brappy!

I very much miss my good friend Chen. Everytime I see him in Taiwan, we get along famously and laugh like idiots. Plus, he reminds me a lot of myself, actually. And he's a bit weird. Last time I stayed with his family, he repacked my suitcase because my dirty clothes "were too messy"... or something like that... While looking for a shot of the time that Coco Lee checked me out on the street, I came across this photo I took of him and his sister ascending the staircase in the pedestrian tunnel underneath Zhongxiao West Road right near Taipei Train Station. I was about to say goodbye to them for the foreseeable future and we were all quite sad (but full, after eating duck for lunch).

Posted by arion at 02:35 PM | Permalink

Because Typhoon Pabuk decided to hit Hong Kong, I was stuck laying low in Tsim Sha Tsui over the weekend. Most things were closed, and it was really rainy. I was there mostly to get a new visa for the mainland, which I'd heard was easy to do in HK. Wrong. Previously, I had obtained my visa in New York at the PRC consulate there. I had asked for a multiple-entry visa, but they said that because I was studying in the mainland, I couldn't get one. Annoying, for sure. Cost of my same-day student visa? $80 USD.

So, after going to HK and Taiwan, I had to get a new 30-day tourist visa in HK. Usually these are around $800 HKD ($102 USD) for a one-day processing time. That's what it was in November, when I checked. Imagine my shock and horror when I found that a same-day tourist visa is now $1430 HKD (182 USD)! What a ripoff! I could have gotten the same document for $80 in the US. What a hassle!

That big chunk of money ate up most of my budget for my weekend in HK. While it is an expensive city to live in, eating local food and riding public transit to go take photographs (which is what I like doing there anyway) is super-cheap. But, because of the typhoon, this was largely scrapped, as many restaurants and most public transportation was severely disrupted. I did get to watch some fun tv, though.

After the typhoon, the buildings were postively luminescent. It was crazy light, but I loved it

Looking across the harbour

Entertainingly (and with great timing), the cheeziest competition in town, Mr. Hong Kong 2007, was on tv during the typhoon. I love the expression on the judges here.

Posted by arion at 02:54 PM | Permalink

China Eastern, originally uploaded by brappy!.

I have put this off for too long... but I need to tell the story of my experience at the Xi'an Airport.
I arrived plenty early for my 9.45a flight to Guangzhou and checked in. I cleared security with no problems and sat, waiting for my flight to board. At 9.35a, an announcement was made: my flight was now delayed until 2 o'clock!

I had been making all of these snotty jokes inside my head about how China Eastern flights are ALWAYS late. It's kind of true. Go to any airport that has MU flights and you'll soon see that their flights are the ones that are massively delayed everywhere. At Xi'an, the announcements were even better - "MU flight blah blah blah to Bayjin (sic) is delayed due to airline." Ain't that the truth. It was also rather odd that the announcements, clearly done by a native Mandarin speaker and non-native English speaker pronounced Beijing in a way I've never heard. Only when I heard the announcement in Japanese did I get it.

That'll teach me to make jokes at other's expense! Seriously!

After an hour, and some discussion with the non-English speaking staff, I decided to wait for my flight. Around 10.30, a man rounded us up and told us we were going to a hotel as the flight was now delayed until tomorrow... or whenever.

Since I had confirmed reservations on China Airlines from Hong Kong that evening, it was imperative that I get to Guangzhou as early in the day. I made my way out to the ticket counter and worked my way into the throng of people. At the front of the clump, a man was yelling at a ticketing agent, and not getting much response from her. In frustration, he grabbed a stack of plastic cards off of the desk and threw them at her. Unphased, she kept typing away. A woman on my other side was screaming at full volume into my ear about her ticket. No one was helping her either. After a few minutes of this, I turned to the screaming woman and told her to "shut up! No one is listening to you!" She got quiet. I turned back and realized that everyone was staring at me.

I walked away and decided to go to the bathroom for a few minutes and wait for things to calm down.

After a bit, I was able to change my ticket to another airline (by getting one ticket refunded in cash and passing the cash to the next ticket clerk) and paid 300RMB more to go to Shenzhen, a few miles south of Guangzhou, instead.

My noon flight to Shenzhen left on time and was quite pleasant. There's a reason why they call China Southern the best-run airline in China.

On the plane, however, I was seated next to a stinky 80 year-old grandfather who had never been on a plane before. He didn't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. He was very much out of place. I had to put his seatbelt on for him after he tried to buckle it backwards... it was bizarre.

Shenzhen, city of Whores and Thieves, was pretty. Good weather had left the Pearl River Delta with a lot of clear skies and I was shocked, after being in Beijing and Xi'an, at how blue the sky could be. I really felt like things were looking up for me. But, alas, how wrong was I...

Posted by arion at 07:20 AM | Permalink

unrestored wall section, originally uploaded by brappy!.

We went to the great wall at 司馬台 on Saturday. Simatai is pretty interesting, but the wall is quite a big climb. Fortunately, you'll get your own guide, whether you want one or not. Mine had a unique hatred of Germans, I'm not not sure.

My class was hell-bent on hustling up several mountaintops. After a few towers, I realized that they were increasingly similar, yet harder to reach. Plus, we didn't eat breakfast. What the heck? So, my guide Mrs. Du, and I headed back and we chatted about her family while I tripped on the loose bricks on the way down.

Back at the base, I pulled out my brilliant book, ordered a Yanjing beer, some tea and then chatted with some French people about politics. After I wished them a happy Bastille day, they bought me some beer. After an hour and a half, my class came back, worn out and hungry. I was quite happy with myself (the beer helped my ego) and glad I ate when I did.

On the sleepy bus ride back, I saw perhaps the best blue truck ever! Unlike Taiwan, where blue trucks have four wheels, in the mainland, they often have three wheels - one in front, two in back (the mullet of blue trucks)... I saw one such three-wheeled bizarreness carrying a full load of donkeys in the back! I couldn't stop talking about it. Too bad, I didn't have my camera out... grar!

More photos of the great wall... on flickr, film is being developed presently...

Posted by arion at 03:39 PM | Permalink