Filling in the blanks

I've skipped out a few of the fun things that we did amidst all the travelling and exploring. The second weekend that we were there, the IPO hosted a Welcome party for us and our buddies. They had a program in which some really talented students sang and played a Chinese traditional instrument. They also had a live band. After that we played a few games and then broke out to visit the different stalls that were set up. There was one where the students taught us Chinese Calligraphy, one where they taught us how to play a musical instrument, one where they tuaght origami, one where you could play a chinese version of Link 4 except you link 5 and a challenge involving bouncing of a ping pong ball on a bat. It was a fun 3 hours.

The IPO also took us to visit a wet market which is an open air market with lots and lots of stalls where they sell EVERY food item from spices to fruits, from vegetables to fresh poultry meat and fish. You point to the live fish you want and they'll take it out and give it to you right then and there. We saw all parts of all the animals they sell. I was a little grossed out especially when we were walking through the seafood section. I had to cover my nose and even eyes. The market is very crowded and I think everyone shops at the wet market irrespective of socio-economic status.

After the wet market we were taken to our cooking class. That was a lot of fun. We split into 2 groups and one group started off with making dumplings and the other cutting and cooking. The woman teaching us how to make dumplings didn't speak English, so we had translators. I was told by the translators that the woman teaching us said that I was the best at making the dumplings dough and everyone else was horrible. That reinforced my desire to be a chef when I grow up.

We also went to the Shanghai World Financial Center - third tallest building in the world

photoshoot on the way to the SWFC

View from the 100th floor

Another thing that everyone who goes to Shanghai has to do is visit the Expo. We reached an hour before it opened and we weren't anywhere close to the front of the line and it was pouring. Yup, that's how many people want to visit the expo. There's no chance of seeing the Chinese pavillion unless you are first in line which will only happen if you get there at 5 am.

We visited a bunch of pavillions- Spain, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Lebanon, the space pavilion, GM pavilion and a couple others. Spain was my favorite. Waiting in the lines was kept eventful because people kept trying to push past us. If we weren't alert all the time and didn't form a wall people would just push past us. It was annoying but we started making jokes about it. The worst was when mothers would send their tiny children to dart between our legs and go ahead of us. Then we wouldn't have any choice but to let the mothers ahead. It was quite a struggle to maintain our position in line. We survived though. We also spent around 14 hours at the expo and we weren't anywhere close to being done.

Line at the Expo

Spain Pavilion

Coca Cola Pavilion

The IPO office also took us to an acrobat show which was really good. It was very entertaining and in one of the acts there were 8 motorcycles zooming around in a ball that didn't look like it could fit 3.

The last thing we did that was hosted by the IPO was the Farewell Party. It was a great party! We got there and had some delicious food. After which all the kids were given mock awards. We then gave gifts to our buddies. Czahreena and Amanda made farewell speeches. Copp thanked them from our side. If that wasn't enough to make the mood sentimental, Joe Lu made a Farewell video that left all of us feeling very sad that we had to leave. Then swoops in Vincent with an 11 minute video that he made of all our adventures in China that brought tears to more than a few people's eyes. It shows exactly how great our experience was. Follow this link for the video.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4081704&op=8&o=global&view=global&subj=518485675&id=798182481#!/video/video.php?v=1507418366532&subj=1266480028

Thanks Vince =)

Good bye China. Hopefully, I'll be back soon!

Nayana

Hong Kong: Day 3 and 4

Day 3 was a big day! We walked to the closest metro station which was about a 10 minute walk away and took the metro to another island called Lantau Island. On this island we were going to go see the Big Buddha! This is/was the largest outdoor statue of a Buddha and can even be seen from Macau on a very clear day. Too bad we've had none of those since we left Shanghai. Anyways, once we got off the metro, some people sprinted through some fountains and then we made our way up the escalator to our next mode of transportation which would be cable cars! We had to wait in line for a while and while in line we were approached by some people who proceeded to tell us about a tour package they had. Vince helped us decide that taking up their offer was a good idea because it wasn't much more expensive for what they were offering. So, we paid, got some stickers put on us (the woman put my sticker straight on my arm instead of my t-shirt which i wasn't happy about) and conveniently moved up to the front of the line. We could choose between a normal cable car or a glass floor cable car for our 20 minute ride. Of course we picked the glass floors. Our group of 13 split into 2 cable cars and for the 20 minutes we just took in the beautiful surroundings. We could see the mountains, the ocean, the trees... it was gorgeous and picking cable cars with glass floors was definitely a great idea.

We got to the top where we rushed to meet our tour guide for the day - Andy. Andy was a funny guy. He whisked us into a van and we headed towards the old Tai-o fishing village. It was a really small and poor village where it would flood often. So, all the houses were built on stilts. This village sold some very interesting spices including very smelly anchovies and a smelly fruit called durian both of which Andy banned us from bringing back to the van. We also saw some very expensive dried fish stomach for sale. 43,000 RMB for dried fish stomach anyone? None of us were interested so we moved on to a temple where Andy informed us of some of the rituals observed. After that we were left for a while to take pictures and explore before we headed back to the van.

Next, we headed to the Po Lin Monastery. We were instructed to be very respectful and quiet in there. Also, we were forbidden from taking pictures of people praying because that meant we took their soul. The monastery had a few statues of the Buddha, not much. We were quickly done walking through there. Andy told us we could either go our own way and the see the Big Buddha and the go the Wisdom path or meet him at a certain time to go back. We decided to be on our own and said goodbye to Andy.

Before heading out to explore we decided to grab some lunch. Since, the monks in the monastery were pure vegetarians they decided to open a vegetarian restaurant by the monastery. We decided to eat there. The meal wasn't bad. After the meal, we climbed the 250 steps up to the Big Buddha. It was actually very beautiful and very big. There were 3 floors of exhibits and one original relic that was obtained from the Buddha when he died that was preserved in the museum. We hung around up there for a while taking pictures and taking in the scenery and enjoying the breeze. Going down the 250 steps was much faster than climbing them.

Next, we headed towards the Wisdom path which was in the shape of an 8 to symbolize infinity. There were trees split into half all along the path with sayings in Chinese written on them. Alvin tried explaining one of them to me. They sounded very wisdomous indeed. I did feel wiser after walking along the 8, however since I couldn't understand what was written on the pillars the wisdom I gained wore out by the end of the day. There was a hiking path close by and we walked on that and spent some time around there fooling around. We found a wild really cute puppy there and it was decided that it was one of our friends Bill's dog. So, obviously we named him Bill. We were sad that we couldn't take Bill back with us. Also, he hadn't quite mastered the art of going downhill or climbing up stairs yet.

We headed back towards our glass floor cable car and on the way back played the quiet game in our cable car. This game is guaranteed to make your 20 min cable car ride really fun especially if you have on person who is afraid of heights, one person who is very ticklish and one person who doesn't know how to play the quiet game. On the way back to the metro station we ran through the fountains again and got laughed at as usual. Just to clarify, we weren't the only ones running through the fountains there were some school kids as well. So, this wasn't us being loud and obnoxious.

We took the metro to the Avenue of Stars which is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We didn't recognize most of the celebrities names however we did recognize Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li :)

Vince wishes he was Jet Li

The Avenue of Stars is also where you can see beautiful Hong Kong Downtown and where the light show is. We walked around for an hour or so and waited for the light show. Light show started at 8, we came to the front by 7.40 ish to get good spots from which to see the light show. I think we were pretty successful in getting a good spot. The light show was good, not spectacular. I guess my expectations were higher, however the view more than made up for it.

After the light show, we headed back to Times Square to get dinner. We headed to a restaurant called Crystal Jade where Alex had made reservations for us. The food was pretty good. After dinner, keeping up with tradition, we found a bar to catch the soccer game. I think this was the USA game against Slovenia(?) when we thought USA made that 3rd goal we all jumped up and started cheering. However, it wasn't meant to be and we got laughed at yet again. That was all we did on Day 3 and my last full day in Hong Kong.

Day 4: Some people had flights in the morning and so we said good bye to them. The rest of us headed to Stanley Market which was on the side of the Hong Kong Island that we hadn't been to yet. The drive there was sooo beautiful. We drove by the water and it was so gorgeous. It was a clear day too and it was really hot. We shopped at Stanley market for a few hours and then headed to the water front. Some of the kids climbed on the rocks and got to the middle of the water. Alex and I, had to leave soon but we wanted to explore the central district before we had to leave. So we said good bye to the rest of the group and headed to the financial district which was basically the buildings we saw from the Avenue of Stars. We walked around for a while and got our favorite snack from Hong Kong for the last time which was peanut butter and condensed milk inside a waffle...yummmm. We walked back to our hotel and since it was such a hot day, we were soaked with sweat and very thankful for the hotels air conditioning.

We said our goodbyes to Hong Kong with a heavy heart and headed to the airport and back to Shanghai.

Stanley

Central District

Alex and her Waffle

Hong Kong is so beautiful and I really enjoyed myself there. It was only made better by the people I went with. Special thanks to Alex and Vince for helping me plan and figure stuff out.

My only regret was that we didn't actually celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong. But, I will miss Hong Kong and I wish that I can go back some day :)

Nayana

Hong Kong: Day 1 and 2

Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities! We got there Wednesday evening and after settling into our hotel, we took cabs to the Peak! From reading online, we were told that we would take a tram up to a look out point from where the whole city would be visible and the view would be fantastic. So, we got on a tram which we paid for with our octopus cards (multipurpose cards that can be used to pay for metro rides, tram rides, in convenience stores etc. ). The tram took us up the tracks which were at a very high incline and we got glimpses of the view we would be seeing from up top - it looked promising.

The Tram

Alex and Vince on the tram

When we reached the top we were surprised to see that where we got off was actually a huge multi-story mall!

Entering the Mall

We split up to get some dinner. In Shanghai, everyone speaks Mandarin. However, in Hong Kong, everyone speaks Cantonese and almost everyone speaks English. It is much easier to get around and ask for directions in Hong Kong. The hotel staff were all fluent in English unlike the hotel staff in a hotel in Shanghai or Beijing. Also, while walking down a street in Hong Kong, you are more likely to come across immigrants from countries like India that have now settled down here. Immigrants in Shanghai or Beijing are almost non existent. Apart from the language, the food in Hong Kong is also different. They eat Cantonese food which is lighter and the food has less seasoning and spices. I got my first taste of Cantonese food at dinner that night. I ate some noodles with beef. It was delicious!

My dinner

After dinner, we headed towards the top most floor from which we would be able to see the peak and the breathtaking view. When we got in line to pay to get up there, the woman selling tickets told us that it was very very foggy outside and there would no point trying to go up there that night. We peeked outside and saw for ourselves that you couldn't see more than a foot ahead of you. We were pretty disappointed and headed back out and got into cabs.

The cab ride was an interesting one both in terms of the driving and the conversation. We had to go downhill and visibility was almost zero. That didn't stop the cab driver from driving quite fast nor did it stop him from making interesting and entertaining conversation. I was manly the target of the conversation much to the amusement of the rest of my friends in the backseat. I was glad when the ride was over and we got off at a really cool area called Lan Kwai Fong which is famous for it's nightlife. It was a sloped street that looked like it could belong in San Francisco, but instead of adorable houses, it had loads and loads of bars mostly sports bars. There was a FIFA World Cup game between Switzerland and Spain, so we found a bar that would seat our big group and went in. Luckily and to our surprise, that bar in Hong Kong had people from Switzerland cheering on their team. It was fun watching them especially when their team won.

Lan Kwai Fong

Lan Kwai Fong

Next morning, we headed out to a restaurant not very far from our hotel for dimsum. The breakfast was delicious. Czahreena and Vince helped order and they made really good choices. They also ordered a lot so everyone was very satisfied. The food turned out be pretty inexpensive considering the amount we ate.

Dim Sum - Delicious Meal

Group picture after breakfast

Hong Kong is famous for shopping, so after our delicious breakfast we took a ding ding to Times Square. What's a Ding Ding you ask? and what is Times Square doing in Hong Kong?

This is a Ding Ding, followed by some pictures I took on the streets of Hong Kong. A ding ding is like a tram or a trolley that is double decker-ed. They run on tracks along the roads and are very commonly used. They almost replace buses.

Ding Ding

Streets of Hong Kong

Times Square is a very famous shopping mall in Hong Kong with stores that have all the known name brands. We killed a couple of hours that morning just shopping. You can tell that shopping is a big deal in Hong Kong because all the people - ladies and men are very trendy. More trendier even than the people in China or America. Most people say that Hong Kong is one step ahead of the world in fashion.

Times Square

Entering Times Square

Buzz Lightyear in Times Square !?

Shopping

After window shopping, we decided to head towards a park and maybe hang out by the water if we could find. However, once we got to the park, the boys saw a soccer field and immediately wanted to play. The only problem: They didn't have a soccer ball. How do they solve the problem: They make friends with a bunch of 10 year old local kids who were playing soccer on one of the fields and the kids invite them to play with them! The boys were so happy and immediately started playing! The girls walked around the park and then came across a soccer class for 2 -4 year old boys. This was the cutest thing. We spent a couple of minutes being creepy and taking pictures of them! Later, we headed back to the soccer field where our friends were, to watch the game. It was a very very hot day, so we found a nice patch of shade from which to watch the boys play in the scorching heat.

Soccer with local kids

Soccer class for kids

The boys were extremely excited after their game because never did they imagine that they would come to Hong Kong and get to play soccer with a couple of local kids. Once they got over their excitement and took showers, we headed to the famous electric store and night markets of Hong Kong located in the area Mong Kok. We got there by MTR which is the metro. The MTR in Hong Kong is really great! It took us almost everywhere we wanted to go. It is much cheaper than Hong Kong cabs.. which aren't as cheap as Shanghai ones.

Once we got to Mong Kok we split up for dinner. Vince, Alex and I found a hole in the wall restaurant where they served very cheap and delicious bowl noodle soup! We wiped down our chopsticks and dug in!

Hole in the wall restaurant

We walked around the electronics store and then the Ladies Market. The Ladies Market was cool. They had t shirts, sunglasses, skirts, pants, jewelery, everything. Once we were done with Ladies Market, we headed to the Temple Street Market which I liked better. It had a lot of small silly stuff like jewelery, clothes you'd never wear, interesting and useless souvenirs, toys and other exciting stuff.

Since our China phones didn't work in Hong Kong only a select few of us bought Hong Kong sim cards and the rest of us just stuck to someone who had a phone. On the walk from the Ladies Market to the Temple Street Market, we lost 2 of our friends neither of whom had phones. We had no idea when or where they had strayed away from the group. Neither us nor them had any means of contacting us. So we sent out 2 search parties. One that went ahead and one that retraced our steps. The first group returned quickly empty handed. The second group returned around 40 minutes later with our lost friends. So kudos to Vince and Hakim for not giving up the search and looking until they found them even though the 2 lost kids could have easily found their way back to the hotel .

Markets and Streets of Hong Kong

After the shopping, we found a place to watch the game and that's how we ended our second amazing night in one of the best cities in the world.

Nayana