Hong Kong & Beijing . . .

Hello from Hong Kong!!!

It’s 10:08 p.m. On ship time was 9 p.m. and we’re still waiting for some SAS Beijing trips to return. There were lots of flight delays today. My flight from Beijing was almost two hours late.

I had an amazing first day/night taking in the culture, view, and nightlife of Hong Kong on my first day here. It is so beautiful, especially lit up at night. After a day of meandering the city, shopping, viewing the city lit up at night from Victoria’s Peak, and having dinner, I almost didn’t go out because I knew I had to be up early, but I’m not very hard to convince to go out, and I figured that it was my only night in Hong Kong, so when some of my friends decided to go, I went . . . It was so expensive, excessive, and late but so much fun. The bars were amazing and people from all over the world congregated in the streets between the bars with much cheaper drinks from 7-11.

Then, after two hours of sleep, I trekked to the Hong Kong airport on my own and met Matt in Beijing (he came from Shanghai where he was visiting another friend). We had an amazing time touring the sights of Beijing (Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, etc.). We had so much fun and really immersed ourselves in the culture. We just decided what we wanted to do and figured out a way to get there with our “book” (Beijing Lonely Planet) in hand. We saw very few SASers or other English speaking people for that matter. Somehow we always ended up on the “Chinese Tourist trek.” We spent a lot of times really confused about what was happening, but it always worked out.

The first night that we were in Beijing, we just walked around the city and saw Tiananmen Square, part of the Forbidden City, a night food market, and another night shopping market. It was so much fun just wandering around, and I felt like we saw so much without seeing anything at all. That evening, after a nice traditional Chinese dinner at the hotel, we went to the loungy bars of Bar Street for a couple of drinks and then called it a night.

We decided that we would get up early on our second day in Beijing and take some sort of public bus to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We somehow ended up on a very cheap all day tour to the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Emperors Museum, a jade shop, and a medicine shop with a bunch of Chinese tourists. None of them spoke any English (except one of the tour leaders who knew enough to let us know when we had to get back on the bus). So, we basically just rode around in this bus all day knowing that we would eventually make it to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs and making our own fun at each stop. We made sure to keep an eye out for our tour mates and sort of went off exploring on our own at each stop. We depended on “the book” and the English signs at the sites to figure out what we were looking at. You could tell that the people on our tour got a big kick out of us. There was a younger couple who sat across from us on the bus. The lady wanted her picture taken with me and the man finally commented (in very broken English) on the way back to the city how tall Matt was.

At one point we got off the bus and they sent us to a grocery store. Since it was around lunch time, we thought we were supposed to buy food there for lunch. We were so confused about what everything was. They had tons of cooked (?) duck in big bags and lots of sweet looking mystery junk food. We ended up deciding on a couple packets of random cracker looking things. It turned out that wasn’t our lunch after all, because when we left the store, we were ushered into a restaurant next door and sat at a table with six Chinese people (who spoke no English), various Chinese dishes, and chop sticks. They were all very nice and didn’t laugh at our chop-stick skills, but I know they would have. Picking up slimy potatoes with plastic chop sticks is not an easy thing to do! But, when they saw Matt struggling with one, they passed the plate closer for him. There we were in a huge restaurant full of Chinese tourists – a little blond girl and a tall white boy. It was so much fun.

We eventually did make it to the Great Wall. We took these little individual slider cars up a little section of the wall and then hiked up the steep stairs the rest of the way, and we climbed all the way down. It was a little bit of work, but worth it for the views, the experience, and the “I Climbed the Great Wall” t-shirt that Matt said I had earned enough to buy. The magnitude of the wall and the surrounding natural beauty was truly breathtaking and awe inspiring.

After we returned from our day trip, we did a little shopping (i.e. fighting for our lives) at the Pearl Market. The Beijing hawker brings a whole new level to the market scene. They physically, forcefully, pull you back to their shops and stands. It’s pretty scary. You cannot stop and look/ask about anything unless you are serious about buying it. I guess that I’ve really gotten good at my bargaining skills, because I was getting some great deals, although I didn’t really buy too much. A couple times throughout the day Matt had actually thrown out a higher price than what the vendor had already come down to with me. It was pretty funny. Anyways, he kept saying that I didn’t bargain, I just said one price and stuck to it. It was kind of true, but it usually worked. I’ve kind of gotten used to what things should cost at these markets. A couple of the ladies told me how clever I was after we finished our deals.

After the Pearl Market, took a walk through the Temple of Heaven park in the pitch black darkness and speculated at the shadows of ruined buildings. I actually think that it was cooler in the dark than it would have been during the day. It was a lovely walk. Then, we took a scenic forty-five minute ride around Beijing looking for a restaurant that the book suggested. We ended up back at our hotel and somehow wondered down a back alley to little Chinese restaurant hidden up the second floor of the side of a building. Again, we walked into a busy restaurant full of Chinese locals/tourists. The food was amazing, plentiful, and inexpensive! I didn’t know that they really had sweet and sour pork in China, but they had it there, and it was wonderful.

The next day, we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace. Everything was interesting, ancient, and beautiful. The Summer palace was a bit out of town. It was probably my favorite sight of Beijing. It was a sprawling estate of hundreds of old buildings and gardens around a huge lake. Even though there were no flowers because it was winter, the winter foliage (the brown leaves on the trees, the weeping willows, and the browned paddies in the lakes) were gorgeous. We spent a lot of time exploring some of the buildings identified on our map until we somehow stumbled into an older section of the estate. There were tons of buildings and ruins going up the side of a hill that clearly hadn’t been restored yet. There were very few people checking them out and it felt like we had stumbled into an undiscovered part of the grounds. We even did some hiking up the side of a hill with very rudimentary paths to some ruin and caves. Everywhere we turned, there was something incredible and beautiful to discover. We spent about four hours there just meandering around, and I’m sure we could have spent so much longer but it was closing and we were tired and exhausted.

That night, we went out and enjoyed some famous Peking duck. They carved it right in front of us and showed us how to make a duck taco with the duck, pancakes, scallions, and paste. It tasted kind of like dark meat turkey. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think that I’d order duck again. I’m glad that I tried it though. After dinner, we just meandered around the streets a bit and did a little shopping. Then we headed back to the hotel, packed up, had some beer and chocolate from the store downstairs, and got to bed in order to have five hours of sleep before we had to wake up and leave for the airport back to Hong Kong.

Matt flew back with me to Hong Kong, where he is meeting some friends tomorrow. Our flight was almost two hours late, which kind of stunk. Anyways, we took the Airport Express train/bus to Matt’s hotel and he dropped off his stuff. Coincidentally, it turned out that his hotel was in the same mall as my ship was docked against. So, we then took a quick run and dropped off my stuff. Then we took a walk down some of the busy streets and took in all the stores and markets before heading to the night market. We did a little shopping and had a very good Thai meal at a local restaurant. Then (around 8:40 p.m.) Matt walked me back to the ship and we said goodbye just in time for me to get in line before the seven bus loads of SAS kids returning late from Beijing trips.

It was so nice seeing someone from home. He brought me a new computer charger, Doritos, and news from home. I’m super sad that my semester is wrapping up, but I’m excited to get home and see everyone and do normal things like eat pizza, watch t.v., go to the movies, and talk on the phone.


Mail Call

Thank you so much for the mail Veronica (and family), Grandma, and Mom, Tim, Alex, and Nate. You have no idea how excited I get over my mail. It’s so much fun to receive and hear news from home. I have my cards displayed all over my wall.

Veronica – I love your long letters with news from home. Thank you so much for the pictures. I’m going to put them up on my wall. Everyone looks great! It looks/sounds like the party was a great success. I completely get your undertone of study hard, don’t party too much. Don’t worry. I’m learning a lot and having a fabulous time. And, you’re right, this is my first “dorm” experience, so I’m really having a blast with it.

Grandma – I love your cards. They are always so sweet, pretty, and informative. The news clippings that you sent in Vietnam were so funny. I’m assuming that they were in reference to my Salsa stories. Anyways, I always look forward to getting your cards in every port. I always know there will be one.

Thanks Mom, Tim, Alex, and Nate for the great package. I eat the granola bars for breakfast almost every morning. I was really excited about the new kind you sent. Anyways, you refill my snack drawer just in time, every time. I never have time to pick anything up in port. Alex, your letter and drawing was so sweet. Congratulations on making the basketball team. You’re also doing yearbook AND newspaper too? I think that you’re a little overachiever in the making, just like your big sister (me!).

Mom – I’m sorry that I haven’t called. I know that I said I would. I really try, but I get so ridiculously busy in port. I feel like I’m always rushing around like crazy trying to get the most out of everything. I’ll be home soon and we’ll have lots and lots of time to catch up.



Rough Seas Ahead . . .

Now for the on-ship news – The voice came on the P.A. a little while ago and told us to secure our T.V.s and all other articles. We will be hitting rough seas in the early morning. It’s going to be the roughest seas we’ve experienced yet. She mentioned rocking from side to side and some pitching. Here’s to testing the theory of being over my sea sickness . . .

AND, there is a sign posted in the hall . . . tomorrow we have laundry day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s just about midnight and we are just pulling out of Hong Kong right now. I guess that everyone has made it back from Beijing and we’re off to Japan.

To everyone, love and best wishes . . .

*** When I realized that we were pulling out of port, I couldn’t resist coming up to watch. I’m sitting up by the pool right now in the most perfect weather watching one of the most beautiful cities lit up passing me by. This might just top Chicago at night. It’s so breathtaking.

*** When I went to log onto my internet account to post this, it said that my account was deactivated by the administrator. It’s just one technological problem after another. I guess that by the time you see this, I’ll have the problem worked out.