Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Stepping into the PRC (People's Republic of China)
As one would leave the Special Administration Region (SAR) of Hong Kong and step foot into Mainland China, you might expect (atleast I would except) conditions to worsen with a higher prominence of poverty. However, as I crossed the river (and immigration) to China for my first time, the city of Shenzhen seemed to be as economically adept as that of a mini version of Hong Kong.
But first a little background on Shenzhen itself. With the Communist Party of China moving towards a market socialist society, the city of Shenzhen was utilized as on experimental basis for the Government to test out market capitalism. Shenzhen's geographical location is perfectly placed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Western corporations have based manufacturing operations in the city. With cheap labor and being just miles away from one of the largest exporting cities (Hong Kong) in the world. Shenzhen has capitalized off its location and now boasts over 800 billion in GDP (ranking 4th for cities in China). Likely, many of the textilies, toys, and appliances you have at home have a good probability of being produced in Shenzhen.
However, the main attraction for the people of Hong Kong to visit this city is not the large GDP of exports or blocks of factories, it the cheap massages and knock off brand name apparal. With streets lined with markets full of electronics, cheap clothing, and knock off purses, its a shoppers paradise. While, I didn't indulge my inner shopper, I did experience my first full body massage.
For just $98 RMB ($HK 111 or $USD 15), tourists flock to Shenzhen for hour long massages. With such a cheap price, there was no way I could turn the offer down. While I don't have much to compare it too, the massage was very relaxing.
Shenzhen did differ drastically from Hong Kong in one aspect. Very few, if any people spoke English. Even the younger generation of the city seemed to understand few words of the English language. This is very different from Hong Kong, where the education system requires students to take a minimum number of years of English. So, if any of you are interesting in traveling here, please be aware of the language barrier. Luckily, I was with a classmate from Oregon, who is an american born chinese that is semi fluent in Mandarin.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
A weekend of laying with Tigers, riding Elephants, and living with Village people
Thailand: known for its sex change operations and prostitutes rooming every street corner. While the men of Thailand popularly change their sex to that of the female version, this was not the most prominent feature of Thailand that reminisced in my mind. My version of Thailand went more like this…
Wednesday Night: After arriving in Bangkok around 23:00 and finding my pre-arranged taxi driver, I negotiated for a special tour of Bangkok with the driver. With the driver seeing a white male my age, he automatically assumes that I would like a girl, so I spent several minutes trying to communicate that I wasn’t actually interested in a prostitute but rather an actual tour of Bangkok. The driver seemed shocked but obliged for an extra 500 Baht (about an extra $13 American Dollars). He toured me around a couple markets and different sights of Bangkok, but unfortunately with the darkness I was not able to experience the city as much as hoped for. Arriving at my hotel around 1 in the morning, I was surprised to be informed that my room had been upgraded to a suit. Now you may remember my first day in HK, I was upgraded to a suit. So, I am officially 2/2 with upgrades in hotels by myself in Asia.
Thursday: Waking up on 5 hours of sleep, I was ready for the adventure to begin. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 on the popular airlines 1-2 G0 (sarcasm). Arriving at the airport, I was anticipating a prop plane with the engine about to fall out, but surprisingly it was a normal airplane from the 90’s, with about 5 inches of legroom. So with my knees in near my face, the plane departed for Chiang Mai for one of the most exciting weekends of my life.
Our hostel was in a quaint setting in the middle of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, the hostel was equipped with Internet, so I was able to watch the slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs. So with this disturbing situation of the Cardinals chocking in October, but still having the ability to have an amazing weekend speaks volumes for Chiang Mai.
The group I traveled with in Thailand consisted of 11 people in total. Six attended another university in Hong Kong, with three that go to UPenn, one goes to UCSB, and the other two go to some school in Canada. The rest of the group consisted of Abe and Lili (from IU) and a girl from Canada (she goes to CityU) and her boyfriend. One of the girls contacted a travel agent in Chiang Mai to help plan out our weekend. Needless to say, the agent did an amazing job. So if anyone is ever interested in going to Chiang, please let me know and I will give you her information.
The first activity on the agenda for Chiang Mai consisted of being in direct contact with one of the most feared animals in the world. That’s right, for just $10 American dollars, I was able to lay with a 500 pound lion. This was an experience of a lifetime, which I could not pass up. The pictures will speak for themselves. It was amazing to be touching such a powerful animal. As Abe and I entered the cage, the trainer jokingly said “good luck”, but once we sat with the animals they seemed to have a combination of being very drugged and full of food (you know that feeling after thanksgiving dinner) that an attack would be very unlikely. I doubt PETA would be very happy with the condition of the animals but it was still very impressive being next to such a “feared” animal. The preserve also had baby tiger cubs which were much more active.
Sassy’s (our tour guide) next item on the agenda was attending a one-day culinary school for traditional Thai food. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I was certified with an actual certificate, but don’t expect me to bring any excellence of Thai cuisine to come back to the States. We were instructed on how to make a 5-course Thai meal, which consisted of a salad, soup (very spicy), spring roles, Pad Thai, and a desert. Overall, the spring roles stuck on the most in my mind, but the whole meal was excellent.
After being full of delicious meal, our group attended a traditional Thai boxing match. The atmosphere was very interesting, with about half locals and half tourists, where most of the locals approached the white tourists to make bets on the match. The whole venue looked like something from an underground boxing match that really was never suppose to take place. With an already amazing day, there was no way I could believe that Friday would be even better, but it only did!
Friday: The day started off leaving the hostel on a “tok-tok”, which is commonly known as a three-wheel motorcycle used as a taxi. It was coined with the name “tok-tok” because of the sound the engine makes as the automobile takes off and pretty much any time it moves. (aka the sound is like the engine is about to die). Nowadays, the name has been transformed to almost any form of paid form of transportation in Thailand. The truck we were it was formed to fit about 12 people with a cover on the back and benches on the sides. As we entered the Thai jungle on the Tok-Tok, the scenery got so beautiful. If you imagine any jungle movie ever filmed, this looked exactly the same.
Riding elephants was the first to-do item on the list for Friday. This wasn’t your walk in a circle at the circus on an elephant ride. It was very intense with about ½ of time I had the feeling of falling off the elephant and the other ½ keeping the elephant from drenching me in mud. The elephant trekked a good thirty-minute walk around the territory. With climbing several hills on the back of the 5-ton creature, the elephant ride was something to write home about.
From the elephant ride, we ditched the tok-tok and began our trek into the heart of the Thai jungle. The trek has several different degrees of difficulty. At some points, we had to cross streams as we balance on well positioned branch or climb steep inclines with straight 100 feet drops on both sides of the path. The hike reminded me of the Hollywood classic “Tropical Thunder” with all of the lush foliage around the characters in the movie, it almost made me feel like I was an extra. Our destination was the top of the mountain, which was inhabited by a local tribe.
We arrived just before sunset at a place with no electricity and lots of bamboo huts. The village consisted of about 50 different huts where the people in the village lived. As we entered the village, our group received looks as if we were the first white people the village had seen in weeks. We were honored by getting to stay at the queen of the village’s hotel. The “hotel” consisted of a bamboo floor that was elevated about 5 feet off the ground. It was an amazing structure that had the ability to hold at least 20 people. The view was absolutely spectacular, especially at night. It was the most stars I have ever seen in my life, it seemed like the sky was lit by the magnitude of them.
With three hours of hiking through the jungle, my body was worn down. Only one thing could solve this, a 150 Baht Thai massage (for those of you keeping tract at home, that’s about $4 American). For on $4, two Thai girls massaged me for 30 minutes, it was worth the money. After an authentic Thai meal, our tour guide, Good, serenaded us. He tried to sing several American pop songs and was fairly successful, but he also taught us a local Thai song. It went like this.
After karaoke, it was time to rest our bodies for the next days strenuous hike back down the mountain. We were equipped for the nights sleep with a mosquito net and about 5 blankets. Throughout the night, the blankets def came in handy because it was the coldest I have experienced yet.
Saturday: Upon waking up to roosters at 7 A.M., we prepared for the hour hike down the hill. Again the trek filled its promises of providing beautiful scenery all the way down the mountain. At the base of the mountain, a waterfall greeted us with a little cool down moment. For the next hour, we hiked along a stream that provided a couple of balancing acts, where I was surprised with my athletic ability on not falling in the water. A couple instances along the trek required me to balance on about four inch branches that spanned a distance of about 20 feet to cross the river. Luckily I didn’t end up wet on this part of the trip. (but I wasn’t out of the clear yet) We came to an opening in the jungle were I witnessed one of the more beautiful sites I have ever seen in my life. On all sides of us were magnificent mountains that towered over us. The sky was has blue as I have ever seen it.
The last part of the jungle trek included white water rafting. While there is no comparison to the Grand Canyon of Hatch rafting, it was still very rough and faced several severe rapids. Especially since we were the one controlling the rafts with our oars. From the normal raft, we boarded a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft is exactly what it sounds like, made out of bamboo and rope. We looked like Tom Hanks trying to escape from an island. Except our raft was submerged 4 inches in the water the whole time. Luckily, we were only on the raft for a few minutes. Sadly after rafting, our jungle trek came to an end, which meant back to Chiang Mai, then Bangkok, and then the reality of school in Hong Kong.
Overall, Thailand was an amazing experience. I would strongly suggest visiting Chiang Mai, if anyone is interested in coming to Thailand in the near future. Honestly, the trip was one of the best weekends of my life.
Wednesday Night: After arriving in Bangkok around 23:00 and finding my pre-arranged taxi driver, I negotiated for a special tour of Bangkok with the driver. With the driver seeing a white male my age, he automatically assumes that I would like a girl, so I spent several minutes trying to communicate that I wasn’t actually interested in a prostitute but rather an actual tour of Bangkok. The driver seemed shocked but obliged for an extra 500 Baht (about an extra $13 American Dollars). He toured me around a couple markets and different sights of Bangkok, but unfortunately with the darkness I was not able to experience the city as much as hoped for. Arriving at my hotel around 1 in the morning, I was surprised to be informed that my room had been upgraded to a suit. Now you may remember my first day in HK, I was upgraded to a suit. So, I am officially 2/2 with upgrades in hotels by myself in Asia.
Thursday: Waking up on 5 hours of sleep, I was ready for the adventure to begin. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 on the popular airlines 1-2 G0 (sarcasm). Arriving at the airport, I was anticipating a prop plane with the engine about to fall out, but surprisingly it was a normal airplane from the 90’s, with about 5 inches of legroom. So with my knees in near my face, the plane departed for Chiang Mai for one of the most exciting weekends of my life.
Our hostel was in a quaint setting in the middle of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, the hostel was equipped with Internet, so I was able to watch the slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs. So with this disturbing situation of the Cardinals chocking in October, but still having the ability to have an amazing weekend speaks volumes for Chiang Mai.
The group I traveled with in Thailand consisted of 11 people in total. Six attended another university in Hong Kong, with three that go to UPenn, one goes to UCSB, and the other two go to some school in Canada. The rest of the group consisted of Abe and Lili (from IU) and a girl from Canada (she goes to CityU) and her boyfriend. One of the girls contacted a travel agent in Chiang Mai to help plan out our weekend. Needless to say, the agent did an amazing job. So if anyone is ever interested in going to Chiang, please let me know and I will give you her information.
The first activity on the agenda for Chiang Mai consisted of being in direct contact with one of the most feared animals in the world. That’s right, for just $10 American dollars, I was able to lay with a 500 pound lion. This was an experience of a lifetime, which I could not pass up. The pictures will speak for themselves. It was amazing to be touching such a powerful animal. As Abe and I entered the cage, the trainer jokingly said “good luck”, but once we sat with the animals they seemed to have a combination of being very drugged and full of food (you know that feeling after thanksgiving dinner) that an attack would be very unlikely. I doubt PETA would be very happy with the condition of the animals but it was still very impressive being next to such a “feared” animal. The preserve also had baby tiger cubs which were much more active.
Sassy’s (our tour guide) next item on the agenda was attending a one-day culinary school for traditional Thai food. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I was certified with an actual certificate, but don’t expect me to bring any excellence of Thai cuisine to come back to the States. We were instructed on how to make a 5-course Thai meal, which consisted of a salad, soup (very spicy), spring roles, Pad Thai, and a desert. Overall, the spring roles stuck on the most in my mind, but the whole meal was excellent.
After being full of delicious meal, our group attended a traditional Thai boxing match. The atmosphere was very interesting, with about half locals and half tourists, where most of the locals approached the white tourists to make bets on the match. The whole venue looked like something from an underground boxing match that really was never suppose to take place. With an already amazing day, there was no way I could believe that Friday would be even better, but it only did!
Friday: The day started off leaving the hostel on a “tok-tok”, which is commonly known as a three-wheel motorcycle used as a taxi. It was coined with the name “tok-tok” because of the sound the engine makes as the automobile takes off and pretty much any time it moves. (aka the sound is like the engine is about to die). Nowadays, the name has been transformed to almost any form of paid form of transportation in Thailand. The truck we were it was formed to fit about 12 people with a cover on the back and benches on the sides. As we entered the Thai jungle on the Tok-Tok, the scenery got so beautiful. If you imagine any jungle movie ever filmed, this looked exactly the same.
Riding elephants was the first to-do item on the list for Friday. This wasn’t your walk in a circle at the circus on an elephant ride. It was very intense with about ½ of time I had the feeling of falling off the elephant and the other ½ keeping the elephant from drenching me in mud. The elephant trekked a good thirty-minute walk around the territory. With climbing several hills on the back of the 5-ton creature, the elephant ride was something to write home about.
From the elephant ride, we ditched the tok-tok and began our trek into the heart of the Thai jungle. The trek has several different degrees of difficulty. At some points, we had to cross streams as we balance on well positioned branch or climb steep inclines with straight 100 feet drops on both sides of the path. The hike reminded me of the Hollywood classic “Tropical Thunder” with all of the lush foliage around the characters in the movie, it almost made me feel like I was an extra. Our destination was the top of the mountain, which was inhabited by a local tribe.
We arrived just before sunset at a place with no electricity and lots of bamboo huts. The village consisted of about 50 different huts where the people in the village lived. As we entered the village, our group received looks as if we were the first white people the village had seen in weeks. We were honored by getting to stay at the queen of the village’s hotel. The “hotel” consisted of a bamboo floor that was elevated about 5 feet off the ground. It was an amazing structure that had the ability to hold at least 20 people. The view was absolutely spectacular, especially at night. It was the most stars I have ever seen in my life, it seemed like the sky was lit by the magnitude of them.
With three hours of hiking through the jungle, my body was worn down. Only one thing could solve this, a 150 Baht Thai massage (for those of you keeping tract at home, that’s about $4 American). For on $4, two Thai girls massaged me for 30 minutes, it was worth the money. After an authentic Thai meal, our tour guide, Good, serenaded us. He tried to sing several American pop songs and was fairly successful, but he also taught us a local Thai song. It went like this.
*Doo doo doo doo ter tam
(Look what she did)
Tam mai teung tam gab chan dai
(How could you do this to me) x2
(Look what she did)
Tam mai teung tam gab chan dai
(How could you do this to me) x2
After karaoke, it was time to rest our bodies for the next days strenuous hike back down the mountain. We were equipped for the nights sleep with a mosquito net and about 5 blankets. Throughout the night, the blankets def came in handy because it was the coldest I have experienced yet.
Saturday: Upon waking up to roosters at 7 A.M., we prepared for the hour hike down the hill. Again the trek filled its promises of providing beautiful scenery all the way down the mountain. At the base of the mountain, a waterfall greeted us with a little cool down moment. For the next hour, we hiked along a stream that provided a couple of balancing acts, where I was surprised with my athletic ability on not falling in the water. A couple instances along the trek required me to balance on about four inch branches that spanned a distance of about 20 feet to cross the river. Luckily I didn’t end up wet on this part of the trip. (but I wasn’t out of the clear yet) We came to an opening in the jungle were I witnessed one of the more beautiful sites I have ever seen in my life. On all sides of us were magnificent mountains that towered over us. The sky was has blue as I have ever seen it.
The last part of the jungle trek included white water rafting. While there is no comparison to the Grand Canyon of Hatch rafting, it was still very rough and faced several severe rapids. Especially since we were the one controlling the rafts with our oars. From the normal raft, we boarded a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft is exactly what it sounds like, made out of bamboo and rope. We looked like Tom Hanks trying to escape from an island. Except our raft was submerged 4 inches in the water the whole time. Luckily, we were only on the raft for a few minutes. Sadly after rafting, our jungle trek came to an end, which meant back to Chiang Mai, then Bangkok, and then the reality of school in Hong Kong.
Overall, Thailand was an amazing experience. I would strongly suggest visiting Chiang Mai, if anyone is interested in coming to Thailand in the near future. Honestly, the trip was one of the best weekends of my life.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thailand here I come...
I will be departing for Thailand on Wednesday night. I fly into Bangkok and spend one night there. Then I am off to Chiang Mai (northern part of Thailand) to have a jungle adventure. The trip should be interesting and I hope to post pictures as soon as I get back.
If you want to see all the pictures I have taken so far in HK, click on the slideshow to your right.
I hope everyone has a great week!
If you want to see all the pictures I have taken so far in HK, click on the slideshow to your right.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Monday, October 5, 2009
60 years of the PRC...
This past weekend was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. That's right and you might ask how the Communist Party of China celebrates this holiday? They have fireworks, like any regular American would do. On thursday, I experience fireworks over the harbor of HK. The show was anything any more spectacular than a big city in the ol' USA but it was cool to see the massive building in the backgroud of the fireworks. My viewing point was from atop the dorm towers. 
The celebration continued until Saturday with the Mid Autumn festival. At the festival, the people of HK and the rest of China (I guess...) light lanterns and sit around in a circle with their family. Supposedly its a time of being close to those who matter most to you. Though I did not light any lanterns, I did have a very eventful day on Saturday. The day started out early in the morning with a trip up the tram to the peak. From the peak, we hiked down the other side of the mountain (if you look a map of HK, its the very southern point of the island). The three hour long hike was very relaxing. Its amazing to have such a different view of Hong Kong when your only 20 minutes away from a city of 8 million people. The nature was a nice change of pace of the busy life I have been experencing over the last month. 
At the bottom of the mountain, was a district in HK were I was the only white person within a 1 mile radius. However, one other person in our group is a local to HK, so I was able to experience traditional food ordered in Catonese. While the food did not differ from so of the interesting things I have already had, it was interesting to have a meal ordered and not actually sure what you are getting to eat.
From the district full of locals, we took a bus to a more tourist friendly location, Stanley. This district was full of different types of shops with alot of cool souveniers. I got a couple paintings and a sword. In Stanley, the area was also full of American restaurants and bars which were surrounded by a beautiful beach.
At night, we celebrated the Mid Autumn festival by attending a party in Victoria Park. Mostly, the park consisted of Asians watching shows that didn't see interesting. But I guess to each, his own. However, we did run into some more exchange students where we had another local dinner followed up by dessert. Dessert is very popular in HK, with block of restaurants devoted to just the one dining experence.
Overall, the weekend was very interesting. Today, I explored a little more of HK and got my own custom tailored Itailian suit! I hope all is well for everyone in the United States and I can't wait to post more adventures.
The celebration continued until Saturday with the Mid Autumn festival. At the festival, the people of HK and the rest of China (I guess...) light lanterns and sit around in a circle with their family. Supposedly its a time of being close to those who matter most to you. Though I did not light any lanterns, I did have a very eventful day on Saturday. The day started out early in the morning with a trip up the tram to the peak. From the peak, we hiked down the other side of the mountain (if you look a map of HK, its the very southern point of the island). The three hour long hike was very relaxing. Its amazing to have such a different view of Hong Kong when your only 20 minutes away from a city of 8 million people. The nature was a nice change of pace of the busy life I have been experencing over the last month. 
At the bottom of the mountain, was a district in HK were I was the only white person within a 1 mile radius. However, one other person in our group is a local to HK, so I was able to experience traditional food ordered in Catonese. While the food did not differ from so of the interesting things I have already had, it was interesting to have a meal ordered and not actually sure what you are getting to eat.
From the district full of locals, we took a bus to a more tourist friendly location, Stanley. This district was full of different types of shops with alot of cool souveniers. I got a couple paintings and a sword. In Stanley, the area was also full of American restaurants and bars which were surrounded by a beautiful beach.
At night, we celebrated the Mid Autumn festival by attending a party in Victoria Park. Mostly, the park consisted of Asians watching shows that didn't see interesting. But I guess to each, his own. However, we did run into some more exchange students where we had another local dinner followed up by dessert. Dessert is very popular in HK, with block of restaurants devoted to just the one dining experence.
Overall, the weekend was very interesting. Today, I explored a little more of HK and got my own custom tailored Itailian suit! I hope all is well for everyone in the United States and I can't wait to post more adventures.
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