Bienvenue a Bangkok

Well, here I am in Bangkok and I realize that I basically failed to write anything about Hong Kong. I spent three wonderful days there and feel so fortunate that I was lucky enough to know people who made it all such a fabulous experience. Steven and Daniel were truly hosts extraordinaire, and went WAY above and beyond the call of duty (especially since in this case I would say the call of duty was zero). I spent both Wednesday and Friday nights out with them, dining on wonderful Chinese and Nepalese food, respectively, and trying to make a dent in Daniel's winnings of 30L of beer. For the record, a liter is a big glass of beer. Thursday night I was lucky enough to have my second cousin (I think?) Ian take me out on an old Chinese junk, have drinks and dinner, and just generally show me around which was great. We ended the night by spectating the classic party street from above and watching for US sailors on leave in the harbor to getting into fights.

I spent my days mostly wandering around by myself, seeing the sights, trying not to spend money/resiting purchases in the markets. On Wednesday my highlights were the botanical garden/zoo and the peak tram. On Thursday I took a little day-trip out to Nyong Ping which is where a giant Buddha was placed on a hill in Lantau next to a Buddhist monastary. The buddha was definitely cool, as was the cable-car ride up there. I was a bit disappointed with the overt development of the area (it almost seemed like a mini-theme park with these multimedia shows and complete with a Starbucks). My favorite thing, however, was the huge number of hiking paths up in these beautiful mountains (I should note that the Chinese pave all of their paths, and while they seem to eschew switchbacks, they put in steps).
After viewing the "wisdom path" which was very cool, despite my lack of comprehension of Chinese characters , I headed off down the "Lantau path" for a bit. Unfortunately it was a long trail and I didn't have either the time or the right equipment necessary to really go far, but it was truly spectacular. The mountains are very steep and the whole landscape almost reminded me of climbing over a sleeping dragon.

In terms of Hong Kong in general, I didn't really know what to expect, but whatever I expected was not quite that. I would say that HK could be described primarily in terms of both its vertical nature and its contrasts. It is an incredibly vertical city in so many ways. First, there is the fact that it's built next to/on a very steep mountain. Because of the limited flat landspace the city has crept up the lower portion of the mountain, before admitting defeat against its 45 degree angle. This means that, for example, the Hopewell Center which is located between Queens Road and Kennedy Road has an entrance on each side, one on the 3rd floor, and one on the 17th. People commute through the building using the escalator. Bizarre. The city also sports the longest system of escalators in the world. They're outside, but covered, and they're used for commuting to and from the "mid-levels" a primarily residential community part-way up victoria peak, and the center (as down-town HK is aptly called). Tourists also use this system to just move-around and spectate. It's especially fun at night passing the portion (Shelley St. I think) that has bars directly on either side and watching the people. Hong Kong is vertical in more than just its mountain however, the city itself is tall. I don't know the figures on this, but the density of tall buildings there is really extraordinary. Everything is tall. Finally, the way in which all this space is utilized once again emphasizes the vertical: shops and restaurants are not restricted to street level. Indeed many are on second, or third floors, or even higher. Apparently there are many places that you just have to know are there in order to find. And added to this 3-D utilization of space is the complicated ways in which pedestrians must move aboutp, using all sorts of pedestrian bridges and underground moving walkways etc. Simply looking at a map is only half the story.

In terms of contrasts, there is the obvious East/West in this cosmopolitan city termed "Asia's world city" where both sky scrapers and wester customs meet a 95% chinese population. The contrast I was more surprised about, however, was the way that the city simply turned into wilderness as it went up the hill. It is incredibly abrupt. There are no suburbs. Just sky scraper and then jungle. In fact, most of the island is undeveloped, and there are also beaches on the south side, of which I had no idea.

I've discovered that traveling alone gives you a lot of time to reflect, but I'm super excited to have LG join me tonight! Anyway, I have more thoughts on Hong Kong (e.g. no recyling anywhere!!) but they'll have to wait for a rainy day as this post is already too long and I'm about to run out of internet. I'll try to start updating more frequently...

Hey Santa

OK, 24 hours of transit later and here I am, feeling like I won the lottery. Paul, if you're out there reading this, your brother is amazing (and so is his apartment)! Seriously though, I feel like I'm staying in a 5 star hotel, except its even better because it comes with 2 very wonderful hosts (with encyclopedic travel knowledge to boot).

As my sight-seeing in Hong Kong has been limited so far to the airport, taxi ride and sweet view from this 25th floor apartment, I don't really have much else to say except that flying over the north pole is pretty sweet. I highly recommend doing it sometime. And getting a window seat. Better yet, you could get one of those nifty first/business class seats that are diagonal and are both a window seat, an aisle seat and a bed, at the same time. But for the rest of us, I recommend the window, even if it means that you only gather up the umph once in a 15.5 hour flight to wake the sleeping chinese woman who does not appear to speak any english next to you so that you can go to the bathroom. It's worth it. They give you next to no water to drink, so you're properly dehydrated anyway.

Reflecting back some more on the surreal experience that was that long flight, I realize I flew through a day. literally. I left when it was light, only to fly due north (right over NH, saw Lake Winnepesauke) over the barren tundra in the north of Canada into the darkness. When it was light again (at like 2 am EST), I was able to look right down and see the very northern parts of Russia, which looked like some sort of bizarre moonscape. I also realized at this point that it must have been dark out when we went over the north pole, and I missed Santa. Oh well, some other time. Finally, it got dark again and we landed, in a land where time is 12 hours ahead of where we left. And that's how you lose an entire day traveling.

I'm off to attempt to go to sleep, despite the fact that I snoozed through about 7.5 hours of my flight and its currently noon EST. I will beat you jetlag.

Sailing Away (metaphorically)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

I came across this probably very over-utilized and cliched quote on my most recent journey, namely the one that took place at my desk, scouring the internet for all useful advice about backpacking, traveling alone, what to pack, where to go, what to do, how to not get robbed, what medical insurance to buy etc etc etc. And, despite the aforementioned chagrin with which I use it here, I really do think that it nicely captures my attitude. I am sailing away from safe harbor (as my poor mother is painfully aware), but while nervous at times, I'm also immensely excited for the adventures that this next year will bring.

Let me backtrack. For those who do not know, I was the very lucky recipient of one of Harvard's Traveling fellowships. My fellowship was actually awarded to me on the basis of a hypothetical project in Madagascar which then became infeasible when the country suffered significant political turmoil this past year. Eventually I relocated my project keeping my principles of doing work combining health and the environment to Indonesia to work with an organization called Health in Harmony. I'm very excited and hopeful that the work I do there will be beneficial for both me and the organization.

Before I start working at HIH in January however, I will be attempting to learn Bahasa Indonesia for the month of December at a language school in Yogyakarta. And before I begin my tutelage, I will backpacking around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos with my good friend LG (yay!). We're going to try and cover a lot of ground in just under a month, so it should be a whirlwind trip of epic-proportions. Stay tuned.

To backtrack just one more step, before I meet up with Laura in Bangkok, I'm going to be spending a few days in Hong Kong staying with the very generous brother of a friend. I hope to thus combine getting over jet-lag, breaking up my journey (a little), and seeing Hong Kong into a solid 3 day mini adventure.

After ages to prepare and a solid week of buying lots of things at various stores and returning lots of things to various stores, I'm finally reaching a state of readiness (although I doubt I'll ever be completely prepared). This is good because I leave on Monday.

Till Hong Kong....