Goulet in H.K.

Four months in Taipei marked the longest I had stayed in one place for the past year and a half. I was feeling the strain of travel withdrawal and I knew it was time for a short relapse.

A chance to rendezvous with friends from home in Hong Kong provided the perfect excuse to get away. I booked monday off of work and headed to the airport as soon as I was off on the Friday. The short flight meant I would arrive with plenty of time to get ready for a big night to precede a massive weekend on the town.

I met up with both Gord and Adam at the airport. Gord arrived from Bali where he is currently living while Adam flew in from Bangkok as he nears the end of a Southeast Asia backpacking adventure. We took a taxi to our friend Ally's apartment at which Ally had graciously offered to put us up for the weekend.

I spent the majority of my time in Hong Kong, just as I had planned, getting the most out of Hong Kong's nightlife with my friends. I did manage a small amount of sightseeing during the increasingly short amounts of daylight for which I was awake. Ally was an excellent host and ensured that our Saturday night was not to be a sober one by treating us to a 1.75 L bottle of vodka.

I also got a chance to check out my friend Chris', newly opened Korean reataurant in the heart of Hong Kong.  We gorged on delicious modern Korean food at Jang on Sunday night with Chris before heading out for one last night our in HK together.

After a large tasty meal, which included desert, Adam suggested I attempt a challenge that he had conquered on a prior visit to HK. The challenge was to drink 2 litres of beer in 15 minutes or less, so as to have it free, otherwise face a penalty of more than $40 cad.

Given the large meal I had just eaten, I was apprehensive to take on the challenge but after some convincing from my friends, I finished off the chalice, like a champion, with 7:11 left on the 15 minute timer. Unfortunately, I'll need to shave more than 4 minutes off my time to beat the all-time record.

I was back in Taipei the following evening to get back to teaching on Tuesday.

I went for an interesting walk on the following Saturday afternoon. I stumbled upon an neat artist's commune that I had previously overlooked. The neighbourhood, called Treasure Hill, is home to many artist's studio's and public works of art. It is a pretty cool area, not far from where I live and I'm surprised it took me so long to discover it.





After a stroll around treasure hill I followed a large crowd of people to a gathering at the nearby National Taiwan University. It turned out to be a comic-book convention complete with hundreds of young adults dressed as their favourite Japanese comic book characters.






I'd never seen a comic-convention before and it proved to be quite entertaining.  Even more entertaining than the many scantily costumed girls were the hoards of men with cameras snapping photos.





Just a couple of days ago I visited an art exhibit of an American artist who works entirely with Lego.  I spent a lot of my childhood with those colourful bricks so it was pretty cool to see how someone had made a career for themselves by playing with Lego.  I really enjoyed the exhibit and I am grateful that a friend of mine was able to get us free tickets.

Since the past typhoon the weather has been sunny and great but extremely hot.  I've continued teaching at the same school and acting for the magazines.   The trip to Hong Kong has reawakened my travel-bug somewhat and I'm starting to feel like things are getting a little too routine around here.  Nonetheless, for now, life is good and I'm happy here!