My Thoughts on Returning

Since our trip is almost over, I'm having mixed feelings.  First of all, we get to go back to Brooklyn!! I'm super excited to see all my friends and family (and enemies).  But it's also kind of sad.  I won't be able to go to any more beautiful beaches for a long time.  I'm actually writing this post at a beach in Thailand.  The sun is always shining and the waves are calm and slow.  It made me realize how relaxed it is around here, and once we get back to Brooklyn it won't be like that anymore.  Here, all we do all day is just hang around and enjoy the sunshine.  Back at home, we do work and organized activities.  I like the flow of not planning anything in advanced and just going with the flow of things.  It's still a small price to pay for seeing everyone again, so it's worth it.

China: Lack of Freedom

When we touched down in China, I soon realized that I couldn’t check my email, post on Facebook or even Google search without using the VPN (virtual private network) to pretend I was in Miami.  The Chinese government is so strict in limiting its citizens, you cannot use many different online tools we might take for granted in the US.  With a VPN, we can access all of these tools we normally couldn’t in China. 

By coming to China I know that there is no freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion.  I recently read 1984 by George Orwell, and I realized that modern day China is much like the world depicted by 1984.  The government is always watching.  Security is tight when trying to get into Tiananmen Square, the most important in the country.  You need to wait in line next to rows of police, then walk through a metal detector and get your stuff scanned.  My mom made me read a couple of articles in the Global Times, the English newspaper run by the government.  I read an editorial that says Beijing is not interfering with Hong Kong’s democracy.  I think that “One Country. Two Systems”(OCTS) is hard to implement.  OCTS means that Hong Kong still has a capitalist economy but is politically controlled by Beijing.   I think it’s hard to have to listen to a city many miles away from yours, and still have your own economy. 

Personally, I wouldn’t want to live in China.  Besides the fact that everyone speaks Chinese, you can’t check Facebook or use Google products.  I would feel constrained with no freedom of speech and press.  The religion part doesn’t bother me as much. 

Hong Kong

"Wow this kinda looks like a big Chinatown," was the first thing I said as I sat in the back seat of an air-conditioned taxi next to my sister and my mom, staring at the world outside.  There were Chinese signs with English translations, bakeries with delicious looking foods, run down shops, and both Mandarin and English being spoken.  So there I was, staring at a whole new continent, and the only thing I could think of was how much it looked like Chinatown.

Almost everything I imagined Hong Kong to be was exactly the opposite.  I thought it would be a poor not-so-modern city, but the tall glass buildings and banks proved me wrong.  I thought it would be crowded with not an inch of space to yourself, but the streets proved otherwise. While crowded, the streets are not uncomfortable.  I thought there would be little to no cars.  But the stores filled with Ferraris, Rolls-Royce's and Cadillacs proved me wrong.

I've only been here for a day and I'm looking forward to the arrival of my American cousins, meeting my Chinese cousins, hiking on Victoria Peak, and taking the bullet train to Changsha.

Dangerous Elephants

A couple of days ago, on our safari in South Africa, our guide told us a true story involving an elephant, a car and a crash.  A couple was driving through the Kruger National Park on the way to meet the fiancé's family right before their wedding.  The man was South African and the woman was English.  She was driving because it was her first time among these animals and her first time in South Africa.  He wanted to make it special for her.  

As they were driving along they came upon an elephant in the road.  Now these sightings are relatively common so they didn't think much of it.  However, the elephant got pissed off.  He started sort of walk/running toward the car and in the hectic moment the woman accidentally stalled the car.  The elephant rammed into them.  The car flipped over three times and came to a stop off the road.  Now you might be thinking, "What did the people watching do??"  Well, the two cars watching took a picture and a video and drove off because, "The elephant was still there and angry."  In the video they took, you can clearly hear the driver of the car watching say, "Wow we can make a fortune off of Facebook with this!"  What an inconsiderate idiot.  The couple in the car was fine in the long run.  Although the woman had her thigh run through with the elephant's tusk and the man was a bit banged up, they still both had a full recovery and got married!  

Now the point of the story was to explain why when we saw an elephant strolling toward us in the road,  Ruby was screaming, my dad was sweating up a storm, my mom was staring in awe and my guide was taking photos.  Elephants shake their heads when they feel threatened so if you paid attention, you would be able to tell that we weren't in danger.   In the end, the elephant just wanted some leaves and didn't want to mash up our car, thankfully.  

Igazu Falls

Our first look at Iguazu falls, one of the natural seven wonders of the world, was through our hotel lobby in Argentina.  On our first full day near the falls, we took a ten minute train ride up to the top.  We got off and saw these weird furry animals we'd soon learn to call Coaties. Coaties are part of the raccoon family, they measure 33 to 69 centimeters and have very sharp white teeth.

Coaties aren't afraid of people

Coaties kept stealing empanadas from people's lunch and my Mom and Ruby were terrified of them. After staring and taking pictures for about five minutes, we started the kilometer "hike" over the river. The "hike" was just walking on a slippery metal catwalk and occasionally stopping for a nice picture. When we reached the end, we were not disappointed.  The walkway stops right before three different sections of the waterfall drop into a cavern so foggy, we couldn't see the bottom.  To add the effect, there were swarms of birds diving down, fly back up and doing all that again.  We spent quite a while there just admiring the sheets of water flying down into the abyss below.  For the rest of the day, we just walked around the Argentina side of the park.  We did some more "hikes" and witnessed a Coatie attack during lunch.

Heading out to the top of the falls in Argentina

The next day, we took a taxi to Brazil.  We checked into our hotel and went to visit the second biggest dam in the world, Itaipu Dam (after the Three Gorges Dam in China).  It wasn't too interesting since we didn't go on the special tour (Ruby was to young -.-).

The following day, we visited the Brazilian side of the falls.  This side wasn't as big but it had great panoramic shots of the falls.  We were wondering about taking a speed boat up into the falls but then decided against it.  None of us wanted to get wet and cold and the fact that it cost almost $300 for all of us to go didn't really help.  In the end, we were all tired, excited and wistful because while we were in a new country, we wouldn't be going to any more Spanish speaking ones on this trip.

Just part of Iguazu Falls

The Tango

As some of you may know, Buenos Aires is the city of Tango.  And last night, we went to an evening show.  The van picked us up at 8:00 and we arrived at the restaurant where the show was being held around 9:15.  The show would then start 1 hour later.  Needless to say, it was a boring hour since everyone else was eating and we had already eaten dinner.  We played a game of family jeopardy (which has become a game we play before and after meals).  Then the lights started dimming and the show started.

As the curtain rose, we saw some shadows of people.  Then the lights flicked on.  There were 3 pairs of dancers all doing the tango simultaneously.  The band consisted of a piano, bass, guitar, accordion and violin.  The music was very loud.  All the leg twirling, fancy footwork and dim lights made it hard for my eyes to follow the dancers around the stage.  Each dance went on for about 5 minutes and after it was over, either one of the two singers would go on, or another pair of dancers.  The show went on like this for an hour and a half.  I eventually drifted off to be woken by the crowed cheering.  I really liked the show so I wish I saw more of it rather than having slept.  After the show was over, we all piled back into our big van and drove off.  As we drove, I recognized some pedestrians.  They were the dancers.  And on the street, they look just like normal people.  Then for the second to last time that night, I fell asleep.

Sandboarding

The wind was whipping my face as I sped down the hill, no, mountain of sand.  As I neared the path, I knew I was going too fast to stop, and that’s when the ground hit me.

Last night we signed up for “sandboarding.”  Sandboarding is basically riding down a steep mountain of sand on snowboards.  When we arrived at 4:00, our guide started telling everyone (two other kids and lots of 20-30 year-olds) to head over to the vans.  The vans brought us into the Death Valley.  The Death Valley looked, as our guide said, kind of like the surface of Mars, with lots of sand and clay mountains around the road.  The road was very bumpy because it was mostly washed away by rain.  As we came around one last rocky corner, the giant sand dunes rose up over the horizon.

The sand dune was maybe 300 feet tall.  We all got out of the van and gazed up while our two guides unloaded the snowboards.  Once they were all set on the ground, we started picking them out and bringing them up the dune.  This was by far the most tiring and hardest part of the tour.  Each trip up took 10 minutes more or less.  But when you’re thinking about what’s to come next, it seems easy. 

When we arrived at the very narrow top of the sand dune, we started strapping ourselves in.  After that our guide gave us a few instructions and sent us down!  After I saw four people go down, I thought, “Oh this doesn’t seem too bad.”  So then I went down.  The first couple of times, I went slowly and thought to myself the whole time, “I’M GOING TOO FAST!!” But the third time, I started to go a bit faster, and a bit faster and then I started zipping down the dune.  Luckily, I stopped right before the bottom. 

The next time, it went a bit differently.  I started out fast and I liked it.  When I started getting close to the bottom, I stopped, or at least tried to stop.  When I hit the flat part, I completely wiped out hitting the ground and rolling down the hill for a couple of feet.  If anything, it felt super fun and I rushed up to go again!

Here's the video of my run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzB7GFOGDZs