Life's too short... Travel the World!

Life's too short... Travel the World!: January 2013

Thursday 31 January 2013

First Week in Hong Kong!

It's been 3 weeks since I've arrived in Hong Kong; I should probably update this thing.

 First Week

I don't know why I've been procrastinating it so much, but I've been well aware of it, but I owe the people that read this an update.

After finishing backpacking Thailand, I headed for Hong Kong International Airport on a Monday morning, and arrived at about 10AM. I got settled in to City University residence, and went through my normal period of hating life in my first day of a new place.

That night, I decided to sign up for the IKEA trip, so I could get some pillow cases; and boy am I glad I did. It was on the trip that I started to meet all the other international students - and boy there were a lot of them. We started talking, and exploring Ikea together, which was really fun, and I went home feeling much better about Hong Kong.

The next day I was craving some western food, as I hadn't had any for a while because of Thailand - so I decided to rock up to none other than Maccas. It was there that I saw my now main group of friends chilling at the tables. I had gotten to know a few of them last night, but I cite this moment as when I got accepted into this new group of friends - which was pretty cool for me because we've been together ever since!

We spent the rest of the week getting settled in and checking out the city. Here are a few of the things that we did:






  • Saw the symphony of lights from the Kowloon harbour
  • Checked out Victoria Peak with an amazing view of the city
  • Saw a race at the track
  • Hated HSBC and every other bank in Hong Kong
  • Returned to ikea many times to gather things that we forgot
  • Checked out LKF, Wan Chai (Expat Party Zone), and lots of orientation sessions.
Little did I know that class would start soon, which is unfortunate. I think every international student regrets  having to go to class after they experience their first week in a new city with friends. All of a sudden it's "oh... we're actually here to study... right". For some of us though, that still hasn't kicked in.



Christmas with Elephants

While normally Christmas is spent with families, either on the beach in Australia, or hiding indoors with the heat cranked in Canada, mine was anything but that, because I spent it at an Elephant rescue camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand.


I had been wanting to go to an elephant camp for a while, but was debating with the costs. A lot of them costed a lot of money just to go watch the elephants, and the ones that were cheap were cheap for a reason; the elephants were treated poorly, and were only there to serve the customers - that's not what I wanted to participate in at all.

Eventually, I looked around, and Tamlee told me about the place that the British bunch went to, called Woody's Elephant Training, and though it was a little expensive for me - I deemed it a Christmas present, and reckoned it was worth it - boy was I right.

I got up early on Wednesday morning and after waiting about a half hour, the van finally came around and collected me. The night before I had purchased a Christmas hat, and to my surprise when I got on the bus, there were three girls who also had them on too - awesome.

We drove for about an hour, and finally arrived at the camp, where we got settled in, and checked the amazing views from the back porch. Over the first hour, we got to know each other's names, learned some history about the camp, and learned the commands for the elephants. We also got dressed in our Mahout clothing, as we would be teaching the elephants as well - which was super awesome.

They're really intelligent creatures, and I say that, because they can speak better Thai than I can. They understand quite a few commands - though we only learned a few, like YoKaa (leg up), Yud (stop) and a few others... I kept mixing up stop for fast, which turned out not to benefit me too well.

We then spent the next hour feeding the elephants, cleaning up after them, and learning to control them. You use a hook on it's head, which doesn't hurt the elephant as long as you're gentle with it. It's important to remember that when the elephant is young, even though nobody wants to hurt it, if it does something bad, it has to be immediately taught that it's behavior is not appropriate via a negative stimulus. It is sad to think of, but in order for them not to be killing people - it's necessary.

After that, we had a great lunch, and got to ride the elephants across the camp. It was actually a lot more scary than you'd think, since they're huge creatures, and as well as they teach you they can be difficult to control. We also learned how to start a fire by rubbing sticks together, which was actually a lot easier than I expected.

After we got back, it was time to take the elephants for their baths. The Mahouts lead the elephants into the river, handed us brushes and we followed suit. The water was absolutely freezing at first, but I sucked it up, since it was Christmas, and how many people in the world get this opportunity, right?

Not going to lie, it was a little scary to have the elephants carelessly rolling over in the water, however after staying clear of them, it was a lot of fun. They began sucking water up into their trunks and spraying people, and even stamping their feet, making the entire river boil.

Once they were "clean" we went for a swim with them, where we rode their backs through an incredibly deep pool of water. The elephant seemed to take joy in buckling it's front legs, keeping it's trunk above water, but completely dipping it's head (and us) under. Later on she reared up on her hind legs and I held on for dear life - was very close to falling off. It was a lot of fun, a little painful, and the elephant ended up trumpeting at the end while we were riding her - it was crazy loud.

After that, we said our goodbyes, took a couple pictures, and headed home for the day. Not a bad way to spend Christmas, right?


Saturday 5 January 2013

The Most Helpful Phrases in Thailand

Being here for two months, I've obviously picked up a little Thai. Unlike French, I can understand more than I can speak, but I can have basic conversations with people on the street, which is really cool. So, that being said, here is an informal Thai lesson from someone who is not qualified what-so-ever to teach it:

If you're a girl, you end every sentence with Ka. If you're a guy, it's Kap. It's just the Thai way of being polite. It's kind of like please, but you say it all the time.

If' you're a guy, when you say "I" it is "pom", and for girls it's "chan". I never really understood that one, but whatever, go with the flow.

Here are the most helpful phrases that I've found so far:

Khap Khun (Ka / Kap)     -     Thank you!

Pom/Chan Hiew     -     I'm Hungry

Sawatdee Kap/Ka     -     Hello!

Sa bai dee mai?     -     How are you?

Korr Toad Kap / Ka     -     I'm sorry!

Pom / Chan Oww    -   I want...

Arai   -   What?

You Tee Nai   -   Where is it?

Hong Nam   -   Washroom   (Room, Water)


Mai is an interesting word, because it's used at the end of a sentence to change the word into a question, but it's also used to mean no. So, here's a sample conversation:

Me: Hiew Mai?     (Are you hungry?)
You: Hiew.     (Yes I am)

OR

You: Mai Hiew.    (No, I'm not).

This is why I find the language really easy, that, and there's no conjugations, tenses, or any other little weird things like that to worry about. Oh, except for the tones, and the fact that Mai can mean 5 different words depending on how you say it. Near and far are the same word, one is just higher than the other...

This elephant can understand more Thai than I can... No word of a lie.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

New Years in Bangkok - 2012/2013

Well, it's January 2nd and it is officially 2013 everywhere in the world, but my new years was absolutely amazing.

After missing my train, and catching a plane to Bangkok, I waited in the airport for the arrival of Michelle and Lindsay, two of my friends from the RLS at Brock who happened to be arriving in Bangkok at the same time I did.




Seeing them walk out of the terminal was awesome, because they are the first people I've seen from back home in about 6 months, which is super cool. After catching up, we caught a cab into the city, and after checking into our hostel, exploring Khao San road for a little, grabbing unnecessarily large amounts of food (and claiming I could do so because it was my birthday) they were feeling a little tired, so we went to bed early.



Now, since I haven't drank on my Thailand trip yet, I figured New Years Eve was the time to do so. Lindsay and I started drinking at 11 in the morning (out of peer pressure for me) and I wanted to make it a Home-Coming day (for the 3 home comings at Brock that I've missed). I was a little more drunk than I anticipated in the afternoon, so I decided to head back to the hostel and have a nap.

I woke up still drunk at about 6PM, but sobered up as we went and got dinner. Afterwards, we all started drinking again, and caught a cab to CentreWorld - where the party is at.

There must have been 100 thousand people there, it was crazy. I was loving it, but Michelle and Lindsay weren't feeling it as much as I was so we decided to catch a tuk tuk back to Khao San, where all the falang were chillin' and partying. We were singing, dancing, and yelling Happy New Year / Sawatdee Pei Maii to people on the street, when we finally arrived.

I don't remember much after that point. I remember dancing on chairs, being told to get down, waiting until that person turned their back, and getting back up on the chairs. I also remember the countdown, and the crazy crowds in which I felt like I was going to die.

It was a crazy night overall. The next day we grabbed some food, and I said goodbye to Michelle and Lindsay (who I'll see in a few days again in Hong Kong).

Right now I'm chillin in the hostel, and just slumming around bangkok being a dirty backpacker / hippie. Not too shabby of a life.

This is the only song I remember of the night: