Hong Kong

The second I arrived in Hong Kong I knew that I loved it! Driving into the city is a joy in itself I was furiously snapping pictures of the skyline and the bay. I was struck by the tall futuristic buildings and bridges leading into the city (about and hour away via airport shuttle). I arrived to my hostel around 10 am too early to check in so I left my stuff and went out on the search for foood! Luckily that is when I bumped into my first traveling campanions Helena aka 80 pound girl who eats her weight in rice per day and Russ one easy going duuude. They were on the elevator also going out to look for food so we went together ; ) Two super cool peeps from the Philipines after eating and checking in to the hostel we decided to check out the city so we hopped on a tram towards "Hollywood Road". I know how ironic right? I avoid Hollywood like the plague back in LA and now 13 million miles away I end up on Hollywood Road! Well this Hollywood actually has tons of art galleries and antique shops not to mention its near some bars where all the expats congrigate. We walked around there for awile checking out the shops and bakeries yuuuuuuuuuum! Then we stumbled upon the world's longest escalator... the TRAVELator to the mid-levels, which are really nice luxury high -rise apartments. There are some sweet bars on the way so we sampled the inventory. Day 2 in HK My Filipino buds were joined by two more so I tagged along on their Macua trip. Macua is pretty much like China's version of Vegas minus the pools,clubs, and drinking outdoors(all the good things about Vegas). That only leaves shopping and gambling left and most of you already know I don't do either so some migh say ummm why did you go there? Well, luckily there are a ton of other things to do, see, and snap pitures of. Haha The coolest thing about Macua is that is was colonized by Portugual so I saw a lot of the same kinds of architecture that was in Brazil and Portugual. The juztaposition between old world/modern/tropical was a really interesting mix and again I had a blast taking TONS of photographs (that I will upload later). The weather was insanely hot and muggy which I think is going to be a recurring theme on this trip unfortunately :( We left Macau around 6:30 pm and boarded a ship towards Kowloon which is the island across the water from HK Island to see the Skyline at night. Again ANOTHER gorgeous view of the city. Day 3 I went to Victoria Peak and spent several hours walking around chatting with other travelers,drawing and taking pictures.

I left Hk with a tear in my eye that place is really freaking cool everyone was so nice and helpful, transit was easy and efficient, streets were clean, food was good and cheap. Now on to Vietnam!

The second I started queueing up in line to board the plane I could feel the difference in the two cultures. The people in line were coughing, snorting and making gutteral sounds TWO INCHES BEHIND ME! This guy was about to get some LA fury when I thought, "hey this isn't my country who am I to say what is 'normal'" I mean yeah its pretty gross but how would I feel if a foriegner came up to me in America and said my manners were disgusting? More on Vietnam and the CRAZY cab ride to the city at 1 am....