Hi from Hong Kong!!!

Well this has taken long enough...sorry to anyone reading (mom), hoping you're ready for a bit of an update though, I'm in Hong Kong! Or rather, I've been in Hong Kong for two months already! Whaaat!

So long story short, I decided, after coming home from Korea exactly a year ago, that I definitely wasn't done with Asia and needed another adventure. Yes yes it did take me 9 months to get going but here I am!

Work wise, Meryl Teacher is back! Well its now Miss Meryl:) I am teaching again at another language school except I now teach 3 year olds instead of 15 year olds.. bit different but I am really enjoying it so far. I've finally got a great repertoire of kids songs too. I can now sing "The wheels on the bus" to you till your ears bleed and not even get sick of it :P

Hong Kong has been incredible so far, my short visit 2 years ago put the little idea into my head that I could live and work here one day and being here for longer than a quick 4 day visit has definitely confirmed that. I have been so so lucky to meet up with friends from home and family already and have made some amazing new friends that I'm pretty sure I'll have for life. I live in one of the busiest parts of Hong Kong, Mong Kok. Its ridiculously busy but really convenient, most things you need are right outside or down the road. I've almost mastered the 'Mong Kok shuffle' of weaving in and out of the thousands of people on the street everyday... almost haha. Living here has really added to the excitement of it all. There's never a dull moment in my neighbourhood. Exploring a bit more has also made me realise that Hong Kong isn't just a really big busy city (notice I did 'loads' of research before coming here) A short trip out of the city and you're at a really nice beach, island or waterfall. Sundays have been the best! Its summer at the moment too which means junk boats! Basically a day out on a boat having fun with some of your favourite people. Cannot wait!

So that's my little update on life so far, will be sure to share more very soon. Here's to a great year (or more?) in Hong Kong!

New hood!

Hong Kong 3..

After our crazy day at Disneyland we had a bit of a sleep in and woke up to go searching for some famous Hong Kong french toast. We found the place and sat at a table with a bunch of the locals while we chomped down on our french toast and sipped on some Hong Kong tea. So good! We then set off with our full belly's to explore the new territories. We went walking through an old walled town where you stopped off at temples, study halls and museums along the way.

Yes that is a big chunk of butter in the middle of that deep fried french toast

 We eventually got back and decided we needed to check out the Hong Kong nightlife so we set off for Mong Kok and the Temple Street night market. After some souvenir shopping we headed to Lan Kwai Fong for a bit of a razzle. LKF is basically a collection of roads with a ton of bars and clubs along the street. A good place for convenience store drinking too:) We made some friends one of who was a fellow South African who happened to be from our neighbouring town back home! What a coinci-ink! After just the right amount of g & t's we headed back to our hostel to get ready for the long day of travelling home that was ahead of us.

On our last day we shopped around a little and raced to get to the airport for our flights home. Our little trip was over but was definitely one of the coolest memories I will have. I will definitely be back there someday.

A crab the size of your head anyone?

Drunken blurrys

Hong Kong 2...Disneyland!

The next day we went to Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are still not enough exclamation points to tell you how excited I was but I figured any more might be a bit excessive lol. I'm pretty sure my excitement was on par with the other 5 year old kids that were there. It was so great! The closest thing to a proper amusement park we have in Joburg is Gold Reef City, and half the rides there are always broken and have years and years worth of dried bubble gum attached to them (bad lazy river experience, don't ask) Gold Reef City is modeled after the old Joburg mines, cool but a land where Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and all their other rad friends live beats an old mine any day!
I walked around with my mouth open the entire day. The sheer amount of effort that goes into creating a magical land full of everything Disney amazed me. Everything from the train on the way there to the fences to the Mickey ice creams screamed Disney. Mickey mouse heads everywhere!! We got to see a bunch of shows and went on all the rides and explored the ton of gift shops throughout the park. It poured with rain for a big chunk of the day but we got our Disney ponchos and even though we looked like wet rats we carried on exploring. I even got to dance with Goofy!

Disney train!

 I've probably said this enough but it really was a GREAT day! :) Thanks Walt for creating something that makes the world a little more special :)

I even bought a new friend back home with me. For ages 2+.. yes yes I totally fit that category haha

More on Hong Kong here:)

Hong Kong 1..

Two weeks ago I took my first overseas trip during my time in Korea and went to Hong Kong! I've decided to split this post into two, possibly three because I simply must tell you everything that happened!

It was so great! It started out nice and early on a Thursday morning. Nice and early like catching a 5am bus early to the airport. Man I really took living so close to the airport in Joburg for granted. I'm about an hour bus trip away now :(

I eventually got on the plane and was on my way to Hong Kong (with two seats worth of space might I add, no one sat next to me.. win!) I arrived and made my way to the hostel I was meeting Robyn at. Robyn is one of my best friends from back home. She had finished her teaching contract in Bangkok and had been travelling Asia for a while before meeting up with me in Hong Kong to make her way home. It was sooooo good to see her! Id kind of forgotten what it was like having a familiar face around, someone that knows you, and knows about your life. Its really great meeting new friends whilst living abroad but it still takes a while to really get to know each other and learn about each others backgrounds. I was super happy to be enjoying this experience with a friend that knew what was what.

After sorting out our hostel arrangements we decided to go visit the 10 000 Buddhas Monastery in the New Territories. It was a really cool place with a long pathway of stairs up to a monastery. The pathway was lined with gold life size Buddhas each with a different face or doing a different action. When we got to the top we went into the temple which was lined floor to ceiling with smaller gold Buddhas  It was well worth the long walk up there. The temple was built by a Buddhist man whose preserved body is in a glass case in the temple. A little creepy but the gleaming gold Buddhas made you notice the dead dude in the room a little less which was nice. We went into a pagoda outside the temple which had Buddhas in the windows too. While I tried to catch my breath and get used to the humidity we sat outside on a bench overlooking one of Hong Kong's many skylines. It was a really peaceful place to start our fast paced couple of days ahead of us.

After the monastery we headed over to Victoria harbour for some supper and to check out the big yellow duck which Hong Kong had been going crazy about. We caught the star ferry to get over there. The lights from all the buildings in Hong Kong are amazing and seeing them from the water made it even better.  The duck is an art installation by dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. It was docked in the harbour for a certain period bringing tons of people from all over the world to take pictures with it (The duck has since been deflated, we made it just in time!). It was funny to see how this one big installation got every small entrepreneur in Hong Kong jumping on the bandwagon. We saw everything from duck key rings, branded t-shirts, squeaky toys and even a guy making duck balloon animals! Yellow everywhere!

The next day we went to Disneyland! Read about it here :D:D