China

Well here I am in mainland China after a couple of weeks of spoiling myself on Western food in Hong Kong. There's certainly a difference; I'm yet to explore Guangzhou so thoroughly but it seems like a busy and rapidly expanding city with construction going on all over the place. The square outside the main station adjecent to my hotel is a constant throng of people the likes of which I've seldom seen outside the likes of a big music festival. Yesterday I had a wander around a pleasant enough former colonial area of the city which still retains a number of period buildings. Generally there seem to be a lot of people sat about all over the place; I don't know what they're doing, perhaps they have nothing to do, maybe that's why they're there. I tried braised pigeon for dinner in the hotel/hostel's restaurant which turned out to be the greasiest of finger food which didn't suit me, but given it was either that or potentially go hungry and I made my best attempt.

I'm using the internet in the office of an airline where I bought a flight ticket to Shanghai for tomorrow. So far I've had very little luck getting onto any of the websites I'm wanting to. As you can see blogger is fine but almost every other website seems to bring up a page not found error. I can get to the front page of hotmail but when logging in I get the same error page. I'll try the internet elsewhere but if you want to contact me you might be best off sticking to SMSs for the time being. Most annoying is being unable to access youth hostel websites to browse what is available in Shanghai. I have been able to get onto one website - not one I've heard of before but it was listed under one of google's sponsored websites and that at least does work and is in English so I'm not completely without information. However it's a pretty annoying situation. We'll see how we go.

As I said, Shanghai tomorrow. Although I'm staying in a youth hostel here in Guangzhou it doesn't seem to have any other Westerners staying there. I should have better luck in Shanghai all being well.

PS - I've just been able to access my hotmail emails on 4th attempt, so maybe a bit of persistence can pay off. Also I've noticed I can write to my blog but not view it, lol!

Don't look up

I'm back in Hong Kong now after an enjoyable few days in Macau. A blend of colonial buildings, Chinese streets and gargantuan neon clad casino complexes made for plentiful if rather eclectic photo opps, especially when I get a couple of those crammed into the same shot. I've uploaded a few photos today but my camera battery ran out so I'll have to continue tomorrow when I'll get to the Macau batch. Also I finally did 'the Peak' yesterday evening which is the most famous of Hong Kong's view points which is commonly used for the city's classic panorama. Although packed with people I managed to get my tripod in front of the crowds and a few photos in the bag which I'll try to get online soon.

I took a special tram upto the Peak but due to massive crowds I took the bus back down. Now it should be said that the bus is not for the weak of stomach! Twisting narrow roads down the hill can shake up many people but there was one poor boy who was feeling particularly rough, although fortunately his father had a plastic bag on hand for when the inevitable happened. The ladies sat opposite me on the bus covered their ears and grimmaced every time the boy had another attempt, although I just laughed at the whole experience. Despite facing backwards I wasn't feeling too bad at all by the time when we finally reached the bottom of the hill and I jumped off the bus at the sight of a pizza restuarant. Yes, before you chatise me I realise it's not exactly local cuisine, but Hong Kong is an international city, so why no make the most of this variety? As it was we weren't where we thought we were and I found myself two metro stops away from where I wanted to be, but at least I got my pizza so I could proceed onward with some satisfaction.

It's odd but one of the things I've found most dinstinctive about Hong Kong compared to the other plethora of Asian cities I've been to so far are the dripping aircon units there are here. On many of the streets, typically outside residential buildings, you'll see wet patches or in bad cases a line of water on the pavement create from a permanent drip-dripping from above. I don't know why this is, I suspect it's the sheer density of people and living to life on the streets. Residential buildings can easily been fifteen floors high and who knows how many flats wide, each with one or more aircons buzzing away high above. Even if just one drips now an again, if all are doing the same you quickly get a fair amount of precipitation, and let's face it there's certainly no lack of moisture in the air for the aircons to remove. It does mean however that you're quickly warey about looking enough for fear of getting a drip in the eye. I don't know what aircon water may or may not contain but I'm not feeling terribly enthusiastic in finding out either way! Of all the sights and Hong Kong it may well be the experience of being dripped upon that will stick with me, that is, unless its the same throughout the rest of China. We shall I see I suppose.

Speaking of the mainland, my escape route is now booked. I'll be heading to Guangzhou early next week which is a city in South China and a main hopping point for those leaving Hong Kong. Booking it wasn't hard at all - I just visited one of offices of the Chinese Travel Service (CITS) - can't remember what the 'I' stands for - and they were very knowledgeable and helpful about review the options for travelling on from Hong Kong. I suppose they get the same questions a lot but the lady who served me was able to reel off flight or train prices to Shanghai. It would have been about 120 quid to fly directly to Shanghai, but I thought I'd take the train to Guangzhou to check out the city first and because it's also cheaper to fly onwards within China from there should I choose to. Taking the train to Shanghai is also an option, and would cost 35 quid for hard sleeper or 55 quid or thereabouts for soft sleeper, however before I get too excited by the prices I should consider that the train takes in the region of 25 hours to make the journey. Once again I'm back in Russia-like train distances and schedules.

Internal flights within China are fairly safe I believe, although it's always a matter of a chance with anything; the airliner that crashed in Ukraine recently was of the same airline and of the same type as I flew in to and from Russia last year. It's that or worry about your bags as you sleep on the night train, such is the nature of travelling. Generally speaking I never have time to worry or concern about with such things as planning where I'm heading to next and where I'll be staying typically rates a good deal higher in my mind. That and what my chances are of negotiating an edible dinner without speaking the local lingo!

A tale of two cities

It was the best of times it was the worst of times, although for the life of me I can't think why.

Hong Kong hasn't ceased to amaze. Exploring the areas of this petite province reveal astoundingly varied lifestyles and scenery and even in the heart of the city different worlds exist but a short walk away. My first big trip away was to Lantau island where I visited a monastery but more interestingly a fishing village comprising wooden houses built on sticks and alleyways lined with shops and stalls selling dried fish. Considering this is a half hour ferry journey and a 40 minute bus trip from Hong Kong's most modern business district I could have just as well have landed on another world. Even exploring the streets in and around most central Hong Kong island reveal anarchic clusters of stalls many laden down with a bedlam of goods. There are also specific antiques streets, one lined with Chinese herbal medicine shops and even more specificially a small alley with stalls that engrave rubber stamps. On Tuesday I took a tour of the New Territories; not something I normally do but it's time consuming to cover the sights by public transport otherwise. It's remarkable just how much green space and countryside there is when you consider there are 7 million people squeezed into such a small area. Farming has apparently been on a sharp decline which has led to some areas reverting back to nature and the administration sensibly set aside considerable swathes of countryside as national parks. As a result a great bulk of Hong Kong is a lot greener than you'd ever expect.

As I write this I'm enjoying my second day in another former European enclave, only this time it used to be Portugese. Macau is distinctly different from Hong Kong in a great many ways. It held a monopoly on trading access with China for a couple of hundred years but its position waned following the British acquisition of Hong Kong in the 19th century and it's been something of a backwater for some time now. Nevertheless following its 1999 handback to China Macau seems to have found its niche catering for the gambling desires of the mainland Chinese population. There are over a dozen casinos that apparently now rake in more than Las Vegas, which is a staggering thought. The skyline of central Macau reflects this new influx of capital with a sea of rising over a panorama which for the time being feels a good deal more old fashioned than that of Hong Kong. Certainly a good many more historic buildings survive here, and the Mediterranean influences abound with catholic churches and paved plazas. However as with Hong Kong is it still primarily populated by Chinese leading to its own distinct east-west fusion. Rather than Hong Kong's multinational feel here there are more distinct influences. In additional to the Portugese and Chinese cuisines, there are also African dishes which have come over the years through Macau's established trading routes.

Typically the BBC online weather forecast for Macau proved to be entirely ficticious and instead of daily sunshine I find occasional torrential showers and a typhoon heading this way. It's annoying in that I decided to leave the 2 quid umbrella I bought back in Hong Kong. Now I've had to go out and buy an entirely new umbrella costing me over a quid! As for the typhoon, I noticed in a couple of places a sign stating "Typhoon warning 1" and a map showing the typhoon off the south coast of China, but not looking terribly distant. Now I visited the Macau maritime museum earlier today which explained these alerts, however I can't remember if warning 1 is when the typhoon has first come without the outer perimeter of a few hundred km or if it's the one where we should be expecting imminent widespread devastation. Given the generally calm if somewhat inclement weather I'll assume it's the former and that we'll be ok for a bit, at least time enough for me to get back to HK tomorrow as planned.

Hong Kong

I've noticed a trend while travelling that the more technologically advanced a country is the more useless their internet cafes tend to be. I had problems in Japan, not least with the cost, and here in Hong Kong I have to search around the internet cafe for a PC that isn't running Windows 98 and that can recognise my camera. However once I've found the sole XP PC it's set up so that I can't access the photos on my camera anyway. A far cry from the Korean PCs where people install anything and everything onto the machines. Thus I am currently online but unable to upload any photos, which is a shame because I think I've taken some good shots of the amazing Hong Kong skyline so far.

My first couple of days here have proven fun. A girl from Austria, Elisa, emailed me a few weeks back about travelling to South East Asia and I only got around to replying while in Korea. It turns out her last couple of days here coincided with my arrival, so we've been able to see the sights together and I've had a rare opportunity to practice my German, which has been great.

I've been staying in Kowloon so far which is where most of the cheap accommodation is located, but I've been tracking down some budget places on Hong Kong Island too so I can make the most of having different bases to explore Hong Kong from. To be honest I'm not too sure whether to call Hong Kong a city, country or province. Officially it's a "Special Administrative Region" but that doesn't mean much to most people. It doesn't help that Hong Kong is both the name of an island as well as the whole region. In any case it's been a thoroughly amazing place to explore so far. Much of my forages so far have concentrated around the harbour area which is just an amazing sight, whether you look at the skyscrapers on Hong Kong island, the mish-mash of Kowloon or the absolutely ram-jammed waterway running between them.

Elisa introduced me to the ferries and trams, both of which cost pence to travel on and are fab ways both of getting around and seeing the sights. We went to the far side of Hong Kong island and briefly visited Aberdeen, primarily for the placename and ended up on a beach at sunset which was a unexpected but thoroughly relaxing way to end the day and it felt a million miles from the bustle of Kowloon.

Heading up the Peak might be on the cards for this evening, but if I've missed the sunset I'll do it another evening. My Chinese visa application is in for processing and I should have it back by the end of the week then I can plan heading into China proper. First stop will likely be Guangzhou which is the first main stop on the train from Hong Kong.

There are loads of foreigners here, although the layout of the place I'm staying at the moment doesn't make it so easy to meet people so I'll likely head to some pubs in the evenings to see who I can find. Also I'm moving guest houses to Hong Kong island in a couple of days so that might prove better too.

For now it's farewell from a frenetic Hong Kong!

Last day in Korea

I'm spending my last few days relaxing as much as possible before tomorrow's flight to Hong Kong. So far this has been going well. Yesterday I spent a few hours on the beach doing a spot of reading and not much else, although using the public transport spiced up the day a bit. Having successfully found the bus stop for the beach, no mean feat I should add, I got on the bus to be greeted by a irritated bus driver who remained irritated until he pulls up outside the bus filling station and orders everyone off. We all stand there and fortunately after about ten minutes another bus arrives to take us onwards. The return journey was no less colourful as I was asked where I was going. I told them I wanted to go to "Airport Town Square" which is a new development near the airport, however clearly of the three words I said to the bus driver the only word understood was "airport" and that's where I ended up. It wasn't all bad though as it gave me the chance to have a look around the place, which is modern and rather impressive and I was able to enjoy a restaurant with an English menu and indulged in an only somewhat overpriced Japanese dinner. Life was grand! Getting back to the hotel from the airport was rather more straightforward and given the absence of CNN in the hotel I spent the evening browsing the Korean channels that were showing any manner of English language TV shows and movies. The problem is that programmes don't seem to start at particularly regularly times, so in the vast majority of cases I miss the beginning, but it's entertaining enough. One programme I've discovered is "Boston Legal" which seems to be shown quite regularly on one of the channels and whose cast includes the glorious wooden acting efforts of fat boy Shatner. What more could you ask for?

Today has proven even less strenuous thus far. I sleep in and leave my hotel room just before 2pm which is the time when the cleaner starts rattling around outside. I wander around the area which is essentially Korea in microcosm; a selection of chain shops, restaurants, bars and shops you'd find in any centre but crammed into just a few blocks. Given that I generally haven't taken very many photos of downtown city scenes while in Korea I could do worse than take my camera around here. There are plenty of Hofs (Korean pubs), PC Bangs (Internet cafes, from one of which I type this now) and all the neon you could wish for. It's a scene which is unfamiliar on the surface, but interspersed with familiar brands (Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts) and names which are unfamiliar but contents which are thoroughly Westernised such as Paris Croissant where I enjoyed pastries and an Orangina for lunch. Not very Korean but it was one of the few places with English signage and some familiar food doesn't go amiss now and again, not least when the pickled Kimchi and extra spicy food so favoured here isn't exactly to my taste.

Having spent the last few days wandering around on my own I've encountered Koreans a little more than I had previously. I was accosted on a street corner a few days ago by a group of school girls on a homework assignment. Similarly to those in Japan they'd be tasked with tracking down some foreigners and asking them some questions in English. Well given they were in Itaewon, the part of town stuffed full with Westerners they were certainly in the right place. I couldn't turn them down of course and on agreeing to help I was greeted by an enthusiastic round of applause. It was the usual questions: country of origin, name (my surname I had to write for them). I was asked my favourite and least favourite bits of Korea. I couldn't think of a favourite in particular so I lied and said the food although for the least favourite I was entirely honest in identifying the traffic as my biggest annoyance. For location I thought I'd make it easy for them and offered "near Manchester". Right on queue they responded with "ooh! Manchester United! Wayne Rooney!" Aah, isn't it nice when those stereotypes prove to be bang on the money sometimes?

Yesterday I was both helped and hindered by the the locals. Having been cast off the bus at the natural gas filling station it was only by the kind help of some of my fellow castaways that I was to follow them in reaching the beach, whereas in contrast it was the bus driver's attempts to work out where I wanted to go that ensured I was never to get there, at least directly!

Compared to Japan where I was able to some idea of the main themes influencing the modern culture and direction of the country, in Korea I've not been able to get anywhere as far into understanding what makes people tick and why they do the things they do. Broad themes are not so much in evidence and there's a great inexplicable mix of youngsters gaming in PC Bangs to the older generation spending seemingly their entire lives sitting around on the streets and gossiping. No, I feel I will leave here having experienced Korea but not having really understood it all. However as you may have gathered from reading this blog the country hasn't struck me or enticed me as others have and so I'm not going to leave feeling that I've missed out on anything.

Hong Kong and China come next and I've just realised that this may make keeping in touch more difficult than it has done as I've read that blogger.com where this blog is hosted is generally blocked in China and I'm unsure about access to Hotmail or other services I use. On the plus side I should at last be able to use my mobile again, having had it out of use for over two months now. I'm guessing internet access won't be blocked in Hong Kong but since there are no certainties I thought I'd better say now that if my blog entries thin out from this point for a while you'll know why at least.

Standing on the front line

JSA area, Panmunjeom - negotiations building
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

This guy has the weight of the North Korea - South Korea frontier on his shoulders; the table marks the mid-point. This is the famous room you get to visit on the Panmunjeom tour where the armistice was signed to end the Korean war.

DMZ

Although I've been doing some sightseeing around Seoul the highlight to any trip to Korea has got to be a visit to the DMZ, the 4km wide De-Militarised Zone that seperates North and South Korea which are still officially at war following the Korean War in the 1950s. There are two main tours of the area, one of the DMZ sights and the other to Panmunjeom, both of which I saw on Wednesday. The former includes a trip to the "3rd tunnel"; one of four tunnels discovered which the North Koreans dug from the North, under the DMZ, into the South. Thousands of soldiers could have passed through the tunnel into the South in the event of an invasion, which is a pleasant thought, especially when it's thought there are perhaps twenty other undiscovered tunnels still out there. Although the 3rd tunnel doesn't offer a great deal to see, it being just a tunnerl after after and blocked about 250m in, it does give some indication of the shenanigans the North Koreans got up to. A museum by the tunnel actually lists the recorded infiltrations, attempted assassinations and all the rest the North tried, the most successful perhaps being when a number of South Korean ministers and MPs went to Burma for a meeting and North Koreans blew up the meeting room. The DMZ tour also made a stop at an observatory from where you can observe the North but can't stand anywhere where you might get a half-decent photo. Maybe it was for our own good; who knows the North Koreans might have teams of snips looking out for people aiming cameras at them. The observatory featured an explanation of the area given by a Korean soldier with a superb British military accent who I assume must have studied at Sandhurst or similar. I think he takes the prize of the best English speaking Korean I've encountered.

In the afternoon the tour went to Camp Bonitas where a mix of Korean and US soliders are based and to Panmunjeom within the Joint Security Area where the two Koreas are as face to face as they get. There's not a great deal to see; you get to go inside the room used for negotations which is monitored by both sides continuously and see the flags of the two Koreas on either side of the divide. The main purpose of the visit I suppose is to get a feel for the tension and division. Certainly the ultra-strict rules you had to adhere to while on the tour helped with that. Aside from a smart dress code there's absolutely no pointing allowed at the North Koreans, walking was in double file and photography was strictly limited to certain areas and the whole tour was done on a limited time frame. If you did anything wrong the accompanying solider who on our tour was American would have a word with you. I was a good boy but others received some firm words in their ear.

I feel I'm pretty much done and finished with Seoul now. There's certainly more I could see but nothing I particular wish to make the effort to see, nor do I fancy making any day trips further afield as if nothing else the Lonely Planet to Korea really doesn't make it sound as if there's a great deal to be seen or worth making the trip to see. I suppose that's why there are so few guidebooks on Korea; there's simply not that much to do on a visit here. It's a workaday sort of a country, and in a similar fashion to the Japanese the Koreans work long hours and can receive as little as a week's holiday, as I discovered from one of the tour guide I spoke to. It's an odd place, being modern but at the same time seeing old men carry around these huge trailers laden down with any range of goods. The population as a whole dresses very conservatively and plainly, in contrast to the sharper suited and fashionable Japanese, and even cars only come in three colours: black, white or silver. If you see a coloured car it's normally a sign that the owner has been abroad. Cars are as modern as elsewhere, but there's this underlying feeling of austerity. Korea has certainly come along in leaps and bounds in recent decades and perhaps the culture and lifestyle has yet to move along with it.

I would like to say something more positive about Korea. It's by no means a bad place but it doesn't really impress either. People get on with their lives in a rather basic sort of way and that's about the size of it with little else to shout about. Nevertheless the ex-pats here seem to enjoy the lifestyle that Korea offers. This is perhaps understandable in that the teachers here have their board and flights to and from Korea covered in addition to receiving a decent wage. The infrastructure is modern and there's a busy ex-pat scene going on in Seoul which makes it a fun place to be for partying. As a sightseeing destination though it hardly figures compared to it's Japanese and Chinese neighbours.

Like I say I'm done with seeing the sights here now so I'm going to catch a few days of R&R before flying out to Hong Kong on Monday. Peculiarly it seems that Hong Kong is actually going to be a good deal less humid than Seoul despite being much further south, so I'll hopefully have a more enjoyable time checking out the sights and going up the mountains to take in the views over the harbour and around. In Hong Kong I'll obtain my Chinese visa and from there I'll most likely take the train into the South of China and do something of a circle tour of the country, finishing back in Hong Kong or Macau to fly out cheaply to South East Asia, or head to the South West of China to travel overland into Vietnam.

As a final point of interest, during my visit to Seoul tower the windows around the observation floor featured markers with distances to various cities around the world. It listed London as 8800km away. Considering I'd travelled over 9200km just across Russia I didn't feel terribly impressed by this figure. Perhaps Hong Kong will help increase the mileage score. We shall see!

The obvious foreigner

The days have continued to pass with a great deal of drinking here in Seoul and sightseeing has been scant although it's been fine to do something different for a while. Having helped out with my friend's school trip which took children to a fan making class we've found our photos appearing in several newspapers. It seems that the photographers there, of which there were many for reasons unknown, wanted in particular to take photos of the funny foreigners trying the Korean art of fan painting. I was at the front of the photo despite being an imposter and not an English teacher.

Koreans have a fascination with foreigners. Even in Seoul where there's a good number of Westerners, either teaching English or from the US army bases, you still get children and sometimes adults stare at you as if you've landed from Mars and were greeen with six arms. It's a good deal worse in other towns and cities where foreigners are a good deal rarer. We've encountered children shout (in Korean the equivalents of): "Oi foreigner!" and "American!" which is pretty rude, but my friend can understand them. What's more it's common for Koreans to just come up to you and speak to you in English. While this is fine if you're in the mood for a chat, if it happens a lot it gets to be a pain and you quickly find yourself wearing headphones on the metro so that people are disuaded from speaking to you. It doesn't help that it's often older people who want to chat, and to be honest I'm not that interested in speaking to them and no doubt answering the same questions as everyone asks. Occasionally the person can be interesting, but it's just being forced to have a conversation when you might have preferred not to that's a bit of an irritation.

Otherwise you get a lot of children saying "hello, how are you?". Although I encountered some children saying "hello" randomly in Japan, the Japanese were a lot more reserved in speaking to you. Here it's very different. Yesterday I was in a touristy part of Seoul with my friend's flatmate looking at the souvenirs when a young Korean guy noticed my companion's Irish football shirt and started rambling on about Irish and English and football players like a man possessed. The whole idea that when you're having a chat with friends you might not want to be interrupted by the random stranger wanting to practice their English doesn't seem to occur to them. Fortunately my friend is familiar with English teaching in Korea and knows that aside from a few set phrases most Koreans can speak very English and so if confronted uses the stock phrases "Hi...how are you....I'm from Manchester United" which is pretty much all many of the locals can understand, and it provides us with a good laugh in the process.

Soon Korea will be behind me though as I've got a flight booked to take me to Hong Kong in about a week. Before then I'm off to the DMZ - the border between North and South Korea. More about all of that next time.

Do rainbow

A few days in to Korea and there's not a great deal to tell as aside from the few cities visited (and none of which I can recall the names of as I find Korean names hopeless to remember) my time here has been concentrated on a great deal of socialising and drinking Korean beer.

I'm gradually starting to get a feel for the country which I think does have its own identity, however it's rather a matter of working through the surface image of highrises to see what lies beneath.

Although Engrish t-shirts aren't as thick on the ground as in Japan (and I'm unsure of what the name of the Korean equivalent should be) there's still a good deal of humorous English to be enjoyed. One t-shirt spotted yesterday read "I eat marathons. 3. Breakfast". A music channel I saw albeit silenced in a bar featured a Korean song with English lyrics displayed, which included memorable vocals such as "my music's like Jesus do" and "do rainbow". I've been practicing my rainbow doing ever since.

The smaller Korean cities didn't seem terribly exciting or noteworthy from what I saw of them but Seoul in constrast is definitely where it's at. It's not home to the sorts of extremes you might find in Tokyo but there's certainly a buzz going on, and I'll try to get a better feel for the city in the next few days.