The Great Hong Kong and Big Ol' China

FYI: Its another novel…

Wow. To think back to China, knowing it was only about two weeks ago is like thinking back and reflecting over a lifetime. So much can happen in such a short amount of time, it is truly unreal that I am now on my last stretch of this journey. China was amazing - Japan even more so. But we’ll get to that later.

Lets talk about location. As of right now, April 21, 2006, we are about a day away from Hawaii (7 hours ahead of EST). I’ve got several locations for you to track, if you so choose:

April 20, 2006 PART UN:
Latitude: 26 degrees 6.9 minutes N
Longitude: 173 degrees 20.4 minutes E
Avg Speed: 20.35 K
Distance to HA: 1617NM
Sea Depth: 5464 m or 17922 ft
Sea Temp: 24C 75.2F
Air Temp: Same
ENE winds at 15K. Slight swell with good visibility.

April 20, 2006 PART DEUX:
Latitude: 24 degrees 28.1 minutes N
Longitude: 177 degrees ?? minutes W
Avg Speed: 20.25 k
Distance to HA: 1151 NM
Sea Depth: 1425 m or 14674 ft
Sea Temp: 24C 75.2F
Air Temp: Same
ENE winds at 20K, rough seas with good visibility. Swell height is about 3 meters.
Reason for 4/20 in two parts is because we crossed the International Date Line. On 4/20 part one, we were 17 hours ahead of the US EST, after crossing it just about 0600 on 4.20 part deux we are now only 7 hours ahead of EST. The International Date Line also changes the longitude measurement from east to west, hence our change.

April 21, 2006:
Latitude:22 degrees 51.4 minutes N
Longitude: 169 degrees 26.9 minutes W
Avg Speed: 19.7 k
Distance to HA: 658 NM
Sea Depth: 4931 m or 16173 ft
Sea Temp: 25C 77F
Air Temp: 24C 75.2F
ENE winds at 20 knots. Rough, white cap filled seas with a few clouds and good visibility. Swell height is 3 meters.

Once you visit China, you can see why there is a Chinatown in almost every big city in the world. I mean it makes sense really, the 2nd largest country with the biggest population: 1.3 billion people. That includes Hong Kong, which until 1997 was an independent entity from China, still run by the British. One of England’s most prized colonies with the best relationship, the people of HK had no problem being ruled by the Brits. They took pride in their free press and freedom of religion rights. Even though they are now officially part of China, there are certain things that China agreed to when the city was given back to its country. There are laws in HK that do not apply anywhere else in China, and vice versa. To this day, even though HK is considered to be a part of China, the people of Hong Kong do not call, and do not like being called Chinese or from China; they are from Hong Kong, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Hong Kong is a very interesting place. Its geography, people, and culture are like no other. The city itself has a section on Mainland China, but it is also a large grouping of islands that makes the city what it is. Kawloon is the borough, if you will, on the mainland, and Hong Kong Island is the largest and main island of the several. The waterways around this city are bustling with barges, cargo ships, cruise liners, ferries, personal yachts and fishing boats. When our ship was coming into the city, the fog was so dense it was incredibly difficult to see from one side of the ship to another, let alone get a glimpse of the stunning, vast, and modern skyline. The ship was alongside at around 0800, and we were cleared within a few hours. The fog had still not cleared. It added another layer of mystery and perplexity to a city I knew very little about. Soon that fog cleared and brought a faded glow of the sun from the thick air filled with smog and pollution.

China has 16 of the most polluted cities in the world; I’m not one hundred percent sure if HK made the list or not, but the thick air was a sure sign that pollution was prevalent.

One of the first things I noticed, was how unbelievably clean the city was. Its buildings, streets, sidewalks and waterways were glowing from the lack of litter and crap that typically floods the streets of some of the world’s most popular cities. Our first and order of business was to head to a travel agency to buy our plane tickets to eventually make our way to Qingdao (Tsing-dao). The majority of kids were going to Beijing to tour the capital city and visit the Great Wall. I had other plans in mind. Before I left for the trip in January, I vividly recall following a series that the New York Times did on the exploding city of Shanghai. It appealed to me like no other city, and really stood out in my mind. I can remember talking about going to Shanghai before we were even across the Atlantic. Needless to say, I did some research and found some incredibly cheap flights out of a city two hours north of Hong Kong called Gauzghaun (formerly Canton).

There were four of us going on this adventure north to Shanghai; YuYu, Amanda, Molly and myself. Something interesting to note is that the majority of independent travelers that have done trips by themselves seem to be of the same ratio. There is either a majority of females and a male or two, or a majority of males and a female or two. Can’t say why really, just the nature of the traveling beast.

Anywho, the travel agency was an experience in itself. Of course it was filled with other Semester at Sea kids who were also planning travel arrangements, but travel agencies in China are not really like ones in the US. Thankfully, I had an idea of where we wanted to leave from and how much it should cost. The thing of it was, you didn’t work with one of the persons behind the counter; there were phones at each station that you picked up and called somewhere else from to speak with someone who could arrange the flights for you and take all the information. Talk about a headache; a room full of loud voices - American and Chinese, a person on the other end of the line with a thick accent and broken English, and me, with four passports and plans to set. Not only did we figure out all the flight information over the phone, but I also had to give the polite and patient woman all of our names and passport numbers. Each name being spelled out with letters and a word to go with each letter, making it take ten times longer. Slowing pronouncing words and names does nothing for a person whose language is made up of characters and sounds, not letters and set words. We worked our way through it and eventually ended up getting exactly what we wanted for less than we had planed on. We had two flights booked, one from Gauzghaun to Shanghai, and then from Shanghai to Qingdao. A perfect way to make it up the coast and cover lots of ground in that massive country.

Finally, after about two hours of travel planning, it was off to explore the city. We decided to eat lunch at one of the restaurants Margaux’s top-ten Hong Kong travel guide recommended. It was in a hotel, and the food was fantastic, as was the tea. One of the best and most interesting parts about China is the tea; it comes to you in unlimited amounts, and you leave with your cup full. Most times, as soon as you take a sip or two, they are immediately filling it back up for you. It is an insult to ask them not to refill your cup. On the bill there was a cover charge per person for the tea. Of course even though it was semi-reasonably priced, it was still a shocker coming from India, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The food of course was fantastic, great mixed vegetables, tofu, bok choy, dumplings, and noodles.

From there, Margaux and I ventured over to Hong Kong Island. We took the ferry over (the only other way is by tunnel which is outrageously expensive in a taxi) for about 45 cents. A nice ride across the harbor, and we landed on one of the most impressive islands I’ve been too. Talk about city planning, this place was damn near perfect. The buildings were massive and truly great sites for the architectural eye. All perfectly reflecting off one another, in line or just out to make it look better. Some oddly shaped, with diamonds and spheres coming off, antennas and circle, porthole type windows. As we walked about, we realized there was an upper level, a mezzanine if you will, that connects the majority of the buildings. I think it was like a 4-mile walkway that went about this downtown part of the island. All these beautiful walkways, with benches, marble tiles, some with awnings and coverings, and fountains and sculptures in courtyards, all about two stories above the road level. It was mostly a business district, with some retail and restaurants mixed in between. We went to three parks, yes three parks. I was stunned, there were beautiful flowers and trees and greenery everywhere. Aesthetics were clearly a huge part of the planning of this city.

In one part there is a beautiful park. In Margaux’s Hong Kong book it mentioned it as a huge surprise because it was right in the middle of a bunch of buildings, in a prime real estate area. But amazingly, a park showed up. With waterways and fountains, trees and flowers, walkways and benches, it was truly beautiful. We were both in utter awe the entire time that we took to roam around this island, about three hours. As we were walking about the city, up and down its steep hills, we stumbled upon this cool little area. Tiny streets with retail shops, bars, clubs and restaurants, banners and lights going across all the streets, it reminded me of the streets that make up Greenwich Village in The City. There were signs that said “No Cars after 6PM until 7AM.” We knew where we’d be coming back for the evening. We had to go back to the mainland so I could pick up my plane tickets for the next day.

We headed back and met up with YuYu and Amanda who were clearly not ready to continue out for the evening…they wanted to nap…who does that?!?!?! So, we headed back to the island and this time ventured our way to the top on the tram. It was a tram that went up the mountain and had been doing so since 1918. It climbed slowly and moved with ease up the incredibly steep slope. Once at the top, we perused through the stores and then found a place to eat. Of course our restaurant was right on the edge and had a wonderful view of the city…and, had it not been thick with fog, we actually would have been able to see the city. Something else about Hong Kong is that not only does it look great during the day, but at night, the buildings light up like a laser show. Each of them lit up with a different color, some of them changing colors from red to blue, to green to purple. Moving lights and spotlights, strobe lights and colors lit up the skyline from afar. Even through the thickness of the fog we could still see a great and bustling city below us.

We headed back down the mountain to that great street we had stumbled on earlier in the day. Of course by this time, there were millions and millions of SAS people down there. (Note: there are only 650 SAS students onboard, so clearly there were not millions of them in this one part of the city…but when the majority of them are in one area of a city, it feels like millions and millions.) Margaux and I bounced from bar to club and club to bar. It was great, finding photo ops and new friends at each venue. Needless to say, the night ended just as early as it began…if that makes sense to you, the reader. We had to take a cab back to the ship because the ferry service stops at midnight and as I’m sure you imagined, it was well past that morning-making hour.

To bed we went and readied ourselves for the next day. Margaux was off to Beijing to see that Great Wall thing, yeah that massive hundreds of miles long man made structure that is what most people identify with China. I opted out of that tourist driven place and decided on Shanghai. And I’m so glad I did.

I woke up the following morning and was off into Hong Kong by myself for the last day I had there. I roamed and roamed on the mainland in Kawloon because we had barely spent anytime there on the first day. It was really quite neat to just walk alone for a while by myself, stopping where I wanted to look, smell, feel and be apart of the atmosphere. As my stomach grew hungry, I began to ponder where I would find a place to eat. Very few people spoke English in the restaurants and almost none of the menus in the windows were in English. I headed back towards the ship and turned a left down this little street just off the bottom of Kawloon Park. I first stumbled upon some street food of which I really, really, really wanted to try. I did my best to ask for food without meat, but of course they didn’t understand. At one point this nice young, mid-twenties ages lady came up and kindly asked me if I needed help. I explained to her my meatless situation and she told me that none of the food served at that place had just veggies. I walked not 15 feet further where I saw them making these waffle type things. They didn’t appear to be stuffed with anything odd, cat or dog of a sort and so I pointed to what I wanted and waited patiently while she so happily unsanitarily prepared it for me. My mouth is watering just rethinking about it. It was a soft waffle of sorts, a litter batter. She took one off the shelf and threw it back on the iron for a minute. Then she went over to the counter and slapped on a peanut-buttery type spread and then a sweet buttery spread and then a caramel like sauce, folded it in half, wrapped a piece of paper around it, threw it in a bag and then at me.

It was one of the most delicious sweets I had ever tried. Just the right blend of everything buttery, floury, sweety, and nutty. Of course I thought that was all I would be eating for the afternoon before leaving for Gauzghuan, but I was quickly mistaken as I strolled further down this street. I walked by this noodle shop with great pictures in the window; it seemed some of the items didn’t have any meat in them…well, once again my mouth started to water so I followed my stomach and dared to step inside.

Well, it was a room that was probably about 15 by 20-25 feet. Packed with people all sitting next to each other at tables with little milk-stools if you will. I went in and asked, in my best Mandarin-English (which is non-existent) if they had a menu in English….to my great surprise and overwhelming happiness, they did! I was quickly seated at a four-top next to two people I of course had no association with. They gave me a quick once over, as did everyone when I stepped foot inside this bustling little noodle shop. I was the whitest and clearly only non-Chinese speaking person in the room. I glanced over the menu for a minute or two before I was asked to move to a different seat because there was a party of two that just came in and there was a single seat available at a different table. I happily followed the non-spoken directions. I was now seated at another four-top with two ladies to my left who were together and the woman across from me was eating her lunch alone.

I looked of the menu, excited as to the choices I had in front of me. I was overwhelmed really. I deceived to go with a noodle dish in which you get to pick your type of noodles, your broth type, and two ingredients. The drool is really piling up in my mouth right now…I choose Spinach Noodles with a fresh tomato broth, braised tofu and broccoli. As I sat patiently waiting for my food, I was able to observe in great detail my chaotic surroundings. Thankfully, this gave me time to learn how to eat the noodles and soup by watching all the other around me. The loud chatter, the chewing, the slurping, the laughing and slamming of dishes all added to the excitement. The place was packed and there was a line at the door now too. My noodles came with a delicious honey-chrysanthemum tea; truly the best tea I’ve ever had. My noodles were brought to me and I was in awe. I had to pick up my chin from the table to start devouring the food.

It was topped with a sweet-tomatoey ketchup and had a big hunk of bok choy in it too; I was thrilled! When eating noodles, you are of course using chopsticks and you are also give a type of spoon. You stir you noodles up and let the steam rise out and tease your senses with its great smells. You grab a chunk of noodles with your chopsticks and then place them on the spoon with some broth to cool them. There is somewhat of an art to this, I kinda learned quickly. Well, I devoured my noodles, along with my tea. Which is of course one thing I missed in all my observing. I learned after the ladies finished their noodles next to me that you don’t drink you tea until you have finished your food. I of course finished it before I was done eating and ordered an iced tea of the same type. The waiter looked at me funny, but happily brought the tea to me. And wow, my how delicious it was. I sat for a minute, getting my last feel and glace of my hectic surroundings before taking my check to the little desk and happily paying my share. The lady at the desk of course spoke no English but she chattered on in Mandarin and I said my hellos, thank yous, and goodbyes in English as I’m sure she did in Mandarin…though she may have been saying, “Never come back here again you stupid ass foreigner.” With a smile of course, but somehow I doubt that.

I went back to the ship to pack for the rest of my week in China. Hong Kong is still its own country if you will, and we only had single entry Visa’s for China, so once you left HK you were not coming back. We had a train to catch at 1816, so we headed to the train station at around 1700. Like I said, there was four of us, Molly (whom I was neighbors with in the Bahamas), Amanda, YuYu (whom I was also neighbors with in the Bahamas AND on the ship, along with Amanda), and myself. We threw all of our shit in the back of a cab and off we went. It was very exciting. It was my first time going on a big trip without the fun and guidance of SAS. Yes I had done an overnight by myself here and there, but never a four day venture to a place where NO SAS trips were going. We got to the train station, which was like a tourist attraction in itself, grabbed a few snacks and got to our train just in time.

I was absolutely stunned by the train. A double-decker. Amtrak can shove it, especially in what I paid for the ticket; it less than 30USD for a two-hour train ride! Are you kidding me, its anywhere from 35-90USD for NYC to New London on Amtrak! The accommodations were top-notch. Beautiful plush seats, like I said a double-decker, massive train with plenty of luggage storage room. And, to my great surprise, there were train-attendants in each car! Walking around with their cart of goodies, bottles of water and snacks were handed out for free and you could purchase alcohol and noodles if you so chose. I was quite content with my water and snickity-snack. I was not seated with any of the others because I bought my ticket in a different line then them, because New York minded, get where your going and do so quickly Jeffrey…why wait in a line when there is a window open? And besides, since when are there assigned seats on a damn train? But it didn’t matter because it was the last stop on the train so none of us were worried about it.

After our pleasant train ride, we arrive in our new city, formerly Canton, Gauzghaun. We went through customs, had our landing card taken and passport stamped (yaaaahhhh!) and proceeded through security and then, finally down the escalators. We had no plans, we had no clue really. No idea where we’d be staying or what we’d be doing. All we knew was that our flight left at 1100 the next morning and we needed a place to stay until them. We were quickly approached by a bunch of hotel representatives. We were shown a few pamphlets and of course not wanting to pay much at all, but have a clean place to sleep we narrowed it down quickly. It was a three-star hotel and the head of it was the brother of the guy we were talking to about it. We only wanted to get one room, cheaper of course. However, the gentleman told us that it was not allowed and therefore we would have to get two rooms. Now, I had heard of the law in Vietnam about a man and a woman sharing the same room and if they were caught and did not have a marriage license, they would be arrested. It was a way of trying to control prostitution. So, we believed him, even though we found out once we got to Shanghai that it was simply a ploy to sell more than one room. It was about 55USD for the two rooms, so we really didn’t have too much to complain about. We got to our hotel and were quite pleased with the lodging. I wish I could tell you that we listened to our exhausted bodies and went to bed in order to be fresh for our 8AM wake up call…but I can’t.

Amanda chose to stay in, but Molly, Yu, and I decided to roam the street a bit. We poked in a few shops and then found a restaurant that was called Happy Hour. We figured since the sign was in English that they would maybe have an English menu and even a few English-speaking staff members. Well, we were quickly corrected to find that the only thing they had in English was the drink menu…that’s not to say I’m complaining about that, but we were all a bit hungry too. Well, I’ll tell you, we did our damn best to try and explain to them what the hell we wanted; just some fried rice with vegetables, fried noodles maybe, and we were hoping for some bok-choy. Well, that was a dive-bombing failure. Finally, after three different waiters, and three different full-on games of charades, one of the women took me into the back room where she picked up a phone. She called someone and chatted away with them for a minute or two. Finally she handed the phone to me, I said “Hello.” And got a “Hello” back! I was so happy. I did my best to explain to him as well, and he seemed to get the point. I handed the phone back to her hoping he would explain what we wanted and walked back to my seat.

There we sat, enjoying of Great Wall of China Wine, hoping our food would be coming and it would be what we wanted. Well, it came and we were ecstatic. It was delicious, just what we had asked for, except for the bok choy, which was fine; the rice and noodles were just perfect! Anyway, we finished and headed back to the hotel.

We went to bed on our rock hard mattresses, my god it was like sleeping on concrete, and tossed and turned till the morning. We woke up and took cold showers, of course I had forgotten to set my clock forward so we were all up an hour earlier, but it worked out just fine. Molly, Yu, and I went down to where they were serving breakfast…or something of the sort. Well, we tried a few bread type things, and YuYu had some dumplings, but that was about all we could stomach at that time in the morning considering what was being served to us and around us. We checked out and got into our car to head to the Airport. It took about a little under an hour to get there, but we still had plenty of time to check in.

What an airport. Architecturally massive, what a site it was. A huge space, vast and open, and filled, absolutely filled with natural light. We took our tickets to one counter to check in, they told us to go to another counter to check baggage, then they told us to go to another counter to check baggage. Finally, after the third counter, we found where we needed to check it, did so and moved on to the gate just in time for boarding.

It was a very nice plane; clean and new, and just about filled to the max. A 737 I think it was. Rows of 3 by 3. As soon as we were seated they brought us over a hot towel to wipe our hands and face with if we so chose. Once the plane was in the air they came around with beverages, and then lunch. It was rice and chicken with vegetables. I asked for a vegetarian one and they didn’t have any. Not two minutes later did the lady-flight attendant come running back with a dish that had written on it, “Vegetarian.” It was delicious; Chinese mixed vegetables, rice, a roll, a little snacky dessert and if course and tooth pick and wet napkin. The flight was maybe two hours and we were in Shanghai before we knew it.

I expected to be stunned from the air while flying into the fasting growing city in the world. Needless to say, I wasn’t. We landed, got our baggage and stopped at the tourism desk to find out about hotels and where to stay. We did, and they hooked us up with a good one. We learned that it was OK to have four people to a room…it worked out to our benefit. We ended up staying at the Peninsula Hotel in downtown Shanghai. (Sort-of downtown, it was right not far from the waterfront) It was a brand new, four-star hotel that had just been built last year.

Well, as we drove from the airport and into the city, closer to the river-front…I was finally amazed. As I’ve said about each place I’ve been….like nothing I could of imagined. The New York Times did a great job talking about it, but nothing, nothing could of prepared me for the buildings we saw. My roommate, Griffin, his response when he saw a picture of the skyline when I got back was, “Is that a real city? It looks like something futurist, like a movie, man.” And that’s exactly what it is. Futuristic. Considering the major buildings have only gone up within the last 5-10 years, everything is incredibly modern. Buildings that we will never see anything remotely close to in the States for another 20-30 years, I kid you not. Square buildings, circle buildings, square buildings with big circle tops, dome buildings, diamond buildings, green and blue buildings, white and gold buildings. If it could be imagined, it was there.

We checked into our hotel, quickly breezed through our room and then wanted to find out way to the world-renowned, globally famous, spectacular market that Shanghai is home to. The Xiang Yang Fashion and Gift Market . Mother, you would of died, crazier than Vietnam with more of anything you can imagine. It makes sense where Chinatown in the City comes from; only this stuff was top class, best in the world. As for all the fake goods, the Fendi, and Gucci, and Louis (o my!), most of the times the fabric is stolen from the factories (because it’s all made in China…) and then made into bags and sold at markets like these. Just a few days before we went there, I was reading in the South China Post, an Op-Ed piece, how this market would be closing forever come June…THANK GOD I MADE IT THERE!

Well, we stayed there until it closed…at 2000 hours. The bargaining was off the wall. At times you could get things for more than 75% off of what they asked for to begin with. All of the girls had me going around with them because I was one of the best bargainers. The more dramatic you are, the better the price you are going to get. Also, the more dramatic you are, the bigger the crowd you will draw. There were times I’d spend 20 minutes to a half an hour bargaining just to get the best price possible. Changing my price and story each time we’d agree to something just to confuse them more. It was SO much fun. I wish I could bargain for a living. Let me tell you the best deal I got. I was getting two much-needed duffle bags and wallet as a gift for someone. They wanted something outrageous like 1300 Yuan (8Y to 1USD) for the three pieces. Well, up went my arms and our came a gasp of air. They all laugh around me waiting for my response back on the calculator. I and walked away to start the process of boldly and proudly.

They of course chased me down and pulled me back into the store quickly dropping the price to 800Y or so. I of course let our another gasp, throwing my arms into the air and going on and telling them how that is just soooo much money and how could they ever expect me to pay so much for such simple items. One of the bags I was getting wasn’t as perfect as I would of like it to be, and I wasn’t going to get it, on the price that we settled for, but we’ll get to that. So I worked my way down the scale, telling them one price, and then quickly dropping it lower to another. I think we had settled at 400Y something for the three pieces, which was a good price believe it or not. Well, I was on the edge about one of the bags, and wasn’t 100% sold on it. I asked what the price would be on just one of the bags and the wallet and of course it was far higher. I told them I didn’t want anything and walked away again. I’m sure you can guess, I was chased down and dragged back into the store. By this time, there were customers and other vendors standing around, watching our session. So I told them that I didn’t really want one of the duffel’s, and that the only way I would take it is if they gave all three pieces to me for 250Y. They gasped and threw up their arms and began putting the items back. I stopped them from doing so and explained that I didn’t really like the bags (all part of the bargaining) but that if they’d give me a good price, I’d happily take them. They wanted 350Y but I was persistent and stayed at 250Y. The girls were standing outside placing bets as to whether or not I’d get them for that price. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger also.

We kept on chatting, me telling them that I would take none of them and not care because ei could find them cheaper somewhere else. Finally, after about a half an hour of bargaining, they gave in! What a victory. All of the vendors were shocked. Several of them came up to me, shaking my hand and patting my back, including ones that worked in the same boutique/spot-place and said to me “Wow, you are good.” I was beaming from ear to ear and the girls were in utter shock. So were a lot of the other shoppers in there. They quickly took all my other bags and packed everything up in the two duffels I had now. We made the exchange and I walked out on top of the world. They followed me until we left, trying to convince me to buy other things. I simply ignored them and found my way out. Once we got back to the hotel, we of course had to take our all of our purchases and show everyone because we had been separated for a better part of the day. In doing so, I realized that they didn’t give me the wallet. Well, I was livid. I thought I’d had them, but really, they got me! And to think the wallet was the main reason I stayed and got the other two bags!

Well, that next day, I went right back to that market, found that same vendor and walked in their and told them that I had bought the wallet the day before but they didn’t give it to me. At first one of them tried to pretend like they didn’t recognize me and told me to go away. I was persistent and found someone that had been there the day before. She recognized me in a hesitant manor, and when she did so, I looked at the head guy with a glare and look in my eye that must of really scared him. I had the wallet in my hands and all he said was, “OK, yes go ahead.” It was great. We think he thought I was going to call the police or something.

That day we spent in Old Shanghai, or what I liked to call the Valley of Shanghai. It was a low area with buildings you would expect to see in China. Typical Chinese architecture, walkways and waterways filled with coy fish. And people. Lots and lots of people! As we kept roaming of course, our stomachs grew hungrier and hungrier. We would do our best to ask people where to eat with very few of them understanding our English. They would point and babble on in Mandarin, and we would smile, nod and prentend to go along with what they were saying. We walked down this street where everyone told us there were restaurants; of course we didn’t find any. We got to the end where it intersected with a large street. We tried hailing a cab, but when we got into one and started speaking English, the cab driver started screaming and yelling and hitting the plastic cage that surrounds him. I kid you not; all the cab drivers in Shanghai are enclosed in the plastic cage around their seat, we came to understand it was because of their short tempers and flailing wrists.

We got out of the cab and a native man quickly stepped into it. There was this nice old woman standing on the street corner who had been standing there for some time. I tried talking to her, and asking her where to eat. I did my best charades impression of eating and where we could find a place to do so. She pointed right back down the same street, babbling in her local tongue the entire time. I happily smiled as if I understood everything that she was saying and we started walking right back down the street we were just on. Well, it was good that we kept walking in a different direction in which we had come down the street. There was this mall like complex with a total of three stories. The place was nothing to massive or impressive, a nice little courtyard with a pond and fountain, outside escalators taking you to the upper levels. Well, there was a windown filled with food pictures and so we ventured up with the second level. We could see people eating in the windows and it looked quite good.

We went inside, and of course no one spoke hardly any English. It was almost expected. Nor did they have an English food menu. It was good that the beverages we wanted were the same in English and Chinese…Tsingtao Beer. The waitress was so wonderful; she tended to our needs to graciously and politely, even with the minimal English that she spoke. What becomes fun is that both you, and the person of the country you are in that you are talking to, end up chattering on to each other in your native language. I make jokes, and ramble on, knowing that they cannot understand but sort of giving myself piece of mind in saying what I want. I’d assume they do the same thing considering she was also prattling on as well. She was there immediately when we would glance over just to look in the direction she was standing. As for the food, the word for vegetarian food is Su Shi, so that is all we kept saying. Thankfully, my traveling company was happy to eat vegetarian while we were out dining together. It helped tremendously when ordering. We were able to get four different dishes, all of which are put in the middle of the table and shared…it was DELICIOUS. Mixed Vegetables, Fried Rice, Bok-Choy, Garlic and Shitake Mushrooms, and a spinach dish that was to die for! Of course there was rice in plenty and noodles too.

We finished lunch and headed back out. We found a cab that was able to sort of get where we wanted to go, and thankfully he did not start screaming and flailing the way the last driver had. We headed back to the market where we went the day before so I could get the wallet that was withheld from my purchase (the story I told earlier) and to get some DVDs as well. Of course we found a whole new region of the market that we did not even know existed and so some more exploring ensued.

We had planned on meeting outside the market at its central entrance at I think 1830. I was out there with YuYu and we were just sitting on a ledge that surrounded a garden. I was filling out post cards and she was reading something. The postcards were of ones that I bought and were all obviously from Shanghai. Within a few minutes of me filling these out, a crowd began forming around me. Probably about 10-12 men starting standing in front of us, pointing at my cards and chattering away. I didn’t really care, and I looked up at them, showed them the cards. They seemed incredibly interested…I have no idea why, considering the pictures on the cards were from the city that they clearly dwelled in. I handed them the stack of cards that I wasn’t using at the time, realizing that them seeing these pictures was some form of entertainment. As long as they stayed right there, I didn’t care.

Well, after a minute or two of them looking them over, all of them passing them to each other, laughing and commenting about them, I was suddenly backhanded right in the forehead! Well, I jumped up, quite stunned as I’m sure you can imagine. I grabbed the cards from their hands, spanning my arms out, giving us space and yelling, quite firmly, “Goodbye! Go away. Thank you!” Motioning with my hands that they needed to go. Now, undoubtedly I was caught off guard. I think most people would be if they were just sitting there with their head down, writing something when all of a sudden they were backhanded on the forehead. And of course after the fact, I thought about what happened. The gentleman that did backhand me was not doing it as a way of hurting or hitting me, it was simply a way to get my attention. A tap on the shoulder would have been fine, but hey, to some, slap in the faces means just as much.

Something about the Chinese culture is that they are very sheltered in their own world. In a lot of ways, Shanghai reminded me of The City because people were very much about themselves. Focused on where they were going, not really taking note of what was happening around them. The shoving, pushing, cutting off and disregard for surroundings didn’t make it uncomfortable, it just made the people seem anti-social and rude. But that is their culture, (more on this in a few paragraphs when I speak of the young British woman we had drinks with) to be cold and distant, and possible downright rude in Western terms while living their everyday life. When you greet a person from China, very rarely will there be a kiss on the cheek, hug, or even a shake of the hand. It takes time for a Chinese person to warm up to you in the level that most American’s and European’s greet people on the first time. As for this instance, I think if the man had done that to a fellow native, it would have gone over just fine. In a sense I feel guilty for falling tourist victim to a daily act by having my American temper come out in full swing.

We headed back to the hotel to ready ourselves for an evening out on the town.

While back at the hotel, we decided to grab a bite to eat in the lounge area. Decently priced and incredibly convenient, it was our pit stop. We were sitting at our table when right next to us this family of three sits down. A man in his 50s, his wife about the same and their younger, middle school aged child. Well, the woman was immediately delighted when she heard our American accents; she quickly jumped up over to our table, to first as YuYu what kind of wine she was drinking and then to ask us all where we were from in the States. Frankly, I was a bit disgusted when I heard their thick southern American accents. We came to learn that they were from Georgia and were there with their son’s high school class, all of about 30 or so on a trip to China. They had spent 10 days in the countryside and were thrilled to see other American’s and be able to have a form of Western food. Incredibly pleasant, though clearly conservative in her talk; I think she almost had a heart attack when she found out where the four of us were from: two, if not three of the bluest states in the country: California, and I told her that I was from Connecticut but was quick to say that I went to school in NYC. We had lengthy conversation with them about their trip, and ours. I spoke with the husband who was much less high strung and more interested on an intellectual level than on a conversational level. He asked great questions and seemed to really enjoy hearing what I had to say in response. I think his wife was just very excited about seeing people from the States. We explained to them why we were here and what we were doing. They were incredibly envious and couldn’t wait to tell their high school son about what we were doing.

After our dinner spree, we headed across the street to pick up some cheap beer before heading out for the evening. Why spend so much on a drink at a bar when you can spend far less before going out by picking up a few beers and enjoying them before you go.

Once back down, Molly went over to the Concierge to find out where we should go. She asked for the tallest bar in the city; well he certainly told us where that was. They had these great cards that they would fill out for you to hand to your cab driver so there was no need for an English explanation to a person that wasn’t going to understand it. Once we were back in the lobby, there was our good ol’ Georgia gal sitting with one of the teachers from her son’s school. Now this is where the conservative comment from above solidified itself. We started chatting with her again, as she seemed to be hitting on this much younger teacher while I’m sure her husband was off in bed. She was quick to tell him what we were doing and of course wanted us to explain as well. Well, luckily I held my tongue. We were chatting away for a few minutes and all of a sudden, the teacher magically turned the conversation into a religious preaching ceremony and in talking about his teaching, “Someone has to teach the Christian faith and keep good moral values in this world, and by damned, its going to be me!” And they both laughed together, while I chuckled in sarcasm and disgust as I listened to this ignorant bullshit.

I quickly said goodbye and we were on our way to our spot for the evening. Our destination: the second tallest bar in the world, Cloud 9. It was on the other side of the river, so taking a cab there was a necessity and a great experience. Once we came out on the other side, you knew right away which building we were headed to. It was the Hyatt Hotel and what a place it was. A palace of sorts, and the club…the club was on the 87 floor. You had to do two elevator transfers to get there! We of course had no idea where we were going, but were doing out best like we did. We finally found the right elevators to take up and it just so happened that three others were in there with us. While they chatted, I knew right away they were from England. We all began talking to each other, laughing and having a fun time before we were even off the first elevator. We all were happy to find out that we were going to the same place, and yet none of us were staying there! There were three of them, an older gentleman, a mid-aged woman and a lady who looked about my age. When we got off the first elevator on the 52nd floor, we let them out first, following in their lead. Thankfully we did. As they walked past, an employee of the hotel stopped them and asked if they were staying at the hotel, the younger woman was quick to respond, “Yes, we’re all staying here. Thank you.” Without hesitation she found her way to the elevator and up we went another 35 flights.

I was stunned, such confidence, and so quick to respond; I was sure she’d been there before. When we got up to Cloud 9 we were in awe. It wasn’t open really (the layout), and went around the whole building, all glass windows, floor to ceiling of course. We roamed around, looking for a good table, some of us using the restroom. Well, when there was no private sort of table, we found a perfect six-top right by the window (there was only three of us, Amanda wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed in). We had a great round of introductions; it was Michael, his daughter Stephy, and his girlfriend Becky, who was “just along for the ride” as she put it (meaning coming to China, not in the relationship sense). Stephy had been there for two months and had one month left. She was working for a magazine and was living in Shanghai. Dad and the girlfriend were there for the first time to visit with her.

What great conversations we shared with them. We came to learn, in such surprise, that Stephy was only 19. I kid you not, she looked as if she was 23-25, I told her that, in terms of a compliment of course, the way she carried herself was amazing. I can’t imagine really any 19 year old that I knew or know spending 3 months in China, alone, before going to University. She drilled me on politics, as did her father…I was in heaven. Of course, being the typical Brit and despising good ol’ W, she had great questions about his. I explained about the forged and corrupt elections, the disgusting religious influence now in American politics, and his oil-and-blood-dirtied fingers that paved the way for his victory. When she asked about the type of people that voted for him she used the perfect, perfect word: ignorant. I said stupid at first, using a simpler word, but she of course, being the Brit that she was, said it with eloquence and beauty. Her father laughed and agreed, and we went on to talk about politics in England and the relationship between the US and the UK.

We all chatted until last call, enjoyed the view from the top, and headed back down together. Thankfully, we had a great waitress who took a perfect group picture of us. We got back in a cab, and headed back to our hotel.

Morning came fast. Our flight was at 1425 up to Qingdao (tsing-dao) and we were sure if we’d be able to get anything done in the mean time. We were all exhausted so we decided to check out the Internet café in the lobby and have a few delicious lattes and cappuccinos before going to the airport.

We had a funny driver on the way. He spoke very little English, and for some reason the whole way to the airport, Amanda felt the need to be belting out dumb ass American songs. I had a killer headache and the driver and I were just looking at each other and smiling. A few times I wound my hand around my ear and pointed to her, of course inferring her craziness. Its times like that I hate to travel with a group; people who epitomize American tourists who are despised around the world because of their loudness and outlandish behavior.

We got to the airport, had lunch and were on our plane for our hour and a half flight further north, up the coast of China to Qingdao.

The great thing about the flights was that of course all announcements were made in Chinese and would go on for a few minutes. Then they were done in English, but took far less time than the Chinese announcements took. All of the flight attendants did speak English, thankfully. Though unlike American flights, they do not tell you when you are making your decent. At one point, I looked over and saw this look of fright on Amanda’s face as the plane started to drop from the sky. Quite comical. I reassured her that we were fine and probably making our decent back to the mainland considering the time we had been in the air.

Down we went, safely of course. Now onto our third and final city in China, Qingdao (remember that Hong Kong is not technically a part of China and therefore not one of its city’s!). In our pre-port before we got to Hong Kong, several of the speakers spoke very highly of that northern city in China. How it was attracting beach tourists from all over the world and is one of the most popular northern cities in China, besides of course, Beijing. You’ll come to learn a few paragraphs from now that the city itself was not that impressive.

The port was about an hour from the airport so we had a good drive ahead of us. As we made our way closer to the port, the northern mountain ranges of China. What a site they were. It was clearer on the ground, but still difficult to see the mountaintops. Steep, sharp peaks that reminded me of the Grand Tetons in either Montana or Wyoming…my American travel has been on hold the past few months…as I’m sure you can understand why! Rocks of these mountains were a very different color though. Lighter in tone, shades of beige, taupe, even pale grays made up the peaks that were sparsely populated with trees.

We made our way through town (?) and not knowing at all where we were going ended up at our port. It was crazy. Qingdao is one of China’s biggest industrial port cities so where we were docked was a massive port in which we had to trek our way to the ship. Over railroad tracks and through massive piles of stone, and stacked steel and rebar were all over the place. Not to mention the pallets and fork lifts, dump trucks and trailers. Once we traversed the vast cement pier, it was through an immigration check, each time we got on, then up the stairs because the gangway was on the fifth floor. (Depending on the port and the tides determines whether or not the gangway will on the fifth of second floor…we always prayed it would be in the second deck.)

We finally got there and were just really sort of fed up with everything. All of the shit that we got in Shanghai had been carried with us since then and we were all just tired and wanted to get back to the palace. I can’t even begin to explain the feeling that runs through your body when you see the EXPLORER from afar. Your flooded with joy and the security of knowing that once you are on there, you are good to be good. Food, a comfortable bed and place to throw you shit awaits you. Along with friends you haven’t seen since you left with hundreds of new stories to share.

We got back and ate dinner on the ship. I won’t forget that because there was the best god damn bit of food I’d ever had on the ship. They made this fantastic eggplant parmesan that was to die for. I think I had five helpings. I met up with Margaux and Jackie; they had just gotten back that afternoon from Beijing where it snowed when they visited the Great Wall. Margaux hiked it with only flip-flops because who’d a thought you’d need goddamn snow boots and a winter coat while we’d been traveling through all these tropical regions. Their stories were hysterical and the three of us decided to head out for the evening.

The recommendation was for a place called the Newport Bar…wow, memories from home all around! Well, we started walking because it was not far from the ship, but we were quickly stopped when we saw a sign for Karaoke. As I’m sure you know, Karaoke is HUGE all throughout Asia, especially in places like China and Japan. So we went inside and of course no one spoke English. We signaled what beer we wanted and they hurried us off into our own private karaoke room! There was a coffee table, large couch, large TV, two mics and speakers. They left us a binder of all the music but of course it was all in Chinese!!! We died laughing. There was a karaoke machine under the TV in which you could plug in the song number and it would play on the screen. Well, in all of the numbers that we randomly went through there was only one song that randomly played and kept coming up again and again. Thankfully, Jackie and I knew the song and entertained Marg with it several times. She has hysterical video with my camera and it was truly hysterical. The one song that we kept playing over and over once we heard it was nothing other than the classic early nineties Whitney Houston song Greatest Love of All. Yeah, it was quite the show. What made it even funnier was that the microphones had this weird echo to them. At one point we just made sounds into the mic and it would go on and on and we would just be dying laughing. Of course it was also fun to say single-worded obscenities into them and laugh at what it sounds like after being echoed.

We decided to move on once we found nothing else to sing too. Not a block further down the street was this little hole in the wall place called the Seamen’s Club. You can take that name however you choose to, but I’m sure the technical reason was because it was only a few blocks from the pier…now as far as the way the waitresses were dressed…well, anywho. So we went in there and there were a few of our favorite crewmembers in there whose names I will not disclose to protect them. There were two small rooms to this place and we were put into the second one with a door on it. Once we started getting to be our loud selves, they were quick to shut the door. Well, we ended up ordering a bottle of this Chinese Vodka that was basically scentless and tasteless. We were stunned, to say the least. After a few drinks each, we realized just how good or strong, however you’d like to look at it, that stuff was. We quickly renamed the vodka to something that we have spread about the ship now. Our name for this delicious and enticing beverage: Rape in a Bottle. Yes, that’s right. We did infomercials about how great it is and the reason why is because, “This bottle is when you wake up to someone you don’t know…aahhhaahhaaahha, Rape in a Bottle!” as Jackie so eloquently put it.

Of course stop worrying; we all remembered the rest of the evening and were even coherent enough to move on and go back to the Karaoke place with a bigger group. Thankfully, this time they gave us a binder with a section in English! And even the songs had English words flashing across on the TV! Something about Chinese Karaoke, while the song is going and the words are changing, the background is soft porn. I kid you not. Women, sometimes only one, sometimes three or four posing in an incredibly racy manor with ivy leaves over their nipples and perhaps a bent leg to cover the…at times rolling in sheets and splashing under waterfalls. It made it all the more funny.

One of the great adventures to these two places was the bathroom. It was a shared place that was in-between Seaman’s and the karaoke bar. A dark, long hallway leading you to a small and darker room with a stench that loomed down the street. Moonlight coming in from the window, and only the sound of us laughing. There were two stalls, incredibly hard to see, especially since the only real light was coming from my cell phone and camera. Of course there were no doors either. They were typical eastern toilets, so basically it was just a hole in the ground. You’d think a rat was going to run out and bite your fucking foot off at any point, or in the ladies case, jump up and bite their cooter. You know, that kind of restroom.

We made it back to the ship, and went to bed fore it was up and early in the AM to head to Lao Shan for some mountain viewing.

We had no idea what to expect in the morning. Chad, Margaux and I headed out into the city hoping to find somewhere to stop in the morning; we just roamed around a bit and then found a cab.

We got in the cab and said, “Lao Shan?” while pointing to a map all in English. He nodded, repeated Lao Shan and then grabbed a pen. He put his hand up and ever so slowly began writing on his hand. As we watched him he was slowing writing Chinese characters. When he was finished with them, he looked back at us, pointed to the characters on his hand and said, “Lao Shan?” We all laughed like hell and just nodded our heads. Like we knew what the hell those characters meant, but it was so typical of someone trying to get someone to understand their language. We all are guilty of it; slowing down you speech, writing something slower or trying to say it clearer. That’s exactly what the was doing and it was priceless because there was no way we’d have a clue what the characters meant, though by the time we did get to where we were going, we were glad to know he understood us.

It was about an hour from Qingdao, and we followed the coast the whole way; it was truly astonishing. At one point we drove by this road that was going up into the mountain. We could see that it had just been built and all got really excited because the whole time we were talking about just going and doing shit. So, we had our driver turn around and start climbing this steep hill. Up we went, incredibly excited by the randomness of what we were doing and the happiness of our driver to agree to do it! At one point, we had only gone up a little ways, but it was still really steep and really, really, really, really windy. Did I mention that it was windy? And the only guard rails were tall, about 18-24 inch rocks, narrow, coming out of the ground on the side of the road. Far from secure. Well, we got up and went around a corner and there was someone working on the road and there were all rocks in the middle of the road. Our driver stopped, looked back, and something like, “Shieite.” I looked at him and said, “Yes, shit, that’s right. Shit.” I don’t what he said meant shit, but it just sounded good and was perfect for the situation.

He continued on up the mountain and we made our way to where the road stopped. We jumped out, took some pictures, ran up a little further, took some more pictures and got back into our cab and headed down the mountain.

Another half and hour and we were at Lao Shan. Lao Shan is a string of mountains that has several shrines at it and at the top you can take a cable car to see a set of four waterfalls from the river that runs through them. Right on the coast, it was truly a great site. We got there and our driver just motioned that he would stay and we told him we’d be back in a few hours. No problems.

Well, we got out of the car and our eyes were immediately drawn to the sea. Mostly because as we were coming into Lao Shan, when you were driving along the cliffs, high above the bay, all you could see were these lines and lines in the water. Literally rows and rows of lines. I quickly assumed they were nets. There were hundreds of them, rapers of the sea if you will; with a few boats going from net to net to check what they caught. When we got down to where the parking lot was, the site was even more depressing to the three of us. Chad is a Marine Biology Major, Margaux is an Environmental Studies/Marine Bio Major and I’m just an environmentally friendly screaming liberal…so I’m sure you can understand our dismal state.

While we were standing there, depressing ourselves as the nets were brought up and set back into the sea, we were stunned to watch someone soar through the air over the water in front of us. Holy shit! It was a ripcord over the ocean!!!!! We were ecstatic! The people around us clearly caught on to our excitement and were quick to tell us how much it was and what we needed to do. We were whisked into a van and brought up the road to where the starting point of the ride began. I’ve got this all on video and it is absolutely hilarious. Marg and I were so excited that we just overwhelmed Chad and his fear of heights quickly disappeared, he didn’t have a choice in the matter really. Well, we get up there and are quickly brought to the second level of this tower like structure where we were put into out harness. Margaux started putting hers on before they started helping her and they were yelling at her in Chinese, we were dying, just dying. Well, Chad and Marg were done before I was so they got taken up to the third level to get ready to fly. I was right behind them, but by the time I got up there, not two minutes later, Chad was already out soaring over the ocean. It was good that he went first because it didn’t give him a chance to think. They rushed you like it was some sort of evacuation. Well, I was up there and of course had the camera rolling and off Margaux went, screaming, flying out over the ocean. I was up next. They had you stand on this little stool in order to strap on the cord to your harness. As I was doing this, I was repeating one of my most typical phrases over and over and over again, “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.” After I said it several times, one of the men up there started saying it with me, laughing as he was doing so. It was great.

Well, I was up, and before I knew it, I was off. I kept my camera going the whole time I flew down. It is one of the craziest most chaotic movement videos ever. As a I flew down, I could hear Chad and Margaux screaming and laughing from below. It was over before you knew it, but what a blast it was. Our adrenaline was through the roof and we hadn’t even gone up the mountain yet.

From there we walked towards the entrance. In the beginning there is a temple/pagoda/shrine type thing, not really sure what it was because we didn’t go to it. We were all running low on funds and preferred to make our way up the mountain for free instead. It was a nice rock way that lead you up the mountainside. With waterways and rest stops along the way. Whole birds and whole fish were on each grill as we went by, of course they tried selling them to us at one place where we stopped to grab a drink and take a rest, but we politely declined.

There was a little tea café and several other places to stop and rest. One of them was a teashop where they grew all the tea right along side the restaurant! We grabbed another drink there and were able to use the bathroom, snapped a few pics and tried like hell to get the two tea sets that were on the tables for a much better price than they were offering. Needless to say she didn’t drop to the price we wanted, so we paid for our beverages and continued on our way. We went up a little further and there it was, the cable car to the top. Of course being sold to us by ladies that only spoke Chinese, we opted out of doing it because of time constraints and on-ship time. Me, trying to get the ladies to understand how long it took to get from here, to the top, and back was pretty much impossible. I was jumping from one spot to another trying to get them to understand, but it failed. We headed back down the mountain to head back to the ship.

Well, what can I say about China. It’s a massive country; there is a predominant and poignant culture that confuses and stuns the Western world. It is unfortunate we only had six days between Hong Kong and Qingdao, though I’m certainly not complaining. Chaos and confusion, the worst language barrier yet, and yet still so much to do and be apart of. I merely scratched the surface of the second largest country in the world. Christ, I didn’t even go inland, I just went right up the coast to the fastest growing city in the world: Shanghai. And what a place it was. I can’t imagine any other place in the world like it and it is really its own metropolis category. Don’t get me wrong though, New York City is still the capital of the world and will always be that way. One of the interesting bits that I disagreed on with the British people we met in Shanghai was that I said my top two cities, so far are NYC number one, and Shanghai definitely coming in at a close number two. Stephy was quick to say that London was of course her first, her hometown, followed by Shanghai and then NYC. I assured her that once I got to London it would be in the top three, but certainly be number three on my list of cities.

I think about where I am right now (about 500 NM from Hawaii and only 7 days from San Diego) and think about where I’ve been. The whole time I’ve been writing these blogs, I’ve tried to think of what I’ll say on my last entry…well, the ports of call have ended and I have no damn clue. It will fall out when I write it. But I still have Japan to tell you all about which was truly amazing. I can tell you now that my top three ports were as follows (in no specific order): India, Japan, and Vietnam.

I talked to my mom today and she asked me what my favorite place was; I can’t say I have one. Each country has its own best of the best and each one has its worst of the worst. Each country has so many different things to offer that are different than the rest. I can’t say I’ll ever decide on an official number one, but I have a top three.

Japan was out of this world. These past six days at sea have been unbelievable. The Pacific is a stunning, vast, and captivating body of water. Its color is a rich and vibrant royal blue that glows when the sun hits it. The light is different here somehow too; the sun has a different glow on this side of the earth that gives a cool blue glow to the white-cap filled Pacific. Always churning, it really is the biggest body of water in so many ways.

I’ll be doing my best to get Japan up just as soon as I can. I’m sure it will be by the time you have finished reading this one!

I’ll be seeing you before you know it!