A fall from naivete

Before launch, a bad feeling was brewing in my mind. Conditions were marginal at best: I had watched 2 pilots more experienced than me plummet into the forest on launch due to weak wind, drizzle was beginning to moisten the ground around me, and my buddy Mik and I played rock-paper-scissors for launch--and LOSER launched first.

Nevertheless, I strapped into my harness and readied my risers as 3 men held my chute off the ground behind me. It would be a front-launch-- I would simply run forward with all my might as the glider swung off the ground behind me and above my head. "3, 2, 1," I shouted, and then sprinted forward as hard I could. I could feel the tug of the glider's wind resistance in the straps as they rubbed along my forarms. The ground became steeper and steeper; first 5 degrees, then 15, then abruptly 45 degrees of harrowing steepness. "At this point, there's no bailing out," I told myself as I was seemingly hurtling towards a wall of trees, rocks, and bushes below. Then, like magic, the chute caught wind and lifted me off the moist grass. My legs swung and scraped the top of the bushes as the ground dropped away from me. I was off!

My anxiety quickly turned to exhilaration as the cool wind whipped my hair back and the lush green mountainous terrain spread out below me until its undulating mass poured down into the South Sea far below. This moment after launch is for pilots like jumping out of bed on Christmas morning is for 8-year-olds. The sky is yours; the clouds, mountain ridges, and the shimmering reflections of light against faraway rivers are your playground to explore and reign over.

I bore right to skirt the side of the ridge. I felt the levitating effects of the updraft of wind as it passed over the ridge. This ridge-lift supported me as I made for the saddle which would allow me access to a lower ridgeline which would carry me to my riverside landing zone. To my surprise, I received enough lift to blast over the taller area of the mountain and proceeded directly along the side of my target ridge, waiting for the chance to get completely on top of it.

Watching the myriad pine trees and exposed rock faces go by below and beside me--sometimes at merely 15-20 meters--is an experience which I think will never grow old. Given that I had flown this same ridge earlier in the day, I allowed myself to grow quite comfortable as I gazed over the forest below me and the farm basin far below to my left. The graceful, curving roofs of the old Korean homes were barely more than dots as they peeked out from the woods in the foothills. The jagged mountaintops of Jirisan, the tallest mountain range in the mainland of South Korea, stretched north to south on the opposite side of the basin and rose far above my flight altitude.

My state of tranquility became interrupted as I rounded a bend just before the location where I planned to cruise directly on top of my ridge. A fog bank, quick-moving and ghostly white, enveloped me in its damp fingers. My canopy became drenched and heavy as the wind which had lifted me over a dozen ridgelines dropped away. I began to sink at half again my previous rate.

My mind raced through the possibilities. I could not now gain enough altitude to mount the ridge as I previously planned. Skirting closer to the ridge to try to gain more ridgelift seemed unwise as that would reduce my ability, if the lift was not powerful, to get over the lateral sub-ridges which branched out perpendicularly to my flight trajectory. I could continue forward and try to make it to the river and my white, sandy LZ or I could bail out to the left, try to clear the spiky forest, and land in the farm basin. I decided, in retrospect poorly, that I would try to make the LZ. The trees passed closer and closer below me with each new ridge I crossed. A palpable fear clutched me as I realized I was sinking even faster and that I would not be able to reach the river. As I watched a pine tree cross 5 meters below me, I knew that if I did not bank towards the farmlands, I would never be able to make it out of the forest. A sense of panic electrified my blood as I leaned into a looping left bank. I could feel my pulse pounding in my fingers as they clutched my brake handles. An attempt to raise my team members by radio and inform them of my dire situation yielded nothing but static, likely due to the inclement weather, complex terrain, and long flight distance on this particular launch.

I was all alone. Before me, there was moutainous pine forest sloping down to a village in the foothills. Beyond that, the relative safety of the flat farms. I bore straight, my path placing me on a beeline over the town to safety--if I could make it.

My heart sank when I realized I would not.I was sinking hard, now at 50 meters above the town. I knew I had to find a landing zone in the village. My eyes scanned over narrow roads, a pear orchard, and finally, a parking lot. That would be my best bet. But as I prepared to judge the course necessary to facilitate such a landing, I caught glimpse of a pilot's bane, directly in my path: telephone wires. They excluded all possibility of a parking lot landing. Panic was overpowering now as I switched into basic survival mode. I swung left at 20 meters, trying to set up a course for a narrow road between the farmhouses. Swiftly I descended towards a parked SUV. As I bore in on the shiny black body, A powerful feeling coursed through me in an instint: I may die, right now. My instincts took over and I yanked my right brake as I swung my left leg over my right in a desperately sharp bank to avoid the car. I felt the harness tight against me from the force of the turn as my legs swung by 1 meter from the vehicle. I was now parallel to the road, but baring downhill and with way too much speed. The rough fabric of the brake levers pressed into my palms as I tugged them down as far as they would go; a full landing brake. It wasn't enough to stabilize my flight; I was swinging in from an as-yet unfinished right turn.

I smashed into the roadway on my right side, skidding along the roadway and bursting into a farm cart. The cart owner screamed in shock as fruits and vegetables flew through the air. My harness swung around so that I was facing back at my chute as it caught in a pear tree beside the road. I was nestled into the wreckage of the farm cart, on my back in my harness, when I came to a rest. The shrieks of the elderly farmer, the most terrifying I think I've ever heard, continued to wail on as a sense of relief washed over me like a smooth wave of cold water: I was alive. My helmeted head rose up when I glanced over at the cart owner. Her face, adorned with wire-rimmed glasses, was heavily tanned and weathered from decades of hard work in the fields. "Mian-hamnida," I weakly uttered, "I'm sorry," and let my head roll back down to rest against my harness.

As I lay there, mentally checking my body for damage, villagers ran up from all directions. I looked at my right hand--it was badly scraped from my slide across the road. I also felt a burning rash on the left side of my back and a deep soreness around my left hip. But nothing seemed life-threatening. The villagers were talking wildly amongst themselves as they came to help me out of my equipment. I could hear the woman telling her story of the events to the others as they sat her down on a nearby bench. She held her hand over her heart and breathed deeply when she wasn't speaking. Oddly, I felt more worried about her than about myself. I told the bystanders that I was unharmed, stood up on my own, and walked over to assure that the woman was okay. When I apoligized to her she didn't seem to hear. On my second attempt she looked up at me and held my hands in hers. "I'm sorry, too," she said.

A middle-aged man appeared and greeted me in English. He told me that something like this had never happened in their village before, and that I was a very lucky man. He helped me disentangle my chute from the pear tree, radioed in my location once we were able to raise some help, and bid me farewell. I turned back to the old woman and related my harrowing story to her. Her eyes softened upon hearing the fear and panic in my voice as I recounted my desperate maneuvers, and she thanked me for telling her how I came to fall from the sky onto her farm cart. Our conversation was rudely interrupted as Another paraglider pilot came into view above us, obviously coming in for a crash landing. It was my club member Yang Dong Hwa, who launched after I did. She had more altitude than me, and was able to make it to the safety of the farmlands that I couldn't reach--barely.

Seeing this pilot made me realize that I had a responsibility to help the others who may be flying into danger. I quickly radioed to my friend Mik, who I knew was going to launch not long after I did. When I heard the loud whistle of the wind through the radio as his reply came, I knew it was too late to prevent his launch. I warned him about the sinkhole in the sky, which he later told me was a great help to him. He was unable to reach the landing zone either, but his early warning allowed him to make a more prepared crash-landing in the pine forest. It took him 45 minutes to cut himself out of the tree and hike to the village. But he was unharmed.

After exchanging information with the old farm lady, who just so happened to be nice enough to give me a cup of juice and a strange fruit while I was waiting for a vehicle pickup, the female pilot who had crashed appeared on the road and approached us. We discussed the bizarre weather conditions which had caused our crash-landings and enlisted the help the villagers to patch up my bleeding hand. Being incredibly kind, they helped wash, sanitize, and bandage it, and we hopped into a car to search for Mik, who had just radioed in that he had crashed as well. After a strange drive which included hurtling off-road through a dark orchard in his sedan and backing up hard into a tree, we were informed that Mik was found. The nice villager drove us to the LZ and we were reunited with the rest of the club. The drizzle had turned to rain, and we huddled under a gazebo while we waited for our last vehicle to arrive.

I discussed with Mik about the terrifying chain of events. We came to two conclusions. The first was that after launching, there wasn't anything we could have done to prevent a crash-landing. The conditions had rapidly deteriorated and were impossible to predict mid-flight. The second conclusion we made was that under conditions where we have any doubt about the safety of launching, we should use judgement and simply not launch. The Korean pilots seem to regard safety with a lot less concern that we are used to, and we should not allow ourselves to be peer-pressured into making a dangerous launch which could cost us our lives.

Moving forward, I have decided that I will continue to fly, and I'll continue to mountain bike, and all of the other dangerous things I do, but I'll do it with a lot more caution. As Mik says, if my thoughts begin with "I don't know, but..." when assessing a dangerous launch condition or technical downhill mountain bike section, it's a signal to end the debate and simply walk away. The exhilaration and ego-boost of an hour of fun pale in comparison to the magnitude of despair that such risky behaviors could impart on us and those who love us. That is why I took the time to painstakingly type this post despite the throbbing pain in my scraped right hand, reminding me of past mistakes. The moments when I knew I could not reach the farm and when I believed I would hit the SUV were amongst the most intensely terrifying in my entire life. I actually believed I would die. I'm tearfully grateful that not only did I live, but I escaped without serious injury.

This event, I'm sure, will save my life by forcing me to recognize the inherent risk involved in the activities I love. I truly grew older as a direct result of this event, and I'll always remember the day I fell not only from the sky, but also from a blinding naivete. Please take my words into consideration whenever you plan to undertake an action that could have repercussions you are incapable of predicting or of coping with. Thank you.

Thing's have been awesome since I've been back. The weather here is still muggy, but a far-cry from the swamp of misery it is in June-July. However, at least 2 cold showers a day are required for me to not feel terrible.

We've discovered some great restaurants in Daejon recently. One is Cantina-a Mexican restaurant/bar that serves delicious, blended margaritas, real mexican food, and has a great atmosphere. The food was good for 4 basic reasons:

1. All the meats were tender, rich, and oily, just how Mexican food is supposed to be.

2. They have hard shell tacos!

3. A free basket of chips and salsa comes with your meal, just like back home.

4. You get large portions for a great price. 4 tacos was $9! That's cheaper than most places back home when you consider you don;t have to pay tax and tip.

Another great place is Cafe Brunch. Guess what they specialize in? You got it: Dinner. Just kidding. Boy, did this place have awesome pancakes. They have a cinnamon crusted pancake platter that was probably in the top 3 pancakes I've ever had. The salad, sausage, and eggs royale (salmon Benedict) were great. That's definitely my new breakfast/brunch spot in town.

Finally, some of the best chicken I've ever had is found in Gung-dong at Oppa Dalk. The garlic chicken there is out of this world. Large quantities of meat on the bones, unlike the boney crap you get at another Korean chicken places; delicious hunks of garlic and a sweet and savory sauce coat slightly crispy-skinned hunks of carnivore's catnip (tender meat). I could eat at that place every few days. Waitresses are hot, too.

Also, the fountains that the government took all summer to build along the local riverside park have finally been activated!!! Holy crap they are awesome. There are two fountains in different locations, but their design is essentially the same. There brickwork on the ground near the fountains gently curves downward until it is submerged by the pool of water surrounding the fountains themselves, which are build into the side of a wall. One section of the wall has warious holes spouting water outward, arcing into the pool below, while the top lip of the wall (which is actually at street level above the river park) has water cascading down in sheets. Recessed in the lip at the top are colorful LED lights which run the length of the wall. The effect is that the whole sheet of water takes on the color of the LEDs. The flow of the water, the irregularities in the surface of the water sheet, and the shifting of the LED colors make for a magnificent display of dynamic lighting.

The other section of the wall has orthogonal steps protuding from it, progressively smaller as they get higher, such that is gives the impression of a step pyrmaid or ziggurat protruding from the wall. Water cascades down each of these steps, and all of the lips have their own sets of recessed LEDs too!! Totally amazing fountain.

Mik and I decided it'd be a great idea to go wading into the water and stand under the cascading water sheets. Great idea!! It was so refreshing in this hot weather, and to be able to physically play within the beautiful colored water gave a new persepective of the fountain. The interactive experience of being up close and touching the water makes this the coolest fountain I've ever seen. Even better than the Xian Fountains of China! I'm actually gonna head over to the fountains in a minute or two here ^^

I love discovering all of these fantastic new details of Daejon. I truly enjoy living here, and I'm looking forward to unlocking more of it's wonderful experiences. Seeya!

Flower Power

I love spring.

Today I drove to and from work with the windows down and mountain biked and paraglided in a T-shirt and shorts. I never realized how important weather is to quality of life until I came here to Korea, with it's long, frozen winters and muggy, oppressive summers.

I hit up my local loop at Dolsol Mountain today on my bike. I'm getting more and more in tune with the technical downhill sections there, but I'm still having trouble on a couple of the tough climbs. I feel like I'm almost back to full strength since that stomach virus took me out for a week.

Today at para training we practiced short flights by the Gap Creek using a tow rope. It was a lot funner than it sounds, and I'm starting to see vast improvements in my groundhandling skills.

Even though I always complain that the weather is the worst part of living in Korea, it does have it's benefits. The whole day, I was stunned by the colors of spring. White cherry blossoms lined the river paths and dotted the mountain sides. Yellow Kaynari wreathed the trails during my long climbs, white magnolia and blooming throughout the city, and pink azaleas are scattered throughout the forest. A welcome relief from the brown monotony of Korean winter.

Shenzhen

I went to Shenzhen for the first time the other night. The picture at left is the Shenzhen River, which separates HK from SZ.

Thought it was a pretty sweet place to visit. It only takes about an hour to get into the city, and passing through customs is easy. Shenzhen is full of very new modern development due to the international capital investment that has been flowing into the pearl river delta in the past 25 years. Large freeways crisscross across town, with bow-tie junctions that have palm tree and scrub landscaping that is eerily similar to that in Los Angeles.

I traveled there on a whim with my friend Xu Zui, who knows the city well. We first went to an awesome pan-Chinese restaurant and got about 8 dishes of food from different regions of China. Pig femur marrow is surprisingly tasty, but chicken stomach is too tough and chewy for me! Most of the dishes were extremely tasty. Afterwards, we went to a giant spa. Ultimate treatment for about 5 hours for only USD 12! Holy crap! We went into an awesome jet pool, sauna, showered, and sat in couches and were fed fruits, ice cream, and other snacks. Then we went for 1.5 hours of awesome massage, where the masseuses even hung form ceiling bars and walked on our backs! Afterwards, we enjoyed some more food and drink, watched part of a movie at the in-spa theatre, and took off to go to a club called Le Nest.




Le Nest seemed to be a pretty hip club. The decor was very luxurious, and the main dance room was filled with people. Zui ordered me my first Lamborghini, an awesome chocolaty drink that is prepared by stacking cocktail glasses in a pyramid, pouring alcohol over the top, and lighting the cascading liquid on fire. A second bartender then throws some unknown material at the fire to create showers of sparks. It was extremely awesome.

After getting hit on by some prostitutes and playing some Liar's dice , we decided we needed to get back to Hong Kong; it was about 330am. We went back to the border and got through customs, but we wanted take a pee before boarding our bus, which was waiting there. But when we came back out of the bathroom, the bus was driving away! Crap! The attendants told us the next bus would be coming in an hour! However, all was not lost; Zui knew that the bus would have to cross the "no-man's land" between the China and Hong Kong borders, then wait for the passengers to go though HK's customs. If we grabbed a cheap bus that drives us to the HK border, we may be able to catch up and re-board our bus! We barely made it onto the bus at the HK border, thank god! We headed home and made it back to Simon Lee Hall by 5am.

Shek O Shenanigans

Yesterday some of the international students hosted an awesome beach party at Shek O Beach. It was an all-day affair, but because it was quite foggy, I waited until the early evening to head over. The party was at the far end of the beach, at a raised deck area near the bottom of a rocky mountain. They had done a great job of preparing. The rock faces were filled with glittering tea candles, colorful neon lights were hung above the deck, and all the BBQ pits were fired up. The DJs were spinning ultra awesome techno/electronica, and there were tons of drinks. I tried a shot of absinthe for the first time. I thought it was interesting how the shot was prepared. Some absinthe and a sugar cube is placed on a spoon and set on fire. Absinthe is poured over the spoon and down into the cup below. Eventually, all the sugar and liquid is burning inside the cup. You blow the fire out and drink the concoction hot. I can't say it was tasty; it was really sharp and potent but had a sort of pine-needle aftertaste.

Groups of people kept running into the ocean and swimming around. After a few drinks, I went for a swim as well. The cold water was quite refreshing; it was about 23 degrees out, so pretty nice swimming weather. Overall it was a great night, although I lost my famous Bank Giro Loterij hat! Damn!

Bang Cock in Bangkok, Schlong in Hong Kong

Hey I'm finally back to the keyboard, writing another post. This is about my recent journey to Thailand, which I thought was a wonderful experience in many ways. It was the first recreational trip I have taken to another country of any considerable duration. I learned about what I like and dislike as a traveler. I learned about the contrasts between a place which is designed for its residents (Bangkok, Prachuap) and a place that is designed for tourists (Railay Beach). And best of all, I learned about Thai people and their culture.

We flew from Macau to Bangkok at 2pm on Friday, February 27. Flying from Macau saves a few bucks, but I really don;t think it's worth it due to the hassle involved. I had to take a hydrofoil from Sheung Wan, HK to the Macau ferry, then a bus and taxi to get to the airport. Shit. I was also exhausted from a wicked awesome tram party from the night before.




On arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport, I parted ways with the crew I was with from Hong Kong and met up with good old Daan Stevenson. I got some money from the ATM and promptly left my card in the machine. Luckily a security guard tracked me down and returned it to me. This is a good example of behavior form what Bryan Moses would call "Common Sense Boy."

We took a bus to our hostel, which was located along Sukhumvit Road, a main thoroughfare of Bangkok. The traffic was so horrendous that the trip took about 2 hours. Shit. When the bus stopped and the driver disappeared into some building (WTF), Daan and I decided to walk the remaining few blocks to our place. Along the way, we got our first taste of Thai street food: Fried Bananas, Chicken Satay, and sticky rice. Amazingly good and about 1 USD per person. If Thailand could be summed up in four words they would be "cheap and delicious food."

We soon turned the corner onto Sukhumvit Soi 38. In the Thai address system, sidestreets are identified as a numbered "Soi" of a main thoroughfare. This sidestreet was awesome. It was packed with some of the cheapest and most awesome streetfood around. Pad Thai, sticky rice with mango, Thai omelets, satay, fruit smoothies, banana rotee pancakes, you name it. One of our favorites was a Pakistani dude who whipped up some amazing banana/chocolate/condensed milk/egg pancakes for USD .60 a pop. w00t!




















After checking into our dorm room and taking showers, we headed out for some of that awesome food and for a massage. We got a really awesome massage a couple blocks down for about 10 USD. Later in the evening we decided to go to a bar nearby that another traveler recommended. We took the skytrain one stop towards downtown. The skytrain is a relatively recently built elevated rail system that works quite well. When we arrived at the "bar" district, however, all we found were brothels with scantily clad women out front shouting at us in drawn out, nasally voices: "Sawadee kaaaaaa! Massaaaaaage?" We decided to hail one of Bangkok's famous Tuk Tuk taxis. We told the driver to bring us to Patpong, which is a famous go-go bar district. Although we weren't interested in patronizing these prostitutes, we thought it would be an interesting experience to see this world-famous district and its notorious sex bars. The Tuk Tuk driver was extremely annoying. Every time we stopped at a light or crossing, he would turn around and repeatedly shout, "Drinking! Girls! Go-go bar! I know! I know! I know!" However, once we turned our attention away from him and towards the city around us, the ride became quite interesting. It's a rush to zoom in and around traffic at high speeds in an open-air tuk tuk while the driver performs questionable and dangerous manoeuvres.

It's also a nice way to see the city. Anyways, this driver was definitely trying to cheat us. He brought us to some sketchy back alley area where many other tuk tuk drivers were sitting around smoking cigarettes and leaning on their rides. There was one dark and seedy club in the alley that obviously was commissioning these guys to bring in hapless tourists. We were not amused, and told the guy we weren't getting out or paying his ass until he brought us to Patpong. Eventually he reluctantly agreed and drove us to the real district, albeit with less jovial chatter on his part (hahaha).

Patpong was basically a couple blocks full of bars. Contrary to popular belief, they were not all go-go bars, but more than half were. There is also a night bazaar selling various goods in the center of the main Patpong street. We walked up and down the block, being approached innumerable times but grizzled men holding a sign and saying "Ping-pong show?" repeatedly. A "Ping-pong show" is actually a freak show where women pop many crazy things out of their vaginas such as ping-pong balls, fish, and razarblades. Knowing this, we politely declined.

Eventually, we decided to have a drink at one of the go-go bars. We slowly nursed a Singha each and observed our surroundings. Several bored-looking girls danced lifelessly in their underwear on the stage while dozens of men looked on from the sidelines. If a man chose a dancer to talk with, he would buy a drink for her and they would sit together. We saw a hugely fat old man with a super-hot babe. He was holding her ass with his giant meaty hands. It was gross. After holding my empty beer bottle for a while, I could tell the staff wanted us to buy another, so we just got out of there. After that, we walked around the marketplaces, haggling for this and that with the vendors. I bought some fake Birkenstock sandals for about 7 USD. Sweet!

The next morning, we got up early for temple-tromping. After having some complimentary tea and toast at our hostel, we set out on the skytrain. It was a beautiful, yet hot, day. After a really crowded ride on the train, we walked to a canal to catch a boat. The boat ride was awesome! These large boats have a roof, and as they pass underneath any of the numerous low bridges on the canal, the driver uses a lever to lower the roof so that we can just barely pass under! Sweet.

After alighting from the boat, we headed down the street to our first temple, Wat Rajanadda. This temple is one of Bangkok's "unappreciated temples, and few visitors were around. It was also quite beautiful, with a large garden and huge, ornate black spires along the roof. The views of Bangkok from the tower were impressive as well. A quirky thing about this temple and about Thailand in general was that it was filled with cats and dogs that were just chilling out. Sometimes you would see an ornate statue of Buddha and then at his feet are a bunch of animals sleeping. Super weird.

Next we headed a few blocks down to the Golden Mount. The spiralling climb was tedious in the hot Bangkok sun, but the views of the city form the top were impressive. There are also several large gold Buddhas in this compound. The views from this position really make apparent the sharp contrast between the compact, linear urban form of Hong Kong and the sprawling, radial nature of Bangkok development.

Next we tried to hail a taxi. The funny thing about this city is that the majority of the taxis are hot pink sedans. They look like they belong in a Barbie Girl playset! We took the taxi to Wat Pho, which contains the largest reclining Buddha in the world. His feet are also inlaid with an intricate pattern of mother-of-pearl designs. Sweet! The stupas and other temple structures here are extremely elaborate with colorful clay flowers covering each surface.

After bargaining for and purchasing the finest pair of sunglasses in the world (which later would be broken on my fall from a mountain) we boarded a boat for Wat Arun, a phallic-looking, impressive set of towers on the far side of the river. We experienced our first (and most blatant) case of getting screwed over while riding the boat back across the river. First, we were told that a boat ride a few kilometers downriver would cost us several hundred baht. I laughed at this lady and later got a ticket for 30 baht. We had checked with the boat operator to make sure it would take us where we wanted to go. Everything seemed quite alright until the boat flipped a bitch after about 2 minutes and started taking us in the wrong direction. After another cross-river boat ride, we eventually got on a legitimate boat and cruised on a pleasant journey to the port near Humphalong Train Station, where we needed to buy some tickets for our journey south the following morning. The funny thing about the train station here (and in other places in Asia) is that there is very limited seating, so everyone just camps out on the floor. It's like a giant slumber party! Too bad they weren't baking any snickerdoodles!

After eating some tasty street food back on Sukhumvit Road, we headed to Lumphini Stadium to see some Muay Thai boxing. However, we noticed the prices had gone up significantly from those listed in our guidebooks. It was now 1500 baht to sit in the crappy seats and 2000 for front-row. This was extreme bullshit. A sign posted in Thai gave the "locals" price of 200 baht. After arguing for a while we decided it wasnt worth it; the nice kid who they had dealing with us showed us 5 minutes of a match and it was between a couple of 14 year-olds!

We returned to the hostel and had a few drinks with some of the other travelers staying there. Then we decided to head out to Khao San Road, known as a traveler's mainstay and as a nightlife hotspot. This street is filled with interesting people, both travelers and locals alike. For example, a tiny young girl was walking around selling roses. However, she kept approaching people and challenging them to thumb wars. She challenged me to an 100 baht match (USD 3). I kept insisting that I didn't want to play for money, but she was really adamant, so eventually I grudgingly accepted. It turns out she's a hustler, and easily defeated me! Daan also played her later in the night, and claims that her techniques are questionable. However, I heard from some of our local friends that she racks up tens of thousands of baht per night! Holy crap!

Anyway, we went dancing in an awesome underground club. They served a lot of "bucket drinks" here. These are plastic buckets (like those used to make sandcastles) filled with the alcohol of your choice. Our Indian stock broker friend kept buying bucket drinks for all of us, which was a really sweet deal. Near closing time at this club, we started talking to a few local Bangkok people, who convinced us to join them in a cab to "Narcissus," a club that stays open till morning. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go out all night because I was drop-dead tired, but I'm really glad I decided to go. We rolled up to the club and it was like a dream world: Attendants in suits opening doors for you, incredible statuary and fountains. Me and Daan were worried because we were wearing shorts and sandals, but our friend Natsha said "Don't worry, you are farang (foreigners). You'll be fine."

Inside the club was even more impressive. The club was enormous: 4 levels, 4 bars, incredible decor, all in one gigantic room. The centerpiece of the club was a disco ball that I swear was about 5 meters in diameter. On top of that, many people (employees?) were standing around with powerful green hand-held lasers, shooting at the disco ball, causing a crazy propagation effect as the lasers reflected in all sorts of directions. Anyways, we danced here and had a ball until around 6 in the morning, before we had to catch a cab home to prepare for our 8am train ride to Prachuap Khiri Kahn!

Thus ends the first portion of my exciting Thailand adventure! Stay tuned for next weeks installment: "The Perils of Prachuap!"

Settling In

I've finally decided to post again. Sorry, as it turns out I'm not a very punctual blogger. Who would have thought?

So my campus is at the border between the dense city and the lushly forested mountains of Hong Kong Island. I'm starting to take full advantage of that. The trail running, accessible from campus, is amazing. Sweeping harbor views and technical trails which cross over streams and wind up and down over hills. I'm definitely planning to make trail running a near-everyday experience.

So far, I have not been blown away by the city's transportation system. It serves the city well enough, with an array of very frequent buses, minibuses, taxis, and trains. The traffic on the streets can be thick at times, but it consists mostly of the aforementioned vehicles rather than private cars. Another interesting thing is that a huge percentage of the private cars on the road are luxury cars. There are a few reasons for this. One is that HK taxes the hell out of vehicle purchases. Another reason is that HK is a very small area, so longer trips (ideal for cars) are basically ix-nayed. Furthermore, it is difficult to acquire the right to travel beyond the border to China, therefore restricting your use to tiny Hong Kong. Therefore, it is seriously an inessential luxury to own a car here.

The headway for most buses is shorter than back home, which is good. However, the time it takes to travel to, say, Central (downtown) from HKU is roughly equivalent to the same trip at a brisk walking pace. I think I will start walking more than taking the pub. trans. It is very unusual for people to walk more than a few blocks here, which is different from back home, so when I tell people that I wlaked to Central (approx. 2km) they freak out. So strange...

I do enjoy taking the train here more than BART. The Octopus card system works well. It's prepaid card containing a contactless chip so you can pass it over a sensor when you want to use the train, buses, or even buy groceries at the store (sweet!). Anyway, the headway on the trains is ridiculously narrow, the speed is high, and the coverage is fantastic. The only bummer is that they are in the process of building a station at campus, so I always have to take a bus downtown to catch the MTR (subway). The campus station should be done around 2011. I heard that it would have been done a long time ago but the HK gov sidelined the project in order to build a special "Disneyland" line. Crap!

Another awesome thing about transport here is that it's cheap. They let you jam 5 passengers into the taxi (lol!), so that's 4 in the back. You can zoom downtown for about 25 HKD, so 5 HKD per person, which is less than a buck US! The buses and trains are also cheap. However, they don't serve all areas well. In order to go hiking the other day on the eastern side of the island, Me and some buddies had to take a bus, a train, and a taxi. That sucked big-time considering the trailhead was only about 10 km away.

I feel like bicycling as a commuting mode should be recognized more in this city. You rarely see a biker on the streets, and vehicles cut them off brutally. They are treated like dirt. However, with everything in the city so close together, biking seems like it could be a viable option here. People claim that the steep slopes of HK Island make biking impossible, but the city is oriented in an east-west strip on the north side of the island, skirting the mountains. Therefore, you can travel east or west along the bulk of the city without having to gain and lose much altitude. It's too bad that biking as a utilitarian mode is virtually ignored here.

The domitories here are like frats without the alcohol and dirtiness. The hall, as well as each individual floor, has its own reputation, symbol, mascot, and sports teams. The floor "brothers" are highly attached to each other, like a family. They are extremely loud and are constantly cussing at each other in Cantonese. From what I can tell, half of what they say to each other is profanity. Occasionally, they have an extreme hazing session when a brother gets a girlfriend. I wont get into any details, but its worse than anything I've seen in the states. They also rarely study: the GPAs from last semester were revealed last week, and I think our floor got an average GPA of around 2.4.

As far as the exchange students, we are not exactly part of the brotherhood, but we're not actively excluded either. The hall is pretty nice, with a well equipped kitchen, a plush common room, and new furniture in every room. There are nice harbor views from the commong room.

A friendly guy from mainland China who lives down the hall from me and calls himself "Beef" taught me how to play Chinese Chess. It's pretty interesting, and as I've increased in skill, so my social standing among other hall members has increased. The game is similar to Western Chess, but with pieces that move in slightly different ways.

I competed in the inter-floor athletic competition. It was a huge event and almost everyone in the whole building was out at the Stanley Ho Sports Complex, which is a seaside affair with a track, ball fields, grandstands, pools, etc. In the preliminary trials, I scored fastest in our floor for the 100m, so that was my main event. However, being a bit new to sprinting and also a bit out of shape, my legs were still sore on the day of and I finished 6th overall in the hall. I also did javelin throw and finished 3rd or 4th. However, our floor totally cleaned up shop and took home the "best floor" trophy for the second year in a row.

I've also joined the hall tennis team. Interhall matches will begin next month, but our team is not favored to do well. Apparently, the other teams in our bracket have multiple HKU tennis team members on the squad. Bummer.

The clubbing is a big deal amongst international students and ex-pats here. Lan Kwai Fong, or LKF, is a downtown club district where the bars stay open till 4 or 5 in the morning. If you head out to LFK, you are bound to have a really long night and the following day is basically thrown away. I've been there 2 or 3 times, but I'm going to try to keep it infrequent, because that's not really what I came here for.

In general, I'm happy about the following things:

I don't think school will be too stressful.
The hiking here is off the hook.
Most, if not all, of the conveniences of home exist here, for a price.
Shopping is quite good and reasonable too, especially in Mongkok.
HK is a good base for travel throughout Asia: I have trips to Shanghai and Thailand booked already.


And I'm disappointed in the following:

It is often difficult and inconvenient to travel to many places around HK.
There isn't a lot of interest in mountain biking and hiking amongst students.
My lack of fluency in Cantonese makes making local friends difficult.


Thanks for listening, folks! I'll try to be more frequent in the future.

-Mike