An ordinary and great day at HKUST

Many of our blog posts have been about trips, outings and special events that we've experienced during our exchange term. Those were indeed awesome, but I also wanted to share how a regular, normal day would be for us as exchange students at HKUST. There were days where we didn't go out because, yes, we had to study! Although I may have complained and grumbled about being stuck in the library, I still view every part of my experience as a luxury. We were able to travel halfway across the world to attend a great university, continue to learn and expand our knowledge base, meet new friends, experience Hong Kong culture, eat such delicious foods and see beautiful sights. So I would like to share, from my point of view, what a normal day would be like for an exchange student experiencing student life at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology :) I hope you read on and enjoy!

7:30am was still too early...in any time zone. But, I made a vow to myself to not sleep in and skip classes during my time here. After all, the grades I achieve here at HKUST still counts towards my GPA for graduate admission committees...

The room was dark; I would have love to throw the curtains wide open but I didn't want to wake my sleeping roommate. I sneakily took my toiletries and proceeded out of our room door.

I would say that my roommate and I probably have one of the best rooms on the floor. It was far away from the washroom so we don't get disturbed by students walking past our bedroom, slamming doors and showering at ungodly hours. In addition, instead of having a room directly across from us, we have a balcony that displayed crisp Clear Water Bay scenery and beautiful mountains. There would be times where, if I woke up early enough in the morning, I would enjoy a few moments out on the balcony, taking in the glorious view and feeling the morning breeze.

Lamma Island Outing! 南丫島

I woke groggily, stumbled as quietly around as I could without waking up my roommate, grabbed my toiletries and opened my door while rubbing my half closed eyes.

Sunshine poured in from the window across from our room. The view of the mountains from the balcony was clear, in HD and beautiful. Instantly I felt awake, and thought myself crazy that I wanted a few more moments in bed. Besides, we were going on an adventure today - to Lamma Island!

Lamma Island is the third largest island in Hong Kong, behind Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island. It is located southwest of HK island, and a 20 minute ferry ride from there. The island boasts great seafood, relaxing atmosphere and beautiful beaches! According to Wikipedia, the name 'Lamma' was given because of the shape of the island - it resembles a fork of a tree. In Chinese, Lamma Island is called 南丫. The first character 南 means south and the second character 丫...is not really a character in Chinese. However, it is still used and is pronounced as 'ah'. Lamma Island can also be translated to 'Southern Peninsula'.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival! 長洲包山節

The legendary Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a special day full of dancing lions, street food that allure tourists and locals alike...and buns. Lots of lots of buns. Buns all shapes and sizes, made from many materials (although you wouldn't want to eat the plastic ones really).

Thailand - Part 6: Koh Samed

Free breakfast.

That was one of the first things in my mind when I woke up the next morning. It was a groggy morning as we did end up having a few drinks in our hotel room the night prior, but we readily got up and prepared ourselves for the day's activities.

The free breakfast was indeed awesome. They served a wide range of items that we usually wouldn't eat for breakfast such as stir-fried veggies, coconut curry soup and pasta - but of course I didn't care. The 5 of us filled up our plates and took a seat on one of the tables of the patio to enjoy the sunshine.

Mmm, buffet breakfast.

Thailand - Part 5: Koh Samed

A riveting sunset; a calm, embracing sea; the echoes of laughter from the restaurant, bars and beach hoppers; a warm seabreeze caressing our hair. If I worked in a travel agency, this would probably be how I would describe Koh Samed. Except maybe with better words, but oh well.

The first step of our journey was to board a small boat and ride across the ocean to the island of Koh Samed. Thank goodness that numbers are internationally known as all of the words on the signs around the station were in Thai...but we understood enough to know that there was a sailing every hour or so. We nearly got lost while trying to find the station and were a bit confused as to which station we were supposed to go to, but eventually we knew we want to get from 'Bangkok' to 'Banphe'. Good enough.

The timetable for the ferries

Thailand - Part 4: Chiang Mai

The next morning was yet another early day; the four of us had to pack our bags, check out of the hotel, and get aboard the bus to take us to our first tour destination. The transportation was not exactly what I in mind - somehow, I thought there would be a cushy small tour van that would take us to place to place, but instead, we find ourselves in the back of a truck-like taxi vehicle, where we sat on benches along with 6 other people. I didn't mind it though (until one of the benches broke down...but we'll get to that later) :P

Our first stop was a butterfly/orchid farm. In my opinion, it was kind of disappointing. The orchids were indeed pretty and fragrant, but I didn't really know enough about orchids to tell the difference between this one and the other :S. The butterfly farm appeared to have only 1 butterfly. To our horror, the facility used heavy metal chains in the doorway to brutally stop (and kill) any butterfly that attempts to fly though through the "door". It really wasn't very pleasant stepping through the killer metal chains.

Jordan sniffing the orchids.

Another type of orchids

Jean and I posing with the beautiful flowers!

A nice lady took a picture for the two of us

Some of the tourists were more enthralled with the cat

Nan Lian Garden

Nan Lian Garden is a beautiful little green getaway in the middle of the city, close to the Diamond Hill MTR station. I found it as I was researching online for a nice outdoorsy adventure to give Melody a break from her midterms. For anyone with quick access to the MTR, Diamond Hill is each to reach and it is quite easy to find the garden with the standard directions posted at the MTR exits. The garden is open to the public and has a general area where you can walk unrestricted into the evening hours. Along the paths, there are these special exhibit areas that you have to pay to access and they have less frequent opening hours. I believe these paid areas have either reduced fare or free entrance on Wednesday, but we never found our way back to try this out.

 Entrance area of Nan Lian Garden

 Chinese people have a thing for building gates

 Little trees are also popular here

This garden trip was where I first learned to use bokeh with my Canon point-and-shoot

Nan Lian Garden is a gently meandering series of walkways that have small ponds, trees and pagodas scattered aesthetically about. All around the garden are the towering skyscrapers and the immovable mountains. On our visit, it was populated mainly with older folks who were strolling about, or sitting by the larger pond, watching the giant Koi swim peacefully about. Throughout the park, small birds sing and call to each other, helping to remove the drone of the city traffic.

Map of Nan Lian Garden

 The views are like something from a post card, but more urban, due to the skyscrapers

 Some of these buildings house information guides about the ancient wood construction techniques

Eventually, the sun began to set in the garden. Due to how it is deeply entrenched against the highways and skyscrapers, we were quickly being left in a small garden pit of darkness. Climbing up to higher ground, we noticed that there was a walkway across a highway that was actually a crossing to the Chi Lin Nunnery that we had visited on the first city tour that we were taken on. With a few more pictures, we concluded our adventures and went in search of dinner!

 Sunset in the garden

 Chi Lin Nunnery Courtyard

This is one of my favourite HK pictures: The contrast of these ancient temples and the tower mountains and skyscrapers is a peculiar urban beauty to me

Japanese Curry Beef udon 

 Soup noodle dinner set thing

Melody bought a Snoopy shirt at Uniqlo