Snehal's Blog

Indian Food+Hong Kong+Thanksgiving+WONDERFUL friends=Happy Snehal

snebaybay — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:29:24 +0000

So today was Thanksgiving and it has been a tough day for me, being away from the family and all. Every year, I come home from school the day before Thanksgiving. I walk into a home filled with 2 smiling parents, ready and elated to have me back home! Wednesday night is Desai bonding time. Although I do not have the biggest family, the three of us really bond the most on this day, more than any other day of the year. Family time is different for me. I never eat meals with my parents on a normal basis. When I am at home, my dad will eat first, then I will eat, and my mom will eat a few hours after us. Thus, meals at the Desai residence are lonely ones. It’s usually just me and the TV. So, you all can imagine why the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is special for me. We get some nice Thanksgiving food from Boston Market and enjoy a nice meal with funny jokes and cheer to go around the table. The next day, the three of us head over to Palo Alto to enjoy another Thanksgiving meal with my cousin Supriya, and her family. She makes all the yummy food from scratch, and I enjoy every morsel of her meals! This year, I got a phone call from my mom telling me how much she misses me. I can only imagine how hard it must be for my parents, with their only daughter being away from home when everyone else’s children are coming home for the holidays. For my mother especially, this must be the hardest. I was sad because I cannot bear to see my mother sad. I felt the disappointment in her tone of voice and she was trying to be strong, but I know she missed me a lot. Even my dad. I have not talked to him, but my mom will give me updates and he really misses the father-daughter bonding time that comes with Thanksgiving. This is why I was a little excited to be spending Thanksgiving in Hong Kong with my friends, sharing a nice, traditional Thanksgiving meal. But, unfortunately, these plans changed and turkey and the works were eliminated from my Thanksgiving plans. My friends decided to go to the party that my program had organized, and I had to scramble together a last minute T-giving plan in order to make sure that I would not be alone. I am thankful. I am thankful that my Thanksgiving was not spent alone. That is the one thing I was dreading the most and I am so happy that I did not have to spend one minute of it alone. I woke up this morning and began my day working in the nice sunshine with my friends Alice and Justin. We worked all day and I got a few pages of my paper done! woohoo! I then went to go play some tennis with Justin. It felt sooo good to play a few sets and I worked up my appetite for some goood food! We went out to an Indian restaurant near our campus (I found it’s ratings online) with Alice, Justin, Wil, and Kobe. It was an eclectic mix of people, but they were all delightful company. The food was pretty decent and I will definitely be hitting up the spot in the near future. We got 10% off our meal for being CUHK students AND free drinks! After we started singing Christmas carols and sang in the mall and the MTR (we got a few stares, but it was well worth it!) I came back and here I am now.

Though I did not get my traditional Thanksgiving feast, I am thankful for having such wonderful friends who made my Thanksgiving everything BUT lonely! I am very happy and content and I think I will call it a night so I can wake up super fresh, ready to start my new day with some homeworkin! Hope all of you have a fantastic T-giving and please eat some extra turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pie for me! LOVES!

The break from reality across the border…

snebaybay — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:32:59 +0000

So Monday night I made a spontaneous trip to China…no biggie. I was getting ready to work, work, work after taking a nice, relaxing shower and I get a phone call from Nabila…”So, how was dinner?” small talk here and there..and then BAM! the persuasion begins..haha…unfortunately, manning up and refusing temptation has never been my forte…I was in desperate need of a massage and a relaxing night, so I decided to go to Shenzhen with the gang…we embarked at around 9:30 pm…Although it sounds intense, China is literally a 20 minute train ride away from CUHK. It’s so convenient, yet I have only made use of my multi-entry visa ONCE..and that too, was to Beijing. When we arrived, I was immediately excited to step foot on Chinese soil. In fact, I’ll admit that I got a little tooo excited and made a stupid remark about being in China right as we got off the MTR…haha, but anyway, we went through immigration, got a taxi, and headed out of the normal world…to the Queen Day Spa. As we entered the spa, I felt like my soul was being taken over..haha, I kid, I kid..but honestly, it felt a little strange. People working there were super friendly and the pampering began immediately. It was a high class place with people walking around in ugly, over sized pj’s getting full body scrubs, taking showers, enjoying foot massages, or enjoying the FREE complimentary fruit and ice cream…I felt like I was being bribed and then would have my organs stolen…it was toooo good to be true. The people there, however, were really odd and acted like they had never seen Indians before…one guy walked by with his ice cream cone 5 times, blatantly staring at Nabila and I (Either he was stunned by our beauty or he was shocked by our darkness…I’d like to think it was the former…let’s be a little confident, yea?) So when we got there, the guys and girls split up. Nabila and I went down to change and she took a shower. We came up and loaded up on the free fruit: pomelos, bananas, kumquats, watermelon, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and pears. I avoided the ice cream, as I did not want to suffer a miserable night by the toilet (though, I must say, if that had happened, it would not have been too miserable–going to the toilets was quite the pleasurable experience, with butt warmers and all!) But, anyway, we then went to get our massages.

The massage room was wonderful. The beds were superrrr comfy and the masseuses (who, by the way, could not speak a word of English) came in and began their magical work. I surprisingly did not feel uncomfortable at all and the massage felt reallly good! After the massage, we were taken to this lounge area with reclining chairs that each had their own personal TVs. Apparently, the atmosphere reminded my friends of Wall-E (which I have not seen, so I could not relate..but maybe it will help you guys imagine what it was like). I was exhausted, but ended up staying up until 4 am chatting with a few friends. While my friends were talking about finance, I got a littttle bored so I fell asleep. But then, I was woken up 20 minutes later because we were going to move to a room where we would not have to suffer through the snoring symphony of old, Chinese men…haha…Nabila and I were separated from the guys, yet again. I asked the ladies to give me a wake up call at 9 am, because I had a presentation the next day, which I had not finished working on! So I basically got less than 3 hours of sleep and was pretty peachy the next morning, considering my lack of sleep.

Nabila and I got back around 10 and I skipped my GPA class in order to finish my presentation! I finished it and did a pretty good job presenting it!

The second topic I would like to broach is my disappointing cullinary experiences from today: Today has been the most awful day in terms of getting edible meals. I got some coffee earlier today..BAD idea…I have been sleep deprived and needed an extra boost of energy…so I thought I would try some hazelnut coffee from the coffee bar..little did I know that it would come sweetened and milkened..haha…I felt soo sick after drinking the coffee that I could barely focus in class..whoops. For lunch, I basically ate a few bites of plain rice. I look on the menu at our canteen and see “Marinated Ginger Chicken”…sounds dec, right? I was wrong. It was as if the cooks cut up a whole chicken and dunked the pieces in Indian medicine, and served it on a plate, with fat and all…I could not stand the smell and suffered a few recurring bad memories from childhood summers in India where I was spoonfed the God-awful medicine that was supposed to help me with my fevers…

The third cullinary failure occurred with my disgusting smoothie…you’d think you can’t go wrong with smoothies, right? wronggg..so I decided to get a smoothie, orange paradise, with oranges, bananas, and apples…usually the smoothies are pretty good. I watched the guy make my smoothie and this is what he did: he took a tiny piece of an apple and two slices of an orange and put it in a blender with some type of syrup and ice….and wahhh lahhh: my smoothie was made…my first thought even before taking a sip: what happened to my bananas, buddy? but, I did not lose hope completely, as I was hoping the syrupy stuff he tossed in contained some pureed banananas or somethin…I took about three sips of the smoothie and felt sick to my stomach, yet again…oh cullinary failures, why do you bug me soo much today? So now I cannot bear to eat any more canteen food and am making myself some gooood ‘ol corn-on-the-cob…perhaps another cullinary failure? let’s be optimistic and say: NO SIRRREEE!

Nabs and I in the massage room sporting our sexy, pink pjs!

Gimme SUM Dim Sum!

snebaybay — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:05:41 +0000

I guess food is a unifying force in pretty much all cultures; however, Hong Kong seems to bask in this force. Walk down the busy streets of Hong Kong and you’ll be surrounded by a 360 view of busy people, on- the- go, chomping on some delightful stinky tofu, fish balls, mango desserts, or even sipping some refreshing oolong tea. Food is the ultimate power source for these busy Hong Kongese; however, food here is not always about quickly stuffing one’s face to refuel. But, it is also a cultural experience over which large, extended families chit chat for hours and hours at a time on the weekends. Dim Sum: the popular Hong Kong brunch is something that I quite adore about Hong Kong, and wish that I took more advantage of in the States. I was introduced to dim sum by my cousin, Supriya, in the Asian-populated streets of San Francisco (when I was about 13). When I first tried dim sum, I fell in love with the idea, but I never really ate much of it back home. When I came to Hong Kong, I learned to appreciate it on another level. I am enthralled by every part of my dim sum experiences. It begins as I step into the cheerfully crowded restaurants, that are overflowing with happy families laughing and chattering away in Cantonese dialogue. Although I can’t understand anything people are saying, I feel a little nostalgic when I saunter in. When we are seated, we share a table with another family. The huge tables seat about 10-12 people, and since the restaurants are usually crowded, we are mostly accommodated with smaller families that cannot fill up the entire table. In the United States, this would never happen! The few times that I have gone to dim sum, my small family of three has been seated at a private table, isolated from the frequent Chinese diners.

Lucky for me, I have a knowledgeable Chinese friend who can help me out with ordering. When the Chinese waitresses come by asking me what type of tea I prefer, I usually just respond with a befuddled face repeating: “Chah? Chah?” (means: tea? tea?) and nodding my head…In response, I get pity laughs and some Cantonese response that I obviously cannot understand. I usually settle for whatever tea that my friend decides to order…yet, the jasmine tea has been my favorite so far. In some dim sum restaurants, they come around with food on carts. The carts are labeled in Chinese (so that doesn’t really help me decipher what food the carts actually contain); other dim sum restaurants provide you with lists of food items that you check mark if you want to order (yet, once again, most of these lists are in Cantonese); thus, either way, I mainly rely on my friend to order for me. The Chinese idea of yin-yan ( equalizing tastes) is in full effect in many of these dishes, as they are all usually a perfect balance between sweet and savory. As we wait for our food, we first “wash” our bowls and cups with the hot water they provide. Though this ritual does not really kill any bacteria, it is done for mere psychological appeasement (I am assuming since the Hong Kongese are such germaphobes?). After the tea is finished steeping someone pours a few cups of tea and I gently tap on the table as a sign of thanks to the person who has poured the tea. Then, the moment comes and it is finally time to EAT! My favorite dim sum dishes have been the sweet ones, cuz you all obviously know how enormously LARGE my sweet tooth is! I love the hollow sesame balls that are filled with just the right amount of sweet sesame paste. The buns with sesame paste or meat are also quite delicious. Taro cakes and egg tarts are a few of the other delectable dim sum dishes that are served. The food choices are unlimited; thus, dim sum requires one to man up and go in with the appetite of a voracious caveman…unfortunate for my tiny appetite, I get full after filling up on a few buns and sesame balls. When I first tried dim sum, I was also introduced to one of the most common dim sum dishes: CHICKEN FEET! After trying this dish once, however, I have decided that chicken feet will not be repeat items on my dim sum list…

All of my dim sum experiences have ended with me rolling myself out of my chair and waddling out of the restaurant while in a deep food coma. I usually eat until I can eat no more, as I think it is necessary for me to force feed myself in order to be able to try all the lovely dishes that my friends have ordered. Don’t be fooled by the misleading name of this type of cuisine, however! Dim sum is definitely not only SOME food…it’s more like dim A LOT! haha ok, I know, I need to work on my corny jokes…but you all get the point that dim sum entails a lot of food. I encourage you Californians back home to try some dim sum (as there are PLENTY of dim sum places in CALI! esp in SF!)…you won’t be disappointed, I promise!

The Time I felt Ugly

snebaybay — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Not to sound dramatic, but it’s been a long day: So, normally I would never really feel bad about being brown (besides the N-Sync days where I yearned to be a white girl named Samantha so I would have a chance with one of the boy band members); however, today I felt so strange about being an Indian girl in Hong Kong. So, I went out with my friend to try to find some warm clothes and we went to go look for a heater. I had NO idea where to look so I decided to approach a few locals to ask where I could find a heater. I have never really been the type to see myself as intimidating (or even as a girl that most people would avoid)…I mean I know I come off as shy and reserved sometimes, but today I had a confused look on my face and I just needed some guidance (the look on my face was nowhere near hostile)! But, let me tell you…every single person I even attempted to make eye contact with looked the other way. I even tried approaching a few people and got mean looks and even got straight up ignored. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t feel particularly welcome here sometimes. It’s a sad reality, but I think some of the people here (there are a few ABC’s, as well) seem a little racist when it comes to people of color. Is it my dark skin? Is it that I come off as someone threatening? Who knows? But, it’s an interesting observation that I have made.

Another thing that I noticed that kind of goes along the lines of getting not-so-preferential treatment is the service in restaurants. The waitresses/waiters here are far from friendly. Today for example, I had to flag down a waiter 3 times before he actually came over to me. I just wanted the damn check, but he completely ignored me and kept giving me these hostile glares. I understand that the language barrier makes a huge difference. I wonder if these waiters are just afraid to come up to English speaking customers because they are afraid to use their English? I’m not quite sure what the case is, but I kind of miss being pampered and bombarded with fake friendliness at restaurants in the U.S. I know that waiters have to be nice at home because they want good tips…In Hong Kong, tips are not given, so I guess waiters don’t necessarily have to pretend to like their jobs. It’s sad, but I kind of wish they were friendlier so I can actually enjoy my meals and I might even TIP them if I get good service!

On another note, it’s super cold in Hong Kong (I heard it’s the coldest November in 10 years!)…This weather is perfect to sleep all day and drink delicious, warm chai tea lattes…YUM…where’s my chai latte powder when I need it?! :/ Hope you all are warm wherever you are…I’ll be dreaming of the nice, tropical Philippines beaches that I left behind last weekend!

Why can’t you Cebu, how much I love you?

snebaybay — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:24:16 +0000

This past weekend I embarked on yet another journey. I know, I know…AGAIN? Yes, again…I went to the good old Philippines with Guilhem, Alice, and Justin. Actually, on Friday, Guilhem was my travel companion. We were supposed to meet Alice and Justin in Clark on Friday morning. Let me tell you, Friday was QUITE a day. We got up at the crack of dawn, missed our university shuttle, missed our airport express, got stuck in traffic, and missed our flight to Clark…but we took all this quite well. Neither of us freaked out and we were DETERMINED to get to the Philippines! So, we bought a ticket to Cebu (where we were supposed to go later that evening, anyway) and headed to Cebu! When we got to Cebu, we got a taxi and headed to our hostel. The hostel wasn’t too bad, but the area we stayed in was super shady…

I am glad that we went to Cebu (even though it wasn’t that exciting) because I really got a taste of the local culture and the local life in the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the poorest countries in the world and there is a tremendous amount of poverty there! The peso-dollar exchange rate is at 45 pesos to $1. When we were driving to the hostel, 2 homeless beggar kids came up to our car to sing and beg for money. I felt HORRIBLE because I had no food to give them and I do not believe in giving money to the poor. When we got to the hostel, we dropped our stuff off and decided to explore the neighborhood. Our hostel was literally situated in a residential neighborhood. We checked out the main road and came across the “bar district.” On our way we bought sweets from Julie’s Bakery. I bought some Buku pie (rice pie dessert that was DELICIOUS!) It reminded me of the desserts my mother’s Filipino friends used to give us from Goldilock’s Bakery! There were Dunkin’ Donuts and Jollibees (the fast food place they have at the Great Mall) EVERYWHERE. We came across the red light district (yet again..I don’t know what it is with me and being around prostitutes) and it was gross, once again…same old story: old white men (fug white men) with scanda young girls! I have so much pity for these girls..and I got a few stares, as well, and I’m pretty sure a few people thought I was Guilhem’s prostitute…

So, we walked around and a few beggar kids came up to me…at this point I had some fruit with me so I reached in my bag to give a kid some fruit…the kid SNATCHED the food out of my hand like a rabid monkey and ran away! We were plagued with little beggars after that and I had to shoo them away because I had no food left! I felt really bad though! So later we met up with Alice and Justin and decided to wake up SUPER EARLY (4 am) to head over to Bohol Island (which is about a 2 hour ferry ride from Cebu).

Saturday: we got up and took the ferry to Bohol. We took our chances (for being scammed) and invested in a driver to take us to the resort area to go scuba diving…he HOOKED us up, though. He found a place for us to stay (at a NICE resort! we got a family cottage for $30 per person!)….We went sightseeing with him: saw a cave, got some food (at a bakery and then lunch-my fav part about lunch was the dessert we got in a coconut shell-ice cream, rice cream, jellies, coconut, tapioca, condensed milk YUM), and came back to the resort. At the resort, we went scuba diving in the ocean! It was soo much funnn! I saw so many tropical fish including: sword fish, neon fish, STAR FISH! I held 2 star fish (I named one Martin and the other Jill–I saw 1 more later that day chillin on the beach and one more then next day in the water)! We then hung out at the beach, showered, and went to dinner at the Bohol Bee Farm. I got some DELICIOUS sea food! Crabs in coconut milk with veggies..YUM! I tried some Marlin (it was reallly good) and I got FRESH mango juice! YUM! We went back to our hotel and got full body massages and passed out..the massages were super cheap! 300 pesos=about 6 dollars

Sunday: We got up at 4 again to go Dolphin watching and Island hopping! We saw dolphins 3 times and it was AMAZING! I got a few pics and Justin got them on video! We saw the sun rise, also! We went to an island about an hour away from Bohol…Bantayan Island…we went snorkeling in a fish sanctuary (where large motor boats are not allowed)…it was one of my favorite activities! I swam with fish! The water was so pleasant and warm–It was crystal clear, a pretty turquoise blue! The sand was white and pristine! The beaches in the Philippines were probably the prettiest I have seen in my life. After, we came back to Bohol, showered and got ready to go to the Chocolate Hills, to see the largest Python, the oldest church, to a man-made forest, to see bush babies (monkey-like primates), and eat lunch on a river boat.

Chocolate Hills: Beautiful hills in Bohol that look like drops of chocolate. In the non-rainy seasons they look like chocolate becuase they dry out and turn brown. I would rate them a 6 out of 10 for how interesting they were. They were pretty, but that’s about it.

Largest Python: Her name is Prony. She weighs around 300 kg and eats once a month. She is fed a 90 kg pig EVERY MONTH! I saw her and pet her! She was pretty calm and just slept while we were there!

The rest are pretty self-explanatory…

So then we got on the ferry back to Cebu and came back to Hong Kong. The Philippines trip was probably my second favorite trip (Beijing was by far my favorite!). This trip was more adventurous and I enjoyed it differently than I enjoyed Beijing. Beijing provided me with more of a historical enjoyment, whereas Cebu provided me with a cultural and naturesque (not a word, I know…but I’m coining it in my urban dictionary) enjoyment. This trip was probably my last trip for now…I am still trying to figure out whether or not it is feasible for me to go to Vietnam and Cambodia before I head back to the Bay. This week I have a lot of catchin up to do, as finals are around the corner! I cannot believe my stay in Hong Kong is almost coming to an end. I will be back in about a month! Can you guys believe it?! I am happy to be coming back to my loved ones, but I am really going to miss HK! Well, I’ll leave my emotional rambling about this subject for another post. Cheers until then!

The gang before scuba diving!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

snebaybay — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:36:56 +0000

Hello Folks! I have finally got my lazy ass to figure out how to upload pics on this so I am starting a picture post that I will try to update frequently. I am posting a few pictures for now, but keep an eye out for more picture-tastic updates! So far, I will start by putting up pictures of the delish food I had this past weekend! Enjoy! Tomorrow I will be heading to the Philippines, so I will have loads to update you all on when I get back. Have a wonderful weekend! LOVES!

Cultural Conglomeration

snebaybay — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:28:55 +0000

Hello Beautifuls! I just got back from my trip to Singapore and Malaysia last night and have had quite an eventful weekend! So let’s recap on what I’ve done for the past couple of days!

Thursday night: went and got some bomb sushi with a group of friends in HK! Sushi One is a great sushi place that has late-night sushi for half off…the sushi is super cheap, pretty good, and half off gets you a lotttt of sushi…so by the end of the night I was in a sushi coma…dun dun dun…got back late after sushi and went to sleeep!

Friday morning: Got up super early to shower and get ready for my flight to Singapore! We left Hong Kong around 8 am (to go to the airport). I traveled with a wonderful group of people: Nabila, Miho, Aline, Danyal, Derek, and Guilhem! It was hard traveling with 7 people at times, but we made it work and all of us were pretty good travelers overall! So we got to Singapore and took the MRT (the local subway-like train) to our hostel. It was my very first hostel experience and it wasn’t so bad! Thanks to Danyal for researching hostels for us! We actually ended up staying in Little India (haha, yes) at a hostel called Mitraa youth hostel. I shared a room with Miho, Nabila, and Aline. That night we got some food at this food court area near by (the food wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad). We then decided to go out and explore a little. So we went and checked out the Parliament building, another important building I can’t remember (uhh I know, this is kinda bad but once I see the pic I’ll remember), Clarke Quay (harbor front area with bars, shops, food, etc. etc). We then decided to check out Singapore’s night life since it is supposed to be pretty legit. We got ready and the mayhem began…it was a super fun night and we all had a ton of fun, to say the least. The night life was probably my favorite part about Singapore. It was a classy area and it was a bit expensive, but the club played BOMB music and it was crowded enough, but we had a ton of space to dance! Nabila and I came back before the others and I passed out around 3.

Saturday: We got up and got ready and ate breakfast at the hostel. We then decided to check out China town and the colonial area in Singapore. It was nice, but it was hot so I felt a bit dehydrated and sickish..we also checked out Little India and got some good food in the stall area. I had GREATTTT roti pratas (which are like fried parathas) with some sort of curry. Cheese and regular. Yummmmyyy…ok, so then we went to this merlion park where they had a lake and a merlion statue spitting out water..it was pleasant. After this, we headed to the airport to go to Kuala Lumpur! Saturday night we got to KL pretty late (our flight was delayed) and had nowhere to stay. We went from hostel to hostel and finally came across this one hotel that was willing to accommodate all 7 of us in 2 rooms. We were desperate for a place to stay so we accepted. This place was nasttyyyyy but I had a fun time, regardless. The girls and I had to share 2 beds and they guys did not have enough beds so Guilhem slept on the ground! The bathrooms were gross and it was worse than motel 6! but we were all troopers and I still think we made the best of the experience. I sure got a few laughs and interesting stories from it. The place we stayed was some sort of prostitution haven, as well..so it was a bit shady, but at least we found a place to stay and had a greattt bonding experience!

Sunday: We got up and went to explore KL! We went to Batu caves (where they have a temple in a cave), the oldest mosque in KL (we werent allowed in the praying area, which was a bit disappointing. But I was wearing shorts and a tank top so I had to cover my head with a scarf and wear a robe to cover my legs). It was so interesting and I loved the cultural experience we got. I got to see what Muslim women feel/see/do at mosques and it was an amazing feeling I cannot really describe. I felt more of a connection to them, I guess. We checked out Little India in KL and got BOMBBB south Indian food at this place they have in Sunnyvale also (Saravana Bhavan )…dosas, vada sambar, parotha….YUMMMY! I hadn’t had dosas in a while so it was nice! Then we roamed around a bit and went to China town and the twin towers. We got DELICIOUS Malaysian food at a really nice restaurant and it was probably one of the best culinary experiences I have had in Asia so far. SOOOOO GOOOOD! We then got some foot massages and fish spa treatment! The fish spa treatment was sooo weird because we put our feet in a tank/pond thing and there were a bunch of different fish that swam and ate our dead skin and cleaned our feet for us…I felt soo ticklish and it was soo weird that I could not stop laughing and making odd whimpering noises..haha The foot massage was pretty nice, as well. We then went back to Little India and migrated to a new hotel: Hotel Mexico. So all 6 of us were in one room and the room was pretty nice! We all finally got a good night’s sleep and did not have to worry about having bugs attack our faces during the night!

One of the memorable things about Sunday is our encounter with our taxi driver, Arvind. He was so baller, to say the least. We started talking to him and he told us about his life and stuff. He is a Malaysian guy with Indian roots in Bangalore. It was funny because he was saying how he hates Indians…and lo and behold there are two Indians sitting in the back…haha but what he meant was that he hates how Indians treat others and the social hierarchy that exists in India. For example, the fact that everyone has servants sucks because there is no dignity for human life. Upper class people (even lower middle class people) can afford to hire cheap labor to take care of their daily tasks (cleaning, cooking, taking care of kids) and there is no respect for these lower class workers. Arvind reflected how all people are equal and essentially live the same lives..so nobody has a right to treat people with such disrespect. He also reflected his views about the Malaysian king, told us about his failed loves, and his life plan. He is a taxi driver so he can save money to go back to school. When I heard this, it really warmed my heart. I really appreciate his efforts to work hard to try to go back to school in order to make a decent living. It is something I would do and I have a lot of respect for the man.

One of my most favorite things about traveling is meeting local people and hearing their stories. As you all may or may not know, I am a people person and I love hearing about other people’s lives. Hearing about the locals makes me appreciate their culture more, and I feel more connected to these people. If you guys get a chance to travel and learn about the locals, I would really recommend it! You would be surprised as to how interesting some of these stories can be.

Monday: We got up and got ready and headed to the bird park and nature-esque area…the park was kinda expensive so we decided to check out the Chinese temple instead. It was pretty and I got another fortune stick! haha I get super excited about those (prob one of my favorite things about Buddhist temples). It was very calm and had a nice view of the city. After, we went to Chinatown again, got food, and headed back to our hotel to pick up our stuff and leave. We got to the airport on time and as we were leaving KL it started pouring. We were lucky to have pretty good weather.

I think my favorite part of the weekend was the KL part. I enjoyed seeing the peaceful mix of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. It was such a refreshing change to see people that all had Malaysian nationalities, but were all ethnically diverse. I would love to go back to Malaysia again some day and perhaps explore more of the more rural areas and learn more about the culture. I hope you all had a good weekend and I will write more some time this week!

Loves!

FOOOOOOD! Nom, Nom, Nom (Daya would be proud)

snebaybay — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:19:02 +0000

So today has been quite the day! So much to talk about! So I had my midterm for my Chinese thought class and it wasn’t too bad…Right after class I had to jet to Shatin to meet up with my cute little travel agent, Sunny, to pay for my Philippines trip! I felt really bad today because I spent A LOT of money! I paid for my Philippines tickets (which were actually pretty cheap), and then I discovered this food area in the mall that was like WHOLE FOODS! I kinda went crazy when I saw all the food and overall I spent 60 American dollars on just FOOD…Yes, I am such a fatty. I finally found silk soy milk and was elated..haha..I splurged on hummus, kashi crackers, granola bars, more granola bars, dried fruit, and YOGURT! All the healthy nutrients that I wasn’t getting before..and whatever, I felt bad for like an hour (but honestly, my body needs these healthy items!!!). I will reflect about my findings on food a bit later.
So I shopped around a bit more and got some other necessary items (contact solution, etc, etc). So one thing that surprised me is that Hong Kong does not have shaving gel in stores (or atleast stores NEAR my university don’t) I went to 3 different stores to find damn shaving cream and NONE of them had any…I mean, I understand that Asians are practically hairless and can afford to walk around without shaving/ walk around shamelessly with hairy legs…but UM I kinda can’t do that…well, technically I can, since its no-shave november and all…haha JK…hence, the quest for shaving cream continues…

So after splurging on food in Shatin, I come to my wonderful floor and there is a hot pot party going on! I am invited so I join! It was my first hot pot experience and I LOVED IT! I only paid 10 hong kong dollars (which is less than $1.50)!! So there was a LARGE pot and all the girls on my floor put in meat (beef slices, fish balls, sausages, meatballs, etc. etc), bok choi, sprouts, mushrooms (various kinds!), other veggies, and chicken broth…We let the food cook in the pot for a while and the sharing began. We all looked like starving hyeinas clawing for food..haha ok, so I exaggerate and it was not as violent as I make it sound. In fact, it was quite lovely and we had a great bonding experience. I met a few more exchange girls (one from Korea who lives on my floor and always smiles, but I didn’t know her name before), another girl from Sweden, who I already kind of knew before, and other local girls on my floor. Everyone was sooo friendly, it was really nice!

So, on with my food thoughts: I realize that I spend so little money on food here that spending 60 American dollars on food made me feel really guilty about how much I actually spend at home. 60 bucks at home would not be a lot, because I usually end up spending 100 bucks at a time at the store! I really realized that I need to watch how I spend my money back home and being on a budget in Hong Kong is making me into a wiser spender (even though my spending today was not “wise,” it has honestly been the most I have spent on food since I have been here). In America, we take grocery shopping for granted and I realized that I can do so much with the extra money I save from buying cheaper food or abstaining from buying unnecessary groceries that I would never finish!

This weekend I will be heading to Malaysia/Singapore so I probably won’t blog significantly until I come back…unless there’s some interesting topic I deem necessary to talk about.

Latez!

Confession….

snebaybay — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:30:19 +0000

So, I am studying at this coffee shop area near my hostel and four of the CUTEST Chinese kids walk in…And I just want to go up to them and pinch their cheeks…they are playing hide-and-seek around my table tooo! I know I probably sound like a creeper, but let me tell you that I am not the only person who has had the sudden urge to kidnap a Chinese baby…

But yes, as the title of this post suggests: I confess that I want to steal one of these ridiculously cute Asian babies…and damnit, I left my camera in my room so I can’t even take pictures haha…that’s prob a good thing!

Behave! Or you shall be punished! dun dun dun…

snebaybay — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:35:03 +0000

Something about Hong Kong that I find interesting is the disciplinary “scare” that campus authorities try to use to persuade students to behave. Everyday, I’ll be walking around campus and I come across a new sign that is supposed to force students NOT to participate in illegal, rebellious activities. For example, you walk through my Bethlehem Hall elevator and there’s a sign that spits out a message of this sort:

There has been SOLID evidence against students smoking in this hall. Please be advised that CUHK is a non-smoking campus and further disciplinary action WILL be taken by the WARDEN if such misconduct continues to occur. You will be punished.

Now, walking in that elevator and reading this notice on a daily basis really does send chills down my spine. Who would want to deal with further disciplinary action implemented by the WARDEN? Now, I don’t mean to sound sassy and by no means am I the warden (who has probably written a pro/con list for various disciplinary tactics) but, one thing I wonder is: If there is SOLID evidence against people in this hall, why don’t they just confront these people and keep up the regular signs that they already saturate the campus with(The regular notice goes a little something like: Please be advised that CUHK is a non-smoking, GREEN campus. Please refrain from smoking on campus premises or disciplinary action will be taken)? I mean isn’t it kind of ironic that CUHK is proud of being a GREEN campus, yet they continue to put up new signs (and waste paper) daily? I guess it’s more threatening when you bring Mr. Warden into the picture…

Another interesting rule: The rules of not having people of the opposite sex in one’s room past a certain hour of the night. So it’s 9pm…The other night I had a boy in my room at 9:15 pm (get your mind out of the gutter, you SD pervs…it was all PG) and my RA knocks on my door to try to convince me to come to some Bible Study shindig…She sternly looks at me and the guy sitting on my bed and says: Snehal, you do realize that B-Hall policy states that you cannot have people of the opposite sex in your room past 9 pm. Please take proper action and have your friend leave the building. Thank you…shuts door and walks away.

Sooo my friend definitely did not leave until an hour later…my point is that I see guys walking on my floor at late hours of the night ALL THE TIME! And I am pretty damn sure my flute-playing RA has had some tinga in her room a few times, as well…just sayin…these HK kids are not really that innocent and if the rules are lax for them, why is it that international students get the boot? Perhaps Mr. Warden needs to put up another sign saying: Dear BHall Rebels, Please be informed that there has been SOLID evidence against students having members of the opposite sex in their rooms past visiting hours. Bethlehem Hall rules forbid opposite sex visitors after 9 pm (strictly, on the dot…seriously, on the second). Further disciplinary action WILL be taken by the WARDEN, himself, if such rebellious conduct continues to occur. Sincerely, your tinga-hating warden

Well folks, I guess this is it for now. I hope you enjoyed my rant about HK discipline…The warden will probably punish me for writing this.