hey all.  been a while since i said anything so here's saying hello to the world.  been in hong kong for about 7 weeks now and i must say it's been pretty eye-opening, realizing what working is going to be like, etc.  one conclusion is yes, despite it all, i do think i want to do this upon graduation and to live in hong kong (or singapore/ australia as necessary).  i like the learning experience and the amount i get to see, both from a business perspective, career development perspective, and int'l perspective.

i've got a chance to travel a bit for work, twice to beijing, which was essentially my goal before i came to this internship.  the only unexpected part was the lack of time to actually see anything in beijing - only passed by the forbidden city/ tiananmen square. that was the "highlight" of the trips.

been to macau twice and shenzhen once, as well as explored random places in hong kong - believe or not, beyond the shopping, eating and clubbing, there are other things to do in hong kong, such as hiking.  i'm posting some pictures to prove it.  have also had people visit - marcus, ray and niki have been here, while nancy and my parents will also be passing through in due course.  i guess one thing i like about this city is how int'l it is.  singapore pretends to be but in some ways pales in comparison.  it'd be great to work here, and i really like the exposure to chinese business - precisely what i had wanted to learn.  that said, my mandarin skills need some improvement, especially for reading financial statements...

here are some of those pictures.

Finally received the portraits taken by Tim Page's camera.  Most of the ones of me except for the group dinner one are taken by Saroeun.  The group dinner one, I believe, is actually by Tim.

This one by me.

More to come later.  Need to continue exercise regiment first - swim while not raining.  I'm growing fat - the pants I just bought for work proves that point.

Currently Listening Everything in Transit By Jack's Mannequin see related

Finally getting a bit of a breather after a crazy 3 weeks of travelling in Australia (to visit Marcus), Malaysia and Cambodia (SEA Studies Research Trip).  I leave on June 21 for HK.  While really tiring, they were all really good visits in their own way.  It was great to see Marcus again - have really been looking forward to it for a long time.  As for Malaysia and Cambodia, they had great academic value and taught me a lot more about myself in a professional setting, as well as about those two countries.

First thing's first, here are pictures from my trip to visit Marcus (and Amanda) in Canberra!  Canberra is a rather simple, not that exciting city, but fun because of the people in it that I know   Plus there is the casino which enabled me to cover all expenses and more during the trip!

Next are pictures from the Malaysia portion of the trip.  I took a 5-hour bus ride (that became 7 hours) to Malaysia on the cheapest bus line prowling between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.  Took forever thanks to traffic jam, slow passengers taking their own sweet time at rest stops, and an overly "laid back" bus driver.  What a difference compared to the efficiency of Greyhound Australia or Murray's, which met schedules on the dot.  In any case, the KL trip was great.  We met with Datuk Anwar Ibrahim, the ex-Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh at his house (a Kelantan prince who once vied with Mahathir for Prime Ministership), various gov't officials from the health, foreign and defense ministries, various political parties, editor of Malaysiakini and NGOs.  Some of you should recognize some of the people in the pictures.  We also visited a PETRONAS oil refinery in Melaka, Al Jazeera in KL, and a pondok (madrasah) in Selangor   The Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism was so nice when we couldn't get taxis that they sent their bus to collect us...pictured below.  This trip was no joke.  We really woke up at 8am everyday and only got back to the hotel around midnight, with back-to-back meetings all day long, especially during meals.  All in all, it was a great trip, and the biggest takeaway is that M'sia is very much a race-based society that has to manage its multiethnic relations well and ensure its economy is flexible and competitive enough to keep up with China and India.

The second leg of our trip was to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where we met with various development agencies (UNDP, Council for Development of Cambodia), gov't officials (Ambassador-at-Large Roland Eng at his beautiful house), political parties (including Mu Sochua, SG of the Sam Rainsy opposition party, also winner of Haas Int'l Award and nominee for Nobel Peace Prize).  We also met many NGOs.  We also went to an ecotourism site where we got to stay with a rural family - for the first time in my life I saw some piglets and a gigantic pig.  I actually am thankful I've done the military thing as uncomfortable conditions don't really bother me anymore - I must say I slept very well despite it all.  Other notable visits include to the UN-sponsored Khmer Rouge Tribunal, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (that set up the genocide museum at S-21), dinner with Phnom Penh post managing editor and Tim Page (his character is played in Apolocalypse Now - he's a really famous photographer, and took some portraits of us too!)  Also, a friend and I were walking around and saw two boys catching birds, to cage them, then sell them to Buddhists seeking merit by releasing a bird.  I thought it was a sick practice, but then again, these are people just trying to make a living.  Perfect metaphor for life in Cambodia.  In sum, Cambodia is a country that is in deep need of healing to move beyond its civil war legacy and needs to rid itself of corruption to move forward at the same pace of Vietnam.  I actually personally believe that the multilateral development agencies and the foreign-supported NGOs should probably tone down their presence and aid and force the Cambodian gov't to act more responsibly instead of throwing so much money in there in the development game without achieving too many results or much redistribution.

In remembrance of those who lost their lives under the Khmer Rouge.  Our prayers are with you and we hope the world will bring the surviving KR leaders to justice.

Finally, here are pictures of recent visitors to Singapore for several hours - Nora and Gaew.  Nora managed to get a glimpse into Singaporean society in just 8 hrs overnight - not bad I must say.  Thanks to all my Singaporean friends who tagged along and made the experience more fun.  Sharon will be dropping by this weekend as well.

Yay I'm finally done!  4 days more and I'll be on a plane on a long (almost 48 hr) trek to Australia, with an 8 hour or so break in Singapore!  I really can't wait.  Until then, it's lunches and dinners here and there to catch up.  Yesterday I had one to commemorate goodbye to my friend Rob, whom I am not sure will be here next year.  We went to a French restaurant.  While the food was decent and we enjoyed each other's company, we really had a bad time with the American waitress (note: the french ones were surprisingly not condescending!  Instead it was the American!)  She was being very inflexible and not allowing all of us to drink wine since we did not possess US gov't issued IDs issued after we were minors.  That, she claims, is the law.  I'm appalled at her inflexibility, esp. when we all looked so old (trust me we are not young any longer), and more importantly, it's amazing how we can't drink wine here but we can buy a gun and shoot people.  I find that incredibly ironic.  Many of the nuances in this country really drive me nuts, and I'm sorry to say it, especially given that, well, now I have no other label but American left to my name.  That said, I don't have to conform nor accept, so you can figure why I'm going to live outside the US for most of my life    In any case, here are some pictures of that.

Since I am showing off food, I might as well show off my creations this past semester.  I hosted people over for food quite a bit and botched a significant number of dishes (eg. coconut rice was essentially just coconut milk and hardened rice by the time I was done with it).  To my credit, many were successful as can be seen from the pictures below:

See you in the Asia-Pacific.  Have a great summer everyone.  I will (try) not to get lung cancer in Hong Kong.  Oh and we get to meet a Time Top 100 Influential Person in Cambodia!  The head of the Documentation Centre in Cambodia (i.e. Khmer Rouge investigations).