Amazing contrast

Osaka

The contrast is amazing between China and Japan. Interesting to see that two asian countries, so close to each other, are that different.

Even if I spent only two days in the rising sun country and I've seen only the ordinary town of Osaka, I can tell I like that country.

First, no smog. No-thing. For now, at least. Two days full of sun with blue sky all the time. No clouds (or rain or smoke).

The streets are clean, clean, clean. No spit anywhere. Noise? Not close to the noise in China. Funny looks at my white guy head? None? Surprised looks when I mime something? None. Japanese try to understand.

For a third consecutive day, strangers ran to help me. I take a picture of myself? Someone run to take the picture for me. I have a big question mark above my head in front of the not-easy-to-understand metro system? I get help to buy the ticket and someone helps me to get to the appropriate platform. Super!

In the innovation category : the three-in-one faucet in the bathrooms. They give soap, water and dry the hands. Also in the bathroom, they thought of putting a seat for a baby in front of the toilet to allow parents to free their hands. I also like the vending machines with which you order in the restaurants... if you can understand what is written on the buttons. You choose, you pay, you get a ticket and the waitress arrives with the meal.

The only problem came from transportation. It is efficient, no doubt about that. But for the foreigner, it is kind of complicated to understand. Because there is the JR, the metro and another train company in the same town. Once you understand how the map works, you need to catch how you're supposed to pay, it gets easy to understand where you go and how much it costs. After, you choose the amount on the machine, no matter what the destination is, and there you go.

No congratulations for the overpacked stuff though. Buying a bottle of water and putting it in a plastic bag? We'll need to tell them.

In the end, the recycling bins are everywhere. Especially next to the vending machines. For the trash can, on the other hand, you need to search a lot. Maybe it helps people to recycle, but if you're a tourist with the first signs of a cold... it's not very nice.

Tip

I don't think I wrote about that earlier. When you leave Canada, it is possible (and recommanded) to register online on the canadian governement website. That way, if there is any security issue while you're gone, it'll be easier to find you and to get in touch with you.

Just for fun

Why does this video makes me think of my godson? If it wasn't that useless, and if I wouldn't have to carry it, I would have bought it for him. You can find that little donkey everywhere in China.

The Golden Week

My luck! Don't buy any lottery ticket for the week-end. Without even choosing the numbers, I know I'll win. Because I have an incredible luck. Really!

You might remember the Melbourne Grand Prix? Here I am in a similar situation, in Japan, because of the Golden week. In fact, the Japanese have holidays on April 29 th and May 3, 4 and 5. Most take the whole week off and travel, get to tourist attractions and use transportation... in their own country. And to top it all, the prices get higher because of it.

Guess who is gonna get in Japan and will be stuck somewhere because of the Golden week? Meeee!

It takes what it takes. I fortunately found out about that two days ago. Using my time while the rain was falling over Beijing, I rushed to the non-censored internet to book hostels.

My original plan holds : two days in Osaka, one night in Hiroshima and one night in Himeji. No problem there. Where I am getting in trouble is Kyoto, where I wanted to spend 5 or 6 days. Everything goes for the first two. But the next two days : nothing. No hostel anywhere. Except in female dorms. Not good for me.

So I booked in Osaka, less than 40 minutes away by train, and I will take a return trip in the morning and in the evening to go back to Kyoto. Unless someone from Couchsurfing answers my request. But for now, everybody declined... because Japanese won't be home on these dates, obviously.

I just take a deep breath, I wait, and I'll see.

On another subject, I am now thinking about the flight I need to book to get back home in August. Because the one-way ticket from Argentina or Brazil, to Montreal, has a long stopover. I'm thinking of taking some "vacations" for four or five days on my way back home. Maybe in Cuba. Maybe in Puerto Rico. Suggestions?

Grumble for the last time

Gilly with my Finnish friend Tua, at Temple of Heaven

Haaaaaaaaa! Done with China. Not that I didn't like it. But it will be good for me to breath new air. Even if I'm not sure there is less smog in Japan...

That said, I haven't been writing a lot in the last few days. It is because my proxy wouldn't let me blog. I could only post short stuff when I was lucky.

The end of my trip in Beijing was interesting. I met a lot of people who I got along with really well. Fate made me meet with Aurelien and Marion, a French couple, for three consecutive days, without any appointment, in three different cities. Who said China was huge?

While visiting, smog and grey skies stole the show until rain brought the dust down. Because dust and pollution, God knows we breath a lot of them in the chinese capital.

I won't miss my very hard bed in the hostel, on which I spent nine nights with hurting bones. It was only a plank of wood with sheets. I won't miss the  «Take a looke... Very goode... Good price for you my friend». Neither those people who gumble all the time and spit in the streets... or on the floor in the restaurants. I won't miss being pushed around in the metro, being scamed in the markets, trying to explain to the waiter that I want to pay the bill, being honked at even if there is room to go around me.

Yes, I liked my time in China, which made me see a different world. We can get used to being a nomad, to see new stuff every day. To the point it is scary to think we can loose the capacity to be amazed in front of the unknown. Even the discomfort brought by the difficulties to make ourselves understood become easy to manage.

But there is nothing better than changing countries to get an electric shock. To loose all marks.

I left Beijing this morning for Osaka. Beijing airport is impressive and complicated. I was sent from desk to desk to check-in. First, thanks to the Chinese who put in the metro a list of all the airlines with the terminal you should step down at... only in mandarin.

My flight was stopping in Yantai, China. Choice # 1 : international terminal or the domestic one? Trying the domestic one. There, I could find the sign for the flight to Yantai with the accurate number. But error! You need to check-in at the international terminal... and then take the plane at the domestic terminal... Why make it simple? You can add one hour of delay before take off to make it more fun...

At the stopover, the plane was emptied for everybody to get a stamp on their passport. And we got back in the same plane a couple of minutes later.

In Osaka, I needed to get my rail pass, valid for two weeks, which will allow me to use all JR transportation in Japan. Without the precious help of Japenese, I wouldn't have made it to my hostel. First because the train system looks very complicated to a foreigner who only slept for four hours the night before. And because the signs are not all as clear as I wished.

A woman who waited for the metro on a different line from mine decided to leave her platform to help me get where I needed to go. She even boarded the carriage with me to make sure I was reading the map correctly while she was counting the stations for me.

Even if I've seen only a beam of 100 metres around my hostel in Osaka, near the Momodani metro station, I can say I like Japan. For its intelligent cash registers. For its toilets with an integrated faucet, which reuse the water we washed our hands with. For its bins for liquids, in the fast-food restaurants, where you put what's left of your soft drink or the ice left in the glass. Smart!

And my sweet tooth, who found nothing in China, is getting back in shape.

* A theory might change the way I was seeing expired food in China. I was told the date we find on products might be the date where the food was made instead of when it expires. The client would then need to know for how long that type of food is good. I still have my doubts, but it makes sense.

Done with the bad news

Traveling means being far. Being far, its getting only two types of news. The very good ones... and those which are a little too bad.

Since I left, it seems bad news keep on coming. You seem to rush to the hospital while I'm gone you brats. Fortunately, most of the problems happening at home look like they can be solved.

Whatever happens, for all of those who are going through bad days, I put in a box the chinese sun and I send it to you with all my positive thinking. That is why it is raining like crazy today in Beijing. But I'm not complaining.

And to transform negative into positive, here is the publicity of the day. This is a link to give for my friend Marianne's team, who will take part in the Relais pour la vie event. Because it is with that money we can make sure we keep people we love with us. And because of that, most problems can be solved.

Verry goode! (sic)

Chinese know how to negociate... We don't... Not when we're starting, at least. But we can learn. And we hope to be able to evaluate how much an object is worth, even if we always have that feeling we could have paid less.

That said, China is probably the best place to start, since you need to negociate only in the markets. Not for food.

I started slowly, for postcards. Might not have been the best idea. Postcards are already worth nothing. But it helped me see how the markets work.

I was told I should try to get the third of the price they ask in Shanghai, half of it in Beijing. It is probably true if the seller asks a reasonable price from the start.

In Xi'an, I got an object for a little more than half the price. In Pingyao, around the third of the price. In Beijing, I bought something for eight times less. It comes to a point where you don't know anymore and you start with ridiculous prices.

One thing stays the same. Each seller will tell us he can't lower the prices because his price and his product are in fact "verry goode". With an accentuated "e" at the end. He's always better than the one next door, who sells, of course, mediocre products.

And when they'll eventually give up, because you won't bouge, they will say : "Very hard, you..."

One woman tried, in vain, to make me raise my price. She was hitting me on the arm because I wouldn't go higher. But when I wanted to leave, she would keep me from going, saying she wanted to make business with me. When she finally agreed on my price, I wanted to make sure she understood well.

- Ok for 150 yuans?
- 160!
- No, I said I wouldn't go higher than 150.
- But this is only about 10 yuans!
- Exactly. Only 10 yuans. So you don't need them.
- Ok! 155.
- No. You told me 150.

So I got 150 yuans out and she said : 
- 10 more.

And when I said no, she took the 150 yuans with a sad face... "Very hard, you." They try really hard.

When we don't know, it is better to try several places and ask the starting price, saying that you don't really want the item once the price was given. For one object, they asked 180 yuans. On the next level in the market, the woman asked : "You want my starting price or my best price?"

Best price, of course... 30 yuans. Six times less. And the good thing about it is we still could negociate. Crazy.

Docile Tourist

Pingyao, China

I reached my last destination in China. I'm now in the capital, Beijing, for a whole week.

It is important to know you have some time in front of you, sometimes, even if, lately, I told myself I should make shorter trips if I want to make it everywhere I am supposed to go.

I have to thank my Lonely Planet guidebook for a very important error in the China book. They wrote, in the first chapter, that the pandas reserve was in Chengde, near Beijing, while it is really near Chengdu, in the West... It means the time I planned to go there, from Beijing, will have to be used for something else. Still have to find out if there are interesting excursions from here.

That said, I'm really happy with my visit in Pingyao, a small city that is still surrounded by it's "original" wall. The old town, which is touristy, is charming and still looks old.

I got there around 7:30 in the morning, before the "real" tourists get out of bed. The time to see the real daily life under the chinese sun. And the tables full of junks the tourists buy. I stayed until 10:40 PM (thanks to a very late train), which gave me time to see the city after dark too.

I also had the "joy" of being scamed for the first, and I hope the last, time. While entering a temple, I ended with three incense sticks in my hands and I was told to pray. They told me I would get chance and protection from the taoists gods in exchance for some money. I knew I was getting scamed, but I didn't want to fight or to get in trouble. I gave them a little bit of money.

Finally, on another subject, there are a lot of expired products in the grocery stores. Now that I started to pay attention to the expiration date, I realize fresh food is rare. Tonight, we spent at least 10 minutes at the store trying to find fresh food. Didn't succeed.

Sometimes, it's better to know.

And then there were two

*Please note that the chinese internet refuses to let me upload pictures. Gilly's pictures will have to wait.

Happy anniversary to you... That is what Marilyn would sing, this Sunday, to celebrate two months of globe-trotting between time zones.

Two months, a third of the trip, are now just memories. But remember, that's about a year in the life of a round-the-world traveler.

No real health issues yet (fingers crossed) even if the lack of sleep and the chinese food are sometimes having their effect on me. Nothing to traumatise me either. But a lot of little discomfort. That's normal.

In the assessment mode, like expected, China is the biggest challenge on the language and culture side, even if there is nothing too surprising since everything is shown on tv and on the internet. I only needed to get rid of my north-american reflexes, and of my preconceived ideas on the way things should be done.

Anyway, I wonder about the energy I'll need for the asian portion of my trip. We'll see.

Here, for those who are interested, are the cities I visited in that second month :

Australia : Melbourne, Geelong, Apollo Bay, Kennett River, Warrnambool, Halls Gap, Ballarat, Lakes Entrance, Threbdo, Canberra, Sydney, Blue Mountains.

Hong Kong 

Macao

Hong Kong

China : Shanghai, Hangzhou, Huangshan, Xi'an


Tip

Always try to know how much the others paid for an object you want to buy in Asia. It'll help you negociate. Booking a room online allows you to save money too. I paid 40 RMB for my room in Xi'an through hostelworld.com. Behind the desk at the hostel, it's written a room costs 60 RMB...

Managing time

Can't say I flooded you with news lately. It's because the internet wasn't working in the last three days... Was on the road.

I made the ambitious choice  to spend one day in Huangshan, 6,5 hours away from Shanghai, before going back to the metropolis to take a train for Xi'an. Why Huangshan? Because it seems its mountains are a must-see.

So I flipped things around to make it fit my schedule and make sure I could get there.

Step 1 : Night train between Shanghai and Tunxi. On a hard sleeper. Nothing too bad, but light sleep only.

Step 2 : Get directions. I got in Tunxi at around 9 in the morning. Just enough time to leave my luggage in the hostel and tell the guy who works there that I wanted to get to the mountain. He said I wouldn't have time. Well, I must have, because it's the only day I got.

Step 3 : Get to the bottom of the mountain. While searching for a bus to the mountain, a woman grabbed me and told me to get in a van... After looking at how people behaved around there, I got in, not knowing if that mode of transportation was "legit". They dropped me one hour later at a bus stop where I needed to buy another ticket. There again, I was told I wouldn't have time to see the mountain. What they didn't know is managing time is my job. Let me do what I want to do.

After three hours on the mountain (look at that, I succeeded... even if it was short), I got down and had to go through two hours on the bus again. The next day : going back to Shanghai. Again, a van was used as a shuttle. They dropped me on the corner of a street where I boarded a bus that was almost full. Something tells me some people get some money out of something they souldn't, taking it out of tourists not bright enough to go directly to the bus station...

The same night, after 6 hours on a bus, I took another night train, that time on a soft sleeper that is soft only in its name. Same as hard sleeper if you want my opinion.

There I am, in Xi'an for one more day, before I get on two more night trains in two nights, heading to Pingyao and Beijing. In all the noise of the train station and the difficulty to get train tickets, I decided not to go to Luoyang and Datong, which were on my original list. On the other hand, I'll spend eight long days in Beijing. Enough to settle down and explore. At least I hope so. After all, managing time is my job...

A great wall of language

Hangzhou

China is without a doubt the most tiring country I visited yet. Because you need a lot of energy, especially when you travel alone, to make your way around a country where you can't be understood. Or almost.

One needs to try to understand, on top of all the usual stuff you encounter in a new city : avoid getting lost, how does the metro works, watch the wallet, find a supermarket...

I had a similar experience in Europe, in Poland for example. But at least, there, the alphabet was the same. Or almost. I could read stuff on the street signs or on a map.

By chance, Hong Kong and Shanghai have bilingual signs : cantonese (or mandarin) and english. But it's not as easy when you get out of the big cities...

That's when tips come handy. First tip : always have a business card of the hostel or hotel you're staying in. The address is often written in chinese on it and it helps being understood everywhere. Lost? A taxi will bring you back where you belong.

Tip number 2 : Bring a guidebook (like Lonely Planet) that offers a translation of all the proper names. Lost? You can show the symbols in the book and people understand immediately... At least, it's to wish for...

I experimented that in Hangzhou today. There, english, and even french, can be read on signs in temples and parks. But to take the bus or order in the restaurant, nothing you can do. My book could at least help me when I boarded the wrong bus... and to find one by trying and making mistakes...

I can also confirm it is very important to listen to that little voice inside of yourself that says you need to go back. I paid to get in the park that leads to the Lingyin Temple. But oh surprise, you need to pay again to get in the temple of the same name. The ticket I got only allowed me to see other attractions. The problem is I was running out of time. I paid for everything, but I definitely haven't seen everything. The little voice in me was telling me to go back to the bus, just in case. Because I had a train to catch.

The decision was a good one. Took me one hour to get to the train station. Squeezed like sardines in a public bus, the Chinese won't hesitate to walk on each other and to push each other to grab every free room. After one hour, I was starting to feel bad in there, especially because of the heat. It was time for me to get out and to breath fresh air.

Scam

There we go. I confirm you need to distrust the young chinese couples in very touristic places. They target white people, ask them to take a picture for them, engage in a conversation and end up inviting them to share a tea ceremony. A very expensive one. If you say no, they will insist. Three times yet I got invited. Always the same process. Lying is very not nice, but I use the excuse of "Oh! The tea? Been there yesterday..." Like that, they are reassured and think my money was already stolen. And they leave me alone.

Octopus card

Little tip about Hong Kong.  You can find the Octopus card, very useful, that is the exact copy of a project we had in Sherbrooke a couple of years back. It's a "paypass" type card you can recharge as you wish to pay for public transportation, restaurants and grocery stores.

In the metro, for example, the cost of every trip is lower with the card. Cheaper than buying tickets one by one. Only problem is since you never put the hand in your pocket to pay, you lose track of how much you spend. Money goes away very fast.

You can buy that card in the airport and you will get a complet refund (except for some fees) when you leave.

Simple entertainment

Andreas is working hard to get that picture.

It was already established that a big share of traveling is about people we meet. In that way, the best memories are not always the one we make by visiting well known places.

Couple of days ago, I spent the evening with another backpacker who stayed in my hostel for one night only. No time to see Shanghai for him. So we took a walk to the Bund, the walkway along the Huangpu river. The beauty of going out at night with other people is to stop in unexpected places. It is to spend less time at your destination than everywhere else you stop on the way.

In this case, we had fun taking night pictures without a tripod. We needed to be smart, so we used a paper cup we found on the ground and a lighter to take a picture of... a bike. The Chinese walking by, after midnight, wondered what two white guys could find interesting about that old bike. The question marks in their eyes shed more light than the lampposts. They couldn't understand. But I will remember. I didn't count the number of attempts, but there was a lot. So like it or not, here is the result.

Made in China

I got in China. The "real" China. Got in Shanghai at the end of the afternoon. I survived my flight on a low cost company : Spring Airlines. Low cost : no meal, no comfort, but a cheap link between Hong Kong and Shanghai. The seats felt like they were made of cardboard and were not reclining at all...

Surrounded by Chinese, I discovered that the stewardess of that company, on top of giving the security tips, were guiding the passengers through some exercises before landing. It was funny to see everybody raise their arms to shake their hands...

It was easy to go through immigration. No questions. Or almost. A stamp in the passport. There you go : set to go. 

I decided to board the Maglev to get in town, before using the metro. It wasn't long before a woman took me for a walking ATM. A white guy coming from the airport : kaching!

While I was trying to understand how to buy a metro ticket, she was asking for money, saying thank you all the time. She kept on trying. She added very much. And when I was saying no, she was putting on a sad face. She followed me everywhere. Until I got in the metro. The begging Chinese really follow us like seagulls searching for french fries. They stick with us.

In the big city, with people asking us stuff all around, touching us, it was the first time I felt like I needed to watch my wallet, my passport and my other belongings.

Scam
At least, they won't get me with the Tea Ceremony scam I heard about. Some people act like tourists or strangers and invite you to a tea ceremony. But the price is ridiculously high. When you know it, you stay aware.

Tomorrow, I'm seeking adventure in that big city... with Gilly, of course.

Surviving Macao

Macao

Surviving Macao. In the sense of living after being in Macao. And in the sense of staying alive in Macao itself...

Not that it's a dangerous place. Especially since that part of China feels more like Europe or Las Vegas than Asia... in its more commercial way. With 28 degrees, 60 % humidity (weather forecast expert friends, what temperature does it make us feel?), with a very warm jean, a heatstroke can come fast.

Luckily, I survived (a little bit in spite of me) while going up a hill managing the few millilirtes of water I had left.

The worst part, let's say it like that, was to get lost in those neverending streets while darkness and smog were falling, in a city where each skyscrapper looks exactly like the other skyscrappers. Visual references don't exist. You forget the roman way to build streets, with parallel and perpendicular streets. Forget logic. Forget the street signs too, because they might send you in the wrong direction...

Simply put, you walk towards east, you take right... but you find yourself being completely up north. Where everything is grey. No tourists. Like a movie which takes place in the future where it's always grey. How come? Don't know. Will never know I think. But I didn't panic. Didn't take the risk of bording public transportation. I walked all the way across the peninsula, heading south. Got there way before the ferry going back to Hong Kong.

Visa

That said, I'm very happy to announce I got my visa for China. I'm under the impression it is easier than it looks to get it. Because they receive so many requests. It seems like they accept almost all of them. There goes a saga that wasn't one.

I'm taking a plane for Shanghai this Thursday and I'm thinking of spending around 20 days in the country. I already have my ticket for Japan. I will need to stop and plan a little bit because the countries ahead ask for visas...