My morning was a bit rushed. I was taking a fairly early bus out of Los Angeles, using some small independent Vietnamese bus company that was going to pick me up in China Town. The main issue was that I had to have a printed copy of my ticket, which I had forgotten to do in advance, and I had to wait for the staff at the hostel to get up (they tend to party pretty hard, and normal office hours weren't until 11am), and then we had problems getting the printer to work. Once we finally got things working it was a pretty quick ride to China Town since it was on the same subway line as where my hostel was, so I managed to get there in time. The ride wasn't very good. The bus was cramped and completely filled, with only 5 people that weren't Asian.
We got into San Francisco in the late evening, and by the time I got to my hostel the sun was down. The hostel I stayed in was huge, and one of the few real organized hostels I've encountered in the US. It must have had a few hundred beds, and had other perks like a fully-equipped industrial kitchen, pool tables and even a small movie theater. It was right on the border of the nicer part of downtown and the much less nice Tenderloin district (you can't expect much from a district named Tenderloin) which was full of beggars and homeless. Since it was already evening by the time I settled in I only went out to get a pizza, and then spent the rest of the evening trying to plan out what to do in San Francisco.
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Monday, March 25, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Days 346-347: Waiting to Leave
I took my last bus ride of New Zealand from Taupo, back up through Rotorua and finally to Auckland. During our hike across Tongariro our group had a lengthy discussion on New Zealand meat pies, which seem to be something of a national dish. One of the places that came up was a little bakery in Rotorua that had delicious pies, so when I happened to have an hour between transferring buses around lunch in Rotorua I managed to hunt the place down and get a few award-winning pies.
I had purposely booked a hostel a bit closer to where the buses come and go, mostly so that I wouldn't have so far to work at the dreadfully early hour I had to go at to catch my plane when I finally left the city. I didn't really have much I wanted to do in Auckland, but I did hang out in the city for much of the second day, just browsing through comic and book shops and sitting around in parks or by the water. Although I booked 2 nights in my hostel, I ultimately only slept there once. My flight from Auckland to Los Angeles left around 7am, and between the few hours early I'd have to get to the airport, the bus to get there, and the walk from my hostel to the bus stop I'd have had to get up around 3am to do everything comfortably. Instead I just walked to a nearby park where I could use wifi (my hostel was charging $10 a day to use wifi - one of the things I really hate about New Zealand) and just spent the night reading a book on my tablet and planning out the next few weeks a little.
I had purposely booked a hostel a bit closer to where the buses come and go, mostly so that I wouldn't have so far to work at the dreadfully early hour I had to go at to catch my plane when I finally left the city. I didn't really have much I wanted to do in Auckland, but I did hang out in the city for much of the second day, just browsing through comic and book shops and sitting around in parks or by the water. Although I booked 2 nights in my hostel, I ultimately only slept there once. My flight from Auckland to Los Angeles left around 7am, and between the few hours early I'd have to get to the airport, the bus to get there, and the walk from my hostel to the bus stop I'd have had to get up around 3am to do everything comfortably. Instead I just walked to a nearby park where I could use wifi (my hostel was charging $10 a day to use wifi - one of the things I really hate about New Zealand) and just spent the night reading a book on my tablet and planning out the next few weeks a little.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Days 341-342: Wellington to Taupo
I spent a day hanging out in Wellington to recover a bit from all the non-stop travelling. The weather in Wellington has been pretty amazing every day I've been there, and it was a nice warm sunny day. I didn't have any real plans or objectives, and was happy to just explore around downtown and along the harbor. The only really notable encounter of the day was with a tiny baby penguin that seemed to be wandering alone in the rocks down along the water, but it was unfortunately one of the times I didn't have my camera with me.
The next morning I took the morning bus from Wellington up to Taupo, where I was going to be meeting some locals to visit Tongariro National Park. Taupo is another fairly small town (similar to Owen Sound in population), sitting on the picturesque Lake Taupo. Our accomodations and transportation for the hike at Tongariro was entirely set up by Claire, who I think is the only person I've met in 4 different countries now - China, Hong Kong, Nepal and New Zealand (I can only think of 4 people, 3 of whom are family, that I've even met in 3 countries). She lives fairly close to Taupo and had been wanting to do the hike, so when I got to New Zealand we picked a suitable date and she did all the hard work, which was especially notable because the weekend we picked happened to also be the weekend of the Taupo Iron Man competition, and almost everything in town was booked solid. In the end our group was 5 people (including 3 of her friends from nearby Hamilton), and we met up in the evening at our lodging for the night before going out to pick up some groceries for the hike.
The next morning I took the morning bus from Wellington up to Taupo, where I was going to be meeting some locals to visit Tongariro National Park. Taupo is another fairly small town (similar to Owen Sound in population), sitting on the picturesque Lake Taupo. Our accomodations and transportation for the hike at Tongariro was entirely set up by Claire, who I think is the only person I've met in 4 different countries now - China, Hong Kong, Nepal and New Zealand (I can only think of 4 people, 3 of whom are family, that I've even met in 3 countries). She lives fairly close to Taupo and had been wanting to do the hike, so when I got to New Zealand we picked a suitable date and she did all the hard work, which was especially notable because the weekend we picked happened to also be the weekend of the Taupo Iron Man competition, and almost everything in town was booked solid. In the end our group was 5 people (including 3 of her friends from nearby Hamilton), and we met up in the evening at our lodging for the night before going out to pick up some groceries for the hike.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Day 334: Queenstown
The bus from Franz Josef didn't leave until the afternoon, but it was another nice drive further south, getting deeper into the mountains and woods and parks. We got into Queenstown in the evening around 8pm. Because its surrounded by beautiful mountains and water it's a pretty touristy place, and the city center is full of restaurants, bars and travel companies. I had been planning to do a fairly big hike out of Queenstown, and had planned to get here a day earlier to get the gear I needed and get organized. Unfortunately that got delayed because of the bus being full, so I had a shuttle scheduled for 8am the next morning without a lot of the things still to be figured out. I managed to at least change my shuttle to 12:30pm, which would obviously mean I started the hike later but would give me time in the morning to get organized and buy supplies before I headed out.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Day 303: Laundry Day
Back in Cairns I had another day to relax before my next excursion. The expected rain finally hit, making it pretty annoying to do anything in town. Other than a visit to the mall across the street and a few trips out for meals I stuck around the hostel, spending the day reading, using the internet and doing laundry. The laundry didn't work out very well, and I ended up staining a few things and everything was still damp after the dryer. I had booked another trip for the following couple days, but the upcoming weather continued to look less than promising.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Days 299-300: Exploring Cairns
As I mentioned, Cairns, as a town, is pretty dull. I had planned quite a bit of time in the area, so I wasn't really in a huge rush to take off on tours right away. I spent a few days walking around town booking things and just exploring around. On the second day I tried to walk to the botanical gardens because somebody had mentioned a rainforest hike there, but I ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere and getting lost, so in the end I gave up on it. The most interesting part of town was probably the harbor, which is the launching point for a lot of boats heading off to visit the reef.
Overall, not a terribly exciting couple of days. I bought a few groceries from across the street, since Australia is getting too expensive to eat out often. I also just relaxed and sat around the hostel talking to people and reading. I was just noticing the other day much I've read in the last 10 months. There is still a lot of empty time in the evenings and while waiting or travelling, but there are much fewer ways for me to spend that time lately, so I just settle on reading. At some point in Cairns I got around to reading the last book of Wheel of Time - feels a bit like the end of an era.
Overall, not a terribly exciting couple of days. I bought a few groceries from across the street, since Australia is getting too expensive to eat out often. I also just relaxed and sat around the hostel talking to people and reading. I was just noticing the other day much I've read in the last 10 months. There is still a lot of empty time in the evenings and while waiting or travelling, but there are much fewer ways for me to spend that time lately, so I just settle on reading. At some point in Cairns I got around to reading the last book of Wheel of Time - feels a bit like the end of an era.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Day 290: Cutting It Close
The previous day I had returned to the bus station as part of my city explorations to see about booking a bus ticket to Singapore for my flight out of Asia. At the office they told me that there were lots of free seats, and that if I just showed up the next day I could just get on one of the buses that left every hour. When I actually got to the bus station to do that though, I found out that the next two buses had been cancelled because nobody/not enough people had booked it. This meant that I had to take the 1pm bus for what was supposed to be about a 5 hour ride (including going through customs) to Singapore, and my flight left at 8:20pm. I wasn't sure how long it would take for me to get from the bus stop to the airport, or exactly how long before the flight the check-in counter closed, but I knew it would be tight.
I'm pretty good at planning out contigencies and figuring out how to streamline the events in my control as much as I can, and then not stressing out about the things outside of my control. I used the extra time I had at the bus station waiting for the later bus to eat and to convert the last of my leftover Malaysian currency into Singapore dollars so I'd have money for a metro ticket to the station, and once on the bus couldn't do much but sit and wait. It took just over 4 hours to get to the border, and with the two border stops and driving through to the city it took almost exactly the expected 5 hours. The stop was pretty close to the metro line, and I was lucky in that it was on the same line as the airport, and on the same side of the city. In the end I got to the airport with almost an hour and a half before my flight, which is plenty of time. In the end, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have worried as much as I did, because I find a lot of other people tend to plan things according to the best case scenario, which is basically what happened. I just know that there can be a lot of delays in a long bus trip crossing between countries, and only feel comfortable with a large buffer. In the end though, everything worked out this time.
My flight took me from Singapore to Jakarta where I was supposed to have a 1.5 hour layover. That turned into a 4.5 hour layover as there was an equipment problem with the plane and takeoff kept getting pushed back. Eventually they got things fingured out and we took off for the overnight flight to Melbourne.
I'm pretty good at planning out contigencies and figuring out how to streamline the events in my control as much as I can, and then not stressing out about the things outside of my control. I used the extra time I had at the bus station waiting for the later bus to eat and to convert the last of my leftover Malaysian currency into Singapore dollars so I'd have money for a metro ticket to the station, and once on the bus couldn't do much but sit and wait. It took just over 4 hours to get to the border, and with the two border stops and driving through to the city it took almost exactly the expected 5 hours. The stop was pretty close to the metro line, and I was lucky in that it was on the same line as the airport, and on the same side of the city. In the end I got to the airport with almost an hour and a half before my flight, which is plenty of time. In the end, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have worried as much as I did, because I find a lot of other people tend to plan things according to the best case scenario, which is basically what happened. I just know that there can be a lot of delays in a long bus trip crossing between countries, and only feel comfortable with a large buffer. In the end though, everything worked out this time.
My flight took me from Singapore to Jakarta where I was supposed to have a 1.5 hour layover. That turned into a 4.5 hour layover as there was an equipment problem with the plane and takeoff kept getting pushed back. Eventually they got things fingured out and we took off for the overnight flight to Melbourne.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Day 287: Organizational Day
The last day at the lake was pretty overcast, and the three of us were all in the middle of long travelling stints, with more to come, so we spent much of the day planning our onward journeys and making preparations. For me this was mostly just research and contacting people in Australia I was hoping to stay with, but one of the others had to hunt all over town for a decent exchange rate to convert cash and trying to book a bus going further south.
Other than that, we just spent the day walking around and playing with all the dogs around town, a few of whom we got to know quite well in our few days there. We spent the afternoon watching a few movies on somebody's laptop back in our room and went for another swim and watched another sun set over the ridge of the lake.
Other than that, we just spent the day walking around and playing with all the dogs around town, a few of whom we got to know quite well in our few days there. We spent the afternoon watching a few movies on somebody's laptop back in our room and went for another swim and watched another sun set over the ridge of the lake.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Day 284: Tubing Home
The second day of my 2 day trek was a bit disappointing, since we didn't really do any hiking at all. We did a short walk in the morning, but it was only half an hour to go up to the hilltop garden near where we slept. After lounging around for the morning we got ready to tube back down the river to town. We sealed all our packs in plastic bags and hopped into the tubes. Local guides manned the front and back of our tube-raft to steer us away from rocks, and we were off. It was maybe a 45 minute ride back to town, and had some pretty exciting sections along the way. There was nothing wild enough to risk flipping us, but by the time we got back we were thoroughly soaked.
I had a relaxed afternoon. I booked my trip out of town for the following day and spent most of the day along the riverside, enjoying the day and watching people have fun in the water.
I had a relaxed afternoon. I booked my trip out of town for the following day and spent most of the day along the riverside, enjoying the day and watching people have fun in the water.
Days 280-281: In and Out of Medan
As I said before, Medan isn't much of a tourist destination. The only real sights are a mix of temples, churches and mosques, and while at times these can be quite interesting, I wasn't really in the mood, especially after months of seeing similar things all over Asia. Instead I spent my time just walking around the city. I continued to do a lot of talking with locals, including flirtatious street food vendors, curious tuk tuk drivers and college students wanting to interview for school (4 different groups of them). I eventually got lost enough in the maze of streets that I had to get a tuk tuk ride back, but at least it was fairly inexpensive.
On my third day in Medan I stayed pretty close to the hostel. In the afternoon I was picked up by a tourist van going from Medan to Bukit Lawang, and spent the rest of the day on the road. Bukit Lawang is a small town along the Bahorok River right next to Gunung Leuser National Park. Bukit Lawang itself is almost entirely built to cater to both domestic and international tourists, and most people go there to trek in the park, particularily looking for wild orangutans. I got there in the evening after dark with the intention of heading into the jungle the next morning on a 2-day trek
On my third day in Medan I stayed pretty close to the hostel. In the afternoon I was picked up by a tourist van going from Medan to Bukit Lawang, and spent the rest of the day on the road. Bukit Lawang is a small town along the Bahorok River right next to Gunung Leuser National Park. Bukit Lawang itself is almost entirely built to cater to both domestic and international tourists, and most people go there to trek in the park, particularily looking for wild orangutans. I got there in the evening after dark with the intention of heading into the jungle the next morning on a 2-day trek
Friday, December 21, 2012
Day 271: Getting Organized and An Unexpected Quest
Since the wifi in my hostel in George Town had been terrible, I had fallen behind on planning things and getting information. I was planning on leaving the following day, so I couldn't really put things off any longer. I walked to the huge mall nearby. It's not as fancy as the one I went to earlier in the week, but far more massive and with an interesting personality. I've always found malls fascinating, as in many ways they become little mini cities. This one deserved that title more than most, as over the years it had branched from the main building to adjacent ones, connected with walkways and tunnels. The core building is fairly modern and has lots big brand name shops, but turn down a few side alleys in the mall and it becomes the run down wild west of shuttered shops, abandoned hallways and security guards in the jewellry shops sitting with shotguns across their lap. It is also where all the tourism companies set up shop, so after searching around a bit I bought a ticket to Cameron Highlands.
I wasn't able to book a hostel my normal way, but I sent out a few emails to some places in the area and by the end of the day was able to make a reservation. Not wanting to leave Penang on quite such a dreary note, I decided to go on one final walk through the city. During my walk, I saw a few really nice pieces of street art that were similar in style to a few pieces I'd seen in town earlier. I also found a map with the locations of most of the pieces by the same artist, and the hunt was on!
(Continued in the following Spotlight, since I haven't had a chance to do one in awhile!)
I wasn't able to book a hostel my normal way, but I sent out a few emails to some places in the area and by the end of the day was able to make a reservation. Not wanting to leave Penang on quite such a dreary note, I decided to go on one final walk through the city. During my walk, I saw a few really nice pieces of street art that were similar in style to a few pieces I'd seen in town earlier. I also found a map with the locations of most of the pieces by the same artist, and the hunt was on!
(Continued in the following Spotlight, since I haven't had a chance to do one in awhile!)
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Days 258-260: Catching Up and Looking Forward
After a last breakfast with some of the group I packed my bags and headed across town to the hostel I stayed at in Bangkok before. It was pleasant the first time, and not having to stress over finding a new place is an added bonus, so coming back was an easy choice. I didn't really do much during this second stop in Bankok, partly just because I'd seen much of what interested me the first time, and partly I just didn't feel like rushing around for a few days. I still explored around, trying different restaurants and buying a couple things, but overall nothing really worth getting into detail on.
So tonight is my last night in Bangkok (yes, present tense!) I also spent my few days here catching up on all the blog posts and photos, and when I fly out tomorrow I should be all caught up with everything for the first time in months. The fact that I'm flying out is another one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight is a bit frustrating. I'm heading over to Singapore tomorrow, and originally when I booked this flight a year ago I was planning to just stop over and likely continue on to Australia. The problem is that I no longer wish to do that. Instead I want to spend another month or so in southeast Asia before moving on. The perfect solution would have been to end my flying in Bangkok, spend the 4-6 weeks travelling into Laos, then south through Thailand and Malaysia and ending in Singapore before flying on to Australia. Instead, I'm going to have to fly to Singapore, and head north through Malaysia and possibly into Thailand again, for the third time, before looping back, completely defeating the purpose of the flight tomorrow. Oh well. It's not really that big of a deal, and when I booked these things a year ago without really knowing what my plans were, there were bound to be a few problems.
Despite this hiccup, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm done all my tours, as of tomorrow done all that initial batch of very cheap, poorly planned plane tickets from the start, and for the first time in awhile have a lot of freedom to just wander wherever I want.
So tonight is my last night in Bangkok (yes, present tense!) I also spent my few days here catching up on all the blog posts and photos, and when I fly out tomorrow I should be all caught up with everything for the first time in months. The fact that I'm flying out is another one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight is a bit frustrating. I'm heading over to Singapore tomorrow, and originally when I booked this flight a year ago I was planning to just stop over and likely continue on to Australia. The problem is that I no longer wish to do that. Instead I want to spend another month or so in southeast Asia before moving on. The perfect solution would have been to end my flying in Bangkok, spend the 4-6 weeks travelling into Laos, then south through Thailand and Malaysia and ending in Singapore before flying on to Australia. Instead, I'm going to have to fly to Singapore, and head north through Malaysia and possibly into Thailand again, for the third time, before looping back, completely defeating the purpose of the flight tomorrow. Oh well. It's not really that big of a deal, and when I booked these things a year ago without really knowing what my plans were, there were bound to be a few problems.
Despite this hiccup, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm done all my tours, as of tomorrow done all that initial batch of very cheap, poorly planned plane tickets from the start, and for the first time in awhile have a lot of freedom to just wander wherever I want.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Days 228-230: Diverging Paths
The bus ride from Chitwan to Pokhara was a scenic one along winding mountain roads. Since we had a private bus we could get the driver to pull over to the side of the road to enjoy a few especially scenic spots along the way. The best stop was at a long bridge suspended over a river valley between the mountains, and it made for an excellent way to stretch our legs.
Pokhara, especially the touristy lakeside bit we were in, is a really fun place. It's definitely touristy, but touristy in a kind of hippie/adventurer way, geared towards nature lovers and young people and with lots of cool bars, restaurants and shops. I'm not normally much of a shopper, but it turns out I love traditional Nepalese fashion and could have replaced my entire wardrobe for a quite reasonable price if it wasn't for the fact that the clothes are a bit bulky, tend to recommend hand washing and possibly will all fall apart in a month. I did manage to pick up a few things without too drastically altering the variety of my travel wardrobe. Another type of shop everywhere in town are trekking shops with trekking clothes, backpacks and other equipment. The stuff is all quite obviously counterfeit, but even counterfeit stuff for the right price has its uses. I replaced my old 36L backpack with a pseudo-"North Face" 50L one. The old one had served me well, but I just needed something with more support and cushioning and I figured it was a good time while they were cheap and just prior to me doing any trekking of my own. Otherwise, we just had time to hang out around town and relax some. I visited the lake a few times, and on our second day we got up early and drove up to one of the nearby hills to watch the sunrise.
After the sunrise most of the group wussed out and took the bus back down to get more sleep, but a few of us decided to hike down the trail back to town, passing through some of the small farmsteads along the way.
The rest of the group was continuing on to Kathmandu for the end of the tour, but I decided to stay behind in Pokhara to do my trekking first before continuing on. I lost out on one night of accomodations from the tour, but I just didn't see any point in taking the 6 hour bus ride to Kathmandu, then back to Pokhara, then back to Kathmandu. I spent one extra day on my own in Pokhara relaxing and setting things up for my trek. In hindsight, I could have managed to do it on my own for less money, or tried to contact a guide directly instead of going through one of the many agencies around, but I just wanted something safe and convenient and not do anything too ambitious for my first real multi-day trek.
Pokhara, especially the touristy lakeside bit we were in, is a really fun place. It's definitely touristy, but touristy in a kind of hippie/adventurer way, geared towards nature lovers and young people and with lots of cool bars, restaurants and shops. I'm not normally much of a shopper, but it turns out I love traditional Nepalese fashion and could have replaced my entire wardrobe for a quite reasonable price if it wasn't for the fact that the clothes are a bit bulky, tend to recommend hand washing and possibly will all fall apart in a month. I did manage to pick up a few things without too drastically altering the variety of my travel wardrobe. Another type of shop everywhere in town are trekking shops with trekking clothes, backpacks and other equipment. The stuff is all quite obviously counterfeit, but even counterfeit stuff for the right price has its uses. I replaced my old 36L backpack with a pseudo-"North Face" 50L one. The old one had served me well, but I just needed something with more support and cushioning and I figured it was a good time while they were cheap and just prior to me doing any trekking of my own. Otherwise, we just had time to hang out around town and relax some. I visited the lake a few times, and on our second day we got up early and drove up to one of the nearby hills to watch the sunrise.
After the sunrise most of the group wussed out and took the bus back down to get more sleep, but a few of us decided to hike down the trail back to town, passing through some of the small farmsteads along the way.
The rest of the group was continuing on to Kathmandu for the end of the tour, but I decided to stay behind in Pokhara to do my trekking first before continuing on. I lost out on one night of accomodations from the tour, but I just didn't see any point in taking the 6 hour bus ride to Kathmandu, then back to Pokhara, then back to Kathmandu. I spent one extra day on my own in Pokhara relaxing and setting things up for my trek. In hindsight, I could have managed to do it on my own for less money, or tried to contact a guide directly instead of going through one of the many agencies around, but I just wanted something safe and convenient and not do anything too ambitious for my first real multi-day trek.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Day 183: Taipei
Another plane ride over with. I must say though, Hong Kong International Airport has a rather nice departures wing. My flight this time wasn't until noon, so I could get up at a reasonable time and not frantically rush to the airport.
The ride into Taipei from the airport was a fairly lengthy bus ride, followed by another, much shorter bus. The city bus at the end was reporting stops out of sync with where it actually was, so I got off at the wrong stop which was a bit troublesome since the instructions I was given were landmark based ("go towards the Starbucks on your left...") assuming I was beginning at a place I wasn't. I still managed to find the place pretty quickly, which was good because there is no actual staff at the hostel and I had to be let in by one of the people that run it who was waiting for me. I had estimated in my correspondence with them that I'd show up around 4:00 and in the end it was like 4:15, so it wasn't too awful. The hostel I'm in is actually pretty amazing. It's brand new, having only been open for a month, and it's sparkling. There's a dorm (where I am), and two private double-rooms, but the only people staying here, at least for tonight, are me and one girl in one of the private rooms, so I have the dorm to myself. The place has two very modern washrooms, its own kitchen, and laundry (unfortunately I just washed everything before leaving Hong Kong). It's just another reason to be disappointed I have such a short time here.
I didn't want to do anything too wild tonight, so I just explored the neighborhood a bit and scrounged a dinner from a mix of street vendors. Tomorrow I'm going to squeeze in as much as I can, but I'm focusing on a few things in particular that interest me. I've found that with all these big cities, especially when you have a limited time, the most interesting thing to do is to check out the places that make the city special or give it its character. My flight out of Taiwan on Wednesday is at 8am (ugh) so I'll probably need to go to bed early or just spend another day exhausted.
The ride into Taipei from the airport was a fairly lengthy bus ride, followed by another, much shorter bus. The city bus at the end was reporting stops out of sync with where it actually was, so I got off at the wrong stop which was a bit troublesome since the instructions I was given were landmark based ("go towards the Starbucks on your left...") assuming I was beginning at a place I wasn't. I still managed to find the place pretty quickly, which was good because there is no actual staff at the hostel and I had to be let in by one of the people that run it who was waiting for me. I had estimated in my correspondence with them that I'd show up around 4:00 and in the end it was like 4:15, so it wasn't too awful. The hostel I'm in is actually pretty amazing. It's brand new, having only been open for a month, and it's sparkling. There's a dorm (where I am), and two private double-rooms, but the only people staying here, at least for tonight, are me and one girl in one of the private rooms, so I have the dorm to myself. The place has two very modern washrooms, its own kitchen, and laundry (unfortunately I just washed everything before leaving Hong Kong). It's just another reason to be disappointed I have such a short time here.
I didn't want to do anything too wild tonight, so I just explored the neighborhood a bit and scrounged a dinner from a mix of street vendors. Tomorrow I'm going to squeeze in as much as I can, but I'm focusing on a few things in particular that interest me. I've found that with all these big cities, especially when you have a limited time, the most interesting thing to do is to check out the places that make the city special or give it its character. My flight out of Taiwan on Wednesday is at 8am (ugh) so I'll probably need to go to bed early or just spend another day exhausted.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Notice: Potential Upcoming Issues
This is my last day in Hong Kong, and since I had to cut my time in Taiwan much shorter than I had wanted I might not have a lot of free time there to post things, so I wanted to get this post done before I left.
Mainland China has a very broad firewall blocking a lot of things, including Facebook. Since this is one of the longest stages of my trip, and the one I've been looking forward to the most, I hope I have access to post pictures and accounts of things, but it's very possible I will not. If that's the case, I'll make notes the old fashioned way as I go and try my best to provide a good summary of things when I'm finished.
Basically, please don't freak out if there aren't any posts for a few weeks.
Mainland China has a very broad firewall blocking a lot of things, including Facebook. Since this is one of the longest stages of my trip, and the one I've been looking forward to the most, I hope I have access to post pictures and accounts of things, but it's very possible I will not. If that's the case, I'll make notes the old fashioned way as I go and try my best to provide a good summary of things when I'm finished.
Basically, please don't freak out if there aren't any posts for a few weeks.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Day 177: Mission Accomplished
Despite going to bed late I woke up early to check the status of my visa application for India. All the checks had been approved, so I got up to go drop off my passport at 9am so that I could get in completed today. I came back to the hostel and had a brief nap before getting up again. Since I was going to have to return to the Kowloon/New Territories region to get my passport in the afternoon anyway, I decided to finally hunt down the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and then hopefully pick up my passport on the way back afterwards.
The monastery isn't actually a monastery, since no monks live there, and apparently there are 13,000 buddhas, not 10,000. The place was created/funded by an old wealthy Buddhist who, after his death, was preserved in lacquer and gold leaf and enshrined as a statue in the main temple. The monastery itself was a bit challenging to find. I knew around where it was, but the path leading to it is behind some buildings and not advertised terribly well, so it's easy to miss. Once on the path, you immediately know you're in the right place though. Lifesize gold-painted statues line both sides of the path as it winds up the hillside. The quality of the statues wasn't all that great, but when you come to a place called the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery you're expecting quantity more than quality, and it delivers on quantity. While the majority of the thirteen thousand is made up of tiny figurines in the main temple, I estimate there are between 500 and 1000 of the full, life-size ones, each unique and individually interesting.
I know almost nothing about Buddhist folklore and stories, but I get the feeling it must be pretty elaborate. I don't know if all the statues are of specific characters, but a lot of them are just too random and unique to not have a story behind them. After exploring the temple, shrines and statue-lined paths I headed back down the mountain and continued on to go collect my passport.
Everything went smoothly, and I have my passport back with both visas I came to get. When I set time aside in Hong Kong I gave myself some extra days just in case, so I still have quite a bit of time here. I have a few small things I still want to check out, and a list of good hiking spots to visit, so I should be able to keep busy. It's just nice to finally have all the paperwork I need in order.
The monastery isn't actually a monastery, since no monks live there, and apparently there are 13,000 buddhas, not 10,000. The place was created/funded by an old wealthy Buddhist who, after his death, was preserved in lacquer and gold leaf and enshrined as a statue in the main temple. The monastery itself was a bit challenging to find. I knew around where it was, but the path leading to it is behind some buildings and not advertised terribly well, so it's easy to miss. Once on the path, you immediately know you're in the right place though. Lifesize gold-painted statues line both sides of the path as it winds up the hillside. The quality of the statues wasn't all that great, but when you come to a place called the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery you're expecting quantity more than quality, and it delivers on quantity. While the majority of the thirteen thousand is made up of tiny figurines in the main temple, I estimate there are between 500 and 1000 of the full, life-size ones, each unique and individually interesting.
I know almost nothing about Buddhist folklore and stories, but I get the feeling it must be pretty elaborate. I don't know if all the statues are of specific characters, but a lot of them are just too random and unique to not have a story behind them. After exploring the temple, shrines and statue-lined paths I headed back down the mountain and continued on to go collect my passport.
Everything went smoothly, and I have my passport back with both visas I came to get. When I set time aside in Hong Kong I gave myself some extra days just in case, so I still have quite a bit of time here. I have a few small things I still want to check out, and a list of good hiking spots to visit, so I should be able to keep busy. It's just nice to finally have all the paperwork I need in order.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Day 172: One Down
I picked up my passport with the China visa this morning, and everything looks good with it! I hope everything goes as smoothly with the Indian one, but China was the more important for me. If I missed India on my trip I'd be disappointed, but if I missed China I would have been devastated.
Once I had the passport back I set about figuring out the India visa paperwork. They want a lot more than China did, and I had to fill out three different forms and get a print out of my itinerary while in the country. The consulate gets another company to handle visa processing instead of doing it themselves, so I had to cross over the river for the first time into Kowloon to drop things off. It took a few tries to satisfy them with things, but in the end we got it worked out. Because I'm not a resident of Hong Kong they have to do some special background check which takes time, so I'm supposed to check online Monday/Tuesday to see if my stuff has been approved. Then it's just a matter of dropping my passport off in the morning and picking it up in the afternoon the same day with the visa. Barring any unexpected problems I should get everything done with plenty of time to spare.
There are a lot of places in Kowloon and further north that I want to check out, but I didn't feel like pushing too deeply inland with all my things and it already late in the afternoon. Instead I just took a nice walk along the promenade, including a stretch through the Hong Kong equivelant of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The vast majority of the stars I had no clue on, but I did find a few familiar names.
I also spent quite a bit of time today doing planning on the things I want to see while I'm in Hong Kong. 2 weeks is a long time for a city, but Hong Kong has a lot to do, especially for me. There are lots of islands to explore, museums, temples, parks, and, best of all, an immense collection of beautiful hiking trails. I've picked out two possibilities for how to spend tomorrow, and will choose between them in the morning when I see how I feel and what the weather is like.
Once I had the passport back I set about figuring out the India visa paperwork. They want a lot more than China did, and I had to fill out three different forms and get a print out of my itinerary while in the country. The consulate gets another company to handle visa processing instead of doing it themselves, so I had to cross over the river for the first time into Kowloon to drop things off. It took a few tries to satisfy them with things, but in the end we got it worked out. Because I'm not a resident of Hong Kong they have to do some special background check which takes time, so I'm supposed to check online Monday/Tuesday to see if my stuff has been approved. Then it's just a matter of dropping my passport off in the morning and picking it up in the afternoon the same day with the visa. Barring any unexpected problems I should get everything done with plenty of time to spare.
There are a lot of places in Kowloon and further north that I want to check out, but I didn't feel like pushing too deeply inland with all my things and it already late in the afternoon. Instead I just took a nice walk along the promenade, including a stretch through the Hong Kong equivelant of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The vast majority of the stars I had no clue on, but I did find a few familiar names.
I also spent quite a bit of time today doing planning on the things I want to see while I'm in Hong Kong. 2 weeks is a long time for a city, but Hong Kong has a lot to do, especially for me. There are lots of islands to explore, museums, temples, parks, and, best of all, an immense collection of beautiful hiking trails. I've picked out two possibilities for how to spend tomorrow, and will choose between them in the morning when I see how I feel and what the weather is like.
Day 171: Vis(t)as
After getting all my papers in order and pictures taken the day before I headed off bright and early to the office for Chinese visas. It was less busy than I had expected, and so lines weren't an issue at all. As I kind of assumed, no matter how much you try to prepare ahead there's always something you miss. In my I hadn't printed out details on my health insurance while in China, which was requested on the application form. The office had no wifi, but just wandering around outside I found a connection for long enough to get my details. The other troublesome question on the application was "List all other countries/territories you have visited in the last 12 months with dates and reasons for visit". Let's just say I ended up writing really tiny for that box. Once all that was done I dropped off my passport with the forms and went for a walk.
Because I had my bag with my computer and a few other things along, I wasn't looking for a serious hike. I coincidentally came upon a sign pointing to the Peak Tram, and decided to give Victoria Peak another go, this time by train. It was a very steep ride up, but a nice view. There were lots of shops and restaurants at the top, and little trails and roads to other points of interest around the peak. I decided to go for one of the main trails that does a small circuit of about 3km around the circumfrence of the peak. In addition to great views down at the city it was also very interesting vegetation as this the most jungle-like woods I've been in so far.
Since I actually had my tablet with me for once I messed around with it a bit for some artsy pictures.
After hanging out around the peak for a bit more I took the tram back down and slowly worked my way back to the hostel and hung around there for the evening.
Because I had my bag with my computer and a few other things along, I wasn't looking for a serious hike. I coincidentally came upon a sign pointing to the Peak Tram, and decided to give Victoria Peak another go, this time by train. It was a very steep ride up, but a nice view. There were lots of shops and restaurants at the top, and little trails and roads to other points of interest around the peak. I decided to go for one of the main trails that does a small circuit of about 3km around the circumfrence of the peak. In addition to great views down at the city it was also very interesting vegetation as this the most jungle-like woods I've been in so far.
Since I actually had my tablet with me for once I messed around with it a bit for some artsy pictures.
After hanging out around the peak for a bit more I took the tram back down and slowly worked my way back to the hostel and hung around there for the evening.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Day 170: Hong Kong Island
My original plan was to dive right into the visa battle this morning, but after learning the express service fees aren't really that bad and just feeling worn out from yesterday I decided I didn't feel up to getting up really early and rushing around all day. Instead I decided to do things at a more relaxed pace and get prepared so that things tomorrow will hopefully go smoothly. I got all my visa photos done for both visas and went through a sample of the application to work out the details I need for everything.
In addition to all that, I did a pretty thorough exploration of Hong Kong Island. For those that don't know, Hong Kong is split up into different regions, of which the main two are probably Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I got a hostel on the island because it's close to both buildings I need to visit for visas, but visiting the other parts of Hong Kong is still easy to do and something I'll definitely get around to given the two weeks I'll be here. I walked along some of the busy main streets, but eventually worked myself partway up the hills to where things were less chaotic.
Up away from all the buildings I came across a really nice aviary, and zoo/garden, both of which were free. The zoo was almost entirely primates, but had a few other climbing animals like sloths - all of which were very fun to watch.
My goal was to find a way up the mountain to Victoria Peak, but I just couldn't find a road/path that led up far enough. I'll get up there at some point. On my way back I decided to use the subway so that I'll know what to do tomorrow when I go try to submit my visa application. Finally though, here's some more photos of the Hong Kong cityscape.
There's something about bamboo scaffolding that I just find incredibly cool...
In addition to all that, I did a pretty thorough exploration of Hong Kong Island. For those that don't know, Hong Kong is split up into different regions, of which the main two are probably Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I got a hostel on the island because it's close to both buildings I need to visit for visas, but visiting the other parts of Hong Kong is still easy to do and something I'll definitely get around to given the two weeks I'll be here. I walked along some of the busy main streets, but eventually worked myself partway up the hills to where things were less chaotic.
Up away from all the buildings I came across a really nice aviary, and zoo/garden, both of which were free. The zoo was almost entirely primates, but had a few other climbing animals like sloths - all of which were very fun to watch.
My goal was to find a way up the mountain to Victoria Peak, but I just couldn't find a road/path that led up far enough. I'll get up there at some point. On my way back I decided to use the subway so that I'll know what to do tomorrow when I go try to submit my visa application. Finally though, here's some more photos of the Hong Kong cityscape.
There's something about bamboo scaffolding that I just find incredibly cool...
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Day 161: Final Wander
I braved the rain today to spend my last day in Japan revisiting some favourite areas and checking out a few new ones. I spent the majority of the day hanging out on the west side of town around Shibuya, Harajuku and Omotesando. This is one of the big style and art areas of the city, and I spent a lot of time wandering through back streets looking through small clothing shops. I had a bit of money left that I wanted to spend since otherwise I'd have to go convert it in Korea, and I find Tokyo suits my fashion tastes more than what I can find at home. This isn't so much because I love Japanese fashion, but there are so many subcultures and styles in Tokyo that I find there's a lot more diversity in what's around. In the end, I didn't buy any clothes because the things I really liked were more than what I was looking to spend, but I did use up the money on a music CD and a few little gadgets.
Along the way there was also a good amount of street art, but almost entirely limited to stickers. I'd say the mix was about 50/50 on local and foreign artists, although with the ones I don't recognize it's sometimes hard to know for sure where they are from by style alone. I'm going to do a quick spotlight on one of the Japanese artists after. In regards to visiting artists, in one of my Berlin posts I included a random sticker of an animalish boy that I just happened to like and didn't know anything else about. In Tokyo I found a few more by the same artist, and that gave me enough information to track down the creator as a Melbourne-based artist called ghostpatrol - should be something to look for when I'm in Australia later. Also a sticker by The London Police stuck in there, who also got mentioned in Berlin.
I next took the metro across town to Akihabara, still looking for any final purchases. Ultimately all I bought in Akihabara was a nice meal, but it's always an interesting place to spend a few hours. My last major stop was at Ueno station, which is a fairly central hub of metro and train lines that I've passed through numerous times, but that I had never really stopped at. I took a stroll through the adjacent park which contains a few museums and a zoo apparently, but nothing I was interested enough in to pay for. I worked my way to a large pond with a temple in the middle next to the park. It seems a bit random to have this body of water full of lilies just sitting in the center of Tokyo, but there's a lot of random here.
I have to get up around 4:30am tomorrow for my flight to Korea, so I'm debating if I should go to sleep at all or just stay up until then. Since I'm getting into Seoul early in the day, and my time there is shorter than I'd hoped now, I want to squeeze in as much as I can, so I should probably at least have a nap for a few hours.
Along the way there was also a good amount of street art, but almost entirely limited to stickers. I'd say the mix was about 50/50 on local and foreign artists, although with the ones I don't recognize it's sometimes hard to know for sure where they are from by style alone. I'm going to do a quick spotlight on one of the Japanese artists after. In regards to visiting artists, in one of my Berlin posts I included a random sticker of an animalish boy that I just happened to like and didn't know anything else about. In Tokyo I found a few more by the same artist, and that gave me enough information to track down the creator as a Melbourne-based artist called ghostpatrol - should be something to look for when I'm in Australia later. Also a sticker by The London Police stuck in there, who also got mentioned in Berlin.
I next took the metro across town to Akihabara, still looking for any final purchases. Ultimately all I bought in Akihabara was a nice meal, but it's always an interesting place to spend a few hours. My last major stop was at Ueno station, which is a fairly central hub of metro and train lines that I've passed through numerous times, but that I had never really stopped at. I took a stroll through the adjacent park which contains a few museums and a zoo apparently, but nothing I was interested enough in to pay for. I worked my way to a large pond with a temple in the middle next to the park. It seems a bit random to have this body of water full of lilies just sitting in the center of Tokyo, but there's a lot of random here.
I have to get up around 4:30am tomorrow for my flight to Korea, so I'm debating if I should go to sleep at all or just stay up until then. Since I'm getting into Seoul early in the day, and my time there is shorter than I'd hoped now, I want to squeeze in as much as I can, so I should probably at least have a nap for a few hours.
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