China Day 1

Well, hello from China! This country has been one of the strangest and most incredible countries I have encountered on my journey. I think that most of it had to do with the people that I met along the way, but I loved the country as well.

                 The first day I spent the day in Hong Kong. It was crazy to see all the Western brand names of technology on the sides of buildings. I spent the morning visiting the Hong Kong mainland. It was a Sunday so not very many places were open, but it was still a great experience to walk around this beautiful country.

                One thing that I did get to do was go to a church service on Palm Sunday. It was very interesting to sit in an almost Catholic mass in the middle of Hong Kong. I did enjoy attending a church service off the ship though. After the service I went to a local park. The park was beautiful. There were ti-chi courts, a bird sanctuary, playgrounds, and simple green areas for people to relax. This park was in the center of mainland Hong Kong; a city of steel and concrete. It was a beautiful park that made the end of my day in Hong Kong a very enjoyable place.

                After lunch I had to go back to the ship and prepare to leave. I had decided to do independent travel with two friends. That afternoon I made the trek with Brittany and Ada to the airport. That in itself was an experience. The cab driver did not speak any English. As we got into the taxi he was shaking his head at us and tried to open the door. A very nice man who was from China spoke to the taxi driver and told him where we wanted to go. Then the man told us that the driver was just scared of us and that he would now take us to the airport. It was a strange moment, but just glad we got to the airport. Well, we got to the train station that took us to the airport.

                The rest of the evening was just sitting at the airport and flying to my second city in China: Guilin. When we arrived in Guilin out hostel had a taxi come pick us up. It was so fun to see all three of our names on a little sign! They lady who picked us up was so nice and really helped us figure out the last minute things that we needed to do like money.

                When we arrived to our hostel we checked in, made our plans for the next day, and went to bed. In case anyone doesn’t know what a hostel is; it is basically a cheap hotel where you stay in a room with anywhere from 4 to 8 other people in a room with very basic necessitates. It only cost me $4 U.S. per night. It was awesome! I am so excited to see what the rest of this trip holds!