Eating Hong Kong

Weekend trip to Dongguan

2010-05-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

The exams are now finished and the summer holiday has already started! Already last week you could notice that people were packing their stuff and getting ready to move out from the Halls. A lot of carbage next to the lifts and people walking with their suitcases, quiet common area etc. In my floor there were even shoes for sale!

Quality shoes from H&M :D

I'm also getting ready to move out from the Halls as my friend Emmi is coming from Finland to visit me and we'll be living in my cousin's place. So, yesterday I carried a bag of winter clothes there and today I packed 11 pairs of shoes to one big bag (this isn't all the shoes I have) but there's still a lot of things left to be packed and carried away... XD

Last weekend I went to a trip to Dongguan (in Guangdong province) with mama, my aunt and their friends. This weekend trip was mainly about eating! Living in 5-star hotel and eating buffets. ;) It was really a nice and relaxing trip, although it didn't include shopping except visiting supermarket... :D

Visiting some park and doing exercise by walking the stairs; so healthy

And the average age is.. uhm..

Our not so bad hotel: Crown Prince Hotel

Vappu in HK!

2010-05-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

This year's Vappu (May day) was celebrated in style in HK with the vappu crew which consisted mainly of the Finns. We were well prepared with serpentiini, Koskenkorva 60% and amaaaaazing glasses (as my sis put it)! ;)

The plan was simple: Follow the map of 7-elevens and make some noise. There was a game associated with the pit stops in 7-elevens; new drink in every 7-eleven and points were given according to how many sips you needed to finish the drink. I guess we stopped calculating after 3 or 4 stops.. :D

Started from TST towards the ferry pier where we took the ferry to Central...

...and made our way to the LKF!

People did look at as with curiosity; some were laughing and some were more or less scared.. But it helped that there were actually foreigner looking people with us, since me, Chi, Oanh and Karen look more like locals than Finns. XD

Me, Chi and Karen had a nice finish to the celebration with bowls of noodles instead of kebab (which would have been the case if I was in Helsinki). All in all, a fun and different Vappu this year! :)

No more lectures!

2010-04-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

So, last week was the final week of lectures here in HK, and possibly the last lecture before my graduation..! :O Now I'm free until the exams start on 6th of May. I was actually supposed to be in Finland now for a week to spend some quality time with my love ones but due to the volcano case in Iceland, my plans were ruined and I may have to start studying for the exams. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. :D

It seems like the life in HK is coming to its end as everyone is counting the days they have left in HK. But for me it seems like the life in HK will continue after this semester! Today I got a phone call from a friend who is working for a Finnish company telling me that they most likely have an internship position for me!! Nothing is confirmed yet, but it looks good and I'm looking forward to see what they have to offer me. :) Again I was reminded about how important and useful the networks are. Kiitos Karen!

Celebrating the end of the lectures @Tazmania in LKF

Time flies

2010-04-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

Only one week of lectures left for this semester! And for me it means 3 days of school and few final exams in May. :D The time here in HK has passed by so quickly. Although the school will be over in few weeks, I still have two months time to be here. So I should manage to do some more trips around Asia. ;)

The trip to Korea was great! I ate most of the time.. :D Seoul was a BIG city, but quite dirty and it was always a mission to find a trashcan from the street. And of course kimchi everyday. Check the photos of the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=218933&id=627414324&l=2d3cfc6fcc

Haha, last Sunday I was biking for the first time in HK for 4 hours... It was interesting, as I had only slept for 4 or 5 hours after the high table dinner after party and the biking route was crowded as it was Sunday; all the kids, elders, beginners etc. It was for a while quite annoying to bike coz you had to slow down every now and then coz you couldn't pass all the people you wanted to and then it was also dangerous as you never knew if some kid would suddenly stop/turn right/left and so on. I actually almost crushed down to a little girl. XD

Tonite I'm going to have a wine&cheese nite with Sophie in the Halls and see if we manage to get out of the Halls to some clubs.. :D We bought 2 bottles of red and 2 bottles of white (of course we won't drink them all in one nite) for like 16eur and then some brie and other cheese with crackers and grapes. The nite will be wonderful. ;)

Last stop Bangkok, next stop Seoul!

2010-03-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I came back from Bangkok where I had a long weekend trip with Sophie and Salla. And tomorrow I'm leaving for Seoul in South-Korea! Can't really complain this life as an exchange student. :D

So, last Thursday evening we left the cold HK and went to Bangkok, where the warm weather was waiting for us. Three nites in Bangkok included the Grand Palace, many many temples, anti-stress spa treatment, learning to use the local transportation system, tuk-tuk rides and mango sticky rice. And of course let's not forget the shopping in the nite bazaar! ;) After the three nites in Bangkok we took a bus ride to Pattaya where our wonderful hotel with its pool areas was waiting for us. The day was pretty much spent at the pool area in the hotel. For the evening we didn't go to the so-called-famous "Walking street" but instead went to see "Tiffany's Show"-the transvestite cabaret show, which was amusing. All in all this long weekend was relaxing and great, thanks to some local friends of my friends in HK. :)

I just got my suitcase unpacked and now I should pack it again... This coming trip to Seoul will be great: we have a group of 7 great people, including Soo Ryun, our Korean guide! Also, I'll most likely manage to meet some Finns (like Timppa who's doing his exchange in Seoul). Feels good to have friends in every corner of the world! :D

Time for update!

2010-03-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

Again I've been "too busy" to update my blog.. :D
The life after the Philippines has been pretty much "normal" everyday life. Let me recall the past few weeks with the help of my Nikon Coolpix:

Dessert time: mango wrapped in coconut jelly pancake (above) and deep fried ice cream (below)

Vietnamese steamed spring rolls

Some really tasty glass noodles with beef in satay sauce ;)

These prawn skewers looked better than they tasted X

Some really tasty and sizzling curry with tofu

At the Langham Place shopping mall in Mong Kok going to see the movie Vanlentine's Day with Sophie and Cynthia. Movie tickets were only 5,5 eur with sudent discount and it was weekend and evening show. Not bad. The big malls change their decorations quite often here in HK according to different festivities.

This mall has the longest escalators within a mall in HK and maybe in the world?

some pre-movie funtime :D

I spent a really nice Sunday with my relatives starting with early tea (dim sum) and then excursion around places like my mom's childhood place, Tai Po and Sai Kung. The above photo is taken from my the elementary school that my mom and aunts use to go to when they were kids. The school hasn't been in use for ages already though... it looked more like a jungle than scool, haha.

Fishing pond; here you can practice your fishing skills before you go for the big ones in the sea. Ps. it's not free, you have to pay for it!

At Tai Po's Park: little boys and big boys playing with their toys, some were really serious with this hobby; motors, engines etc.. with all the equipments and fine-tuning. :D

The viewing terrace/tower of Tai Po's park, here we had the ice cream break ;D

The last stop: Sai Kung for seafood! The waterfront promenade of Sai Kung that is unofficially called the "seafood street" because of the many seafood restaurants and seafood sellers.

What to eat tonite?? Pick from the boat or check up the indoor market hall

Interested? ;)

After the weekend was the International cultural nite organized together with the exchange students. South Korea was probably the best presented country of all the countries presented. Finland wasn't presented though, coz none of us Finns bothered to do anything.. So i didn't have to do anything for this event, but still got a certificate of participating in the organizing of the event!! :D (only because I was the contact person for the Finnish group)

Have to take a break now, so this will be continued.. ;)

The Philippines

2010-03-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Time to recall what happened in Manila and Puerto Galera in Philippines! Where to start..

On 16 Feb late afternoon I left the Halls with 6 other girls to start our trip to Manila.

Makati, the fancy business district (and the cleanest place) of Manila:

The central of Manila: really dirty and crowded place with street stalls, local students and jeepneys.

City Hall
Jeepney - the local mini bus

The main post office which didn't sell tourist post cards
(it seemed like the whole city didn't sell Manila-postcards)

First dinner in Manila celebrating the birthday of Sophie. Some stuffed squid with rice. :)

Our lovely hostel in Santa Cruz, Manila: Chateu de Elizabeth aka Red Carabao

Leaving the hostel for the trip to Pier Batangas and Puerto Galera instead of taking the flight to Legaspi and then bus ride to Donsol to see whalesharks which was our first plan.. :D

After 2,5 hours bus ride and 1,5 hours boat trip we finally arrived to White Beach, Puerto Galera:

View from the balcony of our hostel which wasn't as nice as the one in Manila
Philippines was small: we met two other exchange students (Gustav & Jonas)
who are also from the PolyU, our university!
Fresh pineapple and mango smoothie, delicious!
Peaceful day on the beach under a palm tree after Sophie got sunburnt badly.
Romantic sunset on the White beach

French toast and "mojitos shot" for the last breakfast in White beach
Our way back to the hostel, if we stayed too late out.. XD
Our "White Beach Express" back to the Batangas pier

And back to the Manila for last moments in Philippines...

Brownie frappuccino was so delicious, especially when enjoyed after the hot day ;)
The last dinner in Makati in Gerry's grill that served some pinoy bbq food

The last morning in Manila at the airport waiting for the flight that was delayed for almost two hours...

Cebu pacific air, our airline for this trip

Chinese New Year

2010-02-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

The past 10 days have been full of different activities and happenings. Let me start with the Chinese New Year (CNY).

I started to celebrate the CNY on the new year's eve (13.2.) raditionally by visiting the CNY fair aka Flower market in the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay with Salla, Sophie, Kenji and Sjoerd. The park was loaded with people and booths selling flowers and also booths selling different tiger themed accessories. The park was so full that you could barely move in the crowd. XD The main idea of visiting the flower market was to turn the luck for yourself for the coming year, so I should be very lucky this year, hhohhoo. :D

Flower market crowded with people in Victoria Park

Kumquat, symbolizes prosperity. These were everywhere, in homes, malls, our Halls etc.

Plum blossom flowers, symbolizes luck and most important luck in some new love ;)

Not sure what these are.. but they look nice, don't they? :D

Grrr, ready for the year of tiger! CNY eve party in Insomnia, LKF after
the flower market. Very good chicken wings in Insomnia btw! ;)

The 1st new year's day was also the Valentine's day this time, but obviously here the CNY day was more important. From this day started my three-day mission of collecting "lai-sii", the red envelopes loaded with money. :D According to the traditions, red envelopes are passed out during the CNY's celebration from married couples or elderly to unmarried juniors and children.

My "lai sii" collection that pretty much covered my travel budget in the Philippines, hhohoo :D

One of the many CNY feasts I had during the few first days of CNY. 8 different dishes was a must since the number 8 sounds like wealth in Chinese. There's chicken, fish, prawns, duck etc.

To summarize my first experience of CNY in Hong Kong, I really liked it here. The idea of getting all family members together to celebrate the CNY and visiting relatives and friends with gifts and wishing them a good and prosperous new year is really nice. And of course it was great fun to be still unmarried and collect "lai sii" (even from people that I didn't really know)! :D

Puerto Galera, Philippines

2010-02-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

Just to make a short update: I'm now sitting in the internet cafe in a island called Puerto Galera in the Philippines. I'll give you a more detailed story of how i got here etc. later on when I get back to HK.

In short, I survived to and in Manila for two nights. Then like within two hours in the Wednesday evening we decided that next day (Thu) we'll take a bus and a ferry ride to here, Puerto Galera! Took us like 4-5hours all in all to get here from Manila. :)

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm safe and in one piece, so no worries so far. <3

The weekend

2010-01-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

Today I spent the whole day at my room just relaxing and recharging myself. I used some of my quality time to glance through the photos from last year. Most of them were related to the student activities which i was enrolled in the last year. One word: TALKO <3

Yesterday we had a City Hunt, an event organized for exchange students. The idea was to complete as many checkpoints as possible with your team. The checkpoints were located all around HK and the points given varied according to the location. It was a nice event although I had slept oly for some 5hours. The team I was in didn't win, but we were not bad. :D Actually my roommate's team won, so it's almost the same. But they had to run a lot during the hunt, and Salla was even more tired than I was after Friday nite. :D

City Hunt team - buying some pineapple buns with butter

Bank of China Tower

Of course the day didn't stop to the City Hunt. I went to see my cousins straight after the event and found myself almost falling asleep at my cousin's place. XD I don't know how I managed to get myself to LKF after the dinner with my cousins, but somehow I did. Maybe because of the pasta and sushi I ate with my cousins.

In front of Oysters where u get long island ice tea for 35hkd!

Drugs drugs drugs

2010-01-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

I've been sneezing and coughing now for more than a week so I went to the health centre of PolyU today. I was there first time so the nurse checked the blood pressure, my weight and height and asked questions like "how many siblings I have, how many of them are male and how many female". And I was thinking that I came here for my allergic symptoms.. :D But the good thing is that now I know how much I weight so I can give you an update since I wasn't able to do so last time.

TADAA: 55,1kg (and the nurse said I'm really fit, hohoohoo) This means I have no worries yet and I can keep on eating as much as I can.

Now back to the doctor. It took only like 5minutes the actual appointment with the doctor. She agreed with me that it must be some allergy and wrote a prescription for the medicines. So I went to pick them, and this is what I got:

Three different pills: the one on up-left is two times a day, the one on up-right is four times a day and the one on bottom is three times a day. In addition for the coughing there's a small bottle of something that I need to take 4 times a day and it may cause drowsiness so I guess I'm not going out for a while. =p And how much all this cost me? Only 5 eur.

I just hope all these drugs will cure me..

Statistics

2010-01-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

I've been here now for three weeks and I've bought

8 pairs of shoes (3 high heels, 3 flat ones, 1 ankle boots, 1 boots)
2 handbags
6 pairs of earrings
xx amount of clothes

My weight three weeks ago WAS 56kg, the weight NOW is rather unknown... :D FYI I've been eating out almost everyday. Cooking in the Halls is possible, but just haven't yet got that much energy to cook myself. I'll try to get Salla and Sophie to cook with me; we can make some meatballs with mashed potatoes. Jättegott!

Today I was watching the live performance of Signmark in TST. Signmark is like the world's only deaf rap artist from Finland (http://www.signmark.biz). I felt like I have to be there and cheer for Finland but I also really enjoyed the performance! Actually I had a weird feeling of home-sickness too during the show.. Like Vili told me he had to look at photos of lakes (!) to cure his home-sick, I kinda felt the same relieving effect while watching the performance.

Tomorrow afternoon I will have the first group presentation in HK. Don't really have any pressure on it, because it's only a 5minutes presentation based on the assignment given. In addition in PolyU you get graded for your fluency in English during the course, mainly in presentations! I think I'll get those extra points in language. :D Tomorrow starts the chinese lessons as well, and I've signed up for the intermediate one, but I heard there will be a level test on the first class and if you don't pass it, you have to transfer to the elementary level. Let's see!

Visit to a health centre is also on my agenda tomorrow, since I've been having some sort of allergic symptoms for like almost two weeks, so I really want to get rid off the runny nose and coughing...

Almost forgot to add that, I've been challenged to have more blog followers than an "unknown" Brazilian jiu jiutsu practicer :D , so my dears, please log in and press the "follow" button. Appreciate it! <3

Dear diary..

2010-01-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Giulio was here with Arja. Hong Kong was their final stop before flying back to Helsinki so I tried my best to offer them a nice ending for their holiday. :) It was great to see them and even more exiting to listen to their adventures in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Really got me excited about the travelling! :D (Actually me, my roommate Salla and a Swedish girl Sophie have a plan to start planning the trips we wanna make this semester.)

Up on the windy Peak with great views

Crispy chicken, fried eggplants, deep fried shrimp and pork dumplings

Dessert time-the best time :)

Mango pudding, sago in coconut milk with melon and
the giant portion of mango ice cream with fruits

We were so full after all the food and dessert! Giulio and Arja had a morning flight the next day so I didn't have a chance to introduce the LKF for them.. :D Maybe next time...

Last Saturday we had a city (shitty) tour organized by the school (some student affairs office) with three attractions: Nan Lian Garden, Kowloon walled city park and Ladies' market in Mong Kok. Hanging with the other exchange students was really nice, but the tour itself didn't really satisfy me. It was more like a tour of gardens in HK. So, me, Salla and Sophie skipped the ladies market since we have already been there several times during the last weeks and went to shop in other places.

Nan Lian Garden

Sushi after the tour

We had a better city tour on Sunday after missing the Lantau Island trip with Salla, Sophie and Jakob exploring the Central with the Mid-Levels escalator (the world's longest covered escalator) and Soho.

Found the Rich Court

The view from the avenue of stars, TST. Also we made it to the symphony of lights which is the world's largest permanent light and sound show. It was alright, same as the past few years. :D

Nightlife

2010-01-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

The first two weeks in HKG have more or less been like a holiday: sightseeing, shopping, eating and out almost every nite. During the last week I've been introduced to the various Ladies' nites. Something like Tuesdays at Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), Wednesdays at Wan Chai and Thursdays at Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). Why is it called Ladies' nite then? Ladies get free entry and free drinks around 10 pm to 2am! So, welcome all my ladies (like Tytti & Elina) to HKG! <3

Last Wednesday was actually really nice. I was for the first time in the Happy Valley Racecourse and was amazed of the amount of people (locals and foreigners) and all the happening there. For most of the people it seemed to be more like a socializing event than just horse racing. People were having beer and McDonald's and chit-chatting with each other. But there were also people that look really addicted to the "game" and who were spending a lot of money on the betting. The racing ended around 11 pm and then people (exchange students) head to Wan Chai for Ladies' nite. :D

Long time no see!

2010-01-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

Haven't updated my blog since the first time because I wasn't able to use my laptop until now. But everything is better now after I got a new charger for my laptop! :) Really been missing my laptop <3

The last few days I've been busy with meeting new people and gettin' to new places. I've now settled to my room in the student halls and honestly, it's not that bad. There is enough space for both me and Salla. The space will probably become a problem after few months as shoes and clothes start to come out from the closets.. Did I alredy tell you that I'm living on 15th floor? I even have some seaview!

Culinary temptations? To tell you the truth, I have to say that there's been many times when I've just forgotten to take pics because I was too excited about the food and started to eat immediately.. :D Still managed to get something for you:

At Japanese restaurant: some really good snacks and rice with beef in a hot stone pot, yummy!

Curry beef and lemon ice tea, very affordable!

I have to go for some dim sum now, so hopefully i remember to take some pics of chicken feet etc. :D

First meal

2010-01-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

Here it comes, my first blog about the Kinkky's journey to gain weight by eating Hong Kong for a whole semester.
First I have to tell that it wasn't so bad to have like +22 degrees with sunshine after the 9 hours flight from the icy-cold Finland. =p
Didn't take any pictures yet, so I can only describe the stupid smile with mouth open on my face after I realized that I am in HKG and won't be leaving for 6mths!
The first meal in HKG was a Chinese one, of course, with my aunt and uncles. A cup of hot steamed rice with spare ribs in blackbean sauce and chicken feet. Yummy! After the meal had to go to my cousin's place to sleep for a while because I only slept for some 2 hours during the flight and it was already like next morning in Finland.
I also already saw the lobby of my student residence as we took Salla (my roommate) there to check-in. I didn't check-in yet because I will stay at my cousin's place for few days first, so I didn't see what's the room like yet. From what I've heard it should be a nice place and quite new as well. I will meet Salla tomorrow so let's see what she says after the first night. I shall check-in there on Thursday.. But I already like the location: next to train station and really close to everything (what more a lazy ass like me could ask for). :D