Summer of Doing>>Junking

In ninth grade one of my friends had a birthday party on a junk. We had such a blast that we have made it our annual tradition to go on a junk trip each summer (even when all of us were in college, now post-college). While we miss our friends abroad and working, it has given us the opportunity to extend invitation to friends of friends, and we still have a grand ol' time! We spent five hours sun bathing, swimming, banana boating and sipping on sangria. On our way back to the port we got hit with a typhoon one, which made for a rocky ride but it didn't ruin our perfect day (:

 

Summer of Doing>>High Tea

In true Hong Kong fashion, we scheduled time this past Friday afternoon to attend High Tea. Hong Kong was a  British colony up until 1997, so as a society, we acquired the best of the Brits (vocabulary, architecture, city planning, etc.). While we usually book high tea at hotels, we decided to try our luck at a tea room. The tea room is located on the ground floor of a residential community and the owner has done a lovely job replicating the look and feel of a quaint European tea room. We gorged ourselves on hand selected tea leaves, delightful scones and pastries, beautiful open faced sandwiches and an assortment of sweet desserts. It was a wonderful two hour affair!

 

cousins then and now

This summer I have been taksed with purging my room and facing the large collection of junk I have hoarded since grade school days. Among my junk I stumbled upon BAGS AND BAGS of photographs and cards. I spent the morning going through my pictures and stacking them in categories (in attempts to eventually create some type of archive). Lucky for me I found a photograph of my cousins ten years ago- then and now. (:

Summer of Doing>>Cycling

After a trip to Malaysia and the Philippines I'm back home and ready to continue with this summer of doing! Yesterday my friends and I decided it was about time we went cycling from Tai Mei Tuk to Tai Po, a route that we never even completed back in high school. So, under the heavy Hong Kong heat, we spent the afternoon cycling. This activity ended up being rather eventful- once we were almost at our end destination, the bridge we were on was blocked off because a group was filming. When we asked to see a permit that gave these people permission to close off the bridge, we discovered that while they had access to use the bridge they did not have the right to block it off. During all of this, an awesome old chinese man said..."first of all, they have a Ferrari down there which is not allowed, and they probably have some beautiful girls dressed in no clothing"...

When we cycled down the bridge we saw that this older gentleman was spot on.

Summer of Doing>>Kayaking

A friend of mine in Philly mentioned in passing once that she was going to make sure that she had a summer of doing, and I thought this was a fabulous idea! Of course, I jumped on the bandwagon and decided I too would have a summer of doing. To launch this self-declared campaign, my friends and I decided to venture off to Sai Kung to go Kayaking. This excursion took place after I got back from Malaysia and before I set off for the Philippines. On our way to our kayaking spot we made a pitt stop to grab a glimpse of Hong Kong- it was amazing! Most shots of our beautiful city are of the skyline and the lights but this view is what I see when I think of my home. It's so easy to forget about the mountains and the ocean when you think of Hong Kong, given our reputation for crowds and shopping and eating. It was the greatest welcome home day I could've ever asked for.

Hello Philippines!

Trip to Manila and Tagaytay

My mother, sister and I decided it was about time to pay a visit to our family in the Philippines (seeing as how it has almost been a decade since we've visited). We spent five days with cousins and aunts, waking up to buffet breakfast and eating almost every moment thereafter. Every day was spent with a different family, exchanging summaries of the past ten years of life. The vast majority of our trip was spent in Manila and we took an overnight trip to Tagaytay to visit an Inne owned and run by one of my aunts0 it was beautiful! My family is the best.

Highlighted advice from one of my titas-hillarious: "You young girls need to stop thinking with your hearts, that's why you'll all go hungry"

{seeing some of our cousins right after we landed}

{some of my fabulous titas}

{overnight trip to tagaytay with some cousins}

{we stayed at our aunt's inne in tagaytay//merienda}

{our room, designed by another aunt}

{our room's balcony looks over...}

{...the tagaytay ledge and volcano}

{eating with our cousins and aunts!}

{aunty jenn says "we are hat wearing people"}

{eating mochiko, the best mochi to ever exist}

{more aunts and uncles}

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

This summer is the first summer that my family has been together in a couple of years, thus, the parental unit decided we should take a vacation; I requested a rainforest- our decided destination was Kota Kinaalu, Malaysia. We came back a couple shades darker and a couple pounds heavier, but it was well worth it! While our canopy walk in the rainforest was canceled due to weather, we met the man of the forest (: