Oslo: Gateway to Europe

Oslo Opera House

OSLO

Arrival marks the first stop of our round-the-world trip that will last for the next three stops. We found cheap one-way tickets from NYC to Oslo on Norwegian Air Shuttle 8 months ago and decided to buy them on a whim. For $235 (taxes included), we had our transatlantic flight to Europe booked. Norwegian has expanded rapidly into the US-Europe market with affordable flights from Scandinavian capitals to NYC, LA, Oakland, and Miami. The cheap flight gave us the initiative and opportunity to visit Norway's capital, which is typically off the radar for most American tourists in Europe. However with increasing opportunity for affordable travel to Oslo I am hoping that more Americans take the dive to visit beautiful and storied country. 

Getting from Ithaca, NY to JFK airport was a long day of traveling that definitely didn't go as planned. Firstly, we woke up late to finish packing and moving out of Irene's apartment and were scrambling to get our things together before our rideshare arrived. The trip from Ithaca to New York City alone is 4 hours, however being dropped off in Hoboken along with the decision to take public transit resulted in another 1.5 hours of travel to JFK. Upon arrival in NYC we received a text update from our airline that our flight would be operated by a third party charter company, followed by a complete cancellation of the flight. It was delayed for 10+ hours and departure was pushed back from 10pm Thursday to 1:00pm Friday. Fortunately the airline was willing to house us at a nearby hotel and provide meals. 

Found stewardess' instructions to not serve Row 37 (us!), which gave us a laugh 

The flight from New York to Oslo went off without at hitch. The contracted airline was a Portuguese-based company with Russian employees- definitely lower on the airline credibility list in my opinion. Since we purchased the cheapest tickets the flight attendants did not serve us beverages or food. This presented an interesting experience as everyone around us was served food and drinks, while we were completely ignored. Nonetheless, you get what you pay for and I was fine without bad airline food. Irene and I came prepared by stocking up on snacks at Walmart a few days prior. Somehow they didn't notice (or didn't care)our large additional bag full of trail mix, water, crackers, an honey buns. 

Our arrival in Oslo was pushed back from 11am Friday to 2am Saturday, which created a hassle with regards to transport to Oslo city center. Fortunately Flybussen was still operating night buses to the city with travel times of 45 minutes. The unfortunate news is that night buses (1-5am) do not offer student discounts to non-Norwegians, increasing the price from a reasonable $12 to $28 per person. We were definitely annoyed, but reasoned that it's out of our control. 

3:30am Oslo Cathedral

We arrived at the central bus station (Bussterminel) around 3am and headed to our AirBnB stay, which was a 15 minuted walk away. Well we kinda headed in the wrong direction, so it took a bit longer (sorry, Irene!). The sunrise in Oslo during the summer is technically 3:30am, while the sunset is 10:30pm. Although we arrived at 2am, it was definitely lighter our than a typical summer in the US. 

The delay left us with one day in Oslo, so we made the best of the day by being very efficient with our time. However, we were still tired and wanted to get some sleep and so decided to nod off for a good 6 hours. After waking up around 10:30am we managed to leave the apartment by 11:15. We stayed around the Jakob Church on Hausmann's Gate 10-15 minutes north of the Oslo Central Station and adjacent bus terminal. The neighborhood had a hip, urban feel with easy access to the city center, food, a beautiful creek, and local neighborhoods that were lively with students. 

Oslo Cathedral & Saturday flower market

Our first stop was the Oslo Cathedral, which is in central Oslo. It's a nice and humble church adjacent to major shopping areas. It is aligned with other significant buildings (parliament, palace, train station) along the east-west Karl Johans Gate thoroughfare. The original two day itinerary called for splitting up the city between the central core and waterfront, and parks and history museums. With one day left, we decided to walk around Oslo to view the major attractions without paying to visit them. For the most part I was happy with this decision and was satisfied with only having one day in Oslo. I had the impression that Norway is better known for its natural beauty than the allure of its capital city. 

First Selfie with Selfie-stick: Oslo Opera House

After the cathedral, we headed down to the newer waterfront development with its prominent Oslo Opera House. There is a ton of development and construction cranes across the city and the opera house vicinity featured an array of impressive foreign firms and cultural assets. The Oslo metro has grown by 21% in the last 10 years, which was reflected in the number of construction cranes dotting the skyline. Many of the new buildings incorporate an ultra-modern Scandinavian style of architecture. These buildings are odd-shaped and very interesting, albeit slightly sterile. They provide a nice contrast with the older center of the city. 

Akershus Castle

Near the opera house is the Akershus Fortress and Castle that provided defense for the inner Oslo harbor throughout history. It's a humble structure, but definitely worth visiting as touring the grounds is free with nice views. There are a few museums and exhibits that are recommended in travel guides, but we were unable to appropriate any time. A clerk in the Medieval/Castle museum provided us with helpful information for local coffee shops. Coffee in Scandinavia has a good reputation and we definitely wanted to hit up a local coffee shop. The popular local chain is Kaffebrenneriet and is scattered through the city. We visited the one on the waterfront. We ordered a cappuccino and café au lait. Prices were decent, comparable to Starbucks, and our cheese sandwich was pretty good. The highly recommended coffee shop is Wendelboe's in the neighborhood of Grüneløkka, just north of where we stayed. The closest tram stop is Olaf Ryes Plass and is in an young, uptown neighborhood between universities. 

Local coffee shop Kaffebrenneriet

Norway gets a somewhat deserved reputation for being very expensive. Our day in Norway confirmed this myth to an extent. While restaurant dining is not noticeably higher in Oslo compared to major US cities (maybe $3-4 dollars more for a $13 meal), what was most frustrating was the high cost of basic items. Simple local/international dishes like hot dogs cost $4 even at the local 7-Elevens. Anything prepared by another person was more expensive, however, raw products like orange juice or fruit was not much different from major US cities. 

After our coffee trip we stopped at the nearby Oslo City Hall, the political center of local government and the site of the 2011 Norway attacks and bombing. The façade that faces the waterfront is somewhat unpleasing, but the building is actually pretty nice when viewed from the front. 

Oslo City Hall

Oslo city hall is close to the national government's headquarters, Parliament, and Palace of Norway. The city is fairly small and surprisingly walkable for most attractions. We didn't take public transit other than the airport bus and avoided withdrawing or exchanging money the entire visit. 

Norwegian Parliament

National Theater

Karl Johan's Gate Street (primary road leading to palace)

Palace Selfie!

There are English tours of Parliament and the Palace, but we opted to save money in Norway in favor of splurging in Sweden. Both buildings were offered nice pictures and were conveniently linked by Karl Johans Gate road. After we finished with the Norwegian government buildings we decided to walk through the Frogner neighborhood to Videland Park. I assume that Frogner is the posh are of Oslo as most embassies were located along the walk to the park. The neighborhood is extremely clean and well-kept, with beautiful estates that house foreign governments (saw Cuba, Pakistan, and Estonia!)

Oslo Phone Booth

Videland Park was a typical well-landscaped and beautiful European park.  It was pretty lively and full of tourist groups. Overall, it was just an okay park with the highlight of naked statues somewhat underwhelming. Personally I think it was more amusing to watch the Asian tourists gawk at the naked statues or the young Norwegians who were jumping off statues. 

Videland Park 

Our return walk to the waterfront was a quiet stroll through the Frogner neighborhood, where we stopped in a local supermarket to fill up on snacks. We were trying to avoid eating out to save money, but eventually bought a $4 bacon-wrapped hotdog. 

Ake Brygge

The last leg of our 1 day walking tour included a loop back to the main harbor and waterfront to explore a new mixed use development. The Ake Brygge/Tjuvholmen development was really interesting and modern, but had the feel of a Scandinavian Downtown Disney. The buildings were interesting and harbor views were nice, but the large development had a cold feeling and the interiors seemed lifeless. I did appreciate the architecture and hope the US can learn from the mixed-use pattern of development that the Norwegians have refined. 

Overall, Oslo was great for a single day and can probably be stretched to 1.5 or 2 days if you want to visit more of the civic institutions. There are also a few museums that I had planned on visiting, but will have to wait until next time. I'll likely return to Norway in the future, ideally when I have a job and can afford the high costs of travel. I really look forward to visiting the northern fjords and scenic coastline of the country, in addition to viewing the aurora borealis in the beautiful cities of Alesund and Bergen. 

#1 Philadelphia February 2015

Downtown Philadelphia 

PHILADELPHIA

My 24th birthday was this past weekend and I travelled down to Philadelphia for a 3 day trip during my university's February break. I usually luck out with the timing of my birthday as it's close to President's Day and a rarely have school. Due to my team's first place win in the  Better Philadelphia Challenge Design Competition, we were offered an expenses paid trip for the award ceremony. This is my second birthday in Philadelphia as my team from the 2014 competition also received special recognition. Also, we met up with a reporter from Next City, so keep an eye out for our project!

Anyways, we spent 3 weekdays down in Philly exploring the city and accepting our award. I'm not from the East Coast, but often feel like the city gets an undeserved bad reputation when compared to other major metros. It definitely has a more working class culture, but that is one of the things I appreciate the most. As the first capital of the US and birthplace of the country, there are plenty of historical and cultural offerings that make Philadelphia worth a visit. It was an exceptionally cold weekend and the temperatures hovered around 30 F. It also snowed while we were in the city, which was interesting to see. 

La Reserve B&B: Rittenhouse Square

We stayed just south of Rittenhouse Square at a Bed & Breakfast called La Reserve. It was a great experience and I highly recommend the place. The location was ideal for exploring and the price was extremely reasonable given the size of the rooms. Moving on to our travels...

Independence Hall 

Most of the people in my group had never visited the city, so we stopped by the major attractions. In my opinion, the most importance sites of Philadelphia can be seen in 2 or 3 days. Many of the main tourist attractions are near Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drafted. It is across the street from the famous Liberty Bell site. Both attractions are free and require very little wait time in the winter. I did travel to Philly over the summer and the lines were significant. You queue outside for the Liberty Bell in the sun, with little relief from the heat. Independence Hall requires you to schedule a tour time (still free). We put our names into the system and got a tour for 3 hours later. Also, they screen you before you go inside. 

Since you are in the area, I recommend heading over to Sonny's Famous Steaks for a famous Philadelphia cheesesteak. This is the most famous food from the area and Sonny's has a reliable standard cheesesteak, "The Classic" with Cheez Wiz. Warning: this is pretty unhealthy and not the most appetizing food. It's a short walk from Independence Hall, so try to stop by. We also wandered into (by wander, I mean yelp) a coffee shop since it was freezing outside. The #1 café in the city on yelp is Menagerie Coffee, which is also in the Old City. Reviews recommend the ice (drip) coffee, but we had solid lattes and hot brews. 

After that we ventured to the waterfront at Penn's Landing. The area is somewhat disconnected from the Old City due to a large interstate, but I recommend traveling down to the Delaware River. There are some historic ships and it's an easy walk. 

Elfreth's Alley Selfie 

On the way back to the car (near Independence Hall), we stopped by the historic Christ Church, where many of America's founding fathers attended services. You can sit in George Washington and Benjamin Franklin's booths. Down the street is Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continuously inhabited street in the United States. It is a very beautiful, narrow alley with a museum. The neighborhood surrounding Elfreth appears to be an art's district with many design and boutique stores. It looked interesting,but many were closed by the time we arrived. Closer to the Independence Mall is Benjamin Franklin's grade, where many people leave a penny coin (Franklin: "A penny saved is a penny earned"). The area also features the National Constitution Center and U.S. Mint, but we didn't have time for a visit. 

For my birthday dinner, we walked to Chinatown (also very close) for a Malaysian/Chinese dinner. I'm a big fan of Malaysian food as it's extremely filling and a good mix between two of my favorite cuisines: Indian and Chinese. The restaurant Banana Leaf did not disappoint, although some of there dishes were different than I remembered. Nonetheless, really good. We had already picked up my birthday cake in the morning from Stock's Bakery in Kensington. There pound cake is delicious and everything is very affordable. It's in a very residential area and you know that only locals go there. Doughnuts are 45 cents!  

LOVE Sign: Way too small!!!

The next day we visited the Italian Market, which is an awesome traditional market in South Philadelphia. The selection of produce and restaurants was great and I had wished that we hadn't already eaten. We did pick up cheese and prosciutto at the Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese after sampling a few. Also recommended!

City Hall: Go in the central courtyard!

After buying a few things and visiting many shops, we left for Center City Philadelphia. The city is centered around City Hall, which is the largest/tallest masonry building in the world. To clarify, this means it is the largest masonry (brick) building with a structural system entirely of brick. It's a beautiful building and I recommend venturing inside the central courtyard. 

Reading Terminal Market

Further down Market Street is the Reading Terminal Market. This lunchtime favorite has a huge selection of delicious foods in a building named for the famous Reading Railroad (Monopoly). We had lunch at DiNic's Pork & Beef, which was AMAZING. I highly recommend the meatball sub (add provolone) as they were literally the best meatballs I have ever had! We tried three different sandwiches (beef, pork, meatball) and the meatball was by far the best. 

Following our lunch, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the competition's award ceremony. I was giving a speech and needed to actually write one (ironically I didn't follow the script at all). The ceremony and reception were fun and we headed back to school soon after it was finished. Overall, the trip to Philly was a very fun and delicious 3 day getaway from school. Check out my recommendations below: 

Attractions:

- Liberty Bell

- Independence Hall

- Elfreth's Alley

- UPenn

- Italian Market

- Christ Church

- Reading Terminal Market

- Penn's Landing

- City Hall

- LOVE Sign 

-

Food:

- Banana Leaf (Malaysian)

- DiNics (lunch, sandwiches, MEATBALLS)

- Sonny's Famous Steaks (Philly cheesesteak) 

- Stock's Bakery (desert, cakes, doughnuts)

- Di Bruno Bros (cheese, italian snacks)

- Sabrina's Cafe (brunch & breakfast) 

- Menagerie Coffee (coffee & tea)

Round-the-World Trip

SUMMER 2015

I will be finishing my Master of Regional Planning this May and intend to travel a bit before I set off to join the workforce. My girlfriend, Irene, and I are in the midst of planning a round-the-world trip and hope to visit a number of countries in the northern hemisphere. Our first destination is Scandinavia, with a June 11th flight from NYC to Oslo, Norway. We bought this ticket on a whim back in October when we found an amazing deal for $235 including taxes. We will be flying on Norwegian Airlines, which is a budget carrier that recently began transatlantic service. This find initiated the decision for our world-traversing trip. 

The current itinerary is set from New York all the way to Hong Kong, with stops in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Our final destination is Tokyo, Japan, where Irene's family lives. Our planned return to the U.S. will likely be sometime in mid to late September. Also, my younger sister Amy will be joining up with us in Bangkok for the last third of the trip. Here is our trip by region & cities: 

Scandinavia (Norway/Sweden)

• June 12 - 17

• Stockholm, Oslo

Central Europe (Poland/Czech Republic/Germany/Austria/Slovakia/Hungary)

• June 17 - July 9

• Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Prague, Munich, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest

Mediterranean (Italy, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro)

• July 9 - July 25

• Milan, Venice, Trieste, Pula, Zagreb, Zadar, Split, Mostar, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Sarajevo

Middle East (Turkey, Oman, United Arab Emirates) 

• July 25 - August 3

• Istanbul, Muscat, Nizwa, Dubai)

Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia)

• August 4 - August 29

• Bangkok, Yangon, Mandalay, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hanoi, Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Phuket, Krabi

East Asia (Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan) 

• August 29 - ???

• Macau, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Shanghai, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo 

Nearly every region of our trip has a focus country/city in which we will dedicate additional time. While in Central Europe we will spend a week in Poland visiting the 3 largest cities in addition to other significant sites such as Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Our eyes are set on Croatia for the Mediterranean, with over a week in the coastal parts of the country. This will include some of the cities made famous by Game of Thrones (Irene: "how can you have Game of Thrones in the same paragraph as Auschwitz?!?!". Although we are expecting the ruins of Myanmar (Burma) to be a highlight of Southeast Asia, the largest chunk of time will be spent along the beaches of Thailand and Vietnam. The last segment of our trip around East Asia will include about a week in Taiwan and 2+ weeks in Japan. Irene has a number of relatives in both countries. 

We are extremely excited to travel the world and see new countries! Irene and I are especially looking forward to Central Europe and the Middle East as neither of us have been. Irene has traveled more extensively in Western Europe (having lived in London) and I have more experience in Asia (Hong Kong/Shanghai). My sister has yet to travel outside North America and will be touring Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan with us. Also, she find an incredibly cheap flight from Seoul to Los Angeles ($280 including taxes) and will be visiting South Korea by herself for a few days. 

I should also mention that we will be celebrating Irene's 24th birthday in Dubai. I'm a bit jealous because my 24th is going to be in Philadelphia for the 2nd year in a row....

Highlights: 

Milan Expo 2015

World Expo 2015: After visiting the Shanghai 2010 World Expo I am excited for the opportunity to visit the next major exposition in Milan, Italy. Shanghai's theme was improved city living, which was very interesting considering my interests in urban planning and China's rapid rise. The 2015 Milan Expo promises to be very worthwhile as the theme is food systems and innovation. A world expo...... about food....in Italy....SIGN ME UP. 

Auschwitz: Main Gate

Auschwitz: This year is the 70th anniversary of the infamous camp's liberation by the Soviet army. Sadly, it is likely to be the last decade anniversary that most survivors will be able to visit the camp. Visiting the Nazi concentration camps and Khmer Rouge killing fields are a somber reminder of our past and an important lesson for the future. 

Plitvice Lakes National Park 

Dubrovnik (Location of King's Landing scenes form GOT)

Plitvice Lakes/ "King's Landing" Dubrovnik: As an avid Game of Thrones fan (Irene: *rolls eyes* "Game of Thrones is everywhere!!"), we are excited to visit the famous sites of Croatia. This part of the trip is meant to be a relaxing break from the previous segment and we will likely spend a lot of leisure time at the beach. We also plan to visit Croatia's first national park, Plitvice Lakes. 

Wadi Bani Khalid Desert Oasis

Oman: Sharing a border with the modern UAE, this Middle Eastern country is famous for its preservation of local culture, customs, and buildings. Oman also offers amazing ecological diversity and scenery. We are looking into visiting the Wahiba sands, ancient forts, and maybe even a tropical oasis or two. 

Bagan: City of Temples

Myanmar: This country formerly known as Burma has only recently opened up to outsiders. Last year saw a record 2 million visitors, while adjacent Thailand saw nearly 25 million. In traveling to the country, we are hoping to see it before the waves of tourists ruin some of its most sacred sites and temples. 

Taiwan Night Market

Taipei: Taiwan streetfood is well known across Asia. In the US, we can thank the Taiwanese for their bubble tea! This is one of the last East Asian countries I have yet to visit and have waited for a good reason to go. We are especially excited to eat xiaolongbao (小笼包）at the original Din Tai Fung. This dish originally came from Shanghai/Jiangsu Province, but this chain perfected it! (Irene: "I'm so offended that you chose simplified chinese. How are the Taiwanese and Japanese supposed to read this?!")

Introduction

Hi everyone,

      I decided to make this blog to stay in touch with my family and friends back home, but also for the purpose of giving travel recommendations to those who enjoy traveling as I do. You can subscribe to the blog through email and can stay in touch through gmail, facebook, or by simply putting your comments on this blog.

The layout of my blog is fairly simple, but let me backtrack first. "Countdown to 196" refers to the 196 countries in the world. Yes, I realize that according to certain foreign policies there is some controversy over countries like Taiwan and Kosovo, but for the purpose of this blog THERE ARE 196. The numbers (#) refer to the order in which I visited each country. Obviously, #1 is America [AKA Amurica] because I was born there. I only count actual visits as a trip, meaning that an airport layover does not mean I experienced the country. This is why Mexico is not #2 and China is behind the Philippines. Anyways, I currently have visited 14 countries and many cities within each country. Some posts will be city specific, while others will be a general country experience.

One of my goals is to visit as many countries as possible and detail my adventures to inspire others to travel abroad. International travel really is an exciting and rewarding experience! Luckily for you, I am pretty meticulous about planning trips and saving money, so hopefully you can find some good tips and itineraries~

My first real-time blog post will be about my trip to Japan during the Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) break. Japan is my 15th country and will be my longest vacation thus far (24 days).

As some of you already know, I had another travel blog with pretty decent posts. Unfortunately, I lost them. So, I'll have to slowly do the blog posts again. A huge undertaking to say the least. However, as lame as it is, I feel as though it's my duty to keep a memoir of my experiences simply because I have been lucky enough to travel. From the first time I left the U.S., 2.5 years ago, I will have visited 15 different countries.

Anyways, I'll keep you posted about my whereabouts!

- Bobby

#4: China [Hong Kong]

First Week In Hong Kong

Arrival in Hong Kong:

    Arriving in Hong Kong from the Philippines was actually a lot more difficult than I had originally thought it would be. Before I could get on my plane to Hong Kong, I was supposed to pay an international airport terminal fee of 700 pesos. I only had 200 in my wallet do I asked around for the nearest ATM. The first ATM was out of service, so I went to the information desk to ask where the other ATM machines were located. However, all the other ATMs were VISA only, so I couldn’t get any money out. At first I didn’t think I was going to make it out of the Philippines because I didn’t have the money to pay the airport tax. Fortunately this fool happened to get $100 Hong Kong dollars back in April just for fun, so I was able to exchange it to make up the 500 difference (with only 20 pesos left over!). 

    The flight seemed really short and I hurried to the baggage claim area and then headed to the bus terminal. The bus fare was $20 HK and took about an hour to get to the Sha Tin New Towne Center, where I was supposed to hop on the train to my new home at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The transit station was actually an enormous 7 story mall and was packed full of people at 10 pm on a tuesday night! Anyways, I made it to the student hostels in time and cranked up the air conditioning in my room. I met my orientation week roommate, who is from Germany. For some reason he didn’t like the air conditioning to be on, it made him “too cold” and i guess “Germans like to get acclimated to their environment”. Well call me a baby, but I have trouble sleeping in 85 degree weather with 80% humidity. 

Orientation:

    Orientation was basically a reiteration of orientation at UCSD, but I learned a few new things about my temporary school. One thing I learned very quickly is that the campus is very tiring to walk across. CUHK is literally built on a mountain and you have to walk up steep hills and staircases to get anywhere. The buses are very infrequent as well. I guess this is a good thing though because I need to lose the pounds that I will be gaining from the large amounts of food I have been eating here. 

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    During orientation I met a lot of people, but I forgot most of their names. However, I have become friends with a lot of people from the United States, especially the kids from the UC schools. It appears that UCSD has more study abroad students at CUHK than any other university, with around 15 students. The second day we had a welcome lunch with our college. I am in United College and live in Hang Seng Hostel, which is at the bottom of the hill. I’ll post a picture of how many stairs I have to walk up each day just to get to the bus stop. I really like my room though and the building is pretty well maintained. I was given a double and just met my roommate earlier today. His name is Derek and he is a first year from nearby Macau. My room is on the first floor of our building, but we still have a decent view of the ocean and the mountains. 

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    On Saturday, September 4, 2010, we were given a day tour of Hong Kong in which we visited the Peak on the top of HK Island, Stanley market to the south, and Tsiem Sha Tsui in Kowloon. The Peak had amazing views even though the air was very smoggy and it was hard to see past the island. The mountains above HK are home to its most affluent residents. During British colonial rule it was exclusively a British residential area. Over time, it became open to all government officials, but still exclusive form the rest of the population. The mountains were extremely exclusive especially before the technological age of air conditioning because the weather was much more comfortable than below, usually 1-2 degrees celsius cooler during the summer. Now the peak is open to any resident that can afford to live there, meaning that it is still a very restricted place to live. Housing in Hong Kong is unbelievably pricey. In fact, a home in the mountains above HK sold for a record $59 million US dollars. 

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During the 20th century, the easiest way to make it to the Peak was by the Peak Tram, which winds it way to the top from the city center on a steep incline. At the top there is a state-of-the-art visitor center that has really interesting architecture. The cost to go to the top of the building is $3 USD, but i chose to wait until my mom visits to spend the money and instead bought a mango sundae at McDonalds. For lunch I had noodles with pork and shrimp dumplings. 

    After the peak we headed to the southern side of Hong Kong island, where many Europeans and Americans live. (Oh and according to the US consulate representative who visited the Americans, there are over 84,000 US citizens in Hong Kong.) Anyways, south HK island has pretty nice beaches with good places to eat and shop. Our destination was Stanley, where I bought more ice cream and bartered with a Chinese woman, who gave in to my price despite the fact that I did not intend on buying anything (bartering is fun!). 

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    After Stanley, we traveled back to Kowloon peninsula so we could visit the area known as Tsim Sha Tsui. This area has really nice views of the city skyline of Hong Kong. We decided to travel along the Avenue of Stars, featuring handprints and plaques dedicated to famous Hong Kong film stars. Of course we had to pose next to the plaques of the most famous HK stars: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Chow Yun Fat. 

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We also attempted to do jumping pictures in front of the Bruce Lee statue, but it failed epically. A lot of people were staring at us so we eventually gave up.

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    After walking the entire Avenue of Stars, we ended up outside the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Next we took a picture by the Beijing 2008 olympic torch and then found a place to grab some food. We stayed around Tsim Sha Tsui until 8 pm because we wanted to see the famous Hong Kong light show. It wasn’t that amazing, but certain aspects of it were really cool such as the light displays on the Bank of China tower and the fact that it was synchronized with a Chinese music mix. 

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    The light show only lasted for about 15 minutes and after it ended we left to explore one of the most lively streets in Hong Kong- Nathan Road. Nathan Road is pretty much a combination of Chinatown and the Las Vegas strip. It’s a really interesting and vibrant area with a lot of cool architecture. We actually stopped in one of the malls just to go up the escalators to the higher floors with glass walls. We travelled down Nathan Road to reach the Temple Street Night Market, where you can barter for cheap knockoffs. The walkway is very narrow and the place was full of locals and tourists. By the time we reached the end of the market it was already 10, so we walked to the nearest MTR station to catch a train so we would make it on the last campus shuttle. Some of my friends decided to stay out later and ended up going karaoking until 7 am. I on the other hand, had a good nights sleep. 

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The very last picture is of me with my new friends that also attend UCSD. We took the picture because we are all familiar with Miramar, right by our campus.

#2 Philippines [Cebu]

Philippines Beach Vacation

    I finished off my trip to the Philippines with a three day vacation on the tropical island of Cebu, about an hours flight from Manila. On the way there I happened to sit next to a Chinese businesswoman on the bus and then again on the airplane. We talked for a good amount of time and I told her how it was my first time on my own and that I was a student at CUHK. She then offered to have her personal driver give me a tour around the city of Cebu and Mactan Island. I was shocked by her generosity and refused at first, but gave in after she said she would be resting for a few days because she was jet-lagged from Los Angeles and wouldn’t need him anyways. On the way to my hostel (my first hostel experience!), she was telling me about her family and mentioned that she is the aunt of Kim Chiu! Kim Chiu is one of the most famous Filipina actresses, so I asked her if she could tell Kim that I said “hi”. Basically....KIM CHIU KNOWS I EXIST! I feel so lucky to have run into her. She went out of her way to make sure I was safe and enjoyed my short trip to Cebu, which I am extremely grateful for.  Everyone I encountered on my trip to the Philippines treated me like family and I will always remember all that they did for me. 

 Tour of Cebu City

    The first place we went on our tour was the Taoist Temple, perched on the hills of Cebu City. The temple was beautiful and gave me a small preview of what I would see in China.

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 It wasn’t very large, but the architecture was very intricate and the landscaping was amazing. We actually were told not to take pictures of the specific shrines, such as the one on the left, but I managed to sneak it in before the guards noticed.    

    We then headed towards downtown Cebu City, where many relics from the colonial Spanish era still remained standing. On the way we crossed Colon Street, the oldest road in the Philippines. The traffic wasn’t as bad as Manila, but it was exactly easy to navigate because there were hordes of people in the streets. We stopped at Magellan’s Cross, which is dedicated to the early explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who died in nearby Mactan Island in a battle with natives. If you can recall, Magellan travelled all around the world before dying in a battle in the Philippines. His death and the defeat of the Europeans are a source of pride among locals because they considered the first battle between Asians and Europeans to be a victory for Asians. He was killed by Lapu Lapu, who was a warrior and is regarded as a national hero for stopping the European advance. 

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Outside the monument there was a poster dedicated to the Hong Kong residents killed in the Manila bus hostage crisis. I noticed that most of the flower bouquet stands had been knocked down and picked apart, so I gave two begging children 20 pesos each to help me clean up the memorial. I h-a-t-e giving money to beggars, but I figured it was the right thing to do for the memory of the innocent people killed earlier in the week. Also, when I was outside the monument, some people asked to take a picture with me. They offered to take a picture of me in return so I accepted. However i didn't think they would jump in on the picture on my camera...

    Fort San Pedro, a very old spanish fort, was right down the street so that’s where we headed next. I showed them my student ID and i got 10 pesos off the admission price (25 cents- yay for being cheap). It only took about 10 minutes to walk around the perimeter wall of the fort and I managed to get some pretty decent pictures as well.

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It was interesting how many Koreans visit the Philippines and it seemed that the fort was full of multiple Korean tour groups. After Fort San Pedro, we headed a few blocks inland to the Basilica del Santo Nino, a very old Catholic church. Since it Sunday on a three day weekend, the church was packed full of people. There were even people in grandstands outside for mass. Santo Nino is basically the same as any other basilica, except the church complex had a really wide plaza for outdoor services. 

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    I didn’t stay at Santo Nino for too long because of the crowds, plus I was pretty tired and felt like going back to the hostel. When I finally checked in, a young woman from Poland invited me to tour the city on foot so I joined her on a really long trip downtown. We stopped by a couple of malls and bought some sweets, which included chocolate cake from Goldilocks and dried mangoes. We also tried to get into a casino, but were too underdressed. By the way, the Abercrombie and Fitch shirt I was wearing, I purchased for $3 at a market. 

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We walked around downtown for a while and then ate dinner at Jollibees, where I showed her how Filipinos eat. 

Tour of Mactan Island

    On my second day in Cebu, I decided to travel to nearby Mactan Island. Mactan island is the adjacent island to Cebu where the airport and most of the nearby beaches are located. The most famous resort is the Shangri La, which is this really fancy hotel with a private cove. I was able to pass off as a guest and went down to their beach. The water was really warm and there was an abundance of tropical fish. 

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    Since I hadn’t really spent much money on food in Cebu I decided to go all out and eat lunch at the Shangri La. The buffet was $30 and most items on the menu were around $20, so I bought the cheapest thing possible- a club sandwich. Although it was a really good, I don’t plan on spending $12 on a sandwich again any time soon. After lunch, we headed to the other famous resort on Mactan Island, but stopped by the Lapu Lapu Monument for a photo. 

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    As I already mentioned, Lapu Lapu was the famous warrior that killed Magellan in the battle between the europeans and the natives. Next was the Plantation Bay resort, which is famous for its lagoon-like atmosphere. The entire hotel is placed on or next to man-made lagoons that are clean swimming  pools. The lagoons are large enough to accommodate kayaks and had small sand islands. 

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 Many of the hotel rooms even had docks to tie up the canoes and stairwells to get into the lagoon. The nicest suites were place in the middle of the lagoons! After Plantation Bay, I went back to my hostel and relaxed for the remainder of the trip. Although I was only there for less than three days, I’m really glad I made the trip to Cebu because it was good to relax and see the natural beauty of the Philippines.