Boat trips, trying to learn Mandarin, eating snake and Macao round two

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It feels like ages since my last entry, and now I have so much to write I have to split it all into two to make it easier to read. One of the reasons why I’m not writing so much now is that I’m very much getting into a routine in Hong Kong, and although there is still loads for me to see and do, I’m not quite experiencing the same non-stop intake of new things that I had for the first few weeks.

I’m becoming more used to the Hong Kong way of life now. I’m worried that when I go home for Christmas I’ll seem very rude to all the people in the UK when I’m out and about on public transport or on the street. I was taken aback upon arrival about how people in a crowded street will simply walk straight into you and expect you to move out of your way, or cut straight in front of you when you’re in a queue for the MTR or something. They just seem totally oblivious to how rude it seems, and unfortunately I’m actually getting used to it. The really annoying incidents are when you hold the door open for people behind you or keep a lift open for somebody else to get in. There’s very rarely any sort of recognition, let alone thank you. Indeed they won’t always return the favour; it’s not at all unusual for somebody just in front of you to shut a door in your face. It really frustrated me at first but I’m used to it now and am beginning to drop my standards to match. I’d still give up my seat to an elderly woman on the MTR though, I saw a case a couple of weeks ago when nobody sitting down bothered to, and there were plenty of guys my age with seats.

I also got used to the heat a long time ago, and it’s getting cooler now too. It makes Hong Kong an even better place to live. I’m well practiced with chop sticks and can use them well enough, although I know plenty of people who are better. In terms of eating I finally seem to be developing the taste for sea food which means I can eat more than just barbequed pork at meal times (other meats will be loaded with fat and bones and you don’t really get much meat at all) My group of friends is very settled now and I feel at home in all these respects. However I haven’t made so much progress with my modules, particularly Mandarin. It’s partly because this had all felt like a holiday for the first 6 weeks and partly because the social life of exchange students seems to be very busy. However it’s mainly it’s because I know that this year doesn’t count towards my degree and I’ve placed a higher importance in making myself feel at home in Hong Kong.

I had my first test in Mandarin last Monday. I find it hard enough to copy Chinese characters from the textbook onto paper, let alone remember them and translate from English into them. I could just about remember the English way of writing things, but I can’t have done well. There’s also a very complex system of syllable beginnings, endings and tones and it just seemed too hard to distinguish. They only take the highest 2 out of 3 test scores and I won’t be running off to Macao for the weekend before next time……the other modules seem easier and more interesting. There’s more overlap with what I’ve studied before so I understand them infinitely better than I understand Mandarin. I submitted my first assignment last Monday and I think it was alright, however I feel like most modules haven’t really kicked off yet. I’ve got 3 presentations to make this semester which will all come in a couple of weeks before the end of term, but right now it’s not too intense.

I have still been doing interesting things in the last few weeks and have by no means settled into a typical Hong Kong lifestyle. About 2 weeks ago we all had a really good day for Katy’s 21st birthday. We hired a boat for the day from about 10am - 6pm. It was a clear, sunny day and it allowed me to see the peace that exists once you’re past the harbour and out with the outlying islands. After an hour or so going through busy, dirty, choppy waters we found a quiet place between a few islands with clean water to swim in. It was a really good spot to spend your afternoon at. We had music, food, drinks and we stayed there for most of the afternoon, jumping off the top deck into the water, swimming about and relaxing on the top. It was great fun but really relaxing too. Quite a lot of people were very sunburnt by the end of the day but I got away with it, and I left thinking I’d like the chance to explore the outlying islands more often. It was a very cheap day, the boat cost about £12 each to hire for the day - a boat party wouldn’t be feasible for a group of students back home, not to mention pointless because of the weather and cold water.

A week or so later I took up the opportunity to undergo an eating experience that would make some westerner’s stomachs turn. I went to a snake bar. The first experience was simply getting there; Sham Shui Po was a part of Hong Kong I’ve never been to before. I certainly wouldn’t call the people living there poor, but the atmosphere given off from the concrete flats, the small street stalls and the dingy shops was a far cry from the comfortable, glamorous feeling I’ve come to associate with Hong Kong. The streets were dirtier; people seemed to be less smartly dressed. Inside shops and restaurants they were barely clean and they certainly hadn’t made any effort to make them look smart and presentable to foreigners. People didn’t seem to have such a grasp of English, and they were sitting on small tables eating and drinking in the street. It was truly local Hong Kong. The snake bar itself was a very small place and couldn’t handle 40 or so students (this was a more official event set up by one of the student workers) at once. I didn’t really have a meal there, but I got to try what I wanted to. Upon arrival there are cages full of live snakes, and jars with dried snake skins and snake heads inside. It had the same grossly fascinating feel you get when you walk around meat markets in Southern France or Spain.

There was a massive pot of snake soup which I tried a few mouthfuls of. Snake actually tastes a bit like chicken, although the texture is not so pleasant, quite stringy and chewy. If your stomach is turning now skip down until I start writing about Macau because it’s going to get worse, I’m not censoring my experiences. After the tasty snake soup we moved on to snake wine, the picture above should offer enough explanation. I don’t know how it’s made, a couple of people decided to look it up but I decided ignorance is bliss when it comes to these sorts of scenarios. It tasted no worse than other spirits I’ve tried such as vodka, gin, rum and whisky but that’s not saying much, it was pretty vile in reality. Having tried the snake soup and the snake wine, there was one more local speciality for the brave to try. Snake blood.

Snake blood is actually really expensive, $200 for one cup. It’s because you have it fresh. Imagining that we wouldn’t want too much of it we got one cup between ten of us. I’m not normally too concerned about animal cruelty but what followed did make me feel slightly uncomfortable. One of the snakes was taken out of the cage and had its mouth taped up so that we could one by one hold it and have our photos taken with it. He didn’t seem to struggle too much as we passed him around but I still found it slightly nerve wracking to grab a snake and hold him around my neck. After we’d all had the chance to hold him one of the workers in the bar took him back and carried him over to a table he had set up outside. There was a cup and a pair of scissors prepared and as he held the snake’s head down in the cup I thought the inevitable was about to happen. Therefore imagine mine and everybody else’s surprise when instead of going for the scissors, the man holding the snake swung it above his head and in one smooth movement bit its head off with his teeth. He then drained as much blood out into the cup as possible. He then popped out the snake’s stomach and advised us that it was good for us but none of us took up the offer. Instead the cup of blood was passed around all who had helped pay for it. It didn’t taste as bad as I expected, if I didn’t know what it was I probably could have had more. Jack commented that it tasted a bit like sherry, I wouldn’t know but I’ll have to try some at Christmas and make my own mind up. When we left 20 minutes later the snake's headless body was still moving. I have uploaded a video of the incident if you want to watch.

Not much else to report from Hong Kong but I have had a second weekend in Macau for the sake of Andreas’ birthday. There were only 5 of us this time, all put into one very impressive hotel room. Nights were very much the same as last time except we saw more of the casinos and complexes. I abstained from gambling for the vast majority of the weekend, constantly reminding myself that Teddy and Andreas were nothing but lucky as they kept winning again and again. There were a few highlights for me that we didn't have last time. We took a walk around outside the Venetian on Friday night and looked at new City of Dreams complex, an attempt to get younger gamblers into Macau. We went to the Hard Rock bar and had a few drinks there in an environment where we felt more at home and welcome, or at least I did. Then we were at the Wynn casino on Saturday, where we were able to stand outside and watch the fireworks over the harbour. There’s also a massive synchronized fountain, and as it was Andreas’ birthday we went to an excellent restaurant above it. It wasn’t too pricy, I managed to keep my spending down to $200 and every fifteen minutes we were able to look down on a different performance from the fountain below. Some involved fire with the display, some involved a wealth of colours, and some just had so much water going in so many different heights and directions you simply had to look. We also had the chance to spend a full day there on Saturday and see a bit of Macau.

The problem with this is that the only thing to see in Macau is based around glamorous party centre it has become today. There are apparently a few cathedrals and pieces of Old Portuguese architecture to look at from the old colonial era, but they fail to hold a great appeal when you read about them for some reason. It’s not really what you go to Macau for. Instead we went around a Formula 1 museum giving us an insight into the Macau Grand Prix that happens every year, as well as a wine making museum. We largely went there because it let us try wines we couldn’t normally afford at a very cheap price. Following that we acted like a load of grown up boys by going to find a massive arcade complex. For $100 each we got to have great fun running around shooting each other with BB guns for 15 minutes, go on pathetic slow dodgems, and have a free go in a Formula 1 simulator which was pretty cool, although all I seemed to do was skid and crash.

The afternoon summed up Macau perfectly, loads of fun, enjoyable activities packed into a very small place, but there’s no real substance behind Macau it seems to me. It’s just a load of gloss aimed at attracting tourists for short stays, probably the key reason why the average stay there is less than two days. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both weekends there but I have absolutely no intention of going back there any time soon with the possible exception of a day trip the Grand Prix in November. Likewise when all the new exchange students arrive next semester there will probably be another trip there as part of everybody getting to know each other and I’ll probably go to that. However in both cases Macau itself really wouldn’t be the motivation for going, there is nothing more for me to do there it seems. It’s a good attitude to have; if I wanted to go back I’d need a gambling addiction.

That’s all from Hong Kong for now. As I said earlier, expect the number of blog updates to slow from now onwards. Time for me to get writing about Vietnam….

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Photos

In the water
Much cleaner than the sewage at Discovery Bay

The whole party
30 students on a boat

Snake Wine!
Unfortunately ours wasn't made from cobras but you get the idea.

The condemned
The snake around Vash's neck before its head was bitten off.

Plenty of room for 5
Our room in Macau, meant for 2 but we all squeezed in.

Macau by night
An area we didn't see last time, around the City of Dreams.

Outside the Venetian
Just as smart as inside

Fireworks
They got a bit better near the end

Fountain outside the Wynn
Hard to capture on camera

Comments

[Mum]

I don't believe it......
I am speechless Rob. As for watching the video nasty - absolutely no way. Please keep us well away from Snake Bars when we are there!

[Liz McKenzie]

snake bar
Oh yuk!!snake head biting off it makes me feel violently sick.Not one foryourMum and Dad methinks!! Your blogs are a good read though, you make me feel as if I can smell/hear/see.Your wrting is fantastic...too fantastic for the snake bit though.No I have to try and cook dinner......xx

[Chloe]

Yuck!
Rob that's disgusting! big respect for trying it though!