As someone who was born and raised in the states, I don't think I ever got a sense for how big the world was until I lived in China. This trip again was a reminder of all the people around the world that are from so many different places.
Aaron and I put together a list of all the people we shared conversations with on the buses, planes, and anywhere else we went to on our trip:
Spain
Sweden
Holland
Nebraska
Texas
Australia
Switzerland
Belgium
France
Canada
Uk
Italy
Chile
Columbia
Russia
Venezuela
Brazil
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Overnight in Shenzhen airport
The flight to Shenzhen went alright. It was delayed an hour which wasn't a big deal.
When I got on my plane, people were sitting in my seat and they asked me if I could sit one row up so they could sit together. I'm kind of glad that happened because I sat next to two guys, Ron and Max, from HK that went on almost the EXACT trip I just went on.
They were in Siem Reip the same time and they went to the 4000 islands as well.
It was interesting swapping stories and traveling lessons that we learned on our trips.
I got to Shenzhen at midnight and I immediately went to figure out a place to sleep for the night. There was a corner in Terminal B that I set up camp.
I watched some tv for an hour and was hoping to go on Reddit and Facebook but completely forgot about the great fire wall of China. I was about to fall asleep at 2am but then a cop tapped my shoulder and told me I couldn't sleep in the terminal.
He rounded up 10 people around me and made us go to Mcdonalds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep because people don't know how to shut up.
My alarm went off at 5:20, with enough time to go to the ticket desk, get checked in early and grab breakfast.
There were A TON of people in line already. I waited an hour in line and then the lady turned me away because I was too early.
I came back at 8:30 and they finally checked my bag in.
Right now I'm at the gate, flight should be about 3 hours and I'll get to hang around shanghai airport for 4 hours before my 13 hr flight home.
When I got on my plane, people were sitting in my seat and they asked me if I could sit one row up so they could sit together. I'm kind of glad that happened because I sat next to two guys, Ron and Max, from HK that went on almost the EXACT trip I just went on.
They were in Siem Reip the same time and they went to the 4000 islands as well.
It was interesting swapping stories and traveling lessons that we learned on our trips.
I got to Shenzhen at midnight and I immediately went to figure out a place to sleep for the night. There was a corner in Terminal B that I set up camp.
I watched some tv for an hour and was hoping to go on Reddit and Facebook but completely forgot about the great fire wall of China. I was about to fall asleep at 2am but then a cop tapped my shoulder and told me I couldn't sleep in the terminal.
He rounded up 10 people around me and made us go to Mcdonalds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep because people don't know how to shut up.
My alarm went off at 5:20, with enough time to go to the ticket desk, get checked in early and grab breakfast.
There were A TON of people in line already. I waited an hour in line and then the lady turned me away because I was too early.
I came back at 8:30 and they finally checked my bag in.
Right now I'm at the gate, flight should be about 3 hours and I'll get to hang around shanghai airport for 4 hours before my 13 hr flight home.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
At Bangkok Airport
My bag was checked in at 21.1 kg. I was worried that they would charge me extra because the max was 20kg. I got through security but they took out my almost empty tube of tooth paste and my 1/4 full bottle of soap because "they didn't meet standards". Now I'm going to have to go 2 days without toothpaste and soap unless I buy it at the dumb airport store for 3x the price.
I'm completely out of Thai money and it's dinner time. I'm hoping I can hold out until Shenzhen because I can exchange the 200 HKD worth of money there to grab something to eat. I'll get there at 11pm so hopefully something will be open.
I'm not really looking forward to sleeping in the Shenzhen Airport.
Here's my travel itinerary for the next 2 days:
Bangkok (BKK)
Thu 29 Dec (7:10PM)
Shenzhen (SZX)
Thu 29 Dec (10:50PM)
=============================================
Shenzhen
Fri 30 Dec (9:55am)
Shanghai
Fri 30 Dec (12:15pm)
=============================================
Shanghai
Fri 30 Dec (4:55pm)
Newark, NJ
Fri 30 Dec (6:20pm)
=============================================
Newark, NJ
Fri 30 Dec (8:50pm)
Minneapolis, MN
Fri 30 Dec (11pm)
Trip craziness
It's been a crazy day today. I haven't blogged for a while and I can't check where I left off because I'm on a bus riding back to Bangkok.
Yesterday, before we checked out of the Naga Hotel, the owner asked us if we wanted to buy bus tickets from him to get back to Bangkok. We said sure, paid $9 each and then he said someone will come pick us up at the Downtown Siem reip hostel which is where we were staying next.
This morning we waited and there was a guy that drove up and asked for our tickets. We weren't given tickets by Naga and he called the bus company and they said we were given tickets and took them therefore we couldn't get new tickets. In a flurry of frustration and a short amount of time, we didn't have a choice and had to re buy the bus tickets.Lesson learned, when traveling, ask and keep all transportation tickets.
The entire trip should have taken 10 hours. We left Siem reip, Cambodia at 8:30, got to the Cambodia/Thai border and that took over 2 hours to get though.
We went from a tour bus to getting split up into small mini busses. It's 6pm right now and we're still driving.
We stopped breifly just now and there was a lady selling fried chicken at the gas station. I bought some and now i'm slightly regretting my decision because I'm feeling really greasy and gross inside...
Yesterday, before we checked out of the Naga Hotel, the owner asked us if we wanted to buy bus tickets from him to get back to Bangkok. We said sure, paid $9 each and then he said someone will come pick us up at the Downtown Siem reip hostel which is where we were staying next.
This morning we waited and there was a guy that drove up and asked for our tickets. We weren't given tickets by Naga and he called the bus company and they said we were given tickets and took them therefore we couldn't get new tickets. In a flurry of frustration and a short amount of time, we didn't have a choice and had to re buy the bus tickets.Lesson learned, when traveling, ask and keep all transportation tickets.
The entire trip should have taken 10 hours. We left Siem reip, Cambodia at 8:30, got to the Cambodia/Thai border and that took over 2 hours to get though.
We went from a tour bus to getting split up into small mini busses. It's 6pm right now and we're still driving.
We stopped breifly just now and there was a lady selling fried chicken at the gas station. I bought some and now i'm slightly regretting my decision because I'm feeling really greasy and gross inside...
Cambodia
Today was pretty nice, Lahti and I went to check out Angkhor Wat, these ruins in Cambodia that are supposed to be one of the wonders of the world.
Cost $20 for a day pass and we paid $12 to have a personal tuk tuk driver take us to each of the ruins.
There is one part that is like a temple and another one where trees are growing through the ruins.
We moved out of the Naga hotel, the random hotel we stayed at after being dropped off in front of it at 2am last night. We moved to the downtown Siem Reip hotel which is run by a British guy named Mark. Super nice person, this place is quite clean but still not as good as the smile society back in Bangkok.
Tonight we're going to walk the night market and see if we can buy some stuff to bring home.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Worst bus ride ever
Ok so yesterday when I said that the bus ride was going to be 14 hours. I was slightly exaggerating.
We woke up about 30 min before we were supposed to get on the boat to get back to the mainland. No time to get breakfast because that usually takes 2 hours to make.
Boat ride was about 30 min and we got to shore at 8:45. We got our tickets and did our paperwork for the Cambodian visa and handed the guy at the bus stop our passports and $30 each without really knowing when we were going to get them back.
Bus came at 9:30. We crammed into a tour bus full of people and were dropped off at the Lao/Cambodian border at about 10:30. Bus dropped us off, we crossed the border without our passports with hope that it would be there when we got to cambodia.
There were more than 30 people on our bus and we were forced to wait in between borders at a restaurant that was basically a tent with a wood fire.
An hour passed, the guy that had our passports gave them back with the cambodian visa inside. He wasn't clear when we were going to get back on the bus so we ordered some fried rice at the restaurant and waited.
4 hours later a bus finally comes at 3:30. We cram back on and I didn't think of getting some snacks to take on the bus. I had to force the driver to stop the bus on the side of the road because I don't think I've ever had to pee that badly before in my entire life.
We finally stopped in a town around 9pm and everyone was starving. There was a bus next to our bus and we were being told to get on it. I said "food food bus?" and they said no time, 1 min to get on the bus. I might add that this bus was already half full of people and was blaring Cambodian karaoke on the speakers. I gave an old guy from spain my seat and I was half standing, half crouching for about 4 hours.
Hungry, tired, horrible cambodian music blaring in my ears...everyone wanted off the bus.
Finally got to Angkor Wat at 2am and got a hostel while the total trip was about 17 hours, we got in the room and apparently you have to pay an additional $5 for hot water and we didn't have a sink.
We woke up about 30 min before we were supposed to get on the boat to get back to the mainland. No time to get breakfast because that usually takes 2 hours to make.
Boat ride was about 30 min and we got to shore at 8:45. We got our tickets and did our paperwork for the Cambodian visa and handed the guy at the bus stop our passports and $30 each without really knowing when we were going to get them back.
Bus came at 9:30. We crammed into a tour bus full of people and were dropped off at the Lao/Cambodian border at about 10:30. Bus dropped us off, we crossed the border without our passports with hope that it would be there when we got to cambodia.
There were more than 30 people on our bus and we were forced to wait in between borders at a restaurant that was basically a tent with a wood fire.
An hour passed, the guy that had our passports gave them back with the cambodian visa inside. He wasn't clear when we were going to get back on the bus so we ordered some fried rice at the restaurant and waited.
4 hours later a bus finally comes at 3:30. We cram back on and I didn't think of getting some snacks to take on the bus. I had to force the driver to stop the bus on the side of the road because I don't think I've ever had to pee that badly before in my entire life.
We finally stopped in a town around 9pm and everyone was starving. There was a bus next to our bus and we were being told to get on it. I said "food food bus?" and they said no time, 1 min to get on the bus. I might add that this bus was already half full of people and was blaring Cambodian karaoke on the speakers. I gave an old guy from spain my seat and I was half standing, half crouching for about 4 hours.
Hungry, tired, horrible cambodian music blaring in my ears...everyone wanted off the bus.
Finally got to Angkor Wat at 2am and got a hostel while the total trip was about 17 hours, we got in the room and apparently you have to pay an additional $5 for hot water and we didn't have a sink.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Dolphin Watching
We went to go see river dolphins today! Technically they are called Irrawaddy river dolphins.
Rented bikes for about $1 for the entire day and had to ride across the entire island which was about 45 min bike ride. A guy got us on his boat for $10 and we rode out into the river. At first we didn't see anything for about 10 min and started getting discouraged. The driver moved a little bit and then we heard some clicks and the sound of dolphins shooting water out of their blow holes.
It was pretty cool seeing them but they were really far away, probably 300 yards from the boat. I snapped some cool pics.
I would definitely recommend seeing them around sunset, makes a huge difference in the scenery too but we had to rush back into town because it was getting dark fast.
We are leaving Laos tomorrow morning for Cambodia, it'll be a 14 hour bus ride across the border and into a town I don't know how to spell so it will be a while until I post something else.
Oh I almost forgot, it's christmas today! Totally didn't feel like christmas at all because it was about 85 all day and just seemed like a normal island day in Laos.
Food food boat
So today we planned on seeing the river dolphins but got sort of lost on the way and turned back to the place we were staying. We decided instead to ask the owner of the "hotel" if he could take us on a tour of the waterfalls.
There was about half an hour until the tour was scheduled to leave so we asked him if there was enough time to order food beforehand, he laughed and shook his head yes.
All three of us ordered pad thai since it probably would be fastest.
45 min passed and and he's rushing us to the boat without our food coming and he says "food food boat!" and pointing and laughing at the boat. Our boat already has 5 people on it waiting and then all of a sudden his 3 daughters bring us plates of pad thai to eat on the boat.
The tour was of two waterfalls along the mekong river. It was pretty awesome stuff except the road there was super treacherous. When we got out of the boat we had to step on top of super thorny watermelon vines, jagged rocks, and a terribly put together rope bridge. The view was worth it though.
There was about half an hour until the tour was scheduled to leave so we asked him if there was enough time to order food beforehand, he laughed and shook his head yes.
All three of us ordered pad thai since it probably would be fastest.
45 min passed and and he's rushing us to the boat without our food coming and he says "food food boat!" and pointing and laughing at the boat. Our boat already has 5 people on it waiting and then all of a sudden his 3 daughters bring us plates of pad thai to eat on the boat.
The tour was of two waterfalls along the mekong river. It was pretty awesome stuff except the road there was super treacherous. When we got out of the boat we had to step on top of super thorny watermelon vines, jagged rocks, and a terribly put together rope bridge. The view was worth it though.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Screw you Hawaii
So right now I am enjoying a cold coconut while lounging at our bungalow along the Mekong River at Don Khong Laos. The trip here was not an easy one though.
Woke up this morning around 7 and our bus was at 7:45 to get here. I took too long because I was chatting on skype and we missed our bus.
Had to get a guy with a pick up truck to take us to the bus stop and from there we crammed into a , for a lack of a better word, bus. They put 37 people inside with 3 pigs and tied a scooter on the back.
Aaron was bold enough to ask if we could ride on top and they said sure.
The entire trip was about 4 hours long and Aaron and Lahti got sunburned pretty badly. I'm very thankful for my latino genes for my slight tan.
After getting covered in dust for the last half of the trip, we had to hire a boat to take us to Don Khong island, part of the 4000 islands.
This place is so amazing, everyone is just lazy and sleeping in hammocks. Our bungalow is about $6 a person for the night. I've been to Hawaii before and this place is so much better!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Border Corruption
So we just had to deal with the stupidest thing ever.
We got to the thai/lao border. For US citizens, you need a visa to get into Laos. It costs 35 USD to get a Visa On Arrival at the border.
I did the calculation and it cost about 1,085 Thai Baht which is equivalent to $35 USD. In my pocket I had 1,500. The visa guy took it and didn't give me change. I said nono it costs 1,085, you need to give me 415 back. He said, no he doesn't take Thai money in the first place so he will keep the extra 400 instead of requiring me to pay in USD.
Aaron, Lahti, and I had no US currency and assumed it was totally fine to give the equivalent in Thai money.
The other tourists on our bus were nice enough to give me 35 in exchange for my thai money. When I gve him 35, he then said that after 4PM it is 36 which is complete and utter BS because the sign outside of the building said 35 USD, nothing about a cost difference in the day.
We had to argue with him for another 10 min and in the end he said, it's either 36USD or 1,500 BHT. We had to give in because we were holding the bus back...
Lesson learned, keep US dollars with you when you're crossing boarders in shady corrupt countries.
Bus to Pakse, Laos
I've been riding on the bus to Paksan for about 2 hours now going in and out of consiousness.
Throughout the trip our group has been meeting other world travelers and current classmates of Aaron and Lahti from Holt.
It's extremely facinating to me how big the world is and how much there is to explore. Lahti has been to 60 different countries. Aaron's friend Stefan whom I met in Beijing has been to more than 40% of the world.
I feel a certain amount of jealousy toward these people who are able to drop everything and journey alone to places they've never been to before and don't speak the local language. So far I've explored Bangkok and have gotten along just fine with the help of my friends even though none of us speak Thai.
I think I'd like to make traveling a bigger priority in my life. I should have about 2 weeks a year in PTO so I'm just goign to spend it in a different country considering developing countries are so cheap to travel in once you pay for the airfare to get there.
I'm learning so much from other people's world experiences, things I know I wouldn't learn from people in America. I know more than ever that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle working for a corporation. Although that security and normalcy works for a lot of people, it doesn't for me because I'd be missing out on a lot of adventures.
Throughout the trip our group has been meeting other world travelers and current classmates of Aaron and Lahti from Holt.
It's extremely facinating to me how big the world is and how much there is to explore. Lahti has been to 60 different countries. Aaron's friend Stefan whom I met in Beijing has been to more than 40% of the world.
I feel a certain amount of jealousy toward these people who are able to drop everything and journey alone to places they've never been to before and don't speak the local language. So far I've explored Bangkok and have gotten along just fine with the help of my friends even though none of us speak Thai.
I think I'd like to make traveling a bigger priority in my life. I should have about 2 weeks a year in PTO so I'm just goign to spend it in a different country considering developing countries are so cheap to travel in once you pay for the airfare to get there.
I'm learning so much from other people's world experiences, things I know I wouldn't learn from people in America. I know more than ever that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle working for a corporation. Although that security and normalcy works for a lot of people, it doesn't for me because I'd be missing out on a lot of adventures.
Off the train
We just got to the bus station in Rachatani, Thailand going to Pakse Laos.
Right after we got off the train we stopped by a really dirty looking restaurant. I only call it a restaurant because they had food around a stove, otherwise it was a tin roof, no doors, with bamboo tables and chairs.
All of us ordered pad thai because clearly we couldn't read the menu and it was the best choice ever. I would say the 5 rats we saw running around, flies, and spiderwebs all over didn't matter because the pad thai was so good. Also, it cost $1 USD.
There was this super nice guy walking around in the restaurant that was talking to us in super broken english but it was a fun conversation. He told us about how much it costs to take a tuk tuk to the bus station and how far it is. In the end it turns out he drives a truck and wanted us to ride with him. We negotatied from 200 to 150 baht and rode in the back of his pickup truck which was an experience.
So far, Aaron, Lahti, and I have ridden in airplanes, taxis, busses, tuk tuks, cars, back of pick up truck, and boats. We're missing some sort of animal transportation and I think we've got things covered.
Right now it's 11am and our bus doesn't leave until 3pm.
I will say that I am so glad I packed my extension cord because it has saved me in numerous occasions. Now i get to zone out and watch Battlestar for hours until our bus comes.
Right after we got off the train we stopped by a really dirty looking restaurant. I only call it a restaurant because they had food around a stove, otherwise it was a tin roof, no doors, with bamboo tables and chairs.
All of us ordered pad thai because clearly we couldn't read the menu and it was the best choice ever. I would say the 5 rats we saw running around, flies, and spiderwebs all over didn't matter because the pad thai was so good. Also, it cost $1 USD.
There was this super nice guy walking around in the restaurant that was talking to us in super broken english but it was a fun conversation. He told us about how much it costs to take a tuk tuk to the bus station and how far it is. In the end it turns out he drives a truck and wanted us to ride with him. We negotatied from 200 to 150 baht and rode in the back of his pickup truck which was an experience.
So far, Aaron, Lahti, and I have ridden in airplanes, taxis, busses, tuk tuks, cars, back of pick up truck, and boats. We're missing some sort of animal transportation and I think we've got things covered.
Right now it's 11am and our bus doesn't leave until 3pm.
I will say that I am so glad I packed my extension cord because it has saved me in numerous occasions. Now i get to zone out and watch Battlestar for hours until our bus comes.
On the train
Good morning
I just woke up and I'm still on the train. I've been traveling so much that I honestly had to stop and think about what day it was without looking at my watch. It is Thursday and I'm going home in a week :(
Last night the train was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm but we didn't actually start moving until a little after 10. For some reason it kept going forward a bit and then backing up and slamming into things.
Aaron thinks that we had to add on cargo carts since it's a more efficient use of energy for trains in Asia.
I slept really well on my bed. Originally I thought we had a private room but nope, just beds on the side of the cart. I took the bottom bunk because my seat converted to a sleeper and put my duffle bag underneath so I actually have to get up and lift the seat to get anything out of my bag so it's theft proof.
Right now it's 10am and it doesn't look like we're stopping anytime soon.
I'm a big fan of taking sleeper trains but apparently they added a bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai now so the 12 hr ride became a 4 1/2 hr ride which makes me sad.
One of the plans for the trip into Laos is that we're going to see freshwater river dolphins. Aaron said that at the dolphin reservation they put little saddles on them :D
I just woke up and I'm still on the train. I've been traveling so much that I honestly had to stop and think about what day it was without looking at my watch. It is Thursday and I'm going home in a week :(
Last night the train was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm but we didn't actually start moving until a little after 10. For some reason it kept going forward a bit and then backing up and slamming into things.
Aaron thinks that we had to add on cargo carts since it's a more efficient use of energy for trains in Asia.
I slept really well on my bed. Originally I thought we had a private room but nope, just beds on the side of the cart. I took the bottom bunk because my seat converted to a sleeper and put my duffle bag underneath so I actually have to get up and lift the seat to get anything out of my bag so it's theft proof.
Right now it's 10am and it doesn't look like we're stopping anytime soon.
I'm a big fan of taking sleeper trains but apparently they added a bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai now so the 12 hr ride became a 4 1/2 hr ride which makes me sad.
One of the plans for the trip into Laos is that we're going to see freshwater river dolphins. Aaron said that at the dolphin reservation they put little saddles on them :D
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Buddhist Temple Day
Today we wanted to do more sight seeing.
One really cool thing about Bangkok is that they use boats to get up and down the river like a bus system. We took one up the river and got off to check out a nearby temple.
At the boat stop we engorged ourselves with tons of cheap food. I got a plate of deep fried shrimp and what I thought were french fries but were actually fried octopus tentacles with lime. OMG so tasty and it was $3 USD. After that I got an entire fried fish for $3.50 and just demolished it too.
The temple we went to had a giant reclining Buddha plated in gold.
For some reason the temple had cats everywhere and pregnant cats too. Aaron decided to pick one up and it was totally fine with it lol
We are back at the Smile Society eating dinner and about to take the overnight train to Pakse Laos. It's about 11 hours and we'll be arriving around 8am.
The lady that runs this hostel is so nice. I asked her if I could keep a bag of clothes here and she didn't charge me any money. We plan to stay here again on the return trip home so i unloaded like 25 lbs of clothes that I shouldn't have packed int the first place.
I think we have about half an hour left here so I'll rush some photos and upload them.
One really cool thing about Bangkok is that they use boats to get up and down the river like a bus system. We took one up the river and got off to check out a nearby temple.
At the boat stop we engorged ourselves with tons of cheap food. I got a plate of deep fried shrimp and what I thought were french fries but were actually fried octopus tentacles with lime. OMG so tasty and it was $3 USD. After that I got an entire fried fish for $3.50 and just demolished it too.
The temple we went to had a giant reclining Buddha plated in gold.
For some reason the temple had cats everywhere and pregnant cats too. Aaron decided to pick one up and it was totally fine with it lol
We are back at the Smile Society eating dinner and about to take the overnight train to Pakse Laos. It's about 11 hours and we'll be arriving around 8am.
The lady that runs this hostel is so nice. I asked her if I could keep a bag of clothes here and she didn't charge me any money. We plan to stay here again on the return trip home so i unloaded like 25 lbs of clothes that I shouldn't have packed int the first place.
I think we have about half an hour left here so I'll rush some photos and upload them.
Bangkok day 2 update
I have a slight headache so I'll make this a quick post.
Yesterday overall was a blast. We chilled at the hotel for a few hours and then went to the marketplace.
The first street food I got was some fried chicken feet for 30 cents for 3 feet. OMG it was amazing, crispy and the seasonings was really tasty.
It's very annoying at how the taxi and tuk tuk drivers try to take advantage of you. They will name a very cheap price but add in that there is 1 stop.
I took a picture of us driving at 60 mph on the highway, so very safe
So Aaron sort of felt bad about our bargain we got from our tuk tuk driver. We paid $3 dollars to be taken to the marketplace which was a 30 min drive.
We got to Kohsan road was awesome, there were so many foreigners, food, and places to get massages
I met a friend at the restaurant we were eating at
Tonight we're taking an overnight train at 6pm to Laos. I think I'll be away from a wifi connection for about 30 hours after today which makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
Yesterday overall was a blast. We chilled at the hotel for a few hours and then went to the marketplace.
The first street food I got was some fried chicken feet for 30 cents for 3 feet. OMG it was amazing, crispy and the seasonings was really tasty.
It's very annoying at how the taxi and tuk tuk drivers try to take advantage of you. They will name a very cheap price but add in that there is 1 stop.
I took a picture of us driving at 60 mph on the highway, so very safe
So Aaron sort of felt bad about our bargain we got from our tuk tuk driver. We paid $3 dollars to be taken to the marketplace which was a 30 min drive.
We got to Kohsan road was awesome, there were so many foreigners, food, and places to get massages
I met a friend at the restaurant we were eating at
Tonight we're taking an overnight train at 6pm to Laos. I think I'll be away from a wifi connection for about 30 hours after today which makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Thai foot massage
at this very moment, I'm getting a foot massage. lahti, aaron and i spent about 4 hours walking the streets of bangkok at khosan road and we finally settled on a place to take a break for a beer. ive been seeing a bunch of tourists getting massages around the market area and figured it would be worth $4 dollars for a 1/2 massage.
there's a place right next to the bar that lahti wanted to stop at and i figured why not? it was 120 baht for 1/2 hour. they asked me to go in the building when i expected it to be out along the street so my initial reaction was "oh crap what did i get myself into?".
The lady gave me a pair of scrub pants to change into and now i've been laying down on a bed in a tent while getting a foot rub. it feels super weird but ive been walking nonstop for a week, this cost $4, its so worth it
**edit
So i just got done and I'm drinking a beer at the bar next door that has free wifi, she beat the crap out of me after the foot massage part. I had to sit up and she put her elbows on my neck. Then pulled my arms behind my back and put her feet on my spine and pushed. I said ow many times and she just giggled and said I'm too skinny...my neck is sore now
there's a place right next to the bar that lahti wanted to stop at and i figured why not? it was 120 baht for 1/2 hour. they asked me to go in the building when i expected it to be out along the street so my initial reaction was "oh crap what did i get myself into?".
The lady gave me a pair of scrub pants to change into and now i've been laying down on a bed in a tent while getting a foot rub. it feels super weird but ive been walking nonstop for a week, this cost $4, its so worth it
**edit
So i just got done and I'm drinking a beer at the bar next door that has free wifi, she beat the crap out of me after the foot massage part. I had to sit up and she put her elbows on my neck. Then pulled my arms behind my back and put her feet on my spine and pushed. I said ow many times and she just giggled and said I'm too skinny...my neck is sore now
First day in Bangkok
I have to say this has been the best night sleep since I got to asia. The bed and pillow were super soft and comfy. Slept from 5:30-11:30am and then went downstairs for breakfast/lunch.
Right now we are laying around the hostel. The restaurant downstairs with couches instead of actual chairs so we've been here for about 2 hours on our ipads and laptops. I ordered green curry rice with prawns and Spicy coconut milk soup with chicken.
It is a comfortable 90f low humidity day today and I have my Reddit Tshirt on so maybe someone will call me out on the street.
Aaron wants to go see a ping pong show at some time while we're here..ಠ_à²
Right now we are laying around the hostel. The restaurant downstairs with couches instead of actual chairs so we've been here for about 2 hours on our ipads and laptops. I ordered green curry rice with prawns and Spicy coconut milk soup with chicken.
It is a comfortable 90f low humidity day today and I have my Reddit Tshirt on so maybe someone will call me out on the street.
Aaron wants to go see a ping pong show at some time while we're here..ಠ_à²
Smile Society - Bangkok
So we just checked into our hostel in Bangkok. It's called the Smile Society. So far so good, I think it's about $15 USD a night per person, there's breakfast and wifi included. We'll be staying here for 3 days and moving on to Laos.
The trip here went by super fast with perfect timing each way. We got to the bus station which was part of a mall in HK. Spent about 30 min walking around looking for it and turns out we walked right past it. Waited only 15 min and we left the bus station for Shenzhen.
We got to the border and it took about 45 min to get through customs and we were back on a bus to the airport.
We had a really hard time finding the ticket desk at the airport because it was in a different building than where we were dropped off and literally ran through the terminal twice before some random guy was running along with us and asked if we were going to bangkok too lol
I'm a little upset I won't be spending more than a total of 10 hours in China when I went through all this trouble to get a visa for it.
I literally knocked out once we got on the plane. It's about a 2.5 hr plane ride from Shenzhen to Bangkok. I woke up once, mid-flight when a guy in front of me was watching transformers at full blast on his ipad without speakers.
Right now in my wallet I have 3 different currencies and we'll be exchanging to get 2 more during our trip.
We are staying at the Smile Society and it is 5am here, so far so good, it's very clean, shared bathrooms on the floors, and basically enough room for 3 beds and suitcases.
I'm looking forward to 90f weather tomorrow. I have a bunch of pictures I haven't photoshopped yet so I will do that when I wake up tomorrow since I slept most of the way here.
*Sidenote* I've been doing a few posts a day late and then changing the post date, although I'm on top of posting pretty often, I feel like the longer I wait, the poorer the quality of the post, so I'll do a better job of posting as soon as possible even if it's just a quick few sentences with a picture.
The trip here went by super fast with perfect timing each way. We got to the bus station which was part of a mall in HK. Spent about 30 min walking around looking for it and turns out we walked right past it. Waited only 15 min and we left the bus station for Shenzhen.
We got to the border and it took about 45 min to get through customs and we were back on a bus to the airport.
We had a really hard time finding the ticket desk at the airport because it was in a different building than where we were dropped off and literally ran through the terminal twice before some random guy was running along with us and asked if we were going to bangkok too lol
I'm a little upset I won't be spending more than a total of 10 hours in China when I went through all this trouble to get a visa for it.
I literally knocked out once we got on the plane. It's about a 2.5 hr plane ride from Shenzhen to Bangkok. I woke up once, mid-flight when a guy in front of me was watching transformers at full blast on his ipad without speakers.
Right now in my wallet I have 3 different currencies and we'll be exchanging to get 2 more during our trip.
We are staying at the Smile Society and it is 5am here, so far so good, it's very clean, shared bathrooms on the floors, and basically enough room for 3 beds and suitcases.
I'm looking forward to 90f weather tomorrow. I have a bunch of pictures I haven't photoshopped yet so I will do that when I wake up tomorrow since I slept most of the way here.
*Sidenote* I've been doing a few posts a day late and then changing the post date, although I'm on top of posting pretty often, I feel like the longer I wait, the poorer the quality of the post, so I'll do a better job of posting as soon as possible even if it's just a quick few sentences with a picture.
Victoria's Peak
I felt like yesterday morning was a day to basically kill time until our 11:30 pm flight to Bangkok.
Aaron was still feeling sick so Lahti and I went to Victoria's Peak. The weather was super awesome and barely any haze.
After that we were walking down the street on HK Island and a random lady ushered us into her restaurant and we ordered some really good cheap street food.
I was able to get my Uncle his keys back to the apartment but completely forgot about returning his octopus card back also, I bought Lahti one which cost $150 HKD and she forgot to return it and get the deposit back to me as well - -''
I was able to pick up some random gifts from some stores but I still have at least $40 USD in Hong Kong Dollars.
Aaron was still feeling sick so Lahti and I went to Victoria's Peak. The weather was super awesome and barely any haze.
After that we were walking down the street on HK Island and a random lady ushered us into her restaurant and we ordered some really good cheap street food.
I was able to get my Uncle his keys back to the apartment but completely forgot about returning his octopus card back also, I bought Lahti one which cost $150 HKD and she forgot to return it and get the deposit back to me as well - -''
I was able to pick up some random gifts from some stores but I still have at least $40 USD in Hong Kong Dollars.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Leaving HK
I found a wifi hotspot by the bus station but unfortunately I only have time to write one email to my parents about my itinerary. I'll write a blog post during the 2 hr bus ride to Shenzhen airport and post it if there's wifi there. sorry!
Pre-Trip Nerves
I just got packing up my stuff in the apartment and waiting to grab breakfast with Aaron and Lahti. I was thinking it over last night and realized that this will be the first time I go into a country where I don’t speak the language. I’ve been to a few places in Central America, China, and…well…Canada and that’s it.
I’m really really nervous because the both of them are used to living in dirty cheap hostels and not having a plan until the last minute where I’m used to staying in hotels and having a travel itinerary where all the transportation is booked and scheduled.
We’ll be moving around a lot and not staying in a single place for long. I regret packing so much since I did 2 small loads of laundry in HK. So far what I know off the top of my head is that we’re arriving into Bangkok tonight at 1am and throughout the trip we’re visiting Cambodia and Laos.
Budgets are tight so we’ll be sacrificing luxury for cost. I’m not sure when the next time I’ll have internet connection during my trip but I’ll for sure post an update before we go to the airport tonight.
I’m really really nervous because the both of them are used to living in dirty cheap hostels and not having a plan until the last minute where I’m used to staying in hotels and having a travel itinerary where all the transportation is booked and scheduled.
We’ll be moving around a lot and not staying in a single place for long. I regret packing so much since I did 2 small loads of laundry in HK. So far what I know off the top of my head is that we’re arriving into Bangkok tonight at 1am and throughout the trip we’re visiting Cambodia and Laos.
Budgets are tight so we’ll be sacrificing luxury for cost. I’m not sure when the next time I’ll have internet connection during my trip but I’ll for sure post an update before we go to the airport tonight.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Friend arrival
Aaron and Lahti arrived today. I got a call around 9am that they got into Shenzhen and be on standby to meet up with them when they arrive into Tsim Sha Tsui where they coincidentally planned to live as well.
In the meantime I took my two uncles out for dim sum and treated them since they were so nice for giving me a place to stay and showing me around the city.
I only had one mission today which was to find stuff to bring home.
Aaron finally called around 4pm and told me where he was staying, super old building well known in HK for housing illegal immigrants from Africa. I got there to meet him and the building itself was super busy with non-chinese people and a big sign with at least 10 different hostels within the building. I guess they got a good deal of about $300 HKD for the room.
Aaron’s been feeling under the weather for the past week or so and was planning on just hanging out in the room doing research for the trip wile I show Lahti around HK and bring her to the harbor.
We went to Mon Kok and I couldn’t find the electronics market. This was the first time I was walking around HK without a guide and I felt really lost. Eventually I gave up and we took the train to the harbor on Kowloon side.
We got there just in time for the laser show, where the lights on the buildings are synced with music. It was pretty lame but I got some nice pictures from it.
The plan tomorrow is to grab dim sum, wander the city, then take a bus from HK to Shenzhen, about 2 hours, then make it to our flight at 11pm and arrive at 1am in Bangkok.
In the meantime I took my two uncles out for dim sum and treated them since they were so nice for giving me a place to stay and showing me around the city.
I only had one mission today which was to find stuff to bring home.
Aaron finally called around 4pm and told me where he was staying, super old building well known in HK for housing illegal immigrants from Africa. I got there to meet him and the building itself was super busy with non-chinese people and a big sign with at least 10 different hostels within the building. I guess they got a good deal of about $300 HKD for the room.
Aaron’s been feeling under the weather for the past week or so and was planning on just hanging out in the room doing research for the trip wile I show Lahti around HK and bring her to the harbor.
We went to Mon Kok and I couldn’t find the electronics market. This was the first time I was walking around HK without a guide and I felt really lost. Eventually I gave up and we took the train to the harbor on Kowloon side.
We got there just in time for the laser show, where the lights on the buildings are synced with music. It was pretty lame but I got some nice pictures from it.
The plan tomorrow is to grab dim sum, wander the city, then take a bus from HK to Shenzhen, about 2 hours, then make it to our flight at 11pm and arrive at 1am in Bangkok.
quick post
Right now I'm waiting for my uncle while he buys some stuff at watsons, which is like cvs.
I'm typing on my phone so I'll keep it short.
Yesterday was kind of uneventful. Grabbed lunch at. Ruby Tuesday of all places with my uncle and cousins on my dads side and had a blast because I haven't seen them for 6 years. A plate of mozzerella sticks was $11 usd.
After I helped them pick up a real christmas tree and bring it up 3 flights of stairs to their place in sha tian.
Today I'm waiting for aaron and his friend lahti to arrive and then I'll go shopping. Honesly have no idea what to buy to bring home as a replacement xmas gift.
I just went to an english speaking church which was interesting. The pastor had an australian accent which was cool to listen to.
We're leaving for bangkok tomorrow, Monday at 8pm will arrive at 1 am so I hope aaron knows where we'll be staying the night.
I'm typing on my phone so I'll keep it short.
Yesterday was kind of uneventful. Grabbed lunch at. Ruby Tuesday of all places with my uncle and cousins on my dads side and had a blast because I haven't seen them for 6 years. A plate of mozzerella sticks was $11 usd.
After I helped them pick up a real christmas tree and bring it up 3 flights of stairs to their place in sha tian.
Today I'm waiting for aaron and his friend lahti to arrive and then I'll go shopping. Honesly have no idea what to buy to bring home as a replacement xmas gift.
I just went to an english speaking church which was interesting. The pastor had an australian accent which was cool to listen to.
We're leaving for bangkok tomorrow, Monday at 8pm will arrive at 1 am so I hope aaron knows where we'll be staying the night.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Blog Process
So I just wanted to let you know how much work it actually takes to keep this blog up. I'm not planning to rant or complain but it's pretty easy and quick to look at the pictures I upload and skim through my blog posts.
Step 1
When I get home at night I upload my pictures, delete duplicates or blurry ones, and crop and resize. About 1 hour
Step 2
Usually when I wake up in the morning, I'll look through my pics and write out the blog post on MS word to recap the previous day. 45 minutes
Step 3
Walk downstairs to my stoop and upload pictures to Flickr. 30 min
Step 4
Post blog
Step 5
Tag html picture code to corresponding blog comments. 30 min
This is where I sit to use the shop's free wifi because I don't want to walk 5 blocks to buy a crappy expensive cup of coffee at Starbucks. I'm either sitting on the stoop or when my butt gets numb, I'll lean up against the wall
Step 1
When I get home at night I upload my pictures, delete duplicates or blurry ones, and crop and resize. About 1 hour
Step 2
Usually when I wake up in the morning, I'll look through my pics and write out the blog post on MS word to recap the previous day. 45 minutes
Step 3
Walk downstairs to my stoop and upload pictures to Flickr. 30 min
Step 4
Post blog
Step 5
Tag html picture code to corresponding blog comments. 30 min
This is where I sit to use the shop's free wifi because I don't want to walk 5 blocks to buy a crappy expensive cup of coffee at Starbucks. I'm either sitting on the stoop or when my butt gets numb, I'll lean up against the wall
Close call
Today was another extremely busy day. My uncle came to pick me up at 9 and took me to another place for dim sum. I find it crazy that there are so many restaurants here and they all have business.
I had a chance to call my favorite uncle on my dad’s side, Uncle Lincoln. He was delighted to hear from me and asked if I wanted to go Ruby Tuesday for lunch tomorrow with my aunt and 2 cousins who I haven’t seen in a really long time. I later told my dad where we’re going and he said that Ruby Tuesday in HK has dim sum. Ok I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not but I’ll believe him for now.
After breakfast we went back to the apartment and I pulled out my camera to check how much battery was left. It didn’t turn on at all. I tried my backup battery and nothing still. I was seriously freaking out because I have such terrible luck with electronics and this is the 2nd day of my 18 day trip and my camera died on me. I recharged the batteries and when I plugged them in, they instantly said they were full so I racked it up to a camera problem. My uncle took me to Sam Shui Po (spelling?) and we walked around for an hour looking for a person that fixes cameras.
We tried one store and they tried 4 different new batteries that were charged, camera didn’t turn on. My heart seriously sunk, although I’ve had my Canon rebel XT for 4 years and I’ve used it a lot, this was terrible timing for it to die. We found a shop that fixes electronics and they said they charge 80 HK as a fee to diagnose, then will charge additional for repairs. We asked how long they would need the camera for, they said a week. Yah, no that obviously didn’t work for my schedule. We found one more camera store and they handed me another new battery and miraculously, this one worked! I was seriously relieved and gladly paid the $15 for it. I then realized that I bought a last minute charger at stupid National Camera and it probably was the reason my batteries weren’t working. I asked them if they had a battery charger as well and they had an official Canon one.
I went back to the apartment and charged my old batteries on the new charger and thank goodness they worked and also that I kept the receipt for the bad charger.
This entire camera ordeal took all of the morning and it was already 12pm. Next, I had to order the tickets again for Bangkok. I honestly couldn’t remember the departure date because I remember aaron said 12/19 but we were leaving Sunday. I kept calling and texting him but no response so I was getting really frustrated because ticket prices were going up by the hour. I finally decided to guess and order for a Monday departure. Later on at like 5pm Aaron said that he had to keep his phone at home and the school turned off the internet to prevent cheating because it’s their final exams day.
My uncle took me to Hong Kong Park. This place was really great. Just the fact that they can prioritize and put a park in the middle of the city is pretty cool to me.
We checked out the botanical garden first, they had separate sections for dry and humid climate plants.
After that we checked out the aviary, a giant domed cage with tons of exotic birds flying around staring at people.
I was a little nervous because they swoop down over you and they could poop on you at any second.
My favorite bird was the white one with the blue face, all of them liked attention and weren’t afraid of people. I was surprised they even had a pelican.
We walked around the park some more and then started wandering the city. I told my uncle that I heard there was an apple store here and it was supposed to be really cool and a popular place to check out. When we got there I was seriously unimpressed. It looked EXACTLY like the stores at home except it was 2 floors and the view was really nice.
I am very disappointed in all the people there because they were nuts about apple. Looking at their prices made me queasy: 16 gb Iphone - $730 and 16 gb Ipad- $550
I don’t remember if I mentioned this but most people I’ve seen with a smart phone here in HK have Iphones…I don’t get it…
We walked around most of the banking district and then took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui.
Got back to the apartment and I started uploading pics while my uncle asked if he could sit down and watch the new for 10 minutes until 6:30. Next thing I know, he’s shaking me awake at 8:45. Turns out we both fell asleep for more than 2 hours lol
I don’t know why but after he woke me up, I seriously felt like crap. He wanted to take me to eat sashimi and I was just following him like a zombie because I couldn’t wake up and I felt dizzy, worse than before I took the nap.
We found a good sushi restaurant and my uncle ordered a 6 course meal. I started chugging green tea to make myself feel better. The tempura made me feel even worse and made me want to puke but I fought through it. At the end of the sushi and stuff, the waiter brings a GIANT plate of sashimi and I’m freaking out inside because I’m feeling bad and yet he’s so hospitable to order this delicious meal for me.
Fried chicken cartilage
Sushi with raw sea urchin and salmon eggs
Tempura soft shell crab
Salmon sushi with mango strips
Grilled salmon head
The sashimi had: arc shell, salmon, maguro, hamachi, surf clam, scallops, sword fish, kampachi, angel prawn, and sweet shrimp.
My all time favorite is salmon. I was a little nervous trying the raw shrimp and scallops. The small red shrimp were good but the larger grey ones were slimy and had a creamy consistency. I consider myself pretty brave when eating food but I don’t think I’d eat raw shrimp again. I’m a big fan of the swordfish but back at home I doubt they’d have good fresh swordfish for this cheap.
After dinner, I was feeling better but I had to stop like 3 times for the bathroom because of all the green tea I drank. Uncle took me to the harbor to check out the view but I totally forgot my tripod so the pictures turned out pretty terrible. I’ll come back here with Aaron to take better ones.
I did take a few nice ones of some nearby buildings though. Check out the flickr for more.
If you ever get a chance, wander the subway tunnels in Tsim Sha Tsui, they're like a freaking maze that never ends.
When I got home I was excited to rush back to starbucks to write this blog post and post the 130 pictures I took today but when I checked my clock, it was already 11:30!
Sorry about the long blog post this time. I think you can see how exhausted I was by the end of the day because of all the places I’ve had to cram into such a short period of time. Tomorrow should be lighter, all I have on the agenda is breakfast with Uncle William, lunch with Uncle Lincoln, and I tried to reserve the rest of the day to myself. I might go to Mon Kok by myself and go shopping…Good night
I had a chance to call my favorite uncle on my dad’s side, Uncle Lincoln. He was delighted to hear from me and asked if I wanted to go Ruby Tuesday for lunch tomorrow with my aunt and 2 cousins who I haven’t seen in a really long time. I later told my dad where we’re going and he said that Ruby Tuesday in HK has dim sum. Ok I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not but I’ll believe him for now.
After breakfast we went back to the apartment and I pulled out my camera to check how much battery was left. It didn’t turn on at all. I tried my backup battery and nothing still. I was seriously freaking out because I have such terrible luck with electronics and this is the 2nd day of my 18 day trip and my camera died on me. I recharged the batteries and when I plugged them in, they instantly said they were full so I racked it up to a camera problem. My uncle took me to Sam Shui Po (spelling?) and we walked around for an hour looking for a person that fixes cameras.
We tried one store and they tried 4 different new batteries that were charged, camera didn’t turn on. My heart seriously sunk, although I’ve had my Canon rebel XT for 4 years and I’ve used it a lot, this was terrible timing for it to die. We found a shop that fixes electronics and they said they charge 80 HK as a fee to diagnose, then will charge additional for repairs. We asked how long they would need the camera for, they said a week. Yah, no that obviously didn’t work for my schedule. We found one more camera store and they handed me another new battery and miraculously, this one worked! I was seriously relieved and gladly paid the $15 for it. I then realized that I bought a last minute charger at stupid National Camera and it probably was the reason my batteries weren’t working. I asked them if they had a battery charger as well and they had an official Canon one.
I went back to the apartment and charged my old batteries on the new charger and thank goodness they worked and also that I kept the receipt for the bad charger.
This entire camera ordeal took all of the morning and it was already 12pm. Next, I had to order the tickets again for Bangkok. I honestly couldn’t remember the departure date because I remember aaron said 12/19 but we were leaving Sunday. I kept calling and texting him but no response so I was getting really frustrated because ticket prices were going up by the hour. I finally decided to guess and order for a Monday departure. Later on at like 5pm Aaron said that he had to keep his phone at home and the school turned off the internet to prevent cheating because it’s their final exams day.
My uncle took me to Hong Kong Park. This place was really great. Just the fact that they can prioritize and put a park in the middle of the city is pretty cool to me.
We checked out the botanical garden first, they had separate sections for dry and humid climate plants.
After that we checked out the aviary, a giant domed cage with tons of exotic birds flying around staring at people.
I was a little nervous because they swoop down over you and they could poop on you at any second.
My favorite bird was the white one with the blue face, all of them liked attention and weren’t afraid of people. I was surprised they even had a pelican.
We walked around the park some more and then started wandering the city. I told my uncle that I heard there was an apple store here and it was supposed to be really cool and a popular place to check out. When we got there I was seriously unimpressed. It looked EXACTLY like the stores at home except it was 2 floors and the view was really nice.
I am very disappointed in all the people there because they were nuts about apple. Looking at their prices made me queasy: 16 gb Iphone - $730 and 16 gb Ipad- $550
I don’t remember if I mentioned this but most people I’ve seen with a smart phone here in HK have Iphones…I don’t get it…
We walked around most of the banking district and then took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui.
![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6523368731_f38ddc5e13_o.jpg")
Got back to the apartment and I started uploading pics while my uncle asked if he could sit down and watch the new for 10 minutes until 6:30. Next thing I know, he’s shaking me awake at 8:45. Turns out we both fell asleep for more than 2 hours lol
I don’t know why but after he woke me up, I seriously felt like crap. He wanted to take me to eat sashimi and I was just following him like a zombie because I couldn’t wake up and I felt dizzy, worse than before I took the nap.
We found a good sushi restaurant and my uncle ordered a 6 course meal. I started chugging green tea to make myself feel better. The tempura made me feel even worse and made me want to puke but I fought through it. At the end of the sushi and stuff, the waiter brings a GIANT plate of sashimi and I’m freaking out inside because I’m feeling bad and yet he’s so hospitable to order this delicious meal for me.
Fried chicken cartilage
Sushi with raw sea urchin and salmon eggs
Tempura soft shell crab
Salmon sushi with mango strips
Grilled salmon head
The sashimi had: arc shell, salmon, maguro, hamachi, surf clam, scallops, sword fish, kampachi, angel prawn, and sweet shrimp.
My all time favorite is salmon. I was a little nervous trying the raw shrimp and scallops. The small red shrimp were good but the larger grey ones were slimy and had a creamy consistency. I consider myself pretty brave when eating food but I don’t think I’d eat raw shrimp again. I’m a big fan of the swordfish but back at home I doubt they’d have good fresh swordfish for this cheap.
After dinner, I was feeling better but I had to stop like 3 times for the bathroom because of all the green tea I drank. Uncle took me to the harbor to check out the view but I totally forgot my tripod so the pictures turned out pretty terrible. I’ll come back here with Aaron to take better ones.
I did take a few nice ones of some nearby buildings though. Check out the flickr for more.
If you ever get a chance, wander the subway tunnels in Tsim Sha Tsui, they're like a freaking maze that never ends.
When I got home I was excited to rush back to starbucks to write this blog post and post the 130 pictures I took today but when I checked my clock, it was already 11:30!
Sorry about the long blog post this time. I think you can see how exhausted I was by the end of the day because of all the places I’ve had to cram into such a short period of time. Tomorrow should be lighter, all I have on the agenda is breakfast with Uncle William, lunch with Uncle Lincoln, and I tried to reserve the rest of the day to myself. I might go to Mon Kok by myself and go shopping…Good night
Friday, December 16, 2011
cranky and frustrated
I'm still tired but my mind can't stop thinking about blogging. I think I only got about 4 hours of sleep again which is super annoying to me but my scumbag brain just wants to think all the things.
I can't help but feel frustrated about not having internet at the apartment. There's a ton of things I actually need to do that aren't just checking my email or facebook.
Last night while I was rushing to get my pictures cropped and uploaded and writing my blog at the same time, Aaron called me on skype finally and asked if It was I who called him 14 times because he thought it was a classmate he didn't want to talk to - -''
At the starbucks that I was at, there wasn't anywhere I could plug into, so skype was quickly draining my battery along with the fact that it was getting close to closing time..(why do I always think of that song whenever i say closing time?...see now it's in your head too!)
Aaron gave me the details about the bangkok flight and that I had to order it myself through airasia.com. The flight plan was to leave Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon for Shenzhen, then fly from Shenzhen to Bangkok.
Later, on the 29th I would fly from Bangkok to shenzhen alone, stay the night, then fly out at 7am from Shenzhen to Shanghai, arrive at noon, then fly home at 5pm.
I went on the website and they didn't take my credit card that my dad gave me, I then realized that I didn't activate it when I got it in the mail when I got home from chicago. I then put in my debit card number and right when it was approving, my laptop battery died
Now I have to wait until Starbucks opens again so I can check my bank account to see if it was charged and call the travel site at 8am when they open to make sure my flight wasn't booked.
It also would be convenient to have internet in the apartment so I can leisurely surf the web and relax, not find a place and get down the business so I can rush to the next thing I have to do.
I'm going shopping today for I don't even know what. I need to buy presents for my family since I'm not home for Christmas, I'd like to get a new flashdrive because my last one is broken. I'm sure I'm going to find a ton of amazing electronics I've never seen before either so I will keep my eyes peeled for those.
Ok so I was all over Hong Kong yesterday. I have to say this city is freaking amazing. There's really awesome nature areas that the government have promised that will not be touched. I loved the beaches but I'm sure that they're horribly busy during the summer time. Also, Science park was amazing to me. The fact that the government is heavily investing in people's ideas and innovations for the betterment of mankind is neat. I've seen multiple banners for going green conferences that are going to be happening soon. I also saw a banner for the Asia video game conference happening in HK on the 26th and I won't get to go :(
There's just so much to do and see here, I can't help but feel compelled to find a temp job with an American company and move here for at least a year. It's just interesting how much willpower it takes to break away from the normal day to day in minnesota and realize that if you plan things right and have an open mind, your job doesn't become the reason for staying in the same place forever. I don't want my life to be boring is all I'm trying to say.
One very small thing that's super enjoyable for me is that I'm walking down the street and I understand what most people are talking about around me. I know they're not speaking in english but I understand what they're saying which is just a really nice feeling.
One other thing is that I recognize a ton of music that they play in the streets. One shop was playing Jay Chou last night and a dude on the bus was listening to Wedding Dress on his ipod. One thing that REALLY bugs me is that probably 80% of the smartphones I've seen here are Iphone 4s'. I walked into a cell phone store last night to get my SIM card and they had Iphones there. The funny thing is that nowhere do they advertise SIRI on the display because apparently it doesn't work well if you don't have perfect American English.
Although the streets are pretty clean, people still throw garbage wherever they want which is annoying. The smog is also another bad thing about HK, although nowhere near as bad as Beijing. I had my hand out the window in the car and within 30 seconds, it started feeling sticky and gross.
I honestly can't believe it's friday. I lost a day while traveling and there's just a crazy amount of things to do. My mom's younger brother, my favorite uncle, is flying in today from the Phillippenes so I'm assuming I'm hanging out with him tonight. I haven't had time to call my favorite uncle on my dad's side to grab lunch with him either. Hopefully I can manage my time well enough to cram everything in. Here's my HK itinerary right now:
Friday-Shopping with Uncle William, dinner with Uncle Peter
Saturday - Lunch with Uncle Lincoln, Aaron arrives at 2pm
Sunday - Hang out with Aaron, leave for Bangkok in the pm
If you guys get a chance, I uploaded yesterday's photos on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24737890@N07/sets/72157628435707157/
I took over 200 photos and selected 150 to upload so I'm sure you'll find some interesting ones. When I get another chance, I'll upload more and write captions on the images too.
I can't help but feel frustrated about not having internet at the apartment. There's a ton of things I actually need to do that aren't just checking my email or facebook.
Last night while I was rushing to get my pictures cropped and uploaded and writing my blog at the same time, Aaron called me on skype finally and asked if It was I who called him 14 times because he thought it was a classmate he didn't want to talk to - -''
At the starbucks that I was at, there wasn't anywhere I could plug into, so skype was quickly draining my battery along with the fact that it was getting close to closing time..(why do I always think of that song whenever i say closing time?...see now it's in your head too!)
Aaron gave me the details about the bangkok flight and that I had to order it myself through airasia.com. The flight plan was to leave Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon for Shenzhen, then fly from Shenzhen to Bangkok.
Later, on the 29th I would fly from Bangkok to shenzhen alone, stay the night, then fly out at 7am from Shenzhen to Shanghai, arrive at noon, then fly home at 5pm.
I went on the website and they didn't take my credit card that my dad gave me, I then realized that I didn't activate it when I got it in the mail when I got home from chicago. I then put in my debit card number and right when it was approving, my laptop battery died
Now I have to wait until Starbucks opens again so I can check my bank account to see if it was charged and call the travel site at 8am when they open to make sure my flight wasn't booked.
It also would be convenient to have internet in the apartment so I can leisurely surf the web and relax, not find a place and get down the business so I can rush to the next thing I have to do.
I'm going shopping today for I don't even know what. I need to buy presents for my family since I'm not home for Christmas, I'd like to get a new flashdrive because my last one is broken. I'm sure I'm going to find a ton of amazing electronics I've never seen before either so I will keep my eyes peeled for those.
Ok so I was all over Hong Kong yesterday. I have to say this city is freaking amazing. There's really awesome nature areas that the government have promised that will not be touched. I loved the beaches but I'm sure that they're horribly busy during the summer time. Also, Science park was amazing to me. The fact that the government is heavily investing in people's ideas and innovations for the betterment of mankind is neat. I've seen multiple banners for going green conferences that are going to be happening soon. I also saw a banner for the Asia video game conference happening in HK on the 26th and I won't get to go :(
There's just so much to do and see here, I can't help but feel compelled to find a temp job with an American company and move here for at least a year. It's just interesting how much willpower it takes to break away from the normal day to day in minnesota and realize that if you plan things right and have an open mind, your job doesn't become the reason for staying in the same place forever. I don't want my life to be boring is all I'm trying to say.
One very small thing that's super enjoyable for me is that I'm walking down the street and I understand what most people are talking about around me. I know they're not speaking in english but I understand what they're saying which is just a really nice feeling.
One other thing is that I recognize a ton of music that they play in the streets. One shop was playing Jay Chou last night and a dude on the bus was listening to Wedding Dress on his ipod. One thing that REALLY bugs me is that probably 80% of the smartphones I've seen here are Iphone 4s'. I walked into a cell phone store last night to get my SIM card and they had Iphones there. The funny thing is that nowhere do they advertise SIRI on the display because apparently it doesn't work well if you don't have perfect American English.
Although the streets are pretty clean, people still throw garbage wherever they want which is annoying. The smog is also another bad thing about HK, although nowhere near as bad as Beijing. I had my hand out the window in the car and within 30 seconds, it started feeling sticky and gross.
I honestly can't believe it's friday. I lost a day while traveling and there's just a crazy amount of things to do. My mom's younger brother, my favorite uncle, is flying in today from the Phillippenes so I'm assuming I'm hanging out with him tonight. I haven't had time to call my favorite uncle on my dad's side to grab lunch with him either. Hopefully I can manage my time well enough to cram everything in. Here's my HK itinerary right now:
Friday-Shopping with Uncle William, dinner with Uncle Peter
Saturday - Lunch with Uncle Lincoln, Aaron arrives at 2pm
Sunday - Hang out with Aaron, leave for Bangkok in the pm
If you guys get a chance, I uploaded yesterday's photos on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24737890@N07/sets/72157628435707157/
I took over 200 photos and selected 150 to upload so I'm sure you'll find some interesting ones. When I get another chance, I'll upload more and write captions on the images too.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
About to collapse from from jet lag
It's 10pm and I'm sitting at a starbucks nearby to the apartment. They close in an hour so I'm going to frantically do this post as fast as I can and then edit 150 pictures and upload them to flickr. I'm absolutely dead tired and I almost fell asleep eating dinner but I'll get to that later. I'm going to apologize ahead of time because this post is just going to be a giant brain dump because I want to go home and sleep.
I did SO much today, my Uncle did an amazing job showing me around all of Kowloon and parts of Hong Kong.
Ok so there's a story behind my last two posts. I don't have internet at the apartment so I had to type them out ahead of time then put the word docs on my cell phone. I left the apartment at 6:30 and literally walked around for 4 blocks looking at my wifi connections trying every unsecured connection. On the way, I found a bakery that sold my favorite pastry that I can only find in HK, tuna pastries! It's literally a puff pastry with tuna fish inside, don't knock it until you try it.
I finally found a wifi connection right outside a closed KFC. I literally stood there for an hour checking email, facebook, and posting those two blog posts.
My Uncle William picked me up at 9 this morning and took me around the corner for dim sum. OMG SO GOOD, nothing in Minnesota can compare with the stuff I had this morning.
I'm going to post pictures so I don't have to take time to describe each and every thing.
After breakfast we jumped in his car and he showed me all the parts of Kowloon. We started at Sha Tian, drove up the mountain and then back down.
It's crazy that we passed all these old people along the way, they were seriously more fit than many 20 year olds I know in the US. I was a little disappointed when we were up there because the view was amazing but the smog was covering up most of the landscape.
After the mountain we drove through the penninsula and through the new territories. It's seriously amazing what Hong Kong is doing to promote new ideas, science, and technology. They built what's called Science Park, a multi phase set of buildings where people can come and do research.
buildings looked super awesome and they were moving on to phase 3 which means that they must be getting a return on their investments already.
Our next destination was a water reservoir called Tai Mei Tuk. A ginormous lake separated by the ocean by a concrete wall.
This had a big portion of Hong Kong's fresh water supply and I guess it's a great place for people to come and hang out on the weekends because there were boats for rental, bbq pits, and tons of kites there were stuck in the nearby trees.
After that we stopped for lunch in a really tiny restaurant. My uncle ordered a dish of pig skin and fish balls, noodles with a sweet hoisin-like sauce, and a giant bowl of fruit and gross black jelly that's supposed to be good for you.
We even stopped for some "lo po bang" which means wife crackers, I haven't had these since I was in Beijing and apparently the bakery we went to is famous for them.
The next place we went to was in Hong Kong which meant we got to drive through the awesome tunnel that goes under the harbor. It's just insane to me that there's things like this in the world. We stopped at the #1 and #2 best beaches in Hong Kong as well as visited Stanley Plaza, a tourist trap of a place that had a long strip of bars along the beach. I really wish I had more friends here to visit these places but just knowing about them to add to the checklist for next time will just have to do.
Finally we stopped for dinner and I was exhausted from all the driving and running around. I requested Korean BBQ and that's exactly what we had! It was sooo good and we had a ton of sides too. Unfortunately since i was so tired I had my head propped against the wall while I fought the sleepyness to eat more bulgogi.
My uncle suggested that if I needed to do my computer stuff I should probably do it tonight because tomorrow we're going shopping in Mon Kok and there probably won't be any time.
Ok sorry for the super undescriptive post tonight, I still have 150 pics to crop and upload to Flickr so if I manage to do that in the next half hour, I'll try to associate the post to the picture.
Now that I know where I can go to use internet I'll probably be back in about 9 hours to do a better post. I do have to add one thing. So the apartment that I'm staying at that I thought was a guest apartment is actually the same apartment that my mom grew up in! My family has kept it all these years and renovated it about 5 years ago. That seriously smacked me in the face because my uncle pointed out the elementary school that she went to that was nearby. To be honest, my parents don't really talk about family history or anything so knowing that I'm living in the place that my mom spent the first 16 years of her life is pretty cool.
Ok these chairs at starbucks are super uncomfortable, probably to get rid of computer users like me...goodnight
I did SO much today, my Uncle did an amazing job showing me around all of Kowloon and parts of Hong Kong.
Ok so there's a story behind my last two posts. I don't have internet at the apartment so I had to type them out ahead of time then put the word docs on my cell phone. I left the apartment at 6:30 and literally walked around for 4 blocks looking at my wifi connections trying every unsecured connection. On the way, I found a bakery that sold my favorite pastry that I can only find in HK, tuna pastries! It's literally a puff pastry with tuna fish inside, don't knock it until you try it.
I finally found a wifi connection right outside a closed KFC. I literally stood there for an hour checking email, facebook, and posting those two blog posts.
My Uncle William picked me up at 9 this morning and took me around the corner for dim sum. OMG SO GOOD, nothing in Minnesota can compare with the stuff I had this morning.
I'm going to post pictures so I don't have to take time to describe each and every thing.
After breakfast we jumped in his car and he showed me all the parts of Kowloon. We started at Sha Tian, drove up the mountain and then back down.
It's crazy that we passed all these old people along the way, they were seriously more fit than many 20 year olds I know in the US. I was a little disappointed when we were up there because the view was amazing but the smog was covering up most of the landscape.
After the mountain we drove through the penninsula and through the new territories. It's seriously amazing what Hong Kong is doing to promote new ideas, science, and technology. They built what's called Science Park, a multi phase set of buildings where people can come and do research.
buildings looked super awesome and they were moving on to phase 3 which means that they must be getting a return on their investments already.
Our next destination was a water reservoir called Tai Mei Tuk. A ginormous lake separated by the ocean by a concrete wall.
This had a big portion of Hong Kong's fresh water supply and I guess it's a great place for people to come and hang out on the weekends because there were boats for rental, bbq pits, and tons of kites there were stuck in the nearby trees.
After that we stopped for lunch in a really tiny restaurant. My uncle ordered a dish of pig skin and fish balls, noodles with a sweet hoisin-like sauce, and a giant bowl of fruit and gross black jelly that's supposed to be good for you.
We even stopped for some "lo po bang" which means wife crackers, I haven't had these since I was in Beijing and apparently the bakery we went to is famous for them.
The next place we went to was in Hong Kong which meant we got to drive through the awesome tunnel that goes under the harbor. It's just insane to me that there's things like this in the world. We stopped at the #1 and #2 best beaches in Hong Kong as well as visited Stanley Plaza, a tourist trap of a place that had a long strip of bars along the beach. I really wish I had more friends here to visit these places but just knowing about them to add to the checklist for next time will just have to do.
Finally we stopped for dinner and I was exhausted from all the driving and running around. I requested Korean BBQ and that's exactly what we had! It was sooo good and we had a ton of sides too. Unfortunately since i was so tired I had my head propped against the wall while I fought the sleepyness to eat more bulgogi.
My uncle suggested that if I needed to do my computer stuff I should probably do it tonight because tomorrow we're going shopping in Mon Kok and there probably won't be any time.
Ok sorry for the super undescriptive post tonight, I still have 150 pics to crop and upload to Flickr so if I manage to do that in the next half hour, I'll try to associate the post to the picture.
Now that I know where I can go to use internet I'll probably be back in about 9 hours to do a better post. I do have to add one thing. So the apartment that I'm staying at that I thought was a guest apartment is actually the same apartment that my mom grew up in! My family has kept it all these years and renovated it about 5 years ago. That seriously smacked me in the face because my uncle pointed out the elementary school that she went to that was nearby. To be honest, my parents don't really talk about family history or anything so knowing that I'm living in the place that my mom spent the first 16 years of her life is pretty cool.
Ok these chairs at starbucks are super uncomfortable, probably to get rid of computer users like me...goodnight
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