blog.marcwiesner.com

It took me a week, but I finally got out of Guangzhou. After a week in Hongkong I decided to continue my route north and get into China proper. After a night in Guangzhou, I felt I was good to move on but was told at the train station that because of all the rain they’d been getting, the rail ways north had been damaged and would be out of service for at least a few days. Feeling the need to get out of Guangzhou, I asked the ticket seller where I could go. She checked her computer, briefly dangled Fujian infront of me, and told me the only place available was Hainan Island. I passed and took a late train back to Kow Loon. A train and bus later and I was surprising Max by showing back up at his door.

After a few more days in Hongkong they had the rail lines fixed and I returned to Guangzhou where I learned a lesson about booking tickets in advance; I could get a ticket, but I’d have to wait two days. The first hostel I checked into was not pleasant. Their hostel section was booked and I had to rent a double. The plus side was that with two beds in the room I could pick the one with less bugs. I was able to sleep without them bothering (or getting on) me but it was still a hard night’s sleep and I was frequently visited by feelings of homesickness for California, Taiwan, and Hongkong. Places where I could feel comfortable and knew people. The following day I checked out early and spent a few hours wandering the city looking for a better hostel only to end up at the place I spent the night the previous week before heading back to Hongkong. My room mates were a German fellow and a Taiwanese guy, both experienced backpackers.

When the time had come for me to board the train, I had the fun of trying to work the conductor for an upgrade to a sleeper instead of the seat that I had. For a 12-hour train ride, I think it was worth it. While waiting for a conductor to be free, I made friends with some of the others waiting in the vestibule. One who eventually showed up spoke better English than I spoke Mandarin and was kind enough to help me get a sleeper. A long train ride later and I’m now in a nice hostel in Wuhan. Next stop is going to be Anhui for a mountain and then, depending on where I can go, either Huangzhou or Shanghai.

Stories and pictures from Wuhan and pictures from Guangzhou soon (I hope). Most of my TW and HK pix are up here.

I’ve been in Hongkong for four days now. Had I come here before Taipei, I probably wouldn’t have been so impressed by what Taipei has going on at night. There seems to be a perpetual daylight through most of the island; enough light spills out of buildings, stores, and street lamps to make it easy to reed in the middle of a multiple lane road. So many of the people I see are young that I wonder where the power behind this economic dynamo lies. Can that youthful population that puts such a high priority on play house the creativity to keep the economy bouncing?

Play can take a few forms. Clubs, bars, and lounges each have specific uses. Karoake too is popular. Nighttime eating and drinking are always available. Beaches and BBQ is there, but that seems to be more enjoyed by the New Territories crowd than HK Island night-youth. The island’s nightbclub district, Koo Lam Fong seems to be a glowing, alcohol moist mecca with no closing time and a reputation so widely known that it might actually be more filled with foreigners than Cantonese.

FIFA is big business over here. In Taiwan I was told that I looked like a German soccer player and in
Hongkong I had a waiter come up to me and say “go Italia!.” From the celing of the HK metro one sees gold-and-white soccer balls hanging and a giant ball adorns the courtyard of Hongkong’s Time Square building.

Max has told me that people of Hongkong take nearly opportunity to celebrate, even importing St. Patric’s Day. I have to wonder what wil replace the World Cup as an excuse for play now that Italy has won.

I’ve started to upload pictures to http://blog.marcwiesner.com/albums . None from HK yet, but I’ll fix that when I can ^_^

Okay….there’s a crazy lot to do in Taipei. The other day I saw Taipei 101. The view from the top? Awe-inspiring. As in awesome with a capital "A". So what I had originally planned on being a two day stop over that turned into four before I left is now eight nights in Taipei. For the past couple of days I was thinking of getting a two month teaching thing so I can stay longer and support myself, now I’m considering a one year thing since that seems to be what everyone is looking for. A year in Taiwan. I could easily pimp that. Turns out I really like Taiwan. I haven’t seen nearly everything within Taipei, much less the rest of the islands (not to mention the surrounding ones ^_^ ).

I’ve been thinking about the humidity and heat here. First, most buildings (even cafes with open street corners) are air-conditioned and quite comfortable. Exiting buildings and the MRT, though, it seems that the heat and humidity come at you like a wall. There’s no real transitional period. Walking into a building you feel a rush of cold air bathing you, walking out, it’s hot air. A form of equilibrium, maybe. But the tropical climate seems to inspire growth everywhere it’s possible. Plants growing from cracks, columns, even enveloping walls of buildings. I’m not sure if they were planned, but they seem to have made themselves at home on most of the older buildings.

I’ve found some great placed to eat here. A veggie place where I can get a big bowl of stinky tofu soup for about $3 USD. The BEST coffee I’ve had for $1 USD is on the corner of the block where I’m staying. Next to that I can get a steamed bread and soy milk for a bout $1. Down the street is a noodle cart next to a tea shop. Zhong dan dan mian (the veggie noodle bowl I had this morning) for 50 qian and an iced ginger black tea for 25 qian made that breakfast about $2.50 USD. Yea….a guy can get comfortable ^_^ .

Still trying to get pictures off my SD chip. Hope to have some soon.