Honkers

I am just at the airport waiting to take off for the fair city of Dublin. Honkers has gone by in a blur or colour, lights, people, expensive food and blistered feet. Only two and a half days, but this strange and surreal city has exhausted me. As someone who treasures and guards their personal space it was a struggle to remain sane within the city centre (the stifling humidity doing nothing to help that closed in feeling) however I am very grateful to Anna who recommended a wonderful hostel up on Mt Davis far away from the crowds, noise and frantic pace of life in Hong Kong. A half hour bus ride out to Stanley also provided a restful beach and room to relax. Having never made the stopover in Honkers before I was a bit unsure about what to expect and to be honest I'm still a bit unsure. It seems a really strange mix (if not violent collision) of cultures, ideas and people. One moment I was lost in a maze of small street stalls, the cornocopia of smells fusing together - fish markets, noodle stalls, vegetable boxes, with not an english word or product in sight; the next minute I'm standing in front of Marks and Spencers tossing up whether it really would be extremely poor form to eat something from Pret-a-Manger when I will actually be in London very soon - however much I miss it.....After a while these beacons of Englishness began to disconcert me and became like teasing mirages of something close but not here at all, for while there is so much of London here, London it is not....not of course that I wanted it to be, but the juxtaposition of the two cultures is somewhat jarring on my nerves at this point. I found myself retreating more to the absolute unknowns of chinese characters and strange looking dishes, finding comfort instead in being lost, rather than in being halfway found.

tigger at Stanley Beach


view from my hostel