CatmaSutra goes to Hong Kong, the sights, the tastes, the big Buddha...

From the Depths of my Lullaby
Gallery by the Harbour, Shop 207, Level 2,
Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong

4 Jul 09 (Sat) - 28 Jul 09 (Tue)
11am - 9pm daily
Ms Chloe Fong T: (852) 2118 8008

This was technically the second time that I visited Hong Kong. The first was just a stop-over where I didn't even venture out. It was summer and terribly hot and the streets were just too crowded (it seemed too much like Singapore). This time round, I went with some friends who know some friends in Hong Kong, and i guessed I felt the vibe of Hong Kong. This goes to show how much a place can differ if you have the opportunity to meet some really nice and sweet people. That's the real charm of a place.

You think, that since the term was coined, "the Four Asian Tigers" referring to the highly developed economies of Singapore and Hong Kong, (South Korea and Taiwan are the other two) between the early 1960s and 1990s, that the two cities must be alike - crowds of people, fast-paced lifestyle. That immediately reduces my desire to visit Hong Kong as a holiday destination. But one can also not deny the energy and vibrancy of the place, and it's huge. There are lots of spaces for culture to grow organically, for different energies and sub-cultures to develop. Some chaos is essentially required for this energy to surface. That's when Singapore feels like a manicured garden, very much controlled and censored. It's as if the government is afraid of culture, and hence, must always "manage" it, and in doing so, these organic energies are essentially diluited and lost.

As more and more Singaporeans travel and experience the vastness that is so different from our own country and culture, perhaps we would be able to feel that life is bigger, much bigger than this life that we're supposed to live. So Rock-a-bye... live and let live, open your heart and travel. The world's just different places under one sky, not unlike the heart.

:)