Two countries, two islands

 

Power Station Beach, Lamma Island

Lately I've been on a slight hiatus; a holiday from the arduous task of my .. erm.. holiday. After brilliantly missing my original flight from South Korea to Hong Kong, I finally made it all work the next day and arrived in one solid piece. I've been staying on another island next to Hong Kong island; Lamma Island; known as one of the 'Outlying Islands' of the Hong Kong area, and a real treat since it is a carless, green tropical paradise only a 30min ferry ride from the central station in Hong Kong, but a complete escape from all the mayhem.

Hong Kong IS organized chaos. It's a hilly, efficient, and eclectic city with all the amenities you could hope for all boiled in a Chinese mixing pot. It's good. Really good. I've been describing it as a world city for all these reasons to all those who ask what my opinion on the place is. Halloween a few days ago was the epitome of organized chaos, with the whole downtown area completely congested by decorated and costumed foot traffic, and the police making the most popular areas a one way for said party-goers to ensure nothing like what happened a few years ago happens again, when some participants were trampled to death by the sheer mass of the surging crowd literally plowing over their bodies.

 Downtown in Macau, known as 'Centro'

I also went to Macau, one of the strangest culture mashes I have ever seen - it's a Portugese colonial area of China (now a S.A.R. like HK), meaning it LOOKS like Europe in so many ways, with brightly coloured, slightly decaying buildings, mosaic tiled streets, and portugese foods at hand, but the people are most definitely Asian. It's as if they were supplanted into an area not their own. I loved it; it's not like anything else I've seen anywhere in the parts of Asia I've trekked through. Not just the culture mash did it either - it's also been set up to be Asias answer to Las Vegas of all things, with gaudy, towering casinos blaring their expectedly bright lights. The handy thing here is that even though they have their own currency; the Macau Patacas; they readily accept the Hong Kong dollar everywhere, which is handily currently right on par with the local currency.

I met some other travelers; two Swedes; and we adventured down south to Coloane Villiage. There r e a l l y wasn't a lot there. We scoped out the beach - a blend of tan and black sand mixing with the brown and black sea water - and then explored a hotel that seemed as if it was from a childrens book or horror movie plot. It was a slightly delapitated old five star hotel, complete with missing characters from it's title clinging to the far of the front entrance, then once you walk in, it is fully staffed and just as fully free of guests. We were convinced to check out the 18hole golf course built into the side of the hill the hotel was built into, the indoor and outdoor pools, and the driving range with the deranged cat skulking around it.

Woman in Macau

Adrift

I'm currently out to sea; staring at the amazing stars and constellations peeping through the big fluffy cumulous clouds that litter the midnight sky. I'm the only one at the bow of the boat, and it's been that way for a few hours; which I completely love. I am even thinking of getting into boat hitchhiking or working on a boat sometime.

We're about 3 hours into our 14hr journey - lots of travel today for me. I was up on an express train this morning at about 10am and going for aost 6 hrs zipping past some of the cities I have been to since I got here two and a half weeks ago - through Tokyo, past Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and a hundred other placesbefore finally making it to Kokura and Shiminoseki to catch the boat.

This one is run by Koreans, not Japanese like my previous one to Japan. Thank God - I couldn't afford to eat a thing on the last boat, but tonight I got a banana milk ans noodles for something like $2.50. I love korea. The prices on the boat aren't even marked up from mainland store prices; that's freaking integrity. This is totally the time to rip off the unprepared; such as me who showed up bearing an orange, a bag of mixed nuts and a mini bottle of wine. Still plan on drinking the wine.

Japan just stole my heart

My first day in Japan was huge. Insane even. I was literally F.O.B.; fresh off the boat, when i hopped on my first train at 9am, and then proceeded to play communication charades with these two adorable Japanese girls. I had to email my friend what time I'd arrive in Osaka so we could meet up, and after a bunch of gesturing, outbursts of laughter and a whole bunch of wrong guesses, we finally connected the dots enough for me to send a quick one liner to my buddy.

So a bullet train and two and a half hours later and I'm in Osaka, waiting for my friend in the designated McDonalds, and already people and clothes watching like mad. Then Ralph shows up with two other girls who are friends of his New Zealand neighbour, and immediately packed us into their van for some adventures. After dropping our bags off at their place we went to an ancient castle surrounded by a moat,Eeent downtown and ate some Yaki soba (octopus balls -sooo yum!), and went to see a band play! I already want to go shopping even though the Yen is at a crazy high at the moment and makingt me so cautious of spending money that I actually only ate crackers on the ship on the way over, and crackers again until after meeting everyone.

Next was a wander on the busy streets, where eveyone is dressed to really impress, whether it be clubwear, harajuku-style or even a bit Tim Burton-esque. I loved it! Afterwards, we headed to the sushi train with their mom (who speaks Korean, so we were able to talk a lot!) and other sister - holy yum. Vancouver, Canada where I was previously living is mad about Sushi and I in that sense was 100% a Vancouverite, so after non-stop Korean food for the last few months, it was totally a welcome reprieve and ridiculously delicious. Plus, there were these toy dispenser things above every table - when you were done with five plates and dropped them into the tables slot, something like a Vegas poker machine would spin and if you won, the dispenser would roll a little vending machine style present your way.

So after all this, the night still wasnt over. We stopped back home for their dad and some supplies, and headed over to the traditional Japanese baths. Its quite similar to Korea, where women and men are separated for the nude bathing part, but they don't gather clothed in a communal part, and there's also no swimming section.

After getting back to the house, Ralph and I decided to go get our wander on the local side streets, which were just too cute to resist, so after grabbing a few beers we settled onto some random tins on the road to drink, but before we even got half way, somehow the dad managed to find us an took us into his local watering hole and bought us another drink. Home at 2am, and an AMAZING first day in Japan. I'm totally smitten.