Free to star in a Hong Kong kung-fu movie.
"Hong Kong Phooey"
10/29/2008 5:29:08 PM - Day 226 - Hong Kong, Hong Kong
The life sized Bruce Lee statue at the "Avenue of the Stars". It does't get much more "Hong Kong" than that!
Getting out of Seoul, South Korea proved to be just as expensive as getting in which would probably explain why there weren't really that many Western "tourists" there so much as most of the Western foreigners were English Teachers. I bit the bullet and got a flight from Seoul into Hong Kong (I didn't really have much choice). I had a friend who had visited Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China Travel Information) on a previous trip who had a couple good things to say about the place so I was looking forward to spending a couple of days there. I didn't book my hostel until a couple of days before which almost proved to be a mistake. Hong Kong is one expensive ass city without many good options for budget travelers. Luckily, there was one hostel that looked to be promising named "Guangdong Guest House" (Guangdong Guest House in Hong Kong Review) and even though it was full on Hostelworld.com, I was about to book it thru Hostelbookers.com. Note to anyone going to Hong Kong, book your accommodation somewhat ahead or be prepared to spend some cash or stay in a dump.
The airport in Hong Kong was really nice which would make sense since it is a huge hub for travelers between Asia and the rest of the world. Getting into the actual city involved an hour long ride on a really nice airport shuttle bus. The Guangdong Guest House was located inside a giant building infamous with backpackers named "Chungking Mansion". There are a lot of hostels and hotels inside this building along with many cheap eateries and shops. It is full of Indian and Nigerian immigrants as well as other backpackers and is also super run down. Its international mix of patrons and unkemptness does give it a bit of character that seems fitting for the metropolis that is Hong Kong. Walking in and out of the main entrance is also fun since it usually consists of Indian guys trying to book you into a cheap hotel or sell you watches, drugs or other items. If you ignore them they seem to remember your face, so after a day or two they stopped bugging me.
In Hong Kong I didn't have a lot planned to do. I decided to spend my time checking out the city, trying out the local cuisine as well as getting my Visa for Vietnam. The Visa for Vietnam proved to be pretty easy. I took a ferry from my area of Hong Kong named "Kowloon" to Hong Kong Island where the Vietnam embassy was located at. The ferry service is named "Star Ferry", it runs frequently all day long and costs close to nothing to use. I popped into the Vietnam embassy, dropped off my Passport and had it back later that afternoon with my Visa for Vietnam. Phew! One more Visa taken care of! I think this will be the last Visa I need to get for awhile until I go to Brazil some months from now for Carnival.
Walking around Hong Kong itself is pretty exhausting. Hong Kong is fucking crowded! Even by Chinese standards. Everywhere you look there are high rise buildings making the most of what little space they have in the city, and as you dodge the hordes of pedestrian traffic you also have to dodge the constant drizzle of dripping water from the multitudes of Air Conditioners that checker the tall buildings that surround you. During all this you have people trying to sell you watches, tailor made suits and all manner of things. It really isn't that bad, but it is pretty tiring. One good thing is that unlike mainland China, you won't see people hawking up wads of spit all over the sidewalks.
The restaurants were decent, and they have a huge selection of places to choose from. Hopefully you know Chinese though because I used and English menu once at a restaurant, and when I looked at the same menu in Chinese, the Chinese version had all the menu items at a cheaper price than the English one! I pointed this out to the waitress when she came back with the bill that had the raised English price and she got pretty embarrassed and changed the price to the Chinese one. I can understand foreigners getting charged more than locals in a lot of countries since a lot of countries a very poor by Western Standards and the little extra charge can make a big difference for some people, but not in Hong Kong. It is one of the most financially progressive areas in the world, and it is already expensive as fuck as is so I didn't think it was too cool that the some of the restaurants had an English menu with inflated prices.
As for selection, you can find almost anything in Hong Kong and it is all quite delicious. The most common item to find though is noodle soups. One other interesting thing about Hong Kong is that because it is so crowded that when you go into a restaurant during peak eating times, don’t expect to get your own table. You sit wherever there is space, and if you are at a table by yourself, you can expect to have people joining you soon enough when the space is needed. It makes sense to me since the space is so limited there and is a good way to meet people during lunch or dinner.
There are a lot more Western tourists here in Hong Kong than there are in Mainland China. This is probably because Hong Kong doesn't require a visa to visit it so getting there as a Westerner is a lot easier than going to mainland China. A couple things to keep in mind if you do plan on visiting Hong Kong is that if you enter from Mainland China you will need to have a double Entry Chinese visa to go back to China, otherwise you'll have to get a new Visa for China while you are in Hong Kong. Also, for those that only go to Hong Kong without going to Mainland China, what you experience in Hong Kong is nothing like Mainland China so I wouldn't consider a visit to Hong Kong as a visit to "China", it is a visit to "Hong Kong" and if you want to see what China is like you are going to have to make a visit to the mainland.
I have been here for a decent amount of time and I am ready to move on. Unless you are really into partying, business or fashion, a couple of days visiting Hong Kong are enough. I was able to find a really cheap flight with Air Asia into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to kick off my time in South East Asia. I'm going to miss the great Chinese food, but I hear the food in South East Asia is awesome so I have something to look forward to!
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Great food and South Koreans love to drink!
Highly Developed Seoul, South Korea
10/24/2008 12:14:53 PM - Day 221 - Seoul, South Korea
Seoul breathes a high-tech life of its own.
Initially when I arrived at Seoul (Seoul, South Korea Travel Information and Review) I had planned on staying the whole time at a hostel named "Banana Backpackers" (Banana Backpackers in Seoul, South Korea Review) that had decent reviews online. I stayed there one night and couldn't sleep a wink since my dorm room was buzzing with tons of mosquitoes that were biting the fuck out of me and buzzing around my ears all night long keeping me awake. I almost missed my tour to North Korea the first morning of my stay in South Korea because I had slept thru my alarm after not falling asleep until around 3:00 am (alarm was for 4:00 am), but luckily some drunk had come back to the hostel at like 4:30 am and in the process woke me up. I really hated that hostel, and switched the next day to another place named "Stay Korea" (Stay Korea in Seoul, South Korea Review) that turned out to be awesome. It was a bad introductory experience to Seoul, but I soon learned that Seoul had a lot going on for it.
Seoul has been the most developed city that I have visited so far in Asia. Seoul has an infrastructure that easily rivals (and in many cases beats) those of other cities that I have visited in the developed world. It is very easy to get around, it feels completely safe (of course any big city has its risks), there are banks everywhere and the city is relatively clean. I can see why many Westerners choose Seoul as a base to teach English and visit other areas of Asia in the process. This infrastructure comes at a price though and Seoul is a relatively expensive place compared to other areas of Asia. Also, getting to Seoul is a royal pain in the ass in terms of expense since there are no (not at least that I could find after a ton of searching) budget flights going to South Korea. Talking to many Westerners during my travels who were teaching English in Seoul, they never really had anything good to say about the place, but not really bad either. It was always an indifferent attitude towards Seoul with responses like "Yeah…it's ok I guess." I think they may have been expecting more of a culture shock perhaps and didn't get it as much since Seoul is so westernized in many respects that it isn't as big of a change to stay in there as opposed to other parts of Asia. I'm sure a lot of other factors play into it for each individual person, but personally, I had a great time in Seoul and I can attribute that to an awesome American guy named Jeff from Hawaii who was nice enough to show me around a bit.
South Korea has a lot of tradition, customs, great restaurants and rocking bars, but if you don't speak Korean or know the area that well, you could easily miss out on the great times because many of the good places are hidden down back alleys and only have menus in Korean. I can see why many Westerners come to Seoul leaving a bit disappointed about their visit. Luckily, I met a fellow American named Jeff on my tour to North Korea. He's from Hawaii and was writing a Master's Thesis on North and South Korean relations. He had also spent a good deal of time living in South Korea, spoke the language and was even married to a South Korean lady. He therefore knew South Korea pretty well and graciously offered to show me around a bit one of the days. I took him up on the offer because I had been in South Korea for a couple of days and hadn't really seen or done much because in all honesty, I really didn't know what to do and was having trouble communicating with the locals.
We checked out a couple of the temples and other sites in the area and Jeff gave me a brief rundown on the history of the various points, as well as how they are playing into current events. It seems that there is some animosity towards Japan by many South Koreans because for a very long time, Japan occupied the country. Also, currently there seems to be some resentment held towards the American government as well because of how the US government had meddled in some of South Korea's affairs. Of course, many South Korean's love the American General Douglas MacArthur and what he did during the Korean War, but some of the current generations want us the hell out so that they can have complete sovereignty. I think the US media really plays up the "hate" between North and South Korea in a manner that makes our military presence in South Korea seem warranted, but from what I saw on my visit to North Korea, I don't think there is that much dislike between the two countries. Hell, North Korea can barely feed their own people much less attack a country that is light years ahead of them technologically. Of course, I have a very minute understanding of the situation, but from what I have seen and what Jeff told me, it seems like American influence in the area isn't as "warranted" as some might think.
One of the recent events was this whole issue with beef made from "Mad Cows" being imported into South Korea from America. The South Koreans went crazy over the beef being imported from the United States and had all kinds of protests over the issue, and how they wanted that beef banned. It was a huge deal in South Korea, and when I read about it online, about the large protest and also how the beef had long been proven to be complete safe for consumption. I remember thinking "What the fuck is wrong with these people. The beef is fine, they need to chill the fuck out and do something better with their time than protest against American beef imports." I thought it was simply another baseless outlet for people to be "pissy" towards America. I was wrong though, and Jeff explained to me that the South Koreans weren't angry so much about the beef itself, as they were over the notion that they had no choice in the matter and that they were going to have to eat the beef whether they liked to or not because America said so. It was like America said "You're going to eat our beef and you're going to like it". That made a lot more sense to me and I can now understand why South Koreans had so many protests over the issue and it also gave me a bit more understanding of South Korean feelings towards American influence in the area.
Jeff showed me some of the better sites in the city (they are all easily reached by bus or subway) as well as some of the better restaurants that he knew about in Seoul, which I thought was a lot more enjoyable than the sites themselves. South Korea has a lot of tradition when it comes to eating, and even more so when it comes to drinking as I soon found out. Jeff had a South Korean friend in Seoul named Jae-Cheon who was a Doctor that specialized on North Korea (it seems to be a hot topic in South Korea, understandably) who met up with us for dinner. Jeff knew of a place that made some type of really good seafood soup in one of the bar districts of Seoul. The place was awesome and if I had been alone when I had visited, I would have been totally screwed because like usual, the menu was only in Korean and none of the waitresses spoke any English. The food was fucking fantastic, and what was supposed to only be a couple of beers turned into many along with a couple bottles of the local liquor named "Soju", which is a bit like Sake. A couple things I noticed about South Korean restaurants was that at many of them, they had an area where you could sit at a table like most restaurants in the west, than a separate area where you took your shoes off and sat Indian style at lowered tables in the South Korean manner. Also, the waitresses wouldn't ever come to your table on their own accord, except to take your order and serve your food. What's customary in South Korea was that whenever you needed something, like for example beer, you would yell out in Korean "Hey lady, we need some more beer over here!" Then they would get some beer and give it to you. I thought it was a pretty cool system and if I ever did stuff like that back home in the states, I'd probably get spit in my food, but over here it is the norm and this system makes a lot more sense to me than constantly having a server come to your table even if you don't need them, or having to wait for them to come when you do need them.
Jeff and Jae-Cheon also introduced me to South Korean drinking culture. In South Korea, they like to drink, and when I say drink, I mean they really, really like to drink. They take their consumption of beer and Soju very seriously and in excess. A couple rules, the younger people at the table have to make sure that the older person's beer glass is never empty. Therefore, when the older guy runs out of beer, he will literally sit there with an empty glass until one of the younger people at the table fills it up for him (even if he wants to drink right away), and if a younger person doesn't do so for awhile, the younger person is showing a bit of disrespect and could lose a tiny bit of "face", similar to honor. Also, a lot of times the older person will pick up the bill, and sometimes Koreans will get into big heated exchanges (in a friendly manner) because they all want to pay the bill (I wish I had this problem with my friends back home). Needless to say, by the end of the night, everyone is completely wasted and having a blast, which was what happened amongst Jeff, Jae-Cheon and I. We went bar hopping all over Seoul, drinking away and all ended up having a blast. By midnight though (we had been drinking all day) we were all tossed, and after a late night munchies session that involved eating still moving tentacles recently chopped from a live octopus, I said my goodbyes and had a foggy ride back to the hostel in a cab. It was really cool hanging out with the two of them because I got a lot of insight into North and South Korea relations, and the current situation in North Korea, had some great food and got a great insight into South Korean culture (especially the drinking aspect). Thanks a lot Jeff for showing me around buddy and good meeting you Jae-Cheon.
Needless to say, I had the hangover from hell the next day and didn't do much. The rest of my time in South Korea was spent checking out the city and hitting up some restaurants here in there when I didn't have work to do. They have a TON of western restaurants and stores over here, more so than I have seen in any other city on the planet (besides those in the United States). Some of the restaurants and stores I saw a lot of were Outback Steak House, Bennigans and "7 - 11". They also had Dunkin Donuts shops on every corner. Seoul was also full of internet gaming hubs and video game arcades. It was interesting to walk into an arcade and see old men playing video games like Street Fighter II with little kids. There were also a lot of girls inside the arcades playing games which I have never seen before. Plus, the internet gaming shops seem to be really popular with South Koreans. Some South Koreans like playing video games so much that there have been a couple reported incidents of South Koreans dying inside the internet gaming cafes from lack of food and sleep since they were so hooked into the gaming. Talk about taking it to another level. I also made sure to get some Korea BBQ, which I have to say was some of the best I ever had.
All in all, I had a great time in South Korea. The food was awesome, beer plentiful and there are enough historic sites to visit to keep me busy. Seoul may be a bit conservative in some respects, but I still had a good time there and I can see myself coming back some day to visit more of South Korea.
Late night munchies in South Korea. After a long night of drinking what else would you eat but this? Screw hamburgers and Mexican food, in South Korea we eat still moving Octopus!
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Who would have thought?
I Got Into North Korea
10/20/2008 11:45:51 PM - Day 217 - Kaesong, North Korea
Welcome to North Korea.
One of the best things about traveling is being able to wake up not knowing what the day haa in store for you. I try to give myself as much freedom as possible by not booking flight tickets very far in advance (if at all) which doesn't seem to be a problem in most parts of the world (unlike the US). I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it to South Korea, but while in Mongolia I met an American teaching English there who told me about a cool little day long tour offered by a company at www.gonseekorea.com that you could do from Seoul into Kaesong, North Korea (Kaesong, North Korea Review and Information). Excuse me, did you say "North Korea"? This was the first thing I asked her, and soon enough she gave me the information for the tour and the rest was history.
I almost completely missed my trip into North Korea because I didn't get a wink of sleep at the hostel I was staying at since it had a fucking serious mosquito problem in my dorm room. It's name was Banana Backpackers (I'll talk more about it in the next BLOG) and the first night I was there, I had mosquitoes biting me all over and each time I was about to fall asleep, one would start buzzing around my ears. It was horrible and I couldn't sleep at all. Finally I passed out and my alarm failed to wake me up. I had to be at the meeting point at 5 am, and luckily one of the people in my dorm came back at like 430 am drunk as hell and inadvertently woke me up. I can honestly say this is the first time I was glad that happened. I rushed my ass over to the meeting point for the tour into North Korea and was soon on a bus with some other tourists heading to the most fortified border in the world known as the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) that lies as a buffer between North and South Korea.
Once there, we were all given are passes that we were to use on our trip into North Korea that would basically function as our identification as well as a list of rules to follow. Don't stray from the tour group (someone did that on another tour and was killed by North Korean guards), don't take photos while on the bus, don't take photos of anyone in uniform, don't take photos of any unsuspecting North Koreans and don't buy any postcards with the likeness of the North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-il (this was a rule from the South Koreans). After getting all of our bags checked and screened, we were on our way to the North Korean side of the border.
The tour was full of South Koreans. In total, the tour had close to 300 people (that is the max that are allowed to enter North Korea per day). They put all of us non-South Koreans on one bus (all three of us) along with a huge group of South Koreans. Luckily the other two non-South Koreans on the tour could both speak English, one was \an American guy named Jeff with the other guy being a nice Dutch dude name Marris. They were both really cool people. Jeff was actually there as part of graduate school work about the relationship between North and South Koreans so he gave me a really good insight into that relationship. He also spoke Korean which was a huge help since the tour was in Korean. One cool thing he told me, and I also noticed on the trip was that the South and North Koreans actually don't hate each other (I am sure some do) like we are all led to believe in the West. In fact, they seem to get along quite well. Jeff explained it to me in detail since he was an expert on the subject, but he summed up when he said that the South doesn't hate the North so much as they look at people in the North as there "misguided, poor brothers".
Once at the North Korean side, I could see the North Korean immigration officials and South Koreans all smiling and laughing and I remember thinking "wow, looks like North Koreans are pretty friendly, happy people after all". That was, until it was my turn to go to the North Korean immigration official. As soon as he found out that I was American, his faced soured and he handed me my papers and motioned for me to go on. It was pretty funny seeing the swift change in his demeanor. From what I understand, they get a lot of crazy propaganda about the United States in North Korea.
The first stop on the tour was at a place called Pakyon Falls. The falls weren't much to look at, but the scenery around them was amazing since Fall was in full swing over here with the changing of the colors of the leaves. It was amazing. After that, it was time to head directly into the heart of Kaesong city. This was what I was really looking forward to since it would give me a chance to see North Koreans going about their daily life.
I have been to a lot of "communist" countries up to this point on my trip and can honestly say at each one that I saw nothing communist about them. They all seemed to be as capitalistic as they come. However North Korea was a different story. When I think of George Orwell's novel "1984" (check it out if you haven't read it yet), I think of a setting like North Korea's. The streets were near empty (which was pretty eerie considering we were inside a large city) and the people you did see were either on foot or bike with most of them wearing similar, drab styled clothing with the occasional suit. The only cars you did see where the SUVs carrying the soldiers that were following our tour around along with the infrequent bus. It was so strange to see the streets of a big city being so desolate. As we drove past all the giant, grey concrete block buildings that made up the city (there was close to no decoration or paint on any of them) I did however notice a lot of people staring at us from behind window curtains or from in between alley ways. We were as much of a curiosity to them as they were to us. I also found out that the North Korean government does what it can to make sure all the locals are as far away from us tourists as possible. The locals you do meet are handpicked to be allowed to interact with foreigners. They were all very quiet and somewhat cold in their dealing with us, either from a general dislike or a fear of doing something wrong under the watchful eyes of the military and "secret police". Yes, "Big Brother" is in full swing and I even found out that one of our "guides" was actually a North Korean Intelligence Agent (this came from one of the high ranking South Korean guides who Jeff befriended).
Inside the city they took us to a couple approved tourist sites which included a couple temples, a famous bridge for Koreans named Sonjuk Bridge and to a nice lunch. The entire tour took up the whole day and soon it was getting to be late in the afternoon when we were all herded back to the North Korean section of the DMZ. Once there, they went thru the pictures of everyone's cameras and made sure nobody took any pictures of anything they weren't supposed to. Jeff drew the short straw and they thoroughly went thru his camera and made him delete any pictures that even had a shred of a North Korean official in them. After this, we bussed across to South Korea, went thru South Korean customs and were soon on our way back to Downtown Seoul.
I can honestly say that I never had imagined that I would be going into North Korea. I thought that was impossible. I found out that this tour had only been going on for about 6 months now and that the number of Americans who had taken it was in the very low hundreds. North Korea gave me a chance to see a type of Totalitarian society that I didn't think existed anywhere outside the pages of novel. I only got a brief glimpse of life in North Korea, but I can only imagine what it is like to live there.
Downtown Kaesong, North Korea. All the people you see near me are South Korean tourists on the trip with me. Notice the lack of people on the streets. The SUVs you see are full of North Korean soldiers watching over us.
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"I've been Shanghai'd"!
Poor Times in Shanghai
10/18/2008 8:03:39 PM - Day 215 - Shanghai, China
I was able to see the "real" Shanghai at its Night Markets.
When I was planning my trip to China, for whatever reason, I wanted to go to Shanghai (Shanghai, China Review and Travel Information). It was more so because of its "name" and the mystique that surrounds it than anything since after doing a bit of research, there really isn't much to see or do in Shanghai like there is in many of the other large cities of China. After spending some time here however, I am glad that I visited because I got to see a unique side of Chinese culture as well as get some great food.
I picked a place online to stay at named the "Sleeping Dragon Hostel" (Sleeping Dragon Hostel in Shanghai Review). It was a relatively new place with a couple decent reviews so I figured why not? After spending a bit of time there, talking to the locals and other guests who had friends from Shanghai, I found out that I was staying in one of the poorest parts of the entire city. It was super safe though and I was right next to a huge night market so it ended up working out for the best because I ended up seeing a side of Shanghai that most people never see. In fact, I ended up meeting up with a friend of mine who I had met in South Africa months ago named Lu Ming. If you check my second post on this website, you'll see a video with him in it. He happened to be in Shanghai at the same time as me for work. Lu also happens to be Chinese and was born in Shanghai (now lives in New York) so he was able to show me around a bit and give me some insight to the culture and people. When he met up with me at my hostel, he was amazed at the architecture that was in the nearby area. It was very old, traditional style Chinese architecture and he said that he didn't think there were still buildings in Shanghai that had this style to them.
Walking around the poor area my hostel was in, we could see all kinds of people in their pajamas. I asked Lu what the deal was, and he said that in Shanghai, it isn't uncommon at all for locals to walk around the middle of Downtown (or any part of the city) at all hours of the day in pajamas. I also saw a lot of guys in the night markets walking around without a shirt on. Keep in mind this is the middle of the night in a crowded night market. I thought it was pretty cool and wished it was normal to walk around the middle of the downtown area of a city at night in my pajamas (or shirtless). Lu also told me that the government was discouraging this practice because they thought it gave a bad impression to tourists.
Lu also showed me around the Nanjing district, Bund district and YuYuan "Old Shopping" street. These are probably the touristiest areas of the city. Up until this point, I had thought that Shanghai was a pretty rundown place with zero foreigners due to impression I got from the poor area I was staying in, but when I visited these other spots I saw that I was completely wrong and that Shanghai was filled with foreigners and was far from run down. The Bund District has a bunch of European styled buildings on the waterfront along with a great view of the Shanghai skyline. The YuYuan "Old Shopping" street was filled with modern eateries and shops. The Nanjing District is a long walking only street covered in neon signs lighting up the storefronts of all kinds of high end stores. They were all pretty cool but I'm not really into shopping (but the skyline view was very impressive), but where I really enjoyed my time at was at the night markets in the poor part of town because that is where I felt like I got to see an authentic side of the local culture. It was cool seeing Lu though and being able to check the town out with a friend instead of the usual solo mission I go on during my travels. After getting a bite to eat, I said bye to my old friend and headed back to the hostel.
After seeing those areas of Shanghai, there really wasn't much left to "see" around the city therefore I spent most of the days getting work done and nights walking around the night market near my hostel (super poor area of Shanghai). The night market was pretty cool because since this was such a poor area, there were almost zero tourists except for the people that were staying in my hostel. Thanks to this, I got a TON of stares each time I walked thru the area. Probably locals wondering what the fuck a Westerner was doing in that area. Each night (and morning) I went out in the night market area to get food and chat (or try to) with the locals. Most of them couldn't speak a lick of English, but we did our best to communicate. I also got some great (but not very healthy) Chinese food on the cheap.
Another thing I noticed was whenever I went to the same vendor at the night market to get food at twice or more during my stay there, every time after they were super friendly and really helpful. Chinese culture is full of beliefs, and around Shanghai (and probably many other places in China) there is a strong idea of "connection" almost as if I was meant to meet these food vendors and eat at their stalls, in which case they felt like we had a "connection" of sorts and that made us instant friends, and since I was a foreigner, they were extra helpful, almost as if it was their duty to guide me since I wasn't familiar with anything. I thought it was a pretty interesting belief that really played into the whole idea of "Fate".
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Xi'an sounds like "She-on".
The Terracota Army
10/14/2008 1:26:05 PM - Day 211 - Xi'an, China
The Drum Tower in Xi'an at night was amazing.
I originally hadn't planned on coming to Xi'an, but I met another traveler on the road who told me visiting the Terracotta Army was a must. I looked into it, and it just so happened that Xi'an was right on my travel route so I figured I may as well make a stop there and see what this Terracotta Army was all about.
Getting to my hostel the "Han Tang Inn" (Han Tang Inn Review in Xi'an, China) was a bit difficult since the directions they have online weren't very clear, but eventually I made it. Also, the airport for the city was way out of town so I had to take an hour long bus to get to downtown Xi'an. I have noticed that this seems to be the case for a lot of cities I have been to while traveling. The area I was staying in was pretty cool being very central and also right next to the bustling Muslim Quarter where you can get all kinds of interesting food (some of it good, some of it really shitty). You have to make sure to watch your step in there though because it is super crowded with people on scooters zipping in and out of crowds of pedestrians in narrow corridors with the occasional car clearing the entire walkway.
I booked a tour to the Terracotta Army thru my hostel and the next day I was on my way. The Terracotta Army is located about an hour or so out of Xi'an. For those of you that have never heard of it, over 8000 "soldiers" were fashioned out of clay in order to serve the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty in the afterlife. They all ended up being destroyed along with his giant mausoleum five years after his death, and ended up being lost to history. Then a Chinese farmer by chance found some while digging a water well (dude is famous now and spends his days signing books of his at the army sight). After that, excavations were started and soon over 8000 destroyed soldiers were discovered along with a huge necropolis. Since then they are still searching for other sites in the area while putting together the pieces of the soldiers that they have already found. They have put a ton together but there is still a lot of work left to be done.
Make sure to bring an ID card with you when you visit the site. I didn't (because nobody told me to) but luckily I met a guy on the tour who looked a little like me (sort of, but to the average Chinese person all of us whiteys look alike) who was cool with me using his ID card. Truth is they never even really looked at the ID card so I probably could have used anyone's. The Terracotta Army site was alright. The Chinese government has set it up quite nicely, but at the end of the day, all you're staring at is a ton of clay soldiers. Maybe I have gotten a bit numb to the sightseeing, but in either case, I am glad I went and if you are in China, it is worth checking out. At the end of the tour they took us to the usual jade and silk factories on the way back. By the time I made it back to the hostel I was exhausted, so ended up crashing early.
I did walk around Xi'an somewhat though and have to say that Xi'an has some of the coolest looking buildings I have seen in China. One of them was the Drum Tower and it looked fucking awesome at night. My next stop is Shanghai. Looking into it, Shanghai doesn't have a ton of "sights" to check out, but the name alone conjures up feelings of mystery and intrigue which is part of the reason I want to go. I simply want to check the city out, not every place has to have something "noteworthy" to see. It is also on the way to South Korea, so I figured "why not?"
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One year older, more than one year wiser.
"Panda, Panda, Panda" in Chengdu
10/12/2008 10:55:16 AM - Day 209 - Chengdu, China
One part panda, one part bunny, but 100% cute (the panda people, not me). Who would have thought you could hang out with pandas? Also, they make you wear the glove and booties so none of your germs get on the panda.
I remember a long time ago, before I had started this trip I read about how you could hold baby lions in South Africa. That lead me to a website that listed a lion reserve you could visit there where you could do just that. I got to thinking "If you could hold a baby lion, I wonder what else you can hold? …How about a baby panda?" I thought it was a farfetched idea, but hey, why not? I searched on Google and when the results came back, sure enough, there was one place in the world that you could hold baby Pandas and that was at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding or more simply the "Chengdu Panda Base".
To make a long story short, I have a thing for "pandas", so I made a promise that I would go there and pet a panda, and when I make a promise, I keep it. Getting to Chengdu (Chendu, China Review and Travel Information) was easy enough. I flew out of the enormous new flight terminal they now have at Beijing on a super cheap flight that I booked on Ctrip.com. You can get flights for super cheap here in China, and taking a flight saved me a ton of time (and didn't cost that much more than a train). Ctrip.com was also the only website that I could use my international debit card on without having to fax in a ton of information.
Once in Chengdu I had arranged an airport pickup from the hostel I would be staying at, "Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel" (Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel Review in Chengdu, China). I have to say, this has been one of the best hostels I have ever stayed at. I actually extended my stay a couple of days because I liked the place so much. I got there a day before my birthday, so I spent the first day booking activities to do on the big day. Namely, I was going on a tour to the Chengdu Panda Base in the afternoon, and in the evening I was going to hit up some Sichuan Opera which is a Chinese variety show of sorts that has very historical and traditional roots.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early one year older. I decided to tell as few people as possible (if any) about the birthday because in all honesty, nobody over here would care. It felt strange being in a foreign country on your birthday, but that's life on the road. Everyone from the hostel who had booked the panda tour hopped in a van and off we went. The Chengdu Panda Base was a pretty nice place. Imagine a nice zoo that only had pandas. It's funny to think about how crazy people back home in the states go to see pandas at the local zoo when they have like a million of them running around over here in Chengdu. I have to admit though, they were very cute eating their bamboo and rolling around on one another. A couple of the pandas even hammed it up for the cameras which made for some great pictures. The tour guide asked if anyone wanted to pet an adolescent panda. It wasn't free, or cheap to do, but I was determined to pet a panda since that is what I came here to do. Plus, it was my birthday so I treated myself. I wanted to hold a baby, but they were all sick at the moment so that was out of the question. They brought the panda out, gave him a stick of bamboo to keep him occupied and then had me come over to get behind him to take some pictures of me petting and hugging the panda. It was a dream come true. As I petted the panda time seemed to slow down for more than one reason as I drifted into thought. I had promised to do this, and now I had fulfilled that promise. It was a surreal moment. Besides that, who ever gets the chance to be that close to a panda, let alone hug it? As for what it felt like, Pandas have very coarse fur and are not "soft and cuddly" as some might think. I am sure when they are babies it is different.
When I got back to the hostel I treated myself to a big birthday lunch and decided to do some drinking to celebrate the big day, since that is what I would have been doing had I been at home (except it would have been with friends and not alone). I rounded up some beer and got some DVDs to have a relaxed time drinking and watching movies. I ended up getting somewhat buzzed when the time came for me to check out the Sichuan Opera. Once again, everyone who had signed up in the hostel was piled into a van and sent off to the next destination.
The Sichuan Opera was amazing. It was set in an old Chinese tea house and as soon as I walked in and saw all the Chinese people that were there to watch the show (as opposed to a bunch of western tourists) I realized it was going to be a good show. The Sichuan Opera consisted of many different acts. One was singing, another a guy played some type of stringed instrument, then they had some guys with huge marionettes, then a guy did an amazing job with shadow puppets, then some acrobatic fights with singing, then a comedy routine and finally they had something that is unique to Sichuan Opera called "face changing", and for this particular show they also had costume changing. What happens is that guys come out in a super colorful mask, start dancing and singing, then quickly swipe their hand over their face and the entire mask will have changed. It was the craziest thing to see. What was even crazier though was when they did it for their entire costume! In that case, the guy was walking around, singing while holding a flag. He would then swipe the flag very quickly over him and his entire costume would be changed. I mean everything. This change happened in a fraction of a second. He must have changed his costume and mask a couple of times. There were also multiple guys doing this all over the stage at the same time. I had never seen anything like it.
I am sure thanks to a combination of all the alcohol I had consumed (they had drinking at the show as well), the fact that I was in a foreign country for the first time in my life on my birthday as well as being on the trip of a lifetime, it all sort of hit me halfway thru the show during the shadow puppets. For some reason, I got inwardly emotional and started to tear up thinking about how amazing this trip has been so far and how lucky I was to be here. At the same time, I was also thinking about everything I had sacrificed to be here as well, and all I had lost in the process. I had a lot of emotion and thoughts pulling at me from all angles, happiness, sadness, a feeling of accomplishment and anxiety. The underlying theme behind it all however was that all the sacrifice, pain, sights I have seen, places I have been, hardships faced, people met, etc., etc., etc., all of that made for one amazing experience, and all that emotion that had been balled up inside me came to a head and the tears started flowing all the while I had a huge smile on my face. I can't explain it, and I know the alcohol had a part to play in this, but that is one moment I'll remember.
The next day I had quite the hangover, and since I was going to be staying at the hostel for another day, hadn't really been drinking at all on this trip for some time now and felt like simply relaxing, I decided to give in to the "hair of the dog" and started drinking the hangover away. That day was spent watching movies with drink in hand. The day after that, I was once again hung over, but I had enough of the booze, so started making plans for my next destinations and taking care of travel arrangements. After the Sichuan Opera and the Chengdu Panda Base, there isn't much left to see in Chengdu save a giant Buddha outside of town that I never ended up making it to. My next stop is Xi'an to see the Chinese terracotta army.
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Steamed dumplings are the best!
Having a Blast in Beijing
10/7/2008 8:29:44 PM - Day 204 - Beijing, China
Taking the Great Wall of China to the "X-Treme"!!!
Beijing is awesome!
End of Blog.
Just kidding, but yes, Beijing (Beijing China Review and Travel Information) is a great city. I took the train from Ulan Bator to Beijing. It is an overnight modern train (they just got a new one for this route which is very nice) that leaves early in the morning from Ulan Bator and arrives early the next morning in Beijing. The longest part of the journey is when you are at the China/Mongolia border. Since Mongolia uses a different gauge for their train tracks (the same one as Russia, making them the only two countries in the world to use this gauge), when you get to the border, they have to switch the gauges on the trains. The lift every carriage, make the switch, and then put it back down. This takes forever. The funny thing is as you are leaving the border into China, they play "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. I am not sure what that is all about, but it must be the Chinese Government's way of saying "Welcome to China!"
Setting foot in China was a trip. I had always wanted to visit, and now I found myself in one of the most interesting countries on the planet. First impression as I got off the train: "Damn it's crowded". That must come with being in the most populous country on Earth. I soon found my way to the subway (which is very well connected thanks to the improvements that were made for the Olympics) which took me to my hostel named the "1Hai Inn" (1Hai Inn Hostel Review). It was a pretty nice hostel that was made from a converted traditional Chinese house located down a "Hutong", or narrow street/alley that are very common in Beijing.
That first day I walked all around the surrounding area to get a feel for the city and people. Some of the things I noticed right off the bat was that the Chinese really like to spit everywhere. I don't mean a little spit here and there (which in itself isn't "proper" in the West). I'm talking hawking up huge, giant wads of phlegm from the farthest reaches of the lungs and shooting it anywhere that there isn't a person standing. It could be right on a sidewalk, side of a street, inside a bus, whatever. I think it has to do with another thing I noticed, which is how polluted Beijing is. You can barely see the sun on some days here because of all the smog. I'm guessing that has to do a number on the lungs of the local population. Each time I walked around the city for a couple hours I would come back with a serious headache.
There was so much to see and do in Beijing, I was constantly busy. The highlights included the Forbidden City (place where the emperors of the last two dynasties ruled from), the Chairman Mao Mausoleum, delicious Chinese food and of course, the Great Wall of China. The Forbidden City is right next to Tiananmen Square which also houses the Mao Mausoleum, so you can visit all three in one day (although the Forbidden City is so big so seeing all of it in detail could easily take up a couple of days). Tiananmen Square was pretty interesting, especially when comparing it to Red Square in Moscow. Instead of Lenin's Mausoleum you had Mao's, instead of the Kremlin, you had the Forbidden City. Also, since the square is full of Chinese tourists, it isn't uncommon for them to come up to you as a foreigner and ask to take a picture with you. I visited Mao's mausoleum, and once again it was interesting to see the final resting place of such an influential person, and just like Lenin, Mao's final wishes weren't that he be put on display in a mausoleum. Mao's mausoleum was decidedly less memorable than Lenin's. There was no awe inspiring building housing the body, instead it looked like a typical office building from the 70's. The intimacy of Lenin's tomb, since it wasn't crowded at all was completely lost at Mao's tomb since so many Chinese were there to see it, you entered in a long procession of people moving like a herd past Mao's body. The stoic Russian guards of Lenin's tomb were replaced with Chinese guards who were busy moving all over the place dealing with the hordes of people. Once again, it was an interesting experience, but not on par with a visit to Lenin's mausoleum.
The Forbidden City is something out of story books (or Anime). The place was freaking huge! It was the location of the Emperor's household and throne for over five centuries. It was called "Forbidden" because nobody could enter or leave the palace without the permission of the Emperor himself. It has also been left for the most part untouched so the architecture of the buildings was fantastic. I only spent one day there, but one could easily spend a couple days visiting the various museums and temples of the city.
The Great Wall of China was also a very impressive site. It is a good hour or so out of the city, but well worth the drive (seriously, who would go to China and not see the Great Wall). It is set in the mountains which were surrounded by a great deal of green foliage thanks to the time of year I was there. When I arrived at the wall, it went on as far as the eye could see in each direction. It was quite amazing. However, after a couple hours there, that was enough because at the end of the day, it's a wall. Granted, a really, really, really, really, really big wall, but still a wall so you can only walk its path for so long before you are ready to move on. The wall itself has a very long and interesting history, but putting that down all on paper is a book in of itself.
When I wasn't running around Great Walls or moon walking down the Emperor's Path in the Forbidden City, I was trying out some of the best Chinese food ever! It wasn't the "best" in the sense that it tasted that much better than the Chinese food that we get in the United States because in all honesty, the two taste pretty much the same. I went to both local restaurants and touristy ones, and all the Chinese food tasted quite similar to the stuff we get in the United States except that I couldn't find a couple of the dishes that I am used to having back home (namely Orange Chicken) however China is a huge place so I am sure that you can find each and every dish in one province or another. The thing that made this Chinese food so fantastic was the prices. I'm talking $2 for a big plate of Kung Pao Chicken and rice along with a giant beer. That’s what I am talking about! If I stay in China for too long, I might need to invest in some larger clothes! I have also fallen in love with Chinese buns and steamed dumplings. Soooooooo good! Pieces of minced meat and vegetables wrapped in thin dough (or thick for buns) and steamed to be served as Dim Sum. They are so good! You could get 8 dumplings and a bowl of soup (typical Chinese breakfast) for under $1.
I was able to meet a lot of locals while going out to eat or touring the city and I have to say that Chinese people are very friendly, helpful and eager to help foreigners out. Of course, most people don't speak a word of English (some of the younger Chinese do) but the simple idea that most people are eager to help you out makes the stay in China that much more enjoyable.
Beijing has been a great intro city into Chinese culture and I can't help but look forward to what adventures China has in store for me. My next stop is Chengdu in the Sichuan province of China. I am going to be there during my birthday and plan on holding a baby panda as a birthday present to myself (Chengdu has the world's largest Panda sanctuary).
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You don't fuck around in Ulan Bator.
Ulan Bator, Capital of Mongolia
10/1/2008 11:36:17 PM - Day 198 - Ulan Bator, Mongolia
A huge seated statue of Genghis Khan (whom they call Chinggis Khaan) in Sukhbaatar Square. The Mongolians are very proud of their past.
After getting back from the country side in Terelj, I had a couple of days to kill in Ulan Bator (or Ulaanbaatar depending on how you want to spell it) (Ulan Bator, Mongolia Review and Information) before I would be able to enter China which brings up another point. I got my Chinese Visa! I feel fucking invincible man! I can go anywhere! Another tough Visa down, I can only hope that my luck with Visas keeps up. For those of you who are wondering how I got it, my hostel named UB Guesthouse (UB Guesthouse in Ulan Bator, Mongolia Review) had the necessary forms and information I would need in order to apply for a visa at the Chinese Consulate in Ulan Bator. All I had to do was fill out an entry form, go get a bogus seat reservation for a flight I never purchased at a local travel agency (for like $5, the Mongolian travel agents make a business out of this) since you need to have an "exit" flight out of China, get a printout of a bank statement (which I hear they are going to stop requiring soon) and have a couple passport sized photos. That's it. I showed up to the embassy early one morning and had my Visa ready a couple days later. No sweat.
The city itself didn't have a whole lot to see our do. I saw most of the main sites all in one day. Ulan Bator is better used as a base camp to see the natural highlights of Mongolia rather than seeing the city itself considering how ugly it is. Thing is, the previous communist rulers didn't want to spend a cent on city beautification. Thanks to this, the majority of the city is comprised of Soviet style concrete blocks except for the buildings immediately surrounding the main square of the city, Sukhbaatar Square. There are a couple cool museums though, especially one that illustrates the amazing history of the Mongolian people, highlighting of course on the Mongolian Empire. It was truly an amazing empire. Ruthless as all hell, but also quite tolerant and progressive. The Mongolian Empire was one of the first ones to have complete freedom of religion. I never would have guessed that. They also did a great job of opening up trade routes.
Ok, enough of the history lesson. To be honest, Ulan Bator doesn't have much of anything, but the one thing that I did find to be very fascinating was the people themselves. The locals are an interesting mix or old and young, past and present. On one hand you have old men and women waddling around bow legged (from all the horse riding no doubt) in traditional Mongolian garb, then on the other hand you have the young Mongolians wearing stylish horse riding boots with new denim and western hats. One thing though, most of them had an "edge" to them that you learn to notice when you have been around enough rough and tumble people. You don’t fuck around in Mongolia. In fact, walking around at night is a big no-no. One big guy in my hostel decided to test his luck (and intelligence) by staying out late one night and when he came back he was completely bloodied and beaten and no longer in possession of his wallet. If you aren't getting jumped at night for your wallet, you have to watch out for kids or teenagers who will run up behind you and yank your bag right off your back or shoulders. It's pretty rough and is a result of the abject poverty a lot of people have to live with down here. I'm not saying that you can't come here and have a good time, only that you definitely have to be on your guard a bit more in this part of the world then say in Western Europe. For fuck's sake, you're in the capital of what was once one of the most feared empires in the world. The Mongol Hordes! It's like the fucking "Wild Wild West" out here with all the "cowboys", fights and lawlessness.
I'm now about to head farther south into Beijing. I've always been very fascinated with Chinese history and culture so I am really looking forward to spending some time down there. Until next time!
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