Oh hello,
Beijing side of the train:
After 8 hours of sleep (I was confortable but it seemed like I was possibly the only one). Everyone woke up at 7 AM. We had some breakfast of ham and cheese we bought before we left and read and hung out and talked, took a nap, had a light lunch and we were there!
This space is reserved for a rant - Smoking, is rampant in China. Basically everyone smokes. The bathrooms which were already dirty before we even got on and even dirtier every time you had to go in, was littered with cigarettes. There were cigarettes in the sink, the trash can, and in the passenger car. Why? I have no idea. There were clearly marked cigarette disposals everywhere. The sinks weren't self cleaning, the cigarettes just sat there. The ones on the bathroom floor at least absorbed some of the urine and spit which covered most of it. Oh yes the other thing. If you ever happen to go to Singapore or China be prepared for spitting. Its a constant sound in the background, much worse in China then Singapore. In Singapore spitting is at least relegated to bathrooms. China it was everywhere, on streets and in buildings and while people where talking to you. Its not just a nice southern quick spit on in the bushes either. They hauk these for seconds and let it slowly drop while looking straight at you. Saliva and flem are like mine fields in every walkway and public place. And while I am on the topic vomiting is also a much more common occurrence; especially for children. I saw plenty in Singapore and was reminded of it in China. Kids will be walking normally, then suddenly vomit with no warning. They do it while walking and just look down and let go. Parents then scoop them up and hold them up from the armpits or hips at arms length and point them towards the street or bushes then put them down like nothing is wrong and keep on walking. It happened twice in Hong Kong and we were there for only a week. I didn't see any children in Beijing so no vomit either.
We arrived in a station that had a metro, then inconveniently was the only metro that didn't connect to other metros. After breaking a 100 with some Jujube juice (delicious), we tried to get out of there. So after a lot of pointing and trying to read chinese, we took a bus to what we hopped was a station. And so we were able to find it because of some English that was in some places. From there we metroed (only 33 US cents to anywhere) to our hostel. Where we checked in and then made our way to dinner. On the way we stopped at a grocery store and I got some cantaloupe flavored soy milk and on the street some fried tuber like thing with salt water and garlic which was delicious. For dinner we only had a choice of western places in the area, so I had a pork burger and Michelle had a philly and we watched Super Bad while we ate (not our choice). We then showered (finally) and slept.
Beijing ~ the first day.
Just a note: Sun rises at 5. We woke around 8 and made a quick escape from the hostel and got breakfast nearby. We split a british breakfast of sausage egg toast and baked beans. We then wandered through some Hutongs (local side streets where people actually live). They were nice and we saw a duck and a chicken. We got some drinks in a store (ice coffee mix bottle thing and some mix fruit juice), and walked in a cute park bordering a main street. This delivered us to the Lama temple, which was visited thoroughly. It was nice, not to grand but large, with some unique architecture and an active monastery. There were no llamas (or Lamas due to some political things). After a long walk we came to our lunching spot. A local chain restaurant that sells dumplings cheap. For 6 USD I had 600 ml of the best local beer (it was ok) and 24 dumplings (Shreyas will hear of this). Twas delicious.
We then made our way to the touristy shopping district. Which had the most aggressive vendors I have ever seen and the only place in Asia we have been to where people tried to screw you over in a in your face way with no tact or attempt to hide the fact that they are screwing you over. It was off putting. There were scorpions and other crawly things on sticks that were still alive and squirming, pics on facebook. A shirt vendor tried to sell me a shirt at 30 USD and wouldn't drop it down so I walked away until he grabbed my wrist, but I shook him off and walked away. We bought some food, which somehow magically quadrupled in price when he gave it to us. I had given him a 10 (about 1.5 usd) and was waiting for my 5 in change, but insisted it was 20. He took half the food back and tried to shove me off, but I did not relent and asked for my money back and for him to take the food back. I blocked off his sales for two or three minutes of an intense staring competition until he grew tired of me and put the half of the food he put on the plate back and I just cut my losses and left, no doubt leaving both parties unhappy. A hat selling lady gripped michelles wrists hard enough to bruise them at one point. We walked away from the place. Michelle got some fruit covered in caramelized sugar at a stand, and I got a local drink which turned out to be fermented milk with honey. Basically a honey sweetened light fizzy yogurt in a reusable glass with a skin stretched over the top and punctured with a straw. It was good.
After all the excitement we returned to the dumpling place for more. Then made our way to the hostel. There we showered and slept.
The musings of a twenty-something currently studying in Missouri.
Always loving the escape as much as the anchors.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Finishing Hong Kong
Macau day- On Macau day we woke up to go to Macau.
Making sure I had the passports, we made our way to the ferry again. There we purchased our tickets (about 15-20 USD) each, and picked up some breakfast from McDonalds to go. I had hotcakes. The ferry ride was nice. It took about an hour, which was used to eat and then take a quick nap. Upon arrival we tried to get some local currency but failed. But it was ok because in Macau the exchange from Hong Kong dollars to Macau dollars is roughly 1:1 and they accept Hong Kong in lieu of their own (which is called Patakas). In the station we were hawked for taxis, an interesting mix of Cantonese, Portuguese, and English calls. We ignored all of them and tried to find a way to walk to the city. The only sidewalk was obscured and at the end of bus parking but we did manage to find it. This took as along the coast for a bit, passing some smaller Casinos and a giant theme park that was closed in the morning. It did not take long to find one of the many giant golden casinos on our walk. We decided to investigate and were confronted with incredibly overly done luxury and a guard who would not let me continue in my flip flops.
So we continued. We found a bunch of churches and old church libraries and visited them and took pictures. We then stumbled onto a wide road of touristy sites and shopping. We found a Portuguese eatery and had some wonderfully Portuguese themed sandwiches. Then we wandered till we found a cheap super market, where I had banana flavored Milkis (the carbonated yogurt drink) and some local stout. I was trying to open the stout by bumping it on a corner of a bench, when suddenly i was confronted; not by a police man, but by the Chinese beer fairy. I heard rumors but I did not think it was true. He was wearing dirty pants and no shirt and was wandering around with multiple beers and was drinking one. He pointed and showed his displeasure at the possibility of me cracking the bottled and produced a well used bottle opener and opened it for me. After an approving nod he walked away and moved on, no doubt to open the beers of countless others in need.
The beer a mildly sweet version of Guinness and was pleasurable.
We then returned to go buy me some shoes. We found 3.5 dollar cheap rubber things that covered my feet and looked mildly like lace-less leather shores, Michelle found a nice purse for about 4 dollars I think. With our new purchases we made our way to the biggest and goldest casino (the Lisboa) and entered the casino. Our first site was that of severely under dressed prostitutes of a quality resembling my new shoes. Just pass them was the gambling room, where to our surprise was located no black jack, roulette, craps, or poker. It took 2 more casinos to even find these games, only to have to walk away do to high minimum bids. The really like games of pure chance there. The casinos are exclusively slots, 3 dice, and 3 card Bakarat. The minimum bid on any table we found was 15USD per hand. We played 3 cent slots. Michelle made about 3 dollars, I lost about 1.5 dollars. I did however get some free milk coffee.
We then asked the lobby for eating suggestions and were directed across the island to a nice portuguese place where I had African Chicken (the local dish) and Michelle had some delicious vegetable soup and sausages. Both where good. We then walked all the way back, on the way we encounted a place that had an orange eyed cat, some old porutugese houses, a lake with a scenic view of the city, some locals gibbering in heavy portuguese accents. We took a taxi the rest of the way to the marina and took the ferry home and MTR back to our hostel and slept.
HONG KONG- Last Day
On our last day in Hong Kong, we walked a long long ways. For breakfast we went to a bakery where I had some British tea time cake, which was pumpkin cake with nuts and fruit and was delicious, and a japanese sweet potato bread, which was bread with an entire sweet potato in the middle. Michelle had a pao de queijo, and a pao de queijo which was blueberry flavored. It then began to rain, but we didn't care. We went to the coastal defense museum which was nice but incredibly cold because of the rain. We then metroed to the beginning of a long walk across some Bangkok like shops. In between them we found a nice little french bistro and had some snacks of sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich. We continued to the flower market, which had lots of flowers, and the bird market, which had lots of birds in small cages and made me sad. So we left and walk across a line of pet stores, mostly fish, but also lizards, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, and some conveniently placed restaurants. We skipped across these and walked to a fancy but local section of town and got some dim sum, which made me realize how authentic the place in Atlanta is.
Hong Kong end of the Train~
This day was uneventful. We woke and had breakfast at the place by our hostel, packed, took the bus to the station, had some street pizza which was good, waited to board the train and got on.
The only seats were fold out seats in the tiny aisle. We were on the last of the cheap cars and the least cramped one. We were in a room of 6 beds stacked 3 high with a tinier aisle inbetween. The bed was exactly 2 meters long, giving the only other white person in the cheap beds a hard time (he was 6'2"). Oh and btw we where in the only cheap cart with another white person and he was in the bed above mine. Nice guy, Indian from San Francisco, but a Fraternity brother so white enough to be white even if he spent the first 10 years of his life in India. The only other non Asian near by was a Haitian Canadian who lived in Beijing and spoke Mandarin, also very nice. Basically we talked, read a bit, had dinner and fell asleep.
Making sure I had the passports, we made our way to the ferry again. There we purchased our tickets (about 15-20 USD) each, and picked up some breakfast from McDonalds to go. I had hotcakes. The ferry ride was nice. It took about an hour, which was used to eat and then take a quick nap. Upon arrival we tried to get some local currency but failed. But it was ok because in Macau the exchange from Hong Kong dollars to Macau dollars is roughly 1:1 and they accept Hong Kong in lieu of their own (which is called Patakas). In the station we were hawked for taxis, an interesting mix of Cantonese, Portuguese, and English calls. We ignored all of them and tried to find a way to walk to the city. The only sidewalk was obscured and at the end of bus parking but we did manage to find it. This took as along the coast for a bit, passing some smaller Casinos and a giant theme park that was closed in the morning. It did not take long to find one of the many giant golden casinos on our walk. We decided to investigate and were confronted with incredibly overly done luxury and a guard who would not let me continue in my flip flops.
So we continued. We found a bunch of churches and old church libraries and visited them and took pictures. We then stumbled onto a wide road of touristy sites and shopping. We found a Portuguese eatery and had some wonderfully Portuguese themed sandwiches. Then we wandered till we found a cheap super market, where I had banana flavored Milkis (the carbonated yogurt drink) and some local stout. I was trying to open the stout by bumping it on a corner of a bench, when suddenly i was confronted; not by a police man, but by the Chinese beer fairy. I heard rumors but I did not think it was true. He was wearing dirty pants and no shirt and was wandering around with multiple beers and was drinking one. He pointed and showed his displeasure at the possibility of me cracking the bottled and produced a well used bottle opener and opened it for me. After an approving nod he walked away and moved on, no doubt to open the beers of countless others in need.
The beer a mildly sweet version of Guinness and was pleasurable.
We then returned to go buy me some shoes. We found 3.5 dollar cheap rubber things that covered my feet and looked mildly like lace-less leather shores, Michelle found a nice purse for about 4 dollars I think. With our new purchases we made our way to the biggest and goldest casino (the Lisboa) and entered the casino. Our first site was that of severely under dressed prostitutes of a quality resembling my new shoes. Just pass them was the gambling room, where to our surprise was located no black jack, roulette, craps, or poker. It took 2 more casinos to even find these games, only to have to walk away do to high minimum bids. The really like games of pure chance there. The casinos are exclusively slots, 3 dice, and 3 card Bakarat. The minimum bid on any table we found was 15USD per hand. We played 3 cent slots. Michelle made about 3 dollars, I lost about 1.5 dollars. I did however get some free milk coffee.
We then asked the lobby for eating suggestions and were directed across the island to a nice portuguese place where I had African Chicken (the local dish) and Michelle had some delicious vegetable soup and sausages. Both where good. We then walked all the way back, on the way we encounted a place that had an orange eyed cat, some old porutugese houses, a lake with a scenic view of the city, some locals gibbering in heavy portuguese accents. We took a taxi the rest of the way to the marina and took the ferry home and MTR back to our hostel and slept.
HONG KONG- Last Day
On our last day in Hong Kong, we walked a long long ways. For breakfast we went to a bakery where I had some British tea time cake, which was pumpkin cake with nuts and fruit and was delicious, and a japanese sweet potato bread, which was bread with an entire sweet potato in the middle. Michelle had a pao de queijo, and a pao de queijo which was blueberry flavored. It then began to rain, but we didn't care. We went to the coastal defense museum which was nice but incredibly cold because of the rain. We then metroed to the beginning of a long walk across some Bangkok like shops. In between them we found a nice little french bistro and had some snacks of sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich. We continued to the flower market, which had lots of flowers, and the bird market, which had lots of birds in small cages and made me sad. So we left and walk across a line of pet stores, mostly fish, but also lizards, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, and some conveniently placed restaurants. We skipped across these and walked to a fancy but local section of town and got some dim sum, which made me realize how authentic the place in Atlanta is.
Hong Kong end of the Train~
This day was uneventful. We woke and had breakfast at the place by our hostel, packed, took the bus to the station, had some street pizza which was good, waited to board the train and got on.
The only seats were fold out seats in the tiny aisle. We were on the last of the cheap cars and the least cramped one. We were in a room of 6 beds stacked 3 high with a tinier aisle inbetween. The bed was exactly 2 meters long, giving the only other white person in the cheap beds a hard time (he was 6'2"). Oh and btw we where in the only cheap cart with another white person and he was in the bed above mine. Nice guy, Indian from San Francisco, but a Fraternity brother so white enough to be white even if he spent the first 10 years of his life in India. The only other non Asian near by was a Haitian Canadian who lived in Beijing and spoke Mandarin, also very nice. Basically we talked, read a bit, had dinner and fell asleep.
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