I think Hong Kong will eventually bring out the worst in you. If you don’t stand your ground or push back, you’ll get walked all over. You really can’t help but to keep your elbow out while walking – it’s THAT bad. I find that I’ve completely lost patience in trying to be polite.

I went to The Peak today to get some last minute photography done before I leave. The place was filled with mainlanders and Indian tourists. I have no issue with them as long as they are civilized, but they all act like a bunch of fucking refugees – pushing and shoving when the tram arrived. They even banged on the door of the tram wanting to get on when it was clear that it wasn’t ready for embankment. There were mainlanders cutting in line. I noticed they all use the same tactic – they’d all pretend to look lost while on their cellphone and act like they are looking for someone all at the same time – it was disgusting. When it came time to get on the tram again to go back down, people started pushing again. I got really pissed cause this China lady kept pushing me. I told her to stop pushing. She kept pushing and rambling something in Mandarin. I told her to stop pushing repeatedly, she pretended she didn’t understand and pushed on and then elbowed me. I lost it. I elbowed her back. She shoved me. I stopped immediately, turned around and stared at her straight in the eyes and asked her “what are you going to do now”. I swear to god, if she would have touched me again, someone is gonna go down, and it ain’t gonna be me. She was actually just at the right height where I can easily throw a Thai elbow across her face, which will split her face open. Thankfully, security stopped her from touching me again.

Yeah, when I get angry, I get scary angry and things can get violent quickly. That had only happened a few times in my life (getting angry, that is… not getting violent) where I can actually feel adrenaline running through my veins. When it comes to my flight or fight instinct, I think I naturally choose to fight for some reason. So that kind of makes me think I might have a tendency to get violent when push comes to shove…literally.

So yeah, I think it’s time I go back to Canada where there would be fewer of these incidents for the safety of those around me!

EXHIBIT A

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: MHC – GUESTHOUSE <mhc-guesthouse@hotmail.com>
Date: 2012/1/11
Subject: Your Review

Captain Max Rathan

To be honest my review was on the bitchy side, but hey, somebody needs to know the truth.  Here’s my review below. Please ignore the typos and grammatical errors as it was written on a handheld device in a fit of anger.

EXHIBIT B
 I did not appreciate a party in Xmas eve that went in until midnight hat they didn’t informed me about. I wasn’t well and needed to rest but was unable to because of he noise. Also, they are quite disorganized. I was required to change room my 2nd day. That was fine, but the person still hasn’t check out the next morning. So I was told that they help move my stuff for me and the room would be ready when I return. I came back at around 7pm. No one was around and the door was locked, I didn’t have the key cause it was taken away from me. I rang the bell but no one answered. Had to call he owner and he then had to call his staff to come open the door… There were a couple of other people waiting also. 15 minutes later, someone finally came. Instead of being apologetic, she questioned me why I don’t have a key card. I tried to explain but she wasn’t listening. I actually had to stop her from rambling so I can tell her that the key card was never given to me. So needless to say, in can’t say I was too pleased with this place.

I went to Macau today. As soon as I got off the ferry, I was approached by a woman (I’m going to guess she was Filipino) trying to talk to me. I have no idea what she was talking about because I was listening to my iPod. I waved her away thinking she probably want me to buy something. Shortly after I came out of the washroom, another woman came over to me. This time I took out one of my earbuds and see what she wanted. She asked if I’m Malay or Indonesian. I told her I’m Chinese, to which she responded “Oh really?…” then walked away. So I’m going to guess the first woman who approached me probably thought I was one of them too. Then later, I was visiting a Chinese temple  (A-Ma Temple), another woman came up to me (she looked Korean/Japanese) and spoke to me in English, asking me where I’m from. I got skeptical and asked why. She said she was just wondering. She started to pull something out of her purse. It was at that moment a man asked that we move over because he was trying to take a photo of his son in front of the temple. I took that opportunity to leave without speaking to that lady again.

I don’t get it, I’m not even tan!

So what’s left for me to do in Hong Kong? I still have to go to The Peak to get a good night shot of the city from above. And I want to retake the skyline shots by the harbor, this time using a tripod. The weather has been kind of shitty the past week so my shots will likely look hazy. Oh well, it is what it is. I still need to go to Macau, I think I’ll do that next week. I also want to do more shopping for work clothes since the stuff here are cheaper and fits me better than clothes back home. But I think I still prefer shopping in the States.

Anyway… So as mentioned in my previous post that I was just in Bangkok last week. During my last night in Bangkok, I decided to get myself a Thai massage before I leave. I didn’t really have much time so I just went to this place down the street from my guesthouse.

Before my trip I googled about Thai massage and it’s supposed to be performed fully clothed with no massage oil. So I went into the shop thinking there would be no need for me to undress.

I went into the shop and told the lady I wanted a massage (I didn’t specify which I wanted). She proceeded to call another Thai lady from the back to lead me upstairs.

I followed the lady up 3 flight of stairs and arrived on the top floor. She led me into a room with 2 massage tables. She left the room without saying a word to me. She came back into the room a couple of minutes later with three towels in hand. She rolled up one of them and put it at the end of the table where the face hole is located. Then she placed other towel on the table. I took that as a sign to get on the table but she stopped me and told me to take off my top. I thought that was weird but I complied. After I took my top off, I proceeded to lay down again. She stopped me once more and motion to take off my bra. I was like…”errr…ok…”, but apparently I wasn’t quick enough so she unhooked my bra for me (?!). I proceeded to lay down again but she pointed at my pants. I was thinking “sigh… I guess that comes off too…”. After I took off my pants, I tried to lay down again but she tugged on my underwear (yes, seriously) so that had to come off too. I guess Thai people don’t care much about privacy since I basically undressed in front of a complete stranger.

After I got my nakedass under the towel, she put some oil in her hands and started to rub down my back – that was nice. After she was done with my back, she proceeded to remove the towel and work on my butt without warning! Her hands were dangerously close to certain “region”. The entire time I was thinking… “Is this normal? Perhaps this is normal and I’m just making a big deal out of nothing”.

After she was done with my butt, she started to work on my hamstrings. Again, she got dangerously close again and there was some accidental gracing of the hand of my special region.

After the entire backside was done she asked me to flip onto my back. She worked my thighs. Needless to say, her hands were all the way up my thighs again. After she finished with my arms, to my surprise, she started to massage my chest (yes, boobs and all)!!! I was thinking… “errr… this is turning into a really weird lesbian encounter”.

During my boob massage she was asking me something I didn’t understand – she was saying something in Thai. She repeated a couple of times but I told her I couldn’t understand her. A few minutes later, the massage was over.

After the massage was over, I went back to my guesthouse feeling perplexed and slightly violated because I wasn’t sure what exactly happened. Then I googled and realized I was given an oil massage with an option of a “happy ending” (she was asking me if I wanted one when she was speaking to me in Thai). I honestly thought this kind of massage was only available to men! And in case you don’t know, happy ending means the girl/man/ladyboy jerks the guy off at the end and hence it’s referred to as happy ending.

Note To Self: always specify the type of massage you want while in Asia!

So what else is new? I received the job offer a few weeks ago. I was kind of freaking out a little because they told me they were going to get back to me before I start my trip but obviously didn’t. I kind of lost hope after I didn’t hear back from them for a week. But I discovered the reason why was probably because they had to get approval to change the title and for my salary expectation. I noticed they dropped the “Jr.” from the title and offered me exactly what I asked for salary wise, so I’m happy. I actually asked for a little bit more than what I was getting from the last job so I ended up giving myself a raise, awesome.

Right now I’m back in Hong Kong. I came back from my G Adventure tour last week that started in Vietnam, then to Cambodia, and finished in Thailand. I stayed in Thailand (Bangkok) for an extra 5 days. The place I liked the most during my visit was Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Phenom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and the reason why I liked it the most is because it was more real. Real in terms of how it was not as touristy as Siam Reap (where Angkor Wat is located). You get to see the daily lives of the local, I actually got to go to someone’s home to have a homestay dinner at the outskirts of town. That was cool. I’ve had similar meals in Cuba before, but this one felt more authentic. The family I visited in Phenom Penh was running an after school program for neighbourhood kids, the father of the family is a teacher by day. So they don’t do this for a living, unlike the place I ate at in Havana.

Bangkok was cool. I was there alone and stayed at a guesthouse. It’s nothing fancy at all, it’s clean and safe. I only spend $20/night so that was a really good deal. The guesthouse was situated 5 minutes walk away from the Skytrain (BTS) so it was pretty convinent for me to get around quickly. The traffic in Bangkok is insane so it was better to take public transit when possible. Although the Old City (where the temples are by the river) doesn’t have access to public transit so I usually grab a metered taxi at the last station to save some money. Bangkok really isn’t all that walkable. The distance between different parts of town is at least a 30-40 min walk and at night, most streets looks dark and shady (the streets that aren’t closed to hotels).

Taxi there is cheap, starts at $1 and I can usually get to my destination for around $2.30 (distance probably around 6km). I need to ask the taxi driver if he’ll use a meter before I get in or else he’ll charge a flat rate. I almost got scammed by a Tuk Tuk driver the other night. I asked how much to get to a specific BTS station and he told me 20 baht, I repeated the amount and he said yes. It was really cheap, TOO cheap, but I got on anyway. When we arrived, he told me it’s 200 baht (normally it’s about 70 baht for that distance from metered taxi). I told him he told me it was 20, but he tried to say that he told me 200. This went on for a few minutes and then I told him I’m not giving him 200, he said he wants 150, I said no. I took out a 100 and told him a metered taxi usually cost 70 and he can either take it or leave it as I proceeded to walk away without paying. He took the money and left. That’s right asshole, go scam someone else!

Overall, this has been a really good trip. I discovered that I prefer travelling on my own as opposed to with people. I get to do whatever I want and when I want. There’s no schedule, no one to report to and no need to compromise. This will not be my last solo trip. My plan is to take a trip to the Gallapogos in 2013 and perhaps a trip to South Africa in 2015. Europe and all other developed countries can wait.