Josh's Hong Kong Blog

I'm back from Beijing and my flight leaves in about 6 hours, but I thought I'd do one more entry before I go. This one is going to be quick and the pictures will be larger than normal in size.

We ate lots of Dim Sum:

(Pictured: Keven and Adi)

(Pictured: Kevin, Maria and Ashley)

(Pictured: Louis, Sharon and Paul)

We went to the Great Wall of China:

(Pictured: Kevin, Samantha, Me)

(Pictured: Edgar in his traditional Mexican wrestling mask)

We went to the Beijing museum:

We went to Peking University:

We went to the Summer Palace:

We got there on a Dragon Boat:

We went to Tiananmen Square:

Behind me in the following picture is the gate to the forbidden city, the road in front of that is where the infamous events of Tiananmen Square took place:

And finally, we went to the Forbidden City:

Forbidden City Starbucks...

Okay, so it was the three of us out there in mainland China. Me, Edgar and our good friend, without whom we probably would have starved, gotten lost and died, Daniel Ong (AKA Dong).

We arrived in Guilin to find that our hostel room was a strange one indeed. It was designed like a large brick table with three mattresses on it. Two were made of foam and one was basically a block of wood with a sheet on it (I got this mattress).

The following day we ate breakfast at the Guiling Good Luck Restaurant.

We then spent much of the day enjoying Seven Star Park.

There were statues...

Dong Jumped...

There was hiking...

(Here we are hiking up a mountain through the 800 heroes tombs... of which we saw maybe one.)

The following day would prove to be truly exciting. We would begin with an early morning cruise down the Li River.

We would eventually arive in the village of Yangshou.

As it was quite exciting, Dong jumped again...

Soon after arriving, we mounted some very fairly priced rental bikes and headed for the countryside...

The countryside, full of farmland, was a sight to behold.

And there was even a bit of time for some harmless mischief...

The following is a video that I took while riding my bike allow the road back from the farms.

China Bike Ride

With all of the good fun and antics...

...our short trip to Guilin was over and as Edgar and I headed back to the University we bid farewell to our Singaporean friend Dong as he continued on to Shanghai.

Per the request of my friend Drew from Gainesville, I headed over to the Avenue of the Stars in East Tsim Sha Tsui to catch a glimpse of the new Bruce Lee statue. I took a great many of pictures and videos there as I basked in the glory of Hong Kong Cinema's finest. Here are the highlights.

And I was sure to touch every famililar set of handprints available...

Yes, all two of them...

I also headed to Mong Kok's Lady Street on my own to do some shopping. No , Lady Street is not the street loaded with whores... it's a typical street market full of fakes and general cheap merchandise.

Then again, Mong Kok has no shortage of 2-hour hotels:

A couple things I would like to add here...
1) I haven't bought any fakes or pirated goods so far-

Are those evil looking guys in uniforms trying to stop piracy or start it?

2) Everyone here is totally Asian!

Pictured from left to right are Frank, Cherry, Nancy and Ai-Mei.

Hopefully I will get a chance to upload pictures between my trip to Guilin and my trip to Beijing. Otherwise, expect to see those both together in my next entry.

Alright, so my first experience in Bangkok was a friendly cab driver and lots of stray animals and cockroaches crawling in the street. We arrived in our hostel shortly after and settled for the night.

Note: Thai bathrooms have the shower and toilet as a single room:

There was a decent view of some buildings and the Skyrail from our hostel's balcony.

On our first full day in Bangkok, we headed off for the imperial palace. There was just so much palace and my camera's frame is only so big...

Right from there, we also visited a large temple.

And the remainder of that night was spent a the big friday night Muay Thai boxing matches. We got some great ringside seats! Still the lighting in the place made most of my pictures look too dark...

I got several videos of fights. Here's one of the more exciting ones.

Muay Thai Fight

While there was a first-round knockout that night, I sadly didn't capture it as it was unexpected. No other fight that night ended in a KO.

Well, that first very full day nearly killed my battery and we spent most of day 2 shopping. Bangkok has some ridiculously large marketplaces. On the third day George and I went and found the Thai Bowl Monk Village and got some traditional alms bowls. I got a picture with the craftsman.

There are apparently only 5 or 6 families in Bangkok who are allowed to make these bowls. And they all dwell in this little neighborhood (or village as they call it). After a quick romp through Chinatown, George and I returned home to Hong Kong.

So Macau has this Portugese history... it's just that, history. Not a single person we met the entire day spoke a word of Portugese. And Edgar thought that has Spanish would finally come in handy...

Anyway, what was in Macau? Forts, temples, a really big tower, tons of casinos. We didn't do any gambling but that's probably for the best. This place is like old Vegas complete with pretty much total corruption. Needless to say, we stuck to the cultural sights.

We found a quaint little temple during our escapades.

And later on we found a larger slighty more touristy temple known for their rock carvings.

Also, there was that huge tower I mentioned before, Macau Tower.

Here, Edgar and I lie on the glass floor 60 stories above the ground.

In general it was a fun time all around the city.