TST

TST is code for Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the best districts in Hong Kong.

It is right on the waterfront of the harbour.

See the beauty for yourself...

  

 


Absolutely sensational, right?

 It's even better in real life as you walk along surrounded by hundreds of Chinese people smelling the sweet scent of salt water and feeling the humidity soak into your skin.

OH and it gets even better. A portion of it is called the Avenue of Stars and there are all sorts of Chinese celebrities. I found Jackie Chan.

Last but not least this was a legitimate telephone booth we found.

So fancy.

Then I was privileged enough to hear this beautiful singing during my stroll.

Korean BBQ

Ever heard of a Korean BBQ?

If you haven't you are missing out.

SO delicious. 

All you can eat...

Sushi, Fried Tofu, Black Currant Jell-o, Noodles, Vegetables, ICE CREAM and more.

PLUS a whole selection of raw meats and fish to cook on the burner in the middle of your table.

Victoria Peak

This weekend I realized how much I truly love and miss the mountains. I went to one of the most popular spots in Hong Kong referred to as "the Peak." It is literally a mountain right next to downtown Hong Kong. This is the famous view that people come from all across the world to see.

 The sad part is that it wasn't foggy the day I went, that is pollution. I think that is why I loved being up there so much though. The air was fresher and the noises of the city were muted. My friend Carrie told me that she described Hong Kong as being New York built on top of a rain forest which is the absolute perfect description. 

My favorite part of visiting the Peak was the trail that went in a circle around the top of the mountain. It was about a 45 minute walk through the most tropical surroundings. There was even a waterfall which really just put it over the top for me, I love waterfalls.

Last but not least on our walk we found this tree that is used to produce latex. It looked so cool hanging over the trail, nothing like a tree you would find in Utah.

Then we took the tram back down the super steep track into the polluted city I currently call home. I wish I could have stayed on the Peak forever though. It really was even better than I described. You have to experience it to understand. No wonder the world's most expensive house is built on this mountain. Yes, there is a $900,000,000 house built here.

Rainbows & Noodles

Today I went down this street.

With these girls.

To eat these delicious beef noodles.

And as a bonus I saw this rainbow.

It was a nice day. It was actually one of the nicest days I've had so far in Hong Kong. Everything went really smoothly and I'm starting to feel like this is my home, not just a vacation.

Oh also funny word mispronounced by my French friend today. Noodles.

"What did you have for dinner?"

"Nah-dles and chicken."

Stanley & Mr. Wong

Thursday is beach day! I headed out in search of Big Wave Bay with my friend Mabel... 18 MTR stops later we found out we were at the wrong spot to catch the bus. BUT there was a bus that went to Stanley which had a different beach so we headed out there. The beach was amazing. Such a nice perk to living in Hong Kong, it's an island. It was so great to escape the pollution for a day and finally appreciate the heat as I lounged on the beach.

This is the MTR, I've never seen it so empty, we rode it until the very last stop. Usually every single one of those poles has at least 5 people holding onto it.

Stanley Beach

Stanley Market

Now this is a picture of me with my dear friend Mr. Wong. We went out to dinner for a girl's birthday to a random little restaurant in Yau Ma Tei. It's 40 HK$ per person and it's all you can eat Chinese food. They just keep bringing plates out of fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, squid, noodles, tofu, pork, and other mystery foods. It was delicious. While we were eating the owner came over and went around the table asking in his best English (which was terribly difficult to understand) all of our names and where we were from. When  I told him I was from Utah he told me he wanted to go there and get more wives. Then after the meal he talked to me for like 20 minutes while we waited for the rain to slow down and he told me that he wanted me to be his second wife and he made some toast for me and told me about the trips he had been on in the United States and he said a lot of other stuff that I couldn't understand. He was sooo nice. He had a great laugh and when I would say something he always pointed his finger at me and laughed WAY loud. If only I knew how to get back to that restaurant...

The Typhoon Is Coming.

Real thunderstorm, filmed moments ago from the window in my common room.

 

Little did I know this video would be evidence of a new record in Hong Kong. 

News Report: "The Hong Kong Observatory reported 13,102 bolts of lightning across the city in the hour after midnight - the most since such data was first collected in 2005."

So different here.

Lots of things are really different here. Little things mostly. Here is a small list of the ones I can thing of at this moment.

• I take cold showers instead of hot. By choice.
• Cars drive on the left side of the road which makes looking for cars before crossing the street an extremely difficult task.
• Raining doesn't mean sprinkling, it means typhoon.
• Full-time gardeners work on the campus of CityU.
• People driving semi-trucks don't wear shirts.
• McDonald's, KFC, and other restaurants have delivery 24 hours.
• Everybody uses public transportation. Cars are super rare.
• Super faded, washed out jeans are the thing to wear.
• Nobody is blonde, except the albino asian I saw at the mall yesterday.
• I do my hair curly every day and even with gel it looks like an afro.

Those are just a few that I've noticed for now. But stuff is funny here. My favorite part is the English words and phrases that the Chinese people use. For example they always say seldom. They also love to call everything a gathering.

Me: "Hey pa-pa, how was your weekend at home?"

Patryk: "Good, lots of gatherings with my friends from secondary school."

This was another one of my favorite conversations.

Me: "Is he a player?"

Oscar: "No, he is very pure."

I'm trying to incorporate these words into my vocabulary more because I really like the way they use them. It's nice to use words that seldom get used. Hahaa.

Okay now one last thing. Last night I went with my friend Mabel to Mong Kok for dinner and we ended up spur of the moment going to get our nails done all fancy the way that people in Hong Kong typically do. Meaning lots of glitter, lots of jewels, way too long. It was a great experience. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Oh and here was a nice hobo on the side of the road with a headset and portable speaker singing and playing guitar for money. The homeless here are usually all missing a body part and they usually still try to actually do something to earn the money not just scam people like the ones in the states.

Lantau Island 大嶼山

Sometimes I wonder to myself, do I post in this blog too much... should I get a life? Then I remember it's one of the few ways I communicate with anyone in America and I'm living in Hong Kong.. I probably don't blog enough.

Today I went to Lantau Island ALL day. We're talking I woke up at 8:30, had to meet in front of my building at 8:45 and I got back about 7:30 pm. I imagine it would have been a less exhausting day had I not found out last night at midnight that McDonald's here does 24-hour delivery. We had to try it out. Even in the pouring rain the man drove our food over on a scooter from Sham Shui Po (approximately 20 minutes away.)

It was a great experience. Then I had a Cantonese lesson from some of my hallmates. I'm getting real good. I have about 4 phrases down. But anyways back to Lantau. I went on a gorgeous cable car ride to get to the island.

Everything was SO SO SO green. We have trees in America but there is something different about Asian trees. Like typically the mountain would be covered in pine trees at home, not here. It's way different, but equally as appealing to the eye. Also there are random staircases and trails up the mountains. Oh and a waterfall that really just made it picture perfect. 

Once we arrived at the top there was a little village area full of tourist shops and my Finnish friend Riku & I took a great picture as king & queen. It was weird being at such a touristy place, sometimes I forget that I'm living here instead of just vacationing here. 

Then finally we arrived at the Big Buddha that we had all heard so much about. It was way big. I sort of wish I hadn't heard so much about it before hand though so then I would have been more impressed. It was really huge though. The commandment about not worshiping false idols suddenly seemed so much more realistic.

After venturing around the Buddha I visited the Po Lin Monastery and basically inhaled enough incense to kill a cow. Speaking of cows... they were randomly wandering all over the island. It was really strange. I have barely seen any animals since I've been in Hong Kong and then I take a tram to a separate island and see animals everywhere.

We were fed a vegetarian lunch at the monastery that was typical Chinese. I liked it, I think Chinese food is really growing on me. And I'm getting so much better at using the chopsticks. Basically most of the nicer meals I've had in groups have been served in the fashion of a bunch of different dishes on the table and you can just pick and choose what you want. The other day we had two separate sets of chopsticks, one for putting the food on your plate and one for eating it off your plate. I of course mixed mine  up halfway through the meal and ate with the ones you aren't supposed to put in your mouth so they got me a fresh set. It was quite embarrassing. Oh well. The lunch today only had one set of chopsticks thankfully.

After the Big Buddha we took a bus over to an ancient fishing village called Tai O. The town is separated by a river and there is a bridge that goes over the river. I went on a boat ride for 20 HK$ ($2.75 US) and we rode through the village and saw all of the houses on stilts then rode out into the ocean and got to see dolphins swimming around our boat. It was a magical experience, possibly my favorite thing since I've been in Hong Kong. The dolphins were white with a pink tint.

Okay i know this last picture of the dolphin is in bluer water than the rest of the pictures, but that's because I couldn't get a picture of the dolphins I saw so I got this picture off of google images. It's seriously like the exact same thing as what I saw though. And now here is a video I made of us cruising through the ocean after seeing the dolphins. Pointing a fan at your face while watching it might give you a more realistic viewing experience.