qin qian qong in hong kong

Kopee woach? kopee henbaak? heer, kopee byee kopee(copy watch, copy handbag madam? here copy buy copy)- 'original fakes' business is going well in hong kong - I can see the effectiveness as my roommates are sporting shiny Rollexes on their wrists (it's for my brother but I need to check it out first). Hong Kong Kowloon is a place where the east is at the west's feet, all that shopping glitz goes for a head-on crash with delapidated stench of narrow streets, but where everybody sweats no matter where they come from in a painfully still air of local summer.
You would think that a metropolis like that would timidly try to hide its stinky interior. KOWLOON, however, shamelessly does full monty - one glance up and you're flying among the shabby blocks, one step aside and you're with the poor of a side street.
Here you waltz through the day: one, two, three, please buy meee. Blinding is the sparkle of a new mobile phone, tempting is the fetish of a super fast laptop. It's so hard to resist...I give up and after a hard haggle I go downtown straight away to check out my new photo toy.
Looking at China through HONG KONG perspective makes it a soft landing in Mao's reality successfully blurred by the hubbub and consumerism of Kowloon. That's why it wasn't long before I felt the pressure to push on towards THE WALL. It seemed so easy - just buy a Hong Kong-Shanghai sleeper, get enough reading for a 24h journey, stretch on the berth and gaze at the horizon looking for the shadows of Shanghai skyline. Well, things that are thought to be easy might be very misleading since they're often based on coincidence. In my case it meant a 72h patience lesson that had to be humbly taken...

NEW ZEALandOUS cha cha

the earth, the wheel, our heads*, time and space, the sun and the moon, our lives, even a smile - everything seems to have a conceptually round shape**. things seem to be continuous even if they happen once. but even though we seem to be going in circles, it's never the exact trail that we have followed before, the river is always flowing. the idea is the same, it's the circumstances.

so i am going to complete the full circle soon and start doing it anew at the same time. I started in New Zealand and am going to finish there. with a year gone by, however, I'll be looking at the place through a uni window. all that is to come makes me realise how dangerous silly ideas can be :-) once it gets a chance to become a thought it becomes a nagging one, a numb spot that spreads all over. same thing as with the CHA-CHA*** (CHINA CHALLENGE). one place. china. two words. great wall. one innocent pastime. running. result? i don't know what i'm doing but am going there to see how far i can run, how frustrated i can get not knowing the language, how tough i really am, how much control over my life i can lose.
it's now all guessing. but in two days it'll be all happening.
yeyeyeyeey!!!!!
i do realise how naive/obvious/dull/popular words these are but:
I LOVE TRAVELLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i am thus bringing WORDSAROUND back to life.