Bryan in Hong Kong

Yesterday’s trip to the visa office went surprisingly well, even after arriving 10 minutes before they opened to find over 40 people already lined-up on the sidewalk outside. The line moved quickly, and less than three hours later (courtesy of “rush” service) I had my six-month multiple entry visa in-hand (HK$1030). Hard to believe things went so smoothly. The office itself was very nice, they had a convenient instant photo-machine and copier in the hall, and even a Chinese antiques display. Overall it was an excellent experience, and the service was great. Not only am I now ready to fly to Shanghai next week, but next semester I’ll finally be able to go to Shenzhen with classmates whenever I want.

Ok, back to reading up on Thailand. I’m arriving in Bangkok at 10pm tomorrow and don’t have a place to stay yet, so this might be quite an adventure. Hopefully I can find a hostel or something. Next post will be from an internet cafe in Thailand…

Just finished a nice week in HK (pics) and Macau (pics). Very short recovery time before it’s time to hit the road again.

The breakdown:

This has been a very busy week. Finals ended yesterday. Thus begins my 37-day winter break!

Yesterday I also moved into my new apartment on campus, which has a very nice sea-view both from the living room and my bedroom. I’ll post pics soon. I’ve only briefly met one of my three flat-mates, they may have gone home for break.

Tomorrow (Christmas eve!) Kelly is flying in from Malaysia to visit for a week. We’ll be traveling around HK until Thursday when we’ll go to Macau for a few days. Definitely going to be fun.

I also bought my ticket to Bangkok, and ticket to Shanghai. I’ll post more info about these trips next week.

Already starting to enjoy the break. For dinner tonight we went to a nearby town called Sai Kung that is famous for seafood (pics). I suspect we’ll be going there a lot next semester, the food is amazing. Anyways, better get some rest tonight for sightseeing tomorrow!

Oh, and my new address is:

Bryan Stroube
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
University Apartments, Tower B, Apt. 609D
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
Hong Kong

Half-way through exams. Two more to go: math Wednesday and econometrics Friday.

I had dinner at a Thai restaurant tonight. Even the restaurants in the standard shopping malls are very nicely designed, and you can tell a lot of effort went into creating the atmosphere, except… this was the second time I’ve noticed what could become a disturbing trend… the restaurant looped the same song the entire time I was there. There were no words, but it was clearly a Kenny G style saxophone version of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. Just imagine hearing that 10-20 times in a row!

This follows an experience at a Korean restaurant last month that looped a single Black Eyed Peas song the entire night. After about 5 times, your mind starts playing tricks on you. I don’t know how many times I thought I heard the beginning of a new song, but then it turned out to be the same one again! Anyways, just thought it was worth sharing :)

OK, this is an entirely random post, but I just noticed that Evansville got a serious quality upgrade on Google. Apparently nobody was outside in the yard when the satellite snapped this image, but you can clearly see the cracks in the streets. And check out the people at Purdue. The quality of campus in HK is still quite good, but doesn’t appear to have been upgraded:

Amazing to think that we’re already beginning the last week of classes, followed by two weeks for exams and then winter break. Seems like the first semester has gone so quickly. Taking a short break from studying to make a post.

In other news, we finally played the electrical engineerings in basketball yesterday (reschedule from rain last week). I’m pretty sure they won by at least twice our score. I’ve now proven my hypothesis that a slight height advantage is no replacement for skill. Also, met some people from the Purdue Club Hong Kong Friday, which was fun. Still amazed by the sheer number of people on the streets in downtown Hong Kong (Wan Chai, Causeway Bay), especially on a friday night.

I’ve been using a cell phone in Hong Kong for awhile now, and I’m so impressed that I thought the topic deserves a post.

I can call the US, China, Hong Kong, and most of Europe directly from my cell phone (no cards) for about US $0.03 /min! Back in Indiana, I literally couldn’t call Kentucky for that price (on a basic Cingular monthly plan, that would cost about US $0.09 /min …and who knows how much it costs to call Hong Kong).

Here’s how it works:

• Bring tri-band phone from US
• Buy SIM card in Hong Kong (about $6 USD)
• Add money to card as needed

Such a simple and versatile system.

I guess the big question is why hasn’t a similar system evolved in the US (I’ve used similar systems in Europe). Consumers have much greater choice, because the actual phone and airtime charges are separated. Consequently, cell phones stores are everywhere here. I’m sure someone has already done a PhD dissertation on this…

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Well no turkey here, just another standard day.

Thanksgiving dinner, HK style:

Still have a bit of free time left before I have to really get ready for finals. Had another basketball game last Saturday against the mechanical engineering grad students which was fun. Went salsa dancing Saturday night, and museums downtown on Sunday. Got dad’s ticket to Shanghai booked for January and am trying to finish the rest of my winter break plans. First week will be here in HK while some friends visit. The next week will be somewhere outside HK (beach in Thailand or city in Tokyo, what do you think?) and the final two weeks will be on the road (err… train) with dad on the mainland (thinking Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong).

A few days ago I went downtown to find a new pair of shoes, which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Walking down the street in Hong Kong, you would think that selling shoes is second in popularity only to selling cell phones. Apparently my feet are too big though, as no one seemed to carry size 12 or 13. There was even a really nice Rockport store in the mall, which I was sure would have something in my size, but didn’t carry anything over 11! I finally found a 12 at a sports store, so I now have some new kicks for Sunday’s b-ball gave against the electrical engineerings.