Separate Beings

Separate Worlds more like!  Hong Kong and Macau are far different than the other cities we visited in mainland China.  But that's as it should be - Hong Kong was owned by the British until only recently and Macau by the Portuguese.  The cultural influences from these distant nations have definitely left their mark. 

In Hong Kong it was difficult to see a unique culture, because, at least to me, everything screamed London and money.  I love London so I found this to be a nice similarity, but I would have liked to be able to feel a bit more of old HK (I'm thinking this has more to do with all the money passing through there than anything else.  There must be billions upon billions, because everyone looked like they had money!  Especially the people 20 deep in line to get into Dior, Prada, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, all the top shops!  The only non-designer store that had a longer line was McDonald's - yes, it's shameful, but we did eat there).

We did get a bit of culture on Monday (8/15) on Hong Kong Island visting the Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Museum (the museum was interesting, but I still had some questions when I left, just like I have with Mao's rise to power... I don't get how he did it!) , Man Mo Temple, Cat Street Market, Statue Square (which has only one statue remaining), St. John's Cathedral and we had a look out of the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Tower.  We also strolled along the Central Escalator (the world's longest outdoor escalator) and had a look around the Botantical Gardens and Zoological Park before getting the tram up to Victoria Peak.  The views of Hong Kong at night were amazing.  The skyline was beautiful!

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Tuesday (8/16) we ferried over to Macau.  We planned to walk around the island on our own, but as we were leaving the ferry terminal, we were greeted by a very friendly guide-for-hire who had an air conditioned car!  Needless to say after almost 2 weeks of straight sweating we took this guy up on his offer!!  For the next two hours we were being driven around to all the hot spots (Statue of Kun Iam, Macau Tower, A-Ma Temple, the Ruins of St. Paul's and Mount Fortress) in comfort! 

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Our guide was great for information.  We learned that the oldest daughter of the first CEO is a lesbian living with her Chinese girlfriend who is half her age and that the Chinese and HK residents come to Macau for their massages, because only in Macau are such "happy endings" legal.  **Of this last factoid our guide seemed questionably proud.

Back in Kowloon we watched the Symphony of Lights show.

We explored Kowloon further on Wednesday (8/17) spending the day seeing the Clock Tower,  several markets: Jade, Yuen Po Bird and Flower, and Temple Street, and we went to the History Museum - which was great!  Really fantastic!  It provided great information about HK's past and the (unseen) culture.  

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Our last day in Hong Kong we went to Ngong Ping Village and rode the Skyrail up to Tian Tan Buddha (the world's largest, outdoor, seated, bronze Buddha).  From there it was a little ride and we were at the happiest place on on earth (in Asia), Disneyland HK!!

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A fantastic way to wrap up two great weeks in China!

A Vacation's Vacation

After a week of rushing around two of China's biggest cities, Michael and I were looking forward to taking a little rest in Guilin.

However, the rest didn't start out too well.  Our flight from Xi'an was delayed three times, causing us to arrive in Guilin four hours late - 4 hours late meant midnight! and we still had to transfer from the airport to our hostel.

Thankfully, we had arranged ahead of time to have our hostel send a taxi to collect us, but due to the four hour delay certain parties on our trip (not me) were very doubtful our ride would still be there waiting for our arrival.  But he was!  And soon we were at the hostel being shown to our private room, which after a week of co-ed shared dorm rooms, was an amazing surprise to find!

No alarms were set and we went to bed with no set plans for the following day!

We finally got up around 11am Friday morning (8/12), had breakfast at the hostel and headed out to walk around the city and see what we could see.

See the full gallery on Posterous

We also did a little shopping!! Well, I did!  And let me just say, Visa is not accepted everywhere! >:-(  but I was able to get a new dress and a pair of shoes! :)

In the evening we went on a cruise of the four lakes to see the city at night and the Sun and Moon Pagodas all lit up.

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The cruise was really nice.  The city was beautiful, it has a bit of a European feel about it.  I was using my SLR to capture some really great photos, but then the card went corrupt and all was lost!  Not the best ending to a night out on the water!  (Do not fear! Michael had a card reader and I was able to recover all that was lost!  Although, now all of Macua is missing, but we're not there yet).

Saturday (8/13) we were picked up early to take a ride down the Li River to Yangshou.  The river cruise was really fun and relaxing.  The scenery was gorgeous!  It's so gorgeous in fact that it appears on the Chinese money!

Back in Guilin that night, we cleaned up a bit and headed out for dinner and a walk through the night market.  Then back to pack and rest up for the following days flight to Hong Kong!

This is more like it

Xi'an is amazing.  At least when you compare it to what we experienced in Beijing!

Sure, there's still smog - which makes it impossible to capture a photo showing China with blue skies (thank goodness for photo editing) - but the manicness is gone and the majority of the people don't look dirty and homeless, which allowed the city to fulfill all that I was hoping for and expecting in Beijing, but didn't get.

Whereas Beijing over and underwhelmed me, Xi'an was lovely!  The cultural sights we visited were large, but absorbable and the crowds were nearly non-existent.  And even though our bus got in three hours later than planned, we were still able to see the bulk of our list and go at an enjoyable pace our first half day in the city.

We went to the Bell Tower and had a little walk around the grounds.  From there we headed over to the Drum Tower were we got to watch a "traditional" Drum presentation that was really fantastic!  We got to hear the beats that called warriors to battle, or encouraged them, or did something for them... it wasnt really explained, and definitely not explained in English.  After that we went down to the Old City Wall south gate and had a look out at the views.  

Photos: (1) Bell Tower, (2) Drum Tower, (3) the Old City Wall

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There was even time for shopping in the Muslim Quarter market!  

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We'd been to temples in Beijing, so we thought it'd be a good decision, and culturally diverse, if we looked at a mosque.  After a looong attempt to find the mosque, we were finally able to locate it and paid out some yuan to take a stroll around the compound.  They don't have just have mosques in Xi'an - they have the Great Mosque!

On our second/last day we set off early to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  

Having missed all of the information at the Forbidden City, we chose to get a guide this time!  She was really nice and her English was quite good; as well was the information she presented, which was interesting and illustrative, but still didn't paint the picture I was looking for.

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I know that sounds a bit negative, and I don't mean to be.  Xi'an was fabulous.  I just wanted the history of China to come alive for me (if that makes any sense).   I wanted to hear stories and see history.  I didn't hear very many good stories, and the information I was reading was good, but not colorful... so that's the only reason I sound a bit down about it.  It was great!  All of it was great!!  Ok all is stretch, but I'm going to go with it! ;)

I'm supposed to sleep by what?!

"There's no room on the train, you'll have to take the bus."

Bus?  Take the bus?...

They say you should trust your gut.  Always trust your gut! This was definitely one of those times when I should have listened to my freaking belly and said "no"!

Train! I should have taken the train!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANtbPef8M8?wmode=transparent]

Ok so we didn't have the option to fly, but substitute bus for plane and you'll get how I felt!  But the point is, that could have been me!! I could have been Sheldon!  "We're taking the train!"  Excited and happy, looking forward to the journey, but I didn't take the train, I took the bus.  

Sure, on the train it would have been a hard seat.  Sure, the bus was a sleeper . . . but put train and bus in an arm wrestling contest and train always wins!  Except this time.  Ahhh my luck!!

In all honesty, I wasn't all that against taking the bus, but that quickly changed when we were dropped off in the middle of what looked like the roughest, poorest, dirtiest crack area of Beijing.  Walk fast.  Get inside.  It will be better.

If better looks like an abandoned building with dirty, shirtless men standing around, then yes! Better is what we found insides the bus terminal.  Awe-some.

Ok, ok, not everyone was a dirty, shirtless man; there were a few women and some pantless babies running around too, but none of it was looking good.

I did get a bit excited when it was time to board.  It was as sleeper bus, which I'd never traveled on so I was looking forward to that aspect.  However, that excitement soon wore off (as before) when I found my bed.

Half-way down the coach, on the floor was a tiny coffin of a bed, my bed :-l

I think I could have been ok with it if (1) I fit in the bed, and (2) it wasn't directly next to the toilet!!!!

The idea of sleeping that close to the bathroom was enough to make the situtation disgusting.  Add to it the smell!! It was vomit-worthy!

Luckily, I was traveling with a true prince.  Michael, who can handle rougher travel accomodations than his popped collars and straightened hair let on, traded beds with me.  What a hero!

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I'm really not as much of a princess as this post makes me sound, I promise!

This place feels homeless

My dad posted this e-mail soon after I sent it to my parents and I had him take it down, because I wanted to rewrite it with more... more something... I guess I was hoping to be clever-er.  But I'm just not feeling it.  

So here's the e-mail (again) recapping Michael and my time in Beijing.

I am alive.  Although after the heat and humdity I have endured in Beijing, I do not know how!!!  It is HOT here!!  Way hotter than Busan!!!  I have been sweating every minute of everyday we are out walking around. Our first day here we got in a bit late (~4pm) and our ride was late to pick us up at the airport, so we did the only thing natural to Westerns - we grabbed a Starbucks Iced Tea!   Once our ride picked us up and we made the hour+ ride to our hostel, we unloaded and headed out to look around. We tried to find one of the many markets in Beijing, but failed.  Apparently even the big, big name markets aren't even known to the Chinese... a bit funny, especially considering we were showing them the name in Chinese, but..... when in China I guess...? So we gave up and came back to our hostel area to get food and call it a night. The next morning (8/7) we got up early and headed over to Tian'men Square and the Forbidden City.  Overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.  MILLIONS of people were there.  Ok perhaps not millions, but a whole hell of a lot of people!  It really took the charm, fantasty, and imagination out of the Forbidden City.  You couldn't picture history there with that many people walking around and shoving you out of the way. See the full gallery on Posterous After we made it out of there we were so tired and hot we didn't really know what to do.   So we wandered lost, literally lost in a daze, around Tian'men Square.  First, we just sat in the Square, but being that it's huge and has no benches, it wasn't really the greatest place to take a rest.  So we crossed the street to the Hall of the People, but after seeing the price of tickets and reading in the book about what was inside we gave up on that idea and decided to try the museum on the other side of the Square.   The Square, although only ~300m wide, felt like a mile wide at this point!  But we made the journey across and got to the National Museum of China. Climbed some stairs and found ourselves staring at an endless queue.  Again, too tired and hot to deal with it, we crossed some fences and went to make our escape out the back way.  Except my stomach was hurting and I needed(!!!) a bathroom, so I went up and around one side of the building solely to ask where the nearest toliets were.  However, I didn't get to ask. I was immediantly greeted with "How many?"  I said 3 and was handed 3 free tickets to the museum!  No money needed!  No waiting required, straight in and to the bathroom!!! and the HEAVEN of some AC!!!   We must have sat on the ground for an hour!!  too content to move!! Finally, feeling like we had to make something of our day, we got up and went to make our way around the museum.  Except there was nothing in the musuem!  You had to pay to get in every exhibit.  We did get a rest, some AC , and a bunch of laughs out of it, but that was about all.  Thank goodness our tickets were free!! After that we parted ways to go clean up and then meet back up for dinner and a second go at attempting to find the markets.  No markets, but we had Peking duck for dinner.   It was ok.  The food here is soooooo greasy!  Everything is greasy!!  They must just pour it on extra!!  Monday (8/8) we did the Great Wall.  I'm not sure what I was imagining for it, but it was a HIKE!  A bit dumb on my part!  But it was really great!  The kind of sightseeing I needed to make up for the disappointment of the Forbidden City.   I don't think I've ever sweated that much from just walking!!!  I was dripping!!!   Tuesday (8/9) we went to the Temple of Heaven, Hou Hai village and rode around in a rickshaw for an hour or two and then over to Bei Hai Park to get lost and just a little bit more sweaty.   See the full gallery on Posterous All that was left to do in Beijing was a short wait, in the AC of our hostel, before we headed to the bus station to get on an overnight bus to Xi'an.   4 days down and 10 to go!  [When I sent this email to my parents I said this of China]: So far I don't know what to make of China.  It's definitely big, dirty, full of people and historical sites, but as it was at the Forbidden City, it feels over/underwhelming at the same time so far. Hopefully with the rest of the cities and with less on our list of things to see/do it will turn out to be a really fantastic trip.  Right now it's just hot!!!  But still cool, just not awesome yet.

Pre-travel Advice

When traveling to China on holiday, it is MOST advisable to not do the following things!

1.  Don't spend the week before your departure on the beach till the late hours of the evening.

• This will cause you to avoid packing and think of only returning to the beach the next day for more sun, sand and surf.

2.  Don't go out on Thursday night with friends thinking you'll "stay out for one and catch the last train home."

• One is boring.


• Your friends won't help you remember the last subway.


• You'll miss the last train and have to pay Xwon you didn't want to pay (but were happy to because the night out was tops).


• You'll get home at 2am and you're only saving grace will be that you somehow managed to throw some clothes in your pack for your up coming trip!

3.  Do not go out on Friday

4.  Do NOT go out on Friday to 'Pour Your Own Doubles' at the Wolfhound - it leads to bad things!

• Topping off an already strong double vodka with more vodka.


• Tequila shots.


• More vodka.


• and ultimately you'll lose your phone!

5.  Do not lose your phone.

• The phone that has been your alarm clock for 6months.  


• The replacement you'll set instead will not be as efficient!

6.  Do not forget to pack necessary items

• Such as daily medications.  (Idiot! There goes your month!)

But MOST advisable!!

7.  Do NOT travel to China in a state of drunkenness or severe hungover-ness.

• It dulls your excitement.


• Makes your travel partner less thrilled to travel with you.


• Will do you in for several hours when you arrive, leaving you to wander around in a stupor state.

*Writer's note (as advised by Michael - travel partner on China trip)

• Do not travel anywhere drunk/hungover.  It's not fun

 

Live and Learn

Think 'Sexy'

I had told my my friend, Jill, that I'd "model" for her boyfriend, Aaron, and their friend Keely on Sunday (7/31) after I got back from Seoul.  

I'm not sure why I said yes.  I've never modeled, I have no delusions that I could ever be a model and the most I know about modeling is what I've seen on 'America's Next Top Model'.  As you can imagine that's a very limited education because (1) it's Tyra and (2) I wasn't watching it taking notes thinking "one day that'll be me."  That would have been crazy!

But I showed up.  Sweating from rushing and with a head of half-dried hair, ready to attempt a go at modeling.

"No worries" Jill cheers!  A quick outfit change (into her clothes) and I was put in front of the camera with Alex.  Who's Alex?  Yea, good question! I didn't know either!

"Meagan meet Alex, Alex this is Meagan.  Now Alex grab her around the waist and hold her close"

Umm... What did you say?  

I've never modeled before, and there I was getting close with a stranger.  Right... I'm mature... I've been in a bar or two... I've met new people... This should be nothing!  No problem.  I got this!

No.  I definitely didn't have it.  I was far, far from mature.  What I was, was a laughing, giggling, school girl.  

Ahh!!  So miserable!! I was ruining the whole evening.  Jill tried to help make me feel more comfortable.  She offered up some encouraging tips:

Jill - Meagan be sexy!  Act like you're in the bar!

Me - (laughs) I don't do sexy.  (more laughing) I try to impress people with my charm and smile!  Nothing says 'sexy' here (gestering to myself).

Jill - Ok... then think of something serious.

Someone - Think of baby seals.

Someone else - Think of baby seals getting clubbed.

Me - laughs!!  

Terrible!! Absolutely terrible!  I swear I do NOT find any abuse, animal or human, funny.  I can barely eat meat!  But the whole situation was hilarious.  Me: modeling?  Me: sexy?  Add in baby seals and it really was the most oddly assorted things to throw together in an evening.

However, by this point I really felt like I was going to be the reason the photo shoot failed!  I finally was able to pull it together, and as Keely said "I finally got a few good ones!"

Photo taken by Keely Kernan

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5mtclwloEQ?wmode=transparent]

First Chinese update

She is fine. She has been writing for her blog and will post her comments once she is back in Busan so she asked me to delete her e-mail.

Wait Please

This past weekend (7/30-31) I went to Seoul to meet up with a friend from high school, Josh, who is stationed in Korea again with the military.

Things were all planned out.  We were going to meet early in the morning on Saturday, head a bit out of the city to go Bungee Jumping, and then make our way back in to do a little sightseeing around Deoksugung Palace, Jogye-sa Temple, Changdeokgung Palace and the North Seoul Tower.  

An amazing day was lined up.

Except not everything went as planned.  A lot of things didn't go as planned.

Josh's bus was 2 hours late.  Which was fine, I had 'How to Train Your Dragon' on my iPod and was happy to sit in a coffee shop and watch it!  (Yes, it's an animated movie, and it's AWESOME!)  This meant we got to bungee later than planned, which meant we had to wait for them to reopen after lunch, and then wait some more for our jump time to arrive.  

However, at 3:00pm our jump time came!  After a quick weight check (which was shit, but you want to be sure the rope is set to bounce you back and not snap in half!) we were strapped into our harnesses and riding 45m (~150ft) to the top of the tower!  

Awful.  Waiting on top of the tower, was AWFUL.  I don't think I'm afraid of heights.  I have a greater fear of small spaces than I do heights, but being up there and looking down was nearly enough to make a person sick!  My heart was racing.  My hands were shaking.  I didn't think I could go through with it!  

Josh jumped first.  Screaming with excitment the whole way down the bastard. 

When it was my turn, I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it.  I was sick with nerves.  45m is high!! and I was just going to jump out!  Into nothing!  Praying a rope, that is who knows how old and how safe, is going to work against gravity and pull me back up!  That's a lot of faith!  In a rope!  But I did it.  Took two countdowns and eyes shut tight, but I jumped.  

Scariest. Craziest. Sickest. Awesomest thing I've ever done.  After the jump I sent this out:

Because of our late jump, we didn't have a lot of time for all of the planned tourist stops.  We did stop by Jogye-sa Temple (pictures on Facebook) before heading back to the hotel to get cleaned up and head out for the night.  Oh.  But I forgot.  We didn't have a hotel booked.  So we spent a few more hours of our day calling around to every hotel in the Lonely Planet guide to see if any had rooms available.  After ~20 calls and the help of some very, very nice baristas we managed to find a hotel for the night!!  Thank god!!  A person can only stand around sweating for so long!

No palaces, no North Tower, but we managed to shower and head out for some drinks!  

The next day we woke to rain.  Lots of rain.  So we decided our best plan would be to stay indoors, indoors at The War Memorial of Korea Musuem (pictures on Facebook).  

Following the museum we grabbed a quick bit to eat before it was time to say goodbye.  

Nearly 8 years since high school and as Josh said it took "~7,000 miles away from home for us to hang out".  But it was worth the wait.  It was a good weekend, despite all the setbacks!