Phuket -- Beach Paradise or Banana Republic?

I spent the last six days in Phuket, Thailand, an island nicknamed "The Pearl of the Andaman Sea", in search of a rest stop on the halfway point of my global journey. Rest was found, though not in the way I expected.

I couldn't wait to get to Phuket. Singapore bored me and I needed to get away from city life. I had visions of long, idyllic sandy beaches with endless sunshine and beautiful days of laying down for cheap massages, breathing in sea air, and eating delicious Thai food.

And the journey started off alright. I arrived at a beautiful resort hotel up the hill (read: tsunami-proof) from the island's Karon Beach, and after a nap, a long shower, and a relaxing cup of tea, I sauntered down to the resort's restaurant for a feast at their wonderful buffet. I finished the night with 5 Chang beers as I watched the painful US-Slovenia World Cup match, and not able to take any more heart-wrenching excitement I dozed off for an early 11PM bedtime.

I woke up the next morning with a deep soreness in my neck and shoulders. This should have been my first sign of trouble, but instead I took it as a sign I needed my first cheap Thai massage! After digesting the resort breakfast buffet, I wandered down the hill to the beach road, and a 300 baht ($9 USD) 60-minute oil massage was easily found. I felt pretty good on the massage mat but not great afterwards. Using some twisted, unscientific logic I convinced myself that this must be my body's way of "releasing toxins" and I decided to recover by sitting at the resort pool drinking large bottles of water while catching up on my blog. I could not stop sweating in the tropical heat but at least I had a productive afternoon.

By evening, however, I felt awful. I stumbled down the hill for some cheap Pad Thai and a Coke (115 baht/$3.50 USD) and I stumbled back to my room for a night watching TV. At least I felt better after taking some Advil.

Sunday started better and I thought Saturday's malaise had passed. I went for another 300 baht body massage and walked along Karon Beach for awhile. Really beautiful, a couple miles long and not crowded. It's remarkable how Phuket has recovered from the 2004 tsunami. There's no sign of it's devastation anywhere; I couldn't even locate a memorial.

I tried working on the blog some more and reading a book, but I felt awful so I retreated to the air conditioned comfort of my room. I thought the cheap massages might be to blame, but I took my temperature and it was 99.8 degrees, so I think there was more to it than that. Just as a precaution, though, I decided on no more massages in Phuket! My evening ended with a poor Tom Yum Kai (hot chicken soup), some more Advil, and another early bedtime.

It may have been a mistake to come to Phuket during the rainy season, but I was promised at least that it wasn't typical for there to be rain for an entire day. Well, Monday proved the exception to the rule...nothing but rain for the entire day. And when it rains in Phuket, it pours. The day alternated between light rain and torrential downpour. Given that I had come here as a beach getaway, I didn't know what to do with my time. Plus a throbbing headache didn't help matters. It was a dull day of sitting indoors, reading, and wishing for the whole thing to be over.

Tuesday began without rain, and despite still not feeling my best I forced myself out of the resort after spending all of Monday hunkered down. My body's general malaise and the persistent rains had already shattered my dreams of cruising the island on a motorbike, snorkeling over pristine coral reefs, and riding longtail boats to remote uninhabited beaches. Instead I settled for taking the bus to Patong Beach, Phuket's most developed.

People might think that the US is overly capitalistic, and that everyone there is too focused on money, but these people probably have never been to Asia. Most places I've been here I feel that the people give me a quick glance, see that I'm a white person, and therefore view me as a big fat ATM. One needs to be very persistent here in saying "no" and avoiding eye contact with merchants as much as possible. Sometimes pretending that my English is poor helps, particularly with pushy tour operators -- they can't tell that I'm not German! Now certainly I have felt this effect in some places more than others but I've observed it in every destination. All these pushy marketers make me a bit homesick, as I long to once again walk along a sidewalk without being bothered.

The Patong Beach area had hawkers to the extreme. The whole road along the beach seemed to be an endless procession of trinket shop, massage, tailor, massage, restaurant, pirated DVDs, fake sunglasses, massage, etc. No, I really don't want a taxi. No tuk-tuk either. I like my sunglasses and my watch just fine, thank you. And ich bin sorry, I cannot go on your tour as my English is nicht so gut, I am German!

Plus Patong Beach itself was filled with litter. Lots of it. Even sitting on the beach didn't bring peace as the hawkers would just come to you. Patong is supposed to be "more lively" for the single man, but I'm really glad I didn't have my hotel there. The place was sketchy.

Back in the family-of-four haven of Karon Beach, I started feeling dreadful again. I hadn't enjoyed my lunch of Tom Yum Kung (hot shrimp soup), and I don't think the Tom Yum series of soups are for me.

After a great night's sleep, Wednesday started with sunshine and whatever ailed me had finally lifted. It was a wonderful day on the beach, enjoying the waves, a pineapple shake, watching wild beach dogs, and sun sun sun!

I finished my great day of laziness with a red snapper at a local restaurant. Unlike China the fish weren't swimming in tanks outside the restaurant, but I did get to pick my meal from an outdoor stand filled with snapper, lobster, crab, prawns, and squid. My fish emerged from the kitchen whole, fried in a heavy amount of garlic and onion, and stuffed with vegetables. Delicious! I will admit it was a little creepy eating a fish still with a head and an eye staring at me, but at least it was dead! Plus if you enjoy childishly playing with your food, making Flounder sing "Under the Sea" as you eat him, then it's a fun meal! Fortunately for the squeamish I don't have any photos of my feast.

I didn't get a chance that evening to see the US-Algeria match as bars in Phuket only have one TV and that TV was showing England, but the channel was changed as the US was celebrating Landon Donovan's amazing winner...I just missed it! What drama! I cannot wait for the Saturday match with Ghana, though it will make for another very late night in Asia, this time in Kuala Lumpur.

Sleepy Singapore

It would have been hard for any place to compare to the excitement of Hong Kong, but unfortunately Singapore disappointed. The couple people I knew from Singapore who I had talked to before I arrived had warned me that S'pore would be a dull place to visit, and having now been there I can't say I disagree.

Singapore does have its positive characteristics. It's a multicultural mosaic, a mixture of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Due to a harsh penal code, the city is spotless and safe, all fine as long as you're willing to give up gum chewing! Oh, and definitely give up your recreational drug habit as drug trafficking carries the DEATH PENALTY!! English is an official language and the public transit system is thorough, making tourism easy. Singapore is at sea level almost directly underneath the equator, so hot weather lovers are in paradise. Plentiful air condiitioned malls and shops exist for those prone to melt like me.

So Singapore has checked all the boxes for creating a clean, comfortable city. But all the heat seems to have sucked the life out of the place and this city-state mostly feels like a sterile concrete jungle. I thankfully only needed to survive there for 3 days.

It was back to the hostel world for me in Singapore, with the lodging placed on a nondescript side street above a pungent spice dealer. Thankfully this place in true S'pore style was spotless -- even had a no shoe policy!

I asked the lady working the desk for a Malaysian food recommendation and she directed me to Arab Street in the Kampong Glam neighborhood, the historical home of Singapore's Malay community. In a neighborhood full of rug shops, I found a food stand which looked authentic and surrounded by outdoor diners, and I sat down. The a la carte beef-chicken-vegetable-rice dish I ordered made me reach for the Immodium, and I certainly could have done better.

I walked around the quiet city streets to the Singapore Flyer, a giant ferris wheel in the city's developing new district of Marina Bay. Pricey at $21 USD for a 30 minute ride but a nice view of the skyline in the evening.

Wednesday morning was spent hunkered down in the hostel as a 4" rain tempest fell over two hours! I emerged to eat a satisfying lunch of chicken, rice, bean sprouts, and soup at a Hainanese restaurant, then took the bus to the city's Chinatown. Lots of quiet shops there selling every Chinese trinket or herbal remedy imaginable. Interestingly Chinatown is the home of the city's largest Hindu temple, Sri Mariamman. Open to tourists, I was able to get a close look at all the colorful deities sculpted onto the outdoor walls.

Staying in Chinatown long enough to drink a delicious passion fruit tea, I took the subway to Little India, Singapore's other well-known ethnic neighborhood. This I found very disappointingly dull, unfortunately.

The most popular tourist activity in Singapore is to visit the colonial Raffles Hotel to drink the famous Singapore Sling, a complex concoction of gin, pineapple juice, lime juice, and several liqueurs. The hotel is stately and impressive. The drink is a bit saccherine and certainly overpriced, but it did come with all the free peanuts you wished to eat at the bar.

I was looking for some authentic cuisine for my dinner, and had received a recommendation from some Australians at Raffles to visit the No Signboard restaurant on the eastern coast of the island. The outdoor restaurant took its name from when it was a food stand at a "hawker center". The stand owners were the only ones selling crab but were too busy to put up a placard naming the stand, hence the name. I took a seat, thinking it perhaps telling that I was the only person not dining as part of a larger group.

I ordered the spicy chili crab, known as a Singapore specialty. Before ordering I was assured that I would be given a portion size suitable for one person.

What emerged from the kitchen was huge! I had already downed a plate of vegetables, and I thought this must be some sort of cruel joke played on the stupid fat American. Also I had no idea how to eat the thing. Chopsticks seemed useless and the only other utensils present were a spoon and a claw cracker.

Though I observed none of the other diners doing so, I decided that I would need to eat this with my bare hands, chucking decorum out the window for the practical reason that I didn't know how else I was going to get this thing off my plate. I dipped the spoon into the soupy chili sauce, pulled out a claw, cracked open, and devoured the flesh caveman style. Residual sauce dripping everywhere on the table, I realized this was the wrong meal to be wearing my light khakis!

Moving claw to claw ever so carefully, with arms stretched out over the table, I eventually managed to conquer the crustacean. None of the other diners, somehow able to conquer their crabs without incident using chopsticks, seemed to mind my poor form. The wet napkin after the meal could barely clean my soiled, chili-infused hands. Most expensive meal on my trip ($45 USD), I hastily paid the bill and stumbled away with a food coma.

On Thursday I decided to brave the Singaporean heat with a walk through the city's historic area near the mud-colored Singapore River. My walking tour took in the new nightlife districts in Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, the modern Parliament building, and the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles (colonial founder of modern Singapore). I detoured a bit to sample some Singapore "street food" at a hawker center, then came back to Marina Bay to catch some pictures of the Merlion statue, the half-lion half-fish symbol of Singapore. Finished my tour at the Asian Civilisations Museum, with exhibits on all the major ethnic groups that constitute Singapore.

I took an evening trip to the zoo for Night Safari, a one-of-a-kind chance to view exotic animals at night in the safety of a zoo. Certainly not as exciting as a real safari in Africa, but lots of cool African and Asian animals were easily visible, including leopards, lions, enormous flying squirrels (who chose not to demonstrate their gliding abilities, and sea otters. Unfortunately not good for taking pictures as flash photography was prohibited, but maybe you can see from this how close I was to a leopard!

On to Phuket, Thailand for a rest stop at the beach!

Hong Kong dazzle

After six days in China, it was time to zoom away on an "international" flight to the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, which while technically owned by China is a very different place. "One country, two systems" they like to call it. Whatever the nomenclature, I was ready to escape from China's totalitarian regime!

I zoomed to Shanghai's Pudong airport on the world's first magnetically levitating train, with a top speed of 267 MPH!! Unfortunately during most of the day the top speed is regulated to 185 MPH. Whatever, the thing is fast. We covered an 18 mile journey in 8 minutes...not bad.

Almost immediately I could tell I was going to enjoy Hong Kong much more than Shanghai. No Internet censors, a free media, and hygiene standards second to none (SARS scared them into a culture of sanitation). The Hong Kong airport is truly world-class, easy to navigate and connected to the city center via express train.

My flight from Shanghai was late in arriving so I was forced to hustle to arrive at dinner with my expat friends Kathy & Evan Thorpe and Charles Lin. Kathy and Charles are former coworkers of mine and I also knew Evan from my time in DC. They had made an early reservation at a Cantonese restaurant in the glitzy IFC Mall connected to the Hong Kong island train station. I felt a bit out of place with my backpack and unpressed clothes, but Charles was in shorts so everything was fine! The restaurant had a wonderful view of the Hong Kong island skyline which I was barely able to enjoy as we hastily scarfed down our food (Evan had a hockey game to play afterwards).

With Evan gone, Charles, Kathy and I went elsewhere in the mall for dessert and I caught them up on a couple years worth of DC Energy gossip. Kathy had me try an Asian specialty, durian ice cream, made from the most odorific of fruits. I don't really know how to describe the taste, probably best resembles eating a sweet cardboard, but I didn't like it much and the thing has a mean, persistent aftertaste.

Kathy and Evan hosted me for the night at their condo in the country club-like expat haven of Discovery Bay. It was far away from the city (30 minute ferry ride across the harbor) but close to the lush green mountains which make Hong Kong so special. It's hard to believe that my two friends are now married and all grown up!

Kathy and Evan were leaving town for vacation in Vietnam the next day, so in the morning I took the ferry on the return trip through the stunning harbor and checked into a hotel on the Kowloon side of town, across the harbor from the downtown on Hong Kong Island. After putting my bags down I was ready to explore!

My top priority, especially given that I had a sunny day, was to head up to Victoria Peak, a 1500 foot hill overlooking Hong Kong Island. Land is scarce and valuable in Hong Kong because of the lush surrounding hills, which don't support the skyscrapers that are found down below. Thousands of years ago Hong Kong was a place of extensive volcanic activity, creating the mountains and a naturally deep harbor once the sea filled in.

I headed for the Peak Tram, built in the late 1800s to support home-building at the higher elevations. Before air conditioning, the Peak was the only place in the city to escape Hong Kong's sweltering summertime humidity, and even now hosts the priciest real estate in the city.

The ride to the top was surprisingly steep, maybe a 20 degree incline, and a failure of the Tram would have made for a swift and painful ending. As we approached the Peak the stunning vista of the cityscape and the surrounding harbor could be seen.

I went for a 90 minute hike on the Peak Trail, circumnavigating the hilltop. On the southern edge, I could see the stunning greenery so uncommon for a major city...think if New York City's Central Park was a rainforest with a mountain in it. Towards the west I had a view of the busy barge traffic in the harbor and the suspension bridges connecting Hong Kong's outer islands. And to the north and east, a panoramic view of Hong Kong's unforgettable skyline.

The tram escorted me back down the hill to the Central District, buzzing with Hong Kong's bankers, lawyers, and other masters of the universe. I took the elevator up to the public viewing area of the iconic Bank of China tower, then made my way down to the ferry docks for an inexpensive view of the harbor. At 2.50 HKD ($0.32 USD) the ride from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon is a terrific value for more great views! After disembarking I walked up the famous Nathan Road shopping street. Tiring from brushing away Indian immigrants on the street offering me "tailored suit" and "fake watch, fake handbag", I returned to my hotel for a nap.

In the evening I woke up and headed back to the waterfront to the Avenue of the Stars. It's just like Hollywood with handprints pressed into the sidewalk concrete, except you don't recognize any of the stars! Well, they do have Jackie Chan and a badass statue of Bruce Lee.

Like Shanghai, Hong Kong's skyline dazzles at night. I stuck around for the daily 8PM "Symphony of Lights", a somewhat tacky performance for a view which doesn't need to advertise itself.

I had a lazy Saturday in Kowloon Park watching the parrots and other tropical birds in the aviary, introduced myself to Chinese painting at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, then sat by the water for what I had planned to be blog-writing time. Sadly for my readers, I was interrupted by a Hong Kong teenager who wanted to practice his English. Often these are sinister attempts to draw you in for tea and trinkets you don't want, but this 16 year old was genuine, and I wanted to be a good ambassador for my country by giving him the chance to practice on a native English speaker. He had an exam coming up which would determine his placement in the next grade and was a bit nervous, but his English was not bad! I was a little disturbed to learn that his favorite American TV show was "America's Next Top Model", but we kept going for a good 90 minutes, during which time the skin on my arms baked to the bright color of a lobster!

I broke away to scout out Hong Kong's nightlife districts during the calm of the day, as I needed to watch the US-England World Cup match from the ideal location. I picked one out and returned to my hotel for a nap, needing to hold together my strength for the 2:30 AM kickoff!

After a late 10 PM dinner, I settled into a cozy pub called the Blue Goose, located in the sleazy Wan Chai district In addition to bars, the area is lined with go-go girl clubs. On the walk to the pub I made the mistake of making eye contact with one of the girls sitting outside. She GRABBED me and I was forced to tear myself away as she pleaded, "What's wrong? You no want to have good time??" Aggressive!

The pub was a winner as it met my three conditions: was actually open at 2:30 AM to play the match (though pretty much all the pubs were open), had seats available, and had one person inside sporting a USA shirt! I wasn't expecting many of my teams' supporters in a city full of England fans, but I couldn't be the only American at the bar! I sat at the one table of Americans and endured 90 minutes of heckling from the England blokes, but a fun late night, and little problem catching a taxi home at 5 AM.

My Sunday naturally got off to a late start but I eventually was able to arise to take the ferry out to Lantau Island to reach the Po Lin monastery. This place is home to the "Big Buddha" statue, one of those must-sees while in Hong Kong. The weather was not favorable as a soupy fog covered the hill with the statue, and the area seemed far too commercial for a place of worship. A scenic gondola ride back to town was worth queuing for.

I met a new Hong Kong friend, Pamela, for a sumptuous dinner in the Central District. The two of us had met while rooting for opposing sides in the soccer match the night before, and she knew all the best dishes in the best restaurants. I tried jellyfish for the first time...marinated in a garlic sauce and delicious!

My final full day in Hong Kong again got off to a late start. After lunch I took a tram ride from one end of Hong Kong island to the other, passing through all the major districts. It was slow but inexpensive, and much more comfortable than walking around town in the sticky conditions. The persistent 85 degree weather with 85% humidity did not lend itself to urban hiking like the weather in Melbourne, and you can sweat an unbelievable amount there.

I spent my Monday evening in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's hilly equivalent to Adams Morgan in DC, where the masters of the universe like to go party! Pamela introduced me to a live band of Hong Kongers playing songs by the Eagles (!) and I later met up with Charles to watch some more World Cup action.

I was sad to leave Hong Kong as it's a really fun place. It's a location where you can let your hair down and paint the town red, or enjoy fine dining from all cuisines, particularly Cantonese. There's enough English proficiency to hack it as an expat, though if you really want to get in touch with the locals you would be well served to learn some Mandarin or Cantonese. Sometimes Hong Kong feels like a maze of covered pedestrian bridges and tunnels, and sometimes it feels like one giant endless shopping mall, but the city has a vibrancy exuded by few places. Stylish, trendy, well-mannered, a Chinese city painted with a cosmopolitan edge, Hong Kong was like a breath of fresh air after the madness of Shanghai. The city feels a bit like "China lite" but it's a terrific place for an American tourist, and I need to find a way to make it back someday!

China craziness

The censorship in mainland China is fierce, with the "great firewall" blocking access to my blog! (cannot corrupt Chinese minds with dangerous traveler stories) Unfortunately this got me out of the habit of writing regularly, so I will do my best to recount the story of my 6 days in Shanghai.

Overall, Shanghai was a valuable place to visit. As the center of China's booming economy, this city is aiming to be a global capital for the 21st century, and it's vital for Americans to visit so we can appreciate the cultural nuances which separate us.

That said, I found Shanghai to be rough around the edges, the considerable language barrier at times bewildering, and a place with often vile standards of courtesy and cleanliness. For such a big city it's shocking that Shamghai displays a cosmopolitan flair comparable to Cincinnati. Though English thankfully appears on road signs and most tourist-centered attractions (including restaurant menus) the spoken level is quite low.

Queuing is a fiasco in China. People fight for every inch of space and will claw in front of you if need be. People do NOT wait for people to get off a packed subway car before entering...the Chinese always seem to be in a rush.

Drivers in China are NUTS! As a pedestrian you have no rights and vehicles will not yield, including cars making right turns on red and electric bikes on sidewalks. In Shanghai if you don't have your head on a swivel you're destined to become roadkill.

It's important to understand that Shanghai is MASSIVE, crammed with 20 million migrants from the poor inland provinces of China. The saying "everything is bigger in Texas" could be applied to Shanghai. Rome wasn't built in a day, but Shanghai may have been. This is a place that constructed EIGHT subway lines in the last TWO YEARS, has probably twice as many skyscrapers than New York City (none of which existed 20 years ago) and has construction work ongoing 24/7. It's a frenetic transformation for a place with extremely ambitious urban planning.

The city is extraordinarily proud to be the host of World Expo 2010, meant to serve as Shanghai's reintroduction to the world after decades of brutal communist repression. You can't walk more than a two blocks in the city without seeing an ad for the expo with the ubitiquous Gumby-like mascot Haibao and the slogan "Better City, Better Life". To a foreigner all the expo propaganda felt downright Orwellian.

My first day in Shanghai started at the prominent Jing'an Temple, located on one of the city's main streets. The Chinese almost had their religion beat out of them by Mao's Communist Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, but this Buddhist temple remains standing. It felt strangely out of place in the skyscraper shopping district, but that's Shanghai for you...the old and ramshackle standing next to the glittering and modern.

I then headed for Shanghai's vibrant spiritual hub, People's Square. I walked past a most peculiar Saturday tradition, a marriage market! Middle aged Chinese parents gather to hawk their sons and daughters, bringing posters containing vital statistics (height, age, income, etc.) to negotiate dates. Interestingly, most of the ads did not contain photographs.

To grasp the heart of modern Shanghai I toured the Urban Planning Museum, which contained a tennis court-sized scale model of the expected Shanghai skyline in the year 2020. It's amazing to see how sprawling the metropolis will be, hundreds of square miles of endless skyscrapers. You feel so tiny. With endless money to burn and the complete ability to evict residents at a moment's notice, the government may get its wish.

From there I walked down the mobbed East Nanjing Road pedestrian mall to the Bund, the heart of colonial Shanghai. In the 1930s European banks competed to built the most extravagant headquarters along the banks of the Huangpu River, and this strip contains a feast of grand, stately Art Deco architecture. Rather ironically, these imperial-era buildings are Shanghai's best-preserved bit of a history that it is racing to send to the wrecking ball.

Today the Bund is better known for its stunning views across the water to the Pudong skyline, Shanghai's city center of the future. The skyline is impressive, though a bit spread out as Shanghai's urban masters seem to prefer sprawl to clustering. Nonetheless, the two mile walk along the Bund was pretty stunning, and in parts I was actually able to escape the mobs of Chinese people and breathe for once!

That evening I ate my best meal in mainland China at a hot pot restaurant near the home of my hosts Lisa and Palle. Quite delicious! You receive a pot of broth placed over a burner at your table, with a plain broth and a spicy broth. You then order a bunch of raw meats, vegetables and noodles, dump into the boiling broth, then once cooked you dig in with your chopsticks and mix with a sauce that you have created at a sauce buffet. Yum!

My Saturday night concluded with Palle taking me on a tour of the French Concession nightlife. We visited an outdoor "Mexican" bar with a fair number of expats, then to a throbbing music club with a group of Lady Gaga performers! Quite impressive and no cover charge...Shanghai is very inexpensive!

My next day started at the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai's "old city", the place where the Chinese were forced to live during the imperial era. The garden was impressive but not all that peaceful as it was brimming with Chinese tourists on a Sunday. Being in the middle of the city also meant you heard a fair bit of the incessant car honking from the Shanghai streets. However this place did offer a refuge for tired legs and a place to escape all the hawkers of "fake watch, fake handbag" that one finds outside.

From there I needed a view, so I headed to the impressive Jin Mao tower in Pudong, and the new area of Shanghai that exudes the dullness of walking around Hoboken, New Jersey. I paid 88 RMB ($13 USD) and was shot up to the lucky 88th floor. Unfortunately Shanghai suffers from a considerable smog problem, and by the time I reached the lookout point the daily afternoon haze had set in, making the view disappointing.

After successfully ordering a $4 meal of BBQ pork, rice, a vegetable, and tea from a Shanghai cafe, I headed back to the Bund for a night view of the skyline. Much more impressive at night! My camera was put through another heavy workout!

Monday I had slated for a full day at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Most of you back home probably are not even aware that this is going on, but in Shanghai it rules the town. Walking around the city and you see the "Better City, Better Life" slogan EVERYWHERE. You can buy stuffed dolls of the mascot Haibao, or just admire the Haibao shrubberies cut around town! The subway video boards even display the daily expo attendance between ads. I needed to see what all the fuss was about.

Like everything else in Shanghai, the expo site is massive -- the Pudong section alone is roughly two square miles alone (I didn't even reach the section on the other side of the river). Between construction of all the pavilions and all the other infrastructure upgrades from years of planning (including those eight new subway lines) Shanghai spent roughly $50 billion USD on this event. Absolutely staggering.

The architecture at the expo is quite impressive. Perhaps 80 or 90 countries designed pavilions to present their countries to the Chinese people. My favorites were the pavilions for China (modern style pagoda), England (spike porcupine thing), and Brazil (covered in fake grass). Switzerland's had a working gondola ride! You really should go online and check out all the images, some very creative stuff.

Unfortunately about all I was able to do was walk around and take pictures as the queues were China-sized. Six hours for Saudi Arabia! Three hours for Germany! An hour for Turkmenistan! (seriously) There were even queues for the free filtered water stations as desperate Chinese fought to stay hydrated. Quite the fiasco. Not that the rest of Shanghai felt much different, but it was hard to forget that there are over a billion people in China while at the Expo (about a half million were at the park the day I visited).

Refusing to queue further after spending half an hour waiting for Monaco (that's right), I just walked around the site until I felt that my legs were going to fall off. In the Africa pavilion (no queue) I discovered what was driving this madness. After passing through each country's exhibition, a "passport" stamping station served to prove that one had passed through, and the Chinese were desperate to collect as many of these stamps as possible. Old men and women were even playing this child's game. Quick, run to get to Mali! Then we'll get stamped at Zimbabwe and Angola! Unbelievable.

By the end of my expo day, I thoroughly hated China and couldn't wait to return to the expat sanctuary of the French Concession. But I realize the expo serves an important purpose for China. Rather than encouraging foreigners to rediscover Shanghai, the expo's true purpose is to introduce the Chinese to the world they live in. It's only been 30 years or so since China reopened and most citizens seem barely familiar with the lands outside their borders. If the expo can get the Shanghaiese to look outward at the world rather than inward, in a generation the city may truly become the international cosmopolitan mecca it aspires to be.

The next day I needed to hunker down and recover. I walked into a fancy-looking massage place down the street and ordered a two hour foot and body massage for 188 RMB ($28 USD) -- so cheap! It was a little painful though mildly therapeutic, and for that price I was not complaining! I then took a 3 mile taxi ride ($2 USD!) to the electronics bazaar. Like everything else in Shanghai, massive and overwhelming. I think you get the theme. But the market had just the camera battery I was looking for, both Canon-brand (not cheap) and a generic China product, which I bought and works just great. Pricing wasn't spectacular, about $19 USD, but I didn't negotiate, and besides there really aren't any shops in the US anymore which sell that type of thing -- everything has migrated online back home.

Tuesday ended with dinner out with Lisa and her two kids. There's a saying that the Chinese will eat anything with four legs except for a table! This restaurant had a menu the size of a coffee table book with delicacies such as shredded ox's throat, pig brain, and duck heart. In China, the people believe that your organs will get stronger if you eat those of animals. For instance, if you eat the pig brain, they believe that your own brain would become stronger. We Westerners still weren't ready to be that adventerous. We also shunned the "Fried Jew's Ear with Chinese Yam", what appeared to be an olive dish, and instead ordered a Beijing duck with some vegetables and noodles. Yum.

Not having had my fill of the exasperating country of China, I spent my final full day on the mainland on a day trip to Suzhou, a 40 minute train ride west of the city. In contrast to Shanghai, Suzhou has retained much of its classical heritage, and used to be the silk capital of the Orient.

About a 20 minute walk from the train station I found the Beisi Ta (North Temple Pagoda), at 76 meters tall the tallest Buddhist pagoda south of the Yangtze River. I climbed to the top to take in the dismal view of the town below, but for once was enjoying some peace and quiet! This temple contained a wonderful little garden, with a monk feeding ducks swimming in a pond filled with turtles and big orange fish. I sat there for an hour with a pot of herbal tea.

I then walked to the I.M. Pei designed Suzhou museum (the starchitect's family comes from the city). It contained old Chinese relics made of porcelain, jade, gold, and ivory, including this impressively carved tusk!

I don't know exactly what I pointed to on the picture menu I was presented at my lunch restaurant, but it seemed to be chicken cartilage with a little bit of meat. Not too appetizing, and it left me feeling unsettled afterwards. In China you really can't go wrong when ordering vegetables, which are uniformly fresh and delicious, but with meats you're always taking chances.

Suzhou is also known as a city of gardens, and I only had time to visit the largest one, the Garden of the Humble Administrator. Legend has it that the garden was so named because it was, sadly, all the gardener could administer. It's very large and intricate, spanning several acres, and it's quite remarkable that one man could take care of it all! I got lost in this village of bridges and pagodas and trees. Pretty hard to describe a Chinese garden to someone who hasn't visited, but the intention is not to replicate nature but rather to achieve balance. This place was overcrowded with Chinese tour groups even on a Wednesday afternoon, but the garden still impressed.

And that ended my stay in mainland China. Overwhelming but worthwhile!

Finding travel balance

At about the halfway point of my world journey now and I have started to reflect on lessons learned from traveling abroad. One thing I have realized is to be wary of what I will call engaging in "consumption tourism". What I mean by this is that one's natural temptation while traveling (this certainly applies to me) may be to figure out all the highlights of a destination and then rush around in long days of trying to check all the boxes for places visited in a certain location.

While it's certainly good to do this to some extent -- after all you might be considered a fool if you visited Paris for the first time without seeing the Eiffel Tower -- you need to be careful. Too many days of rushing around from sight to sight will leave you exhausted, and you won't be able to properly enjoy the place you came to see! Rather, when you feel tired you need to be willing to accept a "slow day", where you may do very little but walk and eat and people-watch. Even though you may come away with less to write about in your travel blog, these restful periods can be the most rewarding. Sometimes you observe cultural differences that you couldn't see while rushing around from place to place. Sometimes you might see things in advertisements which are unique to the places you are traveling. And sometimes you just need to slow down to keep your sanity in places which are frustrating and bewildering. Once your batteries are recharged, by all means go hit the must-see destinations and give your camera a workout!

I have learned that it is very important to "experience" a travel destination, not merely "consume". Doing the latter is like eating a meal, satisfying for a little while but only until you get hungry again. By doing the former, you will have more powerful memories that you can remember forever.

So it's important to balance and not try to do too much in one place. Often this means not doing everything the tour book tells you -- you will just need to return to the place to experience the rest!

It has also been difficult to balance experiencing with reflection. Hence the blogging frequency has taken a hit. Though not carrying a laptop with me has been something of an impediment, mostly I have just been deciding that I want to spend most of my vacation seeing new things rather than sitting in front of a computer! I'd rather seek out new photos to take rather than Internet cafes to post them, and would rather hop from sight to sight rather than one Wifi hotspot to another.

I am in Phuket, Thailand now for some restful beach time. This also should give me plenty opportunity to catch up and post my best photos from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore!

We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy

Greetings from Shanghai! Unlike Australia and New Zealand, where you need to dig for cultural nuances, this is NOT at all America, meaning this is where my trip starts to become really interesting!

Traveled on China Southern, and enjoyed flipping through an in-flight magazine almost entirely in Chinese characters. Some hotel advertisements were partially translated. "The Castle by the River That Has Stood Many Great Powers of Civilizations" and "Sanya Bay Premium Ocean View Leading the Trend of Fortune" looked particularly interesting!

I had the courage to route my travels from Melbourne with a connection through the southern China city of Guangzhou. After arriving on a redeye at 6AM, I needed to clear Chinese customs, figure out my new departure gate in this massive airport, and figure out how my checked bag was going to follow me to Shanghai. Given the considerable language barrier and the conflicting advice I had received regarding whether or not I needed to collect the bag in Guangzhou and recheck to Shanghai, I consider it a minor miracle that my backpack actually made it here! The Chinese who were transfering appeared similarly confused -- seems fine.


I'm staying in Shanghai with my gracious relatives Lisa and Palle, expats now living in the French Concession area of the city. This is a common area for foreigners to settle in Shanghai, though is still dominated by native Chinese. Historically it was where the French staked out their colonial settlement in the city, though their exist few traces in a city which is constantly overhauling the old and replacing with the new. We do happen to be across the street from the American consulate here, heavily guarded by the Chinese and ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOS allowed! Thankfully Lisa saved me as my instinct to pull out my camera almost got me into big trouble here.

Lisa met me at Shanghai's airport midday Friday and her driver took us into the city. We first stopped at the ''Western'' supermarket in the suburbs, catering to those who desire distinctly non-Chinese foods such as bread and cheese. It was full of the 13 dollar boxes and other ''Western delicacies'' that foreigners crave! After being dropped off at Lisa's condominium we walked to a delicious Thai restaurant and ate a feast. Following a necessary nap after 14 hours of travel, Lisa and I took a walk down Wulumuqi Lu (pronounced 'Ool-oo-moo-chee'), packed with shops selling Eastern herbal remedies and foods such as live frogs!

We returned to Lisa's for a delicious meal of mushroom-pork steam dumplings, and I've started to consult my hosts' extensive array of travel guides to plan my next 5 days here.

Wrapping up Australia

Editor's note: The censorship in mainland China is fierce, with the "great firewall" blocking access to my blog! Cannot corrupt Chinese minds with dangerous traveler stories. I tapped a couple drafts on my iPod while there which I am now posting.

My final day in Melbourne was an easy one. I met one of Michelle's friends for coffee, then we prepared a lunch feast. On the menu...kangaroo fillets!! They are much leaner than beef and quite tender. Delicious! Away from the cities in Australia, kangaroo run around the wild like deer in America, so I felt no shame in making one my meal.

I spent the afternoon at the Old Melbourne Gaol, or "jail" as we might say in the US. The jail had exhibits on old bandits in the Victoria province and the old practice of phrenology, used to predict criminal behavior based on skull characteristics before being discredited in the 20th century. The experienced included being locked up "for the night" and receiving a "mug shot". I was relieved to be discharged.

Time to leave the English-speaking world for my first foreign land, China. While in the Southern Hemisphere I have learned to cross streets by looking right before looking left and also what it feels like to have winter in June. Despite these and some modest cultural differences, I found Australia and New Zealand to be extremely accessible to the American traveler, and I hope to return someday!

P.S. Thanks to my gracious host Michelle (caught red-handed in the act of stealing my passport) for her hospitality during my stay in Melbourne. Please check out her website for cooking tips! http://wanderblue.com/archives/706