Two lucky college students travelled to South America with the now ultra-cool legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung. Their mission? Che Guevara, of course.
Ada Wong Yuen-mei, 22, and Bonnie Chan Yuen-yan, 20, both members of FM Theatre Power, spent about $30,000 to embark on a month-long trip to Cuba, Argentina and Bolivia with Mr Leung and other theatre staff to help prepare for the drama performance May Be Long Hair, May Be Che Guevara, which was staged earlier this year.
The journey to South America enabled the theatre group to gather information about the revolutionary leader and get a feel for the continent.
It involved long bus journeys in remote areas and was harsh for Wong and Chan. The pair have yet to repay loans to their friends and parents, who lent them the money for the trip.
But, like Guevara's motorcycle tour of South America in 1952, the journey offered the students a rare opportunity to observe the plight of the continent's poor and exploited citizens. The duo recounted a tour of a silver mine in Potosi in Bolivia. The city was once one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Latin America before many of its mines were depleted.
'We saw people chewing something that had a very strong smell,' said Wong. 'It was coca leaves [the raw material for cocaine], which can keep people in a trance and make them work like robots. The miners nibbled these leaves and worked about 20 hours daily for very low pay.'
But there were also happy times. The crew was stuck for three days in the Bolivian city of Villazon while waiting for their access visas to be approved. During that time, they sang and learned indigenous dances from locals.