Hong Kong and Rotary

Xianzai, wo xuexi Hanyu, (Right now I study Chinese)

Hong Kong for a weekend? Yes please. I am not sure if any of you know but Hong Kong is an amazing city to fly into. Hong Kong is a combination of a few great islands and they look awesome from a plane. I had flown through there before but never gotten out of the airport. I came in on a Thursday night and stayed until late Monday. The main reason for this trip was for a Rotary Regional Scholar Orientation Seminar, now to the activities.

Thursday night:

Fellow Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Kristen who is the only scholar in Hong Kong met me at the airport. She had an extra apartment b/c her parents and family members had been in and out for the month and it was cheaper to rent one instead of do the whole hotel thing. Kristen stays in the very nice area of Hong Kong called Soho, which reminded me a lot of London if you take out all of the Chinese characters everywhere. Her apartment is at the top of the hill, which has the longest escalator in the world, who knew it was in Hong Kong? Not this guy. For around $1200 USD a month you get your very own 100 square foot room equipped with a bathroom. These rooms were tiny to say the least but it was quite the deal for me and was really nice to have a friend in HK.

We didn’t do much Thursday but we grabbed some really good pizza by the slice (had it again on Saturday night) b/c I was boycotting Asian food for the time being….just wasn’t feeling Asian food when I got back so I boycotted and then we called it a night early.

Friday:

1) Breakfast at diner (keeping with the no Asian food trend)

2) Took tram to peak of Hong Kong (it was foggy but still beautiful view of the city)

3) Met other Rotary Scholar Rebecca and checked out Stanley Market (pretty cool little market out by the water) - had pizza again…streak continues – I take picture with replica Terracotta Warrior

4) Meet up with Kristen and head to Rotary dinner at nice HK sky rise hotel where we met up with around a dozen other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars from around the world – Taiwan, Mongolia, Japan, USA, Hong Kong, China, France

5) Eat lots of Dim Sum and tried pigs tongue…..tasted like pot roast…didn’t finish it (streak ends)

6) Bused up to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where we spent the next two days

Saturday:

1) Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary Rotary -Lots of presentations on Rotary, our scholarship and the other scholars-Great times with even better people.

2) It was actually a lot of fun getting to know everyone, I now have friends from Mongolia…..one Mongolian scholar represents a few of the Olympic athletes, is the assistant to the Mongolian Finance Minister oh and he hosts Mongolia’s version of the VMA’s…..no big deal

3) I presented on service above self…no one booed or fell asleep…I call it a win

4) They give us all different food for lunch: 2 get hot meals, 4 get nicer sandwiches and the rest of us get bread and cheese…..it was a pretty good exercise showing how the world is broken up with the haves and the have nots…I maturely go on hunger strike and refuse to eat in protest…..I also want to find a way to earn my way to getting food from the food court (Capitalism baby)….they give no means of working my way out of my bread and cheese (I voice my displeasure and continue my strike), Kristen votes we revolt and take the better food many agree…..exercise is a success (should have brought us good food after though…I mean I really went on hunger strike)

5) That night we have a Hong Kong BBQ outside by the water, other than the drizzle and fog it was a great night. I ate and ate and ate and ate and dominated me some chicken, beef, pork, sweet potatoes (oddly white colored), vegetables, marshmallows and topped it off with Mongolian vodka and blueberry juice…oddly a great combination compliments of our Mongolian delegation. FYI at a Hong Kong BBQ you take prongs and cook the meat over an open flame….think hot dogs on a stick in the woods. Great night to say the least…good job organizers.

6) Back to the dorms, I skype Emily, tell her I wish she was there….honestly the only recurring negative point to this whole process is not having her here to share it with…..luckily we have the rest of our lives to make the time up.

Sunday:

1) More Rotary presentations, all really good – one is from the Dean of the Executive MBA program which partners with Northwestern’s Kellogg MBA program – this was my favorite of the weekend and he ended up giving me his most recent book on Leadership Experiences in Asia, almost done, very cool read

2) We all grab lunch at a dim sum Chinese restaurant. I had mentioned it earlier but for all of you who do not know what dim sum is it is smaller portioned bite sized portions of Chinese food carted around to each table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum It was amazing, I love the bao’s, these sugary white breaded big puffy round balls of bread with pork, chicken or beef inside. None of it is probably very healthy but man it is good.

3) Afterwards people are all leaving so a few of us staying an extra day or leaving later that night went and grab some afternoon drinks, fun times, sadly two have to head out

4) That night Paul Louis (French scholar living in Singapore) and I grabbed a movie (Sherlock Holmes) which wasn’t bad, we were tired and neither of us had seen a movie in a while. You actually reserve seats in HK not just tickets, which was kind of nice. There was a hockey ring right next to the theatre in the mall….kids weren’t actually half bad.

5) We take a cab back, bad idea….we think the cabbie says it is an extra 16 HK dollars or $2 USD to take the tunnel but turns out he said $60 so our super cheap cab doubled….no biggie fortunately cabs are still not very expensive there. It’s a flat $20 HK or under $3 USD for the first 2 km.

6) Call it a night

Monday:

1) Grab breakfast with Kristen at same diner as before, love that place, she goes to school I head out on the town.

2) Head out with all my stuff…..I have flight late that night

3) Carry my stuff across the Victoria Harbour, too foggy for very good pictures but fun

4) Check out the Hong Kong Maritime Museum…not amazing but nice

5) Head to the highlight of the day the Big Buddha

7) I make a friend there Selena, who works for Chic-Fil-A and was there visiting a friend but since he had to work she ventured out alone….did you know that Chic-Fil-A only requires $5,000 to start a store? You split profits with corporate and owners take home an average of $200,000 USD a year….no big deal….I guess they have an ton of applicants for the small amount of stores they expand to, they use a conservative growth model…..more of the world can learn from them.

8) We go up to the top of the Buddha but it is so foggy we can barely see it even when we get up close, they have a museum up there and other temples to see as well, it is one of the coolest things I have ever seen and done.

9) Weather cleared up and we got some food, I ordered in Mandarin because they didn’t know English…they understood me even though they speak Cantonese (think Italian to Spanish) WOOT WOOT!

10) We go back up to the top and get better pictures with the Buddha

11) Cable car back is more clear so get to see the Big Buddha from the cable car

12) Head to airport early, skype Emily, eat food (had exactly the amount I needed for food with not a dollar to spare) and headed back to Singapore

13)On the flight I finished “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh recommended by one Ashton Charles, it was a really good read, I started it on the flight out and finished it by the time I got back. This was my first iPad purchased and read book, Ayo, I’m tired of using technology….ok not really, really liked the ease of it.

Hong Kong reminds me a lot of NYC, lots of people, tall buildings, lot’s of lights, skyscrapers and a little grunginess, the subways are much cleaner than NYC though. I liked Hong Kong and my time there I highly recommend HK to anyone.

Shengdan Kuaile!! (Merry Christmas!!)

(Written on my flight home to US)

Shengdan Kuaile!! (Merry Christmas!!)

“I’m coming home, coming home," - P Diddy

The halfway intermission is here for my Asian/Singapore/Rotary adventure and I couldn’t be happier. I have loved my time in Singapore but I miss my fiancé….yep, I really really miss her. I miss my family…I miss my friends…..I miss Publix subs, I miss BBQ, I miss driving a car, I miss good western food (not cowboy’s and Indians food but western hemisphere food) all kinds of it…..I miss throwing a football and watching American Football at a normal hour, I miss….I miss…I miss America. Man I love my country.

That all being said, I really like Singapore and Asia. I am so happy and feel so humbled, honored and lucky to have gotten this opportunity. These three months have opened my eyes to a world that I really never understood. I thought I did for the most part, I mean I read a good amount, I have traveled around, I feel culturally open but I really didn’t know anything about 1/3 or more of the world. I honestly feel and believe that the more I learn in life the more I realize how much I really do not know.

There are over a billion people in China and over a billion people in India……1 BILLION, each country has over 3 times more people than the US. That’s only two countries in this part of the world that account for nearly a third of the world’s population and I really had barely a clue about either country. I thought I was cool because I knew that Mahnmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India and had been re-elected (thanks subscription to The Economist). That’s like thinking I know about the US because that Barack Obama is our president……yeah…….not so much.

So in these three months I have had a crash course in the culture, food, customs, personalities, dialects, history’s, etc. of Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, etc. Not only did I get a crash course I got a crash course from the people of those countries while spending time with people from Russia, Spain, France, Canada, Uganda, Norway and more. To say Singapore is a melting pot/international hub is the greatest of all understatements. I wanted international but I feel like I have been drinking from a fire hose with regards to the different people and cultures I continuously am encountering.

Here are some things I have learned over these three months:

1) Ethnic Chinese make up around 70% of Singapore and inhabit a lot of SE Asia

2) Koreans eat with metal chopsticks and a spoon and they love kimchi…LOVE kimchi (fermented cabbage and other ingredients)

3) Singapore is an extremely managed economy….the government has it’s hands in everything…….everything

4) Oma is Korean for mother

5) Mandarin is a very very very difficult language to speak and even more difficult to read and even more difficult to write (excuses excuses excuses haha)

6) I love Indian food….really love it, I am honestly hooked for life, give me some Chicken Masala and some naan and I am a very happy man

7) Getting a grasp on all the cultures, countries and people of the world is extremely hard but it is impossible if you never spend time outside of your country or with anyone other than people from your country, ethnicity, etc.

8) Nothing annoys me more than people getting on the train, bus or elevator before letting the people get out……it is one of my biggest pet peeves in Singapore, sadly this happens a lot

9) Vegetables should never be a flavor of ice cream….NEVER but they seem to think differently here (e.g. Yam ice cream….NO NO NO…it’s just wrong) (yes they have sweet corn flavored ice cream as well)

10) I know this is cheesy but this actually has been something I have been continuously surprised to learn and see to the extent I have. Even though people are different in many ways, people everywhere are the same. I somewhat expected to meet people and be blown away at how different we were from each other. The, “Wow we are just from two different worlds”, kind of moment but that was never the case. Yes there are many differences but when it a came down to it the people were people, just from a different world and culture. Obvious I know but still surprised me.

The first half of my trip is over and I am on a 26 hour journey back to Tampa, FL (Singapore-Hong Kong-Newark-Tampa) for the holidays. By the way, Hong Kong has one of the most beautiful views while landing I have ever experienced, definitely get the window seat if you ever go.

Plans for the little over two weeks I will be in Tampa:

1) Emily and I are going to be food and cake tasting for the wedding

2) I am going to get my tuxedo fitted and chosen

3) We are going to register

4) Take engagement photos

5) Spend ridiculous amount of time with Emily

6) Meet with the Pastor that is going to marry us

7) Spend time time with family and friends

8) Eat zero Eastern food…..zero….all western all the time

I hope I get to see everyone but that most likely will be difficult but my phone is back on so let’s catch up. Congratulations to Bryson and Katherine Ridgway for the birth of their first baby, Keira! Couldn’t be happier for them.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Best,

Andrew

Cambodia and Malaysia-Angkor Wat, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Floating Villages

Ni Hao!!!

So I know I haven't written to you all in a while but I have been writing. I have a few blogs I wrote before but never finished until now. So if they sound a little in the past that is why.

Ok so I know my blogs can be a little lengthy from time to time….or every time is probably more accurate so I am going to try and do my best to keep my blogs shorter from here on out. That might just mean more blogs and less length though haha. And seeing that I have been swamped with exams, finding a new apartment and going to and from the states, I am going to pop out about three blogs back to back to back. I know that’s the same as making one big one but I thought I would at least mix it up. Oh and this blog still ended up being a little long….sorry about it.

So I know you all have been waiting patiently for me to send out my latest blog and life has been just a little less enjoyable everyday that goes by without one so with no further adieu….here we go!

My trip to Cambodia and Malaysia was amazing and was all I hoped for and more. I was going to focus this blog just on Cambodia in an effort to keep it shorter but might as well wrap this trip all together. So what you can expect from this blog: trip through a nature reserve in Penang, visit to Petronas Towers (two tallest buildings in the world until late 2000’s), two trips to Angkor Wat, a Rotary service project in the Floating Villages on the Tonle Sap River and Lake, elephants, monkeys, Tuk Tuks and much more.

I flew into Penang (Island off the northwest side of Malaysia) Friday afternoon and was picked up by an amazing Rotarian Mrs. Gill. Her and her husband Dr. Gill hosted both me and another Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from the US who is based in Kuala Lumpur, Ann Marie. The Gill’s were honestly the highlight of the trip to Penang for me. They were sweet, intelligent, giving and amazing. They took us out for food the first night (Penang is known for having amazing food, which was proven true) and we had Po Piah ( one of my favorite foods in Asia which is a thin wheat soft tortilla wrapped around steamed vegetables and shrimp and chopped like sushi) and Char tiew noodles with prawn/shrimp as well as iced chendol (a dessert here with a lot of sugar ice, red bean and gummy candies) they say diabetes is an issue in this region….these desserts are most likely ground zero as the cause…..but it was good.

In Penang we met up with a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) group that was in Penang from Oregon. This group takes 30 days and travels around Malaysia learning about their respective fields while seeing the country.

So with this team we went and hiked through a nature reserve through a minor jungle that led us to a beach where we saw tracks where a green turtle had laid eggs the night before, got to see some already hatched baby green turtles that had been rescued, took a boat ride around that part of the island and finished it off by stuffing our faces with banana fritters and Indian food both which were some of the best tasting food I have experienced in life.

That night all of the Rotary Clubs met for dinner and we all sat, ate and had the opportunity to listen to the GSE team present. It is always fun meeting the Rotarians and this night was no different. The food was great but the people were even better.

The following day Ann Marie and I rented a cab for the day and we explored the island. We went to a fruit farm where we ate around 20 different types of fruit (I hadn’t heard of around half of them), we stopped in the chocolate and coffee tasting store which we took full advantage of, we attempted to enter a mosque but learned our attire was not appropriate, we hiked up to a waterfall (not big but it was water and it was falling so we counted it haha) and then finished off by grabbing some Mei Goreng (fried Chinese noodles) down by the beach. We circumnavigated the entire island in half a day, turns out Penang has a lot of development going on but didn’t see many people living in the houses…..real estate bubble??? Hopefully not for their sake.

Ann Marie and I then headed off to Kuala Lumpur where Ann Marie has a beautiful apartment she shares with two other girls for the outrageous price of $350 USD per person per month. The cost of living in Malaysia is MUCH less expensive to Singapore, think the same prices for everything and much cheaper for a lot of things yet in Malaysian Ringgit which is 3-1 US Dollars. Ann Marie took me to the Petronas towers which are owned by the state oil/gas company Petronas and were at one point the tallest buildings in the world. That night I presented to the Rotary Club of Pantai Valley. The food was great and it was my first introduction to some of the people that I was going on the trip to Cambodia with. The group was fun and extremely nice, I had a great time to say the least.

The next morning we got up around 3:30 am to get to the airport about an hour away to catch our early morning flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The group consisted of around 30 Rotarians or friends or spouses of Rotarians. We took a low budget carrier Air Asia. I personally carried everything I had for that week in a backpack…..I really don’t know how my bag didn’t explode with all I packed into it.

First thing we do is go to the temples. For those not familiar with Angkor Wat, Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city, see attached picture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat).

Having seen some temples and beautiful cathedrals in my short life span I was optimistic but cautious that these temples might not hold my attention enough to justify an entire trip to the country….safe to say not one of the temples let me down. The main temples we visited were at Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srey. Some sites had multiple temples within them each with a different look and feel. It was amazing because no matter how tired we might have been each temple re-energized us with its grandeur. It really did live up to the hype of being one of the finalists for the 7 new wonders of the world.

After our first day touring the site we were pretty wiped out from the days events and early flight. I actually shared a room with one of the guys from the news corp. There were three different news reporters on the trip, one from the English paper, Malaysian Paper and Chinese paper….my roommate was from the English paper, they all spoke English very well though.

The next day we set off for what was the whole reason for the trip and arguably my favorite time spent. Over the past 7 years, The Rotary Club of Greentown had been actively involved in an International Service project with the Floating Village Communities on the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia together with their partners - in – service, The Lake Clinic, Cambodia and the Rotary Club of Middletown, Rhode Island, USA and Rotary Clubs in our own District 3300 and more recently clubs in D1190 United Kingdom. This year we were going out to the villages to bring some school supplies to the children’s school, install a clean water filter and tour the Lake Clinic.

We took our bus to a village about 30 minutes outside of town. There to greet us was a group of children coming in and out of their school located right where our boats were to depart from. While we waited to leave a lot of us played games with the children which was a blast. Some of the younger children were completely naked and most were not very clean but they seemed really happy. A few of them could speak some English as well which I was pretty impressed by. We played with them when we got back as well. I really enjoyed playing games with them, definitely a highlight of the trip.

So we jumped into our boats which fit around 15 people in each one and headed out to the floating villages. I had just watched Platoon and Apocalypse Now so I couldn’t help but think about both of the Vietnam war as we move up the river to our site. It was pretty crazy to think about.

The floating villages we were heading to were about 2 hours away but they weren’t the only floating villages out there. We drove through a few villages on our way and it was amazing to see these villages floating on the water not attached to any land. People were moving back and forth in little wooden boats some motorized some not. There were little wooden floating supply boats with food, candy, gasoline, etc. It was pretty crazy. I didn’t see anyone swimming though, I thought I might see that…maybe they just weren’t swimming at that time because I assume everyone there can swim.

We finally got to the village elementary school and the kids were adorable. They didn’t speak any English but it was clear that candy is the universal language of love. They actually were quite hesitant to dive into their bags of goodies for some reason so we helped them jump on in and then the fun began.

Afterwards the kids headed home which was amazing to see. There were some picked up by parents but most of the kids jumped into the little wooden boats and navigated their way out with paddles and coordination with other kids. You have to remember that none of these kids were older than maybe 10 with most being around 6 or 7 years old. It was interesting to see some of the kids come get picked up by a parent in a motorized boat which reminded me that no matter where you go in the world the Jones’ are everywhere. I wondered if those kids were known as the “rich kids”?

We then had lunch and headed over to the floating clinic. They have 3 nurses and a health administrator on staff and a group of rotating volunteer doctors that come and help. The clinic is there once every two weeks and they bring a boat which is retrofitted for surgery and privacy. If someone gets sick or hurt any other time than when this clinic is there, the people have to make due until they get back. The average life span of someone living in the villages is less than 50 years old. Rotary donates money and resources to this clinic to help with getting boats and paying for the staff. It is a great cause.

After this we then took a trip two doors down….again via boat seeing that we are on a river, to a little home where we installed a clean water unit. The unit is made of plastic and costs around $75 USD to make. The owners of the home have to pay $7 for the sand and gravel, etc. so that they can have ownership and something invested in the unit. This is because it takes maintenance to keep this process working and if people are just given the units they have a tendency to not really care if they ruin it. This way they have to really want it and since $7 is a lot of money to them they don’t want it to go to waste. It was pretty interesting that even with the lighter unit (most units are concrete but due to the weight a plastic unit is used on the smaller houses) they had to move the unit to the middle of the house (which was one room about 12x12) because the house was tipping into the water. Each unit is filled with gravel, small rocks and sand. Turns out if done correctly this will make dirty water clean for cheap.

We left the villages after that and made the 2 hour boat ride back to Siem Reap. This trip back was really nice because the sun was going down so everything was cooling off. I sat on the front of the boat and took in the views. It was really nice to be that far out and away from the developed world, almost like being in a different world.

That night we ended with a cultural show and dinner which was fun. They have the same show at every dinner we went to so I could probably dance it myself but still fun times.

Three of us stayed longer, Ann Marie, myself and David, a Malaysian school administrator from California.

The last three days we moved into a cheaper hotel, saw the temples again, caught Angkor Wat sunrise and sunset, hit up the street markets, got fish massages (fish nibbling at your feet, definitely tickles), got actual hour long $5 massages, ate lots of food, went horseback riding, rode around in Tuk Tuk’s (rickshaw’s with motorbikes attached to them) and drank 50 cent beers.

I also met up with the bank manager for a micro-finance bank in Cambodia named Kredit. A friend introduced me to the Bank’s CEO and he put me in contact with the branch manager. We sat together and he explained their business, their clients and expansion. Their loans range from $500 to $30,000 and their loan repayment is nearly 100%. They seem to have a great model for the region and are growing a lot.

One last thing..haha…while we were in Cambodia they were holding the Khmer Rouge trial so I thought I would share a little bit. In the late 1970’s early 1980’s the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia killed 1/3 of their countrymen. The first night they killed all the lawyers first, they then followed up by killing any doctor, engineer, teacher, etc. pretty much anyone with an education. Scary that this happened only 30 years ago which means that a lot of the people who conducted the killings are still active in the country….and only 4 people were on trial. Cambodia has come a long ways from those days and the people have done a lot of changing and forgiving but I can only assume that it will take Cambodia a couple of generations to recover from such a horrible event both emotionally and intellectually.

Miss you all,

Andrew