Best Things To Do On Weekends

Since settling in Hong Kong four years ago, I found a lot of ways to spend my weekends. There are parks, shopping malls, game arcades, empty sports grounds, cityscapes to explore and mountains to climb¡K The list goes on. The only thing that prevented me from doing many of such activities is the obvious time crunch.

When Russ and Mike circulates invites for pre weekend drinks at Lan Kwai Fong or CFC¡¦s activities on any given Sunday I often find myself entwined with other things like overtime weekend work, meeting a ¡§kababayan¡¨ or worse, laying in bed recuperating from an ailment.

Nevertheless, while I am still in this place, I still look forward to experiencing worthwhile weekend activities:

1. Jamming with Jay and Kuya Mer. This is one of the things I always wanted to do. Jay and Kuya Mer are musician extraordinaire. Jay can play guitar, Kuya Mer does the keyboards, Chito does the piano, maybe Eric will take the bass guitar. I will play the drums. We can sing songs of America, Third Eye Blind, U2, True Faith, RiverMaya, Eraserheads, among others. Of course the girls can join and sing songs of the Cranberries, Barbie Almalbis and Color it Red.

When GK had its fund raising in full swing last year, I thought of having a mini presentation of songs dances and patriotic films to coincide with the Philippine Independence Day 2004. Some will sing, some will dance, some will act, while others can haul chairs and adjust the spotlight.

Right now, it¡¦s limited to choir practices. If only many of us were at SFC Conferences¡K


2. Hear Mass en masse. I have been into three generations of Sunday mass companions. First there were Onin, Leo and Raymond. Then came Karen, Benjie and Narnie/Girlie. Then with Jun. Now I am alone. While I should feel alone in Mass whoever is with me. The thing is that after Mass, I am unsure where to go: eat at Yoshinoya, listen to new songs at HMV or go home and cook some noodles.

I feel lonely especially now that I live alone. And while going to church is not going to a picnic, having lunch with friends after the Eucharistic celebration should be great.

It's ironic though...


3. Play volleyball, barbecue, karaoke or go biking with colleagues. Same as my peers at PhilWeb, many of my colleagues at Ion Global are mostly singles and have plenty of time at their hands.  We do organize basketball or table tennis games at Victoria Park on Thursdays but the time is too limited or the court is filled up.

Kin, Jan, Jess, Kit, Raymond, Ginny and Henry are almost shoo-ins to be there. Even though I am the only Filipino in the office, I am at home with their presence. Only language barrier seems to be a big issue to me.

I want to know more about Chinese culture and there's no better way to achieve it through this.

I wish Jacqueline is still in the office.


4. Watch a real movie shooting in Kowloon Tong or in Central. One goal that I did not really pursue seriously is to see Jackie Chan in person. Not that I am a big fan of him; I am not even watching karate movies. Just wondering how his aged legs perform such camera-defying stunts in the past on those generic good-guy movie flicks over the streets of Wan Chai and Des Voeux Road West which look more of Hong Kong of old.

I know many HK artists but I have no personal favorites among them. I want to see how they act preferably those karate matches in the middle of supermarket stalls, inside trams or sliding in MTR escalators.


5. Walk up stairs leading to the viewing dock of ifc 2. I think I am afraid of heights and I don't know why because our 34th storey office location is not high enough to gauge it. Yeah, walk and not take the elevator. It could be equivalent to a portion of trekking the mighty Everest.

There are organized races going to the top but I am sure I can't handle it so I'd rather take it nice and slow.

I have never been into the upper floors of ifc2 so it would be a delight going up gradually, unmasking the unobstructed vista of Hong Kong (and beyond).

I can't imagine how beautiful it looks like at night time. But at daytime it looks like this one, thanks to my colleagues at Ion Global who built the web site.


6. Bus rides through Tai Tam, Stanley, Repulse Bay, Pokfulam, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai.  Traveling over Hong Kong's interior as well as the coastal roads is a great experience. Firstly, buses are comfortable up and down and drivers are not too selfish to blow the air conditioning units on hot summer days.

Roads are narrow but well paved that I could easily fall asleep coming from a tiring walk around the metropolis. I would prefer the Southern coast where views of South China Sea from Stanley, Middle Gap Road and Repulse Bay in the east to Pokfulam and Cyberport in the west. On some portions of the ride, you couldn't think you are in Hong Kong because of the lush vegetation, serenity of the bodies of water and apparent remoteness of the area. The Cantonese phone conversations in the would always bring you back to reality though.


7. Tram ride from Shaukeiwan to Kennedy Town. It takes two hours to travel about one-fourths of the circumference of Hong Kong island through the age-old trams of Hongkong Tramways. Used more of a novelty heritage than an ordinary means of transportation in this efficient metropolis. From the northwest is the image of 60s Hong Kong where a bastion of dried seafood wholesalers and retailers thrive and buildings are not as high as those in most other areas such as Hung Hom and Tai Koo Shing.

It has been my means of transportation for a while when I lived along the so-called 'tramlanes'. Though I started out from the western end, I only reached up to Sai Wan Ho in the east, a good fifteen minutes away from its terminating end. Sitting down in the upper deck, with iPod on hand, you can see a microcosm of Hong Kong life, from Central's tall buildings, Causeway Bay's bustling human traffic to old edifices of North Point. From jaywalking to queuing for a bus ride to window shopping, you get a picture of what a typical Hong Kong person does in a day.


8. Spending the night with someone. I always imagine this. Assuming I am with someone, we sit at Tsim Sha Tsui's promenade as we gaze at the fireworks at 8 o'clock in the evening. We take the ferry to Wan Chai and dine in at one of the elegant Japanese restaurants in the area. We take a fairy tale walk in Hong Kong Park, the oasis of the city. We bargain items at Temple Street and have a drink overlooking at the harbour. How I wish this weekend won't end.

Too bad a weekend consists only of two days. Worse, that someone is not even there.