A Weekend in Paradise

If anyone ever gets the chance to go to the Philippines, I highly recommend it. A weekend filled with the most beautiful beach, the cheapest drinks, and the biggest meals.

Thursday night, after classes, we all headed to the airport with a long night ahead of us. The flight was fairly short (2 hours), but uncomfortable since we were in “Fiesta Class” aka Economy and at the back of the plane right by the toilets. This flight I requested the Muslim Meal – best decision ever! I got delicious chicken breast and rice, while the others got some shady fish or pork. I’m definitely requesting the Muslim Meal on every Asian flight from now on.

So we land in Manila around midnight and apparently the Manila airport closes at midnight. We had to sit on some wooden benches outside where it was pretty hot, though comfortable when compared to how hot Hong Kong has been. Manila is notorious for its cab ride extortion. You get in a cab and agree on a price with the cab driver, or agree to go by the meter price, but once you get to an area that isn’t very safe they threaten to drop you off there unless you pay them at least double the price. This happened to every group of exchange students who went before us, so we were apprehensive about how we’d get from the international airport to the domestic airport for our next flight. Luckily, we befriended the airport security guards so they let us know when the next shuttle bus was leaving for our terminal. It was so easy! We get to the other airport, which is open so we can sleep inside, however this was the coldest building I think I’ve ever been inside of in my entire life – colder than the Ice Bar even! After trying and failing to sleep for 3 hours, we finally get on the smallest plane I’ve ever seen. A short hour flight and we’re cruising in for landing on Caticlan. Tuk tuk from the airport to a ferry and then we’re finally on Boracay. Tuk tuk from the ferry to our hostel and then a walk to the shore and we’re in paradise. The 15 hour journey from CUHK to White Sand Beach, Boracay was totally validated upon looking out at this beach. This was the most beautiful mile stretch I have ever seen - the calm clear sea, the whitest sand, and barely a cloud in the sky.

The weekend was filled with relaxation, tanning, and swimming in the cleanest ocean water I’ve ever encountered. So while it was fun, there isn’t much to say about the beach itself. I tried scuba diving and failed. The training lasted an hour and by the end of it I was too nauseous to continue on to the deep sea dive. The food was varied, delicious, and cheap. A meal would consist of a fruit smoothie, a large entrée (Mexican, Burger, Thai, anything) and dessert/drinks and it would all be less than US$8. The nights we went out we went to Cocomango’s – a club where you had to walk down the coast and through high tide to get to.

On our last night there, we decided it’d be best to go out for a drink and head back at 1am by the latest. Of course, this didn’t happen. One drink turned into three. Then Rachel and Leanne ran into a group of guys they had befriended earlier in the week. They were there for a week long bachelor party. Flaming Sambuca, Tequila Shots, and another trip to Cocomanga’s with their jam jars later and we didn’t end up leaving the club til around 3am. A walk down the beach and a quick swim to cool down and we didn’t end up sleeping til 4am. Did I mention we needed to leave for our flight at 5:30am? Yeah, that was not pleasant. Zarina ended up missing her flight and had to catch the next one. Which meant we had to wait in the FREEZING airport for an extra hour. But once we were all in the same city, we explored Manila. And there wasn’t much to see. Stumbled upon an Aussie Bar & Grill to have lunch in and then it started raining. We were glad to take this opportunity to go back to our hotel and nap and recover from the night before. The return trip home occurred without incident and we arrived back in Hong Kong with enough time to study and prepare for classes on Wednesday.

photos: the beautiful beach that I can't believe I was lucky enough to be on for a few days.

Upcoming blogs: since i'm so behind, i might just skip to my weekend in Guilin, China and ignore the day trips around HK for now, since they're not as culturally interesting.

Last Weekend of Summer!

Friday night one of the student helpers organized a big group to go out to an open bar club in Wan Chai. We head out and Rachel and I are starving since we didn’t eat dinner with the rest of the group. We figure we’ll find out where the club is and then go get food and come back. However, when we get there the bouncer is being really strict about the forms of ID. All us Americans brought our state drivers license because the consulate said not to take your passport out if you don’t have to so we were all in jeopardy of not getting in. Luckily, the guy realized he’d be losing out on HK$150 each person and let us in. But I didn’t want to risk not getting in if I left for food and came back so Rachel and a group of others said they’d bring me back food if they could. Well, long story short, my dinner was smuggled in inside Joel’s pants and then once inside hidden like contraband. I’m sitting in the club, trying to hide my fries and I asked Logan if he wanted any. His response, “What is that? Drugs?!” Yeah, that’s how stealth we had to be with just some cheap fries. Well, got my dinner and then enjoyed the open bar. More CUHK kids ended up showing up later in the night so the club was about half CUHK half other people. By the end of the night we had overrun the dancing stage and it was like 20 of us just dancing our hearts out and trying to push off this creepy guy who kept dancing inappropriate with as many girls as he could. We ended up leaving the club around like 3am and since Jia speaks Cantonese we didn’t get lost this time and even got dropped off right near the dorm! Pretty nice.

The next day, CUHK organized a Hong Kong city tour. The group of us who were out at the club were kind of out of it at first, but we dragged on and eventually got a second wind. We visited Stanley Market, which had rocky beaches and lots of shopping (like most places in Hong Kong so far). Then we went to Victoria Peak, where there’s an AMAZING view of Victoria Harbor, and of course another shopping area. The last time was the Avenue of Stars. It was like a mini-Hollywood Walk of Fame. They had stars and cement hand imprints for some of Hong Kong’s (and China’s?) biggest stars. We found stars for Jet Li, Chow Yung Fat, and Jackie Chan. Bruce Lee didn’t have a star since it was built after his time, but they had a statue of him flexing every muscle in his body at the same time. The Avenue had a fantastic view of the skyline and had this huge hotel that was actually built on the water. The tour bus headed back, but a group of us wanted to stay behind to see the skyline laser light show. At 8pm music started playing on loud speakers all along the water front and a booming voice said stuff in Chinese that I didn’t understand but could only assume was talking about the show that was about to begin. The show lasted a lot longer than I was expecting. It was amazing to see an entire city’s downtown area have its lights choreographed. It reminded me of the Electric Light Orchestra Parade that Disneyland has, except on a much grander scale. The whole 5 minutes of the show, Rachel, Zarina, Leann and I just stood there and gaped in awe.

We then hopped on the Star Ferry and headed into Central to get sushi. I paid less than US$2 for my sushi dinner. CRAZY! It was the kind where the conveyer belt just has the sushi go by and you pick all the plates you want.

Classes have started so the posts will probably more spread out from now on. Hopefully I’ll have a great adventure to write about after next weekend. Tentative plans are to go to Taiwan or the Phillipines since we have Monday off. So we’ll see…

Photos: the view from my dorm window. Stephanie, Zarina, and I at the Wan Chai club (you can’t tell but we’re on the dance stage). The view from Victoria Peak. Logan, Rachel, Zarina, Leann, Etienne, and me at the Avenue of the Stars. Central HK skyline just before the light show. And of course, more photos are on facebook.

I like the nightlife. I like to boogie.

So yesterday marked the beginning of orientation. The day was filled with such boring, tedious lectures and errands that a group of us were dying to get out and see the city that night. So after a lot of telephone tag, knocking on doors, and what not we got a group of about 10 girls together. The guys had already headed down to Central to grab dinner and drinks before the club. After a 40 minute train and MTR ride into the city, we step out in Central Hong Kong and it is…just wow. So many signs and lights and people, even at 11pm there were so many people out. We walk up this hill filled with designer shops and then we’re in Lan Kwai Fong. It’s the bar district with so many bars and clubs and they were all filled as we passed by. We go into this Hotel called HotelLIKE or something like that and it is so swanky and modern. We go into the elevator and go up to the 30th floor and when we step out we’re accosted by just how gorgeous the city skyline is. The guys are still eating and drinking so we all order drinks. And while they weren’t that much cheaper than in the states, this was the best Sex on the Beach that I’ve ever had. One girl got a French Martini and I could drink those like water they’re so delicious.

The guys called ahead to the club and booked a table. We got there and actually ran into a few more CUHK kids, so our group is nearing 20 at this point. Our table is right by the bar and the place is PACKED. It’s predominantly westerners – lots of English and Australian accents could be heard. The guys bought a HUGE bottle of champagne and it comes out with a firework attached. The guys also bought like 2 or 3 bottles of vodka with cranberry and orange juices for mixing. I don’t know about the other people there, but I am definitely not used to this kind of lifestyle at clubs. Whenever I do go to clubs, I just go and dance and maybe get one drink because I’m cheap like that. These kids, they live it up! The club played a great mix of the stuff we hear back home and then some trance and techno. We ended up staying until about 3am. The taxi back got lost and didn’t understand much English but eventually we did get to campus. Although, he dropped us off at the very edge so we had to walk and try and find our way in the dark through the wilderness. Quite an adventure! Ended up getting back to the room at 4am and then talking to a few people back home since it was the middle of the afternoon there.

Today was more of the same boring orientation stuff, but it culminated with a welcome dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui. We had the whole restaurant for the IASP CUHK program. The panoramic windows showed the entire Hong Kong Island skyline and it’s fantastic. The photos do not do it justice. I missed the nightly light show but I’m sure I’ll catch it another time. I debated going out again tonight but since I’m moving into my permanent dorm tomorrow morning I decided against it. There will be plenty of time this semester.

Ps. Uploaded photos to facebook. Highlights here: skyline from the restaurant, champagne fireworks, and a few of the beautiful ladies I went with.