Lost and Found

Last year, I went on a trip to visit my sister. The final episode of Pinoy Hoops aired that week. There was anxiety on the thought of having to start again. There were many things I wanted to do. Photography was one of them. I haven’t been taking photographs for months before that. It felt like I was learning everything again.

The first day I spent alone. I watched people see the city for the first time. This guy was telling his father about Hong Kong. I thought about what a great moment this might have been for the guy, to have been able to show his father something beautiful. The city seemed different maybe that’s just me.

Caloy was in town with his cousins. It was their first time in the city and he was taking them around. I told them about my year long pursuit of the rickshaw puller at the peak and we all decided to go.

At the peak, the city is silent. From there, it’s difficult to imagine the life below. That’s what I love most about this city – it’s loud and demure all at the same time. We walked to most of the places we visited that day and ended up discovering places even I have never been to. We didn’t find the rickshaw puller but it was still a great day.

The next few days I spent with my sister’s friends. You know when you’re young, you always think your older sister’s friends are too amazing and you somehow wish you were friends with them too. That’s exactly how I feel about my sister’s friends. They’re awesome. Those days were beautiful.

Maggie, Cris and I were headed to Chi Lin and we bumped into Acid and Toby on the train! We ended up spending the entire afternoon with them. My sister hasn’t seen Acid in years! Hong Kong has outdone itself again!

Claire flew in from Australia. She had an 8 hour lay over before heading home and we decided to look for Chunking Express’ mid-level escalator in Central. We didn’t find the exact spot but we had so much fun trying to. I don’t know how she managed to make it to the airport in time for her flight but Claire is young and determined and the N21 bus was efficient. That night sealed our friendship.

It is with great luck that I managed to find these photographs. I remember falling in love with images again because of this trip. Some things are never lost.