Travel Blog Section 2

Internship Pics

Finally after around 18 hours of hard work, I have been able to put some selected pics of my HK visit. Junta, even after selecting only good pics, the number of pics is still around 400. Although I don't expect you to see them all, but if you do, comments are welcome.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong6
http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong5
http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong4
http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong3
http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong2
http://picasaweb.google.com/pratik.phodu/HongKong1

Enjoy!!!!!

Food Tips Blog

I believe you are a junior to me if you are reading this. Whatever I write, for you it has to be correct. This is not because what I am writing is tried and tested (coz its not) but because "Senior is always right".
:)

On a more serious note, if you are a vegetarian, you have to get yourself ready and prepared if you are coming here for an internship. The reason is not that the food is costly (anyways, you have a lot of money :D), but because there are not many vegetarian options available.

I went to Tsim Sha Tsui many times just to have dinner. You get good Indian food there. Other option that I used many times was maggi. For breakfast, we had Corn-Flakes and Milk. That was healthy and good.
But, you can have better food here if you are prepared.

A few points before we begin:
Get MTR curries, maggi, bhujia, etc from India. You can get them from Tsim Sha Tsui but they are 2 times costlier here. You would also want to get pickles, papad, pressure cooker, frying pan, plates, bowls, corn-flakes, biscuits, spices etc. from India. You can buy all of them here, but this would help you save some money. Don't forget to bring pressure cooker and frying pan. They are really needed.

One more point, Vegetarian in Hong Kong is different from that in India. Some restaurants include fish and egg in vegetarian food here.

The most prominent options that you have (divided into groups) are:

At Tsim Sha Tsui: You have many many restaurants there. They are cheap too (rather I should say not costly). The best one was Smrat in Chung King Mansion 5th floor Block B. Brantos (its difficult to find Brantos but it is in TST) has a bit costly but good food.

In Campus:

United Campus Staff Canteen: I never ate here on my own but was treated once by Prof. Jaggi (Thank You Sir). I dont know why I did not eat here. You get good food at reasonable prices. But there is one funny thing in the restaurant. The menu card shows pork, meat, beef, shrimps, etc in vegetarian column. But, meat, beef, pork stuff are made from flour and are 100% vegetarian. People say they taste exactly like their non-vegetarian counterparts. :)

Medical Sciences Building Canteen: You get a) Cheese Sandwich and b) Tomato and Cheese Sandwich here. Actually they have Tomato, Cheese and Egg sandwich but they would not add egg if you request them not to do so.

Sandwich Club, opposite John Fulton Bus Stop: The vegetarian options are
1) Vegetable Cheese Hamburger with Fruit Salad/French Fries:
2) Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich (for those who have no problems with egg)
3) Tomato Cheese Toasties
4) Tomato Cheese Lettuce Sandwich
5) Drinks, Mango Puddings, Milk, Juices. You have plenty of them to try actually.

Canteen below the above canteen, i.e. in front of Park n Shop:
Rice with Egg and Vegetables (Dont fall into the trap. There are just two leaves like thing counting for the word vegetable here. But in any case, 11 HKD meal. Those who eat egg can get along very cheaply).

Coffee Corner, opposite John Fulton Bus Stop: There you have a few options. Most of them snacks for our chinese friends but dinner for you. Fried Potato Patties, French Fries, Shakes (Plenty of them), Spaghetti with egg, Tomato Cheese Sandwich, a mushroom preparation, french toast(it has egg), and many simple (non-eggy) toasts too.

At Shatin: Shatin Plaza has some vegetarian shops.
Triple 0, Wendy, Star Bucks have sandwiches and veggie-burgers.

Buddhists Restaurants: There are many restaurant for Buddhists (Buddhists are pure vegetarians. Here vegetarians are defined as we do in India :) ). Hunt for them. We went to one such restaurant (Doo Lee Man Resturant) in Tai Po with Prof. Sid. You should at least try that food when you go to Lantau Islands.

Mexican Restaurants: There are a few mexican restaurants in Central. We went to Taco Loco (again with Sid Sir).

Mediterranean restaurants: There are a few Mediterranean restaurants in central. Their Falafel sandwiches are good.
Mediterranean Restaurants in Hong Kong might help.

Vietnamese don't have any thing vegetarian. No use even looking at them.
We didn't find anything good in Pizza Hut.

Some places which you can find everywhere: If you are hungry and you see one of these anywhere, you should be happy because you can definitely have something here.

McDonalds: You can find it everywhere. In all your sight-seeing trips, you can have food at McDonalds. Note that they dont have vegetarian Burgers. But you can have apple pie, corn, french fries, shakes, ice-creams.

Park N Shop: Apart from the raw stuff to prepare food, you can get ice-creams, cakes, Lays, Cheese Balls, Pringles,fruits, juices, yogurt, milk, etc.

Maxim Cakes: Delicious cakes. Try each one of them. Nearly all cakes are vegetarian. On the contrary, nearly all breads are non-vegetarian. Check the ingredients before buying bread. One of the simple breads we bought said "Traces of egg and fish extracts". :(

7 Eleven: Not much of a grocery store. But still, you can get cakes and juices and cold-drinks.

Hui Lau Shan: Great great dessert. I never had a better dessert than this ever in my life. You would like to try some of them each time you go to malls. They are there in almost every mall and shopping area.
http://creationsdessert.com/

According to Prof Jaggi- "7th floor of the One Peking building -- try the lunch dim sum some weekend -- it's the only time you guys will ever have a change to try veggie dim sum :)" Dim Sum is a traditional Hong Kong preparation.

Some vegetarian restaurants that we did not try but heard that they are good:

a) Bo Kong Vegetarian Restaurant, Shop 1203, 12/F, Food Forum, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, HK.
b) BookWorm Cafe, Lamma Islands
c) Shalimar Restaurant, Tai Po
d) Curry King, Tai Po
e) Curry in a Hurry - They are at
    1. 5-25 Canton Road, Citysuper, 3/F Gateway, Tsim Sha Tsui
    2. 30 Canton Road, Shop B16, B/F Silvercord, Tsim Sha Tsui
    3. 1111 King's Road, Shop 23, B1/F UNY, Cityplaza 1, Tai Koo Shing
    4. 418 Kwun Tong Road, Shop 7, 1/F, Foodcourt APM Millennium City 5, Kwun Tong
    5. 1 Matheson Street, B1/F, City's Super Times Square, Causeway Bay
    6. 8 Argyle Street, Shop F6, 4A/F Langham Place, Mong Kok

You can explore some places here:
hungrygowhere.com/hongkong
holistichongkong.com


Cooking: If you enjoy cooking (most people do actually), you can do some here. Microwaves and Electric Pans are there in every kitchen. You can get almost everything you need from park n shop. If you do not get it there, you will definitely get it at Tsim Sha Tsui. Rice, Dal, Spices, MTR Curries, Frozen Parathas, Frozen Cheese Pizzas, Frozen Rotis, Eggs, Oil, etc... and so you can cook food here. Its cheaper and you get healthier food. Cooking anyways gives you the pleasure of its own. :)

Travel Blog Section I

Weekend 1:
Sat: We went to Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui, Peak Tower (Victoria Peak). We also saw Hong Kong Science Museum and a documentary "ROAR" in the theatre. We enjoyed the awesome night view of the skyline from the avenue of stars. We had some disappointment as the day was misty, hence preventing the view from the peak. But still, the day was fun. We had good old Indian food at Tsum Sha Tsui (Curry, Dal, Chawal, Roti...). Enjoyed the ride in the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central and Tram from Central to Peak Tower.

Weekdays between: On one of the weekdays, Prof. Sid took us to a restaurant in the university and to a restaurant in Tai Po. We had something called fake meat, fake beef products. But, meat, beef, pork stuff here are made from flour and are 100% vegetarian. People say they taste exactly like their non-vegetarian counterparts. :) He also took HK101 course on eating in Hong Kong. I learnt how to use chopsticks. Man, they use chopsticks for everything, noodles, rice, meat, fish, etc...

Weekend 2:
Sat: We got to see a Korea v/s Hong Kong Unicycle hockey match (My first international match :D) followed by some bicycling show by some kids. Thanks to Sid Sir. We also got to try our hands on unicycling :)
Sun: We also went to the Lantau Islands. Main attractions were Tai Tan Buddhist Statue, Po Lin Buddhist Monastary, Misty Lantau Peak and Wisdom Path. Enjoyed the ride in cable car. Saw two 3-D animated plays sort of a thing - A walk with Buddha and A tale of two Monkeys.

Introduction

I am Pratik Poddar, to be a third year undergraduate student in Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay. I was at The Chinese Unversity of Hong Kong in the summer of 2008 as an intern under Prof. Angela Yingjun Zhang. Other professors with whom I got to interact with in the period were Prof. Sidharth Jaggi and Prof. Chandra Nair. All three are assistant professors in Information Engineering Department at CUHK.

I sit down for writing a travel blog sort of a thing.
This would serve two purposes:
1) Be with me as memory of the trip. (Travel Blog)
2) Hopefully be a help to all the future interns from IITs to CUHK. (Tips Blog)