Lamb chops with baked penne @ Red Ant

Dude. I love lamb meat. I think I only recently became conscious of this fact. It’s just so good however you prepare it. So far in HK I’ve had lamb chops, lamb in hot pot, lamb in KBBQ, lamb dumplings, lamb in stew… I am instantly drawn to anything on any menu if it has lamb in it. SO GOOD.

That is all I have to say. Yes, this entry is a scheduled post because I currently do not have Internet access in Thailand, and I know that my lack of online presence has left a void in your life. In the meanwhile, feel free to drool over and discuss the glory that is lamb meat. Back on Tuesday!

I nearly got stabbed by an umbrella at least five times.

We managed to wedge ourselves in a spot in the middle area behind 2-3 rows of other people. What I found most annoying were people who were determined to keep their umbrellas open. Not only does it block the view for EVERYONE, I had to keep a lookout to make sure I didn’t randomly get whacked in the head.

Once the show started, though, most people were nice enough to stow away their umbrellas (it wasn’t that rainy anyways). This only left the jerks who raised their tripods so high, their chunky SLRs kept making cameos in the corner of our own shots.

Other than these minor annoyances, the show was enjoyable.

I think that you may actually prefer seeing some fireworks photos, instead of reading a thousand-word paragraph of me describing them for you. Just a warning that the following is going to be very graphics- and exclamation mark-intensive.

The firecrackers are set off from 3 boats floating in the harbour.

Fish!

Tiger faces!

Golden nuggets!

There was background music but it was really tinny from where we were.

Looks like they are floating stars!

Reminds me of aurora borealis.

Flowers!

Sakura!

Lotus flowers!

Firework fountains!

The red part should be Chinese characters but I couldn't make out what they were.

HK Island makes an amazing backdrop.

Smileys!! :)

Retinas burning yet?

Random exclamation marks!!!!!

Pink fluffs!

Wrapping things up... HK style.

In total the show lasted around 20 minutes. The photos don’t do it justice; you’d need to see it live and it will leave you gaping.

Exiting the premises was next to impossible; we tried to go one way, and a security guard informed us it would actually take about an hour for the crowd to clear out. By then we were really cold and hungry, so we turned around and tried to get out from the other side. It wasn’t much better.

Shovefest 2010

At times the crowd was literally at a standstill. It took us a good 15 minutes or so, but we made it out, and headed to Mong Kok for a belated dinner. We ate at this corner restaurant that was known for their fried dumplings/potstickers. I had 2 orders of these, and I could see (taste?) why it’s so popular. But of course, being generous restaurant owners, they welcomed the New Year and patrons by tacking on an extra $2 to every food order.

Eventually we wandered to an arcade underneath a shopping centre, and spent a few hours in there. They didn’t allow photo-taking inside, so I can’t post some of the weird and wonderful stuff it had. I had never seen an arcade so sprawling (2-3 times larger than the one in P-Mall), and it was open 24 hours. Similar to clubs, smoking is prohibited but people do it anyways. So I ended up smelling like cigarettes by the time we left.

Anyways, hope I didn’t kill all of your bandwidth with this post. I would’ve posted a video too but it’s 3AM right now and I’m just lazy. Also, my reading week unofficially begins now, as I will be leaving for Thailand in mere hours. Bedtime!

That-a-way

HOLY CRAP.

Epically battled through the crowd...

... just to arrive at more crowds.

Begin mass tiger merchandise. Most things were being sold by students, many from HKU.

Inside is a McNugget-shaped cushion (you can see part of it at the bottom)

Fake Cadbury and "Coco-Cola"

Fruit kebab dipped in sugar water and frozen. We thought it was strawberries. 'Twas not.

Gigantic Chupa-chups! Good for hammering people.

Tiger Surprise. I think it's a cushion?

Frosted Flakes are called 'Frosties' here, but the dollar-signed eyes kind of sends a bad message to kids.

The tigers ate the koalas.

Making sugar cane drinks. I had one, never tasted anything so fresh!

Of course, there is the ‘flower’ part of ‘Flower Market’. These booths took up about half the venue, and I think were just family-run.

Beautiful orchids

Carnations? Chrysanthemums? Not sure... I shall call them Poofies.

Daffodils cuz it's SPRING!

I don't even know...

Mahjong cushions!

This is so-called 'American-style fried coke'. I'm positive they have this all over America.

Chang fen with peanut sauce and other sauces...YUMMMM

Gigantic bubble-wrap-esque egg waffles!! Notice 'buy 2 get 1 free'. Because two of these gigantic things just ain't enough.

I used to love those tiny cookies with the colourful icing as a kid. Haven't seen them in years.

Coca-Cola people serving street food. Weird.

Next up, CNY Fireworks!

GOOD, not great.

They had about 5-6 dishes that were very very popular. We decided to split 3 of them: the Hainanese Chicken, assorted satay meat skewers, and the fried turnip cake.

Hainanese chicken (top), assorted meat skewers with satay sauce (bottom)

The chicken and skewers were both pretty good. The chicken was tender, and the satay sauce was flavourful. However, I was rather disappointed in the serving sizes – I thought one dish could eat like a meal for one person, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Fried turnip cake

The fried turnip cake was good at first bite. After you eat about 2 chunks, it became kind of disgusting and feels akin to shoving over-seasoned glue in your mouth. Ironically, this dish was rather large, and can really fill you up. So basically the restaurant’s name is a fairly accurate description of their food: good but not great. After dinner we just wandered around TST for some shopping.

The Charlie Brown Café. Need to check it out some time.

I don't know what this was (hotel? club?) but it was pretty. And had reindeer decorations.

Hong Kong: Keepin' it classy

The next day we were off to Macau for a Gary Cao concert at the Venetian. If you don’t know who Gary Cao is, don’t feel bad, because 80% of people here didn’t know who he was either. But then they usually have an ‘OOOHHHHHH THAT GUY’ moment when you hum this song. Or this one. The concert and return ferry tickets were only HKD368 so I think we got a pretty good deal, considering ferry alone is around HKD300. After finding the terminal, which was a feat on its own, we hopped on the CotaiJet ferry and arrived in exactly one hour.

Off to Macau!

Ferry was impressive; had airplane-like seating

All of the Macau ferry terminals have complimentary shuttle buses run by the casinos, to their respective venues. The local economy is supported very heavily by the Cotai Strip, and features many of the same hotel/casino chains as the Las Vegas Strip. We took a shuttle bus to the Sands, and started our journey from there. First we explored the Fisherman’s Wharf, which had mini-replicas of recognizable international locations. It was strangely deserted, but it was nice that way.

The Sands casino is situated right next to Fisherman's Wharf

Mini Roman Colesium

Mini Potala Palace - the Dalai Lama's residence

And a bit of Beijing. They had a lot of colourful koi in the moat.

We then taxied to Senate Square and apparently that’s where all the people were. It was insanely crowded, even more so than I had ever seen Hong Kong (until the Flower Market, but more on that later).

Senate Square, decorated for the Lunar New Year, and PEOPLE!!

Pork chop bun for lunch - popular Macanese fare

We made our way to the remains of St. Paul’s church – the famous Jesuit church that burnt down, leaving only its front frame.

St. Paul's church

You can explore a bit behind the church, where you’ll find a mini museum, and I kid you not, a crypt. They actually call it a crypt. Beside the attraction, there was also a park we walked around. Of course, you can’t go to Macau without having one of their famous Portuguese egg tarts. It’s important to note that you should only buy them fresh from Kui Kee bakery. We bought one elsewhere and it tasted like the dry, powdery ones we have back home.

*Cue angel chorus*

After that we went around to more casinos. First stop, the Lisboa.

It looks like a gigantic shiny pomegranate

Lisboa Hotel lobby. This is what my future house will look like, thanks for asking.

Next up, the Wynn

It had a weak, cheesy fountain show, as a tribute to the one at Bellagio Las Vegas

There was a sweeeeeet outdoor pool area which we weren't baller enough to access. (The ceiling lights are a reflection from inside.)

After the Wynn, it was almost concert time, so we headed to the Venetian.

Picked up tickets for GARRRYYYYY!

Grabbing a quick dinner at the Venetian food court. The ceiling/'sky' is synthetic.

Pork chop & spaghetti in broth or something? It was YUMMY.

Anticipating GARRRYYYYY

Pumped up GARRRYYYYY

Subdued GARRRYYYYY

Gary’s concert was really just “meh” for me. He didn’t really do many memorable things, but then again I didn’t really pay much for the concert ticket. He sang all his hits, fake-cried during emotional parts, invited the most random chick as a guest performer whose name I don’t remember, had a sexy dance where two girls made out for a ballad which made no sense, did some impersonations of Andy Lau, and talked in Cantonese most of the time so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying.

Some bar in the Venetian casino area. Curved escalators on the sides!! WHEEE!!!

The Venetian's canal with gondolas, much like the one in Vegas. The juxtaposition of an Italian theme with Chinese shops all decorated for the Lunar New Year kind of throws you off.

After exploring the Venetian thoroughly, we came across this dude who was stacking cards. He’s apparently made many famous structures with cards, and was currently working on one of the Venetian. He was in a glass display that couldn’t have been more than 15′ x 10′, which I thought was rather inhumane.

Bryan Berg's work-in-process

We had about another hour to burn before catching our ferry back, so we swung by an Irish pub to grab some snacks and drinks, then headed back to Hong Kong. It was then that I noticed how much HK smells. You get used to it, but when you come from Macau (which doesn’t smell at all), the odour is rather noticeable. Pooped from a fulfilling day, we cabbed back from the terminal because it was 2am and no buses were running.

Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a (somewhat belated) Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Chinese New Year, and GO TEAM CANADA!

APM Mall, all prettied up for New Years. This mall is open until 2am.

One. It’s so fast-paced that you don’t even have time to think. People are always rushing everywhere, and it makes you want to rush too. I feel like I have a million things to do at any given time, and I need to beat everyone to it. Nobody dawdles around, so when I do, I become anxious and speed things up again.

Visitors' viewing platform in Lantau

Two. Hong Kong does not occupy a particularly large plot of land, but there is just so much to do and see. Get off at any MTR station and you will find shops, restaurants, scenery, or some sort of activity. Seriously I have no idea how anyone can save up for their retirement here. There are too many consumer temptations.

I thought it would be a nice stroll along a paved path, just with monkeys everywhere. Apparently I did not receive the memo about a 4-hour hike up and down a mountain. With a lot of stairs. And narrow pathways which were essentially cliffsides. I wore jeans and a thin sweater. Subsequently, I was sweating my ass off by mid-afternoon. Though I must say the scenic vistas made up for it.

A monkey couple grooming (monkey photos courtesy of Diane's Facebook :D)

Our first monkey encounter was when we just got off the bus. The monkeys are not scared of humans at all, so it’s quite easy to get close to them. Near the beginning of the hiking trail, our path was blocked by two monkeys having a moment, one picking bugs off the other. I wanted to observe for a bit, so I watched them. They stared back and suddenly one hissed at me. I prepared to make a run for it, and it actually grabbed my pant leg. Thankfully it let go and I jogged ahead towards our group. This didn’t really help instill confidence that I wouldn’t die a monkey-related death, but I was more preoccupied with making sure I didn’t fall off the path edge (fear of heights anyone?).

Monkeys know to appreciate a nice car too

The area is also home to some reservoirs, and we hiked up to one of them. There were a lot of families enjoying picnics/BBQs up there, and some seriously amazing views.

Need to go back and picnic/BBQ

After monkeying, we took a minibus to Tsuen Wan for dinner, some snacks, and headed home. On Sunday I decided it was finally time to get cracking on homework and the sorts. Janice rounded up some girls and we got McDonald’s delivery. You can find a detailed review of our epic meal on her HK food blog (do not view if you are hungry). I got a quarter pounder and it tasted pretty much the same as back home.

Last Wednesday I made the decision to move to Starr Hall, another student residence at HKU. Back in November when Housing notified me that I was assigned to Patrick Manson, I knew right away it would be shitty. So I wrote an email to the person in charge, asking if I could be put into a Hall, but they replied saying everything was full. One thing to know about HKU Halls is that it is a competitive process. Many first-years live in halls, but if you want to continue living in one, you are required to join at least 2-3 clubs/sports teams and participate in all Hall activities (exchange students are exempt but are encouraged to participate). Therefore, Hall space is extremely coveted, and it is quite the commitment to live in one.

About two weeks ago, I received an email telling me that a vacancy had opened up at Starr. It wasn’t that I hated it at PM – in fact, I had made friends there and was comfortably settled in. Also, there was a lot more freedom. In the Halls, you are required to sign any visitors in, and they are not allowed to stay past 11pm. I liked the ‘chill’ atmosphere of PM. The entire building was exchange students so there’s never any feelings of isolation, and everyone’s goal was to have as much fun as possible.

However, my 6-course load (+3 tutorials) made it a pain in the ass to bus to school everyday. Also, the CONSTRUCTION. Every freaking morning around 9am (even Sundays!!!), you can hear construction workers jackhammering away. They were literally right outside my window, and I knew it would last the entire term. Although they were just doing their job, it drove me crazy. Also at PM, things like eating out and grocery shopping were not convenient. You’d think that local businesses would try to capitalize on an area with at least 4 large student residences, but you actually have to walk quite a while to find food, and groceries are simply impossible without taking a bus. So these inconveniences coupled with my curiosity about Hall life prompted me to take the offer and move to Starr, a 5-minute walk from campus, situated right beside a cafeteria, and 10 minutes from groceries.

It was a sad night when I moved, but so far I’ve been enjoying it here. I don’t have a roommate yet, but she will be officially moving in on Tuesday. Since it is a newer Hall, the rooms and facilities are all much nicer and cleaner. You’re probably falling asleep by now, so to compensate for having this long, boring post, LOOKIT!! PHOTOS!! (Sorry for the graininess; my camera sucks.)

My side of the double room. You can clearly see my artistic nature reflected in my unmade bed.

Night view from my window. I'm on the 15th floor. There are 24 floors in total.

Daytime view - you can see the water with a lot of boats, and even parts of Kowloon on clearer days.

More window views. Every morning I wake up inspired :)

And then to commemorate the move-in, we had 3am dim sum (once again, Janice has my laziness covered – thanks), because why the hell not? I must note that I almost cried tears of joy when I had the fried milk. The T&T one back home doesn’t even hold a candle.

I had heard a lot about LKF. The types of people that frequent it, the crazy stories, and the rumours. What I was not prepared for were the pools of people, mostly in their 20s or 30s, and a lot of businessmen, just swarming the streets. If you go to the clubbing district in Toronto, there are random spatters of club-goers lined up outside a few venues, but LKF was almost like a party on the streets.

Some basic LKF club scene facts I have amassed:

• For the most part, covers range from 100-500 depending on the venue, and it’s usually open bar.
• Thursdays are Ladies’ Night. Ladies get free cover in many clubs, and free open bar. Mens’ covers start at around 200+. This makes it very convenient for girls who want to go club-hopping.
• Many people just wander the streets, swigging alcohol.
• If you befriend the bouncers or DJs, you can get free cover and alcohol anytime.
• It’s very easy to get into clubs if you have no guys in your group. Also helps if you are a group of hot girls.
• The clubs have pretty good music, playing both Asian and western genres. ‘Nobody‘ comes on a lot. It’s fun, and everyone goes crazy singing/dancing to it.
• The clubs are open until very late. Back home, people start emptying out around 2:30 am. We left at 4:30 am and the place was still packed.

Some basic club-goer facts I have amassed:

• Most people are expatriates. LKF is the only place where you will find more foreigners than locals.
• Although smoking is technically not allowed indoors, everyone does it anyways.
• If there is a lack of space on the dance floor, people will just use their body to push you until you realize you aren’t even on the dance floor anymore.
• The guys in the clubs are very direct. They will dance with you and try to feel you up, make out with you, or both. Sometimes they will ask before they attempt to do so. Sometimes not. They will also try to isolate you from your friends, if you were dancing in a group. These are usually the locals; the foreigner guys usually just stick with the group they came from.
• A lot of girls are very willing to make out and/or go home with these guys.
• There are many creepy older guys who probably make a lot of money but club frequently looking for one-night-stands and hence are creepers.
• Bartenders are cute.

So those were my initial impressions. It was overall very fun, and we acquired some interesting stories to tell, so I think I’ll be making my way back there in the near future. Sorry, I forgot to snap some photos for this post. I am so behind in blogging. I swear I will try to be more diligent.

(Note: This post is very graphics-intensive. Also please ignore the dates on the photos in this post. I didn’t bother setting up the camera properly.)

My residence is in this area. If my building was taller I'd be able to see the water

The view from my room. Ya. A hospital.

Ok that might be a slight exaggeration. I came in with low expectations and it met my low expectations. The facilities are all old and gross. Compared to UWP, it is, in politically correct terms, a shithole. In fact, living here has made me appreciate UWP so much more. I have cut my shower time down to 10 minutes because that’s when the hot water runs out. I have also accepted the fact that I will be greeted with a stream of freezing cold water for washing my face/hands because there is no hot water in the sink taps.

View from a bridge beside my residence

As for the people, there are a surprisingly large number of Canadians here, though there are definitely more from America. I live in an all-girls exchange students residence and almost half my floor is from California.

A nice tropical touch

I spent the entire second day (ie. my birthday) running around HKU, taking care of administrative errands. My residence is about a 10-15 minute bus ride to the main campus. I set off on my own, which was obviously a great idea because I wasn’t aware you had to yell out to the driver when you wanted to get off. Thankfully I had a very nice driver who took me back along his route to where I needed to be. I expected blank stares or annoyed conversation, but the passengers were also very patient and willing to help.

Le bibliothèque

The campus itself is the most confusing 160,000-square-meter plot of land ever. You can walk around with a map and still get hopelessly lost because the area is so hilly, the buildings are old and inconsistent, there are tons of stairs/escalators scattered around, and “ground floor” means nothing. On the other hand, the campus is simply beautiful. It’s filled with vegetation (many palm trees for some reason) and there are amazing views from nearly everywhere. Also, the 30% student discount at Starbucks doesn’t hurt.

An awesome-looking building. I think it might be the grad house..?

Registration and everything took me the entire day, and then I went for dinner and a bit of wandering in Mong Kok with a couple of new friends. It was my first time on the MTR. I was as impressed by the cleanliness of the stations as much as the efficiency of the system. TTC can suck it.

Langham Place in all its long-arse-escalator-ed glory

The next morning, I headed to the official orientation for exchange students. After that I went exploring on the campus and around HK with some other students. We wandered Central, the viewing deck of IFC, and watched the light show in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Central/Pokfulam area from the viewing floor (55F) of IFC

The streets of HK

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

The rest of the weeks has been kind of a blur of shopping trips and touristy activities. Some highlights are Victoria Peak and a tour of Kowloon/New Territories attraction points.

Only in HK can you eat Burger King/McDonald's with a view like this

HK Island (foreground) and Tsim Sha Tsui/Kowloon (background) view from the Peak

Part of Chi Lin Nunnery & Garden

Life in HK and at HKU in general is a bit different than back home. HK has a 5.5-day work week. People are at work on Saturday mornings (there are even some classes too but thankfully I don’t have any) and dress casually. People like to be out. At midnight, on the streets, there are always masses of young people milling about. Their homes are too small for them to have privacy (much less their own rooms) so there’s not much to do other than going out. People don’t sleep either. At 2am, the dorms are as rambunctious as ever.

Profs are nice enough, but they may be too nice. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to chat with your neighbours during lectures. I’ve even seen people answer their phones in the middle of class. If you actually want to hear what the prof has to say, it’d be in your best interest to take a front-row seat.

I’m a little apprehensive about the classes here. The students seem to be very bright and the environment very competitive. In any case, I will try to update this blog more frequently with shorter posts.

Starting on the Sunday right after Boxing Day, I accomplished a feat that is not easily attained – I met up with Charmaine 6 days in a row. That is my achievement for the holidays. And maybe reading & watching Twilight. In any case, here is a recap of my comings and goings over the last week or so, in bullet format, because you know you love bullet points (with horrific grammar) just as much as I do.

• Dec 27th: Pacific Mall for lunch, walked around P-Mall, got bored of P-Mall, went to Vaughan Mills, bought shoes, broke.
• Dec 28th: Downtown for dinner, watched Avatar in 3D, mind got blown.
• Dec 29th: Brunch at Cora with friends, dinner party hosted by co-worker who served us a delicious full-course meal.
• Dec 30th: P-Mall area again to take care of banking-related issues and chill over bubble tea.
• Dec 31th – Jan 1st: NYE party at Lily’s house, made dumplings, rang in the New Year playing the most intense 3-hour game of Monopoly ever.
• Jan 2nd: One last dinner and karaoke with some of my favourite people before the term begins.

Finally I’d like to wish everyone the best of luck in 2010, and definitely help me stay updated via blogging/Twittering/MSNing/Facebooking/Google Waving/morse coding madder than ever before.

Stephenie Meyer – Twilight	Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
Ivanka Trump – The Trump Card	Sophie Kinsella – Twenties Girl

I just realized they are all written by female authors. Have you read any of these? Reviews/opinions? (No spoilers please.)