Coffee Pasta Curry Sandwiches!

The next day we went to see the Golden Pavilion, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a beautiful, peaceful Buddhist temple, minus the thousands of Japanese tourists. They did provide entertainment of course. We were once again interviewed by a group of students on a field trip, this time, boys. Much different than the girls. No giggling and no smiling in the picture.

Afterward, we headed off to Pontocho-dori where the Geisha theater was. Of course, we just happened to be in Japan the one month out of the year there are performances by geisha. So we first attended the tea ceremony. Since we weren't quite dressed for the occasion (we in shorts and T-shirts and everyone else in nice summer dresses/business casual) we sat in the back. This was also a good spot because it allowed us to keep an eye on what was appropriate behavior (should we bow? should we drink now? should we eat now? etc.) and it conveniently hid us and any of our faux pas. At the end of the session, we noticed everyone's plates were gone and we had seen them turning their plates upside down and wrapping them in the placemat. So we did that, but no one came to pick it up. So I went to ask one of the waiters what I should do with the plate, but he just made a pushing away motion with his hands. Fortunately a man behind me said, "It is gift for you!" Apparently, we were allowed to KEEP our plates as "gifts." The geisha performance was a good cultural experience, but not the most lively entertainment. In fact, we counted 5 Japanese women around us sleeping. We then headed to a temple Daniel had heard had a flea market that happened every 3rd Wednesday of the month. We checked out some of the stuff, but unfortunately it was closing up.

We found the place we were staying. A 200 year-old working shrine. Essentially, we were staying in the "town church" for the evening. We had this huge room which was basically the living room of owner's home. That night I tried Japanese curry at a local fast food curry place, CoCo Curry, but was not a huge fan. We also explored a Pachinko parlor. Pachinko is like a cross between pinball and slot machines. People sit in their for HOURS. And I have no idea how they do it because it is both the loudest and smokiest place I've ever been in my life. I guess Japanese people can just handle a lot of sensory stimulation. We then walked down to the nightlife area and did some people watching and enjoyed a street performer's guitar-playing skills. On our walk, we saw a restaurant sign that said, "coffee pasta curry sandwiches." Laura and I found it hysterically funny. Since we'd walked so far, we decided to take a cab home, but the cab driver didn't speak English. The phrasebook came in VERY handy and we managed to get back to our shrine.

It's Time to Come Home

A few reasons why Hong Kong is saying, "You've overstayed your welcome."

1) Our Girls Night Out dinner at this "nice" Italian restaurant in Soho - Sole Mio, was a disaster.
a. A huge cockroach (I mean like 2.5 inches long) crawled up between the crack of the tables and into our breadbasket (This isn't America. We did not receive any free alcohol or discount on our food.) Then it crawled back down the table cloth next to my leg and I was right next to it and Laura wouldn't let me get out! because she knows I hate bugs and thought that would be a good way for me to confront my fears.
b. Laura got locked in their bathroom and had to bang on the door for someone to let her out. (love karma)
c. One of our friends had an allergic reaction to her food/wine and had a very swollen upper lip. We told her it just looked like she had had collagen injections.
d. At the end of the meal, the cockroach crawled over Kristen's foot. Then he landed on his back and Laura squashed him.

2) Walking to Lan Kwai Fong, a rat AND a giant cockroach darted across our path. We all screamed and this man walking to his apartment talking on his cellphone bitterly said, "Ugh, I can't hear you, these girls are screaming."

3) It's pouring rain and thundering and "lightening-ing" like I've never seen in my life. It sounds like gunshots it's so loud.

4) I am absolutely covered in mosquito bites.

Arigato go-zai-mas!

I was miserable. Tossing and turning. Sweating and shivering. I just wanted some water, but I couldn't even get up and the thought of the ladder was too much. So I just rolled back and forth. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so I got down and gasped, "Laura, water!" So she handed me a bottle, I took 2 Advil I had (thankfully) brought and like magic, 2 hours later (a little later than we had planned to leave), I felt pretty good. Advil is magic. I seriously thought I was so sick I would be stuck in Tokyo in the Ace Inn for another 2 days in that stuffy cubbie hole.

We were off to Kyoto! Being well-organized college students, we hadn't bought tickets for the Shinkansen yet thinking, "Who's riding to Kyoto on Tuesday morning at 9:30?" A lot of people apparently because all that was left was the SMOKING section...dun dun dun...It sucked at first, but I took some Dramamine so I slept most of the time and kind of forgot about it.

Just like Lonely Planet warned, Kyoto wasn't much at first sight. The train station was very interesting, futuristic-ish, but didn't quite fit the old beautiful Kyoto I was expecting to see. So then we hopped on a bus and went to Gojo Guesthouse, our traditional Japanese style inn. It was a really cool place and we had a big room with a sit-on-the-ground table, a sweet wooden weaved ceiling, a walk in closet, and lots of space for our 3 futons. Since it was already noon, our plan was to do the Lonely Planet's suggested walking tour of Gion (the "old town" area) on bikes. But there's a reason it was called a WALKING tour. We rode our bikes across the street and then started heading up Gojozaka Slope. About 1 minute up the hill, I was like, "Oh HELL no." So we ditched our bikes and ended up walking. It was a great little street with the traditional wooden houses converted into candy shops selling all sorts of green tea and red bean candy. (I took a free sample at every shop and then felt really sick; I can't even THINK of eating red bean anymore!) We got green tea softserve ice cream. Mmm...so good! We then went to the shrine near by (Kiyomizu Temple) and got interviewed by a group of 5 Japanese school girls practicing their English. As she read off her cell phone, "Hello, we are Japanese students and we are going to read a book on peace and friendship. Our teacher would like us to ask you about your opinions on peace and friendship in Japan." They then handed us a piece of what looked like a yearbook signature page, and we all wrote a little blurb about how wonderful the Japanese had been to us. Afterward we explored more of the little traditional streets and even saw a geisha! This was the beginning of my geisha spotting obsession.

Geisha are silly characters. What if you were a geisha in 2008? You don't make any sense! but I guess that's what makes them special (especially when you see one hailing a cab! that was lucky!) . That night we had dinner at this restaurant that ONLY served dumplings (gyoza) and they were INCREDIBLE. We also really enjoyed watching the 4 old ladies at the table next to us eating 20 and 30 dumplings a piece (Laura and I each had 10 a piece and thought THAT was a lot!) and drinking lots of "birru."

After dinner, Daniel suggested we hit up the public bath house. Having seen pictures of luxurious wooden tubs filled with green tea infused water, I thought that sounded great! Even better, there was one right around the corner from Gojo Guesthouse! So we headed off in our pajamas, towel, and toiletries in hand. We arrive at the door and pay our 400 yen. Daniel heads off to the men's side (after he accidentally had walked in our side - the signs were of course in Japanese), and we ours. So there we were. What now? We were in the front room where there were a bunch of cubbie holes for your clothes, a huge mirror, a coin-operated massage chair and some little stools. Hmm...well (1) where's the bath? (2) do I get naked here? (3) where do I put my towel? can take it to the bath with me? Fortunately, the lady next to us spoke enough English to help us through these questions. As she got naked right there, we realized, okay we're supposed to get naked right here. As she walked toward the bath with no towel, we soon realized, this was no place for modesty. So we did it. We got naked and headed into the bath/shower room with all the other old, naked Japanese women. Okay, so here we are, naked. It looks like an children's bathroom with shower heads all around coming out of the wall about waist high and Hello Kitty toiletries and wash cloths all over the place. Not quite the wooden bath/green tea infused water experience I was imagining, but nonetheless, a cultural experience! So we started to squat down at one of the shower heads next to the woman who had spoke a bit of English to us and she makes a motion to stop and then runs off and brings back 2 stools. Oh! Apparently you don't want to be sitting naked on the tile, but these community stools are much better! To figure out the rest, we just sort of used our prereferral vision. It was A LOT of work when you have to bend in toward the shower head to wash your hair. Man, I was exhausted. And some of those ladies were working up quite the lather. I wasn't so good at it. They must have thought I was still dirty. Then we decided to try the actual tubs themselves. I lasted about 2.5 seconds. They were SCORCHING. So we left to dry off and this tiny old Japanese woman spoke to me and pointed at me, smiled and pounded her heart, then patted me on the shoulder, said "bye-bye" and left. I have no idea what she said, but I assume/hope it was friendly?

We walked back to Gojo Guesthouse with our pajamas on and towels wrapped up on our heads giggling the whole way.

SUMO

The next morning we got up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 so we could get to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market while things were still busy. The fish market was CRAZY. There were all these little scooters (more like tanks of gas with wheels) with truck beds carrying enormous dead tuna (maguro) whizzing around, bicycles, cigarettes, shouting, intrusive tourists getting in the way of these guys' real work, shouting at the intrusive tourists getting in the way of these guys' real work. It was all so macho, so masculine, in a good way. I don't really know why it was so cool, it just was. I even almost got run over a few times. By the time we were done there, it was only about 8:00AM and tickets for sumo went on sale at 8:30, so we darted over there.

Even just waiting in line for sumo was an experience. This guy was pounding on that big Japanese drum (taiko?), so me and a few other tourists in line jammed a bit. I posed like a sumo wrestler for Laura to take a picture and a Japanese guy passing on the street took a picture of me as well. From there we headed off to Akihabara, traditionally the "tech" area of Tokyo.

Here we went to Don Quixote, this crazy store with everything from hardware to...you guessed it... French maid costumes and even a French maid cafe! (I told you they like that costume thing...) We walked around for a while and I gave into the very Asian phone charm obsession and bought myself a charm that is a Shinkansen with Hello Kitty's face on the front. It's adorable. Oh and I bought a charger for my camera, phew! We then headed up to Ginza, which Lonely Planet calls, "the Fifth Ave of Tokyo," because my dad wanted me to see it. There were tons of galleries (Chloe, you'd appreciate the Japanese appreciation of art), expensive shops, and beautiful people. We felt a little out of place, so we ate delicious waffles. Finally, it was time...for SUMO!

Sumo wrestling was quite possibly EXACTLY how I imagined it and probably how you imagine it too. So they take about 10 minutes to "prepare" for the match. The faceoff and get into their squat position, do their leg stretch (check out the awesome picture Laura got of it) like they're gonna go at each other and then one will break position and head off to his corner. Then they faceoff again and you think alright that was weird, but I guess now they're going to fight. Then, the other one breaks and goes off to his corner. So now you're really like, "What are they doing?" Finally, on the third try, the crowd gets rowdy and excited, so their massive bodies leap at eachother and if you don't watch carefully, you'll miss the match because it really only takes about 10 seconds. Essentially, you just have to get the other guy to step out of the ring, but usually, they'd end up pushing eachother off the platform altogether and both would go rolling down into the crowd! Dangerous! I probably would have gotten killed down there. Soon we realized that they are allowed to do that "walk away" business 3 times before they fight for real. We figured they probably always take the full 3 because the fight itself is so short. You might as well take as much time on that stage as you can! Especially when you dedicate your LIFE to it! I have to admit, I got bored after a while, but it was good to rest my feet. So if you want to know more about sumo, Laura was absolutely fascinated, I'm sure you could ask her. I decided to check out the bathroom.

To satisfy all of you who like my Asia bathroom stories, here's a new one. While there were squatters in Japan, they were easy to avoid. They're not what was interesting. What was interesting in Japan was that the average toilet seat was HEATED! Not only that, most had the option of a bidet, and to top it all off...there was a button that made the sound of flushing water to "cover any embarrassing noises." Of course, I got to experience all three.

So that about concluded our Tokyo adventure. The next morning we were off to Kyoto. It was an awesome experience and I thoroughly enjoyed the city, the people, and the "overexaggerated-ness" of it all.

I've been to Tokyo. That's crazy.

Harajuku Girls You Got that Wicked Style (Japan P2)

So the next morning, I'm woken by the sound of ridiculously loud snoring. I'm thinking to myself, "Laura, that is so embarrassing, at least when we're at UST it's just me who hears you, now you're keeping this whole place awake!" So I peer over the end of my cubbie hole and see Snorlax (if you know Pokemon at all, hopefully you'll enjoy that reference) - this MASSIVE Asian guy with long hair and a turquoise stone belt is laying on his back on the carpet in front of Laura's cubbie! So I climb down my ladder and over him to get to my locker which makes a whole bunch of noise.

Laura and I head out for our morning routine. Unfortunately, at 8:30 AM, still 3 of the 4 coffee shops on our street were closed. Our place was good, minus the smokers. There are a LOT of smokers in Japan, at all times of the day. We go wake up Daniel and head off back to "Shibby Shibby BOOYA" (aka Shibuya where we were the day before). We went to this store called Tokyo Hands and spent way too much time and money buying stationary, bday cards, pencil pouches and erasers and trying on all sorts of interesting "costumage" (it is apparently Halloween all year round in Tokyo, there are costumes EVERYWHERE! though mostly Sailor Moon, school girl and French maid uniforms. I wonder why...?). Afterward, we went to find a place for lunch and happened upon a crazy street parade with hundreds of Japanese people in traditional outfits doing dances. So we tried to find a restaurant that overlooked the parade. The food sucked so I had a salad and then went next door after the meal to a vending machine restaurant and had a plate of 5 incredible gyoza (dumplings) for 100 yen (about $1USD).

We jumped back on the train to see Harajuku. I was SO excited to see Harajuku, but it was also about this time I my camera started flashing "low battery" and I still had 5 days left in Japan. I was not happy. It was a really cool area though, full of interesting designer stuff, coupled with cheap/cheesy shops, sex stores, and vintage stuff. We were lucky enough to see some real Harajuku girls with their rolly suitcases and Edwardian attire. If you ask me, they looked more like little Bo Peep, some girls even had staffs. I sang Gwen Stefani's song, "Harajuku Girls" the whole afternoon.

After that we got back on the subway and headed up to Asukasa. Have I mentioned how lucky we got with the timing of our trip? We were there for 2 parade/festivals that only happened once a year, sumo wrestling that only happens 3 months out of the year, and a geisha dance show that only happens one month out of the year. So we were heading to a shrine at Asukasa to see one of the festivals. It was probably one of my favorite parts of Tokyo because to me it represented the genuine pride the Japanese have in their beautiful, rich and incredibly well-preserved culture. We got to see men and women dressed in traditional outfits all stomping along together, carrying these massive shrines (?). They were all pretty drunk, shouting and smiling with their faces all smashed together. I felt like I was in a mosh pit. I got stepped on multiple times. It was awesome. Then we had chicken yakitori and beer at a one of the many food stands.

That night, Daniel had an EXCELLENT idea to go to one of Tokyo's silly themed restaurants. So we decided to try "The Lock Up" - a dungeon themed restaurant. We waited in the waiting room for 20 minutes and got excited as we heard door slams and screams as the other customers entered the restaurant, but when our turn came, well the language barrier detracted a bit from the experience. We walk in, the door slams, then we can't figure out how to open the next door and the "dungeon keeper" on the other side is giving us some instructions in Japanese and we're trying to tell her, "Ego please!" (oh yes, the Japanese word for English is ego). So finally, she just opens the door for us and says, "I arrest you," as she puts my wrist in a cuff and leads us down the staircase. We are given cell 82. (Don't forget this number!) We order all sorts of funny drinks. Mine is called SHOCK and is essentially pure vodka with a squeeze of lemon. Laura's has a syringe full of "blood." Daniel's is a pina colada with some sketchy pills. About 30 minutes into the experience, the lights go out and there are red sirens, a loud speaker (but of course in Japanese) and girlish screams from all other cells. We were crying-laughing as this "monster" comes clambering at our cell, pawing our faces. While the food wasn't great, it was a NECESSARY part of the Tokyo experience. I love Tokyo and all it's outrageousness.

Shinkansen! (Japan Part 1)

So I just got back from Japan. Yeah. Japan. It just might be the coolest country in the world. Since I am in finals and would like a little distraction each day, I think I will have a new blog about each day of my travels in Japan.

After the excitement of finishing my musical (that's another blog in itself), 2 projects, a final exam, a paper, and my Citi employment forms (for the most part), I was SO ready for my Japanese adventure. We had an early flight on Saturday morning to Nagoya from which we got to ride the bullet train (Shinkansen in Japanese) to Tokyo! When we first stepped off the plane, I shouted out of excitement, "HELLO Tokyo!" (even though we were in Nagoya, whoops!) I thought everything was beautiful already. We then had to figure out how to get to the Nagoya station via subway, not too difficult. At the Nagoya station, we had our first meal of sushi and the waitress was lovely. I assumed everyone didn't speak any English so I had the phrasebook all ready to go - "okanjo-o-kud-a-sai!" (check, please!) She laughed and said, "You speak very good Japanese!" Then we got on the train and I was SOOO pumped because my dad always talked about how cool the bullet train was and it was. I loved just looking out the window as we passed all the rice paddies and little houses. Once we arrived in Tokyo, we were given instructions by our friend Daniel (who was had already been in Tokyo a day) to meet him at the Hachiko dog statue in Shibuya. Well, we somehow made it to Shibuya and it was INSANE! There were so many people and we couldn't figure out how to get out of the station. Laura got so overwhelmed she just stopped in the middle of the bustling crowd and starting crying/laughing with a tomato red face saying, "I can't get out of the way! I can't get out of the way!" So finally we figure out how to get out of the way and out of the station. We get out, and there are MORE people, EVERYWHERE! in all sorts of outfits, chic, high fashion, goth, punks, children, kimonos. So we cross the street with everyone and we're looking for the dog statue. So we decided to ask these young guys we think may speak enough English. They figure out we're talking about a dog and point back toward where we had come from so we go back across the street. Well we're about 20 minutes late and this dog seems to be THE meeting place. There must have been hundreds of people around this silly little dog statue and we could not find Daniel so we watched the crazy, exaggerated people of Tokyo a bit and then decided to just go explore. Daniel said if we didn't find him, we could just meet him at the hostel. So we go diagonally across the street with everyone else because this is a cool looking area and we need a beer (or as they say in Japan - biiru). Everything was so eye-stimulating. We couldn't stop saying, "what is this place? what is going on? who are these people? this is crazy! this is AMAZING!" Turns out, Shibuya Crossing is THE busiest pedestrian crossing IN THE WORLD! Anyway, we found this really cool place, no english, and it's kind of expensive, but oh well! As much as we wanted to keep exploring, we figured we should find Daniel. We manage to get the subway to our hostel and meet up with Daniel. Our hostel, the Ace Inn, was AWESOME! We each had our own "cubbie hole." It was clean, convenient and had free internet, but the keyboard was a pain because my emails would become Japanese characters randomly and I couldn't figure out how to fix it and I didn't want to be the stupid girl that couldn't figure it out because no one else seems to be typing like a turtle, so my first e-mail was just a long string of letters!

That night we were looking for a restaurant near our hotel. After one failure at a yakitori place that had no English menu, we ended up at the local fast food place. It wasn't bad, but oh well. Afterward, we went to this art exhibit that was on the 53rd floor of a big building to get a view of Tokyo at night. It was definitely a date place. So many couples! We slept well that night after all our travels and looked forward to our breakfast in a cute cafe like we've made travel tradition!

How'd that get there?

So I just realized I some how got a mosquito bite on my left buttock. They're tricky little devils. It is a nuisance.

A Girl's Trip to HCMC

So remember I went to visit John and Leslie in Shanghai? Well they have done quite a bit of traveling in Asia so they were curious where my next adventure would be. When I proudly announced we had found plane tickets to Saigon for $1506HK, John responded unenthusiastically, "Yeah, but Saigon's such a dump. You should go to Hanoi." True, Hanoi would be nice, but unfortunately on a exchange student budget, it wasn't going to work, so instead I justified Saigon with, well, it's still Vietnam and it's still a new place to me!

John was right though, it was a bit of a dump. Architecture is non-existent. Buildings are just 3 to 4-story concrete row buildings with gaudy bright pink, periwinkle blue, mint green, lemon yellow facades that make them look like life-size Barbie houses. Even the Reunification Palace was just...meh. On our city tour there weren't even enough culturally or authentically Vietnamese sights to fill up an afternoon. We had to go to China Town to look at some temples! Nevertheless, I really came to like this dumpy town in a weird way. Probably because Saigon has really delicious food and we did some good relaxing and luxuriating. It took good care of us.

This was the first time Laura and I traveled by ourselves. We were meeting a group of boys at a hotel we had all booked ahead of time. We successfully arrived at our "luxurious" hotel on Thursday night. We a TV with MTV Asia (no CNN though), clean sturdy towels (that smelled a little like mesquite), and a REAL shower! with a glass door! All for $28/night, $14/person! The next day we got up early and of course found ourselves a cafe to have breakfast. Cafes are big in SE Asia which makes us happy. We quickly made friends with the waiters and waitresses of course and promised we'd be back the next morning (which we were!). We decided that we should probably try to get in touch with the boys if we were supposed to be going to the tunnels that day. Getting in touch with the boys was a little more difficult than we'd expected. We first tried a letter under their door. No response. We then tried to call on of their rooms. The person who answered sounded like he didn't speak English and claimed to not know a Laura Gayle. We tried another room...and, finally! someone remembered we were coming to meet them. "Are we going to the tunnels today?" "Uh...I don't know, I think I'm still drunk from last night...maybe this afternoon."

Well, Laura and I had not come all the way to HCMC to sit around in our hotel with only 3 full days to explore! We headed to the front desk to ask about going to the tunnels in the afternoon. "Tunnels? No tunnels now. Tunnels at 8:30 tomorrow." "But what about 1 PM?" "No tunnels now. Tomorrow morning!" Okay then! So we ditched the boys and took a guided private city tour (in an airconditioned car, yeah!). It was rather anticlimactic. We tried multiple times to ask our war vet guide, Son, what made Saigon special/unique or where the "downtown" was. And everytime, he'd change the subject! But, the War Remnants Museum, while disturbing, was quite powerful. That night we did manage to find a bit of "downtown." We had some marginal French food (actually I had bolognaise, when do I not?). Then we went looking for this bar in the guide book and ended up on some dark streets then popped up by the animae club we had seen in Lonely Planet, but decided we weren't really feeling the animae club scene considering it was roped off with a red velvet rope. We wandered some more and ended up finding a really nice local lounge where we watched a few older white men flirt awkwardly with young Vietnamese girls. Laura and I thoroughly enjoy people watching and speculating about their stories and what brought them to Asia. When we were done, we didn't want to walk all the way back to our hotel, so we hired 2 motorbike drivers to take us back to our hotel. Even though we were only going straight the whole time, I was scared shitless! At least I could say I did it!

The next day we had already booked a tour of the Mekong River Delta which sounds really cool right? Well...it was just alright, but luckily I was in a great mood so it was really fun. On Turtle Island, Laura touched some bees and ate some of the honey off the comb (I'm deathly afraid of bees, so I wouldn't do it). Then we held a big boa constrictor which made for a cool picture on Dragon island. We tried a lot of tropical fruit and watched a little local band on Unicorn island. Finally, we went on a little sampan down onto Phoenix island and watched how coconut candy was made. I took a funny coconut picture!


We got back to the hotel pretty early so we decided to do some city exploring. To get to the antique street the our Mekong guide had recommended we check out, we had to cross this enormous round-about (so big there was a public park in the middle where a bunch of people were just hanging out; people in HCMC seem to just be "hanging out" a lot). Crossing a single street is an accomplishment in itself in this city with its 3 million motorbikes, but crossing a roundabout in like 5 different places with no stop lights...now that is a miracle. Everytime Laura and I successfully crossed a street, I said to her, "There is a God." The antique street was sillily expensive so I just took pictures of the people hanging out on the street playing card games. They didn't appreciate it. We then decided to go to this place Pho 24 to have an "authentic bowl" of Vietnamese pho and who else do we see, but...Bill Clinton!

Just kidding! But he really had been there a few years back. Afterward we had the BEST MASSAGES EVER! Laura had a 75 minute foot massage while I had a 75 minute back massage (for $12USD and they take USD in Vietnam! hahahahahaha!). It was really awkward at first because all the other massages I have had in Asia have been with some sort of robe on, not with oils and stuff, so I thought that's how this one would be, but then she starts trying to pull off my shirt, so I take off my shirt. Then she's pointing at my shorts! And I'm like, "Whoa there honey! I don't even know your name!" But pretty soon I was standing in my underwear while she's just standing there, not the privacy you get at a day spa in the US, but hey! it's Vietnam! So then she climbs on the table and she's squatting over my lower back rubbing in all the lotion! I was so confused and at the same time freaking out about my purse and wallet because someone took my purse for me while I was changing and here I am naked under this little Vietnamese woman, completely vulnerable. So at first it wasn't very relaxing, but then it was just so good, I didn't care.

That night we went to this awesome Vietnamese restaurant that was so well decorated and the food was so good and cheap. It was still early so we went to get drinks at this cute outdoor restaurant with pretty hanging lights from the trees we had seen on our way to and from the hotel. We were enjoying our wine and chocolate cake when we saw...dun dun dun...a HUGE FREAKING RAT! We were all girlish and squealy, pulling our feet up on the chair. Needless to say, we got out of there just as quick as can be.

The next day we did the tunnels finally. We used a different tour service this time that was half the price of the other tour service we had used. When the bus rolled up, it all made sense. We were on this hot, gross bus for about an hour and a half to get to these tunnels. We made this silly stop at "Handicrafts by Handicaps" and the guide said, "We stop here for 10 to 5 minutes for go bathroom." (and of course buy something while you're at it) And some guy on our bus thought the guide said 25-minutes and goes, "that's a long-ass shit." Laura and I found the comment exceedingly hilarious.

The tunnels were "quite disappointing" (as Maud would say). Maybe because most of the time they referred to the Americans as "little devils" and "demons"? Even beyond that though, there were just a lot of people and the being in the tunnel itself was cramped and claustrophobic people behind you were freaking out about getting out and there was nothing you could do because there were people in front of you. We made it back and decided to end our day in luxury at the Hotel Caravel's pool. Lonely Planet (our savior for this trip) said it would be $11USD to enjoy their pool...WRONG! It was $23, but we decided whatever. So we used ALL the services we could. We lounged by the pool, swam, used the nice toilets, used the hot tub, sauna, steam room, showers, shampoo, conditioner, blow dryers, mints, lotion, toothbrushes, toothpaste, everything! It was lovely. We enjoyed a nice last meal at a little Italian place in the backpacker area.

Even though the sites themselves weren't as exciting as Thailand or China (or Japan as you'll hear about next!), it was a great girl's getaway and chance for us to prove to ourselves we had become damn good travelers without guides.

A Wonderful Surprise!

I have been a really busy bee and quite tired since I got back from Vietnam so I unfortunately have not yet been up to writing a new blog. But this past weekend was a very special weekend and I must share!

My dad was coming to HK to check out some hotels in Macau so I was really excited to get to see him for a day and a few dinners. On Saturday night, I went to the JW Marriott to meet him. I sat in the lobby and then finally I saw him come out of the elevator..."Dad! So good to see you! I'm so happy you came!" My dad laughs, "Did you even see the surprise I brought you?" And there was MOM! She wasn't supposed to be able to come to HK because she was very busy at work, but there she was!! She flew all the way to HK just to see me for 2 days! It was the best surprise of my life! We had a great dinners at swanky restaurants. I showed them the UST campus. We walked all over my favorite streets in Central. Had high tea at the Peninsula! (so classy) Rode the Star Ferry. Explored the Peak (though it was cloudy...). Shopped our brains out! Ate dim sum at a very local place. Had happy hour margaritas! And ate more! We were able to see so much and spend a lot of great time together. I will never be able to thank them enough for that amazing surprise. I love my parents! Wish you could have been here too Ffej : )

Soon I'll write about Vietnam. Today I'm going to the Olympic torch relay. That's pretty cool. It's raining though, oh well! Max Rubin is here as part of his Asian adventure. I have to go choreograph for musical theater now. That class will be another post in itself! Get excited!

PS I'm going to JAPAN!

Shanghai

Very early Monday morning, I said bye bye to the Swissotel Beijing and jumped in a cab to the airport to make my way to Shanghai to visit with my parents' friend from high school (yes, high school!) Leslie and her husband John. When I had visited Leslie and John during the summer, they described Shanghai as cultureless and money-hungry. So I thought, "Why would I ever want to go there!?!" When it turned out I had a few extra days before spring break was over, I decided, I might as well see it now while I'm in Asia, even if it sucks. And I am SO glad I did.

The flight was easy and I arrived around 10 AM to meet Leslie and Mr. Wong, their wonderful driver. Leslie knew that of course I would want to see The Bund, which is the famous street you always see in pictures of Shanghai with all the old, western style marble and brick architecture. What's so cool about it is that on the other side of the river are all the crazy, futuristic spaceship/bottle opener looking buildings! I just loved the old and the new of Shanghai! We went to this super cool place for lunch that had outdoor seating and an amazing view of the Bund. Like a silly tourist, I took a million pictures and probably totally embarrassed Leslie and her friend May who joined us. Afterward, they took me to the Fabric Market where you could literally have ANYTHING made. I was dying. The coats, the suits, the dresses, skirts, robes, tops, were soooo cute and such good quality! but I didn't have time...or money for that matter! Then they took me to the fake stuff market, which apparently the English translation of is Treasure Market. I got a beautiful "Ferragamo" - real leather. Shanghai has the best shopping. Around 4:30 PM, Leslie says, "How does bolognese sound?" It was like she read my mind. I hadn't had a homecooked meal of bolognese in AGES! Let me tell you. It was SO nice to stay in a HOME with a kitchen and your own bathroom, a television, and couch to read on. Before dinner, we went for a walk in their neighborhood in the French Concession. It's a great area because all the buildings are very low. They're all about 3 stories tall and made of brick (reminded me of Boston a little). The streets are windy. (not like breezy, like twisty) They're are lots of trees and parks. So many great looking cafes, restaurants and cute little boutiques. I loved this area. Cultureless? At this point, I had no idea what John and Leslie had been talking about! We headed back and I read my amazing book, Eat, Pray, Love, for a while, then Leslie taught me how to make Cosmos - Mandarin Oriental style. 3 shots of cranberry juice, 2 shots of Absolut citron, 1 shot of Cointreau, 1 shot of fresh squeezed lemon juice. I can't wait to make it for everyone when I get back! They were superb. Then I ate about a ton of bolognese and I'm sorry Dad, but this may have been a tie for first with yours! After dinner, we entertained each other with travel stories and shared music. It was a great, really relaxing night!

The next morning, Mr. Wong drove May, Leslie and me to Xitang, a small water town an hour and a half outside of Shanghai. What's cool about these old water towns is a) they're like Asia's answer to Venice (with the little boats and stuff) b) they are pretty well preserved examples of life during old dynasties like the Ming. We just walked in and out of little shops along the canal, under the "covered walk way" that this town in particular is famous for. Each homeowner is responsible for maintaining their portion of the roof and they all do a very good job of it! I got one of those LONG skirts that's really bright and has a tie-dyed bottom and a wall hanging for RUBENSTEIN (woo!) that's navy blue and has fish on it. I like animals. Soooo good! Oh! I forgot to mention that Mr. Wong joined us and was absolutely, adorably ecstatic the whole time. Before dinner, Leslie and I had a 1 hour Chinese, full body massage, and a 1 hour foot massage for $24 USD! in a really nice spa! Freaking amazing! Then we went to this delicious restaurant for Peruvian tapas and white sangria. Mmm... How I miss good ethnic food when I'm in Hong Kong! Shanghai has the BEST food! Over dinner, Leslie convinced me that I should do a 6 month program to learn Putonghua (Mandarin). So we started talking about whether I should do it in Beijing or Shanghai. Apparently Beijing has the nice accent, if you do it in Shanghai, you may develop a Shanghainese accent which is not so pleasant, but I really loved Shanghai, so I decided I'll take the Shanghainese accent. I don't know that I'm ready to live in Beijing yet. So I guess all I have to do now is find an employer that will send me to China for 6 months!

On my last day, Leslie took me to the antique market. Basically, it's just a bunch of people's junk they try to tell you is really "rare" or "old" so that you'll pay a mint, but it really is AMAZING STUFF! Everything I saw I wanted to buy and put in my future house. I kept thinking, "When I buy a house, I'm also going to buy a plane ticket back to Shanghai so that I can come to this street and buy all my home furnishings!" I bought a "real silver" elephant tea pot and a four-faced Buddha. See! At first the woman said, "450 RMB for you!" And I was like, "Woman! Are you crazy!?!" So she said, "OK, OK, how much you want, you tell me how much you want," handing me a calculator to punch in my desired price...but I only have about 140 RMB with me at this point. So I see the Buddha, she says, "150!" I punch in 80, she says okay. So I get it. Then we're walking away, and Leslie says, "She said she'd give you the elephant for 200, you sure you don't want to go back?" Yes....I did want to go back. I HAD to have that tea pot! So the merchant says, "You can use card! Come with me." So we follow her through this alley, upstairs in this sketchy building, to a guy sitting in what looks like a toll booth. And wouldn't you know! They take VISA at the antique market in Shanghai! Then, we went to see the bird/cat/dog/turtle/cricket/mealworm market. It was so silly and super loud! The crickets are the scariest. Leslie says they fight them, like dog or cock fights, only they're crickets. Afterward, we walked to a delicious dumpling restaurant called Din Tai Fung to meet John and his secretary, Sammy, whom he and Leslie call their "adopted daughter." It was yummy! Then I found out that there is one in Hong Kong AND one in Los Angeles!! Hurray! Oh! and did I mention that my flight back to Hong Kong was NONEXISTENT!?! Yes. Luckily, John had been nice enough to have Sammy check on my flight, only to find that that flight didn't run on Wednesdays! I guess I still have a lot to learn about travel...but anyway, it worked out, and I got back to Hong Kong, happy as a clam and full of ENERGY, around 10 PM. (I wore my big magenta skirt to school the next day.)

I don't know what it was really. Maybe it was the "luxury" of a nice hotel, or having parents planning stuff for us to do, or a home to stay in, or cabs and drivers, or sleeping about 10 hours a night, or reading my life-changing book (oh! how I wish it never ended!), but China reenergized and rejuvenated me. It was the first time in a while I had completely let go of "work" and just enjoyed and soaked up every moment. I finally felt really fortunate/glad/proud to be abroad in Asia. I finally felt I had made the right decision. Leslie even helped me to start appreciating those things about Asian culture I didn't liked at first, like hanging your laundry out the window to dry. Whatever it was, the second half of my semester abroad has begun and I'm really looking forward to what is to come! Stay tuned for Vietnam! (Coming next week)

CHINER! Part II

On our third day, we went to the Temple of Heaven. Granted, after seeing the Forbidden City and all the palaces/temples, cool architecture, crazy sea rock gardens, and pretty trees there, the Temple of Heaven itself is just kind of...meh, but I am SO glad we went there on that Saturday, because like I've said before Chinese people are happy! And happy Chinese senior citizens, playing, singing, and dancing in the huge park surrounding the Temple of Heaven on a Saturday makes you VERY happy to watch. We saw old couples practicing the tango, grandmas performing with ribbon dancers, singing choirs of the elderly, it was absolutely amazing to see such pure joy - the joy of a little kid - in the eyes of an older person.

We then went to lunch at this great Chinese restaurant. They even served crickets if you so desired. Apparently they're a real specialty in China. Unfortunately, some food we had had in prior days was getting the best of me, so I wasn't in the best mood at lunch. You can guess how happy I was when this smelly, Asian tourist/business man in a pink button-down wanted to take a picture with Laura and me just because we were Americans.

That night we had an interesting experience for dinner. We asked the concierge for a recommendation for a French place for dinner. He got us a reservation. We arrived to an empty restaurant called Maxim's later that night. Maxim's is, by the way, the name of the catering chain that runs one of our campus canteens. Needless to say, Laura and I were a bit nervous. There were about 10, maybe 12, waiters for just our table, yet only one guy could wait on us because he was the only one who spoke English. Despite the gawdiness and emptiness, the food was quite good (I tried escargot...and liked it!) and there was even a live pianst. After a glass or two of wine, I wanted to make friends with the waiter. I asked him what his name was, but then he ran away! Laura and her parents teased me that I'd scared him away or said something offensive. Luckily, he came back after 15 minutes and told us his name and that he was studying language (English and Spanish) at university. I guess he DID understand when Laura's mom said, "si! por favor!" We all had a tendency to speak Spanish when the locals tried to speak to us in Mandarin since it was the only other language we all sort of knew.

On our last day in Beijing, we went to the Summer Palace, where yet again, apparently the emperor prayed to the gods for good harvests or something and signed important documents. It was a warm, sunny day; perfect for seeing a summer palace. It was a beautiful place and nice to see that the "people" really do use it for recreation - paddlin around on the paddle boats, walking, having picnics, etc. Our particularly favorite/least favorite part was the marble boat. We learned that apparently, Empress Cixi took money from the military to build this silly marble boat that doesn't even float! It just was build on top of a cement platform that juts out into the water, but is connected to the land. Seriously the silliest thing I've ever heard of. Other than that...I had some delicious hot chocolate and flower tea and finally found that blue bracelet (the one I'd talked about in the earlier blog about the "not so ladylike market") for only 20RMB about $3USD (Renminbi IS the same as the yuan as Laura and I recently found out and in case you were wondering, it mean's "people's money").

That night we ate at this local Italian place, Annie's, recommended to us by the hotel. While the food was REALLY good and REALLY cheap, China's REALLY gotta work on service. When we arrived at 7:32PM, they told us that they did not have a table for our 7:30PM reservation because we were late and that now we'd just have to wait. We waited, and waited, and waited...until about 8:05 PM. In all that time, why hadn't they at least offered us drinks or something? Traveling in Asia definitely teaches you to have patience. I then wrote them a little "evaluation" on how I thought they could improve their service. Someday, someday, they'll get it.

The next morning, I was off to Shanghai!

CHINER! Part I

Yes...Chiner. As Laura and I were so fortunate to live in luxury for a few days at the Swissotel (yep, Swissotel, no h) Beijing, on the tab of her parents (love ya George and Jean!), we also were lucky enough to get to watch a lot of BBC and CNN, which is not possible in our halls in HK since we don't know how to change the channels from Cantonese to English. Even though were not able to see any news on Tibet (as the "big brother" Chinese government would literally BLACK OUT anything related to Tibet, the TV would just go freaking blank, they really do not like the Dalai Lama), we did begin to notice that almost every anchor on these channels have some sort of exotic accent, whether it be British, Middle Eastern, French, etc., and they all pronounce China, Chiner. "We're seeing a lot of growth still here in stocks in Chiner..." Stop saying that damnit! It's ChinA!

Anyway, our first night was hilarious. Poor Laura's parents had already had a bad experience the night before with some bad, unfriendly to foreigners', restaurant, and then here we are, dropped off by our taxi in the middle of some traditional Beijing hutongs (really OLD little villages with narrow alleys, very dark, no street lights) with no idea where this "famous" roast duck restaurant is supposed to be. Then, ah ha! we see scrawled on the brick wall next to us, a chalk drawing of a duck with an arrow! So we followed the ducks and there we were! We had quite a lovely dinner. I saw a bunch of pictures of famous people on the wall, so I figured this place must be a big deal even though it looked like a shithole. So I insisted the owner take a picture with us. He then proceeded to teach us how to say the name of his restaurant in Chinese. "Lee ChOOn"... (Laura and I repeat), "Roast Duck" (Laura and I repeat), "Restaurant." Then I think to myself, wait a minute...I should be teaching YOU - Mr. Li Qun - how to say "roast duck restaurant!" That's my language! The bathroom or should I say "toilet" was also fun. Here, I'll just let you check it out.
The next morning we made our way to the Forbidden City and were fortunate enough to find ourselves a guide! We still don't know what her name was, but we loved her. I think it may have started with an M. Let's call her May. May was a very experienced guide. She never let us get sidetracked. She was always making sure we were paying attention - "Okay, everyone, everyone, look me, look me!" She gave us butterfly hair clips when we answered a question right. "If it cloudy and cannot use sun for clock, how emperor know time?" I, after reading the information block, reply, "Uh...water?" "Ahhh...very clever girl!!" And yes, I got my butterfly clip. She even held my hand when we were among tour groups in their little red/blue/white/ yellow baseball hats, worried that, "she so small! don't want to lose her! she so small! don't want lose her!" She was also quite the feminist, making it quite clear that when Empress Cixi was in the Forbidden City, it was "phoenix over dragon, female over male, empress over emperor, woman over man." And...how can I forget, the last emperor PUYI. She loved his story so much, she told us twice! "When last emperor Puyi come to power, only small boy, bring him out for people to see, all people say 'long live emperor! long live emperor!' and little boy Puyi so scared he urine and shit in the pants! He so scared he urine and shit in the pants!" I'm beginning to think the Chinese think "shit" is the politically correct term for #2. Speaking of shit, this day I also had my first experience with the no door, waist-high divider squatters.

Afterward, we went to Tiananmen Square. It was huge. I took some pictures under Mao's portrait. What a guy. Oh and he's mausoleum was apparently open 8AM to 12 AM. When we got there around 4PM it was closed. They're still working on the AM/PM.

The next day, I went the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. Doesn't that just sound crazy? Yeah! Laura's mom had arranged for a van to drive us to Mutianyu, "in its dramatic hilly setting and less intrusive tourist industry" (DK Eyewitness Travel Guide). We immediately fell in love with Driver Leo. He was so smiley. Actually, we had a few drivers that were really smiley. This is one of the reasons I really liked Beijing. People are genuinely happy. While at first it seemed Driver Leo spoke great English, we soon realized these were somewhat 'programmed responses.' After we had trekked along the Great Wall which was really amazing and still had snow on it (oh how I pined for Boston!), despite the embarrassing American students throwing snowballs at old ladies, Driver Leo said, "Now, we have lunch at restaurant 17 kilometers away, about 10 minutes." Laura's mom asks, "Isn't there that town we passed through that had lots of restaurants?" After a few seconds, Driver Leo responds, "Now, we have lunch at restaurant 17 kilometers away, about 10 minutes." Oh well, lunch was good.

That night we had an excellent Italian meal, better than any Italian I had had in Hong Kong. After dinner, Laura and I still had a lot of energy, so we went for a walk. After passing up the opportunity to go to Hooters Beijing, we decided a nice bottle of cheap wine from 7-Eleven would do. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a 7-Eleven, but we did find a Chinese grocery store where we also found GREAT WALL wine and Chips Ahoy, our favorite traveling snack. So we thought, what better way to end our day at the Great Wall than with Great Wall wine. So we did, and it was awful by the way.

Bangkok!

We arrive in Bangkok around 7 AM, just in time for the floating market, but unfortunately the floating market in Bangkok isn't much of a floating market. The real one was too far away though considering we only had a day in the capital. Since that wasn't that interesting, we headed straight for the temples and palaces. I have to admit that I don't know the names of the temples or the palaces that we saw. That's embarrassing. But anyway...they were pretty cool!

So we get there and we have to have our legs covered down to our knee for girls (pants for guys) and we need to cover our shoulders. Since the King's sister had just died, everyone was wearing black and was in mourning (the King is a BIG deal in Thailand), so I, trying to be respectful, did the best I could with what I had in my backpack. I wore my black yoga pants, a black tank top and the purple scarf I had bought the day before, around my shoulders like a shawl. Unfortunately, they spotted me and this wasn't going to cut it so I ended up having to "rent" a HUGE ORANGE men's shirt instead. Mind you it was hotter than HADES as Mom would say. I was not in a very good mood, but was trying for the sake of the beauty of the temples. I really did like those little temple guys that hold up the temples. (See picture, hard to explain)

Afterward we went to the Weekend Market. Oh child! (that's for you Wheels) did I do some damage and some good bargaining too! I managed to buy 3 really interesting pieces - a dark wood bowl thing, a cool shaped vase, and some wood elephants holding up a plate - for about 1,000 thai baht or maybe less? (there are 30 baht to a $1, you do the math, I'm really tired right now). Yeah! Freaking sweet. Afterward we all decided we were in dire need of air-conditioning so we went to Phil's favorite restaurant the Magic Chicken. It was seriously magic chicken. Soooooo good again! Thai food is SO good that it makes me eat spicy stuff and like it! If you know me and my eating habits, you know I'd never eat curry, but the Thai people make it so well that I don't even care it's hot! I eat curry now! Can you believe it!?! They are so good those Thai chefs...

Honestly, I don't remember what we did until we went out that night. I just know we had Subway for dinner and found out later that tuna in Thailand from a Subway should be avoided (as Caz was sick for about 4 days after our trip). Then we went to this sweet place to play pool and I freakin' won the game. How that happened I don't really know. I know many of you have tried time and time again to teach me and I never seem to get it, but when Matt said think angles, that was it! Me and my math/geometry head. Haha! So that was rather exciting. Then we rode in a tuk tuk (aka a little tricycle taxi that was pop-a-wheeling all over the place, so fun!) and I quite enjoyed it. And then we had some chocolate/banana crepe-ish Thai dessert off the streets and then went to bed, got up had a yummy breakfast once again and headed back to HK! I love Thailand!

The Land of Smiles (aka Thailand!) - Chiang Mai

Okay, so I first must apologize for how horrible I have been about updating the blog! In all honesty, I just got back from my third trip - CHINA!, but I'm going to tell you about Thailand first anyway because it is so wonderful and deserves its own post!

We left on a Thursday night, arriving in Bangkok around midnight. We had planned this trip much better than the Philippines, and we even had a "guide" (my good friend Phil) who actually SPEAKS Thai! Our group this time was also 8, but consisted of Laura and me, 4 USC guys, and 2 Austrians. That night we went to the LKF of Bangkok, Khowsan Rd or something (the bar/club street), had a drink then hopped in our van around 2:30AM. Phil's aunt was nice enough to hook us up with a HUGE, air-conditioned, 10 seater, DVD-equipped van and driver (affectionately known as "Hee Hop"). We drove through the night to our destination, Chiang Mai, a backpackers heaven in the north of Thailand (and I really was a "backpacker" this time BTW). I didn't sleep much given it was Eric's birthday and the boys wanted to "celebrate" on the way there, but how could I complain, we were on an adventure!

One of my first adventures was around 5 AM. I had to pee. We were at a gas station. Gas stations in Asia only have squatters. The time had come. I had to learn. I did! And what a feeling of liberation it is to be able to use a squatter as a girl! The whole world really opens up to you!

That day we checked into our perfect little hotel, Roong Ruang, after our first yummy $4USD Thai meal. Then we talked to the travel agent and booked an afternoon ATV riding excursion. It was a blast! I felt like such a bad ass. But I have to admit I wasn't very good at driving it because I don't like to go fast and my hand muscles would start cramping after like 5 minutes of holding the gas trigger thing. Luckily, Laura wasn't scared and she was very good at driving it so I enjoyed being passenger. We went through some jungles and past a bunch of beautiful vegetation terraces and small villages with the cutest kids you've ever seen on their way home from school, smiling and waving at you with their enormous backpacks. It was quite an experience! The whole journey was supposed to take 3 hours, but because of the boys frequent stops without the leader's permission, and one of the other group member's fall into a ditch, it took about 4.5 hours! Thank you Laura for driving all that way! We were going soooo fast on the highway!!, but for some reason, I kept falling asleep and my helmet kept banging into Laura. It was funny. I guess I did need that sleep more than I thought.

That night, we went to the night bazaar which was super interesting. We got fake LeSportSac bags for $10USD and new scarves for $5. Oh! Also, it was election time when we were there and they have a policy of no alcohol sales during elections. Nevertheless, there were still places you could drink, but it was a bit of a sketchy operation. Phil had made friends with some bartender who said to come back around 11 PM and she'd let us in. So we show up to this bar and the metal shades are pulled down and it's completely dark, but then one of the shades comes up, she lets us in and we just hang out in the bar with the shades drawn for a while with a few other foreigners.

We decided to turn in early because we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and had a big day ahead of us!

The next morning Laura, Phil and I had a delicious breakfast at the cafe next door for $5 (Matt was not very happy we hadn't woken him up. Sorry Matt!) before the truck came to take us to the white water rafting place. It was going to take about an hour to get to this place and the boys had been planning on sleeping in the car on the way there. They were rather disappointed when an open-air truck with some benches in the truck bed shows up to take us there. White water rafting sucked basically because the water level wasn't high enough so we just kept getting stuck on all the stupid rocks. The guides would have to get out and push the damn rafts through. I fell out twice. Jumped out once too to pee. Heard later there were snakes in the water... But the fact that the rafting was so bad just made it really funny.

Next, we had lunch in a small village and bought some Oreo's at a little local shop for dessert. (got to use the squatter again too!) We jumped back in the van and headed for the elephants! Now, elephant riding sounds like this elegant, grand, extravagant activity, but really it's a lot of animal begging for bananas and bamboo, trunk snot on your bare thigh and getting showered in snout water at the "watering hole." Even so, I still love telling people, "I rode elephants in Thailand!" because it just sounds so damn cool. Our final stop was bamboo rafting through some more forest/jungle and crazy tree house looking villages. The raft guides were so silly though. Our guide must have been 12 or 14 and got such a kick out of bumping our raft against the river bank so I would wobble and then he'd look back at me and snicker, so I would snicker back at him. Laura thought it was really funny.

That evening we had divine foot and back/neck massages fore $7USD, half an hour each. Sooo good! Then we packed up, jumped in the van, had another sweet Thai meal for $7 and headed back to Bangkok. We started to watch Bee Movie; it really sucked. We all slept well that night. Bangkok, TBC.

The Philippines...Part 2

Batangas was a real beaut...NOT! It was definitely my least favorite place...here's a picture of our hotel room. Oh and by the way, this place, the Travelers' Inn it was called, was RECOMMENDED by Lonely Planet!?! Anyway...that night Ronan had rented 2 tricycles for our gang, yep, you read it right, 2 TRICYCLES for 8 people! They're these dirt bike like vehicles with a sidecar for 2 and room for 2 behind the driver. They were SO FUN! Don't worry Mom and Dad, they only go about 30 mph. So for like 200 pesos a person or something (which is like $4USD?) our drivers stayed with us the whole night, dropping us off at places and then waiting for us. Wild! They were so silly though. We asked them to take us to a bar with pool and a TV so we could watch the "match" (as the Norwegians would say talking about soccer) and 4/5 times they took us to hooker bars! At dinner, Laura and I were smart and ordered chicken fingers and cheesesticks while everyone else decided to get steaks. The steaks were gray and the empty restaurant had somehow managed to run out of knives (?) so everyone had to cut their meat with forks and spoons! Obviously still rather hungry, we girls had ice cream at McDonald's while the boys ate "spaghettis," as Ronan would say, at the local fast food place, Jollybee's. By the end of the night we finally found a cool outdoor bar with live music and toilets with toilet seats!



The next day we were supposed to leave Travelers' Inn by 5:30 AM to catch a 6 AM boat to White Beach in Puerto Galera. Of course, 5:30 rolls around and who's still sleeping after I banged on the door 5 times? Yeah...the boys. So the half of us that are ready by 5:45 speed over to the seaport to make sure the boat doesn't leave. About 10 minutes later the other 4 show up and through some miscommunication, we find out that two of the guys ended up paying twice since Ronan had already paid for them in the first place! They were pissed...but we're talking again...$4USD. Whoops! In true Filipino time, our boat didn't end up leaving the dock until 7:30 and we arrived at our destination around 9:30. We spent the day on the beach with all the vendors and massage ladies..."Hello Ma'am, do you want a massage? When you want massage you let me know, I am Baby, remember my name when you want massage." And Man! were they persistent! Laura got so fed up with them bothering us all day that she refused to have a massage at all, but Maud and I gave in and for 200 pesos (~$4USD), we had 45 minute full oil body massages on the beach...beautiful. At 3, the boys said they had rented a boat and we were going to go to a place to go snorkeling. I had no desire to snorkel, but was under the impression we were going to a more private beach where we would still be able to lay out if we didn't want to swim. Unfortunately, that was not the case. They dropped anchor a ways off shore and said, "Go!" I didn't want to be the baby that stayed on the boat (and after all, I was paying 300 pesos!), so I put on that nasty mask that I was sure had never been cleaned and jumped in. Owww! Something had wrapped around my wrist and it hurt like a bitch! I was sure something had stung me, but I didn't see anything. So I shouted to everyone, "There's something in this water that stings!" And everyone said back, "Nah, it must just be the salt on your sunburn." So I kept swimming and damn! my legs were burning like hell! I had had enough. I started to swim toward the ladder on the side of the boat, saw a jellyfish, and turned around immediately. I got out on the other side of the boat and saw red lines all over my legs. Then, of course, everyone starts going, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" And now they believe me. Needless to say, our snorkeling didn't last long and there were no fish anyway! Being the Philippines...there were unfortunately no refunds.

We ended our time in Puerto Galera with a good dinner of bbq pork and rice and a crazy Philippine rum shot drinking game that I fortunately did not take part in because man that game went fast!

The next day the 8 of us rode for hours in a 4Runner size SUV back to Manila. Our driver was nice enough to stop frequently to let us eat and use the toilet and thank goodness because for one of our travel mates it was a "photo finish" at Jollybee's after an unfriendly hot dog from the last seemingly well-kept gas station shop.

Back in Hong Kong safe and sound, I'd never appreciated the luxuries of a first world country so much in my life - toilet seats, toilet paper, and hand soap. But something I did notice and love about this country was the genuine happiness and enjoyment of life of the local people despite their apparently desperate situations. They maybe "developing" in the economic sense, but they sure seemed to have a better handle on other aspects of life us "developed" people are still working on. That trip certainly prepared me for my travel adventures to come.

The Philippines...Part 1

At 6:30 PM on Friday, Laura, Maud, and I head up to the big red bird/ruler sculpture thing at the front of the school to meet the people we were going to the Philippines with. First, we met Ronan, the French surfer dude that had already been to the Philippines 3 times; he was our "guide". The last time he was in the Philippines, he got arrested by the Filipino police because they thought he was a rebel since he had been walking up this hill toward the rebel camp , unbeknownst to him. The police then had to call HKUST to make sure he actually was a student and everything! So that should give you a pretty good idea of the kind of journey on which we were about to embark. Afterward, Matt, a cool British guy, and the 3 Norwegians showed up.

The adventure began right away as we were chasing after buses with all our luggage. The mark of a true virgin of a traveler, I brought a freaking duffle bag without a shoulder strap, a backpack, AND a purse! We finally arrived at the airport after like 4 modes of transportation, had some Burger King and hopped on our CebuPacific Air plane. The flight was fine for me as I've learned the wonders of Dramamine - I went right to sleep, but poor Laura was getting hit on the head by this 4 year-old that was screaming and growling...yes growling, like the whole way there.

At midnight, we got in the van Ronan had "negotiated" that would take us to our first stop, Talisay. We arrived in this dark town around 3 in the morning, and some how, we found an open "resort." The toilet was interesting, to flush it, you had to turn on this faucet that ran into a bucket, then flush, then dump the water out of the bucket into the drain on the floor. Oh yeah, there's just a shower head, no shower surrounding and it's just cold water...but it was all part of the adventure! The next morning, I woke up to one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. We were right on this beautiful lake - Lake Ta'al. Everything was green and the birds were singing! Our "auntie" (the hotel owner) had even cooked us breakfast! (but I was too afraid to eat much since it was my first meal in the Philippines and about 2/3 of our friends that had already been had gotten severely ill...so I ate the 2 pieces of white bread) We took this cool wooden boat with a crazy loud motor across the lake to the volcano in the middle - the Ta'al Volcano! When we stepped off the boat, these local girls were jumping all over us trying to sell us stuff and people were trying get us to hire these poor donkey/horses to take us up to the top, but Ronan said we were "trekking." We sure trekked. It was incredible and incredibly hot! When we finally reached the top...WOW! Gorgeous. There was another lake IN the volcano we'd just hiked up. Unfortunately the pictures don't capture the real beauty.

When we got back to the hotel, we had to pack up in like 15 minutes because apparently they were trying to charge us extra or something. That afternoon we traveled to Batangas by jeepney and bus. Jeepney's are these crazy trucks that were brought over from America during some war and now they use them for public transportation! (To be continued...I have to go to sleep.)

First Day of Class

My first day got off to an okay start in my Finance class. I was lucky to arrive on time considering this place is like impossible to navigate. To find your classroom, you have to enter it into the "Lift Selection Advisor" which then tells you which elevator to go to. Then you have to look up the elevator because by the way there are about 30 of them. So my first class was Lift 25-26, room 4503 or something. My professor has a lot of experience in the industry and seems like she's going to be really good, but she kept trying to scare everyone out of the class saying, "I'm mean and horrible!" She succeeded with some. About 5 kids just got up in the middle of the class and left. They do that here during drop/add. It's so weird. I think she just wants less grading. Then I went to Musical Theater which was a blast! We just watched clips of musicals. I even sang along when we watched Rent's "Seasons of Love".

My management class was the best. I walk into this big lecture theater, sit down. I'm a little confused because Beethoven is playing and and all the kids have these little remotes in their hands and they're pointing them up at the screen. And I'm like, "What the hell is going on?" So I ask the kid next to me, "Hey, is this MGTO 120?" He says yes, so I start getting settled and start checking out the scene more. My professor is wearing a double-breasted pin stripped suit and I'm thinking, "Yes...this guy is going to be the shit." And he is. He is such a character! He's from California so he's always making these jokes about America. My friend Alex, a guy from Michigan, and I are the only ones who get his humor; all the locals are always looking at each other like, "what's he talking about?" It's great.

So anyway, Alex and I head to lunch afterwards. We get to one of the dining halls, or the "canteen" as they call it here, get in this line for what looks kind of like Panda Express. We get up to the front and get yelled at in Cantonese (seems that happens a lot, doesn't it?). Luckily, someone in line spoke English and explained to us that we needed to go buy some sort of ticket at this other desk and then get back in the line we were in and then give them the ticket and then they'd give us the food. So we did that. Then we're trying to find a table and there's no open table. So we see this guy sitting alone, Thomas. Thomas is nice enough to let us sit with him. He's got this lunch in a plastic box of a cold chicken leg with a ton of rubbery skin, rice, a hard-boiled egg, and some black like vinegary stuff (it was NOT soy sauce). So we decide to engage him in a bit of conversation. He tells us he lives at home with his parents, it takes him 1 hour to get to school, he takes 9 classes (?? I was confused, maybe he misunderstood our question), he's a first year student, and he doesn't like dessert - he specifies definitely not chocolate. So as we're starting to talk about his major, Alex picks up his bowl of soup to take a sip (we didn't see the spoons) and as he's setting it back down on the table, he spills it all over Thomas' laptop bag! Like I said before, napkins are scarce. So Alex and I are running around trying to find something to dry it up with and Thomas is trying really hard not to get mad, frantically moving his stuff out of the soup stream. It was really awkward. After that, conversation kind of ended.

Afterward I headed to the "Computer Barn" where I ran into Maud and Laura. Maud looked very excited. "Do you want to go to the Philippines this weekend?" she asks me. I'm like, "Hell no!" It's just NOT like me to just do something so unplanned. So then I thought for a second and was like, well okay I guess I'll think about it. So after I was done with class, Laura calls and says the plane tickets are only $150 US and that we weren't leaving until Friday night (it was Thursday night), so I said, oh what the hell, let's do it! So the airline's website (CebuPacific Air) was so sketchy that none of our credit cards would go through so we had to have this guy, Ronan, a full year student who was going to be our "guide" in the Philippines, buy all of our tickets for us. And so, as Maud would say, we were "going to the Philippines!"

The Not So Ladylike Market

The other day my friends and I decided to go experience the Ladies Market. The Ladies Market is an outdoor market just like the swap meet, a bunch of vendors selling a ton of cheap stuff, none of which you really need. For instance, I came away with a Hello Kitty handkerchief which I tried to tell myself was going to be my napkin, since... (oh yeah! I don't think I've mentioned this. They don't have napkins here. It's really bizarre! If you're lucky, they'll leave a box of Kleenex on the table like that's supposed to get the shrimp juice off your fingers.) Nevertheless, it's an experience "you just have to have" in Hong Kong. Part of that experience is supposed to be haggling.

At first, I was really intimidated by the whole scene. There were SO many people and so much shouting in Cantonese and oh the peculiar smells...I kept losing my friends and with a "death-clutch" on my purse, I was so sure someone was going to "just slip their hand right in and snatch my wallet!" Pretty soon my friends were getting good at the bargaining thing, so I decided okay, if I find something I like, I should try my hand at it. Sure enough, I find this awesome bracelet, one of those painted bangles that they sell at J.Crew for like $40 a piece. This one was great! Blue with little white and red flowers and green leaves. And...it fit my wrist which is like a miracle! So the vendor woman walks up and says, "$89HK okay for you?" Now $89HK is about $11 USD. While that doesn't sound very expensive, for the Ladies Market, it was. So I say, "Uh...no..." trying to bargain a bit, you know, and the next thing I know, she's shooing me out of her shop shouting, "Den okay BYE BYE!" I was shocked! Here I thought I was SUPPOSED to do that and the one thing I want, I can't have now!?! I mean, I even would have spent the $11, but I was just so appalled at how rude she was, I couldn't bring myself to go back. I think that's what prompted my Hello Kitty impulse buy.

At another shop, my friend Kristen was trying to look at a pair of leggings. She accidentally knocked 2 off the rack while she was looking and the shopkeeper grabbed the leggings and yelled at us in Cantonese!

So now I can say I have had the Ladies Market experience, but it's not one I plan to have again.

Yay for a Roommate!

On my third day here, I came back to my dorm room one afternoon to find someone sleeping. "Uh oh...she's here," I thought. When we officially met about a day later when finally neither of us were sleeping, we really hit it off! So like I said, I had thought I had it bad with all that stuff, but man, did she make me feel better. She had had it even worse! Having to fly from Texas to San Fran before she could get to HK, she missed her connecting flight in San Fran because of a delay in Texas and had to stay over night without extra clothes. By the time she got to HK, she'd been wearing the same clothes for 3 days! She was somehow able to still smile and laugh about it by saying, "It's all part of the adventure." So I decided to adopt that too and that's how we've been getting through all the craziness that is the first few weeks abroad...in Asia.

So far there have been 2 cultural differences that have been especially hard for us to get over. One, there is no sense of chivalry in Asian culture. Two, it seems no one was ever told not to stare.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the public transportation here is incredibly efficient and clean! I absolutely LOVE the MTR! The system that is. The experience as a whole sometimes I am not quite as in love with. If you're not moving quickly enough or aren't willing to shove a little to get on/off, you will get pushed aside by men and women alike. When on the train, I've never seen a man offer his seat to a woman, despite the signs on the train that read, "Show you have a loving heart. Let's care for others!"

Last night, in fact, I was doubled over from a crippling stomachache that obviously had me in a lot of pain, and not one person even attempted to offer their seat. Then when we were arriving at the station, a man just stepped in front of me so that he could get out first, so out of frustration I shoved him aside so I could get out first! Oops! I know that wasn't very nice, but I couldn't hold it in! And it's SO rare that anyone apologizes for ramming into you! And on the occasion they do, I smile, applaud and thank them!

Another thing on the MTR is the starring. The other day, this old man in a suit was watching Laura and me. We thought, maybe if we stare back, he'll get the picture that we don't appreciate him looking at us. We tried, but man did he win! We just felt so awkward looking at someone like that, though he apparently did not. Then we noticed that even when someone else's body would obstruct his line of sight, we would just move so as to continue watching us. Very very uncomfortable, but "it's all part of the adventure!"