Tag Archives: community

Honolulu Night Market: The Cure to My Island Fever

I may be new to Hawai’i, but there have already been moments where I come close to island fever. Island life in Oahu, no matter how developed the island is, is something very unique to adjust to when one develops her interests and lifestyle in a metropolitan city.

I had good preparation for island life by living in Bali for almost a year prior to moving to Hawai’i, but island fever is altogether a different state that one in Hawai’i must become accustomed with. In Bali, I was surrounded by other islands that are just a quick ferry boat ride away. Plus, thanks to the fierce competition between local airlines and giant budget airline Air Asia, Indonesian domestic airfare is cheap, and I can always take a quick trip to my hometown in Jakarta any weekend without feeling guilty about my monthly expenses.

But in Hawai’i, anywhere away from here feels like an international voyage that takes away all possibilities of spontaneity acted upon an itching wanderlust. Your itinerary must be thoroughly planned in advance, your bank prepared for the depletion, and your mental state ready for the long flight ahead.

So what does island fever have to do with Honolulu Night Market? It’s a monthly block party that takes place in Kakaako, a part of Honolulu that is quickly becoming the urban cultural heart of the island. But what has any of that got to do with feeling stuck in an island? I will explain, I promise.

honolulu night market

Honolulu Night Market

At Honolulu Night Market, food trucks, pop-up retail shops, and local musicians, performers and artists all gather together to showcase their work and maybe sell some of it to the community, who is all too eager to support local brands.

honolulu night market

In a nutshell, it is a public party that was started by a small group of creative idealists to which seemingly only hipsters would go, but has since grown to a large, diverse community event. And now people of all ages and all backgrounds come together to see various types of arts and crafts projects being done by others in the community.

Pinch of Salt - Honolulu Night Market

But more than just that, Honolulu Night Market is the place where I feel like I am least in Hawai’i, hence why I enjoyed it so much the two times I have gone. Everything I like about Honolulu Night Market is tied to all the things I used to take pleasure in while living in a city: the food, the fashion, the people, the creativity, and the vibrant energy. They were all present, though limited to just several hours and contained within a vicinity of four blocks.

By no means is that a complaint though, because that’s all I need to keep the island fever at bay! The rest of the month, I’m still having a wonderful time frolicking in white sandy beaches and basking in amazing panoramic views atop various hiking vista points. I’m in Hawai’i, and no island fever is going to get me down about that.

Honolulu Night Market
Monthly at Auahi Street, Kakaako District
Honolulu

Photos from Honolulu Night Market: ARTrageous

Melbourne: milking my city

Oh Melbourne, you lured me here with your bright city lights, dreamily frequent trams, bevy of independent publications, public lectures, wider bike paths and parks on every block scattered with art students procrastinating from work with a tallie and a hip friend for company. Oh yes, I rode those trams hard, I zigzagged along those wide green bicycle zones, I sat in one-too-many lectures on environmental initiatives to combat the evidently changing climate, I willingly grasped at tokens for free drinks at underground/rooftop club launches (let’s face it, extremes of height are so in right now), and accepted invites to parties with no further enticement needed than that they were in some form of warehouse…I was oh so Melbourne

in the park with Kiki, a few bikes and a tallie

in the playground with Ana

But now I’ve been here a year, and I want to start being glutinous and feasting on it in a real and productive way.

My housemates and I were baking in our courtyard for the Australia Day public holiday, and had all carefully selected reading material to justify our slothlike behaviour. De Botton’s ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life’ was my choice, as I’ve read this before, and I liken his writings to a kick in the pants. De Botton deciphers Marcel Proust’s highly complex thoughts regarding time and its impact on our actions into a highly entertaining novel. I guess that his ambitions aligned with Proust’s, (ambitions which led to his demise), to employ the written word so that it may be seen as a productive and therapeutic tool. And so I appealed to the good doctors of life and time, sprawled, pink, ‘relaxing’, though consciously procrastinating from things I knew I should do instead.

I read about how our projects, travels, love affairs, studies are made invisible by our laziness, because our assured survival delays them. It was suggested that the luxury of time makes us complacent. Proust wrote to a 1920s Parisian newspaper in response to a question they posed. If readers knew they had one hour till the world ended, L’Intransigeant wondered, how would they spend this time? After a whole hour of reading, I was persuaded to launch into action, a new force was felt from my innerness (definitely spiritual) and for at least half an hour I was incredibly productive. Now I find myself perched on a stool, coffee in one paw with the other holding this machine balanced on my knee, considering all the things that I might do instead of remain perched here to resolve what I set out to in this piece.

the stool and the book

And I guess what I mean to say is not that being chaotic and darting around willy-nilly and being a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kinda gal is detrimental to one’s healthy state of mind, oh no, I’ve been grinning like a fool for a good whole year. What I mean to say, rather, is that after a whole year I know that Melbourne, for me, holds the people, the spaces and retains a cadence that I feel right amongst, and that those things can be edited and manipulated and used in a more productive way.

learning about bikes with my mates Will and Christian at Swiftwhip

So this month, I’m throwing metaphorical chunks of coal into the steam train that is my current projects. I’m doing activities that function as classes like I might have participated in during university studies, I’m watching a documentary at ACMI that aligns with a design I’m working on. I’m going back to study Mandarin to support my interest in the design of developing Chinese cities. I’ve emailed people in Melbourne that are working in the field that I want to pursue and arranged to join them at lectures or workshops and I’ve reoriented my activities so that Melbourne gives me what I need. It has all the right ingredients, and rather than moving cities, as I often do when I genuinely settle, I’ve decided to stick around and really juice it.

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Lost & Found: Comfort Zone

Happy First Friday of the Year 2013! I’m new to Herb & Lace but am very grateful to be a part of this project sharing some local stories in Hong Kong. I hope to keep the inspiration flame going.

When people ask me where I am from, a simple question can turn into a long story. And then from that long story of course they will wonder, how did I end up in Hong Kong? Very unplanned and sudden, I would never have thought that I would have the opportunity to work in Hong Kong and be in the situation where I don’t board the plane “home” – pushing back my return flight to the States (Northern California).

After being in Hong Kong for a few months now, here are some words of advice for people who are thinking about sudden changes in their environments. Even when it seems like you are leaving your life behind in a different place, there will be parallels for you to find. There will be places that really hit home whether it’s a jazz lounge in Sheung Wan (San Diego), a co-working space in Wan Chai (San Francisco), or a hike up Devil’s Peak in Lei Yue Mun (Hawaii). And that’s when you will start to find your comfort zone.

Here are some places that helped me find my comfort zone in Hong Kong:

Peel Fresco Music Lounge (reminiscent of jazz bars in San Diego, e.g. Prohibition): As I was looking for a live-music venue in Hong Kong (to celebrate my friend’s and my birthday in the same week), we were lucky to come across their Brazilian Jazz Trio performance (a different live performance is held every Thursday). We heard vocal jazz music by Lidi Satier from Brazil, including songs from her new CD which I luckily received as a gift. :D

Street Art close to Peel Fresco Music Lounge.

The Hive (reminiscent of co-working spaces in San Francisco, e.g. The Hatchery): With a background in the field of user experience, I was very interested in what Hong Kong had to offer its UX community and whether there were events to foster this community. Turns out, one of the companies that I got the chance to meet with in Hong Kong previously held an event at “The Hive”, a co-working space in Wan Chai, within the walking distance from my office. (Fate!) I had to look more into it. On the Election Day back in the States, there was an event for Evernote, the note taking software company headquartered back in Redwood City, California. It was from this event that I met the locals (Vivek Mahbubani – HK’s Funniest Person of 2007, folks from Livescribe, Sina, and a new friend wearing a “I voted for Obama” pin!)

HKInstayay (reminiscent of hiking trails in Hawaii, e.g. The Lanikai Pillboxes): This is by far one of my favorite events I’m fortunate to come across. Whether you use Instagram, like to take photos, like to venture out of the norm, or meet like-minded individuals, HK Instayay is for you! I was lucky to come across this event after following one of the organizers on Instagram and hearing more about it from my friend whom I newly met at the Evernote event! I went to HK Instayay #17, an afternoon photo-walk through the fishing villages of Lei Yue Mun. I met with one-day travelers from Macau, China, and Europe, locals whom may have studied abroad for college, and Tyson Wheatley and Jethro Mullen, the two senior editors from CNN who hosted the event. It was such a great group of journalists, traveling editors, product designers, graphic designers, and information technologists, aware of politics, design, travel that definitely promoted invigorating conversations. After a photo walk through the villages, we hiked up Devil’s Peak for a grand view of the harbourside and walk through some remains of military bunks from the early 1900s. A definite weekend workout, we ended the day with some Tung Po, a favorite of Anthony Bourdain. “Instayays,” Instagram Meetups, are usually held once a month depending on people’s schedules, but the next one will be held in Macau on Sunday, January 27th.

With a group of 30+ folks fond of photography, you might score your next profile picture haha.
Photos courtesy of @twheat @chrischen377 @yungandrew & @jethromullen

What are some cities you have thought about moving to? Or how about thoughts on leaving the city for countryside?

Spark a conversation.

Peel Fresco Music Lounge
49 Peel Street, Central
+852 2540 2046

The Hive
21/F, The Phoenix Building,
No. 23 Luard Road, Wan Chai
+852 3568 6343

HKInstayay
Location: Varies – find out via their Facebook page.

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Transitory Tales: A Propensity to Drift and Experience

I moved to a new city for college with an appetite to learn, thrive, and succeed. My mom had just passed away from cancer the month before, and when mortality unveils in your face, you learn quickly to cherish time. I was eager for change, and hopeful for kindness and warmth in a new chapter of life; San Diego awaited me with just that.

The city itself is colorful with humble tendencies. I loved to meander through the eclectic neighborhood of South Park, traverse the art and cultural sites of Balboa Park, dine for Ethiopian, Somali and Vietnamese in City Heights, or literally bake in the natural desert terrain. There were so much happening on the community level.

At school, I majored in art history and international studies, where local and international cultures were regular topics of discussion. I grabbed at every interesting I could find. By my last year of college, as much of my time was spent either flitting about the various San Diego communities, or buried in my honor’s thesis writing at Rebecca’s, I traveled thousands of miles through hundreds of pages of text and learned vicariously through new friends. My keenness to explore new places and my craving to submerge in new cultures abroad amplified.

My third and last year, I had an opportunity to move.

My first stop was Madrid where I spent a summer getting into a rhythm of café con leche for breakfast, and Spanish tortilla for lunch and dinner. After class, I purposefully ventured into neighborhoods where art, design, culture, and boutiques intersected with local culture. I steered away from main touristic attractions in exchange for local adventures. Many days, I would weave through labyrinthine streets without a plan, and discover spectacular findings at the end.

When I moved to China, this philosophy only deepened.

I explored with an open heart and open mind through new streets and inhaled for new types of experiences. I must say, not all of them were are peachy-keen, but I fell in love with the complex and dynamic society I studied in college.

On days where I want to scream, “Why am I still here!?!?” I seek those anchors of mine who imbue positivity, cheer and confidence. As Crystal says, “when you’re thousands of miles away from what’s familiar, you have to rely on the people who really get you.” When you let your guard down, keep your heart open, you’ll be surprised how people can drift into your life and do just that.

Being twenty-something and having spent the majority of my adult life traversing new terrains in outside lands, my propensity to drift into experiences allowed me to create a physical and emotional habitat that has turned numerous foreign places into incredibly meaningful homes. And in one’s memory, those places will always remain that way.

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