A friendly local expat explained what was going on. It seems they fairly regularly have drills to practice what to do if they ever declare independence, since China has stated they’d blow Taiwan out of the water if something like that ever happened. We waited inside the station for about 30 minutes until all the metal guarders opened. I saw thousands of people pour out of the buildings they were stuck in.

I’m sure most Taiwanese people don’t live their lives wondering what China will do, but at the same time it was a pretty odd experience and a reminder of what a tricky political situation Taiwan is in.

The Good:

- Most big cities were sparkling clean, you rarely saw a leaf on the street let alone litter.

- Bathrooms too were very clean (well, I mean, relatively.)

- Safe country, never once felt like I was in any sort of danger to muggings or kidnappings (unlike say, Thailand.)

- Delicious food for very, very cheap.

- Not one single stomach problem from said delicious food.

- Stumbling over 500 year old buildings etc pretty much everywhere you went

- The kindness and help extended to us by many, many people.

- Getting to view a nation on the rise up close and personal

- Being able to get around relatively easy due to our ability to read Japanese.

- Cheap and abundant taxis (in mainland China, at least)

- Excellent tourist support an facilities (in Hangzhou)

The Bad:

- The weird sort of haughty snootiness coming from mainland Chinese who spoke English and worked jobs that required it.

- Having my cellphone messages censored..! No “diversity” conversations allowed, I guess.

- The kind of bizarre screw-you-customer attitude some businesses take

- Being stared at, hell, literally stopping traffic simply for being an Asian woman walking next to a white male. They weren’t “normal” stares either, very unnerving and annoying sometimes.

The Ugly:

- Spitting in public and sometimes even indoors

Just Hugh and me, and the pretty night lights of Hong Kong.

Tomorrow: Taiwan. Three countries/special administrative regions down–4 more and 4 more months to go.

(P.S. I turned 27, for the curious.)

The irony, of course, is that you need smog/haze to see the beams of light. Since today was clear and free of pollution, the show was less than what it usually is, but it was still fun. I love the Hong Kong skyline. I think it’s just one of the best in the world.

The best skyline on earth. That little tugboat in the foreground agrees.

And of course, no whirlwind tourist tour of Hong Kong is finished without having Indian food at the infamous Chungking Mansions–a derelict block of apartments that’s fairly notorious. There’s all manner of shops and hostels on various floors, and also lots of great Indian restaurants. It’s changed in three years–no more touters allowed. In the past, the minute you walked in a swarm of men would descend upon you and shove flyers in your face. You picked a guy and he lead you to a corner, to be passed off to another dude, to be shown to another man who would take you down dark, dirty halls and up a cramped elevator. Scary as shit. They did it so no other guy who intercept you and take you to his restaurant. None of that anymore. We actually witnessed a security guard smack a young man for trying to shove a flyer at us.

Anyways, The Khyber Pass, the place I ate before years ago, has now spread into 3 other apartments and was packed. Delicious food as always.

Perfect night.

Hopefully the rain stops so we can see more stuff, but so far we’ve wandered nightmarkets, antique and curio shops, rode the largest escalator in Asia (or whatever it is)…

We haven’t had the internet for awhile so I’ve had to write back-dated entries so if you are reading this off LJ, you might wanna go directly to this site.

Finally, some photos…

Hugh glances over our yum cha lunch

The smell of fish drying on the sidewalk hit us before we saw it...

Famous Macanese almond cakes. Taste great. Feel like eating talcum powder.

Ah yes, racially insensitive toothpaste. This used to say "Darkie" above the minstrel face (still does in Chinese)

]]> http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/06/113/feed/ 0 http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/01/vegas-of-the-east/ http://traveltolivetotravel.com/blog/2008/10/01/vegas-of-the-east/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:41:53 +0000 Janelle http://travel.silvershining.net/wp/?p=104 I have to admit my greatest vice is gambling. I’ve been to Vegas more times than I can count since I was a child, and on my 21st birthday my parents sent me off to Vegas with their blessing. So naturally, I couldn’t go to the “Vegas of the East” without playing.

We played today at the massive Venetian — and immediately I was struck by the main difference between Las Vegas and Macau. Macau casinos are QUIET. Vegas is a cacophony of sounds — blaring, bleeping, ringing slot-machines, people cheering, background music. Your ears ring as soon as you leave the grounds. In Macau the slot machines are on low and the Chinese, being more restrained culturally, don’t cheer or boo like Americans do. It was definitely nice being able to have a conversation, but it just didn’t feel as fun without all the noise and the dealers cheering along with you.

I was also entertained by all the games that exist in Macau, but not in Vegas, most notably “Casino War” which is War…aka, high card. Amazingly boring game, but we had fun with it anyways. I also initiated Hugh into the wonderful world of video poker. Despite our grand plans for paying off our trip with winnings, we walked away $200 US down…thank god that’s all!
Btw, Happy National Day, China.

Night-time in Macau...

We left Guangzhou today and arrived in Macau. Macau’s this kind of underrated former colony of Portugal, but I’ve always loved it. The last time I was here was three years ago. I was stunned at how you could turn a corner and feel like you were in Europe, then another one and you were smack in China. There’s all these new glittering casinos standing next to really decrepit looking apartments.

But that’s all changed really in three years, the last time I was in Macau it was kind of this quaint backwater with one smoke-filled casino (Hotel Lisboa) which at night was full of Russian prostitutes on the prowl. Now there’s mega casinos all over the place and a large entertainment district called Fisherman’s Wharf that’s totally Disney-Vegas and bizarre.

I’m feeling eager to wander around the streets and have some serradurra, a Portuguese (or Macanese?) dessert that embodies everything I love in desserts — cream and simplicity. Macanese food is fun — a mix of Chinese, Portuguese, and Malaysian. It’s stuff like garlic shrimp, spicy chicken, coconut curry, etc.

Oh, and Hugh got rejected from the Wynn Casino because he had flip-flops on. Hah, classy place!

Anyways, we are in Guangzhou now, it doesn’t really resemble the polluted sweat shop factory district it once was, it’s clean and has a fantastic subway system now (plastic coins replace card tickets).  It’s also filled with young trendy kids.

Checking out the pearl river area and pedestrian shopping/eating streets tomorrow and then Shiwan (old pottery town) the day after.

The weather finally cooperated (well, except for the 30 minutes it downpoured) and Hugh and I took to the city on bicycle and bus. Hangzhou has this amazing public bicycle system where you can rent bicycles for a negligble amount of money (basically $1 a day) and drop them off at various stations located around West Lake. This is very handy if you, say, are super lazy and get on a bike outside of your hotel and cycle about 500m to the bus station and nearest drop-off point.

There are far too many places for us to see in a week, let alone a day, but from what I’ve seen Hangzhou is pretty much up there with beautiful cities I’ve been to. It’s also one of the cleanest cities I’ve been to. I know I’m not the only person who associates China with cleanliness, but neither litter nor errant leaf stays on the ground for more than 15 minutes here.

There was one point when we were walking along a causeway when I spotted a small pavillion atop a hill in the distance. It brought this sense of wonder and enchantment that I don’t recall really feeling since I first came to Japan when I was 16 and spotted temples hidden deep in the hills from a speeding bullet train…

Well, pictures describe it better anyway…

People crossing a bridge over West Lake

This dude is important, Hugh agrees.

Boats

An old restaurant on Qinghefang Old Town District...

A beautiful sunset over Leifeng pagoda...

I hope the weather clears up a little today. We’re in Hangzhou, supposedly China’s most beautiful city, but it’s impossible to look over the famous West Lake because it’s been so hazy (or smoggy, you choose!)

Tomorrow we leave for a 30+ hour train trip to Guangzhou. China proved more difficult than we expected and we’ve cut out some of the more tricky parts of our trip and decided to leave China a week early (we’re going to Macau and Hong Kong for more time–technically China, but so not.)

I have NO idea how people who can’t read Chinese characters manage to get around independently, but I salute you. We’ll go to travel agencies that advertise they book train tickets and speak English, but the minute we go there the staff rolls their eyes (before they even know I am non-Chinese) and then tell us to go to the train station (in perfect English of course) to book the ticket. Thanks guys, seriously.

I’ve realized that the “higher up” people are (English speaking staff, concierges, etc) the less they seem to like doing their job. It’s always been the people in the low-paying work who have been the kindest and most helpful. Waitresses who go out of their way to help us order things on menus, taxi drivers who gesticulate wildly to tell us how to cross a busy street, etc. Anyone we thought we could depend on to help us through things seems pretty unwilling to help, while the people we expected to be brusque and unhelpful have always been sympathetic. Go figure.

Once again, I thank god that I can read Japanese. It’s made buying train tickets (a challenge in line-jumping in and of itself) so much easier.

Anyways, the weather looks good (albeit humid) so that means we should be able to get some nice views of the lake and the city. The pagoda we visited yesterday (although it’s been rebuilt) was really, really beautiful. I spent awhile sitting in a bench by the lake, viewing the pagoda through wispy willow branches and thought, “Ahhh, China…” Views like that make it all worth it. It’s the sort of beauty I’ve never actually seen IN PERSON and I often think that maybe if I just steeled my spine some more I’d be able to see more beautiful things deeper in the country… but I guess I’ll just have to save that for another trip to China.