Hainan Chronicles Appendix

Since I have been asked about my location, here's a map of Southern China. The arrows are my ''movements'' in the bay and the island (Guangzhou is Chinese for Canton).

The area I visited is the red island in the South (Hainan Dao) and that purple province just north of it (Guangdong province).

Hainan Chronicles Volume 29: The Last Days of Haikou

I'm almost done with this terrible place. Not that this city is not doing anything in its power to make my last days a terrible experience. On my way back from the airport I took a cab, the driver drove through a highway with no street lights and very few signs. After a while we encountered another taxi driver that was performing a U turn in the middle of the way. My driver stopped and cursed at him. He must have taken this as a challenge, because after a couple of minutes he decided to take a shortcut through an unfinished section of highway. First we felt a huge bump in the backseat, then we witnessed our driver dodging an upset worker and trying to switch back to the main lane of the highway. Unfortunately it was blocked by some rock, so he got off the car and moved 3/4 rocks and brough us home.

Our air conditioner is dripping water and the landlady is too busy playing an online videogame to call somebody to fix it. I know how things work here, so I'm off to buy a screwdriver and fix it myself. She is also bringing people in the apartment because we will soon leave it unoccupied. Today I opened the door naked and scared away a Chinese girl that wanted to rent, I guess it works. We are spending two days in Canton (or Guangzhou) before returning to civilization, so I guess the next post will be the last and it will be about our time in Guangzhou and the flight back.

Hainan Chronicles Volume 28: An Island Never Cries

Here are some pictures of the inside of Hainan Dao and of Sanya. The former are taken from a train, so you will see the reflexion of the window. Although they look awful, you might get an idea of the kind of environment you can find in Hainan.

Hainan Dao

Sanya

Weather was not perfect, unfortunately...

Hainan Chronicles Volume 27: a Trip to Hong Kong and Macau

I'm back from my trip to Hong Kong and Macau, this is what happened.

Day 1

We had to wake up very early, at 5:30 and took a cab to the airport one hour later. 6:30 is the only time when it's worth moving around in Haikou, when there is sunlight but it's not ridiculously hot yet.
Our first contact with the airport was a bunch of rich Haikou people. What is a rich Haikou person? Just another miseducated Haikou person, only with money. They move in packs to HK and Macau to buy stuff then come back to their familie. In the restrooms you coul hear the roar of some ladies spitting, then you could watch them biting a tissue to correct the shade of their lipstick. The flight was a via crucis, as expected, since the kind of humanity involved. I was surrounded by screaming spoilt kids, 60 year old guys accompanied by loud and trashy teenage girls and the ladies I've mentioned above.
Landing in Hong Kong was a welcome experience. Not only it's huge, but it's the state of the art of the concept of airport. Later, I will discover that Hong Kong public transport on land and water is spectacular too.
The downside of a huge airport is that you have to travel around it, if you're looking for a particular desk. I had to do it because I found out that my flight back to Haikou was cancelled and my reservation was moved to the following morning. I expected some refund from the company (Hong Kong Airlines), or at least some kind of free accomodation, but all I got was to call some numbers and get unsatisfying responses.
I took a double-decker bus to Causeway Bay, where my hostel was located. The bus left the airport and drove through the bridge that separates it from Kong Island. I could admire the harbour, some of the tropical islands and some peculiarities of the city. Hong Kong seems to assimilate elements from London and other Chinese metropolises (Shanghai?), with maybe a touch of New York City. The colonial past is evident and so is the Asian nature of the city: shop signs everywhere, loads of pedestrians walking from a skyscraper to the other.

Once arrived in Causeway Bay it was really hard to find the hostel. The website provides a general address with an ambiguous street number. I think I've asked directions at least 20 times and only got contradictory responses. On top of this, every building had a notice that said the administration denies the existence of any hostel organisation, stating that it's illegal to rent rooms for non private use in that building, and basically you rent at your own risk since they decline every responsability My saviour was a fat guy (from Europe) getting out of a building with his luggage: he was looking for another hostel, but it looked like both our hostels were run by the same guy, a Hong Kong Chinese running his business from a shady office. He got paid and sent us to another building where some Chinese women brought us to our room. Room was good, we got everything we wanted for real cheap, the only thing was that those women couldn't speak English, but we found out that they are Chinese so they understand Mandarin (usually Hong Kong people speak Cantonese and don't like you speaking Mandarin, cause they seem to despise Mainland Chinese people).
After spending a couple of hours in HK, I could already say that HK people are completely different (=better) than Mainland Chinese people. Western people in the city are not bored adventurers in search of some attention by Chinese girls, they work in one of the busiest cities of the world and follow the same rules of the natives without uncivilized behaviours (which are not tolerated, I guess). HK Chinese are more good looking (some are really tall or well built, I guess that the better diet is responsible) and - at least in the most international neighbourhoods - well dressed. As a backpacker in shirt/shorts I  felt an inferiority complex for the first time before some really well dressed Chinese guys. Most of all, they can speak English (although with a very asian accent and sometimes it's rather poor) and they are polite and educated. Actually Mainland Chinese people can be spotted in a minute, you will observe some rude people shouting from one side of a cafe to the other, sitting everywhere and ''forgetting'' to pick up their trash sometimes.

Everything has a price, obviously, and Hong Kong prices are ridiculously high. It was a shock to pay 11 HKD (something more than 1 euro) to take the subway and get off after a couple of stops after I've experienced Beijing and his ''pay 2 kuai, go wherever you want'' policy. Of course the subway here is much better (and so is the transport system in general, with pretty and efficient double-decker trams and buses). Food is also expensive, especially if you go to a restaurant. Even an ethnic restaurant can cost quite a lot, but the quality of what you eat is not comparable to what you eat in Mainland China: after three months I finally had the feeling of eating food instead of cancer-inducing oil.
On our first night in HK we decided to visit one of the most common attractions, the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui (a nice place but also a nest of tourist traps). The place needs to be seen at night, so that you can admire the breathtaking skyline from the other side of the waterfront.

Whoops!

Taking a shower in a real shower box (whoever has been in China knows what I'm talking about) was a mesmerising experience.



Day 2

We first went to Temple St. to ejoy the local market, where you can find mostly food and tropical fruits (actually there was nothing I hadn't already seen in Hainan). We ventured in a more Chinese area with not many foreigners around (in Causeway Bay/Wan Chai the percentage of non Chinese is very high, here it's next to zero), cause Victoria was looking for some Tibetan jewelry for souvenirs/presents. We actually found some, but it was extremely overpriced, as expected. There was supposed to be a bird market, but we found out that it's open only in the morning.

After freezing our asses in a Starbucks cafe with wild air conditioning (a common problem in HK is the difference between the summer/rain season outside temperature and the chilling air conditioning in interiors), we walked in Mong Kok, where we had sushi with cheese (we were missing both). Since the sky was finally free from clouds, we took a bus to THE tourist attraction of HK, Victoria Peak.
There is a bus ride that climbs up the peak and allows you to see the houses of the richest guys in town, then you get to a mall from whose top you can admire the terrific skyline and the beauty of the bay. Technically you can use telescopes to look into every window you can see. The only flaw was a horrible reproduction of the Mouth of Truth that you can find in Rome, it's coin-operated...




Day 3

In Hong Kong I had this ritual of having a huge breakfast with some pastry to compensate the fact that there is no such a thing as breakfast in Hainan. That day I had one of the best pieces of pastry ever, a huge Danish cream pastry with fruits. Ok, I guess nobody's interested in that, so I would rather talk about the rest of the day that I spent with Aurelio, an internet friend of mine that is currently working as a teacher in Hong Kong. It was him who encouraged me to see the city. He introduced us to some fine restaurants (we actually had an enormous burger in a burger place with a nest of sparrows near the cashier), brought us at the 50th floor of a building to see the rest of Central from above (city looks rather dark/cyberpunk when it's rainy).

We talked about our experiences with China, Russia and HK at a cafe, then went back to Tsim Sha Tsui, but the storm forced us to retreat. A Thai dinner saved our night, since Thai food is something I always wanted to try. We had a pineapple filled with rice and seafood, along with sour/sweet and spicy stuff (a dish was covered in a great spicy sauce with some coconut flavour, it was very interesting). The restaurant is located in Wan Chai, a district known for pubs, hangouts and strip clubs with Thai girls. Although Thais are not my cup of tea, they seem to be very popular with the local Western people; some are really crazy about those clubs (not to mention the numerous ''foot massage'' parlors). The funniest scene I saw was a quite old Thai woman that was literarily dragging men into her strip club, maybe it's some sort of aggressive marketing.
Despite this, I found Wan Chai extremely pleasant to see.



Day 4

We finally had the chance to see this notorious bird market. It's a small but fascinating Chinese market with bird cages and a relatively big variety of birds, from the most common to exotic parrots. Before going there we read something about it on the internet, including the usual ''Don't go, it's animal cruelty...'' bullshit. Those people really should see that zoo in Jinnu Park in Haikou.. I finally had the chance of seeing some great looking parrots (those with green, blue and red plumes) and admiring a Japanese couple wasting minutes trying to shoot a video of a parrot saying ''Hello''. A well-spent morning, indeed.

Next we saw another famous building of HK, the Western Market, only to be stuck for a couple of hours in a souvenir market. Despite the dreadful nature of this kind of business, I managed to find interesting stuff before proceding (it was so much better than Beijing fake stuff markets, although they shared some cheesy Chinese souvenirs).

Finally we saw the first nice looking temple we ever saw in China, the Man Mo temple, which didn't look cheesy at all; usually Chinese temples have dreadful statues and they look like they are made of plastic. Usually they have a lazy janitor watching soap operas, while this one had some real personnel. The overwhelming smell of incence drove us back to Wan Chai, where we had an early dinner in an indian restaurant.

At night we swinged by the racetrack (horse racing is fucking popular in Hong Kong), although it was closed, and so was the muslim cemetery (not that I really wanted to see a muslim cemetery...). Our night ended with some intense shopping by Victoria, while I decided to run away from the mob of indonesian/mainland crowd of customers that we found in every shop.



Day 5

First thing we took a ferry after the usual morning pastry. I had the insane idea of having a cup of coffee that nearly made me miss my ride. The idea was really insane: I felt seasick during the trip, because of the huge breakfast. The trip was really a journey through hell: not only I had to breathe deep to avoid puking, but I was surrounded by Mainland Chinese savages doing the thing you can expect them to do: sit comfortably, eating smelly food, laughing out loud (a lady was laughing like a hysterical evil witch), and I even heard a couple of people spitting. After a long while I was finally able to pass the immigration control. In Macau you don't need a visa if you are a citizen of the European Union. Thanks, colonialism!
The first minutes in Macau were actually nice, we took a bus with some international tourists and got off at the first square that we saw (I don't recall the name). The place looked like it was somewhere in the Mediterranean sea, it was full of restored colonial buildings left by the Portuguese. Unfortunately the Chinese can't restore art and buildings, so they look like they used crayons to paint them, and most of all, they only paint the side of the building you are supposed to see, the rest has its natural colour and actually looks better. Did I need another proof that the Chinese shouldn't touch anything that it's pretty?
Althought it looked unrealistic, I have to admit that the blend of European architecture and Chinese signs and shops is somewhat fascinating, I guess that the peculiarity of Macau is here.

Despite this square of historical relevance, I found Macau to be very undeveloped, with the exception of the casinos (tha main attraction of Macau). It's like they stopped building anything new after the early 80s, all the buildings you see look rather old and neglected. The city is a fine example of Eastern colonial decay, but unlike Haikou it's pretty and worth visiting. Once again: if something in China is pretty it's because of Europeans.
Next step: ruins of Sao Paulo Cathedral and the fort nearby. Here everything was untouched, apparently some people like the Unesco forbid the city of Macau to touch anything and to paint it pink, so it looked ancient but it was well-preserved. The part of the church that is still standing is extremely beautiful and you can climb it and see the square from above, topped by the omnipresent Lisboa casino (the flower-shaped skyscraper). We saw a Japanese couple taking millions of pictures of the cathedral from any angle, they reminded me the crowds of Japanese tourists in Venice taking pictures of every single corner.

The fort was worth visiting too. Its garden was very peaceful, green and busy with vistors and birds. You could climb and visit the fortification with ancient cannons and a pretty garden. Inside the cannons you could find trash. You can picture these Chinese tourists thinking ''Ok, we are in Macau now, we are not allowed to litter but in those cylindrical metal containers'' and then mistaking the cannons for trashbins.

We Had lunch in the ''Poker Cafe'', a very poor lunch I have to admit, but we were very hungry and had not much time to walk around and look for a proper restaurant. There was a birthday party of some girls.
Macau people despite not being as rich and stylish as Hong Kong people, are very easy going and polite, I haven't seen anyone spitting (yeah I know, I am obsessed with this).
The visit continued in a branch of the main square where the church of St. Laurence is located, then we walked along some fascinating streets from the old centre.

Finally, we had the best time at a protestant cemetery next to an anglican mission. Attached to this tiny church there was this extremely beautiful graveyard, full of plants and tombstones. Most of the people buried were US Navy Sailors, plus some people residing in Macau in the 19th century. Unfortunately the battery of my camera died in the very moment I entered the graveyard, so I managed to took just a handful of picturest of that gorgeous garden.

We nearly missed the ferry back to Hong Kong thanks to the previous ride being cancelled and the consequent ''overbooking'' of my boat, the queue was so long I had to run to the pier and jump, the only thing missing was the final explosion like in some shitty action movie.
The morning after I took some pictures of Hong Kong from the top floor of a double-decker bus, before leaving the city.