Chinese New Year, Thai Style

As you probably know, the Year of the Tiger has just begun… So Happy Chinese New Year from Hong Kong! Not just a one day affair, Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) is a fifteen day festival full of food, parades and time spent with the family. More importantly for me, the days off from work gave me my first real chance to get away from Hong Kong and explore another part of Asia. In January I took a day trip to Macau and spent a quick weekend away in Manila, both of which I really enjoyed. But Chinese New Year was going to give me a couple of days off from work, so I could really take advantage and do something spectacular.

Seizing the opportunity, I went to Thailand to spend some time with my friend Erin, who also graduated from VSB last May. Erin and her friend Emily are teaching English for a semester in a tiny northern Thai village called Hang Chat, and they are having an Asian experience that couldn’t be more different than my own.

During our final semester at ‘Nova, Erin and I realized our time in Asia would overlap. Ever since, we have been trying to work out a time and place to have a reunion. Fate kept playing tricks on us though. First, we threw around the idea of going to Cambodia after Christmas to meet up with the Villanova mission trip, but the logistics were too complicated to figure out. Then we thought of meeting up in the southern Thai islands for New Year's, but our days off didn’t properly coincide and flights were nearly impossible (read: expensive) from Hong Kong. A simple weekend in Bangkok could have worked, but they couldn’t get down to Bangkok, and for me to get to the northern part of the country, I need at least one extra day to make the travel time worthwhile.

Then we finally figured it out: Erin and Emily were planning a tour of Southeast Asia following the conclusion of their program. With Hong Kong as their final destination before returning to the States, it looked like our reunion would take place here. Of course, the company decided to send me to London for a month, and I'll be returning to Hong Kong two days after they've gone back to the States. It looked like 48 hours was going to come between us and our reunion.

Then I realized I did have one long weekend—Chinese New Year (also coinciding with Valentine’s Day and Washington's Birthday). I looked into flights, coordinated with Erin and finally was able to work out a reasonably-priced, extended-weekend vacation. The four day trip was, without doubt, the highlight of my time out here so far, and I’d have to rank it up there with the best weekends I’ve ever had. I don't remember ever having laughed so much in my life, and I will always treasure the memories of the trip. I am so grateful we finally managed to work it out.

On the morning of Friday, February 12th, I took a ferry to Macau, flew from Macau to Bangkok, and finally flew from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the nearest “big” city to where the girls are teaching. It was slightly surreal meeting up with my old friend Erin in this part of the world! And although I had never actually met Emily before, I felt like I already knew her because of a very vivid and hilarious blog the two of them are constantly updating. It was so nice to meet her, and we got along great from the start. And Erin has been a good friend since we took a public speaking class together first semester junior year, so of course it was great to see her again!

VSB Class of 2009 in Thailand!

Thailand was a wonderful and beautiful place. I loved the old walled city of Chiang Mai, with its moat, ancient wats and winding streets. I’m a fan of Thai food, too, so it was great to finally eat authentic curries and other delicious dishes. Friday night, I arrived rather late. The three of us headed straight to JJ Market for a night out, Thai style. JJ Market is very popular with the local students, and we were the only “farangs”  to be seen. ("Farang" is the Thai word for white people, the equivalent of Cantonese's "gweilo" heard often in Hong Kong.)

Taking the mic my first night out in Chiang Mai

On Saturday morning we had to be up early for an excursion known as “Flight of the Gibbon,” which is a series of 10 zip lines through a Thai rainforest. Along the way, local guides offered glimpses into the traditions of nearby villagers and interesting information about the trees and other natural surroundings. The zip lines were thrilling, giving you a bird’s eye view as you soared from one high treetop to the next. Most of the lines were horizontal, but a few were vertical drops down to the jungle floor. It was a great activity, and I’d highly recommend it if you ever find yourself looking for something to do in Northern Thailand.

Erin and Emily on Flight of the Gibbon

Sunday was “Wat Day” as Erin and Emily took me around town showing off the ancient temples that are found in Chiang Mai (and all of Thailand, for that matter). The wats are far more intricate and elaborate than any temples I’ve seen in Hong Kong, with glistening spires, lots of gold statues and plenty of paintings. After a few more hours exploring Chiang Mai, including a massage and a trip down the Ping River in a longboat, it was time for a journey into “real” Thailand.

As I said, Erin and Emily are teaching English for the semester in the humble town of Hang Chat, and they live on the campus of the school in a “Jungle House” that is rustic (think lizards and spiders crawling around) but spacious. The town is about an hour and forty minutes’ bus ride from Chiang Mai, and the buses don’t even stop there unless you specifically ask them to! There isn’t even a real bus stop. We had to get off in the middle of a highway, where one of their fellow teachers, Lan, was waiting for us with two motorbikes!

I will never forget that ride on the back of the bike as the sun set over Hang Chat. I will probably never make it to that random little place again in my life, but the time I got to spend there was very special. Lan wanted to make sure I saw Hang Chat at its best, and she really went out of her way to make sure we had a good night. We had dinner at one of the local spots Erin and Emily frequent—and had a filling and tasty meal for less than $1! I also got to try an Oreo milkshake from the girls’ favorite milkshake stand—set up next to the town’s only traffic light! And at the town market, I got a bag of fried crickets, which, curiously, tasted like salted potato chips.

Milkshakes in Hang Chat with Lan

The next morning, we were up bright and early for a day at school. The campus was beautiful, with lots of grassy fields, palm trees and both academic and residential buildings scattered all over the place. As the day went on, I realized just how different Emily and Erin’s Asia experience has been compared to mine, as I got a first hand taste of teaching English to Thai high schoolers. That day we covered many topics: the rooms of the house, furniture and household objects, what items we would most desire if stranded on a desert island and an ill-fated attempt to teach the students a song by U2.

Kru Erin teaching her students

The students also were slightly confused as to why an American 'friend' would come all the way to Thailand on Valentine's Day, so they were sure that I was dating either Emily or Erin... And they kept asking all of us the whole day long! Even after explaining that it was also Chinese New Year, and that I actually work in neighboring Hong Kong, they still believed what they wanted to believe.

With some of the students after classes

For lunch, Sutham, the director of the English program at the school, treated us to a tasty meal in town. Back in the classrooms, the afternoon went by quickly, and before I knew it, we were with another teacher, named Pan, driving to Lampang, another town about 20 minutes away from Hang Chat. Pan said I looked Chinese, and she also thought my name was pronounced Pohn, but still, I cannot thank her enough for how gracious she was the whole evening. Born and bred in Lampang, she was very proud to show off the two beautiful wats that her town is known for.

She dropped the three of us off at Big C (a Wal-Mart like shopping center) while she went home to change before dinner. And then she returned with her daughter, Poon, for my farewell meal, at a local restaurant called ‘More T.A.O.’ (I still have no idea what that name means.) With the exception of one dish (that I happened to order), the meal was incredible. The one dish in question, described on the menu as “fried shrimp with peanuts and chili” was actually a plate with lots of raw (and random) items: salted peanuts, chili, ginger, onions, lemongrass and small cut-up pieces of lemon and lime—and in the center the tiniest, most disgusting shrimp I have ever tasted! At one point, Pan herself, in an effort to show that the food was edible, attempted to eat it. She gave it her best effort, and never actually admitted that she didn't like it, but she stopped after one piece of ginger and never mentioned it again. Luckily, I was forgiven for ordering the dish, and it became the running joke of the meal.

Dinner in Lampang, with Pan

Afterwards, I was dropped off at the bus station to head back to Chiang Mai, since my flight was early on Tuesday. In town, I went for a random walk before going to sleep and stumbled upon an elephant walking down the road! The one disappointment I had about Thailand was not getting to see an elephant, so it worked out so perfectly that on my last night, one just happened to walk by!

Feeding the elephant in Chiang Mai

The weather was beautiful all weekend—what a terrible feeling when I stepped off the plane to 50° temperatures back in Macau! Oh, well. I went straight to the casino at the Venetian to meet up with some friends, won a little bit of money, and got the Year of the Tiger off to a great start. And something felt really good about getting back to Hong Kong—it felt like coming home. Making a new home here has had its challenges, from leaky pipes to not knowing my way around and having to make new friends, but returning from this short vacation proved that I am on the way to successfully making Hong Kong my new home.

A trip to remember...

Guilty Pleasure in Happy Valley

I always try to be unpredictable. I don’t like people to be able to guess where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing at any given time. I am usually capricious and make most decisions on a whim. I also like to spice things up, and rarely allow myself to fall into a routine. But I break this rule each and every Wednesday, when—never fail—I arrive at Happy Valley racecourse to spend the evening. Sort of like the Grog on Thursday nights during my senior year at ‘Nova, there's only one place I'll be if you are ever looking for me on a Wednesday between 7pm and 11pm.

And I’m always one of many. The track is never empty and almost always completely packed. There is a running joke in Hong Kong that you should never get a haircut during the day on a Wednesday because the barber will be reading the racing form—not paying attention to his work—and might snip your ear off. In fact, there are still old timers who tell stories of how the stock exchange here used to close early on Wednesday afternoons so that everybody could go to the track. That’s how popular the races are. Like Rick’s Café, everybody comes to Happy Valley.

I have always been a fan of live horseracing. When I interned and studied in London, I went to the Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood race meetings. On one of my first days abroad in Paris, I went to the Prix d’Amerique race at the Hippodrome de Vincennes. And back home in New Jersey, one of my favorite summer pastimes is to spend the day at Monmouth Park Racetrack. So I struck gold, without knowing it, when I signed on for this job in Hong Kong. Until I did some research, I had no idea that there were nighttime races in Happy Valley, right in the middle of the city, every Wednesday evening.

Jurre, Becca, me and Julian at the races on a Wednesday night

Bright floodlights illuminate the grandstands and viewing area; the high-rises surrounding the track create a surreal, futuristic environment; and the shouts of excitement from onlookers when the horses round the last turn make the mood even more palpable. Between races, it almost feels more like a party than a sporting event: Lady Gaga and Sean Kingston blare from the loudspeakers, young people dance and sing and there are even games and contests. There is a great deal of atmosphere that makes it unlike any other track I’ve visited.

And Happy Valley is right in the heart of the city, only a tram ride from my office or a fifteen minute walk from my apartment. Losing my newly earned money couldn’t be easier. Or more fun.

Every now and then, especially when I go by myself, I try to sneak away from the (mostly Western) crowd out front and head up into the top level of the grandstands. It is up here that the chain-smoking, odds-obsessed, local betters gaze at the screens until the last possible minute, watching potential payouts change as post time approaches. From this perch, you can watch the entire race, whereas down below, you loose sight of the horses for a sociable amount of time, due to the large screen in the middle of the track, among the other distractions. You also remember that you are in Asia, a fact that is, sadly, all too easy to forget in Hong Kong.

Whether I go alone, with my roommate Jurre, or as part of a huge group, Happy Valley on a Wednesday night is always a wonderful experience. And I always give in to the temptation of ordering McDonald’s, since the one at the track—only open one night a week—is thus claimed to be the freshest McDonald’s in Hong Kong. Yet another reason why I’m always looking forward to Wednesday night!

Talking the Talk

A few days ago, I met up with some friends at a tea house out here to watch a free concert. Another girl in the group (whom I had not met before) also works in the financial industry in Hong Kong. Upon discovering that we had similar positions, we began to talk quickly about our jobs. Immediately, the rest our friends rolled their eyes and muttered, “Do you see what happens when you get a couple of them together?!”

It was the first time it hit me that I am actually turning into a businessman. To be sure, it will be a long process, but it has commenced—I am starting to say things in everyday conversations that I say at work. The first step, it seems, is to talk the talk, and eventually you become fluent in the language of business. Education and internships can only do so much to help with this transformation. The real conversion from finance major to businessman cannot start until you are completely immersed in the business culture and lifestyle. Although I am still far from being able to walk the walk, it is nice to see myself changing and adapting.

“Traders just talk different than normal people,” an older businessman once told me in New York before I made the move out here. “At a party, you can always tell which people are traders. We just go about conversations differently. It’s easy to spot.” And out here, my non-finance roommates and friends constantly point that out to me.

“Do you want to go to dinner on Elgin Street tonight, Paul?”
“Yeah, that’s done, J.”
“Paul, stop talking like a trader!”

But I can’t help it. I’ve only been actively at the job for three months and people are already calling me out on it, so I have no idea how far it will escalate over the coming years.

Speaking of things escalating, the apartment problems just keep getting worse. After the new pipes were installed, I thought I had seen the last of inconvenience and construction workers for a while… Then, about a week later, our wooden floor started to warp! The leaking pipe situation was fixed, but the damage had already been done. Boards started to pop up all over our living room, so the repairmen had to come in and put down a new floor.

Then a few days ago, J noticed a different pipe in the bathroom had started to drip ever so slightly, getting worse and worse each day. Our landlords came over to check out the situation, and before we knew it, more workers were coming by to fix this new problem. All is good at the moment, but I’m just waiting to find out what happens next.

But every cloud has its silver lining: bringing my newfound businessman skills into play, I negotiated a rent deduction for the month because of all the inconvenience. Only a few hundred Hong Kong Dollars (HK$) off, but I was still proud of myself.

You see, I need every dollar I can save because Chinese New Year is coming up, and I will get a few days off from work. I am going to visit my friend Erin (another VSB Class of 2009 graduate) who is teaching English in Thailand. She is working in a small town in the northern part of the country, far from any big city, so I am hoping to get an authentic Thai experience. I am really looking forward to it!

Also on the horizon is a stint working out of our London office for three weeks in March. My bosses in New York think it would be good for me to spend some more time with the brokers there and learn how they do things, so on March 5th, I get on a plane headed for the U.K. and don’t return to Hong Kong until March 29th. But because of my trip to Thailand, I haven’t even had a chance to start getting excited about it yet.

There was also that last minute weekend trip to Manila I mentioned in my previous post. It was a great getaway with my colleague Kevin, and his two friends Matt and Chris. The highlight of the weekend for me was a somber visit to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, in a tranquil neighborhood far removed from the traffic-clogged roads of the city's downtown. Now, after such a memorable first trip to the Philippines, I'm looking forward to adding Thailand to my growing roster of Asian travel destinations.

The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

The graves are set amidst impressive trees and beautifully maintained lawns.

A touching, poignant tribute to the American soldiers of World War II

In the meantime, I am recovering from a minor sunburn I got earlier this week. When I got into work at 8 o’clock Monday morning, all of our systems were down and I could not access any of the programs I needed, so I was told to take the day off! I went straight to the beach at Deep Water Bay since it was a beautiful day, but I forgot my sunscreen. Oh well, it was a relaxing day, and I certainly love the fact that I can get to a beach so easily. Next time I will just have to be more careful.