The collected writings of a Renegade Tourist

Author RenegadeTourist

Back to Hong Kong

When I went to Hong Kong back in October I thought it would be the last time in quite a while. Turns out I was wrong, about two weeks ago my brother messaged me to let me know he and his friend were going to Hong Kong and later to Kuala Lumpur. Of course I had to take the chance to see him, and at first Renegade Wife and I planned to meet them up in KL. Sadly, she couldn’t get the time off so I ended up going back to Hong Kong on my own to meet up with … Read the rest

Fa Yuan street raised walkway, 4:39 pm

The walkway is raised above the road, allowing pedestrians to navigate the streets without having to deal with the heavy Hong Kong traffic. It’s a couple of meters wide and covered but with open sides, and follows the street for several hundred meters, branching off here and there to follow the smaller side streets. Normally it’s nothing special, just a convenient way to get around, but today is Sunday, when all of Hong Kong’s maids (most of them Malaysian migrant workers) have their day off. Since they have no place of their own they can’t go home, and since Hong … Read the rest

XXX underground club, 00:33 am

The room looks like the basement of a school or something, thats been temporarily converted to a disco; an open space with low ceiling, bare white walls and a couple of support pillars. Against the back wall is a DJ booth on a raised platform and behind it, the letters “XXX” painted in white on a black background. On the left wall is an LED matrix display showing the words “Absurd TRAX – dj sniff”, and on the right wall is powerful light. The entire place is awash in red and blue light and the air is imbued with the … Read the rest

The book that never was

In October last year I set off on my three month journey through south east Asia. When I first came up with the idea for that trip many years ago, I had this vague notion that I should write a lot of Frozen Moments during the trip, perhaps even forgoing a camera altogether and just document what I saw using words. My idea was that I would gather all of these texts together and try to get them published as a book, a sort of photo album if you will. In the end I did bring a camera, and … Read the rest

Fictionalizing the News No.2: Death on the Mediterranean

It was a warm sunny day, not a cloud in the clear blue sky and sea an inviting turquoise, the light glinting off the tops of the waves. Under normal circumstances it would be perfect for a day at the beach, normal circumstances however, had gone out the window five years ago. Continue reading...

The North East coast ride

Whenever I’ve been out at the north-east coast of Taiwan, I’ve thought that the road along the coast is really nice for riding a motorbike. However, the times I’ve been there have always coincided with the time that plenty of other people have been there as well, that is, traffic has been too heavy for me to really enjoy the road. I figured the best remedy for this problem would be to go there in the early morning, probably around sunrise or so.

Now, I do enjoy going out together with my wife, and taking a ride through some beautiful … Read the rest

Buddha hand cave 4:40 pm

The place looks like a normal temple from the outside, the facade covered in typical temple decorations with the name above the door. Once you get inside you realize it’s actually a cave, a wide tunnel burrowing some 10 or 20 meters into the rock, divided into two sections by a concrete wall. Each section has an altar against the back wall, as well as all the other paraphernalia that belong to a temple. The walls are bare rock, with carvings and niches for statues here and there, and then, in the corner next to one of the altars is … Read the rest

Fictionalizing the News No. 1: Train Station Knife Attack

Herbert Kochler was at the station shortly before five in the morning. It was still dark outside but getting imperceptibly lighter, the temperature a few degrees above freezing, cool and crisp. He was headed to München, just like every other morning for the past fourteen years, only today he was two hours earlier than normal because he had a phone conference with clients in Beijing at six. The station was nearly deserted except for two other travelers, an older lady carrying a large shopping bag marked Lidl, and a young man in a dark hoodie restlessly pacing back and forth along a section of the platform. Herbert payed him no mind, instead he rubbed the sleep from his eyes then looked down at his phone to pass the time. Continue reading...

Hong Kong

Like I mentioned in my last post, the wife and I went from Singapore to Hong Kong to meet up with my parents for a few days. We’ve both been in Hong Kong before and we’ve checked off all the standard tourist stuff like Victoria Harbour, the Star Ferry and the peak. However, my parents have been in Hong Kong a number of times before and my mom, ever the travel agent for the family, had found a number of places slightly off the beaten track for us to visit.

The Hong Kong Heritage Museum at Shatin supposedly has a … Read the rest

Singapore

National holidays in Taiwan largely follow the lunar calendar, and this year the mid autumn festival fell on October 4th and the National day is on October 10th. With a weekend between the two, it means a lot of people only have to take a few days off to get a full week’s vacation. Naturally Renegade Wife and I made use of this opportunity.

My parents are going on a tour in China but will stop in Hong Kong for a few days before it starts. We wanted to see them but we couldn’t spend an entire week in Hong … Read the rest

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