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So my time in Hong Kong has come to an end. I've had about 2 and 1/2 weeks here, staying with Jo, my friend from school, in their lovely house.
As some of you may know I had originally made plans to go to Hong Kong for a month, as I had been offered a part in a play. Unfortunately, a location for the run couldn't be found so it has been put off. Despite this, I found plenty of more 'work' related things to through various contacts I had, both from the cancelled play and the family I was staying with.
- I spent a day at a school teaching drama - mainly focused on some year 8/9s doing their final evaluated performances. The school was mainly chinese populated, and it was incredible what they were doing - performing self-written spoofs ("James Wong" for "James Bond", "Pretty Little Hoodlums" for "Pretty Little Things" etc!), and making presentations of museum exhibitions in character, using graphic 3D designs they had made themselves on their laptops. Crazy to see!
- Went to a couple of meetings for a culture/live performance internet website out here called HKeld. They're putting on an awards show for live theatre in the city soon, and it was really interesting getting involved with the preparations.
- The most exciting one was helping out with a new play called "Telema". It's being put on by African refugees living in HK (a big group, actually), and telling their stories of fleeing their home countries for a safer life. I talked to this one guy who had organised a protest in Cameroon, the police came in and shot half of them down, and he was chased out of the country. My role has been really interesting, and pretty different from anything I've done before. I was 'pre-production stage manager' - basically, I sorted out the props, including hanging baskets (involving sewing!), bottles in brown paper bags, clay cooking pots, balloons etc... I also helped out with stage design, although only in the early days.
Of course, I've been a bit of a tourist as well. Highlights:
- Seeing Central. The sheer size and volume of these skyscrapers has really blown my mind, haiving never seen anything like it in person before! Even in their 'countryside' (which sounds strange, but there is a lot of it - 70% of HK is National Park), you round a corner and there is just a collection of 30 buildings, each 30 floors high, housing tens of thousands of people.
- Going up the Peak, and getting a great view of the city. Forgot my camera!
- Stanley, a strange seaside resort, where we went rockclimbing and I upset a pack of stray dogs.
- Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery, outside Sha Tin.
- Seeing the HK nightlife!
- Having a day out on a speedboat with one of the Expat families in the community - biscuit-boating, waterskiing and wakeboarding, although I wasn't quite coordinated enough to make the wakeboarding happen.
- Taking the cable-car over the mountains to see the 'Big Buddha' on Lantau island.
- Having a day out with about 6 of the Expat families on a huge boat, jumping off, games on the beach, 'scones on the boat, darling' and a bit of banana boating.
- Staying in a house with hot water, double beds, washing facilities, a pool, a tv, and a family environment. Really quite a change from the $3 a night beds I've been staying in whilst travelling!
Had a lovely time and some great experiences, but now to move on. A 2 day stopover in Singapore next. Goodbye Hong Kong!
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