Hong Kong Adventures

Today is our final whole day in Hong Kong. :-(

There were those who scoffed at our intention to spend 10 days in the city. "You really only need 4, at most," is what one person said. I can now scoff back at them!

Pah!

While we've managed to check-off all the major attractions and sites of Hong Kong, we could easily spend another 4 or 5 days here. There is so much to do! Some of you may not know that HK is comprised of a bit of the chinese mainland and a few islands, so there's something for everyone. It's fortunate to have a harbour bisecting it, making it very easy to view its famous skyline.

HK seems to do a lot of things over-the-top. There's no such thing as an understatement here. The parks are beautiful and well thought out and carefully maintained. The ones we've seen have man-made lakes, waterfalls, and the big park near central HK has a walk-through aviary. All this is free. The architecture is amazing. I've never tired of seeing this city at night and I don't remember feeling this way about a cityscape before. DC comes close.

And, of course, there's the food. I think what we really like is the diversity. We've managed to eat a lot of cheap Chinese food, which means tons of noodles, dim sum, street food, and a little bar-b-que. But we've also enjoyed a surprising array of international foods: Australian, American, Turkish, Balinese, and Lebonese, for starters. I can't say about all of China, but in Hong Kong people do love to eat. We met Joel and his girlfriend, Sunny, via Couchsurfing and they took us to a hotpot place. Now, this was a lot of fun! More fun than shabu shabu. You get a pot of water and veggies and then you order meaty stuff to add once the water boils (with the help of a hotplate). We let them do the ordering so this is what we got: fried fish-skins, fish balls, shrimp balls, squid balls, shrimp wanton, veggie wanton, thinly sliced beef, thinly sliced lamb, pig intestine, and goose intestine. And, Froody and I ate a little bit of everything! Once all the boiling of all the balls and meats and intestines are done and all the veggies eaten, the flavorful, oily water is thrown out! Joel did say that (if you did this at home) you could separate the fat out and use the water to cook rice in. But, usually, it's just tossed out.

After dinners Froody usually makes his way to dessert. Sometimes it's a bakery. In Central HK we walked by a bakery that was full of people buying egg tart (very yummy) and taking photos in front of the bakery holding their egg tarts! Obviously this must be some famous egg tart place, so after lunch we did the same. Sometimes it's a restaurant. Here we are with a tasty chocolate fondue at a place called Choco-Cat. Yup, they serve chocolate desserts and drinks, and have at least 5 cats that customers try to coax onto their laps. Joel and Sunny introduced us to sweet soup. Froody ordered the papaya soup. It was served hot and had some kind of mushroom in it, too. That really drove home the fact that the Chinese not only like food with flavor, but they like food with texture. Different textures than what Americans are used to. They also aren't held to any conventions about food. Sunny said she could never understand why Westerners eat cereal for breakfast, when in HK you eat pretty much whatever you want whenever you want. Including noodles with wanton for breakfast.

If you are a shopper, then Hong Kong is your city! I'm not just talking about 5-star malls and Fendi bags. The street markets are fun. We spent our days among the flower market, bird market, goldfish market (my favorite), jade market, ladies' market, wet market, and produce markets. Nathan Road, where our hotel is, is also known as the Golden Mile 'cuz it's full of jewelry stores, fancy restaurants, and name-brand everything.

Hong Kong isn't all city. The suburbs are still green, naturally. There are hiking trails outside of the downtown area. (We went to the Wetland Park yesterday, hoping to do some trail walking and birdwatching, but it was closed. :-() Lantau was very pretty, with only a few highrise apartments and the largest outdoor bronze statue of Buddha in the world....

..but it was still over-the-top!! We went to see the large bronze Buddha statue. The trip out there seemed like fun: first you take the ferry, then you take a cable-car, then you walk up to the Buddha statue. I thought it would be a quiet place, full of people who've come to pray at the statue. *pshaw* There were tons of people! It was like a buddhist-theme park! You ride the cable car and a "monkey" takes your pic and you can buy it at the end of the ride. There are two short films, one of a fable about sharing and another about the life of the first Buddha. (We didn't see either.) Between the cable car and the stairs leading up the the giant statue are all sorts of restaurants (really classy places) and gift shops, even a 7/11 and a Starbucks!! We just bypassed all this (excepting the restroom) and walked up the stairs to the statue. It was pretty cool, even in the fog. I wish the day was clearer; the views would've been great.

Overall, we really liked being in Hong Kong. Yes, they're always building something and there's the whole issue surrounding reclamation, but there's something to be said for tearing down the old and making way for the new. The city is able to adjust to its growing population and traffic problems with many footbridges (some go on for what feels like a mile). Buildings can be outfitted with energy-saving technology. Everything has running water and electricity. And functional plumbing!

On the other hand, all this organization requires a lot of rules. Now, India and Egypt had rules, but Hong Kong can afford to enforce them. Another downer is the feeling that you're living in a mall. All the footbridges and pedestrian subways have stores in them. Not just a snack-stand or newspapter stand, but high-class shopping and sometimes you have to walk through a fancy mall just to get to the other side.

Still, I'm going to miss Hong Kong. It was fun and I hope we come back someday.

HONG KONG, BABY!

We've just arrived at our next destination- HONG KONG!!! After all the bacterial infections and watching people pee and poop all over the place I told Tim I needed something totally different if he wanted to keep traveling and not go home right away, so we chose Hong Kong. I can't believe how different it is from anywhere else we've been to on this trip. HK is so clean, so busy, stuff is easy to find, people obey traffic laws and use the crosswalks (I've missed the green man!). That said, it's also way more expensive than East Africa, Egypt, Jordan, and India so we're limiting ourselves to 10 days. Just enough time to fall in love with Hong Kong, before all the bad stuff gets annoying.

Arriving late at night was pretty cool, as I was able to check out the skyscrapers' lights reflecting on the water as we traveled by express train from the airport to Kowloon. From there we actually queued up for a taxi- we lined up inside a hallway with glass doors on either side and a man in front directing us to the correct door beyond which was a taxi! It was so weird to be calmly standing in line, no one pressed up against you and no one cutting in front. It was also weird to drive through the town at midnight and see how clean the alleyways were by Egyptian and Indian standards and, this is important, no one. was. peeing. or. pooping. anywhere. srsly.

This morning we wandered a bit in search of a cheap breakfast (alas, I get the feeling we'll be doing a lot of searching for good, cheap food) and it was so nice! You could actually walk on the sidewalks! No stalls or piles of garbage to walk over, no huge holes or mysterious puddles to watch out for, no poops from various animals to be careful of. I mean, you have no idea how awesome it is to just walk on the sidewalk and not have to walk in the gutter/street dodging cars, bikes, and motorbikes (OK- some of you do, of course). Oh, it was so nice to be able to look about you at the tall buildings, storefronts, windows full of fatty cooked ribs and ducks with crispy skins or windows full of beautiful jade and diamond jewelry (sometimes next to each other), and signs. There's garbage bins everywhere! And people use them!

Oh, I think I'm going to like it here. :-)

What Have I Learned?

I guess you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you that a teacher-friend of mine asked this of me on Facebook. I mean, we're all about learning, right? Anyway, he was the first one to ask me that, so he made me think about it in a way I hadn't before. Sure, I felt that I would learn something from this trip- who wouldn't? And, I felt that I probably had learned something by now, but hadn't put it to words.

So, Hugo, wherever you are, thank you for giving me the opportunity to think about....

What Have I Learned?

*No matter what the background, everyone wants the same thing- a decent job, some dignity, the ability to support a family.

*People are basically nice. To date, I've never encountered any flak for being American.

*I really don't need a closet full of clothes nor do I need an apartment full of stuff to be happy.

*I may be traveling with only one bag of possessions, but I've seen people who own a whole lot less.

*More people than you think still rely on wooden carts being pulled by donkeys, oxen, or camels.

*And, they live in mud and straw houses. Srsly.

*And, they sweep with bundles of reeds only 2ft long.

*You can fit an entire family of 4 on one motorcycle.

*I like school kids, no matter where they are from.

*As Americans, we are very isolated. We don't have to worry about attacks from neighboring countries, refugees flooding in across the borders (whatever # of illegal aliens we get, it's not what other countries in Africa or India get), cholera epidemics, or a government so corrupt that it would rather see the entire nation die of hunger and thirst than change.

*America is diverse, yet we don't have bloody clashes involving whole cities or states over ethnicity or religion.

*Democracy isn't always the answer. Some countries have wonderful monarchies and, for lack of a better word, dictators who genuinely care for the well-being of their people.

*Many countries rely on man-, woman-, and even childpower to build skyscrapers and repair roads.

*What I've paid for one cup of coffee in a Western-style coffeeshop in Egypt, Jordan, and India is about what one person earns in a day in that country.

*In America EVERYONE can have the opportunities to improve their lives by hard work and education. (hello, President Obama) That is not the case in many of the countries I've seen.

*Not enough Americans travel internationally, and those that do seem to stick to Europe.

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That is a good start. Some of you may be asking what kind of lessons will I carry with me or how will these experiences affect my life, but I think I'll have to wait until I get home to find out.

Desert Adventures

Western India is mostly desert and in Rajasthan, camels are very important beasts of burden. So, Froody and I had to take a camel safari in the Thar desert. Actually, we only spent one day and one night in the desert, but after 5 hours of camel riding, it was plenty.

While in Bikaner (former capital of Rajasthan), we stayed here at Vijay's Guesthouse. We had a good time and Vijay was a jovial host, sharing drinks with us on the veranda in the evenings. He was our guide of a day and took us to the neighboring sights, including the Karni Mata temple. It's also known as the rat temple and it's someplace I've been wanting to see for ages. It isn't as big as I thought it would be, but it was crawling with rats! We went in the late afternoon when the crowds were less and the rats were more active. Vijay said he's seen the white rat, but that was 17 years ago. We didn't see it, but enjoyed seeing rat-enthusiasm taken to the extreme! Everyone was praying to the rats. There was one very holy inner-sanctum we weren't allowed into, but I peeked in and saw a woman bowing in front of a shrine, with rats pouring out of it. Vijay said that here Western tourists aren't very common, so some people show Froody (and Pietr) a lot of interest.

India- Not So Bad?

Well, now that I've been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks and we've got our tickets for our next stop-HONG KONG-India isn't so bad. I mean, I still grumble every time I see someone pissing or pooping (which is quite a bit), but at least I'm able to see the good stuff, too. Like birdwatching in Keoladeo National Reserve, where we hired a guide for the three days we spent there. He was very knowledgeable and showed us over 70 different species of birds.

The tiger safari in Ranthambore wasn't that bad, either. We saw several large mammals, like the sambhar deer and black faced-langur monkeys. I saw a wild tiger. Froody would have, too, but I think he was busy trying to take pictures of it.

This is what 1.2 billion people feels like. Actually, this is the mela (festival) our friends took us too. Froody and I even tried out a McDonald's. No beef, of course. Froody got a chicken royale. This looks better, though: a thali bought at a restaurant where we were the only western tourists.

Internet use in Delhi is more than what it seems. Anyway, our last day in Delhi before heading for Rajasthan was spent walking around the presidental palace and hanging out at the India Gate. Pretty, isn't it?

Oh, India. Where Danger Lurks Inside Every Meal and Snack

I expected some adventure on this trip, but I didn't think there was danger in each mouthful. Froody and I just spent another week in the hospital. This time I had a bacterial infection and Froody had that plus giardia. bleh. I felt as pathetic as I looked. That IV really, really hurt! These infections have kind of extinguished what little remaining enthusiasm I had for India. One of the two things I am looking forward to is the Kari Mata, India's infamous rat temple. Gosh! I just realized that going someplace infested with rats, with floors made extra gooey and gross from thousands of rats running around, probably isn't conducive to maintaining good health. Froody and I are also determined to see the Himalayas. But I am heartily glad knowing we leave soon.

So, here are some of the pictures Froody's taken these past couple of weeks.

* View on the train to Agra.

* A pair of rose-ringed parakeets. These birds are everywhere, but we love them anyway.

* Some remaining blue tile on a mughal-era tomb, the Chini-Ka-Razza.

* Sandstone and marble gate to the Itimad-Ud-Daulah, aka the Baby Taj. We loved the detailed inlay work and how quiet and peaceful it was around the monument.

* Our driver brought us to a "marble institute" where we got to see how the tiny semi-precious stone pieces for the inlay in the Taj Mahal was made. Yup, it's still made the same way and looks like a lot of difficult, painful work. It surprised me how much Froody liked the marble work, and we bought a couple of souvenirs.

* Next day we went to the Jama Masjid in Fatehpur Sikri fort. The Jama Masjid is a huge mosque. The fort had a palace and other rooms full of beautiful carvings. Oh, better pic of the gate.

* The. Taj. Mahal. It's one of those place I NEVER thought I'd ever see. It's more beautiful than I expected. It's a tomb for one woman, the favorite wife of Shah Jahan.


* Also saw some Egyptian vultures when we were there.

* Froody ate all of this huge thali- metal plate with different types of breads, rice, and sauces.

Traveling. Is. Work.

I know. You're sitting there, reading this and you're thinking, "No way is what you're doing work." I know you are and it's OK. But I'm here to tell you that long-term traveling is work. Really. It must be, because Froody and I are tired a lot the time.

Part of it is doing all the actual stuff you wanted to do in that country. Sometimes this requires getting up early- butt-early according to Froody. You get up early to catch a plane, train, or sunrise. Or safari or tour. Or bus. Or check out because you checked in at 6:30am and the hotel has a 24hr check in/out policy.

Part of it is all the learning you do. Where is the hotel? Where are the restaurants? How much should a taxi/tuk-tuk/rickshaw cost? How do you say "hello," "good-bye," and "thank you" in this language? What is the exchange rate? How do you get there? Is this a large or small bill? Where is the bus station? What are we doing here? How badly are we being ripped off? Are we still on budget?

Part of it is just dealing. It gets tiring saying "no thank you" all the time. And I feel bad because I'm probably offending 1 in 50 people who are truly trying to help and not sell me something. Not to mention dealing with all the cultural differences, like giving up my personal space and wondering where all the women are. Or trying to make room for the mother and two boys seated next to me on the train. (Mom only bought one seat, so she's half on mine.) And, it's hard having beggars grab me. And, it's hard when the child beggars are not begging for money but for whatever food you just bought. And begging for money.

And dealing with each other. Sometimes Froody gets grumpy and it takes all my energy
not to get angry with him. Sometimes I get cranky and it takes all my energy not to take it out on Froody. Sometimes we get on each other's nerves and there's nowhere to go to get away from each other.


Froody and I like to blog and that takes time. So does uploading all the pictures Froody takes. So does packing up in order to leave the hotel. So does writing postcards. And if we decide not to do anything, we feel guilty because shouldn't we be seeing the sights?

Anyway, this is a lot different than a regular vacation. But, I'd do it again. :-)