Temporary Expat

The Dutch Invasion

2006-07-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

Be warned: I write a lot and I don't expect you to read everything... But this blog is also like a diary to myself you know, so I just blurt everything out...

In the past week it seems like the Dutch are invading Hong Kong. I have had 'visits' from some friends from Delft, which was really fun.

First of all, students from my faculty arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday, for a study trip organised by Students Association i.d. This is the same trip I organised myself 4 years ago; we went to Japan then.

On Monday I met the students, in the evening, on Hong Kong Island. I was going to have dinner with them, but I was watching Superman: The Movie on dvd at Yoyo's house, so by the time I got to the restaurant, they were already finished. From there I accompanied the Delft students to the Peak. Being a bit of a HK guy by now, they could use me as their guide, showing the wat to the Peak :). The view was beautiful; clear sky, so I made some nice pictures again.

Also, on Tuesday and Wednesday I joined the group to their company visits, which I really liked. If they read this: thanks guys! Having experienced a similar trip to another Asian trip, it brought back a lot of nice memories of Japan2002... Wearing your suit in the really hot weather, waiting at the train stations, almost falling asleep during the lectures at the companies... Actually, I didn't really have the last problem, but many of the Dutch students did have some difficulty keeping their energy level up. Lastly, I gave them a little gift... When I was in Japan, we had a small 'gossip book', which we called 'The Pink Bible'. This was a blank notebook with a hard cover that could be used by all the participants to write down any kind of gossip, jokes and other kind of nonsense, to entertain ourselves during the trip. By chance, I had brought an empty notebook to HK, but didn't use it, so I gave it to them. I didn't need to explain much about how to make a gossip book... the pages immediately filled themselves almost. Great fun, I'm very curious to browse through the book after their trip.

So, about the company visits: on Monday, we visited GoldPeak, a company manufacturing batteries and light switches, which was really much interesting than it may sound. In the afternoon, we visited a very familiar place for me; the School of Design (SD) at the PolyU, where I spent 6 weeks for the IDO project, of course. I ran into Nicole, Roger, Peter and Sheila (tutors) and also my group mate Angela, later that day, by chance. It was very nice to see them again. At the SD we got some presentations and later we went to the Industrial Centre, which I had already visited during the IDO project; it's a facility for students where they have any manufacturing technique imaginable, to produce prototypes and such. In the evening I had dinner with the group in a nice Chinese restaurant. After that, I went with Joost (one of the organising students) to Mong Kok, to walk around and do some shopping. Later Yoyo joined us, as she had just watched a movie nearby.

On Tuesday, in the morning, we went to Philips Design, which is situated in the Science and Technology Park; a brand new and really high tech park where more and more R+D companies are settling. We first took a train from Tsim Sha Tsui to another train station, and from there, because we were a little late, we took taxis! A whole row of taxi's was lined up to bring a group of more than 30 people to the company... so luxurious! At Philips, we met some designers who gave interesting lectures about their way of designing. Very nice visit, but unfortunately time was too short to have a tour around the design office. After consuming the very nice lunch that was provided by Philips, we went to the Hong Kong Design Centre (again by taxi!), where we had some presentations about HK wanting to become the design hub of Asia.

I then said goodbye to the group and met with Yoyo and her friends in the evening, to enjoy a nice 'hot pot' dinner in a restaurant near my hotel.

On Friday, I met Trieu, my friend from Delft and former internship mentor. He owns a small strategic design agency in Delft, where I did my internship earlier this year. The day before, Trieu emailed me that he would be in HK for one night, on his way to Taiwan. He travels to Asia a few times per year for business. So of course we had to meet. Friday night I had just come back from Macau (see other post), so we met late in the evening at his hotel, Langham Place in Mong Kok. First, we went to the really bad 'Cyber' disco on Nathan road; hiphop and some 'gabber' type of music... nice, but REALLY LOUD. After a while we went to a place a bit more quiet; we took a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong on Hong Kong Island; the nightlife area where all the foreigners (and Chinese women looking for foreigners to hook up with) go. Drank some beers and enjoyed a nice live band.

It was kind of strange but ofcourse also a lot of fun meeting all these people that I know well in Hong Kong. I wish them a pleasant stay in Asia...

Back in HK

2006-07-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

Well... I'm back in Hong Kong. I got here on Sunday night. Had a good flight, slept most of the time. I'm now staying at the Goodrich Hotel on Woosung street in Jordan. It's a budget hotel, but really good. My personal travel agent Yoyo arranged it for me, so good... Jordan is right in the center of Kowloon, and the hotel is just around the corner from the MTR station, so it's very easy to get around from here.

Metropolis / Sydney

2006-07-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

As you may know, the city where Superman/Clark Kent lives is called Metropolis. This is actually a fictional city, conceived by Superman's creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. But believe it or not, I am now really in Metropolis! For the movie Superman Returns, Sydney was used as a stand-in for Metropolis. Most of the movie was shot on-set, at Fox Studios Australia, but some of the scenes were shot on various locations in the city, some of which I have already encountered by chance (look here). Walking through Sydney is really like walking through Superman's city... So here are some pictures of the cityscape of Metropolis/Sydney.

Walking around in Sydney

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Sydney was buying a ‘Red Travelpass’ allowing me to use most of the public transport for one week unlimited. But my hostel is so centrally located, that I can just walk everywhere! Don’t really need the pass…

After getting up much too late, I walked from the hostel on Pitt Street to Darling Harbour. From there I walked up north, to the Harbour bridge and over it, to the other side of the water. Incredible view on Sydney’s skyline + the famous Opera House. Walked around there through some posh residential neighborhood, trying to find a ferry harbour to go back to the other side but didn’t find it. Took a train back instead to Circular Quay and ate some fish ‘n chips in a nice restaurant looking out on the Harbour bridge.

AN OVERVIEW OF ALL MY PHOTOS HERE

I Love \S/

2006-07-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

When I was 7 (that's 19 years ago), my father took me to the cinema for the first time in my life. We went to see Superman IV, the last Superman movie with the late and great Christopher Reeve. It was just me and my dad, my sisters stayed home with my mother, they were to little at the time I guess, but just to avoid any jealousy, I remember ducking beneath car window when we drove off, so it would seem my dad was leaving alone.

I don't remember how he or we chose to go that particular movie, and even though Superman IV was the worst in the series, back then I thought it was to coolest thing I ever saw. From that moment on I have been a huge Superman fan. I love Superheroes in general, but Superman is The Greatest Superhero.

This Sunday was another memorable day for me, Superman-wise. The moment I have been waiting for since I saw Superman IV... the first Superman movie in 19 years. For years I have been following the development of this film on the internet and now it is finally here. I originally wanted to go to LA to checkout the big premiere in Hollywood and catch a glimps of all the stars. But then I went to Hong Kong, so I chose Sydney instead, because when you're coming from Holland, HK is already half way to Australia. But the more important reason is that Superman Returns, as the new movie is called, was shot in Sydney. Most of it at Fox Studios Australia, but some of the scenes were shot right in the city. When I read and saw this on the internet, I knew I had to go there. I would have loved to have come to Sydney on June 28 already and see the premiere with other Superman fans, but the IDO workshop didn't end until June 30.

So I went to Sydney on July 1 and arrived here on July 2. Last week I already bought the movie ticket online, because I wanted to make sure I wouldn't waste a minute to see the movie as soon as possible.

On Sunday night I took a bus to Entertainment Quarters, which is right next to Fox Studios! Appropiate place to see Superman Returns for the first time (this is also were all the online Superman geeks went for the premiere). Online I had booked a ticket for the 8:30 pm screening, but I was there early, so I changed my ticket to the 7:30 show. I walked around the area, ate some noodles, bought a 'Superman cup' at the cinema (silly promotional cola cup) and some popcorn and waited for the doors to the theatre to open... I chose a seat right in the middle.

Then I saw the movie.

After the movie I decided to walk back to the hostel. I like to be able to know my way around without looking at a map. Because I had already looked up where the hostel and the cinema were on the map earlier, I just walked back to the hostel on instinct. Coincidence or not, I suddenly recognized a place that I saw in the movie! It was Martin Place, where a scene involving Superman rescueing a car was shot. I was actually standing at the spot where Superman stood, just two hours after seeing that scene! Soooo cool... In fact, this place is on Pitt Street, the street where my hostel is.

But it appeared that having reached Martin Place, I walked too far north and had to walk back south to the hostel. But it also meant that I stumbled upon one of the shooting locations unintentionally. Couldn't have been a coincidence...

Of course you want to know what I thought about the movie...

It was FANTASTIC. It's what every Superman fan has been waiting for and I can't wait to see it again... many times. And to see it right next door to the studio where it was shot and walking on the place where a scene was shot later that evening... that's something to never forget. But there was only one thing missing this day... my dad. I would have loved to see this movie with my dad as I am a Superman fan because of him. I'm sure it's no coincidence that I love Superman so much. I hope to see it with him when I get back to Holland.

Photos of me arriving in Sydney, the cinema where I saw Superman Returns, here

Final two weeks of the IDO project

2006-07-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

PHOTOS & VIDEO HERE

I'm already in Sydney now, but last week I was so busy, I didn't have time to post any new messages. So here’s what I did for the past two weeks in HK.

Working, working, working…

Basically, during the last two weeks of the IDO project, we all worked our asses off. We had to finish the final prototypes, report and commercial for the final presentation, so we really made long hours and saw little daylight. We survived on McDonald’s food and cup noodles. For the last few days, I barely left the building… The last two nights I worked all night long at the PolyU and lay down on the floor for an hour or so. After the first night I did go back to the hotel to sleep a few hours in the morning… when everyone was getting up to go to the PolyU I came back to sleep…

But the last day was really exhausting. Again, I worked all night long (and wasn’t even the only one!) to finish the damn commercial for the final presentation on Thursday afternoon. As always, it was last minute work to get it finished, so I really needed that last night’s work.

Even though we worked most of the time, there were some moments where our work could be pleasantly interrupted:

I saw Jackie Chan!

Week 5. We were working in the studio, it was lunch time. Suddenly someone walks into the room and says: “Hey, you wanna see Jackie Chan? He’s upstairs now!”

I didn’t really understand what she meant, but being curious, I walked out to see what was going on. It was the ‘Grad Show’ of the PolyU School of Design; a happening where the graduating students are … And apparently, Jackie Chan was a guest! At first, I walked straight passed him. Then suddenly I recognized him; it was the guy with all the cameras flashing at him. So cool! Normally I wouldn’t act like this when seeing a celebrity, but with so many people already there taking pictures of him, I didn’t need to feel embarrassed joining the crowd of ‘papparazzi’. I took a lot of pictures and videos of him; there’s a selection at the link below. Also check out the video compilation I made.

More photos of Jackie Chan HERE.

Birthdays

Andreas (from Germany) and Marije (from Holland) both had their birthday in the same week. All the students chipped in 20 HK dollars each and packed it nicely to give to Andreas and Marije. And we ate cake too, of course.

Photos start here

Midnight swimming and BBQ at Shek O beach

At the end of week 5, on Friday, Peter Dean (one of the HK tutors) had organized a really nice get-together at Shek O beach. We all went there around 6 pm to have a BBQ at one of the barbecues sites at the beach and do some ‘midnight swimming’ in the dark. The BBQ was so great. I learned from Yoyo that HK people grill more than just hot dogs, like I did the last time. So together with her I bought some great HK BBQ food at a shop at the beach: chicken wings, beef steaks, fish balls, pork, marshmellows… delicious! (too bad some cats stole one of my steaks… that was my favorite meat!) We had so much... when the rest was already long finished grilling there sausages, we were still going strong, barbecuing like real HK people do. In between preparing the food I went swimming in the sea. It was almost pitch dark, just the light of the stars. The water was still quite warm… such a special experience to be in the water in such a beautiful place, I won’t forget that easily.

Photos start here

Me and Yoyo at Ocean Park

The IDO project has been a great experience… not just design-wise. I’m also lucky to have met Yoyo, one of the HK students. Boy meets girl… boy likes girl, girl likes boy… you can imagine what happens… as I said before, I’m crazy… about Yoyo.

In the weekend between week 5 and 6, we went to Ocean Park on Sunday. This is a famous amusement park in Hong Kong, built in two parts, on both sides of a mountain, connected by a cable car. It was extremely hot that day and we weren’t the only ones with the great idea of going there… it was also extremely crowded. But we had a lot of fun, going in the splash ride, watching the dolphin and sea lion show, sitting in the Ferris wheel and standing in line for more than 2 hours for Ocean Park’s newest attraction: a Jelly fish aquarium. Apparently this attraction is brand new, so everybody wanted to see it. But to wait 2 hours in the burning sun for this… that was a bit long. It’s just some freaking jellyfish! Very nicely lit, though.

Photos start here.

My room

Just so you can see where I lived for the past 6 weeks, here are two photos of me and Alex’s messy room.

Photos start here

The final presentation

On Thursday afternoon, each group had 30 minutes to show their work, in front of a small audience. All the students and tutors of course, plus some invited guests from the PolyU. There were some unexpected Dutch guests as well. Apparently Pieter Desmet (associate professor at my faculty at TU Delft) and Jeroen van Erp (co-founder of well-known Dutch design agency Fabrique) were in HK and Mathieu (Dutch tutor) invited them to come. All went well. Everyone worked really hard and that paid off: all the results were very nice, beyond expectations even. We can all be proud of ourselves. So now the IDO workshop has really ended. It has gone by so quickly, it’s incredible. I’d like to thank all the students and tutors for a great and very experience.

Photos start here

Boat trip

As a celebration of the ending of the IDO project, the tutors organized a really nice boat trip for the whole group. On the last Friday, we went to Sai Kung, where we boarded a rented boat and went out on the sea for the whole day. After less than an hour, the boat anchored near a very nice and empty beach. We had this place completely for ourselves. We jumped off the boat, swam to the beach and around the boat, relaxed in the sun… in short, we had a lof of fun in the sun. The weather couldn’t have been better and I couldn’t have imagined a nicer concluding trip to the IDO workshop.

Photos start here

In the evening we went to the Irish pub to see the Germany-Argentina soccer match with our German friends. Very exciting match! Congrats to the Germans.

And now my real vacation starts!

I'm crazy...

2006-07-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

... for working two nights in a row at the PolyU last week, getting hardly any sleep at all (does lying under the desk and closing your eyes count?) to finish the product commercial for the workshop's final presentation last thursday. But it all ended well, each group has done great work. On friday we celebrated the ending of the project with a fantastic boat trip. Anyway, the project is now finished, which means my vacation has now officially started!

... for travelling to Sydney for one week to see Superman Returns, because it was shot there. Yes... surprise surprise... I'm now on my way to Australia! I'm typing this message from a free internet computer at Singapore, waiting for my connecting flight. Tomorrow night I'm going the see the movie I've been waiting for most of my life! I already bought the ticket online, can't wait...

... about Yoyo. I miss her already. Good that I'll be back next week.

> More about all this tomorrow hopefully...

Here comes the sun

2006-06-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

PHOTOS & VIDEOS HERE
(I had to delete some photos from last week in order to put up new ones... apparently I can only host 10 videos at a time)

Didn't do anything really special last week, except working on the project. Had a good weekend though. With the clouds finally making place for the bright Asian sun, the feeling of vacation is starting to grow... On friday we went to The Peak with the whole group and had a very nice BBQ there. In HK you can find many BBQ sites, so you only need to bring your own coals, food and drinks. Very nice atmosphere, with only the fire as our light. And the view... close to the BBQ site we could look down onto the other side of HK; the ship harbour and lots of high buildings of course. So beautiful... I keep saying to the Chinese: 'we don't have this in Holland...'

BBQ with the whole group

Beautiful HK by night

On saturday the weather was really great. With Marije and Annet I went to Stanley; a part of HK which is on the southern side of HK Island. It's famous for its market and the beach. Really funny, when you get there (by bus), it's like you've arrived in some kind of mediterranean village... so different from the hectic city life. We went to a nice little beach which was not too busy, just getting a tan and cooling off in the bay every now and then. Visited the - very touristic but nice - Stanley market and went back to the city, where we had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant in SoHo. I notice that my appetite for Western food is growing after 4 weeks... McDonald's is earning more money on me lately... also because they're so cheap; only about half of the Western prices.

Yeah baby, it's vacation!

On sunday I spend the entire day in school (open here every day 24h), to work on some drawings... earn some money. Too bad for the sunny day, but luckily I could ignore that as there are on windows in the school studio. I posted a 'panoramic video' of our studio here, have a look and see where I spend most of my time in HK.

This week things are starting to get a bit stressful... We only have 1 week left to finish our final presentation, which is always more work than you anticipate. So I'm prepared for making very long days, and seeing very little sunlight... actually I'm now still in school, at 11:3o pm, again, all alone... maybe I should go now...

Weekend

2006-06-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend:

CHECK THE PHOTOS HERE (AND VIDEOS!)

Saturday:

Hong Kong Museum of History
Shopping
Eat with the group: most students and the Dutch tutors Stella (leaving) and Mathieu (arriving). Because of this dinner with the Dutch tutors, I thought I'd give the group some Dutch treats... Bought some real Gouda cheese and had it sliced into cubes. Stella brought the flags from Holland.
Icecream at Haagen Dazs
Drink some beers at a bar

Sunday

Went to Lantau Island to some nature finally, with Marije, Annet (Dutch girls), Sanna and Heini (Finnish girls).
Seeing the Big Buddha... you guessed it, a really large Buddha statue.
Walking along the 'Wisdom path' to some religious wooden poles
We met Mathieu there and then Annet and I hiked with him along a trail for almost hours, while the others went to see a monestary. The hike was really nice, check out the pictures and videos!
In the evening we watched the soccer game of Holland vs Serbia-Montenegro in an Irish pub. Expected there to be more Dutch people, but we seemed to be the only ones. It was a lot of fun though, watching the game. I dressed up in an orange shirt and wore an orange cap of course... 1-0 for Holland, great game!

Halfway...

2006-06-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

I've been here for three weeks now already... Time flies when your having fun. The IDO project lasts six weeks, so we're halfway already.

The Wong Tai Sin temple.
MORE PHOTOS HERE

Last weekend I was quite tired from the trip to China, so I didnt really do much then...
Walked around, visited a temple, sat in a park, took the escalators up to the mid-levels, saw X-Men 3 and did a bit of shopping.

This week, we have been working hard on developing ideas and concepts for the project. This morning each group gave a 15 minute presentation about this. In the afternoon, we heard there was a 'black rainstorm alert (with black being the highest, red medium and yellow lowest), which meant that all schools and shops close, so we could go home early. Soon after we left the school the rain stopped though, and the shops never closed, so the rain alert was no big deal. This evening however there was quite some thunder and heavy rain, so I was glad to be indoors. That's a bit of a pity; the weather here in HK hasn't been great since we're here. Mostly cloudy and rainy and the forecast for the coming week is the same. Hope to see some sun while I'm here, so I can go and checkout the nature around here.

To give you an impression of what we're doing here, I've posted some pictures of the school. We all work every day in our own room, with 4 tables for each group. In this room, we get lectures, we do brainstorms, draw, work on the computer, have group discussions, presentations, everything. Unfortunately it has no windows, so we don't see much sunlight during the day.

So let me describe a typical day for me in HK:

Alarm clock rings around 7:30, or 8:00. I hit snooze a couple of times before I actually get up...
Take a shower (good showers here).
Breakfast: in the first week I had breakfast at the hostel restaurant, and ate toast with eggs everyday, but to protect my cholesterol level (and to save some time), I now stop by a bakery across the street to get some orangje juice and croissants to go.
We then take the bus to the school, takes about 25 minutes. We start at 10 am, but I like to be a bit earlier, relax and check my email first.
Around 12:3o we go out to have lunch, at a different place each day. One time this week I went with some of the HK students to a 'K-lunch', a Karaokebar where you can have lunch and sing at the same time! We had a long break that day, so we really enjoyed ourselves. It's a typical karaoke place, where you have your own room with a karaoke set, and you just order some food which they bring to the room. Quite cheap too, actually.
After lunch we work on until about 18:00 or sometimes later. Really depends on the amount of work we need to do. If we have a presentation the next day, we might stay at the school until very late, even though yesterday my group finished really early, around 17:30, while most of the other groups worked very late.
After school, I go and have dinner with some people at a restaurant. Food here is quite cheap. You can eat very well for only 3 or 4 euro.
Usually get back to the hotel quite late. There's a basketball field next to the building, where we sometimes shoot some hoops at night. Good to get some exercise. The sweat makes you take another shower though.
Bedtime...

Mondays and wednesdays are working days, so we can plan our day ourselves and do as we like. Tuesdays and thursdays we have meetings with our tutors and lectures (e.g. about presenting).
Each friday we present the results of the week, like we did today. My group's presentation went quite well. We all had to rate eachother, and our group scored highest, together with another group.

I also saw The Da Vinci Code this week. It was okay, entertaining. It was exactly like the book, which of course is better...

To see more photos, go here.

Me and a temple

Me and the skyline

Me and some crazy Chinese students

The Real China

2006-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

(Today I'm starting to post English for a change, so my foreign friends can read it too)

Well, it's been quite a week... (talking about last week - it took me a few days to create this post)

The short version: last week, from Monday to Friday, we went to the Yunnan province in China and visited the capital city Kunming and a small rural village called Keyi, to do research on the people and their environment.

If you wanna skip right to the pictures… I have put them on a different website. To see them, go here: http://temporaryexpatrick.myphotoalbum.com/ I got some video as well! Below you will only find a few images.

And now the long version...

On Monday, we departed from the beautiful Hong Kong International Airport (voted Best Airport in the World for 5 years in a row!) to Kunming, the capital city of the province Yunnan, in China. I expected to fly in a really small and old airplane, but it was actually quite modern and not so small. Food wasn't great, though.

A few hours later we arrived at Kunming Int'l Airport. Maybe you've never heard of Kunming (I hadn't, before I started this project), but it's actually a huge city! It has about 5 million inhabitants. Yunnan in total has around 43 million! A small bus brought us to the city, first to drop off the tutors at their hotel. You should have seen this place... it was probably the most luxurious and expensive hotel in the city!

How different from the hotel where the students were staying... Well, actually it wasn't bad at all... In fact, the Kunming University Hotel was a pretty good hotel, better than the one we are staying at in HK. We had our own bathroom! After settling there, we visited the school of design at the Kunming University, where they teach all kinds of design except industrial design. Still, I was surprised about the good facilities they have there... One roomed was completely filled with a lot of Mac workstations, G4 I think. Not bad.

Next morning we drove to the village of Keyi by the same bus, took about 2.5 hours. The roads weren't as bad as I though they would be. A bit bumpy sometimes though, especially the last part. On arrival near Keyi we were welcomed at the village gate by the villagers, dressed in traditional clothing. We had to participate in their ritual, meaning we jumped over a small fire, during which the woman were singing in their native language while men were performing some kind of dance... very special.

OK, at this rate I'm gonna write a whole book, so I'll speed things up a bit.

So, in the village we stayed in someone's home for two nights, it was very nice and tidy, much less primitive than I expected, though the toilet was a hole in the ground, in a small 'building' outside... interesting if you have to go in the middle of the night. The purpose of our stay in the village was to study the people and their culture; their products, their customs, traditions, skills, etcetera, so that now we can develop products for them that they can produce themselves and sell for export, such as textiles or wooden handicraft.

We interviewed people (with the Chinese students as translators), observed everything; took a lot of photos and video. My group went out to the fields to see what kinds of crops the people grow their. It was mainly tobacco, which Yunnan is well known for. About 90 percent of the village families grow tobacco, which is mostly sold to a Chinese cigarette company. Every day we ate in the village 'central building' at small tables and low seats. Everything we ate was locally grown, like the meat from the pigs, brown beans, walnuts, vegetables, eggs, potatoes. It was quite tasty. During each meal, the villagers would come up to each table, dressed in traditional clothing and bring out a toast to us, drinking their locally brewed 'firewater' (some sort of very alcoholic ricewine), after which they sang beautifully in their native language (not Chinese). They did this three times at each meal, for each table!

Some photos of the village:
For more, go here

All the houses in the village were very simple and poor buildings but surprisingly they had a very large and relatively new primary school building. Apparently that was sponsored by some rich guy. On the basketball field outside the school we played a basketball game against the villagers. It was a big event, all the school children came to watch and there were even a reporter and photographer from the local press to witness! You would think that the tall Europeans would easily beat those short Chinese, but nothing was less true! They were really good! Great fun, nonetheless.

On the last night, the villagers gave us a big show, with singing, dancing and music, which was so cool to see. Also, in return, we had to perform something. We (the Dutch group) sang Sinterklaas songs to them. Really silly of course, but I think they liked it. The big finale was a fire ritual, where we would all dance together with the villagers in a large circle around a big fire, with music and singing. That was unique, I will never forget. We just kept dancing around the fire till it was almost out.

The next day, on thursday, we drove back to Kunming via a touristic place called 'The Stone Forest', which is a natural wonder; very typically shaped stones, very beautiful. Finally the weather got nice that day, before it was all cloudy and rainy (but also a bit cool, so you dont sweat too much, which is good, cause we couldn't take showers in the village) Before we went back to the hotel in Kunming, we stopped by some shop selling silk products. We didn't really wanted to go there, but we had no choice, because we had a tour guide with us, who joined us at the Stone Forest, and she insisted that we take a look in the shop. I guess that's the way it goes in a communist country... After this short stop we went to a museum in Kunming, where we saw all kinds of traditional clothing and artifacts of the people of Yunnan, for our research. On the last night in Kunming we bought some souvenirs and had dinner in a restaurant, where we ate and drank for only 10 yuan (= 1 euro) per person! Amazingly cheap and the food was pretty good. Afterwards we went to a bar, where we were served big bottles of Chinese beer with tiny glasses! Apparently they didn’t have enough regular glasses for the whole group, so they just gave everyone a shot glass. To finish this great week, some of us went to a karaoke bar where we had great fun singing. I did 'End of the Road' of Boyz II Men of course...

Next day (friday) we flew back to a rainy Hong Kong.

In the weekend I did some relaxing, walking through the city and saw a movie (X-Men 3, pretty cool).

And that was my week…

Lekker veel foto's...

2006-05-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

... want de komende week zal ik niks posten. Morgenochtend gaan we namelijk vroeg naar Kunming, de hoofdstad van de Chinese provincie Yunnan, met het vliegtuig. We blijven dan 1 dag in die stad, waarna we naar een klein dorpje genaamd Keyi gaan, om de mensen daar te bestuderen. Check foto's van dat dorp hier en klik dan op 'Yunnan Photo gallery'. Vrijdag zijn we pas weer terug, dus mijn volgende berichtje komt pas weer volgend weekend... Heb nu niet veel tijd om een verhaaltje te schrijven want het is al laat en morgen moeten we vroeg op, dus hier gewoon een hele zooi foto's in willekeurige volgorde...

Allemaal nep-Lego

Kraampje met vreemde vruchten

Levende vissen in zakjes. Hier wachten ze niet tot je ze aanwijst... Niet om te eten ofzo trouwens, maar gewoon voor in aquarium.

Deze was wel om te eten...

Kraampjes, kraampjes en nog eens kraampjes

Troep op straat gooien komt je hier duur te staan.
De straten zijn dan ook redelijk schoon hier.

Bootjes in de Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island.

Drukke straat in het winkelgebied Mong Kok

Oude mannetjes die toekijken hoe een stel Mah Jong aan het spelen is

Uitzicht op de stad vanaf Victoria Peak. Helaas was het een beetje bewolkt, dus hier moet ik en ga ik zeker terugkomen, met mooier weer.

Mijn eerste westerse eten na een hele week, boven op Victoria Peak. Echt waar, eerste lunch zonder stokjes!

Hoge gebouwen op Hong Kong Island

Ik op een druk metrostation

Ik op een druk kruispunt

Ouderwetse tram op Hong Kong Island

Palmentuin in Victoria Park

In Hong Kong mag je maar één kant op joggen

Lelijk oud gebouw

Ik word gevoed door Teranz, een van de Chineze studenten

Hier gebruiken ze bamboe als steigermateriaal. heel cool.
Daarvoor een van de vele 'footbridges'

De ingang van de Hong Kong Polytechnic University, waar we elke ochtend naar binnen lopen.

Een winkeltje helemaal vol met 'kindersuprise'-achtige apparaten.

Ik en Marije en de Duitsers Robert en Andreas

Flamingo's in Kowloon Park

Hard werken!

2006-05-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Zo, das nog hard werken, zo'n internationale design workshop! We beginnen op zich niet zo heel vroeg (10:00), maar gisteren en vooral vandaag gingen we tot laat door (morgen moet eerste presentatie af; secondair onderzoek over provincie Yunnan, waar we volgende week heen gaan). Weet het niet eens precies, maar ik geloof dat we vandaag pas rond 22:15 of 22:30 terug richting het hostel gingen. En dan moesten we zelfs nog eten! In de buurt van het hostel Thaise groene curry gegeten, erg lekker. Gisteren in een sushi bar gezeten, met zo'n lopende band. Echt superlekker. Ik heb overigens nog steeds geen vork aangeraakt sinds we hier zijn; elke dag met stokjes gegeten. Kijken hoe lang ik dat kan volhouden...

Vandaag voor de lol nette kleren aan; zwarte broek, wit overhemd, zwart jasje, stropdas, hoed... Tussen de bushalte en het hostel is een basketbalveldje. Daar kwam ik wat andere deelnemers tegen van de workshop die een basketbal hadden gekocht, dus na het eten ook nog beetje met die bal gegooid... Dat was wel even goed brezetten in die kleren zeg! (japan2002 lingo voor zweten). Kom maar hier met die award!

Lig nu eindelijk op mn bed rond 2:00. Wordt weer een kort nachtje dus. Ik bedenk dan maar dat die Hong Kong studenten elke nacht maar 3 tot 4 uur slapen... Schijnt dat ze daaraan gewend zijn geraakt doordat ze vroeger op school 's nachts door moesten studeren om maar goed te presteren op school. Echt bizar. Die studenten hier werken zo hard, daar kunnen wij IO-ers nog een voorbeeld aan nemen. Of niet, want het is eigenlijk niet gezond. Sommige studenten blijven in drukke tijden gewoon 5 dagen lang, 24h/dag op de faculteit, met misschien maar 2 uurtjes slaap per nacht! Om maar beter te kunnen presteren dan de rest. Dat gaat mij dan net even te ver...

Maar goed, jullie willen natuurlijk plaatjes zien! Nou, hier heb je er een paar... (Ben te moe om foto's van vandaag op mn compu te zetten, dus je moet t ff doen met foto's van gisteren en eergister.)

In sommige bussen hebben ze hier gordels!
(vraag me niet waarom ik in Superman-pose zit)

Straatje. Lijken allemaal op elkaar.
(Uitzicht uit voorkant van dubbeldekkerbus)

Lunch in een 'foodcourt' in een winkelcentrum vlakbij de HKPU, waar we gisteren en vandaag hebben gegeten. Eten is beter dan de kantine van de school, dus studenten eten meestal hier.

In de Soesje-bar.

De eerste paar dagen

2006-05-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

Well, this is my first message... Oeps, dat ging vanzelf in het Engels, spreek de hele dag niks anders. Zelfs met de andere Nederlanders ga je automatisch Engels praten.

Anyways... ik ben nu alweer 3 dagen in Hong Kong en heb het al ontzettend druk gehad, vandaar dat dit eerste berichtje even op zich heeft laten wachten. Ik zal proberen het kort te houden (yeah, right) en zo veel mogelijk mooie plaatjes te laten zien, want die zeggen immers meer dan 1000 woorden...

Waar zal ik beginnen?

Dag 1 maar gewoon. De reis naar Hong Kong (voortaan HK): prima. Alleen niet veel geslapen in
het vliegtuig. Hulk en King Kong gekeken. Af en toe turbulentie. Aankomst: heel mooi vliegveld. Erg netjes. We werden opgewacht door de studenten van de Hong Kong Polytechnic University (voortaan HKPU). De Duitse studenten kwamen ongeveer tegelijk aan en toen zijn we met zn allen met een busje naar het hostel gereden.

747 waarmee we van Londen naar HK vlogen.

Vliegtuigprut. Smaakt beter dan het er hier uitziet. Hmm, nee eigenlijk toch niet.

Het hostel: we zitten in het YWCA Anne Black Guest House, redelijk midden in HK. Prima kamer, hier houd ik het wel 6 weken uit. Het 'communal bath' dat op de website van het hostel vermeld stond, is helaas geen Japan-style badhuis... het betekent simpelweg dat we geen badkamer bij de kamer hebben, maar gebruik moeten maken van de douches op de gang... (die overigens ook erg lekker zijn)

Met alle deelnemers van de workshop zijn we toen in een restaurant in de buurt gaan lunchen: dim sum (kleine Chinese hapjes). Het eten bleef maar komen, ongelooflijk hoe veel. Maar ik heb natuurlijk alles geprobeerd. Erg lekker! Eten met stokjes gaat ook weer gelijk goed, ben het niet verleerd sinds Japan.

Ze hebben hier ook Pocari Sweat! Aaaaaahhh... refreshing...

In de middag zijn we met de metro naar 'Mong Kok' geweest... een van dé shopplekken van HK. Vooral als je elektronica wil kopen, moet je daar zijn. Deed me ook beetje denken aan Akihabara in Tokyo. Ontzettend druk. Heb gelijk een lokaal simkaartje gekocht, dus je kunt me bereiken op +852 6371 3656. Die zit in mn oude telefoon, dus 06 2121 8058 levert voicemail op. Je kunt me eventueel ook bellen/smsen op mn tijdelijke nummer van mn nieuwe telefoon; 06 4255 8448.

De Chinese design studenten van HKPU

Drukke straat in Mong Kok. Overal Chinezen!!!

Metro in HK is echt supergoed. De stations en treinen zijn supernetjes en schoon. Veel winkeltjes (7/11, kiosks enzo) in de stations, deed erg aan Tokyo denken. Betalen gaat met een Octopus kaart. Een prepaid contactloze chipkaart, die je bij 7/11's en stations kunt opladen en die je gewoon langs het poortje kunt houden, werkt zelfs door je tas heen! Superhandig! Zelfde principe als de OV chipkaart in NL, moeten ze echt zo snel mogelijk landelijk gaan invoeren. Hier kun je het ook nog als betaalmiddel gebruiken in convenience stores enzo, als een chipknip, maar dan handiger omdat je m alleen één tel ergens op die betaalunit hoeft te houden en je hebt betaald. Zoooo handig...

Ze zijn hier kennelijk nog steeds bang voor SARS.
Je ziet af en toe ook een mondkapje rondlopen.

OK, Dag 2. Zondag, dus we hadden de hele dag nog voor onszelf. Ben met de NLers naar HK Island geweest. HK bestaat uit 2 eilanden; Kowloon (boven) en HK Island (beneden), gescheiden door water (duh). Vanaf het ene eiland heb je heel mooi uitzicht op de skyline van het andere. Op HK Island staan alle hoge kantoorgebouwen. Daar beetje rondgelopen, wat tempels gezien en noodlesoup gegeten als lunch; altijd spannend als je voor het eerst zelf iets gaat bestellen en alles in het Chinees is, maar de meneer naast ons was zo vriendelijk om ons te helpen. Das wel handig; meeste mensen spreken wel goed Engels. En het eten is hier goed te
betalen, rond de 20 HK = 2 euro. Rest van de dag weer in het hostel doorgebracht: powernapje en daarna de hele avond aan onze presentaties gewerkt die we de volgende dag moesten geven aan de hele groep (over onszelf en ons werk). Werd nog een latertje. Wel handig dat ik mn laptop mee heb, maar ze moeten die dingen echt eens een stuk lichter maken... Tussendoor 's avonds nog wat 'Chinese fired rice' als avondeten gehad, erg lekker. Vandaag regende het overigens de hele dag, was wel jammer.

Wolkenkrabbertje...

Kraampje...

Tempeltje...

Zo gaat deze mevrouw natuurlijk niets verkopen...

Dag 3, maandag. De HK studenten haalden ons 's ochtends op bij het hostel en toen zijn we met zn allen met de bus naar de HKPU School of Design gegaan. Rondleidinkje door de faculteit, introductiepraatje, je kent het wel. De 'tutors' van de HKPU zijn vreemd genoeg niet Chinees, maar Brits, Amerikaans en Canadees. Lunch in de universiteitskantine. Volgens de docenten en de studenten zou het 'very bad food' zijn, maar ik vond het prima te eten. Wel weer erg veel voor weinig, weet alleen niet precies wat het was.

Rest van de dag werden er door iedereen presentaties gehouden. Leuk om het werk van de andere studenten te zien... toch heel anders dan onze portfolio's.

's avonds, voor het eten, rond gaan lopen in de buurt van de HKPU. Shopping malls, ice tea drinken, en toen... een van de meest waanzinnige uitzichten ooit. Vanaf de Harbour van Kowloon kijk je uit op de skyline van Hong Kong island, aan de andere kant van het water, met alle wolkenkrabbers mooi verlicht. Echt waanzinnig mooi! Op de foto met beeld van Bruce Lee.

Met Marije en Annet voor de waanzinnig mooie skyline van Hong Kong Island.

Mooooi....

Me and Bruce

Daarna met de hele groep voor mn gevoel de halve stad doorgelopen op zoek naar een restaurant om te eten (genoeg restaurants in HK, maar we gingen naar het restaurant van de oom van een van de Chineze studenten, maar die wist zelf ook niet meer zo goed waar het was). Uiteindelijk aangekomen en zeer goed gegeten. Ook hier bleef het eten maar komen! Verschillende gerechten werden op tafel gezet, waarna iedereen daar gewoon met zn stokjes van kan eten, net als in Japan. Erg leuk en lekker. Na een lange dag terug naar het hostel via een leuk straatje met marktkraampjes. Midden in de nacht op bed typ ik dit op mn laptopje, online via een onbeveiligd draadloos netwerk in de buurt...

Straatje. Lijken allemaal op elkaar.

Attack that fish!

Zo, dat was het voorlopig. More coming soon! Volgende bericht wordt hopelijk wat korter...

Das handig!

2006-05-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Waarom zelf een Hong Kong template klussen als iemand anders dat al een keer gedaan heeft...? Ziet er nog niet helemaal uit zoals ik wil, maar het gaat om de inhoud he... Die komt gauw!