China
Hong Kong Last Day: massages, high tea and a final exam
Posted by: | Comments
Sick of China posts yet? This is the last one. I’m home and hoping I recover from crazy jet lag in time for work and school this week. Midnight cravings for strawberries anyone?
Our last day in Hong Kong was Friday. We took a final and then were done with class. I rocked the final, which felt amazing. I’m not the best test taker which always frustrates me because I know the information but when I’m choosing between A, B, C and D, things get complicated in my brain. Thank goodness the entrance to heaven isn’t a multiple choice test, right?
Post-test we were recruited off the street for foot massages. Best decision we made. Amazing. We did neck massages and foot acupressure. I was a happy girl.
Regarding following people off the street into stores — we only ever did it as a group and we never entered a room that wasn’t legit. The hallways might seem a little sketch, but you’d turn the corner into their business, and bam, it was obviously a business and not a place trying to harvest our organs or something weird.
Then we stopped at the Ladies Market. The only market we hadn’t gotten to yet. This was more like Shenzhen stopping. We nabbed a few bags that looked amazing and we officially felt finished with the shopping madness. So excited. I’m not going to tell you how we followed a sales girl from the market to a weird building, and then climbed a flight of stairs into a little closet with a random lady who showed us all sorts of designer bags. Nope, not going to tell you because my grandma reads this blog, and I’m not willing to give her a heart attack.
Then we switched gears and celebrated graduation for one of us and the end of class at high tea at the Peninsula Hotel. It was posh. There was live music and little tea cakes and we felt a little Sex and the City-esque.
I drank peppermint herbal tea, which I like. I find it comforting.
I had my first macaroon since our crazy macaroon tour in Paris. It was delicious.
We went out that night and partied a bit, OK, who am I kidding, I was in a cab by 10:30 — but we celebrated being done with school nonetheless.
Then it was off to bed for an early morning flight. We left Hong Kong at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning and I saw my husband at LAX at 11 a.m. Hooray for crossing the International Dateline. Longest day ever.
Couldn’t be too happy to have seen the husband and the puppy at the airport. I missed them.
Cooking class in Hong Kong
Posted by: | Comments
Oh, and the finished product! This post is getting super picture heavy, but look what we did!
Daytrip to Macau
Posted by: | Comments
Macau has always fascinated me. It was a Portuguese colony in the 16th century and Portugal administered the region until the handover in 1999. Similar to Hong Kong, the agreement for Macau to operate with autonomy for 50 years.
From Hong Kong, Macau is a 45-minute ferry ride. When I say ferry, I mean crazy speedboat that will make you grateful that you got there alive.
It has really thrived as a hot spot for gambling and casinos, kind of the Vegas of the east. Though these casinos are different than Las Vegas — super quiet and we saw the absolute worst burlesque show in history. We stopped into the Hotel Lisboa for dinner and the restaurant had a view of the show.
We spent the majority of the time trying to decide if the performers were men in drag or women who couldn’t dance. At least I know where I could get a job as a performer if the MBA doesn’t work out. No dancing skills needed.
The Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau
By the way as I was writing this post I realized that every major boy I ever dated spoke Portuguese. Weird, eh?
The streets are European with cobblestones, street side shops and just all over charming. It felt like a different place. The Jesuits built several Catholic churches to worship and to convert the Chinese, but it didn’t really work. The churches and influence on architecture remains.
The smog was brutal though. For some reason, I had done really well on not coughing or getting sick, and I was totally happy about it. But in Macau I started hacking. The air felt really thick and gross.
The mega landmark is St. Paul’s Cathedral, which burned in 1835. The facade remains. Oh, if you do the Lonely Planet walking tour, do it backwards. We ended up doing this on accident and I liked coming up the stairs of the cathedral more than walking into it from behind. It is more stunning to turn the corner and see this:
Next to the cathedral is a fortress. Now, I’m not much of a military girl, but I appreciated the city views. It is landscaped on the top like a park. There is a museum inside, too.
The cannons were only fired once. Actually not sure if those are the real cannons, we never could find anything that confirmed.
All-in-all an interesting spot. I don’t think I would ever spend more than a day or two there, but it was a nice change of pace from Hong Kong.
Oh, and if you go – try out the beef jerky that they are passing out on the street. It might look creepy but it is pretty dang amazing. I held out, but tried it in Hong Kong and now I’m regretting not trying it from every single street vendor passing it out.
Hong Kong, Day 4: Ethics, Stanley Market, Lasagna
Posted by: | Comments
Ethics made the title because in one of our break out sessions for class, the professor set us up. He gave us a simulation and we worked in groups — one person was the seller of property, the other the buyer.
The simulation required us to “not disclose” certain items that would have made the sellers not sell the property. Five minutes in, one of my teammates stopped the deal and said there was no way we could make this work without lying, while still representing our clients.
At first I was still insistent that we could get a deal. And then I realized I wasn’t being true to myself. I’m not a liar. I’m not deceitful. And silly class simulations shouldn’t be an exception.
Post class, it was Stanley Market. I wasn’t much of a map girl this trip (but got very good at asking the concierge to write down an address in Chinese to hand to the taxi driver) and we had no idea how far away this was from Kowloon. Three trains and a $100 taxi ride later (Hong Kong dollars, that’s about $13 USD split between four people) we were there. On the other side of Hong Kong Island with a gorgeous view of the ocean. I wanted to dip my toes in. After freezing in Shanghai, the 60-degree temps in Hong Kong were fantastic.
I should have gone to Stanley Market for a cute daytrip and Chinese souvenirs. You want a ceramic chopstick set? That’s your place. I went feeling like I didn’t go big enough in Shenzhen and wanting to make up for it. The market isn’t a major fashion spot, but I did get a nice little print of Hong Kong to hang on our travel wall.
Lunch was a baked potato at a french cafe where the Asian waitress greeted us with “bonjour.” Loved it.
As a bonus that I totally didn’t expect, it is right on the water. It almost looks Mediterranean. We took jumping photos.
Love these girls. The trip was amazing mostly because of the people. We had a great group in Shanghai for our project and a fun group in Hong Kong. I came back so much more focused on my career, after spending random bus rides and long walks talking to people about goals and ambitions.
Also, we saw this fashion shoot and it made me feel totally better about my random dancing and twirling fashion-related posts. We never did figure out just what this girl was selling.
Then we went out to dinner. I ate the best lasagna of my life. I need to find the name of the restaurant. I was nervous about ordering lasagna in China but Hong Kong had a lot more variety and spice. It was more like Los Angeles with a Chinese twist. And crazy taxi drivers.
Hong Kong, Day 3: Midterm, pizza and Muji
Posted by: | Comments
In the movie Pretty Woman, Vivian and Edward negotiate a price of $3000 for Vivian to stay for the week. After they agree upon the price, Vivian states that she would have stayed for $2000, and Edward admits that he would have paid $4000. The difference between Edward’s resistance point of $4000 and Vivian’s resistance point of $2000 is called the:a. Bargaining rangeb. Settlement rangec. Zone of potential agreementd. All of the above
Life is scattered, like bobby pins in your bathroom drawer, no? Dance backwards in high heels with me. Let's talk clothes and news. I *love* clothes and news.
