Hong Kong

Today was my first day in China.  Our schedule for China is a bit different than other ports. We docked in Hong Kong today, and the ship will set sail for Shang Hai tomorrow night.  The ship then arrives in Shang Hai on the 30th, and will leave the evening of April 1.  I am on an SAS trip to Beijing, which means I had today in Hong Kong, will leave for Beijing tomorrow, and stay there for four days, so I’ll miss the transit days (there are no classes) then I’ll get the last two days in Shang Hai. 

With only a day in Hong Kong Hassan and I decided we wanted to have a great adventurous day with no one holding us back so we chose to separate from the group and go out alone. The motto of the day was “forward is the way!” We could never turn around unless we really needed to, like when we had to find an atm and when we almost ended up eating lunch at somewhere called “Main Street USA.”

The day started by us disembarking the boat into the HUGEST MALL EVER. Seriously, the HUGEST. MALL. EVER. It was crazy and overwhelming and our only goal was to get out of it as quickly as possible.  We eventually found our way out and started wandering the (gorgeous, expensive) streets of Hong Kong. Our goal was to take a bus somewhere but the bus system was way too complicated so in the interest of saving time we jumped into a cab and asked to go the only place we knew the name of “Stanley Market.”  The ride there with traffic was about a half hour, and on the way we passed something called “Ocean Park.” We didn’t know anything about it except on the signs there were pandas and dolphins so we knew we had to go.

We eventually got to Stanley Market and wandered around looking at everything. I have been wanting to buy a Maj set of my own in China but I didn’t find any as pretty as my moms so I didn’t get one today, but I’m going to continue on my search! My goal is still to get a Maj game going in Seattle, I really do go through withdrawal when I’m at school.  After an hour of wandering we realized we were WAY marketed out and wanted to get lunch.

We passed a really nice, authentic looking Chinese place but wanted to see what else there was and the waterfront looked nice so we went down there, only to find the most American area ever. Everyone was eating burgers and the restaurants titles were things like “Main Street USA,” “The Pub” and “American Place.” Yeah, not our style.  This was the occasion we decided it was ok to backtrack and went back to the little Chinese place and got the most delicious food, we got spring rolls and lichi wine and noodles and poached chicken and custard donut things and it was all steaming hot and absolutely delicious.

After lunch we decided… OCEAN PARK TIME!!! Ocean Park is some kind of amusement park, there was an aquarium, pandas, sea lions, some rides and HELLA gift shops. At least one gift shop per other attraction.  The strange thing about it though was the median age of the park-goers. It was probably 15% families with children, 10% teenagers, 5% foreigners and the other 70%, I kid you not, were pushy middle aged people. I’m talking single men in business suits pushing in front of us at the aquarium and waiting in line to go on “The Flash,” an upside down turny ride.  The amount of older people there was ridiculous and we couldn’t quite figure it out but I guess people do different things for fun in China.

The aquarium had some cool stuff but was VERY overwhelming. Everyone was really excited and therefore kind of rude and pushy. I got shoved several times and people traveled in huge groups of maybe 15 and would crowd around exhibits for 15 minutes, then go to crowd around the next exhibit and a new group of 15 would take their place. I don’t want to be any un-pc assumptions or generalizations but it was very frustrating and I’ll let you form your own opinion. With children I understand that they want to see the cuddle fish, it was just strange to me to have to fight over space with people in their 50’s.  There were a bunch of baby hammer head sharks and giant sting rays and that was epic.

After the aquarium I got to see A PANDA EAT BAMBOO!!! It was sooooooooooo cute. Really, so cute. There was also a panda sleeping in a tree which I thought was adorable but no one else did, they were all crowded around the panda eating and didn’t care about the sleepy one. I thought they were both equally as cute but I guess the one with the bamboo did the first mention with the exclamation marks so maybe I agree with everyone else at the park.

After the pandas we road The Flash which was basically a giant ride that spins you around and turns you upside down. Normally at this age I wouldn’t go near this thing but the view you got of Hong Kong was amaaaazing and made the whole trip worth it.  There was one moment where at the top I was upside down looking at the city knowing I was on the other side of the world from where I started, that I got here on a boat across the ocean and that north and south don’t really mean anything, they’re just labels and the earth is floating somewhere in the galaxy and for that split second everything made sense, but Hassan thinks I just thought the ride would break and I would die. 

Following The Flash we tried to keep enjoying the park but got very overwhelmed with the massive amount of pushy groups of people and decided to leave. We couldn’t leave without riding the gandala over the mountain though! It was very cool but we had to wait in line for around 45 minutes and fight off this dude in a suit behind us who kept trying to inch past, but the view was awesome once we got up there. I almost freaked out when we started discussing what would happen if it broke up luckily everything turned out all right.

We left Ocean Park and at that point I kind of hit a wall. The waves were REALLY rough coming from Vietnam to China and I, along with the rest of the boat, barely slept. At one point Ashley and I were each literally thrown two feet into the air off of our beds a few times in a row, lights were falling down in the union. It’s been bad. It had finally got the best of me and we decided to get back to the boat and relax.

All was fine until we ended up back in that stupid massive mall. We got SO LOST. We literally wandered around for about an hour trying to get to the gangway and find the boat and I was soooo exhausted and overwhelmed and just wanted to get into my bed that when we finally found it I almost cried, only except there was a sit down pizza hut so we decided to reward ourselves in an American way and get pizza. It was delicious of course but by the end I literally could barely keep my eyes open let alone hold a conversation so i dragged myself back to the boat afterward and got into bed and that’s where I’ve remained for the past four hours. I haven’t slept yet but definitely feel more rested.  I feel a little bit guilty about not going out my one night in Hong Kong but I just wasn’t up for it tonight. I am going to spend the next four days tarveling through Beijing and I want to be well rested for it. Besides, things are EXPENSIVE here. And I don’t need to waste money so I can feel terrible tomorrow. I very rarely have the room to myself and the boat in silence so this relaxation has been nice.

That’s about it. I will try to update about Beijing as we got along so I don’t get behind as I have in the past with entries.  Hope everyone is doing well! Sorry about the lack of pictures, facebook was blocked in Vietnam and is blocked in China as well. That’s how you know there’s something screwy with a government…  I’ll have them up as soon as I can!