Hong Kong Study Abroad

Thursday was my first time going to the outlying islands of Hong Kong, and it did not disappoint. A local Hong Konger and I went to Cheung Chau Island, and there was so much to do, we only got to see about half of the island. We first went to a beach, but we didn't swim because we didn't bring our suits. Then there was a path called “Little Great Wall” that looked like the great wall...but it was little. The path went all around the northern part of the island, and every so often there would be a side trail or rocks leading to the water, which led to some awesome views. A lot of times we would hop the fence and go exploring on some rock formations just to see what we could find. On one of our stops, we climbed on a rock and spit cherry seeds off a cliff, which was a blast.

After our explorations, we went back through town to the east side of the island to watch the sunset, but before the sunset we found a cave that we walked through, which was a super neat experience. The cave though was more like a hole in the ground, and I almost didn't fit in it, but once I did, it was pretty big, and really cool. We then walked on different rock formations on the east coast, seeing different views of surrounding islands and the sunset. We ended up climbing a very tall rock to see the sunset perfectly over the ocean.

After dark, we went to a restaurant, and my friend showed me the local custom of cleaning utensils at the table. They served us a bowl of water (or sometimes its a bowl of tea) for cleaning our utensils (I don’t know why they just couldn’t serve already clean utensils). You just dip your mini bowl in the big bowl to fill it up with water, and then you dip your chopsticks (yes I use chopsticks at almost every meal!) and cup into the water to clean it.

After supper, I wanted to try a local dessert, so I tried a durian mochi (durian is a fruit). It was the weirdest but coolest thing ever. It was a durian fruit covered by rice and some vegetables, and it looked kind of like an egg, but it felt like jello, and it tasted pretty good too. Weirdly, the durian is supposed to smell weird but taste good, and that was true.

Yesterday me, and two guys went to two places in the south of Hong Kong called Stanley and Aberdeen. They weren't to crazy, but each had something unique to them. Stanley did not feel like Hong Kong, because there weren't any skyscrapers, and there was actually a little bit of space! Aberdeen's claim to fame is that they have the worlds biggest floating restaurant, which really was big (it had 5 or 6 restaurants) and really fancy. We didn't eat there, but we still got to see it.

After that, we took the tram (kind of like a trolley) that took us through Hong Kong Island, and since one of the guys was a local Hong Konger, it was pretty much like a free tour!

Today I got to finally try to hike the Dragon’s Back that I’ve wanted to try since I got here. It was great because it was an easy hike, but world-class views. It’s called Dragon’s Back because the path runs along the top of an arête (the peak of a mountain range), which the Chinese thought resembles a dragon (they love dragons here). From anywhere on the hike we could see the ocean on both sides of us, and at one point we got to a peak where we had almost a 360 degree view of the ocean, which was spectacular. After about two and a half hours we reached a beach with huge waves and rainbow colored rocks.

After eating at a local restaurant, we took the infamous minibus back into the city. Its called a minibus, because that's exactly what it is, a mini...bus. And I say its infamous because it is known for crazy drivers (like Minnesota drivers but worse!). I’m convinced that the seatbelts on the bus aren’t for in case of an accident, but so that you don’t go flying through the window when going 50 miles an hour through a sharp turn. Luckily we made it back safe and sound.

In the town we got dropped off in, there was a big market so we walked around it. I didn’t eat this, but I saw every part of a skinned goat for sale. I could have even bought the head for food if I wanted, although I don’t know if I’d find goat face very tasty.