Wan Chai

It's amazing how one can leave a place where the thermometer reads -26°C and just several hours later be in a place that's 22°C. But that's what I did, leaving frigid Canada behind and going to Hong Kong as part of this year's epic travel adventure. It was unusually hazy and muggy when I arrived. My brother showed me the alarming pollution index for the day. The humidity was already giving me uncomfortable flashbacks from my last visit, but since my poor dry, cracked hands almost immediately started healing upon arrival, I decided I'd stick it out.  I just wished my hair would stop expanding.  Thank goodness I brought my flat iron with me.

People who know me know that I love British period dramas. So, naturally, I'm a big fan of Downton Abbey. You can't imagine my giddy delight a few weeks ago when they were somehow able to work Wan Chai into one of the storylines. This just happens to be where my brother lives (but in modern times). It doesn't look very different from North Point, where he lived the last time I was here (to be honest, every street in Hong Kong looks the same the me).  Some parts of the area are known for being a district of the red light variety, but it's very close to the downtown shopping areas, so it works for me.

On the first night here, we went out for Korean fried chicken (a slightly different KFC experience) and tried to understand the various K-Pop music videos that were playing on the screens.  It made me realize how little sense most pop music videos make in general.  And yeah, every boy and girl group looked the same.  Seriously.

Back at my brother's apartment we sat around, drinking beer, catching up, and listening to his playlist of classic alternative featuring the likes of Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins, and it completely felt like we were back home, and not on the other side of the world in a different country.  I guess it reinforces the idea that home is wherever you make it.

"And I wonder, when I sing along with you, if everything could ever feel this real forever"