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How people treat you is their karma.
How you react is yours.
-Wayne Dyer
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why hell-O there!!
can't believe that i only found time to update this blog one time last month!! that is directly a result of travel, TRYING to keep up with my marathon training, making sure to get as many autumn climbs in as possible before the weather slides away AND of course, my new long-hours position as "educational team manager" (will look good on a resume, but had been a LOT of extra work!).
So, excuses out of the way, let me try to recount the last few weeks.... the obvious highlight to be our week-long trip to Hong Kong and Macau over Korean Thanksgiving!!
Fall came fast and it has been made VERY apparent that summer has left the building! We dropped probably 40 degrees (F) as a daily average in the last month! school has been busy, crazy and AWESOME all at the same time. My prediction was right and we are in fact heading it a wonderful direction with the new staffing - gaining student enrollment all the while!
Weekend nights in Daejeon have been long and eventful but without anything extraordinary to write home about a couple weeks later... SO.... let's get right into the highlight of the last few months (or longer)........ CHINA!!
This was not your ordinary China visit however; we didn't see the Great Wall, or any temples, or eat tons of Chinese food or even see that much Chinese culture to be completely honest! this was a trip to the "World City" of Hong Kong and the Asia's "Las Vegas", Macau!! Hong Kong and Macau are special regions of China where they are actually kind of an independent nations but still provinces - maybe kind of like Guam is to the U.S.? You do not need a Chinese visa to enter, they each have their own currency and they are islands off of the mainland. The passport flooded with stamps as you hop between the two and even on our layover in Beijing each way!
At first it was to be me and muc heading over there just the two of us, later to meet up with Sarah who would be coming back to Asia after a visit home to Alabama. At the last minute (almost literally) our Korean-American buddy Jason booked some airfare and hoped for the best!! After some confusion at the airport, multiple flight delays and a LONG run through the Beijing airport to make our connection (isn't it ALWAYS at the last possible gate???), we arrived and Hong Kong on time and with Jason following just 20 or 30 minutes behind us.
after the long day of traveling chaos (it's always more fun that way!) we needed a beer before we even left the airport! this was our first taste of the Chinese currency and cost of living... about a dollar for these tall boy TsingTao's!!!
We navigated our way through a bus ride, a subway trip with 2 transfers and then the city streets following directions from our couch surfing host who we'd (of course) never met, Sean. We got there fine but then got no answer when we knocked on the door. We labored to find a payphone and hoped that we had left him a message but we really had no idea what we were doing. we sat outside the apartment complex and waited for a bit. We tried to figure out which room would be his from the outside counting up to the sixth floor and then saw a face peering out the window down at us. "Sean?!" we yelled and he motioned for us to come up. We had found our place!!! he was also hosting a German and a Czeck guy. we had a couple beers as we got to know each other in his tiny flat and then crashed on the floor of his main room. The next morning, we felt quite a bit of an imposition as his poor mother got ready for work around us at 6 in the morning! we made plans to meet up with Sean for the evening but headed to find a hostel for the next night.
We decided to spend the day by cruising over to Macau and had an absolute RIOT!! the short time that we had there became more of a planning and preparation day for our imminent return. We priced hotels and got the lay of the land between partying and gambling all the while!! Sarah would HAVE to come and see this place. It is JUST like Vegas in many ways but had enough differences to still know for certain that you were NOT in southern Nevada. Anyways, the real stories from Macau will come up soon here on our return overnight visit.
So we would head back to Hong Kong in time to meet up with Sean and the Czeck guy - who called himself John for the sake of not having us butcher his real name. We headed into downtown Hong Kong - aka, the most diverse nightlife scene I have ever been a part of. we threw down on a hooka at a 'bacco bar had a couple of dirt-cheap street beers, a kebab and finally got ready for the real get-down. Having been inspired by what looked like a traveling cast of RENT dancing in the streets, we decided to shred a dance-floor of the small, narrow but long bar with the loudest music. Jason rocked us with some tequila and we took over the dance floor - entirely and completely! The motto of the night clearly had become, "we'll never seen any of these people again..... LET'S PARTY."
The shsisa bar, Downtown Hong Kong. Jason, muc and Sean left to right.
The tiny streets feel like a deep valley between the TOWERING buildings on either side, people moving and smiling all around you, the tightly packed bars have about 15 feet of street front each. lights, beer, dialects, music, vibe - this is Hong Kong!!
Jason taking in the views on Repulse Bay Beach - the most misleading name since Iceland.
We were out until probably 5 that night and came back to the hostel to find our bags had been neatly placed in our newly acquired room as promised by "Momma", the owner of our hostel who obviosly lived there in a room no bigger than a closet. As a matter of fact, no rooms in Hong Kong were bigger than a closet. The hotel rooms literally the size of a decent walk-in closet and the bathroom so small you'd have to sit sideways to do your buiness because the whole room was barely as wide as the toilet! Elevators we no bigger than 4 by 4 feet but somehow crammed 6 to 8 people in them regularly. I hadn't thought it was possible to have a city feel more Asian than Seoul, but HK blew it out of the water!!!
He headed for the beach on the next day and it was some much needed awesomeness and relaxation! a heaven-sent Pizza Hut saved us from the rain.
After the beach i had the excited pleasure of going to meet Sarah at the airport!!! My timing was luckily perfect and I met her just as she was walking through customs!! we made our way to the hostel and exchanged a handful of stories on the way.
Out for drinks and watching some incredible classic rock cover bands from the best seat in the house! this calls for shots!! (thanks muc!)
I was excited to get to tell Sarah the good news. We were going back to Macau the next morning!! she'd never been to vegas and had no idea what she was in for!! away we went as promised and a few hours later were checking into the Hard Rock Hotel in Macau!!!!! it didn't take long to get excited about what was in store for us after we walked into our strip-view 25th story hotel room - what would have been considered a suite in many places.
look closely. reflection shot! :)
taken from our window!
We went and saw a Cirque Du Solei show at the Venetian. It was mind-blowingly entertaining - especially condering the ongoing buzz and bottle of rum we snuck into the show with us. Here's us with some of the venue workers after the show.
Our one night in Macau was for the RECORD BOOKS. I have absolutely no idea how we did not have a visit from security to our room, how we managed to stay awake until 8 in the morning given the frequency and volume of alcohol, and i certainly have no idea how i actually WON a couple hundred bucks at the hold'em tables at 7 something AM after all this. There were fuzzy bits, but one thing that i know is.... it will forever be a night that i want to repeat!!!!The next morning we got back to HK and had about 24 hours left in our stay! we spent our time doing some essentials...
Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. They do a nightly show where the buildings light up kind of in sync to the music playing on the speakers on our side. It was pretty cool but had been built up too much in our heads that it turned out to be a bit of a let-down.
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The subway system was hyper-efficient. You could get anywhere in the city within a couple of blocks. you have to transfer a lot, but everything is self-explanatory and you never wait more than 3 minutes for a train!! it was, however; BUSY. much moreso than Seoul's subway system even which i thought to be crazy.
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Wildest subway moment of my life: last time on it... heading to the airport during rushhour and we're on a transfer at their central station. We are coming down the escalator into what looks like a human zoo - backpacks and Sarah's massive suitcase along for the ride. we get to the bottom of the escalator and realize that there is NOWHERE to go. The ground below us is still moving and there are bodies stopped in front of us. We have no say in the matter as we're piled on their backsides and then start to feel the people behind us getting piled onto us. No one can stop, but no one can go!! we're piled in there like a pop concert floor just leaning against the people next to us to keep ourselves standing as more and more people are streaming down the escalator behind us. we looked back and saw people bailing - jumping the railing trying to get off of the escalator and someone else must have wisely hit the emergency brake. a few minutes later we were packed on a train in much that same fashion until we got near the airport. I'll never forget how small and helpless it made me feel to just be one ant in the herd that day. Truly was a classic travel moment so far in my life.
muc packed on in at Hong Kong Central Station, September 2010.THIS IS HOW YOU HONG KONG!!!
I've just started my 8th month in Korea and life has never been better!! work, school, play, training, frisbee, climbing, friends, relationship................. it's very obvious to me that this has been the best decision of my short life so far! I can't wait to see what comes after this!!!!!!
Thanks for reading my journal! :) GO TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
