My favorite thing to do lately is talking to my taxi driver when I go to work in the morning. For whatever reason, taxi drivers are more engaging at 5am in the morning. Maybe because they are refreshed from a good night of sleep or full of excitement to the day's earnings.
There are two driving shifts during the day; a night shift and a day shift. The day shift, most preferable, starts around 5am and ends around 4pm. The night shift picks up when the day shift ends. Of course, there are lots of overlaps since some drivers start earlier or later depending on their own schedule. They lease the taxi for approximately $300 HKD per day. And on the average, based on a poll of one driver...I guess that's not really an average but anyways, a driver takes home about $15k/month. That's around $24k/year USD. That's pretty good money for HK standards. I'm not sure how much NY taxi drivers make...hmm, that's worth looking into.
Talking to taxi drivers is a great way to brush up on my Cantonese. I always try to sound like a local but inevitably, after one sentence, they often realize I'm not! Here's a conversation from last Thursday in Cantonese, but translated to English...
Nam - Good morning. Eagle Centre plaza, please.
Taxi Driver - Okay. Are you going to the bus terminal?
[The Wan Chai bus terminal is the best option to cross the border into Shenzhen, China]
[Silence]
Nam - No...I'm going to work...I work U.S. hours.
Taxi Driver - Oh, I could tell your Cantonese is not authentic. I thought you want to go to bus terminal. Most people say Eagle Centre but they really want to take the bus.
Nam - Oh, do...I sound...Mandarin?
Taxi Driver - No....[Silence]Maybe slight American accent.
[Silence]
Nam - Yeah, I grew up in California and moved here two months ago. Is my Cantonese really poor?
Taxi Driver - No. It's not bad. Though, you seem to be scared of talking. Just talk more.
Nam - Okay.
Taxi Driver - Also, you should sing more karoake! Singing "K" helps.
[Silence]
Nam - Okay. I'll try. Does that require reading Chinese characters?
[Arrive at Eagle Centre]
Taxi Driver - Is this where you want to go?
Nam - Yes. Thanks
Taxi Driver - $22 HKD
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Watching TV
I come from a family of TV junkies. My parents and my oldest sister are addicted to Chinese and Korean soaps. My other sister used to catch a lot of TV shows but she's too busy with her baby boy now to watch anything. As for me, I have to get in 2 hours of TV a day. Nothing like turning off the brain for a couple of hours after a long day of work. And much cheaper than paying 10 bux for a movie ticket.
A few of my favorite shows I follow back home are 24, Prison Break, Survivor and Amazing Race. Luckily, 24 and Prison Break are available online but only for viewers in the U.S. though. No biggie to get around. All I do is VPN into Cisco so Fox.com thinks I'm logging in from San Jose =) It works marvelously and best of all, the shows are in HD. Right now, I stream the shows from my Macbook to my Sony Bravia to watch it on a bigger display. Technologies is great aint it?
Speaking of technologies, this season of 24 is really really good. I love the show also because it is sponsored by Cisco so every epidsode has tons of Cisco product placements; from the IP Phone to WebEx to Telepresence. Call me a geek but I love love technologies. If you don't know what my company makes, just watch 24!
My favorite line this season comes from President Allison Taylor. Yes, our real life president is black and our president on 24 is a woman! I love this country =)
Anyways, the season starts off with the typical monumental threat to our national security. This time, the bad guys broke through the firewall that supposedly protects our national infrastructure and has control of the FAA systems. They threatened to crash planes into each other if the president doesn't do what they tell her. After she was briefed on the threat from her Chief of Staff, her immediate response was...
"This is unacceptable. It's just technologies. We should be able to unplug these bastards!"
HAHAHA...that was the funniest line ever! I had to rewind it over and over. Don't you think "W" would say the exact same thing? CHANGE is coming on Tuesday folks!
Okay, back on point. I've also been able to keep up with my Warriors (fortunately or unfortunately is debatable) with the help of my friend who gave me his NBA league pass account so I can watch the games online. It's been working great so I'm really happy except the Warriors are just terrible. I wish Mullie would just fire Nellie but that's a whole blog for another day. Being a GSW fan is definitely hard, very very hard...
A few of my favorite shows I follow back home are 24, Prison Break, Survivor and Amazing Race. Luckily, 24 and Prison Break are available online but only for viewers in the U.S. though. No biggie to get around. All I do is VPN into Cisco so Fox.com thinks I'm logging in from San Jose =) It works marvelously and best of all, the shows are in HD. Right now, I stream the shows from my Macbook to my Sony Bravia to watch it on a bigger display. Technologies is great aint it?
Speaking of technologies, this season of 24 is really really good. I love the show also because it is sponsored by Cisco so every epidsode has tons of Cisco product placements; from the IP Phone to WebEx to Telepresence. Call me a geek but I love love technologies. If you don't know what my company makes, just watch 24!
My favorite line this season comes from President Allison Taylor. Yes, our real life president is black and our president on 24 is a woman! I love this country =)
Anyways, the season starts off with the typical monumental threat to our national security. This time, the bad guys broke through the firewall that supposedly protects our national infrastructure and has control of the FAA systems. They threatened to crash planes into each other if the president doesn't do what they tell her. After she was briefed on the threat from her Chief of Staff, her immediate response was...
"This is unacceptable. It's just technologies. We should be able to unplug these bastards!"
HAHAHA...that was the funniest line ever! I had to rewind it over and over. Don't you think "W" would say the exact same thing? CHANGE is coming on Tuesday folks!
Okay, back on point. I've also been able to keep up with my Warriors (fortunately or unfortunately is debatable) with the help of my friend who gave me his NBA league pass account so I can watch the games online. It's been working great so I'm really happy except the Warriors are just terrible. I wish Mullie would just fire Nellie but that's a whole blog for another day. Being a GSW fan is definitely hard, very very hard...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand
I'm putting together a list of pros and cons of Living in Hong Kong. Call them Nam's Top 10 reasons to live and NOT live in Hong Kong. I'll post both lists after I spend enough time here to give it my due diligence. But so far, I think the biggest advantage of living in Hong Kong is the convenience of traveling to many of its affordable neighboring countries, Japan not withstanding. Though I thought Japan has been in a decade long recession...everything is still so darn expensive! Anyways, with the weak currencies in Australia and South Korea, it's a traveler's dream to use HK as a hub. That said, I guess we're paying a premium to live here.
The first country we visited was Thailand. Undeterred by the recent airport riots, we booked a trip to Bangkok for the weekend after Christmas. Being the land of "smiles" and "angels", Thai people sure don't like any of their Prime Ministers. It was only 16 months ago, the premier was exiled by a coup and then, last month they forced the PM to quit. They change leaders as much the Forty Niners change their offensive coordinators! Hopefully, this new Oxford economics grad-PM will bring peace to an unsettling country. Even my Thai taxi driver said he doesn't like any of the PMs, not even this new one. From what I could tell visiting temples and traveling around town, the country is more of a theocratic state. They seem very happy worshiping Buddha and they love their king. Why does a constitutional monarchy need a democratic governing party? I say let the King rule if they can't agreed on the right party!
The trip was pretty cheap. It was only about $1k USD for 3 nights at a 5-star hotel with airfare for the both of us. I think everyone was scared to go to Thailand after the rioters caused the airport to close down and left thousands stranded for over a week. We were however, motivated while demand was low =) It turned out to be an awesome trip. A definite top destination for me. I'm would go back again for sure. Maybe Phuket or Chiang Mai next time though.
Here are some pictures from the trip...
The Suvarnabhumi International airport in Bangkok opened in 2006 with a $4.6B USD price tag. The architecture is super fancy.
The Marriott is on the river, which most nice hotels are but this one is relative far from all the activities so it's more quiet. We like it a lot...there's a nice swimming pool overlooking the river.
The hotel ferry took us to the other side of the river....runs every 15 minutes. Check out the Benihana ad. This hotel is full of western foreigners.
Tao feasting on her breakfast buffet at the Marriott.
We had Italian for our first dinner in Bangkok. Who would have thought Thailand would have good Italian food. It was actually super good! Our dinner was only $80 USD total with fresh grilled seabass, seafood with handmade pasta, two glasses of wine, dessert, cappucino, and appetizer! It's called Zanotti if you get a chance to go.
Cleansing her hands with Purell before her $1 USD bowl of Thai Pho at the floating market...yummie.
I think this bowl was a little bit more expensive since it's sold from the boat restuarant.
Talk about traffic jam. Luckily, we were on a motorized boat so we just ran over every paddle boat on the river...muhaha
This has to be the best fruit cart ever...fresh exotic fruit. Our favorite was the preserved sour guava fruit, dipped in chili pepper salt.
These logans are super sweet!
You have to barter to get anything here. Price range for the same item varies drastically from boat to boat and shop to shop.
Deep fried banana...They handle your money and bread the bananas at the same time...highly multi-taskability
There's a variety of temples (Wats) which could be seen from the city ferry. We took the ferry to the Grand Palace. It was only 25cents USD for a ride.
This is the entrance to the Grand Palace. Tao had to put on her sweater since you have to dress properly as a sign of respect. Women have to cover the knees and the shoulders. Men have to wear shoes and pants, no shorts
Inside the palace
The most worshipped temple lies the reclining Buddha. This statue is humongous so I had to get it from this angle to capture the entire structure.
We took a tour to a few religious sites including this reclining Buddha.
This is the weekend market where they sell all the cheap imitation stuff. They have all kinds of arts, clothes, spices. The fried squid with sweet and spicy fish sauce was so yummie. We washed it down with a cold bottle of Singha beer.
Taro pie at a fancy Mikey Ds. Super good! You must try it if you haven't!
This is Ayuthaya, the former capital of Thailand until the 18th century.
When the Burmese invaded, they cut off all the Buddha heads so the entire ruin is full of headless Bhuddas.
The first country we visited was Thailand. Undeterred by the recent airport riots, we booked a trip to Bangkok for the weekend after Christmas. Being the land of "smiles" and "angels", Thai people sure don't like any of their Prime Ministers. It was only 16 months ago, the premier was exiled by a coup and then, last month they forced the PM to quit. They change leaders as much the Forty Niners change their offensive coordinators! Hopefully, this new Oxford economics grad-PM will bring peace to an unsettling country. Even my Thai taxi driver said he doesn't like any of the PMs, not even this new one. From what I could tell visiting temples and traveling around town, the country is more of a theocratic state. They seem very happy worshiping Buddha and they love their king. Why does a constitutional monarchy need a democratic governing party? I say let the King rule if they can't agreed on the right party!
The trip was pretty cheap. It was only about $1k USD for 3 nights at a 5-star hotel with airfare for the both of us. I think everyone was scared to go to Thailand after the rioters caused the airport to close down and left thousands stranded for over a week. We were however, motivated while demand was low =) It turned out to be an awesome trip. A definite top destination for me. I'm would go back again for sure. Maybe Phuket or Chiang Mai next time though.
Here are some pictures from the trip...
The Suvarnabhumi International airport in Bangkok opened in 2006 with a $4.6B USD price tag. The architecture is super fancy.
The Marriott is on the river, which most nice hotels are but this one is relative far from all the activities so it's more quiet. We like it a lot...there's a nice swimming pool overlooking the river.
The hotel ferry took us to the other side of the river....runs every 15 minutes. Check out the Benihana ad. This hotel is full of western foreigners.
Tao feasting on her breakfast buffet at the Marriott.
We had Italian for our first dinner in Bangkok. Who would have thought Thailand would have good Italian food. It was actually super good! Our dinner was only $80 USD total with fresh grilled seabass, seafood with handmade pasta, two glasses of wine, dessert, cappucino, and appetizer! It's called Zanotti if you get a chance to go.
Cleansing her hands with Purell before her $1 USD bowl of Thai Pho at the floating market...yummie.
I think this bowl was a little bit more expensive since it's sold from the boat restuarant.
Talk about traffic jam. Luckily, we were on a motorized boat so we just ran over every paddle boat on the river...muhaha
This has to be the best fruit cart ever...fresh exotic fruit. Our favorite was the preserved sour guava fruit, dipped in chili pepper salt.
These logans are super sweet!
You have to barter to get anything here. Price range for the same item varies drastically from boat to boat and shop to shop.
Deep fried banana...They handle your money and bread the bananas at the same time...highly multi-taskability
There's a variety of temples (Wats) which could be seen from the city ferry. We took the ferry to the Grand Palace. It was only 25cents USD for a ride.
This is the entrance to the Grand Palace. Tao had to put on her sweater since you have to dress properly as a sign of respect. Women have to cover the knees and the shoulders. Men have to wear shoes and pants, no shorts
Inside the palace
The most worshipped temple lies the reclining Buddha. This statue is humongous so I had to get it from this angle to capture the entire structure.
We took a tour to a few religious sites including this reclining Buddha.
This is the weekend market where they sell all the cheap imitation stuff. They have all kinds of arts, clothes, spices. The fried squid with sweet and spicy fish sauce was so yummie. We washed it down with a cold bottle of Singha beer.
Taro pie at a fancy Mikey Ds. Super good! You must try it if you haven't!
This is Ayuthaya, the former capital of Thailand until the 18th century.
When the Burmese invaded, they cut off all the Buddha heads so the entire ruin is full of headless Bhuddas.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
NYE 2009
Happy new year y'all! May all your new year's resolutions come true in the next 365 days. Whether you're trying to shed weight or your smoking habit, don't procrastinate! Go hit the gym and throw away your last pack of smokes today. Statistics show after the first week of the new year, you are 25% less likely to fulfill your resolution. After 6 months, you only have a 40% chance of success! Having said that, if you did make a resolution, you are 10 times more likely to attain your goal(s) than someone who didn't make one.
To celebrate the new year but more importantly, to say good riddance to the financially dreadful 2008, Tao and I had dinner with good friends at a french restaurant called Le Petit Paris at the International Finance Centre (IFC). The second tower, dubbed as IFC 2 is currently the tallest building in Hong Kong. It's as tall as the former Twin Towers in NYC. In The Dark Night, Batman jumped from this building to get the bad guys.
This is a photo of the IFC from a walking bridge. The view is slightly obstructed. The fireworks were shot off from the building in different directions. I was only able to get the bottom half of the building. The "200" is missing, leaving just the "9". I initially thought the countdown was stuck at 9 =)
Here's the entire fireworks show
Thousands crowded onto the piers to check out the fireworks. Everyone had their cameras set up on tripods to take the perfect shot. Though not as crowded as Time Square in NY, it's quite a spectacle. BUT not at all like new years celebrations in the states, the fireworks only lasted a few minutes! Chinese New Year is supposed to have a much better firework show since that's the official new year to the Chinese. This is a picture of a concert next to the walking bridge.
Dinner at Le Petit Paris with our good friends.
After dinner, we hit up a few trendy lounges/bars in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF), where everyone parties in HK. Only being here for less than a month, it's pretty much played out. There's only a few popular spots to hit up here. Same scene, same people. The advantage is that they are all walking distance apart.
We took the relatively quiet street to avoid the masses.
I took a quick 15 second nap at a lounge before finishing the night at 6am. I haven't partied this long since NYE 2000 at Limelight in NYC with my friends, Nick and Jerome.
To celebrate the new year but more importantly, to say good riddance to the financially dreadful 2008, Tao and I had dinner with good friends at a french restaurant called Le Petit Paris at the International Finance Centre (IFC). The second tower, dubbed as IFC 2 is currently the tallest building in Hong Kong. It's as tall as the former Twin Towers in NYC. In The Dark Night, Batman jumped from this building to get the bad guys.
This is a photo of the IFC from a walking bridge. The view is slightly obstructed. The fireworks were shot off from the building in different directions. I was only able to get the bottom half of the building. The "200" is missing, leaving just the "9". I initially thought the countdown was stuck at 9 =)
Here's the entire fireworks show
Thousands crowded onto the piers to check out the fireworks. Everyone had their cameras set up on tripods to take the perfect shot. Though not as crowded as Time Square in NY, it's quite a spectacle. BUT not at all like new years celebrations in the states, the fireworks only lasted a few minutes! Chinese New Year is supposed to have a much better firework show since that's the official new year to the Chinese. This is a picture of a concert next to the walking bridge.
Dinner at Le Petit Paris with our good friends.
After dinner, we hit up a few trendy lounges/bars in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF), where everyone parties in HK. Only being here for less than a month, it's pretty much played out. There's only a few popular spots to hit up here. Same scene, same people. The advantage is that they are all walking distance apart.
We took the relatively quiet street to avoid the masses.
I took a quick 15 second nap at a lounge before finishing the night at 6am. I haven't partied this long since NYE 2000 at Limelight in NYC with my friends, Nick and Jerome.
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