“That’s All Folks!”

Hong Kong – The Tourist

this is a picture of Bruce Lee about to get his head punched in. brilliant.

i spent my weekend in Hong Kong doing the obligatory tourist-y stuff which included a trip to The Peak, Repulse Bay, Stanley Market, the floating Jumbo Kingdom in Aberdeen, The Giant Buddha & Po Lin Monastery in Ngong Ping and Temple Street. i had to miss both Disneyland and Ocean Park because i did all the above while feeling marginally feverish and by the time i got back to the hotel, i was sweating even though the air conditioning was on full blast. i’m glad i decided to power through the two-day tour, because despite not being able to breathe through my nose for the most part, i thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

a shot of Hong Kong’s skyline from The Peak.

Two IFC – one of Hong Kong’s tallest skyscrapers.

the relic-looking, vintage-inspired boat just off Stanley Market. i wished i had money to burn for the 40 minute ride.

the Ngong Ping 360 cable car experience. i opted for the ‘Crystal Cabin’, which had…

… a glass floor! it took a good few minutes to get accustomed to the glass floor but once i did, i was standing and pacing around the cramped cabin to the annoyance of the other passengers.

i found this at Ngong Ping Piazza, hung on a ‘wishing tree’ of sorts. amongst the more pointless and cliche wishes (for example ‘world peace’ and ‘lots of riches’), i thought this wish was rather sweet.

had to slide this one in, because i don’t think it’s too often that an MTR station is empty. surely enough, a large crowd filled the frame within minutes after the shot was taken.

so what about Hong Kong, eh? i love it and would be open to any opportunity to work and live here for a bit. the downside would be the difficulty in communicating with the locals. from my experience, India had a higher concentration of English-speaking locals compared to Hong Kong, which i thought to be rather peculiar since Hong Kong is one of Asia’s largest financial centres. but if push comes to shove, i wouldn’t mind learning the language just to get by. owh, one more thing – the city is rather expensive so i’d probably have to make some serious cash to survive here.

on the plus side, the city is super clean, the public transport system is on par with any European city, the people are civilised, the malls/stores/shops will most likely have anything you could ever want, the body of water between Kowloon and Hong Kong island makes for great evening walks and to top it all off, you can smoke whilst at it (unlike bloody Singapore!).

i’m forgetting something… ahhh, of course! the women are pretty and insanely stylish. the best part is, they dress flirtatiously – as if the Government had brainwashed every single woman over here that ‘long legs will only work with hot pants’, yearp. i’ve been absolutely loving it.

and since this is primarily a guitar ‘blog’ (which i reckon gets frequented by boys, mostly), i’ll leave the next two ‘stalker-approved’ photos for your personal enjoyment, as a gesture of thanks for supporting thehindsight. haha.

rock.on

Hong Kong – Kowloon

Im currently in Hong Kong for a course. Cant really write that much because Im in class which coincidentally has free WiFi. Either that or I pay RM50/day for internet connection. The hotel is a slimy thief. Anyways Ive managed to snap a few pics from the hotel. I dont know if the formatting will work though. Here goes.

 

View from Harbour Grand Hotel, Hung Hom.

Another one from the same viewpoint, after the rain.

Street view of Mong Kok.

The Ethos of a Visionary

the world lost one of the most, if not the most, charismatic, flamboyant and influential persons today.  i am not an Apple fanboy, but ever since i bought the iPad, i appreciate how powerful being simple can be.  Ace-riffer shared with me one of his quotes, and i’d love to make it my life’s guide:-

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

beautiful.  rest in peace, Steve.

now, speaking of ‘simple’, my name came up top in the Ethos waiting list.  but since i didn’t have much money on me (the total cost of owning one of these, plus shipping, is around USD510 if you want the full version), i decided to offer it to moderneagle.  you can get more detail on the Ethos by clicking the link, but basically it is the pre-amp section of a Dumble amplifier made by this company called Custom Tones.  it’s got more knobs and toggle switches than a spacecraft control switchboard, which gives you the ability to fine tune your guitar’s tone to the letter.  the other cool thing is, you can plug it in direct into a flat-band power amp and get a consistent sound at any gig, which is handy.

anyways, here’s a clip of moderneagle having a go at the Ethos.  shot on the iPad, so you’ll have to excuse the quality.  i just hope that whoever is taking over from Steve Jobs will take the iPad to greater heights in terms of high definition recording, that’s for sure.

Bass Buka 2011 (the real Selamat Hari Raya video)

we had a small Bass Buka this year compared to last year’s.  probably because it was such a last minute thing.  but i think it’s fair to say that what we lacked in numbers we made up in style and skill.  just watch the video (haha!).

Salam Syawal & 1Malaysia.