Let me tell you about Hong Kong...

Hong Kong
My FDP for my International Perspectives on Family Violence got cancelled since we've had alterations to our itinerary. The first day I woke up in time for lunch. Grabbed it on the ship, talked to my favorite crew guys (Peter, Linval) and ran into Obai. He had went out earlier and came back in time for lunch on the ship but was willing to go with me. Just next to the ship was this huge shopping plaza with over 4 floors and a ground floor with over 800 stores (appliances, electronics, salons, restaurants) anything you can think of. I heard that Hong Kong was going to be expensive---seriously they do not have “retail” or like regular stores. Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING was designer or brand name which was frustrating because I couldn't afford anything nor was I willing to pay lol. My entire agenda was to get an external hard-drive. The only one I'd seen in the stores I went to in Viet Nam was a 500 mb for a crazy price. The first and foremost thing of walking out in Hong Kong was how much like Manhattan of NYC it was. I LOVED LOVED the vibe of Hong Kong. That rush rush city vibe. Ahh. I missed it. The other thing I loved was the number of stores on each street and corner. Again, reminded me of NYC in that regard. It coulda been Fordham Road. Honestly. I found the mixture of people fascinating. Hong Kong is an expensive and international hub. I loved walking around and being of the gazillion non-native Chinese habitant. I went to one store and saw a 1 TB hard drive for 1,100 HK dollars which was about 140ish USD. Then I went to another place and saw a 2 TB hard drive for 1, 200 HK dollars which is 160ish USD. I was soooo happy I held out and waited. Went to the ATM and for whatever reason had difficulty taking anything more than a 1000 HK dollars. So I went back to the place and figured if it was meant to be then it would be. At first the guy kept saying he couldn't take it for less than 1200. Then he told me to take a seat and he talked it out in Mandarin to some of his coworkers. Finally he agreed. I mean, come on, you're gonna give up a 1000 sell because I don't have 200? lol. I think he also was trying to see if I really didn't have it... I mean, it was a brand store... Canon to be exact lol, and everything is fixed price. All I had in abundance was Vietnamese Dong. I showed him and said this lol and he scrunched up his face like eh, nah. Don't want lol. I was pretty happy that I ended up getting it for 1000 HK (120ish USD). Awesomeeeeee! We saw so many Indians. They were stopping us and kept asking if we wanted to buy watches or suits. Literally every corner was an Indian dude. We started having full out conversations with them because it got comical after a while. We also  met a black guy from Philadelphia with his little daughter who'd moved and ended up staying in HK for 19 years...then we walked into this area where a sector of money exchange kiosks were. I was able to exchange my plastic Vietnamese money (and guess I will have the smaller denominations/paper ones as a souvenir if the U.S don't convert it) for Taiwanese money. I would get more if I converted it to that versus Chinese yen or HK dollars even though I was presently there (and Shanghai would be our next stop). We now had three days in Taiwan added to our itinerary and I had nothing planned and would need it. We thought the guy was trying to jip us for a bit because he had a ridiculous fee but I just waved it off. It gets difficult to understand these things when exchanging money and the rates and stuff. Obai went to another kiok and asked to see a British Pound since he always wondered what they looked like... it was a strange request but the guys were nice and held one to the window ...which was hilarious. Ahaha. Then we kept checked out a market within a cluster of stores we ran into this older England guy who talked to us a great bit about his experiences living in China and what to expect. We noticed more and more Indian and African stores the further we walked and as with any port, all the black people we'd ever seen, were EXTRA excited to see other Black people. It was and is the most interesting phenomena. I remember seeing some black guys in Singapore when we were coming back from Chinatown on the subway. They were walking on the opposite side as me in a rush, but they raised their fists in like the black power symbol hahaha.  Even thinking about the black guy and woman  in Muslim garments when we met Mumbi in India at Spencer's plaza eating KFC. They were from Zimbabwe. We met some guys from some place in Africa... I think it was somewhere in Northern Africa. Obai asked them about their experiences living in HK and if they found it difficult and they said no, everyone was accepting. I found this to be verry true and it enhanced my overall view of HK and just my general enthusiasm about being there. We kept walking, checked out some cool stuff. Turned down a road where we smelled food but ended up at a 7-eleven since it was almost dinner time and as Obai pointed out, the food was expensive everywhere ( I have a habit of spending majority of my money in my travels on food lol). I brought this interesting sausage thing which the girl at the cash register was nice enough to cut open the wrapper. It didn't taste bad. It actually tasted like imitation crab meat.  We walked through the mall to get back on the ship and I grabbed a piece of spicy/original recipe chicken from their KFC. Ahhh... I've done my sampling of KFC since India and nothing comes close to it. It was hands down, the best!!! I also just like seeing the different types of menus and how it caters to each culture. I wish I had grabbed the menu but they had all types of fire roasted chicken and some other stuff. Came back to the ship, had dinner. Folks were getting ready to go out afterwards. I was undecided but got dressed to go out with Dorian and Courtney who was waiting on Christine and Paige. But while we stood down there, I realized that I had no HK dollars lol and some places don't accept USD but Dorian swapped with me since she was heading to an ATM before they got to a club. So I now had currency but wasn't committed to the going out part. Luckily Jack and Brittany were in Tymitz Square. One of them mentioned going to Victoria's peak/ Tram where you could go to the top of the mountain and see the entire island from the top. That was definitely more like it. We all decided to go. It was open until midnight and it was about 9ish close to 10. Just as we headed out we ran into Tian (a former red sea resident and Chinese student) who ended up coming along and being an awesome resource! He showed us and for the sake of time paid our 1.45 HK token for the ferry from the main island to HK Island.  There was one that had just arrived and because the Tram closed at midnight and the last ferry back to the island where the ship was ended at 11:30, we had no time. We ran for it. It was filled with a lot of SAS'ers. Tian and I stood for the virtual 10 minute float directly across. Felt like we coulda ran across water faster than the ferry lol. Anyways, we got off we looked at a map and tried to figure out how to get there. No direct route was in sight... Surprisingly we saw Peter  who was heading back towards the ship from checking out the island. We chatted a bit but he didn't really know any more than we did so we just opted to take a taxi as close as we could then hopefully find a subway the rest of the way. Tian, fortunately, was able to speak to the taxi driver and get us there. He also insisted on paying for the ride which was about 29 HK or “only” about 5 USD for each of us and “no big deal.” Lol. We were trying to take a picture of all of us outside the water fountain with the sign of the Tram and he simply walked to a family, spoke to them and they came over and happily took a picture of us. Lol. We were in great hands. The roundtrip on the cable car to the top and bottom was about 36 HK dollars. It was like a trolley car essentially. The other neat thing was as it went up, the buildings began to look crooked. It was the most coolest view going up (and going down). Jack was recording it and I tried taking pictures but they weren't clear since we were moving and they too dark. At one point the tram stopped and we started freaking out. We didn't know if it was going to do this roller-coaster-like drop and plunge downward or if it would roll backwards...or worse case, be broken. There was an American guy who was sitting in the corner. He was chuckling lol. He told us it was because another car was in front of us... he used the tram often.. bet he gotta kick outta our conversation. =) We got off and then we walked through what was a closed mall. It was noticeably chillier and none of us were prepared lol. We walked down the walkway and there, Hong Kong was in all its glory. It was a gorgeous view of the skyline. We took turns posing and in a circular entrance...then ran back to catch the last tram. We ran into more SAS'ers who were getting off at the top, so we weren't really sure how they would get down lol. Then when we got to the bottom we ran into Chris and a bunch of other SAS'ers who were going to go to the Penisula hotel, some getting massages, others going out. Tian decided to go with them but pointed us in the direction of the subway. We figured it out eventually lol. We walked around lost a bit but discovered some cool buildings and posed for pictures lol. Eventually got to the station, had to find an kiosk to get some change and make sure we were heading the right way, brought passes, got on it and got off =) Did a crazy illegal thing by running across a major road—Jack didn't make it and almost got hit mm mm mm. Lol. The escalator and stairs were blocked off because the mall was closed so we had to walk on the outskirts of it towards oncoming traffic. Brittany was freaking out and Jack had hopped over the bar at some point... I thought it was funny and continued lol. I was hungry (at this point and as usual) and we stopped at the 24 hour McDonald's next to the ship. We saw some of the crew sitting outside of it and inside. Tried not to be creepy and stared at them... we just think they are so awesome =) Too bad we can't sit down and have dinner/drinks with them. Anyway, McDonald's was decked out similar to the one in South Africa when I went with Mina. It was like a cool place to be, maybe even to go for a date. The menu was awesome they had different stuff as well... in Mauritius we saw Mc Royals and some other stuff... here they had some of the standard burgers, but Mc teriyaki/grilled chicken...and chicken wings in multiple flavors... Oh and it had a range of coffee drinks like lattes and legit frappuccinos... they served different deserts like tiramisu. We ate and talked, then went back to the ship. Grabbed our laptops and went back to the mall and sat with the gazillion other spread out SAS'ers in this gigantic but now empty mall to try and upload as many pictures online as possible. It was also a perfect spot to watch all the people come back from the club... it got funnier and funnier as it got later... people without shoes... one girl was being carried on some guy's back, people drunkenly asking me about the internet access and planning to come back (most didn't), people singing, falling over, trying to find their ID's, others hoping they would wake up for breakfast hahaha, or the other thing was asking their other drunk friends to wake them up so that they could all catch their flights to Beijing.

For my last day in Hong Kong I played it safe. I'd wanted to find the big Buddha but apparently it was an unforeseen full day trip. It was supposedly one of the biggest Buddha's ever. Having been to Singapore, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, soon Shanghai and Taiwan... we had had our share of Buddha's. Lol. I seen so many temples (add Mauritius and India back in there) that I am totally ready for a blast of something new. I guess that's where people's reluctance to go to Taiwan stems from. To be politically correct it is not a part of mainland China (has its own currency and a few other things) but it is technically... and so was/is Hong Kong. The Philippines woulda been an entire different cultural experience. I grabbed my laptop to use some of that awesome high speed internet SAS'ers have come to love and appreciate from Hong Kong... and spent some hours walking around the adjacent mall. With all of the gateways to so many other parts of the mall, there was so much happening, so much to see and a ton of people. I loved people watching in general. People watching with music blasting in your ears, in a foreign country, with nothing but time is even better. When I was done with my window shopping, sat at an organic cuisine place in the mall and had a organic teriyaki chicken sandwich. It was delish! Then got to researching. Looked up apartments for one (me) in different parts of New Orleans, then reverted to finding apartments for 3 people and houses for rent for 4 people. That worked out a lot better. It is also advised anyways. People walked by and had no shame in standing over your shoulder... or standing some ways to the side and just looking on. It was weird at first, but then I got over it. Lol. Appreciated the opportunity to use free fast internet, I have so much to do once I get back to the states (my real life begins) that it is a disservice not having internet access on the ship. But it is what it is. Got on the ship in time for take off. On ship time was 9 pm and we weren't going to be leaving until 11 pm. The cool thing is that the ship would be essentially empty because most people were flying out to do various things in China. They would be meeting up with the ship in Shanghai on the 2nd/last day in China. There was a light show around 8  that I stood out on 6th deck with Obai, Karen, Medea and some of the life-learners. It was really subtle lol. It took a while to notice anything changing... but there was a flashing LCD sign that did say that 8:30pm was earth hour and all the power would go out. We wondered if the ship was participating... How embarrassing would that be if all over Hong Kong all of the amazing lights went out.... all but our ship? Lol. Oh funny tidbit: I was able to pick up the internet from a place in the mall called Strawberry Forever 2... so I was on Facebook and trying to upload some pictures so I could have some peace of mind and stress less about losing my pictures forever...  and then there was a mandatory lifeboat test. I thought it was a joke, but it was for real. My roommate Mandy was still here and we laughed... nuts. But it was a great way to see who was going to be on the ship as we traveled to Shanghai. I wish I had brought a camera while we stood at our master stations which for my side is in the far left corner of the 5th dining hall. I got back to my room and only 10/80 of my photos of the day we Disembarked in the Bahamas had uploaded so I cancelled it... We joked about having a pre-port prior to arriving in Shanghai with just us. Lol. That would be hilarious but we had had our Asia pre-port when we had a full ship before we got to Hong Kong.

Recounting the two days in transit:
There was apparently only about 100 or so people on the ship for these two days. The first day we had ice-cream and veggie lasagna during lunch which was awesomee! Juliana told me about the $5 sauna deal for women today and told me it would be a lot of old folks gossiping but I was welcomed to join or spread the word lol. I ran into people I didn't even know was on the ship like Ali. Oh and Taylor and Melissa as well. Ali and I had an awesome conversation with Clive (steward) ahh love his dry humor. He has the funniest stories! John walked over to my table and we planned for me to come to the studio aka another cabin separate of him and his wife with his keyboard, mic and stand and recording equipment. We worked on two of the 7 songs (Stand by me, lean on me) for our charity DVD just before Dean Sunny (who was covering for Marti) made an announcement about dinner... There was specialty dining essentially. Basically, the 5th dining hall was transformed into this fancy “restaurant” feel. Tables were donned with proper silver ware, and awesome centerpieces. We were seated as we arrived so that could have went either way. They held out chairs, placed our napkins in our laps and produced a menu of similar SAS food...just served nicer..to you individually. Lol. That's the best way to describe it lol. The first night, we had an awkward table. Two life-learners were at the foot of our table and they probably regretted being stuck at our table lol. Two of the girls had to leave, but Laura who is from Tennesee and Kalen from Oregon and I had a great conversation. She and one of the other women at the table who worked for UVA was giving me the rundown about New Orleans...dinner the first night consisted of a basket of bread and butter, Caesar salad, Corn soup, entree of either Chicken cordon bleu or herb crusted Salmon which is what I went for, and berry cheesecake. They made an announcement about Inception playing in the Union and I watched it and called it a night =) The second day I ran into Cass who I didn't know was even on the ship lol. We had lunch and  had another chat about ship life and men... and just life. Always great!  We agreed to meet later on and watch “Love and Basketball” but that didn't work out. I ended up meeting with John and refining the stuff we had recorded the day before. Bill sat in and got to hear us and that was cool to see his face and listen to his feedback. That night for specialty dining, I was at a table with Cass and some other girls and had a great time. We talked about awkward foods on dates...haha. We had a basket of bread and butter, garden salad, choice of sirloin steak with veggies and baked potato topped with mashed potatoes and cheese lol, veggie penne or something with chicken. Most people got the sirloin. It was good. We were trying to pace ourselves. The food was coming so fast that the pressure was on to finish lol. Desert was black forest cake which I took a couple of bites and passed up. I don't do chocolate cake in general, but ship sponge cake is not good lol. I don't usually eat any of their cakes other than the cheesecake and occasionally coconut cake. Anyways, we got to talking to one of the stewards who was clearing our table. He introduced himself as Darwin, and was very friendly and like most stewards sung while he worked. I overheard him and asked him about it and he told us that he had hoped to participate in the Crew talent show but he was on vacation. He got on in Hong Kong and his contract starts up again so he said next talent show... bummer, we won't be here lol. But within a few moments he, Cass and I were jamming. He would sing a few bars of different songs like Addicted-Green Day, Yeah-Usher, One-Brian McKnight, I'm Yours- Jason Mraz and we were just sitting at the table singing as he worked around us. Ahh, I love our crew. He'd ask us some other songs like which boy band NSYNC or Backstreet Boys was our favorite then start singing and etc. When we were ready to go we stopped over to Peter and asked him to show us the robot haha, he showed us his glasses instead. Lol. Anyhow, went back to our rooms so that we could get some work done for a bit then reconvene. After a few hours or so, I called up John to see if he was back so that we could resume as we mentioned and Cass came and listened for a bit. Her feedback was also greatly appreciated. She left and the plan was for us to meet and watch the movie... but singing and being in the “studio” with John was awesome and we both had very specific ideas about our sound and what we wanted to bring to the music... we kept redoing certain parts over and layering stuff. He was also trying to figure out the program Logic Pro which he hadn't used before. I didn't leave until almost 1. His wife came up some hours before and he said we would call it quits after an hour but... that stretched into hours. Lol. It was cool though because that's what studio life is life and its so easy and important to be in the zone =) It definitely made me miss being in the studio singing. I knocked on Cass's door and tried calling but eh, that was gone lol. Came back to the room, did some blogging about Viet Nam which you read lol, and went to bed excited about arriving in Shanghai! I woke up a number of times throughout the night. I had to make the room pitch black because there were so many ships and boats with lights. It was the busiest ocean/river/  area in terms of transporting goods/whatever in all of the ports we'd been to, thats for sure.