Things from the past few days (and weeks!)

Okay I lied, I got on a tiny blogging frenzy. Here's another. More journal-y as well.

We recently found a new proxy program, and this one can actually let me access youtube without the frustrating “false” complete loaded videos like the other one did. (Hit refresh, loads 10 seconds, “done”, refresh, 5 more seconds, “done”. UGHHH) So I’ve been catching up on Vlogbrothers. So Vlogbrothers is a video blog that Quinn introduced me to last year, and it's comprised of two brothers, in their thirties, that have been vlogging on youtube for close to 4 years now. I’ve seen all of them. I caught myself up sometime last year (when she told me about them), so at least I don’t have over a year of videos to plow through. More like 3 months or so (with 3x weekly updates of 4 minutes).

The Vlogbrothers are… pure awesome. They’re John and Hank Green, and John Green is maybe the one you’ve heard of, if at all, since he’s a young adult author. He wrote the Printz-winning Looking For Alaska (very good), Paper Towns, among others. But what makes them so enthralling is that they are both undeniably, geeks. Nerds. Dorks. And well-educated and well-spoken. So it’s no wonder that I love watching their videos and the oft times crazy things that they do or discuss in their (normally) four-minute videos. If you want some entertaining, thought-provoking, but still sometimes silly youtube videos that aren't full of the usual mindless drivel that google-owned site pumps out, try Vlogbrothers.

But that’s one way in which I’ve been filling my time every day for 300MB worth of bandwidth (around 1-2 hours of waiting to load, watching, approx), since this program only gives me that much every day (for free, it’d be more if I paid. I do not want to).

I’ve also just gotten hooked into the Stieg Larsson trilogy of The Girl… /Lisbeth Salander. The Dragon Tattoo just got reaaaallly interesting last night and I spent far longer reading than I meant to. (And then was woken by the musicbox as you’ve already probably read.)

I also have about 50 books on reserve, just waiting to be sent to my library so I can READ THEM. I’ve collected titles over the months I’ve been here from all sorts of sources and recommendations and they range from crazy topics. Like Carl Sagan, the periodic table, fossils, zombies, immortality, programming, fantasy novels, fiction, and Chinese memoirs.

My productiveness seems to go in waves. Sunday I was incredibly productive. I finished a blog, was able to upload all the photos (not always an easy feat), corrected ALL the homework for the last two weeks that I was behind on, inputted the data into my spreadsheet, and cleaned my apartment. It’s a nice feeling, getting things done.

The great majority of yesterday… I watched 10 or so vlogbrothers videos aaand changed the design for the lesson plan powerpoint. That was about it. I did eventually finish planning, but… it took a lot of mental teeth-pulling.

And after a few weeks of serious mental and emotional anguish (that I don’t really want to reveal publicly (unless of course I talked with you about it), but just trust me when I say I was having a crappy few weeks), and some good discussions with a few people, I think I’m actually truly ready to handle the last few months here.

HOORAY!

Noise of China

Short tiny tiny blog.

This morning I was awoken by noise. Not the usual Thursday morning "HUUUH HAAAA" of the comrades shouting and exercising or whatever it is they do. (And it always comes at 6:15 or so, which is about 20 minutes BEFORE I NEED TO BE UP. And I hate it. Thankfully Thursday classes are almost always good ones, so this isn't so bad.) Oh no no no. It was about 9:30 (no morning classes today) and I was gently awoken by a girlish, piano... sound. It was like one of those lame SUPER girly music boxes that they have in movies. That kind of music. Oh, but guess what. It played.... and played.... ALL. FREAKING. DAY.

The last I heard it was around 5pm today (during a break in songs). Over 12 HOURS of the same goddamn annoying music. And it was coming from Da Li Tang, so it was far enough away it wasn't BLARING, but it was juuuust loud enough to be infuriatingly present.

I played my music as loudly as possible until lunch, and then after my classes this afternoon so I could drown it out.

It's gone now (10pm) and I oh so hope it doesn't return tomorrow. Please please please.

Day 22 - Friggin' Patacas (Macau)

Day 22 - Friggin’ Patacas!

This day deserves its own entire entry because of how epically terrible it was. The title really sums up a lot of rage toward Day 22. The beginning, which was technically still in Hong Kong, went perfectly smoothly. We bought our Turbojet ferry tickets and had to wait a couple hours, which was an inconvenience, but not really that bad. We found a Pacific Coffee Company and chilled. I continued my personal cheesecake crawl. It was only okay once again.

The ferry itself was similar to a plane-though the seats were considerably more roomy. Our next task as always was to find a hostel or cheap hotel in Macau. We’d researched the night before for a handful of options, and so we took a taxi to an area away from the casinos (in fact, crossing the water onto a different island of Macau), hoping we could spend some time near the beaches. We also found that we could pay for virtually anything in either MOP or HKD. Convenient, but silly. We found our first hostel easily, but we were told we needed a membership card which of course you can’t buy in Macau, but in China or Hong Kong. He said he hoped to see us again soon. Um, sure dude, when we magically whisk back to HK and get this magical card. So no. We took a bus this time back to the casino-area since the taxi cost over 100MOP. Also, don’t ask me what the O in MOP means. We never figured it out.

We tried the recommended hostel, Augusters, finally found it after a few turnarounds, (it was said to be near the Grand Lisboa) and they were full. Well, okay, let’s go to the others that Lonely Planet has listed. Both of those, also full. Also two we randomly tried on the Street of Happiness. That’s 6 now, and I was getting very testy because my shoulders have had enough torture done upon them from this trip, and we were probably pushing a couple hours now searching for somewhere to stay. Our last attempt in the area was Central Hotel, a huge towering inn. Surely... but no, nothing.

We finally tried Josh’s suggestion of the Best Western he spotted (it had outdated Christmas decorations on it) and they were also not available. The guy there even told us “Macau is full.” How in the world is an entire city FULL? We decided to try our usual Plan B of wifi at McDonalds we spotted a few blocks back. They didn’t have any, but we were so hungry and uncertain where we would eat that night and had our very late dinner there anyway. By the time we left the McDonalds, it was 10pm. We were in agreement that we should just say “eff Macau, it’s Zhuhai time(and thus back to mainland China) now.” So we found the bus to bring us to the Border Central (something something Cerco in Portuguese. We were also fed up with Portuguese by then too and wanted our Chinglish back) but we accidentally took it the wrong way, and we were on the bus for far longer than we meant. The driver made angry gestures at us to get off, but we just stayed on and rode it around to the stop we actually needed. We’d also paid over the amount needed for the bus, which we’d started being forced to do because we were running out of both HKD and patacas (Macau currency shorthand).

Getting back into China proper wasn’t bad- just lines and realizing that yes, we are really going back to China now. Macau and especially Hong Kong are NOT China. They’re really their own mini-countries, since you have to go through immigration and customs to enter both. Macau is to a much lesser extent, since it only exists for gambling and prostitution (not that we experienced either, as you’ve read).

We got to Zhuhai by literally walking there, and it was getting quite late. We decided (which I regretted later) NOT to take a taxi because they would charge us an exorbitant amount (true) because it was after hours, and so we walked to where we saw on our map there was a hostel. It took near two hours to get there, and we actually never FOUND it. Instead we ended up staying at what must have been a love hotel, or at least used as one often since it was filled with condoms and other sexual extras (just like the one in Zhengzhou over New Years).

I bought orange juice because I felt awful and had pulled several muscles from the very full day of walking. It was about 1am once we settled into bed. We also think because we passed by their place once before we came back and resigned ourselves to not finding the hotel, that they let us stay three- to a clearly two-person room. There was a nice-ish bathroom, and one queen-sized bed. It was the first and only time Marlie and I shared a bed. Josh found some extra comforters and slept on the floor. I have no pictures from Macau whatsoever.

Next up... the "Beautiful" Zhuhai

Days 19-21: Hong Kong pt 2/2

Day 19 – Dog Island

I was still a little residually angry with Josh the next day, but being on the ferry for Lamma Island helped. Water tends to calm me. Ray had told us how to get to the ferry for Lamma Island (the largest of the Hong Kong Islands not connected by the subway), and it was really quite simple.

A weird thing that happened before we arrived at the ferry was the massive amount of people along the overpass, sitting on folded-out boxes, eating lunch and generally having a good time. When we first came across them, we thought they were homeless, but there were FAR too many people set up for that to be the case. It was confusing, and we probably should have asked what they were doing, but that’ll just remain a mystery now I suppose.

It was a little strange, taking a ferry out of the city to an island, and able to see all the freighters and other ferries and skyscrapers just beyond the haze. The haze never really cleared up in Hong Kong (I’d hoped it would be a little clearer there, but no, I guess I’m spoiled by always living in suburbs without much air pollution). The island was beautiful, and I’m sure is more bustling in the summertime. There were still numerous shops and restaurants lining the cute streets, and there were DOGS. EVERYWHERE. All the dogs were extremely friendly and played with as many of them as I could.

After an early dinner, we headed to the first beach we could find. It was beautiful, and I could have played in the sand and water for hours if I could. There were dogs on the beach (that loved the water) as well, and I ran around with them a little.

We didn’t quite time our return to the ferry port, and so we had to wait about twenty minutes for the next ferry back to Hong Kong Island.

We were all quite tired and returned to the hostel for naps. We got ready again and headed out to Nathan for the parade. There were a few exits from the metro blocked off, and the amount of people crowded around the street was INSANE. It was hard to know where to stop and wait, and I probably made a slightly bad choice since I couldn’t see any of the parade for the first 30 minutes. We’d arrived around 8:15, but it didn’t start until about 9, though it lasted about an hour total. I had to stretch and angle my camera down at the street to “see” anything. Very slowly people in front left, and I got a better view for the last half of the parade. It was worth it to experience the massive amount of people. And it was quickly obvious who were nice parade-viewers and who weren’t. I also dislike children a little more now because far too many parents would hoist their children on their shoulders RIGHT in front of me, effectively blocking anything from my view.

It was still a tiring day with the morning and afternoon spent in Lamma Island and the hustle and bustle of the parade, so we made an early night of it. I read some of my new book and slept.

Day 20 – Sara

The next day we planned to hook up with Sara, a fellow Beloiter and Honger Konger. She was about twenty minutes late, and came from the New Territories where her home and school were located. We had lunch at Genki, a Japanese restaurant with kaitenzushi (rotating sushi… YESSS). I had as much as my wallet and stomach could agree on, along with green tea mochi for dessert.

We’d seen a lot of the major things on our Hong Kong to-do list (for me, it was a physical one, for the others, it was only mental), and so we asked Sara for suggestions. Since she was from the New Territories, she said she could lead us around there if we wanted. First though, we had to have a ride on the trams, which we kept referring to as “Knight Buses” ala Harry Potter (though no, they were not purple. Ours was red). So we hopped on the first one we saw, rode on it for probably ten minutes, got off, and found a park. There was nothing terribly of note there other than a fire-boat museum that was closed. So we found the nearest metro station and got on that to actually GO someplace.

We took a LOT of trains to get to the area Sara was from, and went to her favorite park after probably our cheapest meal in Hong Kong. There was nothing particularly SPECIAL about the meal, but it was cheap, and the fried egg on top was good.

We sat on the hill in the park and chatted for a while and headed back towards the city again after a few hours. (We did essentially nothing in the New Territories… but I can say I was there! Very briefly.) It was a good thing we left when we did, because though we were having fun traveling, it was getting very close to FIREWORKS TIME and we needed to get to the Avenue of Stars, or at least somewhere close.

The bus dropped us off as close as we could get on the route to the Ave, which was not very close at ALL. We thought we could take a shortcut through a mall like a lot of other people were doing- the Elements Mall. It was such a BAD IDEA. We got trapped. There were no direct, clearly marked exits to the street ANYWHERE. We tried one floor and ended up in a parking garage with no outlet but a ramp only meant for cars. So no go. Went down a floor—gates and highways blocked our way. So we went back inside, to go to the metro station and then exited THAT way. It was very un-intuitive to exit the mall and escape the Elements.

We dashed toward the harbor as fast as the massive crowd allowed us. Sadly, it was another case of, “where and when do we stop and decide it’s a good place to watch?” And I think we may have misjudged. But we eventually got a decent view of the great fireworks show. Though the kids on shoulders drove me and Sara crazy. We made a lot of comments about shooting them off their shoulders so we could see. Some lucky (and likely filthy rich) bastards got to watch the show from in the air in a DHL balloon. Sara and I joked that she should make her goal in life to marry the president of DHL so that she could watch the fireworks show from the balloon.

There were some patterns that took us a few tries to figure out. We could tell there was a heart, and “I”, but we couldn’t tell what we were supposed to be loving. At first, I thought it was “I HEART U 2”, or “I HEART U !!”, but then we realized that the letters were slightly askew and it actually said “I HEART HK”. And also because of the huge amount of smoke that the fireworks created, the finale was slightly obscured by its own smoke.

After being shoved along with the crowd and Sara informing us of the dating habits of Chinese, which includes the male always buying EVERYTHING, which is completely ridiculous and not fair, (I think we got on the topic because of the fact that we always split the bill for everything) we decided to return to Soho, since it was only around 10 or something at night. (I apologize for that crazy long run-on sentence.) We arrived there without incident this time, and began our bar hopping. The Spot (again) and Josh got a photo with our adorable female bartender friend, The Peak (had very tasty drinks and a good appetizer, though the most expensive bar we would go to), Cochrane’s (specialty beer), and then back towards the metro after an exorbitant amount of time waiting for the bus to bring Sara home. Seriously, it was like an hour, and I got incredibly antsy and had to run around (literally) to expend some energy.

We FINALLY got on the metro, just before it closed, for the Wan Chai area to finish out our night. Not much more of note happened once Sara left, and it was bed time once again. Though while we walked back to the hostel , this time without walking in circles like we attempted the first time, we came across some lovely painted pigs. Which you can see here.

Day 21 – Space and Jay Chou is a Terrible Actor

This day would have been our last moments in Hong Kong, but we figured to stick around one more day and night. After considering how much money we’d spent the last few days, we made our brunch out of food from the nearby Wellcome Grocery Store (which we could use our Octopus card at, also no, that is not a spelling error). It was a lot like buying dinner with Lisa for dinner at Lund’s. I got sushi (predictably), bread, and a fruit combo of dragon fruit and watermelon. I took far too long debating whether I wanted strawberries and pineapple or dragon fruit and watermelon. It was a difficult decision.

The park we ate in was one we hadn’t explored thus far. It was dominated by female Filipino and other non-Chinese looking women. And they ALL had what seemed like ripped flat plastic bags as “blankets”. It was the only time we got stared at in Hong Kong, and it was disconcerting then because we’d gotten used to being normal. We weren’t sure if it was because we were white, or because we had a boy with us, or… what.

But the food and weather were delicious, and the next destination was the SPACE MUSEUM. Finally! It was open! And we bought tickets for both the exhibit portions and an iMax showing of “We Are Astronomers”.

There were two exhibit rooms, the space science portion that was noticeably outdated, and tried to emphasize what China has done in space (um, not much), and the astronomy wing with more information about stars and planets and such. They were decent, though I think I had over-hyped myself a little. I still enjoyed it though.

We had a bit of time left before the 6:10 skyshow, and so we exited the museum through the back door and onto the Avenue of the Stars once again. We got to see a fake pirate ship cross the harbor, and see part of the sunset.

The skyshow itself had two parts. The first was incredibly corny. It was a seasonal show about “guest stars”, and the English audio (we got headphones with a choice of audio on the armrest) was very Chinese and awkward sounding. For example, they said the words ‘visible’ and ‘subsequent’ with the wrong emphasis.

But the second main show “We Are Astronomers” was awesome. It had friggin’ David Tennant narrating which was BRILLIANT. It was a cool show with a very cool song at the end, though I noticed Marlie fell asleep at one point. Well, that just meant more astronomy and freaky cool space information for me.

Our last dinner in Hong Kong was at Shakey’s Pizza, since we promised ourselves we would have pizza while in Hong Kong. It was quite good, and apparently an American establishment originally though I’ve never heard of it.

We met with our friend Ray again at Manchester United once more for a drink, and to thank him for his assistance in our travels the days before. We got to use his iPad and iPhone to add ourselves as friends on facebook, and bid him adieu.

Now all through our adventures in Hong Kong, we’d seen commercials and advertisements for The Green Hornet, and I suggested that we see it for our last night. We weren’t sure where a movie theatre was by the Manchester, but we’d been seeing them frequently enough in Hong Kong, so we assumed we could find one nearby. And we did! We saw it in what was supposedly an iMax theater (it wasn’t) but it was in 3D. Not that we wanted or cared that it was.

The movie itself was… mediocre. Seth Rogen played the same character that he always does, which is not very super-heroey, and so I was hoping he would be a bit different. But no. And I think Cameron Diaz is far too old to be the love interest in movies anymore. The whole movie felt off, and rushed, and I never felt fully engaged or interested in the characters. Blodnofsky (the villain) was just… strange, and could have been so much better than he was, considering he was played by the same actor who played Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds.

And then there’s Jay Chou. Dear god, I don’t see the attraction of Jay Chou. His acting was incredibly forced and his character and (I think his real persona, since he can’t act) extremely arrogant. His delivery was stilted and pulled me out of the movie every time. He was an Asian Mary Sue.

Like I said, we saw it in 3D, and I wish we’d had the option to see it normally, because I don’t think there’s any point to 3D unless they are animated movies like Coraline. That’s the only movie I’ve seen in 3D that I actually remember the 3D effects AT ALL. The ticket was a little expensive, but at least we wasted two hours, I guess?

We weren’t up for much more after the mediocre showing of The Green Hornet, so we returned to Causeway Bay, got some snacks at Starbucks (surprisingly open at about midnight) and slept.

Next up... epic failure in Macau.

Days 15-18: Shenzhen & Hong Kong pt. 1/2

Day 15 – Shenzhen Disappoints.

Ben and Emily met us at the Shenzhen train station, and I felt a little giddy, adding familiar members to our little group. It was good to talk with Ben and see how his holiday had progressed thus far. But it was safe to say that Marlie and I had been having more fun (he was only going to be in Shenzhen with Emily’s family for the holiday), and we couldn’t convince him to join us in Hong Kong. We lunched at Subway (his favorite), and tried to find a hostel. There are none. Not in Shenzhen. The city is a SEZ, Special Economic Zone, and it’s only existed for about thirty years, so there’s no history, and thus, not much to see or reason to visit. It was just a huge economic BOOM and ta~da, there was Shenzhen.

We found the cheapest hotel we could, and our room was on the 22^nd floor, probably the highest in a hotel I’ve ever been. It was a very nice room, but the price left a sour taste in my mouth.

We asked Ben and Emily what there was to DO in Shenzhen, since the only reason we were staying a night was really to recuperate from the overnight train and to visit them for the day. The only ideas they had for us was to try the Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens nearby. That sounded… decent enough, and so we took a few buses and trains to get near the location. We found four buildings with just the label of “INTERNET”, which I found ridiculously funny.

But… the gardens lied. There were no flowers. It should have been translated as just “park”, or even “garden”, since botanical suggests to ME that there will be flowers. There were not. It was just a lot of water and hills and trees donated by various political figures. So that was a bit upsetting. Wandering around the park wasn’t too bad, but it also wasn’t the most thrilling adventure ever. We took a bus to the Windows of the World amusement park, and it looked sort of neat from the outside—it had miniature figures of all sorts of famous structures, like the Eiffel Tower (which we could see from the gates) but it cost far too much to try out, and it was already later in the night. So we bid Ben and Emily good night and returned to our hotel, happy that we would be leaving Shenzhen (and its dullness) and heading into Hong Kong the next day. (At least I got to watch some Jackie Chan Adventures on tv….in Chinese?)

Day 16 – Reunited!

We met up with Ben and Emily again to escort us to the airport, where Josh would be arriving from Beijing after a week with his mother. Emily’s father made us a delicious lunch in their tiny tiny apartment.

Ben had made signs of “J”, “O”, “S”, and “H” so we could all hold one up to meet Josh with after our suggestion the night before. Unfortunately, we weren’t going to arrive before Josh because as we waited for the bus we needed, it zoomed past without stopping. It took twenty minutes or more before we noticed there was another bus stop, far before the intersection, and that was actually where the bus we needed was stopping.

We got to the airport late, and Josh had already disembarked, and was in a different section of the airport. It took some looping around and strange security before we were reunited. We did still get to use our letters, if briefly, so that was good at least.

Our next task was to find a bus that crossed into Hong Kong, and it cost 100 kuai, a bit more than I was expecting, but it would absolutely be worth it to get out of Shenzhen.

They slapped stickers on our shoulders for Wan Chai, our desired final destination via bus, where we could then hop on the metro to reach our hostel. The bus took about an hour to get out of Shenzhen, cross the water, and then through the New Territories of Hong Kong. We wanted to be on Hong Kong Island proper (further south).

Quick aside: Hong Kong uses Cantonese, not Mandarin Chinese, and so we were all out of our element re: language, but so so many more people knew English and there were a plethora of foreigners, that it didn’t matter. And for the first time, we weren’t getting stares. It was quite refreshing to feel like a normal person again in a big city (albeit one with more Chinese than we were used to).

We couldn’t find our hostel immediately, since the directions only said “a 30 second walk from the metro”, which was vague, and so we checked the address at a McDonalds (one that had wifi, huzzah). Our hostel ended up being exactly next to the “E” exit of Causeway Bay in the Paterson Building. There was just a metal gate/fence that we needed to go through to find the hostel. It was a really great location, and I was glad we didn’t stay at the Chungking Mansions (a popular cheap place to stay in Hong Kong). I read enough beforehand about them and I wasn’t keen on staying in a building that’s known as a severe fire-hazard.

We didn’t go far for dinner and drinks (only one stop back to Wan Chai), but it was immediately obvious that Hong Kong was going to put QUITE a dent in our wallets. I know exactly how much of a dent as well, since I kept a record of every single thing I bought while on the trip. I don’t know why I kept track of all my expenses, but it just felt like something that had to be done. (Along with the daily journals/notes so that I could write these blogs). The whole trip, excluding plane tickets (since they were purchased weeks before the trip started) cost around 10,000 kuai (approx $1500). That’s food, lodging, transportation, random purchases… everything. Our six days in Hong Kong accounted for about 4000 kuai. So definitely, a very expensive city.

The best part of the night for me personally, was finding that I could once again have hard cider. I even wrote in my expenses: “Strongbow. Happy” next to the price. The money is also very cool in Hong Kong, and my favorite was the 10 dollar bill. (It is Hong Kong dollars, so I can say dollars. Seeing the $ symbol was a nice return to normality as well, though everything else had a more British feel to it, obviously.)

Day 17 – The Hong Kong Pulse

Very quickly I was able to “feel” Hong Kong and its constant rhythm within. It was absolutely intoxicating and the entire time I was there I thought “I could REALLY live here.” Yes, there are a lot of people, but the entire place was just too interesting to discount for the wonders of the city.

We woke up for our first full day of Hong Kong, watched a little Count of Monte Cristo on our tiny television in our hostel room, and took geyser showers. We had to flip a switch to turn on the “geyser” (really, the hot water heater).

We found breakfast at a little place called “Viking” and walked to the Sheung Wan station to get our Octopus Cards. I recommend for anyone staying more than two days in Hong Kong to get an Octopus Card—you have to make a HK$50 deposit, but you get most of that back plus any balance left on your card when you leave. They’re crazy convenient since they’re used not just on the trains, buses, and trams, but at some restaurants (like McD) and grocery stores too.

There was (real) English EVERYWHERE, and the weather was wonderful. Marlie and I didn’t need our coats, and so we stuffed them inside Josh’s backpack. We walked along near the harbor on Discovery Bay pier and soaked in the harbor view. The IFC building and mall was nearby, (the building that Batman jumps off of in Dark Knight) and we followed the advice of wikitravel.com to buy some cheese, bread, and drinks at City Super and eat them atop the mall. So up we went!

We stayed atop the mall for a long time, and it was very refreshing. I was really really appreciating Hong Kong because of all the differences it has from China. People don’t spit. They don’t shove. There’s toilet paper and soap in bathrooms and they’re not flooded with water. They know how to move properly in crowds, and we don’t get STARED at like animals in a zoo. I was going to cherish the time I had in Hong Kong before I had to return to China proper.

The subway in Hong Kong is amazing, and it was our prime way to get around. We visited the Soho and Mid-Level Escalators in the late afternoon, and hit up some happy hours at Best of British (or Yorkshire Pudding—I couldn’t tell which was actually their name), a decent English bar, and the Spot, who had the friendliest female bartender ever.

Dinner was a gyro for me, pizza and tikka masala salad for Marlie and Josh at Ebeneezers, and afterward we walked a LOT without much purpose, but it led us through some cool areas and streets, and so it wasn’t wasted time. We took the Peak Tram to the top of Victoria Peak once it was dark, and got very cool views of the city, even though it was still hazy.

We wanted to do Soho again that night, and we attempted it, but we got a little turned around (since we came from a different direction). But it quickly became time to decide to grab a last train back to our hostel, or to wait it out and get a cab later. We went with the cheaper option (as usual), and headed back to Wan Chai, only one stop off from our hostel.

We tried a few bars in the area with limited success. I got a tasty Piña Colada and we witnessed a very drunk British woman going on and on about the “bars on the radio”, whatever that meant. Later she stumbled and completely shattered a glass. So at the least, it was entertaining for us to watch her stumble around.

It was bedtime, and I borrowed Marlie’s laptop to watch some vlogs on youtube. (Even using the proxy program we found, youtube doesn’t load less than half the time.) I had to take advantage of the normal internet sometime while we were in Hong Kong!

Day 18 – Manchester United and Norway

I really wanted to go to the Space Museum on this day, and there were a lot of interesting things in the same general area, so we planned the day around Kowloon Island and the Tsim Sha Tsui area. Unfortunately, the museum was closed since it was still part of the Chinese holiday (we didn’t think of that).

We wandered our way into the busier areas on Nathan Road. We stopped for a while at Swindon Books, a completely English bookstore, which was heaven for me. I bought Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (it’s very good). We found a park nearby with an interesting art installation called GASP!, trying to increase eco-awareness. It had “talking trees” and turtles, and an aviary.

The Chungking Mansions were near, and we walked a little in the bottom floor to get an idea of where we COULD have stayed. There were hawkers and crowded shops selling watches, leather goods, and tobacco everywhere. And the people there were primarily Middle-Eastern or African, which I’d read was the largest population in the area. We were all very glad we didn’t choose to stay in the Chungking Mansions because of the pushy touts and huge crowds near the elevator entrance, and I’d been able to find the place we had in Causeway Bay.

We returned to the Avenue of Stars, which was near the museums, and we found the three Chinese actors we knew- Jet Li, Bruce Li, and Jackie Chan (成龙). Bruce Li even has his own statue on the walk.

There was a bar on the avenue called Deck n Beer, They didn’t have food, but we figured we could have one drink and then venture for nourishment. In a different direction off Nathan Road, we found the Irish pub Delaney’s. It was pricey to eat there, but I had a really tasty Shephard’s Pie, and Marlie and Josh got beer with capes on them (and dinner too of course).

It was time again to take advantage of happy hours, and so we popped into a bar called Imagine. It was a super super Chinese bar, and we felt like were intruding and wrecking their vibe of “non-foreigner”. But their interior was great; they had music videos playing on their swank televisions, and they definitely had the best cocktails. But we didn’t feel completely comfortable there, and so it was time for another try.

We didn’t have to go far. We went into the Manchester United Restaurant & Bar, officially sanctioned by the team. There were huge televisions everywhere, and Josh informed us that in the men's restroom there were televisions in the wall, so that even when peeing (on the televisions) you wouldn't miss a second of the game. Wow.

The bar was a fabulous choice, and we chatted up Ray, the maitre d’, for hours. He told us how to get to where we wanted for the next day, his thoughts on the politics of the Hong Kong/mainland China situation, and lots of cooking tips and methods that I’ve forgotten. He was in his early 30s and had lived in Vancouver after his family moved there in 1997 to avoid any possible mishaps after the handover of Hong Kong back to China.

The Manchester United Bar has over 30 microbrews from all over the UK, and Ray told us that some were only available in their bar. Josh of course, tried the highest alcohol volume beer they had, which were: Paradox (12%), and Sink the Bismarck! which was 41% and had to be drunk in a shot glass because of its insane volume. Later we split a fish and chips, and even later I got dessert of chocolate mousse (really freaking good).

Talking with Ray was amazing, but we’d been there for about three hours and thought maybe we could try somewhere else. We walked back to the Avenue of the Stars to get a look of the bay at night, and then hopped on the subway. As we made the long way to the trains, Josh pretended to be a soldier, running ahead and freezing in place with a salute.

We got to the gate, and Josh fell behind, since he had dropped his card. I hurried forward, yelling that I’d wait for them down the stairs. Marlie came soon after, but no Josh.

There was no sign of Josh for a long time.

We started to get worried, and retraced our steps out and along the station. No Josh.

And of course, our phones didn’t work in Hong Kong at all. Hong Kong is really NOT China. If you have to go through customs and your Chinese phone doesn’t work… it’s a different country.

Anyway, we couldn’t call him, and he wasn’t in the station. So we asked the information booth if they could make an announcement in the subways. They made the announcement for “lost person, Josh Davendonis, please contact the information desk” for the next 30 minutes or so, while Marlie and I became increasingly anxious. Our only ideas of where he might be were back at the hostel, and, more likely, at a bar SOMEWHERE, oblivious to how freaked out we were getting.

Eventually, we assumed he wasn’t waiting in the trains, and so we returned to the hostel, and told the head desk we couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in the room either. We sat on the beds, thinking. We made a note, in case he returned to the hostel (at least he had the other key to the room), and we tried our last idea, which was Wan Chai.

It was about two hours he’d been missing at this point. We neared the bars we’d visited the nights before, and there he was, gleefully drinking with another foreigner. I was more pissed than relieved. I yelled at him, slapped him, and had to retreat to the bathroom to cool down.

I didn’t think there was much hope of salvaging my night, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep just then (it was still kind of early for me), and I didn’t want to fume alone in the hostel. So Marlie and I sat and talked for a little bit. I decided I’d given it enough of a go, and just as I’d made the decision to leave, the bartender came over and gave us drinks, “courtesy of the man over there”. I’ve NEVER had drinks bought for me before, and I was a little befuddled of what to do. I thought the polite thing would be to thank whoever did it, and Marlie agreed.

They were courtesy of Christian and Johnny from Norway, in Hong Kong on a business trip. They were quite a bit older (forties at least?), and it was sweet of them to buy us drinks, but I was not interested. They were very interesting to talk to, though, and it was a sufficient distraction of my anger at Josh. We all talked for a long time (and I surprised Christian with my knowledge of Kaizers Orchestra) until I felt myself falling asleep and I got a cab home.

Next up... More Hong Kong!