When we arrived in Hong Kong, we went through immigration, grabbed our bags and went to grab a taxi to the ship. We were all very anxiously awaiting pulling up to the ship after being away for so long and it was already one am and we were exhausted. When we got in the taxi, even though we gave the taxi driver the sheet given to us by Semester at Sea with the port address and location we managed to get lost. We were stuffed five people in a cab and it was a very tight fit and an already long drive so that was very unfortunate. Finally, at around 2 am we made it to the ship- I threw down my stuff in my room, grabbed my computer and headed out into the mall that the ship was docked at with free internet. Even though it was about 2:30 am, the halls of the mall were filled with SASers on their computers and it was pretty funny and sad. My internet wasn’t working too well so I got to skype one person (steph!) for a little but unfortunately not upload any pictures. I went to sleep a little while later and was very excited to sleep a little late the next morning.
I woke up, skyped with Annie, ate lunch and then left for a field program called the Family Insight Tour. It was an incredible trip. We went to check out the government funded housing and programs and got to learn about why people live there, what qualifies them and what the living conditions are. We went to a youth after-school center and an elderly care center. It was all very interesting. The facilities were nice and impressive given that it was government run; there was no crime in the area due to the government; also, there is a large drug and suicide problem among older teens because there are tests at the end of high school (similar to the SATs) and if they do bad they are very affected by it. It was definitely eye-opening.
That night I went to a floating restaurant which was really nice and beautiful. We just got dessert and drinks there because it was expensive. Following some time there, a bunch of us headed over to the popular bar street in Hong Kong which was amazing. There were SASers all over the place and it was a lot of fun to hang out with a bunch of people since I had yet to do that on the trip. We also met people from some European countries so that was cool. The only unfortunate thing was that there were no locals to hang out with and that’s been part of the fun of going out so far. But it was an incredibly fun night that people are still talking about a week later. We ended the night at the McDonalds by the ship with a bunch of people and it was DELICIOUS. I never eat McDonalds at home and I am slightly nauseated by the fact that I did there but I have now had McDonalds in a few European countries, Israel, Japan and China so I guess it has become more of an abroad thing for me.
The next morning I woke up, met with some friends and headed over to Victoria’s Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong that overlooked the city. It was so beautiful and nice to see. We only stayed for a little while because there is only so long that you can stare at buildings before we left for a restaurant called “Modern Toilet.” It was a bathroom-themed restaurant where the seats were toilets, the walls were decorated with piping and shower heads, and you ate out of dishes the shapes of urinals, sinks and a bunch of other bathroom appliances. When we went back to the ship, there was a mass of people sitting on the deck on their computers trying to pick up the malls wifi. I went outside for a little but my tiny computer couldn’t even connect to the network because so many people were using it. So, I wrote my postcards instead. Later on in the night I ate dinner, we had a muster drill, and then all went up to the top deck to watch the Hong Kong light show- they have it at 8pm every night. Unfortunately, it was incredibly foggy AND we didn’t have a radio to listen to the music that goes along with it so it was fairly lame. Finally, we left the pier and waved goodbye to Hong Kong!
And there goes China. It is unbelievable how quick things are moving. I will be updating on Cambodia and Vietnam later!
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