matero.net

Today I tried eating at a different place nearby and was surprised when it took about a half hour for me to get my food. For every other place here in China it is just a few minutes. Then I needed some more cash, so I went to a nearby ATM. Well, there was a guy using the ATM for a very long time, so I saw this other machine next to it called a Cash Recycling Machine. It looked like it does the same thing basically. I tried it, and you do a withdrawal, you get a receipt, your card, but no cash. Did my $66 get recycled into nothing, or what? My bank account isn’t showing a debit (yet), but I’m still not feeling to good about it. By this time the ATM was free, and I did the same thing there and got my money.

Since I was detoured yesterday, I headed to the Shanghai Museum again. Almost right away again, a Chinese man and woman (say they are students) say “Hello!” and start having a conversation with me. At the end they ask about a Tea Ceremony, but I was quick to say “Good bye” this time. Still walking to the museum, I hear “Hello!” again, this time I yell out “No tea ceremony today!” Then another “Hello!” and I put my hand over my face and keep walking. And another; I talk to them a bit just to be sure and of course they try to stop me from going into the museum and instead want me to have some drinks. So I said “Bye Bye.” It was hard to relax and enjoy the museum after all that, but I saw some ancient Chinese art there. After the museum, the same story with Chinese trying to talk to me.

I headed over to the Foreign Language Bookstore and I got a Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook that I think will come in useful. Then I walked to the Bund area, which is famous for old colonial buildings from the 1930’s along the river. I returned to that shopping area to get back on the subway. There was just a constant stream of people saying “Hi” and asking me to buy something. I stop to look up in the book how to say “go away” but I’m getting surrounded and had to just walk away. To be fair, this only happens in the tourist areas, not all of China. But still, I’ve learned I can’t be polite or friendly to anyone. It is too bad I have to be rude and run away if anyone greets me now.

After eating at that handmade noodle shop again, I headed out to a different part of the city. I got off on the wrong stop and saw the main shopping area. Right away, lots of people start asking if I’d like to buy something. I followed this one guy to his “shop,” which is behind an unmarked door filled with all counterfeit merchandise (bags, watches, wallets). I did see a fake of the iPod Shuffle (2^nd Gen) that I was interested in, but I already bought a player. They wanted me to haggle for the price, but I really didn’t want it and really wanted to get out of the shop. They got a little angry when I didn’t buy it.

I had to get out of this shopping area, so I took the subway to where the Shanghai Museum is, where I first intended to go. Here, two friendly Chinese girls started talking to me. They say they’re visiting the city from another part of China and are on their way to a Tea Ceremony and asked if I’d like to join. I said OK, since I didn’t have a strict schedule and would be nice to talk to some people, since I was all alone. I learned a little about a tea ceremony and tried some Chinese teas. They kept saying how this is what the Chinese Emperors did, and this special tea carried on horseback for three months to get here. I had a feeling this was a scam I thought I read about. I wasn’t sure until the next day I got asked to do the same thing. I got scammed out of $17 paying for the expensive tea, which is a lot for Chinese standards, pretty much what I spend here total for a day.

I ended up visiting the Urban Planning Museum. The highlight here was a massive scale model of the entire city. It shows how the city will look in a few years. They also have a 360 degree flythrough room, and some other scale models of a new deep water container port being built on an island in the ocean. Afterwards, it was back to the same noodle shop for the 4^th time in two days for dinner. The place has large servings for $1, fast service, tastes good, and pictures on the walls, so you just point.

The train was interesting. I passed tall apartment buildings, polluted rivers, farms, and villages. Each farm is so small compared to what is seen in the USA. It looks like each farmer has a small piece of land and they split that up with a few different crops. I didn’t see any machinery assisting with the farming, but everything appears to be done by hand. For that reason I saw many farmers working in their fields all hours of the day.

When I arrived in Shanghai (11:30AM), I was in for another shock. I have to say Hong Kong is not crowded compared to this city. At the rail station, it appears this is where migrant workers from the countryside go to look for work. I suppose the equivalent to Home Depot for Mexicans in the US. I wanted to buy my next train ticket, but it looked like there were 1000 other people doing the same (I came back at 6:30PM and no lines!). It was raining when I arrived, which made things difficult. It took me a while, but I found an ATM. I don’t think this is the best part of town since I when into a shopping mall and it was mostly abandoned.

I made my way into the subway station. I had to look up some information on where I had to go next, so I pulled out my computer. A person saw this and leaned right into my screen, like 12 inches away, to see what’s going on. I guess he has never seen a computer before? Could be one of the thousands migrants arriving every day. Next I tried to get a Shanghai Public Transportation Card. I try to get in line, but then I notice people are just cutting in front of me. And again this happens. I don’t think there is such thing as a line here, but just fight your way up to the front. At the counter, the employees tried to explain to be the cost of the card, but out of 10 people working there maybe one was confident in his English enough to help me. At this point I realized only English isn’t going to cut it in this country. This was the main subway station and main ticket booth.

In the rain, I made it to a hostel. Much better than the prison cells I had in Hong Kong, but still missing a few things (toilet paper, mattresses are as hard as a sheet of plywood, wireless worked for 15 min and then nothing). The hostel itself seems brand new and clean however. I have a dorm room and there is a lobby, so I can actually meet other people here too. I grouped up with two Canadians and two Dutch people and we went to a “La Mien” (handmade noodles) shop. One of the guys lived in China for two years, so he was able to help order for us. For $1, you can get a meal with fresh, handmade noodles. Excellent value, so much that I went back there later in the day for a plate of Fried Rice. I also stopped by a convenience store and got an ice cream for 13 cents!

The group decided to go up to the observation deck of the Jin Mao Building (88 floors up). This was quite a rip off at $9 though (9 meals worth!), since it was foggy and cloudy and you couldn’t see very far. But if you team up with people, you have to go along. I did see the World Financial Center being built next door and I saw some of the skyscrapers featured in Mission Impossible 3. I only saw 10 or so skyscrapers being built in the immediate vicinity. I thought I’d see a hundred, but most have already been built.

Later at night, street vendors come out stands of pirated DVDs. First time I’ve seen this in China (Hong Kong is good about no counterfeit stuff). For example, they had Die Hard 4 DVDs, and today is July 4, the actual release date of that movie. I’ve heard they are about $1 each.

Today I walked around the central area of the city on Hong Kong Island. To get there, I take a ferry across the harbor for 22 cents. Here you can walk for blocks through elevated walkways and bridges connecting skyscrapers, which is good for escaping the rain and heat.

As my train departure neared, I had to get to the travel office to pick up my Passport. It was kind of a tight schedule because the travel agency said they would have them in only just before my train, so I picked up the Passport just 30 minutes before I was supposed to be at the train station. Good thing they were close together, just another elevated walkway separating everything. There is a big sticker in my Passport now that says Chinese Visa. Too bad US citizens have to pay a lot more than everyone else (I think something about the Chinese being mad about the US fingerprinting all Chinese visitors there).

Today I used up all my Hong Kong Dollars in preparation of a new currency in Mainland China (although they are valued exactly the same right now). I then boarded the train at 3PM, where I climbed to the top bed in a six bed compartment, the cheapest place on the train. There is only about two feet of space above the top bed, maybe three feet on the middle, and four feet on the bottom. There are also tiny seats in the hallway next to windows.

After an hour or so, the train crossed the border from the HK Special Administration Region to China proper. I noticed right away the loss of English on most of the signs around. After all, English is one of the official languages of Hong Kong. I said, “What am I thinking?” as the 20 hour train ride continued.

Today I took a trip to Lantau Island, the site of the biggest tourist attraction in Hong Kong: the Tian Tan Buddha. There is a new “SkyRail” cable car system completed last year that brings visitors from the site (which is up in the mountains), however three weeks ago one of the cars fell off and crashed to the ground. So right now it is closed plus I don’t think anyone would feel comfortable riding it right now. I took a bus instead, but I don’t think it was any less scary. The road winded up and down mountains, sometimes it was only one lane wide, sometimes no guard rails next to cliffs, and the drivers were not afraid to go fast. So the bus was like a rollercoaster ride, but no accidents today. On arrival, I got to see Po Lin Monastery, the Tian Tan Buddha, the Wisdom Path, some great views, a claimed Buddha bone relic, and ate a vegetarian meal at the monastery (the fullest I’ve got from any meal so far here).

One more note about Hong Kong, when walking along the sidewalks once in a while you get hit by a drop of water, even when it is not raining. I think this is because most of the air conditioners are in windows surrounding the buildings and the condensation drips down. I found a gas station today on Lantau Island and I think the price is $6.52/GAL.

Last night in Hong Kong and then a night train tomorrow!

I changed to another room. It is 2/3 the cost of the last one, but still no window, no bathroom, no working TV, but does have a wireless signal (have to pay a little). Today I went to a different area of the city (Lok Fu) and I found I was the only white person there the entire time. Went to a supermarket, which seemed really crowded, but no lines! Just afterwards I had some food (some kind of fried rice) in a kind of cafeteria area around the supermarket.

Then I went to a big shopping area (Mong Kok) and they have electronic store after store, so I bought a MP3 Audio Player finally. I bought a Sony NW-E013F, which is a model not available in North America for some reason, for $76. They gave me a pair of free socks with the purchase, which is kind of different, but I think I could use them. Only bad thing about the Sony player is it requires Sony’s SonicStage software to transfer audio. But good enough for now, I suppose. Continuing on my shopping spree, I purchased a new UV Filter to protect the end of my camera lens. I got one for $14. Next I walked to the train station and purchased a Hong Kong -> Shanghai night train ticket for $59. I will leave on July 3^rd, given I get my passport back with the correct visa.

By now the fireworks would start in four hours, so I started to walk along the harbor to find a good spot. I found a pretty good place and sat down. I waited for three and a half hours or so, but I had my computer there, my new music player and everything. I was expecting chaos as a hundred thousand people try to get up close to the water, but everyone was very orderly and there were no problems. Walkways were kept clear and people were able to move around, maybe due to the big police presence.

The lightshow started at 8:00PM (gets dark early here). Synchronized to music (my player has a FM radio so I could hear clearly), there are spot lights, lasers, neon lights running up tons of skyscrapers flashing and moving. I think the most impressive part of the show there are things happening 360 degrees around you. Even a skyscraper under construction had a laser on the side and even the street lights I was standing next to were dimming once in a while. Not to mention the fireworks coming off buildings. Then the main display started when the barges started firing shells. Some interesting things there like some of the fireworks were attempting to draw Chinese characters. And as expected, everything was big. At the very end maybe 50-100 of those flash shells. I tried to get some photos as best as I could handheld.

After the show, the cleaning crews started working right away. They are proud to say things like they were able to clean up after 300,000 people in like 31 minutes or something. Many roads were blocked off to traffic, so I was able to walk in the middle of the streets back to my room.

Looking at my bank account, it looks like I’m getting charged for rooms I reserved and I’m not staying in, in addition to the new rooms I’m paying for nightly. I also see a charge that says I took out $20 from an ATM in a London airport, but I don’t think I did. I canceled that transaction midway through. So much for staying on a budget. It is easy to get ripped off if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m good at not spending money, but when a hotel has your credit card number it is hard to stop them.

I think I’ll buy an audio player though. One good thing here is 0% tax and that makes things like the Apple iPod about the same as the US retail price, finally. I’ll try to get a new filter to put on the end of my camera lens too, so it will be more protected again.

Another difference here, in Europe I was able to get by with drinking tap water in every country, but here I have to start buying bottled water. Public bathrooms are a welcome return however! I ate some Dim Sum today, which is one of the big foods of Hong Kong.

I’m at the Central Library right now and they allow you to plug in your own computer to their really restricted network. It is raining quite a bit today (rainy season!), so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see.

I was able to find some information about the fireworks show tomorrow:

• 23 minutes
• 10 scenes
• 31,888 shells
• 4 barges
• Incorporation of lightshow from 37 buildings, of which 16 buildings equipped with pyrotechnics on roof
• $8 million HKD (about $1 million USD)

Update:

I stayed at the library almost all day. They have tons of English language materials there, it is pretty nice. Had a bowl of pork and mushroom noodles for dinner, but when I finished I looked out the window and saw it down pouring rain. I had taken the wrong tram so I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back. So being dark and raining didn’t help the confusion, but I have my compass watch and I just head in the general direction I need to go.

First thing I did today was change guesthouses. This new one is a little better. It has its own toilet, garbage cans, a TV that works (with some English programming), a towel, and I can walk along one side of the bed. The price is $19, but I did lose a window. Only problem is I reserved 5 nights with the other place and they tell me there is a 48 cancellation policy. I might get charged for the remaining nights since I reserved with my credit card, so we’ll see.

My next goal is to get a mainland China Visa on my passport. Although I’m technically in the People’s Republic of China right now, Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region with different rules. They call it one-country, two-systems. Hong Kong was a British colony for 155 years or so until 1997. On July 1, 2007 they will be celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the date when control was passed back to China. I was watching the news today and the President of China flew into Hong Kong today for this big event, so I must be in the hot spot right now.

I went to a company that handles Visas. A while ago I read of someone who said he went there and got a Visa in a few minutes. Not quite the case for me. I handed over my Passport and a photo and they said I won’t get it back until July 3^rd, which is four days from now. For $124 I will be able to enter mainland China twice for up to 30 days each, within 6 months total. No forms or paperwork though!

Today I went to my first Chinese restaurant here. Looked like all locals here eating noodles and they had a big list of things in Chinese, so I couldn’t read. Someone handed me an English menu though. After a quick glance I didn’t see anything matching up with what the locals were eating, but I chose a bowl of “Ham Instant Noodles.” And it was pretty plain but under $2. It seemed like the English menu had lots of Westernized choices and not the real stuff though.

I tried McDonald’s here today too. For $3 you can get the Big Mac Value Meal and for 32 cents more a basic ice cream cone. Although there is no Super Size option or anything (everything looked like the American “Medium” size to me).

I visited the Historical Museum of Hong Kong. Used my student card and got in half price at 64 cents! They had “The Story of Hong Kong” from prehistory to modern day.

It has been hot and humid here. It doesn’t take long to start sweating when walking around outside. It has been raining a bit, on-and-off all day. Especially the heat is just something I have to get used to. Coming to this city is just shocking overall, so that’s why I’ve planned to take it slow and spend five nights here.

As for my plans, right now I’m considering taking a train to Shanghai, China on July 3^rd and then another train to Beijing, China on July 7^th.

The 747-400 plane with Oasis Hong Kong Airlines was nice and modern with TVs in the back of each seat, displays showing the position of the aircraft on a map and some cameras pointing out from the nose giving different views. They also provided dinner and breakfast. It is a brand new budget airline and it cost me $325 to make the trip from London to Hong Kong. This is the cheapest and fastest way to get to this area of the world. The flight went smoothly and I think I slept pretty well. I left London at 8:40PM local and arrived in Hong Kong at 3PM local. My new time is 5 hours ahead of Finland, 7 ahead of London, and 12 hours ahead of Eastern US. I also noticed it is June 28 and my birthday today.

Right now I’m in Hong Kong International Airport, which was literally built from the ground up (they made a new island) and opened in 1998. So nice and modern so far, plus this is the first airport in the world that I’ve seen that has free wireless access.

I haven’t been outside yet, but I think the weather is a little different here. I compared the weather online and in London yesterday it feels like 58 °F and in Hong Kong it feels like 104 °F. I think it will be quite a change. I was just in Finland where the entire country has a population of 5 million. Here in the city of Hong Kong, there is a population of 7 million.

Update:

Hong Kong customs went smoothly with no questions asked. After withdrawing $1000 HKD (about $128 USD), buying an “Octopus Card” (RFID card which allows you to pay at buses/metro/convenience stores), I took one of the double-decker public buses to find a place to stay. The bus ride was quite a sight, driving past the mountains on Lantau Island, over the Tsing Ma Bridge (longer span than the Golden Gate Bridge), viewing a harbor filled with ships, past some of the largest ports in the world with containers as far as the eye can see, and finally making it into the Kowloon area. The city is like Times Square in NYC, only on a larger scale. Looking down almost any street results in an overwhelming attack of colored signs, lights, and people.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Blade Runner, the environment is just like that, especially since it has rained a bit.

 The hardest part of staying in this Hong Kong is accommodation. The part of the city I’m in now has one of the highest population densities on the planet. A nice hotel room costs $100 and up. However, I made a reservation for one of the cheaper rooms in the city, a 4 bed dorm room for average $12/night. When I got there, reception told me the A/C was broken in that room so I’ll have to go in a single room instead. Even though I reserved five nights, I made sure only to pay for one night after reading some things online.

All the cheap rooms are in two rundown buildings: Mirador Mansions and Chungking Mansions, 17 floors each. To make things confusing, almost every floor has a different hostel/hotel/guesthouse, some have multiple names, and some have similar counterfeit names. After paying for one night in reception (in Mirador Mansion), I was surprised to be escorted to my room. I would see why after we took the elevator down to the ground floor, went outside, crossed a street, down an alley, into another building (Chungking Mansion), up an elevator to the 16^th floor, then stairs to the 17^th, through an unlabeled door, and finally to my room.

This is possibly the worst room I’ve ever seen. It is the size of a bathroom or closet, with only a hard mattress and room to swing a door open. No wireless or Ethernet network jacks as advertised (had to pay for an internet café for the first time). I don’t even want to talk about the toilets/showers in the hall. However, it does have working A/C, which is most important. I’ve noticed most buildings here don’t have central air, but individual A/C units for each room.

I decided to leave and find some maps (I got some at the airport but lost them somewhere in there) at the tourist information center. One thing I noticed is it sure gets dark early here, by 9PM, compared to northern Europe! After being the farthest north ever in Finland, I’m now the farthest south I’ve ever been, Hong Kong is about as far south as Cuba.

I thought I was good at finding my way around, but it was a challenge to get back to my room since I didn’t have an escort this time. Upon returning to the building, I learn there are 8 staircases going up, but only one will take me to the room. The entire infamous Chungking Mansion splits up into five towers plus partitions. I walked up 17 floors to learn this. The bottom two floors are all shops selling mobile phones and things in must be 100 different shops.  This reason why I wanted to take the stairs was the long lines to use the small, slow elevators. First you have to find the elevators that go up to the correct portion of the building, and then there is one elevator for even floors, one for old floors. If too many people walk onto the elevator it won’t work because there is an overweight sensor. Overall, I think it took over an hour to figure out how to get back to my room. This building is also filled with tons of Middle Easterners and Africans, and I read they are probably all illegal immigrants.

My flight arrived a little before midnight in London. At customs the man asked for my itinerary or forward tickets out of the country. I told I’m that’s too old fashioned for me to have them on paper, but I have that information on my computer. When he stamped my passport he added a special mark. I have a bad feeling that’s going to cause some problems next time I go through passport control.

I then proceeded to find a place to sleep for the night. Stansted Airport is known for hundreds of people spending the night there since the airport’s budget airlines arrive and depart at strange hours and hotels are so expensive in the country. I found a spot on the floor next to a plug where I can charge my laptop at the same time. They recommend having a sleeping pad or bag if you’re going on the floor, so I had to improvise. I put on a few layers of shirts, put some pants on the cold tile floor, and used the rest of my clothes as a pillow. I did get some sleep, I think at least two or three hours.

I woke up to go to the bathroom at 3:30AM and noticed the bathroom was full of people, and hundreds more sitting or walking around the airport. By 5AM, I was wide awake. I was getting pretty cold by then, since the entire floor acts like a heat sink. Then I took a 7AM bus into the center of London for $16.

I spent the day walking around the city, going to a lot of places I missed the first time. I walked across Tower Bridge, and then across the new London Bridge (replacement for the one now in Lake Havasu, Arizona). The new bridge isn’t as good looking as the old one, but it is a much wider six lanes and two huge sidewalks. I stopped in the British Museum to see some areas that were closed off last time, but the same areas were blocked off again!

I kept walking through London and I finally had a chance to try out the Pizza Hut lunch buffet here. It is twice the price ($12) as the USA and the food wasn’t very great or special. Then I made it to the Science Museum where an entire wing was blocked off two months ago, but it was open today! I saw some things like space capsules (Apollo 10) and computers (opened up Apple I).

It was time to get to the airport, so I went to the bus station which is the cheapest way to get there. I got there at a bad time though; the line was stalled by a few people having a hard time with their tickets or something. I missed the bus I wanted to take by just a few minutes because of the unexpected line (later it looked shorter again). So I had to take the next bus and then I knew it would be a stressful night.

When I got on the bus, it left 10 minutes late, and then had to drive through rush hour traffic, behind bicycles in the bus lanes, and through rain. I heard the driver say we’re 30 minutes late. I guess this is my mistake; I should have taken a train for a few dollars more. Two hours later, I arrived at the airport only to see the longest line I’ve never seen for security. It looped around the inside of the entire terminal building. It took an hour to get through security, but I rushed to my gate and did make it on the flight!

With a distance of 5990 miles and “quick” 11 hours flight time (due to tail wind), this will be my longest flight yet.