China!

China

After spending the day on the boat due to miscommunication between Chinese officials and the captain, we finally got into Shanghai and off the boat around 9pm (was supposed to be 9am). We later learned that this 12 hour delay cost the ship $20,000-supposedly our captain followed all protocol and the Chinese really messed up and the ship is obviously really mad and filed an official report against the port authorities- not sure what that really means, but sounds intense!
     The missed day was actually pretty fun and we hung out with friends, watched summer heights high, and I got some homework done! When we finally got off the ship we decided to head into the main part of town. First thing first: get money! Easier said than done. Since taxis don’t take credit card and there was no atm in the port, we started to walk towards convenience stores (7elevens are usually everywhere in China) but most were closed or only accepted Chinese credit cards. Good thing we had 3 or 4 of our big guy friends walking with us or else I definitely would have gone back to the ship- it was cold, dark, rainy and not exactly a pleasant walk. We finally got into the main part of the city (beautiful lights, massive buildings and lots of action) and found a citi bank to get out cash. Then we headed to a club called Mint. It was really fun and there were tons of semester at sea kids there! After getting about 4 hours of sleep, we were up and in a taxi by 5:30am to get to the train station. It was rainy and cold and a pretty long walk from the dock to the road- always a good start to the morning!

            Thank god we had directions in Chinese to give to the driver or else who knows where we would have ended up! We got to the station with plenty of time and were able to get on an earlier train with more friends. We slept for a while then found it fascinating to look out the window and see China- farming fields and rice patty fields for miles then the tallest most depressing looking sky scrapers that all looked identical in groups of 20-50 then more fields more miles and miles. These groups of identical buildings are what they call “ghost towns”. They are built to encourage people to leave the over crowded cities but no one is leaving and so they are deserted. It is really quite spooky and there are so many of them. Due to snow and wind it took 2 extra hours to get to Beijing- 7 hours on the train….

            When we finally got there we were starving so got food in the station- pretty nasty noodles, which was a disappointment but scarfed them down anyways. Then we got in the long taxi line and headed to our hotel- thank god we had the directions because again, we never would have found it! At this point with less than 24 hours in China- it was a clear culture shock in comparison to japan. From people who wouldn’t look you in the eye to people who stared and pointed, from heated toilet seats to holes in the ground, from impeccably clean public spaces to people spitting and throwing trash on the ground- it was quite different. After getting to our awesome hotel in the cutest and best location, we got caught up on the wifi and got ready for dinner. I posted pictures and wrote a bit about our dinner at da dong earlier- in retrospect it was probably my favorite meal that we had in China! That night with the beautiful snow we walked the main street with the beautiful lights for a while having  the greatest time then went back to our hotel and snuggled up in our big comfy bed!

            After a great breakfast we were up and on our way to the Great Wall! I also wrote a bit about this before but it was literally the best day ever- sunny, snowy, blue skies and such a fun time running around and taking pictures on the wall!

            We had tea at  a tea house that was included in our tour and it was cool to try the different kinds- they take their tea very seriously!! The people there were so pushy to try to get us to buy stuff and kept offering lower prices when we said no and were very insistent- we finally left and did not buy any of their insanely over priced tea! It was only about 3:30 pm at this point so we decided to rush to Tienneman Square and the Forbidden City. We got to see the famous Mao, temples and gardens- it was freezing cold outside so we hustled around, saw the sights and checked it off our list! It was very cool and interesting to see though! We walked back to our hotel, got some sort of crepe with sauce and wanton thing, walked through a market that was selling the craziest things- scorpions, beetles, and starfish on sticks! We passed on that but did get a steamy hot waffle with whipped cream and Oreos- that was pretty tasty! Back at the hotel we were exhausted after being on our feet all day in the cold and seeing so much! We ended up napping, I called my parents for a while and when we finally got hungry again to get food- everywhere was closed. Literally Beijing has a serious lack of late night food and no one delivers- they need seamless so badly! We finally got our hotel to pick up noodles for us at a 24 hour noodle place- they were the nastiest things we had ever eaten- it was absolutely hilarious the process of getting them though- we called a lot of restaurants and spoke to a lot of people who barely spoke English.

            In the morning we checked out and decided to head to the market where they sell all the fake stuff! It was so cold out but we decided to walk because when bridget google maped it- it was only 12 minutes away. About 1.5 hours of walking later she discovered that it was 12 mins by car. All along the way we would stop into random stores to get warm and get random snacks- that is one of the most fun things about being in so many different places is all the random and funky snacks you can get. When we finally got to the market we started at the top and worked our way down. The place is about 6 stories and filled with tiny little stores and booths selling everything from purses to jewelry to shoes to clothes to trinkets. We did tons of bargaining and it was so much fun! Another thing is being in these different places there have been 3 different currencies so far (Yen- Japan, RMB- China, and HK dollar- Hong kong) for each one you have to have a different conversion in your head so you can do quick math to figure out how much things are. It was so fun to work the people down to literally a quarter of the asking price. We played off each other sometimes too and got even lower prices when we worked together to get more deals and more discounts. After about 2 hours of haggling and buying stuff we went next door and we got the greatest sandwiches and salads which we had been craving after all the noodles and rice of the past few days. We also couldn’t resist getting coldstone ice cream too! Then we headed back to the hotel (by taxi- only 10 mins and under $5 usd!) to pick up our bags and get a taxi to the airport for our 8pm flight to Hong Kong.

            Impressions of Beijing- pretty dirty, people trying to rip you off, the kindest best hotel staff, lots of communist stuff, was expecting the noodles to be better, fun post new years decorations, hutongs were fascinating to walk through, importance of having directions in Chinese, cold in the winter, vast difference between the rich and the poor. All in all Beijing has probably been the city I am least likely to go back to, but the Great Wall and the memories I made with my friends there were absolutely unforgettable.

 

            After enjoying a few pre flight cocktails, we got on our flight that was about 75% sas students! I watched The Butler and had a surprisingly good  airplane meal and fell asleep for the last hour or so of the flight. After landing, going through customs, taking the last train into the city (12:50am) we finally got to our hotel. Bridget’s mom had us stay at the Helena May club- a ladies club in Hong Kong. It was quite interesting- very old fashioned and British. The security guard who let us in was extremely rude and reluctantly led us to our rooms. The bathroom was at the end of the hall and the rooms were large and simple. My pillow case was slightly damp and the room was pretty chilly- morgan and I didn’t fall asleep until probably 2 or 3am and kept rolling over and talking- experiences like these are making the trip fantastic and creating funny memories and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

            The next morning we had to be up early because we had to meet with Ms. Phoebe at 9am to check in- we were exhausted but were showered and bags packed and on time! We checked out and decided to make our way to the boat which got the port at 7am that morning. We took the subway to the port on the Kowloon side- the port city is amazing- fun and bustling shops, restaurants, and people everywhere- by far the coolest place the boat itself has been docked yet. We dropped our stuff, grabbed food and headed up to victoria’s peak. WE took a bus then a tram all the way up to the top. Hong Kong is amazing because it a city with massively tall buildings surrounded by mountains covered in lush forest. Even though it was cloudy and cold, looking down and out across the city and over the water to the Kowloon side was gorgeous. We walked around and hung out at the top for a bit and Bridget remembered the playground from when she was a little girl which was really cute to see!

            We headed back down to the city and had the greatest time walking around and exploring Hong Kong- it is such an awesome city! There are the cutest streets to walk around in with shops, bars, and restaurants. It is hilly so there are lots of little cut down ally ways with steep steps and shops all around- we entertained ourselves for a few hours just exploring, getting Hong Kong wanton crepes, and trying on funky dresses. We then went to a bar on a cool street and people watched and had Bridget and I had these great ginger passion fruit drinks and Morgan got her favorite Chinese beer! At this point it was time to walk around to find the old bank of china building which is were we were having dinner- at The China Club. We asked a few people and finally found our way after getting help from an Australian guy who works at Abercrombie and was about 7 feet tall! We got there, changed our clothes and freshened up in the bathroom (would have taken too long to go back to the ship and change so we just brought stuff with us).

            The China Club was fascinating. It is a private club in Hong Kong that is very conservative and British. Lots of business people and very interesting décor- communist paintings, old fashioned 20s looking. We got drinks at the bar then made our way down for dinner- we had lots of dumplings and many other great dishes that we all shared. We had lots of great drinks and lots of deserts as well! Bridget’s family friend treated us to the entire meal! It was so extremely generous! 4 hours later we decided we had to head to the tallest bar in Hong Kong- Ozone Bar at the Ritz! We only had about 20 minutes to walk around, take a few pictures, share a drink and leave because B had a field lab the next day (so required to be at the ship by midnight) but we had a great time and were able to say we did it!

            Bridget headed back to the ship- on time by about 5 mins!! Morgan and I totally unnecessarily went to McDonalds and got oreo mcflurries and ate them and did wifi in the terminal! We made a deal to be up and ready to go to Lantau Island at 8am!

            After meeting morgan at breakfast we overheard an announcement about a sas trip going to lantau island so we thought we would be sneaky and follow their tour. Upon hearing more details about how confusing it was to get there and hearing how awesome their itinerary was we decided to do the organized day trip with sas. It was the best decision! After being the mother duck for the past 5 days, I was able to sit back relax and follow the leader! The day was totally packed with the coolest things we never would have seen or done without the organized trip- and we got to meet more people, have the best tour guide, and have no stress about making on ship time.

            First thing we set off in a bus to drive out of the city to see the longest suspension bridge in the world- it was really beautiful and so cool to listen to the fascinating tour guide, see the gorgeous nature surrounding the main island of hong kong, and take pictures. Then we were off to the fishing village of Tai O: the coolest old town with winding canals and houses on stilts. We walked through the market, got yummy sweet crepes that were rolled into little tubes and explored the town. They were also selling all this nasty dried fish and fried fish skin- it reeked! It was definitely extremely poor though and it was sort of sad to see how the people depend on the tourists who visit for their economy and just the great contrast in our lives. After seeing the fishing village we were off to see the biggest budda in the world! It was awesome to see and take pictures of! The elevation is so high that as we were walking up the steps (not very many- only about 3 stories) I was totally winded! Spectacular view then we headed back down for lunch at the Buddhist monastery. They are famous for the vegetarian lunch they serve- and it was incredible. It was the authentic Chinese food we had been missing and it was so tasty and fun to talk to the other people on the tour with us (only about 15 total- very small which was great!). After lunch we walked around the little tourist town, got starbucks and wifi for 30 minutes then took the gondola back to the bus. The gondola was freezing cold but had the most amazing views! We then got back on the bus and back to the port!

            I had 40 hkd left so just had to get more ice cream! Back on the ship I spent some time hearing about other people’s adventures. Another interesting thing about China was all the different cultures we encountered within the same country. People in hong kong were exponentially kinder and more willing to help out than the people in Beijing. Also the different accents- for instance the Beijing American accent was different than the people in Hong Kong due to the British influence there.

It is so good to be back in my little room with B! We are currently sitting in bed looking out our window at the spectacular lights of Hong Kong – buildings everywhere each with their own light show- it is so pretty! We can hardly get over how great these past 6 days have been and the fact that we only have 2 days on the ship then we are in Vietnam! I was talking to a life long learner who has spent lots of time in Vietnam and I told him our plan and he said we have the best itinerary set up and will be seeing and doing the best of what Vietnam has to offer- the natural beauty, history, and culture.

We have several inter-port students and lecturers each with very impressive and fascinating backgrounds who will be very interesting to learn from in the next few days on the ship. I already met a girl from Cambodia (she went on the trip to lantau island today) who is with us for 2 weeks. She is so sweet and soft spoken and I am definitely going to try to hang out with her before we get to Vietnam. Sad news is that one of my ship “sisters”, Elizabeth, who is in a wheelchair had to go back home because she broke her leg in Shanghai- I have no idea how and only heard from my ship mom the news- I am going to get her address and send her post cards from all the ports. I feel so badly for her and wish there was something I could do.

 It is only 8:30 pm but after the extreme lack of sleep over the past few days I think I am going to look through and edit some of my pictures then head to bed!