Singapore Pictures

Some pictures from Singapore.

Orchid Road

Me, Jason and Alex at dinner

Singapore

I tried to prepare myself for the heat and humidity of Singapore and I think it worked out pretty well. When I stepped outside from the airport I didn't pass out, just got wobbily in the knees.

I had a little argument with my taxi driver on the way to my hotel. I had told him the address and he kept on going on about how I need the name of hotel because that would help him. I told him I had only the address and that it was my first time to Singapore. That didn't seem to help him. But I got to my air conditioned room safe and sound, so it was allright.

I went to 7-11 to get a SIM card for Jason's phone so I could give him a call. I spent a half hour trying to call and finally gave up. Turns out you need to dial the correct country code to reach someone. Go figure.

I got in touch with Jason through his work and he told me to meet up with him at Borders so we could go to dinner. I took the MRT (or MTR) to Borders and poked around until Jason swung by. He drove us to dinner on the riverfront. We went to a Thai restaurant and had peppered crab, along with satay and little crab cupcakes. He thought the crab wasn't up to snuff, but I thought it was pretty damn good. The place he normally goes to must have amazing food.

On Thursday Jason picked me up and we went to the wedding dress rehearsal. I met the other groomsmen and the bridesmaids, everyone was pretty cool and friendly. The bestman - Lawrence - played speed with Jason's nieces Nicole and Natasha, soundly losing to the little women. Natasha started her rouse of saying "I don't like you" to me and trying to pinch my arms. At least I think it was a rouse.

We practices walking down the aisle and ordering up correctly and then walking out. I know it's a simple thing, but I had a dread feeling that I would trip and take out my bridesmaid Cynthia in front of everyone on the wedding day.

Afterwords we all went to brunch at Jason's dad's golf club. I got the original Mee-Goreng, from which the Indo-Mie Mee-Goreng instant noodles are modeled. It was quite good. Jason's dad gave me crap for only drinking Coke instead of beer. I was trying to save myself for the nightly drinking that was to come.

I got a ride with Lawrence to a movie theatre so I could watch The Incredibles, which was a great movie. I got a hair cut afterwords in a proper salon so I could look decent for Jason's wedding.

Later I met up with Jason, the other groomsmen and a bunch of Jason's dad's friends at an Irish Pub downtown. I was only going to have one beer, but it seems to be an insult to not drink with people, so more beers were pushed my way, along with fish & chips, lamb and sausages. Hard life.

At 9pm three ladies from the upstairs bar (owned by the same guy as the Irish pub who was drinking with us) came into the pub with handcuffs and picked up Jason. All of the older people stayed at the pub while us young guys went upstairs with Jason and the ladies.

Upstairs we had a section of the bar to ourselves as the shots were poured and the ladies, okay the strippers, hung around Jason. We all had a shot of Potin (90% alcohol) with Jason and the strippers. They re-handcuffed Jason (he had somehow got out of the plastic toys) to a chair and danced around for him. The other patrons across the bar watched us jealously while they drank. It was cool to be the ones in the bar everyone else wanted to be.

At around midnight we bid the ladies adieu and headed to a "karaoke" bar. I guess it'd be more accurate to call it a hostess bar. I stumbled out of the bar an hour and a half later to catch a cab home. After a few drunken calls (one of which Ron saved on his voice mail) I finally passed out until the morning.

On Friday Jason came over at noon and helped me get to the Ritz Carleton hotel where I'd be staying the last two days. After getting checked into the 6 star hotel we met up with Alex and Susa and Jason's sister to have some lunch.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel in the warm rain and took naps before heading to the pool. They brought out towels for us as we were swimming. I have to say the Ritz was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at, and I've been to Hotel 8! There is always someone around to help you out or bring you something. Very cool place.

That night Alex, Susa and I went to the night safari, where you can take a tram through the safari and look at all of the animals. They even had hippos. I was going to throw Alex's shoes at the bastards but I couldn't get them off of his feet until we were near the hyenas.

After the safari we went back to town and met up with Jason and two more of his friends for dinner. We had more peppered crab and other cool seafood.

Saturday was the actual wedding day. In accordance with Chinese tradition, Jason and his "brothers" had to go retrieve his wife from her "sisters". This meant Jason and his friends (including Alex and I) went up to Gerry's hotel room and had to bargain for her. We went inside and were met by all of the sisters who gave us tasks to complete.

The first was to have Jason eat an apple with only his mouth, no hands involved. At the same time one of his brothers (me!) ate the same way. So we had an intimate moment with an apple between us. I asked if we had time to cuddle but the sisters moved us along.

Then we all ate something sweet (chocolate), spicy (chili), sour (vinegar) and something else (a fruit type deal).

Then it was time for Jason to make a stamp with his foot on a paper and then write out Gerry's Chinese name with his toe. But first he needed to get his foot painted. This was my and Lawrence's duty. We took lipstick and painted the bottom of his foot. I have to say it was pretty fun.

After Jason cleaned up we then had to bargain for her release. This was a payoff to the sisters. They started at 8800 Singapore dollars, which we thought was too high. Jake got them down to 12 a piece, which was some nice manouvering.

This got us into the bedroom where we had more tasks. One of which was for Jason to rap about his love for her. And the brothers were to provide backup. All of us just looked around at each other for a minute or two. I came up with two lines for Jason to use:
My name is Moo
and I have nothing but love for you.

I started beat boxing as best I could, throwing in some record scratching for good measure. Jason rapped out his lines.

The sisters told us we needed more. I gave Jason another line or two:
I even took off
my shoes for you!

It's no Run-DMC, but it was good enough. They were all impressed with our rapping and beat boxing. There is a video of us out there somewhere. It'd be neat to get a copy of it all.

Jason then had to sing a Chinese song and give the top 10 reasons why he loved Gerry. He eventually got her to come out and the mission was accomplished.

I got a ride from Kian Pin (or KP), the other groomsman, to the wedding where we were to usher people into the church. After a quick stop at McDonalds of course.

The wedding went off without a hitch and was a very nice ceremony. After the ceremony we all adjourned to the reception and had snacks. Natasha kept running by and telling me "I still don't like you." Then she asked if I was married and took me to some lady and said "This is Sam." Which was a bit awkward. The woman looked at me kinda funny and I took my leave back to Alex and Susa for ice-cream.

KP, being the good guy he is, called us a taxi and we went back to the hotel for a nap. After a nap Alex, Susa and I went to Chinatown for some shopping. I was just going to round out my shopping with a few little things but ended up buying a bunch of stuff. You can never have too many things, right?

After packing all of my goodies and my dirty clothes into my backpack, I went down to the dinner reception with Alex and Susa. Everyone was decked out and looking very snazzy. I was glad I had my new tux, otherwise I'm sure I would've looked very slobby next to everyone else. Nicole and Natasha buzzed around and came by to tell me that I owed them money (apparently from the speed game with Lawrence) and that Natasha still didn't like me. They were very cute.

As a groomsman one of my duties was to usher people into the banquet hall. I mainly just followed KP around and tried to ask people to go inside. I think I failed miserably. But everyone went in despite my work.

We had a 5 course meal with everything from shark fin soup (which was pretty good) to baked cod. Inbetween courses someone would give a speech or sing a song. They had tests for Gerry and Jason where they had to determine who was their spouse while being blindfolded. Jason had to kiss 5 women and see who was Gerry. He guessed wrong and had to drink for it. Gerry had to touch the rears of 5 men (me included!). She guessed wrong too and Jason had to drink for it.

After the dinner a bunch of us went to a swanky bar named The Velvet Room. There was a huge line to get in, but KP came to the rescue and got us ushered in with minimal fuss. This guy seems to be hooked up with all of the cool people. I tried to get away with only having one beer, but Jason's "brothers" were there and gave me drinks, and it's rude to turn them down.

The next day I had breakfast with Alex and Susa and headed out to the airport. 3 flights and 24 hours later I was back home.

I'll be putting up pictures from the wedding soon.

China Pictures

I got into Hong Kong last night and have pretty much sat on my toosh and tried to recover from the cold I picked up in Beijing (I'm 50-50 it's not SARS ;) I've hung out at Moo's place and watched TV and movies and ate (you're supposed to feed a cold, right?)

I'm off to Singapore tomorrow. It's funny how I have 2 bags of stuff now, mostly clothes for a place where you don't need much in the way of clothes. I tried on my new tux and everything seems to fit fine (even the custom shoes!)

I put up some pictures over here of China if you'd like to kill some time.

Last day in Beijing

I went back to the Dirt Market to get some last goodies before I head out of her to Quanjo tomorrow. I had a scroll shop in mind when I went into the market, but I wanted to look at other things first. I ended up buying a box, a few bracelets, and some doodad before I got to the scroll shop.

I tried to do better in my bargaining, but I think I still suck at it. It's difficult when the prices start out so low to begin with. When I see something I think of a number that I'd pay for it and they usually say that number. But that's way too high if they're asking it. Like this box with a compass inside it I was sure would've cost 10 dollars, he wanted 5. I think I ended up paying 3 or so, which is ridiculously low.

Afte spending all the money I had in my pockets, I wandered around some more, looking at all of the stuff you could buy. The Tibetan people were selling very colourful clothing and nice jewelry. To show the silver was real, they'd take a knife and cut a shaving off of a bracelet. I was down to cab fare money, so I wasn't able to buy more bracelets I'd probably never wear. The Tibetans (ok, the women) there are really beautiful - they have really open faces and nice smiles. I wanted to take their pictures, but I was too chicken. Which is too bad. They have neat clothing; thick fur lined jackets with colourful trim and jewelry on their long fingers.

I took a cab back to the hotel and walked over to my shumai stand to get two plates of dumplings. The owner seemed happy to see me and was always smiling.

As I walked back to the subway to get my massage, I was noticing everyone coughs without covering their mouths and hocks their spit all over the place. It's no wonder why SARS got big over here. I'm kinda a germaphobe, so it'll be nice to be where they're not spitting near your feet or coughing in front of you.

I went to the massage building and saw two chinese students and two westerners going in too. I noticed it was the two students from yesterday, so I turned on my heel and went back outside to wait for them to go up. After the coast was clear I went upstairs and got another hour massage.

Tomorrow I'm flying out in the morning to Quanjo (I'm sure it's spelled differently) to take a train to Hong Kong. I saw the weather forcast and it's finally dropping under 75 at night, though the heat will be a nice.

Shopping!

On Saturday I woke up early to head out to the Panjiayuan (or Dirt) Market to get in some shopping. I first had to find food, and as it was to early for breakfast in the hotel, I went onto the street looking for grub. I walked by a tricycle that had a stove on the back of it. They were cooking pancakes with eggs in them. I ordered two for 2 yuan. Pretty fricking good. I found a store down the street and bought some strawberry yogurt and had breakfast at the side of the road.

I took a cab to Panjiayuan and started perousing. The guidbook says you're supposed to ignore the 1/2 rule when bargaining, things can be as much as 10 times cheaper than what the vendors start out at. But I'm a terrible bargainer, I think I got a good bargain once in my life.

I walked around and looked at all the stuff to buy, lots of silver (which I like), jade, knives, pots, glasses, everything you could not want. The market consists of an outer ring of stores with a covered inner area with about 30 rows of vendors. You could spend all day and all of your money here. I quickly spent all of my money. I even went into my reserve money that's stashed under my insoles of my shoes.

I went back to the hotel to drop off my booty and find an ATM so I could buy food. I walked to a bank down the street and then back towards the subway. I was getting a bit hungry and saw a hole in the wall restaurant with those steam baskets. She was selling shumai (or something like it.) I wanted just a few, so I held out four fingers. She went to get another basket or two. I waved at her and pointed out 4 dumplings. She smiled and said no. It took me a second and realized you get the whole basket of dumplings. For 3 yuan (40 cents.)

I sat down outside and wolfed down the basket of grub. The lady kept looking out and smiling, so I'd give her the thumbs up. I asked for another basket, since how often do you eat in China?

I headed to the subway to get to the massage place that Gerry had told me about. The subway exit lead out to a shopping mall, it was like being back in Hong Kong. They even had a TCBY.

As soon as I got outside I heard a "Hello, sir?" and saw these two college students walking towards me. They said they were practicing their English and would like to spend some time with me, because I seemed "so friendly" Which is funny, I'm totally not friendly when people come up to me and start speaking in English - they usually want something.

We talked for a bit and I said I had a massage to go to but that we could get a beer afterwords. They nodded and showed me to the massage place. I told them I'd meet them in a bit over an hour.

The massage ladies showed me to a room and put out a silk pajama set. I figured out that the silk was so they wouldn't have to use massage oil. An hour later and much more refreshed, I headed out to the street.

The two students were there and started talking about their art school and that today was the last showing before something or other. "We just want to get your advice on our paintings." And then it'd be beer time.

So I went with them back into the building and up a few floors. We went into a little studio and I immediatly wanted to leave. They were pretty nice so I didn't want to be rude so I looked at their paintings - some of which were really good. Then they talked about discounts and how it'd be a cultural exchange. I told them I wasn't looking to buy any paintings and hit the door.

I headed west towards Tianeman square to find the famous Peking duck restaurant. There was a gourgeous sunset, one of those orange suns you only get with the lucky combination of smog and more smog. At the square there were huge crowds standing around waiting for the flag to be brought down. A large group of soldiers came out of the Forbidden City and marched to the flag. Ten minutes later the group marched back across the street and into the City.

I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. According to my map it was right in the open and easy to find. I had to ask like 3 people (including a Japanese man that wasn't thrilled I thought he was Chinese.) When I got across from the restaurant a gal came up to me and started speaking in English. I acted like I didn't speak English and talked to her in Spanish. I don't think I fooled anyone. She told me that Quanjude was too full and too expensive and that I should go to this other restaurant. I smiled, waved and trotted across the street.

This place had a window in front of where the chefs cut the duck into small pieces for dinner. It looked pretty good. They even had a take out area with boxes of duck.

I got a seat with some locals and ordered my duck. A minute later the food arrived. You got a plate of crispy duck meat, some sauce and little pancakes. You putthe sauce on the pancake and put the duck on that, rolled it all up and had a little meal. It was damn tasty. I almost ordered another plate, but I was getting full. Damn stomach.

I had an hour before the acrobatic troupe started so I decided to walk to the auditorium a mile or so south. I was noticing most of their streets are pretty dark, they have street lights, but it seems as if the thick air just swallows the light and leaves it gloomy. I'd normally be concerned walking down strange streets at night in a foreign country, but I kept seeing little kids running around and figured it'd couldn't be that bad.

I got to the auditorium a little early so I bought my ticket and went in search of a coke. At a little stand selling roasted nuts I asked for a coke. But I spied a beer next to the coke, so I got that instead. I asked the lady in my own little motion language if it was ok to drink the beer on the street.

I sat in the VIP section where they brought you tea during the performance. The performers did some of the most amazing stuff you'd ever see, it was just like in Cirque De Sulei, just cheaper and closer. They had a guy on a 6 foot tall unicycle, which was good in itself, who could jump rope on it, stay in one place with one foot in the air. Then he'd put a cup on his other foot, flick it into the air and it'd land on his head. Then he put two cups on his foot, flicked them into the air and they'd both land correctly on the original cup. He kept doing this with more and more cups. The cups on his foot would not be cupped together, but instead one cup facing up, the other down and so on. I'm not sure how he got them all to rotate correctly in the air to land all cupped on his head.

This is when I took out my camera and turned the video on. I'm pretty sure they didn't want people taking videos, so I held it low and ended up ruining most of the shots. :( But I have a few cool ones.

They had a gal who would balance a tray of shot glasses (that had trays of shot glasses on top of them) as she moved around the stage. Then was the chinese yo-yos (the things that look like tow plungers stuck to each other.) And guys with large bamboo flags where they'd flip around and catch the flags before they landed. And then the pole walkers, those guys are cool. The run up a pole and jump to the other one, slide around just holding on with their legs. One guy held onto the pole with two arms and then held his body out horizontal to the ground. And then pulled himself into the bar like he was doing pullups. Then there was a girl who walked up a cable to another cable, not a tight rope - this thing swayed as she walked. She'd do flips on the cable, and do flips from one cable to another. Then she stood on the cable that went down to the ground and slid down on a piece of cloth. I have that one on video.

Huanghua Great Wall

I got moving a little earlier today,almost got out of the hostel by 8:30. It's cold enough outside to see your breath in the morning - maybe a reason why I sleep in.

I got to my new hostel/hotel and got a room for the next 3 nights. This place is in a much more central location, 2 long blocks to the subway or bus station to the Great Walls. And near a Pizza Hut in case that hankering kicks in. I have 3 rooms, a bathroom, a bedroom and a main room with a movable wall dealiebob that separates the couch area from the kitchen. Pretty snazzy.

I mosied over to the bus station and asked a few people where to pick up the 916 bus to Huanghua. An hour or so later we arrived at some little town where it's necessary to take another bus or hire a taxi to get to the wall. A mini-bus driver came up to me and asked if I wanted a ride.

I was thinking I didn't because the bus is 4 yuan and he wanted 80 yuan round trip. But he pointed at the time (1pm) and I realized that I only had like 4 hours of daylight left to see the wall. I had to find a bathroom first and he took me to one. (that sounds a bit strange.) I went in and saw there were no stall doors, just one door to the bathroom. He came in and went and then stood there. I looked at him and then at the stall and back to him. He smiled, nodded and left. Which was good, cos I wasn't about to use a doorless stall with someone in there.

After that I went to his mini-bus and we drove out towards the wall. It was a neat 2 lane road that had trees arching over the roadway and people riding their bikes along. Most of the leaves had fallen and the land was just orangish yellow from the dust and sunlight. It looked a bit like how I'd think Sleepy Hollow would look like, minus all of the Chinese people carting around branches and charcoal.

We rode through a few small villages that had neat old houses that were really short and rundown. They looked pretty cool. I wanted to stop and take some pictures, but I was running late and wanted to hit the wall instead.

When we got to the wall my driver showed me a dinky little map and pointed out where we were. And then he pointed out some road on the map and motioned that he would meet me there. It took a bit of hand language to figure it out but he was going to wait down some road that I'd have to walk to from the wall. I was going to pay him when I got back to the bus station that goes to Beijing, so I figured he wasn't going to run off and leave me there.

To get to the wall I went down some stairs, crossed a rickety cable bridge with scrappy looking wood slats and small cables for a guard rail. Very cool. Then I had to pay some guy 4 yuan to walk through his yard to the trail. As I went up the trail I heard some lady talking to two guys in front of me. I came up to her and she had a cardboard sign with "2 yuan" on it. And an axe on the ground. So I paid up.

I got up on the wall and saw it went pretty much straight up. After passing two hawkers it seemed like clear sailing. At the first guard tower I heard plastic flapping and thought it'd be another 'toll.' It was another old lady, sqwaking and holding up her five fingers and a crappy piece of cardboard with writing on it. I paid the money. The two guys I had passed came in and they started arguing with her about paying the toll. They eventually got through without paying anything. Guess it pays to know Chinese.

The wall stretched down the hill to the road and then back up another hill to go off in the distance. The side I was on went up the hill, down another, up another and then back down to the road I needed to walk out on. Beyond that it shot straight up a mountain and went out of sight.

At first I was underwelmed by the wall, it was short, you had to pay to walk and it was all rebuilt so didn't feel that authentic. After going up further it started to feel more real and the walls got higher. I had passed the two guys and pretty much had the wall to myself. There were nice views of the distant mountain ranges where you could see other sections of the wall.

It was pretty neat scrambling to go up the steep sections of the wall, each step was about knee high. When I got to the highest part of the section I plopped down my bag and hung out for a while. I thought I shouldn't rush things since this was the main reason for coming up to Beijing.

The rest of the wall was almost straight down and I had to use the sides of the wall as handholds to get down. It would've been easier to have a rope and rappel, but I forgot that at home. When I got to the section of the wall that was crumbling I walked down a set of stairs to the dirt trail that lead down to the road.

At the bottom of the hill there was a restaurant. I'm not sure how they would keep in business because it wasn't very cheery and your greeters were two mean dogs on chains. I kept eyeing them, expecting the chains to break. That and remembering that my phrase book had a line for "I don't eat dog." I wanted to try that out, but being in the middle of nowhere didn't seem like something that'd be funny to anyone else.

The road out was very cool, it had stone sides and little orchards (I assume) everywhere. The sun was about to set so I hoofed it to the road. At the end was another restaurant and my mini-bus driver.

I hopped in and we drove back to the town to pick up the bus to Beijing. I went to a McDonalds (for shame) to get fries to tide me over until I got back to Beijing. The traffic seemed heavy and it was an hour drive without any, so I thought it'd be best to have some food.

The town was pretty neat looking at night, there were hardly any street lights and tons of cars, bikes and people running around. And everyone was on their horn, even the bikes were constantly ringing their little bells. Work was being done on a building across the street and the sparks from the welding fell down 10 stories.

A few hours later I got back to Beijing and headed over to a restaurant across the street from my hotel. I ordered steamed pork buns and a tomato shrimp dish. What was strange was that I didn't finish both plates. The first night I was in Beijing I devoured two plates of food. Then last night I could barely finish my food and tonight I didn't get past 2 shrimpies. Not sure what's going on.

Anyway, that's that and tomorrow I'm headed to the Dirt Market to buy doodads and crap for people back home. I mean, treasures, for people back home. And hopefully I'll find the massage place before heading out to the gymnastic thing.

Summer Palace

After sleeping in I went to the north west part of Beijing to catch a bus to the Summer Palace. I was expecting a bus terminal but it was just like a normal town with bus stops along the streets. I had to walk a little ways to find the bus stops, but couldn't find the number (375) that I wanted. I used my fluent Mandarin to say hello and point at the number 375 and the Chinese for Summer Palace and got directions to the other side of the street.

I hopped on the bus and pointed in my book to the Summer Palace and the fare lady nodded her head. I paid my 1.5 yuan and sat down for the ride.

I didn't end up getting to the Summer Palace until 12:30 and it closed at 5. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't see everything I wanted to in such a short time (everyone says you need a full day.) But it got to be pretty cold and windy so I didn't think I'd be itching to sit around and do people watching. I was still a bit bummed from leaving my jacket in Hong Kong - who woulda known that it was super cold and windy? Everyone else had on nice North Face parkas and wool jackets. :(

I walked around and looked at the various halls and walkways. It was nice to not hear the city (until you get to the top of the hill.) I can see why royalty hung out here, it has a beautiful lake and neat looking palaces. They have a bunch of large stones or rocks that have much significance. They look like large pieces of coral and seem really alien to the place.

There was a long walkway called the Long Corridor. It is a half mile long covered walkway with rotundus every 200 feet or so. Every 15 feet is a support beam that is painted with a scene from a lake or a mountain. It was pretty neat looking.

As I was super cold I decided to leave and wait in the wind for the bus to go back to town. Not sure why I didn't take a taxi. But I vowed to get a jacket before going to the Great Wall.

After finding out that you had to wave down the bus, I rode back into town to find the underground. I found out that there are multiple metro lines in Beijing, and I almost took one that went waaay to the North. I went across the street to the one I really needed.

I got out at my first hotel and walked to the same restaurant I went to on Tuesday night. I got a different pork dish and a plate of dumplings again. I took a picture of it this time because it was so much food. I didn't even finish it all.

To work off a bit of the dinner, I walked back to Tianemmen Square to find myself a jacket. I saw a store that was selling a North Face jacket, but I knew it'd be fake and I already have a rain coat - in Hong Kong. I went into a jacket store and tried on a few black coats. I thought they'd be pretty spendy, but the lady entered 190 yuan on a calculator. Which was like $25. Not too bad. I tried on a few different jackets until I found one that fit ok. She entered 185 on the calculator and I used my master bargaining skills and got it for 180. Woo hoo! Whatever, it's warm and I was super cold. I don't know if it'll last many years or anything, but it looks pretty good and has two layers.

I'm getting a different hostel tomorrow (hopefully) and heading out to one of the Great Walls for the afternoon. And then I'm planning on getting a massage and going to see the Chinese acrobats perform.

Forbidden City

On Wednesday I moved to a new hostel and then headed out to the Forbidden City. I rented one of those cassette tape deals so you can hear about what you're looking at. I put it into my bag a few minutes later when I realized I had no idea what the lady was talking about. So I made up my own history for the buildings I saw.

I took a bunch of pictures of doors and walkways, I figure that all the normal pictures have been done already and maybe my 'artsy' shots will be cool.

My parents told me there was a Starbucks in the City, but I was skeptical until I actually saw it. While it was sad to see it there, it wasn't too bad because there are lots of little shops to buy coke, 'fast food' and toilet paper for the toilets.

While there are a fair amount of hawkers and 'guides', they leave you alone as soon as you say 'no thanks.' Which is a bit different than in India, where they don't leave you alone until you throw rupees or rocks at them.

I walked through to the North entrance and headed out towards the Hutongs, or old small alley streets. It was getting dark (sun seems to set at 5:30) so I didn't have a lot of time to walk through the streets. I saw one that looked pretty neat so I headed into it. It started off pretty small and kept on getting narrower. A lady with bags of vegetables saw me and started talking to me and waving me forward. I took a few pictures of where I was and followed her.

We kept walking deeper into the Hutong. The roofs of the buildings ranged from 7 feet to 10 feet and each house was like 15 feet wide, really small places. She was in front of me and kept waving and smiling. We eventually got to a dead end and she disappeared into a little house. A second later she came out with a small little fiesty dog. She smiled and said something I didn't understand. I took a picture of her and the dog.

We tried to communiate through my little Mandarin phrase book. About 5 minutes later I saw she wanted me to send her the picture. I wrote down my email address and got hers, not that I can really read it.

It was getting darker so I waved goodbye and headed out to the streets. I wasn't really sure where I was or how to get out of the maze so I just went in one direction. After a dead end I went North towards one of the larger streets I knew was around. I walked by a few food stalls and had to stop and get a few pork buns when I saw a bunch of locals buying them. I ended up getting four and paid 2 yuan, or 25 cents. They were pretty frickin good.

I wandered around some more until I found a major street and then found the subway system. I went to Tianemmen Square because I saw an Internet place and a 7-11 (I needed Snickers.)

Beijing!

I flew into Beijing from Hong Kong this afternoon. It was strange to get to someplace that is cold and rainy, kinda like going home to Portland.

My guidebook said that the taxi people would hound you while you're inside the terminal, but that you're supposed to go outside to the normal taxi queue. A bunch of them came up to me and showed me their "offical" laminated cards. I went over to the Information booth and asked them to write out in Mandarin the location of the hotel I booked. They did that and I headed out to the taxis.

I got in a taxi and he nodded when I handed him the little piece of paper with my hotel on it. We cruised into downtown Beijing and seemed to take the long way to get to the hotel. I started to wonder where we were going because the guy at the hotel said it should cost around 70 yuan, and we were up to 100. He stopped at some hotel that had a red exterior (my hotel was called Red House) and I asked the doorman where we were. "Hotel!"

Super. I paid the taxi and went in.
"Am I at this hotel?" I asked, showing the reception lady my book.
"You're at this hotel."
"Ummm,, is this 'Red House'?"
"No, [some other name] hotel. You want to leave?"
I looked outside and it was already dark.
"How much?"
"380 yuan."
I used the calculator and saw it was $50. I debated about hopping in another taxi and trying to get to the hotel I had a verbal reservation at, but it was late and I was getting tired.
"Ok, fine."
It kinda felt like India, when I was told the hotel I wanted was burned down by the information people and then got an overpriced taxi to a hotel that wasn't super friendly. But I think for one night it's all good. Better to spend the money then wander around Beijing at night with all my crap.

The room was a little small and you have to use your card to turn on the lights and the AC (which is a heater this time of year.) I did a little cursing until I realized how to turn on the lights. Then I got my pants on and took off to find a SIM card for my (Moo's phone.)

I walked all the way to Tianemen Square and saw a few restaurants on the way. I mosed around the Square until a girl came up to me and started talking to me. I thought she was wanting to sell something so I lied that I didn't speak much english. It turned out she was just a friendly student or something.

I found a phone store and went in. No one spoke English, and I don't speak Mandarin (more than saying Happy New Year - which isn't useful.) I used my Mandarin Phrase book to say "to call....USA" A few more people came over to try and help. A minute later there were 15 people crowded around, talking away. I had no idea what was going on. Then another cell phone materialized and I was talking to some lady in English. It turns out you need a Beijing ID card, which I don't have. And it'd cost 1800 yuan to get it all sorted.

A lady there told me I should follow two employees to another store and they could help me out. I got my stuff together and took off with these two kids. We walked by Tianemen Square and by the 3rd KFC of the night. We went into another phone store, where no on spoke English. A few minutes later another cell phone was produced and I was talking to another gal in English. Same deal, no card no phone. So that sucks.

I thanked them and walked out towards the restaurants.

I saw one that looked pretty cheerful and went in. A table of men next to mine looked over and smiled a bunch. As I was ordering my food one guy produced a small cup and poored some white liquid into it and gave it to me. I took a sniff and realized it was some distilled grain alcohol. Not wanting to offend, I swigged it down. They all smiled as I squeeked and gasped. I remember reading that their drink here is pretty strong, either 65% or 65 proof. I think it was 65% alcohol.

The guy filled up the cup again and waved. I tried to drink this, but it was too strong for me. So I had a coke.

I saw what other people were eating and ordered that. I got a big plate of Kung Pow Pork with peanuts, a huge bowl of Hot & Sour soup, 2 cokes and a plate full of dumplings. All for $9. I got pretty stuffed and didn't end up finishing the soup.

The guys at the next table kept looking and smiling. I drank a little more fire water each time.

When they got up to leave I thumbed through the phrasebook to say "thank you" and "goodbye" They all smiled and one guy shook my hand. Which was pretty cool.

I payed my bill and stumbled out of the restaurant and back to my hotel. I just looked up another hostel to go to and booked it online. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get there, the address is in English and you need Chinese writing to give the cabbies (usually.) And there is no phone number. Hopefully it'll be pretty painless. I have all day tomorrow to figure it out.

Victoria Peak

After picking up my ticket to Beijing and arranging for a hotel I went up to Victoria Peak by tram. It was much easier than jogging up. It was a bit touristy, with a Wax Museum and a Ripley's Believe It Or Not, but the ride up was worth the ticket. We stopped at a platform on the way up and the tram bounced up and down with the stretch of the cable.

At top I had a small lunch of Singaporian Noodles (to get ready for down south) and a fruit shake. I then walked around a bit and took in the sights before heading back downtown and home.

Downtown

I have a few pictures from top over here

Dim Sum

On Sunday Moo, Gerry and I went to dim sum near the waterfront. We had shumai, century egg, pork buns, rolls, pork, chicken and fried rice. It was all good (except the century egg, I opted out of it this time.)

Entrance	Pork and chicken
Pork buns and rolls	Shumai

Lamma Island

On Saturday Moo, Gerry and I met up with their friends Jake and Pat for a trip out to Lamma Island (south of HK.) We took a fast ferry to Yung Shue Wan to start our walk to Sok Kwu Wan on the south side of the island. We stopped for a snack, little dumplings and sweet bean curd.

The walk went through the Yug Shue Wan village, by a jungle (in my book), a beach and over a little mountain range. We got to see the lovely strip coal mine when we were by the beach. There was a sign warning people to stay out of the water because the shark net wasn't working.

On the other side of the hill we saw the fish farms in Sok Kwu Wan bay. We walked by small tunnels that were bored into the side of the mountain by the Japanses in WWII to be used in surprise attacks on the Allies.

In the village there were tens of restaurants, and only one was busy, Rainbow Restaurant. We plopped our things down there and looked at the tanks of sea creatures, picking out which we wanted to eat. Well, I didn't pick any, I wasn't sure what some of them were. Except for the largest prawns I've ever seen, at least 4 inches long.

Lunch consisted of many courses of different sea foods; prawn, long clams, garlic scallops, crayfish, shrimp fried rice and century eggs. I tried the century egg and have to say it wasn't too bad, but I don't think I'll be going out for more of them. The scallops were pretty amazing, very fresh and flaky like real meat. The crayfish was awesome too.

After stuffing ourselves we took the Rainbow Restaurant's boat back to Hong Kong. Jake and May went home and we went to Moo's work to pick up some mail. He works on the 65th floor and has a great view of downtown Hong Kong. Here is a picture from his office of Victoria Peak (where I'm going tomorrow.)

Victoria Peak

Building next to Moo's work

Lantau Island

On Friday I took the ferry over to Lantau Island to have a look see at the world's largest Buddha statue. The ferry took me to Mui Wo (or Silvermine Bay) where I hopped on a bus that took the windy roads up to Ngong Ping, where the Buddha lives.

The Buddha was outside of the new Po Lin Monastery. I did a quick tour, just going up the stairs to the Buddha, walking around a bit and walking to the monastery. After looking at incense, I hopped back on the bus and went back to the ferry and to Hong Kong.

That night Moo and I went out for drinks with some friends of his. Then we met up with Fausto (Alex's brother) and more of Moo's friends for some dinner in Central. The food was really quite good. We had pork (of course), fried jelly fish (a little odd), chicken and chiles and awesome won ton soup.

After that the three of us went to this exclusive bar called Drop. To get there, we walked down a little alley to a bouncer behind a velvet rope. Moo was on his cell phone, making business deals and such, he didn't even slow down, he just whipped out his official Drop membership card and we were in. We walked through a velvet curtain and down some stairs into the bar. As soon as we were in the waitresses were all over Moo. "Oh HI Jason!" "We miss you!" "Here's your table, Jason."

We sat down and Moo ordered us pineapple martinis. I was a bit skeptical, but they sure were good. After a few we didn't even notice the alcohol. We hung out for a while as Moo and Fausto talked business and other stuff I didn't quite get.

After gracing the rich and the beautiful with our presence, it was time for us to move on. We hit a few more bars before calling it a night and stumbling back to Moo's apartment.

Here are some pictures from my quick trip to Lantau island.

Downtown Hong Kong

Today I went back downtown to the Shek Tong Tsui and Sai Ying Pun areas of Hong Kong. At least that's what the map says. I walked around and took pictures and ate food.

I stopped in a little restaurant where there were no english menus or pictures. That should be the best kind. I asked for barbeque pork and got a nice big plate of rice and pork. As it was so good (and cheap - $3 with a coke) I asked for more pork. The place was pretty full so a lady who came in for lunch sat down across the table from me. I used one of my two Cantonese phrases and said hello (at least Moo tell's me that's what it meant) and she said hi back. She was nice and gave me a napkin from her purse, as I was apparently getting BBQ juice everywhere.

I walked by a lot of medicine stores that were selling different fungi, squid, bark, birds nests, shark fins (not a fan of that) and spices. The smells were strong and pretty neat. Some of them smelled like the concoction of herbs and roots I drank when I was sick a few years ago. I could see how endangered animals like snakes and other creatures could get wiped out over here. There were tons of shark fins, snakes and horns of various animals. A bit strange.

I took the tram back to Central and went by the travel office where I got my Chinese Visa and bought a ticket to Beijing. My dad said I should take the train back from Guanxio (or something like that), so I'm flying into there from Beijing. I'll have 5 full days in Beijing, which should be enough to visit the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, do some shopping and see the wall.

After a traditional nap, I met up with Gerry to get my new tuxedo in Kowloon. The rentals here are pretty expensive for a tux, and it's only $50 more to get a custom made tuxedo - so I'm getting myself a tux. And I'm getting new shoes made for only $40. Hopefully other people will be getting married, or else I'll have to come up with another excuse to wear a tux.

After the tux fitting, we met up with Moo and Moo's dad for dinner at a swank restaurant. It's one of those places where they put your napkin on your lap. Which is a little strange. But the food was awesome, I had a crab that was scooped out and mixed with breading and spices and put back into the crab and baked with a crust. Pretty damn good. Moo got a dessert that had dry ice under the bowl, it looked cool.

After a few beers, we said goodbye to Moo's dad and hopped on the train to Hong Kong island. Then in the cab ride home I lost Moo's cell phone that I had been using and just put $40 on. So we're on to his last backup phone. Which I promised not to lose. It was my pants fault.

I took a movie of my tram ride today, it's no Terminator, but it might be cool. Check it out

I put up some photos to look at.

Peng Chau

After waking up from my nap and watching another episode of Dead Like Me, I ventured out to the small island of Peng Chau. The ferry ride was pretty cool, tons of boats and ships running around across the bay.

I picked up a pork bun and walked around the area near the docks. There wasn't too much going on, but a lot of neat alleys and walls to check out. Yes, I said the walls were cool, that's a sign of growing old - staring at walls.

I hung out on the waterfront for most of the afternoon. I picked up some shumai and another pork bun. And M&Ms for dessert.

There was a little old lady (ok, lots of them) who sat near me and stared in my direction. I have to say that she scared me a bit. She had this little cane that she'd rap on the ground as she walked. She got up once and just stood there with the cane hitting the ground. I grabbed my M&Ms a little closer to feel better. She went away to scare another person.

It was a pretty cool town/island, lots of little apartments and houses. And a graveyard on the top of a hill. They have pictures of the people on the graves, which is a little strange. And writing in red ink. Which would be scary on Halloween at night I think.

I took another ferry back to Hong Kong after a neat sunset. The sky is hazy here, which gives a nice orange tinge to everything, even before sunset.

On the ferry

More pictures and even more pictures

Mon & Tues

On Monday I bopped around downtown Hong Kong. Jason's fiance Gerry took me to a shop to get my visa for China. Now I just have to remember to get an airplane ticket. We also went to a few shops to find me a new shirt, as my clothes seem to be more fitted for cooler weather (and apparently they shrunk when I crossed the date-time line on my way here.) I picked up two shirts (one with spandex!) for $10.

I was waiting to meet up with Jason and Gerry for dinner and I needed a snack, so I did as everyone else here, and picked up an order of fries from McDonalds. American food? you ask. They eat it here, so who am I to argue.

Welll, about an hour and a half later I realized why not to eat American food here: diahrea. Luckily I was in one of the nicest shopping malls I've ever been to and they had very nice toilets. The walls of the stall were stone that were nice and high. And a little man walking around the bathroom with a little spray bottle, spraying overpowering perfume. He seemed to keep coming back to where I was.

Anyhoo. I waited for Jason to get off work at a little square with fountains (the kung-fu guy below). The building looked pretty cool so I layed on my back on a fountain bench to get a better look. The next thing I knew there was a police officer standing over me. "Blah blah blah." I looked up at him, "Huh?" "No sleeping here." "Oh. Sorry?" Crap. He walked off and I got my bag and scedadeled away.

I met back up with Gerry and Jason and we ran over to Kowloon to do some wedding shopping. We went into a building that had 4 floors of just wedding stuff. It was funny to see all these women walking in front of their men who were carrying things with their heads down saying "yes dear." Or however it's said here.

We went left there to find a favorite restaurant of Moo's. Moo and I started looking for some stomach medicine, cos I wasn't about to miss out on some authentic hole in the wall Hong Kong grub. I had to make another run to a bathroom, this time in another McDonalds. Damn you super sized french fries!

We went to dinner in this little place that had 5' 6" ceilings and awesome noodles. I got an order of tripe and fish balls. Moo was nice enough to eat the tripe for me.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I decided I was going to run up to Victoria Peak, which is right behind Moo's place. He said it was 2.8 km from the start of the trail, so I figured "How hard could it be?" They know how to build hills here, it was a super steep hill, I saw a rock roll up the hill faster than me. The view from the top was pretty awesome, you could see all of Central and the south side of the island. The tallest building downtown seemed to be just as high as we were, but maybe it's the optics of smog and oxygen deprivation from the jog. My book says the hill is 1500 feet tall, so I doubt the building was that tall. But who knows.

After the jog I went back to Moo's place and promptly fell asleep. Which turned the rest of my day into 'vacation day' where I lazed around and watched downloaded movies and tv shows.

Here are some pictures from Monday. I'm heading out to Peng Chau today after a little nap.

On escalator to Central

More photos