Travel to Linchuan

Picture this: It's time to leave Hong Kong and travel to your school in Linchuan. Here is the plan: First you'll put your luggage in the trunk of a taxi but it won't fit. So, you must strap it to the trunk with one rope. Now get into the taxi and hope that it doesn't fall out while you're on your way to the train station. When you get to the train station, nobody will speak English so just jump in a random line and hope it's right. Now that you're in line, nature calls. Leave your stuff with the rest of your group while you run to the "bathroom." When you get into the bathroom, you realize that there are no toilets. You must squat over a hole in the ground and I hope you have good aim. After you've "finished," run back to your line just in time to go through security. Now that you're in the terminal, you don't know which train is yours, so just sit down on a random bench. A crazy Australian man will come up and start talking to you like you are his best friend. Watch out because this will continue for the rest of the trip. When someone says something over the intercom, everyone will start to move so you must move now too. As you rush with the crowd, luckily they will take your ticket and show you to your train. The train ride is pleasant for the most part. The crazy Australian man will keep coming back and talking to your group, but you won't mind because he is actually quite entertaining. After you hear about all of the beer he's had lately, you introduce him to Brian Regan. He laughs for about 5 minutes straight and then proceeds to tell you how corrupt your government is. You will finally agree so that the crazy man will leave you alone. After that, you will get off the train and meet your native coordinator, Tim.

Enjoy your trip! Oh yeah, and this really happened to me.


After we met Tim, we waited for an hour for a bus to come and pick up our stuff. Little did we know that after they took our stuff, it would take us another hour to walk to the subway, ride the subway, and then walk an eternity to our hotel all while we were dragging the remainder of our belongings.

Chillin waiting for the bus to come get all of our stuff.

I just went swimming!...oh wait, that's sweat.

Tim took us to a "really nice hotel." This is our ENTIRE room for the 4 girls. There were two queen beds so we slept in twos. We had enough floor space to put our carry-ons and our backpacks and then there was no room to walk.

This was our toilet/shower for the night. They were also nice enough to give us a half of a roll of toilet paper.

After we checked into our hotel, Tim took us to dinner. Dinner: Chicken soup which contained the entire chicken including the feet, bone, etc., pig intestines, fried rice, spinach cooked in oil, pork that was so spicy that it burned my ears, Coke, chicken with too many bones to get any meat, boiled water.

About half-way through the meal, Nathan asked Tim when the restaurant was closing because everyone was leaving. Tim said, "when I finish the beer!" At this point, he had already had a few glasses and he still had 1 1/2 bottles to go! So, we all sat there and watched him drink for about 30 minutes.

Jbiggs and Josh enjoying their meal and getting burned from the spicy meats.

Angela and Natalie eating.

Me eating and drinking enough Coke to kill a horse.

For breakfast, Tim bought us some dumplings on the street in front of our hotel. I'm usually not a fan of dumplings, but I was so desperate that I ate them anyway.

People just randomly hand you their children. This little boy was so cute! Every time I don't like China, I think about how cute the kids are and I feel a lot better!

When it was time to go to Linchuan, we got to ride on a sleeper train. This is me on my top bunk. This is before I knew that the night would be sleepless and filled with cigarette smoke.

We had about 3 feet of space to work with.

Attempted capture of how tall the bunk beds were. They were three beds high and I was on the top bunk. I felt like a monkey trying to climb to the top.

I made it. Happy face!

Cute little boy (Li Lu) and girl (Fu yi) that kept us entertained for about 5 hours...literally. They were shy at first but then they were climbing all over our beds and teaching us Chinese. It was so fun!

They loved our iPods. Their mom kept coming in and yelling at them and they wouldn't even look up from them.

Nlew and Jbiggs showing their best selves. Trains make people really fun to watch and take pictures of.

This was me at the end of the train ride. I was really happy to be alive. NOT!

Hong Kong

We took a tram up to the top of the mountain. It was so pretty! The tram was a little scary though because it went up such a steep hill. I thought the tram would fall backwards, but I made it to the top safely. :)

Angela and me. Our yellow dork dots were so that our tour guide could find us is we got lost.

Cute picture of Jessica and Natalie on the tram to the top.

I was scared because the tram stopped part of the way up the hill. I thought I was going to fall to my death.

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but I hope you can see how steep this hill was. This tram was amazing.

This is me at the top of the peak looking over Hong Kong.

A view of Hong Kong from the peak. I love this city because it is right up against the green hills.

Angela, Natalie, Jessica and me on the top of Hong Kong.

This picture is for dad. This is me in front of a random Disney castle in the middle of a building. I think that big red monster is actually Mickey under there.

Kind of a funny picture of Jessica and Natalie. We were trying to take pictures with these hats and then the lady came and yelled at us. One thing from being here is that Chinese people yell a lot. You just have to learn not to be offended.

Just in case you were wondering, this isn't the REAL New York.

This is where went shopping in Hong Kong. All of those little huts have air conditioning in them. I guess that gives us more of a motivation to shop.

We went on boat to tour the fishing area of Hong Kong. We saw lots of old boats where the people lived and fished from. It was really cool and sad at the same time.

This fisherman was awesome. We waved at him and then he did a little dance for us. I wish I would have taken a video instead of a picture.

Me, Jessica and Natalie on the fishing tour. I like how we are all looking at different cameras.

Me being Chinese with my hat on the fishing tour.

The top of our boat on our fishing tour. I just wanted to take one of these home with me. Oh well, a picture is good enough.

This is at our hotel in Hong Kong. I would give anything to be back there sleeping in a soft bed with a real toilet and shower. It was a western hotel but it still had its little bits of China in it. And there isn't a 4th floor because....?

They know how to get it done in Hong Kong. This guy is my hero. It was interesting because they wouldn't let us lay down on the couch in the lobby. Jessica kept forgetting and this guy would come over and get her to sit up. He's probably thinking, "those rude Americans!"

Hong Kong temple. :)

Hong Kong temple. I had a better picture on here, but I deleted it by mistake.

Ok kids, don't do drugs or you might get "skin sores, nasal collapse, or HORRIBLE LOOKS"

Natalie went out this gate thinking that it would take her to the platform. Not so. An alarm went off and EVERYBODY was looking at the crazy Americans that don't know what they're doing. We were finally able to get the gate closed and the alarm turned off. This is a picture of Natalie hating the gate. Note to self: in America, alarmed doors are marked in red, but in Hong Kong, alarmed doors are marked in green.

Our first ride on the subway. Angela was having a lot of fun being smashed up next to all of the Asian people.

This was at the Hong Kong light show. They play music and the buildings have lights on them that do a little dance. :)

This one is for Courtney Mehew. I had frozen yogurt in Hong Kong. It wasn't the best I had ever had, but it gave me a little taste of home. YUM!

Very true. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen all day.

Ok, who in their right mind would want to go to a sauna in Hong Kong! It's already a million degrees there and super humid!

Traveling to China!

Taveling to China was an interesting experience. First, we (Angela and I) traveled from the Salt Lake to LA where we met up with the rest of our group (Nathan, Josh, Natalie and Jessica). Then we flew to Korea where we had a 4 hour layover. Next we flew to Hong Kong and got there around 11 AM Saturday morning China time. It was a LONG trip but worth it! :)


Amazing sunrise in the Korean airport.

I found this in the bathroom stall in Korea. I didn't try it, but I think I know what it's used for. Why don't we have these in America?

Ok, so Korea had the best bathrooms ever! This was an automatic toilet seat cover changer. Sorry if you're grossed out, but I thought it was cool.

This screen was awesome! It had movies, games, TV shows and a location map. I loved being able to look at the map and see where our plan was. It also had cameras on the bottom, front and top of the plane that you could watch as you were flying. It made for a pretty cool landing experience.

This was the biggest plane I have ever been on! It had 10 seats on each row. I was on row 49 and there was still an entire section behind me.

My glorified TV dinner lunch. Even though the chicken was weird, the yogurt was the best I have ever tasted!

This was Natalie and I being ourselves at the Hong Kong airport. We were waiting there FOREVER because we had about 40 people from ILP traveling with us.

My failed attempt at Harry Potter 9 3/4. Sorry Mr. Potter. I will do better in the future.

Sometimes, you just can't find somewhere to take a nap. Good thing Jessica is smart. Way to go JBiggs!