China, Hong Kong, and Macau

I kinda like to do these recap e-mails/blogs (sorry for the repeat for some!) because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on a chunk of my travels. And China/Hong Kong/Macau was definitely that. All in 3 weeks!

China. Before coming here, I knew it would be difficult, but being an optimist, I thought "it won't be so bad." Now, after traveling throughout China, I wouldn't call it bad, just hard. Some of the many stereotypes are true, yes it is super polluted in almost every way: air, land, sea, and noise. Noise (the Mandarin language is very harsh and people talk very loudly, the hawking, and with just so many people, its just loud), being a big one, and air being the first. No one speaks English and the most simple things can be such a headache (also, not the best at customer service). But, the people, when they want to be, are super nice and helpful. We really appreciated that. We probably saw .2% of the massive country with the billions of people, and some of the sites are truly amazing (once you make your way through the people). My favorites are the Great Wall, Beijing, and .... I guess just really getting to know the culture when we were in "small" towns ("small" in China is 3-5 million people) and being the only Westerners. Thats when you really feel like you are experiencing China as it is. Its a hard life. It boggles my mind to think how difficult it is to even regulate soooooo many people. By far the biggest problem is the air pollution. Granted, one of towns we visited is a coal mining town, but still - its bad. Every town was just as bad as the one before - hazy and smoggy. Besides the 1st couple of days in Beijing, we didn't see the sun the whole time we were there. And the smoking! Everyone smokes and China is a little behind the times with not smoking in enclosed spaces. Ugh. All and all, I'm glad I came but I don't forsee myself coming back to China, umm... in my lifetime.

To sum up China, here's a quote from Mao about China (I know, I know, its cheesy that I'm quoting Mao, but hey - its China! I had to mention him at least once!) that I like and I think sums up my experience: "The achievements are tremendous, the problems are numerous, the experience is rich, and the future is bright."

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Hong Kong is night and day compared to China - clean, very very modern and high tech, everyone is well-dressed, their isn't so much noise pollution with the hawking (illegal. If you do it, you get fined and possibly arrested), the Cantonese language is much easier on the ears, people are professionally dressed, customer friendly, and it really is a great blend of East meets West! Gotta love the skyscrapers after being away from it for 2 months (yes, its been 2 months since I've been gone!). We spent 5 full days there and it was very welcome after roughing it in China! I think we are spoiled now!

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Finally, Macau. A great blend of China, Hong Kong, and Portugal. Its supposed to be the next Las Vegas with the growth in casino's (there is a Venetian, Rio, MGM, etc), it also has some really historic and beautiful fortresses, churches, and temples. The food has been super and we enjoyed some delicious Portuguese food, wine, and sweets. If anyone is ever in Hong Kong, pop by Macau! Its only an hour away by ferry and is worth coming to.

And as usual, for more details, feel free to read my other blogs! Next stop is SE Asia (Laos first) and I'll try to send an update after traveling throughout Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand in a month of so. I'm sure I'll have great stories!!!

p.s. Unfortunately, it takes 84324329432827529347329473284324239 hours to download picts onto something like kodakgallery, so hopefully the little picts from my blog will do. I think I figured out how to shrink them so that I can upload more (i have a monthly capacity limit). It was easy in Australia/NZ because I had a home base computer, but its SUPER hard to do it when you don't have that. I'll send a link when I get back home.