During this lame-o week, I have been watching a lot of baseball and reading a lot of tutorials. I’m excited to make my own layout soon, but dang, I need to reformat my laptop. I bought new RAM (up to 2GB now!) but it hasn’t worked out much. My twitter buddies told me that I have just too much stuff for the RAM to work. So…

QUESTION: Can you use any sort of Windows XP recovery CD as long as you have the geniune code underneath the laptop?

I guess I’ll delete all my Sims 2 stuff (or at least save the game files). I probably have 20GB of stuff from that game and I only have 1GB left on my HD.

I’m tempted to nudge mother to make more or buy more new food! Or just take a picture of all the food I eat. That’ll do some good.

Hopefully the weather cooperates this weekend (or at least Sunday) both Rio Tinto Alcan Dragonboat Festival and Krinos Foods Greek Day! I’m looking forward to heading out there and taking some pictures with my camera. And everyone knows that I need to get out of the house. Not looking forward to practice driving again. That’s probably the only downside to Vancouver – the necessity to drive anywhere.

Officially I’m a Bachelor of Arts in Geography (major) with Urban Studies certificate and History (minor)! Simon Fraser University Alumni ‘09! On the other hand, I’m unemployed, which means I’m grouped into the ‘looking for a job’ group. This will be interesting and hopefully I won’t relegate to a minimum-paid job because I get sick of staying at home.

Grouse Grind

A few days back Vancouver has been named as the most desirable (or “easiest”) place to live for 2009 which coincide with my experience of Vancouver on Sunday. (Of course I’m ignoring half my paper on why these rankings are bad for all the other cities and does not represent the actual city.) My friend invited to me to tackle the Grouse Grind in the morning. I have previously been told that the hike was pretty hefty and mentally I was prepared for it. The day even compiled with my plan as once we reached North Vancouver, it was cloudy with barely any sun peeking in.

Once I got there and 10 minutes in, unlucky for me, my ears began to hurt like mad. For no particular reason – unless it’s some elevation thing but then I can fly on planes. So 10 minutes in, my friends are already way ahead of me and I am just taking my time walking up. Considering my out-of-shape-ness, my final time wasn’t that bad, especially with my ear ache! But compared to the fastest male and female times, I’m way, way off. It is only a 2.9 km hike but 2,830 steps total!

I would like to thank my friends who all waited for me to finish before taking the gondola back down. At the same time, I’d like to say a “boo-hiss” to the same friends who all thought I had given up and turned around before calling me. At least they all called me to see where I was! Thanks guys, total overall thumbs up. As we waited for the gondola down, the mountain top was cold enough to see the breaths in front of us. And there was still snow (or ice by now) on the ground!

Cloudy with... snow?

After the awesome/awful Grouse Grind experience, we were going to grab some McDonald’s via driving back over the Iron Gates Memorial, but alas, we took the wrong route and realized we were actually driving over Lions Gate. By the time we got off the bridge, Vancouver was sunny again and as we passed by a sign for Stanley Park, we totally yelled “BEACH”! After de-de-deja vu-ing by turning to the same street twice (after driving into Stanley Park and leaving immediately, oh wrong road), we finally reached Stanley Park, not after driving for awhile to figure out where the beaches are.

We stopped at the first beach we saw, or called Third Beach, and found a map that told us the beach was pretty big. After walking away when we found a parking spot, I again realized we forgot to pay for parking! (Previously in downtown, again)

Third Beach

What a gorgeous day it turned out to be as the sky cleared up and all was left was the beautiful blue. This was the extreme opposite of the cold, gloomy and what-the-ice in North Vancouver and on Grouse Mountain. The Chinese in me is screaming “what am I doing here?” I put on sunscreen and the next day woke up to even darker skin. So… WHY?

Hello, Chinese people want paler skin (thank you, Hong Kong television for bombarding these commercials every second you can). Even though the sun is warm and the day is beautiful, the water is still cold. Or “cold” in my standard. We had our blankets and were already in shorts while holding onto our McD paper bags. What a Sunday in Vancouver. Snow in the mountains and sun at the beaches – the perfect Vancouver scenario. You can put that to those marketing brochures and testimonies! We have a real example at hand already.

To complete the deja-vu, we ended up getting on another wrong bridge (this time – Granville) but luckily found West Broadway and then we knew the right way home.

It's not that cold...

Since this trip, I have taken over 1,200 pictures and already filled up my 2GB memory card. Not to mention the 256mb of my backup camera because I forgot to charge the battery of my main camera. Thanks to my uncle who “lended” me his 8GB memory card, I can take more pictures in my last week here in Hong Kong.

HK Harbour (to Central)

On Wednesdays, the museums in Hong Kong are all free, meaning we all went to visit the ones that were interesting. And this meant us walking for 5+ hours non-stop until dinner time. While I thought it was worth it, my feet surely don’t. It’s getting bumpy down there and hurting too. We took the tram to Shau Kei Wan to visit the Coastal Defense Museum, had lunch, then MTR down to Tsim Sha Tsui for everything else. We went to the Science museum, History museum, Chinese Arts museum and Space museum (lame) while walking along the broadwalk of the harbour. This is the rare instances where the fog (or smog?) doesn’t overwhelm the view!

We're from Canada!

On Friday, we headed to Macau for a visit. I haven’t visited there since I was a child, so I was due a visit to Hong Kong’s neighbour – an hour boat ride via TurboJet. Luckily I still had Gravol from the cruise to Mexico of last year; I was too lazy to take them out, or you can call it just in case. The boat ride was pretty rocky for me – a easily motion sickness person. We were in luck because while the weather was hot, there was no rain or storm as predicted. Macau’s main revenue stream is of casinos and it has over 30 of them already and 3 more are opening next month. I’m not sure where all these people come from who have the money to spend like that. Or that one person and his family own a lot of the casinos and buildings in Macau. I even got carded once even though the adult age is 18… not 21 like in US. Yay for me looking young? We also went to the Macau Tower, which was definitely less scary when standing on the semi-glass floors since we already got frightened from the Shanghai one.

Bungee Jumper from Macau Tower

But this tower does hold the Guiness World Record for highest bungee jumping place ever. And several tourists did try it out, for a price of $2,100 (MOP/HKD) each and it lasts for 4 seconds. I’d do it if I had that kind of money to spend, and wasn’t wearing my glasses that day.

That’s all for now as I look into how to book our seats because now apparently you can only do it online and 48 hours before your flight. And since our flight is at 12:05am, where are we going to find a computer to do so?! This does not make sense. It’d be easier if I was travelling by myself and it was one seat! We’re figure it out, there are free computers at the MTR stations and the last train is way past midnight… so we’ll pay to go in and get out, I guess!

West Lake in Hanzhou

So that didn’t really make much difference other than the sheer size of the lake. We went on a boat tour (the first of many) and the sun was unkind to the Hong Kong older ladies as they all pulled out their umbrellas to shield them away from the sun.

Shanghai was pretty special though since it is supposed to take over Hong Kong as China’s main financial district within 10 to 20 years. As we travelled either by foot or in the coach bus, we can see that there are construction sites everywhere for not only office buildings but also condominiums. Everywhere there are lands, there are cranes in place. These buildings also are growing taller as they all try to reach for the tallest thing around. The most famous of the buildings is the Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We witness this in the boat tour (the third and final one) to watch as the Shanghai skyline light up as the sky darkened.

Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower

As for the Tower, at first we didn’t want to go on it because it seemed like it wasn’t worth it as the admission now both cover going up and the museum, but since we weren’t going to come back to Shanghai any time soon, we decided to go for it. The view is pretty nice up at 241 feet but the best part was a few feet under in the level under. It was another platform that just opened May 1, where there are glass floors as the extension so you get a chance to stand on the glass and look down. Holy that was a different view. Pictures to come later because they ended up on the other camera as I forgot to charge my camera’s battery. (Grumbles)

But as I have guessed, 90% of the places in my trip had ‘hole in the ground’ for toilets. This is everywhere other than the hotels (room and lobby) and some places in Shanghai where the buildings are newer. It’s still pretty nasty, especially when some people don’t flush. Ugh, so I ended up holding my breath and kept my wandering eyes ahead and nowhere else.

Right now my parents and uncle/aunt are outside playing MahJong as usual, much like they did yesterday. And I’m totally having trouble changing the keyboard back to English instead of typing in Chinese, even though I pressed the EN key on the taskbar. Hmph. I wonder when they’re going to end because it’s already 10pm and they have work/school tomorrow while we don’t. And this isn’t Saturday back home where they end up playing until 4 in the morning!

That’s all for now. Hope to travel to Macau soon! I haven’t been there since I was about 4 years old.

Up

Traveling to Hong Kong means that I will be needing to read Chinese and speak Cantonese 24/7. That is totally different than what is going on here. The only time I speak or read either is when I’m with my parents; the rest of the time is me reading, speaking, and writing in English. So yes, my level of fluency in Chinese deteriorated immensely since the last time I went back. This will be interesting. My relatives at least weren’t going what the beep when talking to me. More than likely my Chineseness will come back out when I get back and get used to thinking of words in Chinese instead of translating it from English back to Chinese.

Chinese Neon Light Banners (from muddum27)

I remember last time I was even watching the English channels (and got yelled at by my grandma) just to get some English in me (or that there weren’t anything else good that was on after the drama shows were over). Or that was when I finally watched an episode of Doctor Who then got sucked into it after I went home. Good times.

Down

The only time you would see a lot of high-rises and skyscrapers is when you head to Downtown Vancouver. Condominiums only started to shoot up in the sky in recent years, and even then their heights are limited to 20-30 (rarely up to 40) levels. And considering the amount of two-level housing in Vancouver, its sightline is plentiful.

Up

Busy Streets (by brianholsclaw)

Maybe I lived in Vancouver for too long, and suburbs mean zero people in the streets, but Hong Kong has that ingrained feeling of busy everywhere you go (or at least along the MTR line). The later the evening/night, the more people come out onto the streets – even on weekdays.

Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok (both also on the MTR line) are usually the two of the busiest places in terms of shopping and just general hanging out. If you walk down Nathan Road (which connects the two districts? cities?) together, you’ll hit all the main shops and eateries. The walk takes maybe 2 hours or 3, so make sure you have plenty of time since this is meant for a leisure walk, not needing to get somewhere on time. I’m definitely looking forward to this part of the trip. Somehow we always end up at a McDonalds… and its awesome ice cream.

Down

Smog (from Magalie L'Abbé)

The downside to all the people and skyscraper is the smog that covers Hong Kong ever so often (more often than not). Even on a sunny cloudless day, the harbour between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui has a light covering of gaseous thing. While it is not fatal, to those who have respiratory problems are advised not to go outside during the peak hours. And the sightline is awful, especially when you go up to the Peak and look down. All you see if a thick smog while it’s still sunny.

So I bring you a countdown to the Ups and Downs of Hong Kong every day until next Tuesday. In no way is the countdown ordered by yays and nays, just whatever popped up in my head first, but since today is the first day, these two are probably pretty significant.

Up

Bubble Tea & Food (from lchangfang)

Cheap food! Despite the availability of all these snack foods in Vancouver, it seems like every time I buy something to eat, I get ripped off. Yes, I know that the living standard is so much higher compared to Hong Kong – if you’re earning more, you’ll spend more on the same foods. Considering I’m spending the same money on cheaper food. It’s cheaper in the end.

I chose a picture of bubble tea because while you eat all the food, you need something to wash it down. The price range of bubble tea goes from $2.50 for standard milk tea to $5.00 of mixed drinks (+ tax). Looking at the picture, it’s $4.00 HKD, which puts  the drink is currently below $1.00 – even if the drink is smaller, buying two will still be cheaper! Then there’s all the fastfood places, egg puff things and fishballs. Flipping through Flickr finding a picture made me all hungry for any kind of food.

The downside of this is that I end up spending way too much on food. At least I’m eating more for less!

Down

Hole in the Ground (from kahunapulej)

While there is an up, there is a down. Since the ‘up’ contains food, the ‘down’ has to come out somewhere. Unlike most of the washrooms in Canada and United States, the ones in Hong Kong are not that nice at all. If you’re not a squatter, at least you can stick stacks and layers of toilet paper. Well, there is another style of toilets – hole in the ground!

I tried to pick the least disgusting picture because even I got sick from looking at it. Best tip: hold your breath, do your thing, and go go go. And hold it in until you go to a shopping centre. I know it has gotten better in shopping centres and restaurants. But in smaller food places and the older areas, they haven’t upgraded their toilet systems in decades. So, hole in the ground it is! Not to mention half the time the washrooms are dark and creepy, with ‘liquids’ all over the ground. But I’ll stop there.

So there’s my day one of counting down to Hong Kong. I think those two are probably my biggest ‘up’ and ‘down’, so yes I guess this list is ordered from most important to lesser important.

- Ivy