glibberish.

Wasn’t able to write about yesterday because I went home too tired. Anyway, yesterday night we went to Shatin, and with the help of a “local” friend (she’s actually a nice, bright lady from Korea) we scoured the agencies of the area with hopes of finding a cheaper place than those from the previous days.

Alas, no such luck. Not only are there very few available rentals, but the ones that are are almost as expensive as the others. It seems that real estate value has increased drastically during the last six months. The location is good though, because there are bus stops right in front of the building/s going to virtually anywhere in HK. (And there is a really, really nice river nearby.) And to add salt to a really deep perforation into the subcutaneous glands (er, my version of insult/injury), we found that most landlords around the city are a bit wary of taking students as tenants – of course understandable.

So I went home that night with a heavy heart, somehow feeling defeat. What if I don’t get one??

Enter today. Having learned a lot of stuff about HK – the best reward I received from the past few days’ adventures – I decided to find flats that are actually close to the school and are meant to be inhabited by poor students. (That seemed foolish, but I shouldn’t be blamed for trying to live within the city to “mingle” – er which is not a very good idea sometimes now that I’m here.)

And I think I found it! A nice, big flat (450 sq feet), reasonable rent, and best of all, 5-10 minutes walk from school (2 mins by bus) and a bus ride away from various MTR stations (i.e. to the city!). Am still thinking about it, but I think I’m sold. Hopefully the landlady acquiesces to my negotiated price.

One last apartment to look at (also near the school), and I’ll take my final pick. Hoping, at least. My fingers are firmly crossed.

Gotta make this quick because I’m sleepy as hell.

Supposed to get my HKID earlier, but I woke up late (11:30am). good thing too, because I checked their website and it looks more time-saving to reserve for an appointment online as they are swamped with HKID applicants everyday, and they implement daily quotas. I’m supposed to apply for mine next week, September 7 at 1:45pm.

With that somehow out of the way, I spent the entire afternoon going to different areas along the green and purple MTR lines, particularly in the ff. areas, in chronological order (MTR map here:

• Diamond Hill
• Tseung Kwan O
• back in Po Lam
• Kowloon Bay

Aside from Kowloon Bay (which is bustling with commuters), all the areas I’ve been to have the calm and comfortable atmosphere of an American suburb, but instead of houses these areas are filled with high-rise apartments, as far as the eye could see. Too bad the monthly rates in every place there are too expensive for me.

Tomorrow I will have my clothes laundered, and in the early evening Cheryl and her officemate will help me shop for flats in the Shatin area, where rents tend to be lower.

In other news, I miss my girlfriend’s voice (filthy language included).

The last two days before my departure to HK had been an emotional roller coaster ride.

Thursday was my last gig in Manila, which very aptly is the same production gig my band/s started to be regulars in. So, also aptly, all the bands who played that night are ones that I have known for a long time – in fact, all these bands have been associated with me at some point (e.g. I played for them in the past at least once). To add to that, a couple more bands not in the listed line-up showed up unexpectedly. And guess what, I have played with them also.

And so it was realized, rather slowly through my poor deductive reasoning abilities, that my “Last Night in Town” (only quoting Ben Folds Five since it was actually my second to the last night in town) was not filled with strange coincidences, but pre-planned by my good friends, masterminded by my dear girlfriend. I thought it was BRILLIANT: it was a very subtle surprise, with each element coming in one at a time, little by little “as if a mystery novel revealing its plot by chapters, each one more gripping than the last.” And it didn’t have the forced cliche of arriving into the room, turning on the lights, and getting deafened by a chorus of “SURPRISE!” I am not much into that kind of sap – not that there’s anything wrong with it; there is obviously a great deal of effort put into any events leading to these acclamations – and so prefer subtle (in film, I am also a big fan of subtlety).

But the night was not without drama. Actually, I think there even were some heroics that occured:

• One is of two members of an old band that had a sort of falling out. They parted ways in bad terms, and weren’t speaking to each other until recently. That night, they played again for me.
• One is of a person who parted ways with his band. This band played that night – and so did this person, but for another band. There was possible uneasiness between them, but despite that, person and band were both there.
• One is of a (famous) band that is officially disbanded, but performed again after a long time just for that night. I love you, Boldstar!!
• Almost all my friends, the friends that mean to me, and even my brother(!) and his girlfriend were there.

To be more straight to the point: Thursday night was one of my all-time favorite nights. My most sincere thanks to everyone! I MISS YOU ALL.

And to my lovely girlfriend Shey – you are the greatest! :)

I am not really planning to post a count of each single day here until the very end. I’m merely riding on the previous post’s Trekkie motif. Anyway,

We went out in the afternoon (apparently both me and my host are both late wakers) to check the serviced apartment I was primarily interested in, which is fortunately a few minutes’ walk from here, because when we got there we found that the last vacant room was taken yesterday! We then decided to check out flats in the district near my school’s.

Thus begins the MTR commute. I’ve always liked the MTR because it takes one anywhere in HK very quickly, conveniently, AND comfortably. And it did not let us down, taking us to our intended destination in no time. (Well, actually a little bit less than 30 minutes.) We boarded at Prince Edward and alighted at Tai Po (for a clearer picture, here is the MTR map).

Tai Po is a great place, especially the high rise apartment building right beside the station. There’s a mall downstairs full of Shops That Count (in my standards, if course), and everything around looks shiny-new. It was indeed the best location… except that the cheapest vacancies are way over my budget.

That narrowed down my location choices a little. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll find something interesting with the agents. But first order of tomorrow will be to get my HKID. And I have to wake early, argh.

Second day in HK. I am currently staying at my friend Cheryl’s flat while I look for my own place. This flat is high up in the 38th floor, and in the guest bedroom where I am bunked I can see a neighborhood with old buildings at the other side of the highway, and beyond that, the silhouette of a mountain blocks the horizon. The view is awesome at night, when the city lights are on. (I’ll take pictures of it sometime.)

At dinner last night me and my kind host went to this Indian place called “Everest”, in Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui (Tsim Sha Tsui is where I first walked the streets of HK, not more than a year ago, and instantly loved it). Chungking mansions is a short minibus route away from here, so I got to see some “urban HK in action” stuff, and learned about some of the useful bus stops around. Also, in an amazing coincidence, I bumped into a couple of vacationing friends on the way to the restaurant!

We headed home after that, made homebrewed latte (using my indispensable Mokka pot), and did semi-productive work in our respective laptops (for the most part I just chatted with friends at home) while watching Little Britain and Monty Python.