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

Le Voyage de Michael

Hello Friends,

My first blog post. On the recommendation of Cam, I've started this journal to chronicle my experience as I live and travel in Asia. By visiting this site, you will be privy to some of the most action-packed, hair-raising, and possibly bone-chilling stories of our modern age. Expect to hear of hand-to-hand battles with mutant gorillas in the jungles near Siem Reap, marathon swims across the South China Sea, and strange sexual encounters with 12 year old boy prostitutes in the redlight districts of Bangkok. I hope that you all will enjoy the stories of my travels and support me with your comments and feedback as you wish. I'm sure I will miss my friends, my family, and the comforts of home, but through means of communication such as this blog, I hope to maintain contact with those who have shared with me the past that I love. Join me on my journey as I embalm and cherish the new memories I create on the other side of our planet.

Mike