Cambodia!

6:52 PM Christina
 At Angkor Wat, absolutely gorgeous place... 95 degrees plus humidity though!!!!
National Museum of Cambodia
Angkor Wat at Sunrise, beautiful

Trevor attempting to navigate the city streets of Phom Penh
Hustle and Bustle of Phnom Penh

Ancient architecture


 Suns out guns out for trev at Angkor Thom

 
Christina at Angkor Wat
 beautiful ancient khmer engravings
 
The sunrise was so spectacular.. notice how you can see the reflection of the clouds in the water here!


 Trev climbing rocks of course
More of Angkor Wat
Just meandering the ancient city temples streets
Christina climbing Angkor Wat
 
A bunch of us from the group
MONKEYS!!!!! yes, they drink water bottles.. we got such a cool video of this!!
 Trev at Angkor Wat
 
At Toprom, the beautiful temples with the trees growing into them!


beautiful sunrise



 
Mekong Delta Sunset Cruise :)

With my monk friends!
do you see the elephants in the stone?

Trev on one of the famous Toprom trees

Christina and the MONKEY!!!

At the Palm Tree Orphanage in Phnom Penh

Playing a circle game with the girls

And playing football with the boys

we all knitted them those scarves :)


more adorable cambodian children

And.. the adorable american children (the girl, lizzie is in love with trevor and refers to him as her boyfriend.. andrew thinks im the "coolest person on the trip" so they stuck to us like glue

Lizzie and Trev haha

Whitney and me in Toprom

The gorgeous pub of our hotel

Angkor Beer too!

male in-n-out/angkor beer model?

At the top of Angkor Wat


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The Red Nation

4:28 AM Trevor
“to have lived a life without travels is to be a tree without spreading your roots”
- Chinese Proverb


Shanghai: Day 1
We weren’t able to get off the boat in shanghai until about 11am (Chinese officials doing customs were anything but Japanese-efficient haha) but once we got off we saw Keith and Cathy waiting for us and gave them big hugs. It immediately felt great to have a little taste of home with us! It was too late to show them around the ship so we decided we would wait until Hong Kong to show them our home :) we took off from there to K+C’s hotel, a gorgeous hyatt on the top of the Jin Mao tower, all of which was designed by Keith’s S.O.M office. The whole tower is beautiful, and the hotel on the top 55-88th floors of the tower, is amazing with spectacular views of Shanghai.
Shanghai is immediately very very different from Japan.. It spans so, so far with so many skyscrapers, with a section of the Yangtze River called the WangPu snaking through it beautifully. The city holds more than 20 million people (FYI- Los Angeles’s entire metropolitan area has only about 4 million!) There is a huge portion of shanghai that was literally farmland 15 years ago, Keith told us all about how crazy it is how much this city has grown, and it truly is a wonder today. It is very crowded and the culture is so different from that of japan. Whereas in Japan people are very work-a-holic and efficient and polite, china is chaos! People are going every direction and crowding into everywhere (the chaos is only amplified when these crazy drivers get behind a wheel!) To make our Chinese experience even better, we were in the country for Chinese New Year!!! Cathy arranged for a great tourguide named Eva to take us around to see four main sites of Shanghai. A famous Buddhist temple famed for its big jade Buddha made out of a single piece of jade, the YuYuan gardens, situated in a giant bazaar, a European Quarter of Shanghai, and then Nanjing Road.
The Buddhist temple was very cool, because it was Chinese new years, tons of Chinese were there burning incense and doing a little ritual prayer for their new years wishes, we wandered around the beautiful temple and ended up in a room upstairs where we got to have a tea tasting.. The lady sat us down and began to pour fresh tea leaves, making the best tea! We each had these little Chinese porcelain tea cups and we were taught how to drink the tea in accordance with Chinese tradition.. each tea we sampled had a different health benefit.. such as being good for your metabolism, joints, even one to prevent cancer! They were all soooo good and so naturally sweet.. apparently tea bags are a westernized thing that chinese people laugh at, they all, like our tourguide, carry around their tea with the fresh tea leaves right in the water! So we bought some tea to bring home so hopefully we’ll be all healthy like the Chinese with our fresh tea!
We then got driven to the Yuyuan Gardens.. When we got there it was hard to see more than just a HUGE crowd of people. Literally tons of people were bumping shoulder to shoulder… there were shops and street stands around… as well as ‘the best dumpling place in town’ which had a line probably comparable to if zachary’s pizza had a free pizza night in berkeley..we did not want to wait in that line although the dumplings did look very good!
We finally made it through all the crowds (although that was a fun adventure in its own) and to the Yuyuan gardens… the gardens (which are actually more of a gorgeous house with a bunch of beautiful rock gardens and water and such around it) are located in the center of the old city and were built in 1559 by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the ming dynasty during his father's old age.. its 5 acres and stunning Japanese architecture and rockery. The garden areas are separated by "dragon walls" which each terminate in a beautiful, intricate dragon's head. What’s interesting that we learned is that no one except the emperor is allowed to have a dragon as a part of their home, as the dragon is a symbol of the emperor.. however, because these intricate dragons spanning the walls of the garden have only 3 toes, whereas a true dragon would have 5, they were allowed and the creator wasn’t murdered. Crazy! Our other favorite symbolism is the lotus flower, which is a main symbol of many Buddhists and is reflected in both gardens and in stones and architecture throughout China.. because a lotus grows out of the mud, yet comes out clean and beautiful, it’s a Chinese symbol for purity. There are so many little meanings and Feng Shui things that we learned about with our guide and they are all so interesting!
Anyways, after walking through the beautiful gardens, we left for the European Quarter of shanghai… a beautiful sector with a bunch of continental eateries (we stopped and got a baguette at the French boulangerie)! Then we headed off to Nanjing Road, a main stretch of Shanghai full of huge shopping malls and huge crowds!
After that full day of sightseeing, we relaxed and had drinks at the 54th level of the Jin Mao tower/Grand Hyatt.. we listened to jazz and relaxed.. then we left to go meet Keith’s colleague and his 8 and half months pregnant wife for a Chinese meal! She ordered a bunch of dishes to share family style (we’ve learned ordering wayyyy more than you want to eat is customary in china… they love variety and getting tons of dishes, according to keith they think Americans eat “like pigs” because we eat only off of one plate and we are always in a rush, whereas their meals are about 50 courses!!! We decided sometime over dinner that we wanted Chinese names, so I became Jinny Mao (after the beautiful jin mao tower), trev was MickeyMao (after mickey mouse), Keith was Tsingtao (after the beer) and Cathy was DimSum. After dinner, trev and I went back to the ship to get some much needed sleep after our busy day and K+C went back to their hotel to do the same…

SHANGHAI: DAY 2
We woke up early and grabbed a taxi from the terminal to go meet Cathy and Keith for a delicious Grand Hyatt breakfast buffet.. Trevor and I felt beyond spoiled.. after our typical ship breakfasts of cereal, powdered eggs and toast… we had a giant buffet of an omelette bar, waffle bar, fresh yogurt, tons of fresh juices, breads, croissants, REAL eggs, thick bacon, sausage, and TONS of fruits!!! All that.. and a view! It was amazing, and so needed.. Trevor and I both probably ate enough for the red army, but it was a welcome American breakfast in our hungry tummies!
After the amazing breakfast, we all had a day of shopping ahead of us! We headed to the huge mall street of Nanjing Road and almost immediately were being led far off course by a man promising “good copies” or great fake purses, watches, and whatever else you can imagine… he led us far, far away (Cathy was getting very nervous, I was getting more and more excited) we went over a bridge to a much different section of town! Not that it was dangerous or anything, as shanghai is a very safe city, just a lot dirtier and poorer than the big shopping mall street… we ended up in this HUGE indoor market full of tons of places to get led to find whatever it was you were looking for.. The first thing we found was a handsome burberry collared shirt for trev, and a bright pink polo sweater for me.. then trev got some tod’s shoes, keith got an Armani wallet, I found a beautiful Carolina blue hermes wallet, etc etc etc… oh and did we get good prices!! Keith and cathy were in awe of my bartering skills (don’t worry dad, I told them I have you and your Mexican bartering skills to thank!) and we got the best prices… I didn’t pay more than I wanted for any one thing, and the line of the day was telling them that we wanted the “Happy new year friends” price! They were happy to be talking to Americans and they were luckily willing to sell to us awesomely cheap :) it was a very fun day of shopping and bargaining and we eventually made our way back to the main drag, looked in a couple shops, got some starbucks (yes, starbucks is STILL all over the place, even in asia) and then walked over to Peoples Square and over to the beautiful Urban Development Museum…. It had a huge (and I mean HUGE) model of the entire city of shanghai and a bunch of cool exhibits about its history.. it was a beautiful museum and very interesting.. Then we headed back to the Jin Mao Tower.. We had a flight to catch at about 8pm so we headed out with our bags packed for our Beijing adventure!!!!
We flew air china to Beijing and we each had our own TV’s which was awesome, of course they served us tea and it was a very nice airline!
When we arrived in Beijing it was late and we were exhausted, it was about 11 and Keith’s other colleague, Francis, met us at the airport along with our driver for the 3 days, whom we nicknamed driver dude when we couldn’t pronounce his Chinese name.. Francis and driver dude were so nice and our tour bus for the 3 days was sitting right in front of the airport--- a brand new Mercedes mini van with only 3000 miles on it and huge windows that you could see everything out of… it was absolutely perfect and we were all so spoiled to have Francis taking us around! Of course, in typical Chinese fashion, Francis wanted to take us out to a huge 50 course Chinese meal right then, but we assured him we wouldn’t make it awake through the first course, and he dropped us off at our hotel to get some rest for our busy three days ahead.. We were welcomed to Beijing by the concierge of our beautiful Ritz Carlton hotel, and I cannot tell you how spoiled Trevor and I felt at this point… Going from buses and the chaos of figuring out train schedules and hostels, budgeting yen for yen trying to get back to the ship before the trains stopped running, etc etc.. here we were in our RITZ in Beijing, with a private driver, a brand new mercedes, and Keith and Cathy to enjoy this vacation with… it was amazing, to say the least. Going to sleep, all I could dream about on the ritzy cloud-of-a-bed was how amazing these next three days would be..


Day 3: BEIJING. Great wall, pearl market.
Waking up and heading down for another awesome breakfast with the Great Wall in our near future was such a good feeling. We had arrived late the night prior into Beijing or Peking (which is the Cantonese pronunciation). After our buffet breakfast we hopped in our van for a 2 hour ride to the Great Wall with Francis and our new friend/tour-guide Tin Tin. We went to the Baddaling section of the Great Wall which is usually the really crowded touristy spot, but it wasn’t that bad because it was New Years. We technically crossed over into Mongolia, seeing as the Wall borders between China and Mongolia, so that’s another country I could add to my list. The wall was huge to keep those rascally Huns out of the “Middle Kingdom”. I deemed myself Genghis Khan and my father Kublai Khan and couldn’t resist yelling “Mongolian attack!!” in a Chinese accent on top of the wall. It was pretty cold so we took the gondola up to the top and were still able to walk a good portion of it. Sidenote: all of the Chinese toddlers had little panda hats and/or Tiger hats for year of the tiger. The wall was so steep in some sections and the altitude was dry and chilly. We took a bunch of pics, one with the Lamorinda Sun, and Christina got stuck taking pictures with thousands of Chinese who admired her blond movie star appearance. It was a great sight to see, the wall twisting along the peaks of the craggly, steep mountains. Next, we ate at a famous Chinese noodle place that was rich in atmosphere (definitely a local joint) and it was quite yummy=>thick noodles with pork scallion sauce was there specialty. Across the street was the Pearl Market, we first went into Fahua- the most famous pearl place with pictures of President/Ambassador’s wives buying the pearls. Christina swooned over the beautiful pearls including a specific gold pearl with triangle diamond necklace. I had no clue that China produces 95% of the world pearl market including saltwater and freshwater ones. Then we went downstairs to actual buyable pearls and C-Vid worked her bartering magic on a nimble-fingered young salesgirl named Linda. We returned to the hotel to use the spa and pool which was heavenly. That night we got ready and headed out to a famous Beijing Roast Duck (Peking Duck) restaurant. I was excited because duck is my favorite meat and my whole life I have wanted to try the famous Peking duck. We got escorted into a personal room that looked fit for an Emperor. We met another colleague from the same company named Miles who spoke no English, and it was cool to see how my dad communicates with him. As tradition goes, we sit in really nice chairs off to the side of the table that is set beautifully while sipping tea before we go and sit to eat. Already my Dad, Francis, and Miles were talking architecture and jobs, by English, translations, Chinese words, pantomiming, and they started communicating with a piece of paper for drawing their designs. We were seated at the luxurious table and sat waiting for what foods we would encounter. The meal encompassed every single part of the duck as well as other dishes. A chef came in with the roasted duck full, cut its neck, and did some beautiful slicing of the duck and then we were served. We had sea cucumber, duck web, duck tongue, duck brain, duck heart, and duck vertebrae. The normal pieces of meat were served lick a duck burger and wrap with cucumber slices and mushu plum sauce. AMAZING meal, everything was so succulent, delicious, and scrumtrelescent. After the meal my Dad was presented a piece of calligraphy that was done by the most famous calligrapher in Beijing from Miles and his company.

BEIJING Day 4: U.S. Embassy and Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square
The next day we headed over to the Embassy District to our lovely U.S. Embassy which is designed by the one and only Keith Boswell (and S.O.M ). We had to have security clearance a month before going there, and all our passports had previously been checked and they had ran background checks on us (intense stuff). We were there early because my dad had agreed to give a lecture about the architecture of their building. So we listened while my dad lectured and gave a talk to all the foreign services and consulate employees. It was good to see American faces and be in a pro-American establishment. We got an in-depth tour of the Embassy, which is something that few people get to do, because of the clearance associated with getting inside. My dad showed us around, with a couple of Embassy workers and Marines letting us into certain parts, and the building was spectacular. It was very good looking, and all the little nuances of high security features that my dad had to design on the building are extremely interesting. Blast windows that can resist bombs, bullet proof layered glass, and infrared resistant exterior were all really cool things. They were very grateful that they had such a beautiful building to work in, since that is really hard to do for a government building.
After that, we headed over the Chinese part of government, the old government, at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. There was a huge picture of Mao Zedong on the entrance to the Forbidden City and was luxurious in its grandeur and interesting with all its little peculiarities. There is a central line that runs through it, and the center of Beijing, that was once only for the Emperor to step on. Also there were many Feng Shui elements apparent, such as a hill in the back to protect from water, and water in the front to protect from fire. Also, there are three steps up to the Emperors throne, first for earth, then for man, then for Heaven and above that was the Emperor. In total there are 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City. It was truly an incredible place to see and walk around with the bright colors of red, gold, blue and dragons and fire all around. That night we took it easy around our hotel, but I have to mention every night people were setting off huge fireworks in the street and they would explode beautifully next to our room window for the New Years celebration.

BEIJING Day 5: Poly Corporation Building, Olympic Square
The last day in Beijing we started off with another tour of a wonderful building designed by my father. It is my favorite of all of his (yes, even more than Disneyland toontown) because it is a tall building with a 24 story smaller building literally hanging in the middle which gives it the appaerance of a Chinese lantern. The corporation that has offices in the building let us look all around and thanked my Dad for coming. Francis and Tin Tin then took us out to the Olympic site where the water cube and birds nest are. Unfortunately, the water cube was closed in preparation for some event coming in the summer, but we went inside the birds nest and it was larger than I could imagine. It was awesome to be inside where Usain Bolt had previously demolished the world record. We walked around the Olympic site and took in the greatness of how well Beijing had done with hosting it. On the way back we stopped by a couple more buildings that my dad had done, which were cool to see, including a building called China World Trade Center. That night we took an early night with some room service, and relaxed soaking up what we had just seen in the beautiful city of Beijing.
It was really awesome to see Beijing, because it was great to see my Dad’s stomping grounds and to have him show us the beautiful results of all his hard work and countless hours away and traveling. He spends a lot of time in China for as long as I can remember, and I couldn’t help being proud of all the buildings he has designed. Shanghai there were a couple and more are being built as we speak, but Beijing seems like it was built up solely by my dad and his company. He would point at all the buildings he had done, dating all the way back to the first time he was in Beijing in 1995 when there were only 2 ring roads(there are now 6) and most of them were dirt roads. It was a great experience, and I was so happy that Semester at Sea took me to China and it gave an excuse for my mom to come, seeing as she has not been to China either! China was a crazy place with a lot of character, they are overly kind and I loved meeting my Dad’s colleagues and others along the way.


Hong Kong: Day 6
We woke up early early early to get to our 8am flight from Beijing to Hong Kong… Francis and driver dude drove us to the airport and we thanked them profusely for everything they had done for us.. I was gonna miss the door to door service, our personal tourguide, those amazing huge meals and our ritz! But, as always, it was on to new things, so we packed up our stuff and got ready for a completely new city!
The Beijing airport is HUGE and sooooo nice, and we were flying Dragon Air to HK… Keith, a dragon air diamond member from all his work trips to china, got us upgraded to business class, and him and cathy to first class.. it was SWEET and we relaxed in our huge lazyboy chairs for the 4 hour flight to Hong Kong.
We arrived in Hong Kong around 11am and took the airport express train straight to K+C’s hotel at the Conrad and then we took the awesome Star Ferry over the harbor to where our ship was docked at Kowloon (the mainland-china-connected part of Hong Kong which is across the harbor from the actual city center of HK). Now we got to show Cathy and Keith all around our ship and tell them all about our secret life at sea! It was fun to show them all around and they were very impressed with how nice our ship is… I love it so I liked telling em all about it :)
After that, we all headed around to explore Kowloon, starting with the very famous, very luxe, very magnificent Peninsula Hotel. It is a beautiful colonial hotel built in the 1920’s and it is gorgeous. Someday I would love to go back and stay there, maybe when I become a 1920’s starlet, as this hotel has that old Hollywood glam feel… we also saw about 4 brides and grooms around this hotel, clearly a popular spot for weddings, and justly so. We continued meandering the streets of Kowloon, which are happening with crowds, markets, and lots of shops (girls you would have loved all the jewelry stores, there are tons and they all have amazing stuff!) Keith told us he remembered years ago coming to a little alley street of awesome bars and restaurants, and sure enough he found his way around the winding streets and brought us there! It was a very cool street and we wandered into a billiards/darts bar where trev and keith sipped on huge hoegaarden brews… we got into a giant darts match, where keith was sadly beaten over and over by Trevor and I and our quarterback/water polo killer throws … he ended up winning one of five matches, so his pride is still somewhat intact :)
After that we got an Italian dinner at one of the patio restaurants and enjoyed pizza and pasta galore. We were so exhausted after dinner and our long day of flying/walking all around Kowloon we went and crashed back at the ship (the view from my window these nights in hong kong was unbelievable—a perfect lit up cityscape it was gorgeous).

Hong Kong: Day 7
We woke up early to get a headstart on what was sure to be a busy day in hong kong (it was Keith and Cathy’s last day so we had to see the Hong Kong island in one day!) Trevor and I went and grabbed breakfast at the Hullett House before going over on the ferry and meeting up with them. The Hullett House is a beautiful mansion that is half hotel/half restaurant.. we got such a yummy breakfast here.. I got a continental breakfast and was brought green loose leaf tea, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, this tart yogurt parfait that was half yogurt half berry smoothie swirled in with it, and all these fresh baked croissants and breads.. and Trevor got a delicious omelette! (thank goodness for westernized breakfasts not soupy meats like in japan!) By the way, one of my favorite things about China/HK is at literally every single restaurant they have this whole spread of fresh squeezed juices available! Its like a huge thing, they love their fresh juices and they are SOOO yummy! We tried kiwi juice, watermelon juice (trevs favorite), mango juice, peach juice (my favorite), and all the oldies but goodies like OJ and grapefruit… they are all so delicious I don’t know why the US hasn’t caught on to this trend! Anyways, we headed over to the Hong Kong city center and Keith gave us the plan for the day. He basically showed us the city map that we were going to conquer, and we started walking. First we went through the beautiful Hong Kong gardens which housed a huge aviary with tons of beautiful tropical birds and such, then we saw a tai chi demonstration going on which was very cool, then we kept walking, snaking through all sorts of Hong Kong streets. We walked through the main center of Hong Kong, and made our way to the entrance to the cable car which goes up to Victoria’s Peak- the peak of Hong Kong… The cable car is more than steep—it is essentially vertical. Scary scary scary, but the view from the top is awesome, and we walked all around the gorgeous residential area up on the top of the peak, where the only cars you see are alpha romeos, Mercedes, and Ferraris.. its very nice. When we got back down the cable car, I took a picture with a wax figure of Jackie chan, and we headed back into Hong Kong… we wandered into a really cool part of the city (Hollywood Road) where there were tons of businesses, restaurants, and shops bustling! We had some Mexican food for lunch (Yay!) and then walked lots more and just kind of took it all in (the best way to travel, of course) we went to a bunch of streets that were filled with fish/flower/fruit markets and they were crazy… literally some of the fish were still flopping around..and we saw these chunks of fish meat that had were cut off from the head and tail of the fish, skinned, and there were still BEATING HEARTS. It was crazy/creepy. They also had fruits that we had never seen before which is always interesting, and they sell shark fins to make shark fin soup (our marine biology/bio of sharks guy doesn’t like that… not exactly sustainable for the poor sharkies) But the markets were very cool. After another fulfilling day, it was time to go back to Keith and Cathy’s hotel and say goodbye :( It was such an amazingly fun week with them in china, I could not have asked for anything better. We had such a good time, it was so sad to say bye! We saw so much with them in that week and there is no way Trev and I could have done it on our own… we would have never have experienced and learned all that we have without them, and it was just so much fun!
After the sad farewell, trev and I got dressed up for a night on the town and met up with about 10 of our friends which was awesome.. we all went to the pier to watch the light show (Hong Kong puts on a vegas-like huge lightshow with all of its buildings and it is spectacular!!! Sooooo cool!!!! After that, trev, our friend eric and I all went to get some good food back at the restaurant/bar alley street that keith had taken us to.. after, we went up to the Peninsula bar which is called Felix and is on the top floor (go look it up on google) it is amazing, the most beautiful bar ive ever seen… all the walls are almost all glass and look out onto the gorgeous view of the city.. the boys urinals are famous because theyre glass and facing the gorgeous view so you pee right into the glass of the city.. the girls have adorable little mirrors to put on makeup while looking out onto the beautiful view.. it is such a nice bar, but one drink there would have put us into debt for a lifetime, so we decided we’d go meet up with everyone else, who were meeting us at this bar district called Lan Kwai Fong… it’s a district of so many different bars… and it was FILLED with Semester at Seaers that night. It was very cool, every bar had its own country/theme, so we would go by a tequileria, then a jazz club, than an irish pub… it was very fun!

Hong Kong: Last Day
For our last day in Hong Kong, we decided we would go to the Stanley side of the Hong Kong island—its about a 35 minute bus ride away from central HK and it takes you to the famous Stanley flea market on the coastal, beach side of the island… it sold me at “coastal, beachy side” so we headed over there :) the ride over there on the double decker was anything but boring… the top of the bus, where we were of course, literally kept leaning over the cliffs on the windy way there. By the way, china and hong kong, because driving is fairly new, has some of the most chaotic driving ever. So I was needless to say flipping out on the double decker bus on those windy cliffs! (if you’ve been to the coasts of italy the roads were just like those hills!) however, the views were incredible, who knew that hong kong had such a gorgeous coast! (not me!) there are all these beautiful islands and its just so pretty. We got off, bought some little things from the market (it was quiet there cause it was a weekday) and then we wandered the beach and beautiful street of cafes right across from the ocean… we ate on the second story of The Boathouse, which was gorgeously beachy decorated and we sat overlooking the ocean with an open window and beautiful windowbox of flowers… it was so cute, trev took advantage of the british influence and got fish and chips, which as a special came with a free pint of carlsberg, so he liked that… I got a yummy greek salad with artichokes yum!
I loved our relaxed lunch and just walking around the beautiful little town.. we were so incredibly happy.. then we went to a little beach and just soaked it in, both the sun and the incredible atmosphere of the beautiful town. I went and got some really nice seashells and just walked in the water and lounged in the sun for a while, completely content. It was a perfect end to a perfect 8 days.


Well, we’re back on the ship now, right before we got on the ship we got California Pizza Kitchen in the mall where the ship was docked (YUM!) haha I had no idea they had that in Hong Kong.. OH BY THE WAY! So bizarre, also in that mall is a pizza hut—only its crazy, its like a VERY nice restaurant.. like they brick oven bake the pizzas, and the menu is mostly salads and all these exquisite pizzas.. but it’s a pizza hut… now why did America get the shaft on pizza huts! Hong Kong is very westernized, and a very cool city.. Its beautiful and everyone agreed after we got back that it was London (huge british influence since it was a british colony until 1997) mixed with New York City, with a dash of Florida (the weather was sooo nice I was in a sundress)
Anyways, the day after tomorrow we will be arriving in Saigon, Vietnam!!!! Oh the hectic and wonderful life we lead.
We have a 3 day trip to Cambodia in our plans for our 5 day port of Vietnam, and we almost did the trip up to a beach area of Vietnam called Nha Trang, which we luckily didn’t choose since Mr. Abel, the biology of sharks teacher, went on and on about how excited he was to go to Nha Trang because there have been something like 10 shark attacks in the last 10 days and its apparently where so many sharks hang out! Ahhhh!! Im so glad were not going there! Anyways, I am so curious for this next port, we are told Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Vietnam in general is overwhelming, with so much to do.. so we are very excited. Also tomorrow in our global studies class we will be having people who fought in the war talking about their experiences as well as historians talking about the war and such .. today was very interesting in global studies we heard from a historian about the French takeover, then from an American UVA graduate who has lived in Vietnam for 15 years and thus has seen the drastic transformation its gone through. Very interesting stuff, it should be fun!

Miss you all and hope all is great! Send us emails!
Love,
Vidal Sheila Christina and Boswell Gray Trevor
(if we did our names like Chinese people that would be them)


“walking ten thousand miles of the world is better than reading ten thousand scrolls”
-Chinese Proverb






PS- some of the captions to our pictures didnt come out so here is from Trevor doing his best Pierce Brosnan on pictures captions


Trevor doing his best Pierce Brosnan

Christina and her bellini on the patio of a lovely restaurant district in HK

Going out on the town with about 15 of our Semester at Sea friends to a pedestrian-traffic only bar district

The streets of the fun district

Trevor on the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Central

The gorgeous coastal town of Stanley (20 mins from Hong Kong City)

Me being one with the beach (there was a guy doing major tai chi next to me it was cool)

The gorgeous cityscape of Hong kong

We love the british influence in Hong Kong :) got a yummy fish and chips at this restaurant..

Beautiful, beautiful coast of Stanley

Stanley

Tienanmen Square.. so big it’s the biggest city central square in the world…

At the peking duck restaurant, this was one of our appetizers… notice it’s a little painting haha and the things on the bottom right are DUCK WEBS!!! As in their feet!! Cathy nor I didn’t dare try it, but Trevor and Keith of course did!

Outside Beijing’s “Bird’s Egg”, the Opera House   , a beautiful building at night it changes to all sorts of colors!

Having amazing loose leaf Chinese traditional tea before our meal at the Peking Restaurant
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