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!

Summer Palace and on our Way to Shanghai!

Monday morning we said a sleepy goodbye to Ben and Vinny when they left at 6am and then went back to sleep. We had planned on getting up around 7 or so so that we could pack up, eat and then head out to the Summer Palace which is about 45 minutes to an hour away. We got up around 7:30 and started to pack up and get ready and we ended up leaving the hostel after breakfast around 10 o clock.

We took the subway, switched lines twice and we got to the station. We asked around and found out that we needed to take Bus No. 930 which would take us all the way to the gates of Summer Palace. The bus was only one yuan. Fantastic! We made it there alright, bought our tickets with our student IDs and then made our way into the park area.

My first thought was "This is absolutely gorgeous!" It was nothing like the rest of Beijing. It was absolutely clear skies (probably because it rained the night before) and there was a beautiful lake surrounding the area. (See Picasa Pictures). You would look one way and see an amazing bridge that connected the side we were on to an island in the middle of the lake and then you would look to the other side and see a light house type building set in the mountains. It was magnificent.

We walked along side the lake towards the main area where the temple was located. We found some other sites along the way and we were able to weave our way through the many crowds to see inside the old areas. The architecture looked midly like that of the forbidden city but the paintings on the pillars were more unique and colorful than that of the forbidden city or anything else that I had seen in Beijing.

We walked around and got to people watch for a little while. There were people selling corn at every stop and people that were playing with their kids who were also running around with each other. I took a picture of this little boy who seemed to be pulling along his little sister in every which way that he wanted to go and I saw another another little kid that was pushing his sibling (I don't remember if it was a sister or a brother) in a stroller and it reminded me of pictures that I have seen of my brother and I. Definitely made me wish that he could have been there with me (even though I think he has already been to the Summer Palace). Maybe it was more that I wish that I had a close friend or family member or someone from home that would be able to take in these amazing views and would completely understand what I have been seeing through these adventures. I digress...

We walked around Summer Palace and we bought a map of the area (that you could essential frame because its so pretty) and we discovered that the Summer Palace is absolutely HUGE. You could definitely not see it in the amount of time that we allotted for it. However, we made the best of it and took some pictures and then headed back towards the entrance to get back to the station.

Once we got back to the entrance we realized that we didn't quite know which way to go to catch the bus back to the station. We assumed that we would have to get on the bus on the opposite side of the road from where we got off so we headed in that direction. Wrong. We ended up asking a mechanic of some sort and he pointed us in a different direction. The two of us set off in that direction and found ourselves at the wrong bus stop. After using our lovely phrase book we went off down the street and got to the correct bus stop that was actually in a little alleyway. Who knew.

Anyway, we asked the bus driver whether the bus went to the right station but he said a different station. A station is a station so we got on the bus and we got off where the driver told us to. We didn't see the station anywhere so we chose a person off the street showed him the map of the subway station and gestured to figure out where the nearest station was. He tried to explain in Mandarin, realized that we had no clue what he was talking about and then decided to have us follow him because he was heading in that direction. Really nice of him. He spoke to Sumana in Mandarin and asked her where we were going to which she interpreted to be where are we from (Everyone is shocked when they see us) and she said India as a normal reply and he got really confused/excited/shocked. After a little while he showed us on our subway map about how to get to the airport. Hilarious.

We got to the station, thanked him profusely and then headed on our way to the Silk Market to argue with some of the shop keepers about the shoes that Sumana had bought (which had started to wear out the first day she wore them) and to try and get some name drawings redone or fixed. We had to argue for a good while to get people to fix things (with Sumana also demanding that her shoes be changed and standing at the shop and warding off customers..good work!) and in the end we got everything fixed up. She had to be stern with them because they tried to make it out to be like she was dumb and didn't know what she was talking about when she said that she got them from a specific store. Ha. We knew. She even talked to the girl that we bought them from who definitely recognized Sumana.

We bought a couple of trinkety things and then headed back to the hostel to get our bag and check Shanghai stuff, eat dinner and set out on our way to the train station!

After lugging our suitcase to the train station, we quickly found our platform and queued up to be let inside. We found out compartment and our beds and put everything away before settling in for the night. There was a little baby in our compartment that was definitely really cute and he would play hide and seek with his blanket and would roll around and kind of play with Sumana. It was cute.

The train left promptly at 9:40 and Sumana and I fell asleep, quickly, around 10:30ish. Soon it was morning and we were in Shanghai!

The Great Wall of China (or The Great China Wall as my mom likes to call it) and Where History Was Made a Little More Than a Year Ago.

When we got back to the Hostel on Saturday night we met up with Ben and Vinny who told us that they had booked the Great Wall trip, through the hostel, for Mutianyu. I was a little bit upset by this because Mutianyu is still pretty touristy. I wanted to go on the 10K trek on TGW that was between Simatai and Jinshanling which is supposed to be the less restored part of TGW. I accepted the adventure though I assumed that the two guys would want to go on a hike instead of the touristy part. But I think they also figured that they would want to go see the rest of Beijing when they got back and hoped that they wouldn’t be too tired.

Anyway, we were supposed to be up by 7 am and in the café area but we didn’t get up until around then so we hurried to get ready and then made our way to the café and had breakfast (which came with our ticket) and then hurried to get into the van to take the four of us, two other ladies and a Italian man to the wall.

While we were driving up to get to Mutianyu (about 2 hours), I kept thinking about what this trip means to me and exactly why I was so excited to do this whereas the other three weren’t AS off the wall. A bunch of people tend to think that I am not adventurous that I am a homebody that I don’t want to go out and see things and explore- see knew places. But I haven’t been asked the “where do you want to go, Neesha” type of question. I have wanted to see The Great Wall of China forever. I learned about it so many years ago and since then I have wanted to go. I have wanted to go since before my brother decided to take his Asian adventure-round-the-world trip and have been looking at pictures of The Great Wall of China for years now. I had wanted to go for so long and finally the day came when I was able to and it was so incredibly surreal. I know that I went to a more touristy part of the wall which was not quite what I wanted to do but it was definitely worth the experience.

We got to Mutianyu around 10am and my first thought was “Oh my gods there are so many tourists! I am going to hate this. This is not what I expected at all!” We had the option of hiking up the mountain (takes about 30 minutes to climb the steps or we could take the ski-lift up where we can see the view and the wall and it would only take around 5 minutes. We decided to take the ski lift because we were only really given about 3 hours on the wall and we wanted to make the most of it. We got on the ski lift (my first time EVER) and we headed up the mountain and it was so amazing. The view was absolutely gorgeous. All of the leaves were changing colors and the mountains in the background and you could see little villages set into the Mountains. Even though it was foggy/polluted, It was still so incredibly picturesque and wonderful.

When we got up to the top of the ski lift we had two options. We could either go to the right and go to the not so touristy part or we could go to the left and go to the more touristy part. We obviously sdecided to go to the right first and boy was that an adventure. It was characterized by EXTREMELY steep, uneven steps. It essentially went straight up and was very tiring. It just kept going and going and going. I felt really proud of myself when we got to the very top (where we were told we were not allowed to go further) and looked back and saw TGW stretching out for so long. Of course, we went further past the “no admittance sign” and onto the ruins of the wall. There were shrubs that had grown over on it and it was a winding path that ended at beat up ruins of a lookout tower. We climbed that and were in absolute awe of the scenery with the leaves changing and the remnants of The Great Wall stretching down the side of the mountain and up another mountain, deep deep into the mountains. It was beautiful to see and I cannot even imagine how it was built. I bet many of the people that built TGW probably had some sort of fear of heights and many more died trying to build it through all of the seasons. It was amazing.

We went back down the steps portion and we passed the ski lift and went up the other way. Ben and Vinny went scurrying off while Sumana probably went just as far as they did but took more time to enjoy the scenery and really take in the entire view. I really liked the more touristy part of the wall because there were trees that were growing on the side of the wall and the colors were changing and looked absolutely magnificent.

While we were walking we took the liberty of talking to some other people and Sumana started talking to this one fellow, in broken mandarin. He and his friend asked us if we were from India and because we didn’t want to go into all of the crazy details about our family and the moving processes we just said yes. We then met the cutest baby that was with his father or grandfather or uncle or someone and we ogled at it for awhile and then kept walking and then took some jumping pictures and after while we decided that we were going to get late so we started heading back when we met that same baby and its father/uncle somebody and I asked if I could hold the baby. I have a picture somewhere in my picasa but it was the cutest baby ever. The father/uncle/grandfather person let me hold it and I took a picture with both of them. 

We continued on our way and I saw a STEELERS FAN! He was wearing the hat and a sweatshirt and I yelled “Go Steelers” and he said the same back! I started walking back but then doubled back and asked to take a picture with him. I got a picture and then we started talking about where we are from (His wife is from Upper St. Clair) and then he asked what I was doing here and all that jazz. It was cool. Steelers Fans are EVERYWHERE. I love the City of Pittsburgh.


Anyway we went back down to the ski lift are and instead of taking the ski lift we decided to take a Toboggan down. It was so fun-speeding down the side of a mountain, through the woods with all of the leaves changing colors. It was definitely really touristy but soo much fun.

We got to the bottom of the hill and haggled with the shop/booth keepers and got some souvenirs and then met up with the rest of our group at a Chinese Restaurant which also came with our ticket to TGW. We were skeptical about some of the dishes but determined that there were 4/7 of them for herbivores and then we chowed down. It was pretty delicious-one of the best meals that I have had since arriving in East Asia. We had a tomato and green pepper dish and then some braised potato (YUM) and then some stir fried green beans (YUM) and some other stuff. We got to talk to the other people on our tour at that point. And I used my limited Spanish with the Italian man because he said that he could understand a little bit. At first I was pretty rusty with it and I couldn’t speak as quickly as I would have liked but by the end of the meal I was spouting off sentences and explaining why I was only in Florence, Italy for 4 hours when I went to Italy a couple years ago. He complimented me on my Spanish and my pronunciation, though I don’t feel that it was deserved. But I thanked him and we all went on our way back to Beijing.
We got back to Beijing and the four of us kind of relaxed for a few minutes. Ben and Vinny left to go to the Pearl Market and then we showered and ate dinner in the café and headed off to meet Elizabeth in the Olympic Village.

I was so excited to go to the Olympic Village. I absolutely loved the Beijing Olympics (minus the Chinese women gymnasts winning because they were definitely all 12-13 years old). I loved the Water Cube and the Birds Nest and I could not WAIT to get there.
We met up with Elizabeth and walked around the Olympic village and it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the Bird’s nest with all of its colorful glory and the absolutely magnificent Water Cube. We, of course, attempted some jumping pictures but kind of failed and it was really windy and cold and it started to rain so we didn’t stay there for too long. I can’t believe I went to the Olympic Village where the most amazing, epic opening ceremonies was held, Michael Phelps won 8 Gold Medals and Usain Bolt broke the world record for the 100 meter dash with his ridiculously fast legs.

I was a little bit upset because I had heard that they completely shut down the Water Cube. I wish they could find someway to keep these facilities open and running because I feel like they could be very useful and helpful. They have the Bird's Nest open for tours during the day time.

Overall the day was pretty amazing and I absolutely loved every minute of it. After the Olympic Village, Elizabeth and I parted ways for another 8 or 9 months until we see each other again. I can’t express how excited I was to see her. It was so wonderful to see a familiar face and after so many conversations about the A-factor (Asian –Factor) that we had in high school- who knew that we would end up meeting up in Asia! We have been friends for over 15 years and it was wonderful being able to adventure around Beijing with her. She said she is going to try and visit Hong Kong towards the end of the semester and I really hope that happens. I would love to show her around here.

Thanks for everything, Elizabeth! 15 years and going strong!

A Day in Beijing with Elizabeth!

So I woke up around 7:45 to a line to get into the bathroom/shower. Ben and Vinny had arrived the day before and were planning on leaving early on Monday morning so they had limited time in Beijing to do everything that they wanted to do. Sumana let Vinny get into the shower before her and then she went in because she was already late in trying to catch a train to visit her Uncle about 2 and a half hours outside of Beijing.

I finally got into the shower around 8:15 (even though that was when I was supposed to leave) and then speedily made my way over to the train station to meet up with Elizabeth in the Forbidden City. I walked down the street towards the train station and there were so many people in the area! There was a market that happens every Saturday morning there. Fruits, Vegetables, Clothing..you name it, they probably have it. I snapped some pictures as I was zig-zagging through people so that I would get to Elizabeth before she started to worry too much.

I got out at the Tiananmen East Exit, went down the underpass and over to the entrance to the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City). First thing I noticed was that there were SO MANY PEOPLE. SO many. It was 9am and there were a couple thousand people right at the entrance. It was crazy. I didn’t know how I was going to go about finding Elizabeth but I figured I would just head over towards the gigantic picture of Chairman Mao and hope that she would be somewhere over there like we had planned. I crossed over the bridge and she was standing in the doorway! Thank goodness for that. Apparently she went around in circles through the Entrance and Exit to make sure that she didn’t miss me somewhere in between there. We walked through the entrance and there were so many tours that were going though. Mostly older people, all wearing the same type and color of hat and following a flag to make sure that they all stayed together.

We bought our ticket with our Student Discounts started our journey through the Forbidden City. It is HUGE. There is no possible way to get through the entire thing in one day. There’s probably, also, no possible way to FIND all the parts of the Imperial Palace. There are tons of little nooks and crannies and corridors all over the place. After walking through the imperial palace, ogling at the thousands upon thousands of people there and looking at the little rooms that housed the emperor’s everyday needs (a room to sit in before important meetings, a different room to change in before important meetings, etc) we made our way back out of the Imperial Palace and attempted to find the No. 5 bus to get to Jingshan Park.

We found the bus stop and the bus came within a few short minutes. It was a really interesting experience because everyone runs over to the entrance, pays the driver and then squishes as many people into the bus as possible. Elizabeth asked me if this was like India and I told her that in India, they fit as many people as they possibly can into the buses but that there aren’t really doors on the bus so people end up on the bus but hanging kind of outside. The Brightside about being squished on the bus is definitely not even having the opportunity to fall over when the bus breaks.

We got to Jingshan park and paid the couple kuai (another word for Yuan) entrance fee and made our way to the lookout points. The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the park was the cleaner air that I was breathing in. People aren’t allowed to smoke in the Park and the trees make breathing a much more pleasant experience. We walked around the park for a little, made our way to the different pagodas and saw the Forbidden City from the top. It was MASSIVE. You couldn’t exactly see all of it because of the pollution but you could definitely tell that it was a really, big area. It was interesting to look out on the forbidden city and not be able to see very much and then look out on the city on the other side of the pagoda and be able to see much more clearly. I am not exactly sure why that would be but it definitely caused us both to wonder. After munching on some bread and some shelf milk that Elizabeth brought, we headed back on the No 5 bus and were even more squished than before and made our way to the Subway line to head on over to the Lama Temple (a Tibetan Buddhist temple).

The subway system is pretty extensive and covers a lot of Beijing. Each trip is only 2 Yuan no matter how many transfers you make or how long it takes you. Definitely the easiest and cheapest way to get around Beijing (though I like Buses better because you can see more of the city (when you aren’t being squished in the middle of the train)). Trains are also very packed and people will run between transfer points to make sure that they are at the front of the line so that if there are open seats on the train that they can race one another to sit there. It was pretty intense.

We got to the Lama temple and paid our Student fee and then went inside through the park and over to the beginning of the temple. This temple was set up like Forbidden City where you enter through one part and go through it and then follow into the next part and keep going to the next one. The architecture was very similar. The Buddhas would start relatively small and by the last part of the temple the Buddha was 26 meters tall! 8 meters below ground and 18 meters above ground! It was massive and very beautiful. I snapped a picture and then got yelled at but it was worth it. We walked around the area a little more and it was so quiet and serene. Very peaceful and even though it was in the middle of the city, it felt as though we were farther removed from the sights and sounds and smells of Beijing.

The temple was about to close so we made our way towards the exit and over a street or two because I told Elizabeth that I wanted to walk through a hutong to see how a lot of people live in Beijing. We walked through what Elizabeth said was a fairly nice Hutong. There were several cars parked outside of their community homes. And we walked further inside and people were playing cards and smoking (the norm) and little kids were playing with their toys. We walked through some winding paths and some people had their doors open so we peeked inside and we could see people cooking on this small little stove that was in the entryway and they had a tiny table on the side that they placed their cut vegetables on. We came outside of there before it got dark and headed across the street into a different hutong where we were about to talk more about her sister and med school and my brother and his job and we reminisced about high school Spanish class and everything.

We started to walk back towards the way we came and part of the alleyway was more polluted than when we came in. It looked like it was stagnant in the air and not dissipating. We covered our mouths and noses and kinda jogged through it and then went around the corner a different way to get out so that we wouldn’t go further into the polluted air.

We made our way back to the subway station and went over to the Temple of Heaven park with the help of Elizabeth’s Lonely Planet China book. We got to the park and walked through the pitch blackness and stumbled upon people practicing their singing in the park and a whole lot more people watching someone else sing and some people dance. People seemed to really enjoy themselves. We went further on into the park and found another rather large group of people that were doing the same thing. We went further yet, almost to the actual temple itself and we saw some people playing Chinese hackey sack. We sat near them and people watched for awhile and they were actually pretty good. They were all older people and were spinning and twirling while they were kicking their feet up in the air. It was pretty nifty.

We started to get cold and we had to meet up with Sumana in Tiananmen Plaza so we made our way towards the exit of the park and we saw a whole lot of people standing and chanting and clapping so we went over there and we started doing it with them even though we couldn’t understand exactly what they were saying. Everything was being said in a rhythm and it was fun. People would walk past and they would do it with the crowd as they were going to their next destination and so we figured it must be something pretty well known. As we were leaving another couple was about to leave and Elizabeth asked them, in her awesome Mandarin skills, what this was. And the man said it was a kind of exercise that people did and to get more blood to their hands and keep warm. He also said that you could pat other parts of your body like your knees or your thighs or something to do the same thing. It was pretty interesting.

We walked outside of the park and low and behold we saw a group of people sitting there and watching two women doing ballroom. After a couple seconds the song ended and everyone paired up and they all started doing ballroom right there! It must have been a class of some sort but it was cool because everyone was doing the same moves at the same time.
As we were leaving, Elizabeth and I talked about how we would never see this type of thing in the US. People don’t generally meet in the park for random group activities like that. We talked about how there is less privacy here, in China, but there is more community involvement and community activities. We talked about how cool it was that older people would go to the park on their own to enjoy the company of other people around their age and have fun whether that’s singing and dancing or playing hackeysack, going for a walk, dancing on the plaza outside of the park. It was so cool to see all of that and I definitely felt like it was an honor to be experience this type of thing. I took some pictures of people dancing and singing and the Chinese people that were sitting there just smiled at me and nodded in approval. It was really nice.

We made our way back to Tiananmen took some pictures of the Forbidden City at night and listened to Sumana’s account of her day that included an unregistered taxi, a really nice driver, her train ticket getting stuck underneath the train 10 minutes before it was supposed to depart, really broken mandarin and a meeting with the Chinese and Indian National table Tennis teams.

Sumana and I headed back to the hostel and stopped to get McDonalds (GROSS) where we ordered corn (yummm) and fries (yuck) and then headed back to get ready for The Great Wall the following day. :D

Trying to find the Airport and Arriving in Beijing...

I left campus around 1:30 on Thursday. Sumana was taking care of the cash flow because I couldn't get yuan in time and she can get yuan for no fees through her bank. So that was fantastic of her. I am gonna owe her so much money but I'll just pay in Hong Kong dollars, i guess. It'll be interesting to see exactly how much this trip costs me. Ah well. What can you do. Its an adventure and sometimes you just have to let caution go to the wind. (whoa. did I just say that?).

Anyway, I met her at the MTR station and it was funny because I had an actual something to tell her but as soon as I saw her I was like WOOHOO! We both did this hop, skip and a jump because we were so excited. Anyway we made our way up to the border and as we were went farther and farther up into the New Territories the surroundings felt less and less like Hong Kong and more and more like India. Not to the same extent, I don't think but much, much closer. We got to the border and ended up crossing and we were slightly violated by PRC people (When you cross the border you have to fill out a health declaration form and before they let you into China, they point this temperature gun to your head to make sure that you are not running a fever. It was pretty funny but definitely not expected at all..I felt a little violated but I guess thats part of the experience!

Anyway, we crossed the border and we started looking for the Bus to the airport because we knew it would take between an hour to two hours to get there and we didn't want to miss our flight. Boy was this a difficult task! First of all, we crossed the border and it seemed like almost immediately noone spoke English anymore. I am glad I brought Vijay's Mandarin phrasebook because it definitely helped us at that point. We asked people how to get to "feiji chang" which is the word for airport and people would start rambling off in Mandarin and we were just like, "umm, okay. Xie Xie" And then kind of head off in the direction that their quick hands were pointing. We walked up and down the bus terminal, first meeting this one creepy kind of guy when he came up to us while we were trying to match chinese characters on the wall and we figured we might as well ask him how to get there and he pulled out his phone started typing numbers on to it and then showed us "40 for one, 80 for two" and we thought he meant by bus but we were really, really skeptical. So we started walking with him a little bit and then he calls over this teenage boy and he offers to take our bags, obviously we said No and then we followed VERY slowly behind him and then we saw him gesture to his friends like with his thumbs up and nodding and all and we decided to get outside of that situation really fast. We just were like, "uhh, no thank you" and walked in the other direction. After asking a bunch of people, we ended up finding the bus (which was in some alleyway) and then left for the airport.

The first difference I noticed was the fact that no one was speaking any English. The second thing that I noticed was that there were soo many cars on the road! I don't know why I noticed that so well but I most definitely did and it kind of freaked me out (I can only imagine what its going to be like when I get back to the States). Anyway, we made our way to the airport and checked in and I took pictures of planes for my brother and then we boarded the flight (20 minutes late). We left at around an hour after we were supposed to leave and got to Beijing on time- don't ask me how that works. I don't have any idea. We got off the plane and got our baggage and tried to follow the directions to get to the Happy Dragon Hostel.

People didn't want to speak English but we managed to use our phrasebook and Sumana's background in Mandarin to figure out that we needed to take Bus 2 and where we were supposed to stand. We got on the right bus and then tried to figure out when we were supposed to get off. It was about 11pm so we were a little nervous as to how we were getting there. We tried to listen to the half Mandarin/half English announcements but the speaker wasn't working so we could not understand anything. An older gentleman that was sitting next to us asked us if we needed help and we asked if we could take the train to Dongsi Station from Dongzhimen Station (where we were going to get off). He proceeded to tell us that the trains stop running at 11 and that we would have to take a taxi. He started to ask where we were going and the address and all. We were very skeptical to tell him because we had heard horror stories but he saw the paper that we had in our hands and so he asked for it. He looked at it for a long while and Sumana and I were very much like.. "uhh, whats going on...we probably shouldn't have done that" but he seemed nice and then we were hopping that he would not get off the bus at the same time that we did but he, of course, did but then walked the other direction after saying bye. Nice man.

Anyways, we are standing outside at this bus station and this man is nearby and he looks kinda drunk and hes smoking a ciggarette and then there was this other more legit looking guy who asked if we needed help. We said we did and once again he asked us where we were going (I HATE THAT QUESTION) but we showed him because we really had no other choice. We hailed a taxi (on the first try..woohoo!) and tried showing the taxi driver the address of the hostel (in Chinese) and he would not accept it and said no. And then started driving away. The second taxi that we asked wouldn't do it either and then we asked the man to help us and he tried talking to the driver but the driver decided to start driving away as the man was talking (definitely not very nice).

Anyway, I guess the man was worried about us a little bit so he let us share a taxi because he was going in a similar direction. He took the paper from us and then explained to the driver what exactly we were looking for. Then he asked us where we were from and told us that he lives in New Jersey and was here for a conference. He got off at his hotel and then told the taxi driver to clear the tab for us so we would start from wherever he got off (Such a nice gesture!). We thanked him profusely and then we made it to the hostel without incident. Awesome old-man-taxi driver. :)

We were received by the Hostel's staff that came out to greet us and took our bags inside and then we went to check in. We were trying to check in and the man essentially said "Did you get my email this morning?" Our response.."No......" to which he replied "Oh, well our guests from today decided that they wanted to extend their stay today and so we don't have any place for you tonight. I can drive you to our sister hostel and you can stay there and then I can pick you up in the morning" We were frustrated with that but we kind of just accepted it (and had no other options and just laughed at the luck that we were having all day). We were weary of him too, especially because he decided to drive in the narrowest, smallest, darkest alleys that he could find; but we ended up getting to the sister hostel and checked into a room that had one other girl staying in it. We woke her up by turning on the light and told us about her stay here and asked us small little questions and then went back to sleep. We weren't quite sleepy so I told Sumana about how Ben was reading reviews of this place a couple days before and it said something about how they had overbooked the hostel and sent the people to stay elsewhere where they had awful beds. Our beds were pretty comfortable. We wanted to get up early to go explore but we decided that we would try and get a full nights sleep because thats probably going to be a little difficult int he coming days. We woke up at like 9:15 were ready by 10:30 and checked out whereby we had to wait for a good 30 minutes for the guy to be called to pick us up. We checked into our actual hostel but were told that our room wasn't ready so we put our luggage in storage (after locking it..thanks to my mom who packed my luggage lock in my suitcase before I came to Hong Kong!) and then set out on our way..

We eventually found the subway station and then made our way to the Silk Market. We roamed around there for quite a while and looked for walking shoes for Sumana so that we could go to TGW on Sunday. We found some and then we bargained with the lady for a bit and I ended up with a pair of fake Puma shoes as well. My only frivolous purchase of the day..though I could use another pair of shoes so I guess its not totally frivolous. We walked around and tried to find a wallet for Sumana and found a stall that we liked. She found a wallet that she liked except it said that it was made out of genuine leather. She asked the guy if it was real leather and he said "yes yes, real leather" and then took a lighter to the material to show us. Then shes told him, "Oh, well then I don't want it" and he asked why and she said it was for religious reasons and then he said, "Oh yes, yes. Its not real leather! I just tell everyone its real leather.Seee!.." and then he proceeded to show us the plastic layering on the inside. Hilarious. We wandered around some more and got slightly manhandled and pulled into stalls and then went upstairs to the clothing section where I bargained with a guy from 400 ish for a sweater down to 65. I went from 50 to 65 and didn't budge until he came down all the way. He was fun and nice too. Its a cute sweater and I am really excited about it. Then we went to what we really wanted (what I really wanted/needed) a winter coat! We found a stall that seemed to have pretty nice ones and we tried on coat after coat and finally found one that I liked and asked how much it was and she started at $1700 yuan!!!!! Of course I am not paying that. I told her I wanted 150 but then upped it to 200 and then stayed there until she came all the way down to what I wanted. Its 30 USD but I really like the coat and am completely happy with the purchase. We left there to go up to the fourth floor (THERE ARE SO MANY STALLS) to find little trinkets. There was this stand when you got out of the elevator that sold scrolls with people's names on them. The artist would look up your name in a chinese-english dictionary and then would spell it out. It was really cool.

I think we are going to go back on Monday. so that we pick touristy things up and then don't need to worry about it later. :) I think I also want to buy a wristlet for formal occassions..I think I can get it for around 30 yuan (5ish USD).

After we finished shopping we made our way to the train station and met a nice old man that helped us to get to the Lama temple where we were supposed to meet my friend Elizabeth for dinner. He kept wishing us a pleasant evening. He was nice. We were already running late and then we got to the station and didn't quite know how to get there and the maps in the subway station weren't helping because they were all written in Chinese. We asked someone (who apparently was not a local) and he asked someone else and then he explained it to us. We were able to find it (after walking down some ways) and crossed the street (which was an adventure in itself) and then walked down a kind of dark alleywayish. We weren't quite sure how far to go but I saw Elizabeth and after watching out for cars went and gave her the hugest hug ever. We went inside and sat at this really nice vegetarian restaurant and we had a buffet dinner which was scrumptious and talked about everything under the sun.. about her family, my family, her adventures, and her language immersion program and just about everything else that you could imagine.

At around 8 or so we decided that we needed to get back to the silk market before it closed to pick up the watercolors and we were going to run late. We got to the silk market around 8:50 and the downstairs was closed so we ran upstairs and outside and around and crossed the street and Elizbeth used her mad, amazing Mandarin skills to get us past the guard in order to pick up our things.

We went back to the station and we tried to figure out our plans to buy Sumana's ticket to go see her Uncle in the morning and then after writing down some quick translations and deciding that she (Elizabeth) and I were going to meet up below Mao's picture at 8:45 the next morning, we called it a night and headed back to the hostel to admire our purchases and to write this extremely long post!

On to Saturday...