Happy fourth!

Magnet #132 - Hong Kong

What? It's just a couple of hours to July 4th there!

Actually, it's pretty much July 4th every night there - they have the Symphony of Lights, a daily light show that highlights almost 50 buildings in Hong Kong. It's supposedly the largest light show in the world. And, it's truly amazing. While you can see a pretty good vid of it here, it really doesn't do the actual show justice.

We were in HK last year, as part of a 15-hourish layover on the way home from the Philippines. (Hey, I didn't plan it - like I'd plan a layover where a good six of those hours are sleeping. Heh.) After dinner, we tucked the tuckered-out parents away in the hotel room and hightailed it down to the water so that we could watch the show.

Jeepers. I gotta tell ya, the lighting design was simply spectacular - the designers used every inch of the skyline, and brilliantly used the great architecture to their advantage. One of my favorites was how they used the cool geometrics on I.M. Pei's Bank of China tower - you can see it at like the 3:25-minute mark of that random YT vid I mentioned above.

And, if you go here, it's an interactive section that totally takes you through what each building is on the skyline.

The show does go on just a bit, and as you're watching and oohing and ahhing, and in between taking many, many photos (half of which won't come out because you're in the dark, and with a point and click, it's almost impossible to catch the right lighting with the right flash and the right amount of arm's length to get a group self-portrait shot), you find yourself thinking several things.

First, oh how pretty.
Second, oh how colorful.
Third, wait. There's music?
Fourth, wait, how much are they spending on electricity?
Fifth, wait, how many buildings are involved?
Sixth, dannnng, how'd ya like to be the poor coordinator who had to deal with the building owners of all those 50 buildings?

Then it's over.

And then you go shopping for 50-degree weather clothes that's not flip-flops, a T-shirt, and capris because you forgot that a layover means you pack a change of clothes in your carry-on because they keep your suitcase. Duh.


eta:
I forgot! This superneat magnet is what they call a Twinkle Postcard Magnet! For reals, yo! That's what it says on the back. It's foamcore and you just pull the tabbytab and the fireworks light up! Dudes! (It's really a postcard for mailing, too.)

I'm cheating, though. Instead of using the magnet I bought in HK, a friend of mine brought this back from a recent Asia trip of his. Wait til you see the other ones he brought back for me!