3/5 Hong Kong to Taiwan

3/5/2013: Not an exciting day. In the morning I made my way to the Hong Kong International Airport, and caught a 12:05pm flight to Taipei in Taiwan. The flight was a little less than 2 hours, so we arrived around 2pm. I caught a bus to a train station, a bullet train to another train station, and then another train for 2.5 hours to Xincheng Station on the east coast of Taiwan a little north of Hualian. Until a few days ago, I knew nothing about Taiwan, but now I know that it has some pretty big peaks. It also has Taroko Gorge, which is my destination for March 6. I had found a blog online by a guy who traveled to Taroko Gorge and stayed a lodge owned by a guy named Rihang and said it was a blast, so I emailed Rihang and he said he'd pick me up at the train station in Xincheng. On the train I talked to the guy next to me for most of the ride. He didn't know much English, but enough to get by. I learned that he works for the Taiwanese government and that means he can't travel to mainland China until he retires. He lives in Zhungwa (or something like that, I'm going off of memory) around the mid-point of the west coast of Taiwan. He was traveling to Hualian, which is around the mid-point of the east coast, and he had to take a train north along the perimeter of Taiwan because there's no easy way to go straight across the island. He said it was snowy and the roads are rough.

Rihang easily found me in the train station - I was the only white guy. We had a good laugh though because he was going off of my gmail picture, which is just a photo I found on "mugshots.com" of a black guy with half-fro and half-cornrows. I think he was relieved. We got to his lodge around 8:15pm and I just caught up on emails and did some work. It was nice to have some reliable internet.

3/4 Hong Kong Day3

3/4/2013: I got up at a reasonable time and once again failed to get my laundry done (the place was still closed). My plan for today was to go to Lantau Island, the biggest island in Hong Kong. I took the train from Causeway Bay to Tung Chung on Lantau Island and then stood in line for a while for the cable car. It was a total tourist trap, with photographers for each cable car rider and mascots at the top of the ride, but it was actually a really beautiful view from the cable car. The cable car covers about 3.5 miles, from Tung Chung on the coast, inland to Ngong Ping. Ngong Ping is an even bigger tourist trap, but it is also a spot where you can access the Lantau Trail, which runs a large distance across the island. I wandered through Ngong Ping briefly. It is the site of the largest outdoor bronze buddha , which is pretty impressive as you approach the area from the cable car. I talked to some elderly Aussies briefly so I could borrow their sunscreen (it was sunny and I sought out the whitest people I could find). I stopped in a souvenir shop to ask about finding the Lantau Trail, but the girl had never heard of it and said it sounded dangerous to walk all the way from Ngong Ping to Tai O, the fishing village on the southwest part of the island. A little discouraged,I walked about 50 feet from her shop and found a nice big informative sign showing all the details of the Lantau Trail and how to access it from Ngong Ping, so I was re-encouraged. The Lantau Trail followed the road for about a mile, then diverged and climbed up into the mountains. I had to climb up a few different little peaks but the views were excellent. To the south I could see ocean and other smaller islands, and to the north I could see the large mountains that made up the spine of the island. Up high, these mountains were just covered in short grass, so I had unobstructed panoramic views from the various little peaks I was hiking over. I eventually dropped down onto the other side of the mountains and met up with the Tai O Road and followed that all the way into the village. It was a total hike of around 6 miles.

 I sat at the pier for a while and snacked on an orange, since I hadn't eaten much that day and it was already 3:30pm or so (I'd already tightened my belt to the 4th notch, so I suppose I haven't been eating enough). I wandered through the market, where people were selling all sorts of sea creatures, some alive and some dried. There were also some stalls selling egg yolks, which apparently is a common local appetizer. I was stopped looking at some cats (sadly, yes that's what I was doing but I swear it was just to get a funny picture so I could make a cat joke), but a local guy came up to talk to me because I think he assumed I was looking at the shrine that was behind the cats.

He started telling me in very broken English that Tai O is a very religious town. They have different shrines throughout the town, each one with its own purpose - for prosperity, longevity, successful marriage, health, etc. He started walking with me and took me around through parts of the town that I wouldn't have otherwise explored. This town also has many houses on stilts, and it is referred to as the "Venice of Hong Kong" because there are a number of water ways and each house seems to have its own boat for getting around. The old man, "Ping Ki" (at least that's what it sounded like his name is…he said it means Miracle, so I'll call him Miracle from here on out because that's funny), said he's a translator because not many people know English in Tai O. I could barely understand him though, so I'm guessing there's not a lot of translation work. We walked past the old salt workers' quarters, and a few other shrines, and passed a number of dragon boats, which are about 50 feet long and are used in dragon boat races against other local towns as well as international teams (he said they raced against "my people").

Miracle said we should sit down for a while, so we sat at a park and I was wishing I could be on my way and catch the bus to Mui Wo so I could head back to the city. I'd been a little suspicious of him since the beginning, and at this point he started pulling out all these "charms" - just little cards with Taoist images on them for good luck in various categories. He also fed me some dried kumquats and a box of grape juice. He showed me all his charms, some bracelets, some flimsy fans, and I just nodded, not knowing if he was trying to sell me something or give me something as a gift. I reluctantly took some sea goddess charm and he stuffed about 4 other charms into the sea goddess' ziploc bag, then said usually he charges $80 HKD (around $9 USD) for all that. I should have said screw that I don't want your charms, but he had been nice and showed me around, told me about the history of his town, and gave me kumquats and grape juice (I realize how weird that sounds) so I just bitterly gave him some cash. I have perpetuated his belief that white people are easy prey. We left the park, passed some feral cows and feral dogs, and he waited at the bus station with me until my bus arrived. I took a 35 minute bus ride to Mui Wo, where I caught a 7:30ish ferry back to Central.

The guide book that Rosy gave me recommended a restaurant near the Central Piers (in the IFC mall, a very swanky mall), so I went to the Crystal Jade for dinner. I got some ma po tofu, one of my favorite dishes from our trip to China, and I also got their specialty - steamed pork buns. Both were phenomenal. Probably my best meal in HK. I talked to Korean girl at the restaurant for a little while, who was surprised when I said I thought Korean people were nice and that I'd wished I'd spent more time in Seoul. Apparently I liked the place and the people more than she. Then I returned to my hostel for my final night in Hong Kong.

3/3 Hong Kong Day2

3/3/2013: I had a couple of initial plans that fell through because I tried to book things too late. First, I saw that there were bike tours of the "New Territories" that sounded fun. (The New Territories are the section of Hong Kong that are on the China Mainland, across the bay from the main city). They only run those tours on Saturdays and Wednesdays (3/3 was Sunday), so that was out. Then I thought I'd go on a "pink dolphin" tour, where you go out on a boat and try to spot the endangered pink dolphins. Having stayed out so late, I slept in too late and missed that. I think a hangover on a boat is a bad idea anyway. So I was left to Plan C, which was to go on a hike on Lamma Island, a short ferry ride away from the Central Station. I first tried to go do some laundry because I had tried in Seoul but didn't know how to operate the washing machine because all the buttons were in Korean. So whatever setting I selected didn't seem to work because half the detergent was still in the little dispenser in the machine. Also, my room in Seoul smelled awful, and laying my wet, half-washed clothes out to dry in that room seemed to just result in my clothes absorbing that awful smell. I thought I could smell my clothes in my new room in Hong Kong, which I thought was a bad sign. I later concluded that my new room just smelled and my clothes weren't that bad. Anyway…the laundry place was closed. I was starving, so I went to find some food, but stupidly ordered a rice dish with prawns and corn and leeks and some odd translucent goo on top of all of it (I don't know why I thought that sounded good). I followed it up with some Froyo with brownie and graham cracker which was much better. I forget what else I did, but somehow I didn't get on a ferry to Lamma Island until 4pm. I arrived at the island at 4:30 and speed-walked out into the port town. Not much happening there, just small shops selling souvenirs and local food like dried fish and live fish. The main street was narrow, probably wide enough for one car. The shops along either side were small shacks connected to each other, and were open to the street. I had only a few hours before it got dark, and was trying to follow the trail across the island to the other ferry port that goes back to Central. I cruised out of the town and into the forest. It was pretty tropical - lots of green, with vines and big palms. I took a detour up to a lookout point that is also the site of a lone wind turbine. It's a popular site for tourists, where they can learn about the advantages of wind power and watch a real-time tally of energy produced and greenhouse gases avoided, but any optimism gleaned from this display is quickly crushed by the view of the massive power plant on the northeast side of the island that serves Hong Kong City.

Strangling tree - not sure if it is visible. Mostly just trying out the embedded photo feature

I rejoined the trail and continued heading east, passing a beach and then climbing up into some hills. The ocean was always in view as I was passing through the narrowest part of the island. Crossing down towards the town, I passed by a tree with a plaque that pointed out a "strangling" tree. I looked closer and saw that the "strangler" tree had enveloped another tree and was using it for support. It was pretty eerie to look at, like it was a disease slowly spreading. I passed through some wetlands, and then past some houses on stilts, and reached the ferry port in time to catch the 6:35 ferry back to Central.

I thought that Rosy had invited me for dinner that night, so I raced to her apartment only to find out that she had said Monday. I was embarrassed but she said I should come in anyway and that she was just going to serve the same thing Monday night so it didn't really matter. Because of dietary restrictions after Andy's surgery, they've pretty much been exclusively eating soup, so she warmed up some soup for me. Rosy, Andy, Jenny (Andy's mom) and I played "Settlers of Katan," which is the game that they had learned the day before when Andy's friends came over to visit. It was an interesting game, despite it sounding like a nerdy fantasy game like Dungeons and Dragons. Jenny won and Rosy and Andy accused me of helping her (which isn't true). Andy helped me do some planning for my Taiwan trip, and then I headed back to my hostel.

3/2 Hong Kong Day1

3/2/2013: I had only booked for one night, and was pretty convinced that I'd move to a nicer spot the next night - especially in the morning after smelling cigarette smoke coming into my room somehow and hearing a dog bark non-stop for a couple of hours. I looked for other hotels nearby online but didn't find much, so I went to the front desk to ask about other rooms. They had a nicer one on the 10th floor, and they said they'd give it to me for the same price as my worse room after what had happened the night before (whatever that was that had happened, I'm still not sure). I agreed and it worked out.

Rosy and I had made arrangements to meet for brunch at 11am. She gave me detailed directions to Posto Pubblico in the SoHo area, so I left with plenty of time to spare and navigated the subway, then the crowded street, and then the "travelator," which is apparently the longest outdoor escalator in the world. Hong Kong, as far as I can tell, is built into the side of a very large, steep hill. I'm guessing that as the city got bigger, people built higher up onto the hill, so now there are San Francisco-steep hills and streets narrow enough for just a car and a half. The travelator appears to be a solution to the crazy steep hills. I met Rosy as we were both walking up to the restaurant and we had a good brunch. She invited me to head over to her house to meet her boyfriend, Andy, who had recently had a bad injury and was recovering from surgery. I went back to their place (we ran into Andy's mom Jenny along the way, who is in HK from England to help take care of Andy), and we hung out for a bit and Andy gave me some tips on outdoorsy things to do in HK. A few of Andy's friends came over to play some board games and keep him company, so I headed out to go explore Hong Kong.

I returned to my hostel to study up on the recommendations Andy had given me, then I went back outside and just started wandering. I was half-heartedly looking for some sandals and t-shirts (since I'd packed mostly cold-weather clothes for the trip), but mostly just taking in the sights. Hong Kong is an intimidating city with ultra-modern skyscrapers looming in every direction. I headed back west from my hostel in the Causeway Bay area, towards Central Station. I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to take in this new city. I found myself back at the travelator, so I rode up it and decided I'd have a beer. I found a bar that had some soccer on (previously recorded, not live, since it was 9am in England), so I sat and watched some soccer and drank a couple of beers. After a while I decided to go find a place to eat, but I got tied up talking to the bartender, who also turned out to be the owner. She gave me a free beer and I sat back down and talked to her for a while. She recommended a street that had some random outdoor food vendors, so I went searching for it after finishing my free beer.

The street food was a few escalator segments downhill and seemed really popular. There were no open tables. I went up to the lady that appeared to be in charge and she led me to a small plastic patio table that was already occupied by a guy and pointed at the empty chair directly across from him. I asked him if it was ok if I joined him and he said it was fine. He turned out to be a Hong Kong native named Louis Yip and was obsessed with everything "Western" (not cowboys and rodeos, just Western hemisphere). Now retired, he had spent 20+ years working for an export company back when manufacturing was big in HK. He had learned English for his job, as well as a little German. He ordered a few dishes for me, and a beer, and we spent the next two hours talking about the Amish, origins of Western names, the history of Hangul script, and the history of Scotland. He could list all 50 states, and could tell me the origin of common Irish and German last names. He loves American movies and refuses to watch anything local. I hung out with him for so long (around 2 hours) that I missed Anna and Hector (the couple I'd met on the plane), who had agreed to meet up with me back at the bar where I'd been before dinner. I said goodbye to Louis and raced back up the travelator to Twist (the bar). Aruuna, the bar owner, told me I'd just missed Anna and Hector. Neither of us had working cell phones, so I couldn't call them. I sat down and talked to Aruuna for a while, as the bar was pretty quiet and she was bored. She was from Nepal, and has an 8 year old daughter and 5-month old twins. She showed me lots of pictures. She was pretty bored, so she took me around to her other bars (she has 3 total, and her husband runs a restaurant nearby). The first bar we went to was an art gallery/bar, and she had the bartended prepare me a tequila shot that I didn't ask for. Then we went across the street to her 3rd bar and I had a beer there. Then she got a call that the police were at Twist, so we walked back there to see what was going on. Apparently the door to the bar had been propped open and the police were hassling her about it, but she told me it was just racist police finding an excuse to pester her. We hung out until after the trains stopped running, so I caught a cab back to Causeway Bay and didn't get to sleep until around 2am. It was a fun night though - I hung out in one of the "whitest" parts of Hong Kong but managed to befriend a Hong Kong native (albeit a wannabe Westerner) and a Nepalese lady that fed me free drinks.

3/1 Seoul to Hong Kong

3/1/2013: On Friday morning I packed up my bags and made my way to the airport for my flight to Hong Kong. On the way to the airport, a Korean guy around my age chatted me up for the whole trip. His name is Jiwon Chu and admitted that he always approaches white people so he can practice his English. He was a nice guy, but was definitely a close-talker (as his culture encourages) but I struggled to not let it bother me and rather thought about what I had eaten since brushing my teeth. He also wouldn't face me straight on, he would just talk to me super close from the side - I was later told that that is normal in Korea. I think we were just slowly spinning while talking to each other, though, as I kept trying to face him and he kept trying to stay to my side.

I had to race to catch my flight out of Seoul because I'd forgotten to print out my itinerary for my flight leaving Hong Kong and the Air China lady told me they might want to see documentation proving that I have plans to leave the region, so I had to go find a printer really quick. I got through the gate as they were closing, and then we sat on the runway for an hour and I missed my connecting flight in Beijing. I caught another flight to HK 2 hours later out of Beijing, and as usual everything took twice as long as initially planned and I arrived at my hostel around 11pm. I met a nice couple on the flight to HK - they were heading to HK for vacation, and had also flown from Seoul and missed the connecting flight in Beijing. Anna, a Canadian, is teaching English in Seoul, and Hector, her husband, a Mexican, is trying to teach Spanish but apparently Koreans want Spanish teachers from Spain - not Mexico - and he's having a harder time finding a teaching job. They were fun to talk to and they let me borrow their HK guide book so I could read up and have a general idea of what to do during my time in HK.

The hostel seems to be more of a loose grouping of apartments in an apartment building, with the front desk on the third floor and rooms throughout the building from the 2nd floor to the 10th floor. After the girl working at the hostel showed me to my room, I heard a knock at my door. When I answered it, it was an Asian lady who had been milling around at the front desk of the hostel. She said "you took my room! You took my room!" Before I had a chance to answer, the girl from the hostel came up from behind and slammed the door shut and dragged the other lady off. I had forgotten the passkey for the WiFi, so I went back upstairs to get it and was approached by the same Asian lady from before. Again, she said I'd taken her room. I said that it wasn't her room and that I'd already paid for it. During this conversation, there was a tall blonde guy hovering behind her obviously interested in the conversation. The lady continued, "We just decided to get a room, you took the last one. I'll buy it from you!" I was pretty sketched out at this point. The blonde guy laughed and said to the lady "ha nice try." I told her I wasn't going to sell it to her, and the blonde guy was like "aw that's too bad, guess you'll have to go home." That was weird. That guy was staying at the hostel (I saw him the next morning). So my guess was that he had picked her up (even though she looked 40 and he looked 25) and they were going to get a room together (and that he was staying in a dorm-style room with no privacy), or else my hostel was frequently used by hookers to pull tricks. I slept uncomfortably that night.

2/28 Seoul

2/28/2013: Feeling guilty about wasting a day in Seoul by just working in my hotel room, I decided I needed to go big the following day. I've been feeling a little burned out on the touristy stuff (palaces, temples, etc.) and I also felt like I needed a break from huge crowded cities. I had read earlier that there is a fortress wall that surrounds Seoul, and that all of it could be hiked, 18.2 km in total. Myung-Lan and Eun-Huye had recommended the northern section of the wall, where I think it is actually in a national park that borders the northern side of Seoul. I grabbed a bagel and coffee from one of the 800 coffee shops near my hotel and hopped on the subway back towards Anguk station, where I had spent the 26th at the palace. I was walking right past the tourist information center so I stopped in to say hi to my Korean lady friends but only Myung-Lan was there (the one with limited English) so I didn't stay for long. I showed Myung-Lan the route I was planning on doing and she estimated it would take 5 hours, but I thought that was pretty conservative (I think I ended up hiking along the wall for 3 hours).

The history of the wall goes back to the late 1300s, and it was improved throughout the years into the 1700s. The info pamphlet states, "The Seoul Fortress Wall was originally designed to protect the capital, but during the Imjin Waeran (Japanese Invasions), the wall didn't fulfill its rightful function." In reality, though, the Japanese didn't really destroy much of the wall - modernization just led to the removal of sections. Seoul is now in the process of rebuilding the various parts that were removed. The wall supposedly connects the four mountains that guard the city. My plan was start at the northernmost section, then follow it west and then south and back into Seoul.

I kept walking north to the park entrance and must have missed a turn because I ended up intersecting the wall farther east than I had intended. By the time I met up with the wall I had already climbed a decent amount out of the city. There were a number of little exercise "machines" along the way, just like the ones we saw all over China. And just like in China there were tons of elderly people getting after it. I hiked west alongside the fortress wall and eventually hit the entrance gate (Sukjeongmun) to the main section. I had to provide my passport and contact info, and they gave me a tag. This area is an active military zone, so it was strict about where I could and couldn't go, and I could only take photographs in designated areas. I embarked from the check-point and it quickly became apparent that it was definitely an active military area. I was never out of sight from someone. There were a lot of young men in all-black clothes with radios just manning their stations along the wall, and then there were also guys in fatigues with big assault rifles and helmets that were keeping watch from various points along the wall. It's hard to feel relaxed in nature when you know you are being watched by men with big guns. At every spot where there was a nice view, there was a sign that said "No Photo." I decided it wasn't worth taking the risk and sneaking in a photo of the   view of the Seoul skyline. This particular section of the wall goes up and over Mt. Bugaksan, so it was a significant climb up a lot of stairs. The forecast high for the day was around 55 deg F, and the sun was sort of shining through the haze/pollution, so I was sweating pretty hard by the time I reached the top. Finally at the top we were allowed to take some photos of the surrounding mountains and the Seoul skyline. After descending from the top to Changuimin Gate, I returned my badge and "checked out." The wall continues south to Inwangsan Mountain, which about the same height as Bugaksan Mountain. I climbed to the top of that mountain and had a nice view at the top where I was allowed to take pictures. I descended towards the south and ended up in the western part of the city. I meandered through some alleys and saw some interesting old houses before finding my way into the more modern section with skyscrapers and offices.

I grabbed some lunch in an underground shopping area where I had some Korean pizza (more like a pancake with veggies and squid and other seafood that I couldn't recognize). The owner was a nice guy who lived in NYC for a few years and spoke pretty good English.

I kept heading east back into the city and found the main street that runs north-south and leads straight into Gyeongbokgung Palace. I saw the "changing of the guard" at the palace entrance and then spent some time in the "palace museum" but most of it was in Korean so I couldn't make sense of most of the exhibits. I wandered back south and stopped in a bookstore in a subway station and found a Lonely Planet book about Seoul. It recommended "Craftworks" as one of the best places to get a beer in the city, so I decided I'd try to find it. I kept wandering south-eastish, was side-tracked for about 30 minutes by a display on one of the streets about the Korean war which was really touching, and continued through a big market where apparently Korean girls make their boyfriends go to carry their purses while they shop. At this point the sun was starting to go down and I didn't really know where I was in the city, and I didn't know where Craftworks was either really, so I figured I'd try to find some WiFi and regroup with some coffee. I picked one of the many coffee shops and went inside to order. The owner was a nice woman that had studied English literature in college and spoke really good English. She said that she was the first person in the neighborhood to open a coffee shop, which was around 2008, and since then she says 16 more have opened. She was excited because Hailey Loren was coming to town and doing a signing session at her coffee shop. Hailey Loren is supposedly a popular American singer/songwriter that has a large following in Japan and is becoming popular in Korea. "We love her because she has beautiful voice and is also very beautiful!" I hadn't heard of her, which was surprising. She told me to watch her on YouTube. She was excited to have met me and gave me some of her homemade soap as a gift, and I continued on with the new plan to just take the subway because I was tired and nowhere close to Craftworks.

I finally found Craftworks around 7:30 and discovered that it was extremely popular and that it was in the "foreigner" neighborhood, so everyone was white. There were no spots at the bar, so I went to another bar nearby where I was not warmly welcomed by the Korean couple running it  ("you know there's an American bar close to here…too many Americans!"), but they warmed up after I wowed them with my 2 Korean phrases. I had a beer and they gave me some edamame for snacking. I finished my beer and tried Craftworks again but it was even busier, so I went to another bar nearby called "Concorde." It, too, had only white people in it, but it was less busy. I sat at the bar and asked the Korean girl behind the bar if they did "bombs" (as described by Eun-Huye) but she said they don't do that there, so I had a Rogue Dead-Guy Ale. I talked to MJ pretty much the whole time (things were slow). She had been to America and loved it and is applying to school in Portland to get her MFA. She told me I had to go to some clubs while in Seoul, but I was carrying my backpack and was pretty tired from all the walking, so I hopped on the subway and found my way back to my hotel as it started to rain.

3/1 check in from hong kong

Just landed! More details and pictures in a little bit once I find my hostel