HONG KONG
May 21 - Oh, It's Sad to Be a Banana

I grew up in Canada and my parents never pushed us kids to learn Chinese. It's very sad looking back that we can't speak our mother tongue. Ayhan calls me a banana (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), and oh, it's sad to be a banana.

When my Dad was sick in the hospital, I was so disturbed that I couldn't understand what he was saying at times. I mean how pitiful is it that I can't understand what my own parents are saying?!

I think it really has made it difficult to connect with my parents. We talk to each other, but it's hard to express ourself in our hybrid chinglish language.

So after returning from the hospital, I bought a teach yourself Cantonese book, and have been trying to remember a language that has been around me all my life, but that I never quite mastered. Unfortunately, it didn't help me before my Dad passed away. And I've lost some of his last words.

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MACAU
May 30 - Rolling the Bones in Macau

Finally! With the Vegas casinos starting to build in Macau, they've thought to add the best game ever to their repetoire. I had only heard of the rumours that craps was in Macau and I went to see it myself. At both the Wynn and MGM Grand, there were 2 craps tables buried in the mass of baccarat and sic bo tables. I was totally excited to play craps in Cantonese.

I was a bit afraid that the limits would be astonomical, but they were surprisingly reasonable--$50 (about CDN$6) with 3-4-5x odds. That's even cheaper than the floating casino in Buenos Aires (about CDN$8). I forget what the high limit was, I obviously never got close.

Since it's a new game in China, some of the craps dealers are still new and mistakes were being made on payouts and they weren't fast in recognising and moving bets around. Now, I think it's a bit harder in Macau because the numbers are higher, so you have to be quick at the math. But it was definitely a slower game and each roll had a minute of waiting time in between.

Everyone played the hard ways all the time. And people would be marking bets "off" for purely superstitious reasons. One gambler had a red lucky pocket and lucky trinkets beside him as he played. The lingo is all still very English. You'll hear "chung ching chong HARD EIGHT ching chong". And everyone was cheering when the table won so it was super fun.

I walked away CDN$150 up. I was up $350 at one point--I know I should have left but I was hooked and wanted to ching chong another hard eight.

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HONG KONG
May 30 - Update on Kiva

I made my most recent loan on Kiva as a tribute to Madonna. Welcome to my portfolio Rayito de Luz Group! They are a group of restauranteurs offering traditional cooking in Bolivia such as fricassee, fried pork, and grilled meats. One of the group has a blood disease so the other group members provide her economic and moral support.

I also had my first full defaults in Kenya. One of the ground partners had huge problems and all their loans defaulted. So far I find that the problems occur not with the individuals, but more when a problem occurs with the ground partners. And I was expecting something to break down in Kenya because of all their political problems.

Currently one of the ground partners in Ecuador is going tits up too. Sigh...

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HONG KONG - MONG KOK
May 31 - The Dangers of a 5-Star Hotel

For C$170 a night, I got a fabulous room with buffet breakfast at the Langham Place Hotel. I found that relatively cheap considering I've paid that much for hotels in places like Singapore and Boston and gotten much less. And it's in the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world!

This hotel is pretty spectacular. The gym and pool have a breathtaking view of the choatic Hong Kong streets. I had a spa day with a chuan balancing massage and a facial and it was very relaxing. At the beginning of the massage, they had scented oil of the 5 different elements--fire, water, earth, air, something. Each scent really did seem to represent its element--how would you expect air or fire to smell?

The room was a good size and very modern. The washroom had the glass wall to the bedroom--it must be a Chinese thing, cause the last time I saw this was at the Sofitel in Xi'an. The toiletries were great, and bottled by their Chuan Spa, and I couldn't resist from stealing a few bottles.

The gym and pool were fantastic and on the highest floors of the hotel. The running machines seem to hover over the whole chaotic Hong Kong streets. The pools sits on the roof and you can listen to music piped underwater as you blissfully float and watch the clouds. After the pool and gym, you can head back to the change rooms with a choice of western or japanese style (pouring a bucket of water over yourself) showers. Or sit in the almost scaldingly hot tub and look out a sliver of a window at the skyline as you burn.

Service is excellent overall--perfect amount of attentiveness and "leave me alone please". The buffet is a perfect size, and has enough variety to keep you interested for a few days. And connected to the hotel is the Langham Place mall, where it's easy to scrounge for a cheap and tasty dinner every night. And if you actually make it out the front doors of the Langham complex, the super fun Mong Kok and Ladies Market areas await. The MTR is right there, and even if you end up taking a bus (like I did coming back from Macau) they all end up at Langham Place because of the bus terminal on the ground floor.

So what's the problem? Why am I complaining? Because it was TOO COMFORTABLE! I hardly felt like leaving the room! I have come up with the formula for how much tourist activity you can expect to do:

Tourist Activity = Time / Amenities of Hotel

Needless to say...I normally do a lot of sightseeing when I travel! Haha! Sorry....math joke.

I also spent some time watching youtube in my room. It's totally addicting! Here's one of my favourites on the effect of taping a cat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VRklgMjr3E

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