| If there's anything I miss about being away from home...is that I don't have my own kitchen to cook my own food in.
I had very little internet access in Korea, and Xanga's banned in China, hence the lack of updates til now.
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| Stanley, Hong Kong
Who would have thought such a beautiful place was a town where criminals were once condemned to? We went to the Correctional Services Museum and saw their various forms of um.... "correctional services". There is also a college here (misnomer? it's for secondary education), that was once an internment camp when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong.
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| Hong Kong
I didn't realize that sudden bursts of heavy rainfall is actually characteristic of Hong Kong. I always thought that those TVB Chinese shows were always over-dramatizing the rain scene when water suddenly comes pouring through.
Other things I've noticed (though the eyes of a Toh Sang Mui [土生妹? something like that]---in reference to Canada) include, other than it being much dirtier here and people dressing more casually, some aspects of the city remind me of Tokyo. Buildings are also more dingy here.
Another thing is the roads---there are so many overpass, underpass and curves, my first ride on the road made me think it was like a life-size perpetual roller coaster (save for the the loop-de-loops and such). I love how taxis are super efficient.
And I don't know if my math went out the window or what, but I have a hard time dividing everything by 7 to convert it to Canadian dollars in my mind. I cheat sometimes and use my cell phone currency converter to figure it out... hahaha.
Perhaps it's just because of where my hotel is situated, but there's a very lush green mountain nearby, and along with the atmosphere's heavy humidity, it reminds me of Taiwan. Speaking of the weather, it hasn't been unbearably hot yet--though I don't look forward to it when the peak of the heat comes. The humidity hasn't bothered me too much yet, I think it was more humid in Taiwan. If anything at all, the strong fans blowing the air against me inside air-conditioned buildings make me feel more uncomfortable than the weather outside (I'm a little bit allergic to sudden changes in temperatures).
I like how there's stuff to do even at night--and not closed at 5 pm like in Vancouver. I probably could never live here in the long term though... I like the quietness of suburban areas though the convenience here is really a major plus.
These are just little things I've noticed about this city, but I never felt any real culture shock, much to my surprise. Haha, maybe it seems weird to say 'culture-shock' which would mean shock to my own culture--but I think I make a distinction between Chinese culture here versus Chinese culture back home. But who knows, going to Hong Kong is probably a gentle buffer before I head to mainland where I'm sure that the Chinese culture there is something different as well.
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| Stopover in JapanI had a lot of poetic ramblings that I had in my mind during my 10 hour ride here. But now I forgot them all.
I can only recall that as I was pulled out of the driveway that I thought to myself: "I won't be sleeping in my own bed any more for a long time..."
Oh well... I have another 4.5 hour flight coming up so plennnnnnnnnnty of time to think some more! This marks the first time I rode an airplane alone. Window seat. An empty seat separates me and a Philippian man on his way to Manila. Apparently food there is much like Chinese food. He was kind, I'd say older than our fathers but not by too much. We talked about all the major news headlines as strangers do: the catastrophe in Sichuan, airtravel woes and fuel prices, the rising cost of rice... It seems like he travels a lot--he'll be staying in Manila for 5 months and he goes there about 2-3 times a year, and just a few weeks ago he went to New York for some fun. He said I should have brought my husband with me on my trip---to which I answered that I am a bit too young to be married yet...
Flight here was smooth---I hope finding my way around in Hong Kong [in the dark] will be too....
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