New website

I realize I don't really update very often. Luckily, I started a new project back in March, it's called 365. I take 1 picture a day in an attempt to remember what I did that day and to improve my photography skills. I try to update it about once a week. You can check it out at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/young.lauren/365#

I started the project back when my camera was broken, ever since I got a new camera it has made my life so much better! I am able to get pics I want without having to take it 10+ times. And now I am able to take more people pics because the pics actually turn out, instead of a blurriness of light distortion. Thanks Mom for the camera, I still love it!

Shanghai

Last week was midterms so I got 4 days off and decided to go to Shanghai. Originally I wasn't very excited but after reading all of the books and websites I heard it was dubbed as the NY of China. It didn't quite live up to the hype, but I still had a good time.

These pictures are from Fuxi park in the city. Erik and I kinda stumbled on it on accident, it was pretty cool though, we ended up spending most of the day there.

A shooting game aimed to kill all of the endangered species. The funny thing was most of the kids couldn't even hold the gun up straight, I think it was for the parents really.

There was dancing in the park, some couples were pretty hard core about it. This lady was a bit crazy in the head and took to dancing with her red tea bottle.

Kids loved these row boats, I loved those plastic wheel things in the background. We were going to go on them but they were expensive. I think this is a genius idea if you have a rowdy kid. Kids would go on enthusiastically and within 10 mins would be lying down because they were pooped from running. We even saw a mom with her 7 month old baby go on, I don't know how she thought that would work out. I was picturing a human dryer scenario in my head, after a while she too gave up and took to lounging inside.

Shanghai museum. I wasn't too impressed, I feel like I have seen better exhibits at the Asian Art Museum in SF. Especially the Ming Dynasty exhibit my mom took me to before I left for China. I kinda feel like China sells itself to the highest bidder, like all of it's true masterpeices are somewhere else in the world because they were willing to sell it for a quick buck. I don't know if this is true, or if I am just jaded from the plethora of China history memorabilia I have been exposed to throughout my life. I liked the calligraphy exhibit the most, in some pieces you could see the different emphasis placed on different words from the abrupt brush strokes to the different sizes of each character.

A cute street in the French Concession, very colorful.

Finally, I am too tall for something! I knew China wouldn't let me down.

The Bund, Shanghai's famous skyline.

Yu Gardens/Old Town. This area furthered my conviction that China sells out, in this small complex there was traditional folk craft, (aka small clay figurines of your head, your picture etched on a stone, your name written in Chinese), a Haagen Daz, and 2 Starbucks.

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 mascot. Shanghai is doing crazy amounts of preparation! A good deal of Shanghai was under construction which made me really nervous to walk under anything and took away from some of the beauty. This guy was everywhere you turned, even at McDonalds!

Public Humiliation at the Boardwalk

This was taken at the Xiamen Boardwalk. I pieced together the different videos, take note of the little girl, and the man in the blue jacket. Enjoy. :)

Music Concert

This was a Chinese folk music band. They were a cool group. Even the venue was cool, it was a drug dealers mansion that was converted into a hotel after he was arrested.

Student Play

The prompt was: What would you do if you were stuck on an island by yourself.

SE Asia- Siem Reap, Phenom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia was the last stop on our trip. Initially I wasn't very excited to go, but it turned out to be the most socially intriguing country for me.

Our first stop was Siem Reap. It was ok, Angkor Wat was interesting to see, but after a while all of the ruins started to blur together. What I found to be more interesting was the huge amount of children selling various tourist items. One girl could count up to 10 in 5 different languages, and say 10 for $1 in all of those languages. She must have been 13 years old, and should have been in school.

Angkor Wat


An invasion of monkeys. We made the tuk tuk driver stop so we could take pics.

Next up was Phenom Penh. In PP we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Originally the building was a high school that was turned into a prison/torture center and is now the location of the museum. The school was converted by the Khemer Rouge as a facility to torture and house their prisoners, before eventually killing them. I had no idea that a genocide that killed 2 million people took place in the late 70's. What is even more upsetting is living leaders of the KR have yet to be punished for their actions. The KR targeted scholars, government officials and other high powered Cambodians, in an attempt to destroy all history of Cambodia. It is no wonder that Cambodia is having so many problems today. The most interesting exhibit was one of a Dutch diplomat that had originally supported the KR's cause. It displayed pictures of his tour of Cambodia in the 70's with commentary of what he thought in the 70's and what he now realizes about what was really going on in Cambodia. Most of the pictures he had taken he now concludes were staged scenes by the KR for his visit.

A room and bed used to torture. Prisoners would be tortured here and thrown into cells the size of bathroom stalls.

The Killing Fields was a mass grave for the victims of the KR. This monument is filled from ceiling to floor of victims' skulls.

After seeing the horrors of the KR, Kelly and I decided to take a cooking class to brighten up our trip.

In the class we learned to make spring rolls, Amok fish, and sticky rice with mango. It was delicious.

I wish I could make that here. Maybe if I have visitors I will try...no promises.

Yoga

Lately my body has been really creaky, so I decided to go to a yoga class tonight. I found a yoga studio from the ex-pat website and contacted the instructor. I didn't know exactly where the studio was, but thanks to my improved Chinese (and a paper with the address written in Chinese), I was able to find the building. When I arrived in class, I realized it was conducted in Chinese! Luckily the instructor realized I didn't speak much Chinese and translated what she was saying for me. Man, I was not expecting to get so sweaty from yoga, at other times my body was shaking from the positions we were doing. I am glad I am starting yoga in China, because if I am doing the position wrong, I can just pretend I don't understand the translation. Bad, I know.

Broken Camera.

My camera is broken. It works about 50% of the time. I won't be able to post many more pictures, but I will blog about my Cambodia trip soon. Thankfully Kelly had her camera, and mine was sorta behaving.

In the meantime, this is what I see when I turn on my camera.



I think my camera is really adverse to traveling. In Italy it had a memory card error, luckily the repairs were covered by Canon. Now this, which is also covered by Canon, but only if I am in the USA. It really makes me wonder what type of products these Canon folks are selling...

SE Asia: Laos- Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientienne

I thought Laos was the most visually stunning country out of all the places we had visited. I loved the natural beauty and the French influence. The vibe of the country was also very laid back and pleasant. It was a place that encouraged you to sit down at an outdoor cafe and enjoy yourself.

The journey getting to Laos was not so pleasant. It encompassed a night bus, and a 2 day boat journey. The night bus was an experience. Kelly and I shared a twin size bed for the night, we were lucky because we actually knew each other. Other people had to share with complete strangers. That day I was actually glad I am short, because I could fit comfortably inside the bed. Unfortunately, my Ipod decided to die on the bus, but miraculously it stated working again when I got back to China. It is stubborn.

This picture makes the boat look better than it was. The boat ride itself was beautiful. We were on the Mekong River for 2 days. The only problem was they smashed as many people as possible onto the boat. Kelly couldn't even put her legs comfortably on the floor because there wasn't enough space between us and the bench in front of us. Luckily, on the second day she got to sit on a plastic chair in the aisle.


Sometimes it felt like we were a floating mall. Well, actually the opposite of a floating mall, we were the customers that were in transit to the mall. When we made pit stops they were solely to have locals sell us things. Sometimes they would come on the boat with laundry baskets filled with snacks, and sometimes we would just pull up to their village and they would try to conduct business while we were in the boat and they were still on land.
A glimpse of boat life. Notice Kelly's "what are you doing" face.


We finally made it to our first destination, Luang Prabang!


Luang Prabang was beautiful. You can see the effects of the period of French colonization through the architecture and the cuisine. It was the first time in a long time that I have had French bread.

We rented bikes and rode around the town.


Sunset over the Mekong.
The lush greenery of Laos. You can also see some monks...and a tourist.

This cave had 1,ooo Buddahs. It was cool, but pitch black inside so you couldn't really see any of them.

Are we in Paris? More biking, this time in Vientienne, the capital of Laos. Compared to Luang Prabang, Vientienne was a let down. We were spoiled.

Vientienne.

After being let down by Vientienne we decided to head to Vang Vieng. This was the bus we took to Vang Vieng. I accidentally cut off the huge hole in the roof, and yes, that aisle is lined with chicken eggs. Amazingly, the ride itself wasn't so bad.
The huge appeal of Vang Vieng was tubing on the Mekong. For some reason I thought this meant you would be pulled by a boat. But when they meant tubing, they really did mean tubing. Basically, we got a tube and sat in the Mekong letting the tide push us. The landscape was quite beautiful. Locals decided to cash in on tourists and build bars along the river. After 30 seconds of relaxing and enjoying the scenery, you are greeted with loud music and party gooers, much like what I think Spring Break in Cancun would be like.
The bars were actually kinda fun. One bar had a really high bar, like an acrobat where you can swing on and then jump into the water. I decided to do it, but I got really scared of letting go so I swung longer than most people. I could see the person in charge of it looking really confused, after my 2nd swing I finally let go. There was also a slide and a zip line. I really wanted to do the zip line, but before I could do it, it broke. So I guess I am I didn't go on it. We couldn't bring our cameras though, because of theft and/or water damage.

This is the pick up truck we took for the 4 hour trip back to Vientienne to catch our bus to Cambodia. At one point Kelly said there were 17 1/2 people in the car. Luckily, I slept through most of the ride.

SE Asia- Chiang Mai , Thailand

Kelly had studied abroad in Chaing Mai in college and wanted to go back to visit. I must say that out of the 10 years I have known her I have never seen her so excited. Actually come to think of it, I think it was one of the most genuine excitements I have ever seen, and it wasn't the screaming "OMG" excitement. It was refreshing to see, and made me excited to see why she loved the place so much. (Hopefully, she doesn't get mad at me for writing this.)

These pictures may not seem so impressive at first glance...but they were painted by elephants. I kid not. In true entreprenuer spirit, they were also for sale, if only I lived on more than a $500 monthly income.

After the elephant show, I pretty much fell in love with elephants. They are artists, soccer players, and have real manners (they put top hats on their trainers). When the show was over I wanted a pic, so I ran up to the elephants to grab my picture perfect moment. I didn't know that for a pose the elephants try to wrap their trunks around you, so for a brief moment I was wrestling with their trunks, and getting a little scared. But it doesn't make me love them any less!

Next up was a visit to 5 minority villages. Initially I was most excited for this visit. When we got there it was pretty much a Disney style village. All 5 of the minority villages lived on an area maybe 1/4 the size of the UC Irvine campus. It was strange, like they were standing around waiting for people to take their picture. I only took a picture with one person, and felt too strange continuing. Actually it was more of like a circus freak show. All of these tourists walking around this fabricated lookalike village taking pictures and "ooohing" and "awwwing" at "daily life."

More elephant action on a ride through the jungle. The trainer actually let us drive the elephant. At first I was too scared but I saw Kelly do it and decided it was ok. Actually I think it was more scary sitting in the carriage area. One time when we were going down a hill I started falling out of the carriage. I think I left foot prints on Kelly's shirt.

Water rafting. This picture was taken during the only rapid area during the whole rafting trip. It was fun though, the water was super cold.

Tiger Kingdom. This trip really turned into an animal visit. We heard rave reviews about this place from fellow hostelers, so we decided to go. I thought it was going to be like San Diego Wildlife Park, where the tigers would be roaming around and we pet them and such. Instead they were in a caged area where we were allowed to pet them. No touching the head or front paws though. At the entrance there was a sign that read "This is not a zoo. This is the Tiger Kingdom and Restaurant." I mean really? The sign was trying to make a case that they were treated better than at a zoo, but I think they were tranquilized because they seemed really lethargic. After the visit I was kinda irritated that this place was still in business. One of the signs at the place said there is only 120 wild tigers left in Thailand, yet there were 20 tigers here. I think I would have felt a lot better about the situation if I knew that these tigers were being raised to return to the wild, instead of being raised to be Kodak moments.

And here is my Kodak moment.

Kelly with one of her former monk friends, Jack. He was so nice, him and Gabe (her other ex-monk friend) took us around Chiang Mai. They are standing in front of one of the coolest temples I have seen. It was made of tin, or aluminum, I can't tell. It was one of the more unique temples I have seen, it made a statement but it didn't have to be gilded in gold.

The old temple Kelly use to intern at. We went to monk chat and talked with the monks. They were really cool. I have never really talked to a monk (at least when they were still a monk). It was cool to see that these guys are still 20 something year olds. At one point I started fooling around and telling them all these factoids I know, like what lines on your palm means, or if your second toe is longer than your big toe it means you are bossy. It was fun, a bit hard to read palms without touching them, and I had to explain what bossy meant.

Sorry Mom, I rode a motorcycle, but Jack was always driving. The important thing is that I am still alive. It was actually really cool exploring the city on bike, I felt more like a local. Ok, I did try to drive it, but it was too much to handle, so I only drove for 1 min. After Chiang Mai we mostly too tuk tuks everywhere we went.

All in all, Thailand was great. It was my favorite in terms of adventures. Thailand really knows how to capitalize on their natural beauty and unique lifestyle. I must admit, I did feel a bit guilty about doing almost all of the touristy stuff, but I am glad I did it.

SE Asia- Hong Kong

For Spring Festival I got 1.5 months of vacation. I realize now, that at that point I had only been in China 2.5 months, yet vacation seemed to go so much faster. Anyways, for vacation I met up with Kelly, my friend from 7th grade. Our first stop was Hong Kong, I had high hopes for the city, but I wasn't that impressed, it reminded me of Chinatown in San Francisco.

Avenue of the Stars. At night the buildings put on a laser show and speakers play music. I thought it was really cool, but then again I am a sucker for lights and music.

Lantau Island, home of the HK International Airport, HK Disneyland, and "the largest outdoor seated Buddha." When I first saw "the largest reclining Buddha" in Bangkok I was impressed, it was huge. But then when I heard there was a "largest outdoor seated Buddha" I felt like people were in a race to make the biggest Buddha possible. I bet I could make one. Maybe "the largest tennis playing Buddha," it could be a sidejob to make some extra money. Hey, it might even become a tourist attraction in Xiamen. Gotta dream big.

Walking around downtown at night.

Victoria's Peak. In order to get to the top we had to take a trolley up a steep hill, that seemed like it was at a 70 degree incline, but the top was worth it. Unfortunately, our timing was off, so we had to sit around for 4 hours to see the skyline at night.

Wow, lots of skyline pics. I guess that was my favorite thing in Hong Kong. That and sandwiches! I didn't realize how much I missed sandwiches. They are delicious, especially with chips, yum.