Ganbei to Shanghai!

        I met up with the ship in Shanghai via an overnight sleeper train from Beijing. Another bed of rocks if you ask me. I mind as well have been sleeping on ancient stone like the night before. It was still a cool experience. It was four people to a private cabin with two bunks. It was clean. There was a built-in t.v. at the foot of every bed. I really shouldn’t complain. When we got to Shanghai, we were met by a China Guide bus that brought us to our ship. It literally took a full hour for us all to get our bags searched, have our passports checked, and swipe into the ship. Then another two hours for them to make copies of our passports for immigration. I did not get off the ship until 2pm that day. However as fate would have it, as I was getting ready to head off into Shanghai on my own, I ran into my roommate and another friend. My roommate happens to speak fluent Chinese. Definitely someone to hang around when in China. She took care of communicating with taxi drivers and getting directions. She also knew of a great and famous dumpling restaurant for dinner AND a rooftop bar with one of the best views of the city. I would say the day was a success.
        My second and final day I did go off on my own. I’ve really become a fan of independent travel. I’ve found large groups can often be a hindrance. This solo day ended up being exactly what I had hoped for when I tried the solo thing in Singapore for the first time. I got off the ship with a plan and a map of Shanghai to make that plan possible. I started with breakfast and free wifi at a coffee shop on the Bund, which is a long waterfront stretch with some beautiful old, European architecture. Then I walked down the major shopping street of Nanjing Rd, where according to my map I would find the Shanghai Art Museum at the other end. About 10 minutes from the museum I was stopped by a group of three Chinese people about the same age as me. They were really excited to practice their English. We talked for a while and they invited me to the tea ceremony they were heading to. I absolutely love spontaneous decisions and this was definitely one of them. The Shanghai Art Museum could wait. We went to this tiny tea shop where we were led into a tiny room set for four tea tasters. Our tea master (?) didn’t speak any English so my new friends had to translate everything. I learned about the different teas and how some help digestion, some reduce wrinkles, some are great for your heart. I learned the traditional way to drink the tea and hold the tea cup. You grasp the cup with your thumb, pointer, and middle finger and the other two fingers stay tucked if you’re a girl and point out if you’re a boy. Before you begin the tea tasting you are supposed to swirl the tea three times, then smell it, then finish the cup in three sips, then breathe in to fully experience the flavor. I learned how to toast in Chinese (ganbei = cheers). I tasted about 6 different teas and ended up buying two to bring home. I don’t even like tea but this stuff was really good. My new friends walked me to the Shanghai Art Museum and we said our goodbyes after we exchanged email addresses. What a great first couple hours of the day!
        As I was wandering around the exhibits of the art museum, I was approached yet again by a local. His name was Johnson and we ended up talking and walking through the rest of the museum together. He works in Shanghai and was in the area of the museum for a few meetings so he’d thought he would take a look now that admission is free. He was such great company. The funniest part was when we got to this exhibit titled “Encounter.” He points to the name and says, “Like us!” Then we both proceed to read the description (I took a picture of it so here is the exact wording): “There are many encounters in life, invisible or visible. But only love could last and continue such encounter…” It was so cute. He turned soooo red. After we had walked around the Encounter exhibit and we were passing by the description again, he insisted that we get a picture together in front of it.
        I almost couldn’t believe how lucky I was to keep meeting so many great people. This is exactly what I want to happen when I go off on my own in these places. I never intend to actually spend the day all by myself. If I was in a large group of people, this never would have happened. You are much more approachable when you’re on your own. My roommate who inspired the first solo expedition in Singapore was so proud of me. These are the experiences that happen to her every time. I have three days in Taiwan next. I’m planning on spending one of them on my own. I hope it can stack up to this amazing day.

Beijing.

       I flew from Hong Kong to Beijing and was greeted by our tour guide, Tommy, waving his blue China Guide flag. Brace yourself. What I am about to share with you is one of the most amazing experiences of the trip and possibly of my life. Every Fall and Spring semester of SAS, students sign up for the China Guide tour. It’s an extremely popular independent tour, not affiliated with SAS. The tour I signed up for along with about 150 other students involved a day in Beijing seeing the sights of Tiananman Square and the Forbidden city, shopping at the silk and pearl markets, sitting down to a traditional peking duck lunch (sooo delicious!), watching an insane acrobat show of unbelievable contortions, motorcycle cages and hoop diving aaaannnnndddd drumroll please……… SLEEPING ON THE FREAKING GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!! Yep I did it and it was so utterly unreal. There I was in subzero degree Celsius temperatures layered up in the North Face jacket I bought in Vietnam, a panda bear hat, some gloves I somehow managed to bargain down to $3 and zipped into a sleeping bag staring up at the Big Dipper and the frequent shooting stars. I actually couldn’t believe I was doing what I was doing. I’ve never been colder in my life and my exposed face was frozen into a permanent expression by morning but it was worth every last numb toe and finger. We woke up bright and early to the sun rising over the wall. We had just spent the night on the Great Wall but we hadn’t gotten to see the beast until right then. It stretched for miles in both directions, up and over hills, towers cresting every peak. It was insane. We had a two and half hour hike ahead of us. Let me tell you it was quite the hike. Some of those inclines were near vertical and the stones to get up them were crumbling and loose. The downhill stretches were definitely the most frightening.
        Along the way, I met a woman named Shushi from Mongolia. Of course she was there to try and sell us the typical touristy post-cards and t-shirts. I usually don’t pay much mind to the hockers but she was so sweet and genuine. I feel badly even calling her a hocker. A two-hour hike to the Great Wall from her small village in Mongolia, then hours of hiking on the treacherous Great Wall EVERY SINGLE DAY to fund her two children’s education. My heart melted and I let her show me her postcards, t-shirts and hand-painted fans and then even pinky-promised her that when we made it to our buses, I would spend 50 Yuen on something. Her English was broken and conversation was a little challenging but I hiked alongside her for a little over an hour and a half. She told me as much as she could about her children and her small village, some facts about the wall, how many steps it was to the next tower, where the best views are. She was great company and I had no problem following through on my promise. I bought the fold-up hand-painted fan she had fanned me with at one point on the hike when the last 150-step incline had practically did me in. I wish there was a way to keep in touch with her but she doesn’t have phone or internet access.
        It was an amazing experience and honestly the best one thus far on the trip. I still can’t believe it was real. Beijing was good to me.

Not Long in Hong Kong

        First of our four stops in China was Hong Kong. We pulled up to the harbour and because none of us have done enough shopping already, we had to walk through a mall to touch Hong Kong street. I was a little under the weather for this port, battling one of the worst colds of my life. The weather was rather wet and gray the entire time we were in Hong Kong. I’m not sure if it’s always like that or if we just caught it at a bad time. The first day we took the Ngong Ping glass-bottomed cable car up to the top of a mountain to see the big Buddha statue. And then later that evening we went up to another high-altitude vantage point called the Peak, where you can supposedly watch the nightly Hong Kong light show. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the city lights dance from building to building due to Earth Hour but the view was pretty spectacular. We met a 23-year old Israeli backpacker named Bar at the foot of the Peak. We ended up doing the Peak with him and eating dinner together at a Mexican restaurant called Tequila Jacks where he told us all about his time serving in the Israeli army as well as his travels through New Zealand not too long ago. It’s always fun when you run into other travelers. They are usually more experienced than us SAS’ers at traveling the world and have a lot of amazing stories to share. Bar sold me on New Zealand. I think that will be my next travel spot.
        The second day I’m a little embarrassed and ashamed about. I went to Disneyland. I’m traveling to exotic places like Hong Kong and I choose to visit something that we have in America. Can you tell I have some regrets? I just wasn’t strong enough to resist the lure of Mickey Mouse and was naïve enough to believe a day in Disney, with all the sentimental family moments and memories I have of the place, would make me feel at home and strangely connected to the ones I love. Despite the terrible rainy weather and it already being noon by the time I left for the park, I bought a ticket hopped on the special Disneyland Hong Kong metro line (This train was pretty cool looking. The windows were Mickey Mouse shaped as well as the hoops you grab onto when there are no seats). When I arrived at the park all of my old childhood excitement came rushing back. I’m going to Disneyland! After about a half hour in the park, I knew I had made a mistake. Instead of serving as a remedy for homesickness, it only made me feel more disconnected from my family. The park wasn’t even that spectacular. It’s only five years old so it’s still a work in progress. I rode Space Mountain about 6 or 7 times. It was the only roller coaster in the whole park and saw a few shows. The park was literally a miniature Magic Kingdom. So Disneyland was a major misjudgement on my part. Live and learn I guess.
         The ship pulled away that evening without me on it. I had a flight the next morning from Hong Kong to Beijing so I had to stick around for the night. A few of my friends had gone hotel hunting that day. They found a reasonably priced hotel over in the Soho District. The only problem was they couldn’t book me the room and I wasn’t expecting to arrive at the hotel around 6pm. When I did arrive, I found out that it was fully booked for the night. I had a mini panic attack until my friend whom I was planning on rooming with found a hotel with vacancy a few blocks over. It was such a sweet hotel too, very European, modern, and compact. Everything worked out wonderfully. I caught the metro to the airport in the morning and was on a flight to Beijing shortly thereafter.
         Hong Kong was exciting but I wasn’t blown away by it like I have been at the other ports. I blame it on the lack of time. We only had two days. Not nearly enough time to really dive in and see what Hong Kong is all about. Maybe I’ll be back one day and can do it right. 

Back in 'Nam...

        Breaking news: Vietnam just soared to the top of my list of favorite places. It was completely unexpected. I’ll be honest. Looking at the itinerary when I signed up for SAS, I was pretty indifferent about Vietnam. I had no idea how I would spend my time. Plain and simple, I just didn’t know anything about Vietnam beyond its war history.
        I was lucky enough to have a local show me around Ho Chi Minh City on our first day in Vietnam. She was the niece of someone my mom works with. Her name is Halong and she was a godsend. Ho Chi Minh is a big city. Think NYC but replace the cars with millions of motorcycles that don’t obey traffic laws. One of the scariest/most exciting things to do is cross those streets with cars, motorcycles, and busses showing no signs of slowing down despite the fact that you are standing right in their path. As long as you maintain the same pace and have no “deer in the headlights” moments, traffic flow parts around you like the Red Sea. The second scariest/most exciting thing to do is to ride one of the motorcycles. For a dollar or two the moto will take you wherever you need to go. They give you a helmet, you hop on the back and hug the driver as you dangerously weave through the mass of other weaving motorcycles at high speed and more times than not blow through red lights or ditch the road for the sidewalk.
        It’s a crazy, lively place but it all ceases at 1am. There’s a curfew in Vietnam. Most bars and restaurants are shut down by 12 (except a few which I never figured out why).  But the night hours leading up to 12 am are some of the best. One night, I literally went barhopping from rooftop to rooftop of skyscraper hotels. The city has a great bar/club scene and the locals just love to be out. On our day with Halong, she took us to a night market. Along the way we passed a city green or park of some sort. There was a pavilion at the center where couples were learning to dance to traditional Vietnamese music. There were people lining the sidewalks selling exotic fruits, DVD’s, clothing, handbags, and other goods. Young couples parked it along the perimeter of the park, perched on their motorcycles, cuddling and observing the madness around them. According to one of our tour guides later in the week, if a guy doesn’t have a motorcycle, he doesn’t have a girlfriend. It’s imperative to the relationship for the sole reason of these night outings to the center of town.
        One of the best parts about having a local as your guide was having the chance to try real authentic Vietnamese food at non-touristy restaurants. For lunch we had Pho, some egg soup and apricot milkshakes, during which I attempted to eat my entire bowl of Pho with chopsticks. It took a while. For dinner we had Vietnamese pancakes full of mushrooms, shrimp, sprouts and other things I always just assumed I didn’t like. Our side dish was an order of snails. Despite every single thing Halong ordered being things I didn’t like, I ended up enjoying all of it, the only exception being the snails. I don’t think I will ever be eating those again. She also brought us to the coffee shop she works at, Highland’s, for a famous, iced Vietnamese traditional coffee. Best thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s so strong that they don’t give you a lot in a cup. The whole coffee-drinking experience is sadly over in a few sips.
Halong also took us to several marketplaces where I bought all of the seasons of How I Met Your Mother for $9 and a North Face jacket for $30. The prices were insanely cheap at least after you bargained them down. Speaking of insanely cheap, Vietnam is THE place for a spa day. You could just walk into any of the 5 star hotels that occur every other storefront, locate their spa and book a facial, mani/pedi, and massage for a grand total of probably around $30. You could do that and benefit from both the quality of the spa and the inexpensive services IF you are smart enough to book ahead of time. I wasn’t. Smart me thought I could just walk into the spa at my hotel at Nha Trang on the last morning we were there to get a massage, mani and pedi. Nope fully booked. Duh. I was NOT leaving Vietnam without a cheap massage. My first professional massage in my life. Eyeing me from across the street was a flashing sign saying simply “Massage.” Okay that’ll do it. My friend, being just as desperate as I, walked in, checked prices, saw $6 for a Swedish full body massage, and within 5 minutes we were face down on tables. It was definitely no hotel spa. No soothing music. The pillow I was supposed to lay my face down on looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while. I could hear everything going on in the lobby throughout the massage. But it was $6. What did I expect? I walked away covered in oil and my next shower was not going to be until much later that night when we were back at the ship in Ho Chi Minh City. Next time I visit Vietnam I will definitely plan ahead and make a reservation. I got my mani/pedi at another small place down the street from “Massage.” I was their only customer at the time and neither of the girls working there spoke any English. I pointed to my hands and my feet and they got the idea. It was kind of awkward. I had one girl painting my toenails and one painting my fingernails. Because neither of us could communicate with each other, we would just smile and then they would talk in rapid Vietnamese, giggle and talk some more. It sure seemed like they were talking about me, probably about the horrendous shape of my feet and fingernails. And there I am smiling at them like a fool.
Yeah so Nha Trang. Confused when I mentioned that above? Nha Trang is the beach town I visited for the middle three days of our time in Vietnam. I had signed up for the trip before I boarded the ship because I had no idea how to spend five days in Vietnam. I am soooo glad I did because Nha Trang was amazing. It was a 45-minute flight away and so very different from the bustling city of Ho Chi Minh. It was the perfect place to just chill out, soak up some sun, shop and eat of course and visit a few Buddhist temples and big fat and happy Buddha statues. It’s basically a beach town but there are gorgeous mountains along the coast. When our flight landed at around 6am, the sun was just rising and the drive from the airport to our hotel was unreal. It was so beautiful it could have been fake. I was probably just dreaming it. The mountains were just a silhouette stretching out into the ocean that was speckled with the fishing boats that were just returning from a hopefully successful night of fishing. The rising sun made the whole scene sort of take on this yellowish-gold hue. The fog hadn’t yet burned off over the water so everything was slightly hidden, but still visible, behind a golden haze. It was breathtaking.
I ate more seafood than I knew was possible in those three days. Every lunch and dinner we were presented with plates of spring rolls, calamari, mussels, fish, etc. It was all surprisingly delicious. This seafood-hater became a seafood-lover by the end of the trip. I am a picky eater no more. That is one thing I will forever be thankful to Semester at Sea for; expanding my tastebuds.
All in all, after spending some time in Ho Chi Minh City and some time in Nha Trang combined with the stories I heard of other people’s travels to Halong Bay and Hanoi, I am committed to coming back. Every city is so different from the next. The people are so friendly. It is one of the most affordable places on earth. There is delicious food. Tons of things to do. I’ll be back, I promise.