Recap of vacation

I just realized that I didn't really blog about what I did on vacation and so I'm going to recap of my vacation and link some photos :) Quick highlights of my trip!

Hong Kong:
-Got lost many times with Drew
-Our hotel was on another island so we had to take a ferry every day
-The dragon boat race competition was outside our hotel which woke us up at 8am
-Realized that people in Hong Kong are much more patient in speaking Mandarin than Taiwanese people (a lot to do with the fact that Mandarin is also their second language)
-Bought a dvd to learn Cantonese (I've always wanted to learn Cantonese since my father is Cantonese)
-Hong Kong is EXPENSIVE
-The bread is delicious but also super filling
-The Big Buddha statue park closes at 5pm :(
-The subway station is called "MTR" not "MRT"
-Reunited with Michelle who I'm traveling with for the rest of the trip
-Got to reunite with my old college classmate Jason
-Was a translator between Michelle's grandparents who can only speak Cantonese and Mandarin and Michelle only knowing English
-Ate lots of food and had many awesome drinks
-Got to see the Avenue of Stars which had star celebrities like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and even older celebrities like Anita Mui :) I was super ecstatic about that because I did a project about her in my Chinese Pop Culture class last year at Iowa

Macao:
-I can use Mandarin lol
-I have no luck and didn't win any money while gambling
-Macao is like a mini Las Vegas
-The casinos didn't have any free drinks or food :(
-The beef jerky was awesome and it's cheaper when you wait until the end of the street to buy it instead of the first stand when the street begins
-Our hotel was NICE :)

Thailand: I'm splitting it up within cities since there's so much we did in each city lol

Bangkok:
-I didn't realize how scared I was going to Thailand until I was going to Thailand lol
-The first scam: the taxi driver forgot to turn on his meter when he was driving us to our hotel from the airport
-I learned Michelle's tactics of how to know when someone is looking through your stuff
-Mr. Som is a scam artist and never pay over $60 US to go to a tourist attraction (unless you know it's worth it). Sadly he worked for the hotel as the tour company
-Thai milk tea is always amazing :)
-Went to see Hangover 2 in the Bangkok movie theaters lol
-My first trip to Madame Tussad's wax museum to see the oh so lovely..LEONARDO DICAPRIO. Hong Kong also had a wax museum but there was no Leo. I asked lol
-Saw Khao San Road where Leo filmed part of The Beach. There we booked a day trip to Thailand's old capital Ayutthaya.
-Went to the Floating Market where Michelle forced me to take a picture of a big huge snake that was wrapped around me and her. The guy had a lovely time scaring me with his snake
-Saw a very attractive, yes SUPER attractive salesperson that was trying to rip Michelle off while she was trying to buy a painting
-Went to the Grand Palace and saw the Jade Buddha
-Went to the weekend market and raced back to our hotel to make our flight to Phuket. Luckily we made it lol

Phuket-->Aonang, suburb of Krabi (one of the islands)
-Land at Phuket airport only finding out that we missed the ferry and to get to our hotel we would have to take a 3 hr bus ride to get there
-Met a cool Aussie who found it was amusing about how we would get to our hotel
-Thank goodness Michelle asked and instead of being driven all the way to Phuket town, we can stop halfway in the middle of the route to take the bus back to the opposite direction where we came from. I don't know why getting to Krabi was so difficult and why people were telling us to go this completely long, backwards way route
-Ran across a major highway with our heavy backpacks to catch a bus to Aonang
-Met this lady who helped us get a bus to Krabi
-Michelle sat next to a really nice guy who was becoming a lawyer. He was really nice but he had bad breath (from what Michelle said lol)
-I asked the bus driver to tell us when we reached Krabi town and he didn't mind that I sat up front since he said he liked me..yes, weird lol
-After a very bumpy ride of 2 hrs, we landed in Krabi town and by this time it was night
-Michelle got sick and I asked this guy who was riding on the bus with us how to get to our hotel. It would be another 40 mins to get to our hotel ahh! This tuk tuk driver wanted to take us there but we didn't trust him at first because we didn't want to pay a lot. Luckily he found us again because there was another couple who were backpackers going to the same direction
-We met Lorenzo who was from Italy and his (I think girlfriend, forgot the name) from England. They were nice and took care of Michelle by giving her water and hydration pills since Michelle got really sick
-First experience riding a tuk tuk and the drive took about 40 mins or less. We finally got to our hotel!
-Our hotel was AWESOME! Ok not a hotel I mean our resort :) It was definitely a resort haha
-Bothered the receptionists about day trips and how to get to the other islands
-Booked a day trip to Koh Phi Phi Don

Koh Phi Phi Don:
-This is the beach that Leo mostly filmed at during "The Beach". I was HAPPY!
-We went on a speed boat and lucked out because the weather was good enough to go to Mayan Bay which is where they filmed Leo's movie.
-Snorkeled and it was an okay experience although after I got done, I got a little seasick
-Had a nice lunch and rested at the beach
-Snorkeled again and realized I wasn't breathing out of the tube correctly. I mastered the snorkeling experience and had a great time. Also I didn't get sick finally :)
-Went to Bamboo Island and Michelle and I were picture crazy lol I mean, it was just gorgeous. White sand, turquoise water. All you can hope for!
-Toured Aonang. It's a small city but there's also a beach. The people of Aonang are so flattering because they want our business lol

Railey Beach
-Our driver didn't know he had to pick us up so we had to go in the afternoon
-Chilled at the beach and our swimming pool of our amazing view of the mountains
-Our driver to Railey Beach looked like my good friend
-Rode in a longtail boat :)
-Rock climbed for the first time! The mosquitoes were deadly though haha They were everywhere! I'm proud to say I rock climbed a 12 m mountain. I pansied out though and didn't go to the next step since I didn't have enough energy or courage at that point
-Michelle rocked at rock climbing :)
-Spent another evening at Aonang and Michelle got a massage while I got a pedicare. I can't handle massages lol

Aonang--->Phuket
-Went back to Phuket by taking a mini bus
-Rushed to our hotel to go to the beach so we would have time for parasailing
-Parasailed :) It wasn't that long but it was fun
-Since we parasailed, we didn't have to pay money to use their beach chairs
-Layed out on the beach and we met this friendly local who taught us how to wakeboard
-Toured Phuket and saw some interesting nightlife
-We were so poor we only had $180baht ($3USD) between the two of us and we just wanted to get a drink. We stopped at this local bar which was dead because we were there for the low season. The lady was going to charge us for 2 drinks when we told her we could only pay for 1. She was nice for giving us a discount but I think they were desperate for business

Phuket-->Taipei
-Traveled all day and stopped in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia for a 2 hr layover
-Arrived in Taipei to find out that I didn't know exactly what bus to take. Made it back to Taipei and my roommate planned for all of us to go out
-We went to a bar and it was fun. Met up with my old coworker who was in town

Hualien/Taroko Gorge:
-We had one day of rest in Taipei and I went to the immigration office. I got my extension so I was happy about that
-The next day we went to Hualien. We left early to take the bus and I hired a cab driver to take us around Taroko Gorge.
-Met up with a nice guy named Grant and it was fun checking out the gorge
-We also spent some time at the beach
-Went to the night market but they only had food
-Realized there was nothing to do in Hualien when we got back from the gorge haha
-Next morning I messed up on the train times and I got food poisioning :( On a brighter note, Michelle bought lots of mochi lol
-We traveled from seat to seat on the train since we had to take another train but it worked out where we had seats for most of the ride
-Got back and had dinner with my relatives
-Went to Shida night market

Taipei:
-Showed Michelle around my workplace
-Saw my glamour photos that I took which tomorrow I get to pick up
-Took her to the hotsprings in Bayen where we took a bus
-Went to Shilin night market and bought clothes and shoes
-Played mahjong and went to KTV until 6am
-Took Michelle to many restaurants and ate different types of food
-Helped Michelle to get a haircut..yes I translated their conversation between Michelle and the hairdresser lol

And yes, while Michelle was in Taipei for one week, I had to work for some of the days. I'm still recovering from the trip but it was soooooooo amazing. Thanks Michelle for dealing with my tiredness by the end of the trip. She was so awesome because I could barely keep my eyes open when she left to go back to Hong Kong. My body physically couldn't anything since I got a heat rash, cankersores, sore throat etc. It was bad and I couldn't believe that my body was reacting so much. I was just tired and really needed sleep lol

Anyway THAT was my vacation. I really enjoyed recaping my trip because it reminded me of the good memories I had. Why can't I do it all over again? lol

*Photos are from Thailand

-Chihchat