Identity

"Most of us have a special and intense interest in what will happen to us. You learn that someone will be run over by a truck tomorrow; you are saddened, feel pity, and think reflectively about the frailty of life; one bit of information is added, that the someone is you, and a whole new set of emotions rise in your breast." -- John Perry, "The importance of being identical"

Stars

When you see the starry heavens,
Do you ever wonder
what the stars are for?
What do the glittering celestial bodies
which looked so cold and beautiful,
aloof and distant,
have as their purpose?

The tempting answer is:
None.
They simply exist.
That is all to it;
just as it is all to it that we are here.
Purposeless, and random.

But suppose
Maybe,
it could just be that
They are here
just so I can wonder about them.

Money

When you see a dollar note on the ground

dropped by someone in a hurry

you mustn't tell anyone.

For if you do,

they will ask you,

Why didn't you pick it up?

And you would have to explain

the police stations,

they don't accept loose notes

as lost-and-found articles;

there will be no identifying signs

that point to whose its owner was.

And it would be impossible

to ask around

with the note in hand

whoever lost it just moments before.

At least

it would be a great hassle to.

Then they would ask

outraged,

Why didn't you just pocket it?

An outrageous suggestion proposed outrageously.

So don't ask me

if I saw that note,

when I pretended not to.

day 3 and 4--the peaks of HK

Had western breakfast yesterday at the Medicine School of HK. It was really nice and cheap, especially the bacon. I even considered ordering one more set, but decided against eventually.

In the afternoon, we went to Central. Originally I had wanted to go try one of the famous duck egg wanton noodles there, and the egg tarts, but when I had my lunch, I discovered that my sense of taste is gone completely from the flu. sianzzzz. So I rescheduled the food tasting to another day, and just ate some normal food.

One of the two famous egg tarts stalls at Central was sold out on the tarts, but the other produced a pipping hot tray of egg tarts just when I stepped into the shop. The crust is soft and the egg jelly on it really looks like jelly. But I couldn’t taste a single thing. =s

From Central, we walked through Lan Kuai Fang, which is the Clarke quay equivalent in HK. It was super crowded since it was Halloween yesterday, and people are crowding the streets dressing up like witches and vampires. Rather hapenning, but since it was really hard to walk with all those people jaunting around, I didn’t manage to take any pictures.

Then we went to the Victoria Peak, or simply the Peak as the Hongkongers so endearingly called it. Nothing much actually, except you can see Hong Kong from the top of the mountain.

Today we went to Lantau island, where they have the huge Buddha at the top of the peak. Took cable car up, even though I didn’t really like the heights, but it was quite worth it; by bus, the journey up would have taken around 1hr, what took only 15mins by cable. The view is great too, from the cable car.

Then it was a 280 steps climb up the stairs to reach the Buddha. Lines and lines of shops sprang out around the Buddha and the temple, making it look really commercialized. I’m sure the Buddha would have disagreed with it.

I’m actually still sick during this 2 days. Think I’m not enjoying the trip as I ought to be.