Hong Kong With My Besties
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After my first year in the US, I went back home in the summer to visit my family and friends in Thailand. My high school friends and I were planning to go somewhere outside of the country together, and we decided to visit Hong Kong. For us, Hong Kong was such a perfect place to travel because of all the delicious food (especially dim sum), convenient transportation, and Disneyland! The trip consisted of Stang, Pin, Ploy (not me), and myself. Although we missed one of our roommates Prim, it turned out to be a great trip, and we wish to gather again like that in the future.
A lot of pictures shown here are us being happy throughout the trip, but none of you would ever imagine that we encountered a level 8 typhoon there. We sort of expected that it would rain because it was still the rainy season in Hong Kong, but, believe me, Typhoon was so out of control. The typhoon scale is out of 9, and the one we experienced was 8. Two out of four days we were there were just pouring all day long, and the wind was incredibly strong. However, we managed to have fun and went to see a lot of indoor spots instead.
Talking about Hong Kong, we, as a hungry high school group of kids, thought a lot about good food and snacks. We did try a lot of famous restaurants over there.
Tim Ho Wan, a dim sum place. This place was very famous for its dim sum and got such a good review on google. Our hotel was so close to this place, so we decided to get our first meal in Hong Kong here! Kai Kee Restaurant. We went there to taste barbeque porks and crispy pork belly before going to the avenue of stars at night. The place was quite clean and huge, and the food was delicious—10 out of 10 from my meat-loving friends. Hong Kong Congee. There are plenty of them, so I couldn’t recall where we have been to. Plus, it was pouring like crazy that day. A lot of snacks! We tried some Hong Kong waffles, egg tarts, chive pancakes, and mango smoothies. All of them were great. It seemed like we were there to enjoy the food.
Besides all the dishes we tried, we also went to see several places in town as many as we could fit in the not-so-pouring window each day. The above are some pictures of Nan Lieng garden and the Chilin nunnery, which are located in the very heart of Hong Kong. You can see that the nature of the place is very contrasting to the background of the skyscrapers. It was such a breathtaking shot for me. We also tried to go to Yaumatei Tin Hau Temple, which is a really famous temple, but it was closed due to the Typhoon that we also didn’t expect to encounter.
We spent a whole day in Disneyland, and it was an amazing place as always. I think the more friends you go with, the more fun you will have! Plus, Disneyland snacks were also pretty good and helped us kill our waiting time. Anyway, when we were back to where stay, we also went to see the symphony of lights and the avenue of stars as both of them are pretty close by each other. It was fun for us to try taking candid pictures (for example, don’t-look-at-the-camera shots).
Well, although some unusual things happened on our trip, it was an enriching trip after all. We were flexible enough to make the trip as complete as possible. One day, we needed to visit the science museum instead of seeing some more important landmarks, but we didn’t get so salty because of that. That was what I love about traveling with friends: it’s always fun even though you can go nowhere.
In this family trip, we visited several famous places in northern Vietnam, namely, Sapa, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh. For some people, the more they see the world, the less impressive some places appear to them. We also did not find this part of Vietnam outstanding from all the places we have been together, yet it was still charming and gave us vacation vibes. I’d recommend those who like natures to visit Ninh Binh; Sapa is also beautiful, but it seems have some construction going on at the top of Fansipan mountain.
After having to postpone the Visa appointment for a year due to the pandemic situation, my parents have now got their first ever US Visa! A month right after they received their passports, now with the US Visa attached to, they flew from Thailand to the US to visit me in Illinois. To be more accurate, WE flew together from Thailand to Chicago, though on different flights. Our itinerary was to visit Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and, of course, my beloved corn field city, Champaign.
The spring semester ended on May 12, marking the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student at UIUC. To celebrate the hard work, I invited my boyfriend to come visit me in Champaign. But since Champaign has nothing much to do, we also planned a short trip to Chicago and also Florida! Poy had never been to Disney World before, so we tried so hard to make it happen despite the price of Disney world’s tickets. Poy flew from England to Chicago, so our first short trip happened in Chicago! It was my second time in Chicago, so I tried to visit different places than the last time I went to in January.
I usually don’t travel over spring breaks as they are quite short and most schools in the US have spring breaks around the same time, so everywhere is just crowded. However, this break was special because I went to visit my boyfriend in England! We hadn’t seen each other for a while (aka 8 months at least), so I didn’t hesitate to go there when I had a chance. Though I had been to many countries in Europe, I had never visited England. I went there for 5 days not including the flight time, but I felt like I got a very rich British experience thanks to Poy.