geography textbooks- but during my time there I felt there were a few key points where HK really differed from Singapore.
Both countries' housing layouts may at first seem like it's immensely similar, i.e, the build upwards, not sideways concept. But frankly, HK's estates are a LOT squishier.
Yup. In the words of my friend, who once did a show-and-tell/presentation on Hong Kong (yes, it was long long ago), you could practically reach out and touch your neighbour's window. And, in my opinion, you could probably say something like, "Hello Auntie Cheung! I see you! Do you see me too?"
The vibe, too, is very different. This is very difficult to explain in words, and even pictures, but overall HK gives me a very 'messy' vibe, in a positive way. It is very ... nonclinical, despite its urban backdrop. Maybe the same picture above can paint a vague idea of what I'm trying to explain here.
Of course, the weather is to die for. Any weather (except subzero, Antarctica-type temperatures) is better than a tropical humid one, anyway. It's hot, and what's worse, the air is overly damp. But I de-digress. When I was there, it was the transition period between Winter and Spring, so there were dry winds and a rather warm temperature prevailed. Basically, like outdoor air-conditioning. I say it's to die for, because the winds made me ecstatic. This was best reflected in Lamma Island, which, by the way, is one of my favourite pit-stops. The only regrettable issue: No Lammas on Lamma Island. :(
Lamma was windy. Oh yes it was. And windy makes us happy. Oh yes it does... so much so I wanted to 'da pao' some wind back to Singapore.
OK, so Lamma was nice, and it wasn't just because of the wind. It was also a nice break away from the noise and grit of the main island. Serene, and very much more slow-paced. Like a retiree's dream home. Actually, most of the island's inhabitant's ARE retirees, accompanied by their dogs who have FREE REIN over the whole place. They run all over like they own it. And worry not; they behave well.
Sadly, we were one of the few people who actually took on the nature trail. See, we practically owned the whole road.
Plus, Lamma had its resident 'Tau Hway' Auntie and Uncle. Masters of the trade I tell you:
And I can attest to the fact that it's really clean. Because I didn't have any stomach problems after that. Nor did Amande, Elke, Pam or Zhu.
Well, okay, so it does look somewhat ordinary. But it tasted otherwise! It's actually made with the usual sweet syrup, and the twist in the recipe is that it's served with a dash of ginger (mixed into the syrup of course) and some gingko nuts, I believe.
Back to the main island though. Stanley ranked near the top of my favourite places in HK. It's one of those quaint little towns, almost like an enclave because it's quite far away from the crowded Mongkok. Just think Holland V, only much bigger. So anyway, we were so pleased with it, we left our marks behind:
I hope you didn't take me seriously. Because we would've just drawn stick figures. With random speech bubbles sprouting all over. We're incapable of graffiti. Nope, not even amateurish ones. So there we were, acting like crazed monkeys on the loose, flitting from shop to shop and bargaining with them in our smattering of tourist's Cantonese. We butchered the language, actually.
Talking about shopping, we er, did a lot of that. For the first time in my travelling history, I actually used up 98% of my funds in HK. I was left with a meagre 5 Sing Dollars (That's 50 HKD for you) by the time I touched down. Yes, we shopped in the HK International Airport as well. So anyway, Pam sneakily caught a shot of us sorting out all our goodies in the hotel room. Yep, this was the most annoying part. Having to pack and pack and pack after a long day out in the streets. Not much photos of us shopping, and this would make perfect sense as well, since we were all busy bargaining and sifting through the good and bad stuff. Half the time, it was also so crowded that no one dared to whip out their digi-cams for fear of pickpockets.
We also went to The Peak one night, or Victoria Peak to be more specific. It was a pretty foggy night, though, so we couldn't really see much. It was clear enough to have a vague idea of what HK's skyline looked like, though.
And on the last night of our stay in HK, we went on the 'longest cable car ride' - or so they claim. Whatever it was, I quite enjoyed it because it was pretty high up (and you all know how I love the feeling of being far away from certain things, just like in the Kuantan Caves!). And safe. And cooling. And the best thing was? I was stuck a thousand feet in the air with a bunch of crazed friends. We laughed and waved at people randomly.
Thereafter, we rushed down to the fabled Disneyland. But I will stop here for now, because this post is simply getting too long, and I know people don't like to read overtly long posts. We're all busy people, eh? So okay, I'm gonna split this into two posts. And the first part shall stop here.
Coming up soon will be Disneyland (which was the funniest yet most frustrating part of the trip), and random shots of us just having fun.
This is a live performance of the song "Hong Kong" by Gorillaz. I found this by accident in the Youtube community. Er, I was trying to search for some travel documentaries on Hong Kong, if you want to know what I was doing there again.
I'm absolutely thrilled and burning with anticipation, because in less than 12 hours' time I'm going to be in the airport waiting to check in with my huge but empty luggage. That won't come back in the same, empty state.
There's going to be loads of shopping, and of course I'm going to gorge myself silly on the food there. Can't wait for the 'yum cha' sessions and not to mention the DESSERT!
To this:
I plan to embark on a 'Loco For Lomo' project, finding interesting shots of places, objects, and people I know, and creating that effect :) Such photos will be filed under this post/tag. I intend to bring this idea over to Sweden as well; one photo snapped a day will keep the boredom away. 
