What we Drank of Hong Kong

I was totally pumped to go to Hong Kong... clearly it is one of those places that you just have to go to, and everyone always raves about how fabulous of a place it is. When it comes to the three big cities in China - Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, Beijing is the biggest but has less people, Hong Kong is the smallest, but has the most people, and Shanghai is somewhere in the middle... a lot of people and a lot of space! In fact, Hong Kong is supposed to be the most densely populated places in the world (people per volume).

Anyway, we have been planning our weekend get away to HK for about a month or so now... I decided a while back that I wanted to go for my birthday, and my friends decided that they were going to come for a birthday kind of trip - since all of our birthdays fall in February and March. Anyways, six girls packed up and headed down for the weekend - after our two guy friends backed out last minute.

my ladies... Nadya, Amy, Dawn, me, Christina and Anna

We arrived late and went straight to our hotel in Central on Hong Kong main island. Although the hotel was in a pretty great location, the people were pretty much ass holes and the room was pretty shitty for the amount of money that we were paying. Hong Kong is relatively expensive for everything. We only paid about $200.00 USD for round trip flight, but our hotel room was about $500.00 USD for two nights (luckily split between four girls) and that was the cheapest hotel in the area without staying in a hostel (of course, I would have been happy with a hostel, but not all the girls traveling were quiet as adventurous). Somehow, there was a mistake with our booking, and we ended up with a room that only had sleeping for three instead of four plus a miniature rock-hard couch! Anna and I were the only ones who would not have bitched and complained the entire trip about having to sleep on the floor with the couch cushions, so naturally, Anna and I were the ones that suffered (better than listening to the others bitch the whole trip).

Let me begin by telling you how much I adored Hong Kong! It was lovely! If Shanghai is the New York City of China, then HK is the San Francisco. Well for starters, HK is a pretty tiny place made up of several islands... some connected to the mainland China, and then some small and large islands. We stayed on mainland Hong Kong (which is different then mainland China HK - I know it sounds confusing). Anyway, HK seems to have the best of all worlds... it is Chinese, but governed by the English. It is a huge city, but has islands, beaches and mountains everywhere! Just about everyone speaks English, but the people tend to be more pretentious. Since it is so densely populate, everything is up! Apartments, restaurants, hotels, malls... everything built on top of one another at least 50 stories into the air, rows upon rows, upon rows. It is really like nothing I have ever seen before. Additionally, everything is built into the mountains so the narrow streets and alleys going up and down hills and in and out of the mountains. To get anywhere, we had to walk up and down several different hills. Some of the walking streets even have escalators for going up and down the sidewalks. The city was unique in the fact that is had a clear equal influence of Chinese and Western.

 just walking around the streets

 up hill

So what did we do while we were at one of the most fabulous and diverse cities in the world? We drank. Yup, I spent a couple thousand RMB to travel all the way down to HK only to enjoy their finest bars. We began our first (and only) day, at a brunch spot with bottomless mimosas and bloody Mary's for only 80 HK dollars at 11:00 am. By 3:00 pm, we had reached our max on "bottomless" and we stumbled out of that bar and found our way to a French bar down the street, where the adorable French owners gave us a couple rounds of free shots, a cheese platter and several drinks. Next, Christina, Amy and I got some dinner at an Italian place around the corner that gave Christina and I both food poisoning, and we both ended up sick and back at the hotel for a nap around 7:00. By 9:00 pm, we were back at it again... We went to some snobby bar and had a drink, then a final bar for some beers where we met the Swedish corporate gang for Ikea. By midnight, I was done and Christina and I headed back to the hotel feeling pretty shitty after the food poisoning, but everyone else stayed out much later. The next morning, Amy and Anna woke up still feeling drunk, and we had just enough time to grab a coffee and a quick breakfast before heading back to the airport.

Don't get me wrong, I had a good time! I hadn't expected it to be very different because of the group that I was traveling with, however, I am disappointed that we did nothing by drink... literally. We did a little walking around but not much. We didn't see the skyline, we didn't go to the peak, nor did we see any of the beaches. I would have loved to do some hiking and exploration while I was there. To be honest, if I wanted to spend the weekend completely drunk, I would have saved my money and done that in Shanghai.

I will be returning to Hong Kong soon to explore more :)

Happy Quarter of a Decade

So there you have it... the whole first quarter of my life complete! I must say that I am feeling pretty good about being 25! To be honest, I was kind of dreading it because I had heard horror stories about the decline of life after turning 25, but I couldn't agree less. It may have something to do with the fact that I am by far the youngest person of all my friends (the majority of them are in their thirties) so turning 25 seems trivial when my best friends are pushing mid life crisis. Secondly, I believe that the age is lesser the issue than frame of mind. As with anything, it is what you make of it....

I look around at my life... I am living in Shanghai, China. I have a degree and job (that is more than many can say). Sure, I am single, but I am living the dream... and I am only 25! My life has just begun and I anticipate growing older and learning more in the next quarter of my life!

So how did I celebrate this momentous birthday? SICK WITH THE FLU! Would you believe that this is the second year in a row that I have had the flu on my birthday weekend? Christina thinks that I have birthday anxiety and that the sickness is in my head.... but my stomach doesn't agree with that statement. I woke up feeling horribly nauseous on Saturday. My roommate made me breakfast in bed (because she is the bomb!) and I thought some food would help. Feeling a little better, I prepared for the rest of the day that my girl friends had secretly planned out for me! All of our birthdays are really close together - in February and March - so we decided that for each birthday, we were going to blind fold the birthday girl and plan a big surprise. For Anna's birthday, we kidnapped her from school, blind folded her, put her in a taxi and took her to this amazing sushi restaurant for dinner. Then we went to the most amazing cafe for dessert! We were not able to plan anything else for her because we all went to Suzhou for the rest of her birthday weekend.

For me, my friends kidnapped me from Costa Coffee, blind folded me and through me in a taxi. The idea of being blind folded was rather funny when it was someone else, but I did not love it, and the combination of an upset stomach, a blind fold and a Shanghai taxi ride proved to be a deadly combination. I had to take the blind fold off after a couple minutes because I was pretty sure if I left it on, I was going to throw up all over the taxi and my dear friends! So they ended up taking me to a place called Munchies! It is a small whole in the wall place with sandwiches, hotdogs, chills and bomb milkshakes and desserts and I love it! I had not eaten there in a while, and the girls had never eaten there, so it was pretty perfect. Well, it would have been perfect if I would have been able to actually enjoy food. I was feeling so sick that I couldn't even eat the bread off the sandwich that I ordered... and forget about the peanut butter chocolate milkshake that I was dreaming of. The girls enjoyed it and I took my sandwich to go.

The girls had other things planned for my day as well, foot massage at my favorite place, followed by a hair wash and style at the salon down the street. Then a small gathering back at the apartment to pregame before the party bus that night. We did not make it to the foot massage or the hair salon because we figured it would be best if I went home and slept a little bit more so that I could feel better for the party bus.

I tried just about everything under the sun to calm my stomach, but 30 minutes before everyone was set to arrive at our apartment, I was still vomiting, shaking and weak, and doubting attending my own birthday party.  I put on my best happy face (and a lot of extra make up) and tried to enjoy the night. While everyone was hanging out snacking on the fabulous food and doing shots Amy made, I was doing my own shots of pickle juice and chocking down crackers. Pickle juice may sound strange, but I swear it helps calm my stomach... and I just really like pickle juice.

Next, we headed out to the party bus. I knew that it was going to be dangerous because the nausea got worse every time I got into a moving vehicle... how the heck was I going to have a good time on a bus? But I told myself that I would try to stick it out as long as I didn't vomit again. I had as much fun as I could. I sipped on some sprite (claiming it to be an alcoholic drink) and declined all shots that were bought for me. I even danced a bit, and mingled with people pushing everything else into the back of my mind.

(pictures taken from Drunken Dragon Pubcrawl Shanghai)

I was shocked, but I made it to two bars - Brix then Geisha. When I walked into Geisha, I knew it was going to be the end of my night... it was crowded, hot and smokey, and only made me feel worse. I stuck it out for a while but eventually had to leave the club to get fresh air. I was ready to jump in a taxi home, but my friends were not ready to let me call it a night yet, so they carried me back on to the bus for one more bar. I rode the bus to that bar, then walked straight off the bus and into a taxi headed home. There was no way that I was going into another bar. Let's be frank... it is impressive that I made it out at all feeling as crappy as I did, and I managed to make it til midnight without vomiting.

Thank goodness I am really going to be celebrating my birthday in Hong Kong next weekend, so I don't really feel too bad about missing out on my actually birthday night! Me, Amy, Anna, Christina, Dawn, Nadya, James and Paul are a deadly combination, but I cannot even begin to image the fun that we are going to have! Look out HK... we are about to tear this city up!

Return to Suzhou

Well if you recall, I traveled to Suzhou last year for a long weekend during Dragon Boat Festival... and if you also recall, it was my least favorite destination of all the places I have traveled thus far. I really don't know why I disliked it so much... the rain, my company, the events of the weekend, or the city itself... but I never actually thought I would return.

Well Saturday was Anna's birthday (the big 3-0) and she wanted to go to Suzhou for the weekend. Her brother, Brian and his wife, Donna (living in Suzhou) are loaded and got a couple rooms are the Marriott for the weekend for her, and she invited us to go along with her (basically for free). Truth be told, I was really not looking forward to visiting Suzhou, but I figured that I couldn't go wrong spending the weekend with great people, so I packed a bag and jumped on a first class high speed train heading west with Anna, Brian, Donna, Amy, Christina and Willy (a friend of Brian's).

(this is how class girls ride in first class on the fast train)

(our suit at the Marriott)

I will say that the Marriott was probably one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in. Our 37th floor suit had a beautiful view of the city (well it would have been beautiful if there would have been a clear day), a shower with a glass wall, a jacuzzi bath tub and a fully stocked mini bar. Everyone was so nice and friendly, and since it is more of a business hotel, we were the youngest people, not to mention the only foreigners. After getting settled in, we headed to a bar in the lobby of the hotel. It was completely empty and drinks were crazy expensive... by Brian insisted on buying rounds after rounds of martinis and snacks for everyone. Then at midnight, got several rounds of shots while the live bar sang Happy Birthday for Anna! Suzhou was off to a great start!

The next morning, we got up and had an amazing buffet breakfast/brunch at the hotel, again that Brian insisted on paying for. It was nice of him to buy drinks, but at this point, I was feeling bad that he was picking up the tab for 6 people, and I was fighting to give him money. At the same time, they really are loaded so it is like buying 6 dollar menu cheese burgers. Anyway, that afternoon, Anna wanted to explore. Suzhou is known for the canal streets and water towns. To be honest, the water towns are pretty neat and everything... but they are all the same. Once you see one, you have seen them all, and I used to live in a water town when I lived in Qibao. Again, I didn't say much, but went along with what Anna wanted to do.

We walked around the city center, saw some old Chinese architecture, then wondered to the canal streets. Eventually, we ended up at a small bar off one of the canals, sat and had a couple beers (that I paid for before Brian could). That was probably the best part of the trip! We were laughing so much that we were crying, as we were racing to chug 40s of Tsing Tao. We left at 3:00pm drunk and sore for laughing! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at an Alldays (7eleven) and bought them out of beers - 13 40oz Suntorys and Tsing Taos all for 48 yuan - the amount of one pint of beer at the hotel (score!). That evening, we went back to the hotel where we took advantage of the spa, and let me tell you that it was amazing! We sat in the steam room, the sauna, then swam in the pool and sat in the hot tub. We had the place to ourselves for the majority of the time, so we enjoyed it! That night, we returned to the lobby bar of the hotel, where Brian supplied us with three bottles of vodka and a bunch of sprite and tonic. We ordered a couple pizzas and hung out listening to a live singer.

(some of the water town and canals)

I will admit that I am still not impressed with Suzhou. The history of the city is interesting, the architecture is cool (but not unlike anything you can see in any other Chinese city), but nothing about the city stands out! However, I did have a wonderful time being spoiled at the Marriott and hanging out with wonderful people. Anna really enjoyed her 30th birthday and I am glad  that we got to spend it with her!

Looking forward to celebrating my birthday next weekend... 25 (26 in Chinese years)! Sure hope that it is better than last year when I spent the weekend vomiting with the flu. Next weekend, my roommates say that they have a plan for me during the day - little scared, but excited at the same time - then we are going on a party bus with my Drunken Dragon crew... really excited! Then HONG KONG in two weeks for birthday celebration part II :)