And I’ve lost a wheel.

I’ve edited the 750+ pictures I took in China down to a more manageable 200 or so, and they are now online HERE. Please enjoy! Comments are welcome here.

ALSO, a note about photographs on What-What dot com: I’ve added the Lightbox application to my blogging platform, so you can now see photos embedded in blog posts in a nice pop-up form without going to a separate web page. Click on the above image for a sample.

Our last day in Hong Kong started late, as we got up slow and puttered about with breakfast (hard boiled eggs, toast, waffles with peanut butter and chocolate) and such. I think we’ve realized that Hong Kong is much better is you have money. A lot of money. Bags and bags of it. Trying to be budget and underground will get you nowhere here, or at least nowhere very exciting as a foreigner/tourist.

Though it was only cloudy where we got up, by the time we left it had started a light rain, so we went to a cafe at the Eaton Hotel where we could use computers with internet. We checked email and news for the last time, and I read the papers, including the Village Voice-esque HK Magazine.

Eventually the rain broke and we got on the metro to Hong Kong island (the Bridal Tea House is in Kowloon), then a bus to do a short hike along the “Dragon’s Backbone”, a ridge that runs along the east side of the island. Though we were hoping for views of the sea, it was fogged in; nevertheless we had a good walk. After the rains the flower and plant life seemed so alive, and as the path wove through some very dense forest, it felt like being in a rainforest. We saw many large and pretty moths and butterflies, as well as countless shimmering spiderwebs.

The walk took a couple of hours before heading down into the lazy surfer town (and obvious expat enclave) of Shek O. We got some chips and a weird lemon chew thingy and hung out on the beach for awhile just watching the locals and some kids (and a few mangy stray dogs).

Heading towards the end of our last day, we went back to Tsim Ta Tsui and stumbled upon a shopping district that reminded me of Broadway in downtown Manhattan. I bought a shirt there; in fact I’d wanted to buy several, but either the sizes were bad or they cost too much. Again, Hong Kong is best with lots of money to burn.

For dinner we found a south Indian restaurant mentioned in HK Magazine. The food was great; very new to both of us and delicious, but eating spicy the night before a (very long) plane flight was probably not the best idea. Still, the only illness I’ve felt in the whole trip has been a scratchy throat I’ve had since getting to Hong Kong, which is I think due to all the rain of late. Conversation was subdued - what do you say after being in the same space constantly for 17 days?

We went to the hotel and packed up our stuff. I nearly passed out from food coma and finishing the pálinka, but we headed out after all, late once again and too tired to go back down to Tsim Ta Tsui to the bars we’d seen down there earlier. We bought some drinks at 7/11 and walked the market on Temple Street for the umpteenth time, though I finally gave in and bought some sunglasses. And with that we went to sleep in our tiny room in the Bridal Tea House. No wild night of partying, no big speeches or reflective monologues, just tired.

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Day 18: May 23, 2008

Got up at 7:15, swiped a few slices of bread from the dining area and caught the A21 bus to the airport. Sat on top, as we have with all the buses in Hong Kong. No problems, no traffic. The weather was beautiful - just right to see us off.

The end.

Clouds but no rain when we woke up (slowly) at around 8:30. We packed up our things and went down to look for breakfast around 10am. Not much available, of course. There’s a buffet at the hotel, but it costs way too much, and we feel like we’re overspending here anyway. We got some bananas and sweet breads the night before, plus a bit of yogurt, so that tided us over for the morning.

We walked over to Mong Kok station and took the metro to Hong Kong island, Central. From here we walked over to the peak tram and rode up, hoping to get some views before the forecasted rain began. It ended up still being pretty cloudy, so the furthest we could see was the Central/Admiralty area of Hong Kong island. The temperatures were a bit cooler here, but still quite humid, so we walked around a bit at the top. (The “Sky Pavilion” or whatever they call the viewing platform costs extra money - a scam and a half when you consider that the same views can be had for free. But a sucker is born every minute, as I noted when watching some German tourists buying a cheesy print of the peak view from a vendor at the top. I’m sure the postcards move quick as well…) Soon we got back on the tram and went down.

From there we headed to the excellent botanical gardens, surely a highlight of Hong Kong. It’s free - an obvious benefit - but (thankfully) doesn’t therefore skimp on quality. Gorgeous flora, from flower trees to all kinds of varied bamboo, ferns, palms and flowers lined clean, well-kept pathways leading by aviaries and mammal cages. The amazing birds ranged from gray-necked and red-crowned cranes to stunning Macaws and Golden Pheasants, which look Egyptian with their casque of bright yellow-orange feathers. I’d never seen any like it.

There were several species of monkey in the mammal area, including a trio of large orangutans munching on fruit, some hyperactive ring-tailed lemurs, some of whom had babies hanging on their backs, and other apes swinging around by their arms only, eagerly anticipating lunch. Great stuff! We also saw a 9-meter-long boat and some Chinese alligators, which I believe they (also) eat.

Speaking of which, we ate lunch at a noodle shack in a market side-street near the famous “escalator to the mid levels”. We had checked out the escalator itself, but hunger was strong by this point so we didn’t spend much time on it. The noodles were with veggies (and “fresh fish balls” in mine) but the broth was definitely chicken stock. We talked about how we had so little problem in general finding vegetarian food on the mainland but in Hong Kong it’s virtually non-existent outside of Indian restaurants. I think it all adds up to the economic disparity. In China, most people are (or come from) poor farming backgrounds, so meat is less available and vegetables standard fare. Ironically enough, probably all the meat in Hong Kong comes from the mainland.

After the gross-out, we browsed the market, deciding against buying more trinkets. While there was really no way to know it in advance, things were far cheaper in mainland China, if you could bargain, that is. Even with our modest skills, we could get some good stuff. But in Hong Kong, suddenly we felt more than a bit miserly, even switching hotels from the swank Metropark to the matchbox-sized rooms at the Bridal Tea House to save $50 or so.

Anyway, we wandered around for a bit in Central, then jumped on the double-decker tram to ride across town. It’s a great thing to do, as a way to see the main avenues and buildings of Hong Kong proper. We sat on top, in the front, so I could take lots of pictures out the window. It’s a truly amazing city, and I could see why so many travel guides call it one of the world’s must-see cities. I already know I will be back.

Back in the botanical garden, I’d found myself wondering, no doubt due to the many, many skyscrapers all around us, how 9/11 even happened. It’s so crazy, so bold, so fantastical, to be truly astounding to this day. It probably always will be, and from that day I knew it would be the defining moment of our generation [along with the first black president, I hope], much as the assassinations of JFK and MLK were to my parents’.

We had hoped to go up in a building to get another view, but it was a hotel and we didn’t ask. Instead we had a kind of gross drink at a cafe chain and then headed back on the tram towards central. We got off around the Star Ferry terminal and caught the boat back to Kowloon. It’s still a bargain at just HK 2.20 (US $0.25) and has good views.

On the other side, we saw a group of bicyclists getting ready for what looked like a critical mass ride, which struck me as incredibly cool for such a bike-unfriendly city. These guys are the hardest-core. We got on the metro and headed back to the Metropark Hotel to collect our bags (and pay the bellboys for it) and bring them over to the Bridal Tea House (great name, huh?). Our double wasn’t much more than a closet with a bed. It was difficult to turn around in the bathroom.

After a rest, we went out into the Temple Street area again to look for food. Again, there wasn’t much to be had that wasn’t full of meat. E was getting irritated and our endemic indecision mode was in a tough place. I just wanted a beer at first, so we sat at a crab shack for that (or was that the previous night? Writing several days after the fact, I lose track of details [try writing weeks after the fact - Ed.]). Things started closing up, so we wanted to just bite the proverbial bullet and get something at the one (not cheap) vegetarian restaurant we’d found, but by the time we got there it was closed. So we went to a “cafe”, which was like a diner, Chinese style, and E had a gross egg-and-tuna sandwich while I got a boring mushroom and greens w/rice dish for too much money. It was huge though, so I was very full. After that, we went back and crashed.

Fourteen [expletive] hours later, after no sleep due to the [expletive] roads they called “expressways” in a tiny bunk with one pee break, we finally arrived in Shenzhen, four [expletive] hours behind schedule. There was a flat tire in the middle somewhere, but I thought they’d fixed it pretty fast. The AC was either off (sub-tropical) or on (arctic). Our breakfast was cashew nuts.

Shenzhen is very industrial, and thus very forgettable. We had to take city bus 7 from the bus depot to Luhuo terminus and then walk across the border to Hong Kong. The differences were immediate and striking. Cleanliness. No spitting. Many people speak English, and many signs are in English. A huge metropolis. Electricity in the air. We had walked from communism to capitalism and ate vegetarian rice balls for brunch.

We were happy to have reserved a room two nights before, over the internet at the hotel in Yangshuo, as after the bus ride and lugging our increasingly heavy bags, things were getting tiring. We got to the hotel (the Metropark Kowloon, by far the swankiest join we’ve stayed in yet, with a pool on the roof that we unfortunately didn’t use due to the rain) without any problems. The metro system here works just like in Japan, with a distance-based fare system and turnstiles, and it’s clean and fast. We were a little taken aback by the eager bellboys, clearly hoping for tips. That’s something I know nothing about.

Room 725. Shower. Nap. It had been raining since Shenzen, with no sign of letting up, and we wore the North Fakes out and about. They didn’t work so well - eventually our shoulders were damp. I guess we got our money’s worth.

Dinner on the street was takoyaki (lots of Japanese food here) grilled squid with some sweet n’ spicy marinade/sauce. E wanted some fish balls so we got those too. We immediately noticed the lack of virtually any vegetarian options at almost any eatery. Whether restaurant or street vendor, it’s all chicken or pork, pork or chicken in every variety: noodles with pork trotters, chicken neck soup with chicken liver dumplings, even fish balls in chicken or pork broth. It seemed like veggies aren’t even in the diet! What a change from mainland China, and a total flip of what we expected of the two places, Hong Kong being the more cosmopolitan and all that.

Anyway, we poked around the Mong Kok area, checking out the night markets and stopping in a few more hotels to check prices. The YMCA is a fancy place in this town, and we were taken aback in general by prices, which were higher than both what the book and our online research had said. We opted to reserve at the Bridal Tea House Hotel for the next two nights, then went back to the Metropark, tired and wet, around 9pm and crashed out. We had bought some bread, cheese, fruits and hot chocolate at a nearby grocery and cafe, and we ate these with BBC world on TV (less censorship here than on the mainland) and then hit the sack.

When we woke up it was still raining. I felt a bit queasy from last night’s spicy food. We packed up our things and stowed the bags at the front desk, then wandered around and ate a couple of bananas and some bread before going to this bookshop/hostel that was mentioned in the L.P. Here we ordered a breakfast (they’re pretty much the same everywhere, for about the same price, but this one was significantly smaller than the one from M.C. Blues) and read up a bit about Hong Kong.

After waffling a bit about the bus tickets, and as the weather began to finally clear, we first went to the station, canceled the tickets minus a 10% fee and headed back towards the hotel, checking prices at a few tour operators along the way. While the bus station price to Shenzhen was over Y200, we’d been quoted Y130 from the lady at our hotel the night before, and used this as a starting point with the tour operators, whose prices generally started at about Y170. Apparently there are privately chartered buses in addition to the regular ones, which bring costs down. We found one place that could match the Y130 but not beat it, so we bought some ginger candies and returned to the hotel to think it over.

We asked Owen about tickets as well, and even though the lowest price we could find until then was Y130, he arranged for us to jump on the ESL student sleeper bus for Y100! What a guy. He had been so helpful the entire time, and now to do this really meant something to us, especially after all the other shady dealings we’d had. If you’re ever in Yangshuo, China, please go stay and/or eat at his place, the Cormorant Restaurant and Guest House, at the north end of West St (the main tourist drag).

With only half the day gone, and another five hours before the night bus, we rented some bikes at about 3:30pm (lime green mamacharis) and set off down the road towards moon hill (again, at Owen’s advice). The karsts, when you can see them, are really amazing, rising dramatically out of the ground like some subterranean giant’s fingers clawing up through the earth to snatch us. We were happy to just have some better weather and independent transportation - there’s nothing as freeing as a good old bicycle. There were lots of Chinese and more than a few western tourists also out and about on two wheels, and thus there were plenty of locals out hawking this or that trinket or foodstuff.

We stopped at one decrepit viewing platform before reaching moon hill. Seeing lots of signs for some cave baths, we took a dirt/mud road out a couple of kilometers to see if we could check them out for cheaper than the touts were offering, but we started feeling short on time so we turned back, opting to poke around Moon Hill village instead.

At the village, or rather on the way there, as she intercepted us by bicycle (Astounding! You think that with the extra speed you’ve lost them, but no - they’ve got it all figured out), a woman offered to cook us a meal of vegetables and rice in her home. First she asked something like Y40, but after first politely declining and looking through the village (nothing of interest), she again approached us and we accepted for Y20 - that’s under $3. We followed her behind some half built/destroyed buildings to a driveway and swatted at flies as she made our dinner from vegetables pulled from her garden over a wood-fired stove. She made a simple but decent meal of potatoes, carrots, greens and eggs with scallions and rice. Her son, returning from school, helped. We had to rush, and wished we could have talked with her a bit more (she spoke a few words of English). Part of her approach to us included breaking out a small photo album with pictures of other foreigners who’d done the same thing, making us wonder how often she did it. Just to imagine that this was profitable for her was tough, but she wouldn’t have accepted otherwise.

We made it back to the rental place just in time (they closed at 7pm and we needed our deposit to pay for the bus tickets), then wandered about town waiting for our bus. We happened to stop into a shop where they were selling “North Face” jackets, and we were able to bargain from his Y600 initial “discounted price”, which he insisted is what he charged even the Chinese tourists with, to Y300 for two rain jackets with removable fleece liners. I had to pay in US dollars ($23 - though we had to compromise on a disputed exchange rate) because we were running short of renminbi (the Chinese currency, also known as “yuan” or more commonly “quai”). Obviously the jackets were “North Fakes”, but hey, what could we expect for $23?

We eventually met up again with Owen, who took us to the bus station. Along the way he asked about the meaning of different rings on fingers (i.e. if a pinky ring means anything special - in China a ring on different fingers sends a certain message about the wearer’s relationship status and/or goals), and we asked him about his tour business and relationship (both of which are in Guilin). He told us that China is still very traditional and that it’s uncommon for couples to live together before marriage.

We were a little bit worried that there wouldn’t be enough room on the bus, but Owen’s connection had arranged it, and we got upper bunks near the back. We were so thankful to this guy; I even tried to give him some money ($20, which would have been way too much), but he wouldn’t accept it. He even stayed to wave goodbye. They were playing the end of John Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow” - the part when Chow Yun Fat is trying to save his girlfriend in a standoff and both are blinded in the firefight, then cannot find each other as they crawl through the blood-and-rain-soaked ground - on the bus. How prescient. The ride to Shenzhen would prove to be a nightmare.