Thailand travel diary: day 3

Day 3 of Thailand was packed. We went on a organized safari tour and explored all the sights of Ko Samui.

Our first stop was Grandmother & Grandfather Rocks. These rocks are shaped like female and male genitalia and apparently are the only rocks in the world shaped like this. I really don't know how these rocks became shaped this way, but it was interesting to see.

 

Then we saw some monkeys in coconut trees, a temple, and went to an elephant show. These elephants did tricks, played soccer, and ate bananas from our hands!

We then saw the famous Big Buddha. It's literally HUGE! It was raining that day and you must take off your shoes to go up the steps so my feet got wet and gross =(

After lunch at the top of a mountain, we headed home and saw a nice view on the way down. 

As Shanghai is winding down, I'm realizing I still need to visit a lot of places! Finally visited Taikang Lu yesterday. It's a very nice area with tons of local stores, great cafes, and art. It's quite a hipster-ish place, but anyone can enjoy it. I also visited the expo last week so I will give an update about that later!

Thailand travel diary: days 1 & 2

Hello! It's been awhile huh? I'm finally back from my spring break Thailand trip. To update you all about my vacation, the next several posts will be a travel diary about what I've done in Thailand with pictures to share (:

Day 1
Not having slept a bit the night before, I was knocked out for the entire plane ride from Shanghai to Bangkok. Originally we had about an hour layover time before our next flight from Bangkok to Ko Samui, but our plane arrived late so we only had about 30 minutes. A short Thailand travel agent man greeted us at the gate and we rushed through immigration and check-in and barely made our next flight. The flight to Ko Samui was less than an hour. When we arrived, the first thing that surprised me was the airport. Ko Samui does not have an ordinary airport. It looks more like a large tropical shack, which I thought was so cute!

Ko Samui Airport

The night started badly as I lost my debit card at the airport and our luggage was delayed. =(

Thankfully our hostel was only a short ride away. My expectations for the hostel were low, but it was quite nice. Although there are no fancy decorations, room service, or comfortable amenities, it was very clean. The guesthouse managers were super super nice. The husband was an American while the wife was Thai. They helped us book tours, told us the best places to eat, told us how not to get ripped off, etc etc. They were so helpful! 

We were too tired to explore the nightlife so we just walked around on the Chaweng Beach street and ate at a nice Italian restaurant called rice. The food was good, except the weather was so hot! The restaurant was open-styled so the heat made the dinner a bit less enjoyable. Speaking of weather, it took a bit while to get used to the humid air with temperatures reaching almost 100 degrees fahrenheit. 

The rest of the night consisted of just initial exploring as we were too tired to do anything that required energy. 

Day 2

Excited for our first full day in Thailand, we started the day by eating lunch at Chaba resort's restaurant. The great thing about most of the restaurants on Chaweng Beach street is that they are all beach-front. So we ate Thai food while enjoying the beautiful view of the beach. 

Chaweng Beach - it's much nicer on a brighter day

Afterwards, we got a Thai massage, also right on the beach. The thing about Thai massages are that they really do stretch you out! Depending on the person, you will be twisted and stretched out like you've never been before. They're also only less than $10USD. After the massage, we discovered this great place called Ark Bar, where they have tons of wooden beach chairs on the sand so you can enjoy the beach while eating, drinking, and smoking hookah. 

Ark Bar on Chaweng Beach

We spent several hours at Ark Bar, reading books, drinking and eating. When it got dark, we decided to walk on the Chaweng Beach street and stopped at Mambo bar for a snack and happy hour. That night, we went out to Green Mango club, one of the supposedly best clubs in the area. It's full of tourists of course, but I liked that it was quite big and the top is open so there is no ceiling. Clubs/bars in Samui offer drinks in buckets for about $12USD. A bucket sounds huge, but it's actually smaller than I originally thought. Imagine a child's sand bucket filled with alcohol. It's still a good amount though, although ours was quite weak. 

That's it for the first two days of Thailand! Keep reading to see how the rest of my spring break was! :)

Xintiandi

Sorry for the lack of updates these days. I've been so busy with midterms :(

Here are some pictures of Xintiandi, one of my favorite places in Shanghai. It's very touristy though and everything is pretty expensive.

A mini waterfall/water fountain at the edge of Xintiandi

A view of the shopping mall

Water fountain in front of "Fountain", a dessert/wine bar

My spring break is coming up! I'll be going to Phuket and Ko Samui in Thailand... so excited! (:

Hong Kong pictures

Some pictures from Hong Kong...

1881 Heritage - a beautiful shopping/dining center

Modern Toilet restaurant - where everything is toilet themed! This is Korean-style pork served in a toilet bowl. Also had ice green tea served in a urinal... haha

A view of Hong Kong island from a terrace at Harbor City

Venetian Hotel & Casino in Macau. It's huge! This is just one small part of it. 

Back to Shanghai

Finally back from Hong Kong!

I must say, Hong Kong is definitely more of my taste than Shanghai.

Why HK is better than Shanghai:
1. CLEANER!
2. People speak English
3. Shopping is much better
4. More diverse
5. People don't drive as crazily... aka I don't feel like I will die every time I cross the street

Why Shanghai is better than HK:
1. Nightlife is much better
2. Everything is cheaper!

We also visited Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China. In HK, we visited some companies and had lectures, but during our free time, I did some sightseeing, eating, shopping, and met some friends who live there. I definitely miss Hong Kong, but it's good to be back.

Will post pictures soon!

Sparkly pink nails

Got my nails done here (:

It's sparkly pink gradient... the gradient is very light though. I love the sparkly pink! It was 88RMB which is about $13USD. It's not a bad price considering they do a better job than any manicure I've gotten in the states.

New discovery: massages

Good news! My dorm room internet is fixed. Bad news: Blogger is still extremely slow. That's why I haven't been able to blog recently! I'm still working on the getting the camera/computer setup fixed... hopefully soon!

I recently discovered just how wonderful massages are. It's cheap (cheaper than US), relaxing, and addicting! I'm definitely going at least once a week. I've only been to Apsara and Dragonfly so far.

Apsara is definitely a great looking place. The atmosphere is amazing. Each bed is in a separate room complete with a shower, tub, and all amenities like hairdryer, shampoo, lotion, bathrobe, etc. Service is also excellent. During the massage they turn off almost all the lights, play very soft and smoothing music, and let you choose your oil scent (if you get a oil massage). The massage itself is just okay though. It felt like she wasn't putting enough pressure on me! The price is around $35USD for 1 hour. 

I think there are two Apsaras in Shanghai. I went to the one in Century Park. The area there looks very new, but it was a quiet neighborhood. 

Dragonfly was pretty much the opposite of Apsara. It's a great massage but the atmosphere is just okay. There are several Dragonfly spas all over China but I went to one inside an upscale mall/building. The place was kind of small. Each bed is not in an individual room, but rather there's just one hallway that has a bunch of beds separated by curtains. Each individual area is kind of small. The massage is great though. It feels better and is cheaper than Apsara! I heard Dragonfly is known to have very good foot massages, so I need to try that the next time I go there!

No internet for me in China!!

Blogging in China just got 100 times harder.

1. My room internet does not work anymore for some reason... AND the lobbyman (dorm security guard?) doesn't know how to fix it.
2. There are two computers rooms in this dorm with 4 computers each. Some how 7/8 computers now do not work at all or the internet is broken... therefore there is only ONE working computer for almost 200 students.
3. My camera does not respond when plugged into my computer... aka I don't know how to transfer pictures onto my macbook.

Sigh... until I get these problems fixed, blog posts will be sparse and mostly text posts. I'm in the midst of getting my camera/laptop connection fixed so hopefully pictures will be up soon!!

In other news, I went to Shanghai metro city mall yesterday. There's a Skinfood and The Face Shop there. For anyone who wants to go there, it's at Xiuliuji (??) subway station exit 10 -- on the red line. Anyway, SF and FS are obviously more expensive in China than Korea but I was surprised to find that they have basically the entire product line. I bought a banana yogurt mask and oil blotting sheets from Skinfood. The banana mask smells like banana milk! I used it today and it made my skin feel very smooth. Total for both came out to be around $14 USD. FS, SF, and Missha seem to be very popular here. Even cute little street boutiques all sell various products from these three brands... it's odd to see that Etude House is kind of rare here.

I realized that shopping in Shanghai can be cheap if you go to the right places. Many department stores have cute clothes on sale for less than $50, but prices can go pretty high too for certain brands. I just bought a pair of cute mid-heel black patent heels with a bow on the back for about $35. I'm trying to limit the shopping though... I still have Korea and Hong Kong for shopping! And I need to be able to bring everything back in two suitcases =X

Overall, life in China hasn't gotten much better... the dorms are unbelievably cold in the hallways and I just discovered there are only 3 washers for 200 students, which will make laundry a hassle for the next 3 months. Nightlife here is nice though, although expensive. I went to Sin and M2 last night... not a big fan of M2. Also have been to G-Plus and Windows and I have to say G-Plus is my favorite. The whole Xintiandi area is a favorite of mine!

Since my internet hasn't been working, I haven't been able to download any new kpop songs. Getting kind of sick of the same songs over and over again! And I haven't been able to catch up on any music shows or dramas!! >.<

This is getting to be too long of a post now! I'll stop the ramblings now and give you guys another update as soon as I can!

First update abroad

I can't seem to figure out how to get my camera to work with my computer, so for this blog post, it'll be a short story.

The first several days of Shanghai were quite interesting for me... my school is in a more quieter and run-down section of Shanghai. It feels like I'm living the in the 1960's with dingy buildings and old taxis in every color. I thought to myself "where is this amazing Shanghai city that I've heard so much about?!". I finally went to the city part of Shanghai today where I had amazing dumplings. The nighttime view is also amazing and the weather here is nice enough that you can walk around at night without feeling cold.

Purchases-wise, I bought cute mix-style earphones today. Can't seem to find a picture online, but they're white in-ear headphones with little black stars. It was only the equivalent of $4 USD! Hope the sound quality isn't terrible... The store also had the big mix-style headphones with the star on each side. Only about $8 USD... maybe they're fake but they are cute! They only had blue so I didn't buy them... will check again in a few days for other colors.

Speaking of fakes... I went to a cute little shop and saw a bunch of benefit makeup. I wanted to buy the discontinued Gilded eye pencil, but it was fake! The funniest thing was a box and a tube labeled "bad gal lash" but was actually just a black eyeliner >.<  Discovered recently that every cute little shop has a bunch of makeup, especially MAC, The Face Shop, Skinfood, Missha, and some Japanese brands. Some are obvious fakes, but others look very legit! I bought a couple of Skinfood mask samples and a Missha fruit mask.

Before Shanghai, I spent 2 days in Korea. Most of the time was spent visiting relatives, but I did get a chance to go to the Lotte duty free shop. There were SO MANY PEOPLE THERE! It took me 40 minutes just to get inside the LV store. But I did finally get the bag I've wanted for so long!

Damier Azur Speedy 25 = my new baby! <3 <3

Also bought Missha and Etude House BB creams. I'll do swatches and reviews when I can.

I discovered it's going to be hard to blog here. The internet is incredibly slow... and Blogger (along with Facebook) is blocked in China. I got around using my school's VPN, but it's still so slow. I will try my hardest to keep everyone updated though!