Tonight's Dinner

It's only my second full day and I already miss having a kitchen to cook in. Uh-oh. It's really just the fact that I don't like spending this much money on food everyday, but there are worse things. The only real sad part is when the food comes out and I think "I really could do this at home". Maybe I don't get consistently perfect results, but it's usually not that hard. Of course, I stay away from sauces, so maybe I'm copping out a bit.

Anyway, tonight I stopped at a tony little place not too far away. It's located in a section well traveled by expats, which didn't thrill me, but it was convenient. There's a few blocks area where there are a bunch of bars and restaurants popular with visitors. Most of the places reminded me of an Allston area bar, which as you know, isn't particularly appealing to me at all. But some of the places seemed ok. Too many offered western style food, so I'll just skip past those.

I forget the name of tonight's place, but it was a cozy place, about 12 tables in all. AT approximately 10 feet wide, there wasn't much room, but that wasn't a problem for the lovely ladies working tonight. Very friendly service.

I originally ordered the brisket, but they were out. Following the server's suggestion, I then went with the Vietnamese diced loin. For this meal, I say bravo. Perfectly tender meat, flavorful garlic oil, crispy and fresh veggies, and a decent (though not perfect) presentation with a garnish of chillies. I'm not sure what the greens on top are, but they were pan fried crispy and very, very tasty. I'm disappointed in this picture's quality. Not sure why I screwed this one up...

From What I did on my summer vacation

The crowd was thin tonight, which I guess is to be expected on a Sunday night. Though the pubs were doing somewhat brisk business, it seemed pretty tame. I'm sure it's annoyingly busy on Friday and Saturday nights. Of course, since I'm not too enamored with this area anyway, I really don't care.

I would, however, return to this place. I really should get the name next time...

Afternoon Walk

I decided to head on down by the harbor. I took a similar path to the one this morning, except this time I continued to the end of the escalator (or, "people mover" as I think of it). It terminates in the Central Train Station / ifc mall (they use lower case), which is enormous. So, seeking shelter from the heat, I wandered the mall. Is that creepy? Anyway, that's what I did and don't you judge me.

I stopped for lunch, which was pretty good. Not great, though, which is kind of disappointing. Mainly, I didn't want western, so I wandered through some small streets. Of course, some places don't have English menu's, so that limits me a bit. But I found a kind of generic place, said "hi" and sat down. I ordered braised pork ribs and rice. This is what it looked like. From the table, you can tell it was a cheesy place, but in my limited experience, there are a lot of cheesy places in the parts of Asia that I've been to (limited experience, I know). Then again, there are a lot of cheesy places everywhere, so whatever. Back to the food

From What I did on my summer vacation

The ifc mall has multiple wings, with several levels to each. Plenty of air-conditioned wandering for me. The thing that stood out for me was that every store was upscale and expensive. I kind of expected that, but I also expected some less expensive places mixed in, but I didn't see any. Here's a sample view. It kind of reminds me of the Smithsonian for some reason

From What I did on my summer vacation

And my journey continues on level 2

From What I did on my summer vacation

Near the mall (and connected by a cool covered walkway) is the harbor. I wandered that a bit, too.

Here are some people fishing off of the public peer. They simply hold the line and toss it in. No poles for the folks!

From What I did on my summer vacation

Ok, can someone explain this to me? On the covered walkways of the mall, and surrounding environs, women (tons and tons of asian women. Hey Sam!) lay down flattened cardboard boxes or sheets or blankets and sit and talk, eat, listen to music. Just hanging out. It was wall to wall women lying on cardboard. Not as sexy as you'd think. Someone please explain what's going on with this, because I don't get it. I kind of love the expression on the girl's face. I'm not sure if she can't believe I'm actually taking this picture, or if she's offended, or what.

From What I did on my summer vacation

Actually, another weird thing involving tons of ladies congregating around here. There was an area, near the previous picture, which was kind of a low rent version of the Garage, in Harvard Square. Many small shops, often food stalls. This place, a square, with a walkway around the edge, was packed with so many people. It was a huge mistake going in there, but once I made the decision, I had to just power through. Luckily this is Asia, the one place in the world where I actually have a size advantage. Of course, as all of you know, my 150-ish lbs of bone crushing power is accompanied by an equally massive, if not more massive, kind-heartedness. Sure, I could have gone all "excuse me, coming through. Pardon me, my fault", as I carelessly pushed people out of my way. But instead I smiled, politely asked pardons, stepped aside for oncoming pedestrians, and generally displaed my normal consideration. Of course, when my headphones became caught on a woman's purse as I stepped past, she failed to return my pleasantness. As I apologized and untangled the wire, she gave me a kind of confused, cold stare. Which was odd, because frankly, I considered it her fault. But there was only one party apologizing for America's mistakes, and it wasn't Obama this time. But I rise above it.

After these ordeals, I made my way back up the escalator (people mover!), and back towards home. On the way, I stopped for some more provisions for the room. As I've already sweated through several t-shirts and underwear, I believe I will be doing laundry quite frequently. So I bought detergent. Look at me, mom! I'm all grown up!

I think I'm gonna take a short nap, and head out to dinner later. I hope to get some pics of the city at night. From what I've seen elsewhere, it's a beautiful skyline. We'll see what we see.

UPDATE: name change

So, my friend here, the one who bailed me out Friday night, is actually named Lin, not Li or Lee. I misheard him. It's a lot easier when you see it spelled out.

First Day Exploring

Got an early start this morning. Out of the house before 7:30am! My goal was to find the building where I'll be working, and mission accomplished! It feels good to set goals and to meet them.

It turns out that Hong Kong has a lot of hills. Luckily, for this walk, it was mostly downhill. Of course, I had to return, but I stayed positive for the first half and didn't think about that. Because not all streets have sidewalks, and I'm still not sure when and where a car will come zipping along (usually a red cab. They're everywhere), I stuck with sidewalks. I hadn't planned on it, but I walked over to the Central to Mid-levels escalator and took that down to the end, which was only a block or two passed where I wanted to be. Assuming I get off the escalator at the right time, it should be about a 20 minute trip to work. Of course, today was Sunday morning, with hardly anyone around, so I'll definitely allow more time on weekdays. But it's good to know where I'm gonig. I'll check out the route again, later today, to see if I can shave off any of that time. But at least I know where I'm going.

After finding work, I decided to walk back towards the hostel. That was kind of a mistake, as the reality of geography kicked in, and it was an unhill walk most of the way. So. Tired. When old ladies started passing me on the sidewalk, I decided it was time for a change of plans. So I went sideways, and started walking east. That showed them!

Oh, along the way I decided to stop for some water. 7-11, here I come! They're as ubiquitous as the red taxis. This one was just a hole in the wall, but with 3 guys stocking the shelves. There was almost no room for me, the customer. I'm not so sure about the business model of having so many employees that customers cannot fit in, but who am I to judge? Oh yeah, I'm the customer Of course I'll judge.

I grabbed a bottle and turned to the counter (no steps involved, just a jaunty spin on the heel. Again, locals were impressed). As I went to pay (with my Octopus metro card. So cool, you can pay for the trains and buses, as well as use it in stores), an old lady street cleaner (lots of those around, too) said something to one of the employers, who yelled something back. Sounded like they were arguing, and I'm pretty sure the store guy motioned that the lady was crazy. He smiled at me and said something, which seemed to be to the effect of "she's crazy", but I'm not entirely sure. I smiled and nodded, figuring maybe he'd give me a break on the water. He didn't. What he DID do, however, was grab a box cutter, open it up and walk out to the sidewalk, seemingly telling the old lady street cleaner to cut him? Again, I'm just going on his actions here. She didn't take him up on the offer.

As I was about to utter "let's roll" and spring into action (too tacky?), he came back into the store, laughing. Catastrophe averted, I guess. He had stepped out just after I swiped my Octupus card to pay, and I was like "um, am I done here?". Another guy came over and kind of smiled and nodded that I was ok. Such customer service! As least the box-cutter wasn't waved my way, huh? I guess it was a harmless enough encounter, but still, kinda weird.

Here are some pics of my adventure this morning...

I stumbled upon the escalator, which is really neat. You can get off at different streets, and the path is lined with small shops (pretty much all closed early Sunday mornings, though)

From What I did on my summer vacation

On the way back, I stopped at the botanical garden. Very pleasant. Here's the view as I sat on a bench

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And here's the view to the right

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And of course, the view to the left

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And who's this sexy guy?

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You want another? Of course you do

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Aaand, just one more. Can you tell how much I'm sweating? It is so hot and humid, and it's just gonna get worse.

From What I did on my summer vacation

Here's the path across the fountain. It's a very nice place to wander, so long as you don't mind hills. I am going to be about 15 lbs lighter in about 3 days

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I liked this memorial arch

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The whole thing. It's an entrance to the park

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As I walked around the garden, I realized I was on an overpass. So I looked down

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And right after taking that previous pic, I looked ahead and realized I was very close to the hostel. There it is!

From What I did on my summer vacation

I actually circled around the far side of the hostel, just to see what's around. One of the roads was very narrow, with everyone walking in the road. So I did too. I was hoping this lady wouldn't turn around. I don't know how to say "I'm just getting a picture of the road" in Chinese

From What I did on my summer vacation

And me on the escalator again. I took it for just a few blocks this time, back to where I started

From What I did on my summer vacation

This is just the road near the hostel. There's a handy grocery store behind me (I'm facing towards the hostel, which is about 5 minutes up the road, and on the right, over one block)

From What I did on my summer vacation

And, back home!

From What I did on my summer vacation

It was a fun morning. I'm gonna hang out for a bit, then head out for lunch a little later. Man, getting up early really lengthens the day, doesn't it? It's only 9:30am and I actually have to wait to do things.

The Clock is Adjusted

Literally and figuratively. I woke up a bit confused as to what day it is, which led to a brief panic that I'd have to go into work today (panic because I didn't scout the route out yesterday and I have very little idea how to get there). Of course, I DID wake up at 5:45am, so I'd actually have plenty of time. My former and current roommies know I can be out of the house in under 30 minutes. But I'm pretty sure it's only Sunday, so I should be ok. But still, 5:45am?! It's probably just a fluke, most likely a result of having crashed so hard yesterday. I napped a bit...

I actually planned on wandering yesterday, but around 1:30 or 2:00, I just had no energy and decided to go to bed for a bit. 6 or so hours later, I'm up. I briefly thought about going out, but I really didn't want to be up all night, so I stayed in and looked at my Hong Kong travel book, watched a little TV while surfing the web, and eventually went to be pretty early. Which must explain the 5:45am wakeup. So I think it all worked out pretty well. I plan on being bright and chipper for my first day of work tomorrow!

One thing I noticed this morning is that I had bought "Milk Drink, made from whole milk", instead of just milk. What does that even mean?? I had it in my cereal, and it tasted ok, I guess, but still, I'm a bit curious. I'll make do, though. I'm such a trooper.

I am definitely going to head out early today. See if I can scout that route to work, then head over to the Central - Midlevel Escalator. Yeah, it's a long escalator 2,600 feet long. And I plan to ride it. And there's the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, actually right across the street from the hostel, which I should really check out. The pictures look great, but as I've shown with my own stunning pictures, a true artist (dare I say "photog"?) can make even the most mundane scene appear vibrant and exciting. Can Hong Kong's parks be more exciting than a picture of my coat and magazine? We'll see.

My Trip from Airport to Hostel (abbreviated version)

My day started bright (not really. It was cloudy and drizzly) and early (that part's true, at least for me), with a trip to Logan Airport. Here's my view as I sat in the lounge waiting to fly to NYC

From What I did on my summer vacation

Here's a fun view of the in-flight map. The astute reader (the rest of you will use Google maps) will note that the plane is only over Canada at this point. I took this pic simply to note that even at this early point in the trip, I was so frigging board. And the prospect of another 10 hours (not to mention Tokyo layover and subsequent flight to Hong Kong) was deadful. But I persevered!

Hoping to buoy my spirits, I checked the in-flight entertainment. To my horror, I found that the three (three!) comedies offered on this thirteen hour (THIRTEEN HOUR) flight were "Paul Blart, Mall Cop", "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "Bride Wars". Really, who the hell chose that lineup?! At least they had a couple of episodes of "The Office" and "30 Rock". Though, with each only running about 22 minutes, I still had a bit of time on my hands. I think I slept about 2 hours, total. And that's being genererous. About halfway through the flight, I pretty much decided that I was not going to be taking that return flight home. Sorry, it's just too darn long. I'll make it as far as Tokyo on the way back, but getting on the plane from there? Thank you, but I'd prefer not. But of course, they'll probably just kick me out of the country anyway, so I guess I'll end up back in Boston eventually. Dammit!

But moving on... Hong Kong's airport is actually located on the island of... Whoops. Just let me get up and get my guide book. Amuse yourself for a moment. Ok, I'm back. Sorry about the interruption. As I was saying, the airport is on Lantua Island, just west of Hong Kong Island. Take a look!

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The Airport Express MRT line brings you right into Central, Hong Kong. And from there, it was just a few minutes in a cab to get to my place. Of course, due to all of the one way streets, the cab ride in no way prepared me for walking around town. But I plan on going out later to explore, after updating this silly blog and taking a short nap (a power nap, if you will).

Here's a pic of me waiting for the train. Or should I say, here's a pic of me taking a pic of me waiting for the train

From What I did on my summer vacation

And here's the view behind the pic of me taking a pic of me. It's a pretty nice airport.

From What I did on my summer vacation

Inside view of the train. VERY neat and clean. Quiet and comfortable, as well. No douchebags playing their mp3's through their cell phone speakers (seriously, why the hell are there so many douches on the T doing that these days?!) And yes, that IS the top of my suitcase in the photo

From What I did on my summer vacation

I thought the following was pretty cool. They have an LED line that shows the train's progress to the next station. How modern!

From What I did on my summer vacation

Those were just a few of the sights along the way. On the way out of the airport, we passed a massive cargo port, with containers stacked far and wide. We drove through canyons of sleek and tall apartment buildings. We drove along an expressway which made me think of New Jersey. Hong Kong truly has it all.

My Home for the Next Month or so...

It's actually not too bad. Frankly, it's better than half the apartments in Cambridge. Clean, good closet space, a/c, fridge, tv. I'm living the high life here in Hong Kong.

Here's my room after you just walk in

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And here is is from the corner by the foot of the bed

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And here's what I picked up shopping earlier (yes, that's toilet paper in the back. BYOTP)

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The major view from my window

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And here's one to give you an idea of how deep that building is

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So I guess God lives in the penthouse of this one (always watching over and all that...)

From What I did on my summer vacation

And an artist's rendition of me (except for it looking nothing like me) just a few minutes ago. I'd be the one in front, if it was really me. And for the record, I still have all my hair

From What I did on my summer vacation

Those are just a few of the wonderful sights I've seen today. I didn't really take out my camera on the streets today because I'm still trying to figure out if I should be walking on the left or the right! As far as I can tell, it's kind like you just do what you want to do and everyone somehow manages to avoid each other.

I'm alive! And I Have All of My Original Organs!

Here I am, alive and well for my first full day in Hong Kong. Last night was quite an ordeal. I'm told that my total travel time was like 25 hours, which just goes to show how bad I am at math. Of course, I guess I can just blame the exhaustion.

I went down to the office this morning and politely asked about my room (am I ever anything other than polite?) and THEY apologized to ME! Actually, we were all apologizing to each other. I was sorry for coming in so late and not letting them know, and they were sorry about the guy downstairs not giving me a room. But the really funny thing is that they knew that I stayed at the hostel last night. How did they know? Let's just say that there was a minor kerfuffle, not really involving me, but which received some attention. I just kept my head down and pretended to be asleep. A bunch of people all talking in Chinese... I figured that was my best shot. And it worked! I was not dragged off to either the police station for questioning nor the kitchen for pot cleaning. I consider Night 1 a success.

I'm gonna go head out and wander the city for a while. Have to buy some supplies, and I also want to get a feel for what roads are walkable. It's pretty hilly here, and not all roads have sidewalks. And they drive on the wrong side of the road! Come on!

I am now in Hong Kong (and all my web pages are loading in Chinese)

(yeah, everything's coming up in Chinese. Stupid IP address).

Finally made it! I can't really tell how many hours of travel it was, but I left yesterday morning at 8:20 and arrived in town (including crossing the international date line and time changes) around 10pm. I don't know... 20 hours? I had about a 1.5 hour layover in NY, and then a 4 hour layover in Tokyo (plus we seemed to sit at the gate for a while), so it looks like 1 hour (Bos to NY) + 13 hours (NY to Tokyo) and 3.5 hours (Tokyo to Hong Kong) + 5.5 hours of layovers = 22 hours? 23? I am so tired now I can't even add.

So anyway, the Hong Kong airport if very nice. People are very friendly. But I've gotta say that no one matches Tokyo for consistency of niceness (again, I'm almost too tired to think). They even let me bring my canteen even though there was, as I said to the guard, "I don't know, just a little bit left". She simply smiled and said "that's ok". And they didn't even mention my alarm clock in my carryon bag. That item got the guards at Boston to swap my carryons and admonish me to put the clock in the checked bag next time (actually my idea, but he agreed). Oh Japan, you're people are so accomodating. I look forward to popping in again July 4th.

Of course the real fun starts when the taxi takes me to the "hostel" that I'm renting a room from. I supposedly made a reservation for a single room, but when I got here today, the guy at the front desk (who spoke no English, and didn't even recognize my pronounciation of his establishment. I take blame for that one) had no idea how to help me. Luckily, a very nice young man was walking by and offered to help. We'll call him Li (Lee?), since that's the name he gave. He talked with the desk guy for a bit and it turns out that I'm supposed to talk to the people in room 717, to get my key. The thing is, the people who work in that room leave at 5.

As you probably noticed when I started this post, the time was significantly after 5. Now, the guy at the desk had no problem with me simply "com[ing] back tomorrow at 9" (note: notice the lawyerly use of the []'s to slightly modify The verb? Yeah, I write legal papers), but that kind of didn't really work for me. And then my white knight Li steps up and says "hey, we have a spare bed in our room, so you can crash with us tonight" (that sounded much less gay in my head before I typed it). At least, that's the phrasing he would have used back home. In real life, he was much more formal, though no less generous. What an offer! Super nice guy; PhD student at Hong Kong University in physics, pretty good English, friendly and talkative. His roommate is currently playing WoW (look it up) with his buddy and I'm lying in a very 70's-ish bed above a desk. It's like I'm an undergrad!

So that's where things stand now. I can only hope that I wake up in one piece tomorrow. I'm pretty confident that I will, but if this is the last post, you'll know why.

Even though getting here was pretty painful (that 4 hour flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong really hurt. Literally. I was so tired and sick of traveling at that point), and I didn't have a room, it's looking pretty good. Li seems like a good guy (so long as I wake up in one piece tomorrow morning), hopefully they'll still have a private room for me so I don't have to go undergrad style for a month, and I get to explore a wonderful city.

And now... I pass out.

And the Visa Has Arrived!

Delivered today. Very exciting.

I was told that I would have to sign for it myself, but that turned out not to be the case. In fact, it was actually delivered to the company upstairs, and I'm pretty sure there isn't a Kevin Donahue working up there, though here in the Boston area, who knows... Anyway, they were kind enough to bring it down and it found its way to my hand.

One step closer to getting the hell outta here...

New Camera for the Trip

I know nothing about photography, and can't really take a decent picture to save my life. But since I really want to document this summer, I decided to buy a new digital camera which would fit in my pocket. After reading some reviews and trying a few models, I decided on a Nikon Coolpix S230.

On the advice of some friends, I've decided to try and bring this camera with me whenver I go out and just shoot everything I see. Hopefully this will get me comfortable with taking pics, as welll as maybe, just maybe, becoming a not-too-horrible picture taker (I'll never be called a photographer).

So here are a few things that I've seen the last couple of days. I know it's amateur, but the photos are pretty large (1536x2048). Can someone tell me a good size to resize these things too??


Looking up the street near my house. I kind of like how the blue bins and yellow VW show up nicely. I wish I meant that...



This one is ok. Some flowers near the Galleria, down the road.


Here, I wanted to see if I could get the droplets on the petals. Yes. Yes I could.


"Why yes, I am reading ABA Journal". My stuff strewn on a bench.



Based on my limited experience with it, I think I like the new camera. Hope I can get myself to use it more often.