Eskimos

We awoke Monday morning to find almost every surface outside our apartment to be completely wet. The last week has been freezing cold with temperatures reaching as low as seven degrees (Celsius), however today the temperature is said to be back to a normal twenty or so degrees. Although, with this came an incredible amount of humidity like I had never felt before. Our tiled apartment stairs were completely wet as we walked out to go to uni. The sidewalks were also slippery and when we arrived on campus it was like the whole place had been hosed down. Caution signs were placed around the university and these specific air-blowing machines were moved around the campus all day to dry out the wet floors. I was astounded at how intense the humidity was, everything was drenched!

After the gym that night Owen and I decided to try a local Indian restaurant in Kennedy Town called 'Riya'. It certainly was not a restaurant you would chose to eat at by looking from the outside. It was basically a small room with a counter-top bench, a few tables and stools. However, the food was quite nice. For $84HKD ($11.00 AUD each) Owen and I each had a butter chicken with rice, a serving of garlic naan bread and a serving of samosas. It is a locally owned restaurant with the family both serving us and cooking the meals. I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a nice Indian meal at an affordable price. Compared to Australia this is relatively inexpensive. Back home I would expect to pay at least $40-$50 AUD for such a meal, making me question why is Indian food so expensive on the Gold Coast?

Everyone that is going on the Singapore/Bali/Malaysia trip during Reading Week got together so we could arrange our final flight home plus accommodation in the three countries. For Singapore and Malaysia we will be staying in hostels as we will mostly be out exploring and only need a bed to sleep in. However, for the five days between Singapore and Malaysia that we will be staying in Bali we have managed to secure a six bedroom mansion that can sleep nine people and has its own private chef among other features. Oh the beauty of travelling in a big group. For Malaysia we are going to Future Music Festival. Some of the guys have purchased the three day pass however, as we are only there for three days I decided to only buy a ticket for the final day (when Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are playing) and go sightseeing for the other two days.

I have been hitting the gym pretty hard, only allowing myself to have two days off a week. It helps to have the other guys such as Jeff, Mihir, Gary & Leon text you asking if you are going to the gym because if you don't well lets face it you just feel bad that they are going and you are not. Occasionally, after I have been to the gym I have been cooking myself mass bowls of pasta and trying different sauces, getting those carbohydrates into me and experimenting what I can cook my minimal kitchen supplies.

Wan Chai Wednesday - It was Felicia's 21st Birthday and she had her mind set on having pre-drinks at hers before going to Wan Chai to a karaoke bar, later followed by the famous Carnegie's. We had good fun at the karaoke bar as I am sure you can tell by the videos below. I managed to reserve myself from drinking too much that night but it was good to see the other guys have such a good night and for Felicia to celebrate her birthday in Wan Chai style.

Whilst I managed to reserve myself for Wednesday, Thursday however was a completely different story. After a hard session at the gym, Mihir and I grabbed some dinner from our favourite Chinese restaurant in Kennedy Town before coming back to my apartment to start a few pre-drinks before heading to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). After a few beers, Mihir decided to surprise me with a 1 litre bottle of Smirnoff Green Apple Vodka that he had purchased for ($18.00 USD) from The Philippines. Before we knew it half a litre was down and we were on our way to LKF with another beer in our hands. Now Thursday nights are not traditionally the busiest nights, these are mainly Friday and Saturday naturally due to the end of the work week. However, with Friday and Saturday nights come cover charges to enter the nightclubs. So what better night to go out then Thursday where you can drink from 7-Eleven in the street and meet lots of new people before choosing which club to go in with everyone to dance, which is exactly what we did. We also had the opportunity of meeting the guy that hangs out in LKF that we all know as 'Hong Kong Gollum'. Gollum was popping open people's beer tops with a bottle opener in exchange for money inside the 7-Eleven. Once again it was another fantastic night with Mihir, many other exchange students and even new people that we met along the way.

I will not go into too much detail as to how the night proceeded, but to sum it up I awoke the next morning not in my bed but on the other side of Hong Kong, that being Kowloon. It was that sudden realisation when you look across the water and see the side of the island you are supposed to be on and realise that you are not in fact there. With a tear in my jeans at the crouch, a random mobile phone in my pocket, a heavy head and a slight sense of loss of dignity I quickly made my way back over to Hong Kong Island. The chain of events that were discussed when everyone met up that day was incredible; those that came raved about how great a night it was and those that stayed at home were kicking themselves for not having come out.

                                 

Dragon's Back 2.0 - Mihir was desperate to complete the rest of the Dragon's Back hike at Shek O Peak as last time we took a shorter path so we could visit the local beach and swim. To Mihir's credit, he did his homework. He guided us down a narrow but popular road that led us to the amazing town of Stanley, also famous for 'Stanley Markets'. After a few hours of hiking nobody was really up for shopping but we were indeed hungry. Stanley was like being home again, along the beachfront bay area lay a long walkway adjacent to a strip of local restaurants and bars.




We found a small restaurant alongside the water where we sat out the front, ordered fish and chips and chose from a wide selection of alternative beers. I chose a 'Banana Bread' flavoured beer, Felicia had a honey flavoured beer yet Esther was the clear winner with her alcoholic ginger beer. It's safe to say that bananas and beer are two things that should never be mixed together. We finished our lunch and sat around whilst we continued our beers before grabbing a soft serve ice cream, wondering around town and eventually catching a bus back home. For a spontaneous day out it sure did turn into a nice relaxing afternoon. Stanley is definitely an area I would like to go back and visit again and even come back to spend the day with everyone on the beach when the weather warms up.

The visit to Stanley and hike was definitely the highlight of the week as the rest of the weekend I spent mostly inside catching up on uni work and studying for my International Financial Management exam on Monday morning. I have now mastered lunch at home by making a fresh salad with some seasoned chicken that I cook to mix in with it. Salads and fresh vegetables are the one thing I am definitely missing over here.

And with the click of two fingers; the workload has increased, exams have started and assignments are due. Until next week...I am off to study.

Back to School

We arrived back home in Hong Kong only to find out whilst we were away a Second World War-era bomb was discovered at a construction site in the Happy Valley area, the same district that we have been going to the horse races on the odd Thursday night. Apparently over 2,000 people were evacuated within a 500 metre radius of the site. After nine or so hours the bomb was diffused and dismantled. Experts say that it was most likely a misfire during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during the war. Apparently if is was not for the soft soil surrounding the bomb and way in which it had landed it would have gone off, tearing down multiple buildings and killing hundreds of people.

I had a great conversation with Albert the other night. He was telling me how much he is going to miss me when I go and how he is not looking forward to getting new roommates once Jeremy and I leave at the end of the semester. We talked for little bit longer about how we are similar in terms of our values and he said that I am a "pure person" and have been raised well, which meant a lot coming from him. When we were in Taiwan Albert borrowed a bottle of my red wine when he had some friends over and told me immediately when we got back that he did so and that he is sorry and will replace it. I assured him that I did not mind and that he can help himself to whatever he likes. He confessed tonight that he would never have done that with his previous roommates but he said that he knew I would not mind and am the sort of guy that is understanding of that. I told Albert that I consider him to be a brother and that is how much I respect him. He would fit in well in Australia and he is convinced that all Australians are such lovely down to earth people. Lets hope the next roommates he gets are also Australian.



Monday night was the first night at the gym. After making friends with the lady at the 'Redwood' nutrition store in Kennedy Town, I was soon on the VIP program and walking on my way with a bottle (more like a container large enough to feed a small Ethiopian village) of protein powder. 8:00pm onwards must be the time from which half of the university students from HKU decide to go to the gym and to my own fortune that is exactly the time that I decided to go. It was packed! After a relatively short workout I jogged home in the freezing cold, suddenly the weather had snapped frozen again today like the first day I arrived four weeks ago. The hunger had kicked in and I managed to craft myself some french toast with our very useful, new frying pan that we had bought from Australia day, for which we now call "the toaster".

Tuesday night was supposed to be a night in with the books to stay on top of the uni work, however it was so freezing cold that Albert managed to convince me that if I drink enough red wine I will warm up. Uni work was out of the question after a few tumbler glasses of red. Yes, my lack of possession of a wine glass has resulted in me using a single glass for almost every liquid I consume.
We were off in the seven degree weather to a local restaurant that Albert favours for a good meal and is apparently famous for its desserts, too cold for dessert that night though. We returned for a chilled night in (pun definitely intended) over a few more glasses of wine with some good music and even better deep and meaningful conversations.

 The push-up routine of a morning and before bed has commenced again. I have no excuse not to do it anymore now that I have more spare time over here. Albert has agreed to do them with me each morning and night. I also taught him an ab workout, which we will incorporate into our twice a day routine. As each day progresses we will also add an extra 5 push-ups each time. I challenged him to see how many we could each do in one set. In return he challenged me to an arm wrestle later on. I'll leave it to your own imagination to decide who the winner of the arm wrestle was.

The Limestone Arms - A great small bar that a group of ten or fifteen of us went to in Kennedy Town after I had finished up a session at the gym with Jeff and Mihir. It was a cosy and intimate bar, enough for a small group of people which suited us perfect. That night I had the opportunity to meet, yet again, another group of exchange students studying at HKU.

Mihir was determined to have a few drinks and ended up buying me a shot at the bar. He pulled me aside whilst everyone else continued to mingle and asked me my advice on the future direction of his career and the dilemma of choosing between two companies to work for. We had quite a deep conversation about his upcoming job which he has just accepted in California and continued to talk about work-life balance, income, money and what really was the important factor when it came to choosing a job. I find Mihir is one of those people you can just instantly "click" with and immediately form a solid friendship. I think in many ways we are both like-minded and share similar beliefs and aspirations. I came to Hong Kong with the wholehearted intention of making friends for life and I truly feel that I am beginning to form strong bonds with some incredible people such as Mihir.

Saturday night marked the end of the Chinese New Year with the first new moon of the lunar new year lighting up the sky. We caught the MTR over to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) for the 'Lantern Festival' that fell on the same day as Valentine's Day after having a quick bite to eat at our newly favourite restaurant in Kennedy Town. Similarly to the Chinese New Year Parade, the festival was a little bit of a let down as we had all anticipated a festival of lantern lighting into the sky. Rather, there were a few dance performances and displays with a Valentine theme.








Jeff and a few of the Canadian students wanted to watch the Canada vs Austria Olympic hockey game. After finding the bar however, the prices were relatively expensive and we still had quite a few hours before the game started. Not to mention the bar attendant tried to force me to buy a drink which I found quite rude. Myself and a few other guys decided to head back to Hong Kong Island and wander over to LKF. The group further split up and it ended up just being Gary, Mihir and myself in LKF.


The streets were flowing with people; couples walking arm-in-arm, girls holding roses, guys attempting to give girls roses, locals selling flowers, teddies and chocolates on the street and not to mention the countless red and pink balloons that overflowed the bars. Gary and I decided it would be a wise idea to pretend to be British and speak with a British accent to new people we were meeting. One of the highlights of the night was being reunited with Mihir after losing him in the crowd for a few hours. The ecstatic excitement on his face when we found him was something I will never forget. That night was without a doubt the best night I have had out in Hong Kong so far.

I finally managed to get to Central to complete my 'Neknomination' for which I had been nominated twice in one week. Neknomination is where a person is nominated by a friend to consume an alcoholic beverage of some description in a creative manner whilst filming and then nominate a person of your own choosing before uploading the video to Facebook for your followers to see. After reading several articles and hearing so many disastrous stories on the news about these neknomination videos I decided to go against the norm and do an act of kindness as my neknomination. The amount of homeless people that I have been exposed to on the streets in Taiwan and here in Hong Kong has been a real eye-opener and not something we witness in Australia. I may not be able to solve the ongoing issue of homelessness in Hong Kong for the long-term but if I can make one person's night a little easier than by all means I am willing to give it a shot. I do not know about you, but I would personally much more appreciate watching a video of people doing such acts of kindness (to anyone) rather than encourage or watch somebody consume alcohol as quick as they possibly can. If you would like to see my neknomination please see the video below.

Tomorrow will be spent doing group work for a presentation that I have with Owen and Jeremy on Monday for 'Negotiation and Conflict Resolution'. We have chosen to do the recent negotiation between Facebook's (Mark Zuckerberg's) offer to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion. Time to get into some work.

Taiwan Bound. And Then There Were Four...

We arrived safely in Taipei, Taiwan after waking up at 3:00am to catch our 7:30am plane with only an hour or so of sleep. Our apartment was very nice and modern, fully furnished and close to the local business district, shops and MRT station. Charlie (the apartment owner), took the time to show us on a map where we should visit for hikes, shopping and famous sites to see. With such lack of sleep we took a nap to recuperate before exploring the city. The apartment building is supervised by a twenty four hour security guard. The guard that we met when we arrived is named Ren. Ren was so very nice to us and told us how it was his last day at the apartment building. He gave us his mobile number and told us to call him if we get lost or need to know where to go and he will come on his scooter to help us. This act of kindness gave us an idea of the sort of people we were to meet in the coming days and was only the very beginning of the kindness and generosity that was demonstrated to us by the locals throughout our trip. 

In comparison to Hong Kong, getting around is much easier as Taiwan is geographically flat. Hong Kong however has various different altitudes and can be difficult to get around by foot as you need to walk up and down multiple hills to get to and from your destination. 

After a nap we caught the MRT to the local night markets where we discovered just how cheap everything was. We ate "street food" for dinner which included fried chicken, hand made stone baked pork buns, peanut balls, scallops and tofu. The fried chicken was the best! Esther was told by a friend that Taiwan was famous for its fried chicken at the street markets and she certainly was not wrong. Even after the first day we could not believe how cheap everything was, relative to Hong Kong. The food in comparison to Hong Kong is much better and there is so much more variety. 

In economics we have studied the costs of living in comparison between two or more countries. Whilst exchange rates fluctuate from country to country it does not give an accurate display of a currency's value (i.e. what you can buy with $1.00) also known as the Purchasing Power Parity. A certain method of doing this is called the 'Big Mac Index'. As the McDonald's Big Mac is one of the only standardised products that is available in almost every country in the world it is used in economics to determine the value of one country's currency to another. This informal method of measuring purchasing power parity was evident between Hong Kong and Taiwan where I measured the difference between the a Big Mac meal. In Hong Kong the meal is $21.00 HKD ($3.00 $AUD) and in Taiwan the same meal was $70 TWD ($2.70 AUD). Whilst the price difference between the two is not that large, it shows that you can buy more with $1.00 in that country regardless of the exchange rate. Compare the price of the same meal in Australia and you have yourself a decent variance. This price of such a standardised good is of course dependent on the welfare and living standards of that country.

Following a nice sleep in we were up and ready to visit the National Palace Museum. The museum was located in what appeared to be a traditional Taiwanese temple that had been refurbished on the inside to fit the purpose of the museum. Unfortunately, none of us had really studied any history of Taiwan so it was difficult for us to appreciate many of the artefacts that were on display, also the fact that many of the tapestries were written in Chinese characters made it difficult to comprehend. As the next tour was not until later that afternoon we decided to have a late lunch and decided on Shabu Shabu hot pot at a nearby restaurant where we managed to get our vegetable fix for which we were all in dire need of. 


That Tuesday night we visited 'Shilin Night Markets'. These markets were huge and were situated across multiple streets, too much to cover in one night. I managed to find a store that had very good quality mens clothing at very reasonable prices. As I had many items I was going to purchase I managed to barter for a further discount and was very happy with my overall purchases.

We were set to have dinner in Taipei City so we headed for the 101 Trade Centre building only to find that everything was closed and there were no people around, after all it was midnight. We hailed a cab to pick us up, unbeknown to us that we were about to embark on the most exhilarating taxi ride of our lives. Our taxi driver 'Mi-Lee' spoke very little english and struggled to understand exactly where we wanted him to take us when we said "bars", "beers" and "restaurants" in both mandarin and english. I sat in the passenger seat in the front with Mi-Lee with my feet pressing as hard up against the floor of the vehicle as Mi-Lee ran two red lights, gliding across three lanes of an intersection dodging cars before weaving between a dozen or so scooters. We made reference to "Mi-Lee" sounding like the artist Miley Cyrus and that he "came in like a wrecking ball" that "we can't stop" driving. He found it humorous that we wanted to go to what he referred to as a "romantic" dinner with nice meals and beer as opposed to going out and partying hard. After driving us around in circles to show us the different restaurants we could visit I finally convinced him to stop and let us out under the condition that we would dine at his recommended restaurant. The restaurant had beautiful food and was incredibly cheap. We had a few beers with dinner and it was my first time trying clams and bullfrog which were delicious, but nothing as good as the deep fried fresh crab!

When leaving we hailed another taxi. The taxi driver was speaking quiet abruptly in mandarin when we gave him our address but we continued to try and explain that we did not know where we were and that we needed to get to this address. What we didn't realise until we got out of the car was that our apartment building was literally just across the road from the restaurant that Mi-Lee had taken us too. Any wonder the taxi driver was confused, he must have thought that we were trying to pull a prank on him. We could not believe that we were so close to home and laughed at our oblivion.

Wednesday was the day of the hot springs at Xinbeitou. On our way, we stopped by a cherry blossom tree to take some photos. An old lady we named 'Shower Cap Lady', saw us taking photos and came over pointing and speaking in mandarin. Luckily Esther was able to translate what she was saying which was that there were more cherry blossom trees in the direction that she was heading and that she would take us there. As it began to rain the old lady presented herself with a folded up shower cap which she wrapped around her head to cover her hair from getting wet in the rain, hence her name 'Shower Cap Lady'. The strip of cherry blossom trees that she took us to revealed some amazingly beautiful scenery where the pink colour of the flowers against the dark and gloomy city allowed me to produce some nice shots on the SLR.

We later found our way back to the local hot spring pools after our short detour of the cherry blossoms. It was amazing to see the cultural difference between us and the locals. We did not take into consideration the effect we would have on the locals as us boys stepped into the hot, steaming pool wearing only short board shorts and the girls in bikinis. You could smell the sulphur as we entered the town and it was now even stronger as we sat in the water that it engulfed. The four pools were spread across different levels according to temperature, each one increasing in temperature the higher it was above ground level. The water from the hot springs than trickled down from pool to pool until it reached the bottom pool, which naturally was the coolest, 38-40 degrees with the highest being 45-48 degrees Celsius. 

We proceeded to have beef noodles at a local restaurant to Henry's desire. Henry is from Canada and is currently studying science at HKU but is unsure as to what he wants to do long-term as a career. He is considering taking on medicine and becoming a doctor but is also interested in science and similarly to me, architecture. We managed to talk about our interests and similar passion for architecture and its appreciation during our many walks along the outskirts of Taipei. That night we hired our own private karaoke room for a bit of fun and headed to a restaurant shortly after for dinner before heading home to bed for our hike to the waterfall in the morning.

It was a long morning of travelling to Shifen village to visit the famous waterfall. The amount of people that were squeezed onto our train was insane, we literally could not move and it was getting very hot and sticky with all those people on one train. The waterfall's enormity was astounding, you could feel the spray of the water against your face from across the valley as we took many photos of our breathtaking view. I was gobsmacked at the fact that the town is divided by the railway line and that until a train comes along it is used for such things as selling food/gifts, children playing and lighting lanterns to send off into the sky. 

I was stopped on our way to the waterfall by a group of Taiwanese high school girls who were amazed to see a tall white tourist. They could not believe how tall Henry and I were and insisted on getting photos with us and later adding me on Facebook.

We took the train a few stops further to a small town called Pingxi where we sent off our very own hand-painted lantern into the sky before grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to Shilin to visit the Night Markets for some last minute shopping and final taste of that mouthwatering street food. One thing for sure is that I am quite over the smell of "stinky tofu", I began to feel sick at the markets having smelt it being cooked so many times, there is only so much of it you can take.

Throughout the trip we have seen countless homeless people rummaging through bins for leftover food. That night we walked past a lady searching the bins for bottles to obtain money from recycling them. Esther and myself stopped and gave the lady our water bottles. I felt so much sympathy for this old lady that I was going to go to McDonald's and buy her a meal. However I realised that she was not really searching for food in the bin only bottles and I did not want to offend nor assume that she hungry and would eat something from McDonald's, so unfortunately I did nothing. It sure does make me appreciate what basic things I have in my life such as access to water, money, food, education, a warm bed at night and a roof over my head.

Since arriving in Hong Kong we have been eating a fair amount of McDonald's, especially as a last minute resort if there are no restaurants available to eat at. For someone who has not eaten McDonald's in three years I sure have made up for it in these last three and a half weeks. Monday will be the start of no more McDonald's, choosing healthy options when eating, exercising every day and going to the gym at least three times a week. Lets see how I go.

It was Friday morning and we were up and ready to leave for the airport at 9:00am. We had an hour or so to kill before departing for the airport so we decided to grab some last minute items from the shops plus a morning coffee to try and use up the last of our Taiwanese dollars. We came back to the apartment and were just about to leave when Henry dropped the one statement that nobody wants to hear two and a half hours before your flight, "Guys I can't find my passport". We searched high and low throughout the entire apartment and through our bags trying to find Henry's passport but we had no luck and we were running out of time, it was lost. We had to leave Henry behind at the apartment as he searched and called up places we had visited to see if it had been handed in. Due to our new time constraints we caught a taxi straight to the airport rather than the MRT where we had checked in and were ready for our flight back to Hong Kong. 


That feeling of leaving something behind had returned in the pit of my stomach except this time I knew exactly what it was; not the iPad nor the sunglasses but another member of our group, Henry. As bad as we felt for leaving him, unfortunately there was nothing more we could do and we could not afford to miss our flights and stay with him, especially after all the trouble we had gone to secure those flights home. Due to the Canadian embassy being closed until Monday, Henry will have to stay in Taipei for another 5 days before being able to return to Hong Kong which means missing out on a full week of uni classes. 

And then there were four...