A normal day in Southeast Asia?

Vaihto-opiskelun aikana haluaa nähdä paljon! 

Tästä syystä olenkin aktiivisesti yrittänyt osallistua kaikenlaiseen vapaa-ajan aktiviteettiin täällä kampuksella ja kampuksen ulkopuolellakin. Missioni paikallisten kokemusten haalimisessa on onnistunut oikein hyvin viimeisinä viikkoina. Osallistuminen sulkapalloturnaukseen, asuntolan yhteinen illallinen ja kiinalaisten pelien pelailu ‘’common roomissa’’ ovat olleet mukavia kokemuksia. En kuitenkaan ole voinut lopettaa turistin uraa sataprosenttisesti, sillä tuntuu mahdottomalta käydä läpi edes kaikki kliseet matkailussa täällä. Tätä listaa on käyty läpi mm. Macaon reissun merkeissä. Angry Birdsien lisäksi olen löytänyt palan pohjolaa lettukestien merkeissä. Empiirinen tutkimus I-housen yleisissä tiloissa antoi tuloksen: Pinaattiletut menestyisivät Hong Kongissa. Minkälainen on sitten normaali päivä tässä vaihtosirkuksessa? Yritän kuvailla tänne normaalia kaavaa mukailevaa päivää. Tämä voi olla ihan jees kokemus itsellenikin!

Mong Kok shopping mall

Finding nemo @ Goldfish market

There it was!

Like I mentioned before it seems like there is an endless amount of things to do in Hong Kong. My mission to do more local things has been put into action during the past weeks and some cool things I’ve been a part of are for example a badminton tournament as well as our Hostel’s communal dinner. Still…the tourist life here is not over yet and to shorten my list of ‘’Lonely Planet top 100’’ I visited Macau this week. It might be hard to tell you what a normal day is like in CUHK but I will try to do that right here:

CUHK

A normal day in CUHK as an exchange student:

09:00

Waking up to take a shower. Not a surprise that the towel is still wet from yesterday because the air is so humid. Promise myself to buy more towels every day. Haven’t done that yet though.

10:00

Leaving the hostel to catch the 10:15 bus since a walk down to lecture hall would take at least 20min (Some days I’ve missed the bus and that means only one thing: a jog down the hill).  On a good morning there is also time to enjoy a 20-dollar breakfast in the canteen which is pretty nice. A coffee to go from the separate high quality service desk will be 20 dollars as well.

10:30

Arrival to lower campus. From here I take a walk to wherever my class is. Usually this walk includes sweat, a packed elevator and buying a drink for the lectures from the vending machines that work with NFC money. This has become a routine. I am a victim of the octopus card system…you are able to buy stuff with the card even if it goes over the amount you’ve topped up.

10:30-12:15

课

12:15-14:00

After the lecture there is a nice gap in my schedule to have a lunch in one of the canteens. There is a large variety of them at campus but the one that I’ve mostly been to serves the best fried rice and noodles that I’ve tried here. That stuff is good! It’s fun to try different beverages in the canteens but why do I always manage to get a hot tea instead of ice tea? I should definitely master the word cold in Mandarin.

14:30-16:15

课

16:15

After the lectures I go to the library to practice some chinese with headphones, leave downtown or somewhere else for dinner or go to the sports centre etc. I find it really hard to describe a normal evening but it usually goes something like this:

     1. Bus surfing, chilling inside the elevator, hanging out in the MTR

     2.  Pick Downtown or Campus

     3. Do something sweet

     4.  Repeat number 1

     5. Catch up on readings and other stuff  from school

     6. Get ready for tomorrow

00:00

The night continues in various ways: sleep or study Hong Kong style.

Lunar New Year dinner:

On top of this normal day I attended the communal dinner for Chan Chun Ha hall and enjoyed some great food there. The setup was efficient as always here. A big bowl of everything and bones to be left on the table. Once everyone is ready the plastic cover of the table turns into a bag an all the waste is thrown away. In 10 seconds the whole table is clean again. During the evening the student council performed and we heard a lot of speeches (all of them in Cantonese though). It was interesting to see the traditions and also receive some lucky money since for example professors might give you a red envelope with some money during the lunar New Year festivities.

A mix of things to eat including a head ;)

Finnish Pancakes:

A week ago the world of Finnish pancakes was revealed to the people living in I-house. I was glad to see everyone enjoyed the pancakes…they needed a little pizza hut and kfc to get full though.

Lettukestit

Badminton:

The halls/dormitories compete against each other in a tournament in various sports. I really wanted to play badminton here so I signed up to be a part of the badminton team in this tournament. It’s been a successful competition for us since we won last and this week!

Head's cup

OZONE:

Friday night was completed by a visit to Ozone, a nightclub at the Ritz Carlton HK. This is the highest bar in the world and located at 480 meters the view is more than awesome. The drinks go from 88 dollars to xxxxx dollars. Quite a cool elevator from the 102^nd floor to the 118^th floor! There is a dress code from 9pm onwards.

OZONE

MACAU:

Grand Lisboa Casino

The opposite of a normal day is a visit to Macau on a Tuesday. To get to this other special administrative region of China you are able to take a ferry from TST or Central. A round trip will cost you somewhere between 240-350 HKD in the economy class and boats depart every 30 minutes. A helicopter ride is also available from HK downtown.

The bubble theatre inside the City Of Dreams Casino with over the top effects

Once arriving to Macau you notice immediately that the whole place lives on the casino business. This place is the Casino capital of the world…Macau gaming revenue is over 33.5 billion dollars and for example the yearly revenue figure represented a 42 percent increase over 2010. Macau passed Las Vegas in year 2006. This is the place to see some buildings, entertainment and people who define the word money. People spend ridiculous amounts of money in the gaming tables. Surprisingly the city also offers some very local atmosphere in some parts of it.  The Portuguese history is also there with the ruins and the language (streets have a Portuguese name, in China?). This is because Macau was established as a Portuguese colony and stayed as a western empire until the late 1990’s.

The Venetian

People come to Macau mainly to gamble and invest a large amount of money. The minimum bet for gaming tables will be very high. In most of the hotels the minimum bet for blackjack is about 30 euros.

The city is worth at least a day trip but they are coming up with new things to do all the time so that you’d spend more days there. Macau is over the top and a little bit more. 

Back at CUHK campus