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nighttime skyline view from Harbour City
We just got back from my trip to Hong Kong & China, & our bags are all unpacked; the clothes are all washed, folded, & put away. I thought I would have time to blog during my trip, well, at least write a little each day, but I was so very wrong. Each day was packed full, & my sleep schedule was so out of whack. Every night I wouldn’t go to bed until close to 4am, & every morning I would wake up around 9am-ish & not be able to fall back to sleep. I was running on a minimum of 5 hours of sleep each night, & I would run myself ragged in that dreaded high humidity & nearly unbearable heat during the waking hours of the day. Well, at least I was able to keep up-to-date on my travels through Instagram & Facebook check-ins.
Thank God for free Wi-Fi & phone card SIM cards with data plans! I was able to use my smartphone in Hong Kong by purchasing a phone card-like SIM card with a reasonable data plan for one flat fee at the airport. These SIM cards allow you to make local calls & surf the Internet using an LTE data plan, & when you run out of data you can just purchase a new SIM card at a participating store. It’s very disappointing that these SIM cards can only be used in Hong Kong & not in China. In China, if you want to buy one of these types of SIM cards for your smartphone, you have to go through a strict process (including showing your ID or passport), & they are quite expensive. Our hotel in China offered to help us secure a SIM card for our smartphones, but we declined on the basis that we didn’t want to spend that kind of money & we most certainly did not want to have to submit our identification. In other words, it was just too much hassle. In order for us to communicate daily with Jian’s relatives, Jian took one for the team & used the International roaming plan his company set up on his company smartphone. He was conscious not to over-use his data, so as not to give his company’s accounting department a heart attack.
Hong Kong airport express train
So, let me tell you that arriving in Hong Kong at 6 o’clock in the morning is great, but at the same time, it sucks! Nothing, & I mean NOTHING is open at 6 in the morning except a few breakfast restaurants & some coffee shops. What can a person do when it only takes him/her 20 minutes to unpack their bags & get settled into their hotel room, & it’s still early as hell? Well, we just made a go of it, & proceeded to start our day with the rest of the crowds heading off to work in their office finery. Why did we even think it would be a good idea to grab breakfast at 8 o’clock in the morning in the near sweltering heat? Who knows, but we had a great time nonetheless.
Could this be our mantra?
an enticing front entrance
Get off your phones!
cool, artsy signage
a great spot for coffee & a breakfast plate
cool industrial interior decor
As per my usual forgetfulness, I completely forgot to take my own pictures of our hotel room. We stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in the Wan Chai district. Our hotel room was small (if you think in terms of American standards), but it was extremely functional & practical. I absolutely loved our hotel room & all its tiny glory. I felt right at home in all of its Asian compactness & sensibility. Of course there is the age-old notion of “a hotel room is only meant for you to shower, sleep & store your luggage”, but we fully utilized our hotel room, taking rest breaks in the afternoon so we could recharge our batteries & head out for a night of eating, drinking, & shopping.
Please excuse my terrible lack of hotel photos. I really wanted to show you a glimpse of what our room looked like, so I had to unfortunately borrow a few stock photos from Trip Advisor. A quick disclaimer: ALL IMAGE CREDITS BELONG TO TRIP ADVISOR.
Well, that’s all the time I have left for today. I’m trying to gather even more photos from Jian’s smartphone. I will try to update again sometime within this week. Until then, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Remember when I said that I went to San Diego for my mom’s 70th birthday? No? Well, I did do that, & I mentioned in a previous post that I got sick (as usual). Why am I so prone to getting sick when I’m on vacation? (Don’t answer that. It was a rhetorical question.) Anyway, my sister’s kids are my most favorite people in the whole world, & they know just how to comfort their auntie when she is sick. My nephew gave me plenty of hugs, & sat in bed with me while we both played on our iPads. My niece played nurse,& helped me get plenty of water & juice. She also bought me a stuffed animal at the hotel’s gift shop. She specifically said that I needed something to snuggle while I’m laying in bed. Isn’t she just the cutest niece in the whole world? Yes, she is.
This is the stuffed animal my niece picked out for me, that Jian helped her pay for. My niece & I have this running joke going on where we each buy the same stuffed animals, except I will buy the smaller versions of her regular sized stuffed toys. My niece has this same stuffed rabbit (made by Jelly Cat), except hers is in the powder blue color. The stuffed rabbit toy comes in various sizes (from XS to XL) & in various pastel colors (eg. powder pink, dark pink/magenta-ish, mint green, coffee brown, powder blue, yellow, & white). My niece picked this white one out for me, which adds to my new & growing collection of stuffed toys.
I’m not sure what name I should give it. I like to name my possessions, so it’s only natural that I give this little guy a name. I like picking male names, so I’m thinking of something with a royal flair. My niece already decided that she’s going to call it Snow Bunny. I have another mini version of this stuffed rabbit in the same powder blue as my niece’s toy. She was so confused when I first showed her my blue toy. She couldn’t comprehend, at first, how her stuffed animal shrank to such a small size. I had to explain to her that I bought one for myself, & that’s when it dawned on her that we had matching stuffed rabbit toys. She got a huge kick out of it….so, from then on, we turned it into a running gag gift.
This past March, for my niece’s 6th birthday, I bought her the Large size of this white stuffed rabbit. She freaked out with happiness when she opened her present. She didn’t really pay attention to the other gifts that also came in the box. She pretty much focused all of her attention on her new stuffed toy. She loved it so much, & she really liked how I got her the even bigger version of all our stuffed rabbit toys. It was supposed to be a gag gift, but it actually turned out to be a great idea because she told me she gave her blue stuffed rabbit to her brother so he would have something to sleep with at night. That really touched my heart to the core. This Christmas, I’m going to get my niece another one of these stuffed rabbit toys, but in the even larger size (XL).
Hmm, what name should I give this toy of mine? I’m thinking about naming him Albert. I’ve already named my mini rabbit toy Irving. I’m not sure why I give all of my objects masculine names. I just like the way those names sound. Also, I just get along with males more than females. No, I’m not a tomboy, but I like a lot of the same things guys like, like: cars, watching sports, building plastic model kits, car racing, etc.. So, I think I’ve decided to name this guy Albert after all. The name has to just come to me naturally, not forced in thought. This name popped into my head just as I was writing this blog, & I am in love with the name.
On another note, this is going to be the latest post on my blog for a while, at least until I get settled at my hotel in Hong Kong. That’s right. I’m leaving for my planned vacation in a few days. I’m in a frantic mode of packing & trying to locate my over-sized “Asia suitcase”…that’s what I call my XL luggage that mysteriously disappeared. The hassle of visiting Asia, is that you gotta visit tons of relatives (aunties, uncles, distant cousins), & with visiting relatives comes the task of bringing tons of gifts. I have to bring a second separate suitcase just to pack all of the gifts. So, here I leave you until I am once again in the Orient. 乾杯! Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Well, yesterday I cut the pad of my index finger on my left hand. I was opening the metal screw cap of a bottle while I was cooking, & I scraped my finger along a sharp edge of the cap. It wasn’t a deep cut, luckily; merely scratched skin, but I still wasn’t expecting the cut to sting this much…even on the second day. Ok, enough about my injury. Let’s get on to some more pressing matters.
I AM NOT GOING TO SAN DIEGO’S INTERNATIONAL COMIC-CON THIS YEAR. I am so bummed out about it, & so is Jian. We were really looking forward to it since we had such a blast at last year’s convention. This year we were even able to grab a pair of full weekend tickets, but alas, we got pushed out of the hotel balloting selection. Each year, the process of buying Comic-Con tickets & booking hotel rooms is getting exponentially worse. It can’t be helped when the convention’s own popularity nearly doubles year after year. People from all over the world flock to a little slice of downtown San Diego for a long weekend of comic books, superheroes, video games, celebrity sightings, good food, overflowing drinks, & plenty of outdoor activities & free swag being handed out left & right.
Last year we each barely squeaked by with getting two single day tickets. If you’re not a yearly ticket holder, you will 95-99% be shit out of luck in getting any sort of convention entrance ticket(s) &/or hotel room(s). This year we got entrance tickets for the full weekend, but we got waitlisted when we tried to ballot for hotel rooms. The process this year to ballot for hotel rooms was supposed to be randomized to ensure complete fairness to everyone holding a ticket, but it ended up being such a complete clusterfuck, that people resorted to Reddit & Craigslist for any available hotel rooms or room swaps. Jian & I were so disappointed by the way the hotel balloting process was handled that we essentially said “fuck it“, & decided not to go to the convention this time around. (Last year’s process was better, not by much, but still better.) Our friends are disappointed that we won’t be able to hang out together this year in sunny San Diego, but we feel we’ve made the right decision. We’d rather save the money we would’ve spent at the convention & put that money towards our big trip to London this year.
I can’t believe that London is an actual possibility for us this year! By not going to Comic-Con, we will be saving at least $1.5k-$2k USD. That’s a good chunk of money we could easily put towards our London trip. If we buckled & agreed to pay the exorbitant prices for hotels in San Diego & decided to go to the convention, we would’ve had to forgo our plans for a European vacation for a long while. Both Jian & I have never been to any European country in our lives. We’ve always had grand ideas about visiting the very cities our favorite foods & bands originated from, but we’ve never acted upon those ideas; always making excuses to travel elsewhere, mostly to Asia. This year, I am determined to visit at least some part of Europe. It has been a lifelong goal of mine, & I want to make it happen. Look, I’ve already been to Comic-Con, twice. I am OK with not going again. I’d rather use the money to visit a place I’ve never been to before. I want to break out of my comfortable bubble.
So, after we request to refund our tickets to the convention (Yes, you have to file a request to get a refund. How ridiculous is that?), we will start firming up our plans to visit London. But first, Asia. Yeah, yeah, yeah! We are still going back to Asia this year, possibly multiple times. First, I am going to fulfill Jian’s dream of visiting Hong Kong with him. He’s been wanting to go to Hong Kong with me for a long time. He wants to play tour guide & show me around all the different districts, & introduce me to many delicious Cantonese comfort foods. Although Jian is Cantonese, he’s actually from the mainland (a.k.a. the Motherland), not actually from Hong Kong, though most of our friends are from there. From Hong Kong, we will head over to Jian’s hometown in Guangzhou (southern China) to visit his aging grandparents, whom Jian is still very close to. Jian’s extended family are awesome, so I am looking forward to hanging out with them.
Later on this summer, my cousin whom I’m extremely close to, will be going to Japan for the first time. She is a typical teenage anime Otaku & an aspiring Japan-o-phile, & she is really looking forward to visiting the land of all her anime dreams come true. Her parents gifted her with this trip once she finishes this current year of high school, & once my mom heard of this trip, she immediately wanted to tag along with them. She quickly invited me to go with them, but I had to decline at the time because this Japan trip was going to coincide with my plans for Comic-Con. Now that I’m not going to the convention, I am considering tagging along with my cousin to Japan. I’d love to be her tour guide & show her around to all of the places she wouldn’t be able to go to with just her parents &/or my mom.
If I do decide to go with my cousin, I’d feel a little awkward not getting in touch with my cousins in Japan. I’d love to see them again & spend time with them, especially since we are the oldest generation in our family now. It’s just us & our kids. All of the grandparents & all of our parents (aunts & uncles) are gone. I have no more aunts & uncles except for the ones who married into our family, but no more by blood. My dad & all of his brothers & sisters have all passed away. My generation of relatives are all that’s left to keep this family together. I wonder what my mom would say if I told her I’d like to meet up with my cousins if we truly decide to visit Japan this year. This is a discussion best left for another time. Until then, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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