| Wow, long time no update. A lot has happened since I last wrote in here. Where shall I start? Well, to put the past 3 months in a nutshell, I've been studying abroad in Hong Kong and absolutely been having the time of my life. So many memories, I just had to record some of them here. Let me start with spring break:
Part 1: Thailand (1-5 April)
DAY 1: We (Jin, Irene, Qing, Ye, Troy, Huey, and me) went to HK Airport for our flight to Bangkok. Might I mention that I was EXHAUSTED. I skipped all my classes that day to go to Mong Kok and pick up all the plane tickets for our entire break. I had about HKD$30,000 (~USD$4,000) worth of tickets in my purse that day. I was tired and had a huge headache, and it was RAINING, so naturally I was little on the grumpy side. If anyone had tried to mug me that day, I swear I would have chased him down and beaten him to a pulp! I hate travel agencies now . Anyway, at the airport we met up with Judy and her bf, Gary (who's also from Md!) and then the nine of us were off to begin our Thailand adventure!
DAY 2: We explored Bangkok. We saw the house of Jim Thompson, an American architect/silk trader who mysteriously disappeared (dong-dong-DONG!), and a bunch of temples and Buddhas. We also took a lot of different modes of transportation: the subway, a boat that ran down this canal, taxi, and of course, the tuk-tuk (a 3-wheeled moped). At this one place we bumped into Cheston, another exchange student from HKUST (small world!) Later we met up with Joseph and Ellie, two of our local friends from HK. At night we had dinner at a delicious (and very spicy!) Thai restaurant and then did some shopping at this night market where everything was DIRT cheap! At the end of the night, we took a minivan to Pattaya Beach (about 2 hours away).
DAY 3: We went beachin'. Pattaya wasn't as nice as Phuket, but it was fun nevertheless. We took a boat out to this island where the beach was supposed to be nicer, but turned out it was just a ploy to rip off tourists. The boat ride was BUMPY. Then later we had dinner at a traditional Thai restaurant where you sit on the floor. My favorite dishes: pineapple fried rice, Tom Yum soup, and anything with green curry...yum!! After dinner we saw a bunch of...drumroll please!...TRANSVESTITES!!! They were fresh out of their show, complete with costumes and everything. Some you could tell used to be male, but this one girl was absolutely GORGEOUS. You had to see her to believe it. We ended the night with hour-long, USD$8 Thai massages .
DAY 4: Back to the beach for me and the gang. Jin and I went jet-skiing...so much fun! That thing is fast like you wouldn't believe. So we were zipping along the water--really fast--when all the sudden Jin turned too fast and we went flying off the jet ski! Fun times... Later we went swimming in the hotel pool and then back to Bangkok we went. We had dinner in Bangkok and then went shopping in this really seedy night market where they hawk sex like crazy. You wouldn't expect it since it's mostly Buddhist, but Thailand has a HUGE sex industry. While we were shopping, we saw a stand that sold...you guessed it...fried BUGS! Props to Ellie, who ate a cockroach!
DAY 5: We visited the Grand Palace, home of the Thai royal family. The dress code for the palace didn't allow flip-flops, so Irene and I had to buy these really ghetto sandals in order to get in. The architecture of the place was AMAZING. Then we said bye to Joe and Ellie and it was time to go to the airport for our flight home!
Phew, that was long...and that was only half of the break! Pictures and spring break part 2 coming later! |
