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November 16 I tagged along with my hubby on a business trip to Singapore last week. It wasn't super exciting. It never really is, but it was cool to stay at the Fullerton Hotel on the company coin ( It was voted best hotel in the world last year, I think)
One night we had dinner with a French banker friend of my husband's and he wanted to take us to this authentic Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We met him at his house. It was 6000 square foot, 5 bedrooms with a private swimming pool. It was the same price we will be paying for our two bedroom flat in Hong Kong. ARRRGGGHH! (you have no idea how much this frustrates me)
Anyway, we squeezed into his little red MG convertible and took a breezy drive to some random street in the burbs. Valentino's restaurant is a house that was converted into a restaurant and it's run by a really nice Italian family. It's truly a grass-roots place. It's unpretentious and out of the way and as soon as you walk in, you feel like you've arrived in your some Grandma's house in Italy. Everyone speaks Italian to you even though they know you don't speak Italian. The food is so good, the place is jam-packed every night despite being in the boonies.
I knew right away that it was the wrong restaurant to be on a diet. The owner came over an rambled off a list of high-calorie specials including some beef dish that had 850 grams of beef! Then he proceeded to take out a tupperware with two pieces of white truffles embedded in uncooked risotto. As soon as he opened the tupperware the pungent smell of the truffles permated our table and the smell probably travelled to all the neighboring tables as well. We ordered the truffles and we also ordered a feast fit for an overweight mafia don.
The truffle course arrived with alot of pomp and circumstance. The waiter brought over a little weighing scale and doled out a portion of white truffle the size of a fat man's finger. It was 25 grams. The waiter then proceeded to finely grate the truffles onto a bed of lightly buttered pasta. We each had our own portion. I'd never eaten truffles in this manner before and although the truffles were highly odoriferous I found them to be quite dry and
tasteless (kind of like the host bread they give out in a Catholic church)
When the bill came, I almost choked on my wine. I couldn't believe how expensive it was. It wasn't like we were eating at some fancy five star restaurant or anything!
25 grams of truffles costed 250 US dollars! Holy crap. I knew those little buggers were costly, but had I known how exactly how much, I would have been like "Bring on the Porcini!" Apparently truffles grow on trees and they take 3 years to come to full maturity. They are very rare (obviously) and you need an dog or a pig to sniff them out. They grow mostly in France and Italy. How come I never knew all of this?
I was telling this story to a trust fund friend the next day and she didn't even flinch. It was like she had eaten truffles in a jar as a baby. She was like,"Yeah, white truffles are more expensive than the black ones, but I prefer the black ones." hmmf. November 11
Let's face it, balls are usually boring stuffy affairs where you get all gussied up and have a civilized conversation over dinner. If you're lucky, you might end up doing some ballroom dance moves with some feisty seniors. The yacht club ball was nothing like that. It was actually fun! (Maybe this is "the real world?")
The crowd was young-ish (mid twenties-mid forties) and there were at least 1000 people there.
The Yacht Club is a stunning venue. It’s a nautical/colonial building with roofs, terraces and a swimming pool overlooking Victoria Harbour and the twinkling city lights. On top of that, it was the night of the full moon.
The theme of the ball was “Shanghaied- Pirates of the South China Seas”.
Everyone looked so glam in their tuxes and gowns. Alternately, some people came in costumes (and I thought Halloween was over). Some people were wearing Chinese cheongsams, some were dressed like 17th century pirates with wigs and feather hats and one guy even had on a super hilarious costume that made him look like he just washed up from a shipwreck. He had a life preserver around his waist and real cuttlefish attached to his back! Obviously he stank and by the end of the night, he had either lost the cuttlefish, or got hungry and ate them.
At 7:30PM, they had an outdoor standing cocktail with free-flow champagne and a light show with dancing dragons. Then at 9PM, people were seated for dinner in all the colonial rooms with the wooden shuttered windows. By 11PM, the al fresco dance floors were full of people getting their groove on. One floor had a live band and one level had a DJ who was spinning all drunken people’s greatest hits: Dancing Queen, YMCA, Barry White etc…As the night wore on, women started to take off their designer stilettos so they could boogie down. On a surreal note, someone dressed as a chicken started to spin me around the dance floor. Another French guy cut in for a twirl and he literally picked me up and flipped me around. No joke! I was airborne! Thank God I landed on my feet…At 1 AM they put out the much needed ‘after midnight buffet’ to fuel the dancers appetites. We tried to make it to the 7AM survivor photo, but we didn’t even make it to the 5AM breakfast buffet. My feet were throbbing after all the dancing and there was no way I could get the shoes back on. By that time, almost everyone was barefoot.
SEE PICS AT THIS LINK:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/liza-world/yacht/neon.htm
The day after was perfect despite the fact that we woke up late and hungover. We were going to revisit a flat that we liked in Repulse Bay that has an enormous terrace overlooking the sea . The terrace alone is 1100 square feet! And the view, Whoa! There are no words to describe it. The flat itself was pretty crappy but the landlord intended on doing some major renovations. When we revisited, the renovations had just begun and the workers had knocked out all these walls to make room for picture windows and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. The flat looked like a construction site but you could tell it was going be stunning. Absolutely speechless stunning. We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but there’s a very good chance we will be living there by the New Year.
Afterwards we decided to hop over to Deep Water bay beach where one of the most gorgeous afternoons in Hong Kong history was taking place. The sky was so clear. There were no clouds and not a trace of smog. The air was dry and temperate and the sun was just beginning to cast its golden light on the sandy shore. There’s a beach bar there overlooking the water called UNO. It’s flanked with palm trees, bamboo fencing and it’s painted a happy blue color. They were playing this really snappy French reggae music. Rastaman vibrations, yeah, positive! ooohhhooohhh
We stopped here for a cold beer and a swim. Then we made reservations at this funky little resto in Shek-O called The Black Sheep. We had some time to kill so we wandered around Stanley market for about an hour. Finally we made it to dinner where the atmosphere was tropical and candelit. The Black Sheep is this eclectic little thatched roofed house with disco balls and an outdoor terrace overlooking a cool old Chinese temple. It didn’t feel like we were in Hong Kong. It felt like we were in Thailand or Indonesia. It felt like we were on holiday. That’s what life is like when you live on the Southern part of Hong Kong island. I’m so looking forward to living there! I can totally see myself strumming my acoustic guitar on that terrace. Nevermind that I don’t have a guitar yet, nor do I know how to play. One needs to dream…. November 09
People tell me I’ve been brainwashed in Korea and that Hong Kong is the “real world”. “Welcome back to the “real world”-you must be happy!” people say. But I’m not happy. In fact, I think I’m being brainwashed here in Hong Kong.
I keep seeing billboards that send really strong subliminal messages. They have taglines like- “Be the Legend” (Work your ass off so you can be rich and die with the most toys- hence people will remember you.)
Or, “Explore the Possibilities”- This billboard featured a leggy blonde with long hair sitting in a tub surrounded by jewels. She was blowing bubbles made with pearls. While this tagline could be innocuous, the image really sends a strong message: Only by having money and stuff can you have ‘possibilities’ (or gorgeous leggy blondes bestrewn with jewels)
My personal favorite is this one: “Money- Too Exciting to Keep in a Safe” This billboard has a couple running happily through some barren field, (possibly a beach or a desert) in search of adventure. In the front of the billboard is this AMAZING shiny silver vintage convertible. I’m so ignorant about cars, so I couldn’t say what kind it was but I liked the car. I must say, the car was cool. However this billboard did imply that you needed money to have fun.
Now if all this is not brainwashing, I don’t know what is.
I’ve been having a love-hate relationship with wealth. I sometimes feel guilty about enjoying what my husband has worked so hard for. Especially when I know that there are other people who are struggling just to eat. Hong Kong seems to be all about hoarding the wealth and flaunting it. Greed is good. It’s all so nouveau riche. I was having this discussion with someone the other day and he affirmed my suspicion- It’s not enough to be ‘well-off’ in Hong Kong. You have to be filthy stinking loaded to keep up with the Joneses. This truly irritates me. I don’t want to play this game. It’s a game I don’t want to win.
I was hanging out with my girlfriend the other day and she had a long list of things to do.
1. Get a pedicure
2. Get her legs waxed
3. Get her highlights redone
Other than that, she was free for a coffee and a browse through Lane Crawford.
I came to the conclusion that women with pedicures on their list of things to do should be counting their lucky stars. Anyway, after so many days of being idle and living the tai-tai life (Yes, I have had pedicure on my list of things to do) I’m frustrated, guilty and bored with it. I need to find something meaningful to fill my time with-like good friends, sports and a job I like. I’ve been doing research on putting together hiphongkong.com and trying to see if it’s viable, but Hong Kong seems oversaturated with publications. I have to be superwoman to compete in this environment and I don’t know if I have the energy to do it all again from scratch. Everyone says I’ll adjust, that I’ll find my friends and find my footing. Right now I wish this culture shock phase of moving would just pass.
November 03 I started blogging on myspace recently instead of here, but then I realized you actually have to be a memeber to read other people's blogs. This is my myspace adress in case anyone is a member there: www.myspace.com/seoulstylistaAnyway, here are few blogs from the past couple of weeks:
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Thursday, November 02, 2006
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Commiting the Ultimate Sin (at the mall)
So we're in Hong Kong land of 'flash the cash'. I figured I'd give up on trying to save the world for a night and just go with the flow. Anyway, before we even arrived in Hong Kong, one of my friends had already reserved us seats at her table at the Yacht Club ball. The problem is I had to piece together an outfit in two days (sans the Tongdaemun night market and the Itaewon underground market! Wahhh.. You guys are lucky to live in Korea!)
On top of that, I had to find a new tux for my husband who was away on a business trip in Kuala Lumpur. His tux is a sorry relic from the early 90's with a rounded collar and a boxy cut fit for a person who ate too much Burger King. Poor hubby's had back to back business trips around Asia and hasn't even had time to fart, let alone time to find something to wear to a party. So off to the mall I went. (Okay, twist my rubber arm)
I started out at this shi-shi dept store called Lane Crawford where I fell in love with a luxurious yet trendy Armani Collezione tux. It was outrageously priced of course and I just couldn't bring myself to put down the credit card, so I pressed on for a better alternative. I didn't find one. However, I did find the manager of the Armani Collezione and he explained to me the differences between the cuts and fabrics of the tuxedos. To complete the look, he showed me a smaller silver bowtie which is very trendy at the moment. It was the entire 'Armani Concept' he said. Just to give you an idea, the 'small' bowtie alone cost 170 US dollars. OUCH. But damn it looked good and I knew my husband would look hella fine in it. I had to confer with my better half and he said, "Well if it looks good, that's going to cost money, baby". I guess you can say that about many things, including girls (sometimes)….
As for me, I found a floor length eggplant-colored goddess gown in stretch silk. It was dangerously low cut enough to garner the approval of some random pervert who was shopping in the women's department. It wasn't crazy expensive, so it was a done deal.
That was all well and good, but then I had to find the accessories, like shoes for example.
Yet another ordeal!
I was trolling the luxury goods floor because that's just what you do in Hong Kong. I gingerly passed by the Manolo Blanik store and more out of curiousity than anything else, I allowed myself to walk in for a browse. That's when I commited the ultimate sin, I walked into Manolo Blanik wearing ten dollar flip flops! Gasp! There were 5 shop girls in this tiny store and no one had anything to do except glare at my feet and whisper softly to each other. I had this distinct feeling that my flip flops were making this loud noise with every step I took. Hey! Didn't they realize my back was injured at Body Pump! Oh well screw them, if they want my money, they better play nice. To their credit, Hong Kong girls who work at luxury shops are never snobbish like they are in New York or Paris.
I've never owned a pair of Manolos and I really don't see what the hoopla in about. I looked at the heel of one of them and the bottom part of it shouted "made in China". Even without my feet in them, the shoe itself teeter-tottered. That left me thinking that before the end of the long night, I will probably lose my balance and fall down in those ridiculously expensive shoes.
Anyway, after my adventure at the mall, I came home with barely enough energy to eat leftover falafel from the Lebanese take-out joint. My husband better like his tux.
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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What a pain!
In my eager quest for the fit body of yesteryear, I injured my back.
I was doing some apparently malformed squats in my 'Body Pump' class when all of a sudden a dull insistent pain spread slowly across my lumbar region. I knew I was sticking my butt out too much! Anyway, I was toast.
For three days now, standing up from a sitting position has been a painful struggle. I took intense pain killers and spread some anti inflammatory gel on the afflicted area, but there would be no relief for this unfit soul.
I decided that when in Honkers, do what the Honkies do, so I trekked it over to the Chinese medical clinic for some acupuncture and some holistic healing. I've also been fatigued and I feel like my hormones have been out of wack, so I figured it was time to give my 'Qi' and overhaul anyway.
I've never done acupunture before so of course I was apprehensive. The doctor didn't speak any English and the nurse had to translate, but he did seem to know what he was talking about.
He asked me to stick out my tounge, then he felt the pulse on each one of my wrists, then he took my blood pressure. I told him what was ailing me and he said that it definetly was not a pinched nerve otherwise I'd have shooting pain all the way down my leg. He said I most likely had strained the ligaments in my back, which is what I had self-diagnosed anyway after reading about it on the internet.
He said there was no point in doing "bone setting"- the Chinese equivalent to chiopractic back cracking (SCARY!) Instead he recommended acupuncture, which was what I wanted in the first place.
I lied down on the bed with my exposed back and he proceded to tap the needles into points of my lower back, behind my knees and in my calves. There were 12 needles altogether and I haad to stay like that for 20 minutes. He said he could see the Qi flowing because the needles were vibrating.
Surprisingly, I did feel better after the treatment. So much better that I decided to meet my girlfriend at the Armani bar for a Halloween drink.
Everyone was dressed like pirates. There's this super fine Guest Relations manager who works there. I swear girls go there just to ogle him. He was dressed like Zorro and all the girls were having Casanova fantasies about him. (I'm sure a few guys too)
After a few shots of Jagermeister, the back pain had all but disappeared into oblivion.
The doctor also gave me some aromatic powdered medicine to take every day. He said it would purify my blood and help cure the ligaments. The medicine smelled like incense. Apparently one component was myrhh, something that they actually make insense with.
My girlfriend was poking fun at me the next day when I was mixing the powder into a glass of water. She said "Are you sure that isn't the ashes of some dead Chinese guy?" She also said I was going to grow a big FuManchu beard after taking that stuff and that I'd develop a big mole with a long hair growing out of it. (Oh shut it!) I chocked the stuff down anyway.
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Sunday, October 29, 2006
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The Beach
I'm back in Honkers and back on the hunt for a place to live. Yesterday that hunt took us to an area called Stanley which is at the southernmost tip of Hong Kong Island. At first I thought Stanley would be too far away from the city center for me but on the upside, Stanley does have gorgeous beaches there and a famous outdoor market. These days, the place has been seriously upgraded and now the place feels like a groovy little beach village with it's own amenities.
Stanley is also the place where they hold this really rocking dragon boat regatta. Rows of yachts and junk boats hook up to each other and line the race course. It's basically a huge floating party with a few dragonboat races in between. Some teams are really into the race competition and some are just in it to get dressed in crazy costumes and get piss-ass drunk and PARRTYY! I actually rowed on a very serious girls team for three years in a row and it will be very convenient for me to live in Stanley if I decide to get back into the sport.
It was a goregous day in Stanley. Not too hot, not too cold and the sun was out in full force. I put on a hippie dress, some shell earrings and flip flops for a beachy day. It was a perfect day to be there and we decided to have lunch at this charming little beachfront restaurant run by a cute Chinese family. The whole afternoon left us with a good feeling about potentially living there. Stanely had a few promising properties, but the market is still outreageously high. It may behoove us to wait just a little while longer to see if anything else comes on the market.
After Stanely, my hubby dragged me to the auto mall because boys just have to be boys and he wanted to ogle all the shiny convertibles. The auto mall is in a parking garage and there were some really fancy vehicles on display. I checked out all the convertibles and as well the SUVs and I decided that I would rather take taxis and save the environment instead of purchasing some gas guzzler that would deplete the natural resources of the world an pollute the air. My husband was not fully convinced. One day he just may end up taking home one of these slick two-seat Mercedes convertibles in which case, I'll have no choice but to get dolled up and ride in the passenger seat.
I've been meeting a lot of interesting people lately. A really gorgeous friend of mine came in town from Singapore and she introduced me to a bunch of people she thought might be good people to know for any future endeavors. She had previously lived in Hong Kong and she's best friends with the model/PR person from Dragon-I so I'll never have a problem getting in there whenever I want.
Here are a few new pics:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/liza-world/stanley-beach.htm
I also met a bunch of potential new friends at a rooftop barbeque the other day. There was a fashion editor, a woman that worked for Turner media and some other miscellaneous fashion chicks. The rooftop of this building was so amazing! You were surrounded by neon and city lights all around.
I'm starting to get a real feel for Hong Kong now. It's conservative. At times even more conservative than Seoul. It's also not very imaginative. Someone said people are like sheep here. (Sounds eerily comparable to Seoul?, However I really do feel that Seoul is way more experimental and artistically inclined than Hong Kong) Anyway, I will post more pics later, but I must get to the gym for body pump now!
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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There's endless possibilities with feathers
I came to Seoul partially because I've been wanting to conduct a photoshoot called "Behind Closed Doors". This shoot was meant to be an arsty exploration into all the rooms or "bangs" that Koreans sneak around in. I wanted to shoot in three places, the Love Motel, the DVD bang and the Norebang.
What does a shoot like this involve? Well first you need to have the idea or the concept, then you have to source for photographers. Then you have to find volunteer models who are willing to make your vision come to life. You also have to find a place to do the photo shoot.
Then, everyone has to agree to come together at a certain time with all the props, makeup, wardrobe and equipment. This takes a bit of organization and is no mean feat, I tell ya!
So, I found all the players. Two photographers, a friend to do makeup and 4 volunteer models. We were out at M2 the night before and everyone was pretty much trashed from all the tequila shots and the dancing. It was also raining heavily the day of the shoot so that put even more of a damper on the situation. The shoot came very close to being cancelled due to hangovers and weather, but in the end, everyone rallied.
Me and the photographers got together to scout locations and in the rain we walked in and out of every love motel we could find in Kangnam. It was a very funny situation. One of the photographers is a British guy and he was with me and the other female photographer. All the ajosshis at the front desk were giving us this smirk and they kept asking "How many of you are going into the room?"
Little did he know that there were 9 of us including all the equipement, tickle feathers and a fishnet bodystocking. It must have looked quite suspicious.
We were looking for a really kitschy campy place, one that could easily exist in Las Vegas- mirrors on the ceilings, heartshaped beds, funky jaccuzi tubs etc... But that was not what we found. In the end we found a really nice clean place on Karosugil with the rubber curtains to hide the license plates.
The ajosshi at the front desk insisted that we rent two rooms. One of them had a jacuzzi on the terrace, but it was really too swishy to get the feel of what we wanted. There were however some very interesting shots involving the blindfold, fishnet stocking and a bottle of cheap champange. We'll have to wait to see what comes up in the end.
Well, after hours of location scouting and shooting, everyone was knackered. We all went out to Hongdae to finish off at the Norebang and DVD bang, but everyone started losing interest. Rightfully so as it was a looooonnnng day!
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Beyonce in Da House!
I was fed up with Hong Kong. Fortunately circumstance brought me back to Seoul this past weekend for some seoulstyle related activities. As soon as I arrived, the friend I was staying with announced that there was a hush-hush party for the Korean American guy from Linkin Park and that Jay-z and Beyonce would be there. Obviously the guest list was pretty tight, but we were cleared to come.
The party was at the Imperial Hotel which is purportedly a mob hangout (hence the ability to attract the VIPs, I suppose). It turned out to be the party of the year. There were only three other parties that I could think of that were as star-studded and as fun as this one. The Gucci fashion show in 2003 (topless male bartenders!), the Christian Dior party at the W in 2004, and the Taewon Entertainment party at Mr. Chow.
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Pre-party we had dinner at The Park in Apku. The girls were there to hang out with me for my brief stay. The entourage trekked it over to the party and it was truly a blast. How could it not be fun when there's free flow Veuve Cliquot and Belvedere Vodka?
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One actor I met said "Wow, this is like the crème de la crème of the Korean entertainment industry". Indeed it was. A lot of peeps were also in from LA due to the Busan film festival.
I kept having the same conversation all night:
"Are you an actor?"
"Yes, I'm in from LA actually"
"Are you an actress too?"
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There was a lot of dancing and drinking and meeting so and so and so and so's manager. There were also a few drunken movie offers and meeting such and such producer. I really felt like I was in LA. Beyonce and Jayz did come for about 20 minutes just to check out the Korean Rap band's performances. No one could get close to them because of their big gooda bodyguards, but later on someone introduced me to their manager. It was a truly fun party where people just let their hair down, went crazy, danced and just talked to each other.
Here's the link to the photos on seoulstyle:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/pics-beyonce.htm
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Well I paid the price for all the champagne and tequila shots I drank. I had to go to a meeting at 10:30 am with a dermatologist who wanted to sign up for advertising. How I conducted the meeting was beyond me as I only sobered up at 3pm. I was so tired all day, but I had gathered a bunch of people together to do a photo shoot on Sunday and they were all going out to M2 for a night of boogie and it would have been rude of me not to go.
It was another big night at M2. In fact, it was one of the best nights I've ever had at M2. A lot of the people from the Beyonce party were there and I ran into all these people that I hadn't seen in ages. I had to walk out of there before dawn as I didn't have my sunglasses. | | October 17 Here are a few pics from the past couple of weeks:
http://www.liza-world.com/lizaGalleries/hkg/computer.htm
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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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!!!
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Thursday, October 12, 2006
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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. | |
October 06
I'm in Hong Kong and it really isn't so far from Seoul. I watched one movie on the way over- "The Devil Wears Prada" and I was here, in my new home, well, my old home actually... I did live here for 5 years before coming to Seoul. The difference is now I'm a real "tai-tai"- (that means wife in Cantonese but it usually denotes a luxury lifestyle) instead of a struggling backpacker flight attendant.
This is an e-mail that I got from one of my friends in Hong Kong who is a producer for MTV:
NO doubt, your feeling being leaving your "SeouL" or "SOUL" is though……However, life goes on, the end of one chapter means the curtain up of your new show….
HK definitely is your destination after SEOUL … HK needs your touch of cool, inspiration, style, to complete here being a happy wonderland. I am sure you will be amazed with the working pace here, which is the special energy of HK… WELCOME!!!
Individual personality decides our career path, like you, like me….. we are doing something we are passionate about… smart gals always control their lives, & we know what we want….
Definitely, will try to think how the collaboration with your sites & my channel in HK, as there are so much exciting things happen around…..
Besides business, we can hang out most of the hippest places in HK, pampering your beautiful self with the most luxury spa here, sipping the best seamless vintage reserved champagne…. Aiya… I cant wait…..
This e-mail seemed to be a big foreshadowing of the life yet to come. I don't know if I can keep up! Anyway I was still very depressed about leaving Seoul, so I met up with some friends in Cheongdam for a last night of heavy drinking (bring on the Veuve) with the Seoul fashion peeps. I was still a little buzzed when I woke up to catch my early flight. Good thing my husband's company sprung for a business class ticket for my one way trip to Hong Kong. I think I polished off all the water bottles in the business class lounge.
When I got to immigration, they asked me when I was coming back to Seoul. I said I didn't know and they demanded that I relinquish my resident ID card. I was really upset when I handed it over. It seemed so official. I was finally leaving for good.
When I arrived in HKG, I check into my hotel where I had a fab harborview room on the privileged "Executive floor". I didn't have to pay for any of my meals because they were giving out all this free food and cocktails at the exec lounge! I feel like I'm living the LUXE life already and I've only been here for less than a day. It's a small consolation for my depressed state.
Having said that, I miss Seoul. I miss it terribly. Hong Kong is so gaudy. That's what happens when people have too much money. Creative bohemian lifestyles go out the window.
I collected a bunch of magazines which give similar info as seoulstyle and I found a gazillion things I wanted to do right away. There are not enough hours in a day for the numerous amount of activities I want to partake in!
Anyway, the magazines were pretty much for research to see what was out there and to see how hiphongkong.com can be different and fill the void. I've already concocted a masterplan. Now I just have to set up my computer and hit the streets with my camera.
Well still, as another consolation gift for leaving Seoul, I'm going to buy myself a guitar as soon as I get off this blog. I told my husband to be afraid. To be very afraid because I'm going to be twanging away at all hours....
I've just moved my stuff to the new serviced apartment we'll be staying in. It's super neeto. It looks like one of those boutique hotels in New York or Miami and there's a really great little design cafe next door where all these Europeans are hanging out eating organic food and typing away on their MAC laptops with the wireless internet connections.
I'm starting a workout regime as of today which includes boxing, pilates, swimming and tons of yoga. September 29
I'm terribly sad about leaving this place I've called home for 6 years.
Here's a link to an article that came out about me in the Korea Times a few days ago:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200609/kt2006092620130567650.htm
Funnily enough I was browsing through some old e-mails and I found a poem a wrote to this boytoy I was backpacking with in Vietnam. I was was 28, he was 19 and only spoke French, but never mind...
Every morning we would eat baguettes from a street cart for breakfast. (These baguette carts were a leftover from when France colonized Vietnam) We'd top it off with this processed cheese called "The Laughing Cow". This cheese needed no refrigeration and probably could survive a nuclear war. One day we were smoking something other than cigarettes and we were wondering why the damn cow was always laughing anyway?
After we parted, I made my first attempt to wax poetic in French. The poem was about why the cow was laughing. Of course my boytoy was cracking up when he read it becuase it did not make any sense in French. (Give me a break! It was a first try!)
Anyway I thought it appropriate to share the poem here in English because it's about how life is fleeting and this is kind of how I feel now that I'm leaving Seoul. Sorry about the simplicity of the vocabulary. It was originally written in rundimentary French.
The Laughing Cow
The laughing cow
She laughs for me
She laughs because she knows:
that the world is big
that the future's but a question
that love is just illusion
and that youth doesn't last forever
She only knows that the full moon
will rise over foreign lands
and that there will be a night bus
where two souls will meet
and sometimes bodies will connect
and a good time will be had
but later on they will be sad
because they'll miss each other... the cow laughs because she knows
that planes are going to fly
that Life, it continues
and one day will cease to be but the cow is always laughing
and with a bit of bread,
I will be laughing too.
I walked around yesterday alone looking at the sky, the buildings bearing down on me. I ate Korean food, went to the sauna and thought about all the things I've done and accomplished here. I was reminded of the last line in the book "Out of Africa" when Karen Blixen was leaving her farm in Kenya after so many years and so many adventures. It was towards the end when she had a famous soliloquy about leaving Africa- "I know a song of Africa.. Will Africa know a song of me?"
So I wrote my own funny version of that soliloquy about Seoul (This will be funnier to people who have seen or read Out Of Africa)- Here it is- ready for another poem?
If I know a song of Seoul, of permed ajumas yelling in Namdaemun standing over piles of chintzy wares, of traffic on the bridges of the Han and the clamor of a norebang song after a night of cheap eats at the pojangmacha, Does Seoul know a song of me? Will the smog over the streets quiver with a color that I have had on, or the entertainers write a song about seoulstyle.com, or will the night neon buzzing in soju smitten alleys throw a shadow on the street that was like me? Will the Chindo dogs of Namsan park look out for me? I had a website in Seoul……
Anyway, bye bye my beloved Seoul and all my lovely friends here. I will not forget the memories we've created together and I will try to visit from time to time. Just because I will be geographically in another place, it doesn't mean I'm not thinking about you and wishing you all the best!
Love and kisses from Liza, creator of seoulstyle.com September 07 Now that we're finally leaving Seoul, there are alot of preparations to take care of. First was purging my closet. Some people who have been to my house or who have seen photos of my closet marvel at how how much stuff I have (My closet is actually a room. It shares space with my huge bookshelf.) A girlfriend once said to me "Oh my God your closet looks like a clothing store" I love shopping but many things in my closet were just plain worn-out, so it was time to let go of a bunch of old clothes from yesteryear.
I donated a bunch of stuff to charity, lugged all my unwanted books to 'What the Book' in Itaewon and sold a bunch of furniture in a garage sale. Now I have the task of organizing all our electronic equipment, and categorizing my bookshelf so I can just unpack it on the other end and be done with the organization part. I've had people coming in and out of my house for two days for various things.
The biggest task now is finding people to keep my site going. Actually I've had loads of writers and photographers offer their services as of late and I've been meeting some of them and trying to gauge whether or not they are reliable and right for the job. I might be partnering up with another site and selling my stake to investors at the end of the year. It's too soon to abandon my baby just yet. I'm starting a sister site in Hong Kong called hiphongkong.com so that should keep me occupied for a few months.
I'm registering for a computer academy to further my skills when I get to Hong Kong. If I don't do that, I might just get a dog, learn how to play guitar and study Japanese. Who knows? People keep telling me it's time to have a kid, but I'm just not feeling that yet.
I'm pretty sad about leaving Seoul, so I've been consoling my existental angst by watching RockStar Supernova on the internet. (I was a Motley Crue and Guns and Roses fan back in the day) I'm obsessed with it. I watched the videos over and over and clap at the end of them. I even put my two cents in on the chatboard. The only thing I haven't done in this life was being a rock star, so I'm living vicariously through the contestants.At first I felt guilty about being a 35 year old woman obsessed with a rock star reality show, but then I checked out the message boards and realized most people leaving messages were my age or older! August 24 Over 6 years of my life has been spent in this random country. For three years, I lived in a isolated suburb called Song Buk Dong. Back then I was still flying for United Airlines and spent half the time out of town. Whenever I was in Seoul, I felt like I had to sit through sooo much traffic every day in order to get anywhere and I couldn't make any friends because I was away all the time. I also kept thinking that it was better eveywhere else I travelled to. I despised Korea back then and I was making no effort to understand this country because I was sure we would leave at any given moment. Actually it wasn't Korea I didn't like, it was just my situation.
When my husband got recruited to work for a different bank, I insisted on moving to Itaewon, a place where all the foreigners, shopping, and international restaurants are. Itaewon is becoming more visually attractive now, but it's still a dump, but who cares. It's in the middle of the city and it's in Itaewon where I learned to appreciate Korea and life as an expat.
Since then, I started my website, seoulstyle.com, made loads of friends and appeared in over 30 Korean magazines and 3 newspapers. I even did some acting and wrote a guide book for Seoul for the LUXE city guides. My website has taken off in a major way and people often rely on seoulstyle to make their lives in Seoul more fun. I get e-mails from people thanking me every day. It feels good to know that you've helped make life better for people and that you've made a positive impact on people's lives. I already miss seoulstyle.com and the purpose it's given to my sojourn here in Korea.
So I'm sitting at The PARK restaurant waiting for my friend Jiwon. We threw a party together there over a year ago. She was a little late, so I was just reminiscing about that party and how much fun we had promoting it. (We dranks so much champange, it was like 7-up after a while!) Then there were all the other parties and glam events I had a chance to go to. I thought about all the lazy afternoons drinking coffee and wine at Dosan Park with my girlfriends.
I missed Hongdae with all it's funky watering holes and artsy hangouts. I missed Insadong and it's tradtional architecture. I thought about the restaurant where I love to eat Mak Kook Soo, or the local dive where I go to for twenjang chigaee. I already missed the Korean sauna, my meticulous hairdresser and my amazing nail place. I missed Tongdaemun and night shopping. I missed the Itaewon underground market.
Most of all, I'm going to miss my friends and all the great relationships I've forged while here. The past three years in Seoul have been so great and leaving here feels like I'm really turning the page on a long happy chapter of my life. Who knows what the future will bring? Yet it keeps coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop it, until you die. In fact, it's kind of a death for me. Like a snake sheds it's skin, I feel like I'm shedding Korea. The question now is how will I reinvent my life in Hong Kong?
August 16 I had to go back to Paris again to finish up decorating our flat. Luckily, I got a free business class ticket from Hong Kong using my husband's frequent flyer miles! Unfortunately, when I arrived in Paris, nobody was working and I needed to get stuff done.
The fridge was broken-the repairman was on vacation.
The couch and table needed to be delivered- the factory was on vacation, the delivery man was on vacation, the lady who sold me the furniture was on vacation.
We were looking for a restaurant to eat at- we had to go to 3 different places before we found one that was open. They were all closed for the holidays.
Even my family-in-law was on vacation!!!
I tried my best to proceed under these unfortunate circumstances, and I did manage to get a few things done. The place looked like a toolshed when I left last time. There were tools and saw dust everywhere. There were unopened boxes and all kinds of deconstructed furniture parts.
It was up to me to put the closet together, unwrap and move the beds and decorate the rooms. I also needed to lug miscellaneous things (fans, plants, paintings, plates etc...) from our other flat to the new one. Then I had to photograph the place for marketing purposes. I managed to do it all despite the lazy attitudes of all the Parisians. (The ones who were still in Paris seemed to have mentally gone on hoilday!)
I realized that French people are very conscious about wasting energy and resources.
They have these lights called minuterie that turn on for about a minute and turn off automatically. Hence, when you get to your apt. building, it will be pitch black and you have to grope around in the dark to find the light swich for the minuterie. All buildings have this. It's a little scary if you're in the wrong neigborhood. Also there is no air-conditioning, anywhere. What a waste of energy! All the refigerators and appliances say how much energy the machine takes up, so you'll know roughly how much you'll be paying for electricity.
There are only one set of bathrooms on the fifth floor of BHV, the dept store where I was buying all the stuff for the flat. You wouldn't want to waste all that water now would you????
Also, when I had to throw away mounds of cardboard boxes from the flat, I actually had to call a number to get the recycling guys to pick it up. I couldn't just throw it in any old trashbin! One must recycle, otherwsie it's a waste!
Some of the cars are super tiny. You wouldn't want to guzzle gas, now would you? There are also outlets for electric cars in some parking lots.
It's very inconveinient all this stuff, but I was glad not to be wasting the earth's resources. If Americans did this sort of thing, maybe we wouldn't have to depend so much on Middle-eastern oil.
Anyway, I finally accomplished my mission and found myself at a cafe watching the world go by. I saw this interesting little girl and she had this SLR camera that looked way too big for her hands. She was going around taking what looked like really cool photos. She must have been about 8 years old. Her and her family sat down at the table across from me. They didn't speak French. At some point, this flower lady
was selling flowers out of a basket and the girl got up from her table and ran after her. Then she came back and gave me a little rose. It was so cute! I don't know what inspired her to do that. I guess she sensed that we were kindred spirits. The family invited me to their table and they were so cool. They were German. (very strangely, I have an affinity for Germans) They were so open-minded, intelligent and fun. The little girl had a Chinese name that sounded like Yukxitia (something like that) it was the name of a flower. They also wanted their boy to do an exchange program in Japan. They were such a good example of a family. I thought I'd be able to at least spend the month of august in Seoul since we're finally leaving Korea, but I had to go travelling again. This time we set off for a visit to Hong Kong, where we landed in the middle of a typhoon. My husband's new position with his bank will take us back there in mid-october. I have mixed feelings about moving back to Hong Kong. I loved living in Hong Kong in the late nineties. But being back there now, at one point I felt suffocated, like Hong Kong would be too small for me.
The difference between Seoul and Hong Kong is that Seoul much bigger and has alot of different subcultures: There are artists, musicians, designers, old-school tradtional Koreans, rich people poor people... There are many different neighborhoods in Seoul each with it's own flavor. Hong Kong is all about money. Everyone has money and is not afraid to flash the cash. Our friend just bought a power boat, his second Ferrari and a third porshe just to drive around when he goes back to France. The rents are preposterous! You cannot even buy a decent place for under 2 million US dollars now! Ladies just want to wear the most expensive designer thing they can get their hands on (which of course requires that you marry some ugly gazillionaire tycoon, the main goal for most Honkies. There's even a special word for that! tai-tai) Quite often, a woman will pay thousands of dollars for an outfit and still end up looking like a tacky clown. There's nothing hip, cool or innovative about this nouveau-riche flash-the-cash lifestyle. It's so passe to me, so early '90's. Plus, I am really opposed to wasting money when there are people in the world who have nothing to eat. The only place worse than Hong Kong for this flashy lifestyle is probably Dubai.
I firmly believe that art, innovation and hip, comes from struggle and finding solutions to problems. If you have alot of money, you never have to think innovatively, artistically, sympathetically. You just buy whatever the media feeds you.
Having said all of that, Hong kOng is a pretty neet city.The city skyline is so amazing. You can also go from a very urban environment, to hiking in the mountains to sunning on the beach, all in one day! I'm sure I will love it once I get back, but I will truly miss Korea after having been here for 6 years.
Another great thing is we already have loads of friends there and everyone speaks English! Two of my bridesmaids live there and one of then just gave birth while I was there. She wanted to know if I wanted to hold the baby and I was pretty scared. I'm not naturally maternal and I'm always afraid the baby's heads are going to snap off. I was tenuously holding the newborn bundle of joy, supporting his heavy head on the bony crook of my arm and his head felt like it must have weighed 100 pounds. I was like "Quick, take the photo before my arm gets tired and the baby's head comes off!!" HOHOHO... The baby still has it's head as far as I know.
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July 30 This week saw a flurry of social activity. The previous Saturday I
ran into Chi Miggi, the personage behind the Swaypro parties, at a
swank wine bar in the Itaewon back alley called Above. I never really
had a proper conversation with her before so I sat down to join her for
a drink. She was with a very entertaining Korean-American guy named Jun
who was in k-pop band called GOD. Apparently it had been a year since
he went somewhere without his bodyguard because he gets mobbed all the
time. That drink turned into several drinks and eventually Jun left, a
big entourage joined the party (complete with boytoys of differing
sexual orientations) and we all ended up dancing the night away at
Del's Disco.
The following Wednesday I caught up with my friend Jiwon at The
Park restaurant where she was having a flea market. We ended up having
dinner and I met her older son who lives in the states. His biceps are
the size of my head. He's 16 going on 21. It was funny to see her two
sons together. One big boy and one big baby. Her 3 month old is so big,
he's wearing 1 year old boys clothes. He's a very cool baby. He never
cries and he just kicks back observing life. His head and body are
quite proportionate which is odd for a baby. Usually their heads are
bigger than their bodies.
The following night there was a big Audi launch party, and the
following night I had a SIWA Working Woman's dinner as well as a going
away party for two veterans of Seoul. It was a big week.
This weekend, we went out to the Pentaport Rock Festival to check
out the Black eyed Peas. It was raining cats and dogs on friday so we
didn't go to see Jason Mraz and the Yeah yeah Yeahs. When we arrived on
Saturday, the entire field was a mud pit. It was like the Boryeong mud
fest all over again! It felt like you were stepping in quicksand.
However we discovered an amazing band from Japan called Dragon Ash.
Their music is a mix of just about everything. Hip Hop, Punk, R and
B... After seeing them play, we concluded that the lead singer is super
hot. He kind of looks like someone that would be in a Mexican gang, but
he's still hot. A chubby Korean guy performed after that named PSY. He
was good, but we wanted an encore of Dragon Ash. The Black eyed Peas
put on an incredible show! They are superstars through and through.
They did alot of improve raps and Fergie was doing one handed
cartwheels on stage in her skimpy outfits. Quite impressive..
On a very sad note, a person I knew who was on the local DJ/ party
promo scene died of cancer on monday. I'm not sure how old he was, but
he was less than thirty years old for sure.
A few weeks ago, he had
stomach pains and thought he pulled something. He got diagnosed with
cancer and the doctors told him he had a month to live. He died 3 weeks
later with not much suffering fortunately.
On the day of his
funeral, the sky opened up to a torrential rain. I had a Penataport
Rock ticket giveaway at Bar Nana in Itaewon and that was his favorite
place to spin. His parents came. It was very sad.
I always think about dying and it scares the crap out of me BUT,
it's the one thing all of us are destined to do. I think that's why I
try to have a positive outlook most of the time. It's really not how
you die, but how you live. So try to live your dreams, make people
around you happy and don't spend time hating on others or worrying
about trival things that don't matter. Forgive people who hurt you and
let the past go. The most important thing is living the moment to the
fullest extent possible and appreciating what you have instead of moaning about what
you don't have.
Here are a few photos from Pentaport.
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July 22 Biarritz is one of Europe's legendary surf spots and the wedding
crew decided to head out to the Pays Basque for a week of party with
all the cronies. We were originally on the way to Dubrovnik, but
ditched the idea to hang out with friends instead. Biarritz is located
in the South-West of France, so it's away from all the glitz and
glamour of the Cote D'Azur and Provence. This area has it's own
distinct style. There are alot of old buildings that look like haunted
houses. It's kind of tudor-style, you know the buildings that have
towers on the sides? I kept imagining Rapunzel up there in one of the
towers waiting to let her hair down. It's weird to see all these
bohemian surfers camping out in their vans with these haunted house
buildings in the background.
Anyway we had a blast catching up with our friends and making some
new ones as well. It was truly a week of bonding and togetherness. We
drank alot of rose wine by the sea, tried our hand at sufing and boogie
boarding and did a fair share of beach-bumming and shopping. We even
got to go to Spain one day for tapas and a raid the big ZARA shop! It
was really sad when we left. Everyone was in front of the car waving
goodbye. Good times eventually turn into good memories, but it all goes
by too quickly doesn't it? Even though my supposed 'holiday' was filled with all kinds of
manual labor (like hemming drapes and lugging tiles from the DIY shop
in 100 degree heat) My husband finally got to town and we had a week of
pure vacation!
My husband was a groomsman at his best friend's
wedding. They live south in Toulouse, where just about everyone works
for Airbus Industries. It's a very hip place and it was even mentioned
recently in Newsweek as a great example of a small city. There were
alot of art galleries, vintage clothing stores and Indian or Arabic
looking places where you could smoke hooka pipes. The wedding took
place at this old French church and afterwards the bride and groom rode
off in and extremly cool vintage Aston Healy. Alot of the girls were
wearing fancy hats and I had hat envy!
The reception was in an old
family famhouse the the middle of the countryside. We had to drive
through massive fields of sunflowers to get to our pension. Our pension
used to be a convent and there was a long gravel driveway leading up to
the house. There was an English garden and the swimming pool had
endless views of the Pyrenees. The lady that ran the place treated us
like guests in her home. We had freshly squeezed juice and warm
croissants every morning.
The sun sets around 10pm these days in
France and the long days are so amazing. Imagine sipping champange in
the dusk of twilight with all these glamourously tanned people dressed
in their wedding best. There was so much love and hapiness in the air,
however the groom did look somewhat dazed by it all. The party
continued till the wee hours and ended with all the boys sopping wet
from being thrown into the pool. We left at 6AM just in time to catch
the first rays of dawn.
I'm back from France! It was amazing, enchanting, romantic but it
was one of those vacations that you need a vacation from. Plus there
was a severe heatwave and the old-fashioned Frenchies don't really
believe in airconditioning. There weren't enough people in the
hospitals to take care of all the people who were suffering from the
heat! It was in this infernal chaleur that I had to do all the
decorating and renovation for our new apartment next to the legendary
Notre Dame chuch in Paris. I spent a solid week with my in-laws trying
to get by with my rudimentary French. After several days with my
brother-in -law doing 'DIY' stuff for the flat, I think my French
really improved! Plus my brother-in-law is now very motivated to learn
English so he can pick up American tourists at Notre Dame......
One
day we spent 15 hours buying an IKEA kitchen, drapes,beds, and all the
electronic stuff needed around the house. By some superhuman feat, we
manged to fit an entire kitchen into the trunk of my Brother in-law's
car!
I'm not going to lie, these situations can be very stressful
and I was radically irritated quite a few times, but I think at the end
of the day, I was closer to my in-laws because of it.
I don't know
if it's because my French has improved wildly, but these days I find
French people to be much much friendlier than before. It's a village
feel. Everyone says hi to each other and tries to make small talk. It's
a good atmosphere. However in Paris, there's still alot of frustrated
people. Things take alot of time. You get stuck in traffic,taxis are
immpossible to find, deliveries take time, there's alot of red tape in
general. You really have to kiss people's asses to get anything done.
In business, alot of people don't want to go the extra mile because
most of their salary is going to the govt. in any case. Needless to
say, there are alot of three hour lunch breaks going on. Other
nationalities may find this inefficient, but French people call it
'enjoying life' or having a good quality of life.
Whatever it is, Paris is pure magic. It's hands down the most
romantic city in the world. Every building is a monument or museum and
the government is really vigilant about keeping the city clean and
liveable. All though the month of august, the city of Paris can enjoy
Paris Plage, an artifical beach that spans the Seine river. There's a
pool, cabanas, volleyball tournaments and they bring in all this
artifical sand so you can feel like you're at the beach. It's soooo
cool! If anyone wants to rent our luxury apartment in Paris, it will be
for rent as of august 17th and it's close to every attraction
imaginable. You can walk out of the flat and have Paris plage at your
feet. You can even see the gargoyles from Notre Dame from our kitchen
and you can hear the belles ringing! There's shopping, cafes,
restaurants. It's really an incredible location. contact me at seoulstylenews@yahoo.com if you would like to rent the flat for a week or so and I will give more details. On a small side note, I must say I was really surprised at how
chic and stylish all the old ladies were in Paris. Many were slim and
had really imaginative yet elegant outfits on. Not one of them had a
perm nor a visor and everyone had a unique and individual style. Some
were even sexy! I will definetly not be taking the ajuma look with me
into my old age. (Sorry Korea) For that, the Frenchies are the best!
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