Less than a month left! (Well like only a few weeks)

From January to now I have been across over half the world and I just wanted to put a visual to make that a reality.

I made my journey from San Diego, California and Look how far I have been with one more country to go and best of all it is Japan. I apologize for the fact that I did not put up any more maps but classes and country hopping is a bit crazy so I can't so I figured that this will suffice well let me see I will put up the ones I didn't include which was China (Shame on me.)

So in all reality I have less than a month until I will return to San Diego. I miss everyone but I will be home soon and don't expect any updates after Japan and I will not be writing anything on Hawaii because I will be resting on board in preparation for finals madness on the last few days going home to San Diego. The last piece I will write will probably be the Vietnam War Piece which I know I promised I would get done but the school work is enormous and time consuming so it will not get done until Hawaii or when I get home along with my reflection on this entire trip. I wanted to make the Vietnam War piece a little more special since it was still a sobering experience that I had when talking to the people in the war remnants museum and listening to the experiences of others that found themselves in more hostile situations or just in uncomfortable positions. I am still compiling stuff together for that. For those who want to know, I return to San Diego on the May 2^nd around 8am at the port so if anyone wants to come see me I invite my USD friends, professors and family to come welcome the MV Explorer to San Diego. I probably will not get off until later in the day so for those who want to wait and have the time then be my guest. The more the merrier and happier I will be. I wish everyone well!

Shanghai!

Shanghai was such an amazing place. It's so large and there were so many places to go to. It was pretty easy to get lost in too if you didn't know where you were going. I need to back up and tell a pretty entertaining story about my passport and visas while I was heading into Shanghai so I need to start this at the Hong Kong (HK) airport. So I am checking in at the HK airport and I went to the desk for HK airlines so I could check in and get my tickets for my flight. The guy behind the counter looks at my visas for a moment and then looked at my passport. My hair was up at the time with a loose curl in front of my face. I realized after a few moments he was staring at my hair and I asked him if there was a problem. He finally tells me that apparently I don't look like my picture. Ok, I must've had a stupid look on my face or something because he seemed to fidget nervously or something. I was still trying to figure out how I don't look like my picture in the passport. Did I need to give the same mug shot look? I finally out of pure annoyance went to adjust my hair and as I let my hair loose, he suddenly approves me and thanks me. I tied my hair up right then and looked at him. "Wait, you just told me that…" He interrupted my sentence with this answer. "Your hair made you look like the picture when you let it down." I didn't even know how to answer this. It was irritating at the time because it happened 3 more times after that, one in security, one at immigration in Shanghai and the last at the Okura Hotel which I will tell that funny story next. Anyways, I have to say that Hong Kong Airlines was such a nice airline. We got meals and free drinks if we wanted them. On the seats were these touch screen computers where we could watch movies, play games, listen to music, and many other things. It pretty much kept me entertained for the 1.5 hour flight to Pudong airport in Shanghai.

                Ok after getting into shanghai at 1am and going through everything and getting a taxi to the Okura Garden Hotel, I arrive at the hotel safely. Now here comes the odd but funny story of me checking in. I walked into the hotel with my stuff and the guy sitting behind the information desk stares at me like he had never seen a foreigner in his life. I am wondering how that is possible when several Caucasian individuals were just in front of me. I looked over at the empty check in desk and I asked the guy. "I need to check in." He looks at me and simply says that they didn't do check ins this late. I wondered how that could be since my mother had told them that I would be very late. Another woman came out and greeted me by name and checked me in right then. She said to not mind him so I didn't bother. My room at the Okura hotel was incredible and can I say something? THEY GIVE YOU JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING! This hotel puts all American hotels to shame. The room was just amazing and had such an amazing view of Shanghai. I loved my stay there.

My first day in Shanghai was spent museum hopping, going to the people's square, and going to the site of the 2010 Expo. I had such a good time doing all of these in such a short time so I didn't get to stay long enough to write complete detailed things on them or take all the pictures I wanted but I definitely would go back to these places to learn about them when I come back to China someday. I didn't do much else thanks to me spraining my ankle when I got back to the hotel (due to my own clumsiness as always) but it was amazing plus the food was so good!

(Left: Shanghai Museum, Middle: Building at the Expo, Right: Shanghai Urban Planning Museum)

My 2^nd day in Shanghai was spent at the Oriental Pearl Tower which I could rave about for hours. I loved this place. It was so amazing. The view of Shanghai from the top at around 360 meters above the ground was absolutely stunning and I could have so gone back for the rotating restaurant that was at 259 meters or so. The view of Shanghai was just amazing and loved it so much. There are three levels. The top is the space cabin. The middle has the restaurant and sightseeing area and the bottom is its own arcade with a roller coaster inside. The main floor has cafes and a mini mall inside. I love this place and could have at least spent another day. My only note to those who are clausterphobics, you get crowded in an elevator going up but it's a quick elevator ride so don't freak out about it and go visit this place. It's so worth it!

My 3^rd day in Shanghai was spent in bed on board thanks to the ship not telling us that they were moved to a new berth and so I had to walk 2 miles to heavy luggage and bags to the ship after being turned around 6 times which was ridiculous. It was a bit crazy and shame on SAS for not contacting us and telling us where they got moved to and it was stupid for a while. We weren't near any metro stations either so I couldn't really travel that much without always taking a taxi so I didn't bother for the day plus I was pretty sore across my back and legs. Oh but I do have something to say about where our ship is located. We have a spectacular view of this!

Yes the night lights were something to see from our ship and I couldn't say too much more because it was the most amazing thing ever! You had to be there to see the absolute amazing view of what our ship had here in Shanghai and I think Japan will not top this one for sure.

Moving on to the fourth day. I spent it on an FDP going here:

Yes the coca cola factory and I had a good time learning about their bottling process which was very intriguing and fascinating to watch as mainly machines do the work here with about 4000 employees watching and working to insure that everything is taken care of.

My 5^th day in Shanghai I went to the Longhua Temple and the Jade Buddha Temple. We observed people burning incents and praying to the Buddha for good fortune of any sort. It was interesting to see all the artwork in these two temples but I think the picture says more than what I can ever convey so plenty to show.

Longhua Temple

 

Jade Buddha Temple (The reclining Buddha on left is marble. We could not take pictures of the actual Jade Buddhas)

Hong Kong and Macau

So my first day in Hong Kong, I thought it was a pretty hilarious idea to go get lost around the city and actually it ended up being the best thing that I ever did as I hit all the museums in a single day J (GO ME!!) I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Culture Center, the Science & Tech Museum and history museum. I liked the Science and Tech Museum the best but it was fascinating to wander around, get food and enjoy the sights of Hong Kong for the single day that I was able to spend there so I found myself feeling pretty successful in what I did. I had a lot of food well I tried lots of soups (I honestly don't know why I did but I wanted to try a bunch of soups and it was really good except I forgot to ask the names of the soups but oh well China is in the back of my mind to note that I will be coming back next year or a little later J Still working on the logistics. Lights show in Hong Kong. So spectacular that I forgot to take pictures or video tape it lol. I loved the experience oh and FYI, there is a Disney resort on Lantau island near the airport for those who want a Disney entertainment in another country. J (I wanted to go so badly.)

My second day, I spent a total of two hours in Macau exploring on my FDP before I had to head back so I could catch my flight to Shanghai. It was so much fun and YES IT IS THE CHINESE VERSION OF LAS VEGAS! For example, MGM Grand and the Wynn both have hotels there. Shock! I wish I had actually stayed there and then left to the mainland but there is so much to do there. I wish I could have so spent more time at Macau. It would have been amazing but I went to the Maritime museum and had a good time there learning about the spice trade and Europeans colonizing the entire areas.