Eugene, Oregon
Dylan is a freelance software engineer, world traveler, and aspiring vagabond. . .[more]
About Me
Dylan is a freelance software engineer, world traveler, and aspiring vagabond. . .[more]
Current Location
08/19/2009 - 01:14
Guilin & Ping'an Village, China
After leaving Hong Kong, I stayed the night Shenzhen because the train to Guilin was full. I was able to purchase an expensive soft sleeper ticket for the next night. That was better than being stuck in Shenzhen for two more nights. I went to a hotel that had decent reviews on hotelworld.com, which turned out to be a total dive, but I didn't have the energy to haul my packs around town in the hot pouring rain looking for hotels. That night I slept wrapped up in my Cocoon (sleeping bag liner) very tightly. If anyplace would have a bed bug problem, this would be it. The next day I spent about 8 hours at Starbucks in downtown Shenzhen using their free wi-fi, uploading pictures, and working on the site, while waiting for my train that evening.
After a 13 hour train ride, I made it to Guilin. This is one of the main tourist hubs of Guangxi province. As such, it was very crowded, and had a mall like feel. It's situated along the Li River, and there's a nice riverfront walk and lots of parks. The Seven Stars park, just east of the river was nice, and the view from the little pagoda thingy was great, but hiking up there in the heat of the day was brutal. The Moon and Sun Pagodas were really cool. The Sun Pagoda is the largest copper pagoda in the world.
There's not much of a nightlife scene in the city, unless you are into karaoke, in which case you are in luck! There are massive karaoke clubs all over downtown Guilin, complete with laser shows, fog machines, and very expensive drinks. I think I lasted about 15 minutes in one. The thing I enjoyed watching most was the club security.
They all wore police style uniforms, complete with military style helmets. Very official looking....
After Guilin, I took a bus to Ping'an Village, located in the Longji Terraces Scenic Area. This village offered spectacular views of the mountain terraces, and good hiking. It was also quiet and small, and the air was fresh - something I have not experienced since hiking Huang Shan. It was great seeing all the peppers and corn drying in the sun everywhere.
I spent one night in Ping'an and then it was off to Yangshuo, where I'm currently staying at a nice hotel with a REAL BED! It's actually soft for a change. After sleeping on what amounts to plywood slabs covered with an inch of foam, this is true luxury. Tomorrow I take a hot air balloon trip over the spectacular mountains of Yangshuo County. This place deserves a blog post of its own, so I'll be writing one up later.
08/11/2009 - 05:16
Hong Kong
Well it's been a long vacation from China, but it's time to get back, and get moving. HK has been great. From day one, I knew I'd like this city. It's got everything - food, entertainment, night life, beautiful parks, hiking, an incredible public transit system, and a diverse liberal population. Kind of like San Francisco, but 10 times the size, and even more expensive. But this is definitely a town I would enjoy living in.
While here I've managed to not eat a single Chinese meal (sorry to all the Chinese food fans reading...). I've had pretty good Mexican food twice, pretty good pizza twice, pretty good Italian (non-pizza) once, pretty good sushi once, good Indian once, great fish and chips for lunch today, and not so great, but cheap, Turkish this eve. I'm sure if I lived here, I'd know where to find the best of all these cuisines.
Also while here, I went to a drum 'n' bass party & met a bunch of locals, went to some underground place called the Buddha Lounge and met more locals (weird DJ's though), hung out in the club/bar scene of Lan Kwai Fong, and tonight I plan to go check out live Jazz at a club down the street from the hotel. Unfortunately I was not able to find any Psychedelic Trance in Hong Kong. Again, if I lived here, I'm sure I would find the Psy scene, or at least try to help start one.
As for non-party activities, I've checked out the Honk Kong Museum of Art, went to the Big Buddha over on Lantau Island, took the tram up to Victoria Peak, hiked around Hong Kong Park, and the zoo, took an endless series of escalators and raised walkways (called the Central to Midlevels Escalators) way up the mountain side on HK Island, and did my fair share of traveling around town shopping for things I know I can't get in China.
There are some odd things about the city though. I've noticed that all the public transportation seems to funnel you into a mall. In fact even some of the subway stations are giant malls themselves. There are also more 7-11's in HK than coffee shops in Seattle. Every block seems to have at least one, but more likely 3 or 4 7-11's. Starbucks is just as prevalent here, as in any city in the states. I've never seen so many Body Shop stores in my life. And everywhere you look it's brands brands brands! It's like malls and shopping streets in the states, but much more intense.
One of the cool things is that since the subway stations are all connected to, or are malls, you can pretty much walk across the city without leaving the air conditioned underground. I'm starting to get good at navigating the sub-terrainian shopping centers so that I don't end up at my destination entirely soaked in sweat.
But now it's time to leave this fantasy land and get back to reality in China. My wallet will definitely thank me for getting out of this place! Well with that, it's time to start packing a bit before heading out for the evening.
08/06/2009 - 20:05
Hong Kong
I've left the mainland and arrived in Hong Kong. And so far this place is fantabulous!
My experience in Guangzhou was less than exciting. I was rained on the entire time. Heavy rain, complete with lots of lightning & thunder, which was pretty cool to see. We don't get thunderstorms in San Francisco, so it was great to finally experience that again. So with the exception of braving the storm to run down the street and buy noodles twice a day, I pretty much hung out at the hostel.
Yesterday (Thursday) I hopped a train to Hong Kong for the weekend. Actually, I'll stay here for 4 nights, but who knows, perhaps I'll stay here a bit longer. As soon as I left the train station, it felt like a different world. A modern city with a diverse population. The first thing that struck me is that people were not staring at me like I'm an alien from another planet. The second was that people drive on the left -- gotta look the right direction when crossing the streets. And the third was that there are many many non-Chinese restaurants! I was so happy to see food other than Chinese. Three weeks of the same cuisine has driven me mad. Plus, I wasn't too keen on Chinese food to begin with.
It was easy to get to my hotel from the train station, and I checked into what must be the smallest hotel room ever made. Oh wait, I think they do have smaller in Japan. My room is about 6'3 long, by about 4', with a tiny tiny bathroom on the side. When I lay in bed, I can touch my head on one wall, and my toes on the other, and place my hands on the other two with ease. But the place is clean. I'm on the 12th floor, Block E, of the Chung King Mansion - a really trippy building right in the thick of Kowloon. I'm a 2 minute walk to the waterfront, and museums, and all kinds of other stuff.
Last night I took the ferry across to Kong Kong Island where I found a decent Mexican food restaurant. It happened to be right in the middle of a "pink light" district. I had a pretty good shrimp dish, chips and salsa, a jumbo margarita, all for around 50 bucks US - of course, being a big crazy city, it is expensive. But for the food I got, I could see being charged about the same in San Francisco.
The funny part was that from my open air seat in the restaurant I could watch all the bored strippers hanging out in front the "Waikiki Club" across the street. In fact the street was filled with bored strippers in front of their clubs - I guess it must have been a slow night....
Tonight I'm off to an area that my friend Zul recommended. Lan Kwai Fong should prove to be interesting on a Friday night.
08/02/2009 - 03:46
Nanchang, China
Well it's Sunday, 18:04. I've been hiding out in my hotel in Nanchang, working on the site & uploading pictures, for the last three days. I had a feeling that the "broad band connection" advertised by the hotel would not exactly be fast. However, it's definitely the fastest connection I've had in China so far. Still, It takes about a minute or more to upload each picture. It's seriously painful - and my butt hurts from sitting on this damn chair for 3 days. But I do feel like I've gotten a lot done here. Of course I have a gazillion more pictures to post, but whatever I can't get done tonight and tomorrow will have to wait.
Tomorrow evening I'm taking an overnight train south to Guangzhou. I hope it's nicer than my overnight train from Tunxi - the ticket was about 3 times the price, and it's about the same amount of time. Actually the train from Tunxi wasn't too bad. I had a "hard sleeper" and had the bottom bunk. I slept well enough, and awoke to see a couple of roaches hanging out on my neighbors bunk whilst he was still sleeping. Hey, at least it wasn't my bunk...
I chose this town to hide out in because there's not much going on here (at least according to Lonely Planet). I say town, but there are 2 million people living here - more than twice the size of San Francisco, but that's pretty small for China. It has been nice to stay in my own room, on a bed that actually has a mattress, and to have a working toilet. Ah, luxury!! Also, the hotel happens to be located next to "The Metro" a large discount store, similar to Costco. In this store they sell foreign food items. I was able to purchase orange juice, a mechanical pencil with extra lead, hair conditioner, German "Russian Style" pickles, and REAL BEER from Belgium (not cheap).
As an added bonus, I've been able to stream NPR all weekend. I got to listen to Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and This American Life. I've been streaming KQED, so it's nice to know that San Francisco is still there - and is sounds cold and foggy... Oh I miss it! I could go for some cold fog about now. Of course I'm heading south, so it's just going to get hotter.
I plan to spend two or three days in Guangzhou, then hop a train to Hong Kong for a while. I'm ready to get out and start seeing some things, and hit a few night spots. After Hong Kong, I need to get moving west towards Yunnan & Tibet.
Well that's my update. Like I said, I've been hiding out & working, so there's not much else to report. Hopefully more exciting things await.
