the mario blog

My favorite place in China is Macau. But Hong Kong is the place that I am most likely to live in, as I just don’t see a career in gambling or prostitution on my horizon. Hong Kong is probably the most urban city in the world. There are skyscrapers over skyscrapers, all built on a very small and steep piece of land. It’s also the most un-chinese place in China. Actually, it’s much easier for foreigners to gain entry into Hong Kong than for main land chinese.

The climate is very mild and people are very friendly, despite its fast pace. The thing that I find most amazing about Hong Kong is that rather than walking over a normal street, you are more likely to use an escalator (which are all over the city) to get around. The city is built on such a steep foundation that it would be entirely too exhausting to use stairs instead. Also, you can walk through half the city without ever going outside, as most buildings are connected.

People speak English just like they speak Cantonese. The food is great, with a very international flavor. We had Mexican for lunch and Italian for dinner. And for all you shopaholics out there, it doesn’t get any better than Hong Kong.

If you get a chance, go see Hong Kong. It’s unlike any other place in Asia or in the world for that matter.

My favorite place in China was actually Macau. It’s a beautiful city that reminded me a lot of Lisbon. No surprise there, as it actually used to be a Portuguese colony. It’s actually not a city, but rather a special economic region in China. However, for the purpose of this blog entry, it’s a city.

Macau is old, beautiful, charming, cheap and filled with nice people. All that with a touch of Las Vegas, as prostitution and gambling are legal in Macau. And much unlike Vegas, Macau still feels very real. Oh, and all the cars are driving on the wrong side of the road, which is retarded.

Anyway, Terry and I took the ferry to Macau and crossed the border by foot. We asked a policeman where all the casinos were and then took a cab out to what one might call the “fun part of town”. We walked into the first hotel out of the cab (the Lisboa…it’s all beginning to make sense), dropped off our bag packs and started exploring the city. We did some gambling at night and then continued to explore the neighborhood. The amazing thing about Macau is that there are prostitutes everywhere. No joke, there were at least a hundred of them in our hotel lobby. I could never meet a girl in that city, as it would be hard to differentiate whether a girl likes me or if she’s on the job.

Anyway, there was a kick-ass bathtub/shower/steam room in our hotel room. I spend half of the night in the darn thing, resulting into major burns on my right elbow. Quick way to find out where the steam was coming from.

The morale of the story is that I am going back to Macau. So should you. Oh, and if do be aware that you need a passport to get into the casinos (not a handwritten, temporary German one) and there are no saunas in a Macau sauna club.

One last thing, the old man is walking his bird.

Ok, I made it back to the US. Remind me to never travel with a handwritten, temporary passport again. I had a hard time getting into a hotel room in Macau, so you can only imagine what Chinese border officials thought about it.

Anyway, I am in Santa Monica right now pumping myself full with caffeine. This whole 18-hour time change thing is really going to get the best of me.

I am going to blog more about Hong Kong and Macau later today and then post some more cool pictures.

For now, here’s a picture of China’s next Karaoke star. I think it pretty much sums up my China trip. I had a blast.

Train ride to Beijing
Ok, so the train station in Shanghai is a complete mess. There are thousands of workers carrying plastic bags in front of the train station who for some reason are not able to wait inside. After finally making it into this ginormous building, Terry and I were led through like a dozen different waiting rooms until we finally encountered the one appropiate for our ticket.

Once we made it onto the train, here’s what went down:

7pm. We walk into our soft sleeper cabin (basically means that we have soft, rather than hard mattresses, four of them – bunk bed style, very much youth hostel syle) where we are greeted by some mid-twenties Chinese TV executive, wearing a black suit and reminding me very much like some fellow out of a karate movie. Of course he didn’t speak a lick of English and was sitting on my bed. That’s the major disadvantage of having a bed at the bottom, everybody hangs out on your bed until they finally go to bed.

Well, I throw on my train-issued slippers and sit down on the bottom bunk near the window. Then Terry and I proceed to drink a bottle of terrible Chinese wine. Remind me to never drink Chinese wine again. Halfway through the bottle, Terry gets all pissed off because they don’t have soap in the bathroom. He complains to one of the attendants and she tries to sell him a toothbrush with an open pack of toothpaste. That didn’t help. We finish the bottle and stumble down to the food car, where we enjoy some peanut chicken and Budweiser. Remind me to never drink Budweiser again in China.

Back in our cabin, I very much regret that I let Terry keeping the cabin door open as it now smells like airport smoking lounge in our sleeper. Note to self, there is no fresh air coming from the hallway. That’s where everyone smokes.

I watched an episode of “the Sorpranos” on my laptop and then passed out.

I am about to check out of my hotel and then take a ferry to Macau. Last night, I might have quite possibly had the craziest night of my life. Now off to Macau, which is supposed to be Asia’s craziest city. Great.

I’m in Shenzhen right now, which is some sort former special economic zone in Southern China. From the look out of my hotel window, it appears to be a nice place. For some reason, I always get hotel rooms on top floor (in this case 27th), which usually results into 15-minute elevator rides. I am not sure why elevators are so slow around here, but based on the speed and comfort of the ascent I assume that a group small Chinese men located on the rood is pulling that box skyward.

This is old China. People living, cooking and breeding in the streets and I’m literally the only white person around here. While before I might have been the only white guy who didn’t speak Chinese, now I am the only one, period. People stare at me like I walked straight off the cover of Rolling Stones magazine. All the menus are completely in Chinese, which is only going to add to my list of accidental animal consumptions such as turtles and pigeons. Great.

The only thing that I can safely order around here are massages. So there isn’t a body part that hasn’t been rubbed in Shengzen. If I wasn’t sleeping on a piece of wood with a bed sheet over it, my body would be in a state of total relaxation.

The other day this masseuse took off her shoes, jumped on the massage table and started walking all over my back. All while singing Chinese folks songs. Heaven. Truth be told, my next girlfriend is going to have to be able to do that. I could care less about the chinese folk songs, even thought that would be a nice bonus. Needless to be said, I’m in love.

Don’t get me wrong, massages still are a rather awkward engagement for me around here. You are brought into a small private room, where the TV is always playing “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and then a masseuse comes and rapidly fires chinese language at you. I usually just shake my head and then the show begins. I am not sure why, but the masseuse continues to speak to me in Chinese throughout the entire two hours. And I don’t understand a word. I shake my head and smile. She giggles and on we go. That’s how it goes.

So, generally speaking I have had an amazing time here in China. I really like Shanghai, the food is great, there are a million of fascinating images and it’s encouraging to see how open commerce is really helping to build something significant here.

With that being said, I hate Beijing.

And this is the first time that I’ve ever said that this about a city, state or country. Over the years I have traveled and lived in a lot of places, but in only two days of being in Beijing I’ve met more bad people than in all 24 prior years of my life together. What means bad. Dishonest, insincere, ruthless, heartless and with absolutely no morals or ethical standards. A very sad place.

I got suckered into some sort of police-supported scam that cost me half-a-month of rent, taken on a ride by a cab driver who tried to make a fortune of what should have been a $5 trip (resulting into a brawl at my hotel parking lot) and dropped off in the middle of the freeway by a tour bus driver who had missed the exit. And there is more.

If you plan on visiting the summer olympics in Beijing in 2008, don’t. There are much better places with much better people in China. Beijing really is a bad place.

So, I just got back from Beijing. It was quite the trip about which I’ll write more in a bit. I did stand in the middle of Tiananmen square and climbed up the great wall of China. Actually the coolest thing about Beijing was the trip to and from. We took the night train from Shanghai to Beijing, leaving at 6pm and arriving at 6am. You walk into the train, drink a bunch of wine, chat with whoever is assigned to the cabin with you (4 beds), watch movies on your laptop and then fall asleep in your comfy soft sleeper, only waking up once the train has arrived. It’s by far the most relaxing way I have ever traveled such a long distance.

There was one tiny hangup. Terry insisted on having our cabin door open for fresh air. That doesn’t really work that well considering that there were dozens of chinese men smoking in the hallway. For the entire trip to Beijing, our cabin air quality was the equivalent to that of an airport smoking lounge.

Last night, we went to Karaoke bar and today we are flying to Shengzen. From there, we are heading to Macau on Wednesday, Hong Kong on Thursday, Shanghai on Friday and then back to Los Angeles on Saturday. Busy week.

Here’s a pic of the great wall of China.

Here are some pictures from my New Year’s Eve over in China. A good little group of European, American, Iraqi, German and Austrian men and Chinese women went to Japanese restaurant for all you can eat consume suhis, saki and beer. We paid $15 per person and were able to order whatever we wanted off the menu. Lots of sushi, pork cutlets and teryiaki everything. I cannot remember to have eaten that much in a long time, nor do I have any concept of how I could have possibly drank so many saki bombs. The party ended at Terry’s Iraqi buddy Ed’s house, with plenty of French wine and Cuban cigars.

I’m off to Beijing via train tonight. It’s a 12-hour train ride (6pm-6am). We booked a sleeper room, sharing the small space with two other people. Should be very interesting. This next week is going to be insanely busy. I’m coming back from Beijing on Friday, then fly out to Hong Kong on Saturday, coming back to Shanghai next Friday, leaving back to LA on Saturday. Then on Monday I am flying back home to Portland. And then a normal life shall begin.

I’m having problems uploading my new photo albums, but don’t worry there are plenty of new visuals coming. Maybe I’ll open a Flickr account or something.