final farewell

Although the viewing, the closing of the casket, and the creamation were much to the image of this seedy metropolis, the buddhist farewell was much to the image of my grand mother.
Full of symbols, incense, food offerings, and generosity, we helped her soul into the heavens with chants, offerings, the burning of meterial replicas and boxes of fake money, and, more incense sticks.
i wish i could be perhaps a little more poetic, or write more passionately, but i guess the emotion was rally more of a gut feeling than an envelope of sadness...

home 2

The best thing about jet lag is being able to live a city "inside out"
when the locals sleep, you live
you prowl
you spy
you watch

there's this seedyness about hong-kong that i love
the neon lights
the midnight markets
the deserted ones
the mad minibus drivers

inhale
exhale

the smell of exhaust pipes
the smell of food
the smell of dust
the smell of the thick layer of dirt gripped to the ground by the humidity

this is a safe place
this is home

home

there's nowhere better than home

going home

tomorrow i go home to say farewell to her