Hong Kong Firsts

Hello! I feel like I need to address the few people who do read my blog and want to hear about my travels so far :)

I'm in the city now. We landed here on Sunday and left for the farmhouse on Monday- so it was pretty hectic, not to mention a drastic change. I went from tech savy US and HK to Bangalore city and then to the farm house in no time. As you can imagine, it was a little hard to adjust to the new environment- with basically no internet, constant electricity problems, and self-imposed house arrest because I'm afraid of dogs (I can just feel the eyes rolling here). But we had a notebook drive- where we donate books to public school children who can't afford them- which helped make the farm trip more interesting and relevant to me. I had mixed feelings of the trip...so many that it's probably best saved for another blog entry...but I wanted to blog about our Hong Kong adventures here. We didn't really stay in HK, we were only there in transit. But since we had like 10 hours, I was determined to venture out of the airport.

We initially had serious trouble finding our way. We didn't know where to get our visas, if they would give them to us at all, where to store our hand luggage in the meantime (with 4 of us traveling, we had quite a bit), whether we should go out at all and what not. But we ended up figuring it out and decided to take the taxi from the airport to the Peak. The Peak was awesome...you really can see all of HK from there. Personally for me, the view was a little bit too commercial. There were tall buildings everywhere! (But I'd love to study or come to HK for business trips) We took a taxi down..asking the driver to drop us off in a shopping center. And guess where he dropped us off? Next to a giant poster of Megan Fox and some football player and all these big named, posh stores. I guess, me with my gym wear, frizzy hair and oily skin didn't give off the poor people look like I thought it did. But we were able to find our way to the less developed, more authentic parts of HK. And this is something I've always wanted to do. In every new country I visit, in addition to seeing the developed parts with all the tall buildings and fancy stores, I want to see the underdeveloped areas as well. I want to see how the country was before commercialization. I want to see how the not so opulent people live. I've wanted to do this in every new country I visit- I've seen it in India and seen and heard of it in the US- but not many other countries. Walking through the crowded streets with road-side vendors, guys cooking shirtless, seeing all the fake electronics, I realized that I can finally check off some of the things I've always wanted to do in foreign places.

On a side note- the humidity was unbearable for my kind of hair! Whatever I did and put in it, nothing could prevent it from turning into curly friz in that weather.

We then took the Airport Express back, wanting to get off in the middle station, but realized our ticket wouldn't allow it. So we just got off at the airport and took the bus to the Giant Buddha. People kept saying we take cable cars...and the San Francsican in me obviously thought about the type back at home. But wrong! I guess HK cable cars are ski lifts...that take you from the city to the Giant Buddha located on a hill through air. Not only did I not expect this at all, but I realized that this has been another dream/goal of mine. To go on a ski lift. I know it sounds kinda lame..but I've never been on one and can't ski to save my life so I wasn't sure when I'd get an opportunity to.

Added to that, the Buddha statue itself was awesome. Sitting on top of a hill, literally in the clouds, it was breath taking. More than a religious person, I'm spiritual. So to see a giant statue, in the clouds, I was kind of in awe- not that I have any knowledge of Budhism whatsoever, but I felt like Budha would've liked the place of his statue. They make you pay for the view..you have to climb 200 steps to get to the top. I was exhausted...having taken the mcats that morning, and then having sat through a 14 hour flight, my legs were going through bursts of prolonged silence and vigorous activity. But I was determined to climb them..they weren't that bad...and I bet I looked gross by the end of it, but it was totally worth it.

We finally went back to the airport (on a double decker bus, which was another first), ate something really quick (I'm so sick of most airplane food by now) and were escorted to the gate- running with the flight attendant because we were so late. We were the last passengers to get on the plane..but we made it. It was so worth it. Even if the trip lasted only 10 or so hours, we got to see so much and do so many of the things I've always wanted to do in a foreign place....It only confirmed my interest in traveling.