Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Shanghai - part 4

Back in Shanghai for a final couple of days involved some relaxed sight seeing around the city and a maddingly annoying trip to the fake markets. You cannot believe how much these people hassle you when all you really want to do is buy a watch. In the end we were weighed down with fake rolexes and gucci watches, but it kept us amused.

Some highlights of the last couple of days included a trip to the Shanghai Aquarium, much better than expected. The penguins were a little sad, but the overall experience wasn't actually too bad. They showed us how pearls are harvested from oysters and we all got a free pearl extra fresh.

We then visited the highest hotel in the world. Well supposedly anyway, where the hotel begins on the 57th floor of one of the extremely large towers in Pudong side of Shanghai and rises to approximately the 97th floor or something. Its only 1 of 5 hyatt's n Shanghai and this picture looks bizarrely like some sci-fi meeting room for thousands of crazy dudes. It was pretty cool, and the bad at the top has the same view as the observation deck and you don't have to pay $20 to get in, you just have to have a $20 cocktail instead!

So in summary, Shanghai is a city of contrasts, filled on one hand with 5 star hotels and towering office buildings, it is also a scene of abject poverty and terrible living conditions for many of the local people. The pollution can just be mind boggling but on a clear day with a few dollars in your pocket you can have a great time, 10c beers, $2 lunches, and $100 custom made suits are just some of the joys to be found. On the other hand the constant spitting on the streets and blatant rip off attempts can get you down. Its not an unsafe place by any stretch but you need to keep your wits about you! And look at this pollution, its just insane, people who say that global warming is a myth and that humans aren't interfering with the planet need to visit Shanghai!

Labels: ,

Friday, April 24, 2009

Huangzhou

A day trip to Huangzhou had been organised for a bunch of us from Shanghai (thanks again Case and Ben). After 3 an a half hours on the bus without a rest stop (thank you Mr. Bus driver) we were all keen to use the facilities. Well use the facilities, and check out some of the sights. Huangzhou is a small tourist town of around 6-7 million people. The main tourist part of the city is centred around west-lake and we were off to see some the Lingyin temples. This is part of a series of temples, built originally a long time ago, burnt down, built again, burnt down and eventually build most recently in around the late 19th century. The Lingyin temples wind their way up a hill, its still a practising monastery so the odd monk could be seen but they were hard to spot in amongst the 8 million tourists.

Huangzhou felt like a breath of fresh air after the pollution that had been Shanghai, there was sunlight and you could make out things in the distance! Next we fought our way to the pagoda. The lake in front of the pagoda was filled with thousands of turtles, literally. The lake was only about 20 metres across so I don't know how they all survived. I guess the tourists keep them well fed and the restaurants cook them up in the evenings. Avoiding the need to use the escalators and the lift, we walked our way to the top of the tower and enjoyed the views of the area directly beneath the tower.

Further time spent later in the day wandering around the lake was spent eating ice-cream and trying to get chinese ladies to dance. Well that was the aim of certain members of the party, but not necessarily enthusiastically embraced by all. The bus ride back at least involved a roadside pitstop. The gentlemen headed to the front of the bus in the glaring lights to prove their manhood. The ladies took the demure option of squatting in the grass near the bus, it'd been a fun day. The chinese had taken the approach that we were much more of a tourist attraction than the sites of the town and we'll be forever remembered in about 10,000 photos taken both surreptitiously and openly by the local population.

Labels: ,

Shanghai - part 3

Of course the real reason we were in Shanghai was not just for our own amusement. There was a wedding to attend, Kathleen to be a beautiful maid of honour and me to attempt to record some videography. Casey and Ben's ceremony was wonderful, and the photos afterwards on the streets of Shanghai were exciting and interesting. The reception was held at the fabulous Yong Foo elite, where the 6 or 7 courses were all delicious. The Australian wine went down pretty easily too!

Afterwards we were off to 'Not Me' for the after wedding party. Now we'd been to not me a couple of times in the lead up to the wedding and had negotiated a special price deal for the wedding party guests. This included wearing dodgy not me party badges, cheap beers, super cheap cocktails and pretty much our run of the music. Not me's music selection certainly proved bizzare with a selection of new dance music, R&B (everyone's favourite) and chinese pop songs. I wonder if they've put all the millions of photos they took of the party crowd up on their website yet. Of course at the end of the night there were only a few of us left and after the best man decided to argue with the bar staff about the costs of the last four shots he'd had we were on our way off.

Post wedding day was relaxed with an afternoon trip to the pearl markets. Don't ask me exactly where we went, but the main pearl markets in town were being renovated (and are a rip-off anyway) so it was off to the 'burbs to find some cheap pearls. Of course they weren't for me, but with a hung-over sister and a wife on a mission I had to come along and check out the range of fake merchandise on offer. A point to note is that the initial price of things in most markets in china has risen considerably. A lot of places I was able to easily bargain them down to below 1/10th of the price. So start low, because they are well used to ripping tourists off.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Shanghai - part 2

A trip to the founding place of Communism in china proved an interesting diversion to another exciting day filled with adventures in Shanghai. I think that there is still a huge amount of 'education' that goes on against the local people in China. The press is definitely not free, as an example the local chinese channel made some very interesting comments about Tibet and that the french have always believed that Tibet should be part of China. So as a word of warning, don't believe Chinese TV and news, well in fact don't believe any mass produced news, its all a conspiracy and the only way to know anything about anything is to find out about if yourself. But on the other hand they do show a large amount of football on the tv along with plenty of snooker so you can forgive them a bit for their devotion to high quality tv. Non-chinese satellite tv is only available illegally and lonely planet China guidebooks can't be bought in China as they have said some negative things about the place in the past.

A day of wandering around the city proved interesting, we invested in some custom tailored suits and clothes in the clothing markets which take a few days to put together. The evening involved a very large amount of beer and shots and an argument with bar staff about a fake note that they had just given to us in change. The groom to be proved slightly the worse for wear but heroically backed up again the next night.

The days in Shanghai were proving to fly by, we were almost killed repeatedly by taxi drivers who seem to make a living from avoiding crashes by the narrowest possible margin and charging you $3 to go across the whole city. The subway system was so jammed packed a peak hour that you couldn't see for the walls of people. The french concession is highly recommended for just wandering around. There are plenty of cool bars, restaurants, and of course the Shanghai TV university. I dropped in to pick up an honorary degree in simpsons watching, and was also awarded a doctorate in advanced world cup broadcasts.

Don't believe all you read about this fine institution though because it does appear to be run out of a shack on some back street and across the road there are plenty of dodgy dvd dealers but I personally believe that its all legit.

Labels: ,

Shanghai - part 1

Shanghai is an amazing place, risen from a small town only a couple of hundred years ago to being a teeming metropolis of somewhere between 15 - 25 million people depending upon who you believe. Filled with high rises and designer stores, you only need to walk a few streets away to find poverty and traditional chinese living. Street food is common place, but 5 star restaurants and hotels also dot the city like pimples on a acne ridden 15 year old. First night involved the view from the bund, and then a beer at captain hostel bar. Highly recommended for the view, not highly recommended for the pizza. Then it was off past East nanjing st, (filled with desinger stores, touts, fake watches and the subway) to Southern Barbarian for dinner. Thanks Case and Ben for organising, the yunnan food was super awesome and cheap and the extensive beer list was well received.

Day 2 - We didn't really know where to begin, our guidebook despite being brand new proved hideously out of date. The city changes so much that unless you are printing a guidebook a day you'd never be able to keep up with pace of chance around the city. So we headed south, it was towards the equator so that gave us some hope that it would be warmer.

Soon we entered some markets in the old area of town. Do not buy anything here except maybe street food. Everything else is a tourist trap and you will pay through the nose, ears, eyes and throat (thank you scottish man on the train for the quote) for anything else. Still its kind of exciting and entertaining to wander around. These streets have been rebuilt as some kind of new 'old' chinese buildings are filled with shops, food, street performers and touts. We continued our adventures and walked about 20kms through the teeming metropolis that is Shanghai. The architecture of the modern buildings in the city is amazing, with dizzying skyscrapers meeting traditional chinese buildings, french colonial architecture with slums, terrible roads and extreme pollution thrown into the mix.



Night two involved a visit to southern beauty for szechuan food. I was sweating chilli through my eyeballs but man it was good. They made these great little eggplants topped with fresh chilli and tomato, a standout. The prawns were so hot that you could've cooked an egg on them and everything else was a dream as my mind was so fuzzled by the extreme amounts of spice.

Labels: ,

Hong Kong part 2

Well the next couple of days in HK proved as exciting as the first. Day 2 included a trip to the fabled land of magic called disneyland, and it didn't up as bad as charlie's trip to candy mountain!

Disneyland in HK was a disappointment for me, smaller than its LA counterpoint it also has focussed entirely on the cutesy side of things. Rides are designed for 5 year olds or imbeciles and although space mountain still rocks, I found the whole experience slightly tarnished by the steep entry price and lack of killer death roller coasters.



Of course it wasn't all bad the teacups are always amusing once you get them up to mach 2 or so. Keep spinning faster and faster and your lunch will soon be revisiting you! Of course no trip to disneyland is complete without some terrible food, which proved to be the case here too. Yay!

In the evening the lure of HK harbour proved too much once again as we decided to brave the mist and take some photos around the fun of Tsim Sha Tsui.

The next day we were off to Tai Po, to visit a more relaxed and calming area of town. It was nice wandering around the parks and high rises before heading back into the centre of town and the island for a trip up the peak. Don't get the tram up the peak, walk! You just have to get the bus to the base of the peak near the university of HK and find an appropriate path up the hill. We thought we had gotten lost or got the wrong bus, but a good hours walk up the hill provided some great views and then you can ride the tram down.



Well after that there was little to do but jump on the plane to Shanghai.

Labels: ,

Hong Kong part 1

Hello and welcome back to the blog!

Interspersed with my normal ramblings will now be included some travel ramblings to keep you all interested and occupied.

First of all Hong Kong!

It feels like months ago that I was in HK, but in reality it was but 3 short weeks back.

We were staying in Mongkok, and that means shopping and crazy chinese food. First stop was the apple shop, where they sold neither apples, nor high priced fancy electronic goods. Boy was I disappointed.

Many more hours were spent wandering around around the city looking for the elusive fermented tofu, it can be smelt everywhere and made me want to barf more than any other smell in the history of the universe. I think HK is a fun city, lots to do and easy to get around. Its not always cheap though, some types of shopping and food are but its also got an ultra rich upper class so its a strange mix. There's so much to be done that you can't help but blow a few thousand on some Faberge eggs and caviar.




In addition we had to take a look at HK, at both daytime and night time. Of course the buildings are all now filled with out of work bankers who choose to barricade themselves in their offices rather than give up HK real estate. Thank you GFC. Nerf battles are the only way for them to defend their territory.




Of course in HK you must eat. Below is a before and after picture of Kathleen with a ginormous piece of cheesecake from the main st. deli, highly recommended for New York style food on the far side of the world.


She didn't get quite through it all, so that was left to me.

That was just 1 day! So much to do.

Labels: ,