Hong Kong Highlights

I've moved on from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) by way of Bangkok.  However, before I leave China and its territories in my wake, I wanted to share with you some of the most interesting and strange things I saw along the way in Hong Kong.

Pedestrian Traffic

As a former British colony, traffic drives on the left side of the road in Hong Kong.  That in itself is not unusual.  I guess because of this traffic pattern, when you go down into the subway you are generally instructed to walk on the left-hand side of the tunnel or stairway as demonstrated in these photos.  However, once you get above ground, everyone walks on the right-hand side of the sidewalk.  The left-hand side pedestrian traffic pattern isn't even universal in the subway stations as I've seen other stations where passengers were directed to walk on the right.  To me this is all very unnecessarily confusing.  There are already enough people in Hong Kong to make it nearly impossible not to walk smack dab right into someone as you walk everyday down the street.

Bamboo Scaffolding

To me this is just baffling.  Instead of strong steel scaffolding, many buildings under construction will be surrounded with scaffolding made entirely by hand out of bamboo.  I saw the first example of this near my hostel in Mong Kok and thought it was just an isolated incidence.  However, when I was riding the tram with Eric on Hong Kong Island, he kept pointing out more examples of this strange building practice.  I mean I suppose bamboo is a strong wood, but it can't possibly be stronger than metal.  The fact that Eric pointed it out already indicates that it is quite an unusual method.  When I asked him how it could possibly be strong enough to sustain so much weight, he admitted that there had been a few accidents when it was especially windy.


Outdoor Sex Shops

As I was leaving the seafaring temple in Hong Kong I passed a few vendor stalls that were either being set up or taken down for the day.  I wasn't quite able to tell.  Either way, it was still broad daylight at about 5:00 in the afternoon.  One of the stands I passed is the one that is pictured above.  Yes, you are seeing that correctly.  It is an outdoor sex shop selling sex toys that any random child couldn't walk by at any time.  I really just can't even...


Obama Teaches English

This last sign for an English language school is just something funny that made me laugh.  I'm not sure which came first, the name or the president.  Either way, I'm sure it's quite a successful marketing technique.

In other news, happy birthday (yesterday) to my dad!  Hope it was great!  Love you.

One Night in Bangkok

Today was a bit of a rough travel day.  My flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was scheduled for 10:45am so my goal was to leave the hostel by 8:00am.  I had stayed up late last night blogging and woke up so exhausted (and freezing from the full-blast air con) that it was hard to pack and get organized in the dark.  I didn't end up leaving the hostel until 8:45am, but luckily still managed to get to the airport just over an over before my scheduled departure.

I checked in with ease and thought that I'd have plenty of time to get to my gate.  I even stopped to pick up some postcards and something to eat since I didn't think I'd be served breakfast on the plane.  However, it turns out the gate was in a completely separate terminal and once I finally walked to that terminal I realized I had to take a tram to get to the actual gate at least half a mile away from the original check-in counter.  I had been informed that I was supposed to arrive by 10:05am and that the gate would close 30 minutes before the flight at 10:15am.  At 10:10am, I was huffing and puffing while clutching my baggage (including my laptop which was now hanging loose after the security screening) trying to run down the multiple moving sidewalks to my gate.  When I finally got there at about 10:15, they still hadn't even started the boarding process.  I was thirsty and desperately wanted something to drink, but was afraid if I ran the 100 meters or so to the nearest kiosk I would miss the final boarding call.  I wouldn't normally be quite so paranoid if I hadn't nearly missed my flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong after they announced the final boarding (without announcing the initial boarding) more than 30 minute before take-off because we had to all take the same shuttle bus to the airplane.  In the end, we left about 15 minutes behind schedule for Bangkok this morning.  It's so frustrating to me that the airline can arbitrarily change the departure time, but God forbid a passenger arrive at the gate even two or three minutes late.

The flight itself was fine and made even better by the fact that I was the only person in my row.  I even got a "free" meal (this was a no-frills budget airline) that I had apparently already paid for when my travel agent booked the flight.  In spite of a bit of confusion,  I also arrived in downtown Bangkok with relative ease, though that's when the real trouble began.

I realized on the train from the airport that I didn't have the directions to my hostel saved on my phone and couldn't retrieve them without internet access.  I knew which stop was mine, but not how to get from the station to the hostel.  Once I got off the subway, I was able to get wifi at the neighborhood Dean & Deluca, but stupidly only looked up the address instead of the actual instructions.   My understanding was that the hostel was on a main street called Sathorn Road.  I had the street number, but Sathorn Road turned out to be such a busy intersection that to cross over in any direction you had to climb up and down over an overpass.  I had no idea whether I was supposed to go south, east, north or west.  First I chose southeast and that didn't seem right so I crossed back over the overpass and headed northwest.  I finally found the number that was supposed to correspond to the hostel address and it was clearly not the correct place.  By this point I was frustrated, exhausted, covered in sweat and my shoulders were absolutely aching.  I seriously felt I could not walk another step while carrying my bags on my back.  I was ready to walk into the closest hotel I could find and pay whatever they were asking if i meant I could put down my packs.  With my phone battery about to die I finally went back to Dean & Deluca to pull up the full-length directions.  I realized I was actually supposed to looking for a side street down an alley, but the directions were still not all that clear.  Some way, somehow, after just a few more wrong turns I miraculously stumbled upon it.  I'm not sure how I managed to find the place, but once I walked inside I kind of wanted to kill everyone who worked there.  My feelings on the deficiencies of the directions were confirmed by one of my roommates who had also gotten lost when she arrived.

I was in a much better mood after taking a shower and changing.  I dropped off a pile of sweaty laundry to be cleaned at the front desk and then headed next door to a local hole-in-the wall food vendor where I had probably the best chicken pad thai of my life.  And it only cost 45 Thai Baht ($1.47!!!) with a soda.  During my earlier wanderings I had walked past a spa and had told myself if I ever found the hostel I'd go back to ease my pain with a massage.  So right after dinner I went to the spa and got a one-hour Thai massage for 300 THB.  If you're doing the math that is only $9.82 in US dollars.  I don't even think that is that cheap for a Thai massage, but I definitely wasn't complaining.  That also means I totally got in my GTL in today.  Gym (walking miles with a 30-pound backpack), tan (massage? tan? hey, at least they're both spa services) and laundry.  I also decided I completely hated (being lost sucked!) and loved (cheap, cheap, cheap!) Thailand nearly simultaneously.

After the massage I went back to the hostel where I had a few beers and watched"Bridesmaids" with my roommates.  In spite of all the frustration, the day ended on a few very positive notes.

Inappropriately Shirtless

There is a disturbing phenomenon that I first noticed among men of a certain age in China.  This has nothing to do with their tendency to hack up a lungful of phlegm and spit it on the ground whenever they may happen to be, though that is also rather distasteful.  No... this trend is something of a whole different beast that I have coined "inappropriately shirtless."

In the U.S., men of any age might take off their shirt to swim at the beach or if they're young and fit to show off a bit when they're exercising.  But in China you apparently don't need to be young and fit to go without your shirt even on busy city streets.  This actually is primarily a fashion statement made by men who are middle-aged and older.  I don't know if it's just because it's so hot and humid here that they just can't stand to be confined by clothing or if there is something deeper underlying their actions.

I have tried to capture this phenomenon on film, but it can be difficult to pull off correctly.  You don't want to attract too much attention and have them catch you in the act.  You want to look as if you're photographing something else entirely and then zoom in from a distance.  In one case, I so feared awakening and thus arousing the ire of an inappropriately shirtless man late at night, that I stood so far away the photo came out blurry.  Another time I tried to chase a man wearing pajama pants and no shirt in the middle of the day in Shanghai, but I couldn't locate my camera until he was already too far away.

Due to the lack of good real life photos, while we were hanging out Peace Corps Cody graciously agreed to demonstrate one of the one most common styles of inappropriate shirtlessness.  In theses cases, the men don't bother to actually remove their entire shirt.  Instead they just roll it up until most of their belly sticks out.  Just to make it more lifelike, Cody is also hacking up some phlegm for good measure.

Before I arrived in Hong Kong, I thought inappropriate shirtlessness might be confined to mainland China.  However, I quickly learned that I was mistaken.  It's quite the trend here as well particularly amongst those who must carry heavy boxes or other large equipment.  And lest you think it's entirely just a popular look with the olds,  I captured a captured a bevy of young inappropriately shirtless boys near Victoria Harbor in Kowloon.

For the record, so far I have yet to see an inappropriately shirtless woman.  Stay tuned for that!

Big Buddha and British Beverages

This morning I took the train to Lantau Island as planned to go visit the Tian Tan Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery.  It took a bit longer than expected and when I found out how much it cost to ride the glass-bottomed gondola to the top, I opted instead for the bus.  I’m sure the view from the gondola is very lovely, but the sight of the beaches from the bus window as it circled the island and drove to the top of the mountain was also quite nice.

Just as I was arriving, I promptly tripped over a curb and badly stubbed my toe. It hurt like hell and as I was limping away I heard a Chinese man saying something with a bit of concern, but at first I didn’t bother to look down.  When the pain didn’t really subside, I finally did bother to check out my foot and noticed that the big toe was gushing blood all over my white sandal.  I hobbled into the nearest souvenir shop to see if they had a bandaid I could buy and the woman there kindly took out a first aid kit and completely bandaged me up.  The bandaid didn’t really stick, though, so when I came across the monastery office I went in there to pick a better one up.

With my toe taken care of, I bowed my respects inside the monastery temple and then started the 268-step climb up to the Big Buddha sitting on his lotus flower throne.  The statue, which was built in the early 1990s, is (or at least was) the tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha in the world.  It rises to 112 feet and weighs 280 tons.  I can tell you from experience that it definitely leaves quite an impression.  The Buddha also has a great view of the surrounding mountains and sea from his perch up on top of the hill.

After making my way back down to the town of Tung Chung by bus, I hopped on the subway, grabbed my bags from Mong Kok and dropped them off at the new hostel where I’m spending the night.  I then changed into my new dress and walked across the street to the Peninsula Hotel just in time to catch the end of afernoon tea in the lobby.  My Leopard Films co-workers would be very happy to know that our Royal Wedding Week tea etiquette lesson fully prepared me for this exact occasion.  I knew that I was supposed to eat the scones with clotted cream and jam off the bottom plate first, then the finger sandwiches on the second tier and finally the tarts and cakes on the top.  ( Ed. Whoops! I just looked it up and I think I actually did it wrong.  Clearly I wasn’t paying attention back in April.  Sandwiches first, then scones according to most websites.)  I did, however, know not to touch the spoon to the cup while I stirred my tea back and forth instead of in a circle (even though there was no milk to pour in since I ordered Chinese jasmine.) 

I had requested the tea service for one, but let me tell you it was still a ton of food.  I couldn’t really understand the waiter’s accent when he was going over the selection, but this is what I think he described. There were two scones filled with dried fruit, about five different kinds of savories--a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich, a tuna salad sandwich, a turkey and cheese sandwich, a mushroom puff pastry and a ham and cheese mini-quiche--as well as four different types of dessert.  The sweets consisted of a chocolate mousse torte, some sort of tart, citrusy pie, banana nut bread and some lemon cake topped with a cherry.  They were obviously all in very small portions, but I’m ashamed to admit I ate everything that was on the plate.  Then as if that wasn’t enough, the waiter brought over a small cup of pudding topped with a cherry sauce.  Yet there was still even more coming.  As I went to pay the bill, he brought over yet another dessert that I believe he said was a chocolate macaroon.  Fortunately I had a small breakfast and didn’t eat any lunch, because I was totally stuffed.

Once I finished eating I kept trying to get the bill so I could go watch the sun set over the water.  Unfortunately by the time I had paid up it was dusk.  Since I was just right there, I decided to go walk by the waterfront to see all the bright lights lit up anyways.  As I started walking on the boardwalk, I finally felt a sense of peace and contentment that had been somewhat alluding me since I got to Hong Kong.  Like New York, this city has such a frenetic pace and is all about big business and making money.  I’d been feeling a bit like a bum being unemployed with no income.  I had such a desire to work and be productive that I almost begged my old co-workers to give me something to do to help out with the shoot that’s happening here next month.  It seemed everything was under control, though, and they really had no need for my help.  Tonight, I finally realized I need to just relax and enjoy myself.  There will be enough time to work when I’m home and that’s not what this trip is about.  Plus, there’s always the opportunity to go out and work on new casting if I really want to be proactive.

I had the urge to keep walking along the water, but then I felt a few raindrops.  At first the rain fell lightly and I really didn’t mind.  Then it suddenly started to downpour.  I didn’t have an umbrella with me so I got soaking wet before I was able to make it back inside to my hostel.  As you can see I looked a bit like a drowned rat.

Tomorrow morning I stop briefly in Bangkok then the next day it’s off to Saigon.  Hopefully the visa-on-arrival letter I was e-mailed today will ensure I get into Vietnam.

Hello from Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong by late morning on Thursday, but I had been up since 5:00, I took a nap right when I got to my hostel.  This seems to be a trend based on my track record in Xi’an and Shanghai.  By the time I woke up, I didn’t feel like expending the energy to trek all the way to Hong Kong Island so I just explored the area near where I’m staying in Mong Kok on the other side of the harbor.

This neighborhood is much less ritzy and exclusive than the central part of Hong Kong, but there are still tons of restaurants and shops and just as many people.   Shopping and eating actually seem to be the primary things to do in the area.  At night they close one of the main streets to cars so it’s only open to pedestrian traffic.  That doesn’t make it any less crowded... in fact maybe even more so.  I wandered around after grabbing some food since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast on the plane.  I first tried what I thought were vegetable won tons (but turned out to also include pork) with noodles at a dive place across the street from my hostel.  The dish only cost 10 HKD ($1.28) and there was a good reason for that.  It’s wasn’t very good.  Feeling quite unsatisfied, I ended up going to the 7/11 next door to buy a yogurt drink and chips.  After dinner I popped into a few shops, but with no desire (or luggage space) to buy anything I eventually got fed up with the crowds and headed home for the night.

On Friday I had a bit of a lazy day, getting up late and then trying to get some things sorted for the next few legs of my trip.  In the early afternoon I went to a coffee shop in Mong Kok for a late “breakfast” before taking the subway to the Central station over on Hong Kong Island.  I came up above ground by a nice little park near an old British-era legislative building and sat down to read for a bit before heading towards the harbor.  I checked out the view for a bit (which was somewhat marred by a bunch of construction going on down by the water) then walked east along the island among all the skyscrapers, banks, office buildings and designer clothing shops.  Once the sun started to set and all the lights went on it was pretty cool to see the whole skyline transform.  I grabbed a sandwich for dinner then walked back to the harbor where I had a happy hour glass of wine before calling it a night.

The next day I decided to pamper myself a bit and get a one-hour Chinese reflexology foot massage.  A new place had just opened that was advertising a special deal for first-time customers.  After all the walking I’ve doing and my ongoing plantar fasciitis issues, I thought it might help to ease some of the discomfort in my feet.  Once I got there I decided to add on a 15-minute shoulder massage to help with my backpack-induced aches and pains.  All in all it ended up being just about $30, including tip.  It was a bit of a splurge, but I guess you need that every now and then when you’re on the road for so long.

After the massage I walked south down one of the main streets in Kowloon, as the peninsula across from Hong Kong Island is known, from Mong Kok to Tsim Sha Tsui right on Victoria Harbor.  Along the way I stopped at a bookstore in search of English books, a local temple built for worshiping a seafaring god and the massive Kowloon Park of which I only skimmed the outskirts. The path along the water is known as the Avenue of the Stars, which, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honors the pioneers of Hong Kong cinema.  As I watched the sun set and the lights turn on across the way, I felt a bit lonely for the first time since I started my trip.  It seemed a bit sad to be surrounded by millions of people and yet have no one to talk to or share a cup of tea with. 

Resigned to eating alone, I took the subway back up north and stopped at a restaurant where I had the most brilliant dinner dish ever-Ramen noodles topped with a fried egg.  I know it sounds pretty gross, but it was actually super delicious and something I’m totally going to make on my own when I finally get back home.  Once I returned to the hostel, I talked on Skype for over an hour with my friend Angie, little baby Emma (once she finally woke up) and a shirtless Jay (he finally did cover up.)  That cured my loneliness blues for the time being and I went to sleep content.

Today I had plans to meet up with college students Eric and Carena whom I met two weeks at my hostel in Beijing.  There was a bit of confusion about the meeting place (mostly my fault) so between all the back and forth I ended up being 45 minutes late to see Eric.  Eeekkk!  We had lunch at a traditional Cantonese restaurant in the neighborhood and then took the subway to Central where we took a ride up the Peak Tram.  The tram goes up a steep 45˚ angle to the top of a hill overlooking the city.  Carena, who had plans in the morning, came to meet us once we arrived at the top.  At first it was a bit overcast and cloudy, but later in the afternoon the sun finally did come out.  The view of the city and harbor was pretty, but I think I actually preferred the more natural sights of the South China Sea on the other side.  We had fun walking around the little shopping area and watching a group of young breakdancers before heading back down the hill.  Carena took the bus and Eric and I rode the tram so we said our goodbyes at the top.

Once we got back to the bottom, Eric and I hopped on another tram that goes west to east across the island (and costs 5% as much.)  We rode for a while, taking in the city sights, until Eric had to get off to go meet his family for dinner.  After saying goodbye, I got on the tram going the opposite direction and then took the ferry back across the harbor to Kowloon.  It was great to see Eric and Carena again and it was so sweet of them to spend all day showing me around their city.

On the way back to my hostel I stopped for panfried kimchi and boiled leek dumplings, which of course contained pork despite only having vegetables in their names.  I also had milk tea, a delicious concoction made with condensed instead of liquid milk that Eric had introduced me to at lunch.  It reminds me a bit of Thai iced tea, which I love, except hot instead of cold, though I think you can order it prepared both ways.

Tomorrow I plan to go to a temple with a big huge Buddha on Lantau Island, which is the largest island in Hong Kong.  I also hope to go to afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel if I can make it there on time.  It’s my last day in Hong Kong so I have to make the most of it.  And now I’m finally up-to-date.

Chic Shanghai

I arrived in Shanghai an hour or so behind schedule, but fortunately did not have too much trouble finding my hostel.  When I was checking in I saw a sign about a party for the Mid-Autumn Festival that the hostel was hosting that night.  I decided to check it out because it only cost 10 RMB (about $1.57) for dinner, drinks and games.  I'm not sure why it's considered "Mid-Autumn" when it's only the middle of September, but I'm game for any holiday that let's me drink booze and eat cake.  I deserved it after dealing with all the holiday travelers making their way to family reunions that were crowded into the train stations in Beijing and Xi'an.

Once I got to my room I took a short nap since I was still a bit tired from sleeping on the train.  I then showered before venturing out to People’s Square a few blocks away from the hostel.  People’s Square is a big public park with the Shanghai Art Museum right in the middle.  The area was definitely a stark contrast to the historic old buildings of Beijing and even Xi’an.  It was all modern metal and skyscrapers with immaculately landscaped surroundings.  I only had about half an hour to walk around before it was time to head back for the party, which started pretty early at 5:00pm.

When I arrived, the table spread for the party was huge.  There were double-decker egg and vegetable sandwiches, salad, noodles, shrimp, vegetables, dumplings and loads of sweets, including moon cakes, which are the staple dessert of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  There were also pitchers and pitchers of a traditional drink that I can only best describe as the Chinese sangria.  The base was a strong grain alcohol that seemed to be somewhat similar to Korean soju.  To that was added Sprite and cut up fruit like apples.  It was very strong, but the more of it you drank the easier it went down (as is usually the case with liquor.)

After we had finished eating we played all the games they normally play during the festival--most of which are aimed toward children--but never-the-less were lots of fun.  Among the highlights were a silly conga-line circle dance, musical chairs, a balloon passing game and a shirt buttoning contest.  During the party, I started talking to Cody from Oklahoma and Leon from Maryland who are both in the middle of a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Outer Mongolia.  Once the party started to die down we talked about going out someplace else for a drink and eventually added Alyce from Australia and Bruno, a student from England who’s studying outside Shanghai, into the mix.

The first place we went was a rooftop bar on a trendy nightlife street (which wasn’t happening so much that night due to the holiday), but after one drink we decided it was too expensive and decided to move on.  Bruno’s friend was working at a nightclub in the French Concession and thought was may be able to get free drinks if we met up with her there.  The club was in an upscale shopping area and was the sort of place I haven’t gone since I was about 21 or 22 years old.  I ended up not drinking anything else, but did dance until about 3:00 in the morning.  After a while the techno beat got a bit old, especially since every time the DJs would start to play a good song we actually recognized, they’d then remix and cut it off after only about 30 seconds.  By the end I had a pounding headache and Cody agreed to walk me home while Alyce and Leon kept dancing for another hour or so.  Since Leon and Cody left the next morning, I never got the chance to say goodbye, which made me kind of sad.  They were really nice guys and a lot of fun to hang out with, but I guess that’s the way things go when you’re a nomadic backpacker.

The next morning I got up a bit late and went to the art museum in People’s Square.  The best part about it was that it was completely free!  I saw some interesting exhibits on Chinese pottery, painting, calligraphy and seals as well as a special exhibit on Maori arts and crafts on loan from Shanghai’s sister city in New Zealand.  I didn’t have a chance to get all the way to the top floor before the museum closed so I decided to return for about an hour the next day.

When I got back to my hostel I ran into Alyce and told her about a special deal Ferey from Germany had told me about at the Vue Bar on top of the Hyatt on the Bund.  The Bund is a waterfront area along the Huangpu River that was once home to foreign merchants and traders.  It features beautiful 19th century architecture and is at it’s best when all lit up at night.  At the Vue Bar on Tuesdays, you can get two drinks for the cover price of 100 RMB as well as access to spectacular views and the jacuzzi that sits right in the middle of the 33rd-story bar.  Alyce agreed to go with me and we walked together to the hotel, stopping to take photos of the Bund and the modern skyscrapers across the river in Pudong along the way.  We ordered a few drinks while I tried to get up my courage to strip down to my bikini and get into the hot tub.  Alyce hadn’t brought her bathing suit so I was on my own with this one.  Then when we ordered our second drinks they forgot to take our tickets so we got a third drink for free, which helped to give me some liquid courage.  Once a group of French students all got in the jacuzzi, I finally decided to join in with Alyce soaking her legs on the side.

While we were in the hot tub, an Indian oncologist who lives in Hong Kong and does business in China came over to talk to us.  He bought us another drink and told us about the development consulting he does raising capital for oncology research.  He seemed pleasant enough so I agreed to meet up with him the next night for dinner.  Once the bar closed, Alyce and I walked back to the hostel and talked for another hour or so before exchanging e-mail addresses and saying goodbye.  It was really nice to hang out with another female traveler since it seems that so far I’m always meeting male travelers or couples.

The next day I went back to the Shanghai Art Museum and walked through two exhibits on Jade sculptures and ethnic minority arts and crafts.  The two other rooms on the top floor featuring Chinese currency and Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture were closed for reinstallation so it didn’t take me long to get through.  I then ran to the post office to mail some things back home followed by the mall to find something appropriate to wear for dinner.  Due to the lack of luggage space, I only brought one skirt and had already worn it the night before.  I hadn’t really expected to spend my last afternoon in Shanghai at the mall, but I found a nice dress so at least I now have a more formal outfit.  I had dinner with the oncologist back one of the restaurants at the Hyatt and it was alright, but definitely nothing spectacular.

The next morning I had to be up very early to catch my 8:20 flight to Hong Kong, which I was really afraid of missing.  The subway doesn’t open until 6:30 so I took a cab to the shuttle bus station that starts running buses at 6:00.  I of course left the hostel late (because I’m me) so by the time I got to the stop, the 6:20 shuttle was just leaving and I had to wait for the next one at 6:40.  I had read at the hostel that the bus took an hour, but I was praying that was an overestimate just in case there was traffic.  If it really took an hour, I was going to be getting to the airport only 40 minutes before the departure time for an international flight.  Luckily we made it there by 7:20 so I made my flight and all was right with the world.

Hong Kong is up next and I’m finally almost caught up...

The Warriors of Xi'an

My train for Xi’an, which is 570 miles west of Beijing, left just before 5:00pm on Friday afternoon.  When I first got on the train, the hard seat I was assigned was a little bit uncomfortable, but not totally unbearable.  It was actually slightly padded so the main problem was that it was almost completely upright with no way to recline.  For the first few hours I mainly just wrote in my journal and read my book, even dozing off for a few moments now and then.  Since I had forgotten my food I bought some from the food cart--first just snacks and then a bowl of Ramen noodles once I figured out where I was supposed to go to fill it with hot water. 

The point when it really started to get rough was later in the night.  You are not allowed to smoke in the actual cars, but you can smoke in the vestibules so the rancid air keeps wafting down the aisles.  Even overnight they don’t dim the lights and the train is constantly stopping to let people on and off.  Some people don’t have seats so they just stand in the aisles trying to avoid the constant movement of the food vendors.  As for the seats, they are arranged three across facing each other so you always have someone competing with you for foot space or starting to drift off to sleep on your shoulder.  I was able to fall asleep on and off, but needless to say it was not a good night’s rest.  The next morning my neck and butt hurt, I felt nauseous and couldn’t quite stomach the idea of ever again eating a bowl of spicy ramen noodles.  Once I finally got to my hostel (after taking a cab when I got off the public bus a stop too early) I slept for another four hours.

Xi’an is the last city along the Silk Road to the east so it is filled with lots of old architecture and history.  In the afternoon I grabbed some food from the hostel cafe and then walked to the city’s historic bell tower.  Inside the tower there was an local art exhibit and shortly after I arrived a youth bell choir gave one of their regularly scheduled daily performances in the main hall.  It was fun to see and hear some traditional Chinese music and dancing.  After that ended, I walked to the companion drum tower, but figuring it was probably much the same as the bell tower, declined to pay to go inside.

My next stop was the Muslim Quarter where I looked through some shops before making my way to the Grand Mosque.  It was really interesting to see the Muslim influence combined with the traditional Chinese architecture.  Rather than looking like a traditional Arabic tower, the minaret had the appearance more of a Buddhist pagoda.  The mosque, which was founded in 742, is apparently one of the oldest in the country.  After leaving the mosque I walked through the covered Muslim night market where I tried my hand at bargaining to shop for birthday and Christmas gifts for friends and family members.

On Sunday morning I set off on the public bus to see the Army of Terracotta Warriors with a German student named Ferey whom I had met the night before in my hostel.  After one false start where we got off at the wrong stop, we finally arrived at the museum an hour after leaving the city.  Because of my interest in archaeology, the Terracotta Warriors was the main reason that I wanted to come to Xi’an.  The thousands of soldier and horse funerary statues were discovered by some local farmers digging for a well in 1974.  There are three pits containing more than 8,000 soldiers and hundreds of horses in various states of completeness.  The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered the terracotta sculptures to be manufactured and buried with him in the 3rd century BC in order to help guard his empire in the afterlife.  It was really an incredible sight, but like every other popular attraction was a bit spoiled by constantly having to jostle with every other tourist for a good view.  Also, it was absolutely pouring rain so even though the three pits were indoors our shoes and pants were soaked from walking to and from the museum and in between the different buildings.  Ferey and I scrapped plans by go to a nearby tomb because by the end we were just so cold, wet and miserable that the only think we wanted to do was go home and change.

Once we got back to Xi’an I had hoped to be able to meet up with Kim who was arriving that afternoon, but once again our schedules didn’t match up.  I spent most of the late afternoon on my computer at the hostel before heading to the train station for my trip to Shanghai.  The train ended up being over an hour late leaving so in the end I might have actually had time to see Kim.  This time I had a hard sleeper, which was six to a cabin with no closing door.  However, thankfully they turned off the overhead lights and I was actually able to sleep quite well lying down.  I laid the comforter on the mattress and slept in my sleep sack so I didn’t find it any less comfortable than the average bed in a hostel.  The only problem was the air conditioning was quite cold and blowing right on my feet where I was lying on the top bunk.  Other than that, I had no major complaints.

By early afternoon we had made it to Shanghai, which I quickly learned was quite different from the rest of mainland China.  I’ll tell you all about it in my next post.

Back to Beijing

I’ve just arrived in Hong Kong and I’m back in business!  I have escaped the firewall and now will be able to once again begin posting on my own.  Now that my computer is fixed AND I can log in to Blogger I will update all the posts with lots of photos soon.  For now I’ll try to get you caught up with what’s happened over the past week or so.

Once I got back to Beijing on Thursday, I spent most of the afternoon at the Summer Palace to the northwest of the city center.  The Summer Palace--hence its name--is where the emperors came to get away from life in the Forbidden City for a while.  Its primary features are a big lake and a hill with a temple pagoda on top.  It was really very nice to walk along the shores of Lake Kunming with the leaves of the willow trees hanging overhead and would have been quite peaceful if it weren’t for all the damn people around.  Everywhere you go in Beijing, there are about a billion other people there with you.  There’s really no escaping it.

I didn’t go into many of the buildings at the Summer Palace because you had to pay extra to get into most of them.  However, I did enjoy a really interesting exhibit by a Chinese artist named LiYing Jie who works in the medium of stone painting. I’m not really quite sure how he does it, but all of his pieces are made entirely out of stone.  There are obviously mostly abstract, but the names he has chosen for them are always amazingly appropriate.  The one pictured is called “Life.”  It was one of my favorites out of all the ones on display.  I like how it could be interpreted as the branches of a trees or an image of neurons firing in a human brain.

Late that afternoon I had to race back to my hostel to meet up with some other travelers I had met who were planning to go to an acrobatics show that night.  I met Aaron from Australia because he was staying in my room and then he introduced me to Colleen and Duncan from England with whom he had just finished participating in the Mongolian Rally.   The rally is charity event where participates drive all the way from London to Ulan Bator and then leave their cars and other service vehicles for the local population. 

The acrobatics show itself was pretty amazing.  We got the “cheap seats,” but somehow ended up sitting in the second row.  One of the first acts was an acrobat who kept stacking more and more chairs on top of one another and then doing handstands and other crazy moves on top of the tower.  Just when you thought he couldn’t go any higher he would have them bring out another chair.  I literally was thinking to myself, “It’s okay. I’ve never seen anyone die before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything and I just have to accept that that’s going to happen.”  The really scary part is that if he did fall, he would have probably landed right on top of us.  The other really nerve-wracking act was the motorcyclists who rode around a hollow steel ball.  First it was just one and that seemed  relatively safe.  Then they added another rider and you prayed they wouldn’t crash into each other.  However, they didn’t stop there.  Next they add a third, then a fourth and finally A FIFTH motorcycle into the mix.  It was pretty crazy, but luckily no one got hurt.  I guess that’s why they’re pros.

After the show, we set off to try to get some Peking Duck for dinner.  We wandered from restaurant to restaurant on Ghost Street trying to find some place that served it, but the one place that did was out of our budget.  We finally settled for a restaurant that had roast duck, but it wasn’t a whole one and it was so fatty and boney that it was difficult to eat.  Luckily, we had ordered other dishes as well so no one went hungry.

The next morning, Aaron and I got up early to go check out Mao at his mausoleum in Tiananmen Square.  The mausoleum is only open in the morning so you have to get there first thing to avoid the really long lines of Chinese tourists.  After a few false starts where we had to find the lockers for my bag and Aaron had to run back to check his camera, we finally made it into the gates and filed past the coffin.  The guards really keep you moving so you’ve got to check it out as quickly as you can.  You first go into an entry hall where there is a big sculpture of Mao and lots of funereal flowers.  Then you go into the room with the actual coffin surrounded by four wall of glass and guarded by two soldiers.  Apparently there is a wax version and an incredibly well-preserved version of the former Communist leader and it is impossible to tell which one you are seeing.  I, for my part, am leaning towards wax.  There’s no way that was an actual 35-year dead body.

After visiting the mausoleum, Aaron and I wandered around a commercial area right outside Tiananmen Square until I had to leave to go meet my friend Kim at her hotel nearby.  I had planned to get there at about 11:00am, but got a bit lost and didn’t get there until about 11:20am.  However, when I arrived, the receptionists told me they didn’t have a reservation under Kim’s name or tour company.  I was very confused, but decided to wait since I had no other way to contact her.  I tried to get on my e-mail, but it wasn’t working at the hotel and after about an hour I finally decided to leave.  On the way back to my hostel I stopped at the bank and got out some more money for Xi’an and Shanghai since I had  an overnight train to Xi’an late that afternoon.

When I got to the hostel, I had an e-mail from Kim saying they had changed her hotel at the last minute.  I tried to contact her, but she must have been out by that point because she wasn’t answering the phone in her room.  In the meantime, I decided to look further into booking a train from Shanghai to Hong Kong.  One website seemed to indicate that there was only a train every other day and it was on the opposite day that I wanted it.  In the end, just to be safe I decided to book a flight.  I paid a bit more than I had originally planned, but figured at least it would be fast.  However, as soon as I went to pull out my credit card to pay for the flight I realized I was missing my ATM card.  I had left it in the machine at the bank.

That was when I started to panic.  The plane ticket sale wasn’t going through, I still hadn’t fully packed and Jeff from the hostel was telling me I needed to leave “right now” for the train station.  I was going to be on a train for the next 15 hours so I didn’t want to wait to book my flight or cancel my ATM card if need be.  I had Jeff try to call the number on my ATM receipt to ask about the card, but the number they gave him for the local branch didn’t work.  I finally got the plane ticket booked, grabbed my bag and raced back to the bank.  I literally let out a half whimper, half cry when I saw the teller pull out my familiar blue and red Bank of America card from her desk drawer.  I don’t know if someone had turned it in or the machine had eaten it, but clearly an angel was watching over me at that moment.  It had been an awful day between all the missed connections and missing valuables, but at least I still had a way to get money.

Despite my huge sense of relief, I still wasn’t looking forward to spending an entire night sitting upright on a hard seat all the way from Beijing to Xi’an.  I ended up getting to the train station in plenty of time, though I did have to walk a ways since I took the subway instead of the bus, which would have brought me right to the entrance.  I was sweaty and hot and my shoulders were hurting, but at least I didn’t miss my train.  I did, however, leave the bag of food I had bought for the trip on the hook inside the bathroom stall.  Luckily there were plenty of food carts to make sure all the passengers were well-fed throughout the ride.  I’ll have the full rundown of the entire train trip and my stay in Xi’an when I post again tomorrow.

Till then have a great night!

The New and Old Great Wall

On Monday I went to the main Beijing Train Station to get train tickets for the next rounds of my trip-from Beijing to Xi’an and from Xi’an to Shanghai.  I then trekked across town to the Beijing North Station to get my train to the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China.  My first sight of the wall was from the window of the train and even though I was (of course) on the wrong side of the aisle, it was pretty spectacular to see it winding its way up the steep mountain slopes alongside the tracks.

On the way to my hostel I got a bit confused so I agreed to a ride from a “gypsy” cab driver who of course charged me way too much for the one kilometer ride--especially after I told him to call the number for directions, which he only did after driving another few kilometers in the wrong direction.

After dropping off my bags I walked to the entrance to the wall, but instead of paying to go on it for only an hour or so, hiked up a mountain path called the Friendship Forest right alongside it.  The sun was starting to set and there was not a single soul around (except for all the people I could hear making a ruckus on the wall) so it was definitely an amazing way to experience this huge feat of engineering.  It actually took my breathe away and in spite of my fears that it wouldn’t live up to the hype, it completely didn’t disappoint.

That night back at the hostel I was excited to learn that I had the whole four-bed dormitory with en suite bathroom all to myself.  It was definitely nice to finally have some privacy after two weeks of communal living.  When I ventured out into the common area I ended up meeting a Chinese guy named Huan who I originally thought worked at the hostel, but turned out to also be a guest.  I proceeded to have a conversation with him that consisted entirely of us typing back in forth between English and Chinese in Google Translate.  I somehow agreed to go with him to Badaling the following morning in spite of the clear language barrier.

The next day I went on one of the most awkward “dates” of my entire life to the Great Wall of China.  It was made all the more awkward when Huan put me on the phone to say hello to his girlfriend when she called.  Okay, so maybe it actually wasn’t technically a date, but he did buy me breakfast, lunch, my entrance ticket, a gaudy souvenir fan, hold my hand on the steep parts of the wall and tell me I was beautiful.  In the end, in spite of not really being able to converse in any profound sense we did have fun slipping and sliding all over the wall for a few hours.  There are literally parts of the wall where you have to hold onto the railing for dear life and basically just slide down on your shoes.  That was something I was totally not expecting.

The Badaling section of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty, but was completely restored in the 1960s.  It’s also the most popular part and thus is crawling with tourists and weird sideshows like a cable car, train ride and captive bears.  I wanted a bit of a more authentic experience so I booked a tour to an old remnant section through my hostel.  The innkeeper told me the tour included a local guide who only spoke Chinese and I wondered a bit why he would be necessary.  I quickly came to learn why.

The following morning, a driver came to pick me up and drove me and another girl a short distance before dropping her off and then continuing on.  We drove for about 20 minutes and then the driver stopped again along the side of a country road and a really little, old man who had to be 80 if he was a day got in the backseat.  I was thinking to myself, “Who is this guy?  He must be another passenger.  He can’t possibly be my guide.”  We drove another five minutes or so and then the driver stopped the car again.  We were in a mountain valley in the middle of nowhere so I didn’t immediately make a move to get out.  Then he said, “Okay,” and I realized we were at our stop.  This old guy was my guide and he was leading me up this virtually non-existent path with weeds and brush underfoot.  In spite of the heat I definitely should have worn long pants. 

My “date” for Tuesday was the complete opposite in every way from my date on Monday.   The guide led me farther and farther up the mountain, hacking at brush to clear the way with his homemade machete, until finally two towers of the wall came into sight high above.  In spite of his age and size this guy didn’t seem to break a sweat.  We finally made it to the top and were practically in the clouds with no one else around.  My guide led me up and down the steep stairways that hadn’t been touched at all since the Ming Dynasty.  I was even able to climb to the tops of some of the towers (one time up a rickety, handmade ladder that was about to come apart) and could see the wall stretching out for miles and miles in all directions along the top of the mountain ridge.  It was completely majestic and awe-inspiring.  While going to Woobang Land hungover was one of the top ten worst experiences of my life, this was definitely one of the top ten  best life experiences.  It was an incredible three hours that I’ll never forget.

Shortly after we got back down to the bottom, the sky clouded over and it eventually began to rain.  I took the train back to Beijing that night and sat with a Chinese girl named Xiaomei.  We shared a bag of kettle corn popcorn and she helped me carry my bags all the way to the subway.  At the end of the ride, she gave me a Chinese name, Li Xing (or maybe Li Jing), which she said meant warm-hearted.  We were talking about traveling and meeting new people and I said something that I really believe is true.  People everywhere are different.  But they’re also all the same.

Posted courtesy of George Merrick

Palaces and Temples

On my second full day in Beijing I went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, which is on the other side of the main entrance.  The Forbidden City was the home to 24 Chinese emperors starting in the early 15th century during the Ming Dynasty.  The complex is massive with more than 800 buildings and dozens of separate palaces.  I came out on the wrong side of the subway and having intended first to go to Tiananmen Square instead headed right into the Forbidden City.  There was so much to see that it took me nearly five hours to get from one end of this literal “city” to the other.  The best part was the Imperial Gardens at the rear of the complex, though there were so many other tourists crowded into the space that it was hard to fully appreciate it.

After coming out of the gate on the far end of the Forbidden City, I went up into Jingshan Park where you can climb a hill to a series of pagodas and get a panoramic view of the city of Beijing.  It’s the one angle where you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the Forbidden City and actually get to take in the entire complex all at once.  It’s also where some general hung himself in protest of something at some point.  I declined to go visit the site where said hanging took place.

In the late afternoon I wanted to go back to check out Tiananmen Square, but by this point I was completely on the wrong side of the neighborhood and had to walk at least a few kilometers all the way back along the side of the Forbidden City.  The light coming through the trees as I was walking was really soothing and almost hypnotizing.  I realized I could have taken a bus, but was enjoying myself so much that I decided to keep on going on foot.

I finally got to Tiananmen Square and had to go through a metal detector and put my bag through an x-ray machine just to go inside.  The square is huge with the People’s Culture Palace on one end and Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum on the other.  Along the way you walk past the phallic-shaped Monument of the People’s Heroes.  The mausoleum is only open in the morning so that was something to put on my list for another day.

After leaving Tiananmen Square, I raced across town to pick up my computer at the repair shop.  I got a bit lost coming out of the subway and got there later than I had intended.  Thankfully my laptop was fully repaired and I even had them add a bit more memory to try to make it run a little faster.  I’m not sure if it’s really made a difference, but I’m just so grateful to have my computer back that I don’t even much care.

Since I was so behind schedule, I ended up being late to meet a friend of a friend named Maggie who currently lives in Beijing.  I was supposed to join her and her friend for dinner, but instead met up with her at a microbrewery deep inside one of the hutongs near the Drum and Bell Tower.  A bluegrass band made up of mostly Western musicians was playing, but I was only there to catch their last song.  After that, Maggie and I went to another bar called Mao Mao Chong, which is known for its inventive cocktails.  I got the “maojito,” a mojito made with ginger ale.  The bar was in a different hutong not too far from my hostel so I was able to walk home.  It was definitely another side of Beijing that I had not expected to see.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day at the Yonghegong Lama Temple.  It’s a Tibetan Buddhist temple that features a giant Buddha, which is the largest sculpture made out of one continuous piece of sandalwood.  There were lots of people lighting incense and kowtowing to the various Buddha statues, but since I didn’t really know what I was doing I just basically watched them.

That night I was supposed to meet up with a friend who I worked with during my first year in Korea, but at the last minute she had to cancel.  Instead I had dinner with Maggie and a few of her friends at a dim sum restaurant not too far from the Lama Temple.  Of course I had already gone all the way back to my hostel before I got Maggie’s message so I had to come all the way back out to meet them.  Afterward, we went to an Australian bar in a hutong nearby and then back to Mao Mao Chong at the end of the night.

On Sunday, I went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where Chinese emperors offered sacrifices and prayers for a good harvest starting in the Ming Dynasty.  The central feature of the park is the three-tiered, round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.  It’s really a beautiful structure architecturally, although visitors aren’t actually allowed inside.  The temple is in a huge park with really pretty grounds full of Cypress trees.  As I was walking around the area, I saw a group of people gathered and went over to see a small Chinese orchestra about to start playing  I listened to a few songs before walking through a nice rose garden, which unfortunately was past season. 

I then went to the Circular Mound Altar, which is a three-level platform of marble stones that are organized according to the sacred number nine and multiples of nine.  The altar reminded me in some strange way of a Chinese Stonehenge.  Apparently if you stand right in the center your voice is supposed to really resonate when you speak, though there were so many people gathered around that I didn’t get a chance to give it a try.  Throughout my wandering through the Temple of Heaven I kept bumping into an annoying tour group that would randomly give out loud yells so that somewhat diminished the whole experience.

Sunday night I finally got a chance to meet up with Portia, my friend from Korea.  We actually went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which was a nice change of pace from Chinese food.  It was great to catch up with her, but we weren’t able to stay out too late because Portia had to work in the morning and I had to buy train tickets and then head out to the Great Wall.  That is definitely an experience I will never forget, which I will tell you about next time.

Posted courtesy of George Merrick

Beijing or Bust

My first priority when I got to Beijing last week was to get my computer fixed since I was afraid it might take a while after what they told me in Korea.  Since I didn’t get to my hostel until mid-afternoon on Wednesday, I decided to wait to go until first thing in the morning.  The hostel was located in a traditional hutong neighborhood of narrow streets and alleyways and since I got off the subway at a station that turned out to be a lot farther away then I thought, I was a hot, sweaty mess by the time I finally arrived.  I spent the remaining daylight hours walking from my hostel vaguely in the direction of Tiananmen Square to see if I could get there before it got dark.

My first impression of Beijing was “wow, it’s smoggy.”  It was hot and muggy and the sky just had this foggy haze to it.  I was walking down a street with a little park in the middle so that was pleasant enough. However, since I once again miscalculated the distance I was trying to go, I became tired and cranky rather quickly.  Then right as I was about to get to Tiananmen Square, a young Chinese man and his two female friends approached me to say hello.  I tried to be friendly since I figured they probably just wanted to practice their English, but I wasn’t really in a talkative mood.  They told me Tiananmen Square would already be closed by then (I didn’t know that was possible for a city plaza) and asked me if I wanted to join them for a drink.  I was a bit wary because I had literally just read a warning in my hostel about a scam where people invite you to try some tea and then make you pay a lot more than you were expecting.  I couldn’t find a good reason to turn them down, though, so I reluctantly agreed.

We went to a place right down the street and ordered a few sodas.  My new friends mainly asked me questions about living in the US and my thoughts about life in China.  I noticed the prices at the bar were a bit expensive (by Chinese standards at least), but was kind of stuck now that I was already there.  When the bill came, the guy turned to me and said, “They’re students so let’s split it in half.”  I felt annoyed that it seemed like I had just been scammed, but in the end I paid a bit less than half and basically only covered part of one of the girl’s drinks at just over $3.00.  I vowed that I wasn’t going to get stuck going to dinner with them, though, so as we started walking again I told them I had to go back to my hostel.

The students continued to walk with me in the direction of the subway station.  As we were walking, we passed a night market selling all sorts of goodies to eat such as silk worms and scorpions.  The guy kept pointing everything out to me and I finally announced that I was going to try the scorpions.  There were big black ones and crispy, fried small ones.  He let me get the small ones and after a few minutes I finally got the courage to put one in my mouth.  It actually just tasted crunchy and fried like a potato chip and wasn’t half bad unless you actually stopped to think about what you were eating.  Once we got to the subway station, the Chinese students turned off to go shopping and I went back to the neighborhood of my hostel where I was able to get some real food for dinner.

On Wednesday night it rained so by the next day the smog had washed away and it was a bit cooler out.  It was as if the weather knew that it was suddenly September.  That morning, I took a taxi to the computer repair center and to my delight they told me it would only take a day and cost about $150 to fix my laptop.  I was rather nervous leaving my computer there, but figured it couldn’t end up in any worse condition than it already was.  On the way out I passed a Daoist temple that housed the Beijing Folk Custom Museum and decided to check it out.  My favorite part of the temple was the crazy statues of all the different “departments” that are in charge of rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior throughout peoples’ lives.  I’ll post the pictures when I get the chance.  There was also a really interesting exhibition about traditional Chinese festivals.

After leaving the temple, I walked through a pretty park with a pond toward the Workers’ Stadium where they play pro soccer.  I then took the subway to the Olympic Park to check out the Birds’ Nest Stadium and the National Aquatics Center from the 2008 Summer Olympics.  I was surprised how modern this area is in comparison to the rest of Beijing and was really impressed by all the cool architecture.  When the park really shines, though, is at night, when there are colored light shows on the sides of some of the buildings.

 As I was walking around before it got dark, I passed a mobile blood drive and decided to give blood since it had been a while since I had donated.  The people running the booth seemed a bit shocked that I wanted to donate and tried to make sure that I understood what I was signing up for.  I made it clear that we were on the same page and then spent the next 15 minutes or so working with them to figure out how I needed to fill out the form that was printed all in Chinese.  It finally got sorted and in the end they seemed to appreciate my effort to help.  Everything seemed to be very clean and sterile, but I guess it’s good that I got all my hepatitis shots before I left just in case!  It gave me the idea that I would like to do even one small thing to give back to the local community in each country that I visit.  I figure I fulfilled that promise in Korea where I helped to pick up trash around the Golgulsa Temple during my stay and worked as a “carnie” at the camp flea market to (allegedly) raise money for the Jinju Orphanage.

I’d like to close this post now with a poem that was in the in-flight magazine on my Korean Air flight from Seoul to Beijing.  I know it’s super corny that it was in the cheesy airline magazine, but it just struck me as being very apropos for my journey ahead so I copied it down before landing:

After a Year

This postcard is written in a small hotel room in São Paolo.
Tomorrow morning, I will begin another long journey.
By then, a plane carrying you from the other side of the earth
Will soar into the unfamiliar afternoon.
Sorry I have departed.
Sorry we cannot be together,
To the face I’ve yet to meet,
Yet to be separated,
But still missed in joy,
Hello,
What is your name?

Han Cha-hyeon

Next time I’ll tell you all about my visits to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Temple of Heaven.  Plus, some fun times with friends!

Posted courtesy of George Merrick

So Long Seoul, Beijing Begins

I am currently sitting in the shadow of the Great Wall under the Great Chinese Firewall.  That means no Facebook, Twitter or even Blogspot for me until I make it to Hong Kong.  Therefore I have asked my dad to put up a few posts for me in my absence.  The next one will hopefully go up tomorrow.  Photos will follow either once I send them to my dad or once I get back online.

I made it to China about a week ago after spending five days up in Seoul.  The rest of my time in Korea was pretty hectic and busy.  Right after camp I stayed in Jinju for a few days filming a “music video” for one of my Kiwi coworkers who raps in Korean and a casting video with another of my coworkers who just moved to Korea with his wife from
Spain.  I’ve never shot a music video before so this should be interesting.  Shortly afterward my computer broke so I haven’t had a chance to start editing either project yet.

As I mentioned earlier I went to Gyeonju for the temple stay on the Tuesday after camp ended and then spent another day and a half in Jinju before heading up to Seoul on Friday afternoon.  That night I met up with my coworker, Taylor, to go out in Itaewon, the foreigner hub of Seoul near the US Army base.  It was quite a late night so I got a bit of a late start the next morning.  On Saturday, I spent most of the afternoon trying to get my computer fixed before finding out that it was going to take too long for them to get it done before I left for Beijing the following week.  That night at dinner my friend, Angelo, who I worked with at the camp two years ago told me it sounded like they might have to replace the computer’s motherboard, which would mean reformatting the entire thing.  That totally freaked me out so I was rather stressed for the next few days.

On Sunday, I attended a service at the sister church of the church I attended as a child south of the city in Yatap.  One of the young church members, Brian, who had attended boarding school in the U.S. for about five years acted as my translator when I met with the pastor and his wife.  The pastor was incredibly gracious, even arranging for me to get a ride 20 minutes away to meet a childhood friend and her husband to go to movies in the afternoon.  Brian and his dad then came to pick me up afterward and brought me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant near a lake with Pastor Lee and his wife.  I guess everyone thought that I wanted a break from all of the spicy Korean food.

On Monday, I basically spent the day trying to get some errands done like exchanging money and shipping a few things back to the States.  Then on Tuesday I met up with Taylor again to film a tea ceremony at a traditional hanok called Yoo’s Family House near some of the former royal palaces.  We had filmed at the hanok during a recent episode of “House Hunters International” and I asked if I could come back to shoot another short segment with the hopes of selling the video to the Travel Channel through the connections I made at the Travel Channel Academy last year.  Whether or not I sell the video, I will eventually post it on here once I finally have the chance to edit it.  The filming went well and Taylor was even game enough to put on the traditional hanbok outfit for the ceremony.

In the afternoon I was supposed to meet one of the former employees at the hanok for a tour of the Changdeok Palace down the street.  She had to cancel on me so I ended up going in by myself and wandering around for a few hours.  In the late afternoon it started to rain so I ducked into a restaurant and tried traditional Korean porridge soup for the first time.  It was definitely a very hearty meal that totally filled me up after I had basically skipped lunch earlier.  Once I was done eating, the rain had let up a bit so I walked around the neighborhood for a while and went to some of the shops in the Bukchon Hanok Village between the Changdeok Palace and the main Gyeongbok Palace.  The area features many traditional artisans making items such as kites and embroidered wall hangings as well as more modern art galleries and museums.

The next day I just had time to run a few more errands before it was off to the airport for my flight to Beijing.  I was quite late arriving at the airport, but it actually paid off to my advantage.  Since there were no more window seats, I was given an aisle seat in business class (though theoretically was not eligible for business class service... whatever that means.)  For once in my life I wish the flight had been longer than two hours.  I could have used a good long nap.

Next up... Beijing!

Posted courtesy of George Merrick