Aisu Kokoa desu!

Hier staat in het Japans: “Dit is heerlijke koude chocolademelk. desu”. Desu (spreek uit ‘dess’) is het achtervoegsel dat men gebruikt als je op een beleefde manier praat.

Respect

Why is it so difficult for people to get along?

Hong Kong

I’m back in my safe and empty home in Japan.. Hong Kong was so great! The brilliant skyline, the great food, the easy accessibility for English speakers, and of course visiting my friends. All these things really made for a great trip. I should give a big word of thanks to Kamil and his parents, who took care of me the whole time.

So what happened during the last days of my trip? Well, Kamil took me to visit his grandmothers house in the countryside, which was quite cool. Definitely not the side of HK the average tourist gets to see ^_^. Before that we went to a local market, which had a lot of very fresh fish, and we also went to a traditional village. In this village, there is a ‘wishing tree’. People used to write their wises on a piece of paper, roll it up, and throw it in the tree. But during a storm the wishing tree collapsed under the weight of all the wishes, so now the people are only allowed to place their wishes on a wooden board in front of the wishing tree. I wonder if it still works… In the evening we went for a seafood dinner with the whole family :O I said it before, but these kinds of things really remind me of my family back home (Y)

The last day Kamil’s friend Sun, who works at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, took me around the HK museum, featuring an exhibition called The story of Hong Kong, which tells the whole tale of HK starting from the prehistoric ages until now. It was one of the few museums I actually enjoyed, and Sun was a great guide who told me a lot about the history of Hong Kong. Afterwards we went for lunch, and we had some great conversations. He showed me around his office too, and introduced me to some of his colleagues.

When night came we met up with Joanne and her sister, both of whom I hadn’t seen for over a year. The five of us really had a great evening, talking about all kinds of things, and remembering Japan o_0. Didn’t have a single moment to be bored The evening ended with us walking around the market streets of Kowloon, and me buying some weird souvenirs. Everybody really made me feel at home there, and it was only when I boarded the plane that I realized that I would not see a lot of the people I met for many years, perhaps.

I’ve attached some pictures to this post. Actually I wasn’t really happy with most of the photo’s I took. A lot of them were either boring or blurry. I’ve uploaded all the not-too-blurry ones to Picasa, so you can take a look there. Some of the better ones I’ve added here, and I’ll add some more to my photoblog later.

Tai Po market. Kamil lives near here.

This is the railroad museum in Tai Po.

Look at us! It’s me, Joanne, Joanna, Kamil and Sun. Thanks for a great trip everyone

I live!

Back in Japan, waiting for the bus back to Atsugi

Later I`ll post a lot of pics and some more stories!

I’m in Hong Kong!

Kamil is so great! Kamil is so nice to me! Kamil is my best friend! I am so happy to be with Kamil!

– End of sponsored messages –

Uh yeah, I’m in Hong Kong. Kamil has in fact been great; he’s letting me stay at his place, and he’s taken me around to see all the sights. The first day I’ve been to Stanley, Aberdeen, the peak, Central Hong Kong,and some local sights near his home in Tai Po. There’s too much to mention and I can’t upload pictures right now, but I’ll make a gallery on Picasa later. IOU.

A funny incident happened yesterday while we were looking to make a tour of the harbor area in a traditional boat (Sampan). A lot of Hong Kong people understand and speak English, so whenever we have something to talk about that we don’t want other people to hear, we speak to each other in Japanese. In this case, I asked Kamil if the boat ride was expensive, and Kamil answered to me in Japanese: “takai” (expensive). But the boatwoman understood! What the hell! I guess we have to be careful here even when speaking in Japanese, since there are a lot of Japanese tourists…

Today we went to Shenzhen, in China! o_0. I wasn’t even thinking of going to China until a couple of days before going to HK, and I totally forgot about my Chinese Visa… As it turns out, the Visa I used to visit Yu Huan in March was already expired, and I had to apply for a new one. Kamil’s dad (Mr. Shah!) assured me it was no problem to get one, so we just took the train to the border and tried to pass. Not. Yup, there’s two stations bordering Shenzhen, and we went to the one without an immigration office -__- so we had to backtrack and go to the other station. Getting the Visa was indeed easy, and 30 minutes later I was in the proud possession of a one-day Visa valid only to go to Shenzhen, and no other place in China! Yay!

Shenzhen was great. Great is the only word I use to describe it, although I’ve heard other people use the word ‘boring’ and other negative words for it. It would appear that the city has nothing special. No very special sights to see or famous things. But it’s a very nice city. Compared to Beijing, the only other Chinese city I know, I think Shenzhen must be a hundred times better. The atmosphere just feels nice. And they have so many English signs, and the people speak English. Public transportation is just modern, like Hong Kong and Tokyo. I really feel that I could have no problems living there. Also, Shenzen girls are really really pretty!!!

Kamil and his parents went with me, and it just felt so normal. They helped me get the Visa and cross the border, and they showed me around the city, and the shopping areas. It reminded me so much of being with my parents in Holland, and going to Germany for shopping. It was really great. Not what I expected at all, by the way. I expected something a bit more ‘exotic’. More different from what I was used to in Japan. But it was quite accessible and enjoyable for me. The actual day itself was not that exciting or adventurous, but it has inspired me and given me the confidence that I could survive in China if I have to, and that I could actually enjoy myself there

I’ll be going back on Tuesday. So far I’m planning to meet Joanne, another intern who I worked with the first year I was in Japan, some souvenir shopping, and some countryside exploring. I’ll keep you guys posted

Who wants to go to Tibet?

Anybody interested? Yu Huan, Liou, Amyko, Wendy, Kamil, MattQB, Ningning? Let’s put it on the long-term planning ^_^ Leave a message here if you’re interested!