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Up and Over

Posted August 11, 2013

PART 15 (DAYS 33-35): “How’s everything here?” I asked Chris, the manager at Southern Laughter Lodge, when I arrived back in Queenstown for a day in order to catch a homeward bound flight early the following morning.

“Oh, it’s quiet. It’s finally slowing down,” he answered.

“Oh, is the ski season over?”

“No, the season can go all the way until October,” he told me. “But all the Aussie kids have gone back to university.”

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The Last Village

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 25, 2004

DAY 335: Modernization has really taken its toll on Hong Kong Island since its colonization by the British in the seventeenth century. Skyscrapers have sprouted like weeds on the northern shore, filling every hole in the Hong Kong skyline. However, as tall and modern these skyscrapers may be, they were built with an age-old method; all scaffolding was made out of just bamboo sticks tied together. The rickety bamboo scaffolding is still in use today, even at eighty plus stories up.

Cubes and Triads

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 24, 2004

DAY 334: “I suddenly remember that I don’t miss this,” I said to Aviva. We were sitting in a familiar but frightening place to me: an office cubicle, Moe’s desk and workspace on the 50th floor of Hong Kong’s Citigroup building (near the famous Bank of China building, designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei). Aviva had to drop something off to her husband and I tagged along to see the inner workings of Hong Kong’s high-paced financial world — only to discover it was just like the generic American office environment, the battleground in the modern classic film Office Space.

Portuguese Chinese

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 24, 2004

DAY 333: Great Britain, as great as it was before the break-up of The Beatles, wasn’t the only European power meddling in places on the other side of the world. During the hey day of seafaring trade, Portugal was also a major power of international commerce, particularly in Asia after they had wisely decided to rent a piece of land from the Chinese government in 1557 at the strategic location where three major Chinese rivers fed out into the ocean. This colonial port, known as Macau, became a major hub of trade in between the east and west and propelled the Portugal in the import/export business — eventually other countries used Macau as a port too. Some Portuguese settled in Macau, importing their language, food, architecture and religion to an otherwise Chinese area. Macau was handed back over to China in 1999 — two years after the UK handed back Hong Kong — but the Portuguese legacy can still be felt today as it stands as one of China’s Special Administrative Regions (SARs), with its own currency, immigration/customs regulations and unrestricted gambling laws.

The Big Bang / Getting Money

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 22, 2004

DAY 332: “Just go ahead, I can’t run in these [flip-flop sandals]!” Aviva called to me as we were running through an underground pipeline tunnel in the Causeway Bay district. I quickened by pace. There was no time to respond. There was about to be a very big boom within seconds and we had to get there before it went off.

The Six Days Between Dawn And Dusk

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 22, 2004

DAY 331: Travel has a weird effect on the perception of time. When you’re doing so many new things out of a daily routine, everything becomes a blur; every experience is in one ear and out the other. Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours, hours like days. In the eleven months I’ve traveled thus far, it feels like I’ve been away for at least three lifetimes already. Days seem especially long when you pack activities in right from the crack of dawn.

The Greens Under The Glass

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 20, 2004

DAY 330: Everybody goes back to work on Monday in Hong Kong. The movers, the shakers, the wheelers and dealers, Moe, Meg and the 150,000 Filipina maids — everyone except Aviva and me. While Aviva would eventually look into more productive things to do for her six month stay in Hong Kong with Moe — fundraising for the local Jewish Community Center, possibly teaching English or learning Cantonese, planning vacations — this week she would be my tour guide in Hong Kong. Besides, she wanted to be out of the apartment when the maid came (courtesy of Citigroup) so it wouldn’t seem like she was a loser with nothing to do; the week before she was in and out of the apartment to run errands but always managed to coincidentally be home when Julia the Filipina housekeeper made her daily rounds.

A Day Away With A Big Buddha

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 18, 2004

DAY 329: “Are you in on the Buddha?” Aviva asked me. Out of context that may sound like a request to try some wild hallucinogenics, but she was referring to a plan she and Moe had to spend their Sunday away from Central Hong Kong to see the sights of nearby Lantau Island. Any chance Moe could get away from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong to see more of this part of the world, he was all for it.

“Sure,” I said. Moe’s co-worker Meg and upstairs neighbor was in on the Buddha too.

Keeping Up With The Raichelsons

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 17, 2004

DAY 328: When the British Empire defeated the Chinese and took over Hong Kong in 1898, little did they know that 99 years later it would eventually be taken over by the Starbucks Empire. Regardless of the British handing back Hong Kong to China in 1997, Hong Kong has remained the gateway for international business in Asia (and therefore trendy coffee shops), attracting all the major international banking and financial institutions. You know, the big boys like Citigroup and HSBC — and even smaller guys like Bob’s Piggy Bank and Barbecue Emporium (that’s not actually true). While Hong Kong has been losing business to upcoming Singapore and Shanghai lately, it is still the shimmering showcase of sleek post-modern architecture that pays homage to the perpetual sharp and sophisticated wheeling and dealing going on inside its shiny glass façade.

Forgotten Names

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 16, 2004

DAY 327: “I know you,” I said to a passer-by in the restaurant/cafe next to the hostel the night before. We had made eye contact two nights prior at the hostel’s little computer area.

“Yeah, last night at the internet,” the voice of the familiar-faced woman said. I knew that I recognized her face from somewhere, but couldn’t exactly place it right away. I’m absolutely horrible with names — I forget almost immediately after I hear them — and I only really remember if I write them down so I have a crib sheet to look at. It’s cheating, I know.

Dishes

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 16, 2004

DAY 326: When I arrived in Yangshou three days prior, I was approached by a tout trying to sell me on the perks of his hotel, so that I might give him business instead of giving it to a place listed in a guidebook that didn’t need any extra publicity. This has been a fairly common thing in my travels when arriving at a new place — someone tells me I’ll get a private room with a private shower and hot water (24/7), etc. for a price just as good as any place listed in a guidebook. While these unlisted places might be a steal, comfort exactly isn’t the most important thing I look for as a solo traveler. The most important factor is finding a place listed so that perhaps I’d meet other fellow solo travelers with guidebooks to hang out with. If you’ve followed The Blog for a while now, this strategy has been the reason why I’ve met so many “characters” on the road.

Chinese Spider-Man

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 14, 2004

DAY 325: The summer before I left for this trip, my friends (and Blogreaders) Cheryl and da Rzz had started to get into indoor rock climbing, going practically every weekend to an indoor rock gym in northern New Jersey, somewhere between an industrial factory and a mafia safe house. They had invited me several times to join them so that I too could experience the hard-earned endorphin rushes of accomplishment after reaching the top of a completely fabricated rock face with colorful fake rock holds bolted up to them.

I didn’t really get too into their newfound hobby — mainly because I didn’t want to get hooked right before leaving the country for sixteen months (or until money runs out, whichever comes first), and besides, rock climbing used up every muscle in my body and it made me feel like I had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler for the next couple of days. Don’t get me wrong, I liked going rock climbing with them, especially the part when we descended down the wall, took off our harnesses and went down the road to the Tex-Mex place down the road to get some beer and sizzling fajitas.

A Couple of Monkeys

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 13, 2004

DAY 324: I’ve racked my brain for two days trying to find an funny angle for this Blog entry, and why exactly I don’t know — there are monkeys in this entry! I’ve always thought monkeys were funny ever since I met the orangutan from The Cannonball Run II (his name escapes my mind) who made a special guest appearance at one of my Cub Scout meetings. (He was already a washed out simian actor by that time.)

Mistaken Identities

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 12, 2004

DAY 323: As an American born from a bloodline from the Philippines — the southeast Asian archipelago country once colonized by the Spanish — I have a certain façade that has been mistaken for other nationalities, depending on what country I’m in. In South America, locals often approached me with words in Spanish under the assumption that perhaps I was one of them, and whenever I had trouble responding right away, they assumed I was just from the neighboring country. Ecuadorians thought I might have been Peruvian. Brazilians thought I might have been Bolivian.

The Tower in the Detroit of China

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 09, 2004

DAY 322: Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province, is another big “generic” modern Chinese metropolis, an inevitable stopping point for anyone traveling through the region; it is not only a place of industry but a major transportation hub. Although it has historical significance of being one of the meeting points of Sun Yatsen’s anti-Imperialist society of the early 20th century, generally speaking, it is not a particularly attractive city to tour around; Blogreader F. Levente once called it the “Detroit of China,” and I’m sure he meant that in a negative way with no intended offense to you readers out there from Detroit. (Then again, I don’t know, maybe he hates your Detroitian guts and wishes both cities a plague of rabid beavers.) In any case, I found myself in this “Detroit of China” with others from the Yangzi River cruise when our bus arrived at a confusing bus station around eight in the morning.

Gorgeous Gorges

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 08, 2004

DAY 321: The Yangzi River stretches for over 3,960 miles from the western mountains of Chinese-occupied Tibet all the way to the East China Sea, but it is the 215 odd miles between Chongqing and Yichang that most tourists travel through. It is on this stretch that the mighty Yangzi cuts through the famous Three Gorges, a big draw for people to experience, much like The Three Tenors: Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and (if you’ll allow me to borrow a bit from Seinfeld) The Other Guy. (Thanks, Jerry.)

Submerged

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 08, 2004

DAY 320: Taking a river cruise on the Yangzi River, the world’s third longest, was one of my must do’s in this first visit to China for me — it’s impossible to see everything in one trip — since a lot of people have told me to do it before it’s too late. At the time of writing, construction of a huge dam was already two thirds complete and when it is finished, the waters upstream from the dam will rise and submerge the natural and man-made treasures along its banks in the same manner the Aswan High Dam of the Nile submerged a lot of Nubian sites in southern Egypt.

Chicken Styrofoam

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 06, 2004

DAY 319: I was awake at 6 a.m. before most people in the Dragon Town Hostel were awake. I was down at breakfast by 6:30, when I met the only other guy up and ready to go: Wayne, an Australian technician for Telstra on holiday in China for three weeks. We had both waken up for the same reason: to get the 6:40 minivan transport to a bigger bus that would take us to Chongqing, the starting point of a three-day Yangzi River cruise we had booked.

Porn For Pandas

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 06, 2004

DAY 318: When you look at a panda, chances are you don’t think of it as a “sexy beast.” That sort of description goes to a sleek animal like a panther, not that I’ve ever had the urge to spoon a panther. Pandas are, from what I gather of mass public opinion, considered to be “cute,” which according to Rough Guide, contributes to the fact that they have an unfair advantage over other animals on the endangered species list; it is their cuteness that people respond to that have launched worldwide awareness and conservation programs of the otherwise lazy animal. If the dodo was an attractive animal, it might still be around today — although I doubt I’ve have the urge to spoon a dodo either.

Sichuan Style

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 05, 2004

DAY 317: Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, the southwestern province before the Chinese occupied territory of Tibet. Chengdu is a modern metropolis as most Chinese capitals are, known for its famous school of traditional medicine, its panda breeding center, and above all, its spicy cuisine.

Big Wild Goose Chase

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 05, 2004

DAY 316: Xi’an’s center is surrounded by a moat and a protective wall that was originally built to fortify the city during the era of dynasties, but nowadays it just sort of separates the city from the suburbs in the most straightforward manner possible. Most of it has been restored — complete with dress up guards at the gates for show — forming a sort of jogging/biking trail on top perfect for a morning bike ride — which was how I spent the early morning. It was a relaxing start to another hectic day on the road.

The Farmer That Found A Warrior Within

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 01, 2004

DAY 315: In 1974, a group of peasant farmers in a remote countryside of the Shaanxi province were digging up a well. Instead of water, they stumbled upon something else: without aiming to do so, they had found one of the greatest archaeological sites of the 20th century, Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s army of The Terracotta Warriors.

He Said, She Said in Xi’an

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 01, 2004

DAY 314: Xi’an, the former imperial capital for eleven dynasties since China’s territories were unified by Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, lies about a third of the way westward from the eastern Pacific coast. Here, the Great Silk Road was established linking trade between the Romans and the Far East, making Xi’an one of western China’s most prosperous cities not only politically but commercially. Today, Xi’an is the political and commercial capital of the Shaanxi province, a modern city of five million whose center is surrounded by protective city stone walls. For tourists, it is the base for visiting one of China’s must-sees: Qin’s Terracotta Warriors.

Workin’ For The Blog

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 01, 2004

DAY 313: Everyday when I’m behind on The Blog I tell myself, This is the day you’ll just stay in and catch up, Erik. You become a writer when you write because you have to, not because you want to. Some days I listen to my inner monologue, but other days I go out to do more — all for the benefit of The Blog and its readers of course. I swear, it’s hard work playing the role of producer, keeping each daily entry interesting and different from others so as a whole, The Blog doesn’t get stale. Anyway, I decided that this would be the day to catch up, to finish as much I could before my 5:33 p.m. train to my next destination, Xi’an.

The Zoo Debate

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted September 01, 2004

DAY 312: Zoos are controversial things. One on hand, they aim to bring wild animals from faraway lands to urban areas, so that city folk who don’t have the time, money or courage to see them in the wild can simply stroll around and see them all in a day before “Must See TV” starts. On the other hand, innocent animals are held in captivity for the convenience of Man — their treatment depending on the level of professionalism of the zoo. Lonely Planet China‘s biased paragraph of the Beijing Zoo states that “All zoos are animal prisons, but Beijing Zoo seems like death row.” As readers of The Blog may know, you can’t believe everything you read in a guidebook — particularly a Lonely Planet one — so I decided to see the zoo for myself. Besides, I wanted to see the pandas.

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