My Little Travel Blog

The most important 30 gigabytes of my life just disappeared.

Yes, I just made one of the biggest, most life-changing mistakes ever. I erased to entire contents of my iPod. All of my music, videos, games, audiobooks, contact lists, and notes are gone. Forever. One wrong click of the mouse after plugging in my iPod for syncing and charging resulted in this catastrophe. Why, oh why, did I press 'restore' instead of 'sync'?

And the reason for why its all gone forever, is because earlier this year my computer fried itself, making me lose everything on my big hard drive, which coincidentally contained my sole backup of all iPod data.

In one sense, this event will now bring me countless hours of minibus misery, with only a few songs to entertain myself with. But, on the other hand, its liberating. I now have 30 gigs of free space to fill what whatever new stuff I want! I went from completely full, to totally empty. I can now go back to the basics of downloading EVERYTHING that interests me in any way and sticking it on my iPod without even thinking about filling up my digital capacity.

And with that, I'll go back to my weeping over my lost data. Oh, the digital age and its hardships :(


Ben

So, finally, sadly, I must say that my time in Hong Kong is drawing to a close. While I still officially have over 2 months left in this lovely city, in reality that adds up to only about 8 more weekends which I can spend doing everything either 'one last time' or in some cases for the first time. I've been checking things off my mental to-do list slowly but surely, and only a few remain.

What remains:
I have some shopping to do in Shenzhen, for certain Chinese things that just can't be bought in America
I need to visit Macau once before departing Asia (it's a 2 hour ferry ride away, I just need to apply through AFS and find a guide to show me around).

What that means is that I'm basically done with everything I 'needed' to do in Hong Kong. I've seen basically everything there is to see, been almost everywhere there is to go, and done all the things I had dreamed of accomplishing before coming to Hong Kong.

What I've done that I expected to do:

Visited the Big Buddha on Lantau Island by cablecar (Largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha in the world)
Eaten real Dim Sum (done that trillions of times)
Sung Karaoke (also done many times, each time a little less scary/weird)
Visited the Ladies Market in MongKok (awesome street market, located in the place with the world's highest population density)
Seen Tung Choi street (a street full of goldfish vendors)
Temple Street (another crazy night market)
Gone hiking in Sai Kung (awesome nature park in HK, opposite of the bustling city)
Visited several outlying islands (HK has tons of tiny little islands, fascinating places)
Been to The Peak (HK's highest point, incredible view of the city)
Seen traditional temples (all ove HK)
And tons more things I can't think of right now...

Things I've done which were totally unexpected:

Flown in a helicopter (friend of a friend just happened to be a pilot!)
Traveled to Xiamen, Shaoguan, and Shenzhen (Mainland is crazy-awesome!)
Met more fantastic people than I can keep track of (Yes, I have a real problem remembering all my friends' names and faces)
Become the vice-chairman of my school's Geography Club (OK, so that really doesn't mean much, but I like the title)
Played numerous basketball and soccer pickup games with locals (always a pleasure)
Taken, and passed, the HK exams (Yes, I'm actually 'learning' some applicable book-knowledge here)
Seen Giant Pandas
And again, tons and tons of things that I can't remember right now.

But the point of all this is just to say that I truly feel as if I've taken full advantage of every second I've spent in Hong Kong + surrounding areas. I've taken control of my time here, and done what I like, while still maintaining a better-than-decent relationship with my Host family, classmates/teachers, and out-of-school friends. I've learned so many things about life, myself, people, the world, and HK's unique culture. Rewarding to say the very least. I have no regrets at all.

So, though my blogging is clearly declining, it is for a good cause. I'm just too busy getting the most out of my last few weeks in Hong Kong!

Ben

Well, on the past 2 Sundays I've done something I absolutely love. Go out for Indian food! While Chinese food is great, it does get a bit tiring. Rice, noodles, fried things, and mystery meat combining themselves in billions of delicious and sometimes frightful concoctions has its limits. Indian food contains many more flavors, spices, ingredients, and for some reason never fails to make me feel happy whenever I eat it.

My ranking of world cuisines right now (it changes often):
 
Indian
Italian
Chinese
Mexican
Mediterranean
All the other stuff
French (The bread is good, but all that wine cheese and pate stuff is garbage!)

Anyway, last Sunday was the 18th birthday of an Italian fellow AFSer (Ludo), and me, him, and our German-Indian AFS friend Ravi celebrated by going out to a deluxe Indian brunch buffet in Central. It was a birthday, so we were all willing to splurge a bit on the price. We knew we were going to one of HK's top Indian restaurants for a buffet experience unlikely ever to be relived, so the 158HKD (20USD) for unlimited food and drinks was acceptable. And a note on HK prices: that was the most expensive meal I've ever had here! Even the 'expensive' places here are cheap for Western standards. Usually a lunch costs below 3USD, dinner less than 5. The restaurant, Bombay Dreams if you must know, was gorgeous. The interior was covered in beautiful Indian  decor with soft Indian-Jazz fusion in the background. It was filled with giant obese white businessmen and large Indian families mostly. We stuck out: an Italian, an American, and a German (but of course he looks Indian) teenager eating together. We sat down at our table, were served an exquisite selection of appetizers (part of the buffet) plus Lassis, Lassis, and more Lassis (Rose flavor!), and began our quest to fill our vacant digestive tracts from the numerous trays of Indian delights enough to justify the exorbitant check we knew was coming our way. It started with heaping helpings of vegetable curries, chutneys, and rice pulao. The next trip to the counter led to piping-hot naan, cold fresh chickpea salad, and some more steaming, perfectly spiced curries containing potatoes, lamb, and chicken. By the third trip, we were already stuffed but forced ourselves to keep chewing and swallowing more of our favorites from the prior plates. After a 10-minute digestion break to make sure we didn't induce vomiting upon ourselves, we asked for our dessert to be brought to us (in nice restaurants you can get them to serve you from the buffet if you just ask!) and gradually sampled all the sickly sweet treats brought to us. The whole venture turned out to be one of the greatest meals of my stay in Hong Kong, if not my whole life. Worth the money? For a one-time treat, yes. Needless to say, dinner wasn't necessary that night. In fact, I felt as though I'd never eat again in my life. But time goes on and rest assured that I haven't skipped a meal since then. After all, I like food. Why skip meals?

So that was the first Indian dinner I had this past fortnight.

The next one, this past Sunday, draws very few similarities to the first one however; it was also enjoyed with my friend Ravi, and the food was delicious and Indian. The reason for its major contrast? Well, let's start with a teensy bit of background information. My friend Ravi is a Sikh. So, he knows about Sikh things including the Sikh Temple in Wan Chai. And we had the fantastic idea of visiting it as a unique experience (for me) and so he could truthfully tell his natural family that he went as is customary for Sikhs on Sundays. Fascinating and unique it was! Of course, I have never been to a Sikh Temple of any kind before in my life, and the Hong Kong Khalsa Diwan Temple built in 1901 by the British Army is truly a grand historical structure. The outside looks like a blue and white mushroom, and the inside is simple and gorgeous as well.

Some tips for anybody looking to visit a Sikh Temple:
-Go with a Sikh so you know what to do
-If all your neighborhood Sikhs are unavailable, observe the following:
-Take off your shoes and socks and put them on the shelves available outside the main prayer hall
-Take one of headscarf/bandannas available outside and tie it around your head
-Have some coins to put into the offering box in front of the altar
-After donating, kneel, bow, wait for a second, and then move away so others can make their donation
-Find an empty place of the floor to sit and pray/think/do whatever you came to do

So yes, we went in. I, under Ravi's supervision, avoided offending anybody, gave my first monetary offering to the Sikh temple authorities, and saw how Sikhs pray. The 'service' had ended when we were there, so only the stragglers were left behind. They appeared to be sitting on the ground, some alone some with small groups, facing the alter, talking, shouting, whispering, singing, wailing, or silently immersing themselves in thought. In the background some Punjabi classical music was humming through the sound-system, calming the mood a bit a suppose.

After that fascinating experience, we went downstairs. To the dining room! It is a part of the Sikh religion to do voluntary service, so the Temple has a free kitchen of simple vegetarian north-Indian fare made and served by members of the community. Anybody is welcome to come and eat their fill, but I'm sure abuse of the system is frowned upon. Anyway, it was perfectly acceptable for us to eat, especially since we had just gone into the Temple and peeked around the place i.e. we weren't just there for the free food. Again, we removed our shoes, put on bandannas, and entered the dining room. This dining room was spartan to say the least. Old red carpets lay in rows across the tiled floor, about half of them with people (all Indians...) sitting crosslegged with tin trays and plastic cups, using the floor as their table and chair and their bread as a utensil, as is normal in India. We sat next to some birds who were picking crumbs off the floor, and after a minute, trays were brought to us. A minute later, some men came around to us with metal buckets of food which they ladled onto our trays. There were 3 dishes: delightful dal, spicy chutney, and some awesome hot vegetable curry. Plus freshly baked chapati bread of course! The food, though simple, was fantastic. It all had a certain homemade taste to it, which I rarely experience with Indian food. Spicy, plentiful (the men with buckets made rounds refilling people's tray), and I'm guessing quite healthful. The food was accompanied by incredible chai tea, perfectly spiced, and constantly flowing from a capacious metal urn whenever a refill was required.

The experience and atmosphere was like none I've had before. The meal and surroundings were quite the opposite of the previous week's pricey jaunt, and completely free of charge. The contrast is really quite stark: while before I was served by a clean-shaven young well-dressed Indian gentleman from silver platters, now I was being served by a barefoot old man with a flowing white beard and a towering white turban from a bucket while squatted next to some pigeons enjoying the leftovers of the last diners. In another way from the last Indian meal, it was wholly unforgettable. Both, however, were great experiences which I probably will never have a chance to repeat.

Two more things on my non-existent to-do-before-I-leave-HK list can be ticked off: patronize the Sikh Temple and enjoy the tastiest Indian buffet in the HKSAR!

So Hong Kong really is an international city. A whole blog entry focusing on Indian stuff while I'm staying in China! Who woulda thunk it?

Ben

Have you ever ordered an ice cream, and upon receiving it been shocked and horrified by the meager quantity given to you, despite the exorbitant pricing of the establishment in question???

If so, come the Hong Kong!!!

Okay, so what am I talking about? I'm talking about an HK phenomenon, that I may or may not have started. When I first got to Hong Kong, I passed by a gelato shop in Tuen Mun Town Centre, a shopping mall near my school. I was exactly the prey they were hunting for! I paid about 35HKD for a cup of chocolate gelato, a very very very high price by HK standards. As a comparison, I spend about 18 for my lunch every day - rice/noodles, meat smothered in something, and a drink of some sort usually. A large portion. So yeah, this was some pricey ice cream. Anyway, when I received it, the cup was only partially full. The lady behind the counter could easily have squeezed more into it if she tried. I was feeling... rebellious you might say, so I cheekily asked her in Cantonese, "Haw mh haw yi doh di, mh goi?" meaning, "May I have some more please?". And at the time I failed to make the 'Oliver' connection, but looking back its hard to miss. Anyway, she was so charmed to hear a Caucasian speaking Cantonese (she started giggling as soon as I opened my mouth), she gladly filled my cup to the brim! It was then that my epiphany took place: asking for more ice cream actually works!

But that was just the beginning. It was as if I had cracked a hole in Hong Kong's ice cream infrastructure. The next ice cream I got, which was from McDonalds, also came about 3/4 as tightly packed as it could have been. Well, I got that fixed pretty quickly with my same line! And the pattern continues to this day. Every time I consume ice cream, I ask for more. And every time, it works! Even though some of the ice-cream shop employees do it begrudgingly (mostly the males, not as easily charmed), they all give in in the end. Its a flawless tactic. And its not just me anymore. Many other exchange students here have begun doing the same thing after I informed them of its possibility of working. I just love thinking about the amounts of 'extra' ice cream being doled out due to my dissatisfaction one day and the ensuing request.


Now, I've never thought of trying this in the US, but somehow I think I would just get a cold stare rather than some cold ice cream. Also, I don't even know if it works for Chinese people in Hong Kong, it could just be that the clerks are so stunned to hear a whitey speaking their language that they relent to my demand whilst in a state shock. But, nonetheless, it works for me, and that's all that matters.

Ben

Well, contrary to popular belief, I am still alive.

Yes, I've just been incredibly busy with various things. For instance, Chinese New Year! I had an 11 day holiday from school, which I took full advantage of, having ample fun and meeting many (host) family friends. It's a tradition that during the first few days of the new year, you go visit friends and family. Its kind of a nationwide family reunion in China. Anyway, I went with my host parents to visit friends, classmates, neighbors, and former students of my host father who is a teacher. It was a fabulous opportunity to use my steadily improving Cantonese, and it was a fantastic chance to get rich as well. You see, married people in China (HK included of course) are obliged to give unmarried people red packets filled with cash when they meet around the New Year period. As I have yet to find a suitable wife, I benefited from this tradition, which I imagine must be a real pain-in-the-wallet for married folks. The amounts given vary: 2 packets of equal value are always given together by the couple, each packet containing a minimum of 10HKD and ranging... well really theoretically going as high as 1000HKD as such a banknote does exist. But I'd say the average is 20HKD per packet. Double that and multiply by all the many married couples one is likely to meet at large gatherings, and you've got some serious money. Makes me happy and decreases the frequency of my trips to the ATM!

But honestly, most traditional Lunar New Year practices have been abandoned in Hong Kong, and only still exist in Mainland China. The Hong Kong people are just too cosmopolitan to acknowledge many of the really old customs, such as buying new clothes, shoes, not cutting your hair, eating many special foods, and making a pilgrimage to their nearest Buddhist temple. As I really didn't do any very traditional things this holiday, I won't bore you with any more details of how my Lunar New Year celebrations went. Just know that I enjoyed myself greatly and experienced the unique thrill of a Chinese New Year in China!

But I will talk about something special I did during the holiday. I went to a Hong Kong camp for the first time! Actually, it was my first time spending the night somewhere other than my bed in my host family's home since arriving in Hong Kong, due to AFS's strict rules disallowing such things. But this camp was with my class, teachers included, so AFS allowed me to go after applying in advance! The camp was meant to soothe some inter-student tensions that have been running for the past few months that evolved from a dispute about our Christmas singing contest. Some people didn't want to join, but others submitted the entrance application for the entire class to join the inter-class section of the competition. Anyway, the camp was scheduled a long time ago, but by the time it took place the tensions were already almost cooled down, lost in time. About 30 out of my class's 32 students took part in the activity, as well as both class teachers. Let the bonding begin!

The campsite we had reserved was a tiny little Red Cross sponsored campsite on the far-off Lantau Island which I've only been to once before for an AFS organized hiking trip. After meeting at the designated time in the nearest MTR (subway) station, we all took off on a bus to the camp. As the weather was about 8 degrees celsius on that day, the coldest Hong Kong ever gets, nobody was in a terribly good mood. But nonetheless, we got to the camp and began out teambuilding activities. Honestly, the activities were nothing special. Just tasks that could only be completed by everybody working together, such as moving a stick across the basketball court using only 1 finger each, creating a human bridge across a field, and making a human tower to lift a tire on top of an extremely tall pole. They were enjoyable, and got us warmed up from the cold damp weather, as well as giving us a chance to bond I suppose. After the activities it was 'dance-around-the-campfire' time. The HK version of a campfire is a firepit with a small flame going. Everybody stands in a big circle around it, and there are some set songs/dances that I was quickly taught. The perplexing thing was, that the dances were quite violent, involving people being pushed to the ground. It didn't seem very safe considering we were all within 2 meters of an open fire... but the camp leader (one volunteer guy was the coordinator/planner of the whole camp) seemed to have no qualms so the fun went on for about an hour. It really wasn't much fun, but I passed the time chatting with my classmates.

Dinner wasn't good. Some steamed egg with mystery meat, disgusting droopy vegetables, and low quality white rice (yes, I've come to realize even white rice has noticeable quality differences depending on the establishment). But it filled me up. After a late-night basketball game with some of the guys during our evening free-time, it was sleeping time at 12:00AM. Of course, boys will be boys. 12:00 is clearly far too early to be sent to bed during the holidays when you're surrounded by friends you rarely see outside of the classroom. The problem was, we were sent into our cabin (there was one for males, one for females, quite small inside with military barrack style bunks and a communal bathroom) to get into bed. But the leader/coordinator of the camp of course was male, and thus we couldn't blatantly disobey our orders to sleep, as he could clearly see us from the bunk in which he lay. Creativity was needed! We weren't actually forced to go into our beds, so we pretended to be playing a card game while whispering our schemes to escape the cabin and go outside. Our first thought was the windows: they weren't too high to climb out or back in through, and had no screens or anything blocking us. The only issue was that they were quite small, so it would be a tight squeeze to get through, and the chance of being caught was high as they were quite near where the camp leader was lying (not asleep, just lying awake). After that plan was scrapped we just sat around considering whether the front door of the cabin could be opened noiselessly. But that was deemed for too risky; too much of a gamble and no good explanation upon capture. Then one of my classmates went to go into the bathroom to pee. And, lo and behold, the cabin had a back door! Actually it was an emergency fire exit from the bathroom, but it was unlocked and the alarm was disabled, so it was the perfect escape route! A very lucky find! We all pretended to need to go use the bathroom, and when we went in, we simply slipped out the back. The coordinator must have fallen asleep at some point while we were out, and we were never caught.

What we did once out was nothing too impressive. We just admired the view across the small bay the camp was situated upon to Hong Kong's largest high security prison. Great place for a youth camp, dontcha think? A stone's throw away from HK's baddest. Anyway, we just chatted, played some Chinese hand games (think rock paper scissors but a bit more complex) and gloated to each other at our genious in evading authority escaping the evil clutches of 'The Cabin'. Then we got tired and actually crept back into our warm beds and slept.

But somehow, the whole thing really did bring us closer, sneaking around together at night and breaking the rules. We made the camp a success in our own way!

The next day (it was a 2 day, 1 night camp) was hiking day. After a terrible breakfast of noodle soup (the Chinese have no concept of pancakes, french toast, waffles, bacon and such) we set out on a 3 hour hiking trip back to the nearest public bus station (we had a private bus take us on the way). And, it was by far the best hiking I've done in Hong Kong so far. No visible roads or buildings, great mountain views down on the undeveloped coastal beaches of Lantau Island, and real fresh air. It felt like I couldn't possibly be in Hong Kong, this must be some wild nature reserve in the hinterlands somewhere. But really it was just a few kilometers away from the hustle and bustle of city life. A great stress-relief activity. Again, I passed the time by chatting and the trip was over before I knew it. All-in-all a wonderful experience!

Okay, other than that the only terribly notable thing that occurred in the New Year holiday was that my computer broke. But now its fixed again, and better than ever! Goodbye XP, hello Windows 7!

BOO!

Ben Reardon

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I am basically a chewing gum addict. I chew gum whenever I'm not eating, sleeping, or in school (sadly its not allowed in Hong Kong). I love gum.

But, there are some important differences worth noting in the 'gum culture' of Hong Kong versus the USA. First of all, gum in Hong Kong tends to be all sugar-free. Xylitol is the universal fake-sweetener used here. Its supposed to be much healthier than other artificial sugars and definitely easier on the teeth than sugar itself. In the US, I've never really seen xylitol gum, or at least its not advertized like it is in HK, with Xylitol being the biggest word on the packaging after the brand. Another thing is that in Hong Kong, gum is commonly sold in little metallic pouches, thankfully resealable with a zip-lock style closing device, with about 20 pellets of gum inside. Sticks of gum are kind of unusual and can be hard to find if you don't know where to look. And the Orbit gum 'tabs' I love so much in the USA are not to be found at all :(. Gumballs are available occasionally in those novelty machines where you put a coin in and it slides down to you, but I really hate gumballs so I've never been tempted. I would say I definitely prefer sticks or tabs, but the pellets are alright and now I'm kind of used to them. The texture is less 'gummy' though, and I usually need at least 2 at a time to get the full effect of the flavor...

Gum here still comes from some of the same brands as back home though. Wrigleys and its offbrands (Extra, Airwaves etc) are the most common still. But the other brands we have in the USA like Double Bubble, Hubba Bubba, Orbit, Bubble Tape, Big League Chew, and some of the 'Dental Hygiene' wannabe products are not to be found anywhere. Only one brand is here that I've never seen before: Colfresh. It claims to be Italian, but the nutritional information is oddly in Greek, Arabic, French, and then English. I've only seen it in the International supermarkets though, not the normal shops. Generally speaking the selection doesn't contain many different brands.

But flavors are a different matter. Blackcurrant-Menthol, Melonmint, peachmint, lemongrass-mint, blueberry, persimmon-vitaminized gum(bought that one in the mainland), blackberry-canteloupe, lemon-pear, and strawberry, are just a few of the delightful selection of fruity/minty/cinnamonny products available. It is a great pleasure of mine to go to the larger supermarkets and take my time browsing through all the options, choosing carefully, and eventually sampling my selections. I generally make a pilgrimage every few days to a 7-11, OK (another common convenience store in HK), or a supermarket to buy myself a pouch because the 20ish pellets don't last very long... my daily consumption is probably somewhere about 4-6 pieces.

But, last Wednesday, I decided the time had come for a large purchase; making frequent pitstops at 7-11's is time-consuming and annoying. I had run out of gum (a dire emergency!) so after school I sped off on my bike to the Park-n-Shop (a supermarket) in Sheung Shui and went shopping! I gleefully made my selections and paid 50HKD total (6.5USD) for the items pictured below. WOOHOO!

In order: Extra Strawberry (a big bag meant to refill that plastic barrel shown in the picture, of course I have one!), Wrigley's Lemongrass Mint (a new flavor for me), Extra Peach Mint, Airwaves Blackcurrant, and some classic Wrigley's Double Mint sticks. The number of 'pieces of gum' is 124 pellets + 25 sticks making for a nice total of 149 pieces!!! It makes me so happy I don't know what to say... Anyway, since that lovely purchase, I've of course tried all the flavors and they are all great. I have to say lemongrass-mint and blackcurrant are my favorites, but the peach-mint is also spectacular and the sticks are the best textured. Strawberry is my everyday gum (a bit cheaper, bought in bulk), the others are for 'special occasions'... like whenever I feel like them. Really I just choose whatever looks best at the moment... I'm never let down; its all delicious!

Life is good!

Ben

Of course, while writing this I've been happily chewing my way through a piece of Strawberry :)

(Yay, pictures on my blog finally)