Un-hip Hong Kong

Hong Kong is like a Ferrari. Slick, flashy, fast, expensive. They say that most people who drive Ferraris have small peniuses, hence they need to overcompensate by making lots of money. Is this true? I can only theorize. Personally, I think Ferraris are so nineties. Come to think of it, I thought they were awful even in the nineties! But, I'm the kind of girl who would prefer a vintage convertible to a slick new ferrari any day of the week.

Does this garish display of wealth appeal to women? In Hong Kong, unfortunately, it does. Hence my conclusion- Hong Kong is not hip.
I have a friend who used to date models, DJs and designers. Now she's switched over. She told me that was just a phase and now she wants to find a tycoon, but a mob boss will also do. Italian, preferably.

I was having lunch with a couple of tai-tais (rich housewives) the other day and the conversation was appalling. It was all drivers, maids, diamond rings, and don't sell your flat in such and such city and Black American Express cards... At one point one of them was trying to understand what her husband did for a living so she dared to broach the topic of derivatives trading.
I refused to have that conversation lest someone overhear a bunch of girls with their shopping bags sounding like clueless idiots.

One night I hit the town with my girlfriend who works for MTV, we started drinking champange at the Armani Bar (It's at Armani in the mall!) They have models doing PR walking around talking to the customers. The crowd consisted of bankers, and more bankers. One of them professed to like surfing, playing guitar and was an amateur playwright. (Okay, that's kind of cool.)
Anyway afterwards we headed to Dragon-I. Some VIP got us past the velvet ropes. Here I was cornered by one of the biggest assholes I ever met in my life. He was an "actor". He kept making allusions to the fact that he had a "Big One" and he claimed he didn't want to have an intellectual conversation. In the end he said "Remember, women are just possesions of men" WHOA NELLY!
Top quality man. NOT!

I told him he looked like Adrian Brody and he was so insulted. He was like "Clive Owen" maybe, but not "Adrian Brody"! Whatever.

Really, there has to be more to life than status, money and looking good. This seems to be all that Hong Kong is about. I don't mind hanging with those kind of people sometimes, but there needs to be an alternative.
What about helping others? What about art and philosophy? What about literature, music, creativity, innovation? What about nature and preserving the environment?

I need to find some new friends. I miss Seoul and my friends in Seoul!!!

What can I get for 10,000 dollars?

What kind of place can you get in Hong Kong for 10,000 dollars a month?

-A view of the Central from the peak complete with a lobby full of gold angels around a waterfountain and luxury surroundings fit for a Chinese tycoon circa 1995.
-A beautiful view of repulse bay beach with luxurious marble floors, faux European molding and leather massage chairs in your living room! The lovely bathrooms come with rich gold fawcets and there are several tycoons living nearby the area.
- An enromous concrete box far removed from Central with a few small rooms and a separate entrance for your maid/driver's quarters...
- A cool but spooky flat in one of the last colonial buildings at the peak. The address is very prestigious, but it feels like ghosts are living in the fireplace.

Well the sad thing is, I'm being sarcarstic, but I'm not joking. The property market here has gone through the roof and it's virtually impossible to find a decent place to live. The properties are super tacky despite the fact some some of them have nice views. It apparent that people's values are very different here. I guess it matters if Lee Ka Shing is living next door, even if your place is a hyper-expensive bunghole of an apartment. I cannot even begin to explain how mentally exhausted I am after seeing all the crap for rent in this city.

Some of the places look like they need to be bombed and just started from scratch. I've been on the hunt for 5 days in a row now. The first day we went out, we thought we hit the jackpot with this fab apartment with this amazing roof terrace overlooking the beach. Someone grabbed it from right under our nose. We could have started a bidding war, but let's be serious here! It's bad. I'm starting to get discouraged. I'm ready to just pitch a tent on the beach at Shek O and cal it a day.