Hong Kong

Recently, I went on a 5 day trip to Hong Kong with a group of my girl friends from my work. We also took a day trip to Macau. It was very unsettling being in the Asian Vegas. Some of the casinos are replicas of the ones in Vegas! We had a great time seeing the sights and taking in the city. Hong Kong is definitely a city I could live in. It is so international and easy to navigate. It's modern and yet it still feels exotic. Check out the pictures!


Big Buddah in Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island.
Beach close to "Repulse Bay." It was NOT repulsive though, quite the opposite!
Just look at the wonderful selection of beers available! Korea only has two beers, Hite, and Cass and they both suck. Imports are expensive!
Traditional performers in Macau.

Beautiful trees at the Portuguese fort in Macau
Macau- Portuguese fort
View of Macau and one of the gaudy casinos from the fort
Looking towards the city from the steps of the Ruins of St. Paul's.
Ruins of St. Paul's.

Authentic Chinese food is SCARY! Nothing like the "Chinese" food we eat in the States.
Historic Center of Macau- many old Portuguese colonial style buildings.
A gaudy casino!
Yup- they have a Wynn in Macau. Definitely not as grand as the one we have in Vegas but it's facade looked exactly the same. In front of the casino, they had a huge fountain show just like the Belagio in Vegas.
Inside the MGM, Macau.
Chihuly glass in the MGM Macau.
Us ladies went out for an evening on the famous street, Lan Kwai Fong. It was a BLOCK party!
The crew ordering Malaysian food before our night out in Lan Kwai Fong.
Lan Kwai Fong
View of Hong Kong lights from a ferry.
My lovely friends, Maureen, Britney, Sara, Danielle, Crystal and Sarah. (yes, there are a lot of Sarah's at KIS!)
A market right next to our Hotel, The Empire in Wan Chai district in Hong Kong. What else was next to our hotel you might ask? Well, the 1 reported case of swine flu in Hong Kong. All of the hotel guests were quarantined for 7 days in their hotel rooms. The "hostages" kept sticking their sad little heads out of the windows and staring back at all of us staring up at them. It was a little unsettling to see the police barricades and the news crews camped out next door. It's been a month now and I still feel fine. I escaped the Swine flu! Hooray!
The city is very dense!
I loved the Double Decker buses! However, sitting on the top deck made me feel sick. Way too much movement!

Cherry Blossoms! It's Spring!

Cherry Blossoms





After a long and I mean LONG winter, I've finally put my winter coat away and pulled out the t-shirts. This weekend was great! I heard about a Cherry Blossom Festival in Yeouido, Seoul and decided I must go pay homage to the beautiful messengers of Spring. Sarah, Crystal, Loren and I all jumped on a bus- then a taxi to get to Yeouido Park hoping to be surrounded by beauty. Our taxi started to get into some heavy traffic and we could see some blossoming trees on the side of the road so we figured we were there. We said, "Chogi yo" and he pulled over to let us out. We started to walk with the crowd to see what could be seen but ended up in a strange park that was under construction. Where was the famed Cherry Blossom Festival that we travel nearly 2 hours to see? The Koreans seemed to be enjoying their Saturday by having a picnic on the dirt or strolling past the construction equipment and we were seriously beginning to wonder if we were in fact at the Cherry Blossom festival. We kept on walking determined to see what the big deal was and finally found the actual festival. It was beautiful. In typical Korean fashion, the actual Cherry Blossom festival was packed. I'm glad that I'm growing accustomed to crowds.



There were also some beautiful floral sculptures to see along the way.
After the Cherry Blossoms, we hoped in another cab to Itaewon to eat some Thai food and later decided to end the day with a couple beers at one of the many swanky establishments in the area.
Weekends like these really make me glad I moved overseas. I'm glad to say that Korea is slowly becoming home.

Bali

We had a one week break for the Lunar New Year and decided that it should be spent in Bali with our friends, Christine, Craig, Sarah and Derek. We took a red-eye and arrived sometime in the early morning- grabbed our bags and headed out to find the driver we had arranged to pick us up. Everything went smoothly and we hoped into the hotel van and got comfy for our 1 hour ride to Ubud where we would be crashing in our hotel rooms for a couple hours of precious sleep before we explored the inland town.
Upon waking, we found that we were in a beautiful hotel! The rooms at Alam Indah were exquisitely decorated and the grounds were luxuriously overflowing with gardens, and flowers and moss covered sculptures. In front of our hotel doors there were small offerings of flowers and incense inside of green bamboo leaf baskets. These offerings were scattered all over the hotel grounds as well as through out the streets of Ubud; enticing good will from their gods.


The charm we were overtaken by at the hotel also extended into the town. To get to town from or hotel, we had to walk through, "The Monkey Forest." There were monkeys everywhere- and they were completely unafraid to walk right up to us. I had a baby monkey almost climb up my leg before I quickly moved away. Loren had a very close encounter with a monkey too. He got pooped on.



Ubud was a great town to explore- tons of shopping, yummy food and exotic sights to take in. We also walked about 10k through some rice patties and were in visual heaven. I think I nearly lost the group because I was taking so many pictures.


On the way back into town, we passed a temple and there was a procession of ladies dressed in traditional clothing carrying food on their heads. It was truly a National Geographic moment. And, my cameras batteries were dying. Oh well.


The next day was spent shopping!! and relaxing! You could get a 1hour GOOD massage for about $10! So, while us ladies spent our time in the markets, the guys were getting massages. Pretty good trade I thought because we got our massages later too!

In the evening we all went to a restaurant that has free dinner shows and watched an amazing traditional Balinese dance. Here's a snippet.


After 4 blissful days in Ubud, we headed to the beach for some more relaxing. It turned out the beaches, the ones that are said to be the best in Bali, were filthy! We didn't spend anytime in the ocean or on the beach but the town was interesting and full of more great places to shop and get massages so we didn't complain too much. I think I also exhausted my desire to take a tons of pics, because I don't have anymore to share. Loren has some great pics and videos from the beach so he'll be posting those later!