We are gonna have a wing dang in Hong Kong

Here is the much belated blog update. I still don't have internet in my home (thanks Jiaotong University), so I am at a cafe updating (yes Nima, the sculpting in time cafe).

For now I am going to update the Hong Kong leg of the journey.

Liu and left Guanzhou on an express train that took us to Shenzen in about one hour. It goes like 150 miles per hour. We arrived and immedately purchased the train tickets to go from Guangzhou to Guilin in 4 days. The trains tend to sell out and I didn't think that Nima would apperciate his first traveling experience in china in a hard seat for 12 hours.

Liu and I walked around the city a bit and checked into the hostel. We were worried that we would have problems getting into Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong is part of China, it is like entering a foreign country. You have to go through customs, immigration, etc. to get into Hong Kong. In fact Liu had to get a special permit to enter Hong Kong. I was worried that since I had a residence permit in China they were going to give me hassle too. So I created and printed a fake plane ticket that said that I was going to be leaving Hong Kong 2 days later. Better safe than sorry. I ended up not even needing it. It did take almost 3 hours to cross the border. Total pain in the rear.

Once we arrived in Hong Kong (the first time Liu has ever been off mainland China) there was a very noticable difference. Everything was clean, roads weren't chaos, and the people were polite. We had asked a police officer in Shenzen the day before for directions and he pretended to ignore us until we got in his face and demanded directions (a perk of being a foreigner). In Hong Kong we asked a Police officer for directions and he walked up half way there and gave us the bus timetable. We went to some random little city because we were trying to avoid paying the expensive bus fare from the border. We happened upon a dragon festival competition. There were people from all over the world competing (including america). We still had a couple of hours to kill so we went for sushi before meeting Nima. Once we arrived at the airport, I was expecting Nima to be tired and wanting to rest, but he was amped. So we took the long bus ride to the hotel and then went walking around the town. We had an expensive diinner, that cost us 50 dollars that would cost maybe 10 dollars on the mainland. After dinner we went to an irish pub and had a few beers and watched some fake football (soccer) with some British blokes.

The next morning we woke up and headed from Kowloon island (where we were staying) over to Hong Kong island. Nima was all about the faries, so we took one over the harbor. We got dropped off in the middle of the city. We wandered around for a while, lingering in front of building that had their AC cranked up. It was really muggy there. Might of had something to do with the ocean, I am not sure. Anyway, we found a pizza joint and had some lunch. We wandered deeper into the city looking for the tram that runs up the mountain to Victoria peak. The tram runs at almost a 45 degree pitch for a section of the journey. Very steep. Luckily we got seats for the ride up. At the top there were awesome views of the city. We took lots of pictures (see below) from up top. After that we wandered around the city looking for a random little flea market that was in an alley in the heart of the city. We eventually found it. Nima found some sick Ray Bons in there. They lasted like 4 days before he lost them. I went with the Top Gun glasses. After that we took the subway back to the hotel for another shower, change of clothes, and R&R. We went out that night to watch the Light display. It was okay. The lights are mounted to the buildings across the harbor in Hong Kong and they are in time with some music. After that we had some middle eastern Gyros. Liu wanted to go shopping and Nima and I decided to go out drinking. The stories for this evening will be told on a person by person basis as they are not all family friendly.

The next day we packed up and headed to the train station to take the train all the way from Hong Kong to Guangzhou.

I will update with the next part of the adventure soon (hopefully sooner than later).

Phish food China style.

Our room in Hong Kong. The Hotel Benito. It has a nice Latin flair. See that small bed over there. Liu and I had to share it. Basically a single. Thankfully Chinese are little people.

Hong Kong at Night from Kowloon

Jackie Chan on the Walk of Stars. He is big time in hong kong.

Bruce Lee statue. I guess they didn't get the memo on the attempted assiginations on his life by the Chinese

Behind-the-Times Square

Subway in Hong Kong. Breeding ground for the next superflu? to be continued....

Can you read my mind? Liu take the damn picture I am sweating my *** off out here.

My question for Nima is this, "Does your grandfather know that you stole his shirt?"

As Courtney puts it, "that is sooo Asian of Liu"

Hong Kong in the daytime

Waiting for Nima at the airport in Hong Kong

Nima making time with my woman. It took us about 20 shots to get one where there aren't blurry ghosts in the picture. My camera isn't the best at night.

Liu looks like she is up to no good. again.

"No I didn't bring the map, I thought you brought the map"

Do you like the two men with Murses (man purse). That is so European of us.









A big building

Nima keep insisting that he wanted to ride a fairy. So we took the ferry instead.

Is this Phalic or is it just my perverted mind?

Again in the chaos of the Subway. It was nice because there was a subway stop about 200 feet from our hotel.

The view over the city from Victoria peak.

I look monsterous next to Liu.

Another shot from Victoria peak.

A view from the chitty.

Land of the Lost (Deqin) to a Cosmo City (Guangzhou)

Time keeps on slipping... Time to update. Time to travel. Time to see each city. There just doesn't seem to be enough time. Well here is the update from Deqin to Guangzhou.

To describe Deqin is difficult. I was trying to think of adjectives to describe the mountains as we went along through the passes. Then Liu blurted "It is all spectacular". That is about as good as it gets. In Shangri la we were waiting at the bus station to take the bus to Deqin and a taxi driver from Deqin asked us where we were going. He was driving back to Deqin and could offer us a faster and more comfortable ride in his taxi for about 5 dollars more than the standard bus rate. So we took him up on it.

About halfway we stopped for lunch and I had my first donkey meat. It was actually pretty good. There is a saying in China, "Dragon meat in Heaven, Donkey meat on earth".

In Deqin we noticed a big difference in temperature. We had to wear our long pants and fleece sweaters. The hotel that we booked was outside of town directly across the street from the massive Kawa Karpo mountain that is 22,000 feet above sea level. The valley at the base of the mountain is at an elevation of less than 10,000 feet. VERY big mountains. The frontside of the mountain is in Yunan and the backside is in Tibet. This is about as close as you can get to Tibet without a permit. Deqin is about 80% Tibetan people. So the culture, clothes, and food from Tibet are all there. The first night we were tuckered out from traveling and crashed out quickly. The next morning we went to the city and explored. We were going to try to hike up to the glaciers, but the trip would have cost about 700 RMB (about 100 US dollars) and that price was too steep for our budget. So we hiked up the river a ways and ate some yak meat at ta Tibetan joint. While we were walking around town, we found an awesome single lane market. They were selling live chickens, mystery meats, fresh produce, tea pots, trinkets, really just about anything you could imagine. The lane was only about 3 feet across and maybe 200 yards long. We got some great shots and pictures. That night we racked out early. Sleeping above 12,000 feet can take a toll on the body, I had some weird dream that I owned the Chiefs and decided that they would be better off playing badminton instead. So I was trying to convert my team from football shape to badminton shape with a rocky type montage. Weird dreams.

We headed to Guangzhou and stayed at Liu's friends house. The trip from Deqin to Guangzhou was a long one. First we took a bus from Deqin to Dali. It was supposed to be a 12 hour bus, but ended up being closer to 15 hours. We took a sleeper bus and it was pretty disgusting. The people in Deqin are pretty much at the end of the road. Not a lot of showers or hygiene going on there. On a sleeper bus, everyone takes off their shoes and the smell is... well... let's just say overpowering. Liu had a middle seat in the bus and I had a window. She thought she was going to puke from the smell (I had my head out the window), so we traded for a "little while". Needless to say she never relinquished the window seat back to me and I suffered for about 10 hours. In Dali we had a room waiting for us. We checked in at 3 am. Our next bus left at 7 am the next morning. So we had about 3 hours of sleep and hopped on the bus from Dali to Kunming. This was a 4 hour bus. In Kunming we had about 3 hours to kill before our Hard-Sleeper train to Guangzhou. That train was 26 hours. Luckily we had most of the train to ourselves the final 10 hours. So pretty much we traveled 45 hours during a 56 hour time frame. We were happy to reach Guangzhou.

In Guangzhou we were taken to a traditional Cantonese lunch by her friend. It includes Goose feet, goose stomach, chicken ankles, blood cakes, and an assortment of stuff I couldn't identify. Very interesting. The next day we went shopping at the knock off market. Liu was in heaven. She loves shopping. One interesting note. We were looking at sunglasses around 4 pm in a stall. All of a sudden the metal door started coming down with liu inside. She didn't react quickly and had to be pulled out of the stall by the attendant (she was almost trapped inside). We asked what was going on because they didn't close until 6 pm. They said that someone had seen the cops in the market, so all the shops selling the knock off items close down quickly. 20 minutes later they were all back open again.

That is about all for today. Nima is with us now in Hong Kong and we will update on this leg of the journey later.





Liu riding with the King















A lush valley between Shangri la and Deqin



















Donkey Meat

















RPG's alongside the road



















Mountains valleys oh my

















White Horse Mountains
















Old Growth tree with Licen growing.

Inspirational point

At Sunset in front of Kawa Karpo

Tibetan prayer flags attached to a tree

Wideshot of the mountains out of our hotel window. Remember this is early August and there is still a lot of snow

Prayer altars in Deqin

Little old lady and I. Traditional outfit

Cool Tibetan guy who owned the resturant we ate at.

Prayer flags zig-zagging the mountainside

Another picture out the hotel window

Liu and I at sunset

The alley in Deqin where we went shopping

Fresh produce

Another shot in the market

Liu negotiating the price of some fruit.

The old town

Lijiang and the promised land - Shangri La

I am feeling a bit too lazy to type today, so I just recorded a video blog. Just hit the play button and enjoy

Liu next to a canal. Notice her 1970's Japanese tourist floral pattern dress. nice











Woman using a loom to make scarfs





On a street walking towards downtown


















Black clouds rolling down the valley. Black clouds covering up the sun.













I got into a sepia kick in the old town. I think it makes things look more authentic.

















One of the old canals


















another shot


















Naxi women dancing.














Walking around the old town


















Liu chomping down on some phish


















Showing off her bling


















old bridge in Lijiang














This little shop had not only a picture of Bob Marley (left), but of Willie Nelson (right of chinese guy's head). There is a rasta/hippy vibe in this part of the country.

See what I have to put up with! Notice that she has a Gene Simmons tongue. Nice.

Green mountains

Weird stuff in Lijiang. I would have prefered love tractor.

A street with no one on it. This is very rare in Lijiang.

I don't know what to say. Feel free to ad your own caption

Chillin' canal side waiting for my grub.

Attacking my western breakfast in Shangra la

Temple and prayer wheel (that golden thing spins around and around) above the old town in Shangra la

There was an rock slide ahead. Bus had to stop for a half hour. Liu wanted a picture above the traffic.

Large waterfall on the mountainside

Bored on yet another bus ride. I downloaded the Phish Red Rocks shows the night before. Made the trip a bit nicer. What no Destiny Unbound?

Prayer wheels in Shangra la

Long row of prayer wheels

Can you guess what these are used for alongside the road? Guess in the comments section, if you dare.

We dressed nice this day so we could give my mom a good picture.

Liu looking cool.

The temple complex where the monks live. Who is this middle eastern woman? She is hiding her face from the potent UV rays of this high altitude

Looking up at the temple complex from the bottom.

Liu outside the gates.

Me outside the monks quaters near the bottom. By the way I got myself a new "uropean Man Bag" made of leather. Only 15 dollars US and it is hand made. Go ahead and take your shots Courtney

Tibetean prayers on the rocks

Just a cool walkway covered with boulders

Some of the stairs leading to the top. The Tibeteans think of walking lots of stairs as a form of meditation. I am just wondering when these guys will get with the times and install an elevator.

View from the top looking down.

Liu looking so serious. Why so serious Liu?

The 80 year monk and I. He insisted we hold hands. How do you tell an 80 year old tibeten monk no? He was a cool old guy. Very friendly

Liu stopping to smell the flowers directly behind the old temple. These monks sure know how to party.

Some more indigenous plants around the monks homes.

Shangra la at night

Tibetans dancing in the main square of the old town in Shangra la

More dancing. It looks like the whole town showed up.

Liu in front of the horses, yaks, pigs, and chickens.

Drawing of the monestary. The monks asked us not to take pictures inside the temples (this is outside), so to respect their culture I haven't taken any.