Noticing Things

Just a few notes about Hong Kong, CUHK and Morningside in general

• MTR motto: Be aggressive. When the train arrives you're supposed to stand to the left or right to let passengers off first, but this never happens. If you have a seat, don't offer it to anyone. That's just weird.
• Buttons in elevators, hand rails on escalators, and even some vending machines have little laminated signs stating how many times per day the surface is disinfected. (Residual cautionary measures from the SARS outbreak).
• People cough and sneeze without covering their mouth. (SARS? Meh)
• Announcements (general): 
• 'The train for .... is arriving. Please let passengers exit first' (MTR platforms)
• 'Please hold the handrail' (MTR stations everywhere)
• 'Mind the doors, please' (Pentecostal elevator)
• 'Please mind the gap' (MTR)
• 'Next station: University. ... and be aware of the difference in levels between the platform and the train' (Specifically for University Station)
• 'Toast' in Cantonese is 'doh-see'. This is useful for ordering $7 toast from Morningside Canteen at 8:30am when none of the English-speaking staff are at work yet. 'Jam' is 'jim'.
• Try Almond Milk Tea. Just try it.
• Sheung Wan is a beautiful neighborhood with lots of galleries and design shops and people walking their dogs on warm April evenings. It also has lots of stairs. 
• Elsa, the lady who runs Cafe Liscio (Tower Block, Morningside College) is a dear - she will make you vegetarian croissants or ciabatta rolls, and if you order something that doesn't quite fit the lunch specials, she will give you a discount anyway.
• Local students will steal your food from the fridge.
• International students will steal your food from the fridge. It sucks, but it happens.
• Lan Kwai Fong on a Saturday night is a must, but be prepared to come back smelling like smoke and alcohol, even if you don't drink or smoke.
• Eating hotpot is a must, but be prepared to come back smelling like hotpot.
• Catch a minibus. Don't worry about where it goes, it's the ride that counts! (Trust me)
• Catch a double-decker bus and sit up the front. (There are several buses that run from Shatin to the Airport, which is probably where you will best experience it). It feels like you are in the front seat of a rollercoaster.
• Don't tip. Don't even think about leaving change. At almost all restaurants you are charged a 10% service fee, so if you leave money, it's just weird.
• If you are at Morningside, during communal dinner, just once sit with the Master. He gets really lonely at his table sometimes. Plus, if you sit with him you get wine with your meal!
• Get annoyed at the Chung Chi College student who loudly practice tug-of-war until 1am on week nights.
• The local students are absolutely lovely, but expect them to always be talking about how much they want to sleep, and how much they hate studying.
• The Park-n-Shop sells Devondale milk, Flora spread, and Cadbury chocolate. Enough said.
• The Hong Kong Central Library in Wan Chai is beautiful.
• From CUHK, it is quicker to get to China than it is to get to Central. Take advantage of this. I should probably write a post about that... Anyway, Shenzhen has some excellent 24 hour spas (kind of like Korean jimjilbang) - the best being Water Cube and Queen Spa. (I went to both. Both had free all-you-can-eat fruit, soft drink and icecream!)
• Buy a jacket or jumper of your college. Morningside's is purple and says 'Once a Morningsider, Always a Morningsider'.
• The University Health Clinic is not just for students. It opens only on week days from 8:45am. If you arrive at 9, the wait time is already half an hour. BUT prescriptions are free!

Tea Appreciation

Here's something different... and FREE!

The Hong Kong Tourism Board proudly presents its Chinese Tea Appreciation Class.

All the info can be found via the link, so I won't repeat it here. Basically during the class you learn about the 6 types of Chinese tea, how to brew them and what kinds of pots the master tea masters use for each type of tea and why, and you get to try lots of kinds of tea. (Including one memorable strong tea called 'Kung Fu Tea'!)

Manca, Vero, Myself, and Mum.

(We met up with my friends after we visited Ocean Park)

The tea master. She was really interesting and made lots of cute, corny jokes

This is the group for the hour-long Tea Appreciation class. There were seven of us, and four others.

As it if a free class, they encourage you to buy tea or tea pots, or have dinner at the adjoining restaurant after the class, but there is no pressure. The other girls stayed for dinner, and they reported the food to be delicious!

Cycling on a lazy Sunday afternoon

While I was doing nothing last Sunday afternoon, Beatriz posted a message on our IASP Facebook group asking if anyone wanted to join her for a bike ride to Tai Po. So, an hour later we met at the MTR. (That's just how things happen around here!)

You can hire bikes at Sha Tin - go through the mall, through Snoopy's World, and to the waterfront. Exit the shopping mall near Shakey's Pizza.

I hadn't ever ventured outside the sparkly-sparkly New Town Plaza (except to go to Sha Tin Town Hall, but more on that later), but I highly recommend it! Right outside is Snoopy's World - a large, Snoopy-themed, children's playground. Apparently, on occasion, you might also see a wedding or two held there...

Here's my fun photo of the day.

Moving on. There are several bike shops down at the waterfront, and expect to pay about $20-$30 per hour. When we arrived it was 4:30pm, and as the ride to Tai Po takes about 1.5 hours, we decided to take the option of returning the bikes at the shop Tai Po. We paid $60 for bike hire and $10 for helmet hire. Helmets are not compulsory in HK, but if you come from a country like Australia where you just grow up with helmets bring normal, it feels unsafe to ride without one. 

So, we set out!

The bike track is in really good condition, and it follows the river the entire way. At times, the bike track is shared with pedestrians. Sometimes the bike track is wide enough for two people to ride side-by-side and sometimes the bike track is wide enough to only ride singe file. At times people's bikes will have speakers attached, blaring music, powered by their cycling. At times you will come up behind a family with the little kid on a tricycle going all over the track, and the parents barely giving the other cyclists a glace of apology.

And at the entire time the view is amazing.

Ocean Park

Well, OK. It's kinda true.
Credit: Hong Kong Memes

Today I took my mum to Ocean Park. I'm not really a 'theme park person' (I don't plan to make the trek to the world's smallest Disneyland) but I had heard that Ocean Park had a spectacular aquarium... and pandas. It actually turned out to be a fantastic day! So, here are some tips to help you and your parents also get the best out of Ocean Park.

When to go:

We arrived at Ocean Park at about 10:30am. The park opens at 10, and like any theme park anywhere in the world, the earlier you get there, the better your day will be. Mum and I stayed until 3pm, and as walked out the main gates, there was a line up for tickets at the ticket office, and a ridiculously long line for bag inspection (I'm not really sure what they inspect for, but mum was allowed in with a bottle of water...). Also note that Ocean Park closes at 7, so why you would want to get there as late as 3pm seems a little strange to me...
We went on a Friday. Though it was busy and in the rides area (there was about an hour line up for each ride), the park itself wasn't crazy-crowded like I assume it would be on a weekend. We saw just two school groups. 

How to get there:

Take the MTR to Admiralty, and head towards Exit B. On the way out the station you will see an MTR Shop selling all sorts of cool MTR merchandise, like key rings and coffee mugs and crystal trains etc. They also have document holders and other stationary with maps of the MTR (good for souvenirs!) But, most importantly for you, they currently sell Ocean Park entry tickets for just $250! (Adult normally $280. Note there is no student price or seniors price, just adult price, child price of $140, and children under 3 are free.) Mum noticed that once we exited the station and lined up for our special 629 CityBus bus to Ocean Park, there was a counter selling Ocean Park tickets at full price.

Paying for the bus ride: OK, bus ride is $10.60. You can pay by Octopus card, bus ticket (though why you would line up to buy a special bus ticket just for Ocean Park I don't know, but the counter that sold full-price Ocean Park tickets also sold special Ocean Park bus tickets), OR cash. However, there is a catch with the cash option - you must have exact change. I mean, EXACT. You walk on the bus, put your money in a little container, and the bus driver doesn't give you a second glance. The bus driver has NO MONEY. Therefore be prepared. Mum tried to give him $20. He took the $20 and put it in the container and waved her in. The frustrating thing was that I had already paid with my Octopus Card, so really we paid for an extra person. Oh well, win some lose some.

Ocean Park:
This is the map that you will receive when entering the park. As with any theme park, if you want to go on the rides, like at any theme park, be there when it opens and go on all the rides first. Note that to get to the rides side you'll have to take the cable car or the express train to get there. Also note that the rides side is REALLY REALLY SPREAD OUT and there is not much by way of food/drink/snack stalls, so make sure you have enough snacks to last you the morning.
Recommendation #1: The Cable Car
Even if you don't want to go on any rides (like me and Mum), line up for a ride on the cable car anyway because it is AMAZING! The views of the South China Sea are amazing, and the cable car is really smooth and quiet. You can see both sides of the park from the air - journeying from the roof of the panda's enclosure to smoothly sailing by the yellow rollercoaster on the rides-side. One way takes about 15 minutes. At the rides-end of the cable car there is a restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean, and a canteen serving mostly Chinese food, but unfortunately for me and Mum who just wanted a coffee, there was no cafe or ice-cream to be found...
Recommendation #2: The Panda Enclosure
Panda enclosure has both Giant pandas (2) and Red pandas (maybe 3?), both of which are adorable. There is also lots of information and educational activities for the kids.
Recommendation #3: The Chinese Crocodiles.
They're like a minature version of our Aussie freshwater crocs, but they were very photogenic the day we visited. They swam right up to the glass and periodically submerged and surfaced so that just their eyes were above the water. Show offs. Sadly, the sign said that there is only a few as 150 left in the wild due to encroachment of farmland into the croc's territory.
Recommendation #4: The Aquarium.
Hammerhead sharks? Sting rays? Dory fish? Moon Jelly jellyfish lit by various colour-changing lights? Yep, it's all here, and it's all awesome. I could have sat for hours just watching the rays and 1.5m long grouper(?) fish gliding by and above. It was very cool.

And... the rest you can discover for yourself! See if you can find: The stone python above the waterfall. The Mandarin ducks. The cafe that sells HUGE mocha eclairs. The tired kid swinging his arms as his parents push his little sister in a stroller. The Old Hong Kong area (actually, I really recommend this part if you can't make it all the way to a traditional village like Tai-O), where the amusement games are inauthentic, but the tram makes for a good, authentic photo shot.

Here is a photo from the Whisker's Harbour area (the kids area)

It's a grandfather goat!

So, I do recommend that you make time to go to Ocean Park. The entry fee goes to rehabilitating animals and conservation work. I believe that if there were no endangered animals, there would be no need for zoos, only open-plan sanctuaries (like Monarto Zoological Park in South Australia). But until that day, conservationists needs ways to raise funds for their work and research, which is where zoos should come in. From mine and Mum's perspective, it seems like Ocean Park also believes in this philosophy, so I feel really good about the visit.

Grey Mornings

Pretty grey kinda morning, isn't it.

But in Hong Kong, you never know how the weather for the day will turn out - it could start like this and end up being super sunny. I have a rule for dressing here - I look at the humidity first. If the humidity is/will be over 80%, it's summer dress time. If the humidity is under 80%, only then do I pay attention to the temperature.

For example, today, according to Google Weather, will be 91% humidity at 11am. Ignore the fact that it is 20 degrees - a dress and jacket will suffice. However, know that if you do follow my rule and wear clothes that won't have you sweating profusely, you will stand out. (Well, more than I already stand out as a non-Asian). All the local students will be in jeans and puffer jackets of the kind similar to those worn by trendy Koreans during the snowy Korean winter. I guess if you have always lived with humidity, you don't feel it so much. But I, who have only ever known Adelaide's dry heat (bar one ridiculously humid week in Panama), am just not used to it.

Tai O and the Big Buddha

Today IASP had organised for us a tour to Lantau Island to visit Tai O village and to have a vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin Monastery. We had to meet at the Pi Chu Building at Central Campus (a 10 minute walk from my dorm) at 9am, which was not so easy for a Saturday morning. All the tours organised so far have used consistently nice coach buses (sometimes the air-conditioning can make the bus resemble Antarctica) but this time our tour guide talked REALLY loudly on her microphone the whole 1.5 hour trip to Tai O (our first stop) so only the very determined managed to catch up on some sleep.

Some things I learned from Hilary-the-tour-guide's LOUD talking.

1. Lantau Island is where the Hong Kong Airport is, and where the world's smallest Disneyland is (actually, I knew this already. Actually, we all knew this already. Tour guides just like to remind us.) 

2. Hong Kong comprises 236 islands - Lantau is the largest (which I found surprising because I thought Hong Kong Island was the largest... but I was wrong)

3. Statues of the Buddha have him with one hand facing palm outward (like waving 'hello') which means "do not fear", and the other resting on the knee with palm up meaning "peace to all the people of the world".

4. There is only one bridge going to Lantau Island, and even the Airport Express has its own area of the bridge. If there is a typhoon, the upper level of the bridge is closed (because cars can get damaged) and only the lower level is open. If the typhoon is category 10, then the whole bridge is closed and the only way to the airport is on the train!

Tai O is a tiny tiny fishing village on the west coast of Lantau Island. Here are some photos.

The residential area of Tai O, where people live in houses on stilts because they feel closer to the sea (says Hilary)

Korean Megan (민경) who is also my neighbour at Morningside, and Finnish Katrin.

We had about an hour and an half to look around, so we did, but didn't buy much. There was a lot of live seafood, and a lot of dried seafood, and a lot of pickled seafood... you get the idea.

Trying to be artistic, I took this photo because I liked the contrast of the 50s-style glass engraving on the window as contrasted against the iron sheets.

While walking through the market I heard some distinctly French piano-accordion music, and when we investigated we found a cafe - "Cafe Solo" 86 Kat Hing Front, Tai O - with some tables looking over the water.

I had the red bean and green tea cake, and Katrin had the cheesecake.

The view from the cafe. Because Chinese New Year is in less than two weeks time, there are red lanterns and red banners everywhere.

After Tai-O we got back on the bus to go to have our lunch at the Po Lin Buddhist Monastery. It was quite nice - typical banquet-style vegetarian Chinese food, but with circular tables of about 12 people and no lazy susan in the middle to move the food around, it was kind of awkward. 

At the monastery there is the Big Buddha.

And yes, I did walk all the way up there, but I don't have any good photos closer to the Buddha because the sun was behind the statue.

This is one of the six smaller statues facing the Big Buddha.

There is a 3-level exhibition hall inside the Big Buddha, and many old doors leading inside that are no-longer used.

Although there was a ton of people all visiting the Buddha, sometimes you get lucky and get a photo that makes it look like you are the only one there. (Thank you Megan!)

By 3pm we were all exhausted, and thankfully Hilary didn't talk on the bus on the way back to the University. Most of us slept.

So, although it was a little touristy, I did enjoy today's excursion. I also highly recommend that if you do want to go to Tai O and the Monastery, go with a tour because the area is really isolated and there isn't much public transport.

Veggie Dinners - Harvester

Friday nights are now Vegetarian Restaurant Night. Emilia is our proud, fearless leader, and we follow her to wherever she recommends in Hong Kong's meat-free landscape.

Last week we went to Harvester, a self-serve buffet-style, vegetarian/free trade/organic, Chinese/Western restaurant in Sheung Wan where you load up your plate with whatever you like and pay per 100g.

Pros: The food is really great! Look here and here for reviews. Also there is unlimited soup, rice and congee that you help yourself to after you have paid for your main plate, so you definitely won't go hungry.

This was my meal, and it cost $75. Not bad at all.

Cons: The chairs are pretty uncomfortable. You don't notice it when you first sit down, but by the time you've finished eating and are feeling happy and content with the world from all the delicious food, you realise your bum's gone to sleep.

Although the people in the shop don't speak much English, they are very accommodating. When the 11 of us filed in the front doors (we had a lot of interest for Veggie Dinner this week!) they immediately started pushing tables together for us.

There is apparently also the option to have a hotpot if you have a large group of people, but we only know this because a group of elderly people sitting at the table next to us were eating this. However none of the reviews I've read on the Internet have mentioned this. Next time we plan to go with a Cantonese speaker!

----

Here's the thing. I LOVE food, but I'm not a 'foodie'. If it doesn't taste awful or too ridiculously bland, I'll just eat it and say it was a nice meal. I'm not going to write reviews of restaurants because there are enough people out there on Foursquare etc who have already done this and can do it far better than me. I'm just going to write where I've eaten, and any comments I have about the restaurant.

Shopping in Mong Kok

Although most exchange students would rate Lan Kwai Fong,  Causeway Bay or Wan Chai as the best areas (read: party areas) in Hong Kong, I'm completely sold on the charms of crowded, smoggy, lively Mong Kok.

Case in point - Aussie Kitchens. On Australia Day. Just made me smile.

There is even an ANZ branch!

Courtesy of Google, below is a Mong Kok area map. Note that there are two separate train stations - Mong Kok and Mong Kok East. A walk between the two will only take about 10-15 minutes, but that's not taking into account the busy-ness of the streets. Mong Kok Exit C4 is actually inside Langham Place (shopping centre) - helpful if it is raining and you don't want to get wet.

View Larger Map

The first night I arrived in Hong Kong I came to Mong Kok for dinner with John and his friends, and after just a few visits now I feel like I really know the place. Today I went shopping with my friend Heilie, an Aussie-raised Hong Konger who I first met when I started studying Japanese at Adelaide Uni's PCE. She's finishing her PhD in pharmacology, and spending the next month with her family in Hong Kong. 

Having a snack at Hui Lau Shan, Argyle St.

A few notes first.

1. A large number of shops, actually I'd say the majority of shops, don't open until 2pm on Saturdays.

If you want to act like a tourist and only shop in the shops that can afford the prime real estate that is THE GROUND FLOOR, (Chow Sang Sang for jewellery, Broadway for phones etc) then by all means, turn up in the morning. But note that even H&M in Langham Place doesn't open until 11am on Saturdays. Most of the shops in places like Sino Centre and Argyle Centre don't open until 2pm, so don't worry about waking up early to go shopping and avoiding crowds. It just isn't going to happen in Hong Kong.

2. Do not wear open-toe sandals or thongs. Your feet WILL get run over by heavy suitcases. Confused? Let me explain. Imagine every 3rd person is wheeling a suitcase or large bag etc around with them - in the shops too. THIS happens in HK because lots of Mainland Chinese come to HK on the train to shop for the day, and as they shop, they just fill up their suitcase. I went to Sasa to buy some eye make-up remover (Sasa is kind of like National Pharmacies, but sells 90% make-up) and I saw no less than 4 people with large-size wheelie suitcases totally blocking the aisles wherever they walked. Heilie said that the Chinese like to come to Sasa because they know the cosmetics sold there are not fake versions of the brands.

Where else did we go?

Sino Centre (aka: Otaku heaven) where you can buy Japanese manga in Chinese (traditional characters). Apparently there are two publishers, one based in Hong Kong and one based in Taiwan, and Heilie's verdict is that the Taiwanese produce better translations. One day I'm sure I'll be able to form my own opinion too.... one day! In Sino Centre you'll find lots of CD shops, figurine shops, trading-card shops, hair accessory shops, phone accessory shops etc. Essentially its pop-culture central. I bought this nifty Shinee-themed MP3 player for $150. 

It holds 2GB of songs and is light as a feather. Because my iPod died a while ago I've been playing my songs on my phone, but it does make the battery drain quicker. Now, problem solvered! The place had a zillion designs to choose from - 2PM, Super Junior, DBSK, JYJ, SNSD, AKB48, Lee Min Ho, Nickhun (but no Woo Young, sadly) etc, plus a lot of Japanese pin-up girls in suggestive poses. 

Snack #2 was a happy-looking red-bean bun from Bread Talk.

We also went to Muji in Langham Place for stationary (the shop has Japanese stationary, bedlinen, furniture, clothes, organic snack food and cosmetics, but it is all so seamlessly laid out that it feels totally normal).

And to H&M. I really really hate clothes shopping, but at H&M it seems bearable, and I really like the style (plus everything is comparatively cheap). But note that the lines for the changeroom can be up to 20 people long, so either get there as soon as it opens, or buy lots of things and try them on at home. 

Drinks, ladders, plants

Just a few observations I wanted to record before heading to my Semantics tutorial.

Vending Machines are pretty plentiful around campus, not only inside the buildings, but also outside (like this one outside Sir Run Run Shaw Hall). But it seems that MOST vending machines only dispense drinks (both hot and cold), not food. The only one with food I've seen so far is in the Maurice Greenberg building of Morningside College, which has chips, chocolate and cup noodles. Maybe I should make a list of the locations of all food vending machines....
Oh, and most vending machines take Octopus Card. 

Moving on to ladders. This isn't really CUHK-specific, but growing up in Australia where few people live in apartments, ladders such as these (with the cage around them) was something I only saw on American TV. My question: why is there a cage around the ladder?

(Picture: behind the Y. C. Liang Hall)

Finally, greenery. One thing to love about HK is that wherever there is the tiniest bit of space for a tree, shrub or potted plant, there will be a tree, shrub or potted plant! For example, between two power-generation-machine-things to the right of Y. C Liang Hall.

And at Hong Kong University too! (photo courtesy of Aleksis)

Veggie Dinners - Veggie SF

At our Welcoming Dinner on Friday of last week I met quite a few other 'vegetarians' seated at the "Vegetarian Table". People included Jewish Tal from North Carolina, lactose-intolerant seafood-allergic Swede Vero, lacto-ovo vegetarian Swede Emilia, plus a few other people (I distinctly remember two Marys...). Last night Emilia, Vero, myself, Maria (another Swede I met for the first time that night) and John (who never likes to miss out on a dinner invitation!) went to Veggie SF, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Central.

L-R Vero, John, Emilia

The decor was 50's America. The owners subscribed to the 'more is more' philosophy regarding antiques and decorative ornaments.

The SF in the name stands for San Francisco. On their website Veggie SF write

"Having worked in this (Hong Kong) bustling city, we understand the work environment can be very stressful. With this in mind, we provide our customers with a good selection of inspirational readings where one can refresh and rejuvenate the mind"

For example:

Here's a picture of Millie getting excited about the chocolate cake (it was pretty good!)

We also had Pomelo ice-cream, which was a very small serving - read: one scoop - but quite tasty. I spent about 10 minutes on my phone trying to find out what a 'pomelo' was after receiving conflicting answers of 'its a pomegranate', 'its a big citrus fruit', 'its a type of melon'. Answer: Pomelo is the largest citrus fruit. A pomegranate is something entirely different. It is not a melon.

And as we were leaving the restaurant, this lovely vintage portrait of the San Francisco trams caught my eye, and John kindly took a photo for me.

May there be many more exciting vegetarian adventures to come!

Octopus Card

The good, the bad and the ugly about the Octopus Card.

The Octopus Card is the preferred method of payment for just about EVERYTHING on campus at CUHK.

Really.

Trains, buses, coffee shops, canteens, supermarkets, the university bookstore, plus lots and lots of other places outside the Uni prefer Octopus Card. Basically the OC acts as a debit card. You insert your OC in to a special machine (present at most train stations, inc. the University Station), insert HK $50 or $100 bills ONLY (the machines don't take $500 bills, but you can ask for change at the service desk of the station) and presto! Money to burn. There are also separate machines where you can check the balance of your OC. Also when you swipe your OC to enter/exit a station, some of the newer turnstiles will show you the cost of your trip and your balance on the screen).

The Good
#1: Accepted almost everywhere to pay for anything.
#2: A standard transaction time of 1 second in shops and 0.3 seconds for public transport. This is much quicker than when paying by credit card because the Pay-and-Go/PayWave function is not widespread and normally you have to either enter your PIN or sign for the transaction.
#3: Uni students pay only half the price of an adult fare on the MTR. Pretty sweet.

The Bad
#1: Unlike a credit card, it has very little security. There is no PIN, and you don't have to sign for purchases (acts like PayWave in this respect). What about if you put some money on your OC to pay for your textbooks and some groceries, but you loose your card on the way? Too bad. YOU are liable for any transactions someone else may have made for the first 3 hours after you have reported your card missing.
#2: For those of us who have a Travel Money card or NAB Travel Card where we don't get charged any fees at POS, but sometimes get charged fees when taking money out at ATMs, the process of re-loading one's OC is pretty annoying.
#3: It is not as easy to keep track of your spending. You can only view the last 10 transactions on the machines at the station, and there is no way of going online (like with online banking) to track the amount and location of your purchases.

The Ugly
It takes a month to get the Student OC.
On the day I arrived I filled in the paperwork required for CUHK to endorse my application for a Student Octopus Card. Two days later it was endorsed, so I took said paperwork to University Station. Apparently it takes a minimum of one month for my 'personalised' OC to be ready for collection, but in the mean time, would I like to PURCHASE a temporary OC for $170HKD? Um, well yes. I need it.

My temporary card

Awkward Situation...

When trying to purchase $500 worth of textbooks from the bookshop today, the girl tried my credit card, then said "the machine is not working. Can you pay with Octopus?" I said "uh, no". Its kind of scary when they don't seem to mind that their credit card reader isn't working. I ended up only paying for one book with the cash I had on me. With the average train ride being about $5 to $10, would I want to keep $500+ on my card?

Who knows? Maybe I'll get used to the OC and when I get back to Australia I'll really notice that <1 second time lag at the check-out when paying by debit card. Maybe.

Hearing Voices

On the MTR - the train network for Hong Kong - the announcements are in Putonghua (Mandarin), Cantonese, and English. One thing I like about MTR is hearing the voice of an English (as opposed to an American) woman announcing things like "The next stop is: Sha-Tin". It's very refreshing.
One thing I don't like is that the train tracks are open-platform style, i.e. you can jump on to the tracks. Kowloon Bay station is the only one I've seen so far with shoulder-high barriers that only open when lined up with the doors of the train.

In Seoul, most platforms have a shell-like appearance; there is no way of getting on to the tracks because the floor-to-ceiling doors only open when they line up with the train doors. It is only the older lines where the platforms are still open-style.
And Seoul Metro has announcements in four languages - Korean, English, Putonghua and Japanese.

Moot Point: The same thing for both systems, and I'm guessing for metro systems in most large Asian cities, is the 'manners'. First-come first-serve to sit down (normally regardless of age or frailty), and people piling on to the train as soon as the doors open and not letting you get off.

Winner Round One: Seoul Metro.

Care to argue?

Stanley Plaza

For that tailored, luxury experience, Adelaide dog-owners have Burnside. And here, Hong Kong dog-owners have Stanley.

Stanley Plaza and the Stanley Markets are located on the south side of Hong Kong Island, and apart from being a very pretty, very clean, semi-outdoor shopping mall, it is unique in its special attention to its canine shoppers.

Exhibit 1: The sign above the entrance to the mall

Exhibit 2: Doggie ice-cream with a conscience

Exhibit 3: Dog Parking (possibly not-so-eloquently translated, but considerate nevertheless)

Exhibit 4: Human and Canine cafe

Note that it is a really REALLY big shopping mall, with a separate plaza area and market area (the latter I didn't even have time to explore), and that only a fraction of the shops are dog-related. But its a bit like when you see a chunky powder-blue Toyota Camry driving down Rundle St, and then you really notice chunky powder-blue cars everywhere...

Orientation & Monks

Some important things to note:

#1 - Orientation
Orientation was on Thursday morning, so all 342 of us new IASP students (there are about 500 IASP students total) packed in to Lee Shau Kee Building, BUT, it was really really really BORING. A nice lady from the Health Centre (we have a doctor's surgery on campus - just behind my college in fact) spent about 20 minutes telling us about washing our hands regularly and to be aware of the new strain of flu each year. We also had a man from Campus Security telling us to always lock our dormroom door, and not to leave one's laptop unattended. He then went on to show us pictures of different coloured pills of ecstacy, some crystal meth, and other assorted drugs, reminding us that we should not buy them.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
BUT, if you are a new IASP student, you must go, otherwise you could miss some important information - and they do give you a lot of information. Things like signing up for the University Sports Centre gym, various login systems for the computers around the campus (you have a different password for the campus wifi, Library computers, and for the lab/college computers >_<) how to get a China entry visa, etc etc.

#2 - Something for Nothing? Hahahahahahaha!
Nothing in HK is free. On Thursday night Chloe, her fellow countryman Dylan, and I went out to Lan Kwai Fook - the party area near both Central & Hong Kong Stations on HK Island. Not exactly cultural, as 90% of the people in the clubs and bars were foreigners, but we had a good time dancing at Dragon-I and Zinc, regardless. At one point when we were walking between clubs, I saw a monk just looking at a nice view of the city from a little side-street. He then noticed me, and raced up, put a bracelet on me and kissed my hand. It was so lovely. He did the same thing to Chloe and Dylan. THEN... he brought out a little cup with a few notes in it, started shaking it. He expected money, and when I gave him a note (a rather large one, thinking I was 'paying' for all of us) he grabbed on to Chloe and Dylan and expected them to cough up the same!
There's really no such thing a free lunch.

First Impressions

Hello Hong Kong! I like you already.

We were told via the IASP e-newsletter a few weeks ago that we should travel from HK Airport to CUHK by taxi (it would be quite inconvenient to other passengers to travel on the MTX if we had lots of luggage, which is understandable), and that it would be about $300HKD. My taxi driver spoke almost no English, but had a cute figurine in his car.

The green taxis on the right as you exit HK Airport go to the New Territories. Happy point #1: The fare to my actual hostel - like to the door - was less than $220!
Drawback... I arrived right at the start of the lunch hour break for the Morningside College Office >_< (They are closed between 1 and 2pm) so I just had lunch at the cafe in the Tower Block. Pasta, and a not-too-big-not-too-small can of Coke Zero.

Morningside College consists of two buildings: the Student Hostel/Tower Block/High Block (same building, different names), and the Maurice R. Greenberg building (they are only about 10m apart). Downstairs in the Tower Block there is the cafe, which has a lunch special every day (Wednesday is Mediterranean Pasta, which turned out to be carbonara, so I picked out all the bacon) and the lady working in the cafe is really nice. (She actually had  noticed I had picked out the bacon and said I should tell her next time and she would prepare something else. How nice!). The Maurice Building has the Office, Laundry, Dining Hall, and residential apartments.

Actually, that's one thing about HK - people are really nice and helpful (just a little pushy getting on and off the MTR, but that's a mirror of the manners on public transport in lost busy cities in north Asia I think!).

So, we were told to check in to our Hostel first, which I did - at 2pm when they opened again - and I received a key and some info about College rules.

This is my room!

The window is opposite the door, and my bed and desk are on the left when you enter the room.

As you can see, there is one wardrobe for two girls. Hmmmm. 

But the room is really new and clean and we have a beautiful view of the lake (river?), so when study gets too much, I can just look over the University grounds and the water. (The front haze in the photo is the flyscreen)

We had also been told in the e-newsletter that AFTER checking in to the hostel, to go to the I-Centre in Yasumoto International Academic Park. There is a free CUHK app for Android and iPhone which has a really useful map, so I used that to find my way from one place to the other. You have to be pretty on-the-ball to keep up with where to check-in and where to be, because there is no-one to hold your hand, but the whole registration process wasn't difficult - just follow what they tell you in the email. At the I-Centre I registered for my student Octopus card (transport card) and filled in some other paperwork, and bought a bedding set for $200. I then lugged it back to my dorm (uphill), where I met my roommate. She's lovely! Her name is Chloe, she is from Vancouver and she is studying Finance... and she only needs to do three subjects! (I'm very jealous).

Although we had been told in several previous emails that we would have a "local roommate who had expressed interest in sharing with an international student", this is not true as a rule. Some people have local roommates, and some don't. Chloe's family is from China (near Shanghai) so she speaks fluent Mandarin and some Cantonese. Very convenient!

Last night I went out to dinner in Mong Kok with John and two of his friends from highschool (who are staying here in HK with family until the end of January; they study at Flinders University) and two of their friends. Hong Kong by night is amazing. Much older than Seoul, and lots more neon lights. We went down Nathan Road and Soy Street, and we had sushi at Hokkaido Katsu Sushi for dinner (order as much sushi as you like then pay by plate-number/plate-colour at the end) and a kind of iced-gelati for dessert. 

Afterwards John and I caught the train back to the University just before midnight. The train only takes about 20 minutes from the Uni to Mongkok! Excellent!

So, it was a brilliant first day! May there be many more like it ^_^