Catching Up (April 27)

Today I leave for Shanghai!

Woke up at 6am as usual (Can’t sleep pass 7 for some reason), went out for my last stroll in BeiJing, ate some local breakfast and went back to my room to pack up my things. The train leaves at 11:05, so I best leave the hostel at 9:00, this gives me time to get some lunch.

Leaving is always a sad even, especially when we’ve all bonded like a small family over the last 5 days, I promised everyone that I will be back again in September.

Huang Gang and Liu ZiHong had offer to take me to the train station fearing I might get lost on the way (looking from my past record it is a justified concern…), I took them up on their offer and promised I’d buy lunch.

Other than having to stop a few times to help confused foreigners (and advertise my youtube channel), the walk to train station was uneventful. We ended up eating lunch at a KFC, I was curious about the adaptation of fast food in China, but I was disappointed about the food I received, I would have gladly traded for some noodle…

after shedding some manly man tears and hugged some manly man hugs (Chinese are so strange that they’ll wrap their arms around your shoulder, but hugging is off limit), I hopped on to the D31 train and off to ShangHai I go!

Catching Up (April 26)

I am leaving Beijing Tomorrow morning, so Today I have to wrap up all my business~!

Today I am plan to go with Mr Liu to 798 again to retrieve his costume made bracelet (YES YOU CAN DO THAT!) after lunch, and come back to meet Lhundrup (soon to be Dr. Lhundrup I am certain) for an interview session about his organization, the Tibet heritage Fund.

lunch was some uneventful noodle (not bad… just uneventful), the bus ride was unevenful (except I actually forced some kid to give up his seat for an old lady… but then everyone looks at me like I am the bully). The carver DaPeng (Peng is a great eagle in Chinese Mythology, so huge its main diet are dragons) was a great guy and give us a bunch of freebie stuff, I also bough a carved lucky charm of GuanYin (sort of like the patron saint type) for my friend YiWei’s 8yr old son.

around 5:00pm, Lhundrup arrives at my hostel and we go out for dinner and interview, Lhundrup is the co-founder/translator for his organization Tibet Heritage Fund. The Main Focus of this organization is the restoration and preservation of traditional culture and heirtage sites, rebuilding destroyed/ruined sites with traditional craftsmanship. unfortunately, the Chinese government view their actions as “against development” and their organization is banned from China, with HQ relocated to India and website blocked.

You can find out more about this organization and their cause at http://www.tibetheritagefund.org

you can also find my interviews at “lostinmybackpack” on youtube

Catching up! (April 25)

I did nothing today… PRETTY MUCH IT, KTHX BYE!

well I did nothing all morning and all afternoon to heal my feet, just sitting on the sofa, trying to upload videos pass the great internet wall of China, harassing the girls at the desk, and just being genuinely lazy.

After dark, with a new party member Mr. Huang who sells carbon fibre products and frequents between ShangHai and BeiJing, the 3 of us set out to conquer the night streets of BeiJing. we took a cab to GuiJie “Ghost Street” the street is filled with red lights and neon signs (for it’s spicy food! you dirty minded people!)

We walked around and finally settled on some LuRouHuoShao “Seared Donkey Meat” you can see what they look like on my youtube account, but they are pretty much Donkey Tacos with crispy shells and diced pepper/donkey meat. The three of us are so sick of spicy food (not sure why BeiJing people love them so much…), and the Donkey Taco was the least spicy item we could find.

An important thing for any travelers to keep in mind is the balance in nutrient, I am a huge meat eater, but that does’t excuse me from not eating fruits and vegetables, find time to replenish you vitamins and such, or you’ll end up with chapped lips or SCURVY! YARRRR!

After the meal, we walked to HouHai (Backyard Sea, but actually just a men-made pond) HouHai is a tourist attraction for it’s bar scene and the prostitution, kind of the red light district of BeiJing, best travel with friends or you might get “pulled” into one of these places and lose all the cash you have on you.

Next stop is LoGuXiang (Lo=Gong, Gu=Drum Xiang=Alley) it’s a ally way of cafe, bars, handi craft and book stores, the atomsphere is much more relaxed and no one will try to “recruit” you.

unfortunately, we arrived kind of late (around 9:00), most of the shops had closed by then, for future references, show up here at 7:00pm is much better.

Catching up! (This is for April 24)

Woke Up today and I was okay, I dunno what’s with China but I was up every day when the sun hits my face, normally I can sleep all the way to lunch time…

Always the first to wake up in my hostel, I get dressed and go for a walk (which I never ever do in Canada), not sure why but I think I am starting to do a lot of things that I would never do otherwise back home… Maybe I’ll go flirt with some random girl today… who knows.

Though the price of a bed in the 8men room is relatively cheap Y55 and the condition is clean and nice, BUT THE SNORING IS HORRIBLE! the guy on my top bunk grinds his teeth all through the night like a woodchuck and the 2 guys on my other side is having a snoring duet, I’ve never heard anyone snore so loud it’s like the motor of a monster truck, It was hard for me to resist the urge to put my ripe socks over his face.

today I planned a full day (which was a mistake), going from WangFuJing to TianAnMen Square and then the 798 Art District. I plan on spending the day buying gifts for many people. normally I would strongly advice against going shopping this early in the travel, but since I am going to stop by Taiwan and unload all my items in 20 days, I can afford to buy small things and carry them around.

WangFuJing was your typical Tourist Trap, with all the overpriced wacky food for all your touristy delight, my companion Mr.Liu (who I picked up at the hostel, I have the uncanny ability called “summon party member” maybe something I learned in my MMO days) bought a bowl of noodle without asked for the price before hand, finds out later that it costs Y43… normal bowl of noodle is Y5-10… LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU ALL!.

TianAnMen Square and the Chairman Mao Memorium was crowded as usual and now with luggage scanner placed all over the place (and the subway system too), I am not so sure why they would need all that security measures…

my feets are killing me… I’ve walked all day yesterday and for the last 6 hours since the morning too… I wasn’t physically tired, it’s just that my soles are starting to ache, that’s what I get for being so big and fat:P

798 Art district was a delight and so much more fun, the familiar western atomsphere really gave me a feel of home, no wonder why I find so many westerners here. 798 is an artist colony like Grandville Island in Vancouver, artists have their own studios, workshops galleries (or just a spot on the street corner) though it is highly commercialize but can you blame the artists for trying to make a living too?

I am highly addicted to carved objects like statues,ring, bracelets and necklaces, I was like a kid in the candy shop! I kinda sorta understand why girls are never tired when they are shopping… cuz shiny things are perrrrtty…

The Great Wall of China, both literally and figuratively

I feel I am gonna have to do quite a bit of complaining today, so bear with me here.

the internet here sucks, it’s slow and all the sites are blocked.

the weather can go from sunny to raining to pelting ice pebbles in minutes.

the people looks at me funny.

But, welcome to China.

I always try to find the best out of the worst situations and this isn’t really the worst.

the people at my hostel are super nice, from the staff to fellow travelers. we had a great time last night, I grabbed (literally) 5 others and we went and ate hotpot, it was so spicy my mouth was numb for the rest of the night, we drank and drank and drank… Chinese beer is cheaper than water and lighter too.

we decided to sleep early and go to the great wall at 6:00am, but only 3 of us can wake up that early and one of them is because I keep knocking on her door=/

the trip to the great wall was marred by multiple bus mishaps as we took the bus going the opposite direction, after correct our initial mistakes, we managed to miss out stop again. as we spend 1 hur on a 15 min bus ride, I knew there was a reason for us to wake up that early.

the great wall was alot colder than I expected, I had sufficient clothing (and body fat) but the girls in the group wasn’t prepared, we got her a nice jacket before we proceeded further.

the great wall was FILLED WITH PEOPLE! people every freak where. for a Canadian who is used to the open personal space it was suffocating.

my French comrade once said in China there is 3 Special Chinese KungFu one must master.

Squat

Shove

Spit

But I am such a gentle giant, despite my large figure I cannot find it in my heart to shove the little old ladies next to me (which resulted in me fallen further and further behind as hordes of little old ladies shoving me aside).

but overall the trip was enjoyable, I was surpriced about how fit I was, I was half expecting myself to be panting and wheezing half way through, perhaps I gave myself too little credit.

the scenery is amazing but it’s hard to take pictures without getting half of someone’s scalp, good thing I was taller than your average Chinese citizen. THANKS FOR THE MILK MOM!

the climb ended when it started hailing, we took the gondola down and make our quick exit.

that is all I have to report so far!

you can find the pictures at photobucket.com just search for TheSerpent_2006

One Night in Beijing

So I arrived in Beijing last night…

I made the fatal mistake of forgetting to write down the address of my hostel, So I had to use my charming smile (or was it intimidating?) to ask a nice guy at the airport to let my use his laptop.

overall I got on the bus and found my Hostel without much trouble

the hostel I am staying in the LanTing (blue pavilion) and it is very cozy, the staff are nice and the others in my 8 man dorm are very friendly too.

I intentionally stayed up late so I can sleep through and be adjusted to my jet lag.

Now, Back Track  little…

I met this dude name Michael on my flight to Seattle, it turns out he is a NASA engineer (Though you cannot tell by looking at him)

we talked about his time in China and he gave me the contact info of a NGO organization called “Tibet Heritage Fund” (their site is blocked by the gov’t so I had to get him to google and get me the info)

I think I am going to try to contact these nice people and see where it will lead to, their main focus is to preserve the old Tibetan culture which is something I am also very interested in.

I think today I am just going to settle in, get a Cellphone, go to the bank, and I need a new/bigger memory card for my camara. It turns out my camara’s video quality was TOO HIGH and I can’t tone it down, a 10 minute video is 1g and I can’t film beyond 2g, this greatly upsets my plan of filming a daily video. I am going to have to buy a new memory card before I can do further filming.

ok that’s all for now, Thanks goes out to all that are reading this, especially Michael M, Michael K, and Bronx!

So many buttons! (About this Blog)

So, this is it, I am starting a blog!

The blog will mostly have two types of contents, traveling stuff and angry ranting，

The traveling stuff will including advices, locations, foods and retarded things I end up doing.

The ranting will be uh… just ranting, probably theraputic for me and entertaining for you.