Melting

Photos are up on my smugmug homepage for Cambodia (with captions), China and HK (without captions.) Enjoy!

Leaving the airport in Hong Kong was as easy as getting there, and I hopped aboard the express train, which runs all night, back towards the station closest to my hotel. Unfortunately, the shuttle buses weren’t running after midnight, so I hopped in a taxi and quickly arrived at Chongking Mansions. This late at night, the place was even sketchier, and being alone I noticed it even more now. But for some reason, I didn’t feel at all threatened by the people, and they I think were more curious about me than anything. Clearly upset, I think they probably knew to leave me alone and I rode up the slow elevator in blissful silence. Mentally exhausted, I climbed into my small but comfortable bed, and turned on the TV. Cable TV can be a curse sometimes when traveling, but now it was a blessing, as I fell asleep to CNN and the evils of the world, unconsciously realizing that there were worse places to be. [read on]

Our first night in Hong Kong was a fairly uneventful one. After finding out the Happy Valley races weren’t on, Chris and I headed out to explore the surrounding area a bit and get some dinner. We wandered for just a few minutes and came to an Irish pub that was recommended in our guidebook, and headed in, basing our decision on the sole fact that English Premiership Football was being shown inside and Chris needed his fix. The pub was fairly full, but we managed to get a table in view of the big screen TV and browsed the standard Irish pub menu and ordered some drinks. I was quickly overcome by indecision, as there was food on the menu I hadn’t seen or even thought about in months: Caeser salad, chili, Reuben sandwiches.. It was a minefield of horribly bad for you, but incredibly tasty Western food that I had pushed back far into my subconscious, and it was now springing to life. I ordered a Caeser salad and some red wine and settled back to watch some football, unaware that the food cravings I didn’t even know I had would become stronger everyday that I spent in HK. This clearly wasn’t the China that I just spent three long weeks in; it was another place entirely. [read on]

Spending the last night on the cruise boat was relaxing and peaceful, and aside from having to repack our stuff, we didn’t have much to do. Our final port of call was a town called Yichang, and we were told ... [Continue reading this entry]

The first night in Chengdu was an early one, and I fell asleep almost instantly, only to wake up in the middle of the night having to run to the bathroom. Uh oh. Something other than my rash was also ... [Continue reading this entry]

Early in the morning, which was becoming the theme for our travels through China, Chris and I boarded our bus from Xiahe to Langmusi, another small Tibetan town featuring a monastery and beautiful scenery. The leg room, astoundingly, was quite ... [Continue reading this entry]

Exiting the train station in Lanzhou, I had only one thought on my mind, and that was how crappy I felt. I pushed this thought aside however, and managed to concentrate on the new task at hand. We needed to ... [Continue reading this entry]

It is a common practice among travelers that you try to read a book about the country you are currently traveling in. Almost everyone I met was reading “First They Killed My Father,” a story about the Khmer Rouge regime, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Boarding our Thai Airways flight in the morning, I had some little jitters about my next destination. Every person I have spoke with who has been to China has just said how hard it is to travel there, that no ... [Continue reading this entry]