12:51 p.m. Malaysia/China time?
I am the world’s worst blogger. Shanghai and Hong Kong have sped by-both a great time on which I will later elaborate. Hong Kong has won my heart as favorite city in the world and I have a strong desire to come back as soon as possible to get to know it better. I also think have finally decided what I want to do-international schoolteacher. This means I will have to ditch Journalism-an idea I am becoming increasingly comfortable with. More on Hong Kong later.
I am currently somewhere above the clouds en route from Guangzhou (the worst place on Earth), China to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am only staying here for a few hours layover until I get to Singapore. I had a hell of a time getting here-I woke at 4:30 so I could leave my hostel at 5 a.m. I discovered my local subway stop was not yet open and was forced to take a cab to Kowloon where I caught the 45 min train to Shenzhen-where China starts. I ran into Dave, luckily, and we went through customs and filled out way too many forms. We then schlepped ourselves and are increasingly large backpacks onto a 1-hour train ride to Guangzhou, China. The train station is an hour ride from the airport and the bus would come in too late, so we were forced to take a cab to the airport. Cutting it close on time, we arrived and checked our bags to find we were both overweight (the limit was 15 kg) and had to pay extra. They didn’t take credit and we had barely any Yuan (after all we both had just come from HK using the dollar). Three was no ATM so we frantically pulled out al $HK and $US we had and were just able to afford the charge before rushing to the plane after going through more customs crap. Our plan was scheduled to leave at 10:20 a.m. but we saw a bunch of men in HAZMAT suits board and we didn’t; leave until about half an hour later. I’ve had to fill out 3 forms already on the flight even though I’ve stressed I am not even leaving the airport. My mom is a nervous wreck about me going into KL airport-she’s convinced that they will kill me on the spot if they see my Israeli passport stamp.
Oh! I just spotted land but have no idea where I am still. This is a no frills airline which means no fancy screen showing your location on a map. I look forward to flying Jet Blue home.
I’m a little nervous for Singapore-both Nikki and Kea will be out of the country ☹ and I am staying with family that I have never met. I couldn’t find anything worth bring a s gift so I am coming pretty much empty handed. I hope it’s not weird. Diana begged me to stay in HK but I couldn’t ditch my family so I had to leave though I would LOVE to have stayed. I’ll see here in 4 days where we spend my last night together at…wait for it…THE PENINSULA! We booked a room last night figuring it’s a once in a lifetime thing and we have been staying in low cost not so nice places for the rest of our stay. I walked in to make the reservation and was so intimidated by the hotel that we called instead. It’s GORGEOUS and famous-Google it now.
I’ll go back to Shanghai later but HK is fresh in my mind. I was supposed to stay with Dave and Chiai but Diana, Anne, and Grace convinced me at the last moment to stay with them. We all flew on the same flight alone with Joe and Tom who left for Puget and are having a great time. We got lost but a sweet man named Kenneth got us from Guangzhou to HK and we didn’t arrive until almost 1:30 am at our hostel. Sun Kong Hostel is in Causeway Bay-right in the middle of all the action. We stayed there 5 nights at $20 a night. Backpacking and hostelling is NOT as glamorous as it seems to be-you are often sweaty and smelly and tired and hungry…. but I loved every minute of it. We didn’t meet any Australian men as I hoped but we had great girl time. Grace Anne and I split a triple with our own bathroom and shower and Diana had a single upstairs. It wasn’t the Waldorf but it was clean, comfy, and quiet-I can sleep anywhere though so I was happy.
We crashed the first night and woke up and met Keith for Dim Sum in Kowloon. He was couch surfing for a few days before he left for the Philippines (where Anne and Grace will soon meet him. He asked me to come but I have to be back for camp on the 15 and I already am cutting it close with the 11th). Another nice man named Ken showed us a good dim sum place and I ate harrow until I couldn’t anymore. Hong Kong is HOT-I sweat most of the time and realized I was always underdressed. The differences between HK and the mainland are undeniable and obvious. I will talk about them later, but Dave described HK and “the child that got away and made something for itself.” The British and European influent is obvious in how modern it is in compassion with Mainland China.
Personally, I think HK is a city that others would model themselves after. To me, Hong Kong is well designed and it makes sense. More on that later too.
We went the HK Art Museum and the History Museum after finding out that Wednesday is free Museum day. The art museum had a Louis Vinton exhibit, and even as someone who doesn’t follow name brands, I found it really interesting and respect the brand much more than I previously did.
The History museum way FANTASTIC and really put HK in perspective. It has a really interesting history with all the different influences and helped me to see why it is so spates from China.
Keith left us and after some strolling we found a sushi restaurant where the sushi came around on a conveyor belt around the bar. We stuffed ourselves full of fish-I had and the interesting salmon mango roll that I am currently craving. I have also become slightly addicted to a drink called Coconut Sago-fresh coconut milk with something in it reminiscent of tiny tint tapioca balls. At $6 HK or less than a dollar US (exchange rate was about 7.8:1) I constantly got my fix.
Hong Kong city puts on a light show every night at 8 p.m. The skyline lights up different colors and music plays. Every night. I know. We watched from the Kowloon side. The cityscape is so massive and looks like a movie set. Right behind it are mountains and trees and you can also see beaches. The place is incredibly dynamic.
After finding out that the dessert buffet in the Hyatt was no longer around, we walked around Kowloon. Anne and I picked up a bottle of Proseco for later. We found a movie theatre near our hostel and went to see “Night at the Museum II”. It was really funny but I don’t know if the HK audience got it, as there were a lot of US History jokes and pop culture references.
The next day we met Keith at the ferry and the 5 of us went to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddha. When people think of HK I don’t hank they think about the surrounding islands, which are tropical with beautiful beaches and nature. The ferry ride was gorgeous-we even had beers on the way while the ocean breeze made us feel like we were really on a tropical vacation. A bus ride up the mountain at Lantua took us the Giant Buddha. W walked up the stairs went into the museum, and bought meal tickets to eat the monastery’s vegetarian cafeteria. It was okay-but disappointing in compassion to what Vie read. Grace was happy, though, she didn’t have to worry about meat.
7-11 is all over Hong Kong, PS.
Keith went to catch his flight and Diana had to go back to the mainland, so Grace, Anne, and I stayed on the island and swam at a beach. Mountains surrounded the water and I was in paradise. I commented on how privileged we are to be able to be so young and feel like the world is so open that we have a hard time choosing where to travel next. We are so lucky. We met a lot of children of ex-pats (ex-pats are EVERYHWERE here) and then headed back to the city.
It was June 4th-the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, and there was a huge protest and vigil outside of our hostel. After stopping and the grocery store and making salami, cheese and mustard sandwiches to eat with our Proseco (so classy) we joined the people outside who were, from what I could understand, angry with the government for claiming it had killed no one that day. Grave went to the candlit vigil but it was ending when I got there. I meant to look if it was covered in the paper, but forgot.
I think I need more adjectives-I use the same ones over and over again in this blog. I really do have a more expansive vocabulary-I just have so much to say and I type so fast that I can’t get it all out as articulately as I would like.
More to come about HK later
Worst. blogger.ever.
