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by Kimberly Michele
Here i am on the beautiful beaches of Thailand and I have no idea why my writing is italized. if you are seeing this slanted, no it is not because you or i have had one too many Mai Tai's or because i have been washed away by a giant crystal-clear wave, it is because of a boring old technical glitch in this computer. nothing special or fancy, just a weird Thai computer. who knows.
anyways, last i blogged, i was about to enjoy my final night in Shanghai. and enjoy I did-actual spinach lasagna, pumpkin soup and real red wine! yum! we had drinks with some friends before they headed back to Beijing and then had our delicious dinner. following dinner, we decided to visit the spa for a Chinese reflexology foot massage! it was great! Katie and I got them together while Topher opted for a full body massage. It was great! I learned hot, cold and pain in Chinese! could come in helpful one day, although I am not sure i remember.
The next day we headed down to Hong Kong. Upon arrival, i was so surprised to see that it actually looked like New York. like completely. it was rainy and gloomy but pretty warm and humid (ahhh...the pretty hair is back!). anyways it was nice to know that i would get a much welcomed break from all the terrifying Chinese food of the past few weeks. We opted for an Indian buffet for dinner that night and just hung around. I was happy to be back in familiar food territory! Hong Kong really is an international city which offers just about everything! (we even spotted an Outback right above a TGI Fridays).
We were staying on Kowloon Island (just a hop, skip and a jump away from Hong Kong) and spent the next day exploring Hong Kong. We went up to the peak on a tram ride to take in the amazing views and then took a twisty, turny bus down to Stanley where we quickly walked through the market and had lunch. We then headed back to our island by ferry to meet up with some cousins of Katie and Topher. They took us for Easter Sunday dinner to a Japanese restaurant that was great! They were so concerned with making sure they got enough vegetarian food for me that i had to roll myself out of the restaurant when we were done!! it was a lot of fun spending time with them...even though we had desert that looked like googly eyeballs.
The next day we headed to Zhong Shan to check out Katie and Topher's family village. it was crazy! We had a bunch of contacts and ended up arranging things through the offical overseas office. we were picked up at our hotel and whisked away immediately to the mayor's office to pick him up! we had our own paparazzi and everything! no joke! it was really cool to see a really old village and how well it was maintained over all these years. there was even a picture of their family up on the walls (although a bit dated...time for a new pic Chans!) they were like celebraties eventhough noone in their family had been back to the village in 20 years! we also were brought to a park, monument and the cemetary where some distant family (their grandfather's great-greandfather) had been buried! afterwards they brought us to dinner in the largest restaurant i've ever seen. i knew it was going to be scary when earlier the guide guy was asking if we have eaten dog or rat before. (katie's later response....if given a dog to eat, i'd ask for a rat! ahhh!!) the place was nice and we had a huge table in our own private room. i was the bravest vegetarian ever. they were sure to order tofu for me-but it had meat bits on it. i picked them off and ate the tainted tofu....yucko! it was so scary! who knows what else scary i ate but the whole thing was terrifying. the only thing i wasn't afraid of was the beer. i survived and noone was served dog or rat (that we knew about). they did eat pigeon and chicken feet though.
that night we wondered around the town which was really nice with a great walking street full of shops. the next morning we were taken to breakfast by another one of their contacts (the son of a friend of the brother of the babysitter or something) which was again scary and then brought around the town some more. it was very nice, but had to end in another scary lunch. seriously everyone just wanted to feed us awful things (good for them...not so good for veggie girl). i survived and that is what matters. we headed back by boat to hong kong and had a huge Italian dinner (pizza, eggplant, bread, wine!)
The next morning we went to the airport and then found a Megan at the gate. she wasn't looking so good after having had a 14 hour flight with a puking girl next to her. yuck. poor her-but i was super happy to see that she had a bag of baby carrots and cookies! i ate up those carrots so fast! our flight was short and pretty uneventful and we were happy to arrive in Phuket! We made a quick stop at the dive shop to get fitted for stuff (them...not me...i'm just a snorkler!) and then headed to our hotel. we had dinner on the beach last night after bumming around the pool a bit. today was a full on beach day (starting at 6:30am-thanks jet-lagged Megan)! I am blaming it on the jet-lag, but really-that's just Megan, although she has concluded that she probably can't actually be on the amazing race because she doesn't do so well with long flights. sorry those dreams are crushed. I was very happy to be able to order a salad for lunch today but the dressing was horrible! i couldn't eat it at all but my roll was soon followed up with a yummy ice cream cone. i am thinking of sticking with plain salads, french fries, pizza and fruit for the rest of my adventures.
unfortunatley i am too lazy right now to upload pics. maybe later. tomorrow we are going on an overnight boat adventure (diving for the rest of them, floating for me) and then will be doing some elephant trekking and stuff later on. fun fun fun! alright, wish me luck that i don't get eaten by a shark (i don't want anyone to have to make that phonecall!).
Here i am on the beautiful beaches of Thailand and I have no idea why my writing is italized. if you are seeing this slanted, no it is not because you or i have had one too many Mai Tai's or because i have been washed away by a giant crystal-clear wave, it is because of a boring old technical glitch in this computer. nothing special or fancy, just a weird Thai computer. who knows.
anyways, last i blogged, i was about to enjoy my final night in Shanghai. and enjoy I did-actual spinach lasagna, pumpkin soup and real red wine! yum! we had drinks with some friends before they headed back to Beijing and then had our delicious dinner. following dinner, we decided to visit the spa for a Chinese reflexology foot massage! it was great! Katie and I got them together while Topher opted for a full body massage. It was great! I learned hot, cold and pain in Chinese! could come in helpful one day, although I am not sure i remember.
The next day we headed down to Hong Kong. Upon arrival, i was so surprised to see that it actually looked like New York. like completely. it was rainy and gloomy but pretty warm and humid (ahhh...the pretty hair is back!). anyways it was nice to know that i would get a much welcomed break from all the terrifying Chinese food of the past few weeks. We opted for an Indian buffet for dinner that night and just hung around. I was happy to be back in familiar food territory! Hong Kong really is an international city which offers just about everything! (we even spotted an Outback right above a TGI Fridays).
We were staying on Kowloon Island (just a hop, skip and a jump away from Hong Kong) and spent the next day exploring Hong Kong. We went up to the peak on a tram ride to take in the amazing views and then took a twisty, turny bus down to Stanley where we quickly walked through the market and had lunch. We then headed back to our island by ferry to meet up with some cousins of Katie and Topher. They took us for Easter Sunday dinner to a Japanese restaurant that was great! They were so concerned with making sure they got enough vegetarian food for me that i had to roll myself out of the restaurant when we were done!! it was a lot of fun spending time with them...even though we had desert that looked like googly eyeballs.
The next day we headed to Zhong Shan to check out Katie and Topher's family village. it was crazy! We had a bunch of contacts and ended up arranging things through the offical overseas office. we were picked up at our hotel and whisked away immediately to the mayor's office to pick him up! we had our own paparazzi and everything! no joke! it was really cool to see a really old village and how well it was maintained over all these years. there was even a picture of their family up on the walls (although a bit dated...time for a new pic Chans!) they were like celebraties eventhough noone in their family had been back to the village in 20 years! we also were brought to a park, monument and the cemetary where some distant family (their grandfather's great-greandfather) had been buried! afterwards they brought us to dinner in the largest restaurant i've ever seen. i knew it was going to be scary when earlier the guide guy was asking if we have eaten dog or rat before. (katie's later response....if given a dog to eat, i'd ask for a rat! ahhh!!) the place was nice and we had a huge table in our own private room. i was the bravest vegetarian ever. they were sure to order tofu for me-but it had meat bits on it. i picked them off and ate the tainted tofu....yucko! it was so scary! who knows what else scary i ate but the whole thing was terrifying. the only thing i wasn't afraid of was the beer. i survived and noone was served dog or rat (that we knew about). they did eat pigeon and chicken feet though.
that night we wondered around the town which was really nice with a great walking street full of shops. the next morning we were taken to breakfast by another one of their contacts (the son of a friend of the brother of the babysitter or something) which was again scary and then brought around the town some more. it was very nice, but had to end in another scary lunch. seriously everyone just wanted to feed us awful things (good for them...not so good for veggie girl). i survived and that is what matters. we headed back by boat to hong kong and had a huge Italian dinner (pizza, eggplant, bread, wine!)
The next morning we went to the airport and then found a Megan at the gate. she wasn't looking so good after having had a 14 hour flight with a puking girl next to her. yuck. poor her-but i was super happy to see that she had a bag of baby carrots and cookies! i ate up those carrots so fast! our flight was short and pretty uneventful and we were happy to arrive in Phuket! We made a quick stop at the dive shop to get fitted for stuff (them...not me...i'm just a snorkler!) and then headed to our hotel. we had dinner on the beach last night after bumming around the pool a bit. today was a full on beach day (starting at 6:30am-thanks jet-lagged Megan)! I am blaming it on the jet-lag, but really-that's just Megan, although she has concluded that she probably can't actually be on the amazing race because she doesn't do so well with long flights. sorry those dreams are crushed. I was very happy to be able to order a salad for lunch today but the dressing was horrible! i couldn't eat it at all but my roll was soon followed up with a yummy ice cream cone. i am thinking of sticking with plain salads, french fries, pizza and fruit for the rest of my adventures.
unfortunatley i am too lazy right now to upload pics. maybe later. tomorrow we are going on an overnight boat adventure (diving for the rest of them, floating for me) and then will be doing some elephant trekking and stuff later on. fun fun fun! alright, wish me luck that i don't get eaten by a shark (i don't want anyone to have to make that phonecall!).
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