Anybody here?

Yep I'm still having my writers block, so its been kind of quiet around here. Actually, I'm quite curious if anybody has even checked out this place in the past few months ;)

Well in case you did take the effort to come over here, let me tell you how its going. In short. I guess now and then I'm still a bit recovering from my reversed culture shock, and am now finishing my studies by writing a final thesis. After five years of living among the students I joined my parents again, mostly due to the shorter distance to my company. I hope to finish my studies SOON and get back to more important things like travelling, meeting people, and thinking about important things to do next. Ehm yes that will probably include working...

Finally, check out the bunch of emotion and energy in the video below, its awesome.

Thanks for coming!

Wild Swans

So yeah let's visit this abandoned place...After being back for almost three months, doing nothing more than reading, planning my final thesis and boring myself with trying to be a poker star, it's finally time for a new change: moving! Still have to find a place by the way to move TO...but a deadline to move FROM is there. Well at least something worth to work for ;)

Finished today with reading this magnificent book "Wild Swans", written by Jung Chang, describing in moving words her life as a young girl during the time of Mao. Utterly interesting and a must-read for anyone interested in what China has gone through and the influence on how it is functioning even now.

I've ended the day with seeing Chrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wu hu cang long), a pretty nice Chinese movie.

Yup...it was a China day again...

...

 

Jappie learns how to eat

Dutch Invasion Begins...

China Travel Part 2

AHH it's so cold here! Yesterday so nice and warm, this morning so freakin' freezing! Don't get me wrong, a tough boy like me has no trouble with adjusting to some zero degrees feelings, but hey, I got two others with me who way passed the age of being able to survive these circumstances. By the way, I'll tell the continuing story in Dutch, just to please my family members.

Na een reis vanuit Hong Kong naar Kunming, met een dag fietsen, rondhangen en smerige noodles eten (soms kies je voor het verkeerde restaurant..."nee meneer wij doen niet aan afwassen") met de nachtbus naar Dali. Eigenlijk hadden we de trein voor ogen, maar helaas, die was al volgeboekt. In de bus was echter nog genoeg plek over! Die avond, nacht en ochtend was het ons aardig duidelijk waarom. Als je kickt op slapen (dat in deze context is een zeer rekbaar begrip) in stabel-kinderledikantjes, wakker gehouden worden door rochelende chinezen, schuddend over de "snel" weg, drie uur op een parkeerplaats wachten tot je er achter komt dat je allang op plaats van bestemming bent, neem dan vooral deze bus!

Hotel was goed! Voor 12 euro een driepersoons kamer net buiten de stadsmuren van Dali, in totaal relaxte setting met wierooklucht (je raakt er aan gewend), een leegstaand zwembad, maar lekker veel ruimte en voorzieningen (gratis internet, waarom zou ik hier weg gaan). Rustigste nacht gehad in vijf maanden! Dali, want daar gaat het natuurlijk om, is een stadje waar je lekker rustig aan kan doen. Kan dus, maar hebben we niet gedaan. Met Tante & Pa gehiked door de omgeving, met een stuk ijzer in de vorm van een driewieler (de chauffeur probeerde ons tevergeefs te overtuigen dat het een taxi was) een bergrit overleefd en verder nog wat lokale troep aangeschaft (met name t. Ans was hier erg gedreven in, peuter bij haar de souvenirtjes los).

Costs total travel p.p.:
Ferry HK > Shenzhen airport: HK$ 200
Flight Shenzhen > Kunming: Y 810
Hotel Kunming > Y 83
Bicycle Day Kunming: Y 12
Bus (sleeper) Kunming > Dali: Y95
Hotel Dali: Y 40
Bus Dali > Lijiang: Y 65
Hotel Lijiang (2 nights): 2x Y 32 = Y 64
Taxi Lijiang > Lijiang Airport: ???
Flight Lijiang > Shenzhen: Y 1190
Shenzhen > Hong Kong: 34 HK$

Alive & Kicking

I know, when you go for a long journey to a far and far away country, you are supposed to keep your friends, wannabee friends and family updated about everything you do! Or at least make some general remarks about it.

So here another update...ok...actually I just WANT to tell what I'm doing here! I enjoy reading other ones stories, so why not create a few myself? I hope I can convince you to come over to Asia once! Or twice... The first successes in this are already booked: next week my father and aunt will come over to explore Hong Kong and the mainland, and a week after they leave my friends Jasper, Sander and Imo will kick the sh*t out of this town! Will definitely report about these two visits...

And ehm yes...it's in English...mam...dad...see it as a learning experience.

So what did I do here the past few weeks? Since time flies here, I also tend to forget sometimes what I did last week...another reason to write it down huh. EHM...yes...last weekend was great! Friday I hang out in Lan Kwai Fong, were the main clubbing/pub scene is going on...and Saturday I went to one of the best concerts ever: Muse! Since HK people don't really bother going to non-cantonese concerts, it was pretty easy to obtain tickets, so we went with Faisal, Traz, Frank, JP and Liz to be blasted away and amazed by the enthousiasm of the crowd... The next day explored Lantau with Egle and Mantas, taking a look at the place where we will have an interns weekend in a few days.

Bad ass HK youngsters & Muse

Then we had the Chinese New Year, with the fireworks (nice...), a parade in Tsim Sha Tsui (tip: get your spot next to the 7/11, easy for getting your cold drinks) and other New Year stuff. Nice to be here during the days in which NY is celebrated twice...

Work! Let's not forget that's actually one of the main things I'm doing here...working for a Swiss company at a very nice location in HK (see post below) with three other interns! With descent European working hours, nice people to work with and enough to think and read about, I'm pretty happy to have ended up here. Ask me for details or if you want to be an intern there as well!

Companies Annual Dinner

And that's it for today. Time for some sleeping (for locals, sleeping is what you should do at night, it makes you feel better during the day).

The Office!

So yes, let me introduce the office building where I spent most of the working time! Build just after the internethype, this USD 2.5 billion building build by the government is meant for high tech companies, to create a place where the shit happens! Unfortunately, half of the building is still empty, but progress is being made since in six years the MTR (what?) will arrive here as well.

Meetings!

Ren Chang's desk (now Jeppes)...and mine...

And YES I can see a sunset from my desk ;) Probably something I will have to miss in my future offices...












At the moment the weather is quite perfect for having lunch outside, though I wonder how that will be one month from now...it's getting warmer and more humid every day!


For more pictures of Cyberport, visit http://photo.cyberport.hk/

Beijing!

Beijing is cool! Zie http://picasaweb.google.nl/seefdepeef/ZephInBeijing

Koud, maar cool. Lange treinreis! Veel ruimte! En veel fietsen!

Begin volgende maand verhuis ik naar een betere locatie, waar ik internet heb en Hyves niet geblokt is...