Kung Hey Fat Choi!
Happy Chinese New Year from Hong Kong!
Wow, people are excited. It's the Year of the Dog so there are pictures of happy puppies ALL over the place.
And kids all get new clothes and the little ones all get red or gold outfits. Pretty cute!
Koh Pha Ngan was nice. I talked with Mote about working/living in a place so saturated with foreigners. He said he liked it usually because he likes practicing his English but not the Israelis cause they get into fights and are really loud. Woo hoo! Worse than Americans! I tried to talk about Buddhism with him but he said it was hard to talk about in English. I did find out he was a monk at a temple for 9 months and took it really really seriously. I also found out that the Thai army makes 20 year old guys pick a peice of paper out of a box and if it's red they don't go into the army and if it's black they do. He got a black one and carried a gun but never used it.
Then I left and went to Mae Haad! Laura (from Elephant Nature Park) showed up and came with me to Mae Haad with her friend Dave. Woo hoo! I saw Ot's rooster that he fights in Thong Sala and makes money off of (that was weird), "worked" at the bar, learned more Thai, made friends with a 6 year old Austrlian girl named Jade who also really likes elephants, went to a Chinese Temple and learned how to pray to Buddha, went back to Koh Ma (the tide wasn't nearly as annoying, there's a new guy running it and he found the shorts Danny left there and was wearing them!), met Chau's 3 month old baby, met my first always-angry Thai person (Chau's wife), and pretty much chilled out, sometimes discussing the difference between 40 year olds in Mae Haad (very tan, lots of tattoos, not that much clothing) and 40 year olds in the States (morgages, jobs, less tattoos, more clothing) with Laura.
Since then, I've been slowly getting back into Western society. The beach I stayed at in Koh Samui had a McDonalds, a Burger King, 2 Pizza Huts, 2 Haagen Daz stores, and several Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Converse stores each. There were a ton of fancy restuarants with Italian or French chefs and menus that all had correct English. Weird, weird, weird! I got a salad for the first time in a very long time.
And now Hong Kong. Woah. I'm wearing my jacket after 10am and put on my shoes for the first time since in over a month. I used a jetway (is that what it's called?) for the first time in two months, the hotel I'm staying at has a bathtub with a fixed shower ("shower"in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand usually meant a shower head hanging from the wall in the area where the toilet and sink were. It was hand held and you just kind of tried your hardest to make sure it didn't spray the toilet paper roll) and it's more than $10 a night. Like a lot more.
So tonight is a big parade for the New Year. That'll be fun. It makes up for missing the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It'll be cold, but I mean cold like "Oh no, I guess I'll have to wear my sneakers, my track jacket and my cute new hat!" not like actually cold cold. And then tomorrow...
I'm going home! I'm not that excited about being here and all the hotel rooms under $300 are booked up so it's a lot cheaper to change my flight than to stay in Hong Kong two more nights.
So this is it. My last night in Asia. I feel all sorts of weird. Leaving Thailand this morning I was actually really sad but I'm hoping that leaving Hong Kong will just feel like a relief.
Jan. 30th - 10:15am (Hong Kong time) Leave Hong Kong
Jan. 30th - 12:50pm (New York time) Arrive New York
Wow, people are excited. It's the Year of the Dog so there are pictures of happy puppies ALL over the place.
And kids all get new clothes and the little ones all get red or gold outfits. Pretty cute!
Koh Pha Ngan was nice. I talked with Mote about working/living in a place so saturated with foreigners. He said he liked it usually because he likes practicing his English but not the Israelis cause they get into fights and are really loud. Woo hoo! Worse than Americans! I tried to talk about Buddhism with him but he said it was hard to talk about in English. I did find out he was a monk at a temple for 9 months and took it really really seriously. I also found out that the Thai army makes 20 year old guys pick a peice of paper out of a box and if it's red they don't go into the army and if it's black they do. He got a black one and carried a gun but never used it.
Then I left and went to Mae Haad! Laura (from Elephant Nature Park) showed up and came with me to Mae Haad with her friend Dave. Woo hoo! I saw Ot's rooster that he fights in Thong Sala and makes money off of (that was weird), "worked" at the bar, learned more Thai, made friends with a 6 year old Austrlian girl named Jade who also really likes elephants, went to a Chinese Temple and learned how to pray to Buddha, went back to Koh Ma (the tide wasn't nearly as annoying, there's a new guy running it and he found the shorts Danny left there and was wearing them!), met Chau's 3 month old baby, met my first always-angry Thai person (Chau's wife), and pretty much chilled out, sometimes discussing the difference between 40 year olds in Mae Haad (very tan, lots of tattoos, not that much clothing) and 40 year olds in the States (morgages, jobs, less tattoos, more clothing) with Laura.
Since then, I've been slowly getting back into Western society. The beach I stayed at in Koh Samui had a McDonalds, a Burger King, 2 Pizza Huts, 2 Haagen Daz stores, and several Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Converse stores each. There were a ton of fancy restuarants with Italian or French chefs and menus that all had correct English. Weird, weird, weird! I got a salad for the first time in a very long time.
And now Hong Kong. Woah. I'm wearing my jacket after 10am and put on my shoes for the first time since in over a month. I used a jetway (is that what it's called?) for the first time in two months, the hotel I'm staying at has a bathtub with a fixed shower ("shower"in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand usually meant a shower head hanging from the wall in the area where the toilet and sink were. It was hand held and you just kind of tried your hardest to make sure it didn't spray the toilet paper roll) and it's more than $10 a night. Like a lot more.
So tonight is a big parade for the New Year. That'll be fun. It makes up for missing the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It'll be cold, but I mean cold like "Oh no, I guess I'll have to wear my sneakers, my track jacket and my cute new hat!" not like actually cold cold. And then tomorrow...
I'm going home! I'm not that excited about being here and all the hotel rooms under $300 are booked up so it's a lot cheaper to change my flight than to stay in Hong Kong two more nights.
So this is it. My last night in Asia. I feel all sorts of weird. Leaving Thailand this morning I was actually really sad but I'm hoping that leaving Hong Kong will just feel like a relief.
Jan. 30th - 10:15am (Hong Kong time) Leave Hong Kong
Jan. 30th - 12:50pm (New York time) Arrive New York
posted by beth at 7:13 PM
3 Comments:
Hi Beth,
Sounds like your last days in Asia are being lived to the fullest. Happy year of the dog to you !
Everyone here who loves you is looking forward to seeing you. Maybe you'll have been in Asia so long that we'll seem exotic and our customs quaint.
Lots of love,
Barbara
don't worry - it'll be great being home. Maybe, if you're (really) nice to her, Erica will introduce you to her new diaper service man who used to be in "Mephiskapheles". How cool is she? Who has else diapers delivered by a former ska star?
Beth! Come back to Madison ASAP and don't end your blog!!!
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