Hong Kong Trip

Our trip here in Taiwan is about 7 weeks. You are only allowed to be in the country for 4, so after the 4th week Tin-Man takes the group to Hong Kong-and-back to reset the clock. The last 4.5 days, I have been in Hong Kong.

Day One :: Traveling
At the wonderful dinner party we'd attended the night before, the dean asked if we would come to graduation the next morning before leaving Taiwan. We met at Tin-Man's office and walked over to the main building. It began to rain. Graduation was an odd combination of dramatic skits and quiet elderly speakers. We had to leave before they even began announcing names.

We arrived at the airport, got our tickets and ate lunch (not knowing that they'd be serving lunch on the hour and a half long flight). 

Next stop, the hotel for thirty minutes. This was the view from my hotel room. WOAH.


Then we left for The Peak Tram where Tin-Man dropped us off to go visit his father. (His dad lives in Hong Kong and was diagnosed with terminal cancer with three months to live in April.) These are some buildings that we saw on the way, and the way they looked when we were walking back.


The Peak Tram is like that train trolley thing we went on in Chatanooga, but it actually goes somewhere instead of just coming back down. While waiting in line, there was a pretty hilarious protest going on. Check out this sign :



At the top there are stores and restaurants and a view of Hong Kong. I unwillingly ate dinner at McDonald's and had some gelato for dessert. They had the WEIRDEST flavors, the weirdest being Black Sesame. I had lychee and strawberry.

This is the view from the Peak.

When we checked in earlier that day, we were given a coupon for a free drink. So, when we returned from The Peak, we all got our free beers while the boys played with miniature plastic guns that they bought. Real grown ups! Hahaha






Day Two :: Ocean Park
At breakfast the next morning, Tin-Man informs us that he knows of a yelling match that broke out the night before while he was visiting his father. I'm not going to get into details because I don't know who's reading this and I don't feel like starting more fights, so I will keep my mouth shut. He tells us that he's decided to split our group of 8 into two groups of 4. Group One - Me, Matt, Ian and Kenney. Group Two - Christine, Sarah Jayne, Melanie and Arissa. I was incredibly pissed because that basically meant no more shopping for me, but the boys assured me that they'd let me have my girl time.

Ocean Park is a theme park on the edge of a mountain cliff with roller coasters going off the cliffs. There are also Asian animal exhibits, aquariums, and sea creature shows.


We rode the cool rides (the two roller coasters by the edge of the cliff and the RIDICULOUSLY TALL free fall) and Kenney got a really cool hat.



We got lunch and went to the aquarium to kill time while waiting for the show to start.



Then I saw my first ever dolphin show! There were sea lions too.





We took the cables cars over the mountain to the other side of park.



There we found pandas! On this day, I heard of / saw red pandas for the first time. THEY DO NOT LOOK LIKE PANDAS! They're like a red fluffy raccoon. I bought a panda hat. It's pretty hilarious looking.







We almost passed up the fish part of the Amazing Asian Animals exhibit, but I'm glad we didn't because Asia has some RIDICULOUS fish.




After the park, both groups ended up on the same subway; that was pretty hilarious. My group cleaned up for dinner and we walked down the "safe road" (Apparently one road over is full of prostitutes.) until we found dinner. And BOY did we find dinner! This place was amazing. We had salmon sushi, roasted cheese crab sushi, ox tongue (yes, ox tongue), cuttlefish mouths (yes, you heard me), soft shell crabs, fried cheese dumplings, some MANGO COVERED sushi, and moref.

By the way, Daddy, bamboo scaffolding is actually used here. I was walking around Hong Kong and kept expecting to see the Rush Hour scene with Jackie Chan and Chris Rock fighting those dudes on the bamboo.



Day Three :: TTI Visit
We visited the Hong Kong TTI (Techtronic Industries) and our tour guide was a young dude with a REALLY cool Australian accent.

TTI owns companies you often see in Home Depot and Lowe's like Ryobi, Ridgid, Dirt Devil and AEG which is more European based. We toured the office and I wasn't allowed to take pictures because everything there is still not released and, you know, all their competition reads my blog.



PS - Hong Kong is really really REALLY hot. And when they use air conditioning, they turn it really really REALLY cold. We went in a out of places ALL day and I began to feel sick. This is when it all started.

We went to lunch at a traditional Hong Kong restaurant. Tin-Man "paid" for us and decided to go all out. He ordered FIFTY FOUR plates of food for us. No kidding. Fifty. Four. Plates. of. Food. I ate a tiny tiny bit because I wasn't feeling very well. I have no pictures of the table because of how fast they were bring the food out/taking the plates away.

After lunch we went back to the heat, then back to arctic frost at a design show from Polytechnic University. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to take pictures, so feel exhilarated as you look at these illegal photos:





I was feeling pretttty crappy after the conference. I kept getting nauseous and I really just wanted to go to sleep, but Tin-Man planned for us to go to the harbor and see the Walk of Stars, and that is what we did.



Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and a statue of Bruce Lee



We walked home and then I immediately went to bed.

Day Four :: The Market of all Markets
I woke up feeling like hell had just slapped me in the face approximately ten times. Breakfast was had and a bus was boarded. THEN Christine Wu, with all her glorious massage magic, massaged my head for thirty minutes and put this heavenly stuff called White Flower oil on it and about 45 minutes later, my headache was completely gone! (Don't worry, it came back with full force later, but it went away long enough for shopping! Don't you love the sound of that, Momma? Daddy? Bwahahaha) I have no pictures of the market because I was so distracted. They had a TON of stuff! I finished out my gift list and you will all love your presents. :)

AND I FOUND MY SILKY BATHROBE! *HAAAAALLELUJAH!* I later realized that I accidentally bought an XXL, hahahahaha. But that's ok. It's not like it's a fitted thing. It ties!

We ate lunch with Sarah Jayne, and she ordered gumbo. There was a whole lobster in there!...along with many other surprises like a whole red pepper and some whole clams.


After lunch, my headache started crawling back from the depths of my brain, but I climbed on rocks anyway! This is me at the harbor, then we made our way to some very slippery brown rocks.



OH BARNACLES! *Spongebob laugh*




My boyfriend that hates pictures, but secretly likes me.





By the time we boarded the bus to go home, my head was trying its hardest to split in half. We got back to the hotel, I packed at the speed of light and then I went to bed for 8.5 hours.

Day Five :: Going Home
The flight home was fine. At the airport before leaving, two peculiar things happened. One : Kenney and I spotted someone wearing AN ALABAMA T-SHIRT! What they HELL are they teaching over here?!!?!?!?!!!!
*Regains composure* Two : I have a USB jump drive that flips around to open and the security people were CONVINCED that it was a secret weapon. Watch out everyone! The US is now training 5'6" white girls to be USB-wielding assassins!

We got back to the dorm and I really just wanted to curl up and die, but knew I had to meet my group at 5 to work. Then Tin-Man tells us that we're going to the annual DragonBoat Festival in the city. I had to cancel the meeting with my group and slept for an hour then we left. It was worth it though - those boats looked awesome.




Wednesday :: Why not go ahead and throw it in.
First day back from Hong Kong consisted of a glass class with a splitting headache, crying at lunch because my head hurt so bad, then being commanded by my professor to skip class and go to bed.

I was sad because metal class was going to be ring-making and I was really excited about that. Kenney left metal class and brought me water and woke me up to take my ring size because he was going to make me a ring since I wouldn't be in class. What a sweet boyfriend I have :) [by the way, I fell asleep with that delivered bottle of water open...don't worry, I didn't spill, but that was dangerous!]

I proceeded to sleep all day and I had to tell my group that, once again, I could not come meet with them. That made me feel terrible. I hate leaving people high and dry. Now it is 1 AM and I'm still awake because I slept all day! Stupid stupid stupid.

I'm feeling a tad bit better, by the way. Our neighbor at home = life saver because she sent me here with a Z-Pack that really seems to be doing the trick.