Thailand

Amanda and I headed to Thailand last week to enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival day off in HK.  We had such an amazing time and had a chance to do so much in so little time.  It was a great chance to get away from busy, busy Hong Kong and enjoy some sites in Southeast Asia.

View from the plane!  So beautiful.

Bus to Bangkok!

Bangkok

We flew out on Wednesday morning from Hong Kong and arrived in Bangkok around 1:30pm.  After taking a 1 hour train ride through the city, we finally ended up at our destination on Khoa San Road.  Khoa San is the tourist spot of Bangkok - there were so many backpackers, but even more "touters".  Touters are these crazy, crazy men that try to get you to purchase goods or tuk tuk rides... anything that they can scam you into doing.  After fending off quite a few of these guys, we finally checked into our hostel, dropped off our bags and headed off to see the Grand Palace.  But, on our way there, we were stampeded by MORE touters who were stating that the temples were closed.  We didn't believe them and kept on our journey.  Next, a nice, Thai gentleman approached us in front of one of the Museums in Bangkok.  He seemed very nice and stated that he worked at the museum.  After asking where we were from and what we had done in Bangkok, he offered some nice suggestions and taught us a bit of Thai to get around.  Then he suggested that we take a boat ride around one of the rivers in Bangkok... it sounded nice since the temples were apparently closed.  So we hopped in a tuk tuk and headed on our way to the river.  He had stated that a few stops would charge tourists 1400 baht, but the one he sent us to was 900 baht.  So, we went.  After getting on the boat, we began to question whether or not this guy was legit... 900 baht seemed a little much for this kind of ride.  We pulled out our tourist book and read that many of the Thai people in BKK were in cahoots with each other and we had indeed been scammed.  We were pissed!  After fending off so many of these people, we had been tricked.  These people were good.  But, we brushed it off and took the 30 USD loss and enjoyed the rest of the day.  Take it as a learning lesson.

Our Tuk Tuk Driver

Our private boat trip.

One of our stops on the boat trip.  We climbed all the way to the top - definitely reaffirms my growing fear of heights!

There were SO many fish in the water!

After our crazy trip down the river, we headed back towards our hostel stopping for dinner and a foot massage on the way.  We hung out at our hostel for a while before heading out to a bar on Khoa San road.  We met some international people and enjoyed watching the flock of tourists from top floor of the bar.  But, we were exhausted and headed home early to get some rest.

Thursday morning we woke up early to catch a van to go ziplining.  Little did we know that our cell phone didn't change time zones - not quite as convenient as our Blackberries in the States.  We checked the clock and figured we had missed the bus!!!  But, after calling the company, we realized we had made such a dumb mistake... but at least we didn't miss the bus.  I am sure we get the American's a good name.  We hopped on the bus and took a 2 hour ride to the middle of the tropics.
This company was fabulous and highly recommended!  They are called Flight of the Gibbon and for 2500 bahts (about 80 USD) we were picked up from our hotel in BKK, taken to Chonburi for a 3 hour zipline tour, had a great lunch and trip to the zoo, then dropped back at our hotel in Pattaya.  It was great!  The zipline tour was the highlight of our trip to Thailand - you really can't beat being above the trees, zipping around for 3 hours!  We were with a group of 8 people, all of them were coincidentally from Israel and mostly spoke Hebrew, but they were so much fun!

Ready to go!

Amanda

It was a long way down.  And when they drop you to the ground, about halfway down you see the other end of the rope headed in the opposite direction.  SCARY

We were exhausted by the time the tour was over.  We napped on the 2 hour drive down to the coastal city, Pattaya, and were finally at our hotel.  When we arrived, we were so happy to be in a hotel - that was right on the beach, for $20 a night!  What a steal.  After dropping off our stuff in the room, we hopped in the pool and relaxed the rest of the night away.

So gorgeous!

On Friday morning, we slept in and then headed to Nakhon Pathom - a smaller city in a rural part of Thailand.  We had found this place called The Hidden Holiday House - an "off the beaten path" kind of place to go.  This couple - the man was from Canada and his wife was Thai - had built a huge home on the river just outside of the city.  After deciding they had way too many rooms, they opened it up to travelers.  Such a wonderful family and great experience to see more cultural places instead of tourist attractions.

Once we arrived, we went to a local zoo where we saw an elephant show (which was hilarious), rode the elephants, and saw hundreds of alligators.  Our Tuk Tuk driver was so nice and let us stop at a local market.  It was so interesting to see the way that trade takes place.  The couple we were staying with told us that they go to the market at least twice a day, once for each meal.  They also go to different markets for each meal since each has their specialty.  The husband was telling us that he tried to convince his wife to shop the "western" way - once a week for the whole entire week.  He joked that he lost and now they go to the market twice a day.

We got back from the market/zoo and took the kayak just down the river to a local restaurant.  The food was wonderful, until Amanda ate a little red chili and about cried for 15 minutes.  Nevertheless, it was wonderful!

The next morning, the family took us for a bike ride around the area - it was so gorgeous!  Then we headed to Ayutthaya, a city that was the former capital of Thailand, to see the many, many temples.  I will post my public Facebook album link at the end of this post so you can see the 100+ pictures we took of all of the temples - if you're interested.

Floating markets

Green Tea dessert is famous here too.. gross.

Bike tour.

Once we got to Ayutthaya, we had arranged to take a bike tour around to all of the temples.  We were so happy that we paid for this tour because it would have been so difficult to find all of these temples!  We toured the city, learning about the culture and history, for about 3 hours then went for a traditional Thai massage.  When you think massage, you usually think about a relaxing, Swedish style massage.  Thai massages are anything but.  Most Thai massages focus on stretching and I swear she was trying to peel the muscle from my bone!  It was still relaxing, of course... but I think I will stick to a deep tissue massage instead.  After the massage, we were taken on a boat to see the temples at night while having dinner on the boat.  Usually there are more people on the tour, however they weren't booked since it was the middle of the rainy season - so Amanda and I had a nice, relaxing dinner to ourselves.

We stayed the night in Ayutthaya at a traditional Thai house.  It was quite an interesting night.  The bathroom was "traditional."  I would consider it traditionally, interesting.  There was a 4 foot deep by 1.5 foot wide pool (if you could even call it that) of water in the corner of the bathroom.  And there was about two feet for the shower - that had absolutely no shower area... just drained over the bathroom.  Amanda and I walked in and thought - oh crap, do we have to bathe in that small little/deep pool of water that definitely had something growing in it?  We politely asked the woman who lived in the house what exactly we were supposed to do... she giggled and asked if this was our first time to Thailand.  Of course we laughed and she told us the traditional way to bathe... using a cup of the water from the pool (remember... green things growing on the bottom) and bathing in middle of the bathroom.  We said OK and decided we would use the shower head instead of the still pool of water.  What a funny experience.  (Oh and also, the shower did not flush.)  We will consider it a cultural experience.  But all things said, the family was very nice and we were thankful they let us stay with them.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to head back to Bangkok.  After a long bus ride, we arrived at some sketchy bus station just north of the city.  We were approached by taxi drivers trying to scalp our business.  We were a bit confused as we didn't know exactly where we were - or where we had to be.  We then asked a gentleman how much they would charge to take us to where we were going - and he quoted 450 baht.  We thought it seemed a little high and dodged the guy for a metered taxi.  It ended up only being 150 baht!  What a scam.  We definitely learned not to trust the taxi drivers that quote a price - they are always inflated by 400%!  Metered taxis are the way to go in BKK.

Anyways, we were headed to a Thai cooking class next.  This was perhaps the second best part of the trip.  It was fabulous!  Once we arrived, we went to the market to learn about how to shop at a Thai Market.  He taught us about the spices and how the food is cooked in Thailand.  It was so great.  We cooked many, many dishes - Fried Cashew Nut Chicken, Coconut Soup, Red Curry, Fried Fish Cakes, Spicy Noodles and our absolute favorite: Sticky Rice and fresh Mango!

After finishing, we toured some more temples in Bangkok and then met up with my friend Yui.  On my flight from Hong Kong, I sat next to this nice girl from Bangkok - we exchanged information and kept in touch.  We met up with her and her friend at MBK (7 story shopping mall in BKK).  Then we headed to some night markets for shopping and dinner.  What a fun way to end the trip!  We headed back to the hostel to rest before our 6am flight!  The trip was so exhausting - but we were so happy to have seen so much in so little time.

We are so, so blessed to be able to travel so much!  Our next trip is going to be to Mainland China.  We will leave this Saturday and return the following Sunday... very excited!  No plans to travel any more until the end of the semester - when we return, we will be extremely busy with classes and projects.  But, we are both looking forward to the trips to come.... we just hope that we will be able to continue these travels once we start working next year.

Anyways - we will keep you all posted!  Thanks for following our travels! 

Here are the links to my pictures:
Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058174&id=1018950068&l=7893fd248e
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058176&id=1018950068&l=4a490b5d42

September 21, 2010

Good Morning!!

Things are going smoothly here in Hong Kong - Amanda and I are getting ready to take a trip to Thailand on Wednesday through Monday.  However, the forecast is predicting some pretty nasty rain for us.  We have decided to think positive, though, and are excited to see another country.

This weekend was quite fun - here's what we were up to...

Friday night a group of students went to Tsim Sha Tsui for a few drinks to start off the night....

Kathrin took the cup of dice from the bar... typical!!! :)

We went to Lantau Island by the MTR (subway) on Saturday afternoon.  Lantau Island is one of Hong Kong's many, many islands and is home to the Hong Kong airport.  Lantau is also home of the Ngong Ping 360 (sky cable car) to the Big Buddha... however this attraction caters more to tourists than to Hong Kong locals.  We were a bit disappointed, however it was a "must see" that we will only see once.

Ngong Ping 360

Gorgeous View

Art at the Buddha?

After our fun at the Buddha, we headed to the beach for a little R&R.  The beaches here are a little dirty, but not crowded at all.  After laying out for a while, our group went to dinner at an African Restaurant on the beach!  What a great way to spend a Saturday.  By the time we got home, we were exhausted!!  Fell asleep at 10:30pm and woke up the next morning at 1:30pm.  Amanda and I joke that we are back to our freshman year of college again.... whoa, flashback!  Talk to you all later!

September 15, 2010

Today marks an official 3 weeks in Hong Kong!  It definitely feels like we have been here for so much longer, perhaps that is a good thing?

School started a few weeks back and we are finally feeling like we have some sort of routine.  However, if you know anything about us - we like our life busy, busy, busy.  We find ourselves a little bored at times without work, AKPsi and our many extra-curricular activities.  But, this is the perfect chance to enjoy the culture and relax before heading into the real world in the next few months.

Classes are quite a bit different than back at ASU.  The courses are very heavily weighted on a final examination and also give many points for English proficiency (which is great for us!).  Amanda is taking courses in Financial Planning, Mandarin, Financial Systems in China, and Management.  Caitlin is taking HK-China Business, Operations Management, Quality Management, Financial Planning, and some Cantonese lessons.  The Chinese language is extremely difficult.  There are many tones, and quite frankly, they all sound so similar.  Caitlin has only had one class, hopefully she will pick up more as time goes on.  It has been so interesting learning about the history of China and I (Caitlin) am really beginning to understand how China has made such huge strides in business over the past few decades.  I am becoming more and more grateful to have chosen to come to Asia!

To give some insights into the teaching style here in HK, here is a lesson from Amanda's Management course.  The teacher apparently posted this photo (left) and said, "Manage people so they do not become human meat."

Let's just say that people are much more blunt here than in the US.

Last week we attended a horse race at the Happy Valley Raceway in Hong Kong Island.  There are weekly horse races held on Wednesdays and Sundays.  You can bet on the horses for HKD 10 (a little more than USD 1).  We placed a few bets but were very unsuccessful.  The race was incredibly crowded with onlookers, but was filled with many expats, tourists, exchange students, and a few HK locals.  We were enjoying the night until it started down pouring.  After reaching shelter and finding our way to the tram, we went out in Wan Chai and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Placing bets... go #5!!!

Happy Valley Raceway

Last Friday Amanda and I went on a boat trip around Victoria Harbor.  Sounds nice right?  Have you ever heard of a bad boat trip?  That's what we thought.....

There is a student at one of the universities that plans events for all HK exchange students.  He actually planned the very interesting dinner with the duck feet and Greek decor.  We found out that he is a "professional" event planner and actually turns a profit from our events.  Anyways, on to the story... We met at the harbor at 6pm Friday night for our nice, relaxing tour around the harbor.  After waiting until 8pm for the boats to arrive and drinks/refreshments to be loaded onto the boat, we finally were able to choose which boat we wanted to take.  So, we chose the last boat thinking that we would enjoy our company on the boat - they looked pretty chill, nice students and a few locals.  While many of the people on our boat were very nice, there were a few sour apples (to say the least).

So the boat finally takes off, we are touring the harbor - it's a little warm and muggy, but we had a beautiful view of the light show.  Then, a gentleman comes over to join our conversation.  Of course he has had a few drinks, feeling very open to sharing interesting details about himself and not opposed to leaning into everyone's personal space.  After he shared with us his desire to pole and lap dance, we finally convinced him to head downstairs on the boat to grab a drink (...the drinks were terrible).  And he was gone.... "phew," we thought.  But then the unimaginable happened - lightening, thunder, and pouring rain.  Amanda and I have collected 4 umbrellas so far - each time it rains, we NEVER have an umbrella.  Typical.

We ran downstairs to get shelter as the boat was rocking back and forth with the unhappy tide.  Finding a spot next to our friends from PolyU we anticipated that driver would head back to harbor given the terrible storm.  But we were wrong.  The boat kept on it's track around the harbor for about 20 minutes while Amanda and I (we are going to be quite worrisome mothers...) were grabbing eachothers arms for our life.

By this time, the local students AND the organizer of the trip have had a few drinks (it was probably only two..., but anyways...) and they are incredibly intoxicated.  In fact, a local student fell down the stairs from the top of the boat before hanging off the side of the boat to puke.  It was awful.  Amanda and I were worried for his life, however the rest of the boat seemed to think that it was OK to lean over the boat, feet off the ground, in the middle of a lightening storm.  Now we know why many Asians do not drink...

Some more time passes and the driver realizes that maybe it's not good to be in the middle of the harbor at this time and decides to pick up speed.  And... the boat starts smoking.  Oh jeez.  We are even more freaked out but are headed in the right direction and can see the harbor at this point.  But to top off the night, a highly intoxicated man was running around asking any and every girl to dance with him - and we can tell he is not a good dancer.  He even said to the gentleman sitting with 5 of us ladies, "Dude, you have 5 women around you - share the love.  Let's dance!"  Looking back, it was hilarious but at the time we were really not having it.

After finally making it back to shore safe and sound, Amanda and I were so happy to have be back on solid ground.  What an interesting trip, we are thankful to have survived.  Perhaps we overreacted - but it was unreal.

Sailing away...

Well, I think that's all to share for now.  Plans for this week include a Black and White party, hiking and seafood on Lantau Island and a trip to see the Big Budda.  We are headed to Thailand next week from Wednesday (9/22) through Monday (9/27).  Check back sometime next week!

September 4, 2010

Nei Hou!

Time is sure flying here in Hong Kong - we have successfully finished our first week of school and are beginning to love the city even more than before!  Here's what we've been up to...


Wednesday -

Traditional Cantonese Wedding Dinner - 


A student here in Hong Kong organized a dinner with exchange students from all universities in Hong Kong.  There were over 300 students in a Greek Decorated, Chinese food restaurant.  The decor didn't quite match the food, but it was still an unforgettable experience.


There were 10 courses served at the dinner including:
1.  Spring Rolls
2.  Pig Feet, Pork and Jellyfish
3. Squid and Celery
4.  Mushrooms and Cabbage
5.  Duck Feet and Mushrooms (we are not sure)
6.  Chicken + Chicken Head
7.  An Entire Fish
8.  Fried Rice and Noodles
9.  Shrimp Jelly Soup
10.  Dessert - Cold Bean Soup


Needless to say, it was a very interesting meal.  None of the students wanted to touch the food, but most of us were courageous enough to at least try the food.  Someone at our table even ate the chicken head!  What an experience!

Cold, sweet, bean soup dessert.

The Decor

Would anyone like a chicken head?

Duck Foot

Our Favorite Course!

Ladies Night - 


Ladies night is pretty big here in HK.  After our horrible dinner on Wednesday night, we decided to head out to Wan Chai to forget about what we had just eaten.  It was quite fun, but the club was packed.  I guess you can't beat free drinks/entry on a weekday!  What a fun night!

Amanda, Ben, Kathrin, and Caitlin at Ladies Night!

Thursday -

We went to class and rested up for the rest of the weekend!
 

Friday -

The Hong Kong Museum of History -


A group of us decided to dodge the rain and head to the HK Museum of History.  For only HKD 5 (less than one US dollar) we toured the museum.  They had really done a great job on the museum and we learned so much about Chinese Fashion, History of HK, the Opium War and so much more...

Chinese Qipao

Kareoke - 

Friday night we had our first experience with Asian style Karaoke. Our
German friends Kathrin & Katharina invited us to meet up with some of
their friends who had planned the Kareoke night. After meeting up with
everyone for a delicious Thai dinner, we took an elevator down to an
underground Karaoke club where we weaved through a labyrinth of dark
hallways filled with private karaoke rooms. Our room was large with
several couches and a big TV screen for the Karaoke music videos.
There were around 15-20 people from all around the world with us who
all sang at the same time. The combination of off key singing and
accents from Germany, Japan, Australia, England and other places
resulted in a sound that was far from harmonious. Favorite bands/songs
of the night were Ghostbusters, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Queen
and the Beach Boys. After a few drinks of green tea mixed with whiskey
the guys put on toilet seat covers as necklaces and danced around. We
had a blast singing with everyone belting out tunes and dancing until
3AM. Hopefully there will be much more Karaoke in our futures, even if
it was a little pricey!

Seat cover necklace anyone?

Saturday - 


Ferry Trip to Hong Kong Island - 


There is a ferry that takes travelers from Tsim Shaw Tsui to Hong Kong Island.  For just a couple HK dollars, we took an 8 minute ride across the channel to the IFC building.  After some shopping, we took a break to grab some delicious coffee and danish.

After this, Amanda and myself decided to be courageous and take the MTR (subway) to a random stop, get off, and explore.  Don't worry, Mom, we knew where we were.... kinda.  We got off in East Kowloon which is approximately 15 miles from our dorm room.  This part of the city is much more family oriented and slower paced than other parts of the city.  After taking a stroll in a park and around the area, we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading back home.  We stopped in a little restaurant in a mall that looked OK from the window - nice, clean, full of customers.  We thought, "Hey, it can't be THAT bad, right?"  Wrong.


The menu was completely in Chinese, which is okay.  There were pictures and we decided it would be exciting to try the "pick and pray" method.  We ordered soup, noodles, and dim sum (dumpling type food).


First, out comes the soup... it's disgusting.  The soup is similar consistency to Egg Drop Soup and is filled with tentacle-like long, black strings.  There were definitely feelers on these things.  The soup also had tofu and something similar to tofu, but black.  It was horrible!!!!


We pushed the bowl to the side and waited for the next course.  Out comes the noodles which was an even larger bowl of this tentacle-soup that simply included noodles.  Our jaw dropped in shock - how could a picture look so unlike the food?  The dim sum arrived and turned out to be OK.  They were chicken wrapped in a green, rice-like coating... we hope it was chicken.

We have decided that Thai food > Cantonese food... looking forward to our trip to Thailand in the winter!!


Sunday - 

Today we headed to Lamma Island with two of our friends from Germany.  It was about a 30 minute ferry ride to the island.  After arriving, we walked through the small beach town to the beach.  We laid on the beach for about an hour and a half before hiking 5K through the island to the other side.  The island was absolutely beautiful!  Full of greenery and a view for miles.  It was really an awesome and relaxing day.

Egg Tart

Welcome to Lamma Island

Well, we are done for the night!  What an exhausting, yet exciting, few days - back to school tomorrow.  Talk to you all soon!