matero.net

I went to an older area of the town today. I guess not every part of the city is clean and perfect.

Overall, Shenzhen doesn’t seem as crowded as Beijing or Shanghai. It is actually not too bad with traffic and on the subway.

I noticed Shenzhen uses the DVB-C standard for cable TV. It means cable companies don’t have to force their customers to use certain hardware, but customers can have a choice and buy any DVB-C compatible receiver hardware. It is all digital and there are about 100 channels here.

My room here was was really nice and new compared to most places in SE Asia. I did check out and change over to a dorm room, since that’s all I really need here.

I spent most of the day walking around the Overseas Chinese Town where I’m staying. There are many theme parks around here, including parks recreating sites around China and around the world. I took the Happy Line monorail around the area to get a quick tour. Although there is nothing “must see” since I had see all those places in person.

I also went down to a park by the sea. Since it is a weekend it was full of people including a lot of kite flyers.

I took the Airport Express AE2 from Khao San Rd to the airport, which is the easiest way to between the two points. I got to the airport early this time, so I didn’t have to run anywhere. There was a long line for check-in, but I waited and was the last person to check in. Then I figured out I can bypass the long immigration lines by going to the lesser known immigration area where the lines are half as long. My flight was delayed almost an hour, just like last time I left here. There are just too many takeoffs and landings for the runways to handle. But it does make you realize this must be the most important place in Thailand since tourism is the #1 industry here.

I landed in Shenzhen, China after 11PM and made it on the bus to the city about midnight. I realized I’d been spoiled in SE Asia with the amount of English everywhere when I saw my bus ticket only had Chinese on it and everyone only spoke Chinese. I just kept saying to myself the name of the bus stop, “zhu zi lin.” I heard the conductor say it and I got off. Next I had a long, dark walk to my hostel. I was so thankful for the compass in my watch tonight or else I’m sure I would have walked the wrong direction. I had a map of the area I saved from Google China Maps. I opened up  my computer and double checked my location with a street sign, comparing the Chinese characters of the map. Normally I would just take the subway, but it doesn’t run in the middle of the night.

I made it to the Shenzhen loft hostel about 1AM. The door was locked, but they let me in. They said there were no dorm beds available, but they did have a private room (but for 3 times the price). I was kind of disappointed I walked so far (over 2km) and they didn’t have a cheap bed, but I had no choice.

Today I saw the big three tourist sites in the city. I started with the Grand Palace, the most popular, crowded, expensive tourist attraction in the country. I felt cheated and lied to when the main hall of the Grand Palace was closed to visitors even after I specifically asked the information counter if anything was closed, but they said everything was open and charged the full price entry of $8. I knew there might be a problem because the King’s sister’s 100 days of mourning is continuing and her body is here. I arrived on day 65.

Afterwards, I visited Wat Pho (2nd of the three), Wat Kanlayanimitr, Wat Arun (the 3rd).  Then I had some more time, so I quickly visited Wat Ratchpradit, Wat Rachabopit, and the City Pillar Shrine.

I’m here in Bangkok alone so I have a chance to see some places that I missed before. Today I visited the National Museum and I ended up spending almost five hours there. It is one of the bigger museums that I’ve seen in Asia. I learned some things about Thai history and art. I didn’t eat or drink anything all day, so I get pretty tired after all that. Later in the day I did find some street food to eat.

One tip for walking in Malaysia: Watch the ground! There are holes in the sidewalks all over the place leading to drainage channel underneath. There was a number of times I was shocked to see a grate or cover or block of concrete missing from the sidewalk. It seems easy to get hurt if you’re not paying attention.

In the afternoon, I made it to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal of the airport. I used up my last Malaysian Ringit on some chocolate. The terminal was really low cost. You have to walk out to the plane. They call you up to a door, and then they point out there on to the runway and say “Get on the blue plane!” There are like 6 planes in the direction he points, you have to walk across the tarmac watching out for vehicles driving around, then going up the stairs to your airplane.

The airplane was on time. There are two areas for immigration. One main one and another one that seems to be for airplane crews mostly. So I used the latter one since there was no one in line. Only downside, the officer will take a long time checking your passport since he is so bored. Technically, I think I’m supposed to pay for a $30 Visa, since I already used up my 3 visits within 90 days. But I told him I’m only staying in the country three days and he gave me the free temporary stay. I got on Airport Express Bus 2 (AE2) and got to Khao San Rd. Then I walked five minutes north to KS House. For dinner I got some bread and water from 7 ELEVEN.

Today is my last full day in Malaysia. Luckily, my ATM card along with my passport was in my moneybelt yesterday. So I can still get money.

I met up with my friend and we started walking and walking. We walked to the Yuen clan shrine. Then we decided to walk to a Chinese Temple. On the way, we noticed a big fence and a big door which was unlocked. We walked in through the door to find a nice garden. Then we surprised a security guard because we just entered the backyard of the king of Malaysia, Istana Negara (National Palace). I think it is the guy who appears on all the money here. So we went out through the back door again.

Continuing on, we see a sign to a temple. It is a different one to what we had in mind, but we took our chances. We walked for what seemed a few kilometers and then we entered a huge Chinese cemetery. We found the temple hidden behind some warehouses and a crematorium and with locked gates. It was not very inviting and seemed like a little visited place, perhaps only for the dead people outside. We were let in by some family living there along with some nuns.

Then it was back to the cemetery and back to the main highway and up another hill to the original place we wanted to see, Thean Hou Temple. My friend was so tired, he slept on a stone bench there. I walked around until I slipped and fell down some wet stairs. I got up and thought this is why I’m traveling while I’m young. I wouldn’t want to break a hip. It was getting dark, so I found a monorail stop, said goodbye, and went back to the hostel for my last night in Malaysia.

The day started with a plan to try some Karaoke, but I found out Sunday is the busiest day of the week for that and all the rooms were full. However, there was a embarrassing small box with transparent walls and my friend had a coupon for it. First time seeing Karaoke in action.

Next we had to make our way to Sunway Pyramid to meet another friend who would take us to Port Klang. We walked over to a bus station and waited for a bus.

My wallet was stolen today.

There were signs posted on the walls of the bus station to beware of pickpockets, but there wasn’t much I could do. The bus came, I took my wallet out and got some money for the bus, put my wallet back in my front pocket. There was a big crowd of people surrounding the door trying to get on the bus. There was some pushing (used as a distraction) and that’s where some Indian guy took my wallet. I didn’t notice until I boarded the bus.

I got back off the bus again and looked in all the trash cans to see if the pickpockets took the cash out and threw away my wallet, but it was no where to be found. I think I lost at least $100 in Vietnamese Dong, Thai Bhat, Malaysian Ringit, and US Dollars. I also lost my Michigan Driver’s License, Oakland University ID, Hostelling International Membership card, and Beijing Bus/Subway card.

We came back to the station. My friend said a man tried to take her mobile phone at the same time, but she stopped him. We saw the pickpockets still standing around the station. And we saw a pattern of when a bus was boarding, they would make a move to the group of people. The police and bus employees must see the same thing, but I don’t know why they don’t do anything about it. There was nothing I could do about it. One reason they were successful was because I was wearing new pants, and new pants that did not have very deep pockets, which meant my wallet was sticking out a little bit, ripe for the picking.

We got on the bus and continued to Sunway Pyramid. Then we met the Malay friend and continued on to Port Klang. We saw a portion of the port leading out to sea and then we met even more people at a sea food restaurant and had dinner. We had shrimp, crab, fish, noodles, and coconut. After dinner we went back to Kuala Lumpur and to the police station where I filled out a report in case anyone turns in my wallet. They say that is extremely rare. But at least I tried. Today marks the first time in my trip I’ve had anything stolen from me.

I was supposed to meet my friend again at 11:00AM. When I woke up, I looked at my watch and it said 10:51AM. I grabbed my things, ate one piece of bread from the hostel, and ran over to the monorail station. I don’t remember ever sleeping so late before, but it was so dark and quiet in the room and I was so tired from the previous day.

I made it to Berjaya Times Square about 10 minutes late, but no problem since my friend was 40 minutes late. I got to see the largest Borders Bookstore in the world here. It is two floors, but I only saw one.

This friend lived in Malaysia for 5 years. She came here, entered the university and had no money left for anything else. She did survive with the help of friends including a lecturer at the university which I met for lunch today.

After some Chinese food, we went to the Batu Caves. I think it was a pretty neat place since you had to walk up a lot of stairs and then you enter a huge cavern, there are monkeys all around and a Hindu temple inside. In my rush this morning, I brought along the belt I purchased yesterday. However, it fell out of my pocket today and I lost it.

We made a mistake with the bus back and it took over twice as long as it should have to get back to the city, but it was ok. Afterwards I checked out the Putra World Trade Centre and a nearby mall.

I tried to get up early and walk over to the Petronas Twin Towers (also called KLCC). The most famous landmark in the city since they were the tallest buildings in the world up to a few years ago. There is a Skybridge that connects the two towers, but you have to stand in line to get the tickets. I got there shortly after they were handing out tickets and was surprised again to see my friend there already. She said she it would be boring to stand in line alone, so she decided to give me some company. We went up to the Skybridge and got a pretty good view.

Next we decided to go to Mid-Valley Megamall. We noticed some older movies playing with tickets under $2, so we watched The Golden Compass.

Then it was back to the Chinatown area and I saw Sri Mahamariamman Temple. We happened to get there just in time for a Puja ceremony. I also bought a belt for my other pair of pants that kept falling off.

Then we decided to go see a night market and see some food. We went to the correct place and day where there was a market a few years ago, but since then the day was changed. So we took about an hour and tried to walk to a different spot where there is a night market. We had to ask a few locals and they laughed that we would walk that far. But we did and it actually started raining when we were there, but I still got to try some food.

We decided to see the Petronas Twin Towers again at night, so we took a bus back there. It was an amazing sight since the towers are lit up so brightly. It was getting late, so we walked to find a bus for my friend to get home. We wasted some time when I suggested waiting for the bus in a different spot and missed one bus. Then I made the mistake of not getting to the monorail station in time, so I missed the last train by a few minutes. For the first time traveling I missed the last train. So what I had to do was walk along the monorail track from one side of the city to the other. I made it back at about 12:30AM.