is the king of hong kong called King Kong?

This is me on the great wall... any my rock (dava has the other half)

Its easy to get caught up in the travel, and to miss the other mediums that are going on. For instance, in the past 24 hours I have met the former “president” (chairman) of Hong Kong, and listened to a panel discussion from prominent scholars about war; not to mention my bed was made by some Filipino servants this morning (KB), and I am about to munch on some midnight grilled cheese. And this is the dreary down time between China and Vietnam. I am glad to have survived China, and with a new aura of recklessness I am about to tackle my first third world country.

China Day 1:

So heres the scene: Theres a freaking deluge, we are on a mile or so long industrial pier, and Chinese people don’t halt for anyone. Getting off the ship and to real land was the first real daunting and dangerous task in China, maneuvering around cranes and semis provided for some good fun way into the wee hours of the night. I hit the town with my friends; (Jake, Jade, Aaron, Brian, Joe) to do a mountain hike. Due to mudslides this was canceled, so we spent 7 hours wandering. In the process we had 2 feasts (totaling 6 bucks per person, combined), dipped into dozens of shady alley ways, and got lost in the red light district of Qingdao. It was awesome. Even with the massive amounts of German architecture, China proved to be a different world from Japan, in the sense that what you see is never what you actually get. For instance, even the nicest streets, with the nicest shops had impoverished squares within the quarters where numerous people lived in shanties. When urban conglomeration meets super poor, some interesting things happened. This would be a reoccurring theme for China, the presence of the 4^th world. Where first world citizens, live, breathe, and associate with third world neighbors. Im sure Delhi will be worse, but Qingdao and Beijing are all I have for now. That night I hit some clubs with some other friends… Club Feeling, and Club Babyface. Feeling was apparently a Gay/Prostitute bar. I got hit on by a Chinese dude… it was awkward. Awkward was Qingdao.

Day 2:

There are generally 2 types of people in my life right now. People I like, and people I don’t like. People I like preferred China to Japan… People I don’t like hated China. This is why I don’t like them… and heres why I like the previously mentioned.

Beijing is the most fantastic city I have ever been to. It takes more than 3 hours to traverse the city limits by car, and the air while flying in looked like a dome that was trapping in millions of farts… but the sights in China were nothing short of amazing.

Flight to Beijing.

Lunch at a Chinese Buffet (with free all you can drink beer???, and no, it was not better than yank sing)

The Summer Palace is a complex with a lake the size of Conroe, and temples galore… The thing about it is though, that some emperor built all this in 15 years for his mother. Id say that ranks among the best mothers day gifts ever. My mom is lucky to get a card and a plastic bracelet from me… a freaking city is another ballpark.

Dinner: Peking duck at one of the most famous restraints in Beijing. Onion, Chive and Egg wrap from a local vender as well (aka, a guy in an alley way with a griddle).

Night: went to eh club districts with some folks. The actual nightlife wasn’t as fun as the way we got there. After another all you can drink restaurant, the folks I was with got rowdy (inspired by Dr. Chuck, who never ceased to buy students cases of beer, he even did this at 10 am on the way to the great wall) and convinced a chartered bus driver to take us to some clubs. On the way a pee break happened. It happened at a park on a major road in downtown Beijing. My first day in communist china, and my friends are peeing on public land. Some girl goes behing a shack, steps in what seemed to be human shit, and tracked it back onto the bus. The hilarity of it all, mixed with the putrid smell of human shit… set the tone for china. After a few hours at Bar Blue, I went with my friends Aaron and Robin to explore the City. We decided that Tiananmen at midnight would be a good idea; and it was. The eerie nature of it was unlike anything I had ever witnessed. Gaurds were everywhere, and people where not to be seen. Every doorway and side street was well patrolled. I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly was going on behind these doors, and in these buildings, and why the hell there aren’t any people around. We got followed by a cop, and for a few moments a cop car, and got the hell out of dodge by walking down an abandoned alley a few blocks away. With the safety level strangely increased, we made our way to a taxi and to sleep. For the first time in my life, I was sexed out by my room mate, so I spent a few hours in the lobby of my hotel reading the book of Samuel and the story of David. The interesting thing about this was his relationship with Saul. And the jealousy Saul had at the witness of Davids piety and love for God. I wonder how this is prevalent in our world today and whether or not even the most non-religious of folks are envious of those who love God. Think about it.

Day 3:

I have been many places in my short life. The Eiffel Tower, and Stonehenge, and Chichin Itza, but I have never been to a place that far exceeded even my most glorious of expectations. This day, that changed.

The great wall of China, was in a word. Great. I hiked a portion of it that gives you eternal “hero status” and did so in about an hour and a half (3 round trip). The view (from the highest point on the wall) gave the impression that I was on the top of the world, and that If I looked hard enough… I could see my house in Houston. Too bad the world is round. The path I chose was not very touristy and to this point involved the least amount of human interaction (I went alone, cause that’s how I roll), so the ginormity of it all was not hindered in the slightest. There, on top of the world, was the most beautiful place I have ever been.

After munching on 4 grilles cheeses with tall texas toast… I have been inspired further to spew a bunch of junk that nobody will read. Grilled Cheese Challenge = inspiration for non-creative blog material.

After shredding the wall I went to the silk market and bought everything that I even slightly wanted. The bargaining process was ridiculous (parying 5-10% of what they originally asked for), and I spent 30 US dollars on some sick goods. From here, the adventure begins when I tried to get back to the hotel with my friend Robin.

We cant hail a cab, so we hop on a few subways, and then wind up at Tianamen. From here we decide taking a Rickshaw will be a good idea. BAD FREAKING IDEA. They proceed to take us (2 drivers, one of us in each of their seats) to the Hutton district. Which is pretty much the most impoverished area of Beijing. While through vacant back alleys with dilapidated houses and stray dogs… they come to an abrupt stop. They tell us they are done for the night and that we can walk to our hotel, I disagree… they try to charge us 600 yuan (100 or so dollars, they originally told us the fare was 6yuan), so I tell them to screw off and hand him ten. He doesn’t take it so I zip up my money pouch. He grabs my arm, I shake him… he grabs my arm again, and my money belt… so I start cursing loudly, and shouting “no”, and then look at Robin and yell, “lets go”, and we bolt the joint, running down alleys and away from where they were at. We got away without paying and caught the nearest local street and a cab.

Day 4:

Today we went to the forbidden city, walked around Tianamen square, went to a sweet Lama temple in Beijing, and capped off the night with an acrobatic show that rivals cirque de sole. I could ramble about the day, or tell you some thoughts I had today.

I spent a lot of time pondering the worship of false idols and the differentiation between prayer and the offering of a sacrifice. For instance, people at temples kneel before large and small images of the Buddha and pray. I am okay with this. People also place incense and fruit and water at the feet of such images… I don’t buy into this. I think that if my intentions are correct that I can kneel and pray to my God, even though I don’t think my God is the same God being worshiped by others present. I however cannot read exodus and think that I can offer goods at the alter with correct intentions on worshiping my God. So, I love praying at temples, but do so sternly with the intention of glorifying God ( I think I do at least, I guess God really knows my heart though) (capital G) and not doing the actions and bows and all the mumbo jumbo to the god (little g) of the people worshiping along side.

Day 5:

We woke up and went to the Temple of Heaven, which was in the “central park” of Beijing. It was Sunday morning so there were large groups of people dancing, hacky sacking, singing (amature singing hour, there were like 300 people all chillin around and singing, once I got a hold of the tune I tried to sing along, however my deficiency at Mandarin allowed me to just make an ass of myself) and playing. The temple itself was nice because it was a slice of simplicity and peace in the middle of a huge freaking city. After this we caught our flight down to Hong Kong. The airplane had a video camera on the outside, so we could watch the ground from the nose of the plane, also there was free beer on the flight (wtf right?)… as a whole the willingness to let people get hammered at any hour of the day is ridiculous.

Hong Kong according to Wikipedia has the nicest skyline in the world. I definitely believe it. After hitting Pizza hut and watching the nightly light and lazer show (that is themed and synchronized to really bad classical music) I went downtown with some friends. This was one of the most hopping club districts I have ever even heard of. Andre 3000 was there, and so were about 400 kids from our ship, matched with 1000 locals or so. Really, the bars were hopping, but the party in the street was the scene. Until about 4:30 in the morning I danced in the street, in the pouring rain, with hundreds of strangers and good friends. Good fun eh?

Day 6:

I woke up early and made all the phone calls I had to make. I absolutely loved talking to Dava (I never ever don’t enjoy talking to her, and we talked for a massive amount of time), and Nikolas, and my family. After a Kolache from 7-11 and a ferry ride I got out to Lantau island, where we (me & Anthony) saw the largest bronze Buddha in the world (in fact the Taxi station said “taxi to giant Buddha”, and a monastery, and this thing called the “wisdom path” that was 38 massive trees cut vertically in half with Chinese symbols on them, in a nice garden. I headed back to the town, where I hit golf balls from a triple decker driving range, sat on the market street in a really shady restraint and people watched for a long amount of time. I got back on the EXPLODER and sailed out of HK in style. The cities lights never ended, and the massive amounts of public buildings (some where 100,000 people live in a few blocks) were absolutely amazing. I think in the future I would love to do some sort of work studying and researching huge housing developments, because of the concentrations of people I have witnessed so far. Also, HK gets a rap for being a huge skyscraper town, but really it’s a beautiful place with hundreds of islands, all very lush, with exception of the downtown, which still has a massive mountain range less than a few miles from the bay.

China was far more memorable than Japan because of the awe inspiring nature of the sights, the realness of the cities, and the disparity it had from any place I have ever been before. I fully plan on working in HK at some point in my life. But, that’s another story. Vietnam and Cambodia in the next few days. BRING ON THE THIRD WORLD.

One love,

Tal