Tales of Asia - Part 5 - Posted 23rd April 2006

Hello truth seekers,

I hope everything is good for you and that your world is going around in the right direction for you this week, naturally left to right.

Welcome to another Tales of Asia story, this time there has not been so much of a break from my last Tales of Asia entry, so subsequently it is a little shorter than some of the previous ones.
Life here in Hong Kong continues to be a living dream. Along with my business activities I have been blessed with the opportunity of living in another country for a period of time and getting to immerse myself in that culture. I never ever thought that I would have this opportunity and I'm so pleased to be living this experience.

Recently I went back over to Lamma Island. Lamma Island is one of China's best kept secrets and sits just off the coast of Hong Kong Island. The island is reached by ferry and is a 20 or 30 minute trip depending upon the type of ferry. Lamma's western coast has a harbour and the small village of Yung Shue Wan. There are lots of bars and eating choices along the village's endearingly ramshackle main street. The people are a collection of villagers, resident expats and fellow visitors wandering all over the place by the hundreds. 20 minutes walk from Yung Shue Wan is the well-kept beach at Hung Shing Ye. Many local Hong Kongers come to this beach when the weather is nice. It is possible to swim here as there is a shark net strong across the small way a distance offshore. Many people also take a 5 km walk to the other end of the island to the village of Sok Kwu Wan. This village has wall-to-wall seafood restaurants along the harbour front. The seafood tanks are a site in themselves with some monster sized fish and crustaceans.

Back at Kowloon where I live at The Waterfront on the peninsula just across Victoria Harbour from Central, the main business centre of Hong Kong, life goes on as usual. I am often a visitor in the nearby suburb of Jordan and in particular, the Temple Street night market. Beneath the bleaching glare of a thousand naked light bulbs, tourists and locals alike pick their way amongst the stalls crowding the narrow lanes of Yau Ma Tei's and Jordan's Temple Street. The overwhelming array of cheap goods includes clothes, shoes, accessories, a designer fakes, copy CDs, bric-a-brac and a generous helping of junk. Prices here may be a bit higher than in Shenzhen, just over the Chinese border, or in some of Hong Kong's less well-known markets, but Temple Street is unbeatable for atmosphere.

Recently, some of you may remember that I facilitated some sessions at a seminar at Stanley on Hong Kong Island. Originally a sleepy fishing haven, Stanley was the largest settlement on Hong Kong Island before the British moved in. The modern town, hugging the southern coast, still makes a peaceful, pleasant escape from the bustle of the city. Traffic is minimal, and the pace of life relaxed, with plenty of excellent places to eat, good beaches and a large market to search for clothes, silks and souvenirs. Stanley is also the place to glimpse colonial Hong Kong and an older Chinese tradition seen at the Tin Hau Temple.

One this past Saturday, the 22nd of April 2006, I was pleased to go and see the Hong Kong Ballet company. Hong Kong Ballet is one of the foremost professional classical ballet companies in Asia. Under the artistic direction of Stephen Jefferies, it has also built an international reputation with successful tours to Mainland China, North America, Europe, and other parts of Asia. Hong Kong Ballet presents a broad-based repertoire that includes classical ballets as well as original Chinese-themed productions, such as The Last Emperor, The White Snake, Mu Lan and Legend of the Great Archer. The Company's 40 dancers come from diverse backgrounds, although the majority are from Hong Kong, Mainland China and other Asian countries. With its visionary artistic direction and top quality dancers, Hong Kong Ballet exemplifies Hong Kong's vibrancy and ingenuity.

Saturday's performance was titled Classics & Beyond and played to full house when first seen in 2005 and won tremendous acclaims. It was re-staged in January at Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre and on the past Saturday it returned by popular demand for three performances at Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre. It was a rhythmic whirlwind, from Swan Lake’s romantic White Adagio, The Sleeping Beauty’s glorious Grand Pas de deux and Don Quixote’s light-hearted sparkling duet to creative short works choreographed by dancers from the Company, experimenting with different movement styles including Beautiful That Way (by Selina Chau) - which drew on the choreographer's own experience in: the love for beauty, the horror of the unknown, memories of a cherished icon, and the joy of sheer happiness. Falling (by Eve Chan) - Captured memories engraved in a young lady's mind, expressing recognisable emotions that can touch everybody's heart. KAGÈ (by Yuh Egami) - Explored how we sometimes internalise despair and close ourselves to the outside world. With a mix of classical, folk and electro music, it shows how dance can bring raw emotions to the stage. Swing It! (by Beh Chang-ching) - Took its cue from big band music to bring a touch of jazz and razzamatazz to the programme: throbbing, cheeky and catchy. Take it Easy (by Li Yi-ran) - If life is always taken too seriously it can be unnecessarily difficult. One should learn to accept situations in a more relaxed manner thus problems can often solve themselves. The programme ended with my favourite: There's a Fly in this Soup (by Carlo Pacis) - Light-hearted musical interpretation of the classics, performed to classical music with a percussive beat.

I am currently doing another music course while I am here in Hong Kong. Some people may remember that over the past two years I did music theory and then a blues guitar course with a college based in Boston in America. For some reason this online method of teaching by these teachers seems to be taught in a way that is easily understood by someone like myself and I find myself making good progress. The current course that I am doing is advanced scale theory and practice. Over the past three weeks I have submitted 12 musical assignments where I have two record myself playing over backing tracks and then submit those to my teachers in America for assessment. I have been pleased so far to have received favourable feedback. I have also learnt that these guys don't just give favourable feedback because people pay for the course, because I have seen some of the feedback that they have given the people who have been a little bit lax in their musical submissions. It is best to keep the quality up.

Whilst living in Hong Kong I have been endeavouring to learn some of the Chinese language. I am happy that I am now able to make my way around Hong Kong with little difficulty as I am able to give directions to taxi drivers, advise them of some destination names in Cantonese, negotiate my way around the Chinese menu when it is written in Chinese and I need to order in Cantonese, and other similar things. For example, when I get in a taxi and I want to go home I have learnt to say "Kay tin boon doh gai lai. Yuen yat kui". I am happy to report that only a few taxidrivers still screw up their face in frustration of what I am saying it actually understand what I have just communicated to them.

Being the type of person to make friends reasonably well, I was really pleased recently to make a friendship with a ponytailed Dutchman entertainer named David Chasse'. David is a singer and trumpet player and one hell of a nice guy. I was pleased to bump into him and spend some time with him over a few days the couple of weeks ago whilst he was here negotiating some entertainment contracts. If you would like to see David's web site and/or if you would like to hear some of his songs that you can download, please take a look at www.davidchasse.nl. David's song "Mokum" (meaning Amsterdam) is one of those little tunes they get stuck in your head and you find yourself humming and singing as you walk down the street a few days after you've heard it.

Recently I created a website or I can put all of my Tales of Asia stories. For those of you who are interested, all of my Tales of Asia - Lost in Hong Kong stories can now be viewed at www.talesofasia.blogspot.com

That's all for this instalment of Tales of Asia - Lost in Hong Kong. I hope you stay well until next time.

Cheers,

Alan