Friday, November 27, 2009
Our GPS is not working!
Just in case you have been checking our GPS and it hasn't been moving, it's because Joey's phone is not compatible here. He's no longer able to update it. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.
You don't know China!
Right now I'm sitting here in our cute room at the Stars Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. The last couple of days to get here were indeed crazy. China is crazy. Joey and I never felt threatened in China or anything, but it truly is a world away from what we know. I'm warning you this blog is going to be a long one because we have seen a lot in the last few days! Here it goes:
Joey and I said our good byes to our friend Scotty in Hong Kong on Thursday and set off for our great adventure to Vietnam through China. We decided to skip out on Macau (a country right beside HK) because it is the Las Vegas of Asia, and we can't afford that! We feel pretty good about this decision as we hear if you're not a gambler, Macau is pretty boring!
Hong Kong is a relatively clean city for it's size and population. We were getting used to life in Hong Kong and really starting to like it. We first took the train to Guanghzou in the Guang Dong province of China. As we crossed the Hong Kong/China border it was night and day. The houses and condos were in shambles and garbage/junk was absolutely everywhere. Shanty towns littered the sides of the railway. China was already looking to be an entirely different world. What was worse was the pollution. You could barely see buildings 500m in the distance. A cloud of smog hung heavily on the towns and even the farms and forests in between. We were quite shocked!
When we got to Guanghzou is when things really got crazy. We stepped out of the subway station into what appeared to be a square. In this derelict square were tens of thousands of people, many of which were militia and police. Our instinct was to get back on the subway and high tail it out of there! We gathered our courage and ventured out. We needed to buy train tickets to Nanning in less than an hour. Joey finds the train station across the square. That means we have to cross this square? No way. We start to walk over there. We had heard rumours about "Mainland Chinese" who openly spit on the floor, but we hadn't heard that most children just have holes in their pants and go to the bathroom right there on the sidewalk!
The train station is huge and we're not sure where to get our tickets from, so we end up lining up in two different lines in hopes that one of them is where we can purchase Nanning tickets. With no such luck and very little help from tellers, we're feeling pretty helpless at this point. No one here speaks English and time is running out. Finally we find the place to buy tickets and the tickets come up to $358 Yuan for two sleeper beds on the train. Joey was worried that we wouldn't have enough YN, but he had EXACTLY $358YN in his wallet. Talk about lucky!
Joey tried every ATM in the train station to get money out and nothing worked. We tried every one of our cards. Our train leaves in less than 40 minutes and we've got to get cash before we get on. The wild goose chase for a ATM that works is on. We begin asking anyone we can. The only bank that we can use is across the square and up the street. We starting speed walking which is pretty hard to do when you have a big backpack strapped to your back. We dodged the people and spit and finally found the bank! We were getting used to the madness of the square so this time it wasn't as scary.
As we're sitting in the waiting room for our train there are a thousand eyes looking at us. Maybe it's because the Chinese in this area are not used to seeing Westerners. They weren't even discreet about it. You would catch someone staring at you and they would keep doing it. Sometimes they would even stop walking or what they were doing just to stare! I realized we hadn't seen a single white person since being on the train from Hong Kong. I scanned the waiting room, and manage to see another scared backpacker couple. When you're the only ones in the entire place who stand out, it's hard not to make a connection. Lindsey and Jamie are from Scotland and have been traveling through China for 3 weeks.
We stick together until our trains come. They had managed to get a Soft Sleeper bed on the train, and we did not. Joey and I got the hard sleeper. It was definitely hard! Pretty much one of the worst sleeps of my life! We survived though and made it to Nanning in the morning. We met up with Lindsey and Jamie in the morning. They were also making their way to Hanoi so we figured we could save on taxis and buses, and also there's always safety in numbers! Jamie is very good at haggling and got us some pretty sweet deals on taxi's and buses. He runs a hard bargain and I think I could learn a lot from him.
As we got closer to the Vietnamese border the scenery of China was so beautiful. Farms were everywhere and you could see the rural farmers working the fields with their water buffaloes. Big mountainous rocks randomly pierced the landscape and the forests were lush. This is the kind of China I really appreciate and would love to see more of!
We finally made it to Vietnam! We took a bus to Hanoi. Although it was an uncomfy ride, the scenery made up for it. French colonial houses were in clusters and fields of rice and corn were everywhere. People with pointy little hats work the fields and this truly look like what I imagined Vietnam to be.
As peaceful as it looks, Vietnam is very loud. Scooters are everywhere. You hear BEEEEEEEEP all day no matter where you are. People drive scooters everywhere. There will be dressed up Vietnamese women wearing 3 inch heels driving a scooter. It's truly a sight to see! The things that these people strap to the scooters is also amazing. TVs, counter tops, panes of glass, you name it and it's strapped to a scooter.
We made it to our hotel which is in the "Old Quarter" of the town. This means it's very French looking and the buildings are old. Our room is absolutely gorgeous. It's relatively small but the detailing is beautiful. Our patio is also quite a sight because we are on top of the building looking out at a lot of other buildings around us. There is also a buddhist shrine on our patio. It's quite beautiful. We've got A/C, a tv, a fridge, hot running water, our own bathroom and the patio. All for the price of $16 USD. We're very impressed. We also when out for dinner last night with our new found friends. Joey and I splurged because it was our first night in Hanoi and because the last 32 hours had been quite hectic and hellish. Our "splurge" involved an appetizer, main course, dessert and 3 beers each for $15USD. The best part was the food was AMAZING.
It's morning now and we're getting ready to start out day. We're going to do as the locals do and have Pho for breakfast. Pho is a chicken or beef brother with rice noodles, bean sprouts, chilis, green onion and sometimes lime. If you haven't tried it, I really suggest you do! Any good Vietnamese restaurant back home should have it!
Well there it is. We are safe and sound in Hanoi and loving life!
Joey and I said our good byes to our friend Scotty in Hong Kong on Thursday and set off for our great adventure to Vietnam through China. We decided to skip out on Macau (a country right beside HK) because it is the Las Vegas of Asia, and we can't afford that! We feel pretty good about this decision as we hear if you're not a gambler, Macau is pretty boring!
Hong Kong is a relatively clean city for it's size and population. We were getting used to life in Hong Kong and really starting to like it. We first took the train to Guanghzou in the Guang Dong province of China. As we crossed the Hong Kong/China border it was night and day. The houses and condos were in shambles and garbage/junk was absolutely everywhere. Shanty towns littered the sides of the railway. China was already looking to be an entirely different world. What was worse was the pollution. You could barely see buildings 500m in the distance. A cloud of smog hung heavily on the towns and even the farms and forests in between. We were quite shocked!
When we got to Guanghzou is when things really got crazy. We stepped out of the subway station into what appeared to be a square. In this derelict square were tens of thousands of people, many of which were militia and police. Our instinct was to get back on the subway and high tail it out of there! We gathered our courage and ventured out. We needed to buy train tickets to Nanning in less than an hour. Joey finds the train station across the square. That means we have to cross this square? No way. We start to walk over there. We had heard rumours about "Mainland Chinese" who openly spit on the floor, but we hadn't heard that most children just have holes in their pants and go to the bathroom right there on the sidewalk!
The train station is huge and we're not sure where to get our tickets from, so we end up lining up in two different lines in hopes that one of them is where we can purchase Nanning tickets. With no such luck and very little help from tellers, we're feeling pretty helpless at this point. No one here speaks English and time is running out. Finally we find the place to buy tickets and the tickets come up to $358 Yuan for two sleeper beds on the train. Joey was worried that we wouldn't have enough YN, but he had EXACTLY $358YN in his wallet. Talk about lucky!
Joey tried every ATM in the train station to get money out and nothing worked. We tried every one of our cards. Our train leaves in less than 40 minutes and we've got to get cash before we get on. The wild goose chase for a ATM that works is on. We begin asking anyone we can. The only bank that we can use is across the square and up the street. We starting speed walking which is pretty hard to do when you have a big backpack strapped to your back. We dodged the people and spit and finally found the bank! We were getting used to the madness of the square so this time it wasn't as scary.
As we're sitting in the waiting room for our train there are a thousand eyes looking at us. Maybe it's because the Chinese in this area are not used to seeing Westerners. They weren't even discreet about it. You would catch someone staring at you and they would keep doing it. Sometimes they would even stop walking or what they were doing just to stare! I realized we hadn't seen a single white person since being on the train from Hong Kong. I scanned the waiting room, and manage to see another scared backpacker couple. When you're the only ones in the entire place who stand out, it's hard not to make a connection. Lindsey and Jamie are from Scotland and have been traveling through China for 3 weeks.
We stick together until our trains come. They had managed to get a Soft Sleeper bed on the train, and we did not. Joey and I got the hard sleeper. It was definitely hard! Pretty much one of the worst sleeps of my life! We survived though and made it to Nanning in the morning. We met up with Lindsey and Jamie in the morning. They were also making their way to Hanoi so we figured we could save on taxis and buses, and also there's always safety in numbers! Jamie is very good at haggling and got us some pretty sweet deals on taxi's and buses. He runs a hard bargain and I think I could learn a lot from him.
As we got closer to the Vietnamese border the scenery of China was so beautiful. Farms were everywhere and you could see the rural farmers working the fields with their water buffaloes. Big mountainous rocks randomly pierced the landscape and the forests were lush. This is the kind of China I really appreciate and would love to see more of!
We finally made it to Vietnam! We took a bus to Hanoi. Although it was an uncomfy ride, the scenery made up for it. French colonial houses were in clusters and fields of rice and corn were everywhere. People with pointy little hats work the fields and this truly look like what I imagined Vietnam to be.
As peaceful as it looks, Vietnam is very loud. Scooters are everywhere. You hear BEEEEEEEEP all day no matter where you are. People drive scooters everywhere. There will be dressed up Vietnamese women wearing 3 inch heels driving a scooter. It's truly a sight to see! The things that these people strap to the scooters is also amazing. TVs, counter tops, panes of glass, you name it and it's strapped to a scooter.
We made it to our hotel which is in the "Old Quarter" of the town. This means it's very French looking and the buildings are old. Our room is absolutely gorgeous. It's relatively small but the detailing is beautiful. Our patio is also quite a sight because we are on top of the building looking out at a lot of other buildings around us. There is also a buddhist shrine on our patio. It's quite beautiful. We've got A/C, a tv, a fridge, hot running water, our own bathroom and the patio. All for the price of $16 USD. We're very impressed. We also when out for dinner last night with our new found friends. Joey and I splurged because it was our first night in Hanoi and because the last 32 hours had been quite hectic and hellish. Our "splurge" involved an appetizer, main course, dessert and 3 beers each for $15USD. The best part was the food was AMAZING.
It's morning now and we're getting ready to start out day. We're going to do as the locals do and have Pho for breakfast. Pho is a chicken or beef brother with rice noodles, bean sprouts, chilis, green onion and sometimes lime. If you haven't tried it, I really suggest you do! Any good Vietnamese restaurant back home should have it!
Well there it is. We are safe and sound in Hanoi and loving life!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Big Buddha!
Yesterday was quite the uneventful day for us. I spent most of the time in the bathroom and Joey spent his day working and looking after me. I'm feeling a lot better today. Still not 100%. I think it was something that I ate.
Today our adventure was going to Po Lin Monastery on Lan Tau Island. This is where the biggest outside Buddha is! We took a nice ferry out to the island and got a really good look at the Hong Kong Harbour. The sad thing was you could barely see the city because of all the pollution and the ocean was littered with trash. We're not impressed Hong Kong! The boatride took about 50 minutes and cost less than $2CDN! Super cheap!
When we got to Lan Tau island we got on a bus and took a bumpy ride into the mountains. It was very scenic. The terrain was tropical yet almost desert like and surround by jade green ocean. It was nice to see a more rural part of Hong Kong. Houses were more spread out, and surprise, suprise, we saw crappy cars! I only saw a couple mercedes and beamers on the island. Haha.
We arrived at the Monastery which was very touristy. We bought a meal ticket for the vegan restaurant run by monks. The food was pretty tasty! It was nice to have a meal that wasn't based around fatty meat for once. This time is was slippery tofu.
Joey and I then climbed up the massive staircase to the Buddha. We passed a lot of fat Americans along the way! I'm still not even feeling that great haha! What can I say? Buddha was huge and remarkable. It was on top of mountain with 360degree views of the island. We took a few pictures and relished the amazing views.
Now we're at home at Scotty's house. We're trying to plan our train trip to Hanoi which isn't proving easy. I'm just scared that along the way we won't be able to find anyone that speaks English. Apparently English speaking people in China are few and far between. The route we are taking has been taken by a lot of tourists and has proven to be relatively easy. I hope so!
Anyways, we might not be able to post for a couple of days because we might not be able to access this website in China. They have very strict rules for internet usage. We can still update our GPS though so that you know where we are!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
We're surviving!
Yesterday was a great day full of activities. Scotty had the day off and took us around town. First we checked out a temple in the middle of the city. Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures inside. The art inside was absolutely stunning! I've never seen anything like it. The smell of incense was intense but also very comforting. It reminded me of my parents when they burn it.
We then climbed up to Lover's rock. Boy oh boy are we out of shape. The hike was relatively easy but we were definitely sweating. At the top we found a couple of shrines where there were families lighting incense and saying their prayers/thanks. It was really neat.
Scotty then took us to Stanley beach. The views were absolutely amazing. This is one of the most expensive parts of Hong Kong because of the amazing views. Expensive homes, means expensive cars! We saw Roll Royce's, Mazorattis, Lambourghini's, Porsches etc etc etc. So amazing. Actually only 6% of Hong Kongian's own a vehicle. Those who do are rich and own only the nicest cars. We are yet to see a crappy looking car.
After soaking up the sun at Stanley beach we made our way up to Victoria's Peak. This is one of the highest points in Hong Kong and it is where the British had their lookout centre to see oncoming invaders. We paid $20HKD to go to a VIP look out on top of the peak. The views of Hong Kong were amazing. It got even better when the sun set and the lights of the city danced. It's quite a remarkable sight. If a city could be a garden, Hong Kong would be one with perennial beauty.
Our feet were so tired after our long day. Scotty had the great idea of going for a foot massage. Oh my god. 45 minutes of pure bliss. Somewhat tickly, but also delightfully painful. Only $20 CDN. In comparison to home, this is a steal... but to the rest of SEA this is high way robbery. I am getting excited for $6 one hour full body massages on the beach!
Today Joey and I were on our own. Our plan was to get a VISA for both China and Vietnam. Unfortunately it came out to be more expensive than we thought. Our travel books had said that it would take approx. 2-3 days for a Visa, but in actual it's about 1 week. We got ours expressed, so that we can have it by Wednesday. It's on the expensive side but we're itching to get on the road! Plus it'd be about another $400 to stay here until next week anyways.
We walked around the markets today and bought some ingredients for dinner. I'm going to make Scotty some homecooked food! Tonight's menu is spaghetti and salad! Beer and wine will be served as well. Bottles of local beer are about 60 cents CDN per 650ml bottle. Bottles of wine from Australia are $7CDN. Food and beverage are definitely reasonably priced here, but it's almost cheaper to eat out than it is to buy all the ingredients and eat at home!
Now Joey and I are going to veg out on the couch. He's gonna work, and I'm gonna watch a movie. We are still jet lagged and just want to take it easy for the day. Maybe even have a nap!
We then climbed up to Lover's rock. Boy oh boy are we out of shape. The hike was relatively easy but we were definitely sweating. At the top we found a couple of shrines where there were families lighting incense and saying their prayers/thanks. It was really neat.
Scotty then took us to Stanley beach. The views were absolutely amazing. This is one of the most expensive parts of Hong Kong because of the amazing views. Expensive homes, means expensive cars! We saw Roll Royce's, Mazorattis, Lambourghini's, Porsches etc etc etc. So amazing. Actually only 6% of Hong Kongian's own a vehicle. Those who do are rich and own only the nicest cars. We are yet to see a crappy looking car.
After soaking up the sun at Stanley beach we made our way up to Victoria's Peak. This is one of the highest points in Hong Kong and it is where the British had their lookout centre to see oncoming invaders. We paid $20HKD to go to a VIP look out on top of the peak. The views of Hong Kong were amazing. It got even better when the sun set and the lights of the city danced. It's quite a remarkable sight. If a city could be a garden, Hong Kong would be one with perennial beauty.
Our feet were so tired after our long day. Scotty had the great idea of going for a foot massage. Oh my god. 45 minutes of pure bliss. Somewhat tickly, but also delightfully painful. Only $20 CDN. In comparison to home, this is a steal... but to the rest of SEA this is high way robbery. I am getting excited for $6 one hour full body massages on the beach!
Today Joey and I were on our own. Our plan was to get a VISA for both China and Vietnam. Unfortunately it came out to be more expensive than we thought. Our travel books had said that it would take approx. 2-3 days for a Visa, but in actual it's about 1 week. We got ours expressed, so that we can have it by Wednesday. It's on the expensive side but we're itching to get on the road! Plus it'd be about another $400 to stay here until next week anyways.
We walked around the markets today and bought some ingredients for dinner. I'm going to make Scotty some homecooked food! Tonight's menu is spaghetti and salad! Beer and wine will be served as well. Bottles of local beer are about 60 cents CDN per 650ml bottle. Bottles of wine from Australia are $7CDN. Food and beverage are definitely reasonably priced here, but it's almost cheaper to eat out than it is to buy all the ingredients and eat at home!
Now Joey and I are going to veg out on the couch. He's gonna work, and I'm gonna watch a movie. We are still jet lagged and just want to take it easy for the day. Maybe even have a nap!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
1st Day in Hong Kong
So we've made it! After a long 14 hour flight, we've arrived. Our first night we did something called couch surfing. We stayed with some fellow couch surfers named Ashley and Wesley. They are a couple from Savannah, Georgia. Super nice and showed us some really cool restaurants. We plan on seeing them one more time before we leave Hong Kong.
The MTR is a pretty crazy train system. It's super speedy and efficient. It's also very crowded. It's every man for their own in the subway. We're still getting use to the infrequency/non-existence of politeness. You just have to own your path and not be too accommodating for others! We bought something called an Octopus card. It's good for buses and the train. One of the bus rides we have taken a few times has only cost 35 cents (USD) each time.
Today Joey and I felt pretty jet lagged. We didn't sleep at all on the plane. We spent the day walking, walking and walking. First we checked out some shrines in a Chinese Graveyard. We got lost and ended up in a weird shanty town surrounded by weird wild dogs. It was quite the adventure! Then we made our way to the town of Tai Wai. One of our first stops was the Wet Market. Literally, the floor is soaking wet because they are constantly washing produce, meat and seafood. Fresh food was everywhere. When I say fresh, I mean fresh (read: still alive). We saw crabs, turtles, frogs, goat heads, pig faces and live fish.
We then made our way to Lion Head Rock where the pic I posted was taken from! You can see all of Kowloon and Wai Tai (which are sub sections of Hong Kong). We were really excited to see monkeys, but unfortunately we didn't. Maybe it's a good thing because we have heard they are rather vicious. We walked quite a ways.
For dinner we went to a crazy Indian restaurant in Tsin sah tsua (TST). It was located in an apartment building in a sketchy part of town. People constantly looking and yelling at us and "Want spaceship?" "Hasheesh?" "Hi Darling". The food, despite the obscure location, was the most amazing Indian food I have ever had. So so good!
We said good bye to our American friends (we might see them again on Tuesday) and are now safely in Scotty's (Joey's brother in laws best friend) apartment in Wan Chai. We're gonna go out for a few beers, but I think the main plan is to sleep tonite.
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