Park Adventure

Some people say that their life motto is: you have to try everything once. I find this quite ambitious, but admirable all the same, and have tried to make this my own goal as well for quite some time now. The way I look at it, goals fill the gap between future and dreams, so striving to accomplish your goals will bring your future closer to your dreams. Here ends today's lesson, haha.

But, in fairness, there are things you should strive to NOT do, NOT undergo, and NOT experience. I had one of those on my last day in Sydney. No one has ever attempted to strangle me, but now someone has. Not exactly part of my 'goal'. Let me explain. (I'm totally fine, before someone worries too much)

The first three-or-so days in Sydney, I was being a tourist, big time! Saw all the (great) sites, went to many of the beaches, and walked a LOT! And though I loved seeing all those postcard-perfect places, I was getting quite tired, physically. So, the last two days, I didn't play tourist anymore, or at least, I played a very different kind of tourist. Sleeping a lot, going to the beach, strolling around only occasionally, sitting down for good long meals, and going out for drinks with many of the fun and interesting other people that were staying at my hostel. I was rooming with three very fun guys (one from the Netherlands, one from Germany, one from Denmark), and with them and a large group of mostly Dutch girls, we went out to the bars on our block. Good times! Sure, it meant that I didn't get to go to the Blue Mountains as I had hoped, for some "bushwalking", but I think in the grand scheme of things, I had a better time doing what I did.

My last night in Sydney we went out again with a bunch of us to the Side Bar (around the corner from the hostel, and a favorite of backpackers!). After a while, a couple of us decided to go to the park not too far from the hostel and just hang out there for a while. Martine, Marloes and I had a great time until... some insane (and very drunk) old guy comes walking through the park, with his younger buddy (I think perhaps his son), and starts talking to us, quite angrily. As he is talking to us (and we try to ignore them) he gets himself angrier and angrier. As the younger guy is asking our names, and more or less politely introduces himself, the older guy starts yelling at me, because I as a "white dog" have raped his wife and "his people" and killed his children. "Do you acknowledge that?", he asked me. Me, unsure of what to do at this point, quietly utter "not personally, no." At that point, the guy lunges forward and puts both his hands around my neck while saying "enough of this bullshit". Luckily I was somewhat prepared and managed to knock his one hand away fairly quickly, and even more luckily, the younger guy was 'on our side' and pulled back the guy's other arm. Of course, at that point we got up and walked away, home to the safety of our hostel.

I've lived close to Detroit for many years, and worked in a bar for many years as well, but still I did not know what to do in a situation like this one. The guy was clearly deranged and disturbed, not to mention very drunk. As soon as he walked up to us I thought to myself, OK, I can 'take' the old guy, but not if the younger one joins in. So, it was my (our) luck that the younger guy had a slightly more sane mind. Not sure what would have happened if he hadn't acted, or acted differently. And, not sure that I want to dwell on that thought much longer.

But, all in all, my time in Sydney was great, and in a way, I was sad to leave. OK, I was certainly done being a tourist, and looking forward to moving on, but still... Oh well, I made some new friends at least! I got up early Sunday morning to catch the bus to Canberra. Of course, the bus didn't show up on time, because the beloved American Vice President Cheney was leaving Sydney that morning, so the whole city got shut down for an hour. Probably not a bad idea...

In any case, I got to Canberra in a mere 3.5 hours. Originally I was not planning to go here, but because I stayed longer in Sydney than I had expected, I abandoned my plan to travel towards Albury along the coast (the long way around), and instead take a more direct route. But, for me as a lover of political history, I couldn't pass over the opportunity to stop in Australia's Capital city, young though it may be (the city is less than 100 years old!).

Once in Canberra, I dropped off my bags and started walking again. The Lonely Planet listed a perfect 12km walk along many of the major sites, and because I only have one day here, that worked out pretty much perfectly. The new parliament building is impressive (in use since 1988), especially the rooftop garden with the giant flag on it, but I personally prefer the old parliament building. Sadly, they had outgrown it, but I felt it just carried a lot more character. One thing that was really special, I thought, was that there was a copy of the Magna Carta on display at the parliament building, one of only 4 original copies from the 13th Century. Strange how a piece of parchment can exude a certain power, but it really did. In a strange way, it enhanced my feeling of being on vacation (you know, liberty and all that).

Towards the end of my stroll I walked up the 'memorials'-road. OK, that's not what it's officially called, but it's a long lane with all sorts of different memorials on it, some quite beautiful, some quite ugly, but interesting all the same. At that point I was exhausted, ending up at the end of the walk at my hostel again. I had seen a hot tub (they call it a "spa pool") by the pool in the hostel, so that seemed extremely appealing. Sadly, once I was in it, I found out that the water in it wasn't exactly hot, but the same (cold) temperature as the pool itself. So, after enjoying the bubbles just a little bit too long, I took a long hot shower to overcome my near-hypothermia.

Now it's Sunday night, and I'll be hopping on the bus tomorrow to go to Albury-Wodonga to hang out with Nadine (and Anthony) there, and I'm of course very excited about seeing her again, for the first time in far too many years! It'll be nice to stay in a "home-y" place again (although they've only just moved in a few weeks ago themselves) and unwind a little bit, before going on to Melbourne and even more tropical destinations after that.

Lobster-Like

So, I found out about 5 minutes after my previous post that I was going to be, well, SOL for lack of a better term (de beschaafde Nederlandse term: vette pech voor mij!). I had assumed that everybody in the world celebrates New Years the same way "we" do, even if it is on a different date: Eat a lot, light some fireworks, and party until the next morning. Sadly, I learned that the Lunar New Years celebrations are more than just one day. So, on my last full day in Hong Kong, I didn't get to see the fireworks I was hoping for. They would be the next day, while I would be flying towards Sydney. But, on the upside, I DID get to see the parade. OK, it started about 1.5 hours late (apparently there was a fire), and OK, it meant standing in a rather pushy crowd for about 5 hours, and OK, it wasn't really all that spectacular... but I saw the parade.

My last day in Hong Kong I spent in Kowloon, as planned. The (star) ferry over there gave me some spectacular views of both coast lines (Kowloon and Hong Kong Island), so I happily continued to snap my many pictures (many more have been posted at my picture site, http://picasaweb.google.com/rlanen), including the one above, left. Also on the Kowloon side was the Avenue of the Stars, sort of the Hong Kong equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame; many stars in the sidewalk of all the greats in Hong Kong cinema (and yes, many of our Kung Fu legends were present! Jet Li's hands [picture right] are tiny!!). I then walked up through the Golden mile to the Kowloon Park, which was quite pleasant, but extremely crowded. Somewhat to my surprise, Kowloon was packed with Indians (not the native American kind, the other one... people from India). Now, I realize India is probably not that far from Hong Kong, it still surprised me. But, I figured I'd take advantage and got some real nice Indian food.

The parade itself, as I mentioned, wasn't all that special. The coolest part about it, to me, was that many 'groups' from all over the world were represented; a South-African drum group performed alongside a New Zealand stilts-dancing troop, and Cheerleaders from Kentucky joined the many elementary school groups from China. I think the Michigan marching band should consider coming here next year for this, I think it could be huge! But, I was exhausted, and after about 2 hours I figured out how to get out of the area I was standing at (they had closed off the entire neighborhood... apparently I was standing inside the "loop" of the parade-route and they weren't letting anyone leave), I took the subway home. Sadly, because I had hoped to take the ferry home again, and snap a few last night-time pictures, but there just wasn't any way for me to get to the ferry.

I got up quite early on Monday morning, and my first flight got me to Thailand. It was funny to be back there some 6.5 years after I was last there, and I found myself listening intently to the people around me to see if I could still (insofar I ever did) understand any Thai (I didn't really, in case you were wondering... except for "thank you very much" in Thai). But, I did once again realize that written Thai is one of my favorite languages in the world, it just looks so esthetically beautiful and visually pleasing, only perhaps rivalled by Arabic (though I personally don't think so). The layover in Bangkok turned out to be a lot shorter than planned due to the long lines everywhere, but both flights were very uneventful, and sunrise in Australia (above right) was beautiful as seen from my exit-row seat ;-)

So, now I'm in Sydney, and it's hot. I got to the Youth Hostel around 8 am and I asked the girl at the desk if this kind of hot weather is typical for this time of year. She looked at me a bit blankly at first, and then pointed out, well, it's only 8 am, it'll get warmer! I thought it was quite hot already, but she was right... Even though I was tired, I decided not to give in to sleep, but rather start walking right away, so I dropped off my bags, and headed up in the Downtown area, towards the botanical gardens, and the world famous Sydney Opera house (left). Quite a sight, I most certainly need to see that again at night some time before I leave! The botanical gardens were also lovely (I especially enjoyed the signs that read: "Please do walk on the grass, and hug the trees"), and the walk overall was quite enjoyable.

Best part perhaps of my stroll today was that the sky was clear. I mean, not smoggy, not misty, not foggy, not even bad-smelling. It was simply clean! Sure, it was maybe 7 or 8 degrees (C) warmer than it had been in Hong Kong, but it felt about equally hot (less humid). The only negative side-effect of this is, you guessed it by the title of this post: I burned. Without the cloudiness, the sun has fair game on me, and now my face, neck, and forearms are as red as a cooked lobster (I heard a statistic that half of all Australians collect skin cancer at some point in their lives; I now understand why!). Oh well, now I've done that, and hopefully that's the last time I'll burn this trip (yea right...). In any case, the hostel I'm staying at is great so far, has a pool on the rooftop (9th floor), is right downtown (next to train station), and as I said a (rather long) walk from the botanical gardens and the Opera House, and my three roommates (including one Dutch guy, Sjoerd) are all quite nice. I did some laundry in the afternoon, soaked in the pool for a bit, and grabbed some pizza just now as I was absolutely starving. I think I'll spend a couple more nights here, I'm sure I can enjoy myself here for a bit. Yes, Australia is more expensive than Hong Kong, so far (especially things like food), but I'm enjoying myself here so far, so it's worth it; no worries, mate!

Piggy Business

First of all, sorry for the "long" break. It's been hard to access the Internet in recent days, and the Hostel I'm staying at in Hong Kong has nine of its 10 computers not working (at least, there were supposed to be 10 according to Lonely Planet). Which is why I now find myself at just about the loudest Internet cafe ever, typing in my blog on a page that is all in Chinese (another major problem), so I just hope I'll hit the right buttons when I'm done typing this post (the "publish" rather than "delete" button. Oh well, you'll never know if I get it wrong, so I'll stop fussing about it.



I am indeed in Hong Kong now, on the eve of New Year (the Lunar new year, that is, of course). But, I'll get back to Hong Kong in a moment. First, more about Guangzhou. I think I ended my last post by saying I had gotten there, after flying because all other modes of transportation were unavailable. Well, that appears to be the tune of the season here. All train stations etc. look pretty much like refugee camps, if you pardon the comparison. People are literally camped out in front of the stations (train as well as bus!) with what in some cases appears to be their entire household, waiting for trains, trying to get tickets, and in some extreme cases, trying to pawn off their children to white people. That's right. I met a couple of Australians for lunch one day, and they told me about how some lady asked them to watch her little girl for her. But then the woman started to ask for money, and it was clear she was trying to sell the girl rather than anything else. Appalling, shocking, certainly. Luckily, I managed to stay the hell away from the train stations, and found a bus that made the trip from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in 2.5 hours for only 10 US$. Not bad, I figured.


Guangzhou turned out to be not as explicitly beautiful as Hangzhou, as a town. But, I figured out that the Lonely Planet had made a misprint about the population; it said 3.8 million, but it looked like they forgot a "1", since everyone I met assured me the town had about 13 million people living there, and it was in fact the 4th largest city in the country. That said, though, I found an absolutely gorgeous oases in the form of the YueXiu Park. You can tell I was moving through a much warmer climate, because much of it was in full bloom, including a beautiful flower garden (pa en ma, dit park is echt een aanrader voor jullie, mocht je je ooit nog in de buurt vinden!!). So, I spent a LOT of time there, it was beautiful. Sure, it was hot, and considering the fact that, basically, peeling an orange can make me sweat (joke courtesy of Kevin James, but true for me all the same), I have been pretty much soaked for the past week or so.



The rest of my time in Guangzhou I did a few other touristy things, but I spent most of my time on Shamian Island, which is where the Youth Hostel I was staying at was located. It was an extremely pleasant, quiet, and calm oasis in the bustling madness that is a Chinese metropolis. I learned a couple of things about the island, for one that it has traditionally had a lot of European settlers, which would explain its rather Mediterranean looking buildings. Also, I found a ton of American couples with little Chinese babies in strollers (may or may not be visible in picture on the left), which I found rather odd at first. But then I learned that there is an American consulate on the island, and American couples who want to adopt a Chinese baby apparently have to spend one month in China (or even in Guangzhou). Which is why they all stay in the hotels on the island, and eat the burgers and sandwiches (very American course) in Cafe Lucy on the island. Shamian Island is quite small (walking all around the coast would probably take about an hour, if that) but there was much to see there, and I enjoyed the peace and quiet.



Best Western is the largest hotel in the world, or at least, that's what they say. I wonder if Headquarters in (judging by the name) the south of the United States, somewhere, have any clue what goes on in hotels around the world that bear their name. Let me explain. On my last night, I figured that, before I leave China, I wanted one more "cheap" massage. Now, I could of course have gone with one of the many guys advertising "good sexy massage" on the street, but we all know what that means, so instead I opted to go to the Best Western, go to their spa, and get a nice long massage there. I figured, it'll cost a bit more, but at least it'll be decent, right? Wrong. I go in, it's a nice spa, figured the prices look a bit steep, but what the heck, so I go in to check in. The boy that worked there comes up to me with a list of the three massages they offer; A and B were about 30 US$, massage C about 50 US$. I ask, what's the difference. "Well," he says as he giggles, "massage A only massage, massage B she use hands for happy ending, massage C she use mouth and body." "Excuse me?" is all I can utter, thinking I must have heard wrong, or he made a joke, as his giggling might suggest. But, he repeats the same thing, and his English is good enough that the chance I misunderstood him is very minimal. But he assures me the girls are very professional, no sex. I wonder what the hell is the bloody difference; a girl using her mouth for a "happy ending" still seems like something that the Best Western hotels I know in the US would not advocate. So, a bit confused about the whole thing I opted for massage A and was very satisfied all the same. But despite being loosened up significantly after a great massage, I couldn't shake the feeling of uncomfortableness having been in that place.



But, enough about that. If I wanted to I could by now write a book about the things that have been offered to me here (Hong Kong, perhaps surprisingly, has been the worst!), but I doubt many of you would be interested in reading this (OK, exceptions, I know who you are!). So, I'll stick to the things I enjoyed without making me feel dirty or guilty or something like that one way or another.



After the massage, I spent my last night in Guangzhou having a lot of cheap and pretty decent sushi (half-off before 9pm!), and after that, walked down a strip with a couple of bars. I randomly picked one, the "Mango", because it had soccer on TV, and I figured I could use a healthy dose of Manchester United! At the bar I got talking with a guy from Uruguay who now lives and works in South Africa, who said he'll take me to his favorite wine bars in Cape Town when I make it there. More surprisingly than a South-American-African, perhaps, was the fact that I met some 5 or 6 Dutch folks there, most of whom actually live and work in Guangzhou. So, it looks like I picked a pretty nice place to have a drink. As they all left (after all, it was a "school night"), on my way out I made a couple of new Chinese (and one Thai) friends as well, so I insisted on taking a picture with them all.



The drive to Hong Kong was quite uneventful. It kind of felt like leaving China, but then again, not really. Everybody got off the bus, grabbed all their baggage, walked through immigration, and got back on the bus. Quite uneventful. Only, then we had to do the same thing again, about 3 minutes later. Apparently, the first one was only for China, we were in no-mans-land in between, and now had to get into Hong Kong. Again, quite uneventful, only one woman didn't reappear at the bus for about 30 minutes... I guess here border crossing was more eventful than mine. Luckily.



Getting to the hostel was interesting, because the crowd on the streets around my hostel was enormous. I don't mind large crowds, if I did it would be stupid to go to Hong Kong, I suppose. But, when you're carrying about 40kg (90lbs) in luggage, well, you wish you were Moses and could split the sea of people shoving, pushing, and pulling you in all directions. But, I made it, and after a brief stroll around the block I went to bed, exhausted.



The next two days I pretty much spent strolling about Hong Kong Island, the north end, that is. Hong Kong Island is quite small, though I must say I was quite surprised how bit it still is, and the country (the drive from the Chinese border to the south of "Kowloon", the peninsula just north of Hong Kong Island, took us more than a half hour. I had visions in my head of having to struggle not to fall off of Hong Kong into the sea, because it would be that small. But, none of the sort. Though you wouldn't know it walking around Hong Kong Island (which is just one of many islands, but the most famous, with the great neon coastline you always see in pictures). So many people, everywhere, all day long (but especially after dark). I wonder if it's always like that, though I have to think it has something to do with the Chinese New Year coming up; many people have the week off for the Holiday season, and there's a very large New Year's Fair pretty close to my hostel (pictures above left and below right). At the fair, they mostly sell balloons and inflatable items (mostly pigs), which I find quite amusing. But, one of the nights that I walked (shuffled, crawled) across the market, it was so crowded, it took me about 2 hours to move 250 meters. Literally! And I didn't stop to look everywhere, that's just how many people there were, that's as fast as one could move. I couldn't help myself to wonder what would happen if someone were to faint in the mass of people; any rescue effort would actually come hours late!



Hong Kong is also a great place to lose a lot of money fast. Sure, my first impression was, 'holy crap, this place is expensive!', having just come from China. But then you fall into the trick of thinking, 'well, it's still cheaper than back home'. Which is only true some of the time, for some things. The first two nights I fell victim to this, and spent around 40 US$ on dinner both nights. Which is quite easy to do here! A beer in a bar will easily run you around 6 US$ in most places, but always over 3 US$, a movie ticket (I finally got to see my "English" movie, "Night at the Museum") 9 US$, and so on. The only thing cheap that I discovered at first was the Island tram, running from left to right on the island for 25 cents, no matter how far you go on it. So, after a couple of very expensive days, I decided to make it part of my goal to spend less from then on. I mean, I'm on vacation and all, but it can't hurt to exercise some "fiscal responsibility", even for a liberal like me. Plus, going to Australia next, this could be practice.



I think I did quite well once I had decided this. Spent under 10 US$ on dinner, limited other unnecessary expenses, and walked as much as I could. Today, I walked more than I probably have since I started this trip more than a month ago. I went to the south side of Hong Kong Island, across the mountains (by bus, admittedly), and strolled around there. The town called Stanley had a cute little market where I ended up buying myself a few cheap gifts (T-shirt, for 3 US$, a pair of shorts for 13 US$, and a set of chop sticks for 20US$), all of them significantly haggled down from their asking price, of course. I don't really like haggling, in a way I always feel guilty, but I guess that's the difference between this culture and mine; I have trouble talking to the cable company about money! I then walked along the coast, past Repulse Bay (beautiful beach) and Deep Water Bay. The weather wasn't the most beautiful (still about 23C and extremely humid, but quite cloudy and almost foggy), but I figured this was still a nice opportunity to make my way up to Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island (some 500m, or 15,000' above sea level), so I hiked up there through Aberdeen Park. All in all, I pretty much walked from 10am until 8pm, stopping only for a brief (and cheap!) lunch at a noodle shop in Stanley. The views from Victoria Peak were still definitely worth it, even if we were almost in the clouds; I got there as it got dark, and still got some nice harbor shots. I'm still having some difficulty finding the best setting on my camera for those kinds of panoramic night shots, but I just ended up taking a lot of pictures, so I'm sure there will be at least one good one in there!



From Victoria peak, after a cheap dinner (I admit: McDonald's. But, I got a meal for about 4.50 US$, so I don't feel too guilty), I took the infamous peak tram back down the steep mountain to the north side, and then walked "home" from there, which is how I now find myself in this loud Internet Cafe. Tomorrow is my last day in Hong Kong, and the official New Years celebrations are then. So, I'm planning to take a ferry up to Kowloon (perhaps the most touristy part of Hong Kong, as I understand it), and hang out there. From the coast I'm hoping to get a great view of the fireworks in the harbor that will be, so I'm told, fired from Hong Kong Island. So, perhaps I'll be able to get a couple of nice pictures out of it.



Being a tourist pretty much for an entire months is a bit odd, and it surprises me to say that I'm getting a little tired. This may sound weird to those of you who travel all the time, or perhaps to those of you who hardly ever travel even more. But I find myself getting a little bit jaded. Oh, another temple. Another beautiful park. I think at some point I started setting bars at the most beautiful places or unique sights, and things that don't measure up to those seem to not interest me all that much anymore. Which is a feeling I don't like having, but I can't help it. Honestly, I think I could spend another week here in Hong Kong, there are so many places I don't even have time to visit (I really wanted to take a day trip to Macau, and one to Lantau Island, but alas), but on the other hand, it may be good for me to leave Asia soon. I do believe that Australia will offer a nice change of pace, in terms of sights, people, language, and the range of possible activities. I don't look forward to going to an even more expensive place, I'll readily admit that! But seeing Sydney, and perhaps spent a day just lying at the beach sounds pretty good to me right now!



I can't believe the first month of travelling is already more than over. Strange to keep hearing the stories of the world around me (my brother getting a new job and moving, the DJs advancing to ICCA semi-finals, etc.) while I'm in these strange new places. But I do find myself having an uncontrollable grin on my face a lot of the time, whenever I realize what it is I'm doing exactly... whatever that is..... The year coming up is the year of the pig, which is supposed to be one of tying up loose ends in your life. I kind of feel like that's exactly what I'm doing on this trip to some extent. In a way, I think I'm really wrapping up my childhood (at last) while moving on to the rest of my life, and I'm starting to understand what that will entail, and especially, what it does NOT entail. I don't need to be something I don't want to be. The me who is sitting here in shorts and a T-shirt in a booming Hong Kong cafe is a person I'm pretty OK with being... if that makes any sense. I have two more months to make sure that I do, but things are looking up; in two days, it'll be summer, and let's take that in a positive symbolic way. I hope you all will also be able to tie up the loose ends in your lives in the year of the pig and have a wonderful year. I know I will. Happy New Year!!!!

Just one in a billion

Now that Shanghai is behind me, and Steph seems a million miles away already, I figured I'd get a couple more thoughts on-line. First thought: the madness that exists in Shanghai, in terms of traffic- and other behavior, exists elsewhere too. Second thought: the Lonely Planet is a fine guide, but don't think you can rely on it. Third: it is warm out, and beautiful, and I'm very happy. Let me elaborate.

My last full day in Shanghai, Stephanie and I took a river cruise. We figured, it sounds cute, and came highly recommended (by Frommer's guide, not the Lonely Planet... to be fair...), so I'm sure we'll see some pretty sights. Well, not so much. I mean, the first half hour was great, with river-views of both coastlines in Shanghai (the historic Bund on the one side and Pudong New area on the other with the Pearl Tower), but after that, we pretty much sailed through industrial districts. It was fine but not beautiful as we had hoped. Unfortunately I was starting to feel sick, and by the time we got through with another massage (delightful!), and had our dose of sushi (we're both addicted), I realized, I was actually sick. Fever, sniffling, coughing, and every muscle in my body hurting, despite the massage... I think that just about covers all symptoms, right? Oh well, to bed early, a busy day of travel lay ahead.

Friday morning I felt a little better (sleep always helps!), so that was the good news. The bad news was that I would be leaving Steph that day, so I pretty much took as long as I possibly could to get packed. I figured, once I leave Shanghai, I leave America for real... which doesn't make sense, but Steph was my last friend I saw from my "American Period" ('01-'07), and so that seemed to make things doubly sad. But, I'm a big boy, and the road was calling me, so on I went, to Hangzhou.

Hangzhou was billed as one of the prettiest cities in China, and having been there now, I can see why. The beautiful West Lake was a mere 10-minute walk from my hotel, so I spent a lot of time there. Granted, my first day I didn't do much, just hanging around my hotel room, getting a little bit of sleep here and there, trying to get better. But by Friday I decided I was done being sick, so I ended up walking all around West Lake (took me pretty much all day... not a small lake!). On the road there were so many beautiful sights, mostly just across the lake, but I also went up the Pagoda on the south side of the lake (the name eludes me at the moment), getting an even better view. Yes, the same haze still hung over Hangzhou that also hangs over Shanghai, but it's still a city of over 6 million people (half the size of Shanghai), so they were forgiven.

I'm glad (for lack of a better word) that I got to see my first baby pooping on the sidewalk in Hangzhou. Yes. Human baby. Steph and her Shanghai friends had already told me about this, and it seemed to ridiculous (or funny) to be true. But, the little kids wear pants without a butt in them (yes, there's a hole in the pants right at the butt!), so they will just crouch down, and poop on the sidewalk. I guess, they don't really like diapers in China. And the mom, she was so proud: look at my baby, pooping on the sidewalk! So weird... Another thing that I personally did NOT see in Shanghai (that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, just that I may have been able to avoid it) is cars driving on the sidewalk. Sure, they drive pretty much everywhere, but I hadn't seen any on the sidewalk in Shanghai. In Hangzhou, this is pretty much the norm! Like I said, it's a city with 6 million residents, but I don't recall seeing a single, actual parking space. So people park, and drive, on the sidewalks all the time. Seriously, you have to look around constantly, or you'll fear for your life the whole time!

My first full day in Hangzhou (Friday) it was quite cold, surprisingly cold actually... so it's a good thing I walked so much. I'm proud to say that I ended up eating at all but one of the restaurants listed in the Lonely Planet as the best in Hangzhou... that is, of the ones that actually still existed (many of them had apparently vanished). What's difficult, coming back to my opening paragraph, is that not only do the taxi-drivers not speak a word of English (I knew that from Shanghai), many others working in tourism also don't. Including pretty much everybody at the hotel I stayed at. That doesn't make anything any easier, I'm afraid. And perhaps it's me being spoiled little tourist, expecting others to all speak my language, but seriously... English? Yes, No, Don't Speak... I don't know how you can drive a taxi, drive tourists every day, and not know this. And the problem is, I will always try to say what I need to say in Chinese. But because it is such a difficult language, it usually takes for me to say it about 10 times, with increasing frustration in my voice, before they understand me.

I lived in the United States for 5.5 years, but it took for me to be in Hangzhou, China before I would go and visit a Hooters restaurant. Yes, I admit it, I went to Hooters in China. After I had exhausted all my Chinese places to visit in Hangzhou, I was really craving a beer and some wings. What's funny is, it was a great experience! No, not just because of the servers, though they were all beautiful and extremely kind (and they all spoke English!). What I enjoyed in chatting with the people there was that you really can find out a lot about a local culture by talking to the people that work there. I had a great time with Linda, Selina, Cindy, and Kelly; and girls if you read this: Happy year of the Pig!

Another "home" thing I tried to do is see a movie. The Lonely planet said that West Lake Theater shows English movies all the time. Although the ticket sales lady didn't understand a word of English (surprise surprise!), she managed to point out "007" to me, so I figured, I'd love to see the new Bond movie. Well, it was the Bond movie... but (1) completely in black-and-white (at least the first 10 minutes), which makes me think it was an illegal copy of some sort (the previews were all in color!), and (2) dubbed in Chinese. The previews, again, were in English with Chinese subtitles. But the movie itself, nope, all in Chinese. I sat there for about 10 minutes when I figured: this isn't going to get any better! So, I got out, and to their credit, they gave me my money back, so in my desperate attempts for a feeling of "home", I got a coffee at Starbucks, and walked home through what I can only describe as the red light district of Hangzhou, amidst many euphemistic pleas for me to come in for "nice massage".

Now, the hard part was getting out of Hangzhou. After spending several hours trying to book train tickets out to Guangzhou, I was getting quite frustrated, and felt at risk of freaking out. When I was at the train station on the 9th, they told me the first ticket down south was on February 17 to Hong Kong, and to Guangzhou would be even later. Nothing before then. Except standing room, which quite frankly I didn't want to do for a 23-hour train ride. Take the bus? Also not an option, all sold out for at least a week also. Luckily, my last resort (take a plane) worked out fairly well. I booked a ticket on the 10th, and because it was last minute, it was half-priced. OK, still more than I wanted to spend, but at $80, not the end of the world.

So, today I arrived in Guangzhou (yes, that's almost the same word), which is the old Canton. My cab driver wouldn't use his meter, which is something Nadine (who has lived here previously) had already warned me for. So, I had hidden most of my money in my pocket, and told him, all I have is this 140Y (about $17.50), so he reluctantly agreed. When I got to the Youth Hostel, the girls at the front desk (also speaking English, and quite well!) said I paid pretty much what you should pay for that trip, so lucky me. My first order of business was to try and get on-line and pay a few bills / see some e-mail, but the Internet cafe indicated around the corner from the Youth Hostel also seemed to have gone up in smoke (with no one in the area ever having heard of it). Luckily, at least in Guangzhou they indicated a few Internet cafes on the map (in Hangzhou they simply said "they're all over", but I did not find a single one, even when I looked for them!), so I took a cab, and here I am writing to you all now.

It is still fairly warm outside, and the forecast for tomorrow is quite decent again (24C / 74F), so the overcast skies that I'm seeing here, well, they can't dampen my spirits. Tomorrow I will explore Guangzhou, read all about it in my next report here. I continue to post pretty much all my pictures on my picture site, so those of you who can't read or simply prefer pictures, feel free to browse around there. --Voor de Nederlanders: ik hoop dat het allemaal redelijk te volgen is in het Engels. Nogmaals mijn verontschuldigingen voor het niet vertalen, maarja, je begrijpt dat alles twee keer typen gewoon veeeel te veel werk zou zijn. Ik probeer niet al te ingewikkelde taal te gebruiken zonder al te kleuterschool-achtig te klinken voor de Amerikaanse lezers, maarja, mocht je nou echt ergens helemaal vastlopen qua vertaling, kun je me gerust een mailtje sturen en dan help ik je zo gauw ik kan.--

Wo Ai Ni!

Efficiency? Never heard of it...

So, the one thing that is constantly surprising me the most about China is that, for a Communist country, it appears to be extremely inefficient, and devoid of rules and regulations. Or at least, of people following them. Every place you go, everywhere you look, things are in constant chaos. The most obvious one, of course, is traffic; drivers don't feel limited by signs, traffic lights, or even lanes. These are considered merely suggestions. Not only does everybody turn right on red lights (without stopping or even slowing down), plenty of people turn left on red lights, cut others off while honking, and simply create an extra lane, if they think they can squeeze their car or cab (always a Volkswagen Santana) through it.

Coming from Japan, where we saw absolute top-of-the-line efficiency on my last day there, at the Toyota factory, this has been quite an experience. Steph picked me up at the airport Friday night, and it's surprising how a day of doing nothing (well, travelling) can exhaust you! Saturday, after lunch at "English Menu", we went to the botanical gardens (saw a troupe of tap dancing housewives there), and then to a little street market around the corner from Steph's school. THAT was China as I expected it. Bustling crowds, weird and sometimes disgusting foods for sale (I especially 'liked' the moving fish head even though the rest of the body had been cut off). In the evening, a large group of people from the school all went out to celebrate Hayley's birthday, so we had tapas and large quantities of wine (picture left: Hayley, Stephanie, me). Good times!

The next day, we obviously didn't make it out the door very early. But once we did, Steph took me to the Yuyuan Bazaar; another type of market but completely different, much more modern and bigger, with actual storefronts rather than tents. It looked like we discovered what the Chinese do on their day off: they go to this Bazaar... what a crowd (see right)!! We then also went to the Yuyan gardens that were right there, which were just beautiful; lots of rocks etc that they work with. After that, we had tea right there in the Bazaar in this cute little tea house (picture left), with a nice view of the crazy crowds below. In the evening, we first walked around the famous Bund area with some beautiful buildings, and after that Steph took me to the Xintiandi neighborhood; a rather European looking area with lots of restaurants & bars, very pleasant (car-free!).

On Monday we went to the Shanghai aquarium, to satisfy Steph's obsession with fish. The coolest part about that particular aquarium is that they have a 150m long glass underwater tunnel, from which you can see all the fish (incl. sharks). The aquarium is on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River (picture right), an area called Pudong. What's funny about the Pudong area is that, before 1990, this was all farm and swamp land. The Government then decided to start developing the area, which has since seen the raising of a ton of shiny new buildings, including the futuristic looking Pearl tower and the beautiful Jinmao tower. After a nice Chinese massage we had arranged, Steph and I went up the Jinmao tower, which is the tallest building in China and (if it still is) the fourth tallest in the world. On the 87th floor, there was a bar (Cloud 9), so we enjoyed a couple of martinis with a view of the Pearl tower and the Bund (see right). We had dinner at a dumpling restaurant, a local specialty in Shanghai.

Tuesday, Stephanie and I went to Suzhou, a small town (well, small... there are "only" 6 million people living there), which according to an ancient Chinese proverb is paradise on earth (and Marco Polo loved it, when he saw it on his travels here). It certainly was quite a change of pace from Shanghai, but the smog still remained in the air, things were still quite dirty, and in the words of Steph, "nothing is authentic". When you're looking for real, old China, well, it's pretty much gone. You can find some reminders, absolutely, but they're spread out widely and the 'filler' is often much less appealing as a tourist location. That said, we did find two beautiful places in Suzhou, namely the Garden of the Master of the Nets (picture left), and the Twin Pagodas (one of them in the picture on the right below). In the evening, we went back to one of my favorite areas (Xintiandi) to have a nice, somewhat fancy dinner there.

So. China. Very interesting, and in a way exactly what you expect: no privacy or personal space, chaos, loud noises, and a lot of smog in the air. In other ways, it's the opposite from what you expect: lawlessness, no sense of tradition or history, and lots of apparent personal freedom. Getting into China, for example, was much, much easier than even getting out of Japan, where I was questioned for a half hour. But, most importantly, I'm getting to spend some time with Steph, and it's great to see with my own eyes that she's doing so well out here. Today, we're going to take a river cruise, get another massage (yippee!), and then have some sushi at Steph's favorite place. Tomorrow I'll be headed to Hangzhou, about 2 hours south of Shanghai, and after that straight on to Guangzhou, about a 23-hour train ride away (just north of Hong Kong). Luckily the weather's been great, and thinking about how Shanghai is the coldest place I'll be at in the next 7 months or so, well, this makes me a very optimistic little boy.

Pictures

So, I've been in Shanghai for about 48 hours now, and the first impression is sweet. For now, I'll keep it supershort: the taxi-rides are scary, Steph's friends awesome, the prices low, the markets interesting, and sometimes disgusting, the smells overwhelming, and the weather great.

Before I take the time to write more, just look at my picture albums, I've put a lot of new ones up already. The site for this is still http://picasaweb.google.com/rlanen .