Singapore

We're in Singapore tonight. Watching TV in a comfy room in a fancy place courtesy of the airline. Thrown in with our tickets. On TV is a discovery TV show about The Venetian Macau which we went to yesterday.

Our flight home is 9pm local time so we get home Tuesday late morning I think.

Airpork

At HK airport right now about to board flight to Singapore. We're there just one night, then home. Hoorah.

Macau

We took a very quick jaunt to Macau yesterday. Its about a 1hr ferry ride from Hong Kong. We got going late so didnt make it over until about 3pm. On the ferry we saw posters for Cirque de Soliel which is showing one of their shows in Macau. We decide to see if we can get tickets.

Through immigration and customs - Macau is an autonomous region of China, like Hong Kong. WE jump on a free shuttle to the Venetian, which is where the show is playing. We hadnt heard of the place until that moment, but turning up there a short time later confirms this to be a different experience for us once again. This place is ostentatious, huge, ridiculous, tacky and preposterous. Its modelled after the Venetian in Las Vegas, that hotel/casino complex built to replicate Venice. The Macau version is 3 times bigger. It is arguably a small city in itself. 3000 rooms, 1200 staff (5% of the population of Macau!), the biggest casino floor in the world, apparently the biggest habitated building in the world, it was built in only 2 years so probably one of the biggest construction efforts ever. It has several canals within the building on the second floor which is above the casino floor, so you can take gondola rides complete with tenor singing gondola drivers. The cost of all this? I dont actually know, but I do know how much our modest lunch cost. One piece of lasagne and a small pizza? $50NZ. Youch. And that was in the foodcourt, i.e. where peasants like us dine, not in any of the numerous opulant restaurants.


The experience of being in the place for us was an eyeopener. Going with no expectation or prior knowledge of it probably helped, but it really highlighted once again the extremes that exists within Asia, or even within China itself.

The show tickets were not as expensive as I expected - we decided since we had come all the way we may as well get good seats. The show itself was great as you'd expect. Zaia is the name of it. It looked like the theatre itself was built for the show, and will probably be permanently staged there indefinately I'd say. They do 2 shows per day. Look it up on the net if you want to find out more.

Once the show was done it was about 9pm, and we wanted to see atleast a bit of the other thing which Macau is well known for (other than being the Asian Las Vegas) - its Portugese colonial history; as well as something real of course. We caught a taxi to the main street of the old section of the town, and did a quick stroll of several streets to take in some of the colonial architecture. Its a very nice place, and a very different look and feel to the ramshackle of Hong Kong. Almost like a very clean and controlled version of Hanoi. We were off to the airport super early the next morning, so unfortunately had to get going and was a shame we could check out more of the place.

Macau from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Still here

Hi folks. We're still in HK. We've been exploring around. Mainly various shopping areas. I found some interesting back streets with street markets 5mins from our hotel. We're staying at North Point, which is not too far from Causeway Bay, on HK Island itself. Today is our last day. We're going to go see something a bit different today. More on that later.

We faxed our voting papers yesterday, so we've done our bit from over here. Should be an interesting evening over there.

Last night I went to see some live music which was interesting. I'll elaborate a little more on it later.

Honkers

Just arrived in Honk Gong, following a 12hr overnight ride on the train from Guilin. Was a comfortable cabin which we shared with a Chinese man and his 4 year old son. The 4 year old was a hoot, and enjoyed interacting with us. All items of clothing he sported were Ultraman branded. He also was very good at playing Counter-Strike on his Dad's laptop. He knew all the keyboard shortcuts from what I could see and was ducking, weaving and killing terrorists gleefully. A crazy sight. Other than that we slept through the ride, woke at 8am, I had Chinese breakfast in the restaurant cart which was tasty.

We hopped off at Shenzen, and went through immigration and customs for both sides. I noted the two sides were seperated by a moat of sorts. Changed our RMB cash to HKD before crossing, bought an octopus card for the metro, which we jumped on and 3 line changes and a shortish walk with backbacks and a lift to the 11th floor later we arrived at the hotel, only to find a note on the door saying they are temporarily now at a different building further down the road. We ended up finding it finally, and our now pretty wacked. So will take it easy for a bit before deciding the plan of action. We're here 4 nights. Keep tuned, I'll also be doing some updates for previous days too.


Hong Kong from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Guilin again again only briefly

Just arrived back in Guilin, only a 1.5 hour bus ride North from Yangshuo. Had a great time down there. Just in Guilin for another 3 hours.

Dropped our bags at the hotel we stayed at a few nights prior, and I went for a quick jaunt around areas nearby. I wanted to see what was going on at the restaurants, as someone had told us there are restaurants here that offer just about any type of meat on the menu, and the animals are kept live in cages at the front. I didnt see anything too shocking to my Western sensibilities, other than snakes and toads which we've seen alot of in Asian restaurants. There were some kind of Rodent type creatures I've never seen before. Kind of large rabbit sized but almost spherical with a puggish face. They didnt look too happy about being in the cage. I did get to witness a customer picking out a nice healthy looking Duck, which gave a few final quacks of protest and flapped its wings furiously before the girl, who was quite short and probably not much older than 18, swung it at the pavement. I saw a few fish being prepared this way also. The damage to the duck was devastating but not quite fatal, it lay in a pile of blood for a bit writhing away before it was chucked in a bucket, still writhing and sent to the kitchen. The fact that I found this shocking made me realise I've never actually seen an animal being killed, highlighting once again how removed we can be in the West from the realities of where our food comes from. In our various bus rides on this trip, I've seen a number of chicken and duck farms, and they all appear to live free range in pretty natural setups. The ducks and chickens here are huge and plump, but humaneness is not the reason for this, rather the Asian demand for good food I would say. The animals in cages outside these restaraunts - chickens, ducks, pheasants, rodents, snakes, toads, fish of multiple kinds, toads, fresh water prawns - looked pretty stressed mostly. Not that I can tell when a snake or a fish is stressed.

I've tried to witness and understand more of the attitude toward animals in food here. I figure either I should be a Vegan or I should be able to eat anything, otherwise its kind of living by double standards. I'm still sitting in the middle however, my conditioning, or my culture if you like, obviously runs pretty deep. I guess I only speak for cityfolk.

Catching overnight train from here to Shenzen, which is closest city on mainland to Hong Kong, which is our destination. We think we're there 4 nights. Need to double check our flights. Alot of updating of photos and vids to do, so should have downtime in HK to do so.


Guilin again from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

One Night In Yangshuo

We spent a night in Yangshuo - the town itself - last night. Yangshuo is a town of great character as it is nestled in between the distinctive Karst peaks. So within the town you are surrounded by them. They're like giant rocks that have just been dropped from the sky. On one of the peaks there is a pagoda on the top.

Once again it is a touristic destination, and rightly so. The centrepoint of this is one main walking street lined with old buildings containing the obligatory travel souvenirs and other items. There are bargains to be had they, as Em and I both got ourselves some good outdoor jackets - real Northface ones from the factory and not fakes - for about $20NZ each. Not bad I reckon. Not really sure what they fetch in NZ, but wouldnt be surprised if it would top $200.

Also become short term locals at a bar/cafe called "Loove". I was attracted by the sign which read "F**king Good Food". There I met a guy who would turn out to be a drinking buddy for the evening, an Indian man who had moved to China a year and a half ago to retire - at the ripe old age of 39 - and was in Yangshuo for a few months for the hell of it. He described it as "his paradise". We chatted for some time at Loove, and decided to let it go from coffees to beers (Pijiu). From here the evening was extremely entertaining and included taking part in birthday celebrations for a local girl with her somewhat-drunk-but-keen-to-practice-their english pals; playing drums with a Chinese Pop Covers group (for the 2nd night in a row) - video evidence of the show will be posted later; sampling some damned fine late night street food; leading a pinkfloyd acoustic singsong circle - not knowing the songs or lyrics didnt prevent anyone from singing at the top of their lungs; being joined by possibly the funniest drunk I've ever witnessed, a middle aged Chinese man with excellent american english but who takes a liking to dancing and singing loudly to the jukebox, "if you dont know the words make them up" he yelled at us. So he would insert any obscenity he could think of here and there amoungst the proper lyrics. His dancing I cannot begin to describe.

So an extremely entertaining evening. The next day, after a well deserved sleep in we did some shop gazing, coffee sipping, tea sipping then jumped on a bus. Oh, we were walking along the street on our way to the bus depot, and the bus actually caught us. Woman was hanging out the door yelling "Guilin" at us, so we jumped on. Didnt need to find the bus station, they found us.


Yangshuo1 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Short walk around the village

Rained all day today in the village of Aishaman. Mostly relaxed at our nice guesthouse. I took a short stroll after lunch though to have a look at things. Mostly farming going on round here. Cows, ducks, chickens, and fruit and veges. A very old and frail woman was sitting in her doorway and I greeted her and looked inside her front living room. Mostly concrete with no furniture. I gave her 5 yuan (less than $2NZ). Next door a Woman holding her baby was shouting "Hello, Hello" to me and making her baby wave. I went over and was invited into the living room. I sat with her, and her parents, and a bit later her husband for some time. Have been attempting Chinese phrases and other communications alot on this trip, and managed to communicate a few basics. I was given some snacks - a couple of roast kumara, and this citrus fruit which is very popular here - unpeeled it is the shape of a ginormous pear, but peel it and it is like a giant orange inside. Not very juicy but nice anyhoo. Unfortunately I didnt have time to go back and give a gift in return. Need to remember to carry some stuff with me when wandering in villages.

Walk around Aishanman Village from tgoodwin on Vimeo.
Nice to see what things are like outside of a city in China. These people had things pretty simple. But they had some nice furniture and TV. I would say all 3 generations were there, and it wasnt too small a dwelling.

Heres a video of the Chef at our guesthouse doing his work.

Giggling Tree Cooking from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Bamboo Raft Down The River

Rode bikes 10mins from the village to a river, and took a ride on a bamboo raft. Bikes were thrown on the back of the raft. Beautiful scenery. Karst mountains, mirror-like water, bamboo trees etc. The rafting of course is a touristic operation. Along the river there are anchored rafts with people working on them - they shout out "Hello, Beer?". You can have a beer while your cruising along.





It had been raining and as such there were no other rafts on the river which was nice. The ride was pretty smooth mostly, but there were 4 or 5 small dams which the driver took us over for a bit of a bump. Was fun and got a bit wet.






We had no idea how long the ride was though, and by the time we made our destination it was dark, and we had no idea where we were. There was no service of any kind offering to take us back to where we started. Luckily someone was walking by and I asked him where we were, turned out we werent too far from Yangshuo. So we started riding. Was about a 30min ride and we came to the town of Yangshuo. It has a very busy night life with all the tourists. We had a drink at a cafe then hired a guy with a motor bike with 4 seats in the back for us to stick the bikes on, and we headed back to the village.


Bamboo Rafting - near Aishanmen Village from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Yangshuo - Aishanmen

Yesterday we arrived in the town of Yangshuo and got some guys on trailbikes to drive us 3km out of the town to the village of Aishanmen where we are staying. The guesthouse is setup and run by a Dutch couple, and it is very nice. Great food, very relaxed atmosphere, and beautiful surroundings. More blog updates to come as I'm a few days behind. They'll be posted in roughly correct date order so scroll down.

Cruise to Yangshuo

Pictures of cruising down river. Guilin to Yangshuo. Also featuring insights into Chinese tourism.

Guilin to Yangshuo from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

Back in Guilin

Hello folks. Yesterday we left the city of Guilin at 8am to go to Longshen county and in particular a village in the hills called Ping'An. I will post pictures and movies soon of that. Tommorow we jump on a boat and head 4hours down the Li River to a place called Yanshuo. We'll be there 4 nights, coming to the end of things gradually as after this we'll be on a train to Hong Kong which is our last major destination apart from a night in Singapore on the way back to NZ. Heres a few shots of guilin.

Ping'An - next day

Woke up at 5am hoping to catch the sunrise over the rice terraces but unfortunately it was raining. The village must be quite high as we are within the clouds. Zero visibility so we called it off. I caught a few more hours sleep then got up and took a wander around the village to get some pics and video. The village was nice and quite - tourists other than me either hadnt arrived or were staying in.

The cloud started to thin a bit offering some nice views so I dashed up to the highest point of the village. By this point several bus loads of Chinese tourists had arrived so it offered the chance to get some video of them in action for you. Their enthusiasm for the views was well justified - some dramatic views of surrounding villages, hills and mountains with clouds swirling about. We didnt get the famous views of the miles of rice terraces, however wasnt too disappointed as we've seen similar sites in Vietnam (Sapa), and what we saw today was something totally different.






Ping'An 02 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.