Guilin and the Li River - check. We hitched a ride to the Guilin airport with a taxi driver that spoke no English other than saying hand signing that the airport police will kill him for something. Not sure what but we laughed to keep him from killing us. Another quick 2 hour flight on Shanghai airlines, complete with lunch, and we were back in Shanghai. I have to report that Shanghai Airlines is rather good and if I did this trip again I would do 1 train for the experience and fly the rest of the way. We have flown 3 times with Shanghai Airlines and it was pretty good every time. But not to make Aaron and Stefanie out as liars, the newspaper on the last flight had an article about a Shanghai flight hitting so much turbulence that it caused the plane to dive for 10 seconds, dislodging overhead luggage and injuring 14 passengers. The plane had to make an emergency landing outside Beijing, hospitalize a few passengers and bus the rest to Beijing. So it is probably hit or miss and with the summer storms maybe a little worse. But we had good luck and 3 good flights.
Anyway back to Shanghai. We happened to be in Shanghai for the 2 hottest days in the 123 years of record. This may have added to why we did not enjoy Shanghai that much. It really is a business city, very few to no sites worth seeing. It is quite westernized, sort of in the middle of Beijing and Hong Kong (sort of like it's location). We chose a new place to stay this time, being pretty unhappy with the old place. The old place wasn't bad but with the AC breaking and the troubles we had getting travel to Guilin and then to Hong Kong (1 canceled train and the travel agent trying to talk us out of canceling) we didn't want to go back. The new place was close to everything but that didn't really matter. It was a stop over for us. We ran to the mall again to grab some more Pizza Hut. Now for anyone that wants to call us girls for eating Pizza Hut a few times you have to understand how the Pizza Hut here functions. Back home it is a regular pizza joint, with ugly high school kids working it. Here it is gourmet food. The menu has a Chef's Recommendations section, they serve wine, pasta, salads, fish and all the staff run around in shirts, ties and with ear pieces to radio around. It is fine dining. For anyone that has seen Demolition Man and remembers when they go to Taco Bell and it is the fine dining place, that is pretty much what Pizza Hut is here. No lunch buffet here. Pure class. And at 10 bucks a meal for dinner, it is worth the money.
After taking the metro and the maglev (with a max speed of 430km/h, pretty fucking fast) to the Shanghai Airport, we sat around for 2 hours waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. The only exciting part of that 2 hours was when the manager at Burger King spilled a barrel of grease all over the floor. It happened in slow motion almost, him wheeling the grease barrel out on a cart, it getting stuck in the door, it slowly tipping towards him as he tried to catch it, grease going everywhere and him almost falling in it as it splashed against it legs and feet. It was almost to unbelievable to even laugh. We spent the next 30 minutes watching them try to clean it up, as it dripped into the air vents on the floor and into the souvenir shop on the floor below. When the maintenance man came up with a hand squeegee and a roll of paper towels it was like bringing a pocket knife to a gun fight. They slowly got it cleaned up, using cardboard, a broom and a dust pan.
The flight into Hong Kong was pretty uneventful, just a little turbulence and some bad food. They kept serving us these dinner rolls that had chocolate in the middle, except the chocolate looked like baby shit and completely ruined my desire to eat. They also kept giving us mint flavored cough drops. Not sure if that was supposed to be an after dinner mint but the cough drop flavor wasn't very good. Something might have gotten lost in the translation on that one. After we landed we got some money out of the ATM. Justin was convinced it was fake money or travelers checks because it said HSBC on it and just looked rather fake. Eventually I convinced him it was real and we grabbed tickets on the airport express to the main island and our hostel.
The hostel got some good reviews online but they must have come from midgets. First we had to go up to the 11th floor, using the elevator that only goes to floors 11-20. Then it was back down to the ground floor to grab the elevator that goes to the 1-10th floors. We were on the 5th. First thing we noticed as we entered the room were the bunk beds. Next thing we noticed was that the room was so small with both of us standing in it shoulder to shoulder we could almost hit the beds and the wall. No chairs, no desk, no closest, barely enough room for both our bags on the floor. Then we noticed the sliding shower doors that are semi opaque. When we opened them we saw that the shower, toilet and sink were all in the same area behind the door. So whenever one us had to shit or shower the other one would have to watch his outline in the door. And here I was hoping the clothes washing would be the closest we ever got.
We headed back out after dropping off the bags in search of an internet cafe because the hostel only had 1 computer, on the 11th floor, that had a 10 minute use limit. We metroed down to Causeway Bay, basically a huge shopping district in search of one. All we really found were overpriced, high class western stores like Prada, Rolex, Brooks Brothers and every other brand name possible. Hong Kong seems to be like a mini Tokyo, complete with skyscrapers, consumerism and name brand whores. After walking around Time Square and some other shopping venues we had Pizza Hut (fine dining!) and then headed back to the hostel. We eventually settled in and fell asleep to the sound of people coming and going in the hallway (oh yeah the walls are paper thin and the rest of the rooms on the floor are past our room).
This morning we were up with a mission to find a internet cafe. After watching Justin shower and him watching me (I stuck my ass against the glass at one point causing him to put a sheet in front of the door) we jumped on the metro down to Central. Not much new here, just some high rises and shopping. We tried to hit a few of the sights from the Lonely Planet Hong Kong book I bought and we realized the guy that wrote it is full of shit. He listed a Toy Museum in the Prince Mansion as a place to see. We found it and it was an office size room with crap everywhere and not in a good sense. It was then that I read about the author and realized me and a 50 year old gay man from Boston don't have that much in common when it comes to travel. The book kind of got disregarded from then on except for its maps. We did the observation deck in the Bank of China building that gives a good view of the city and the harbor. We thought about going up the Peak Tram to the Peak but with the rain coming down we realized we couldn't see the top which meant we would not be able to see much from up top.
With the search for an internet cafe still on we hopped across the bay to Kowloon, trying to use the books one internet cafe location as a last ditch effort. Kowloon seems to be the sleezy side of the town, with lots of Persian guys asking me if I needed a tailor and handing out business cards. I am not sure what part of my sweaty, dirty, greasy self made it look like I needed a suit. After taking a survey by some Hong Kong girl for the government about their tourist friendliness and internet access (negative marks for that one) we found the internet cafe and reconfirmed this book sucks. When I think of an internet cafe I think rows and rows of computers. This guy obviously thinks a French restaurant with free WiFi. Strike 2 for Lonely Planet. Feeling dejected we stumbled around Kowloon until by luck we found one. We popped inside for the worst computing experience of my life. The place was filled with kids playing Counter Strike, with the volume at full blast and screaming each time one of them did something cool. Also the constant banging from the construction above was enough to give anyone a migraine. After a while we had to much and headed back outside to the quiet of the streets. Needing a total break we stopped into a movie theatre to see a movie. Hancock was the only English thing playing and thankfully it was pretty good. We laughed a lot, got a good 1.5 hours of relaxation and for a moment forget we were half way around the world.
After the movie for walked to the harbor to watch the Symphony of Lights. From the Kowloon side facing the Hong Kong island side they have lined all the buildings with lights that go off in a pattern as the sound of symphony music plays in the background. It is interesting to watch a bunch of skyscrapers flash lights in time with the music. I am probably not giving it the best description but I grabbed video of it so I can upload it when I get a chance. It seems to be a huge tourist investment by the city as the sea of white people on the promenade attested to. It was like a cheap light parade but something I am sure most tourist will like. After the light show it was time for dinner before hitting the internet cafe again and hoping the kids are gone.
For dinner we picked a place we had passed earlier - Ned Kelly's Last Stand. It was billed as a pub type atmosphere with live jazz music. And boy did it deliver. After a pint of Carlsberg and a burger, the band took the stage. I'll tell you now you have not lived until you have seen 7 chinamen doing covers of jazz songs. After a while a girl singer came up and they started doing Carpenters covers. The 70 year old trumpet player singing backup really brought it home. Overall they were not that bad, kind of enjoyable since I love live music and an interesting experience. It was one of our more expensive nights but pretty fun and the beer took the edge off an already long day.
After that we headed down here to the internet cafe, so I could post this long ass message and check for any email. We are still trying to book Europe hostels/hotels as well as reevaluate the rest of our Asia accommodations. One thing Shanghai has taught us is that the experience is only as good as the place you stay. If it sucks the rest of the time in that place will suck. So with that in mind we upgraded out place in Bangkok and probably will change places in Singapore also. More money but you only live once right?
