Hong Kong Phooey

I set up a new blog these past few days, I have transferred the past entries from this site. My reason for moving sites is that the site I am transferring to allows easy access to my flickr account and allows me to post a link to my youtube videos. I am still working on getting my pics and videos up but I am making progress. Hope you like the new site. Thanks

http://novahongkong.blogspot.com/

http://novahongkong.blogspot.com/

http://novahongkong.blogspot.com/

Saturday night me and four other guys headed to Macau for some fireworks and debauchery, both were had in full. For those curious Macau is the Portuguese equivalent of Hong Kong. Formerly a territory controlled by Portugal, Macau was returned to China in 1999 and is now a Special Administrative Region in China, one of two, the other being Hong Kong. Macau is located 37 miles south of Hong Kong on the opposite edge of the Pearl River Delta. Macau is famous for many reasons some of them being that, it is the most densely populated area/country in the world, it has great seafood and it is the Las Vegas of Asia. So now after that background, lets return to my story. Saturday night me, Andrew, Rodrigo, Casey and Josh got on a turbojet (basically a large hydrofoil) and took the hour long ride to the "bling" capital of China. Our main reason for traveling to Macau this weekend was because the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest was going. On Saturday the two countries that competed were Japan and Portugal, they did not disappoint, but more on that shortly. We got off the turbo jet and after asking two Brits for the best spot to watch the show from we found ourselves sitting by the bay next to the Wynn Macau, a large Vegas export. We could not have asked for a better night, it was warm but sitting by the bay made the heat a second thought and all we could was sit in awe to the amazing performance we were privy to. Japan started of the festivities promptly at 9 o'clock and put up a hell of a show, lasting around 20 minutes, we did not expect to see a better show. We were wrong. We continued to hang out by the bay and enjoy the night until Portugal stepped up to the plate at ten o'clock and knocked one out of the park. I've seen many fireworks shows in my day and while I admit I don't commit a large part of my brain to firework memories this one will stick with me for some time to come. I took a video of the finale and will do my best to get it to all reading to this. If ever you have the chance, get to this firework contest, you will not be let down. After the show we were curious to see how the Asian community approached gaming. We took a walk to the Grand Lisboa, Stanley Ho's marquee casino and Hotel, this building was quite the sight. It was covered in neon, like most hotel/casinos here and was best described in a travel book as a cross between a UFO and a wedding cake. We walked in and headed upstairs to the gaming floor, what we found were more baccarat tables (the game James Bond is so adept at) than I have ever seen. With all of the baccarat tables there was little room for anything else, there were only around six or seven blackjack tables, much different from the states. The five of us played and explored for an about two hours and then decided it was time for some music. We talked to the concierge at the hotel and were told to head down the street and just keep an eye for the sign for a place called D2, we never found D2. We did however find a place called Cubic that seemed to a good time. It was real quiet when we got there around one but were told the crowd would pick up by three as that was when the guest DJ was getting on. So of course as the night continued progress the club got more crowded and eventually you could barely move. The music was some of the best I've heard since I've gotten to China, while it was not my standard choice of music, it was great house music. We had had enough of Cubic about the time the new DJ was coming on and some of the group decided they were hungry. We headed for food and after about a half hour we found some and sat down to take a rest and refuel, we still had two and a half hours until our ride back to Hong Kong. After some food we saw that we were next to the MGM Grand Macau and decided to kill some time before heading home. I played some blackjack and came out the winner overall for the night. The casino was standard but much like the rest of Macau the building it was housed in was massive. You would swear it were in Vegas. At around five a.m. we grabbed a cab to the ferry terminal to begin our trek back. This was the first ride back and it seems that many others did as we did and just pulled an all nighter because the ride back was sold out. we got back to HK at 7 and got on the train to get home. I hit my pillow at 8 a.m. and could not have been happier about the way the night went.

There will be more pictures coming from this night shortly, I didn't bring my good camera so I need to grab some pics from my friends. Also I will do my best to get the video to work. Thanks

Tommy

Played some basketball last night, I have to say running the courts with locals is a little different than the pick up games back home. I haven't really played basketball on a consistent basis since the earlier years of high school but I would like to think that I am never one to shy away form a game. Having only played on and off a few times this summer at Zack's I wasn't quite sure what to expect of myself as me and five other kids headed over ti the local courts to find a game. We were a ragtag group of non athletes, former highs school players and a soccer player thrown in for good measure. We were quickly asked to run five on five by what I must assume is a local team out practicing. Now the game went like just about any street/pickup game you would find in the states with one small exception, fouls. Now coming from where I play basketball you don't really ever call a foul on a guy, you just suck it up and play through it, maybe give an elbow a little latter on. Last night there were more fouls called by the other team than I have ever seen. I don't really mind the foul call I just happen to be of the mind set that you such stop being worried about getting hurt and just suck it up, a foul really kills the tempo of the game. Another thing that I noticed seemed to missing from these guys (all about my age) is the basic courtesies that come in a pick up game, the most noticeable one being that you don't start the possession until everyone is ready. These guys had no problem starting up a play when one of our guys had just been taken out of the previous play and was still recovering to get back in the game, now I know that a game back home would come with some unwritten rules about such a thing. All in all though our team made it past the differences and managed to win two of the three games before the lights in the park went out. A good victory for the AWAY TEAM.

Today myself, Andrew and Brian decided to take a trek, a journey, an excursion call it whatever you like. We left Caritas (our home of sorts) at twelve to depart on a trip to find beaches and cliff diving, we did not know exactly how to get there. We took the train a few stops past where we go for school and found the minibus that runs to Sai Kung. Sai Kung is an area out in the New Territories of Hong Kong and it is a rather calm area when compared to the hustle of HK. Upon arriving in Sai Kung we proceeded to ask locals if they knew where Sai Wan was, we were pointed to the number 94 bus. We got on the bus not knowing where to get off, we just figured we would wing it. Sitting on the bus we happened to ask what appeared to be a local if he knew where to go cliff jumping, it turns out that he grew up in HK but moved to Vancouver for work and was back in HK getting his MBA. This guy, whose name we did not catch gave the best directions he could and from the research we had done he sounded correct. We got off the bus at the entrance to the country park and started our walk. Today's weather was quite nice, blue skies with a minimal amount of clouds, the only problem was that it was about 98 degrees. We started our walk and shortly came to a fork, taking the left route, which lead to the beach we were looking for, we were quickly stunned by the massive reservoir that lay in front of us. This was by far, nothing even close to it, the nicest reservoir that I have ever seen. This reservoir made the Caribbean look like the Jersey Shore. Upon arriving to the start of this hike with an amazingly uplifting view we were shortly crestfallen when we discovered that it was to be a ten kilometer hike that was estimated to take two and a half hours. While this news was bad news we took in stride and started off on our hike to what is said to be the best beach in Hong Kong. We walked and we walked some more getting some great views of the reservoir and eventually after quite some time arrived, no one knew exactly how long it took since we didn't check the time at the start. Upon arriving all our tired and sore muscles were instantly relieved at the site of a deserted beach with only a few yachts moored offshore but no one was on the beach. Surrounded by massive hills and mountains we were in our own paradise. We hung out in the water, which was clear and almost to warm, for a few hours and then decided to try and find a way home seeing as the sun was getting low and we didn't want to hike back. We grabbed a ride on a junk/motorboat that two engineers had taken to the beach, on the boat we saw the true beauty of Hong Kong and for most of the trip we were speechless. We arrived at an unknown pier and were lucky to find a bus stop, it was getting dark. We arrived back our home a little over an hour later and were thankful for showers and food, we hadn't eaten since prior to our departure. A successful day that somehow resulted in little to no sunburn.

I have just finished the first week of class here in Hong Kong and I must admit until Monday, the idea of classes and homework seemed alien but alas it is here and will not be gone anytime soon. I must admit though I am lucky, I only have class four days a week, many of us do, this is a new phenomenon for me and I must say I rather enjoy it. This semester I am only taking three classes, I know, it sounds like a small amount but I am also doing a research paper on mainland China for our previous seminar and I will be doing an independent research project for 5 weeks at the end of the semester. Right now I am taking Mandarin (more on that later) International Economics and Money and Banking. Econ and MandB are good, a little slow but its early yet. The class that I'm sure most reading this are wondering about is Mandarin. Mandarin is intense. We have class for eight hours a week and we move fast. I'm getting the gist of the language but it is by no means easy. Lucky for me our class tends to stick together and we help each other out and study at night together. One thing that I noticed about City U that is different from Nova is the size. While it only has about twice as many undergrads as Nova, 12,000, it tries to fit them into a space similar to the size of my campus back home. The crowds are definitely new but they do make for good practice when it comes to pushing through the streets of HK. Taking the train to school is also new for me but in HK the metro is so nice that I actually enjoy that part of the commute. I will say that it is interesting being the tallest person of the almost 1000 people on the train. All in all my first week here at City U was without any surprises and it looks to be shaping up to be a great semester.