Travelling Asia
For the last 6 weeks I have had the amazing chance to travel around Asia while we’re on holiday from university. This was a big pull factor for why I applied to go on this course and it did not disappoint! First place I went to on my travels was Hong Kong; this is a former British colony, which is now part of China. Because of this, it has a really amazing feel to it as it’s like a mash up between Britain and China. We flew into Hong Kong Island that is probably the more British bit of Hong Kong. On our first day we were struck by how busy everywhere was, every hour of the day felt like rush hour! First of all we went to Times Square, which is pretty much just a massive mall, but this had British shops in it, which to us was a blessing. Throughout our trip we were like a magnet to buying Percy pigs in M&S.
Throughout the first day, we ended up just walking around and trying to get a feel of Hong Kong. At night me and 4 of the boys I was travelling with met up with a school pal of my fathers and his lovely wife, this was great because we got to meet a local and got recommendations for a lot of stuff to do on our stay in Hong Kong.
The next day we tried some Michelin recommended street food and then headed to Ngong Ping gondola lift.
When we reach the end of the gondola lift, we had to hike to get to the Tian Tan Buddha.
This was an amazing sight and, because it’s so high up, made it look like a scene out a movie! The next day we went to the Hong Kong main land, which was filled with museums, shopping malls and massive parks.
Later in our Hong Kong trip we ended up hiking up Victoria peak, which was really cool as it’s pretty much right beside the city centre, so this means the views you get are quite different to most mountains you would hike in Scotland.
Although it only took just over an hour to hike up, it felt like we were pretty much walking vertical, so by the end we were shattered. When we got to the top, we went on top of the viewing platform to see the city lit up at night from up high.
Although we were struggling to stay on our feet, the views sprung us to life. The next day we went to Tia O, which is a fishing village that is one of the very few bits of Hong Kong which still looks authentic.
It was great to see old Hong Kong as you realise just how far it’s come, although places like this are beautiful so I guess you can see it a different way. Throughout our stay we went to a Michelin star restaurant called ‘Tim Ho Wan’, this is probably some of the best food I’ve had in my life. The BBQ pork buns were something no person should be deprived of in life, although saying this a whole meal cost the equivalent of £8! Hong Kong is the perfect place for any Europeans tourist to experience Chinese culture while also not having to leave behind the luxuries of the European lifestyle.
Next stop was Cebu in the Philippines. While here we stayed in Moalboal, which is at the bottom part of the island. This means that after our flight it took us about 4 hours of public transport to get there. This included a 3 hours bus ride, which was a really good way to meet locals and try some local cuisine as there were locals selling food on the buses. The only downfall was that I lost 3000 PHP (local currency) while on this bus. All I can hope is one of the nice locals picked it up! The next day we went straight out to the beach and went snorkelling. This was amazing and I managed to see a turtle about half the size of me just a few feet away from me! The following day we headed out to white beach, which is a very famous beach in Cebu.
It was nice to get some sun, as we had been in freezing China just a week before, and read a book with no distractions. While there we were lucky enough to meet a family from Cebu that invited us to their family meet up on the beach. We went over and were greeted by a crowd of smiling Filipinos; we were treated to a local meal and lots of local drinks.
This day had been amazing, but sadly we had all forgotten to reapply suncream and this meant the next day was spent inside in pain. I was so badly sunburned I had to wear sunglasses inside and outside for a week afterwards. This experience was certainly a learning curve that it’s not worth it, not wearing suncream for a tan. The day after this we woke up at around five in the morning to get a car to go to Oslob. This is where you can see the whale sharks! Before this I was expecting to just be able to see them from a distance but we managed to get with in centimetres of them!
The rest of the Philippine’s was spent relaxing and trying to not be any more sunburned.
After Cebu we went to Bali, Indonesia. I was buzzing to go here as I was dying to surf and two other group of scholars were going so we were all able to meet up. Our group also grew by one as Charles, another scholar, joined us in Bali and onwards in the holiday. Throughout Bali we spent the bulk of the time relaxing on the beach and reading books. One day we met up with all the other scholars there and went surfing. This was great as Kayleigh and Catherine had some friends they made that taught us to surf. Although it was quite tough and you were left with cuts and sore knees, it was worth it and I did managed to stand up quite a bit.
Another day all the scholars went on a tour around the island to see the bits that, according to the local people we met, were their favourite in Bali. First up on the tour was the rice fields that were amazing, the heat of Indonesia does mean that walking through places like this can sometimes make you not realise its beauty until you look at your pictures.
Next up was a local coffee house where we were able to see them grind the coffee and try 12 different flavours. Some of the braver scholars tried the coffee made out of cat poo! Lastly, we went to a picturesque place to watch the sunset. It really was the best way to finish the day.
For anyone reading this that hasn’t had the chance to travel round Asia, I really do recommend that you try to as soon as you can. You just can’t help but fall in love with Asia. I personally have never seen anything like it. It feels like visiting another planet and really does change your perception of Asia!