monday; 11.58pm
Hong Kong so far-- we’ve been in such a whirl since we’ve arrived. So much is happening at any one time that there is hardly anytime for sleep. And I know I’ll kick myself if I don’t take time to just take down all that has been going on so here it goes..
We arrived on thurs night totally knackered and the plane right seemed to take forever but in between the movies, rounds of poker and chats on the plane there was much fun.
sydney airport- on transit to hongkong
alice takes a peek
my poker budsStarted our fri morning early with sarah, jen and me taking a walk through the botanical gardens across the road from our hotel. Past the flamingos and aviaries, we found a nice patio with stone benches where we eventually had our arbitration meeting at. Somehow we ended up with a round of duck, duck, goose but we did spend a good 3 hours musing on our arguments and reworking them.
flamingos at the botanical gardens
totally rad shot of jen and sarah
roomies!
sarah and alice
jen at our meeting at the patio
dave, his bad hair day and me
lunch
Headed for lunch in wan chai and had a bit of a walk in the city. We split up a bit and i ended up with phil and roman where we had a blast. Walking through market lanes, peering into century old temples and egging the boys on to try all the different food was an experience in itself but they never fail to crack me up.
city slickers
hongkong
shophouses
roman and masks
look surprised boys!
laneways
roman, me, phil
phil
Up and early on Saturday, a couple of us went to see the flag raising at the golden bauhinia and was treated to a morning of bagpipe playing and a brass band which was a fun way to start the morning.
golden bauhinia
early morning people
flag raising
me and sar
bagpipes
Headed back to the hotel and got ready for the walk hike at lantau island. Us vissies hopped on a ferry to discovery bay where we trekked for about 3 hours across the island all the way to Mui Wo. And as tiring and agonising it sometime was, the views and conversations shared was great. When we finally reached the other side of the island, it was all topped off with a most gratifying seafood lunch where we stuffed ourselves silly.
dave reads the map
roman, jen, shen, me
the hike begins at discovery bay
lovely view
chapel atop a hill
jeff
us vissies!
de-lovely
lunch
roman loves his ice cream
and so do we
Took a boat back to the mainland where we washed up and had another round of meetings. The HK mooters are stressing out bad and I feel terrible for them. There is still much work to be done! But we ended the night off at the IFC’s “Red Bar” where we met Seb (last year’s vis member). We ended up at Lai Kwon Fong after and it wasn’t until 3am that shen, roman and me headed back first but it wasn’t until 5am that we crashed into bed as we had had a bit of a chat.
mere commoners trapped on second class deck
sunshine on the top deck
ferry boat
honkong architecture
getting ready to hit the town for drinks
red bar
djmar, kaja, me
more vissies
having drinks
dave absolutely smashed, sitting on my bed reading schlectriem at 5am
After only 3 hours of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed to meet Phil for breakfast and contemplated giving the Sunday brunch and hike to the Peak a miss because we were a wreck- we certainly looked the part. We did go eventually (along with keren and sly) and it was good although I was still reeling from the big night out and aching muscles from the hike to Mui Wo. I could hardly keep awake for the meeting in the evening later because I was absolutely knackered and had to crash into bed early.
to the peak
phil and sly
atop the hill for brunch
champagne, cheese, crackers, salmon, chocolates!
atop the sky terrace
the view
sly, me, phil, keren
And then Monday came. It starts to hit you that you’re here after all for the moots (amidst all that fun). We did a practice moot, went to register the team with Jen and had another meeting. We then rushed off to the welcome cocktails at the Hong Kong club and was slightly mortified when we arrived only to realise everyone was in business attire when we were in dresses. But it was still good because we met most of the teams we were mooting against and all that mingling just built up so much excitement for tomorrow.
welcome cocktails by Baker & mcKenzie
lift at hing kong club
monash vis moot team 2008And the only reason I headed back so early after the welcome cocktails is due to the nachos a few of us got to munch on. It tasted great, especially the guacamole but it didn’t sit well with me so here I am in bed with a bit of time to pen my thoughts down.
the nachos that had me feeling unwell that roman is a big fan of
It all starts tomorrow with our first moot and as everything comes to fruition, all I can say is that it has been so worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat and I can’t wait for the rest of the trip/ competition to get on but especially because I love these vissies so bloody much.
"For nobody else, gave me a thrill - with all your faults, I love you still
It had to be you, wonderful you, it had to be you"
-it had to be you, dinah washington
