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A conference and lots of free fancy pens

Day 8,9&10


The reason why I have postponed this blog post for tonight was because the past 3 days have been quite similar (and I might have been a slight procrastinator).

The conference
Blaine and myself have been attending the Prince of Wales Chinese University of Hong Kong Head and Neck Surgery conference. The surgeries lectured on in this conference mainly circulate around cancer treatment; and as in South Africa, smokers are still the most afflicted. It felt just like class, but now the students were more knowledgeable and still they take pictures of the slides with cameras. Some things never change.

The conference was filled with 200 odd renowned practitioners of head and neck surgery (specialising in ENT). Everybody was dressed in suits or smart female wear (Dresses? Skirts? I don't know these things). This was particularly visible when I realised I had pitched up on the first day in a jean. Oh well. The free food all day long was fabulous.

Some dim
I seem to have figured out what the food called Dim Sum is. The literal translation of it is "little bits of something" (that may or may not be my own translation). So whether your having a porky wrapped in some rice pastry or some shellfish cocooned in some other type of something then that is some dim, or some Dim Sum. Dumplings are also Dim sum who would have known. Dim some is delicious and I know I will miss it the moment I am back in SOuth Africa because I haven't the slightest idea how to concoct it.
Some Dim, courtesy of someone else's blog :P
Symphony of Lights
The Friday night Blaine and I took a night out on the town.
First objective we had to reach was the Hong Kong Symphony of Lights, which is when the Hong Kong island skyline (see pics on previous posts) lights up to form a most amazing synchronised light show. This is accentuated by the fact that the music the lights are synchronised with is very Pokemon-esque. The lightshow introduces itself by naming all the largest buildings and enlightening them, then the building dancing begins. We reacted by making absolute tourist sounds the whole show. If you would like to see a video of the play, click the link below.
Laser Light Show in Hong Kong

The Symphony of Lights, an enlightening experience 

Next up, Lan Kwai Fong
We made ourselves to Lan Kwai Fong which we have been assured is the place to be for a party in Hong Kong. It turned out that this was the place with the highest concentration of the friendliest tourists that I have ever come across. The crowds of overly friendly foreigners come from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Great Brittain, Canada, Germany, Russia, India, USA, Ghana, China, Thailand and finally more Canada.

Some Russians, Canadians, Macadamians, Portugese, Cantanese, British, Grittish, German and Afrikaansman seen here. Guess who's who


A street in Lan Kwai Fong, pretty early and people aren't chilling much yet

One street of Lang Kwai Fong, peeps seen chilling
 Some help with visualising this scene for my fellow South Africans: Imagine the Square in Pretoria but:
  • It's roughly 3x as large as Thursdays
  • Roughly 30x more bars and clubs and way too many exclusive clubs that won't let you (i.e. me) in
  • Instead of a big square it is divided into countless streets, nooks and crannies.
  • You can still shout out Afrikaans phrases around and the whole New Zealand will respond, do not ask me why.
  • Drinking in public is legal. This made Blaine and myself exceptionally confused and self concscious and we decided still to keep the beers to the party area on a moral basis. Without morals what are we but pantsless and running down the street whenever we want (Bucket list item for when I have my midlife crisis)
  • A British gal we met had her phone stolen that night, points for South Africa :P
All in all the party scene here is very enjoyable, mostly because of the friendly vibe and Gangnam Style playing everywhere. The locals here also have no idea what the words are about, it's not just you, world. ;)

Back to the conference:
  • The next two mornings (Saturday and Sunday) we went to the conference again
  • More free pens
  • More extremely intricate and way-above-our-heads lectures on radiology and chemotherapy
  • More free dim sum (thank you Georges for letting me know about the oyster sauce; shellfish allergies and Hong Kong really do not go well together. Doesn't help if you love and miss shellfish either).
  • More realising that surgery is not for me, it's internal medicine thank you very much; the surgeries they do here are extremely radical and one could not believe how normal the person looks after the surgery while you know the surgery itself would be too gruesome for some horror films.

Things that are on my mind
  • Still having to try starfruit and starfruit juice
  • Some Starfruit, could not find any today WHERE ARE YOU HIDING

  • Blaine and I are on a mission to make a viral video about Hong Kong. Let's hope we have some sneak peek footage up here later today.
  • I am feeling guilty again because we broke the ethnic food rule and had MacDonalds again last night.

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