Rob Hamborg

It’s hard to believe an awesome year is over and no doubt I’ll be hit by frequent feelings of missing Hong Kong and nostalgia in the coming months. There are a lot of things that have happened since my initial rush of entries at the start of the year and from the comfort of my home in Chelmsford I’m thinking it’s a good idea to highlight the best and worst parts about Hong Kong, and going on exchange in general. The Good A pass/fail year - This applies to all exchange placements and not just Hong Kong, but it’s been delightful to have an easy year again with the pressure off. You can go out 2 or 3 times a week and miss days of university to travel with no real fear of the consequences. Since ... read more

My eagerness to experience Cambodia could hardly been described. The Lonely Planet describes visiting the country as an adventure as opposed to a holiday, there was the feeling that I couldn’t possibly know what to expect. Cambodia’s ancient history was glorious, ruling what now includes Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. This age led to the construction of the Angkor temples, another “Eighth Wonder of the World” which I was really excited about seeing. More recently, Cambodia has been to hell and back with the legacy of civil war and, worse still, the Khmer Rouge’s years in power still at large. Until recently Cambodia was one of the poorest 20 countries in the world, the countryside remains littered with landmines. Many of the Khmer people today will still have vivid memories of a brutal regime which we in ... read more

Recently we were blessed with a week off from university for the Chinese New Year. The majority of exchange students jetted off to the Philippines to work on their tans. I didn’t so much see the point of this when it was only going to wear off by the time I flew home. Instead Ben and I booked a trip to Beijing; the heartland of modern China steeped in thousands of year’s history. This had been the centre of activities for thousands of Chinese emperors and more recently the place from Mao and his communist party have ruled China. There were so many reasons why I was excited about visiting Beijing and indeed having a proper excursion into the Mainland. There were so many interesting aspects of our train journey, wider observations of China and impressions ... read more

Where to start with a non-stop week in Vietnam? I had completely forgotten how tiring it is to travel continuously in an effort to see as much of the world as possible, and we certainly didn’t waste much time sleeping whilst in Vietnam last week, seeing a lot of the country for just 6 days. Everything that could go wrong seemed to happen in the first night getting our flight and getting to our hotel. I won’t go into too much detail, but there were complications with our visas and the flight was the most turbulent and unpleasant one I’ve ever had. To top it all off we had our first experience of how unhelpful and dishonest Vietnamese taxi drivers can be, with our first attempt to get to our hotel being ended by the police ... read more

The non stop lifestyle I’ve lived since arrival doesn’t show any immediate signs of slowing. I can barely remember everything that I’ve been up to since my last entry. I did make my trip into Mong Kok for my haircut as planned and it all went okay. What’s the worst that can happen when all you want is for it to be cut short? Thankfully nobody threw acid off the roof into the crowds below on this occasion, indeed I think cases of this have dried up which is a relief for everyone. I also had the chance to buy a few more clothes. I decided to go a bit more expensive this time as one of the Ralph Lauren polo’s I bought for £2 last time is already coming apart at the seams after only ... read more