I stole this from Danny
Danny's funny and I'm really tired so here you go...
12.01.05
So Beth is here for a solid 5 days and we've been having a good ole time here in Hong Kong. Yesterday was full of stressful situations and irritating occurrences and generally not a good day. There's no point in sugar-coating it, Hong Kong can be an extremely stressful city, and yesterday she flexed her muscles upon Beth and I.
Today was all about travel agents and Hong Kong Disneyland!
After an absurd day with plane tickets yesterday, we hit the jackpot by visiting the headquarters of Bangkok Air. Thanks to their extremely patient employees and their genius Discovery Air Pass, I now will be flying from Hong Kong to Cambodia to Bangkok to Koh Samui and back to Hong Kong for a very reasonable $2600 HK (~$320 USD).
We MTRd on over to HK Disneyland after the travel agency and immediately hit up Space Mountain which was incredible! The inside of space mountain was all glittery with stars and planets and fireballs(?) and I truly did enter an altered state of mind (for the first time since Amsterdam!). Thanks to a genius invention called the single-riders line we could bypass the 25 minute wait and ride over and over again. We only rode it twice, which was probably a mistake because it is the only real 'ride' in the park.
The rest of the park was overloading with lameness for the most part. Our first meal was dry, bland, and full of bones. BBQ Pork Ribs with Rice is much better in theory than in practice. The Sprite was good though, and the ice cubes were the cylindrical kind-- I love those! At this point, Beth started feeling sick/tired, the culprit: malaria pills. We sat around for a bit watching kids run around entertaining themselves with plastic bags in a park full of multi-million dollar attractions, and then made our way to the Character Photo garden which was dominated by 40 minute waits for the major characters. We ended up skipping out and taking a photo with a small dragon from Mulan who was being forced to put his/her arm around a hysterically crying child.
Next was Tarzan's Treehouse which was epic in it's ability to bore and waste time. Skip it if you ever find yourself in HK Disneyland. Actually, if you're in Hong Kong it's probably best to skip Disneyland altogether. And if you're in Asia, it's probably best just to skip Hong Kong. And I'll even go one step further, If given the option to travel anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, I'd choose Australia/Central Asia/Middle East/Europe/Africa over East Asia. We had dinner at 'Astro Burger' where we spent the entire meal trying to figure out what kind of sauce we were given for the chicken fingers (my guess: ketchup with vinegar). So our visit ended on a good note with the evening fireworks display which actually ended up being really cool. The music was timed with the fireworks which was something I've always heard about but never seen. Following a stampede toward the exit and trying on every hat in the entire park we left and headed home so Beth could get some real sleep.
Tomorrow, who knows! More travel agents and some laundry and hopefully a visit to the Peak and a solid night out of live music, good friends, quality drinks and asking people to 'Join my harem' in Cantonese. Another piece of advice is to learn how to say "I can speak _________(language of country you are in)" whenever you travel abroad. It always gets people's attention and creates laughter and dialogue, even though you immediately have to explain that you were just kidding and all you really know how to say is "yes", "no", and "join my harem".
Off to make some phone calls, can't wait to get back to the states!
Danny
and here's some older stuff that I thought was interesting...
11.26.05
...After traveling a bit through Asia, it's clear that Hong Kong has the best grasp of English. However, it seems like there are a few rules that locals just cannot understand. For one, in English, the subject and adjective are not interchangeable. Often you will see phrases like "Cool is Radio" or "Impossible is Nothing". I tried explaining the first example to my radio program manager but everytime I reversed it ("Radio is Cool") she would respond, "and Cool is Radio!" and laugh. She get's an A for effort.
Often, Hong Kongese signs and notices have perfect grammar, but the word choice is awkward. I think this is a result of a clash between past British influence and omnipresent American globalization. For example, if you drink a lot of coffee here at Pacific Coast Coffee it's a good idea to join the "Frequent Drinker's Club". And the Winter Spice Latte is "laced with creamy white choclate". Instead of "caution: wet paint" they use "beware: wet paint". All you need to do is look around to see these 'close but no cigar'isms--it's what makes Hong Kong the city it is! I can't really accuse them of misusing the English language, sometimes I find myself wondering whether my words make sense-- I think I butcher certain rules of basic grammar.
Breaking news: I didn't go on to the next round of the singing contest, which is total bullshit. I'm all about cultural relativity but Hong Kongese have a horrible taste in music. The top ten who advanced are all kids singing whiny soulless Canto-Pop which is the HK equivalent of listening to Celine Dion underwater. I was the only person singing a capella which is unheard of in Asia-- where using backing tracks (half-assed lip synching) is a widely accepted practice. Show me one good Hong Kong band and I will show you the 9,251,213 bands who they are trying to copy. I am allowed to say this because somewhere in the US some Hong Kong native studying abroad is writing about how American music is loud, garish and unorganized.
I've come to realize that as the world slowly succumbs to globalization and a single world culture, it has become justifiable to say that one culture is 'better' than another. Not better in the sense that the people are better, but in the sense that one will continue to last and gain influence and another will die out. The local students who have adopted Western culture in their lifestyle (good with english, wearing western clothes, listening to western music, generally extroverted) are the ones who are popular and leaders of their social groups. Students who adopt the traditional Asian mentality involving saving face and a reserved personality are loners for the most part. As Western businesses with white executives move to China it will become increasingly advantageous to adopt a Western lifestyle over the traditional Asian lifestyle that was thriving just 50 years ago. So in conclusion, Western (mostly American) culture is 'better' than Asian culture because it's appeal is more widespread and spreads virally rather than relying on being passed down through generations.
OK, that's enough of the serious and possibly offensive rants-- tonight is prank night and we have a special mission all planned out!
-danny
I have to leave to go to Thailand tomorrow and I don't have a ticket yet. This isn't good. Europe has a billion super cheap flights (England to Austria for $13USD on ryanair!!) and East Asia has very very few, ridiculously expensive flights.
On the bright side, the minibus rides are getting less scary and my laundry is in the washing machine right now. And the single riders line at space mountain really was very fast. The only other people in it were a father and son from Atlanta. Everyone else in the entire park may have been Asian. The whole "Eastern collectivism/Western individualism" thing totally worked to our advantage. Go America!
12.01.05
So Beth is here for a solid 5 days and we've been having a good ole time here in Hong Kong. Yesterday was full of stressful situations and irritating occurrences and generally not a good day. There's no point in sugar-coating it, Hong Kong can be an extremely stressful city, and yesterday she flexed her muscles upon Beth and I.
Today was all about travel agents and Hong Kong Disneyland!
After an absurd day with plane tickets yesterday, we hit the jackpot by visiting the headquarters of Bangkok Air. Thanks to their extremely patient employees and their genius Discovery Air Pass, I now will be flying from Hong Kong to Cambodia to Bangkok to Koh Samui and back to Hong Kong for a very reasonable $2600 HK (~$320 USD).
We MTRd on over to HK Disneyland after the travel agency and immediately hit up Space Mountain which was incredible! The inside of space mountain was all glittery with stars and planets and fireballs(?) and I truly did enter an altered state of mind (for the first time since Amsterdam!). Thanks to a genius invention called the single-riders line we could bypass the 25 minute wait and ride over and over again. We only rode it twice, which was probably a mistake because it is the only real 'ride' in the park.
The rest of the park was overloading with lameness for the most part. Our first meal was dry, bland, and full of bones. BBQ Pork Ribs with Rice is much better in theory than in practice. The Sprite was good though, and the ice cubes were the cylindrical kind-- I love those! At this point, Beth started feeling sick/tired, the culprit: malaria pills. We sat around for a bit watching kids run around entertaining themselves with plastic bags in a park full of multi-million dollar attractions, and then made our way to the Character Photo garden which was dominated by 40 minute waits for the major characters. We ended up skipping out and taking a photo with a small dragon from Mulan who was being forced to put his/her arm around a hysterically crying child.
Next was Tarzan's Treehouse which was epic in it's ability to bore and waste time. Skip it if you ever find yourself in HK Disneyland. Actually, if you're in Hong Kong it's probably best to skip Disneyland altogether. And if you're in Asia, it's probably best just to skip Hong Kong. And I'll even go one step further, If given the option to travel anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, I'd choose Australia/Central Asia/Middle East/Europe/Africa over East Asia. We had dinner at 'Astro Burger' where we spent the entire meal trying to figure out what kind of sauce we were given for the chicken fingers (my guess: ketchup with vinegar). So our visit ended on a good note with the evening fireworks display which actually ended up being really cool. The music was timed with the fireworks which was something I've always heard about but never seen. Following a stampede toward the exit and trying on every hat in the entire park we left and headed home so Beth could get some real sleep.
Tomorrow, who knows! More travel agents and some laundry and hopefully a visit to the Peak and a solid night out of live music, good friends, quality drinks and asking people to 'Join my harem' in Cantonese. Another piece of advice is to learn how to say "I can speak _________(language of country you are in)" whenever you travel abroad. It always gets people's attention and creates laughter and dialogue, even though you immediately have to explain that you were just kidding and all you really know how to say is "yes", "no", and "join my harem".
Off to make some phone calls, can't wait to get back to the states!
Danny
and here's some older stuff that I thought was interesting...
11.26.05
...After traveling a bit through Asia, it's clear that Hong Kong has the best grasp of English. However, it seems like there are a few rules that locals just cannot understand. For one, in English, the subject and adjective are not interchangeable. Often you will see phrases like "Cool is Radio" or "Impossible is Nothing". I tried explaining the first example to my radio program manager but everytime I reversed it ("Radio is Cool") she would respond, "and Cool is Radio!" and laugh. She get's an A for effort.
Often, Hong Kongese signs and notices have perfect grammar, but the word choice is awkward. I think this is a result of a clash between past British influence and omnipresent American globalization. For example, if you drink a lot of coffee here at Pacific Coast Coffee it's a good idea to join the "Frequent Drinker's Club". And the Winter Spice Latte is "laced with creamy white choclate". Instead of "caution: wet paint" they use "beware: wet paint". All you need to do is look around to see these 'close but no cigar'isms--it's what makes Hong Kong the city it is! I can't really accuse them of misusing the English language, sometimes I find myself wondering whether my words make sense-- I think I butcher certain rules of basic grammar.
Breaking news: I didn't go on to the next round of the singing contest, which is total bullshit. I'm all about cultural relativity but Hong Kongese have a horrible taste in music. The top ten who advanced are all kids singing whiny soulless Canto-Pop which is the HK equivalent of listening to Celine Dion underwater. I was the only person singing a capella which is unheard of in Asia-- where using backing tracks (half-assed lip synching) is a widely accepted practice. Show me one good Hong Kong band and I will show you the 9,251,213 bands who they are trying to copy. I am allowed to say this because somewhere in the US some Hong Kong native studying abroad is writing about how American music is loud, garish and unorganized.
I've come to realize that as the world slowly succumbs to globalization and a single world culture, it has become justifiable to say that one culture is 'better' than another. Not better in the sense that the people are better, but in the sense that one will continue to last and gain influence and another will die out. The local students who have adopted Western culture in their lifestyle (good with english, wearing western clothes, listening to western music, generally extroverted) are the ones who are popular and leaders of their social groups. Students who adopt the traditional Asian mentality involving saving face and a reserved personality are loners for the most part. As Western businesses with white executives move to China it will become increasingly advantageous to adopt a Western lifestyle over the traditional Asian lifestyle that was thriving just 50 years ago. So in conclusion, Western (mostly American) culture is 'better' than Asian culture because it's appeal is more widespread and spreads virally rather than relying on being passed down through generations.
OK, that's enough of the serious and possibly offensive rants-- tonight is prank night and we have a special mission all planned out!
-danny
I have to leave to go to Thailand tomorrow and I don't have a ticket yet. This isn't good. Europe has a billion super cheap flights (England to Austria for $13USD on ryanair!!) and East Asia has very very few, ridiculously expensive flights.
On the bright side, the minibus rides are getting less scary and my laundry is in the washing machine right now. And the single riders line at space mountain really was very fast. The only other people in it were a father and son from Atlanta. Everyone else in the entire park may have been Asian. The whole "Eastern collectivism/Western individualism" thing totally worked to our advantage. Go America!
posted by beth at 12:12 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for the update- Beth and Danny.
Barb
Yay Beth! Yay Danny! Boo HK Disney! Danny, you'll be missed when Beth leaves for Thailand. Beth, have fun with the elephants. Update on me (even though it's not my blog): tomorrow is the baby shower and I DON'T have gestational diabetes. So yay me, too.
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