So how did I spend my evening in Hong Kong? By celebrating Queen's Day, of course! No, not a celebration of Elizabeth, but a celebration of the Dutch queen, specifically the birthday of Queen Juliana.

A bit odd? Okay, perhaps I should back up a bit.

After shopping for a new camera battery, some much-needed hair cream, and a few DVDs, I met up with my friend Matt, who was attending a get-together at another friend's house. There was delicious chicken lasagne, vodka mix drinks, and the chance to enjoy such cable TV delights as "The World's Most Amazing Videos" (ie. one hour of people almost dying from various disasters), and the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds. And of course plenty of talk.

After this, one of Matt's friends insisted on heading to Dragon-I. The problem with this place is that it's members only. None of our group were members, although the person wanting to go knows a few. Matt complained that once again all the girls would get in just fine, but the guys would have to pay the cover charge. This happened. So myself and Matt (the only two guys in the group) decided not to bother.

But one of his friends was at a bar nearby, in Lan Kwai Fong, celebrating the Dutch holiday. So we headed down there.

My god it was packed! I've never seen the street so packed apart from on New Year and the Handover. And it was packed with Dutch people. Shoulder-to-shoulder, the whole street was just filled with Dutch people. I've never seen so many Dutch people before in my life, and I've been to Amsterdam!

But we joined in. It was festive, and it was good company (although some of the music was a bit strange - though most people there didn't seem to mind so much.) Also, La Dolce Vita (the bar I ended up in at midnight on the Handover because I couldn't get further up the street) was all done up in orange, and pictures of the current Dutch queen, and her mother, whose birthday is the cause of the celebration.

We got to talking about F-Stop (a bar on Lan Kwai Fong we used to often go to, the one I was trying to get to by midnight on that fateful evening). Matt was sure it was much further down the street than I had said, but I knew otherwise. Back in 2002, I'd been to the place, though it was no longer F-Stop. Now, it was a place called Lost. The tables and chairs are different, but everything else in the interior (apart from the lighting and the choice of drinks) is exactly the same.

I had a pint of Desmond, Matt had a Bloody Ben Linus, and Matt's girlfriend, To Mai, had a bottle of Penny. Okay, so I lied. There was no smoke monster, no magic room, and no conspiracies. Although we were on an island.

It was a great place to finish the night.

I decided to take the bus back to my hotel, instead of a taxi, because that's what I used to do when I lived here before. Not as fast as the taxi, but much faster and more convenient than trying to take the subway home late at night in New York. I only had to wait about 5 mins for the bus. Didn't take me long at all to get home.

Today I have a similar fate ahead of me as yesterday - have to leave in three hours for the airport. But at least it's a longer flight this time. I have to say, though, that I almost wish I wasn't going to Tokyo right now (and not for that reason). Though I'm sure it'll be fun.

The Spider's Lament, my first short story, is now live at Aoife's Kiss!

Go read it here!

I'm writing a story right now, about the fictional daughter of a historical pirate queen, most commonly known as Cheng I Sao. Probably the biggest problem I'm having is deciding on the romanisations.

Cheng I Sao is an archaic romanisation of 鄭一嫂, which in Hanyu Pinyin would be written Zheng Yisao. Okay, sounds quite simple. I believe in consistently using pinyin when writing stories with Mandarin names and terms. But the story takes place in Guangdong in the early 1830's, where most people at the time spoke only Cantonese, so Mandarin isn't really appropriate.

Romanisation in Cantonese has a few more problems (at least to me). There are numerous Cantonese romanisation methods, and unlike with Mandarin  there's not one that's considered the standard, at least not yet.

Generally I'll use Yale romanisation, because it tends to look best for my English-language purposes. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin are both becoming more popular these days, but tend to look a little stranger in English, and have one or two things I'd rather avoid. So for now Yale seems like the best balance for me. If I was using the romanisation to actually learn Cantonese, however, I might make a different choice.

Despite all this, I tend to use HK government romanisations for surnames. HK Government romanisation is not particularly good, but most people are familiar with its spellings of Cantonese surnames. For stories set in modern-day Hong Kong, it makes sense to do it this way. Using this method, she'd be called Cheng Yat Sou.

But the story I'm writing now takes place in a time before there was such a thing as a HK Government, so I'm thinking of using Yale for the surnames too. Which would make her name Jeng Yat Sou. Her significance will undoubtedly be lost on most people familiar with the historical figure, but I'm not sure that matters to the story.

A bigger problem is that I named the daughter quite a while ago, before really considering all this, and the name I wanted to use only exists under the Jyutping romanisation. It doesn't look particularly nice in Yale. So I can either be a little inconsistent, or I can think of a new name for her.

Unfortunately, I can be quite picky about these things (as a few of you already know), so I'm probably going to have to think of a new name.

If I've taken one thing back with me from my trip, it's that I can't let a whole four years pass again between visits to Asia. It was all excellent, and travel in Asia tends to leave a much bigger impression on me than European or North American travel.

It was also a lot of fun travelling with Olivia's relatives. Normally we only see them at Thanksgiving & Christmas, and an occasional gathering here or there. So it was nice getting to know them all better, and I think that played a significant part in making the trip what it was.

But as I've already mentioned, Burma itself was an incredible place, and its sights were even better than I was expecting. If you have an interest in Asia at all, I encourage you to go. Some of you will have heard about the boycott that many organisations support. I am very much anti-boycott, as I believe the boycott is actually making things significantly worse for the people of Burma. The Free Burma Coalition, formerly a staunch supporter of the boycott, also changed its mind a few years ago for that reason. Nothing you do is going to cause the government to lose power in any way.

So, where to next? I was thinking of going to Worldcon this year in Yokohama. If we do that, we'll probably combine it with a trip to South Korea, since neither of us has been there yet. I'm also looking into doing the Buddha Trail in northern India (and a bit of southern Nepal), though I still have to work out when the best time for that would be.

The next year or two will have family-related visits to Scotland and Paris, but beyond that I may not see much of Europe.

I think I'll cut down on my US travels. I've seen most of the places I wanted to see anyway. I am, however, still up for the VPX gatherings - that's something I do look forward to!

And finally, just in case you missed it, here's another of my favourite pics from the trip:

It already seems like ages since we were in Hong Kong. As I mentioned previously, it was a great feeling being back there, and I definitely want to move back again whenever I can. It was a big game of "see what's changed, see what hasn't", and there was a fair bit of both. My favourite Mongolian BBQ, Kublai's, seems to have disappeared some time ago, unfortunately, but other old favourites such as the Smuggler's Inn in Stanley were still there, as unchanged as ever.

I've divided the HK photos into eight sections (just click on the pics to go to the corresponding directory on Picasaweb:

Hong Kong - Tsim Sha Tsui	Hong Kong - At Home in Sai Kung	Hong Kong - Central & Admiralty	Hong Kong - Wan Chai
Hong Kong - Repulse Bay	Hong Kong - Stanley	Hong Kong - Sha Tin	Hong Kong - Mong Kok

Special mention should go to the Sha Tin section. Last time we visited the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, there were indeed many Buddhas (more than ten thousand incidentally), but it was still a pretty plain monastery on a hill. This time, it was swarming with golden statues of monks, gods and bodhisattvas - the entire path up the hillside is lined with these monks from the very beginning, in fact, some with quite lifelike and some with bizarre features. If ever I've felt a statue's gaze was following me, it was there. Definitely worth a visit, if you ever go to Hong Kong.

The Burma photos are going to take a bit longer to put up. There are about three times as many of those, and I'm still trying to decide how best to organise them.

Christmas is wonderful in Hong Kong. It feels so much more festive here than it does in New York (or indeed anywhere else I've been in America during the Christmas season).

Part of this is the extensive Christmas lights and decorations found throughout the territory. Many skyscrapers are in fact covered in lights depicting Christmas scenes and greetings, on both sides of the harbour.

Another part of it is that people (and businesses) in Hong Kong are not afraid to use the word "Christmas". "Merry Christmas" can be seen wherever you go, and there's none of this "holiday" nonsense which, though not offensive, is just incredibly dull and generic.

I am in Hong Kong. In fact, I can see most of the buildings in my default LJ icon from my window right now, though from a different angle. I am extremely happy.

I was sort of expecting to feel a huge amount of nostalgia and a touch or two of regret upon my return here. Instead, what I'm really feeling is an overwhelming sense of comfort and rightness. Everything just feels right.

I haven't been here for four years, and the changes are quite distinct. Some of my old favourites are gone forever, while other new things have taken their places. But this is how it's always been in Hong Kong - it's the dynamic nature of the place. Things wouldn't seem right if it was all the same. If I want to go somewhere where things are more or less as I left them, I'll go to Tokyo.

What has become clear in my mind is that I must work to move back here within the next 3-5 years. I am certain this can be done.

Heading off to the airport in just a few hours.

I might have the chance to show my face around here once or twice while I'm in HK, but I think it's very unlikely I'll get online at all while I'm in Burma.

Have a fantastic Christmas and a tremendous New Year! 

Don' t break LJ while I'm gone.