[snicky]

> The future business leaders of America... fuck...

* Didn't know they need a visa to China.

* Paid $730 for 3 visas.

* Didn't know there's a border between HK and China.

* Didn't know there's a public transport in HK and didn't need to take cabs for 200 USD.

* Didn't know menus in China are in Chinese.

* Had to eat McD on their 4th day in Asia.

* Had McD again on day 5.

Hilarious story :)

[zaguios]

This is a little unfair, a lot of these really aren't too unreasonable if you are unfamiliar with China. $730 for 3 Chinese Visas with rushed service actually isn't really overpriced, in fact it's about the price I would expect.

It's hard for them to know exactly how good the Hong Kong public transit system is without being explicitly told, taking cabs is a natural choice for most foreigners in a new city. They also stated they knew there was probably a better way for the boarder crossing, but chose not to look since it was convenient and they didn't mind spending the money.

I'm pretty sure they knew the menus in China would be in Chinese, they were just stating the fact so the reader could understand that doing a simple task such as eating was actually a challenge to a foreigner.

It's not crazy to want to eat something familiar and safe. It's good to try new things which they did, but some times you just want to order something to fill you up that you know will taste decent. It takes awhile to figure out which local cuisines are delicious and which are a bit too foreign for westerners.

I do think that they should have been a bit more prepared, but they certainly did a lot better than most people who travel to China. The entire experience is quite a culture shock no matter how much you prepare.

[ePierre]

> This is a little unfair, a lot of these really aren't too unreasonable if you are unfamiliar with China. $730 for 3 Chinese Visas with rushed service actually isn't really overpriced, in fact it's about the price I would expect.

If you are unfamiliar with China, you read about China instead of playing Nintendo DS... This is everywhere on the Web if you take 1 minute to look it up.

> It's hard for them to know exactly how good the Hong Kong public transit system is without being explicitly told

Again, it's everywhere on the Interwebs. The expat community is HUGE in Hong Kong and therefore there is a HUGE source of documentation online (not only official websites, but also blogs and the like).

> It's not crazy to want to eat something familiar and safe. It's good to try new things which they did, but some times you just want to order something to fill you up that you know will taste decent. It takes awhile to figure out which local cuisines are delicious and which are a bit too foreign for westerners.

And that's why you usually prepare a trip like this, at least to know how to recognize characters like 雞 (chicken)， 豬 (pork)， 牛 (beef)， 魚 (fish), 麪 (noodles)， 飯 (rice). With these 6 characters alone, you can already have a much better understanding of any menu in Chinese.

I'm laughing at Chinese tourists who, after two days in Paris, are sick of the French food and want fried rice, but it looks like it's the same the other way around (and even worse, cause usually the Chinese tourists are old and I can understand they are not used to some food, but when you're young... come on!).

[walrus01]

These are the sort of people who give Americans a bad name overseas. I mean seriously how do you fail to learn that China requires visas? Or know the history of HK-China and why there is a border? At least they're apparently not blistering blowhards like some merkins in Europe.