Day 25 - Missions in Guangers

Day 25 – Missions in Guangers

The day began with us trying to complete the towel mission. I knew I would not be happy if I couldn’t shower without a towel for 5 days, so Josh, Marlie, Matthew, and I walked off the island and into numerous stores, trying to find towels. It took us much longer than it should have. We came upon a store called “Women & Baby Essentials” finally. SURELY there will be towels there! There were, but only after trying every floor and then looping the floor we needed the wrong way. But, success! We returned to the hostel and we ALL took showers. So after about two hours (there were only two available showers on our floor) we were able to head out for the day.

We collected Andy from the ferry (since he was still at the other hostel and had to come to our island) and took the subway to the People’s Park. (人民公园 ) The People’s Park is a park that seems to exist in every large city. The park itself was nice, but our wandering and chatting was far more memorable. It was more exciting to be talking with two cool new people. They told us how they gave nicknames to every city they’d visited together. Yangshou became Yangers, Hong Kong was Honkers, and Guangzhou became Guangers… there was obviously a pattern. When we told them we worked in Kaifeng, they misheard and only referred to it as Kung fu from there out.

This was also about the time that we noticed a LOT of people were playing a hacky-sack type of game, but with a crazy feather/rubber/metal contraption instead. And they were really freaking good at it. Very tight motions, and kicking from behind their back to the center of their 4-8person circles in parks. We thought it was neat, but didn’t make much note of it until later.

It was also when we noticed all the freaky trees like this, which seemed to have additional trunks growing from their branches. What?

Andy and Matthew told us of a tower, which they’d dubbed the “Sexual Tower” and their desire to see it. They tried to show us in the distance where it was, but it was never very clear due to the smog. I think the only reason it was a “sexual” tower was because it had a very appealing curve to it. So we took the subway in the general direction of the tower, to see if we could find it and climb it. We couldn't see anything, since we’d gotten ourselves in a very building-heavy area. We spotted a tall hotel, and so walked in and found the elevator and went as high as we could. The floor we got off on was deserted and a bit dark, and not exactly hotel-looking (more conference rooms and things), so we felt we were intruding somehow. We snuck around and found a window and saw we’d overshot the location by quite a bit still. Sad.

We happened to pass a pub called Elephant and Castle (on our way to the hotel), and went there for dinner and drinks. It was pretty empty, but we gave ourselves enough entertainment. We all ordered cheeseburgers (that were FANTASTIC) and the best Guinness I’ve had in China that they poured into iced glasses. I also had a Strongbow once I realized they had it as well.

While eating, we started teasing Andy about how he was similar (not really) to one of the other American teachers, Ben. Mostly because Andy liked Subway and oreos like Ben does. But we said to truly be like Ben, he would need a Chinese girlfriend, and so we dared him to hit on our waiter/bartender. She’d been very friendly with us already and spoke decent English, so the next time she came out, Andy asked if she wanted to play pool.

The rest of us made fun of Andy from afar and just generally heckled him. By the time we were leaving, we’d established that Jenny (her English name) was now his girlfriend and his one-true-love. JUST as we were walking out, we spotted a postcard of a rainbow-looking tower in the pub. Andy realized that was our Sexual Tower and asked how we could get there. Our mission could be complete!

Before we completed our quest, we stopped at another bar near the subway called the Hilltop Bar and sat outside playing Circle of Death (which we had to teach to our Brit friends) for an hour or so. Also at some point, when Andy, Marlie, and I were all in the bathroom, our MALE waiter told Josh that “your friend is cute”, and throughout the night our waiter had been a bit ambiguous, as Andy had been fake-hitting on him and generally we were being silly and so we still have no idea WHO he meant was cute. Andy, Marlie, or me. I suspect it was Andy, because that would be the funniest.

And NOW it was time for our Sexual Tower adventure. The Elephant & Castle pub had given us superb directions, as we exited smack dab at the base of the tower. AND IT WAS SO WORTH IT. It was dark by then, and so it was beautiful and rainbow-colored like the postcard. The whole area was filled with lights and lasers and it was a perfect adventure.

We had to pay 50 yuan to get to the middle C deck, on a super speedy elevator (my ears popped), and we didn’t quite want to splurge the 200 something to get to the top. This was about when we learned that the Sexual Tower was actually called the Canton Tower, and had been built for the Asian Games that had recently taken place. So it was a very NEW tower, and also the tallest one in the world. (It surpasses the CN Tower.)

We took lots of ridiculous photos and what Matthew called “awkward tourist poses” (what do you do with your arms? Your hands? If you start thinking TOO much about it, it gets seriously awkward.) Or yelled things like “do a meerkat pose!”- and ran around on the deck, seeing the city from a different height and angle.

We returned to the hostel after about an hour of being generally very silly, and were probably a bit obnoxious on the subway, since we were all high on endorphins from completing our mission of the Sexual Tower, and also bursting out clapping and singing the Korean pop song, “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls.

None of us were in the least bit tired, so we took a detour to the 7/11 for snacks and sat by the “rivah”, chatting. Andy had purchased oreos, and we teased him further about his “girlfriend” Jenny and that he was secretly Ben in disguise.

NEXT UP! A day partially without our Blighty friends (aw- also, another of their terms), new additions to our dorm room, and the first International Sugarcane Games.

Day 24 - Where are the Bars?

Day 24 – Where are the bars?

Breakfast was bread, courtesy of Dr Ying, along with some instant coffee and bags of coconut candies, which I took far too many of, as I still have a lot of them even now, four months later.

We bussed our way to the train station, grateful to be getting further away from the horror of Macau and the disappointment of Zhuhai and on to Guangzhou. After a very long city- bus ride to what looked like the middle of nowhere in a sandy wasteland. But it was actually the train station. It was just very very new and still under construction. We stood in line on wooden planks that were half-heartedly covering the sand to buy our tickets for Guangzhou. (I know, I just personified wooden planks, I don't care.) We had to wait an hour or so, and I got a little antsy… as you can see.

Though that could also be due to the fact that by that point we’d seen at least four mothers lift their babies above garbage cans, holding their legs against their stomachs, and trying to make them pee or otherwise relieve themselves into the bin.

God, China, WHY. WHY do you do things like this?

So that very obviously made all of us extremely uncomfortable, and we went to the complete opposite side of the waiting room where there were no garbage cans, or bathrooms, just a plain nice wall where I could swing my arms around.

The tickets we’d gotten for the train were for standing room only, and the first, and hopefully the last tickets I’ll get of the kind. I was quick, though, and put one of my bags into an unused corner near the door and sat on it as a makeshift seat. Hooray! I think it was around 45 minutes, maybe. I can’t remember. But long enough that I knew I wouldn’t want to stand the whole way and get jostled by train movements. Sitting was best.

We had been unable to reserve any hostels in Guangzhou the night before, as hard as we tried, so I’d written down at least three addresses of hostels. Thankfully, Guangzhou has a subway system, and so our first attempt was on Shamian Island.

WE SUCCEEDED on our first try! We figured that since karma was seriously out to get us in Macau/Zhuhai that something HAD to go in our favor. And now it was! The hostel was just a short walk from the metro, had dorm beds, AND we were able to book 5 nights. Such serious success after two infuriating days.

Finally we were able to unload our gear, and we had a decent dinner at a nearby restaurant called Lucy’s. I got the enchilada, since I am always craving Mexican food (and it is lacking in China), and it was alright.

Actually I lied earlier about having complete success. The one thing the hostel did not have were towels. And so we had a quest for towels (only I never vocalized it as a quest, but I definitely thought of it as one), and we checked the 7/11 (HOLY CRAP, a 7/11? I don’t have those even at home) but there were none to be found. So it would have to be a quest continued the next day because we had far more pressing matters. That of taking the ferry off the island (I need to mention how thrilled I was that we were on a hostel, on an ISLAND) to the famed Bar Street we read and also could clearly see from our side of the river. Look at that! It’s so enticing! Shiny lasers and tents and lighted PIRATE SHIPS.

We were hopeful and it was about 7 or 8pm so we figured we could just bar hop. Amigos was our first try, directly across where we disembarked from the ferry. We all got margaritas that were far too full of tequila and salt on the rim, but we finished them nonetheless. I, incorrectly (and knowingly), assume that by default, margaritas should be strawberry and frozen because of how taco nights work at my home. Having a salty lime one is always a disappointment.

The next bar was one called Riverside 88, where I got a ridiculously strong whisky sour (I don’t think I ever found one I liked well enough on the trip) and the others I believe got Tiger, a beer from Singapore which still tastes like every other blah light/East-Asian beer I’ve tasted.

And then the bars stopped. We walked around the area and found nothing. We backtracked all the way back to the ferry and heard what we were thinking, “Where are the bars?” by two guys behind us.

They told us they’d already explored the street in the direction we hadn’t gone and they’d found nothing but the cheap beer at the hostel they were staying at. We told them it was the same for the opposite direction. So we came to the mutual decision to return to their hostel and get cheap beer (4 kuai!). They were to be our buddies for the rest of Guangzhou, or rather, Guangers.

Matthew and Andy both come from Norwich, England and have known each other from at least university we gathered. And they were both hilarious people- for the next few days we coined or they shared with us an absurd number of terms, which I’ll scatter throughout the next few blog posts.

We stayed at their hostel, laughing and talking absurdly loudly, and convinced we were definitely the most awesome people at the hostel. The people inside were only in pairs, or silently on laptops, or more calmly drinking a beer. We were outside on the porch, being awesome and hilarious. Eventually we ventured back to the bars we’d abandoned earlier, though they weren’t a lot more “happening”, though with our new friends they were a lot more fun. At some point in the night, they’d decided they would switch hostels the next day to ours, because clearly sleeping on an island is cooler. And it would be easier to hang out later if we were sleeping in the same place.

Next up! The Towel Quest continues, Andy falls in love, we make our best awkward tourist poses, we find the Sexual Tower, and play lots of Jasper. All to be explained soon!

Day 23 - "The Beautiful Zhuhai"

Day 23 – “The Beautiful Zhuhai”

So the only reason Zhuhai was in our itinerary of cities was because we had a connection through Marlie’s mother. One of her students is Chinese, and we were invited to meet his parents in Zhuhai. So Marlie got ahold of Dr Ying and her husband. Dr Ying was not what were expecting. She was much older than we thought, for one, and she was painfully Chinese. The day consisted of us being led around like children. Or rather, grandchildren. It wasn’t… awful, but it was a little stifling.

We met them in a KFC in the downtown area, and once we met Dr Ying and her almost entirely silent husband (most likely because he didn’t know any English) she didn’t stop talking. Her husband would really only ever respond by taking sips out of his water bottle that he’d fashioned a straw through the cap.

She went on about the “Beautiful Zhuhai” and how we were lucky to see it. None of us could agree with that statement. There wasn’t much of interest in Zhuhai, and proof of that I think was the lack of hostels. Clearly it isn’t a place that is popular to visit.

But we saw the famed Lady of Zhuhai statue, which, I suppose, was nice, but not worth the visit. Dr Ying took far more photos than we did. We also visited some strange area with an island in the middle of a huge lake, but we only walked across the bridge and back before going to dinner. The dinner was a mess of a place. It was hot pot and a buffet at the same time, which is way too much “do it yourself” service than I think is necessary. There were lots and lots of people and noise and food and smoke. A little overwhelming. We were able to shake her after dinner, but only after riding the bus with us back to our hotel (at least 15-20 minutes out of the way for her).

We were pretty tired, even though we really hadn’t done much that day. We prepared that night for our final destination, Guangzhou.

Here’s a picture of the infamous Dr Ying and us with the Lady of Zhuhai in the background.

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.