Phuket

As you surmised (impressive vocabulary heh?!) from my post about Penang, I wasn't planning on going to Phuket. But after seeing the pictures of the place I had to check it out. It is an extremely touristy place, and it's got that reputation where so many travellers like to slag it and say "oh it's terrible, it's way too touristy", forgetting that they are of course tourists themselves, even though they like to pretend that they are somehow above hanging out in places where there are other tourists. If you've travelled much at all, you know the type, and after meeting so many of them they start to get on my nerves. Anyways enough about them haha. Phuket was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Yes, it is extremely commericalized, with your standard go-go bars, prostitutes, and lady boys shouting and grabbing at you as you pass by them at night. But if you can get past that nuisance, the beach is absolutely amazing. And since it's facing west it has beautiful sunsets every night. I spent a couple days just lying on the beach like a beached whale, drinking Chang beers, and eating Pad Thai every few hours (Thai food is officially my favorite food on this trip so far).

Since it was low season, everything was much cheaper than usual, and I managed to find a big hotel room for $10/night with TV and fan. And to make it even better, I just happened to have 3 cool girls from England staying in the room next to mine. I quickly befriended them, and we partied hard that night, checking out some live music, and then hitting some other shady bar, where we had some intense games of Connect Four. I'm still amazed how easy it is to roll into a place by myself, and within a short time I am hanging out with new friends. Very cool.

We did a day trip to Ko Phi Phi, which is where they filmed "The Beach". Again, this place is insanely touristy, but the place is absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I checked it out. We did some snorkelling and had a fantastic buffet lunch. We also stopped at some random island in the middle of the ocean, and that is where I stepped on a piece of coral that carved a sizeable gash into my foot. It still hurts to this day (one month later). But I had a beer and it was all good.

That night, I met up with another CSer, Christine, who had just gotten into Phuket and was looking to meet up with people. So we met up for drinks and dinner, and we then proceeded to walk all over Patong (main beach area of Phuket), stopping at every 7-11 for Chang Beers. We came across an arcade style fortune teller, that looked exactly like the one from the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks. I got my fortune and it was nothing but glowing things for my future..I guess we'll see on that one. Christine however did not fare so well with her fortune. She didn't let it get her down too much though. We met up with the English girls and had another crazy night on the town. Good times. My last day in Phuket was spent on the beach (where else) with Christine. Laying on a beach all day is a great thing to do when you're hungover. That evening, I saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. Not sure what it was, but the sky was full of all kinds of crazy colours all at once like purple, orange, blue. Anyways, writing about it is fairly meaningless. But I've never stared so long at the sky. We don't get those in Winnipeg.

Penang

I wasn't planning on going to Penang, which is just along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Afterall, I had spoken to other travellers who had been there, who spoke of its relative mediocrity. However, I needed to work my way towards Kuala Lumpur, since I had a flight out of there to Australia 10 days later, and I didn't want to be in KL for that long. And it just so happened that Air Asia was having a crazy sale on flights from Hong Kong to Penang, so I bought the ticket.

But I ended up staying at the house of a very interesting local guy named Ang, who was also from the Couchsurfing world. He picked me up on his motorbike as soon as I landed in Penang, and immediately began showing me the sights of Penang. It turns out Ang ran a tourism business in Penang so apparently I picked a good host to stay with. That night he took me to a Chinese Opera performance, where I was allowed backstage to watch all the actresses getting ready and where they spend hours putting on their elaborate make-up. Unfortunately they didn't speak a word of English, so I wasn't able to speak with them, other than the occasional hand gesture (like giving the thumbs up to a girl to approve of her make-up selection - yes I am that lame). The show itself was interesting yet confusing, as it was all in Chinese.

That night, as we had an invigorating discussion about our philosophies on life, and Ang telling me about the wonders of meditation. I spent the day checking out the sights of Penang, and making plans to leave for somewhere else. Luckily there were cheap bus fares to Phuket, Thailand. I booked my ticket for $20, and left the next morning.

Hong Kong

When I booked my ticket to Hong Kong for the beginning of September, the idea was that I would be starting an internship there. For various reasons, the internship did not work out. I was disappointed, but not overly upset about it. While in Hong Kong, I even sent off some applications for other work, and even had an interview for some finance roles. Evidently, however, seeking financial jobs in one of the financial capitals of the world during a global financial crises is not an easy undertaking. That's why at some point, I decided I had two options - I could head back home, disappointed about the way the work situation played out; Or I could lift my head up and keep travelling. Afterall, there was still so much I wanted to see, and once I got back home, it would cost thousands to fly to these places from Canada, rather than hundreds (more often less than a hundred actually). I still had money in the bank, and was in a good position to keep the travelling going.

So I enjoyed Hong Kong once I was able to accept the second option. Hong Kong is an amazing city that has that exotic feeling you get while being in a foreign country, but also has a distinctly western feel to it at the same time which makes it comfortable. When I arrived in Hong Kong, I took the ultra efficient high speed train to Hong Kong Island, wher I met up with my buddy Matt, who I'd met in Vietnam a few weeks earlier. He had recently started going to university there, and had just moved into his temporary apartment. He let me stay at his place for the first night while I got my bearings sorted out. We ended going out for a night on the town, even though it was a Wednesday night. We met up with a few other university kids and it was a solid night. The next day I was looking at apartments, and managed to find one for rent on a weekly basis. It was a small bachelor suite but it was perfectly located close to all the action. And it had a big screen TV with ice cold AC, so I was sold. I moved in that very day! Easy to do when everything you own is in a backpack. It was good to hang up all my clothes and get some kind of stability, even if it was only for a week. At this point, I even had 2 tailor made suits with me that I had bought in Bangkok just before coming to Hong Kong. These suits were mint!

Anyways, I did a lot of big city stuff that one would normally do while in a place like Hong Kong - shopping, late nights on the town in LKF (awesome area downtown where there are loads of pubs and bars full of expats), and trying the local Chinese food (which I didn't like - a little bland and too much seafood fishy type stuff). So I won't write about these too much.

After the week at my temporary apartment was up, I moved North up to the New Territories to stay with Clare, a fellow Couchsurfer. She had a beautiful little apartment with nice views of the surrounding mountains. I couldn't believe how nice and green everything was once you get out of the concrete jungle of the city centre. Clare also showed me around to some amazing restaurants that somewhat redeemed my opinion of the local food. Also, while Clare was away at work, she let me use her bike to explore the area. There was a beautiful trail that went all along the ocean (well, it was a river feeding into the ocean) that I rode, which took most of the day. It was great - cruising along the trail, listening to the entirety of David Cross's hilarious "Why I Drink" on my MP3 player, where he gives his observations on the ridiculousness of the behaviour of people and groups/cults/countries. That night, I even convinced Clare to play me in badminton since her complex had a court on site. Even though it was dark and even rainy at times, we still managed to get some pretty solid rallies in - she was damn good! It turns out she played regularly with friends, and had even taken lessons. I still managed to hold my own though. The last day spent with Clare involved a trip to Lamma Island, which is just a short ferry ride from Hong Kong Island. We grabbed some ice cream, lunch, and then did a treck in the sweltering heat of the day. Good thing I had a litre of water with me because I'm sure I sweat that much out. Clare however seemed completely unaffected by the heat. She referred to my skin as being like a fur which had been created through many winters of disgustingly cold winters in Winnipeg. It's probably true, and it's why I don't think I could ever live in a place that was consistently that hot.

Hong Kong is an awesome city, and I can't wait to go back. The time I go it will be in late November, and I'll be with my Dad and his wife Benna!