Acclimatised
Oh yes, you'll be pleased to hear that after 4 weeks that at least to a point I've acclimatized to Hong Kong's 95% humidity. That's not to say I'm not still sweating like Jeremy Beadle in a glove shop still, but I appear to of got over the humidity induced hangovers!
So back to the important stuff, eating! I'm told that over here I really should be able to get hold of snake and turtle, lizards and god knows what else but as yet all I've managed to do is to select my own prey. Yes that's right to ensure freshness in all things many of the local restaurants give you the choice of countless fish, lobsters, shell fish and anything else you could care to find, from buckets outside their kitchens, so I’ve been judge and jury to fish, prawns and squid with the chef being the executioner, boiling, frying and slicing them up to be eaten raw!
I've not seen a great deal of new wild life out here other than lots of bugs including a preying mantis but while exploring the local markets I've found all sorts of stuff including tanks of live frogs, turtles, box loads of chickens more fish and in the bird market thousands and thousands of them of all shapes and sizes, and this appears to be normal out here…
I've actually been at least a little bit active out here in HK, I've tagged onto a few of Sean's mates and have an hour of squash each week, I've also taken his mountain bike out and tried to kill myself around the parks out here and probably most entertaining is the wind surfing.
Now knowing how to surf (ish) and sail (double ish), and obviously being a natural in water, windsurfing should not of been a problem for me, and if is fair to say I was a natural in the water. However, every time I climbed out of it onto the surfboard things changed a little especially when the waves got up! After a couple of sessions of a few hours I was exhausted, sunburnt and blistered but I don't think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say I'd pretty much become "king of the seas" save for tacking which still regularly required falling off (into water resembling a rubbish dump) and turning a bit more manually!
I've also been out and about visiting a few of the monasteries around HK. The most impressive out here seem to be the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and The Big Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery, yes, they have big things here as well! As the name suggests the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery has thousands of Buddhas, in fact over 13,000 (so the book says, I decided against counting) and unfortunately almost as many steps. The Big Buddha is again at the top of a hill and on Lantau, it's a 22m tall bronze monster and I have to say it puts the banana, merino, rocking horse and even Larry the Big Lobster to shame and there is a superb view from the top.
This e-mails final point has wrong footed me a little, it would appear that always landing on your feet can do that sometimes. I've got myself a job but unfortunately it may actually be too good to leave after just a couple of months to continue my travels so I may be staying here in Hong Kong for a bit longer. The job is as Senior Account Manager for OgilvyOne on the Economist Asia Pacific account so assuming the Chinese authorities grants me a visa and I don't get fired it may be rather fortunate that I've got over the humidity hang over!
And that's me in HK so until the next time....
Jonathan
House of 2 mutts (they got a 2nd - keeps 1st company apparently!)
O Pui Village
Hong Kong
So back to the important stuff, eating! I'm told that over here I really should be able to get hold of snake and turtle, lizards and god knows what else but as yet all I've managed to do is to select my own prey. Yes that's right to ensure freshness in all things many of the local restaurants give you the choice of countless fish, lobsters, shell fish and anything else you could care to find, from buckets outside their kitchens, so I’ve been judge and jury to fish, prawns and squid with the chef being the executioner, boiling, frying and slicing them up to be eaten raw!
I've not seen a great deal of new wild life out here other than lots of bugs including a preying mantis but while exploring the local markets I've found all sorts of stuff including tanks of live frogs, turtles, box loads of chickens more fish and in the bird market thousands and thousands of them of all shapes and sizes, and this appears to be normal out here…
I've actually been at least a little bit active out here in HK, I've tagged onto a few of Sean's mates and have an hour of squash each week, I've also taken his mountain bike out and tried to kill myself around the parks out here and probably most entertaining is the wind surfing.
Now knowing how to surf (ish) and sail (double ish), and obviously being a natural in water, windsurfing should not of been a problem for me, and if is fair to say I was a natural in the water. However, every time I climbed out of it onto the surfboard things changed a little especially when the waves got up! After a couple of sessions of a few hours I was exhausted, sunburnt and blistered but I don't think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say I'd pretty much become "king of the seas" save for tacking which still regularly required falling off (into water resembling a rubbish dump) and turning a bit more manually!
I've also been out and about visiting a few of the monasteries around HK. The most impressive out here seem to be the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and The Big Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery, yes, they have big things here as well! As the name suggests the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery has thousands of Buddhas, in fact over 13,000 (so the book says, I decided against counting) and unfortunately almost as many steps. The Big Buddha is again at the top of a hill and on Lantau, it's a 22m tall bronze monster and I have to say it puts the banana, merino, rocking horse and even Larry the Big Lobster to shame and there is a superb view from the top.
This e-mails final point has wrong footed me a little, it would appear that always landing on your feet can do that sometimes. I've got myself a job but unfortunately it may actually be too good to leave after just a couple of months to continue my travels so I may be staying here in Hong Kong for a bit longer. The job is as Senior Account Manager for OgilvyOne on the Economist Asia Pacific account so assuming the Chinese authorities grants me a visa and I don't get fired it may be rather fortunate that I've got over the humidity hang over!
And that's me in HK so until the next time....
Jonathan
House of 2 mutts (they got a 2nd - keeps 1st company apparently!)
O Pui Village
Hong Kong
posted by JP at 11:45 pm
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