Hong Kong and Shenzhen(CHINA)

After the weekend in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China all I can say is wow. We took a 4 hour flight on Cathay Pacific Airlines on Thursday, July 28th and arrived in Hong Kong around 4:30 in the afternoon. Our tour guide Derrick took us to the Royal Pacific Hotel in Kowloon( another island around Hong Kong).

Diego, the LT Jordan Director, took us for appetizer at Hard Rock Cafe. It was good American Food for those who wanted it. Hong Kong Hard Rock Cafe was dedicated to the Beatles with a large display of all their pictures.

We then walked around the area to discover many streets of small shops selling various items from ties and shoes to house wares. I found a shop selling postcards and purchased 15. I sent them out too all for under 5US dollars. After shopping we went to a nice Chinese Food Restaurant where we ate some of the best grouper fish i've had!

Hong Kong is a mix of modern and aged buildings. Tons of sky scrapers pierce the sky, only to be minuted by the towering mountains covered in lush green forests. We took the worlds steepest tram up one mountain to the Peak Tour to see Hong Kong at night. A breathtaking scene awaited us full of lighted buildings lining the sides of the harbor. The pictures are remarkable and can be seen on the right hand side.

We got back in the nick of time to catch the last ferry across to Kowloon. It was pushing past Midnight so we decided to call it a night and get some sleep.

The next morning our Tour guide Derrick met us at the Hotel Lobby to take us on a city tour. We went to the Orchid Statue which was presented to Hong Kong by China when the British released ownership back to China in 1997. The Two ton statue is made of gold and is located at the convention center on the harbor front.

We then went to a Chinese Temple that featured a large soldier that supposedly helped to vanquish disease in the Hong Kong area.

A Buddhist temple on the beach front had many statues that are rubbed to ensure wealth and happiness.

We also went to a jewelry store tour that pretty much just tried to sell us jewelry.

Kent, Steven, and Nick where throwing the Frisbee, or flying Saucer, but it flew out into the water. There was even a sign that said no throwing of Flying Saucers on the banks. I guess Buddha just didn't like us throwing the saucers. We retrieved it later on after the tide pushed it near. Kent slipped on the pier head over hills, taking a pretty hard fall. We didn't see it happen but it sounded pretty bad from the descriptions Nick shared with us.

The wishing tree was a lame source of tourism. It featured a tree where you would throw a orange with a piece of paper tied to it and your wish would supposedly come true. This was based on a legend of a mother wishing for her son, however the location was the same, but the tree wasn't the same.

During the time on the tour our guide was really obnoxious, assumptions, and took a bad attitude with the entire group. He would not answer questions and help us in anyway. He crossed me personally twice! I asked him what local food should I eat for dinner and told oh just choose something and then just walked off! Like I know whats local and whats not here? He also didn't even tell us the procedure for ordering food and none of the people spoke English that worked in the cafeteria style shop.

Derrick then took us to the MTR to go to Shenzhen, China. He gave us the tickets and pointed us through one gate. After we all went through the gate he then proceeded to look at us and ask us why we didn't go through the stands and use the tickets. We where all like what are you talking about!!

The MTR to China took about 20 minutes. China treats Hong Kong and its self as separate countries a visa and immigration are required to travel back and forth. Shenzhen is a special economic zone, basically a location within China where capitalist markets are allowed to operate. This was started in 1980 and has grown from a small fishing village of 25000 to a large city of 7.5 million people!

To our rescue came the best tourguide of the trip, TINA!! She was so amazing and was all about what we wanted to do oun our trip to China. We arrived at the Hotel Ambassador an 8 star hotel. Because the Chinese flag has 5 stars on the flag each hotel already has a 5 star rating, so you have to go by the 6-7-8-9-10 star measurement.

Following dinner we went shopping at a large market. Knock MP3 players, cell phones, clothing, and other various items where abundant.

Tina then took us to a massage parlor where we all go Massages for US 10 Dollars. It was a good time and we all walked away relaxed. Mine wasn't too good at all because of the hardness of the massage.

We then where ready to hit the disco, but one thing was left in question. Where are the discos? How do we get there? Most of the hotel staff didn't speak English and we couldn't communicate where to go. Stephen Haynes saw a young lady who was walking on the street in front of our hotel and looked dressed to go to the disco. We communicated that we wanted to go to the disco by pretending to dance. We got the point across and we all piled into three taxis to get to the disco. It was a good adventure and we where hoping it would lead to a decent place to dance.

We arrived at Face Disco! We couldn't walk straight in, but after a 10 minute conversation that was in Chinese we finally got in. Our mystery lady got us in free!! The disco was defiantly a local hit and we got lots of stairs as we walked through the door with a group of 10 Americans. We made our way to the dance floor and hung out awhile. Our mystery lady purchased us 6 Bottled Jack Colas and we had a great time! We shut the place down at 2AM.

The next day we went to a mineral museum and learned about Chinese art. The shop also sold Antiques and several piece of jewelry. I purchased a Dark Green Jade carved Dragon boat that represents Good Health and Family life.

We then went to a silk production plant and learned about the Silk Worm Production and Fresh Water Pearls.

Next we went to Windows of the World Amusement Park. This park brings the worlds key buildings and natural land forms to China. IT is the perfect idea for an amusement park since China has strict regulations on traveling outside of the country.

We ate Hagan Datz Ice Cream at the Mix Mall, the largest Mall in Asia!

Tina then arranged for us to go to a black market shop that sold fake Louis Vutton Bags, Rolex Watches, and other items. We tried to bargain with the shop owners but none would budge. We figured the shop must be doing fairly well to let 10 Americans leave without purchasing one item.

We then bordered the train back to Hong Kong! Tina was an amazing tour guide and helped us immensely! She was so much better than Derrick! Unfortunately Derrick met us at the train station to take us back to the hotel. As usual he was rude and assumptious. This time about changing a flight. Affandi and Kent where scheduled to be on a 5AM flight Sunday morning. They asked him to check to change to the later flight, but he kept saying it was all full without making any calls. I was sitting right by him as all of this was going on. Affandi jumped on the phone and called his travel agent and they told him to skip the early flight and just change to the later flight. As this was going on Derrick kept saying the flight was full. I then decided that I had enough of this and decided to voice my opinion. I said you keep making assumptions and not calling anyone you could atleast call and check it out. We are the ones paying you for your services and you are not treating us very well at all! Affandi agreed with me as he spoke to his agent on the phone! We got all squared away and Kent and Affandi made it on the flight!


Diego met us for dinner at Ryan's American Grill and I had a large salad! It was the most vegetables Ive had in a long time! It was so good to have some healthy food for a change!

Steven Haynes and I decided to cut off from the group to cover more ground. We both thought we hadn't seen the real Hong Kong from the tour that Derrick gave us. We went to the Lady Street Market a mile long road selling all kinds of fake high priced items, t-shirts, belts, art, and other items. I purchased a shoulder strap bag to carry books around in.

We then made it to a regionally known area called....not sure on the spelling but will change when I ask. This area reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Door to Door bars with different atmospheres! We bought a Carlsberg beer and walked up and down the streets and danced at a few places. The street was packed with an insane amount of people. We talked to a few people that where expatriate and we found out that this was the best time to be there because of a big celebration was going on and the drink prices where really low!

Steven and I where standing on the corner asking some people where we should go next and we found a place where bigger discos where. As we waited for a taxi a girl staring at us and makinga gauking face was in the taxi coming near us. All of a sudden this girl jumped out of the taxi and shouted Steven and we where both like WHOA! The girls name was Leany and attended a conference at Stamford University. She was from Shanghi, thousands of miles away. We where in total shock!

We then grabbed a taxi and went to a disco area that was also a red light district. We ran into the actual ladies that suggested the place and danced with them for awhile. We pretty much hopped bars all night long and ended up dancing until 4AM. We had to keep telling people no thank you as we where approached on the street.

We had an amazing time! We woke up the next mornign to a great hotel breakfast. I had an egg white omelet and tons of fruit! We went back to the ladies market for more shopping before heading home!!

It was a great weekend!!