Week 47: Shirts I did not know I had - Hong Kong, Enter The Dragon

Shortly after I started this project, I took inventory of the shirts on the pile and had some sort of a plan laid out. Of course, things changed a bit as the weeks passed. Sometimes, I changed my topic because a different shirt felt more appropriate for the events of that week. During that inventory, I think I did notice that I had this next shirt, but completely forgot about it.

I bought this shirt when I was in Hong Kong in our grand adventure to China. The time in Hong Kong was a welcome stop after the trip in Mainland China.  Our last stop was in Guilin, which was beautiful but somewhat rural. We were ready for some big city amenities and some variety in food.

Our stay in Hong Kong now seems like an episode of The Hangover. It was a blur: We had three nights and two and a half days. We spent part of our visit in a really nice luxurious hotel and one night in the total opposite – a youth hostel. There was the Hotel General Manager with the $1000 gold rim glasses, my friend’s childhood friend and her Austrian boyfriend, the group of American old ladies who thought I was a native (and surprised when I started to talk), the two Chinese teenagers walking side by side on Nathan Road talking to each other on their cell phones, bunk beds in the hostel (we were fortunate, my friend and I got the room to ourselves), and other various tourists and characters we encountered.

Part of the tour package in Hong Kong was a half-day island tour which included a ride up Victoria Peak and seeing Aberdeen’s junk dwelling community, but that was probably the only organized part of the trip. The rest of the time we spent exploring: enjoying the cuisine at Hong Kong especially the dimsum which we had almost every morning, spent time in the Temple Street Night Market, dinner at Planet Hollywood – of all places (My friend’s friend’s boyfriend does not eat Chinese food), hung out with new friends during downtimes and compared travel notes, and of course, shopping. 

I bought this shirt while shopping, of course. I really like this shirt's design. I love the dragon which is considered lucky in Chinese culture. Also, red is considered lucky in Chinese, so it's doubly lucky. I also love the Chinese calligraphy. In addition to this t-shirt, I also bought one of my favorite sweaters there. I still have it, but needs a bit of repair. I am not sure what else I bought, though... but, I do remember that I had a huge suitcase (Sweet!)

I know things are probably a bit different now, but I would enjoy returning and exploring. There is so many things that we did not get to see – like the Giant Buddha and the Bruce Lee Statue. If anything, Hong Kong is a great stop in any trip back to Asia.

Week 39: T-shirt Diva’s Excellent Adventure in China

The post about Greece a couple of weeks ago made me think of the reasons why I chose to visit Greece. When I made a decision that I wanted to see the world, I realized that I did not have enough funds to see the entire world. To enjoy trips and vacations, one needs funds – maybe a lot of funds. I just moved to California, started my first real (non-internship) job after college, and was technically just starting up… and broke.

Back then, I could not imagine seeing all the countries I wanted to visit. So, I made a list and prioritized. Having just visited Italy and England (Thanks to my Mom and Dad – what I considered a college graduation gift), I decided to visit what I considered the cities that were influential centers of the world. Having just visited Rome and briefly visited Tokyo, on my top three were Greece, Russia (still on the list, but lowered in priority), and China.

After graduate school and no social life for two years, I decided to give myself one more graduation gift: A trip to China. A close friend had always wanted to visit, so we figured this would be a good opportunity for us to get-together & enjoy a lifetime experience.

In actuality, this was a couple of years after grad school, and my actual gift from mom and me was a trip to Cancun (a subject for another post) and enjoyed a visit to Chichen Itza.

Back to the topic at hand…My friend and I found a tour that would suit our needs; cities on the tour were Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Hong Kong. It was a perfect combination for the two weeks that we had. Also, since the last stop was Hong Kong, my friend could spend some time with her friend and it will give me a chance to travel back home to the Philippines after the trip to chill out with my family – my vacation after the vacation.

My friend and I were quite accustomed to long flights. I am originally from Manila and she grew up in Vietnam (and Paris). The flight from San Francisco to Beijing was not a problem. Our first adventure though started at the airport: While we expected to be greeted by a tour bus or at least a van, we were greeted by a young lady and was led through a dark parking lot in what seemed to be a family car. My friend and I gave THAT look to each other – telepathically - I think we were both thinking “if we die now, at least we made it to Beijing.”

Obviously, we ended up both fine. The tour for the Beijing leg was actually a “private tour” with just my friend and I with a driver and a guide. This actually had some advantages… and disadvantages.

While in Beijing, we toured the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, and Ming Tombs. These sights were usually very crowded and we had to squeeze through a lot of people. My friend gave up taking a photo without people in it. We did a lot of walking during the tours and even more walking afterwards. My friend and I went shopping downtown and tried to navigate the nearby shops (She speaks some Chinese, I don’t). We even went to a wonderful Chinese Opera.

Of course, while in Beijing, we visited one of the gates of The Great Wall of China. It was a magnificent site and spanned miles and miles. We only had about an hour to explore, climb and take photos. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. One side of the wall was pretty crowded, so we decided to also explore the other side. It was a harder climb (hence less people), but we were younger and more adventurous. We had some truly unforgettable pictures from there.

Other highlights on our trip were seeing the Terracotta Warriors in Xian and the Li River Cruise and the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin. The Li River Cruise was so beautiful that it was worth it for me to skip lunch and take video and photos. Lunch that day was two ClifBars, but I took really great photographs - well worth it!

Xian and Guilin back then did not have as much infrastructure as Beijing. It seemed rather rural, but a refreshing change from the crowded smoggy Beijing. That said, we did miss some big city amenities; for example: the cab that we took in Xian was almost falling apart, so much so that we had to hold on to each other to prevent us from falling out. I remember that I had a difficult time finding places to get soda.

So, after almost a week, we could not wait to be in Hong Kong. Having congee in the morning, good dimsum for lunch and enjoying a good dinner; and having soda and Haagen Daz handy! It was a welcome site, indeed... And people around us spoke English! Even our hotel was the most luxurious hotel that we’ve stayed in – ever. The room was controlled by a panel on our nightstand, and I had a great time experimenting on what button to push for this or that.

I truly wish we had more time in China. There were so many more sites that we did not see and adventures to explore. In Beijing, we did not get to see the Summer Palace, which is supposed to be very beautiful. We did not get to visit Shanghai, the “Paris of the East.” Hong Kong probably has a whole week or two of sites to explore and we were only there for three days.

At least, I got to check it off my bucket-list. One more to go.