The end!!!!

Well ladies and gentlemen!!! Thanks to all of you for following my blog during this trip. I hope you enjoyed it.
I am now back in the United States, completely jet lagged (I left Hong Kong June 29th at 11pm and arrived in San Francisco June 29th at 8pm) and sick (I caught a cold somewhere along the way).
I have enjoyed my experience in Asia and intend to go back in a few years. I suggest South East Asia to anyone who wants to discover exotic places in the future.

A weekend in Shenzhen, China

Because of my nationality, I can only stay in Hong Kong for 14 days at a time. Therefore, this past Saturday, I left Hong Kong for a couple of days and went to Shenzhen, China.

I woke up early Saturday morning, checked out of my hostel and headed for the train station. With a backpack and a small purse, I took the train from Hung Hom train station in Hong Kong heading towards the immigration of Shenzhen.

About 45 mns later, I arrived in Shenzhen. The train ride was smooth, fast and cheap (33 hong kong dollars, about $ 4 US). Things at the immigration of China went fine. The same cannot be said once I left the immigration building.

My first impression when I left immigration was "OMG!!!!!! too many people!!!". I never understood several millions people living in a city until I saw Shenzhen. The third largest city in China, Shenzhen grew from a village of 30 000 fishermen to one of the fastest growing cities of the world with a population of 12 million.

Up until then, I did not realize that problems would start creeping up as I go. First, I could not see any taxis. I thought to myself "it is impossible that such a frequented place does not have taxi". In my quest for taxis, I meet an old man, who looks european, and asked him for help. He directs me towards what he thought was the taxi stand but he was in fact wrong. While trying to make my way back to where I was before my encounter with the european guy, I attempted to ask several Chinese policemen about where I should go. Well that did not work out because NO ONE SPEAKS ANYTHING BUT CHINESE!!!!

Oops!!! I should have expected that.

Well, finally I made my way back to the immigration but am still trying to find a taxi. The European man who helped me earlier appears out of nowhere, just in time to save me from cab drivers pursuing me offering a Taksiiiii!!!!! (That is how it sounded). The European man addresses all the cab drivers in perfect mandarin and tells them to leave me alone. They were not the normal cab drivers apparently. Wait what!!! This white man just spoke mandarin. This is good!!!

When he learned that I was visiting the country by myself, he guided me a little bit more. He asked me several questions and as I was answering his questions, I realized I was not ready for this trip, unlike what I thought when I left Hong Kong. First, my hotel address and name were written in english. I should have had that translated to mandarin in Hong Kong since no cab drivers will be able to read it.

Second, when we asked a young lady at China Mobile offices at the immigration to translate my hotel's name and address, she was unable to because she could not understand my hand writing. And of course I had not copied the hotel's phone number so she was unable to call and ask the adress. I had not thought of any reason why I would need the phone number when I made my reservation (well, lesson learned!!!!!).

Third, I don't have a map of Shenzhen. I thought I would find one once I arrived at the Shenzhen immigration. But that was not the case. Obvisouly, as these little issues come up, I find it more and more amusing. I was learning the hard way how to deal with and plan for China.

The European guy and I finally came up with a solution. Find a hotel around where someone could translate for me. So, I walked to the Shangri La Hotel, famous hotel in the region, and asked the concierge to translate the name and address of my hotel to mandarin, to call a taxi and tell the driver where to go. That is how I finally got out of the immigration and started to make my way towards the Days Inn Shenzhen Hotel.

During the cab ride, for some reason, the cab driver insisted on talking to me. Obviously, he was having a monologue, probably was supposed to be a conversation since he kept on looking back at me from time to time, but big language difference. I am not sure he realized!!!! To everything he said, my answer was to show him the little piece of paper with the name of the hotel translated in mandarin. I am not going to lie after a while, he looked annoyed.

10 mns later, I arrive to the Days Inn Hotel, which is in the downtown area of Shenzhen. On my way there, I passed by skycrapers after skycrapers and so many stores, rode on paved roads etc... Nothing about the city suggests that 30 years ago, it was a fishermen village.

That night with the help of a hotel guide fluent in english, I did a quick tour of downtown Shenzhen. As I saw more and more stores, McDonals, KFC and all sorts of French stores, I was amazed by the beauty of the city and the level of development that exists there.

One thing that told me though that the city was just recently developed: traffic and traffic patterns. It just made no sense. Pedestrians walked in the middle of the street and some cars insisted on going the wrong way on some one way streets. See the picture for that. Many things when it comes to traffic seems to be only a nice suggestion. No one respects the traffic lanes for example. On a 4-lane highway, cars made 6 lanes and manages to get by with that. No need to say that non traditional cars such as donkeys and bicycles also use the highways.

I thought I would share these two images with you as well. I hope they make you laugh:

The End!!!! Bittersweet!!!!

The MS in Commerce Program sadly ended last wednesday (june 23), with our capstone project presentations and a small ceremony to celebrate the end of the year. For all of us, it was also a celebration of new beginnings. New jobs, new life, no set path from now on.

I have to admit that the end of the MS in Commerce Program, meaning my student career, at least for a while, is over. Now, I have to be ready to affront real life and the different things that come with it. It is scary but at the same time exciting!!!!

After our presentations and a small wrap up to conclude the MS in commerce Program, we all headed around 6 pm to Lautau Island, an island with many seafood restaurants. Getting to Lautau Island requires a boat trip that lasts about 45 mns. During these 45 mns, I have enjoyed the scenery of many of the islands that form Hong Kong (Kowloon, Hong Kong island, Stanley Island among others), as well as huge bridges, cruise boats etc...

During the boat trip to Lautau Island, many enjoyed drinks (beer or soda) while having conversations with classmates or faculty. Others enjoyed a drink while looking pensive and thinking about the life ahead of them. and of course some people got seasick.

At the arrival at Lautau Island, we walk from the Pier to the restaurant. Upon our arrival, we saw the cooks taking several alive fish from an aquarium and killing them to prepare our dinner. The menu was delicious and was comprised of prawns, rice, garoupa, lobster, crab, fruits for dessert.

We all enjoyed our meals and for the second time I learned a valuable life lesson: never seat at a table with 8 hungry men, or if you do, make sure you always get food first, or..... you know......

Around 9 pm, we took the boat back back to Hong Kong Island. Many of us were hoping to be back before 10 pm and go to bars to watch the US-Algeria game. Excitement was in the air. Obviously, everyone was hoping that the U.S will make it to Round of 16.

When the boat arrived at Pier 9, many of us decided to head to Lan Kwai Fong, an area in Hong Kong known for its many clubs and bars and well frequented by foreigners. We decided for a bar transmitting the U.S game live, which was right across from another one transmitting the England game live. No need to say that at the end of both games, it was impossible to walk between these two clubs, since Americans and English were on the streets screaming, drinking and partying.

After so much excitement, the group that enjoyed the game at the bar, was joined by another which enjoyed the game at the hotel with some professors. At 12:30 am, we all head to a club nearby where we danced and drank together for one last time. The goal was to enjoy our last few hours together as much as possible and it was accomplished. About 25 of the students will go back to their country of origin, and the rest will be dispersed in the U.S working in different states. Around 4 am, we sadly head back to the hotel, making plans for the rest of the vacation (many of us continued on visiting South East Asian and Mainland China), others jumped on the 9 am plane back to the U.S in order to start their jobs today (Monday). I really do not envy the latter!!!! Starting a job while jet lagged must suck!!!

Anyway, this was the last day of the program. I hope to return to South East Asia very soon. It is an experience that I will never forget. This is not completely the end though for me!!!! Stay tuned for my trip to Mainland China on Saturday.

Asians love their Horse Races!!!

On Sunday, early afternoon, while a group of MS students went to the beach, about 10 of us decided to instead go see Horse Races. The Horse Races in Happy Valley were highly recommended by many and occur twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. Since we knew we would not have time this wednesday, it is actually the last day of our trip and the day we present our projects to the executives of Procter and Gamble in Asia, we all went to Happy Valley to watch the Horse races.

I was extremely excited about going to Happy Valley. It would be my second time close to horses or at a horse race. The first time was at Foxfield, during which I actually got laughed at for taking pictures with a horse. The fun was apparently in drinking.

Anyways, the Horse Race costs about 10 HK dollars, meaning about 1.50 US. pretty cheap.

For 1.50US, I enjoyed about 3 hours of horse races. I never realized how extremely expenseive Foxfield is until Sunday.

Happy Valley looks incredible, with several restaurants on the higher levels, benches on the bottom, and rooms and counters to place bets everywhere. Surrounding the fields are, of course, skycrapers, offices and aparments, which adds to the beauty of the place I think.

Since I do not bet as a rule, once I was in Happy Valley, I went straight to where the jockeys were warming up or cooling down their horses. I snapped several pictures, trying to get the best looking horses or designs on their butts as you can see on the picture. Then, I watched about 4 races and learned a lot about odds on both horses and jockeys during races, what probabilty numbers mean etc...

I also enjoyed hearing screams and cheers towards the end of each race, seeing sad and frustrated faces of people who lost money, and the happy faces of the ones who win. Another amazing thing is Happy Valley gave to charity a good chunk of the money they make during the races.

After the 7th game, I left Happy Valley so that I could make it on time to meet the group going to The Peak. While in the taxi, I thought to myself that Happy Valley must be making tons of money for it to have races twice a week as well as give money to charity. Maybe I should invest in horse

races!!!!

Overall, I had a pretty exciting time at Happy

Valley. I highly recommend it to anyone coming to Hong Kong.

These are memories that I will cherish all my life.

View of Hong Kong from The Peak!!!

The Peak is a touristic and residential area in Hong Kong. From the Peak, one gets a great view of the Hong Kong Island as well as many of the other surrounding islands.

On Sunday, about 20 of us went to the Peak to explore the area and also see where our current professor lived when he worked in Hong Kong.

To get to The Peak, we took a tram (see picture), which is pulled by cables up the mountains and goes up at an angle of 45 degrees. Pretty scary!!!!! but the view was rewarding. See for yourself!

The Obsession for Disney

At the peak yesterday, this lady is doing a photo shoot and Mickey and Minnie were recommended partners!!!

At the 'Dragon Boat Races' on Wednesday.

Dragon Boat Races are rowing races. A dragon face is attached to each boat.

Creativity!!!!!????

What exactly is he wearing!!!!!?

The other day, Jacob and I were pretty excited about enjoying some gelatos. We went to the International Finance Center, an office building and mall but also the Batman building, (yah the part where Batman jumps off a building, was actually shot from the IFC building here in Hong Kong. So I WAS IN THE BATMAN BUILDING!!!!!!!)

Anyways, we discovered two ice cream parlors at the mall: The first one is named Yo MAMA!!! Yeah!!! Yo Mama!!! I don't know if whoever titled this is a "wanna be" or was just feeling very creative that day??!! Funny!!!

The second one is named I Scream!!! more creative . I wondered if people actually scream after tasting their ice cream!! I had mango sorbet from 'I Scream'. It was extremely delicious but I did not scream!!!

Culture in Hong Kong!!!

As many of you already know, I am a huge fan of soccer. I rep Brazil, the best team ever. I have enjoyed different soccer games in Vietnam and hoped to do the same in Hong Kong.

Thankfully, that is not too hard. Hong Kong citizens are huge soccer fans as well. The other day, as I walked around Time Square in Hong Kong, I saw many Asians piled up at a square with their heads up. Right there attached to a building was a huge TV screen with a soccer game live (see 1st pic). It seems that life stops here whenever a team is playing. I guess it is great for the Hong Kong economy then, that most of the soccer games fall between 7:30 pm and 4 am.

I am currently sitting in the Cafe of my hotel, watching the Ghana-Australia soccer game. Most of the Asian people here are cheering for Ghana. The score is 1-1. I guess when it comes to Asian solidarity, Australia is not included.

The trip is coming to an end!! arrival in Hong Kong

The group arrived in Hong Kong last sunday. The South East Asia group flew from Ho Chi Minh City and arrived in Hong Kong around 2 pm. We were later joined by the China group who took a bus from Mainland China to Hong Kong. We were all extremely excited to see each other. Now, 46 of the 73 MS in Commerce students are in Hong Kong, concluding our trip and capstone project. The other 25 students are currently in Barcelona, Spain doing the same.

My first impression of Hong Kong was green, very mountainous, cloudy, lots of water and developed. On the way from the airport to the Island Pacific Hotel, where we are staying for 11 days, I saw skycrapers after skycrapers, amazing bridges, great roads... I immediately knew that I was no longer in Vietnam or Indonesia. Stay tuned as I will attempt to make you enjoy Hong Kong.

Last night in Vietnam

Last night, we were all invited to dinner by the parents of a Vietnamese UVa alumni to an excellent seafood restaurant. We were all excited about it. Many of us are running low on money and this was a great opportunity to be treated as well as have a wonderful conversation with this prominent Vietnamese family. See how much we enjoyed the food and the time at the seafood place.

Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City!!! War did occur in Vietnam!!!

Architecture

One of the striking things about Vietnam is how nice people are to foreigners (americans, french etc...), Vietnamese seem to have put all wars or colonization behind. However, many monuments in or outside the city do not let you forget.

First, the architecture of Ho Chi Minh City screams French influence. The way the houses are built and other structures around the city remind a French style. See for yourself through the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the picture.

Cuisine

The cuisine is also very French influenced: Vietnamese love their baguettes. Jacob and I a enjoyed meals at the creperie and patisserie close to the Caravelle Hotel, where we stayed. In both, we found sandwiches or desserts with french names. Unfortunately, during my stay, I was only able to speak french with 2 Vietnamese, both in their early 60s: one woman at the pharmacy and a men at the Bintang market.

Vietnam War

On Wednesday, the group visited the War Museum and the Reunification Palace. The War Museum was harsh as it showed pictures of dead soldiers, Vietnamese as well as handicapped (orange kids) born following the war. The Museum gives an idea of what the war was like from a Vietnamese perspective. I have also enjoyed seeing American tanks, helicopters and guns left behind when Americans pulled out of Vietnam.

The Reunification Palace was also extraordinary, it was more about the different rooms that were used and their purposes in the palace: bedrooms, game rooms, library, cars etc...

Yesterday was the best day to remember and experience the Vietnam War. We all went to the Cuchi Tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems should not be underestimated in its importance to the Viet Cong in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually culminating in an American withdrawal.

Experience it yourself through these pictures.