Coooold Weather

It's around 10 degrees Celsius here, which is pretty much freezing considering homes don't have heating. But perhaps I shouldn't say that since I'm flying to Toronto tomorrow, where the weather is forecasted to be a balmy 0 degrees...

Anyway, spent a couple more days shopping. It's fun going to the little (fire-trap) shopping centres since they always have something fun and trendy to look at. At the place I went yesterday, there were a lot of model shops. By models, I mean those little plastic toys that you buy from vending machines or that come with a box of candy. The ones that are randomly dispensed and you have to buy 50 boxes of candy to get the whole set. Those are really fun. There were the usual action figures of anime (One Piece, Gundam, etc) but also cute ones (Dr. Slump figures in military dress, hamsters, random blobs, etc) just plain fun ones (bento boxes, japanese houses, etc) and totally awesome ones - namely Salaryman Hero! - basically Ultraman in a shirt and tie being yelled at by the boss, getting yelled at by the wife, drunk at a bar. If only it wasn't sold in a set, I would have bought one :)

Another plus found some tasty egg-waffles ("dan ji bang") from a street-side stall. Forget those pathetic $2 ones you buy from Dong Dong Egg Roll King at Market Village. Those have hollow centres, aren't cooked crispy enough, and are too sweet. The ones I bought (from a place near Time Square at Quarry Bay) were eggy without being too rich or sweet, crispy outside, moist inside, golden brown, and filled totally with batter. I don't know how they get the inside so evenly filled, but it's good, and only HK$10. I didn't dare try the waffle, which is folded over butter, condensed milk, and peanut butter. Sounds good though, eh?

Well, it's another long plane ride back. Fortunately, my brother was kind enough to stock the fridge for me. I hope he set the thermostat to be warmer also!

Endless Shopping

The title basically describes my past two days in HK. Though most people get 1 week off for New Year, only New Year Day is an official holiday (which means that for once government workers get a shorter break). So most stores are open. Our apartment is about a 10 minute walk from a huge shopping centre (and MTR station) - a very nice location indeed. Not that I've bought much, mind you, just endless walking and looking. The only problem is that most stores don't open until after noon, meaning I must kill my mornings watching TV or something. For the smaller street-side stores or those catering to younger shoppers, opening time could be after 2 or 3 pm, i.e. when high schoolers get out.

Anyway, as part of New Year tradition, shopping centres hire ppl to do the lion dance. Each (well, most do) store hangs a bundle of lettuce (the "choy" in "gung hay fat choy") and the lion goes to each store and "eats" the lettuce. There's also a troupe of people following it with drums and gongs - you know, the standard loudness at these performances. Considering the size of most shopping centres, it would take forever for one lion to get around to all stores, so there are usually 3 or so going around, which makes for a very noisy shopping experience indeed.

Also, because in China the New Year holiday is 10 days instead of just 1 week, a majority of early-afternoon shoppers speak Mandarin. Yup, what mainlanders love to do on holidays is come down to HK to shop.

Not must else to say. Only 2 more days and then I have to fly to Canada. I guess it's time to think about how to arrange my luggage! I have almost forgotten that I actually have to go back to work...I have a feeling the first week back will be tough...

Back from Thailand

Spent 5 days in Bangkok at temperatures of 30+ Celsius. It was actually less crowded than expected. Probably a lot less tourists because of the tsunami. I travelled with my family plus two other families, for a total of 11 ppl! I can tell you that it's very tiring keeping a 9 yr old boy entertained. Anyway, let me do a quick day-by-day run-down:

1st: Just flew into Thailand, nothing much. Fortunately limited English is still understood by most Thais here (we WERE in a tourist area, after all). I also got a SWEET king-size hotel room all to myself :)

2nd: Shopping and eating, as before. The exchange rate is about 5 Bahn: 1 HKD (about 6 HKD: 1 CND) so things were pretty cheap. Of course, bargaining is a must, starting at about 40% of the price if buying off the street, maybe 70% if buying in a store. Oh ya, all the adults got massages (which are supposed to be very cheap in Thailand). I got a traditional Thai massage, as opposed to the standard Swedish massage. A Thai massage involves the masseuse's entire body. She kneels on you and bends you backwards by pushing your back with a foot and pulling your arms/legs backwards. It's less painful than it sounds. Also went to a large night market, which was quite fun.

3rd: More shopping. Went to a seafood market and restaurant. It's a neat concept - not only do you pick out your live seafood, you also pick out your fresh vegetables and your fruit (for desert). You bring it all in your shopping cart to the check out and then let your server know how you want it all cooked. Then you can walk over to the open kitchen and watch them stir-fry/deep fry/steam/boil/whatever your food. And it's HUGE, seating probably at least 500 ppl.

4th: Finally visiting the touristy sites. Took a boat tour of a river. Homes and buildings open out right onto the river, and there are river buses. People can hop into a boat from their backyards and paddle over to a nearby salon for a haircut. Went to the old Royal Palace. Unlike the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Palace Grounds is fairly small, consisting of a few temples and the palace itself. Most buildings are lavishly decorated with gold and coloured mirrors. Very lovely to see, and very well-maintained (again, unlike the Forbidden City...). Finally, visited a Crocodile Zoo, the requisite cheesy tourist trap.

5th: Last day, just more shopping and a flight home.

In short, just endless shopping and eating. Without a tour guide, it's really hard to have any grasp of culture or important landmarks!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Today's the day for visiting family and collecting $$. Some of the packets are quite pretty - I'll save up the nicer ones. Nothing much today, since many stores were closed, even many restaurants. The fun thing is that the police aren't giving out parking tickets today, which means that people are parked EVERYWHERE on the roads. Of course you still have to pay if you park in a parking lot, and private property is off limits. But basically as long as you weren't blocking anyone, you can park anywhere. Walking down the street, a lot of the kids (and some teenage girls) were wearing "traditional" Chinese clothes/tops. A number of ppl were wearing red also.

We're heading off for Thailand tomorrow. Going to "Man Kook" which I don't know the name of in English. But we're forbidden from going near any water. The fact that we plan to visit a "Market on Water" is strictly hush-hush to grandma. Apparently the big thing to do in Thailand is go to a spa, so I think we're having a day dedicated to that. Otherwise, I have no idea what the travel plans are. I think there's 11 of us going, including some young kids, so I don't know how it's all going to be coordinated. I hope I'll be able to get some neat souvenirs!

New Year's Eve

...consisted of going to the larger Flower Market. It actually wasn't as crowded as anticipated, probably because we went early afternoon rather than at night. On the news now are scenes of endless crowds of people at the Market. Also, there are scenes of crowds at the temple (wong dai seen) lining up to burn the first incense of the year at midnight. Our home is about 15 min walk from the smaller market (the largest in Kowloon) that I went to yesterday. On the drive home from dinner, we passed lines of ppl heading to market. There were police directing the human traffic. At busier intersections the police had to put up rope barriers to keep people on the sidewalks during red lights. Good thing we went earlier. Although we didn't buy anything from the market anyway since mom forbade any plants/flowers.

Also had the New Year's dinner (tune leen fan) tonight - about 17 ppl total. I don't know if the restaurants were busy cos we were in a VIP suite :) Actually, there's not much New Year atmosphere - Christmas is much more festive. I suspect it's cos New Year is more "traditional" and doesn't appeal to the younger generation as much. Anyway, tomorrow we're going to "buy leen" at grandparents' place, at which I hope to get some $$. I guess another New Year activity today was helping stuff the $$ pockets in preparation for tomorrow. Since mom is the oldest of her siblings here, she has to give $$ to her siblings, their spouses, their kids, and their maids. We'll also have to give $$ to any close friends we come across, their kids, and the security guards at the apartment. It adds up to quite a bit! Most stores are closed tomorrow, so probably won't be doing much.

Nothing else happened. I'm not feeling the effects of jet lag much - I feel tired, but not really sleepy. That's usually the case going to HK, though going to TO it takes like a week to recover. I guess it's cos there's no rush to recover when in TO. I wonder how I'll handle the first day back at work though...

- End Transmission -

4 hours plus

...is how long my flight to HK was delayed. As if that wasn't bad enough, the boarding gate was in a satellite terminal, meaning there were a total of 4 shops to look at, 2 of them being identical duty-free shops. On the plus side, we were allowed $13 to spend at the airport cafes. The down side to that is that, being an airport cafe, $13 just about bought you a can of pop. In the end, we were each given a letter of apology and a voucher for $75 to spend on any Air Canada flight within the year. Oh, and in case you don't know yet, airplane food sucks and a GBA can save your sanity.

Anyhow, went to the New Years flower market tonight. Actually not quite as crowded as anticipated, but then, we went to the smaller market, and the busiest night is tomorrow - New Year's Eve. Most people were selling non-flowers . Endless permutations of chickens - dolls, windmills, keychains, hats. A lot of the stalls were actually set up by business students from universities - partly to raise school funds and probably partly a term project...kinda like Apprentice? Maybe. One neat thing I saw were beans with a saying inscribed on the shell, so when you plant it and the sprout pops out, you'll also see the message on the shell popping out with the sprout. It would make an awesome gift!

Don't have the hard/software to download digipics to the comp yet, but as soon as I get it, I'll find some place to put up pics.

Cheers