An explanation of the previous post, for those that haven't figured it out yet.
My ticket home from Hong Kong wasn't until June 30th. I was thinking about going to Taiwan and staying with a friend, but our emails missed eachother, and that was becoming less and less of a possbility, and my funds were getting smaller each day. I'd spent the last 3 nights sleeping on the floor of my friend's hotel in HK, and I was kind of getting bored in the city. Plenty to do if you've got money, although not too much for the backpacker. This is when I hatched the plan to leave 9 days early, come home and work, and enjoy Boston for a while... Of course I didn't tell anyone this.
So on the 21st I walked into the front door of my house and said hello to all of my roommates as if I'd just come home from class rather than a 16 hour flight and a 5 hour bus ride from New York City. Needless to say they were shocked... My brother couldn't believe his eyes; but this was just the beginning. The next morning I woke up early and headed down to the lovely town of Hebron, Connecticut to try and track down Kristen, whose address I vagueley remembered from exchanging addresses and credit card numbers to book flights for the past 2 months.
I found her house on the second attempt and her brother let me in the house and showed me where her room was. I walked in while she was still asleep and woke her up. I'd say it was the best surprise of all time (especially since she had been talking to me in Hong Kong (my couch in Boston) just 8 hours earlier.
Spent a few days in CT, headed to Boston, went to work, Kristen came up and stayed the last week with me. 4th of July, Tyler's birthday, my birthday yesterday, shopping for warm clothes for Chile (next Saturday's low is 28 degrees) and on Thursday I begin the second half of Travel Summer when I fly to Santiago, Chile where I'll stay for a month and spend the following month bummin' around South America. 3 Continents in 3 weeks isn't too bad.
Adios,
Josh
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Hong Kong
Havent posted in a while, been pretty busy.
Landed in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City around 9pm, went to our hostel that was run by a sweet old lady who was an English teacher for 40 years. Went out and got some great food and a facial haha, next day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is an underground tunnel network that helped the Viet Cong bring supplies to Saigon to fight the southern government and the US troops... very interesting day listening to the guides tell us about all the hidden traps they had set up to kill American soldiers. Kristen and I shot some M-60 machine guns, and an AK-47. Next day we rented a motorbike and joined the swarms of prople on the roads around the city, got totally lost and had a few close calls but made it back safely. Next day we went on a one day excursion to the Mekong Delta which was a trip, hung out with some Viet/Canadiens who stumped us on the capital of Canada (Ottawa) then told us that we had to go to Macau because it's sooo fun.
That night we got home and went on the internet to find that flights to Hong Kong were going to cost us between $250-300... after searching the wide web for a bit I found an airline called VIVA-macau that was going to cost $150. Naturaly we booked it, headed out at 7am the next morning, hopped on a free bus to the Venetian hotel (Macau is Las Vegas of Asia, so there is a Venetian, Hard Rock, Wynn, MGM Grand) we booked an amazing room at the Hard Rock Hotel Macau with the money we saved on the plane tickets, and went and saw a Cirque du Soleil show at the Venetian. Went gambling, threw five 7's in a row and won a hundred dollars, then played blackjack and lost it all, then won it all back the next day so Macau was a good investment. Got sick yesterday form my dinner the night before, hopped on a ferry to Hong Kong where we checked into our hostel/prison cell on the 13th floor of a suspicios building and slept from 8pm until 9am this morning. Currently sitting on top of the highest mountain in Hong Kong looking down onto the densest group of sky scrapers I've ever seen.
47 days in, 14 left... still rocking.
- Josh
Landed in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City around 9pm, went to our hostel that was run by a sweet old lady who was an English teacher for 40 years. Went out and got some great food and a facial haha, next day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is an underground tunnel network that helped the Viet Cong bring supplies to Saigon to fight the southern government and the US troops... very interesting day listening to the guides tell us about all the hidden traps they had set up to kill American soldiers. Kristen and I shot some M-60 machine guns, and an AK-47. Next day we rented a motorbike and joined the swarms of prople on the roads around the city, got totally lost and had a few close calls but made it back safely. Next day we went on a one day excursion to the Mekong Delta which was a trip, hung out with some Viet/Canadiens who stumped us on the capital of Canada (Ottawa) then told us that we had to go to Macau because it's sooo fun.
That night we got home and went on the internet to find that flights to Hong Kong were going to cost us between $250-300... after searching the wide web for a bit I found an airline called VIVA-macau that was going to cost $150. Naturaly we booked it, headed out at 7am the next morning, hopped on a free bus to the Venetian hotel (Macau is Las Vegas of Asia, so there is a Venetian, Hard Rock, Wynn, MGM Grand) we booked an amazing room at the Hard Rock Hotel Macau with the money we saved on the plane tickets, and went and saw a Cirque du Soleil show at the Venetian. Went gambling, threw five 7's in a row and won a hundred dollars, then played blackjack and lost it all, then won it all back the next day so Macau was a good investment. Got sick yesterday form my dinner the night before, hopped on a ferry to Hong Kong where we checked into our hostel/prison cell on the 13th floor of a suspicios building and slept from 8pm until 9am this morning. Currently sitting on top of the highest mountain in Hong Kong looking down onto the densest group of sky scrapers I've ever seen.
47 days in, 14 left... still rocking.
- Josh
Thursday, June 4, 2009
2 Nights in Bangkok!
Arrived in Bangkok last night around 1:30 in the morning. Today is the 2 year anniversary of when I left for the "ebay Trip," and it feels good to be back in a city I know so well. Headed back to the hostel I was at two years ago, and am staying in the owner's old "honeymoon suite." Just getting up, had some pad thai, and now I'm calling the bank so that my debit card doesn't get eaten. I told the bank that I would be in 5 potential countries this trip, but I hadn't even considered Thailand. Just booked a flight to Phuket for tomorrow evening so Kristen and I will be heading down south to meet up with Joe and Tom (friends from China) should be a hell of a time.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Please Keep Clea
It's 6 AM on Monday Morning in Beijing, China and in two hours I'll start my first lesson in Survival Chinese. I've been here 4 nights now, and if I don't start writing some things down they'll escape me forever.
The few days before I left were a blur. Pack up my room so Tyler could move in, pack up Tyler's room so he could move out, help move Tyler into my room, get ready for the stuntman to move into Tyler's room for the summer, finish up preparations for The 7 Books Project (more details on that later), pack a small backpack with clothes and supplies for 2 months (4 days longer than the last trip) which includes clothes for being in a city, working in an internship, hiking through the forest etc...
I made it to the airport on time where every TV was screaming about SWINE FLU!!! We flew over the top of the world via the North Pole, and successfully landed in Beijing 14 hours later where we were scanned by infrared cameras for any signs of disease. My teacher just told me that the plane that came in after us was quarantined for 3 hours, the passengers were kept out of the terminal and forced to go onto the tarmac where they were inspected before being let into the country. They sent a Mexican man home... after the SARS scare they are taking no chances with this shit, and I can totally see why.
Have to speed this up as to not waste digital paper: landed in Beijing at 2pm, got our luggage, hopped on a bus that took us to the Minda University in downtown Beijing, it honestly feels like driving on a newly build 405 freeway and heading into a cleaner Los Angeles, settled into our dorms, went and had dinner, hung out with Chinese girls at a dance party on a soccer field, went to sleep, woke up at 4:30 AM, couldn't fall back asleep, went for a run on the track next to our school, watched the sun come up, Chinese breakfast, 1 hours bus to the Forbidden City, saw Tienanmen Square on the Chinese equivalent of Labor Day which is one of two major holidays here, hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, walked through the Forbidden City, lost the 2 Chinese people who came with us ironically, Chinese people kept taking pictures of us, they rarely see white people I guess, and the black kids we're with might as well be movie stars, I held a baby for a picture, Forbidden City is incredible and gigantic, and requires at least a week to see it all, went to some more temples, exercised my right to carry an open container everywhere, money is like Monopoly money and it goes pretty damn far,yesterday we woke up at 5 am again, went to the Great Wall of China yesterday, got all choked up on the drive looking out the window listening to the Beatles Love album, climbed the great wall, unbelievable, it's over 8000 miles long, that's like LA - New York - LA - Mississippi, they built a toboggan ride down from the top, it's like ancient wonder of the world meets Disneyland bobsled without snow, came home, went to dinner with Chinese ambassador students last night, went to bed, and here we are.
This place is incredible, I see why people fall in love with the country as it's unlike anything I've ever seen, can't wait to leave the city and see the countryside. All for now, updates soon.
- Josh
The few days before I left were a blur. Pack up my room so Tyler could move in, pack up Tyler's room so he could move out, help move Tyler into my room, get ready for the stuntman to move into Tyler's room for the summer, finish up preparations for The 7 Books Project (more details on that later), pack a small backpack with clothes and supplies for 2 months (4 days longer than the last trip) which includes clothes for being in a city, working in an internship, hiking through the forest etc...
I made it to the airport on time where every TV was screaming about SWINE FLU!!! We flew over the top of the world via the North Pole, and successfully landed in Beijing 14 hours later where we were scanned by infrared cameras for any signs of disease. My teacher just told me that the plane that came in after us was quarantined for 3 hours, the passengers were kept out of the terminal and forced to go onto the tarmac where they were inspected before being let into the country. They sent a Mexican man home... after the SARS scare they are taking no chances with this shit, and I can totally see why.
Have to speed this up as to not waste digital paper: landed in Beijing at 2pm, got our luggage, hopped on a bus that took us to the Minda University in downtown Beijing, it honestly feels like driving on a newly build 405 freeway and heading into a cleaner Los Angeles, settled into our dorms, went and had dinner, hung out with Chinese girls at a dance party on a soccer field, went to sleep, woke up at 4:30 AM, couldn't fall back asleep, went for a run on the track next to our school, watched the sun come up, Chinese breakfast, 1 hours bus to the Forbidden City, saw Tienanmen Square on the Chinese equivalent of Labor Day which is one of two major holidays here, hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, walked through the Forbidden City, lost the 2 Chinese people who came with us ironically, Chinese people kept taking pictures of us, they rarely see white people I guess, and the black kids we're with might as well be movie stars, I held a baby for a picture, Forbidden City is incredible and gigantic, and requires at least a week to see it all, went to some more temples, exercised my right to carry an open container everywhere, money is like Monopoly money and it goes pretty damn far,yesterday we woke up at 5 am again, went to the Great Wall of China yesterday, got all choked up on the drive looking out the window listening to the Beatles Love album, climbed the great wall, unbelievable, it's over 8000 miles long, that's like LA - New York - LA - Mississippi, they built a toboggan ride down from the top, it's like ancient wonder of the world meets Disneyland bobsled without snow, came home, went to dinner with Chinese ambassador students last night, went to bed, and here we are.
This place is incredible, I see why people fall in love with the country as it's unlike anything I've ever seen, can't wait to leave the city and see the countryside. All for now, updates soon.
- Josh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)