Hong Kong day 2

Yesterday, Day 2, was the day we set out to take care of our visa requirements to be able to reenter and live in China for the last few weeks. We woke up early around 5:30 am and set out for Hong Kong Island from the express train that runs near our hotel near the airport. We got into town in the right neighborhood and found the building and eventually the office, but it was closed. We were kind of worried so we went up to this other immigration office with a huge line but I asked and it turned out to be just for Hong Kong, and they told us to go back to the Chinese one. We walked back thinking we had just got there too early and to our luck we got back and were about 3rd in line. After running through hoops and waiting around an hour, filling out some paperwork, ect, we found out that we did not need to renew our visas after all, since they are multiple entry visas to begin with. Ah well, at least we didn't waste our whole day doing this, and it's good to know or else we'd have to have waited until Monday to pick up our new visas, when we're supposed to be back Sunday to the school. But all is well and we are good to go. The trip to Hong Kong was still necessary because we have to exit and reenter China to reset our visa's 90-day-stay limit.

We ended up walking and taking the train around the city for the whole day, first going through another street market area that wasn't as good as the one yesterday. We just started walking and then found one of the cool parks in the city that contained a free plant conservatory and a free birdhouse to walk through, and a Greek style Olympic theatre/arena where people were taking some wedding photos. We found a Subway so I ordered a meatball sub and ate at a small park across the street.

EDIT:
I can't believe I forgot to mention this when I typed this post earlier today, but the coolest part of yesterday was probably when we both went to a beach and swam in the ocean - well, actually the South China Sea, but it still counts. It was really awesome and the scenery was great, and the water was obviously very salty.



Later on we went to the Walled City Park, which is a Walled-City Park, not just a Walled City-Park - sort of an historic park about an old part of the area that was a walled city.

For dinner we wanted to try some Japanese food so we went downtown and found a decent Sushi place. I only had sushi one time before so I didn't know what to get and nothing seemed too appetizing, but I got a couple of things and it was actually pretty good, and much cheaper than an equivalent sushi place in the US. Afterwards we decided to go see a movie at this huge shopping center place. We saw the new X-Men Origins Wolverine movie, and it was pretty good for a pulp action film. Afterwards walking back we found a street DVD dealer selling movies outside of the subway entrance, so I bought 3 movies for 50 HK Dollars - the X-Men movie I just watched, W. , and Slumdog Millionaire. I haven't seen Slumdog yet but I've heard it's pretty good, so I picked it up.

Today we are going to Macau and getting there from a ferry in the city.

An awesome day in Hong Kong

So now ends Rebecca and I's first day on our 4-day trip to Hong Kong, what a hell of a first day it's been. We got up earlyish at the school and took a motorcycle taxi to the Wuhua hotel across town to catch the bus that goes to Hong Kong. The ride was nice and took about 5 hours or so. Going through customs on both the Chinese and Hong Kong side was a breeze, and that's when we first started seeing a lot of people wearing breathing masks - I figure it's due to all this swine flu scare and people are being extra careful as SARS is still a recent memory. Walking around the city today, I'd say about 10% of people were wearing these masks, mostly employees of stores and whatnot.

After getting off the bus in the same neighborhood we got on the bus the first time in Hong Kong, we first went to get some money exchanged and the found a place to eat - a cool french-style sandwich shop. Rebecca was really excited to finally have a salad and got a tasty panini sandwich. Afterwards she also bought some sorta expensive Haagan Dass ice cream.

The whole day we've been going a few places around the city using the subway system, which is clean, orderly, and very easy to use and manuver around in. Hong Kong has a great public transit system. We did some shopping in the street markets where you bargain for deals. I ended up getting a chairman Mao 'zippo'-type lighter, a tie for my suit, and a cool traditional looking Chinese shirt and pants that looks like pajamas or something you'd do Tai Chi in.

For dinner we found a Pizza Hut and we shared a large stuffed crust pepperoni and olive pizza. Afterwards I found an ice cream and then we searched for a bar to get a drink, so I ended up getting a nice dark Guiness Stout to end the day.

I'm typing this from the 'executive lounge' of the 5-star Marriot hotel we are staying in for three nights. Rebecca's mom travels a lot for her job so she racks up points for hotels, so she's providing us the hotel with her points for free. So thank you a bunch Rebecca's Mom!!! This is the most classy place I've ever stayed - so it doesn't even have that typical 'motel' smell. We arrived here about an hour ago and it's awesome, and I'm planning to go use the 24 hour pool/spa after this. We're on the 15th floor overlooking the ocean, which I can't really see right now but I'm sure it will be stunning tomorrow morning. Didn't think I'd get into this when I signed up for going to China!

Tomorrow we go to get our visas renewed, which is the whole point of taking this side trip to Hong Kong. I can tell this is going to be an awesome stay in Hong Kong. I'll upload pictures after I get back 'home' to Shuizhai High School.

I just wanna ride my motorcy...cle

I've never driven (is that the right verb?) a motorcycle before in my life, until tonight. Well, it was a motor scooter, but it still counts right? Kevin let me try out his scooter earlier so I drove on it for about 5 minutes or so down the road and back to the school. Having so much experience with the physics of my acoustic motorbikes I had the basics of balance down so I was a pretty good driver. From the little bit I got to drive, it was very fun. It was an automatic transmisson, so all you had to do was twist the throttle handle - still want to ride a 'real' motorcycle with a manual transmission sometime and I'd like to do it here because all of the motorbikes have very small engines - great for beginners. Maybe some day I will get a motorbike...

As for my normal, human-powered bike, I've taken a couple of nice rides around town and a short ways out into the country side the past couple of days, seeing lots of cool sights and scenery. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous the past few weeks, so what better way to enjoy it than on a bicycle? As I've mentioned before, my bike here is heavy and slow, but still a joy to ride around - and I just keep in mind that it's good training for the riding I'll be doing when I get back, and that riding this old clunker now will make my bikes back home seem really awesome when I return. I plan on leaving it here in the apartment for the next group of interns to use, but I want to remove the sweet bell and take it home.

Yesterday Rebecca and I decided to head down to one of the parked-boat restaurants to get some good duck meat. While we were eating a man from one of the adjacent tables sat down at ours to talk to us and ask us a few questions, so we talked to him what we could with the little Chinese we knew. He gave me an expensive pack of cigarettes, and then told us that he would pay for our meal. Sweet! I should have ordered a beer if I would have known that would happen. I'll probably save the cigarettes for a gift back home or something.

Tonight Rebecca and I went out to dinner on another parked-boat restaurant with the headmaster of our high school, Mr. Chow, along with the English teach Lily who assists us, her husband Tom (who drove us to and from), the headmaster's wife (an English teacher at the school) and son, and some others from the school. The headmaster's son was about our age and he spoke English very well, so Rebecca and I spoke to him a lot during the meal. He wanted us to come visit him in Guangzhou, so we may take him up on the offer and try to go there our last weekend or something. He was very interested in and knew a lot about American culture, so we talked about a few things like music, movies, and how I really got into the show Prison Break since coming to China.

At the dinner tonight the headmaster brought a bottle of baijiu (bye ji-oh) and gave everyone a little bit. Baijiu is a very strong, clear grain alcohol. I love beer but I am not so much a fan of hard alcohol, but at least they didn't drink and toast as hard as the last time I had the baijiu with the other headmaster from the rural middle school. This time we could sip on it as little as we wanted after each toast, and not have to slam a shot. We had some interesting food for dinner, whole shrimp, some raw fish that wasn't bad and didn't taste raw, some little fried whole fish that weren't too bad either. I mostly stuck to the normal noodles for most of it - it was a good meal but not something I would want to have everyday.

Afterwards Rebecca and I walked downtown for some ice cream and then to the riverside area where they have dancing and carnival activities every night. I decided to try out this big inflatable cylynder that you can crawl into that was set in a shallow pool of water. I had some fun running, flipping, spinning around in it, though it wasn't the best idea on a full stomach. It was a ton of fun and I plan to do it at least one more time before leaving.



So we're set to go to Hong Kong this Thursday. We'll be leaving our city on a bus that leaves at 8 am and should arrive in Hong Kong sometime in the early afternoon. We'll be spending 3 nights in Hong Kong in our free hotel near the airport(thank you Rebecca's Mom!!!) and return to Wuhua (Shuizhai) Sunday. Our main purpose of the trip is to get our business visas renewed. Our visas are only valid for 90 days before a renewal, and we are in China for 100 days, so we have to exit the country to renew our visa and re-enter it, thus the trip to Hong Kong. We also plan to take a day to visit Macau, which is an old Portuguese colony and a short boat ride from Hong Kong. We plan on getting Japanese food, Pizza, and Portugese Food mainly, and whatever cool, good cuisine we come across in Hong Kong. And hopefully not Swine Flu...

May Day in Meizhou pt 2

Yesterday's trip to Meizhou was pretty amazing. Instead of taking a bus as Rebecca and I usually do, this time we got to go in a taxi provided by the school. We went with Kevin (an English teacher here) and his wife and left the school at about 8 am. The taxi we took was not a conventional taxi, but more of a personal taxi - it would be like me offering a taxi/rides service back home using my car. Martin explained this idea to us a couple weeks ago when we visited him in Huizhou - some people who own cars work as unofficial taxi drivers partly in order to escape some steep taxes.

For the first part of the day we visited a fairly posh tea plantation that was very touristy. It was about 15 miles or so outside of Meizhou. It was all on a mountain, so exploring the plantation/park we climbed some roads going up to mountain to see different shops, tea fields, and park areas. The scenery was beautiful and we had a few nice hilltop views, so I took many pictures.



After walking around there for awhile we headed back into Meizhou where we had lunch at good restaurant. I had one of my favorite Chinese dishes, fried tofu in some kind of sauce. The way Chinese meals work is that instead of everyone having their own individual plate with their own meal, all the food is in the middle of the table on a big lazy susan and each person has their own small bowl and spoon and a bowl of rice, so it's more like a family dinner.

After eating we drove a shopping district in the city where Rebecca and Kevin's wife went shopping and Kevin and I went separately, going to shop for DVDs and cameras mostly. I ended buying a few more good DVD movie collections. I browsed some cameras though I was not planning on buying, and Kevin ended up buying new digital camera.

I tried to call Rebecca's cell phone in order to meet up with them but her phone couldn't get service. Kevin called the taxi driver and we drove back to the place in the city where we split up, and we eventually found the girls there. It could have been much bigger of an ordeal but we lucked out.

Today I went to the mountain overlooking the city again, this time with Rebecca, Zhou Ting (I gave her the name 'Jodie'), a student I know from the high school and her little brother and sister. The three of them had their three bikes and I had mine, but Rebecca doesn't have one here so I offered to carry Jodie's little sister on my rear rack so Rebecca could ride her bike. It's a common site in China to see a person pedaling a bicycle while another person sits on the rear rack, both feet opposite the chain side. Luckily the girl was small so it wasn't very hard to pedal or balance. It was a short bike ride for me but fairly long for them, and I was ahead of them the whole time even though I was going much slower than I usually go. I guess I just like to bike fast.



I put new pics in Facebook album 9 and have the new Meizhou photos in album 10