Tuesday, October 31, 2006

let the scenery commence

I have arrived in Guilin, in Guangxi province. I flew here from Guangzhou which was incredibly easy and pretty darned cheap as well. The bus to the airport was easy enough, and the flight was only an hour. The only challenge was the cab driver didn't know the street on which the hotel was supposed to be. I got out to walk around a bit figuring I'd find it, asked a whole bunch more cab drivers and at a few hotels, finally figuring out that despite what I was told, the street did in fact exist as did the youth hostel from where I am currently reporting this news.

The place is pretty great, probably my favorite accomodation so far. There is a large common room, the people working here are young and friendly, and the crowd is very international and also friendly. I met up with Sofia again, the Swedish girl from Guangzhou who also happened to be vegetarian. She and I are going to head to Yangshuo together tomorrow partially by bus and partially by boat on the Li River, which is supposed to be one of the more spectacular places to visit in the area, and in all of China. I'm pretty excited about that. The hostel dorm room here is pretty comfortable and the beds slightly less hard than all of the previous ones. My bed is costing me 40RMB per night and would be 35 if I had a student ID. That's $5USD to stay in a large comfortable bed, albeit in a room with 3-4 other people. The place is very clean and in a nice neighborhood in downtown Guilin. Last night when I arrived, I was a bit hungry so Sofia and I went out to see what could be found in the way of nearby vegetarian cuisine. It was already after 11, and though there was a decent amount of activity, there didn't seem to be a whole lot. There was one small place with some tables outside and a few pictures, and with a little bit of Chinese and some effort, we managed to get two large bowls of fried noodles with vegetables, some spicy tofu and fried broccoli on sticks. We actually watched them making it, so I felt pretty certain that it was all safe, and I asked every few minutes to make sure. Things were certainly going into the same oil as the meat and lying next to it, but the attitude I'm taking here is that beggars can't be choosers. With the Chinese I have at my disposal, I can make sure pretty reasonably that I don't consume meat, but having something near meat or cooked in the same oil or pan is basically impossible unless I want to complete limit myself to raw foods and other things that are just not practical. That meal which left us both full was less than $2USD by the way, even with my Sprite. Kind of amazing. Today we found another place where you can see all the food prepared and ask questions, and we had an enormous feast of maybe 6-8 small plates with various vegetarian goodies including firm tofu and beans, broccoli, mushrooms, and other unidentified vegetarian objects. My listening ability is still limited when the answer is complicated, but I feel pretty confident now about ascertaining in restaurants what things are and whether or not I can eat them.

So anyhow, we went to one park today, Ludi Yuan just outside Guilin. There was a ridiculously large cavern filled with stalactites and other similar formations that was absolutely amazing, or at least would've been if not for the insane herd of tourists taking flash photography, shouting, yelling, and being led through the caves by megaphone-toting tourguides. Also, the caves are lit up by generally unobscured colored lights which occasionally has a nice effect, but more often than not makes the whole thing look fake. The formations were pretty amazing and there was a small underground lake, but even covering your ears couldn't shut out the din and it definitely put a damper on the experience. The saving grace that followed was a hike up the side of one of the giant hills surrounding the area to overlook the entire city and some of its outskirts, and then once we got to the bottom we got offered a ride on one of those tiny boots that is basically 10 bamboo logs tied together with a few stools on it. It was only 10RMB for both of us so we went for it and it was really relaxing and peaceful, much more so than I could've guessed. You are right next to the water, and it comes up between the bamboo planks just enough to look like you are going to get wet but not enough to actually do so, though it certainly would be easy enough to fall in if you weren't careful, the boat is only maybe 3 feet wide or so.

All in all, a nice first day and very relaxing. Downtown Guilin is fairly busy and developed, though there are some quiet spots. This is a heavily touristed area for the scenery, so there are many hotels and other facilities to deal with those crowds, though I think this is technically off-season so it doesn't feel too crowded. Yangshuo should be much smaller and more quaint. Though still a tourist spot, it apparently still retains a small-town feel and the scenery is supposed to be stunning.

The pictures from Guangzhou should be up soon. Hope you're all well.

Friday, October 27, 2006

bought my ticket to Guilin

After about a week in Guangzhou, it's getting to be time to move on. I bought my ticket through a Chinese travel website, after deciding to fly to Guilin. The ticket was about 400RMB, which is about $50USD. A pretty good deal I think for a 45 minute flight that will save me about 12 hours on a sleeper bus. I'm excited to make it so easily to a totally different area of China which promises amazing scenery and a fresh perspective from the current province in which I've been traveling the last two weeks or so since I arrived in mainland China in the first place.

My stomach is feeling better. I have been eating bananas a whole lot. Somebody told me they bind, and apparently they do. I have also had great meals and been extremely careful to consume only vegetarian stuff, which isn't all that hard, but for one reason or another I had adopted a bit more reckless abandon than was perhaps warranted. I had a great middle eastern buffet with hummus, babaganoush, falafel, some kind of lebanese salad, some kind of sauteed vegetables, rice, fruit, real oranage juice, and more. It was glorious. Also went back to this Indonesian place and had disconcertingly real fake prawns.

Despite my intestinal woes the last few days, I walked around quite a bit and saw a few nice things. I went to the 6 Banyan Temple and climbed up the stairs of a 9 story pagoda. I was the only one in there, so it was kind of cool to have run of the place. I spent some time wandering around small streets in the neighborhood and ate at a vegetarian restaurant on the same street as the oldest Buddhist temple in Guangzhou, which is something like 1500 years old though none of the original buildings survive. I also visited a mosque here which has the oldest minaret in the world outside of Mecca. Only muslims are allowed in so I couldn't actually get very close to it, but it is kind of enormous and visible from the street below from behind the large walls separating the whole area from the street. Lots of restaurants in this area featuring food from Xinjiang, the northwesternmost province of China which is largely populated by ethnic minority groups most of whom are muslim and extremely different from the ethnic Han Chinese majority. This is the province through which runs the old Silk Road trading route which carried goods from China to India for thousands of years. Apparently it is quite an amazing place to travel, but quite difficult to get around given the general lack of infrastructure and of course language difficulties. In many areas, possibly most areas, Mandarin chinese is not spoken or understood, and I believe they even have different writing systems that are totally unrelated to Chinese. Pretty remarkable how vast the regional differences are in this country, even over small areas.

The hostel has been full most nights, primarily with people here for the trade fair, a gigantic conference that brings importers from all over the world to look for stuff they can buy in China cheap and resell elsewhere. My friend from NYC's company is looking for specific types of restaurant equipment. There's a Korean guy in the hostel who is looking for wind-up toys and other kind of traditional toys that are non-electronic. There's a guy from Colombia in the hostel who is buying toothpaste here. Apparently it's a hot market over in South America. Lots of people down there brush their teeth from what he tells me. Yesterday when I got home I met the first other person backpacking since Hong Kong, a girl from Sweden named Sofia who turned out to be vegetarian too. She was hungry last night so we went out to that middle eastern buffet, and she was really happy about it. It was nice to hang out with someone who actually appreciated the joy of finding a vegetarian feast and who had gone through similar experiences to me locating good food to eat while traveling. Today we walked around a bunch together and again had great meals, and I showed her a few of the things I'd found in Guangzhou worth seeing, as well as explored new areas I had yet to visit. She was only in town for one night and got on an overnight train to Guilin, the exact one I was avoiding, but she'd already bought her ticket before I told her you could fly for something like $10-20 more. In any case, it was nice to meet a fellow traveler who wasn't solely here on business and we may yet meet up again in Guilin or Yangshuo.

It is Friday night here and I'm planning to take it easy. It's already after midnight anyway and I'm sure I walked many miles in the last few days. Today was the first day my legs were actually sore, so I guess that's a good indicator that I'm making my way around and seeing a lot of the city. I've enjoyed getting to know Guangzhou almost as a temporary resident. It's a busy city that many travelers just pass through, but I feel as if I enjoyed a bit more of a local experience through hanging out with Carrie and her friends, and spending enough time here to relax and wander around at my own pace. I'll definitely be adjusting my pace going forward and spending more time in fewer places. I corresponded tonight on Couchsurfing with a guy who lives in Yangshuo who is a Chinese guy teaching English. Apparently he is happy to have people come stay with him in exchange for helping out his students with their English. This of course suits me more than fine. I'm excited to meet more locals and get to know something more than just the tourist side of Yangshuo. We'll see what I make of my remaining two days or so in Guangzhou.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Be Aggressive

So Carrie and I were walking back from dinner with her friend Sharona who had just taken a cab and we were along this river promenade which is kind of nice and lit up at night. We hit a quieter spot and about 5 12 year old kids surrounded us trying to get me to buy flowers. So you try the polite refusal tactic first in Chinese, the don't have money in Chinese, the occasional no thank you in English, then the ignoring them angle, all while trying to continue walking. None of this is effective. At this point, two of them physically grab onto each of my legs and prevent me from moving while they continue to insist I buy flowers and the others shove them into my hands, try and drop them on her purse. Hm, what to do. A Chinese man walks by and I ask him to help please since they are not listening to us. He barks at them in Chinese to let go and they pretty much immediately back off. It was pretty impressive. Victory. We move on and in about 5 minutes see them running towards us once again. Dang, now it's my turn. I had to yell at a bunch of kids in Chinese and tell them to go away and physically slap flowers out of one of their hands and they left us alone. I felt lousy having to be like that, but what else can I do? I couldn't believe the way they grabbed onto me, and I suppose we were fortunate that first guy was around to demonstrate the technique or would not have known what to do the second time. So appalling that the threat of physical violence is necessary, with a bunch of kids no less.

My digestive tract has been on the fritz the last few days. I ate definitely all vegetarian today and not too heavy, and I'm really hoping tomorrow I start to adjust back to normal. Despite being out of sorts, I walked around a lot and today visited a whole bunch of old neighborhoods, winding and ancient sidestreets filled with people who wondered why I was there, and then a few more traditional tourist attractions as well. I'm still pleased by the extent to which escaping the city is possible only by stepping into one of the many parks. The noise really does seem to drop away immediately, and you're surrounded by immaculately tended gardens and tranquil ponds with rarely a ripple in the surface save for the occasional dragonfly doing whatever it is that dragonflies do. Also, I have not seen a single piece of trash in one of these places. There always seem to be people ready to sweep up the tiniest piece of trash as soon as it appears. The streets are similar. Today I saw several people sweeping the streets during the day as pedestrians hurried past them in every direction. I also saw a woman get handed a flier and almost immediately throw it on the ground, so I think the cleanliness I've seen is definitely owed more to the numerous people than an incredible effort on the part of the people to pitch in and keep their city clean. Who knows, maybe they get some credit too and that woman was an anomaly. Plenty of New Yorkers throw trash out while others toss crap on the sidewalk with impunity, so it's always a mixed bag I suppose.

About restaurant behavior, there are a few differences that I have noticed and finally will write about. Pretty commonly, when you go in the restaurant and sit down, the waiter hands you the menu and then waits for you to look through it and decide what you want. He doesn't ask about drinks and walk away for a while as you think it over. It is kind of disconcerting to have someone standing over you while you try and sift through a ten page of menu of strangely named vegetarian items, assuming I'm lucky enough to be in a place where they have English names or occasionally pictures. Also, you always pretty much drink hot tea. I asked for water once and got back hot water, so cold water is not popular, nor is room temperature. I have ordered Coke or Sprite a few times, it is available, but everyone seems to be content with just tea as they eat, as far as I can tell. Today the waitress brought a boiling kettle of water to the table, and rinsed my chopsticks and tea glass in front of me. I thought that was kind of a nice gesture, the first time I'd seen it, though perhaps it should concern me that I haven't seen it earlier. Also, when you get the check, they stand over you while you get your money together and pay it, they don't leave it at the table for you. Not sure what that's about. I guess leaving it on the table isn't really how it is done here.

The hostel bed was hard but functional. Tonight I'm going to try a tactic I learned in Zhuhai when sleeping on the hard Chinese beds, which is to spread out the comforter they give you for an extra layer of padding, then use my sleeping bag liner which is a thin silken layer to provide the frosting if you will. Hope somebody knows what I mean by that metaphor. All in all, I was tired and I slept, and have gone back to the handheld shower next to the toilet, now having finally adjusted my technique so as not to accidentally douse the toilet paper or anyone's drying laundry. It's a delicate process. The hostel room is totally fine and only 120rmb per night which is something like $15US, so I'll be staying a bit longer. I keep on forgetting my credit card when I come to the internet place to book my ticket, but I hope to stabilize my gut before I contemplate my next jump to wherever I go, such as Guilin or what have you.

Oh yeah, new guy in the hostel tonight, also for the trade fair, but he is from Colombia. We spoke for a few minutes, seems nice, and I busted some Spanish. Later I'll have to get him to show off some Chinese since he's been studying Mandarin in Beijing for 7 months and I want to hear what you get for that effort. Hasta luego.

Monday, October 23, 2006

more Guangzhou

Things are generally going well. I moved into a hostel today which is 120RMB per night. The fancy hotel in which I was resting for a few nights was 800RMB per night, but because of the trade fair it would've been 3600RMB per night which seemed an excessive hike. The hostel dorm is clean, and I met a guy staying there who joined me today for some vegetarian food, my first actual stop at a fully vegetarian restaurant since being in Guangzhou. It was another Chinese-style vegetarian restaurant at a Buddhist Temple, and the food was a bit fancier and better than some of the other places I'd been, though really none of those Buddhist meals I've had have been bad at all. There was this one in Shunde my last day which was basically a giant bowl filled with mushrooms, but even that was pretty ok.

Went out again last night, first to an Indian restaurant then to a bar. I didn't drink really though, this time opting to recuperate instead from another probably and accidental meat ingestion. I really need to be more careful. This was at a middle eastern place, so it wasn't the language barrier really. I'm not sure what it was, they said it was but it wasn't. Today's vegetarian feast was a good recovery and I'm going to try to have a light dinner to continue to feel better. The indian food last night made me long for New York. I had Dal Fry, my favorite thing to order at Angon on 6th St, and it didn't measure up. The samosas were good at least, but that was about it. Way too bland and uninspired, not even spicy enough to compensate for an inherent lack of flavor. Too bad, it was supposed to be one of the better Indian places in Guangzhou.

After the temple today me and Roger walked back from there to the hostel, which was pretty far, but a nice walk through some unusual neighborhoods and then along the Pearl River which flows through Guangzhou. There is a nice promenade that was fairly recently redone and filled with people relaxing, gambling, cycling, and walking. I got home and promptly fell asleep since this morning I was woken up by a dragon dance outside the hotel window at about 8am, celebrating the trade fair or something to that effect. The dance itself wasn't so loud, but there were a lot of drums. A really lot of drums. The dance itself probably would've been more interesting had it only started say 3-4 hours later.

I'm off to go find some food. Still not sure when I'm leaving this joint, though I found a good site through which to buy airline tickets, complete with a functioning English section. Looks like I'll spend about 400rmb, or $50US to fly to Guilin whenever I decide I've had enough of Guangzhou. Pretty good deal to avoid a 14 hour busride in my opinion. Now for vegetables.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Ah, conversation

Back to English, but of course now I feel guilty for not practicing enough. Already the Chinese I learned is leaking out of my ears for good. I am doing my best to keep it up though as much as I can, and there are still plenty of opportunities.

The other night I met up with Carrie from Couchsurfing who took me to a great bar on the Pearl River running through Guangzhou. It was a really relaxed place with great views on a really nice night (the weather is humid here but generally comfortable) and we sat and got to know each other for a bit. Shortly thereafter she spotted a few friends of her's and we joined them, one English ex-pat living in Guangzhou for about 5 years, and two other Chinese friends. We met at 9pm that night, and did not leave the bar until about 4am while the people disappeared and the bar closed all around us. The evening consisted primarily of a long and winding conversation about the US, China, democracy, communism, censorship, religion, and other light topics. Carrie's English friend had an interesting perspective and many decent points to make, and it was an extremely enjoyable. This of course punctuated by a whole lot of beer and more of that dice game of which I still had much to learn.

The next day I met up with my mother's friend's son who is traveling on business in Guangzhou, and we met up with Carrie again who took us on a walk through a giant park here which reminded me and Michael both in some ways of Central Park. It rained a bit but nobody seemed to mind all that much, the weather stayed comfortably humid throughout. Later in the day I had a pleasant surprise at dinner. Carrie took me to an Indonesian place which appeared to have some but not a ton of vegetarian options. After explaining that I was vegetarian, they brought out a small second menu which said "strictly vegan" on the top and had maybe 20 all vegan choices. I was kind of stunned and maybe moved a little. I ended up having some kind of vegetarian salmon with chili powder and we shared some curry vegetables, all of which was pretty good. I was amazed to be eating such a good vegetarian meal in the first place, so I was happy. We then met up with Carrie's friend Sharona who is Chinese but lived in NYC for 10 years, and then Michael joined us and we went to another bar. We drank and talked and then I finally learned how to play Chinese Chess, which is much more similar to western Chess than I realized. I'm going to have to get some pieces when I get back to New York someday.

Guangzhou is a big and active city. It's very spread out and not really walkable as NYC is, but within a neighborhood it is a bit more doable. I haven't really explored it all that much, but it seems to have a lot of restaurants, bars, shopping, and everything else you'd expect from a giant city that's been around for so long. This may not be the best week to judge because there is a large trade fair in town, but there seem to be non-insignificant numbers of foreigners roaming the streets, although it is clearly still China and occasionally people do seem a bit mystified to see me, although I have been going to some places where probably fewer foreigners are found, like this internet cafe for instance which is filled with Chinese teenagers and twentysomethings blowing each other up with rocket launchers and in some cases magic spells. And smoking. Lots of smoking.

Today the only clothing I have is what I'm wearing. My laundry should be ready around 6pm. That's one thing that is always better about the hostels than the hotels. They have a washer and dryer and for like $2US they'll do your laundry for you and fold it. In a hotel, it is always some exorbitant price. There isn't really a local launderer near by or I would have tried that instead, if only for another chance to completely misunderstand someone in Chinese. I did have a good conversation with a cab driver the other night on the way home. As in all the other places I've visited, people are always pretty complimentary and enthusiastic about a western that speaks some Chinese, and usually tell me that I am either "very good" or occasionaly "formidable" which is my favorite compliment I think.

Oh yeah, I uploaded some pictures from mainland China. They can be found here:

pictures from the first part of my trip in mainland china

Friday, October 20, 2006

Guangzhou

I have arrived in Guangzhou successfully after a long meander through suburban Guangdong. This is a large city of 5 million people or so and it feels pretty different than the smaller places I've been in the last week or so. Kind of like arriving in New York City maybe after touring through northern New Jersey. It's refreshing to be in a place where not EVERYbody is staring at me. There are still a few but with hundreds of years of being the sole Chinese contact with the west, people here are at least slightly indifferent and accustomed to the presence of foreigners.

I went yesterday to a large temple in Foshan called Zumiao where the best part was a large exhibit about various Kung-fu masters and their students and their history of association with Foshan. In particular the exhibit centers around Yip Man, Bruce Lee's original teacher, and Huang Fei Hong, one of the most portrayed and famous martial artists in China's history. The rest of the temple was beautiful enough but after a while they have all started to blur together a bit. A pagoda here, a giant Buddha there, thousands of incense sticks, people staring at me, etc. I also went for a meal again at the Happy Cafe which didn't work out so happily this time. The girl behind the counter confirmed my selections were vegetarian, twice, and then sure enough I was eating, noticed something that looked meat-like, asked about it, and though they were somewhat apologetic, it was meat sure enough. It was a small amount of diced meat in a plate that was otherwise vegetables. I don't think I ate too much of it and didn't seem to suffer any ill effects, though I went back to my hotel room after to relax for a while just in case. Kind of a bummer, the food the previous day there was really good and I had been excited to find it. They were open 24 hours too, which would've been a promising find for Morethansalad, but now I'm undecided as to whether or not I can include them given that they definitely understood what I asked, but gave me the wrong information. I have a lot of restaurant information that I've yet to include on the site, so I'll evaluate that at a later time when I actually sit down in front of a computer again for an extended period instead of these short stays at internet cafes.

So the internet access at this particularly cafe is also 3RMB per hour, way better than the 50RMB per hour they want at the hotel which is kind of insane. The first time I walked down here, maybe 25 minutes from the hotel, which was fine, but then I arrived and for the second time since I got to mainland China I have been asked for my ID to use the internet. In Foshan they didn't care, but at this place and one other somewhere along the way they needed it. I don't know what this is about, but it is not just for me, everyone using a computer has to show an ID. Also, from different places, different websites do not work while others do. I believe this to be work of the Great Firewall which I'd love to link to on Wikipedia, but guess what website I can't reach from here. It definitely bugs me to think that the government is actually restricting access to information here, that people who want to look up something on a free encyclopedia are not allowed to do so. Of course nobody in this venue appears to care all that much, they all seem to be immersed in different games. I'm the only person who I can see actually using a web browser, everyone else is blowing things up or fending off dragons with shotguns and things of that sort. Some people are just playing solitaire or other card games.

I rode the Guangzhou subway system one stop to get down here the second time, since the first time I had to go back and get my passport. It's really fancy and new, and looks almost exactly like the HK subway. Perhaps they were built by the same company or designed by the same people, because it is virtually the same. The only variance is the payment system. 2RMB got me a small token which I held over a reader at the turnstile to let me pass. I then deposited the token upon arrival. Other people appeared to be using smartcards similar to the HK system. All in all pretty slick, and Guangzhou definitely feels a lot more active and international of a place than any other I've visited except Hong Kong.

I thought of a few random things I wanted to mention. Walking down the street, there actually isn't a whole lot of trash strewn about on the ground. They seem to have people on almost every block in almost every city I've been actively cleaning throughout the day. They sweep, pick up trash, and empty out the ashtrays that exist on top of almost every single garbage can. It is amazing what a difference no cigarette butts on the ground can make. So the streets are really clean, but in contrast to that, there is no concept of letting anyone else go ahead of you, standing on line, holding the door for somebody, or even saying thank you when somebody holds the door for you. Now I've seen this happen to Chinese as well, so it's not just because I'm a foreigner. It seems to be the cultural norm. I've been on a whole bunch of buses where upon arrival, the whole bus is going to disembark. Everyone will just stand up and nobody will pause to let anyone who is still sitting out. If you don't make a break for it, you will be the last person off the bus. Standing in line anywhere like at the bank for instance, people will step directly in front of you in line without blinking. New Yorkers have a reputation for being rude, but most people I think will generally go through these basic motions of polite behavior towards one and other. Maybe it is my foreigner sensibilities, but it seems to me to be a lack of basic consideration for each other. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, I welcome comments on that topic.

So I made a few calls and I'm having a drink tonight with a girl who lives in Guangzhou who I met on Couchsurfing and hopefully some of her friends. I also spoke with an American friend who is currently on business travel in Guangzhou and hope to see him tonight, tomorrow, or whenever. I know a few other people here who I've yet to call. A social outlet will be a welcome change from the last week or so of generally being on my own and only having Chinese conversations. That does remind me however that last night I went out with these two Chinese guys in Foshan and I'd say got a little drunk for the first time since being here. They took me to a bar/disco a little bit off the beaten path and we drank and played this dice game for a while where the loser has to drink. I'd say it was my first authentic Chinese night out. The bar was kind of a loud and noisy disco with lots of techno music and people having seizures on the dance floor, whilst others played dice and watched. They have this weird thing which is apparently common here, where instead of buying a round of drinks and then when you're done buying more, you buy some large number up front, like say 8-12 drinks, they bring you a bucket with a whole bunch in there, and keep refilling them til you finish. So we bought 12 beers for 120RMB, which is like $15US, and apparently whatever you don't finish they will hold for you and you can come back and drink it another time. At least that's what I understood. The language barrier was compounded by the violent and relentless kick-drum, but I think good times were had by all, certainly by me.

I'm waiting for pictures to upload, so maybe by next time those will be ready. The internet here is pretty slow so it is taking a while. I may have to pay $.43US for another hour so they have time to finish. In the meantime, I hope you all are well, certainly the longer I go deprived from my friends and the many conveniences of New York, the more I think I appreciate them. Stay in touch.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Subversive activities

Sidewalks here are a perfectly acceptable place to drive and park. Additionally, pedestrians do not have the right of way, especially on the sidewalks. They have the right to keep their wits about them lest they be run over and tossed like a ragdoll into a shoe store blasting techno music out into the streets while a couple of teenage chinese girls stand on the speakers clapping out of time and another shouts at indifferent passerbys through a megaphone. I'm not making any of that
up.

Foshan feels bigger than Shunde. At first I thought fewer people were staring at me, but maybe I'm just getting used to it now. I took a long walk tonight down the main drag of Zumiao Lu and there are lights, a neon-coated Pizza Hut, a whole bunch of giant shopping malls, and a zillion other shoe and clothing stores lining the
streets. It is about 9pm on a Wednesday night and everything is still hoping. Each store you walk by has different techno going, so it is kind of like changing radio channels but everything is the same. As far as I can tell the only difference is the speed and the pitch of the singers voice. As close to chipmunk-pitch as possible is ideal, and I am not exaggerating.

I feared the worst for dining tonight having not identified any positive vegetarian restaurants here, but a girl at the hotel recommended a place to me right across the street called the Happy Cafe which worked out great. I could see everything as it is cafeteria style so I didn't have to negotiate a Chinese menu, I could just ask
what's vegetarian and they had many an option for me. The food was really good, I'll be going back possibly for every meal while I'm here. It was also only about $2USD, and rather than most meals I've had here the place was kind of shiny and young instead of feeling more or less like any average Chinese restaurant. I think it was my favorite meal since Hong Kong.

There's some crazy looking nightclub/restaurant/bar next to the hotel and I think I'm going to check it out for a drink. I'll be heading to Guangzhou on Friday morning and staying until sometime the following week. In an effort to both speed up getting to more scenic territory and avoid a 14 hour busride, I checked out regional flights to Guilin in Guangxi province and I'm pretty sure I can do it for like $50US, so if I can figure out the Chinese website's online reservation system or
otherwise get someone at the hotel to help me, I'm going to get on that.

I had to send this update to myself in Gmail and upload it from the hotel because apparently there are more website restrictions at internet cafes than there are at business centers at western-friendly hotels. We can't have anyone visiting any subversive websites and updating their blogs now can we? After the cafe I decided to try out a local bar so I went to one down the street and it was pretty dead but there were 3 Chinese guys playing live music, probably some of the worst I've ever heard, but I must say it was really funny. The bar was pretty dead but one guy who worked there was really excited to meet an American and wanted to chat a lot, and wasn't afraid to try out his English which wasn't horrible. He even bought me a beer. I might hang out with him later tonight, maybe he can show me something interesting in Foshan I wouldn't find otherwise before I leave.

I'm off to check out this giant temple called Zumiao, for which this street is named. Tonight is my last night in Foshan and then I'll be off to Guangzhou tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to that, should be a really interesting city. Maybe tonight if I can I'll upload the pictures from mainland so far.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Wandering around Shunde

This is my last day in Shunde, so I started by going to Qinghui Yuan, a giant imperial era garden across the street from this hotel. It was the primary reason I came here and it was well worth it. A really beautiful place that put me in a very contemplative mood. The attention to detail is remarkable, and the place is filled with wood carvings, pottery, old buildings, arches made of stone, and water running throughout filled with fish, turtles, waterfalls, and other beautiful scenery. It wasn't very crowded so I felt like I had it to myself more or less.

People stare at me constantly here. They look at me as if they have really never seen a foreigner, and not just a short look but a prolonged stare as I walk by. I'd say this happens 80% of the time someone sees me on the street. I am becoming more used to it, but it is a bit draining. They don't smile when they do it usually, though I do get a few smiles once in a while. Most of the time it is kind of a blank stare and even a smile from me is not returned. It's kind of disconcerting really. Sometimes I say hello in Chinese and that breaks the spell and has gotten a few laughs and questions, but more often than not it is just that same look.

It seems a lot of people here pick their nose and ears with impunity in public. There is no point to that observation, but I have noticed it a lot and thought it was kind of amusing.

I asked the hotel people today if there was any other vegetarian restaurant in town, and they pointed me to one which I couldn't find, so I stopped in the general vicinity where I thought I should be looking and I saw an English school, so I went in and asked for their help and one of the girls there took me and showed me where the place was. We talked a little bit, she has 40 students at her school and she is the teacher. Her English was better than most people I've met, but definitely not fluent or anything. The restaurant was closed so I decided I'd come back for dinner instead. I ended up going back to the Baolin Temple restaurant instead, which was again very good, and then walking back from there which took about an hour. On the way I paused a number of times to look around confused about which direction I should go. A lot of guys on motorbikes pull over to see if I want rides. One of them got off his bike and approached me speaking English about 10 decibels too loud. The basic gist was "I HELP YOU" and "VERY FAR VARY FAR" and then "5 KUAI!" which is 5 Chinese dollars. I declined but he was extremely persistent. It took a solid 5 minutes for him to drive off and give up and he seemed kind of pissed off about the fact that I wanted to walk. Either that or he was just a very loud person, and there do seem to be quite a few of those here.

People here do drive like maniacs. The lines dividing lanes is an extremely loose concept here and horns are very popular if the person in front of you is not going fast enough. The bus drivers do this as well. There are pedestrian lights at major intersections, but at most crosswalks there are no lights, so people just sort of wander freely whenever they feel they have a fighting chance of making it. They often stand between moving lanes of traffic waiting for the next opportunity to open up. There are also motorbikes, regular bikes, and both of those with large bins attached for cargo. You'll see a lady go by with about 1000 bananas hanging off the bike, or giant sticks of bamboo, or whatever else. It makes for a rather chaotic environment, though the roads on which I was walking today were pretty wide with big sidewalks for the most part it was subdued until getting into the busier more urban area. I took pictures of the temples and parks I've seen, but the city itself is rather dull as have been most of the other cities I've seen. There were a few interesting areas, but by and large the buildings and streets are kind of dull. I'm thinking about heading soon to something more scenic. I think my goal should be to find more people to meet and show me around places. I was thinking about heading west sooner rather than later and just start hitting the spots that I think will be truly amazing. I'm sure I'll catch reasonable glimpses of these cities of "real" China on the way.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Things here are pretty darned cheap

So 1 US dollar is worth about 8 Chinese Ren Min Bee, also called Yuan. RMB means "the People's Money" in case you were wondering. I took a bunch of public buses that pretty much cost 2RMB for rides of maybe 45 minutes or so, a fixed fare. I took a longer distance bus for 2 hours which cost 15RMB, still under $2US. In a bus station I bought a large bag of peanuts and a large bottle of water for 6RMB, $.75USD. Today I ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant at a Buddhist temple in Shunde, and that cost 50RMB for 2 entrees (I was hungry) with rice, tea, and a soda. The hotel in which I stayed in Zhuhai was a bed in a student dorm, but it was perfectly clean and comfortable. That cost 60RMB, or about $8USD.

Today it rained in Shunde, so apart from venturing out to the Baolin Temple to explore and get some vegetarian food at their restaurant, I didn't do much except watch Chinese television and sort out a few things relating to my credit card and bank card situation. I also did a bit of reading and potential mental reconfiguring of my intinerary, though I still have come to no conclusions about that yet. The only certain things right now are Foshan and Guangzhou. Tonight I'll spend some time figuring out where I might stay in those places. Tomorrow I will visit Qinghui Yuan, a park from the imperial era which is supposed to be amazingly landscaped and extremely beautiful, apparently one of Guangdong's 4 famous gardens, at least at one time if not at the present. The things I read about it where ambiguous about the current status. Time permitting, there is a Bruce Lee museum here since it is very close to his ancestral home. If it isn't too much of a shlep to get out there it could be entertaining. Now I will go check the weather and see if perhaps the sun will come out for my look around the city tomorrow.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

An interesting 24 hours or so

Well, yesterday was a pretty good day. I woke up at the hotel in Zhuhai more or less rested and decided to move on without spending any time in Zhuhai. There were no other travelers in the hostel, and nothing I really wanted to see. Instead, better to get to a more interesting destination.

Everything that follows took place with absolutely zero English. No signs, no conversations, not even any English numbers except on some of the buses. First, the wrong bus from the hotel, ending up at a local bus station in northern Zhuhai instead of the longer-distance bus station that I wanted in southern Zhuhai. I then took a cab to that bus station. I then got on the right bus to Cuiheng Cun, which is really hard for me to pronounce, and traveled maybe 45 minutes to there from Zhuhai. There I visited the home village / residence / museum of Sun Yatsen, an important political figure in Chinese history, famous for organizing the revolution against the Qing dynasty in the early 20 century, ending the imperial system, and becoming president of the first Chinese republic. The museum there celebrates his life an achievements and then there is a recreation of what they called a folk village of Cuiheng, what it was like around the time he lived there as a child. Every person who sees me pretty much stares now, especially on public transport and basically everywhere. I got a few random "hello"s from strangers as well. I forget if I wrote that already.

Ok, so next I got on the right bus again this time to Zhongshan, a kind of large nearby town actually named after Sun Yatsen. Zhongshan is another name used for him and apparently almost everywhere in China has towns named after him. I didn't intend to go there, but apparently it was necessary to switch buses to get to my primary destination, a town called Shunde, which is where I am now. I basically made it in once piece to where I wanted to go, taking a lot of buses and navigating many a bus station figuring out how to do it. Every information booth conversation was all Chinese, but at least I got the reward of them being impressed that I spoke it all, and I kind of enjoyed their panicked expression as I approached wondering if I was going to speak English with them and if they were going to have to run away.

So all of that was kind of hard, but at least I expected it so I felt a bit better. I'm definitely learning how to navigate these places, and becoming more accustomed to speaking Chinese on a regular basis. I was just feeling good about that and happy to have reached my destination when I realized I could not find my bank card. Needless to say, not good. I believe it fell out of my pocket as opposed to being pickpocketed or anything like that, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Ah, disaster. I'll spare the details, but I finally figured out the situation, got a cash advance on my credit card, and have basically worked out a way to get my new bank card sent to where I am or at least where I will be in a few days. Hopefully it will all work out and in the meantime I think I learned another lesson, which is not to keep anything in my pockets that I don't want to lose. If it takes me an extra few minutes to open up my bag and get things out when I need them, it will be worth not going through this, although it certainly gave me many chances to learn some new words and explain the situation to people at the hotel while I tried to sort it all out.

Lastly, the bus drives through China were interesting leading up to this point. There seemed to be no highways at all so far. Every single road we drove on was densely populated, kind of dirty, and generally under construction. The air pollution is pervasive, just as bad or worse than HK I think. It's too bad, although you see some grass and trees here and there, and occasionally some kind of agricultural area, it is always dwarfed and consumed by concrete in every direction. I think once I get out of the immediate area of Guangdong, a very industry-heavy place, that will improve. I am definitely aiming for some of the national preserve areas, with forests, mountains, and other similar scenery. Still no other travelers to hang out with since HK, but I'm hoping that will change in Guangzhou. Also, I heard back from someone on couchsurfing who lives in Foshan, my next stop, and hopefully will have some people from that site with whom to hang out there and in Guangzhou.

Now I'm off to find the vegetarian restaurant which I heard exists just nearby as part of a temple called Baolin Se. I did cave and get french fries yesterday and I must say they were amazing, but I'm looking forward to a proper vegetarian meal since I haven't really had one since Macau. The food since then has been functional but not optimal.

Oh btw, I uploaded my pictures from Hong Kong and Macau. Here are the links:

the roadtrip, for those who missed them
Hong Kong pictures
Macau pictures

Enjoy.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

I am tired

What a day. It seemed simple enough, getting from Macau to somewhere to sleep in Zhuhai. I spent a few hours this morning in a business center in a casino hotel in Macau using the internet, the absolute only place I could find after spending a long time looking and talking to people. Apparently all the internet cafes have shut down for unknown reasons. So I found a youth hostel in Zhuhai which sounded appealing, with the potential to meet some new people since in Macau the hotel was nice enough but there weren't many opportunities for running into fellow travelers. I figured out the busride to the border, and then it is reasonably simple to walk across. There were hordes of people going through this process. First, you leave Macau and get your passport stamped, then move on through Chinese immigration and customs. There is a long building through which people pass on this journey. The only hold-up was Chinese immigration which had a line taking maybe half hour to get through, not too bad. On the other side, things got confusing, mostly because English is just gone. There are a few English signs on restaurants, but all the bus schedules were in Chinese only, and the information desk only spoke Chinese. I don't know what someone would do if they knew none at all. I know some and it required a reasonable amount of effort to figure out where to go. So I got on the bus, no English, no stop announcements, no nothing. I only had the English name of the hotel and the street. Turns out I am on the right bus, so that's good news. I get off on the street and spend some time walking up and down it before finally figuring out the numbers are going the wrong way. So I hop a cab and explain the destination, again all in Chinese, finally pulling it off and showing up at the Zhuhai Holiday Resort, which is as fancy as it sounds, though they have a special room with about 8 beds for cheap travelers. I got through the check-in also in Chinese, and made it to the room but the key didn't work. There were 3 people there who eventually explained that they don't give keys to the dorm because there is only one key. Apparently I need to ask somebody to let me in once I'm there. I'm going to figure that out soon. I was pretty much starving at this point, so I called this girl I met in Hong Kong who told me if I visited Zhuhai to call her, and she and her friend took me to a restaurant for dinner. They both spoke no English at all. So since I got here I have spoken no English. We managed to have a dinner conversation and I also managed to have a pretty decent vegetarian meal, so I am now full of tofu, vegetables, and rice. I made it back to the hotel and I'm now there typing this. The hotel staff also speaks a very, very limited amount of English. All the interactions are in Chinese. I'm definitely learning, but the jumping in the deep end to learn to swim analogy is accurate. Every time I hit a word I want to say but don't know in Chinese it is like running into a brick wall. I'm sure I will get more used to it, and I hope it doesn't sound too dramatic, but it can be kind of exhausting. It is not like learning Chinese in New York where I'm always going to fall back to English. There is no falling back here, I have to explain myself. The problem is if I don't explain myself it means I may not eat, or find my hotel, or get where I'm going. Let's say I'm learning a lot.

The dorm is pretty nice. Seems very clean and at the moment empty, so my journey to find this youth hostel at the moment hasn't turned up any other travelers with whom to chat, though at least getting here was an adventure unto itself. The rest of the hotel is very nice and the staff has been very helpful and pretty patient with my Chinese. It is kind of an amazing experience although at certain times it can be stressful. It'll be interesting to see how things go in the next few towns I visit. As far as my schedule goes, I don't really know. There are a few towns between here and Guangzhou, another big city. I'm going to go read my China book for a while and see what it says about moving around here and figure out what I want to do. One kind of remarkable thing is how the prices have dropped off immediately. My bed tonight in a room that at the moment I have to myself is 60RMB, which is about $8USD. The internet is going to cost about $1 for an hour and a half. The room is perfectly clean and nice, the bed is what seems to be the Chinese standard, a little on the hard side, but not too horrible. You wouldn't want to fall back on it. Zhuhai is unfortunately not all that walkable and I'm not up for a big night, though my friends invited me to go to a disco with them. I'll see how I feel. For 8 bucks maybe I'll spend one more night here and try to see some of the city before moving on, but it is a fairly large and spread out place which seems largely like a transitional city between HK, Macau, and the rest of China. It is technically a Special Administrative Area, with different rules from the rest of mainland. I just want to get to that other part and hopefully the super-westernized feeling that pervades the areas I've visited thus far will fade away a bit, though this is definitely already much less western than HK and Macau were.

Friday, October 13, 2006

roaming around Macau

I have spent one night in Macau and I'm going to spend one more before moving on into mainland China. Internet access has been hard to come by here, it doesn't seem like they are quite set up for budget travelers or backpackers as HK was. There are numerous guesthouses and hostels with dorm rooms in HK, here there are decent cheap hotels, but I couldn't find any hostels.

This is a strange place, and in many ways different from HK. Macau is a former Portugeuse colony and I didn't realize the extent to which that would be obvious walking around here. The architecture and design of the city is very European. The streets have a similar cobblestoned look to many older European cities I've visited. The city is littered with buildings which wouldn't be out of place anywhere in Europe. The signs all have Chinese of course, and below them usually Portugeuse more often than English. Despite that influence, the people are all pretty much Chinese with various other Asian immigrants from Indonesia, Malyasia, and the Phillipines, and probably other places. Maybe I've just gotten lucky here, but it seems like more people speak Mandarin than in HK, though still Cantonese seems to be the predominant language. Around the tourist destinations there are of course westerners, but they disappeared pretty quickly as I walked through the winding old streets of the city. The city has a more rundown look in many parts than Hong Kong, although there is an incredible amount of construction going on in certain areas, mostly near the casinos. That stretch of Macau is a lot like Las Vegas. There are apparently just under 20 casinos, and at least several more on the way. I walked through a bunch of them. The scale isn't quite of Vegas in my opinion, but the concept is exactly the same and walking through the casinos here is basically the same as there except for the Chinese games and people. Oh yes, and the prostitution here is way more out in the open than in Vegas. The girls are everywhere and very forward and the police don't seem to care. I don't think it is legal here, just something that everyone accepts. I saw it in Hong Kong as well, though compared to here that was very tame and generally limited to the entertainment districts of the city, Wan Chai and Lan Kuai Fong. Here, pretty much anywhere there is a hotel there are a number of ladies standing out front and in the lobby soliciting people as they walk in and out. They all seem to get a kick out of it when I speak Mandarin at least, so that has been entertaining. And the answer to all of my friends' next question is NO and I don't know how much.

By the end of my week in Hong Kong, I had settled in and ended up liking the city quite a bit. It was sort of an adjustment, but I think that was more Asia than HK and being so far away from everything. It's a good city and I'd definitely go back and spend time there again. I liked the mass transit, it is very easy to get around. There is an incredibly efficient, clean, and inexpensive subway that runs reliably and quickly. I never waited more than 2 minutes for a train, usually less than 1. Trains usually cost about $1US or slightly more, unless you are going far in which case it might cost $2-3US. Other choices are buses which are easy enough, minibuses which are small 16 seater buses with a fixed route but that will make requested stops, and then the double-decker electric trams, which cost $2HK and go along a fixed route. $1US is about $7.7HK btw, so it's a pretty good deal. Also available are the ferries between the islands, which are also very cheap. So the city is easy to get around which is important. It is also pretty walkable and I went all over each island by foot quite a bit, except out in the New Territories which become more and more spread out as you go farther. Getting around those by train and bus was easy enough. HK really is a city that doesn't sleep. It is kind of remarkable how many things are open late at night. The choices for food are extensive. Small noodle shops, stores, restaurants, and food stands, all seem to be open until the middle of the night. The entertainment districts also seem to go forever, way past my bedtime here, though perhaps on New York time I might get to see one of them close. So there are people out and about at all hours, which actually seems to make the city pretty safe. There must be some neighborhoods maybe where you don't want to walk around late at night, but I didn't see any of them.

The pollution in HK is kind of bad. There was no day when I could see the skyline unobscured by a layer of smog. The pace of the city is somewhat dizzying, so that may not be for everyone as well. Most areas are extremely urban like New York, with smatterings of greenery and parks. There is traffic and the people on the sidewalks are everywhere and can move unpredictably. It seems space is at a premium. There also seems to be a certain dearth of art and music, though perhaps if I stayed longer that would change. A friend in HK described it as a fast-food culture with a short attention span, so at least I can use her words instead of my own limited perspective based on a short visit. I did have a lot of trouble finding live music here, contrasted with New York where any night of the week you can find original music in a dozen places. The only music you'll find in HK or Macau as well is cover bands playing for bars filled with expats being hit on by prostitutes. I met a musician today in Macau who plays jazz at a hotel nearby and asked him why that was. He told me that hear he guesses people like to hear music that they already know. Go figure. To sum up though, HK is in terms of the pace and style of the city, maybe the most like New York I've encountered. You can walk everywhere and get around easy, things are open all night, and there is a lot going on. It is actually fairly international, with seemingly large groups of Indian, Pakistani, Phillipino and English, Australian and American expats, though nowhere near as diverse in my opinion as New York. Someone can look that up and tell me if I'm right or not about it. Either way, it was fun to spend a week there, and there was certainly a lot more I could've done without getting bored.

I walked around a bit yesterday after arriving in Macau and a whole lot today. I won't say everything I did, but yesterday I was proud of myself for not being able to find a vegetarian restaurant, because I ended up going to this five story market filled with food stands at which I finally located some vegetarian food at a food stand which defies description. The lady there spoke no English, in fact I'd wager nobody in entire building spoke English, but the meal was decent and I was pleased and entertained. I also much to my chagrin so my first live chickens in cages at a market, but thankfully didn't have to see them slaughtered. Hopefully that can wait or be avoided altogether.

Another interesting stop was the Protestant cemetery, where all these people were buried in the mid 19th century very far away from their homes. The gravestones tell their tales and it is kind of amazing to imagine people striking out into this region under various circumstances at a time when getting here meant 3-6 months on a ship without any certainty of arrival, few defenses against diseases, no knowledge of the languages, and other hardships. Clearly quite a few didn't make it. I took a few pictures, including one stone of a guy from New York who apparently took a fall on the ship from whatever you call that place up on the mast...crow's nest? Something like that. I'm going to go back to the hotel and relax a bit, I've been out all day. I did have a spectacular meal at what I think is the only vegetarian restaurant in Macau. They were very friendly and gave me the super-size when I clearly asked for the small. I think the whole meal was about $6US for this giant bowl of noodles with veggies and fake meat, and spring rolls. They also got some good laughs from the foreigner's Chinese and watching me struggle with the noodle soup and my chopsticks.

So tomorrow when I arrive, I head for the border into Zhuhai, a special area of China which isn't quite China, like HK and Macau. Things have become progressively more Chinese and I'm speaking more and more, but I'm excited for the places where the English drops out altogether and I really need to use the Chinese to survive, without the option of bailing if I run out of words. Hopefully internet will be easier to find there and I can upload pictures and write a bit more as I remember things. Hope everyone is well.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Last night in HK

There is apparently some exhibition in Hong Kong this weekend, so my hostel ended up being full tonight. Fortunately, they have a second building just up the road and there was a bed available there, so earlier in the evening I moved my things there for one last night in HK. The other place is not so much a hostel as an apartment with two spare bedrooms, each with a bunkbed in it. At the moment I'm the only one in my room, though apparently a guy from Australia may show up at some point. The room is pretty nice anyway, and the apartment quite clean. For some reason there is a really giant Buddhist shrine in the living room that takes up an entire wall.

I spent yesterday visiting the southern part of HK Island, specifically two separate towns called Stanley and Aberdeen. It was nice to get a look at some of the less urban areas of HK. I went with a guy from the hostel named Edwin who just got back from spending 2 years in Mongolia in the Peace Corps. He's from Indiana, and the first American I've run into so far. He's had some pretty amazing experiences, so it was nice to hang out with him a bit and hear about his time in Mongolia and his subsequent trip through China to get here. He left to go to the Phillipines, where his family is from, and he's thinking of relocating there for some time. I guess he's going to see how he feels once he arrives, keeping his plans loose. Apparently for his first 8 months in Mongolia he had no electricity, so to him everywhere he goes now is essentially luxurious. Pretty crazy stuff. Anyway, we took a few buses around these southern towns. There are trees and hills on the way there, some very expensive homes in the hills with amazing views of the skyline or over beaches and the ocean, as well as some more developed areas with shopping centers and restaurants. In Stanley we walked around some of the beaches, found our way to a temple for Tin Hau, a goddess of the sea, and walked around a touristy market with small winding streets, but by and large it was a very peaceful place to spend some time, especially after the hectic pace of most of HK. Aberdeen has a harbor in which we paid $60HKD for a boat tour where you can see houseboats and junks where people live, complete with drying laundry and in one case a few dogs. Both neighborhoods had their share of expats in isolated areas, though in Aberdeen we wandered into the town a bit and it was actually more Chinese, with fewer English on the signs than is common around HK and Kowloon. Later that night we went to go get some Indian food which was really great, and pretty much called it a night. We stayed up for a while talking, and this morning Edwin took off.

This morning Antony and I headed out relatively early. I went with him to an area called Mong Kok to pick up his ticket for Beijing, which was on the way to somewhere I wanted to visit in the New Territories, a huge area of HK filled with different towns and neighborhoods that are not as crazy and urban as HK Island and Kowloon. The first stop was a 2000 year old Han dynasty tomb that was discovered by a bunch of workers in 1955 when they were digging to build something else. You can't see a whole lot of the tomb but you can look into it through a piece of plexiglass and they have a bunch of excavated artifacts on display at a small museum. There's also a short video that explains the significance of the discovery. There were visible carvings on the bricks of Chinese characters and I kind of marvelled that the characters written 2000 years ago were basically legible and the same as the existing system still used here everyday. After that, we had our hands full figuring out what bus to take, since in this neighborhood the signs turn rapidly chinese. Luckily, the bus schedules still have English on them so we found our way to Sha Tin, another area of the New Territories. After a bit of walking around, we found our way to the 10000 Buddhas Monastery, where we walked up what must have been 1000 steps to get to the top. As you walk up the stairs, on both sides there are full-size golden Buddha figure the entire way, each in a different pose with a different expression. There are hundreds of them. Then when you get to the top, there is a temple with apparently over 13000 Buddhas inside of it, most of them small but completely lining the walls of the temple. It's fairly impressive if a bit out of control. Also at the top was a simple vegetarian restaurant, where we got some pretty decent food to help replenish all the energy lost walking up those steps. We then made our way back to Mong Kok, since the first time the Chinese travel agency Antony employed did not actually get his ticket. Finally getting it this time, I headed back to the hotel, packed my goods and moved to the new hostel room, went out again to get more food, then came back which is where I am now.

I have had a good time in HK, and I feel like a week was a good amount of time to stay here. There was certainly no possibility of boredom or lack of things to do, and in fact there are numerous things I could still do here if I wanted to stay. It is a bit on the expensive side compared to what I think I will spend once I enter China, so there is a practical side to moving on, but additionally as I said before it'll be nice to move into an area where I know everyone will speak Mandarin. I've learned a lot here, but it'll be totally different when I have numerous opportunities each day to speak the language, especially with people who don't speak English since most people I've encountered do, if only a little.

I have a bunch of things to write about HK in general and my overall feelings for the city having spent this week here, which I will save until next time when I can look back and reflect more clearly. Even though it is only about 10pm here now, I'm fairly tired from walking around all day. I think those stairs had something to do with that. I'm going to hit 7-11 and get a big bottle of water and then head back to my bed and read the Macau chapter of my book more closely. Tomorrow morning after I wake up I'll catch a ferry to Macau which takes about an hour, and I have two potential places to stay, both of which I called and have availability and sound clean and comfortable. According to my book, you get a bit more for your money there so I may have my own room at the same cost as a dorm room here which would be nice, although the dorms have actually turned out pretty well as a place to meet people. It makes a big difference to have some company and people with whom to hang out who are having similar experiences.

More tomorrow.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Another chapter

So I am in this new hostel, which is much cleaner and nicer than the previous one. It wasn't that the other was so dirty or anything, it's just that this one is really clean and kind of fancy, amazingly so for the cost. I'm in a dorm room which is currently occupied by three other guys, all of whom are very social and we have gone out to do a bunch of things. Last night I hung out with Antony, who lives about an hour north of London, and is on a long trip which may involve him moving to Australia if he likes it. He was in the Phillipines before coming here and had some interesting stories to tell about his visit there, a land apparently largely bereft of westerners. We chatted a bit in the hostel that day and ended up going out together to walk around, aiming for a nighttime view from Victoria Peak, of which all the guidebooks and websites have advised me that without a visit my trip to Hong Kong would be incomplete. We made our way to the tram which ferries tourists up there, and is amusingly steep, such that at many points you are going up the side of the hill at a 45 degree angle or so. It's a short ride, and then what is probably a longer walk through a giant shopping mall and a few escalators to get out to the viewing area. The mall was kind of gratuitous, as is much of the consumer culture here, even moreso than the US I think. The view was alright, but the pollution here is such that much of it is obscured. Even the moon isn't all that visible. It's kind of a shame, since the view would undoubtedly be much more impressive. They most photoshop the promotional images of the skyline, because they all look to be what is apparently impossibly clear.

We made our way down from the Peak on a minibus. I was proud of myself because I discussed the logistics of getting on the minibus and getting where we wanted to go with a customer service lady in the mall in Mandarin. I cheated though since she spoke some English. Still, she made that face I like when a Chinese person hears me speak Chinese for the first time. The minibus by the way is about a 16-seater van, which has a fixed route but the drivers will make requested stops. You tell him when you board where you want to go. Only hitch is they don't speak English, and as it turns out not a whole lot of Mandarin...only Cantonese. We somehow managed to get to the general vicinity of Lan Kwai Fong, a busy district filled with bars, clubs, and restaurants. I had walked through a few days previous but wanted to get a look at it at night. It was pretty much as I expected, heavily trafficked and filled with foreigners, though by no means completely so. As it turns out, the entertainment areas here are fairly isolated. Unlike New York, you can't just walk out of the hotel and find a bar on the street. There's a few specific areas on HK Island that people go to have drinks and socialize. It's an interesting difference from NYC, but it means that in those areas there are large concentrated groups of tourists and a certain kind of bar culture that doesn't lend itself particularly to subtlety. As it turns out, there's also tons of prostitutes. I had no idea it was so prevalent here, or in fact present at all, but it is in fact very out in the open despite to my knowledge being illegal. We puttered around a few different bars and got some Indian food before deciding to call it a night. I had a few beers that night and was totally exhausted by the time we got home, though I'm becoming mildly adjusted to the time difference after what is now 5 days.

Today I was feeling somewhat tired from a whole lot of walking around and doing things the last few, so I took it easy most of the morning and early afternoon. My current roommates were around and one of them had a guitar, so we spent some time hanging out in our dorm room and trading songs and otherwise doing not a whole lot. I enjoyed a break from walking around. Without a schedule, there is still kind of an urgency to run around and see and do things. I know that may seem counter-intuitive, but so it is. I showered and made my way out for a bit to score some vegetarian food at a new place nearby, which was really interesting actually and kind of a different approach to the standard chinese-style vegetarian restaurants at which I've eaten several times here and in New York. It was a bit more gourmet, and the menu was beautifully put together with a lot of pictures. That was particularly helpful since the waitstaff didn't speak Mandarin or was not interested in speaking it with me. I headed back after eating and had a nice 20-30 minute conversation in Mandarin with the woman who runs this hostel, called the Yes Inn. She's really nice, moreso than my previous hosts who seemed more annoyed by the presence of guests in their hostel. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon this place on the internet, it was not in my guidebook or anything, it just happened to have good reviews online and have vacancies for these few nights whereas sunday night for some reason many hostels did not.

Tonight, I went out with Antony, as well as Dave, the guy with the guitar who is also from England and traveling around the world, and then Edwin who just spent two years in Mongolia in the Peace Corps, as well as a bunch of other really interesting traveling adventures around China. Quite a crowd out there. I'm starting to think about leaving HK soon, though this is a big city and there are a few more things I'd like to do before I take off. Tomorrow I think I'll be heading to the south side of HK Island, supposedly more relaxing and laid back than the heavily developed north side. The next day I'd like to see the New Territories a bit, and I have a few ideas for stops I can make to check out what I've heard is a more Chinese and non-touristy side of HK living. After that, I believe the course is set for Macau and shortly thereafter, mainland China.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

A giant Buddha and a change of scenery

After I left the coffee shop yesterday, I got on the subway and headed for HK Island again. My first stop was Causeway Bay to scope out a hostel to which I was considering moving. Turns out they were full, so I left and walked around HK Island for a few hours in that neighborhood. It's a bit farther west than the other neighborhoods I'd already visited over there. I made my way back towards the Ferry peers and eventually got on a very busy ferry to Lantau, one of the larger and more well-known of HK's numerous islands. The ferry is pretty new and comfortable, in contrast with the Star Ferry from Kowloon to HK which is older and kind of more atmospheric, but the Star Ferry trip is much shorter, this journey to Lantau took maybe 30 minutes or so. After hopping off the ferry, I had to take a bus which ended up being a good 30 minutes also up a fairly big mountain through forests and hills, with views of beaches and coastline. It's kind of a remarkable contrast to the ultra-urban landscape of HK and Kowloon, and pretty much everywhere else I'd been. As it turns out, Lantau is bigger than HK Island but over 2/3rds of it is trees and undeveloped land, so it's pretty beautful. The bus eventually dropped us off right near the Po Lin monastery, my intended destination, and home to what is apparently the largest sitting Buddha statue in the world, or so they say. I'm in no position to argue with them. The buddha is on a large hill which towers over pretty much everything in the area. You climb up about 300 steps or so and you can walk around the base. There were an awful lot of tourists there since it was a Saturday, but it's a big area and ultimately not too crowded. There are two connected vegetarian restaurants to visit, and I ate at the one that was more cafeteria like. The other is more of a sit-down affair and the actual process of figuring out where to go, buying meal tickets, and actually ordering anything was kind of complicated and very not-english. Most of the tourists and visitors were Chinese, I only saw a handful of Westerners over there, though I did have a conversation on the busride with a woman who was visiting from Toronto with her husband, but is actually Israeli. She is originally from Haifa. They are visiting HK for a few days, then flying to Beijing to tour in that area for a while. I actually heard a few different people speaking Hebrew the day I rode the Star Ferry, apparently this place and other destinations in Southeast Asia are popular with young Israelis.

So I ate some vegetarian food, walked up a lot of stairs and checked out the Buddha which was pretty impressive, then walked around the rest of the monastery area a bit. You can't actually get close to the monks, it's probably not good for meditation to have a thousand tourists taking pictures of you all the time. But there is kind of an area all around the Buddha where people light incense to pray and also buy souvenirs. Rather than take the bus and ferry back, I decided to try out a new cable-car they have which takes you all the way down to the base of the mountain where you can hop on the subway and get back to wherever you like, underwater instead of over this time. On the tram car, I had one of my most enjoyable experiences so far. There weren't many foreigners, I was one of the few in line for the cable car, so I ended up in a car with about 6 Chinese people who were kind of looking and obviously talking about me and laughing. It was a family with a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and a few kids. Maybe a grandma too, I forget. So the adults are kind of jostling the kids to talk to me in English, which one of the kids decides he wants to do. So he actually switches seats with his Aunt next to me and starts practicing his English. He was a young boy, maybe 8 years old or so, and he was asking me all sorts of questions and telling me his name, where am i from, what sports do i like, things like that. So he starts to run out of questions and I start to ask him some too in English. After a little bit, I ask if he speaks Mandarin too, since his family was speaking Cantonese. He didn't quite understand the question, so then I asked again, but this time in Mandarin. Up until then we'd been in the car for 10 minutes or so and I hadn't hinted that I actually knew any. So when I finally spoke some, the entire family busted up, it was pretty funny. So I spoke with him and the family a bit more in Mandarin, which most of them spoke too. They turned out to be visiting for a few days from Shenzhen, a town literally just over the border into China. They were very friendly and very amused at my Chinese, though they seemed to understand everything I said and were very complimentary which felt good. Other than short and random exchanges, I haven't had much opportunity to converse in Chinese. I also told them that I knew one word in Cantonese, which is Gaui Lo (possibly sic) which means foreign ghost in Cantonese and as far as I understand isn't really derogatory, but they were kind of laughing and slightly embarassed when they realized I understood that they had been using it to refer to me when they first got in the car. The whole experience was really fun, and I hope when I get to the mainland where Mandarin is more predominant, I'll have more experiences like it.

Ok, so made it back to the hostel, relaxed a bit, ran into my British roommates who told me about a traditional dragon dance that night which sounded promising, and then headed out to try to use the internet somewhere less expensive than my hostel. It was a "bookstore" with no books, a bunch of magazines, and some computers. The computer didn't work that well so that didn't really happen, and I headed down the same block to try a vegetarian Indian restaurant I'd had my eye on. That meal turned out to be really great, though I was probably the most full I'd been since getting to Hong Kong. I then hit the train and went down to try and find the dragon dance, in the vicinity of Causeway Bay where I'd been early in the day, but one more stop out at Tin Hau. I found it by looking for the 10 million people clammoring for space on the sidewalk, met two random Australian people who I ended up hanging out with for a while, and stood in a really crowded place for a few hours waiting for the dragon to come by. When it finally did, it was a bit different than I expected. Rather than colorful, it was actually made of burning incense, and about 200 feet long or so. It ran by to drums and dancing people who mostly just climbed over each other trying to get a picture or footage with their digital video camera, but did seem to enjoy it a great deal. That broke up pretty soon after the dragon went by and I found my way to Victoria Park, also pretty closeby though not without walking through Times Square, a district with lights, shopping, and a zillion people. The scenery changes pretty quick here. In Victoria Park, they had a huge lantern festival to continue celebration of the mid-autumn holiday. I walked around there a bit and it was very beautiful, but I pretty dead on my feet at that point since I'd gotten up so early, so I soon made it back to my bed and feel asleep probably sometime after midnight. My roommates didn't come back til 5am, but it was their last night in HK so I think they wanted to make the most of it.

This morning I slept til about 10am, which was pretty great. I'd been getting up pretty early. I got my things together and went to use the lobby computer and figure out where to go next. I found another hostel in a different neighborhood that sounded less touristy so I called them up, booked a room, and found my way here this morning. I'm now standing in their lobby, using what is finally free internet access to write this incredibly long blog update. The place looks real nice and very clean, moreso than the last place, and I'm going to walk out now and go find some food and explore my new neighborhood. I booked two nights here, and despite it being nicer than the last place it is actually cheaper, maybe just because it is a bit more remote from the city center than the last place. The last place was about $29 USD per night, this one is only $25 I think. So I'll probably stay here a few more nights, and then I think it may be time to head somewhere new soon. For those wondering who have asked, I think my next probably destination is Macau for a day or two, then into mainland China. My first stop in China will either be Foshan if I go from Macau, or Shenzhen if I go from HK. After that, Guangzhou, another big city but this time on the Chinese side of the border so I expect it to be a wholly different experience from HK.

Was that enough for one day?

Friday, October 06, 2006

Getting comfortable

I admit, the first two days were pretty weird. Not so much the culture shock, or the language barrier, but just kind of accepting the distance between me and everyone else that I know. I recall looking at the magazine on the plane, and it was something like 7000 miles between where I am now and where I was on Tuesday. This morning I woke up at something like 6am since I'm still kind of jetlagged, and I took a walk down to Kowloon park where I heard people practice Tai-chi and sometimes Kung-fu in the early morning. I saw about 30 senior citizens doing group calisthenics, which was kind of novel, but only two people practicing with those fake swords in slow motion. There were a few loose Tai-chi cannons floating around the place, and all in all it is a pretty relaxing time to walk around here, contrasted with pretty much any other time.

So yesterday I got out at a fairly reasonable hour and took the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong side. I sort of expected more tourist hassle at the ferry, but it was really easy and only cost $2.2HK which is really cheap. I have been trading $1USD for $7.5HKD, so the exchange rate is pretty good. I floated across the water and enjoyed some decent views of the impressive Hong Kong skyline, although still a bit smoggy/foggy/cloudy. It looks pretty clear today, I may give it another try. There are some pretty interesting looking buildings over there, and the Northern coast of that island is so built up that you can barely see anything else except skyscrapers up and down the entire stretch visible from Kowloon. Stepping off the ferry, I elected to just walk around aimlessly and see what I found. The one thing I kind of made a point to find was a series of 20 escalators that ride up the side of the giant hills in the middle of Hong Kong island. It's kind of crazy, as you ride up each escalator there are side streets with shops, bars, markets, etc, and a very busy and active scene around the main stretch through which the escalators pass. The elevators pass through what is apparently a trendy scene of and in itself, called (wait for it) Soho. At the top of the escalators is a residential area called the Mid-Levels. Once I got up there, there wasn't much to do but walk down though there are things like a botanical garden and a look at some of the smaller less insanely crowded streets on HK island. Speaking of insanely crowded, walking around pretty much the whole island was very tight. In certain neighborhoods it reminded me of walking back from watching the July 4th Fireworks on the FDR. There are a lot of different neighborhoods over there. One part I walked through was a very active Chinese market, which consists of several narrow streets, made even more narrow by the zillions of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, fish, and pretty much whatever else. Thankfully I have yet to see a live chicken beheaded, maybe I'll have to wait til China for that. I was in numerous areas where it was close to shoulder to shoulder traffic. In other places there are giant shiny shopping centers with every brand name clothing shop and whatever else you can imagine. The buildings are pretty high on all sides and the traffic on the streets pretty busy, so rather than walk on the sidewalks (although you can do that) there are elevated walkways connecting buildings and bridging streets. It's pretty impressive actually. I did take some pictures but I haven't figured out a great way to upload them yet. I will do it soon, before I leave HK anyway.

So I ended up taking the MTR, HK's subway back to Kowloon, under the water this time. Last night I went out with someone from couchsurfing who lives in the New Territories here, a suburban neighborhood north of Kowloon. She took me out to a kind of bar/restaurant where we met up with 3 of her friends. It was pretty fun, but I was fairly tired still at that hour, and I had my hands full trying to juggle English and Mandarin, and they all prefer to speak Cantonese of course. Interesting, the CS girl (whose name is Fifi) is learning Spanish and loves Spanish music, so we ended up even chatting in Spanish a little bit. I got a Tsingtao on draft which made me happy, and some sauteed veggies in a spicy sauce which was enough since after my long walk around HK island I decided to stop for an earlier dinner at the same Chinese vegetarian buffet. Did I mention I also had fast food Indian earlier in the day at the Chungking Mansions, which is anything but a mansion. It's a giant building filled with the cheapest and sketchiest hostels in town, and tons of small foodstands, shops, and other weird things and people. Apparently according to someone I met here, the police did not "control" the building until recently. Despite incredibly low costs to stay there, it was not a close call to find somewhere else to stay at a slightly higher cost. Speaking of which, I'm going to stay one more night in my current hostel and then try to move to a hostel in Causeway Bay, a neighborhood on HK Island. It might be nice to be over there for a few days and enjoy a change of scenery.

I'm going to go, I tried free internet at a coffee house today and although it seems to work Ok although I can't log on MSN, there are a zillion people eyeballing me to get the hell of the computer. I'm probably going up to Victoria Peak today since the view looks maybe clear, and then perhaps to Lantau Island to check out the giant buddha I keep hearing about, the monastery, and what is apparently a decent vegetarian restaurant. Perhaps I will include a supplemental update later when I do not have people burning holes in the back of my head.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

My cup runneth over

Here are some observations in no particular order pertaining largely to the Kowloon area of Hong Kong where I am staying and where I have walked around since arriving. Today I'll be going to Hong Kong Island and we'll see how these perceptions apply.

1. New York should have double-decker buses. If they can pull it off here when they have thousands of signs sticking out into the middle of the street, we totally could too.

2. The streetlights here have a bell that sounds like a heartbeat while you wait to cross the street. When it is ok to cross they sound more like a seizure or an EKG going into arrest.

3. They have no concept of noise pollution here. There are speakers out on the street in various places turned up to distorted volumes broadcasting what sounds like propoganda regarding hair products or something to that effect. Also, many stores blast Cantonese techno to attract customers and it seems to work.

4. A lot of times on the street someone will stop in front of you stunned by something and then slowly drift in the direction of the offending store, blocking all traffic in every direction. This happens in New York too.

5. There is in fact a large Indian and Pakistani population in Hong Kong, and at least a dozen black people.

6. Any person of Indian descent in Kowloon park will try to sell you Hashish. It will be either a young guy wearing a nice but filthy club shirt, or a guy who looks like the Jewel of the Nile.

7. There is a 7-11 every 50 feet or so.

8. The view of Hong Kong from Kowloon would be even more spectacular if you could see it through the smog. Crossing my fingers for a clear day.

9. Chinese people like Bruce Lee too.

That's all I can remember for now. Maybe today I'll make more effort to write them down. So I walked around quite a bit yesterday afternoon. I walked down to the water and checked out the view of Hong Kong Island. It is pretty impressive, but it was a bit hazy so I couldn't get a decent picture. I'm sure if you are motivated you can Google for one which will be better than anything I can provide. There is a Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Walk of the Stars or whatever it is called, where people press their hands into the pavement. I saw Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Maggie Cheung, and a few others I know. Bruce Lee gets a giant impressive statue of which I along with every other tourist in Hong Kong took a picture. I shortly thereafter went back to my room, stopping at every 7-11 to buy a bottle of water to avert heatstroke. It was pretty steamy yesterday. Upon returning to my bedroom and reading my Chinese book for a bit, I collapsed in a heap and slept until 11pm or so. At that point, my new roommates arrived, as I am in a dorm room. They are 3 guys from London who were just in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to play Cricket. We talked a bit and since I had just napped I went out for a walk as they went to sleep. The area nearby is pretty active late at night. I was out about midnight and there were many people walking to and fro up and down Nathan Rd and its side streets. It wasn't as crazy as during the day, but plenty of restaurants were open and I walked by many bars and clubs as well. I ultimately made it back to my room just shy of a few hours of later and went to sleep again, sleeping fairly soundly until this morning when I attempted my first Hong Kong shower. Let's say it was functional but I did not choose to linger. At least the water was hot, once you manually turn on the hot water heater. In related news, I'm making good progress in defusing my Western expectations. My bed was comfortable and that sleeping bag liner that I bought has turned out to be really useful and comfortable. I also discovered last night that there is a small kitchen adjacent to the area where my room is, so perhaps tonight if I get hungry I will buy some instant noodles instead of peanuts and the closest approximation of fruit juice that I could find.

So I'm off now, not to waste anymore of what appears to be a beautiful day. I will probably fetch some vegetarian food for myself, maybe at the same place I went yesterday just because it is so incredibly close, easy, and cheap. Next I will set out for the Star Ferry which crosses the water between here and Hong Kong Island, and wander around the many neighborhoods over there. Depending on how clear it is, perhaps I'll attempt the Peak Tram for an expansive view of Hong Kong, or I heard there is another tram which takes you to a giant Buddha statue, but that is on some other island apparently. Here I go.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

I am alive

I made it. I am in Hong Kong. The trip was long and arduous. I decided to take the Ambien a few hours into my flight and within maybe 10 minutes I fell asleep. The next time I looked at the clock it was at least 5 hours later, and I'm sure I squeezed a few more hours out of it, but the last 3-4 hours on the plane really dragged on. The two hour layover in Taipei was easy enough as was the 1h20m hop to Hong Kong. I wandered around the airport a bit dealing with immigration and figuring out how to take the train from the airport to where I'm staying, but it all worked out relatively uneventfully.

The area of Hong Kong I'm in is called Kowloon. This particularly part is near a very active center called Tsim Sha Tsui. The main drag is a street called Nathan Rd which is pretty insane. It's somewhat comparable to a busy stretch in say Times Square, but there are thousands of Chinese signs everywhere, and rather than just stay on the fronts of the buildings, they tend to stretch out over the street cluttering the view wherever you look. The traffic on the streets and sidewalks is chaotic, and there is a ton of noise from construction. One thing I noticed that amused me is wherever there is scaffolding where they are working on a storefront, as there often is in New York, it is made of bamboo here. Off of Nathan Rd, there seem to be a thousand small sidestreets that are very packed with stores of all kinds, and also the same signs competing for your eyes everywhere you turn. While there is usually some English on the signs here and there, all of the smaller menus and signs in windowfronts tend to be in Chinese. The weather is very hot here, which was also an adjustment. The last week has generally been on the cool side, even in San Francisco. I had gotten accustomed to wearing a few layers. I just switched to flip-flops and a t-shirt and already feel better.

The place I'm staying is a guesthouse on a sidestreet very near the action. I'm staying in a dorm which is kind of a new experience for me. There are two bunkbeds, although at the moment I'm the only one in there so it's effectively a private room for the moment. I wouldn't mind some company, it's a little weird to be on my own. I haven't seen very many foreigners since boarding the plane in SF. I met a few random people and had some conversations since leaving. People have generally been friendly. I went to a vegetarian restaurant that ended up being literally down the block shortly after I arrived, and they had communal tables as do many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown in New York for individuals during busy times. I sat with this older man and his wife and very soon struck up a conversation. He actually started speaking English to me first, and I tried hard to speak as much Mandarin as I could. He luckily spoke both Mandarin and Cantonese, though obviously preferred the latter. His English was pretty good although heavily accented. In the beginning I was kind of intimidated but resolved to keep trying and be persistent, and by the end I felt pretty comfortable although understanding him speaking was definitely the greatest barrier. Hopefully as I hang out with some couchsurfing people or other younger folks I come across I will have more chances to develop my listening ability, though I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to express basic ideas even though my vocabulary is still kind of rudimentary.

I met a few other random folks. There was an older Taiwanese guy on the plane next to me from Taipei to Hong Kong. We talked for a little bit but then he read the Chinese newspaper and I watched the first half of Nacho Libre with Chinese subtitles. The flight ended before the movie did. I met a Vietnamese guy in the smoking lounge in the Taipei airport. Everybody in there was bonding since nobody had a lighter after the original security check, so every person who came in lit his cigarette off somebody else's. That guy was from San Jose and had lived there for 22 years. He was on his way to Ho Chi Minh City to visit his family, as his father had just died after a long illness. He told me it was sad but that death was a natural part of life. Kind of heavy from stranger to stranger. In the HK airport I met a guy who was Chinese and lives in Queens. He was on his way to Hangzhou for business. In some ways, it is an amazingly small world.

Anyway, I'm kind of exhausted. I did sleep on the plane but with the time change it's very hard to tell how long ago that was or what it means. My eyes see the daylight outside, but with almost 24 hours of travelling and all the sensory overload from the trip and this new destination, my brain is extremely confused. I'm not pushing it today. I took a walk after lunch and got a prepaid simcard for my Chinese cellphone and looked around a bit, but didn't go too far. Then I settled in my room and just relaxed for a little bit. It's 3pm here now and in a little while I may go out for a walk to a nearby park and perhaps down to the water just to get a bit more flavor for the area. After a good night's sleep, tomorrow I'll set out and take the famous Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island, and also there is a tram which goes up to a high peak overlooking the whole city. There's at least 5 vegetarian restaurants within walking distance, and from the looks of it things are open pretty late here.

So, I am safe and arrived in one piece if a bit tired. I'm sure in a few days the jetlag will fix itself and I can feel a bit more normal, as much as possible in this fish out of water scenario. Take care all, stay in touch.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

onward to Asia

The day has arrived. My flight to Hong Kong is tonight at 1am. I'm in my friend Ian's apartment taking care of a few last minute things, but pretty much just waiting before I go to the airport. This neighborhood of San Francisco has improved my view a bit, though it is still much harder to get around than New York. He lives in what I believe is the Mission area. It's a bit more laid back and there are a bunch of blocks with more stores, restaurants, bars, cafes, and that sort of thing. A bit more like the Village I'm used to.

I put my phone on hold starting tomorrow. I have a chinese cellphone I bought in Chinatown before leaving which I'm going to try to hook up with a Chinese sim-card and international calling card once I arrive. We'll see how hard that is to pull off without any Cantonese. I suppose we'll see how hard it is to do anything without Cantonese pretty soon. The only thing I have left to do really is make a few calls and go do my laundry at a nearby laundromat. I figure it'd be good to arrive in HK with a fresh set of clothes before I end up having to tackle a Chinese laundromat, though that actually sounds kind of fun.

My flight leaves at 1:05am tonight in San Francisco. I fly 13h25m to Taipei where I will sit in the airport for a few hours. Then I will fly 1h45m from Taipei to Hong Kong, which puts me there around 9am local time on Thursday I believe. It should work out reasonably well, though who knows who confused my body will be. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the flight a reasonable amount. I have an Ambien just in case. I've been going to bed pretty early in SF and waking up early as well, so by the time I actually get on the plane tonight I should be pretty tired, maybe I won't even need it.

Anyway, glorious adventure commencing. I'm excited though at this point the anticipation is kind of brutal. I'm looking forward to actually setting off from here, getting on the train to the airport, getting on the plane, and most of all, stepping off the plane and seeing nothing but Chinese signs everywhere. I'm also looking forward to making an ass of myself with my first Chinese conversation, and finding my hostel, and finding my first vegetarian meal in Hong Kong. The next blog update will be from the other side of the world.