Kanchanaburi- Elephants and Tigers and Waterfalls, Oh my Part 2

We woke up kind of late on Saturday. We hadn't slept much Thursday night so I think everyone was just exhausted. We woke up around 9:30, got ready and went over to that restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat before we went exploring some more. Everyone got breakfast-type items (I got a banana pancake that was more cake like than anything else). It was still delicious. Tim called up our taxi-driver friend and he came almost immediately to pick us up.

We negotiated a bit more and headed out. Our plans for the day consisted of Tiger Temple and the Erawan Waterfalls. It took some time to get to these places so we decided to play some games while we were waiting. So inbetween taking pictures of the beautiful landscape we played letter games where each person had to go around and say a letter while trying to spell a specific word and if you said a letter that people didn't think spelled a word than they could call your bluff. It was hilarious and we definitely brought out the itouch to look up some words that people were making up. So funny. We got to Tiger temple in about 45 minutes and a couple people had to change into more appropriate clothing. You aren't allowed to wear Red, orange or pink colored clothing. Girls have to have clothes covering everything from below their knees to over their shoulders. Its pretty strict, too. We entered the grounds and made some jokes about the goat that we saw and a little girl's slipper that we found, saying that the Tiger must have gotten her. It was pretty funny.

We didn't know where we were going at all but we found a sign that pointed us to Tiger Canyon so we went over there to check some things out. We got to see the tigers in their post-feeding form and it was really exciting. Everyone formed a line and then when your turn came up, they would take your camera from you and then would guide you to each of the tigers. They would place you behind the tiger and tell you to pet it or put your hand on it and then they would take pictures. It was soo cool. I have never been that close to such a big animal (minus cows and camels in India and minus the elephants from the day before). At one point, I was told to sit behind one of the tigers and NOT touch the tiger at all. Of course, I didn't but I really, really wanted to-just to see what would happen. It was a huge tiger. One other tiger had its paw up in the air and I put my hand on the paw that was on the ground and I kinda pet it and then a couple seconds later the paw that was up in the air definitely almost kicked me. It was pretty funny because I jumped a bit (Read: a lot).

After we left Tiger Canyon, we wondered around the grounds and found some tigers that were awake that we took some pictures with. At one point, Evan was sitting next to one of the tigers and I guess it didn't really like him because it was laying down and then it got up and was trying to turn its head towards him when the volunteers stepped in and got Evan out of there. They definitely kind of pushed him out of there which was really funny.

A Note: A lot of the workers there are Volunteers that applied to be there for a month or more. We got to talking to some of the volunteers and they said that they came here on a visit some time before and then decided that they wanted to apply. After a fairly rigourous process, they brought a set of volunteers from all over the world in to work there for a decent amount of time. The volunteers said it was one of the most rewarding things they have done so far. Definitely cool and if I wasn't afraid of cats I would thing about doing it. I'll stick to volunteering with people, thank you very much. They won't bite my leg off... ;)

So after we took turns taking pictures we decided to hurry up and get to the waterfalls because it would take a good amount of time to get there and they close kind of early. It took around an hour to get there but we played a memory game to keep us occupied. This time it was "If I was going to the Moon, I would bring..." and each person would take a letter of the alphabet, repeat what the last people said and then add a new word...so at the end you have "If I went to the Moon, I would Bring.. an Apple, a Babboon, a Car," etc etc all the way until Z. We had to stop around V to go play in the waterfalls but then as soon as we got back in the taxi we started up again and finished out the game. It was so funny.

We got to Erawan Waterfalls and found out that the upper levels closed at 4 but the lower levels closed at 5 so we pretty much stayed at the lower levels because we didnt have any other options but it was definitley worth the entrance fee. We jumped off rocks into the fresh water pond area and we swam across the pool underneath the waterfall and hung out behind it, took pictures, and then jumped off rocks, again, back into the pool of water. While you were stationary in the water, little fish would come and bite the bottoms of your feet. It was such a strange feeling and none of us really liked it all that much because it was tickling us but it was definitely really cool. We took some sweet pictures and then headed out, at around 5, to change and get back inour taxi so that we could catch the bus back to Bangkok.

Playing in a waterfall was definitely one of the most exciting things that I have ever done...ever. I am so grateful that we decided to do that.

We got back to the hostel, picked up our bags and then sped off to the bus station to make sure that we didn't miss the last bus. We made it in plenty of time and decided to wait one bus so that we could eat dinner. We ate really quickly at a place called the Charming Kitchen (pretty delicious) and then headed onto the bus (which I almost missed because I wanted to get street ice cream) and then we were on our way to Bangkok!

Kanchanaburi- Lions and Tigers and Bears , Oh my

Okay, so maybe not lions and bears..but definitely Elephants, Tigers and Waterfalls!

We arrived in Kanchanaburi on Friday around 1pm. We got off the bus and were immediately bombarded by people asking if we wanted a taxi ride. Now the taxis that you might be actually thinking of are not the types of taxis in Kanchanaburi. In Kanchanaburi, they have trucks that are covered on all sides (except the back). You climb into the back of the truck and hold on to a railing on the ceiling while the the "taxi" is moving. Its pretty fantastic and was definitely a our mode of transportation for the day and a half that we were in Kachanaburi. We negotiated a price to 10 baht per person to take us to the hostel and around the city.

We first went to the Jolly Frog Hostel, which the owner at the Soi 1 Guesthouse recommended. It looked okay but it didn't have enough of the right kind of rooms for us so we went elsewhere. We ended up at a different guesthouse which was actually pretty nice (About 11 USD per night) and we checked in, paid and then decided that we were going to go ride an elephant at that moment.

While we were checking in, Tim decided to negotiate prices with the taxi driver. Each of us paid 200 USD per day for the taxi services. He took us absolutely everywhere during those two days. It was probably a fantastic deal for him and a not so good, but okay deal for us.

We set our stuff down, got back in the Taxi and then drove all the way out to the elephant riding area. It was so far away (probably around 45 minutes) but we definitely had a good time watching the scenery (rolling grasslands with mountain peaks around us!) and playing mind games until we got there.

We finally reached the elephants and I pretty much leaped out of the taxi I was so excited. We went down the hill, negotiated a elephant ride and a rafting adventure down the river for 600 (she wanted 600 baht or 18 USD for each at one point) and headed over to claim our elephants. Evan and I were on one elephant and it was definitely a lot of fun. It was bumpy ride but our guide was the coolest. He would sing Thai songs and talk to our elephant (I forgot the elephant's name). He sat towards the top of the elephant's head and would kinda guide him but putting slight pressure on the back of its ears. It was really nifty and I definitely have pictures, if you want to go look. The path took us down towards the water, where our lovely elephant tried to spray us with water. :) We took some pictures and then made our way up a hill towards another grassy area. Evan and I almost ran into some trees but after about 20-25 minutes on the elephant, we were taken back to the starting point, were given life jackets and then headed down to our bamboo raft.

We got on the raft, sat down and left the dock. There was a small tug boat that pulled us up the river and partially filled our bamboo raft up with water. It was tons of fun. I put my foot in the water on the side of the raft but after seeing baby alligator/crocodile (I am not sure which one) on the the shore, I decided that I probably shouldn't risk my foot being ripped off. After a certain point, the tug boat left us and our raft driver paddled us down the river. We got to see the beautiful sun setting on the river. When we passed the area where we saw the baby alligator/crocodile it was no longer there and we definitely did not put any more limbs into the water. Haha.

The raft trip was so fun and we got back to the dock in no time. We got off the boat and headed back up the hill. I talked to the lady that ran the establishment and I asked her if the elephants pick people up. She either didn't understand me or something because she said that they don't do that at this location. Tough luck. Oh well, I got to ride an elephant and feel its back and thats definitely an experience in itself.

We got back in our taxi and headed back into town and had a contest over who could take the best sunset picture. I personally liked mine but I think Ray might have had the overall best picture. Though, the boys cheated because they all have "sunset mode" on their cameras. Cheap, I tell you. Cheap.

y the time we got back to the hostel, it was dark. We quickly recouped and then went to go find somewhere to eat dinner. We found a restaurant that was pretty close to our hostel called the Tai Thai. We were all starving so we ate there and then wandered around that part of the city for some time. After a little while, Ray, Tim, Steve and Justin decided that they wanted to get massages so they left and Evan, Lisa and I went back to the hostel to hang out. We hung out for a little while and then decided to go swimming in the hostel pool. The rest of our group joined us and after a while (around 10) we were kicked out and headed to shower and get ready to walk around again.

We walked around the area again and found a little restaurant/bar thing that had a fooseball table so obviously we ended up hanging out there for awhile. The guys ate again (after about 4 hours since the last meal) but this time had spring rolls and pizza. Crazy people, I tell you. :) Ray even fell asleep at the table! It was so funny and we definitely have pictures.

We went back to the hostel and Evan and I went to the cyber cafe to book the next two nights in Bangkok. We found a hostel called Lub D. We booked it and then looked at the pictures. It looked pretty cool but the last place that looked okay (Soi 1) online ended up not being the best place to stay.

After paying for the rooms at Lub D, we went back to our hostel and pretty much immediately went to sleep. So tired. Such a fantastic, but long, day.

Journey to Thailand!

Wow, I am FINALLY getting to writing about Thailand. I can't believe its been a week and a half since I got back. I am sorry it has taken me so long (if you have been checking), I unfortunately had some papers that took priority over this blog. Now that those are all finished, we are good to go! On to my Thai adventure! :)

We met up with each other in the lobby of my hall (Hall VII) at 7pm. I hadn't met a bunch of the people that were going on this trip and I barely knew one of the other ones so it was nice to get to meet more exchange students and go on a fabulous adventure with them. I met Lisa (Chinese, raised in Canada and goes to school at NYU), Steve (Vietnamese but now lives goes to UC), and Justin (UPenn)for the first time. They seemed pretty cool. I caught up with Tim (Georgia) and he asked me if I had everything planned out for this trip. He asked me what we were doing and after I told him a couple of the ideas that came up online he said "well do you mind going to the beach and all? Watersports? Not like all museums, right?" and in my head I was thinking "is that really your perception of me?" but I disregarded it and moved on, got in the taxi and headed off to the airport.

It took about 45-50 minutes to get to the airport because its on a completely different Island, on the complete other side of the city. I had never been to the Hong Kong Aiport, other than when I landed (and I definitely wasn't paying attention to anything beyond "Gotta find my buddy" to notice how beautiful it is). We checked into our flight (Emirates!) and headed off through passport control and eventually to the gate!

It was absolutely packed flight and I loved everything about the Emirates plane. They have TVs on the back of every seat with about a bazillion movie, tv, and game options. Their staff was very friendly and SO MULTICULTURAL! It was a bit unreal. At one point the first officer came on the PA system and said that on our flight (going from HK to Dubai via Bangkok), they had German, Spanish, Italian, Thai, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Dutch language speakers in order to cater to everyone on board! Absolutely unreal. I don't think I have ever been on a flight where they have attempted to cater to so many people. I bet people appreciate that so much, I know that I do!

I, of course, was planning on doing homework on the flight but as usual, it just didn't happen. Instead, Evan and I synced our tvs so that we were watching a movie together! It was so fun and we got the timing almost perfect. The movie, entitled "Julia and Julia" was an okay movie until the very end. I don't really recommend it.

We arrived in Bangkok after a short 2 hours and 40 minutes and a lot of people got off the plane. The boys decided that they wanted to go into the duty free shop and instead of waiting, Lisa and I decided to go through immigration and to the baggage claim so that she could get her bag. I was went up to the immigration counter and said "Sawadee" which is how you say "hello" in Thai and the man said hello and then he proceeded to say that I was beautiful. I said "thanks?" and then has asked me "did you come with anyone else?" Even if I hadn't come with anyone else, I think I would have said that I had anyway. I couldn't tell if this was normal immigration nonsense but I know for a fact that the "you're beautiful" comment was definitely not immigration appropriate. EIther way....

It was probably not a good idea to leave the guys behind. I only say that because we went through security and then down to baggage claim, immediately picked up her bag and then waited for the guys to get here. We didn't see them so we decided to go to the other immigration check point to see if they had gone out that way. We spent about an hour looking for one another and in the end, the guys were sitting in the arrivals hall. We finally gathered together and then found a taxi and then went to the hostel. We got into two taxis and we told our taxi driver to follow the other taxi. We kept asking about why the meter wasn't running and the driver kept saying "same meter as other taxi. Same meter as other taxi."

Now I was really, really hesitant about just going with the flow with a taxi without the meter running but at that point there wasn't really much that we could do. I have heard so many horror stories about how people have gotten into taxis and then the driver says one price, takes the people somewhere and then demands a different price. When the people don't agree, the driver threatens to call the Police (which tourists never want to deal with while in a foreign country. Who knows what rights you do or don't have). That didn't happen to us, though. And we paid the driver the same amount that our other taxi had to pay. Awesome.

We went into hostel "Soi 1 Guesthouse" and it was definitely more than a little bit sketchy. We had the entire 8-person room to ourselves though which was definitely a plus but we did get complaints that we were loud at around 4 in the morning. After we checked in, we left again to go explore the area around. The guys wanted to go to get some sort of street food or atleast walk around for a while. It was around 2 in the morning and the city was definitely still awake. There were food stalls open, tiny retaurant type things that were open and soo many people out on the streets. The traffic was still bad and there were people that were selling all sorts of different things like clothes and shoes and so much more, right on the side of the street. It was so fun to see. We walked around until around 4 and then headed back to the hostel where we talked and around 6, we went to sleep.

My alarm went off at 8 and I hit snooze and I got up to go get ready for our day. We were planning on catching a bus to Pattaya so that the guys could get in their watersports and we could maybe go to the Beach, ride some elephants etc. We all got ready and headed downstairs to check out where we met the owner of the hostel. We were asking him about how to get to the bus terminal so that we could go to Pattaya and he said "why do you want to go there?" He proceeded to tell us that Pattaya is the sleaze capital of the world. Full of prostitutes, strip clubs, dirty beaches, and old men. He told us that this wasn't the best place to see the amazing beaches of Thailand that we had heard rave reviews about or anything. He recommended that we go to Kanchanaburi, Thailand where we could go to see Tigers and Elephants and waterfalls etc. He seemed to convince Ray and the other guys enough so we decided to go there instead.

We went outside and hailed a couple taxis and tried to talk to the drivers. I think the owner of the guesthouse thought that we were having trouble and he came outside to talk to the drivers (he knew Thai) and he told the driver where to go and after the drivers asked where we were going the taxi drivers tried to get us to take their taxi all the way to Kanchanaburi (2.5 hours away). I pretty much thought that was a scam so we said no and we started to go on our way to the station. The driver tried to talk me into it all the way to the station but I kept saying no (especially because we had no way of communicating with our friends in the other taxi). We got to the station and looked around and Justin, Lisa and I waited around for the rest of our group to get there. It took them a while but they finally made it.

While we were waiting a lady came up to us and asked us where we were going. We were a little confused about why she was asking but we told her and she was like okay, I can take you to the bus. We told her we had to wait. Once our group got there, she led us over to the AC Bus and told us that it would take us to Kanchanaburi. The guys stocked up on some Dunkin Donuts and we got on the bus, paid for our ticket (84 Baht= 2.5 USD) and everyone (minus me) pretty much passed out from lack of sleep from the previous night.

I attempted to stay up 1)to guard our bags and 2) to see the scenery between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi! I made it about an hour and a half and then passed out for a while. It wasn't a sound sleep by any means because the bus would stop at random points to let people on or off and I would wake up abruptly to make sure that our stuff was safe and sound.

After about 3 hours, we made it to Kanchanaburi and we had to get everyone up and off the bus.

I'll end this one here and move on to adventures in Kanchanaburi!

Ahh

I have a lot to post about Thailand but I am currently trying to catch up in my classes so I don't feel completely useless during lecture. I will try and post as soon as I can (hopefully before Thanksgiving). Though, who knows if anyone is actually sad that I haven't updated. Haha.

Hope your November is going well. I can't believe its the last full week of November!

30 days until I am back in the US/Pittsburgh.
39 days until I am back in Columbus.

Wow, Wow, Wow. Time is flying.


I'll post soon. In the meantime, check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/nhathi.13


Have a great day!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Christina! I hope you have the greatest day ever! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

Up till now

Hello Everyone! So I have completely waited a week to write this post even though I have had plenty to write. I don't have too much time right now because I am in between classes and packing and doing homework and all before I leave for Thailand!!!

Update on Classes: I still dislike them (hate might be appropriate, although passionate..I really really am not liking them right now). I don't know what it is but I just miss my OSU classes a lot these days. Maybe its the teaching style, maybe its the fact that I know that if I was at OSU right now I would be doing a lot better in my classes. I hope, if I happen to do poorly (Read: I don not achieve what the standards I set for myself) that, if a company sees this that the recruiter won't assume that I slacked off while studying abroad because thats surely not whats going on (or is it? hmm. I should figure that out).

Halloween: Halloweeen weekend was nuts here!
Thursday: Sumana's hall was turned into a haunted dorm type thing with each floor having creepiness as you come out of the elevator and then their laundry room/common room was turned into a haunted house! I typically hate those types of things but I definitely had a blast (made possible by the fact that Evan had a foam stick of sorts and would wack everything he possibly could before entering an area...hilarious!) And I also got to hang out with Evan's roommate from Kenya and met his friends from Sweden, India and Tanzania. They were really cool though the guy from Sweden was kind of a jerk. But oh well, ya can't win 'em all.

Friday: Evan and I went down to the Temple Street Market (close to the Jordan MTR Station) and we looked around. We both were trying to find some good souvenirs for our friends (Read: BARGAINING) but we didn't find all that much and people didn't seem too interested in bargaining. Probably because we both were starting really low to guage what we could get stuff at. I wasn't feeling so hot that weekend but on Saturday, we decided to call it a night at around 10:45 and head back.

Saturday: I was feeling kind of sick and I slept a lot on Saturday but in the evening, I decided that its only halloween once and what are the odds that I will be in Hong Kong on Halloween again. So I got myself out of my room, got ready and Sumana, Ben and I went over to LKF to see what the big deal was. It was PACKED. We exited the station and there were thousands upon thousands of people smashed into this little area. There were police all around and we were "herded, like cattle" in this long, elaborate maze type of thing into LKF area. I guess, in recent years, people have died from being trampled on just because there are so many people in the area. It was really crazy though because we were taken away from Lan Kwai Fong and then back and then up the hill a little and then away again and then up a hill and then back and we were finally in LKF. There were cameras EVERYWHERE. It was paparazzi times a million. I couldn't tell if these were actual photographers from newspapers and the like or just a bunch of people lined up at random points to attack unsuspecting people dressed up in costume. Nuts. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in LKF people watching like we wanted to. But there were just too many people to just hang out in. We made our way back down to the station and headed to TST to get FRESH JUICE (YUMM) and then went back to campus.

Since Halloween, nothing too special has been going on. I was sick for most of the week with a cold and kind of a fever (not really though) and then on Thursday I went to go talk with my psychology professor to talk about the class and see exactly how she got into psych. I was really interested in that because Psych, generally, isn't that common in Asia (its a growing field) and she entered about 15-20 years ago. Definitely interesting to talk to her. She told me that since she came from a poor family the fact that she got into a University made her parents extremely honored so they didn't quite know what she was studying there. She had some people ask her the age old, "What are you going to do with a Psychology degree" but for the most part she didn't have too much trouble because her parents didn't quite get it. I talked with her about my plans about I/O Psychology and we talked about bi-culturalism (she was really interested in my life history), arranged marriages, etc and then talked about how the whole PhD thing is kind of limiting in a way. She advised me to maybe get my Masters in I/O and then do a PhD on the side later. I definitely came out of that meeting a little confused about what I should be doing with my life. I think I will definitely have to address that when I get back to the US and talk, face to face, with a psych advisor.

One day, In Globablization studies, we had a discussion about western marketing and how it was spreading and..well, mainly about Globalization and Cultures. I am just gonna share a couple snippets of what some locals said.
1. People talked about how McDonalds is HUGE and goes absolutely everywhere but they try and adapt to what the local culture would like
2. Maybe the fact that McDonald's goes into places is a kind of good thing because it helps the local population adapt to what is "polite behavior" as in queuing in lines in stores, restaurant places, ticketing, etc.
3. This one guy talked about how US movies are soo incredibly widespread. He talked about how in the 90s- hollywood went on a "saving the world" spree. He added, that this might be because the US wants to be seen as #1.
4. Hollywood special effects are unparalleled (?).
5. English is the most widespread language. May be helping the decline and extinction of other languages.

I think thats all I have written down from that class. There were a couple more things that were interesting but I think I just got too caught up in the discussion.

This past saturday, the 7th!: I went with my friend Chris to go look at T-shirts to maybe have printed for Buckeyemela/Srujan (April 9-10, MARK YOUR CALENDARS). The quality looked good and everything seemed really clean and all. It looks like I would probably be able to get the shirts for close to 4 USD per shirt but I think the shipping might be too astronomical to make this feasible...

Monday: Sumana and I went into town to get some errands done. We went into Chungking Mansions, where they have a LOT of foreign currency exchanges (the best rates I have seen so far for both Buying and Selling USD) and a lot of little Indian stalls and such. We definitely didn't stay very long because we kept being stared at. It wasn't the little old ladies that were staring either, it was creepy men that would just stop talking and stuff and leer. It was really gross and we got out of there as fast as we could (I only wanted a Samosa and I didn't get that because we felt so uncomfortable). We talked about that on the way home and we couldn't come up with a really strong reason why this was happening (or if this was in our head) but the consensus was that if we were by ourselves we would not have felt safe and that in itself indicates that maybe it was not in our heads.

Tuesday: STEELERS BEAT THE BRONCOS! WOOOHOO! Now we just have to take out the Bengals and win atleast one agains the Ravens. :) GO STEELERS. I really miss football Sundays.

Either way...this week has gone SUPER fast. I am going to THAILAND tomorrow and I am really excited (mostly about riding an elephant) and I absolutely cannot wait to get there. Its going to be awesome. :)

I'll be back on Monday and from then on I will be in Hong Kong, exploring on the weekends and catching up/learning everything/getting ready for finals on the weekdays.

Have a fabulous weekend. Take Care. Miss you all!

Shanghai!

We arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, around 7:45 am. By the time we got a bearings straight and dropped off our luggage in the left luggage area at the Station, it was around 8:30. We decided that we would go to the Yu Yuan gardens first because it was a little bit out of the way and so we had to make our way over there. We took bus number 930 out to the Old City area and after asking around we found the entrance to the park. It was approximately 40 Yuan a piece but definitely worth it.

There were a bunch of little shops and stalls that we walked past and we made sure to look at the variety of different souvenirs and products that they were selling. It was similar to Hong Kong and the Silk Market but still cool.

We went into the park and we were just in awe of the beautiful scenery and ponds all around. I have pictures up on picasa but it was definitely a really cool place to visit in the area. The architecture was magnificent and it was carried out through all of the buildings in the area.

We walked out of the park area and down the street where all of these boutiques were you could see this older architecture all the way down the street but when you looked into the distance you could see the difference between this type of architecture and the newer buildings being put up in the distance. It was definitely really interesting.

Another interesting part of our adventure was when Sumana and I went into a shop inside the park itself to look at souvenirs or potential gifts for people. We saw these sandalwood fans that were pretty cool and they wanted to charge us a really high price. We said that we didn't want it because it was too much and they asked us if we wanted a receipt. If we did not want a receipt than they could bargain with us. Really interesting. We said that we didn't want a receipt to see how low they would go and when we still wanted to leave the ladies kind of followed us out and kept asking for "our price" to see if we could make a deal. Definitely really interesting and totally under the table.

We walked around some more, got some Dairy Queen (!!!) and then went in search of the bus to take us back to the city. We found the same bus and went back to People's Square to get back to the City.

The bus driver told us when to get off and we started roaming the area and took some pictures with the "people" in the square (statues) and then headed off down Nanjing Road toward the Bund. Nanjing Road reminded me of Las Ramblas, in Barcelona, without the bird sellers and the statue people. There were restaurants and stores all the way down the walking street. We headed past the end of the the walking street towards the Bund. We got to where the Bund was supposed to be and we found out that it was closed because it is under renovation for the Asia Expo that will be held in Shanghai in 2010. I was a little disappointed but we continued on our way to see the city from the other side of the river.

We got off at Pudong Avenue and attempted to find the view. It was definitely not there. We asked some local people where the "view" was and they were very confused. They tried to explain to us where we should go but we definitely did not understand. A crowd of like 6 people or so came out to all make an attempt to explain it to us and when we did not understand they explained that they would go and get someone that spoke "our language." They went to get him, asked us to follow, and when the man came outside he explained that we were at the wrong place (and we knew that). And then pointed us in the right direction. We headed off in that way. We met a Czech couple (maybe) along the way and we asked them if we were heading in the right direction (they had a map). We walked with them for quite a ways and found out that they were traveling around china for a good month or two. Fantastic! I wish I had that kind of time to just travel the world. I hope one day, I will. We left them and continued on our way. We weren't sure exactly where we were going but we asked a information desk person who spoke to us in Mandarin and then called his English speaking friend on the phone who told us that the view from this side of the river wasn't that spectacular but told us how to get there anyway.

We walked through a park that had the countdown to the Asia Expo running and walked toward the Oriental TV tower. It was gorgeous and a really cool building. It was also really expensive and we were low on cash so we stuck to walking around some more.

After we got our fair share of the area we headed back to the train station, picked up our luggage and then headed to Longyang Road to take the Maglev train over to the airport so we could catch our flight back to Shenzhen.

We arrived at the station, bought our ticket for the Maglev and went up to the platform. I am pretty upset that my camera ran out of batteries because I did not get a chance to take a picture of the train. It ran at 301 kilometers per hour (slow for the Maglev...we missed the fast train by like 10 minutes. That train runs at 431 kmph). We reached the aiport in about 9 or 10 minutes (19 miles away).

We checked our luggage in and then headed over to the gate. We left on time, got to Shenzhen, met a nice Pakistani man on the way to the MTR station who told us a story about how he invested in a fake company in China and how, when in business, we should always visit a site before we invest in it. Good to know. Slightly random for this story of my day but thats okay.

We went through the entire immigration process and arrived back at UST by midnight. Definitely a fun-filled trip and one of the best trips I have ever made.

Thanks to Elizabeth, Ben, Vinny, all of the local and random people along they way and especially Sumana for making this trip one to remember!