Cockroach in the house!

Ohhh I forgot I didn't post about this.  I was on webcam with Eliza the other morning and then out of the corner of my eye I see a black blog scurry across the floor from the garage door to underneath the banister by the stairs!

I snapped my head to see what it was and I knew right away even before I saw it that it was a cockroach!  Gaaaah.  I hate when the big ones get in the house.  I turned the webcam around so Eliza could see the action.

The cockroach was quickly making its way up the wall along the posters that we taped up.  I quickly ran down into the garage and had liza keep an eye on the intruder so that I didn't lose it (only thing worse than a cockroach in the house is having one in the house and losing sight of it).

Luckily it hadn't moved too far and it was within reach of my flip flop which was held tightly in my hand.

Now I'm usually pretty sensitive towards life, even bugs, but for cockroaches in the house I make an exception.  I steadied my arm, got close and WHAM!  smacked it against the stairwell.

It's pretty gross when you kill a cockroach.  There's this weird goo everywhere and it was on the wall and on the bottom of my flip flop.  The goo smells weird too so you don't really want to get close to it if you don't have to.

The cockroach was now dead on the ground.  Eliza was half laughing half grossing out and I took grimace over for a picture for scale.

So there was my excitement for the morning!

More food (dumplings and bamboo)

Okay so since we're on the theme of food I thought I'd take a few more pics.

This one is from our favorite breakfast place about 5-10 min bike away.  It's easily bikeable within 5 min but Johan likes to take it easy so it turns into a 10 min ride.  We were happy to see it was still open when we arrived there this morning.  They don't follow their posted restaurant hours and they just close when they sell out of food we think.

And here are some bamboo shoots that GuGu's (Ali's mom's) friend dropped off at our house the other day!  It's a shame I didn't get a picture of the bamboo when it was in whole pieces, but they look like big yellow cones that Niki proceeded to dice into smaller pieces and top with mayonnaise from 7-11 (7-11 here has everything).  The texture of the bamboo is so soft and very flavourful so you know it's good.

Fruit Milks

When we went to the Taoyuan farmers market the other day, I had 2 fruits in mind: Papaya and Avocado.

There's this great little place on the way home from Ali's work and they sell papaya milk and avocado milk. It's really delicious and since we just purchased a blender at Costco we wanted to make use of it!

The other day I made this great tasting papaya, and just tonight I made my very first avocado milk.  The papaya didn't need any sugar because it was plenty sweet, however I added some sugar syrup to the avocado to give it a bit extra sweetness.  Enjoy the pictures!  I know maybe they don't sound like "traditional" drinks, but they're better than you think :P

ps - I haven't done much this week (been mostly working) which is why I haven't been posting in here lately.  These drinks have been the highlight of my week! haha.  That and my parents are coming in less than a week and Eliza is coming in less than 2 weeks!

Haka Lunch

Niki, Ali, and I went to a small mountain town on the edge of Taoyuan county for lunch.  We met up with Ali's parents and grandma and they proceeded to treat us for the most wonderful meal.

Entrance

View from the window in the restaurant

I believe Haka people are originally from Canton China, who moved to Taiwan back in the day.  So they're sort of aboriginal I guess, but their language is closer to Cantonese than Mandarin.  Either way their food is tasty.

Unagi Don

Went up to tp with Ali and niki to get out of the house and run some errands.  I got my camera battery replaced for my camera for the 3rd time and we checked out my parents hotel so that I know where it is when they arrive next week (wow can't believe its coming up so soon!).

Since we were in the zhongshan area Ali took us to this fantastic little unagi don place in a small alley. The lineup was so long but Ali and Niki said it was worth it.

Luckily the line moved pretty quickly so we were sitting down within 20 min.  

The whole menu was in Japanese so I just let them order everything and they did not disappoint!

The food game to a bit under $10 per person.  So a bit pricier than we'd normally spend on diner but well delicious!  I plan on taking my parents here when they come and visit because it's quite close to their hotel.

HK day 5 - last day here, casual walking city tour, Lil's apartment/resort complex, goodbyes

I awoke early around 8am in Ming's living room.  It was a bit weird being in someones house, and I had wished he had internet because I wanted to figure out how to check into the airline without going to the airport (fortunately Ming told me how to do this when he woke up).  While I waited for him to wake up I had a shower, packed and sorted my stuff for check-in, and ate my left over dim sum from the previous night.  I also snapped some shots from Ming's apartment windows.

Doing some major work for the subway system here.

I didn't have many plans today except for checking out lil's apartment area in the evening so I had the whole day to just explore the city.  I said thank you to Ming and I left the house to go to the Kowloon MTR station.

I managed to walk from Ming's place all the way to Kowloon which was probably a 20 min walk, but not too bad considering I was carrying two bags.  The airport check-in was really easy to find and as I checked in the guy at the desk asked if I wanted to take an earlier flight.  I said no, but then asked if I could take a later flight out and he said there was!  The reason I asked for the later flight was because things were gonna be tight for time with taking the MTR out to Lil's area and then coming back and with the later flight I was able to have a relaxed final evening in HK without worrying about catching my flight.

I checked in my bag and headed out to explore the city.  The details of the walk aren't that exciting but I found it quite peaceful to walk leisurely though the city soaking up the sights before I leave and taking pictures.  I walked down the main Kowloon area and sat in the Kowloon park for a while enjoying the sun.  The park is situated right off of the main drag, but I was surprised how quickly the sound of the traffic and street diminished and was replaced by chirping birds.

Kowloon Park

After the park I walked towards the Star Ferry terminal.  I put on my headphones and the first song that came on was Dakota by the Stereophonics.  I love walking through cities with music.  I think everyone should try it at least once per new city.  Soaking up the sounds of the city is great (I always do this first) but I find once the music replaces the sounds of the traffic you notice things you wouldn't have noticed before, such as the flashing of neon signs that match with the beat of the music, or the rhythms of peoples steps as they hustle across the crosswalk.

It was quite hazy today, but it made for some interesting pictures along the water.  I hoped on the Star Ferry for the last time and headed towards Wan Chai on HK Island.

Just beside the Star Ferry Terminal in Wan Chai is the HK Convention Centre.  At the end of the convention centre peninsula stands the Forever Blooming Bauhinia Flower.  This sculpture was given to HK from China when China took back HK from British rule in 1997.

It's a pretty touristy place so I just took my self portrait and got outta there.  The Convention centre is located right along the water and I was treated to my first real look back at the Kowloon Skyline.  Definitely not as impressive as the HK side, but it was neat looking back on the place I spent a lot of time in.

I didn't have any other plans really for the day so I just made my way back towards the Central and Hong Kong MTR area.  There's a handful of malls there with AC and free internet so that was my next mission.

One gripe I did have about HK is that walking anywhere in a straight line on HK island is basically impossible.  I saw on the map that to get to Central, I could just walk along one of the roads and it would take me right there.  However, the way HK is built is that there are roads weaving in and out and up and down buildings.  There are very few crosswalks anywhere and for the most part you are required to take pedestrian bridges up and over roads to get anywhere.  It's probably not so bad if you live there, but my feet were starting to ache so going up and down and in a zig-zag towards my destination was becoming a nuisance.  However I did love all the architecture and the city itself is really neat to explore!

look at all those pedestrian walkways!

Lil fortunately got off work a bit early and told me to meet her at one of her favorite cafes; the AFTER SCHOOL cafe in Causeway Bay.  I was at Central when she called me which is a good 45min walk away from Causeway Bay so per her suggestion I jumped onto a tram and rode it to the cafe.  The cafe happened to be right on top of a store we checked out on my second day there so I knew exactly where to go.

The AFTER SCHOOL cafe was a really cool place.  They advertise themselves as a design cafe.  There's a working space where I believe they actually have a design studio, and then in the evenings it turns into a cafe/workspace.  The entire interior is furnished like an old classroom.  There's old school books around and school desks with cubbies in them.  I loved the atmosphere and definitely could see myself hanging out there had I lived in HK.

This is the menu :)

Lil met me shortly at the cafe and we had some drinks and then left to check out her apartment complex.

When we arrived I wasn't really sure what to expect, but she said she was moving in a few months so she wouldn't have the chance to show anyone after that.  All I can say is wow!  The chinese know how to build a great amenities set for their apartments.  Granted, her community was 10 towers, each with ~66 floors so if I do some quick math, thats 3,660 apartments, and if each has ~3 ppl in it, then thats already 11k residents.

Before we headed up to the apartment she showed me around their "clubhouse."  I should rephrase that it's more like a resort hotel.  She brought me downstairs and there was a massive fitness/entertainment area with gym equipment, a studio for marital arts and dance, a study area with all the latest magazines, movie rooms, a 4 lane bowling alley, virtual video golf, karaoke, billards, ping pong, a music room with piano, drums, guitars etc, and I'm sure there was other stuff that I didn't get to see or can't remember.  Oh yah, and apart from all that there's a giant outdoor swimming pool, basketball courts, hedge maze, bbq pit area, and other garden areas to walk around.  What the heck!  Crazy place :D

We went up to her place before we checked out the rest of the amenities grabbed some food.  She lived up on the 38th floor in a small 2br apartment with her family.  I met her dad and he took our picture on their balcony.  I stood out on the balcony and it gave me the heeby jeebies looking down.  Wow 38 floors up is pretty high and there were still 25 floors above her.

Lil also showed me her room.  She had a bunk bed in it because otherwise there's be no space for anything else!  We had a quick iced tea and then headed back downstairs to walk around the grounds and eat.

Oh I should also mention that the apartment complex is built on top of a mall.  And the whole complex is called Metrotown.  Yes, lil moved all the way from Coquitlam to HK to live in Metrotown :P

There were 2 new restaurants that opened in the mall so we picked a Cantonese style one and sat down for our last meal together.  I wasn't too hungry so I ordered a cold peanut noodle thing and lil saw that they had rib eye steak so she tried that out.  She also ordered me a Watercress Honey drink which was extremely refreshing and another first for me.

Having diner together was becoming some-what of a habbit and I was a sad that it was our last one.  We chatted about lots of things and divulged a bit more about our work and ambitions.  It was a great conversation as usual and I was sad when we looked at the time and I had to catch the MTR back to the airport.  Lil and I had become great friends over the course of my time in HK and it was a weird feeling not knowing the next time I'll see her!  We said our good byes, hugged and I walked into the MTR.  Hopefully we'll get to hang out again in the near future.  She's a lot of fun and I know she's the soul reason why I had such a memorable time in HK.  Thanks for the fond memories lil!  HK is definitely a special place for me now knowing I have a great friend there.  "Media tech friendships are for life!" :)

last group pic outside of the restaurant

My ride back to the Airport was a time of reflection about Hong Kong and acted as some great decompression time allowing me to relax and enjoy my mini adventure from my other bigger adventure in Taiwan :)  Ciao HK!  Hope to see you again soon.

HK day 4 - Ming, Sham Shui Po, Meat Market, Mong Kok, Temple Street, Ladies Market, New Foods

I awoke around 9am and was happy to see it was sunny and dry outside from the storm of the previous night.  I had to check out that day so I left promptly to grab some food before having to get my luggage.  Lillian had recommended a place called the Café de Coral so I found it on my map and made my way there.  It was only a 5 min walk away and I found it easily.

The Café de Coral serves mainly a Cantonese spin on Western food, which reminded me of the Silver Tower restaurant that Johan and I used to frequent often in Richmond when we got home late from the office.  How it works is they have a menu with some pictures on the wall and you order from the cashier.  She gives you a receipt and you go to the back kitchen and give the cook your receipt and you wait.  It's very popular and your food is ready really fast.  It's sort of like fast food, except these meals are a bit more full and it's not just burger and fries.  The prices are also very reasonable at most breakfasts costing less than $3, and large portion lunches max out at $5.

I had the New Zealand fish with Hokaido Egg and toast for $3

After breakfast I headed back to the hostel to check out.  I actually hadn't paid yet and I could have easily left without paying but I told the care taker I hadn't paid cause I didn't want her to get in trouble.  There was a bit of a discrepancy regarding the amount due which resulted in going to another floor and talking to another lady and then calling the owners in Canada but it all got worked out after I realized that it was only a few CAD difference and it wasn't worth arguing over (HKD is about 7.5 to 1 CAD so I was still getting used to my 7.5 multiplication table).  Plus I was running a bit late to meet Ming who would be my first couch surfing experience!

After hustling down Nathan Road I met Ming at one of the MTR exits at Jordan station which was 1 station away from where I was staying in Tsim Sha Tsui.  Ming definitely didn't look the guy from the pictures on couchsurfing.org and for the first few minutes of talking I was still trying to make sure that he was in fact Ming, and not some random guy.  I would ask him questions that only Ming would know (details of our previous correspondents online) but most of the answers were generic and I thought anyone could make them up!  However after several more questions he started answering with only answers that Ming would know so I felt comfortable again.

Ming lives in a small apartment that's about a 5 minute walk from Jordan MTR on Canton Road.  We buzzed into the building and went up to the 11th floor.  His apartment was directly outside of the elevator.  He offered me some water and we chatted for 15 or 20 min while I dropped off my stuff.  I told him I wasn't really sure what I was going to do that day so he gave me some recommendations based on what I said I liked to see (local stuff is my favorite).

He told me to check out Sham Shui Po, which has a large local flea market so I dropped off my bags onto the small cot in his living room and headed out!

Me and Ming!

My accommodation for the night.

Sham Shui Po was only 10 minutes away via MTR and I arrived around noon.  Upon exiting the MTR I knew I had found just what I wanted!  A locals only sort of non-tourist area.  I only saw 1 white person the whole few hours I was there so I knew it was not a tourist spot.

SSP is a major electronics flea market selling everything from cell phones, speakers, computer parts, televisions, led belts, hardware, and knick knacks.  The streets were lined with merchants and I was in a daze looking left and right at all the neat stuff.  SSP is also an older area of town so the buildings really look like what you'd picture a typical suburb would look like in Asia.  Densely packed, old and worn down apartments with Chinese signs sticking out everywhere.

I wandered around for a good 30 min soaking up everything when I came across what looked to be a farmers market.  I peered into the open air building and found myself looking at a traditional chinese food market.

Wandering through this market was definitely an eye opener, and I found it quite gruesome at times.  I'd never seen so much death in such a small area, and seeing creatures bound and trapped and getting killed right in front of me was quite a shock.  I can only post pictures on the blog here, but I have several video walkthroughs if you want to get a better picture in your mind as to what it's like in there.

Disclaimer:  The next set of pictures is graphic (though not as graphic as how I felt when I was actually there).  Read at your own risk.

The lower floor was filled with small booths with hanging meat and butchers hacking at different cuts of pork and beef.  There were also probably even more stalls with seafood both dead and alive.  Little styrofoam coolers with fish and eels swimming around, crabs bound with straw, metal chicken-wire cages with live toads piled in, turtles in bags, and fish parts sitting on crushed ice.  There was quite a lot of blood everywhere as many people were purchasing live food that the merchant would kill right in front of you and bag.  It really felt like I was in animal hell and I felt terrible for these poor guys and really guilty about not being a vegetarian.  Good for you vegetarians!  You do not have to have this guilt on your shoulders that I'll probably bare for the rest of my life after seeing what I saw here.  The weird thing is, that I still won't be a vegetarian after seeing this?  Is that selfish?  Perhaps that tells us a little bit about human nature, or at least my nature...

many of these fish were still alive and flipping around

crabs and other crustaceans bound with straw

live toads

live eels and turtles

After I'd had my fill of death I went upstairs to see what else was in the market.  Upstairs was a much nicer atmosphere filled with mainly produce and dried roots and herbs.  There were countless stalls with neat little dried up foods and it smelled strongly like one of those Chinese medicine stores.

Now I thought the 2nd floor was all safe from death, but I rounded a wall and found the live chickens-for-sale area.  There were many cages along the walk way and cages at the back of each stall filled with chickens.  People would come by and pick the chickens up from their wings to inspect them, or have the shop owner do it for them.  I felt bad for the chickens and they would squawk when the people picked them up.  I only have 1 picture from this area (shop keepers weren't keen on my photography) and then the rest is in a video on my Picasa.

As I left the market, I was reflecting that it's probably a good idea for people to be exposed to this type of thing more often because all too often we get our meat products in neat little clean packages in the stores, yet that's not really the truth about the food or where it comes from.  The truth is that it does come from places filled with death, blood, and guts and this is something that shouldn't be hidden as much as it is in my opinion.  I think if more people saw this type of place, they would appreciate their food a bit more and have a higher respect for the price that these creatures pay for us to eat a burger.

I wasn't feeling all to hungry at the time so I wandered around the area a bit further and then made my way back to the MTR to head to my next destination:  Che Kung Temple.

The temple was a good 30 minutes away by MTR and required 3 line transfers.  The last transfer was onto a light rail train system so it gave me another look at the variety of different transportation methods that the MTR has integrated together.

Upon exiting the MTR station I made my way towards what I thought was the temple according to my Google Maps on my phone.  Unfortunately google maps was wrong again!  And it was a museum about HK's history.  I wasn't in the mood for a museum so I made my way to a mall close by to find some lunch and insoles for my shoes because my feet were killing me!  I found the food court and ordered a tasty japanese ramen.  Probably one of the best ones I've ever had and it was $5.  I then walked around the mall and found it really difficult to find insoles because most people didn't know what the word "insole" meant and they didn't understand me describing it.  Finally I found a "Dr. Scholls" sign and found what I was looking for.

Yes that is pork in the ramen after my big insight about food.  Though to be
honest there were no vegetarian places in the food court.

After the insoles I headed back and found the temple I was looking for!  Though to my dismay, the whole thing was under heavy renovation and was basically closed.  Oh well.  It's not like I haven't seen a temple before.

I made my way back into town and found myself at Mong Kok.  A busy shopping and electronics area famous for it's big crowds, countless shops, and big lights.

After window shopping through Mong Kok I made my way to the Temple Street Bazaar, which is a street filled with tall tents, narrow corridors, and merchants selling touristy type products such as t-shirts, key chains, asian robes, iphone cases, etc.

It was getting dark and Lil called me to tell me she was finished work and coming to Mong Kok to hang out.  I wanted to get Lil a small gift to thank her for touring around so before I met up with her I was able to find a digital photo place and got the picture of us in front of the library printed up and put into a little frame with the words "Lab Tech friendships are for life!" written on the back.

While trying to meet with Lil my phone ran out of minutes and it was a bit frantic trying to figure out how we would meet up.  I checked the 7-11 but their phone recharge was too expensive for what I wanted to pay (I was only staying in HK for less than 24 more hours).  Luckily I still had the free $1.50 phone recharge bonus card that came with the SIM card when I bought it.  I recharged the phone with money and I was back in business.

Lil and I met at the Jordan MTR and then took it together to Mong Kok for me to see the area at night.  There's a large mall called Langham Place which was built by a famous architect, and has one of the longest free standing escalators I've seen.  The place was really cool and filled with nice little shops.

After the mall we wandered through the "Ladies Market" which was similar to the Temple Street Bazaar.  To be honest I'm not really sure why they call it the ladies market lol.

We passed by this HK waffle dessert place and lil asked I wanted to try it so of course I said yes!  What it is, are these waffle balls that are all connected together (see below).  When you buy it, you get the whole sheet, and then as you walk, you just pick the pieces off and eat them.  They taste just like waffles.

We continued through the ladies market and lil spotted a small all-day dim sum place so we snuck in there for diner.  She did all the ordering and the food started coming.  Everything tasted super good!

From left to right: some kind of shrimp dumpling, shrimp rolls in rice noodle,
custard steam buns, pork dumplings, chicken feet

After diner we continued to walk around the area and ended up at a desert place.  On the menu was Turtle Shell Jello and Durian pudding.  These were both things I had never had before and they are both very HK so  we ordered them up and split them.

The Turtle Shell Jello is supposed to have lots of antioxidants and good health stuff.  It came in a mug and was really hot.  The server also brought a little jug of simple syrup that you pour on to sweeten it (because the jello by itself is not sweet).  The taste is hard to describe, but it tastes very herbal and I quite liked it.

Next came the Durian.  I've known about the Durian fruit for many years but have never eaten it.  It has a bad reputation for smelling really gross.  The pudding arrived at our table and was white in colour.  I took my first bite and it tasted like what it smells like, except in a good way.  The texture was really creamy and the flavour also had a hint of a buttery like flavour that Niki told me about a few weeks ago.

I really loved the new food experience and was really happy that Lil was about to share some more of the HK culture with me.  I gave her the picture I had printed and we headed home planning to meet each other again the next evening before my flight back to Taiwan.