November 26, 2014 · 9:34 am

Hong Kong

Last but not least, Hong Kong, the place of my heritage. The last time I went to Hong Kong, it was 14 years ago when I was 8. I could hardly remember anything from that trip besides the hot weather, flashes of buildings and glimpses of people. I treated this trip as basically the first time I’ve ever been here because let’s face it, Hong Kong is a whole different city now.

There are so many people living in the city yet not a lot of living space. It’s a place of business and advertisement, of people crammed into every nook and cranny.  Even in the alleyways there are advertisements.  It’s almost a sensory overload if you stare too long.

Source: Rebekah Ho

Source: Rebekah Ho

The people living there have their own distinct culture. It seems like I’m speaking as a stranger even though I’m Cantonese, but I honestly do see myself different from them. I feel like the generation of Chinese kids that grew up in Canada is very much different from those in Hong Kong. We adopted the politeness of Canadians. Now I’m not saying the people of Hong Kong are ill mannered people, they are just more blunt and forward than Chinese-Canadians.  If you want something, you have to be loud and direct. You can’t be afraid to be bold or else the fast-paced city would leave you behind. It was even a culture shock for me even though I speak Cantonese and understand them pretty well.  I had to remind myself multiple times that the people talking to me were not trying to sound impolite or brass, but that is just the way they spoke to one another.

I spent a lot of time meeting my relatives from my mom’s side. I can say with confidence that I could probably bump into a cousin of mine and not even realize it. There was a dinner where a couple of my uncles and aunts and their families met up with me and I had never seen them in my life before. Yet they would say “Oh look how much you’ve grown” and “I remember when you were this tall…”

One thing I learned from this trip that although the people are loud and direct, they are very family orientated. I was basically a stranger to my relatives, yet they treated me to food and gave me presents. I stayed at my uncle’s home even though I’ve only met him once when I was 8, he still welcomed and provided me with everything I needed.

Hong Kong could be summarized as a city with cheap prices, cheap food and business and marketing. Even I got my fair share of shopping done and I’m not a fan of shopping. But most importantly, what makes Hong Kong unique are my roots with it.

Since this is a travel blog, I’ll talk about some attractions. Remember when I mentioned about having my fair share of zoos, aquariums and amusement parks? Well, why not combine all three of them and make Ocean Park? I spent an entire day there and I still wasn’t able to see everything. You have to ride a train or cable car to reach the other part of the park. Not only did I see a panda for the second time, I saw a red panda for the first time!

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Did I tell you about the 1600 paper mache pandas by French artist Paulo Grangeon? The exhibit was suppose to bring attention to the declining population of pandas, there being only 1600 alive in the wild.

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There’s also a Disneyland here, but if you’ve been to any other Disneyland, it’s not worth it. I didn’t go because by the time I was in Hong Kong at the end of my trip, I was done with rides. And if you’re the type of person that wants to see the city as a whole, you have to go to Victory Peak. From there on a good day, you can see the entire city. Unfortunately when I went up, it was foggy and raining. Oh well, this was better than nothing.

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November 24, 2014 · 11:32 am

Korea

Korea is a country of shopping and fashion. Seoul was the only trip where we didn’t have many plans and depended on friends to show us around. Our friends brought us to the best Korean BBQ places, the cheapest shops for clothes and the best dessert places too! We stayed in Myeongdong, a well-known shopping district of Seoul. If I could stress one product in the market of Myeongdong, it would be ‘skincare’. I couldn’t walk five steps and not encounter a store selling skincare products.

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One place I made sure we had to go was the DMZ. That was one of the oddest experience I had in my life. Apparently, only foreigners are allowed to go on this tour and if you are a Korean citizen, it takes stacks of forms to be permitted to go. There were some really strict rules on the bus. We weren’t allowed to take pictures unless it was at certain areas or the soldier in the bus would scream at you. When we reached the JSA, everyone had to line up in pairs and be led by a soldier to the conference room. It was surreal to see the line dividing North and South Korea and to be in the conference room where you could “cross- over” to North Korea. Depending on the situation and day, you could have one to five minutes in the room before having to leave. Turned out, we came on a tense day and we had to leave within three minutes. Our guide mentioned how a wrong step could literally lead to a shootout between the two sides. At the end of the JSA building, there was a gift shop where you could buy merchandise of the DMZ. Talk about the weirdest place to have a gift shop.

JSA

JSA

They also showed us this video about DMZ when we reached the area where one of the incursion tunnels was found. This video was so freaking weird! The beginning had explosions and scenes of war, people speaking about the horrible battle between the North and South. Then all of a sudden, there’s a prancing baby deer and a message about how the DMZ is so peaceful and great. It literally said “DMZ forever!” at one point. I came out of that thinking “Was that a joke? Did I actually watch that video?”  If you ever get the chance to go to the DMZ, it’s worth the money. It’s something you have to experience to get the full impact.

On a lighter note, another place we went to was a place called Namiseom Island. Now, this was also weird, but in a very good way. It was like the island didn’t know what it wanted to be, so it added a little bit of everything– metal sculptures of bugs, teddy bears in trees, snowmen decorations, giant naked statues. There were even ostriches on the island! Not a zoo, just ostriches. It’s famous for being a film location of a very popular Korean drama; many couples like to spend a day there.  This is just a taste of what I saw there:

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Also near Namiseom Island was a place called Petite France. It’s a tiny town that looked like a French village where it pays homage to the book Le Petit Prince. I would have never imagined I could visit France in Korea. It was really cute and beautiful, a perfect place to spend an hour or two.

Of course, we couldn’t leave Seoul without visiting the Seoul Tower. On the night we went, it was packed with people, the lineup to go on the bus was crazy. It took 4 buses before my cousin and I could go on. When we reached the top, we didn’t even go up the tower because the wait was 80 minutes. I mean, the view was pretty much the same from up there anyway that we weren’t too disappointed. Instead of taking the bus down (because the line up there was even worse), we decided to walk down. It took about 30 minutes to get down from the mountain, but I think it was worth the walk to get this picture.

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November 23, 2014 · 10:30 am

Japan

Ah Japan, the country that I highly anticipated. I distinctly remember when we were riding their train from the airport to the main terminal; the announcement on the train was spoken in Japanese. I turned to my cousin and said “This doesn’t feel real. I feel like I’m in an anime or Japanese drama.” During a night in Kenting Taiwan, my cousin curled up beside me and we watched “Memoirs of a Geisha” just to get into the mood for Japan. I had really hoped to catch a glimpse of a geisha during my trip (spoiler alert: we didn’t see one. You either had to be in the right place at the right time, or have a lot of money).

Out of the five countries, Japan was the worst in terms of English speakers. That’s why my cousin and I decided to join a tour But even though it was hard to communicate with people there, it wasn’t really a horrible thing.

The Japanese are so different than any other people I’ve seen. It’s like they’re in their own bubble that consists of their own style, language and culture. You can walk around dressed as a cat, but fit in just fine. They’re modern in many ways such as technology and fashion style, but the old culture of politeness and respect is still present. Unlike the other Asian countries, shop employees wouldn’t yell at you to buy their products. They greet you when you enter, smile politely and if you do end up buying something, they thank you and bow. Besides the people, their history is everywhere. Maybe because Canada is a relatively new country or that most North American cities all have similar buildings and feel to it that I felt like Japan was such a shock to me.

Back to the trip. We went from Osaka, to Kyoto, to Tokyo, with smaller cities in between. The tour took us to Doutonbori  in Osaka and we stayed there for two nights. The hotel we stayed at was the worst one because of the small room (which honestly was perfectly fine), but it was in the best location. You could go out the door and walk a block before entering the Doutonbori district, a shopping district with clothes, food and entertainment. But along with new shops, there were also older shops with the traditional paper doors, bamboo structures and paper lanterns. There was a small shrine in the midst of the shopping region where you turn from a busy street with noise and lights into a corner where it was quiet and peaceful. Doutonbori was also known to be a red light district, which I found very amusing. As you walk around the streets, you’ll see shops that were “massage parlors” by day, but by night were places that gave a different type of pleasure. All in all, it was a place filled with nightlife and fun.

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I wish we went to more historical sites on the tour. We only visited the Osaka Castle Park and the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. At Osaka Castle, you could really see the history in the place since they kept a lot of the original parts intact. As for Kiyomizu Temple, I definitely got a sense of their religion here. People lit incense, offered donations to ring bells or wrote their wishes on paper strips or wooden blocks to be hung. There was a small waterfall with three streams, each representing a blessing. It’s a temple built on a mountain surrounded by forests. I would give the award for best scenery of the Japan trip to this place.

Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

Kiyomizu Temple

Kiyomizu Temple

This tour had given me enough amusement parks to last the years to come. We went to Universal Studios in Osaka, Fuji-Q amusement park in Fujiyoshida and DisneySea in Tokyo. I got to try so many new experiences like traditional hot springs (being completely nude was awkward), dress in a kigurumi and light sparklers along the beach. It was an amazing experience that I would love to repeat again.

Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji

 

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November 22, 2014 · 8:02 am

Taiwan

Taiwan, known for great street food, shopping, and bubble tea.  We had a week in Taiwan and each day was planned. We spent three days in Taipei and then a day travelling all the way to Kenting where we stayed for three days. We literally travelled from one end of a country to the other, can’t say I’ve ever done that before.

The first day in Taipei, we tackled the district Wanhua where the popular Ximending was. Ximending is a shopping neighbourhood geared towards the youth of Taipei. The area was jam packed with clothing shops, food stands and karaoke. But besides the shopping and delicious food, I discovered that this area had the most intimidating Taiwanese girls as well. All of the girls working in the shops dressed in leather clothing, tattoos and piercings. Their style made sense when we walked down the smaller streets and saw them filled with tattoo stands and motorcycles with biker men and women. The youth of this city weren’t afraid to be rough and edgy.

The second day, we explored the cultural side of Taipei, which included the National Palace Museum which holds one of the largest collection of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks. But truth be told, after the first hour or so, I was bored out of my mind. Since I was born in Canada, my knowledge of Chinese history is very limited. I guess I should have taken this opportunity to learn a bit more about my culture, but there is only so much I can stare at after three hours. Fun fact: the most popular items of the museum was the Jadeite Cabbage and the “Meat-shaped stone”. I’ve got to say, it really did look like what they’re famous for.

The last day in Taipei was my favourite, but also the most frustrating day. Those who haven’t experienced Asia tropical weather can’t complain about the rain. My cousin described it perfectly as “a wall of water”, and I had my taste of it that day. We decided to go to the Taipei Zoo, which was my highlight of Taipei. I love anything to do with animals. In fact, in this entire Asia trip, we went to three aquariums and two zoos. The Taipei zoo was huge, definitely one of the biggest I’ve been. It was also the first time I saw a panda and let me tell you, they are just as adorable as you see in pictures.

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I’ll have to go back one day when the weather is better There was even a warning broadcasted across the zoo telling people to find shelter for a bit because of thunderstorms. It was also the only place in my whole trip that I had bug bites. Holy shit just from that day, I must have had 15 bites all down my legs and arms. I don’t know if they were mosquitoes looking for delicious Canadian blood or fleas from the animals, but I’ve never had that many in my life.

We ended that day stumbling to Taipei Seafood Paradise, a seafood market. I had the best meal of my entire Asia trip there. We had a seafood hot pot and it tasted amazing. The food was basically brought straight from the market and onto your plate. Everything was fresh and some of the food was still moving. Delicious looking right?

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Kenting, known to be a resort area, was a place of beach and relaxation. We went straight from a city of rain to a place of sunshine.  We spent the first day relaxing on the beach, the second day on a tour of Kenting and third day, guess what? Relaxing on the beach. Kenting does have amazing scenery, one of the most beautiful places on this Asia trip. The view from the cliffs overlooking the shoreline was a sight to remember. Just take a look at this view.

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Final note, remember what I said about this Asia trip being just a tour to see all the aquariums of Asia? Yeah, Kenting has an aquarium too. Funny, they say they have one of the biggest aquariums in Asia. Sentosa Singapore also claimed that title. Hm…..

 

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