I went on a dope winter break vacation to Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong from February 7th to February 16th. I’m writing about it for the first time today. It’s May 8th.
According to CP time, I’m right on schedule.
“CP time” is short for “colored people’s time”, which is short for “ignoring white people’s unbelievably strict adherence to time guidelines that are ultimately arbitrary anyway”. Luckily, CP time reigns supreme in the southeast Asian countries that I travelled to.
Taiwan
I began my winter break vacation by spending a week in America. The reverse culture shock of being back in the United States deserves an entirely seperate blog post, but I mostly enjoyed reconnecting with family and friends. Karina (one of my very best friends from high school) and Sumer (one of my very best friends from Trials 2016) flew with me from America to Taipei, the city where our grand adventure began.
Taipei is one of my favorite places on the planet. It is a huge city with big buildings, flashing lights and lots of traffic, but it’s deeply harmonious, tranquil and clean. Like, oddly clean. Like, the cleanliness of Taipei metro stations is comparable to the cleanliness of most American hospitals. Karina, Sumer and I began our time in Taipei by listening to Knuck If You Buck on repeat while getting dressed and eating breakfast (Loose as a Goose by Lil Boosie was also a crucial component of our trip’s playlist), and then we headed out to explore the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, Taipei 101 and the Ximending shopping district. Sumer and Karina learned about Taiwanese people’s extreme kindness when a woman at our hotel made an entire breakfast feast just for them, and they also learned about the many wonders of 7-Eleven when we had to stop at one to grab ponchos before walking around the city in the rain.
We made it to the Taipei airport and met up with Taylor, one of my best Fulbright friends. Our flight to Singapore was delayed (CP time, is that you girl?) but we eventually boarded our five hour flight to a truly magical destination.
Singapore
We landed in Singapore super late at night, and we were in dire need of some snacks. We got some fries from McDonalds, and they came with this special sauce that I wish I could’ve bottled and brought home. We explored Masjid Sultan, Arab Street, Haji Lane and Sentosa Island all in the first day. I immediately fell in love with the unique blend of cultures, the beautiful souvenirs, the halal food and the bright and adventurous vibe. After being 50 degree weather in Guanshan for 3 months, I also welcomed the smoldering heat that comes with Singapore’s spot on the equator. In retrospect, God repeatedly blessed our mess on that first day. We got separated with no phone service about an hour after we left the hotel, but an obnoxious photo-shoot that Sumer and I were having in the middle of the street led us all back to each other. The cable cars that we randomly decided totake to Sentosa Island afforded us some incredible views, and our late arrival to the Masjid Sultan (CP time, of course) allowed us to see a gorgeous wedding.
After a bout of sheer hangry-ness and some delicious halal KFC, we trekked over to Supertree Grove light show at the Marina Bay. It absolutely took my breath away. The
combination of the giant trees and the famous architecture of the Marina Bay Sands hotel made me feel like I was in a sci-fi film, or like I had time travelled 500 years into the future. We took it much more slowly on our second day in Singapore (Knuck if You Buck was not on the playlist this time), enjoying time in the hot tub before slowly making our way to Gardens by the Bay. In true millennial fashion, I spent my time in the world-famous and breathtaking biodiversity of The Gardens trying to find flowers to take pictures in front of for Instagram, but the massive greenhouse was definitely a sight to behold.
Thailand
Thailand might as well rename whatever time zone it’s in to CP. Despite waiting quite awhile for a shuttle from the airport, taking a totally unwanted detour to someplace that tried to sell us tickets to all the tourist traps and having a long battle with our hotel’s front desk about the amount of rooms we paid for, we woke up ready for an adventure the next day.
Our hotel had BOMB breakfast options, and we consumed all of the eggs, toast, and frozen alcoholic drinks our hearts desired. Our hotel was walking distance from Bangla Road and Patong Beach, so we hit those places up first. Besides the shock of seeing white people wearing full on box-braids, Patong Beach was a dream. The water was clear and warm, the sand was white, and there were snacks for sale everywhere. After soaking in the sun, we set off to Paradise Beach on a precarious, open-air tut-tut that blasted all of our favorite Bob Marley songs. Paradise Beach is famous for allowing you to feed and play with the elephants that live there. I shed more than one tear when it was my turn to feed bananas to a baby elephant, and I briefly considered becoming a vegetarian after looking into its eyes and seeing that it had a soul. We then left for Freedom Beach, a place that’s more peaceful and secluded than the main tourist beaches but that also requires you to walk up and down 1.86 trillion steps in a mosquito-infested forest to access it. The sunset was lovely at this beach, and it gave us a great chance to unwind after a very active day.
Our lightweight American stomachs couldn’t handle authentic pad thai, so we went to bed really early despite our original plan to check out the clubs on Bangla Road. The next day, a tour guide company picked us up (on CP time, of course) and eventually led us to a speedboat that would take us to see the Phi Phi islands. The ride was so choppy that I thought I would die more than once, but I wasn’t too mad because the boat had free snacks. From my perspective, good snacks are worth about as much as my life. We got to snorkel in crystal clear water, see monkeys, have an all-you-can-eat lunch and take pictures on a famous Phi Phi beach before we headed back to our hotel. We ate breakfast food for dinner so that we wouldn’t have another unfortunate pad thai incident, and then we hit up Bangla Road. All of the clubs let us in for free, and we hopped around until we landed at a huge venue called Illuzion. I was amazed by the confetti, laser lights and go-go dancers, but I was even more amazed by the fact that we were surrounded by people who didn’t speak English but who knew the words to every hip hop song that played. At one point, a woman who didn’t speak English was rapping the lyrics to Rolex in my face. Between the box-braid clad white women and the non-English speaking people vibing to Black American songs, I felt extremely proud to be Black. All over the world, people want to be just like us.
Hong Kong
By this point in the trip, we were all dead tired. On our first day in Hong Kong, Karina and I took the famous Victoria Harbor ferry and made a half-hearted trip up to Victoria Peak while Sumer explored ancient temples. I knew that Black Panther would premier in Hong Kong while I was there, so I searched “Black People In Hong Kong” before I arrived in an effort to find other Black people to watch the movie with. It turns out that there’s a Facebook group that’s literally called “Black People In Hong Kong” (LOL) and after a few conversations with people on that page I organized a meet-up at a Black-owned restaurant called Corner Kitchen Cafe. The restaurant owner created an entire pre-set menu for the event, and we all planned to eat at the restaurant and then see the movie together. Everyone arrived an hour late (CP time strikes again!), but it was incredible to talk to Black people from across the diaspora as the sun set over the Hong Kong skyline.
After the movie, two guys from our dinner group took me,Sumer and Karina to the Lan Kwai Fan/SoHo district to party. This district is filled with young expats, and it was amazing to see so many people from around the world having fun in the same space. We started at a Caribbean bar called Rummin’ Tings, and it’s the place where all the Black people in Hong Kong gather for a good time. We hit up other places with our newfound Rummin’ Tings friends, and then we made plans to meet with some of them for Chinese New Year celebrations. The next day, we visited Lantau Island with Dylan and Augustin so that we could see the famous Tian Tan Buddha. The cows that roamed freely and the Buddhist people praying for peace and prosperity in the New Year made it a serene and spiritual experience, and the view from the top of the Buddha was beautiful. Afterwards, we watched about 30 minutes of a Chinese New Year Parade and then headed back to Rummin’ Tings. I couldn’t hang, so I went to bed early that night so that I would be prepared for my most anticipated adventure: Hong Kong Disneyland.
As a hardcore Disney fan and a person who has been to Disney World too many times to count, I was deeply comforted to find that Hong Kong Disney is a miniature replica of Magic Kingdom. Karina and I watched the Festival of the Lion King, rode Space Mountain, The Teacups, It’s A Small World and a few other roller coasters, and tried not to look cold in all of the cute pictures we took even though it was lowkey freezing outside. It was not my first time at a Disney park with Karina, so being in a place that’s tied to all of my happiest memories with one of my best friends made me feel inexplicably at peace . Even though I was so many miles away from home, all of the love and wonder that experienced on this trip showed me that it really is a small world after all.
Season's Beginning 