Shanghai on Life

Soooooo, Hong Kong was great, as expected :D Once again we are back to “reality” in Shanghai with the final big trip of exchange behind us. It was interesting to see the differences between Hong Kong and mainland China, and there were many! Actually being in Hong Kong hardly feels like being in China at all, more like an international city with no national origin. There were so many foreigners there! and almost everyone speaks English, so we all enjoyed having effective communication skills again for at least a few days.

We arrived on Wednesday evening and headed to our hostel in what we later found out was located in the best district in Hong Kong to make a drug deal! The hostel was clean and the staff friendly in any case, but by far the most hilarious bit was the size of our room. Our 4 person dorm turned out to be about as big as a good-sized master bathroom, with two double beds that were so short I couldn’t sleep straight without my feet hitting the wall. There was about 5-10 square feet of floor space and the rest was just beds. Sandra and I managed ok, but I guess Christian and Simon were not as comfortable and got a little tired of my “big spoon/little spoon” jokes after awhile. That night we went out for ladies night which was even better than in Shanghai, strong free-drinks everywhere you turned. We started off at the “Happy Valley” horse racing tracks where I placed one bet of 20 Hong Kong dollars on Finn McCool (chosen solely based on his name, not on odds of course) for the win. After being distracted and missing the race we decided to try and cash our slips anyway, pretty sure that we hadn’t won. If you haven’t already guessed where this is going, I won 132 HKD! woohoo!…I wish I could say it was close to par with CAD, but in reality it works out to placing a bet of about $3 and winning $18, but still!

On Thursday we slept in a little then took a tram to some peak for a view of the skyline. A little bit of shopping and eating later we went for a harbour cruise on a refurbished ferry from the 1920’s to see the Hong Kong lights at night. We then met up with Sandra’s friend Nina for a dinner of snake soup and fried snake on rice :D Snake was once a popular dish in Hong Kong but isn’t very common anymore. Some people say it tastes like chicken, but people say that about everything and I don’t think it’s very true in the case of snake. The inside muscley bit was this kind of flaky and a bit gritty in texture and the skin was fatty and a bit slimy as could be expected. It was only gross psychologically, the taste really wasn’t so bad, but I guess it wouldn’t be my favourite meat even if I could overcome the psychological barriers. After dinner we asked the owners if they could bring out one of the live snakes from the back (they butcher them on-site) and so they did! I was all set to hold it and prove what a snake cowboy I am, but then the guy pulls the snake out of the box and proceeds to scotch-tape its mouth shut! I probably would have been more comfortable if he hadn’t taped the mouth at all, but knowing the snake needed to be muzzled and knowing that that muzzle was made of scotch tape seriously freaked me out! I decided to wuss out and let other prove their bravery by holding it while I settled for just  touching him on his back end. After dinner we headed to the big night market for some atmosphere and shopping. At the night market we decided to have our fortune told which was a definite good use of money. I feel more comfortable planning my future as I will have a strong, tall husband within a few years and won’t have to do anything but housework after marriage – and to think I’ve already wasted all this time on trying to build up a future career! Apparently I need to keep my boyfriends and husbands away from Steph though, because if I don’t she’s going to run off with him! haha too good! Before I get married I’m going to work in the travel industry, in education (because of my long fingers of course), selling furniture, or in a flower shop (bit random, but I guess I wouldn’t be overly opposed). I will have good health, be bad at saving money, get married in 2011, 2014, or 2016 and should live in cold places. Highlights of the fortune telling included Simon’s study habits being trashed again and again, Nina facing eerily accurate accounts of her family’s medical history and her romantic life, and Sandra being told she would marry an ugly, fat man (but he will be rich!).

On Friday we spent a frustrating morning getting ripped off in a cab which was fortunately followed by some super delicious dim sum at a restaurant/club called Dragon-I. The food was really amazing, for sure the best dumplings I’ve had since coming to China. We also sampled chicken feet which was better than snake in my opinion, but maybe it’s just that I liked the sauce.  After dim sum we headed to the ferry terminal and took a ferry to Macau.

In Macau we hit the international food festival followed by the casinos of course. Christian was the only one who managed any lucky wins but ended up gambling it back down to an insignificant sum. I lost on the slots, but Simon came out as the biggest loser of the evening in roulette. So yeah, pretty pathetic results, but at least I still have my glory days at the horse track!

The next day started with an early morning ferry ride and some very long naps in the Hong Kong airport as our flight got delayed for several hours. Turns out that a cargo plane overshot the runway in Shanghai and crashed which shut down the airport for the better part of the morning. We arrived home in time to shower and meet up again with other friends for Armin Van Buuren. So basically he’s this trance DJ from the Netherlands who everybody has heard of, but me? He “performed” (is this the correct verb for a DJ?) at a local club called M2 and I have to say that it was a very strange and awesome experience. It was such a funny thing because it was like attending a concert…he performed on a stage of sorts, people were all sweaty, pressed together, cheering and jumping around as if they’re at a concert, but not actually dancing to the music as if they’re in a club. And he’s standing up there most of the time not really doing much, fiddling around with the equipment a bit and then just, I don’t know, putting his arms up in the air and dancing around a bit – and all the while people are going CRAZY for him. The energy was good and I was definitely in the spirit of it. Despite never having heard his “music” (mixes? I have no idea about DJ terminology apparently) before I decided everything would work out for the best if I played the part of obsessed fan for the evening. I managed to make it to the front of the stage where (and I swear to you) Armin gave me the thumbs up! What a dream boat! Anyway, it was a good evening.

Well, it’s bedtime in Shanghai. Love to all of you out there in blog land.

amy