So we woke up this morning to rain, not surprisingly. We made it a lazy morning, slept late and took our time getting ready. We decided since we couldn't enjoy the beach, to do some sightseeing. We had seen a place where a guy does tricks with cobras and even kisses a King Cobra, he's an internet hit.
We found out where this was, luckily just on the other side of the island in Chalong, and hopped on Sasha for a quick ride in a light drizzle.
We arrived at the snake farm and made our way to the Phuket King Cobra Show. It was a little shack with a sunken ring in the middle and a set of bleachers on 2 sides. There was one family joining us for the show.
The guy from the videos and pictures came out and gave a bow. He then proceeded to pull out 3 Thai cobras. These were the 2nd deadliest snakes he'd be playing with. If they bite you, you have a whole 20 minutes before you would die. They're very common all over Thailand, especially in the jungles of Phuket.
It was a good thing we saw this show after our night scooter ride through some jungle areas.
He did some tricks, mainly teasing them and getting them to strike at him. It was pretty cool to watch. The bleachers were less than 10 feet away from the snakes so we were on top of the action.
The handlers then brought one of the cobras in the stands for us to touch. Vi was too nervous to touch it but of course I had to feel. It's cool being that close to something so deadly.
The second snake (3 of them) a new handler pulled out, also venomous, was smaller but would coil up and jump at the handler. If you were bit by this lovely snake, you would have 30 minutes to get help before dying.
This handler, for his finale, bent down as if to kiss the snake but then bit the snake and held it in his mouth. I then went down in the ring with him and took a picture with him with the snake in his mouth.
Finally, the big time. The first handler returned and pulled out a 4 meter (roughly 12 feet) long King Cobra. Wow! The cobra immediately rose up looking for a fight. If this King Cobra were to bite you, you'd have 15 minutes before death.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention. All of these snakes still had their fangs and were still producing venom. How do I know this you ask? Well, they brought the snakes around to show the people the fangs and then got them to drip venom on this metal thing. Just to let us know there was a real danger.
Anyways, after a couple of minutes of playing with the cobra, he set up for the Kiss of Death. He seemed to lure the cobra in to a relaxed state and slowly kissed the cobra on top of its head. I have to say, I was nervous watching this.
We walked around the grounds and saw some more snakes then decided to go get some lunch. Nothing like watching people handle 12 feet long cobras to work up an appetite.
We continued towards the town of Chalong to see what we could find.
We decided to stop at a little place that ended up being a gem of a find. From the outside, it looks like another runned down restaurant ran by locals. Inside, it has an awesome, traditional Thai set up. Everything is off the ground. It's really cool and you should just check out the pictures to get the idea.
The food here was amazing. I had garlic chicken that was incredible. Vi had a seafood Thai fried rice that was also great. Everything was so great we even returned for dinner.
After lunch, we went across the street and Vi got to try her first milkshake, strawberry. She was in love. We've decided that she will put on a lot of weight her first year in America simply because of the food.
Once we had finished the milkshake, we came back to the hostel for a nap. It was still a rainy day so it was perfect for napping.
We woke up from the nap in the mood for some adventure. We got back on Sasha and drove around to some areas we hadn't been before. We did some more shopping and after not being able to find an interesting looking restaurant, went back to Chalong to the place we ate lunch at.
We returned to find that the restaurat was packed with people and there was only one place to sit. The great thing about this place is that only one person there spoke English and everyone eating there were Thai, no tourists. Everyone kind of watched us sit down and the 2 tables across from us even attempted to talk with us a bit and help translate to a waiter.
This time we got garlic prawns, fried catfish in margo sauce (incredibly spicy) and Thai spicy soup with prawns. All of it was amazing. Thai food is great, although unbelievably spicy. We loved dinner and Vi loved the milkshake so much, we had a 2nd on for dessert.
We made our way back to the hostel but we stopped off to do some more shopping. I was very happy with some little things I found for Christmas gifts for the family. We found some interesting things last night that put us in a good mood.
We got back to the hostel, showered and went to sleep. It was a relaxed day but today we're leaving the island and going to Bangkok which should be quite a bit busier.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Day 2 One of the best days of my life
Day 2 started with a quick breakfast at the hostel at 8am. I then rented a scooter so we could explore the island and the other beaches. This was just $6 per day which is a great rate, plus no deposit.
Well, we got ready in our bathing suits and went downstairs to ride the scooter. As I had never driven a scooter, the lady wanted to give me some tips. I listened carefully and got on and hit the gas. Needless to say, I wrecked it immediately. Nothing serious but enough to give the locals a good laugh. The gas is extremely sensitive and the acceleration is incredible. It's so you can zip in and out but they really should give some warning. I've driven similar in China and you have to turn a lot harder there to get going, not with this bad boy. You're at 20 km per hour in a couple seconds.
After a few rides around the building, Vi finally got on. We (me, Vi and Sasha (we named our bike)) made our way to the beach north of us, Karon Beach. We didn't stop because it was a good beach but we wanted to visit a couple we had looked up online that were incredible. Plus, riding the scooter was very, very fun.
We continued up the coast and past Patong Beach, the most popular and most built up beach on the island. We kept going. We did stop along the way and take some pictures from the cliffs because it was just so beautiful.
Next beach was Kamala Beach. We went just past that as between Kamala and Surin was Laem Singh, a small cove, few visit. We walked down the side of the mountain and were happy to see this quiet little cove with 3 restaurants and about 20 people. It was nice.
We decided to go to the restaurant to have some lunch. We both ordered fish, sat back and relaxed. Vi's fish came first. It was huge and delicious. Suddenly, I realized, we misunderstood the menu. Our lunch was going to be very expensive. When we ordered the fish, we thought the dish would be 80 baht, but really it was 80 baht per 100 grams and Vi's fish was over 500 grams and mine on the grill was even larger.
We called the people over and explained the situation. They weren't happy but after enough discussing, they charged us a couple US dollars for the inconvenience and allowed us to just pay for what we ate. Needless to say, we decided to move on to the next beach.
This trip to the next beach was about 40 minutes on the scooter through small towns and away from the beach. It was a beautifu ride. We finally arrived at a beach called Naithon Beach. We read online that not many people go there. We parked the bike and made our way to the beach.
We got there and were amazed to find that we were the only people on a beach that's more than a mile long of perfect, golden sand. This was incredible. No locals, no tourists, nothing. We were so excited. We layed out our massive beach towel and went to play in the water and take a walk. We took pictures and video because it was just unbelievable. It was like out of a movie. Suddenly you come upon this perfect beach that you have all to yourself. We ended up calling our beach as it felt like we were the first ones to step foot here. Wow.
After some time at our beach, we hopped back on the scooter for the next beach up to catch a good sunset view, Nai Yang Beach. This was another 30-40 minute ride that took us away from the beach. We arrived at Nai Yang and rented 2 chairs to put our stuff. We took a walk and enjoyed the scenery.
The beach was a disappointment having just left a perfect beach with nobody on it but we still enjoyed it. We both took naps under the sun as the sun began to be mostly covered by clouds. We woke up and ate some food at a restaurant the sand, which was very nice.
As the sun began to sink, we moved to a better position to view but only to be blocked by too many clouds to really see anything. We decided at that point to head back to our hostel. We began our journey at the bottom of the island and had made it all the way to the top over the course of the day.
We had no idea how far we were from the hostel until we reached the nearest town, 20 minutes away, and saw a sign that read Patong Beach 32kms. Uh oh! We had driven over 50 kms that day. Instead of taking all the winding, small, unlit backroads, I hopped on the big highway.
While it sounds scary, it was actually way better than the small roads. I was able to go faster and it was pretty much a straight road the whole way. Near the end of trip it began to rain on us. We were still a good 4o minutes from our hostel so we just had to push through. This was really ok because it never rained too hard and we were only going up steep hills so far, not down.
On the way up one mountain, we witnessed a bad accident. A girl on a scooter fell on her side and slid down the side of the mountain making a horrible noise. I hope she was ok.
That jolted both of us and on the way down each mountain I was very, very careful and we had no such accidents. The people here can be crazy on these things.
We stopped at Karon Beach, just north of where we're staying, and laid out under the stars for
a while before continuing to the hostel. It was beautiful to just lie under the stars and hear the waves.
We arrived back almost 2 hours after we had set off for the hostel. It was a great day with amazing beaches and a great journey. We ate at the same restaurant that we had before and enjoyed some Thai Phad noodles. We came back, took showers and went to sleep exhausted.
Well, we got ready in our bathing suits and went downstairs to ride the scooter. As I had never driven a scooter, the lady wanted to give me some tips. I listened carefully and got on and hit the gas. Needless to say, I wrecked it immediately. Nothing serious but enough to give the locals a good laugh. The gas is extremely sensitive and the acceleration is incredible. It's so you can zip in and out but they really should give some warning. I've driven similar in China and you have to turn a lot harder there to get going, not with this bad boy. You're at 20 km per hour in a couple seconds.
After a few rides around the building, Vi finally got on. We (me, Vi and Sasha (we named our bike)) made our way to the beach north of us, Karon Beach. We didn't stop because it was a good beach but we wanted to visit a couple we had looked up online that were incredible. Plus, riding the scooter was very, very fun.
We continued up the coast and past Patong Beach, the most popular and most built up beach on the island. We kept going. We did stop along the way and take some pictures from the cliffs because it was just so beautiful.
Next beach was Kamala Beach. We went just past that as between Kamala and Surin was Laem Singh, a small cove, few visit. We walked down the side of the mountain and were happy to see this quiet little cove with 3 restaurants and about 20 people. It was nice.
We decided to go to the restaurant to have some lunch. We both ordered fish, sat back and relaxed. Vi's fish came first. It was huge and delicious. Suddenly, I realized, we misunderstood the menu. Our lunch was going to be very expensive. When we ordered the fish, we thought the dish would be 80 baht, but really it was 80 baht per 100 grams and Vi's fish was over 500 grams and mine on the grill was even larger.
We called the people over and explained the situation. They weren't happy but after enough discussing, they charged us a couple US dollars for the inconvenience and allowed us to just pay for what we ate. Needless to say, we decided to move on to the next beach.
This trip to the next beach was about 40 minutes on the scooter through small towns and away from the beach. It was a beautifu ride. We finally arrived at a beach called Naithon Beach. We read online that not many people go there. We parked the bike and made our way to the beach.
We got there and were amazed to find that we were the only people on a beach that's more than a mile long of perfect, golden sand. This was incredible. No locals, no tourists, nothing. We were so excited. We layed out our massive beach towel and went to play in the water and take a walk. We took pictures and video because it was just unbelievable. It was like out of a movie. Suddenly you come upon this perfect beach that you have all to yourself. We ended up calling our beach as it felt like we were the first ones to step foot here. Wow.
After some time at our beach, we hopped back on the scooter for the next beach up to catch a good sunset view, Nai Yang Beach. This was another 30-40 minute ride that took us away from the beach. We arrived at Nai Yang and rented 2 chairs to put our stuff. We took a walk and enjoyed the scenery.
The beach was a disappointment having just left a perfect beach with nobody on it but we still enjoyed it. We both took naps under the sun as the sun began to be mostly covered by clouds. We woke up and ate some food at a restaurant the sand, which was very nice.
As the sun began to sink, we moved to a better position to view but only to be blocked by too many clouds to really see anything. We decided at that point to head back to our hostel. We began our journey at the bottom of the island and had made it all the way to the top over the course of the day.
We had no idea how far we were from the hostel until we reached the nearest town, 20 minutes away, and saw a sign that read Patong Beach 32kms. Uh oh! We had driven over 50 kms that day. Instead of taking all the winding, small, unlit backroads, I hopped on the big highway.
While it sounds scary, it was actually way better than the small roads. I was able to go faster and it was pretty much a straight road the whole way. Near the end of trip it began to rain on us. We were still a good 4o minutes from our hostel so we just had to push through. This was really ok because it never rained too hard and we were only going up steep hills so far, not down.
On the way up one mountain, we witnessed a bad accident. A girl on a scooter fell on her side and slid down the side of the mountain making a horrible noise. I hope she was ok.
That jolted both of us and on the way down each mountain I was very, very careful and we had no such accidents. The people here can be crazy on these things.
We stopped at Karon Beach, just north of where we're staying, and laid out under the stars for
a while before continuing to the hostel. It was beautiful to just lie under the stars and hear the waves.
We arrived back almost 2 hours after we had set off for the hostel. It was a great day with amazing beaches and a great journey. We ate at the same restaurant that we had before and enjoyed some Thai Phad noodles. We came back, took showers and went to sleep exhausted.
THAILAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Day 1
Well, let me start from the beginning. I don't want to spend too much time on here so I'm going to be brief. Also, can't connect my laptop so pictures will have to wait until either Bangkok or Shenzhen, sorry.
We flew from Shenzhen Airport Saturday morning about 12:30am (an hour later than we were supposed to) and arrived in Bangkok about 2:30am (they're an hour behind Shenzhen). We made our way through customs and picked up our checked bag. We immediately went to find some good because we were very hungry. After we ate some Thai food, we walked around trying to find somewhere to sleep for a little bit. We stumbled in to Royal Thai Airways' VIP lounge. It was so late AND so early that nobody was there so we settled down. We were unable to nap because by the time we had settled down, we had just 40 minutes before we could check-in for our flight to Phuket. We checked in for our flight and went to the gate to lay down and wait. It was freezing cold in the terminal and we were unable to sleep.
This flight was on time so we were excited about that. We flew over the ocean and arrived in Phuket a little over an hour later. Beautiful water!!!!!!!!!! That was the first reaction when landing. Again, we gathered our stuff and met up with our driver from the hostel.
The drive to our hostel was nice. We told the driver that if he took us somewhere he enjoys eating for breakfast, we'd pay. We stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the road where some Thai families were enjoying their breakfast. The food was very good. I had some roasted duck with rice. Vi had a bowl of noodles in soup with roasted duck. We split a plate of fried glass noodles with roasted duck. The duck was delicious, can you tell?
On the table were condiments, like anywhere you go. They were just different here. You had the soy sauce with Thai chilis in them. There was the crushed, dried chili flakes. They did have sugar. Lastly, the vinegar with peppers in it. The best were these little green peppers. I had never seen them before and the driver was eating them in his food by the hand full. I decided to give it a try. Luckily, I didn't try to show off and just picked one and ate it with a spoonfullof rice. WOW! That was the hottest pepper I've ever eaten. My mouth and lips were on fire for the entire trip to the hostel.
We left the restaurant and made our way to the hostel, nothing else worth mentioning happened.
At the hostel, we checked in and got our room. It was an excellent surprise. Our room's great and very cheap. It's about $20 a night. It's called Southern Fried Rice. We couldn't go to the beach yet, we were exhausted. We took a short nap and made our way to the ocean.
Frst, we went to Kata Beach which is just a 5 minute walk from our hostel. It was beautiful but there were plenty of people. Not a crazy amount, but not what we really really wanted. We played in the water and took some walks. The water was a beautiful blue-green. We rented two chairs and spent some time being lazy. It was really nice.
We walked up the street to a little restaurant to get some food. I ordered the cheeseburger and Vi ordered the noodles with seafood. To my surprise, they had Connect Four game boards so I was able to teach Vi a game I used to play a lot in the after school program in elementary school.
We left the beach and came back to shower and change for dinner and shopping. We ate dinner at a really small, local place that I thought was going to fall apart at any moment. We walked up the steps and pointed to some stuff in bags then ordered to some Thai Phad noodles with seafood. The noodles were amazing. They were not spicy but had a peanut flavor to them that made them incredible. It is the best non-Italian noodle dish I've ever had. The other stuff we ordered practically killed us. The first was a mixture of chilis and chicken. It looked very flavorful and it was. It slowly destroyed our mouths though. The other dish was green and served with this vegetable so we didn't think it would be too spicy...wrong. That one also torched our mouths. The spicyness is undescribable.
After dinner, we walked around the area and did some shopping. First for ourselves, then for others. Vi picked up a beautiful dress and I got a new t-shirt that I desperately need. We were still quite tired so we only shopped for a short while and headed back to the hostel to sleep.
Tomorrow would be an amazing day and we'd have an amazing adventure.
We flew from Shenzhen Airport Saturday morning about 12:30am (an hour later than we were supposed to) and arrived in Bangkok about 2:30am (they're an hour behind Shenzhen). We made our way through customs and picked up our checked bag. We immediately went to find some good because we were very hungry. After we ate some Thai food, we walked around trying to find somewhere to sleep for a little bit. We stumbled in to Royal Thai Airways' VIP lounge. It was so late AND so early that nobody was there so we settled down. We were unable to nap because by the time we had settled down, we had just 40 minutes before we could check-in for our flight to Phuket. We checked in for our flight and went to the gate to lay down and wait. It was freezing cold in the terminal and we were unable to sleep.
This flight was on time so we were excited about that. We flew over the ocean and arrived in Phuket a little over an hour later. Beautiful water!!!!!!!!!! That was the first reaction when landing. Again, we gathered our stuff and met up with our driver from the hostel.
The drive to our hostel was nice. We told the driver that if he took us somewhere he enjoys eating for breakfast, we'd pay. We stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the road where some Thai families were enjoying their breakfast. The food was very good. I had some roasted duck with rice. Vi had a bowl of noodles in soup with roasted duck. We split a plate of fried glass noodles with roasted duck. The duck was delicious, can you tell?
On the table were condiments, like anywhere you go. They were just different here. You had the soy sauce with Thai chilis in them. There was the crushed, dried chili flakes. They did have sugar. Lastly, the vinegar with peppers in it. The best were these little green peppers. I had never seen them before and the driver was eating them in his food by the hand full. I decided to give it a try. Luckily, I didn't try to show off and just picked one and ate it with a spoonfullof rice. WOW! That was the hottest pepper I've ever eaten. My mouth and lips were on fire for the entire trip to the hostel.
We left the restaurant and made our way to the hostel, nothing else worth mentioning happened.
At the hostel, we checked in and got our room. It was an excellent surprise. Our room's great and very cheap. It's about $20 a night. It's called Southern Fried Rice. We couldn't go to the beach yet, we were exhausted. We took a short nap and made our way to the ocean.
Frst, we went to Kata Beach which is just a 5 minute walk from our hostel. It was beautiful but there were plenty of people. Not a crazy amount, but not what we really really wanted. We played in the water and took some walks. The water was a beautiful blue-green. We rented two chairs and spent some time being lazy. It was really nice.
We walked up the street to a little restaurant to get some food. I ordered the cheeseburger and Vi ordered the noodles with seafood. To my surprise, they had Connect Four game boards so I was able to teach Vi a game I used to play a lot in the after school program in elementary school.
We left the beach and came back to shower and change for dinner and shopping. We ate dinner at a really small, local place that I thought was going to fall apart at any moment. We walked up the steps and pointed to some stuff in bags then ordered to some Thai Phad noodles with seafood. The noodles were amazing. They were not spicy but had a peanut flavor to them that made them incredible. It is the best non-Italian noodle dish I've ever had. The other stuff we ordered practically killed us. The first was a mixture of chilis and chicken. It looked very flavorful and it was. It slowly destroyed our mouths though. The other dish was green and served with this vegetable so we didn't think it would be too spicy...wrong. That one also torched our mouths. The spicyness is undescribable.
After dinner, we walked around the area and did some shopping. First for ourselves, then for others. Vi picked up a beautiful dress and I got a new t-shirt that I desperately need. We were still quite tired so we only shopped for a short while and headed back to the hostel to sleep.
Tomorrow would be an amazing day and we'd have an amazing adventure.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Vi's New Job
Sorry about the lack of blogging lately but it's been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks. I'll start with the big news that just happened a couple minutes ago...Vi has a new job!!
She hasn't been happy at her job at the American company and has been looking for something else. She's been doing the job of a business AND personal assistant, sourcer, salesperson and host for visitors. Her boss has been in America the last month or so and she's been quite bored at work. She also doesn't like the environment at the office because it's mainly guys and she doesn't have any friends there. Also, it's about a 40 minute commute everyday for her.
Anyways, she just got back from an interview where the boss hired her on the spot after a couple minutes. There were even people waiting to interview after her but the boss didn't need to meet anyone else, Vi was her girl (she wanted to make sure I mentioned that). It's a Turkish company consisting of 3 women in the same field she's been in, exports. The best part of this job is that it's across the street from our building. It's not even a 5 minute walk from our door so that's great. Plus, I'm no longer tutoring during lunch so we'll both be able to come home for lunch everyday now.
She starts on Thursday next week and now she's building up the courage to call her boss and tell him she quits...this phone call should be interesting. She'll write a blog after a week or two to tell about her new job.
In much smaller news, school starts Sept 1st so I'm looking forward to getting back to school and the kids. I realized that I haven't really explained how's the summer been here so I'll tell you how the summer break was. I spent the summer teaching private lessons rather than resting and vacationing. I taught 3 or 4 classes most days but on Tuesdays 6 or 7. When school starts, I'll continue with some of the private lessons which is nice because I'll be making a lot more money than I was last semester.
My schedule, starting next week, will start with me at the preschool from 7:50-11:30, then a lunch break. I'll actually teach more this semester because I'll be teaching an extra class. I'll have my class, INT2A (INT means international, which means they get a foreign teacher, 2 is the level and A just means which 2 level class) and INTK4. Last year I taught K3 for 30 minutes; this year I'll teach K4 for an hour. Last semester I had a private lesson during lunch but this semester I won't so I'll be able to go home during my 3 hour lunch break and have lunch with Vi...also a little nap. I have to be back at the school at 2:30 and teach from 3:00 to 5:00. My actual classes will be from 9:00-9:30, 9:40-10:10, 10:15-10:40, 10:45-11:10 and 11:15-11:30 in the morning then 3:00-3:30 and 3:35-4:00. At 4:00, we just wait for the parents to come pick up the kids. I'll also have a 1 hour private lesson after school everyday, except Tuesday when it will be a 2 hour lesson. Needless to say, I'll be making $1,000 more this semester than I made last semester so I'm very happy about that.
The last update is that we're taking a trip to Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket) in October for my birthday. I'm now tired of writing so I'll update more on this when it happens.
She hasn't been happy at her job at the American company and has been looking for something else. She's been doing the job of a business AND personal assistant, sourcer, salesperson and host for visitors. Her boss has been in America the last month or so and she's been quite bored at work. She also doesn't like the environment at the office because it's mainly guys and she doesn't have any friends there. Also, it's about a 40 minute commute everyday for her.
Anyways, she just got back from an interview where the boss hired her on the spot after a couple minutes. There were even people waiting to interview after her but the boss didn't need to meet anyone else, Vi was her girl (she wanted to make sure I mentioned that). It's a Turkish company consisting of 3 women in the same field she's been in, exports. The best part of this job is that it's across the street from our building. It's not even a 5 minute walk from our door so that's great. Plus, I'm no longer tutoring during lunch so we'll both be able to come home for lunch everyday now.
She starts on Thursday next week and now she's building up the courage to call her boss and tell him she quits...this phone call should be interesting. She'll write a blog after a week or two to tell about her new job.
In much smaller news, school starts Sept 1st so I'm looking forward to getting back to school and the kids. I realized that I haven't really explained how's the summer been here so I'll tell you how the summer break was. I spent the summer teaching private lessons rather than resting and vacationing. I taught 3 or 4 classes most days but on Tuesdays 6 or 7. When school starts, I'll continue with some of the private lessons which is nice because I'll be making a lot more money than I was last semester.
My schedule, starting next week, will start with me at the preschool from 7:50-11:30, then a lunch break. I'll actually teach more this semester because I'll be teaching an extra class. I'll have my class, INT2A (INT means international, which means they get a foreign teacher, 2 is the level and A just means which 2 level class) and INTK4. Last year I taught K3 for 30 minutes; this year I'll teach K4 for an hour. Last semester I had a private lesson during lunch but this semester I won't so I'll be able to go home during my 3 hour lunch break and have lunch with Vi...also a little nap. I have to be back at the school at 2:30 and teach from 3:00 to 5:00. My actual classes will be from 9:00-9:30, 9:40-10:10, 10:15-10:40, 10:45-11:10 and 11:15-11:30 in the morning then 3:00-3:30 and 3:35-4:00. At 4:00, we just wait for the parents to come pick up the kids. I'll also have a 1 hour private lesson after school everyday, except Tuesday when it will be a 2 hour lesson. Needless to say, I'll be making $1,000 more this semester than I made last semester so I'm very happy about that.
The last update is that we're taking a trip to Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket) in October for my birthday. I'm now tired of writing so I'll update more on this when it happens.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hiking in Hong Kong
Sorry about the late post, but as I've said before, accessing the blog has become difficult. A couple days ago, Vi and I went to Hong Kong with plans to visit Tan Long Wan beach, on Sai Kung peninsula. I've seen pictures of it online and it's beautiful but the main reason is because it's harder to get to so there's less people. Anyways, after crossing the border, riding the metro train and 2 buses later, we were at the trailhead. We started walking, enjoying the beautiful views until we came across a lady who looked exhausted and was desperate to know where she could meet the bus. We asked her how far the beach was and she said almost 2 hours away!!
Needless to say, we weren't happy. We ended up hiking up a mountain on the second hottest day in Hong Kong of the year...awesome. I did enjoy finally getting outside and seeing some greenery. After hiking through some little villages, we finally came around a corner and were amazed to see a white sand beach sitting in front of us.
We were exhausted and covered in sweat so we sat in the shade for over an hour and relaxed, enjoyed the view. We were too exhausted to hike to the bus so we just paid for a little speedboat to take us back to the first pier. It was about a 40 minute ride over choppy waters but we got to see amazing islands and expensive yachts.
We will definitely be going back there soon. You can rent a tent for just under $15 per night. It's a beautiful, beautiful beach surrounded by mountains. Incredible.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Victoria Peak in Hong Kong
This weekend, Vi and I went to Hong Kong. While we've both been to Hong Kong, neither one of us have done a lot of sight-seeing there. The most beautiful place in Hong Kong has to be Victoria Peak, which is on the northwest corner of Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong's split into 3 areas, Kowloon Peninsula, The New Territories and Hong Kong Island.
We simply crossed the border and got aboard the MTR train to Mong Kok station in Kowloon Peninsula. It took us a little under an hour on the train but not bad. We stayed at a hostel called City Plus Hostel. It's extremely cheap for Hong Kong, just HK$ 280 (roughly $40). It was incredibly small but clean and the beds were comfortable so you can't ask for much more. It was also located in a residential building. It had an entrance on Nathan Street, by far the most popular road.
We checked in, dropped our stuff off and headed back to the subway. Unfortunately, it had been raining on and off so we hoped for no rain to the area we were heading. We got off at Central on Hong Kong Island and followed the sign to the lower terminus of the tram and got in line which moved quickly to our delight.
We made the very steep climb up the mountain with gorgeous views of the city. We arrived at the top and made our way up to the top observation deck to get a view with the sunlight. We took many pictures and it really was just beautiful. It's unique because I don't think you can get that kind of view of any other huge skyline anywhere else in the world. It's incredible.
We made our way around the mall and checked out all the restaurante before settling on the Bubba-Gump Restaurant. It was also amazing. I haven't had a real burger in a long time and it was great. We also had an appetizer called "A Road Through America." It had fried shrimp, chilled shrimp, popcorn shrimp, hush puppies and buffalo chicken. Vi said that it was the best shrimp she's ever had. I had a burger with onion rings on it and Vi had a baked rice dish with clams, shrimp and fish. It was all very good and it really felt like I was in America, except the view of the Hong Kong skyline from out table.
After dinner we made our way back to the top observation deck to get some great night shots, which we did. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any great ones with us in the picture with my camera so we had a professional photo taken and bought a frame for it there. It was worth it because the picture's great and it's the first framed picture in the apartment and it's motivated us to print and frame more to put up in the apartment.
The trip was great and we headed back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep. We were exhausted after the day.
In the morning we got up and went to a dim sum restaurant for breakfast. Dim sum is a typical Cantonese breakfast that we love. The dim sum was great and we just walked around the area for the next couple hours before heading back to Shenzhen for a nap.
All in all, it was a great trip to Hong Kong. We'll go again soon but to the outlying islands for hiking and relaxing.
Check out the incredible pictures.
We simply crossed the border and got aboard the MTR train to Mong Kok station in Kowloon Peninsula. It took us a little under an hour on the train but not bad. We stayed at a hostel called City Plus Hostel. It's extremely cheap for Hong Kong, just HK$ 280 (roughly $40). It was incredibly small but clean and the beds were comfortable so you can't ask for much more. It was also located in a residential building. It had an entrance on Nathan Street, by far the most popular road.
We checked in, dropped our stuff off and headed back to the subway. Unfortunately, it had been raining on and off so we hoped for no rain to the area we were heading. We got off at Central on Hong Kong Island and followed the sign to the lower terminus of the tram and got in line which moved quickly to our delight.
We made the very steep climb up the mountain with gorgeous views of the city. We arrived at the top and made our way up to the top observation deck to get a view with the sunlight. We took many pictures and it really was just beautiful. It's unique because I don't think you can get that kind of view of any other huge skyline anywhere else in the world. It's incredible.
We made our way around the mall and checked out all the restaurante before settling on the Bubba-Gump Restaurant. It was also amazing. I haven't had a real burger in a long time and it was great. We also had an appetizer called "A Road Through America." It had fried shrimp, chilled shrimp, popcorn shrimp, hush puppies and buffalo chicken. Vi said that it was the best shrimp she's ever had. I had a burger with onion rings on it and Vi had a baked rice dish with clams, shrimp and fish. It was all very good and it really felt like I was in America, except the view of the Hong Kong skyline from out table.
After dinner we made our way back to the top observation deck to get some great night shots, which we did. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any great ones with us in the picture with my camera so we had a professional photo taken and bought a frame for it there. It was worth it because the picture's great and it's the first framed picture in the apartment and it's motivated us to print and frame more to put up in the apartment.
The trip was great and we headed back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep. We were exhausted after the day.
In the morning we got up and went to a dim sum restaurant for breakfast. Dim sum is a typical Cantonese breakfast that we love. The dim sum was great and we just walked around the area for the next couple hours before heading back to Shenzhen for a nap.
All in all, it was a great trip to Hong Kong. We'll go again soon but to the outlying islands for hiking and relaxing.
Check out the incredible pictures.
Friday, July 3, 2009
An Aussie Burger
Last night some of the teachers and myself went to a sports bar to try to watch Andy Roddick play against Andy Murray in the semi-finals of Wimbledon (American vs British). There, I decided to get a burger. The owner explained to me what was on the burger, pretty normal until he said, "Oh yeah, we put pineapple and a slice of pickled beet root on top of the buger." Well, this kind of threw me as I never would've guessed that, especially the beet root considering I don't think I've ever had beets. Anyways, I got the burger and it was quite good. The pineapples and beet root added an interesting flavor and the burger was quite delicious. I just wanted to share that this is considered a normal burger in Australia. If you were to go to a family bbq, they would all have pineapple and beet root on their burgers. Also, when you say Aussie, you need to pronounce the "ss" as a "z" sound or they're not happy. I was corrected on this many times last night. Just thought the Aussie burger was different and needed to be shared.
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