Under New Management

The Peak

2010-04-24T22:47:00.001-07:00

So, it's day two in Hong Kong and I'm not the tired grumpy mess I thought I'd be. In fact, quite the contrary.

I woke to the dull hum of the air conditioner and a rising sense of urgency.

Being here in Hong Kong hasn't dampen my enthusiasm for the playoffs. Let me just say now that while I'm a die hard Canucks fan, I'm also a hockey fan. So, I'll pretty much watch any playoff hockey game. That being said, Canucks are come first.

The only problem with celebrating hockey here in Hong Kong is the lack of access to it. If you were to surf the numerous sports channel I have access to here in Hong Kong, you'd find soccer, cricket, tennis, golf, car racing as well as many sports you probably won't see in North America such as, squash and table tennis. But, the full array of hockey playoff games there is not. So, I rely on my friend the Internet and my girlfriend's family's Slingbox to get my hockey fix. (A Slingbox device that allows you to stream TV from your home television to pretty much any device that has access to the Internet.)

So after firing up the computer and launching the Slingbox, I sat down to enjoy some mid-morning hockey.

Unfortunately for my girlfriend V, she woke up with a different set of priorities. For V, Saturday morning meant work. On May 5, the school that V teaches at and also went to as a kid, Diocesan Girls' School, will celebrate it's 150th anniversary. And such a milestone demands a celebration befitting of that history.

So, instead of watching hockey with her father and me, V was off to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the celebration will be held, to help with the planning. The HKCEC sits facing Victoria Harbour on the waterfront of Wan Chai, one of the busiest districts on Hong Kong Island.

Meanwhile back at home, home being Lam Tin on the eastern side of Kowloon Peninsula, V's dad and I watched the Canucks steamroll their way to victory, in what appeared to be their best performance of the playoffs so far. But, it wasn't as simple as just watching hockey. I was tasked to make sure that V was kept fully apprised of the game. So, with every goal and major event, I was quickly messaging her.

As the clock began to click down and the game ended, it could mean only one thing: lunch. So, V's dad and I head out to the local mall for food. Lunch was simple. A bowl of noodles with some veggies and random bits of meat.

Soon after we got home from lunch, V returned too.

With much of the day surrendered to work, V and I headed out to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. So, we headed out for Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is a mountain on Hong Kong Island that overlooks the Central district and Victoria Harbour. I've been to the peak a couple of times. But, this time we thought we'd go a different way.

The traditionally touristy way of getting up to the peak is to take the Peak Tram, an inclined rail system. The tram started running in 1888 and today carries both tourists and residents from Central to the Peak through the Mid-Levels district.

But, in the spirit of adventure, we decided to take a different route. So, we headed for the Star Ferry, crossed Victoria Harbour and waited for the 15C that would take us up to the Peak. Now, the adventure isn't in the ferry ride (although that is fun), but in the double-decker bus ride up the side of a mountain on a winding, narrow road. The best part about the ride is sitting in the front seat on the top deck of the bus as the bus hurdles up the mountain at break-neck speed.

After our harrowing journey we reached the top unscathed. It was cold at the top. Very cold. Windy too. So, we disappeared into The Peak Tower for shelter. The Peak Tower is a tourist mall with restaurants, shops and Madame Tussauds wax museum. We decided to have dinner and began the quest for food. Stopping at the second level, we were uninspired by the Chinese and Japanese restaurants, so we headed upstairs. We ended up on the third level at Bubba Gump.

Now, it may seem strange to end up at an American restaurant over 10,000 km from home, but sometimes it's just nice to have something other than Asian food once in a while. The nice thing about Bubba Gump is that it has a spectacular view of Central and the harbour. And going for dinner early meant that we could get a table with a view. V had a Shrimpin' Dippin' Broth, a small steel pot with seemingly endless shrimp in a Louisiana-style broth with rice and french bread for dipping. I had something off of the daily special menu: Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp, grilled shrimp, andouille sausage and mashed potatoes.

While waiting for dinner, V entertained herself by watching the people outside have their clothes tossed around by the strong winds and fail to get near the guard rails to get a better view.

We dragged out dinner purposefully so that we could see the view after sunset. At night, the Hong Kong skyline lights up in brilliant colours. It's actually the first time I've seen the city lights from The Peak. It's definitely worth seeing.

And with our meal over, our adventure came to an end.

Back in the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)

2010-04-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure how I'm suppose to feel after almost 20 hours of travel.

Hungry?

Yes.

Sleepy?

A little.

Overall though, I'm feeling pretty good.

This time instead of flying direct, I had a stop over in Taipei.

The Taipei International Airport is a nice airport. Unfortunately, there's not much to do at 6 a.m. aside from shopping. None of the good food places were open yet. Oh well, maybe I'll get my Taiwan food fix on my way back.

I got to sit in the upper deck of the plane, which isn't really that much different than the regular passenger deck, there's just less people up there. In fact, I spent the major leg of my travel with no seatmates. I had the entire bank of seats to myself.

While the peace and quiet was nice, the bench isn't exactly the most comfortable place to stretch out for a snooze. Still, getting a whole bunch of sleep does make the trip go faster.

The other nice thing about long flights is that I get to catch up on all of the movies that I've missed in the past eight or nine months. Avatar was okay. It seemed to be longer than it needed to be, but all-in-all I enjoyed it. Sherlock Holmes was a fantastic movie. Probably one of the better movies I've seen in a while.

So, that was the majority of my travel today, some sleeping and some movie watching.
Oh and then there was a lot of standing in customs, security and immigration lines.

The only other thing that was sort of neat was that one of the flight attendants on my flight from Vancouver to Taipei was in all of the airline's video ads. It was like having a celebrity serving me food.

Anyways, I'm here in Hong Kong now. It's about 24 degrees Celsius and a little humid. Don't really plan on doing too much else today. Might go for a walk or something, but nothing too intense.

Hopefully, after hockey tomorrow morning I'll have enough energy to get out and do something interesting. But, more likely I'll be super jet lagged and grumpy.

Wow Langara students, that was a pretty dick thing to do

2010-02-11T18:20:00.004-08:00

A J-school friend of mine recently asked me why I chose to go to the school I did and not one of the other ones that I got accepted to. Today, I'm glad I didn't go to Langara College.

My multimedia class was tasked with photographing the Olympic torch relay today.

We were split into different groups and sent off on our merry way.

My group split up along the last leg of the relay in South Vancouver.

I took the area near 49th Avenue and Oak Street, ending up at Langara College.

I showed up early to see what was happening at the campus, take in some of the festivities and stake out my spot for photo taking.

After picking out my spot, I took the opportunity to chat with some of the people around me.

One of the people that I talked with was an older lady named Lucille.

She told me about how her son was recently in Haiti helping with the relief effort.

Anyways, we waited patiently for the torch relay to reach Langara and then finally, the Coca-Cola and RBC party buses showed up heralding the imminent arrival of the torch.

As the torch approached, traffic caught along 49th Avenue heading east when the torch made its way towards Langara was stopped.

Unfortunately, that traffic blocked the view of some of the people on the campus side of the street.

Suddenly, a bunch of Langara students decided that they were going to cross the street to get a better view.

More accurately, they thought they would cross the street and take the view of people who had been waiting across the street from them for about an hour or so.

Before I could wade through the crowd, that had suddenly appeared in front of me, the RCMP came along and forced the crowd back as the torch bearer was quickly approaching.

In the confusion not only did I lose my spot, but I got shuffled back near the back of the crowd.

To my disgust, the Langara students had pushed Lucille to the back of the crowd too.

She voiced her opinion that what they had done was unfair, but her comments fell on deaf ears.

I did my best to get my obligatory photo of the torch bearer, but to no avail.

And while, I am extremely disappointed that I didn't get a chance to see the torch bearer, I felt even worse that Lucille lost her prime viewing spot to a bunch of selfish jerks.

Having thought about what happened outside Langara today, I'm glad that I'm leaving Vancouver during the Olympics.

Sure, I'm going to Hong Kong during Chinese New Year, where there are going to be more people than in Vancouver and where the people are, well, ruder than people are here.

But, I expect that kind of rudeness and selfishness there. Not here.

If this is how Vancouverites are going to act for the Olympics, I'd rather be anywhere but here.

I'm honoured

2010-02-05T00:36:00.005-08:00

It's a double entendre. It seems that Kwantlen has place me on the Dean's Honour Roll for my academic achievements for last semester. It's just kinda cool is all.

The Runner

2010-02-02T15:57:00.002-08:00

My first article for the Runner has been published. They also used one of my photos for another story.

That's good news?

2010-02-01T17:03:00.001-08:00

Created by Oatmeal

When J-School learning isn't enough

2010-01-26T19:06:00.003-08:00

J-School has taught me many things and I'm thinking the same is true of my J-School com padres.

For instance, today Hayley learned that her ability to speak is only hampered by her inability to think before she does it.

Brian learned that he has the ability to arouse women, simply by reading the newspaper to them.

Josh learned that he takes the simple act of sitting down for granted.

Kyle learned that people do in fact follow him on Twitter.

Matt learned that he's a racist and that not everyone who has Chinese ancestry was born in China.

Some of us were born outside of China.

Like me.

I was born here, in Canada.

Translink WTF!?

2010-01-26T17:49:00.003-08:00

Let me start off by saying that I'm a big fan of public transit.

Despite the cost, I think the Canada Line and the Olympic Line are necessary for our city to grow.

But, that being said, I was about 30 seconds from giving up on transit this morning and hopping into my car.

Now, I honestly don't mind waiting for the bus.

Sure, it sucks watching your bus speed away, as you sprint in vein towards where it use to be, but if that's the worst thing that happens to me in the course of the day, I'm probably not doing too bad.

So, this of course happened to me this morning, but seeing as I take the express bus to get to the Canada Line, I figured I wouldn't have to wait too long.

During the morning rush the bus usually comes along every five minutes or so, as advertised.

Although, today I would not be so fortunate.

The first bus that sped past my bus stop was "Sorry, Not In Service."

The next bus, which was "In Service", sped past the stop because it was crammed full of people and unable to stop and pick up anyone from the increasingly growing line of transit commuters waiting at the bus stop.

For the next ten minutes, I waited in the cold, watching and hoping that the growing backlog of people at other bus stops that preceded mine wouldn't cause another bus to pass by our humble bus stop without picking anyone up.

At the 12 minute mark I began to give up on my bus ever arriving.

I gave the bus two minutes to show before I got into my car and drove myself to school.

The bus came before the two minutes were up, about three-quarters full.

So, having missed my bus, it took about 20 minutes for the next one to show up.

Standing near the rear doors, staring out the window, watching the city whiz by, I couldn't help but wonder that if this is how transit deals with a regular morning rush-hour situation, what will it be like when road closures for the Olympics force people who don't normally take the bus, to have to take the bus?

How will transit cope with the increase of riders when the world comes to Vancouver for the Olympics?

After my extended wait for the bus this morning, I'm thinking it will handle all of this rather poorly.

I'm not too sure if I will be riding the bus too often in the weeks to come.

If getting around the city by bus wasn't already hard enough, the Olympics is going to make things harder for sure.

Considering the inconsiderate

2010-01-26T13:29:00.005-08:00

I'm not sure if people are becoming stupider or simply more inconsiderate. Take for example the woman at Lansdowne Station this morning.

Now, I'm sure that there is a vocation somewhere out there where the ability to walk slowly down a staircase while reading a novel and balancing a drink tray with two Tim Horton's coffee cups in it and rocking out on your iPod all at the same time, will make you an insane amount of money.

But perhaps you could refrain doing any of that during rush hour when your mad skills block a train load of people trying to get down the stairs, to go off to school or their jobs or whatever.

As a writer, I think your dedication to the written word is admirable. But seriously, please don't read and walk down stairs at the same time, let alone do it slowly while carrying a drink tray loaded with coffees and listening to your iPod, totally oblivious to the world around you.

Jerk.

Po Tat

2009-04-27T10:36:00.001-07:00

I haven't done too much in the past week...quite honestly the weather's been a bit sketchy, and with the exception of a few things I want to see in the western side of Hong Kong, I've pretty much done everything. Although, that doesn't mean I don't have stories to tell.

Wednesday was spent wandering about looking for places that don't exist. It's really hard trying to find one particular store in a concrete jungle and as good as Google Map is, it's only so accurate to a point. Thursday I didn't really do too much, I watched some hockey and helped out with the housework. V took me out to dinner, sort of a date night. We went to this Thai place in Kowloon City. Except for a few dishes, it wasn't discernibly Thai...but that doesn't mean the food wasn't good. With the possible exception of the pho that we ordered. V ordered the pho to show me why when Hongkongers come back to Vancouver, they crave Vietnamese food. Quite simply put, it's terrible here, especially if you bear in mind that the bowl we had at the Thai place was probably one of the best V has had here in HK...that's just sad. There's no real explanation for bad Vietnamese food here either. They're proximity to Vietnam would suggest that they would have some of the best Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam. But, this is simply not the case. So be proud of your culinary diversity and authenticity Vancouver, we are truly lucky.

There was a couple sitting beside us in the restaurant, they were there when we got there. They were eating the restaurant specialty, which is a prawn ball with a soupy pork centre. It's really quite good (one of the things that was discernibly Thai :P). We ordered the same along with a few more dishes. Part way through our meal, V commented to me that the other couple had made said something to the effect that we had ordered a lot of food. In all honesty, we ordered the prawn ball thing, a veggie dish, a seafood veggie dish (which was primarily veggies), the terrible pho and a small plate of charred pork neck (it might sound unpleasant, but it is super good). She was telling me this, as the other couples order of curry crab arrived. It was two whole crabs smothered in curry sauce. It looked super good mind you, but that by itself is probably like more than half of our meal. Then they proceeded to order more food. I said to V that was kind of rude and that while they could continue to order more food, there was one thing they didn't need to order, cause as we all know, punches are free. But cooler heads prevailed, and in the end they ended up eating way more than us. WTH!?

Oh yeah, on Thursday afternoon I received a frantic phone call from V. Turns out there was some kind of school competition thing happening on Saturday and she needed costume pieces for the kids. That's where I came in. She told me that she needed me to go to Toys R Us (TRU) and find 'Harry Potter' like glasses for a owl costume and wings for a bug costume and that that's what I would be doing on Friday. Then she stopped and asked me "What are you doing right now?" to which I replied, "I was planning what I was going to do on Friday, but it seems as though it's already been planned for me."

So I woke up on Friday morning and headed out to TRU to find some costumes. My adventure took me to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and Harbour City where the closest TRU is. Let me first tell you that I had actually been to this TRU on Wednesday whilst looking for the places that didn't exist. The TRU is housed in at the cruise ship terminal at the edge of TST and mostly frequented by mainlanders and other vacation goers. At the front of the store is a greeter. The greeter was a gangly sort of fellow with big thick-ish glasses. As I look Chinese, he greeted me in Mandarin. As I didn't notice him right away, his loud greeting in Mandarin freaked the crap out of me. So, this time when I went to the TRU prepared to combat my gangly nemesis equipped with headphones and mp3. But, he used a tactic that I was not prepared for...this time shouting at me in Mandarin, drowning out the music and once again scaring the crap out of me. You win this round gangly TRU Mandarin yelling guy.

(Oh, I did finally find one of the places that didn't exist. Turns out it does exist. That being said, it was kinda disappointing when I did find it.)

Once inside the TRU, I was able to find a pair of bug wings. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a pair of 'Harry Potter' style glasses. So trying not to look super gay, I paid for my butterfly wings and left. In the TRU I had a lengthy discussion with V about the bug wings and where I should go to look for a pair of glasses. She suggested the Tung Choi Street Market, more commonly referred to as the Ladies' market. So I embarked on my journey from the TST waterfront to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok. Now for those of you who don't know HK, Mong Kok is a bargain hunters paradise. Everything from shoes and electronics to clothing and beauty products can be found in all of the street markets and tiny shops riddled along the bustling streets. It's sort of a sketchy area, but I've never had a problem there. Just part of the area's charm I think.

Anyways, Mong Kok isn't exactly close to TST, but since I had the whole day in front of me, I decided to walk there. The nice thing about malls in Hong Kong is that they are sprawling and air conditioned so the first part of my trip was spent weaving my way through the Harbour City mall almost 1/3 of my way there. Upon exiting the mall back outside into the slightly humid afternoon daylight, I wandered down and made my way down towards Jordan. There I found the Kowloon Central Post Office and bought a couple of stamps from the vending machine outside and mailed off my postcards. I continued to walk through Jordan down Nathan Road, past shops and restaurants winding my way through people in the crowded streets.

Now more than 1/2 way there, I had reached Yau Ma Tei (like Jordan or Mong Kok, it's a region of the city). After about an hour or so of walking I made it to the MTR station in Mong Kok. Unfortunately, all of the streets start to look the same and I couldn't remember where the market was. So, after trying to get help from V and her coworkers as to it's location, I ducked into the station to find a map and get my bearings. Now topside, I walked a few blocks and found the market with ease. And so began my hunt to find some 'Harry Potter' style glasses. The Ladies' Market is a treasure trove of toys, clothing, handbags, watches, sunglasses, electronics accessories, and Chinese cultural knick knacks. They have everything there...except the one thing I was actually looking for. After wandering through the market for about an hour, I was about to give up and head back to Jordan and the Temple Street Market to see if I could find something there, when all of a sudden I found a costume shop on the edge of the Ladies' Market. Huzzah! 'Harry Potter' style glasses! Mission accomplished.

After finishing the costume search for V, I started wandering around Mong Kok. It's where I first stayed in HK the very first time I came to HK. So, feeling nostalgic, I went on a trek to find my old hotel and my old stomping ground. Not too long after I started out, I found my old hotel and the area where I had first stayed. It was nice to see where all of my HK adventures began. So, in that spirit, I began another adventure and began to wander around unfamiliar places. As it would happen, I got sorta lost. I tend to wander around now without the use of my guidebook/map. I have a pretty good sense of direction I think and if worse came to worse I could just call V and try to figure out where I was and how to get un-lost. It was neat to wander through the streets and see where the real Hongkongers are and how they go about their daily lives. Fortunately, I didn't stay lost too long and I found my way back to more familiar territory in Mong Kok.

I was getting a bit tired and the afternoon day sun was beginning to take it's toll, so I sought refuge at Langham Place, a large mall in Mong Kok. It was a nice place to get out of the sun and cool off for a bit. Plus, there's a nice bathroom there in the lobby of the attached hotel. V and I joke that if I were to ever right a book on travel to Hong Kong, I could tell people where all of the nice washrooms are throughout TST and parts of Kowloon. Anyways, I did some window shopping at Langham and cooled off, while waiting for V to finish work. I was running out of things to do and getting a little bored. Turns out she wouldn't be done work for quite some time. After briefly considering heading home, I instead headed back to TST and a little bakery I had seen. After getting my snack and a tasty beverage, I retreated into Harbour City once again, making sure to steer clear of the TRU.

V was finally off work and making her way towards me. We were suppose to head to Jordan to pick up some stuff at her Aunt's house and then head out for dinner. Or so I thought. So, I headed out to meet V at the corner of Austin and Nathan Road and then head out to her Aunt's house. Unfortunately, V was caught in traffic. She called a head and told me that I could go to her Aunt's house and she would meet up with me there. I felt a bit awkward about that and instead decided to do some more window shopping. While I was waiting for her this Australian woman came up to me, she looked rather lost and somewhat frazzled. She asked me if I knew where the Kowloon Cricket Club was. Interestingly enough, I did. I pointed her towards the KCC and continued on my way.

Anyways, I eventually caught up with V and we headed to her Aunt's place. I thought we were just there to pick up stuff, turns out we were there for dinner...would have been nice to know that before I was standing outside her Aunt's house. It's not that I didn't want to have dinner there, it was more that I had been out all day and that I was dressed kinda shabbily and kinda grungy from my walkabout. Not exactly the best impression I wanted to leave with her family. Thankfully no one cared and I got a super sweet home cooked Chinese dinner. Stewed ox tongue and root veggies is ridiculously good. I almost ate the whole bowl of it myself...but I thought that would be kinda rude. After dinner we hung out for a bit before heading back home to watch Canada and Belarus. Woot 6-1 Canada!

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day for me. With V at work and me pretty tired from all of my trekking from Friday, I just took it easy and hung around at home for the day. Dinner on Saturday was out at Tai Koo with some of her aunts, uncle and cousins. Tai Koo is on the north eastern side of Hong Kong Island. A bit of a rainy night, we ended up at a nice Thai restaurant. The area where we had dinner was pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of Kits. Dinner was like usual, really good. The dinner was suppose to be a farewell dinner for me cause they all thought I was leaving that weekend. Surprise! I'm here till next Saturday. :) Oh yeah, on the way to the restaurant, when her Uncle found out I was here in HK till the 2nd of May, he invited me to a party on May 1st, which was super funny cause V didn't know about it and hadn't been invited yet. So, I invited her to go with me. :P We did some shopping after dinner at the !Cityplaza before heading home. I'm not sure how the '!' works there in the name.

Sunday was a bit of a late start after sleeping in late and watching some hockey, we headed out to do a bit of shopping. I'm looking to maybe buy one of those induction cooktops. Anyways, we headed out into the rain and down to TST for a look around. Nothing on the induction cooktop front, but we did manage to buy a bunch of shoes. After a nice cup of tea and a sandwich (V had some soup), we headed back home to meet up with the same family we had dinner with the night before for some hotpot.

While we were waiting for the bus there was a chubby middle aged woman standing there with her children. Now, I'm of the mind that if you're standing under a bus shelter, you probably don't need an umbrella to keep you dry. Unfortunately, she did not share my view and in the course of waiting for the bus, she smacked her umbrella into me a few time and had the nerve to glare at me like it was my fault. You know what, if you're having a bad day or you don't like that it's raining or you're ashamed of your retarded children or something, that's no reason to be a douche and take it out on me with your umbrella. Anyways, the woman's bus eventually showed up and she took her umbrella with her. I voiced my opinion about the lady to V at this point and as she doesn't appreciate me swearing, I called the woman a 'Po Tat' which was the name of the destination on the bus. For some reason it sounded like a swear in head and I just substituted it in. Since then I've adopted it into my repertoire as an all purpose noun/verb. So, feel free to use it if you like.

Anyways, hotpot. After stuffing our faces for about an hour and a half, V and I headed out to catch a late movie. If you haven't seen Monsters vs Aliens yet, you should, it's pretty funny. The movie theatre we saw it at had it in 3D. Considerably entertained, we headed back home, but not before I freaked out some guy in the elevator as the doors were opening, when I made a sound from the movie. It was priceless.

4W

2009-04-21T21:31:00.002-07:00

I wish I was back home right now to help celebrate the win. That's not to say that I'm not happy to be here in HK. It's just the win doesn't mean so much to the people here. I think I might have scared some people on this floor of the apartment building when I cheered super loud when Burrows scored. 12W to go.

Hong Kong Update

2009-04-19T19:36:00.003-07:00

Ugh...it's really hot here right now. It's super humid too. I call it 'The Moist'. Everything is just sort of damp all the time. All I can really say is that it's just really moist.

Got back from Japan last Sunday. I'll try to post a few stories from our trip soon. Didn't really do much this past week. V started back at work this past week. Her school is being rebuilt so they've had to change locations to a new school for the rest of the year. I went with her on Tuesday to see where the school is. It's out about as far east as you can go in Hong Kong near Po Lam.

So, yeah I haven't really done too much this past week. I watched a bunch of playoff hockey and I've been domestic. That is to say, I've been helping out with much of the housework and cooking. I cooked dinner for V a couple of times last week. Tried a new recipe or two and tried my hand at deep frying. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

It doesn't help that I got sick late last week. So, I didn't really feel like doing much. Got another stomach bug. What sucks is that I had just got over a small head cold I picked up in Osaka. Oh well. I saw a doctor and he gave me drugs so I'm feeling pretty good now. Probably venture out into the city a bit more this week. That is if The Moist doesn't get me first.

3W, 13 to go. Laters.

Blogging...better late than never: Part Two

2009-04-15T00:19:00.006-07:00

Here's part two of my trip summary thus far that you should have got a couple of weeks back:

As I was saying, we arrived at Ngong Ping Village. A tourist trap for sure, but a nice place to relax and grab a bite. Amongst all of the cafes and gelato places, we found a really good Chinese restaurant serving very traditional foods. We took some pics around the village and then headed up towards the Buddha. At the top are six, what I can only describe as 'believers', making offerings to the Buddha and of course the Buddha itself. It's a pretty awe inspiring site, and I can only imagine a much more spiritual one for those who are Buddhist. Inside the statue is a sprawling mural that tells the story of the Buddha. Also at the top where the Buddha sits, it was super windy. So much so that V was being pushed around by it.

We walked back down the stairs, counting them as we went (250 by our count), and found our way over to the Po Lin Monastery. The monastery has a grandeur and elegance to it that I have not seen in many temples throughout my travels in Asia. All in all, my experience at the Tian Tin Buddha was a good one. It's wonder and mysticism gave me a sense of peace and calm. Although I can't help but think that some of it's majesty might be lost on this non-Buddhist.

We took a bus trip from the village near the Buddha to a fishing community about 30mins away called Tai O. Tai O was very reminiscent of my solo trip to Lie Yue Mun on my last trip. The main area is lined by food stalls, restaurants and other shops selling local preserves and delicacies. Tai O is famous for it's tofu pudding. Those of you who don't like tofu, won't find this terribly appealing, but if V, an adherent hater of tofu will eat it and profess to even enjoy eating it, it's probably pretty good. A funny story happened here too, other than V eating tofu. There was this cat at the tofu stall where we stopped, it seemed to take a liking to us and meowed and sat around with us while we ate. At some point though, the cat disappeared. All of a sudden, there was a wicked racket. It turns out the the owners cats were fighting. When the dust settled, the cat that had befriended us was victorious. I told V that it was like my spirit animal protecting me from evil...she didn't buy into it. Just down from the tofu pudding place was a food cart where a husband and wife team grilled dried fish meat. It was from them that V and I tried spicy grilled mantis prawn jerky. If you've never had it, and I'm almost positive that you haven't, you have to try it.

We headed from Tai O to Tung Chung and the outlet mall there. I made my first purchase here at the outlet mall. A nice score I think. Anyways, as always, there's too many stores at the outlet mall to see everything and we run out of time before the mall closes. So, the only thing left to do is have dinner. We settled into a buffet at the hotel there. It's no Mr. Steak Buffet, but for the price it was pretty damn good. Back home from a long day's trip, it was sleepy time.

Friday was a pretty relaxed day before BBQ at with V's family. BBQ with V's family is a a lot of fun. It's a grand social occasion marked by the consumption of ridiculous amounts of meat. Although, this time I was found to be toasting bread brushed with honey.

Saturday was spent cleaning the apartment and packing in preparation for our trip to Japan. I'm one of those people who like to pack early and plan for the worst. V on the other hand is more of a last minute packer and packs for minimalism so as to maximize the amount of foreign booty that can be crammed into a partially empty suit case. Some how we were able to come to a compromise and we got all of our stuff packed up and were ready for our trip on Monday. We had some leftovers from the BBQ the night before for dinner. Wait...that's not quite right. On our way home from BBQ the following night we walked back from the BBQ place to the Causeway Bay MTR station. We were accompanied by V's cousin Ken and his wife Irene and her cousin Ben and his wife Joanna. While in conversation with her cousin Ken, it turns out that they had scored some leftovers from the BBQ. Somehow V got a hold of the bag of leftovers and began to investigate its contents. At this point, she turned to me and asked, "Do you want to steal their leftovers?" To which I kindly replied, "No, that's kind of a dick thing to do." In any event, we acquired some of the leftovers. So, Saturday night V cooked me dinner which consisted of veggies with preserved tofu (which I thought I had never had before, but it turns out that I have had it) and what I pleasantly refer to as hot dog fried rice. Quite tasty although a bit strange in terms of my culinary stereotype of what fried rice is.

Sunday was a national holiday in Hong Kong. I'm not entirely sure what it's called, but it was a day to honour your ancestors. We met up with one of V's aunt and uncle in an older area of the city (Mei Foo) as they were going to show us the way to the cemetery. Let me just say that that Sunday was super hot and I'm glad to finally see some of the locals, and not just me, suffering from the heat. We met up with the rest of the family and headed off to visit the first ancestor. I'm not sure how the rituals actually work, so I just sort of followed along with everyone. Looking around the cemetery, it seems that each family seemed to honour their ancestors in slightly different ways, but all of them seemed to have the same theme. There was the cleaning of the grave stone, a presentation of some food and flowers to the their ancestors, and then a short prayer. After a visit to the last of their ancestors, her family broke out a little feast of fruits and roasted meats and had a graveside picnic in memory of their ancestors. I saw other with even more elaborate ceremonies and grander feasts than ours, but all-in-all it was the same; families coming together to celebrate and remember their loved ones.

After the cemetery, we all started to head down to a little dai pai dong area for a cold drink and short reprieve from the heat of the sun. Of course, as with any family gathering, there was a big dinner planned. V had mention to me earlier in the week that we would be "going to the Gold Coast for dinner on Sunday". She said that it was pretty far away. I replied "Gold Coast? Like Australia?" The conversation sort of ended there and I really gave it no more though. But, there we were Sunday afternoon and headed off to the Gold Coast. Turns out that the Gold Coast is really far away...not Australia far, but it's somewhere where I don't know where I am.

For those of you familiar with Hong Kong and even those of you not familiar with Hong Kong, the Gold Coast is a resort area in the Tuen Mun District in the New Territories. Anyways, there at the Gold Coast Hotel is a super swank buffet. Now I've talked to you about buffets in HK before and there is no comparison to them in Vancouver that I can imagine. The best one I've been to is probably Mr. Steak. The Gold Coast Hotel buffet destroys the Mr. Steak buffet. I can't even begin to describe to you the grandeur of the food presented. Needless to say that any restaurant that has ice cream bars, freshly grilled eel, potato wedges and candy Coke bottles is pretty awesome. After a ridiculous amount of eating, there was of course the requisite family photos, we taxi'd back with V's cousin Ben and his wife Joanna to Lam Tin. One final packing check for our Japan trip the next day and then it was off to bed.

Blogging...better late than never: Part One

2009-04-04T18:06:00.007-07:00

So I attempted to write this blog before I went to Japan...epic fail I suppose. So unedited and unfinished here's the post you should have gotten like two weeks ago:

Well, it appears that I've done a fairly poor job with this blogging thing since I've been back in HK. Not enough time really to do any writing. So, I'll give you all a summary of my travels so far.

My flight out of Vancouver took an extra 2 hours. Anyone who's ever taken a 14 hour flight anywhere, an extra two hours is not a fun time. Not too mention that sleeping on the flight was next to impossible cause of the two giggly fools sitting in front of me. I swear, every twenty minutes the one sitting by the window would open the shutter and then I would get slapped in the face with sunlight. After another hour and a half on the bus, I finally reached my HK home. So, all-in-all, I left Vancouver at 3:10pm Monday and arrived here at V's house at 12am Wednesday.

Since I had been travelling for what seemed like forever and since V was still working, I didn't do much the next day. Mostly, I slept, unpacked my stuff and watched hockey. I helped out with some house work too. Thankfully the apartment isn't too big. We went out for dinner that night ending up at a Chinese fusion restaurant called Red Ant. As with most of the food here in HK, it was really good. Didn't do too much after dinner. We wandered around and did some shopping for a bit, then hopped the shuttle back to the apartment and called it an early night.

The next day was the big day. Let me start by saying, that this is my fifth trip to Hong Kong. In all of those trips, I've done a lot of the touristy things and I've also ventured off on my own to explore parts of Hong Kong that many people will never see. Still, one of the things that I still hadn't seen was the famous Big Buddha (more formally known at the Tian Tan Buddha). Although, if you haven't heard of it till now, it might not be that famous. Anyways, Today, meaning Thursday, was the day that I would finally go see the Big Buddha. V's mom told me that I should go with V cause she has only seen it once. The funny part to stress here was that V's mom seemed more interested that V go see the Buddha for a second time than me seeing it for the first time. Not sure why.

So, we headed out early that morning and started out on our way. In terms of geography, V's apartment is at one end of Hong Kong, while the Big Buddha sits at the exact opposite end. Instead of taking the MTR (the HK subway system) we hopped on the good ol' E22 (you might remember that V, her brother and I had a bit of an adventure the last time I was here and we took the E22) and headed out to Tung Chung where the gondolas are. The gondolas travel across fairly mountainous terrain travelling up to Ngong Ping Village, which is like a super small Chinese Whistler Village. Basically, there's a lot of places to eat and tourist shops there.

Just a side note, there are I believe 4 major hiking trails in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong trail, the MacLehose trail, the Wilson Trail and the Lantau trail. As, I was saying before, the gondola travels up and over some fairly mountainous terrain. Below the gondola, is part of the Lantau trail. As, I understand it, if you wanted to you could walk up the mountains to the Buddha if you wanted to. As we soared over the Lantau trail, I looked down to see at my amazement an extremely old man hiking to the peaks of the trail.

End of Part One.

Epic Fail

2009-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been posting anything so far. I'm working on it as we speak. I'll have something up soon hopefully.

Tales of Interest

2009-01-18T15:40:00.003-08:00

I got a phone call from V today. It seems she had a bit of a weird moment. But, let me back up a few weeks to where this store actually begins.

I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity to experience shopping in Hong Kong. I suspect that it's very few. But, rest assured, it's like a national past time there, like hockey is here. I'm not going to attempt to try to explain it to you. It's really something that you have to experience for yourself. Let me just say that it's very easy for spending to get out of control. On this past trip to Hong Kong, I found myself forever looking at shoes. I'm not quite sure why that is, but it happened. In fact, I got crap from V a lot, I mean a lot, because of my shoe shopping. Although, in the end, I only bought three pairs of shoes, although one was a pair of dress shoes...so I don't really count that one. :P

Anyways, one day we were heading out, I'm not exactly sure where, but as we were waiting for the elevator, we got to talking about shoes. We both commented that our current pair of every-day-knock-around running shoes had for all for intents and purposes died. And that was the start, the hunt for a new pair of runners. But, with that agreement, we both agreed that we would get rid of our old shoes. The deal was that I would throw away her old Nike shoes and she would throw out my very orange pair of New Balance shoes.

And so it happened, V found a super nice pair of Nike Air Max 360s, super cheap I might add, and I was able to score a pair of Nike Free 7.0s for a wicked deal too. The next day we carried out our shoe throwing out pact. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit sad to see my old shoes get tossed into the garbage. Those shoes served me well, they were like a friend, but more shoe like than a friend normally is. Anyways, the shoes were tossed and the new shoes took their place. I won't lie to you, the 7.0 are super comfy, in truth the New Balance shoes were dying...it was only a matter of time until they died. I'm glad they got a chance to die with dignity.

So, today V phoned me and told me that she had a weird morning. It seems she took the elevator with one of her neighbours. On the way out of the building, she noticed her neighbour's shoes. She was a little surprised when she noticed that her neighbour had the same shoes as she once did. So much so that she sped up to catch up to her neighbour to check out the shoes to confirm that those were in fact her shoes. They were indeed her shoes. It appears as though her neighbour fished her shoes, and possibly mine, out of the garbage. I can't really imagine what it feels like to see some one you don't know wearing your clothing, let alone wearing something that you threw away. It must be slightly weird and I can imagine that it's somewhat upsetting. It just goes to show you...someone else might be wearing your shoes as we speak.

/golfclap

2008-12-24T08:28:00.004-08:00

It's officially Christmas here in Hong Kong. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Spent Christmas Eve Day mostly in relax mode. Didn't do too much today. Was feeling a bit under the weather the past couple of days so V took me to see a Chinese doctor. Same deal as before, Chinese doctor diagnoses me and then gives me some strange brew to make and drink. Well, I guess this time, it was a bit different. This doctor brews the stuff for you...or so he says. So, yesterday when I saw this doctor the first time, he told us to come back in about an hour and he'd have the medicine brewed and ready. So, we did a bit of shopping and killed some time and came back for the medicine. I was trying to figure out exactly where he had brewed the stuff, when all of a sudden, he climbs a ladder (which I previously hadn't noticed) at the back of his tiny store and disappears into the ceiling. Minutes later he returned with what I was told was the medicine or what I think is simply roof water. Whatever it is it seems to have worked though. Yay!

The rest of the day we sat about trying to figure out what it was we wanted to do today. After much time wasting and watching the Canucks get destroyed, we decided to hit the outlet mall out in Tung Chung. We finally convinced Tim to get ready and a millenia later, we were out the door on our way...or at least we thought we were on our way. I should have figured things might go amiss from the start, when we darted across the street to catch the bus that was speeding around the corner. Suddenly V realized that we were at the wrong bus stop and we hurried back through traffic to catch the bus on the other side of the road. We climbed aboard and were off to Tung Chung. Now, the bus that we were on is the same bus that I took from the airport to get to V's house. The trip from the airport to Lam Tim (where V lives) is a good hour and fifteen minutes with decent traffic. I should also explain that buses in HK are not quite like the buses in Vancouver. The closest thing I can think of is maybe the B-Line. Imagine if you will, a B-Line bus speeding along Broadway, but instead of the bus being twice as long, it's twice as high. Now, imagine instead of Broadway, it's a highway full of other super speeding cars. Now, imagine that the drivers have little or no regard for human life. If you can imagine all of that, you might understand a fraction of what it's like to ride a bus in HK.

So we're on the death bus to Tung Chung, everything seems fine, Tim is chatting long distance with his gf and V and I are talking about whatever. Now, I have a tendency to fall asleep in vehicles on really long rides. It's just something that happens. And somewhere between Lok Fu and Tung Chung I fell asleep. Probably a good 15 minute nap. Not really knowing where we were heading, I only knew that this bus' terminus was at the airport. I figured we were getting off somewhere before. Sure enough, V woke me up just before the stop she thought we needed to get off at. Oh, by the way, before I fell asleep, I remember Tim saying that he was starving. Try to keep that in mind as you read the rest of this. Anyway, V woke me up and we were preparing to disembark, or as they like to say in HK alight the bus, when everything went fubar. Seems V had previously taken this bus and was under the impression that there was another stop at which we could get off and head to the outlet mall. EPIC FAIL. The next stop was somewhere down the highway on the outskirts of the airport. But, she held fast to her belief that this bus would get us to the mall. As the bus snaked through the roads closer and closer to the airport, it seemed more and more unlikely that we would arrive at the mall via this bus. I think it was only when we were forced to get off the bus outside of Super Terminal One that she abandoned the idea that that bus would get us to the outlet mall in Tung Chung.

Luckily, it wasn't soon before long we were on another bus bound for Tung Chung and the outlet mall. This new bus we were on was suppose to speed us to the Tung Chung MTR station and leave us somewhere in the vicinity of the outlet mall. The bus took us past the Asia-World Expo, which none of us had actually ever seen before. The bus teased us by heading in the direction that we wanted us to. But, Tim and I were still wary of V's navigating skills. Finally, our goal was in sight, we could see the outlet mall in the distance. Soon enough, the bus returned us to the place where V woke me and said that we'd be getting off at the next stop. As the bus rounded the corner towards the MTR station, V rallied Tim and I and prepared us to get off the bus at the next stop and the end of our journey, the outlet mall. Once again, EPIC FAIL. As soon as we got off the bus, the starving Tim asked fairly puzzled, 'Why are we here?" He repeated this several times as we walked towards the outlet mall. Seems V had exited us from the bus a stop or two early, leaving us to walk to the outlet mall. Forgot to mention, while we were waiting for the bus outside Super Terminal One, I was telling V and Tim about an emote in the World of Warcraft. It's '/golfclap'. In game, the emote would read: 'Jeff claps for Veronica, clearly unimpressed.' We all had a good laugh at her expense.

We spent some time at the outlet mall, less time than we had originally figured cause of our detour to the airport. All in all, the outlet mall was kind of disappointing, save the Christmas display with the mall mascot dressed up in pirate gear. There was a pirate ship that had a Christmas tree for a mast and pirates instead of Santa. After about an hour or so at the mall, we headed for dinner at V's aunt and uncle's house. You know how you go to a family dinner and you show up on time, but you have to wait for more people to show up before you can eat and then finally more people show up, but you still have to wait for the last few jerks to show up so you can finally start...we were those jerks. Although, V's cousin Matthew and his family showed up after us, negating some of our jerkiness. And I suppose they had started eating without us anyways...so that kind of makes them jerks instead. Nah, I'm just kidding. Dinner was fun, but it was super hot in the small dining room we were all crammed into. So, that was my Christmas Eve. I gave V her Christmas present, I made a book for her, I think she likes it. She didn't /golfclap me. :P

Bazaar is a funny word

2008-12-22T18:41:00.002-08:00

Not surprising that I'm behind in my blogging. Honestly, the past few days have been a bit of a blur. It's just been one thing after another. It's all been fun, but I'm just constantly on the go. Yesterday, I went to lunch with V's mom's side of the family. Hadn't met a lot of them before, so when V's mom invited me to lunch, I felt that I should probably go. Before lunch, I went to V's school to their mini-bazaar. It's like a little flea market inside the school grounds. Parents, friends and students flit about the fair buying merchandise with artwork designed by the students. Of course, there's food and carnival type games too. It's a tradition for their school and I'm sure it's great fun for them.

Soon enough though, it was off to the Kowloon Cricket Club for lunch. The club is pretty nice. I met some of V's cousins at lunch. V's cousin John is a pretty funny guy. As for her cousin Winnie, she didn't say much, so I don't really know anything about her. After lunch, I took Tim to see my tailor to get him a suit for the upcoming wedding. The tailoring didn't take too long, so we had about an hour to kill before we had to meet up with V. She was taking Tim to see an optometrist. So, we killed time by doing some shopping along Nathan Road. Following shopping and optometrist, Tim headed off to have dinner with his mom and his aunt's and V and I had some time to kill before meeting up with some of her friends for dinner. Her high school friend Ray is moving from Hong Kong back to Vancouver. So, it was sort of a farewell dinner for him. Dinner was a great time. Great food plus great conversation equals good times. Anyway, that was about it for yesterday. I don't think I'm going to do much tomorrow. Probably just watch the hockey game and chill out at home till V comes home.

Birds are weird

2008-12-20T18:38:00.003-08:00

Visited Hong Kong Park today. It's probably one of the most amazing parks I've ever seen. From spectacular fountains and miniature lakes filled with turtles and carp, to a conservatory full of plants from all over the world. The park even has it's own aviary. Both caged birds and an enclosed atrium filled with over 600 birds. I almost had a bird smash me in the head. The best part I suppose was when a flock of birds outside the enclosure was flying overhead. They seemed to rile up the birds inside the enclosure. It was like a scene out of Hitchcock's movie lol. Bird flying randomly everywhere. The noise was astonishing. Then the rucus died down and the birds were quiet again. Birds are weird lol.

After wandering about Hong Kong Park, we walked up (stupid hills and stairs) to the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Park. Again, the park is filled with amazing flora and fauna. Saw a lot more birds. Thankfully they were different than the birds in the Hong Kong Park aviary. Saw some monkeys and lemurs too. It was a bit disappointing though. We were at the zoo around twilight, bedtime for the monkeys. So, they weren't too active and I think some of them had actually retired for the evening. Although, the lemurs are nocturnal so they were already starting to stir. In fact, as we were wandering around the monkey cages, we heard a massive racket coming from the lemur cages. We rushed back up, but it was too late. Whatever fight had broken out was mostly finished. There was few lemurs chasing each other about, but nothing too exciting. Oh yeah, when we were passing by the other cage of lemurs, I had gotten out a protein bar to eat. The sound of crackling plastic packaging brought a lot of the ring-tailed lemurs over to the side of the cage were I was standing. I had a lot of lemurs eyeing me up lol. Good thing they were in the cage.

After the two parks, we headed back to Kowloon Tong to meet up with V's cousins and her brother. Her cousins wanted to see Madagascar 2. The movie theatre was at a mall called Festival Walk. If you've never been to a mall in HK, it's quite a site. Nothing like the malls in Vancouver. It's really hard to describe. You just have to experience it I think. Shopping in Hong Kong is like a gladiator's sport. The malls are the arenas in which the combatants battle to find the best merchandise. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, Madagascar 2 is quite a funny movie. Although, I wasn't expecting that much, so I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. The movie is worth seeing just for all of the stuff with the penguins and monkeys. Hmmmm...seems like my day was filled with birds and monkeys lol.

Devil's Peak

2008-12-19T00:30:00.006-08:00

Day after the wedding, luckily I don't drink, so no hangover. I went to bed last night, determined to go adventuring today. I had a few places in mind, but wasn't really sure how long it was going to take to get to any of them, how much time I would spend there, or just exactly which of the the things I would go see.

I woke up this morning determined to go exploring again. And after breakfast and a few chores, I headed out on another trek about the city. This time I headed east to Yau Tong. It's no where near as spectacular as TST or Causeway Bay, but it has a certain quaint little Charm. It's one MTR station away from my home station at Lam Tin. So, not far away at all. The plan was to hike up Devil's Peak to see the Devil's Peak Redoubt. I wasn't totally sure how I was suppose to get there. It's not exactly a popular tourist attraction. There was a small map in V's Chinese Hong Kong tour guide, so I took that with me just in case.

It appeared that there were two ways of getting there. Either directly up the hill from the Yau Tong MTR station or some how weaving through the coastal fishing village along the waterfront called Lei Yue Mun. It's a little confusing, cause both sides of the waterway are called Lei Yue Mun. I was on the Kowloon side. Anyway, in the spirit of adventure, I picked the latter.

Following the signs from Yau Tong station, I made my way to Lei Yue Mun. The area has a rich seafaring heritage, including fishing and piracy. Apparently, the area was a hot spot for pirates back in the day. Thus the need for the redoubt up Devil's Peak and the redoubt at Lei Yue Mun on the island side. Winding down the streets of Yau Tong, I finally found my way to Lei Yue Mun. It's famous for the seafood stalls and the restaurants attached. Entering the labyrinth of seafood stalls, I worked my way past fish and crustaceans that I have never seen before. I would have loved to snap some photos in there, but it was hard enough getting through there without getting hassled to by some fresh fish. I wandered through the maze of seafoods for quite some time before I found another sign directing me towards my destination, the Tin Hau Temple. Tin Hau is a goddess of the sea and the protector of fisherman and sailors. So, I carried on through this makeshift village past the tiny shack like houses.

The temple itself was nothing special, but you could feel the faith of the people who frequented this temple to pray and look for guidance from Tin Hau. As with all spiritual things, I found the experience quite humbling. I left the temple feeling spiritually refreshed, and walked back to where I thought I could begin my trek up to Devil's Peak. After, passing by the most decrepit dog I have ever seen and slightly fearing for my life as I did not want to startle it and receive a bite from it's dire fangs, I started my way up the hill along a path that would lead me to the Wilson Trail. The Wilson Trail is one of 4 major hiking trails in Hong Kong, each of them multi-staged, each stage varying in difficulty. I had read that the Wilson Trail traveled near Devil's Peak, so I figured I was headed in the right direction. Winding my way up a staircase, I continued to walk past small tenements and shacks. I finally reached the top of the seemingly never-ending staircase, only to have to climb another hill. With the noonday sun beating down upon me and feeling a bit of fatigue from the stair master workout I had just received, I took a break at a covered shelter and tried to refocus myself for my journey up the peak.

I finally reached the bottom of the hill and the start of the Wilson Trail. Unfortunately, the map wasn't particularly clear nor were the signs on the post over head. Had I been able to understand Cantonese, my trek to the peak would have been much more direct. There were three signs, one pointing to the Lam Tin section of the Wilson Trail, one pointing in the opposite direction to Yau Tong and one pointing to Pau Toi San. Having come from Lam Tin, I had no need to follow that trail. The Pau Toi San sign pointed in the same direction as the Lam Tin sign and I figured it was just another area back towards Lam Tin. I knew that the Devil's Peak looked out over Yau Tong and Lei Yue Mun, so I started out in that direction following the familiar Wilson Trail markings that had gotten me this far. But, my trust in Wilson would soon fail me.

The trails atop the Devil's Peak, are like other passage ways in Hong Kong a winding confusing maze of pathways with little direct signage and a lot of room for interpretation. So, like I said, I followed my instinct and continued on along the Wilson Trail. The trail took me in the right direction towards the peak. I could see the redoubt and everything. As I climbed the hill towards what I thought was the peak of Devil's Peak, I found myself looking out over the Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery. The link to the map shows where the Devil's Peak Redoubt is and to the east of that, you can see the cemetery. And from my vantage point, I could only see a portion of the entire thing. I have few words to describe it. It is something you'd definitely have to see for yourself.

But, that's where my trail ended. The next part of the Wilson Trail, started back down the peak to parts unknown. So, having abandoned my once good friend Wilson, I back tracked down the hill to try to figure out where I needed to go. As I made my way back down, I found a small path just off the main path that looked like it went in the direction I wanted to go: up. So, I made my way up through the bush and found myself reconnected with a hiking trail. It seemingly was heading up the peak so I made my way along it. Finally, I was on my way to the peak. As I made my way up towards the peak, it became all to clear that this was not a historic site...well, it was historic, it's just not seem as an important historic relic to be preserved. There was garbage all along the path as I climbed higher and higher. At a small detour in the trail, I took the tangent path to what I thought were some ruins. When I got up there, it appears as though the ruins were probably once apart of the redoubts infrastructure, but it had long since crumbled away. What remained looked as though was now the toilet for the homeless people who inhabited the peak. No, that's not a joke. I'm serious.

As I fled from there to rejoin the main trail, I heard some noises from up towards the redoubt. Now, I'd like to think that I'm a pretty tough guy. I mean I partake regularly in Tough Guy Thursdays and stuff. I'd like to think that if a homeless guy came at me I'd be able to defend myself against that filthy, filthy beast. But, with all things, you never really know what to expect. So, with caution, I proceeded further up the peak towards the redoubt, ever mindful of my surroundings and my healthy fear of being stabbed. But, it was nothing so sinister. Upon reaching the base of the redoubt, it appears as though some caretaker or homeless person or something has planted a small garden there. I think I saw the guy who lives up there briefly, but I'm not entirely sure.

In any event, I made my way up the final staircase and reached my goal. I had finally found the Devil's Peak Redoubt. I wandered about the old military ruins for a bit and imagined what it must have been like there a hundred and fifty years ago when pirates roamed the waters near Lei Yue Mun, threatening British colonial interests (you can find more information on pirates here). After some picture taking and a swing of water, I made my way back down the peak. My adventure in Yau Tong was pretty much complete. But, making my way up the peak, was no where near as hard as coming back down. Not having done too much in the past few months, I found that my legs were a bit weak as I made my way back down. Although, it was tiring working my way up the hill, the climb itself only seemed to be taxing on me because of my lack of endurance and my asthma. Coming back down...my knees were really feeling the descent. But, I made it down the peak safely and after wandering around Yau Tong for a bit, I found my way back to the MTR. Oh yeah, I found out later from V's mom that Pau Toi San, means like cannons on the hill or something. So, if I had followed those signs, I probably would have made it to the redoubt much sooner. Probably would have missed seeing the cemetery though. Also, I know that san means hill/mountain...so had I been paying more attention, I probably should have figured out that the sign was pointing to the peak. lol

With my Yau Tong adventure over, I decided to take the advice of V's mom and head to Wong Tai Sin and see the temple there. So, a short MTR ride later, and I was in Wong Tai Sin. The temple there is huge and the architecture what you'd expect of a Chinese temple. Inside the main temple, you can get this cup full of bamboo sticks. Each stick has a number on it with a corresponding fortune or prediction. The idea is to pray for something and shake the cup. Eventually, you will be able to shake free one of the bamboo sticks. So, I got me one of these cups with the sticks, and I kneeled before the temple altar and I began to shake the cup. Honestly, I can't say that I was praying for anything specific, just curious what it could tell me about my future I suppose. Anyway, cup shaking. While I was shaking the cup, I was looking around at all of the people who were also doing it. One by one, each person seemed to shake their cup and get their stick...that sounds kinda lewd, but oh well. In any event, I was there shaking the cup full of sticks for quite sometime. I began to wonder if I was doing it wrong or maybe my cup with sticks was broken or something. But, eventually I was one of the bamboo sticks fell free from the cup and I had my number.

But, what to do with this number? I didn't know. I found a temple interpreter and asked her what I was suppose to do. She told me that once I had my number from the stick, I could go down to see the fortune tellers and they could tell me what the number meant. However, she told me that it could get a bit pricey and that I could find my fortune by visiting the temple's website for free. Free is good. So, I thanked her for her help and wandered into the Good Wish Garden. I'm hoping that the literal English translation is just bad and that it's called something much cooler in Cantonese. In any event, bad name, really beautiful garden. It was really quite spectacular. The garden is full of ponds with fountains and waterfalls cascading overhead. The ponds are filled with carp and turtles. I was able to get like super close to some turtles, maybe like a foot away. They were just hanging out, soaking up some rays. I watched two turtles fighting to secure the last spot on a rocky over hang. Prime sun bathing spot I'm sure.

I left the gardens to find myself in this weird dungeon like maze. Once again, I would have like to take pictures, but it was hard enough trying to get out of there trying to explain that I didn't need my palm or feet or face read or my fortune told. There was a huge sign leading down to the fortune tellers that said soothsayers. Now, we all know about soothsayers a la Julius Caesar. So, reading that sign, my healthy fear of being stabbed kicked in. I'm not saying that I'm like Julius Caesar or something or that it's the Ides of March, but I'd prefer to not be brutally stabbed by Romans, which would probably be very unlikely seeing as I'm in HK...still. Anyway, I made it out of the soothsayers dungeon no worse for wear and found myself outside the temple gates once again.

After the Wong Tai Sin Temple, I wandered around Wong Tai Sin for a bit and came across the Fung Tak Park. The park is themed on the Chinese fairy tale 'Journey to the West'. Journey to the West tells the tale of the Monkey King and his adventure. The park had sections devoted to specific episodes in the fairy tale. I wandered through the park for a bit, trying to relive the adventures of the Monkey King. I felt like I had done a pretty good job. Then the battery in my camera crapped out and I was sad. Then my water ran out and I was sad again. So, I headed home. Back to the MTR station, I wandered down a pedestrian subway to an different exit/entrance than I had emerged from. Outside this particular exit/entrance there were rather aggressive women trying to sell incense and other worshipping paraphernalia to people exiting the MTR station. I'm not sure if the people they were harassing were actually heading to the Wong Tai Sin Temple, but one woman was having no part of it and pushed the tiny elderly woman aside. I'm sure it's not the first time that she's been pushed though. She seemed pretty tough. Anyway, I made it back home with out being stabbed or accosted by tiny incense selling woman, maybe a little sun burnt, but with another walkabout completed. Oh...turns out that the spare battery for the camera was sitting on the table all along. lol

Almost forgot, here's my fortune from Wong Tai Sin:

#15

Riding on a raft and floating is midstream,
He travels far and wide to the glistening moon.
Songs of angels from Heaven may stop for a while.
Yet wine and poetry never cease to make you smile.

ORACULAR REVELATION:
Recovery from sickness will be speedy.
Silk-raising will prove successful.
Travellers will now be returning.
Time is favourable for contracting marriage.
A son will be born to the pregnant.
Bright prospects are for the family.
Most plans and aspirations will be blessed.
Fame and wealth will come your way as desired.
Breeding domestic animals will be successful.

ANSWER TO QUESTIONS ON:
Geomancy : wealth will come and children will be born.
Lost property : lost items will soon be found.
Personal well-being : everything is safe and sound.
Future prospect : endeavours are rewarding.
Travelling : all journeys are pleasant and enjoyable.

#16

2008-12-18T18:51:00.003-08:00

It was another quiet morning for me. Spent the late morning and the afternoon watching the Trevor Linden retirement ceremony and the subsequent hockey game. Yup, that's right, I watched the ceremony and game from HK, come on, it's Linden. Couldn't call myself a Canucks fan if I missed it. Stepped out quickly during the first period of the game to get lunch for me and V's mom. She hung out to watch the ceremony and game too. V's family are probably one of the most fanatic Canuck fans I've ever known. I have friends who have certain members of their family watch and support the Canucks, but V's whole family all cheer the Canucks with a passion like I have never seen.

Oh right, lunch. I ran down to the nearby mall to pick up some McDonald's. Now, I know what you're thinking, McDonald's!? WTH!? But, with my restricted diet, lunch time is hard to find the kinds of food I can eat. Lunch time in Hong Kong is a carb lover's paradise. It's all about quick food slapped down over rice or noodles. Two things I can't really eat in great quantity anymore. Hong Kong isn't a very salad friendly place I suppose. I tried to make my own the other day. V and I had gone to the local 'white' supermarket to pick up some salad stuffs. Now, it's not a Whites only supermarket, it just has foods that cater more towards white peoples...or people who are 'white' like me. Anyway, salad fixin's, not so good in HK. In fact, quite terrible. But, what I have found, is McD's has a very good grilled chicken salad that's really quite fresh and quite healthy surprisingly enough.

V tells me that the grilled chicken burger here in HK is nothing like the grilled chicken burger in Canada. It's quite a popular sandwhich here because of the style in which they grill the chicken. The same chicken is used for the salad and it's quite tasty. The McD's menu here in HK is also quite interesting, with menu items like an Ebi Burger, Chicken Wings, Fresh Corn, Fillet-O-Fish sticks and even Clam Chowder, it's quite a bit different than back home.

After the game, I had some homework to do...not some much work I had to do, but I needed to proofread/edit something of V's. So, I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on that. I figured that I could take my time with that and then enjoy the rest of my afternoon before I had to get ready for the wedding. Fat chance of that happening. As soon as V came home, I was asked to head down to the local supermarket and pick up some stuffs we were running low on. So, I rushed out and gots the goods. Meanwhile, V and her family were getting ready for the wedding. It was funny, once V, her dad and I were ready, V's mom was still trying to get ready. At one point as we were trying to leave, V's mom suddenly couldn't find her shoes, both V and her dad were super unimpressed. It was pretty funny. I think V said something like ' both Daddy and I had to work today and we were able to be ready on time.' It was really quite funny.

Anyway, back to the wedding. Who was getting married you might ask? Her cousin Kenneth. Nice guy. He was very gracious to invite me to his wedding. Anyway, time to dawn the tailor-made suit. There are few chances that I have to wear such fine haberdashery, but I really enjoy the exercise of getting dressed up and heading out for a fancy affair. Felt like I was more appropriately dressed than some of the people there; like the guy show showed up in a striped polo shirt with track pants and a non-matching track jacket.

Anyway, there was lots of family, photo taking and good times to be had. Seeing everyone dressed to the nines was pretty cool too. Even her little cousins were all decked out. I, myself looked pretty swank. Not as good as Jiggy Swank, but then again, who does?

One of the things that stood out at the wedding was a tea ceremony. It looks like the newly married couple visits all of their elder relatives, a fact that I wasn't made initially aware of. In any event, they visit each of their aunts and uncles and serve them tea. In return, the aunts and uncles and whoever else, present the couple with lai see, you'd probably know them better as the tiny red envelopes filled with cash given out at Chinese New Years. They're also given at special occasions, like weddings. So, here's the joke; I was unaware of this particular ceremony, and one of V's uncles decided to explain to me exactly was going on. He explained pretty much what I just explained, leaving out the part where I as an unmarried younger generation, didn't have to participate in the tea ceremony. He then told me that for HKD$1000, he would supply me with the necessary goods to perform the tea ceremony. Slightly skeptically of his proposal, I hinted to him that his offer sounded a might bit sketchy. Luckily, V came along around that time and whisked me away to go look at wedding photos and stuffs. Still, think he was trying to scam me though lol.

Also at weddings, there's usually a kiddie table. I was fortunate enough to be seated with the kiddies as they are quite amusing. Anyway, we were given tiny bottles of bubbles to blow at the bride and groom as they walked past us to the head table. Many hours after that, the kids decided that it was time to play with bubbles. So, off we headed to courtyard where much silliness and laughter ensued. It was pretty funny.

Finally, I know many of you have probably been to weddings in the past. There's always an aunt or uncle there who comes up to you and asks you something to the effect of 'So, your next right?' Yeah...I got that and then some. Questions, questions, so many questions. I'm not entirely sure how I weaseled my way out of answering the questions, but the final implied comment to me happened at the end of the night. Kenneth (the one who got married), his Dad came by our table and singled out V and her cousin Jennifer (Jennifer is a few years younger than V I think). In any event, he commented to me, after he spoke to them in Cantonese, that both of them were watching the wedding ceremony very intently. The actual wedding itself took place in New Zealand. This was a wedding celebration for all of their friends and family in HK. Sort of a re-enactment of sorts. The ceremony was played on a project. Anyway, He told me that V especially seemed very interested in the happenings of the wedding. It's funny, because when the the video came on, they were still serving food. There were a bunch of people leaving at that time some more people milling about in front of our table blocking our view of the screen. So, when the people at the table in front of us left, V moved up to that table to get a better view of the screen. Of course, I went with...but, just before we moved tables, like I said they were serving some food at our table, and I thought to myself, 'I hope there's food there when I get back.' There's another wedding a few weeks from now. V's cousin Ben is getting married. I'm sure the aunts and uncles that didn't ask me this go round will probably ask me at the next one. :P

The night finally came to a close and we taxi'd back home. I packed my suit away till next time and called it a night. Oh yeah, when I was hanging away my suit, I noticed that it said 'Specially Made For Jeff Yip'. Hey! That's me!

Down Time

2008-12-18T18:37:00.005-08:00

I'm seemingly forever behind in my blogging. lol

Well, following my walkabout and still trying to regain my strength from the virus, I took the next day off...that would have been Wednesday. I stayed pretty much close to home, venturing only to get food and take out the trash. I spent my day researching my next set of adventures around HK. I'm a history buff of course, so I've been looking at visiting old World War II sites. I'm not going to go into too many details, but to give you a little background, in 1941 Hong Kong was invaded by the Japanese. The British along with help from it's Commonwealth countries, made a valiant, yet ultimate futile defense of Hong Kong. On Dec 25, 1941, Hong Kong fell to the Japanese. Almost 2000 Canadians lost their lives defending Hong Kong. The only Victoria Cross action to take place during the battle was awarded to a Canadian, Company Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn. His story is epic, the true definition of a hero, I think.

Anyway, it's back to guide books and maps as I venture into parts unknown. Well, at lest parts unknown to me. Not sure where my first stop is yet, but I'm sure I'll write about it. Anyway, that's all I did Wednesday really. V's mom flew in to HK on Wednesday and there was a big family dinner at V's aunt's house (this is an aunt on her mom's side). V's whole family is in town for a couple of weddings. First one is on Thursday. Should be quite interesting, I've never been to a Chinese wedding before.

Walkabout

2008-12-17T23:23:00.008-08:00

Oy! Looks like I'm a few days behind again on my writing.

I'm forever getting mixed up with my days. Having been sick for a while and not working and now being almost a day a ahead of where I'd usually be, I seem to forget exactly what day it is and which day I did what.

Anyway, Tuesday I headed out to the Hong Kong Museum of History. Sure, not everyone's cup of tea to be sure, but interesting to me nonetheless. As luck would have it, the museum had a brand new exhibit showcasing the French Revolution. But, as has been my Achilles heel of late, I neglected to read the signs properly and when I arrived at the museum, it was closed. Seems I showed up to the museum for the French Revolution one day early. So, no museum for me. I headed across to the Hong Kong Science Museum to see if I could get my museum fix for the day. As chance would have it, there was something going on there as well, preventing me from going inside. So, with no museums to go to in this part of town, and a whole afternoon in front of me, I decided to go exploring and go for a walkabout.

My trek took me along down along a familiar street to the water's edge passing shops that I recognized from my frequent bus rides down this stretch of TST. I had to take a slight detour along my way, weaving and winding through a variety of street and building construction. As I found my way back to the main street, I passed by this little noodle house tucked into the bend of a side street. The only reason I took notice was there was a massive line up of people waiting to get in. Must be lunch time in HK. Now, I'll be the first to say that I won't stand in a line up for a restaurant. With all of the great food available, especially here in HK, why wait to eat? Also, still recovering from my recent stomach ailment, I find that now more than ever, that when my system lets me know I need food, I need food like now!

So, the waiting for food, not exactly an option for a hungry person such as myself. Luckily, I had already eaten lunch and didn't need to eat. But, it got me thinking. If there is this many people lined up outside this place, it's gotta be good. Perhaps, it'd be worth the wait if I were prepared to wait. :P But, you can find similar line ups for food all over the city. One place I have to try, is a little hole in the wall down Nathan Road. For those of you who don't know, Nathan Road is one of the main streets in Hong Kong. It's full of shopping, shopping and...more shopping. It is also home to a great number of restaurants too. Back to the hole in the wall. Of course, there's nothing fancy about this place, it is literally a whole in the wall. They don't serve anything fancy or upscale, no home cooked Chinese food or anything like that.

What they make is what I know as bubble or egg waffles. It's sort of hard to describe them. Ask Leng if you really want to know. Anyway, the line up for this little food stall is always there. I've never passed by it when it wasn't busy. V pointed it out to me at the beginning of my trip. She tells me that it's the best place in Hong Kong for those waffles and I can see why. Each time I pass by that place it smells sooooo good. It's intense. It's sort of like a cross between freshly made waffle cones, fortune cookies and an ever subtle hint of almond cookie aroma too. Anyway, when I finally get through the line up, I'll let you know how they are.

So, I made my way down the busy street, stopping every so briefly inside the New World Center Shopping Mall to hide from the afternoon sun. Now, with the snow falling in Vancouver, I probably shouldn't be complaining too much about 24 degree weather. But, quite honestly, I really wasn't prepared for the warmth of that afternoon.

I traveled along the Avenue of Stars, a great stretch of waterfront real estate paying homage to the great stars of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. I'd been there before during the evening for a quiet stroll with V last time I was here. But, I hadn't seen it during the day so I took this opportunity to walk along the promenade and stop to take pictures of the Hong Kong Island side as I went. As the sun beat down upon me, I reached the end of the Avenue of Stars finally reaching the Hong Kong Cultural Center, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Space Museum.

I stopped outside this iconic trio of buildings, which defines the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, to take some pictures of the architecture and of just everyday life in TST. There were these two old gentlemen playing Chinese checkers in the shade of the HK Cultural Center; a seemingly stereotypical photo opportunity that I couldn't pass up. They were so enthralled with their game, that I dare not interrupt them to ask them if I could take their picture...so I just quietly snapped a shot and let them continue on with their game. After taking pictures for a while, I needed to find refuge from the sun. So, I headed into the art museum to cool down and take in some culture.

Now, I can't say that I really understand art, especially modern art. But, this museum isn't just fancy paintings of Van Gogh or Rembrandt. This art museum showcases Chinese artwork, everything from calligraphy scrolls to Chinese brush paintings, to ancient pottery and relics. They also have some modern art too. They're current feature exhibit was the art of Antonio Mak. Again, I don't really understand modern art, but his stuff was really quite interesting and though-provoking. Usually after viewing modern art, I leave the gallery some what confused and feeling a little cheated of my hard earned dollars. But, I left this exhibit with maybe a little more understanding of art and the artist's message. The other exhibit that I really wanted to see, was entitled 'The Story of the Horse'. I have a certain affinity for the horse. It's my Chinese astrological sign. So, I was interested to see both modern and ancient interpretations of the horse and the spiritual and symbolic meanings that the horse has in Chinese culture. The exhibit was quite interesting and I was fortunate enough to be in HK to see it.

So, after finally venturing into a museum and getting my cultural fix...and possibly responsible for breaking a hand dryer in the bathroom...I headed back out on my walkabout. As luck would have it, V was just finishing work and heading out to an appointment on the island side. I was to meet her in Causeway Bay, one of the city's most colourful and vibrant areas, I think. I'll tell you now that V was quite impressed in how I got to the island side. Now, conventional wisdom would tell me to find the closest MTR station and take the subway out to Causeway Bay, seeing as it has it's very own station. But, I was on walkabout, so time to explore.

I headed from the museum to the Star Ferry. I've mentioned the Star Ferry before I think. It's a turn of the century ferry boat that still has fares for upper decks and lower decks. Having take the noisy and slightly smelly trip on the lower deck already, I think I might be worth it to pay the 50 cents more and ride in a little bit more style. So, I hopped on the Star Ferry leaving from TST to Wan Chai. Wan Chai is an area on the HK Island side right next to Causeway Bay. My plan was to take the ferry across to Wan Chai, take some photos around the HK Convention and Exhibition Center on the Wan Chai waterfront, and then continue my walkabout to Causeway Bay. Would it have been simpler to take the MTR? Probably. Was this just another excuse to take the Star Ferry? Definitely.

So, about 15mins later, I emerge on the Hong Kong Island side near the HK Convention Center. I spent a little over a half an hour taking pictures in and around the convention center, before I headed out for Causeway Bay. It was neat to see the city at twilight and I was sort of glad to see the sun fall below the skyline. Not knowing how long it would actually take to get there, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get there and not leave her waiting for me. I've traveled around Wan Chai a little bit and I was weaving in and amongst covered walkways that zig zag above the streets of Wan Chai. When I finally emerged from that crazy labyrinth and looked at my surroundings, I thought to myself, 'hmmmm...I'm somewhere where I don't know where I am.' Oh well, not much I could do about that now. So, relying once again on my brain, I headed down Hennessy Road towards hopefully Causeway Bay. As I walked among the hordes of people, the last remnants of sunlight had disappeared from the rooftops. With the sun now gone the neon glow of the city began to light my way. I walked for what seems like forever. Not really sure I was going in the right direction, simply carrying on my path from a gut feeling.

Finally I recognized the iconic red and white symbol of the MTR, so regardless of whether or not I was actually going in the right direction, at least I would be able to get to Causeway Bay. A few more blocks and a few thousand people later, I arrived at my destination. Causeway Bay MTR station, exit F. Yay! Feeling triumphant in the completion of my quest and being about 20mins early to meet V, I decided to explore a bit. Causeway Bay is a vibrant and busy shopping and eating district on the island side. Similar to TST I suppose, but a whole lot more people. There seems to be a greater mix of high end fashion and expensive restaurants too. I wandered about the streets in behind the MTR station. It was a crazy mix of winding roads and unique storefronts. As I weaved amongst the buildings and people, I found myself staring at Time Square. No, not NYC. Time Square is like a huge marble spire gently set in the middle of Causeway Bay. It's really quite pretty all decked out in it's Christmas finery. Aside from the general Christmas lights and stuff, there was an amazing art display out front of Time Square. It was a winter village scene but not with your average Christmas characters. It was like seeing a Hayao Miyazaki film in real life. You'll have to see the pictures I suppose it's kind of hard to describe, but it was really quite spectacular.

And then all of a sudden it was time to meet V. I rushed back to our meeting spot feeling pretty weary from the days adventure. I finally met up with V and we did a bit of shopping before we headed to her aunt's house for dinner. All-in-all, a pretty eventful day for me. I was glad when I finally climbed into bed.

Ears are not handles for lifting

2008-12-15T18:27:00.003-08:00

And before we knew it, the weekend was over. Which meant V was going back to work.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit anxious to be left alone on the streets of Hong Kong to fend for myself. Luckily, V's been teaching me a lot about the city and how to get around it and stuff. I think she'd agree, that I'm an old pro at navigating my way around the MTR and I've been taking the bus a lot by myself too and I'm pretty familiar with the one bus route that gets me from home to a lot of areas in TST (a major shopping/dining/cultural area on the peninsula side of HK), including where V works and back home.

So getting around...pretty much no problem. Or at least I haven't gotten lost yet. I'm also flying solo in so far as, I'm not taking a tour book with me when I go out. No maps, no bus schedules or directions. There are a lot of signs around pointing out where major attractions are and stuff like that, and while they are helpful, I'm pretty much going by memory a lot of the time.

Case in point, V and I went to the Peak (big mountain on the Island side) yesterday. We were hunting around for the Peak Tram to get up the mountain. The Peak is a pretty big tourist attraction, so we were following the government posted signs in order to find the tram. But, for the most part we had come out of the MTR station and were searching for it simply by memory. At one point we were looking for one of those government signs to make sure we were heading in the right directions. We found one, but instead of it reading Peak Tram, it said Peak Team. And that's not even Ingrish, that's just a typo.

So, back to my anxiety. Like I was saying, I'm not so much worried about getting lost in the middle of HK somewhere and while there is a real possibility that could happen, I'm more concerned about the language barrier. While I know some Cantonese, I don't really think it's enough. Plus, people take to fast for me to follow along with what they are saying. I try my best, but I find that for the most part, I'm relying on other people to know English for me to survive here.

In an attempt to calm my fears about that, V had me order lunch for us yesterday. I think she was trying to show me that I can get away with using English for the most part and that I shouldn't be afraid to venture out on my own and just live life normally here in HK. While I'm still a little apprehensive about surviving all by myself here, she definitely made her point.

After lunch up at the Peak, we came back down and crossed the water back to TST to pick up my suit for the wedding. Crossing the water from the island side to the peninsula side happens in one of two ways, MTR which goes under the water, or the Star Ferry. Must be my fascination with boats or my love of the ocean, but I love taking the Star Ferry. I guess the novelty of taking this turn of the century vessel across the water, just hasn't worn off on me yet. Sure, it's a regular mode of transportation for a lot of people, but I don't get to take a boat ride everyday.

As I was saying, I went to pick up my new suit yesterday. That's right, I am now the proud owner of a tailor made suit. Nothing too fancy about it, it's just cool that I had input into making my own suit. After we picked up the suit, I had to go hunt for a pair of dress shoes. Seems the shoes I brought along for the suit, just won't cut it. So, I began the task of finding new shoes. I've learned that I should never by the first pair of shoes I try on, no matter how much I like them or how comfortable I think they are. Thus, I wanted to try on a bunch of different shoes and try to find the best ones I could. But, holy crap! The sales people in HK put on the pressure. I'm mean I could understand the hard sell for something like a car or an expensive TV or something, you know a big ticket item...but, pressure sales tactics for a pair of shoes...seems a bit hardcore. The other thing I noticed, was that in almost every place I went into, the pair of shoes that I was interested in maybe purchasing, but that I wanted to think about before I actually bought it; that pair of shoes was always the last one in it's size. Whaddup with that?

Anyway, I finally found a pair of shoes. So, we headed back home to drop off all of the stuff. Plus, V's dad came home on Monday from working in the UAE for the past 3 months, and we figured we should stop in and see how he was doing. After being domestic for a while (i.e. laundry) we headed out for dinner.

If you haven't experienced a HK buffet, it's something you really have to do before you die. There are almost too many choices at the buffet. It's quite ridiculous how much food is there. And while I wasn't able to try everything, everything that I did have was exceptionally good. If you hadn't guessed, we went to buffet last night for dinner. We met up with a couple of V's friends (although I suppose they are my friends too) Johann and Katie. Anyway, they just got back from Japan. There's another country with tasty, tasty food. Johann and Katie both work for Cathay Pacific as flight attendants. So, they asked me about the flight attendants on my flight out to HK. Turns out that all of my observations about their co-workers and friends on the my flight were pretty accurate. All in all, good food and conversation makes for a pretty good evening. I ate sooooo much food.

One more thing, just before we headed out for dinner, I was sitting on the couch by the door putting on my shoes, when V asked me something...I don't remember what she asked me, but like I do sometimes, my answer was smart ass. In order to get my attention, she lifted my head by me ears, sort of how you might lift up a bucket by the handle. But, instead of a bucket, it was my head and instead of a handle it was my ears. Two things in that instance made it super funny to me. Firstly, the fact that she lifted my head by my ears and secondly, just how much it actually hurt. Holy crap, V is freakishly strong.

Yum cha

2008-12-15T17:34:00.007-08:00

Wow, guess I have a couple of days here to catch up on.

Sunday, I went to Dim Sum with V's Dad's side of the family. She has so many relatives, it's really hard to keep track of them all. Plus, in Chinese culture, people refer to their aunts and uncles in the order in which they were born. So, V will refer to them by number, not by name. If I were quizzed on which aunt or uncle was what number, I'd probably fail the test miserably. But, having hung out with her cousins a lot, and spending most family gatherings sitting at the 'kiddie's table', I do know all of the names of her cousins. I suppose that's a start.

Having learned the most basic Cantonese I possibly could before I left for Hong Kong, I tried my hardest to follow along. Problem with that was that there was so much going on, it was hard to figure out who was talking to who and in which conversation. I honestly tried my best to try to understand what was going on, but my new language skills weren't quite enough to help me out. Which is ok, cause there are many things that I do understand now. Just the conversations at the dim sum table are flying fast and furious. However, I was able to sort of figure out what was going on from people's body language and their expressions.

What I did figure out, was that her cousin Matthew is the one all of the cousins like to bug. The kid is maybe 10 years old, and what I gather from what V has told me and from what little Cantonese I understood, he's some what popular with the ladies...well, maybe not ladies, so much as girls his own age. So, they make fun of him and the supposed harem of girlfriends that he apparently has. Poor kid, I kinda felt sorry for him. But, it seems like he likes the attention. I'll tell you this though, it sure makes for entertaining conversations, even if I'm not entirely sure what's going on.

Still, all of her cousins, aunts and uncles speak some English. So, it's really not that hard to communicate with them when I need to. I met her cousin Ken just before Dim Sum. V's helping out with the MC'ing for Ken's wedding. Ken and his bride to be, Irene, are both from New Zealand. I had a pretty good conversation in English with the two of them. First time I found that I didn't need to really modify my English in order to speak to someone. That's not a slight against anyone, I just have to remind myself that I can't use complex English in order to speak with people who's first language is not English.

Oh yeah, V totally got crap from her Aunt (I don't know which one lol). Anyway, Her cousin Ben is getting married later in the month. So, with two weddings happening, she's got a lot more relatives in town than would normally be here. Plus, throw me into the mix, and it's a pretty interesting time. So, back to why V got crap. Apparently, V didn't tell everyone in her family that I was here in HK or that I was even coming to HK this December. So, Ben's mom, totally gave her crap for not telling her and then was kind enough to invite me to Ben's wedding. According to V, Ben had already invited me to his wedding or something like that. Still, it was funny to see her get crap.

One last thing, when we were on the elevator coming back up to V's apartment, there was a family in there, a mother, her elder son and her young daughter. The daughter must have been 3, maybe 4. As an elementary school teacher, V is always telling me about cute kids. So, I thought, this little girl with her little pigtails and stuff was a cute kid. V was of the opposite opinion, turns out that kid was licking her hand. Not like sucking on her thumb or something. Like full on licking her hand from her palm to the tip of her fingers. V thought that was kind of disgusting and I'm incline to agree. Although, I brought up the point that maybe the kid was not disgusting but simply the tastiest child in the world. A point that V was unable to argue.