Sooo reports on the international vacations at last. I’ll go into the Hong Kong excursion first since it’s a bit more fresh in my memory, and Vietnam just had A LOT of things that happened which I can’t remember in sequence or day to save my life at the moment. Perhaps looking at pictures will help me remember! ANYWAY *pics to come*
Departure & Arrival in HK: Hilda, Debbie and I left Toyama via night bus Wednesday night on the 28th of April. As usual it didn’t land us in Osaka till the following morning. Then we took the train to Kansai airport and off we went (after some much deserved Starbucks and Subway) on our flight to HK. After the WORST FLIGHT KNOW TO MAN( so much turbulence on entry that we had to circle back four times towards the ocean in hopes for LESS turbulence to land in) we arrived to a rain sodden HK. This didn’t lift our spirits seeing that the forecast predicted rain for the entirety of our stay. Nevertheless we made it to our hostel in Fortress Hill and then went to a local restaurant to eat. The first meal choice was not supreme and because of the rain and my LACK of umbrella I managed to catch a cold the first night I was there. After dinner we made a night of it, and hit the sack early.
Day two: Ocean Park: So to our delight the day brought sun to our doorstep and with this we decided that today would be the best day for the amusement park. Ocean tends to be recommended over HK Disney. I don’t know why since we didn’t manage the opportunity to go to HK Disney. Nevertheless we arrived there and the park was situated with a wonderful ocean view true to its name. First things first we grabbed some lunch (which was surprisingly very tasty), then Hilda and Debbie to a ride on the rollercoaster. After that we grabbed some snacks and played a few games but unfortunately we all came up empty handed. Close by there was a small aquarium that we moseyed through while we were waiting for the dolphin show to start. When we went to the stage area for the show a mariachi band played before the performance, and one of the guys was eyeing my friend Hilda. It was quite amusing to watch them play eye tag back and forth during their performance. The dolphin show itself was cute. A show worth seeing but nothing overly spectacular, though the seals stole the show somewhat. The trainers would gave them high-fives and the “wink and finger” pose whenever they did a good job. Needless to say this action stuck with me and Hilda for the rest of our HK trip ^^. After the dolphin show it was onwards to watch the bird show (ok performance, but the birds were pretty!) and then to see the PANDAS! They were so cute ^^. The red pandas were adorable and spunky as well. The two Giant Pandas were busy eating their bamboo leaves. One even tried to take some from the others pile and that panda promptly got up took his food back and continued eating. It was too hilarious. The panda gift show was soo tempting but I managed to keep my hands in my pockets while I was there. Things were simply too expensive there and only being on day two of my trip I wasn’t willing to spend all my money in one place. Before leaving the park around six that evening we stopped to take pictures with some of the life size dragon models in the “How to train a Dragon” section of the park. I know a few people who would have quite enjoyed that part of the park. I was thinking of you guys when I was there ^^. By the end of my time there I was ready to head out. T’was a long and fun day and after I returned to our hostel area we grabbed food and everything else was of no particular importance. We hit the hay and it was onward to day three!
Day 3:The Night Market: Today was a slow start, which was good for me because I was sick, and getting a bit more sleep on my otherwise sleep deprivation antics on vacations. We decided to go to the other side of the island and look around. Before we took the short ferry ride to the other side we stopped and watched a Pilipino fashion show for a few minutes. When we got to the other side we hung around the cultural center to see if there were any free shows going on that day. There turned out to be nothing of note going on so we kind of just past the time talking and sitting around the building out of the beaming hot sun. I think this day was probably one of the hottest days of the entire trip. Finally we set off towards the night markets. They were quite far from the pier area and we passed tons of shopping areas. I completely understand why china is the number one consumer of name brand goods after being on the strip. Before the night markets we took a stop in this electronic store when I ended up getting talked into buying this James Bond pen. It writes and is also a 4gig memory stick that takes photos and video. I haven’t till this day fully figured it out but it was an interesting purchase, one I wouldn’t make again if I were to turn back time, but one I don’t mind all at the same time. When we finally reached the night market we decided to grab some food before we went shopping. Though once we were satiated it was time to bargain. I quite enjoyed the aspect of bargaining with the vendors, and I managed to get a few souvenir like items for my trouble. Most of the stalls sold some of the same things so it made it easier to still get what you wanted even if a certain vendor wouldn’t lower their goods down to an acceptable prize. All in all the experience was quite fun and there were so many people and foreigners there. It was crazy how well most people we met in HK could speak English. They must all have had GREAT ALT’s lol. They put the Japanese to shame as far as English speaking is concerned. When the three of us finally decided to call it a night my feet were on fire. We had shopped for seven long but fun hours.
Day 4:The Peak: Day four and my feet were still a bit bleh. Granted the next two days are a bit of a blur. I’m not sure if they happened on that said day or vice versa. So just saying the event should suffice. On this day we decided to check out the Botanical Park. I had no idea what kind of adventure I was in store for. It was hot as it always is in HK and the amount of stairs and hills I had to climb to reach this garden was insane. It doesn’t help that I am out of shape. However I think if it just wasn’t 90 degrees outside I might have faired a bit better. All the same we finally made it there and walked around in the park, Hilda and I still hot as all get out. There were a lot of animals in the park and I was particular entertained by the lemurs. I have no doubt that the love for them came mostly from the Madagascar movies. In fact when Hilda and I saw the Lemurs we (most appropriately I might add) began to sing the ‘I like to move it move it!” song. An for a few quick amazingly quick moments a few of the lemurs seemed to like it. It was a nice park but zoo like atmospheres can only keep me entertained for so long. So after an hour or so we made our way back down the hill taking mind to stop at the near by Starbucks for a well deserved frappuccino. Then it was back to the grind to find our way to the Peak lifts. When we got there the line was out of the building and up the street. I was sure we were going to be there for the rest of the day or perhaps not even make it to the lifts. We got inline anyway and thankfully the line moved fairly fast. However the whole time there were a bunch of Indian guys in front of us that was Starring at Hilda the WHOLE time. Its like damn she’s got some big boobs (and yes they are indeed great, but only for friends like moi! lol) By the time we made it to the lifts we managed to loose them on the way up to the peak.
The view on the lift to the Peak area was quite nice, and the incline up the mountain was nearly 90degrees. When we reached the top the lift let us out directly into the souvenir shop. I happened to buy a mirror in there and then met the others. The giant and quite cool building inside was basically and modern and quite high-end mall. Since we had no money for that or did we want to spend money on that we found a way to look outside at the view and take a few pictures. Then we went to the level area outside, sat and ate bagels we had picked up on the way down from the Botanical Gardens and just chilled out. It was nice to stop moving/standing and since night had fallen by this point it was no longer hot. We stayed up there for quite a while when we decided that it was time to find some real food. The ride back down took a quarter of the time and we made our way to this steak place called Ruth’s back at central. It was a really nice place and the waitresses English was impeccable. Once we looked at the menu we knew exactly why. The prizes for a hardy meal for one could have very well killed a day or twos spending money. Just to order a side of vegetable is was 75 HGD (Hong Kong dollars) which is roughly $10 American dollars just for a side of vegetables. In the end we decided we couldn’t afford to eat their so we left (oh my pride >.<;;). Instead we found a party of central that we had yet to see before. The streets were lined with restaurants and clubs/bars. We chose to eat at this Middle Eastern restaurant and the food there was quite scrumptious. Even though I did have my heart on steak I’m glad we had a chance to eat at that restaurant.
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