Evening in Stanely

Last weekend I had an opportunity to go stay at a friends place in Stanley while he was in Malaysia for the weekend. I was already a bit familiar with the area and was excited to take my fist little vacation.

After I left work on Friday, I came home and packed just a backpack of clothes and other stuff I would need and hopped on the train. It was a fairly decent jaunt on the train, and then I had to get on a double decker bus. I was told my a coworker to sit up top on the bus as it would give you great views. He failed to mention that it wouldn't give you much leg room.

Stanley is a little town on the Island which is right next to the ocean. There are many other expats who live in this area and while I was on the bus I met a French woman. She told me she taught French in some of the schools and also did some other work. She was going to Stanley as well and helped ensure that I found the right bus stop to get off at. While on the ride, one of her kids called and they spoke in French to each other and it was very weird hearing such a foreign language being spoke here.

We got to Stanely as the sun was beginning to hide away beneath the horizon for the night, but I was able to take this picture of the sunset over the South China Sea.
I had never been inside of my friends place before and had only seen the outside of it, but as soon as I walked through the door I could see the place really reflected his personality. My friend is from New Zealand and is salesmen in south east Asia. He is very laid back, down to earth, good humored, loves to paddle, and is very adventurous. On his walls hung pictures of him out surfing, there were cricket bats leaning against the wall in a corner, books ranging in all topics, magazines mainly dealing with water sports, a seemingly broken TV, and minimal cooking utensils. The house was small, but very comfortable. His bedroom was in a loft area above the main living room. Here is a picture standing at the doorway looking in:
For supper I went to one of the most famous pubs in Stanley called "Smugglers." It really reminded me of a small town bar back in the States. There was country music playing on the radio, a rugby match on the TV and dollar bills from all over the world plastered to the walls and ceiling. It was a nice, comfortable area with good food and a great atmosphere. Since this was a vacation for me, I decided to have a beer off the import list and bought a Coors lite. Maybe it has been so long since I had one, or the fact that it was transported over seas warm, stored hot, then served cold, but it definitely didn't taste much like I remembered.

The bar keep was a very friendly and talkative Philipino woman who was full of laughter and jokes. She introduced me to a few regulars who I really enjoyed talking with. One was an American who was the VP of a professional bike parts company. It was very interesting talking to him about his job when all of the sudden he pointed to the bike race that had come on TV and said, "Those are our shifters, look that bike has breaks we make." I also met a young American couple who had only been here for a little over half a year. We talked about differences we found between the States and Hong Kong and reminisced about things we missed from the US. We both agreed we miss our personal space in stores and on public transportation.

As I walked home after supper, I realized how quiet it was. I couldn't hear traffic and only the soft murmmer of people back at the bars and the sound of the ocean lapping the beaches. It was really, truely peaceful. I woke up the next morning to the sound of birds chirping and the waves hitting the banks again. I opened my door and this was the view:
Not too bad of a view. Not too bad at all.

Including Lake Michigan, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico; the South China Sea is the 5th major body of water I have been in. I only stuck my feet in the water at this beach as it wasn't the cleanest, but here is a picture of me on the beach, just outside the door.


I greatly appreciate the opportunity to go on this short, one night vacation, and it was sure relaxing and great to talk with Americans again in a social, relaxed setting. I hope I can get to go down and visit one more time before I leave.

Drinks in Hong Kong

The guys I lived with while in college would kill me for what I'm about to say: "I couldn't figure out how to open my first beer in Hong Kong and inevitably ruined it."

As I've come to realize, 90% of the beer cans here are the old pull style type cans which I had never encountered in my life. I tried opening it like a regular can, and eventually just ruined the top. Upon looking at some of the other cans here I've noticed some strange differences.

I am sitting at my computer enjoying a nice Mt. Dew and I see that the top is normal size. And when I say normal sized, it is not the wide mouthed, vented cans like most beverages in the US, but a modest size to maybe cut down on chugging and intense sugar delivery. Even though it is a regular Mt. Dew, it has both Chinese and English writing on the can, and the nutrition facts are in units per 100ml, which is very inconvenient to try to figure out how much sugar is in something, or other important facts.

It is hard for me to compare to products back in the States, as it has been so long since I have had any, but it seems to me that pop here has much more sugar in it that pop back home. I don't drink sugary drinks too often so maybe that is why I am not used to it, but based on my memory, this seems to be a slightly different recipe for Mt. Dew.

While shopping and eating out, I always find it funny to see Budweiser and Coors Lite in the "Import" section. I've never thought of those two as being considered "fine" enough to import, but what do I know. The most popular beer here in Hong Kong is called San Miguel. I prefer their cheaper Blue Ice beer because it is more like what I was used to back home. Most here consider it too light and tasteless, which is also how I've heard most American beers described.

Recently I tried Saki while having sushi with friends and was mildly disappointing in it. I always imagined Saki as a terribly strong drink which would have been comparable to rubbing alcohol, but it was almost sweet and syrupy. I always saw it for sale in the store, but never wanted to try and purchase any, because the entire bottle has Chinese writing on it so I never knew what was what.

I've never been a big fan of drinking bottled water and always found it funny that there were different brands in the store and that some people actually thought some brands were better. I couldn't imagine paying for some of that high dollar bottled water back in the States because at that time, every type of water tasted the same. I could notice differences in tap water in geographic areas, but never in bottled water. I have grown so used to drinking the very popular Bonaqua water here that when I bought a bottle of a different brand, it really tasted funny to me. I suppose it is just what you get used to.

I work outside in the heat for most of the day, and find that Gatorade is one of the best ways to stay hydrated. I brought a big tub of Gatorade mix over with me because I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find any Gatorade here. Well, I can find bottles of Gatorade, but no powder mix. Instead, I drink Pocari Sweat drink powder. I have heard it is about the same as Gatorade, and seems to work well with keeping me hydrated, but again, it seems to have a lot of sugar in it.

My favorite drink here by far is these little cans from Nescafe of cold coffee. They are about 2/3 the size of a regular pop can, and the can is super tough, nearly impossible to crush. The coffee inside is pretty sweet and creamy and reminds me of those cold Starbucks drinks sold in bottles next to the check out at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately this drink is very sugary, like all the others, so I watch how many I drink, but I could easily drink 3 or 4 a day if I wanted!

Spiders the Size of My Hand

Sorry I have not written much recently...Looks like it will rain for the next few days or so, so I should be able to catch up!

Earlier I posted about my distaste of snakes, now it is time for me to write about the other critter I don't much care for: Spiders.

When I worked in Florida, I had a reason to be cautious of spiders. It wasn't uncommon to reach in to a secluded control box only to find a black widow creeping around in there. Spiders just have way too many legs to really be liked by anybody.

I used to be slightly scared, and intrigued by the big "garden" spiders I would find around my house. I'm not exactly sure what they were called, but their body was about an inch long and they were yellow and black striped. I liked to catch other smaller bugs and chuck them in to the web to watch the spider scurry over and quickly wrap it up to make a meal out of the bug I sacrificed for my own sense of wonder.

When I fist came here, I didn't realize them right at first, until my boss pointed them out to me. It seems that here in Hong Kong, we have the yellow and black spiders, but they take steroids here.
Normally when I take a picture and need to show the scale of the object, I'll place my pen or a golf ball right next to it. Well, I tried to muster up the courage to hold my pen next to the spider to show the size, but as I got close, I could see it moving its mouth parts, getting ready to make my whole hand in to its supper, so you will just have to take my word for it. This spider was pretty large. The body of it was about 6-7" in length and if I spread my hand out as wide as it would go, the spiders legs would easily reach farther. Not all these spiders are this big, but they are much larger than the ones I used to play with in the gardens growing up.

It seems that every morning on my walk to work, I walk through a web they have spun during the night. The webbing seems to be unusually strong and is terribly hard to get off me. Then for the next while, I feel like a spider is crawling all over me until I shake off all the web.

Thank goodness these spiders are not poisonous (from what I've heard) and I don't believe there are any spiders to be really scared of here in Hong Kong. I just don't like the idea of something that looks like it is from a sci fi movie walking all over me.

There's a Snake in my Mower

Samuel L. Jackson was not happy when he found out he had snakes on his plane. In fact, he was down right mad to say the least.
When I found out we had snakes in our mowers...well I had about the same reaction as him.

I hate snakes, a lot. I don't view them as little creatures that are fun to catch when you are a kid. I think some of this hatred for them stems from the fact that my older brother was the one who thought it was fun to catch snakes, then chase his younger brother (me) around with them.

Unfortunately, I don't exactly work in the most "snake friendly" environments. When I interned in Florida we had to deal with pigmy rattle snakes and water mocassins. I distintly remember a co-worker killing a (what he thought was) harmful snake with a bunker rake one morning. Turns out it was just a regular old corn snake or something. Either way, that's normally how I react.

It was a few weeks after I started, when somebody casually made the comment, "Well, I bet snakes will start showing up in the mowers now." The conversation started there and was between a co-worker and our mechanic who just were talking about how snakes crawl in to the mowers at night because it is a warmer area and then they surprise the operators the next morning when the mower is in use and the snake no longer wants to ride along.

Just to reiterate: I hate snakes. I did not look forward to the idea of finding a snake in my mower. I would probably have a heart-attack if I was mowing fairways and all of the sudden I see a snake down at my feet or feel it start crawling across the lap. The idea of it just makes me squirm as I write about it now and I feel like I should be looking around my house for snakes....

Luckily, I've made it this far without finding a snake in my machine in the morning, but I am still not fully convinced that I can go my entire six months in Hong Kong without having that unpleasant surprise in the morning.

Yesterday, we found a King Cobra on one of our fairways. It was exiting to see (from the comfort and speed of my golf cart) and I got brave enough to try and get close to take a picture...until I remembered an episode I saw on Nat Geo Channel about how Cobras can spit venom. I couldn't remember how far they could shoot it, but I didn't want to risk it and backed off a bit. A co-worker and I positioned ourselves to urge it off the fairway and ended up successfully chasing it off in to the trees. It wasn't until after it crawled under the fence that I realized it just crossed in to the village where I live. What an exciting place this is to live!!!

See you at home buddy!

Cribs - Hong Kong Style

Well my "crib" here in Hong Kong isn't quite as interesting as the ones on the MTV show, but I figured I'd at least give you a pictorial tour of it. My house was brand new when I moved in so it was in very good shape which was really reassuring to me when I moved here. Some of the housing here can get ran down pretty fast. If I would have came here and saw that I had to live in some of the other houses in my village I would have probably hopped on the first plane back to the States. I got really lucky!

My house is a typical village house. The entire structure is 3 stories tall with each floor having about 700 sq feet which is pretty large compared to other houses in the village. It is a two bedroom, one bath, and about a 1/4 kitchen.

My kitchen has a floor space of about 5' x 8' and about 4 sq ft of usable counter top space. I have a microwave and an electric cook top. Ovens are not very common in Hong Kong and I doubt you would ever find a typical US oven in any house around here. Cook tops are the most common with them being either electric of gas.


My living room is pretty wide and open and is nearly impossible to keep clean with the tile floors. I always seem to track home grass and sand from work. The sliding glass doors open to a narrow balcony that has my washing machine on it. Yes, my washing machine is kept outside. I don't have a drier so I just hang all my clothes outside to let them dry. Sometimes I have to plan my laundry around the weather forecast to be able to dry my clothes as they don't dry too well in a rainstorm.

I am lucky enough to have cable provided for me as well. I believe I have the basic package which has both English and Chinese Channels on it. I mainly watch Discovery, National Geographic, and CNN. Even though these may seem like the same channels back in the States, the programming is very different on them. I don't get hours of Swamp Loggers or Ice Road Truckers, but I can usually watch re-runs of How It's Made or Mythbusters. There is very little commercials on these channels and in the rare time a commercial does come on, it is just a 30 second break from programming, then right back to the show. I now feel 'out of the loop' with everything as I'm not told what movies are coming out, or what is the best cellphone, or what the meat specials are at Fareway this week. Commercials were a great way for me to receive all sorts of information and now I don't have that type of incoming advertising.

My bedroom is pretty simple with a decent sized bed and a fairly thin mattress. Like normal, my feet do hang off the end a bit. Closets are not built in to most houses so everybody normally has a wardrobe type closet normally. When my house was "assembled", the workers just put everything together in my living room with the intent of letting me choose where to put everything. Well, the wardrobe was too big to maneuver around to get through the narrow hall and make the turn to my bedroom and was too tall to fit through the door, so they had to come back, take it apart, and then put it together in the bedroom. Shows the true value of looking at the big picture and planning ahead.

I hope you enjoyed this short tour of my house and soon I will post up some pictures that I will take of other houses and buildings around my village.

Lotus Cafe

I like to eat, and I like to eat a lot. I love big, greasy hamburgers and mounds of onion rings. Unfortunately, I can't get that at the Lotus Cafe. However, they do serve a really good Western Fried Rice!

My co-workers and I eat at the Lotus Cafe every day for lunch. The first time I saw this place I was a bit skeptical. First off, from the outside, it looks a little shady. I'd never eat at a place like this in the US.
Second, 90% of the menu is in Chinese. Luckily I always go with someone who can some-what translate for me, but it can be hard to get a good direct translation. The staff at Lotus Cafe has gotten to know me and knows what I will and won't like. They might not be able to tell me exactly what the lunch special is that day, but they will at least tell me that I won't want it.

Every day we eat at the same table, and sit in the same spots. As soon as I walk in the door the staff opens up a bottle of Coke for me and has it sitting on the table. Eventually everybody finally trickles and and we will place our orders.

I find ordering food or getting waited on in Hong Kong is very different than the US. Here, if you want waited on you raise your hand and wave and try to catch the attention of the waiter. If you did that back home, I'm pretty sure a fight would follow as that is normally considered pretty rude. Also, when they bring out your food, not everybody is served at the same time. As soon as the food is cooked it is brought out to you so it is always fresh out of the kitchen. This felt really weird to me at first as I am used to waiting to eat until everybody has food in front of them.

The food here is actually quite good. My favorite is the sliced bar b que beef with egg sauce on rice. I've gotten really good at using chopsticks and a rice shovel to eat almost any dish served. I still have a bit of a hard time eating soup noodles with plastic chopsticks as the dang things are way too slippery! The menu is very diverse at Lotus Cafe and you can get everything from a club sandwich to chickens feet to sweet and sour chicken to lotus root (which I found out isn't that good, kind of tastes like a bad potato.)

I have been told that to find a good restaurant in Hong Kong, don't judge it by how nice it looks, but by how many people are eating there. The local people will always know a good place to eat so it will always be busy. If a really high class looking place has very few people in it, it is either a) bad food or b) very expensive. The food at Lotus Cafe is very reasonably priced and is great quality.