Phuket, Thailand Pt. 1

Arrived in Phuket, Thailand on Thursday & met some friends from Oregon State at their aunts condo in Bangtao Beach. I stayed with Emily and her boyfriend Andre at their condo Thursday night & met a friend from Hong Kong Katrina (works in HK and is from San Francisco) on Friday & shared a hotel close to the condo for the remaining 3 nights. Thailand was so fun & there was lots to do. The first day we surfed, drank coconuts and got Thai massages on the beach for $3 U.S. Dollars. We rented scooters to get around $35 for five days and it cost $4 U.S. Dollars to fill up the tank, they drive on the opposite side of the road in Thailand so after I got adjusted we were having a blast! I was shocked at the prices and how cheap it was to eat and do fun things around the city. Thailand is one of the most amazing places I have ever been, the people were so nice and welcoming and the city was full of life and excitement. Not to mention, I ate the best Thai food I have ever had, pad Thai noodles will never be the same anywhere else!

Lost.

In a city of seven million people, billions of grocery stores &  never ending street markets getting lost is inevitable.

A Little Bit of Home

This is Van & he is probably one of the greatest people I have ever met. I met Van through the Oregon State Investment Group back at OSU two years ago and we hit it off, little did I know a few years later we would meet again in Hong Kong. Van was a Chinese exchange student at Oregon State for four years and we both studied finance together although he was one class in front of me. Van moved back to HK last July and now lives and works in Hong Kong's financial district. Van has been teaching me Cantonese slang and is always there to help me when I need it, there is no doubt in my mind we will be life long friends.

 
 

Sham Shui Po

Covered in street markets and food carts is Sham Shui Po, the cheapest shopping I have found. I purchased a Polaroid camera here & film for 1/2 the cost I saw it selling for back home. My bargaining skills are getting much better as one of the few things I can say in Cantonese is "lower price." I was even told by a man at the street market that I'm a tough bargainer, I took it as a compliment.

Weekender Beach Trip

This weekend 75 exchange students organized a trip to San Wei village which has amazing beaches and national forest parks, you can arrive at these beaches two ways by boat or by hiking through the forest. We chose to spend the day trekking on Saturday to the beach which took us 7 hours including subway, buses and hiking and then took a boat back to the bus station on Sunday afternoon. This has been the best thing I have done here yet it was so fun & so beautiful. We rented tents at the village and bought firewood and had a great night on the beach. The ocean is so warm we were swimming in it in the middle of the night & were up for the sunrise in the morning. The only thing I had to complain about was the largest spiders I have ever seen, they were as big as my entire hand. Actually all bugs here are super sized but it added to the tropical rainforest feel that we were looking for & a nice escape from this hectic city.

This is my roommate Becca 5 hours into the hike. 

Rush Hour

Similar to NY but even more crowded if you can imagine is rush hour in the city and the metro (subway) tends to look like this.

Central HK