Lobster "Tales": March

Last time we spoke I wrote folded over my laptop, squished into 11C and en route to Shanghai.  No time to waste – let’s pick up from there. We arrived at Pudong International Airport on time and proceeded to make our way to the hotel.  Unfortunately, we had missed the last Maglev train into town (more on that later), which meant taking a relatively snail-paced taxicab to the Westin. The Westin?...Who does this kid think he is?!  No mom, I am not booking five-stars. We were incredibly lucky that a family friend of a friend on our trip owned the building encompassing the hotel.  It was a wonderful hotel that also wound up hosting an insatiable buffet that will win this month’s best meal.  Being 12:30 however, there was little food open for us to have dinner at after checking in.  The concierge recommended McDonalds or KFC when we asked where we could find dumplings.  Needless to say – we headed to the Mickey D's.  

This is when it gets bizarre.  Things started downhill when ordering Big Macs became harder than crossing that bridge in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail.” But wait!…There’s more! Slowly, I notice that we’re the only ones eating, but were not the only ones there. I’d say about a dozen people are sound asleep in this 24-hour McDonalds. It is well past midnight.  The staff does not care.  I have pictures to prove it. I thought they were dead for a while – it wasn’t until the man sleeping ten inches from my fries gave a loud, snoring exhale all over my food that I could confirm they were alive. McDonalds had officially become an impromptu homeless shelter.  The corporate giant had become the community shelter and there was almost something charitable about the presence of this 24-hour McDonalds.

Out of the five different major metropolitan areas I’ve made it to in the past month I’ve seen a wide range of displays of custom and courtesy (curtoesy). From the impromptu fast-food homeless shelters, to the shoe-free floors of a Japanese Ryokan to the deep bows of the Korean flight attendants, there has seldom been a moment of chartered cultural territory.  It’ not that it was weird to be an outsider – we’re used to that piece of studying abroad.  There is however, an ever-present feeling of detachment.  We are the new kids, the observers, the diplomats visiting a vital national interest.  The customs and small acts of kindness we run into are normally what make up the things we remember about a culture. So, in my most busy travel month, the experiences I have managed to really remember are these microcosmic reflections of culture rooted in each custom. 

Shanghai continued the next morning.  Over the following two days we saw all sorts of museums, galleries, expositions, and pedestrian malls.  Our days were filled with touristy destinations most of which were walking distance or just a short taxicab away.  Which brings me to cultural custom experience number two: the complete absence of traffic laws in Shanghai.  Either everyone is red-green colorblind, or "red" means "go," or people just generally have a death wish because Shanghai made a demo derby look like child’s play. Scooters go as they please, on any space they wish (sidewalks, stairs and bike lanes included).  Oh, you’re a pedestrian? Sorry, there’s no right of way here – not even in pedestrian malls.  If you can dodge a Shanghainese scooter, you can dodge a ball.

Shanghai has great nightlife and we had plenty of fun seeing a hip and modern city come alive a little at night.  Of the daytime experiences, there were two of real note.  The Shanghai Museum had some pieces that were as incredible as any museum worldwide can give.  Most awesome were the 7000 year-old pieces of bronze and jade, so complex that modern science has no explanation for their creation without advanced tools.  Museums like the Shanghai Museum remind you of how one can actually stomach history, or enjoy snaking hallways of display cases for hours on end.  It was an incredibly valuable learning experience and I could have spent a couple more hours there.

Secondly, the permanent China Expo (the remains of the World’s Fair from last summer) is a must-see public relations stunt.  Put on by the Chinese government, the exhibit seductively soirées tourists and locals alike for valuable hours of undivided attention.  Host countries have historically used the world’s fair to paint fresh images of hot-button issues and China definitely kept up its end of the tradition.  Extensive exhibitions and information on China’s green effort were everywhere.  The massive inverted red pyramid building is both intimidating and comforting – a presiding presence of total control that screams “big government project.” There are sections devoted to the growing, eco-friendly cities of China, growing car industry, even growing children through a section where crayon drawings hang in front of the Shanghai skyline beyond the glass windows behind.  Overall, it is a convincing and elegant presentation of the country that is endlessly positive.  It was an interesting way to spend the afternoon, no doubt.

After four days of exploration, we ended our trip with the most incredible Sunday brunch at the Westin.  Lobster, caviar, filet, rib eye, eggs to order (a rarity in Asia so far), crab, shrimp, sushi, oysters, foie gras, kebabs, dim sum, pasta, fresh crepes, even a complete orchestra and acrobats were almost as amazing as the unlimited mimosas and the incredibly cheap Chinese acupressure massage we got later that day.  Hey, a little pampering never hurt anyone.  It also doesn’t hurt to have an intentionally weak RMB on your side to make everything seem like an epic deal. 

There was only one thing left to do - the Maglev. In the interest of moving on to the other half of the month, we basically took this unreal train to the airport.  Cruising speed was just less than 300 mph.  We did a 45-minute cab ride in less than 10 minutes.  Awesome.

Four days later I was on the plane to Beijing.  We spent a short week checking up on classes and doing laundry in Hong Kong.  Our plan was to go from Hong Kong to Beijing for a short layover and then go on to Tokyo by Friday evening.  From there, we’d spend the weekend in Tokyo before heading to Kyoto on Monday.  After that, spend the next two nights in Kyoto before one night in Osaka.  From Osaka we’d go to Seoul for the weekend before heading home the following Monday to Hong Kong. 

Things hit a snag when we were in the air.  At around 2:45 p.m. JST, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit off of Japan’s northeast coast.  Triggering a huge tsunami, the quake destroyed countless communities all along the Japanese northeast and it rocked Tokyo with aftershocks and transportation closures.  Upon landing in Beijing, our flight to Tokyo had been cancelled for obvious reasons.  Air China put us up in a decent hotel and we decided to wait until morning to make plans.  The airline was able to get us into Tokyo the next day, but our hotel in Shibuya said that it wouldn’t be any fun and that aftershocks were still hitting every coupe of hours. We booked new tickets into Osaka for Monday, putting us back on schedule by the beginning of the week and swapping Beijing for Tokyo. 

This could not have turned out as any better of a solution.  We got a complete Beijing experience filled with more “Duck Burritos” (as we came to know them) then the heart can desire.  We saw the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Olympic park, an emperor’s tomb, a silk factory, a porcelain factory and a jade factory.  The latter three were all tourist traps, including the tea ceremony that was thrown in, but they still count.  All in all, Beijing was perfect.  We had a great time and found a worthwhile replacement for Japan while we let the initial dust settle. 

After landing on Osaka, we caught a bus to our traditional guesthouse in Kyoto.  Kyoto represented an entirely different cultural experience.  For the first time in Asia, I was charmed by a town’s architecture.  Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore all have their skylines, and Beijing has the Forbidden City, but no place I had visited up until that point really had style.  It felt like an old-school European town, but with an entirely different set of architectural nuances to each street.  Kyoto blends the traditional curved roofs with modern restaurants, malls and office buildings.  It was a city with a very distinct feeling of warmth and homeliness. I was a huge fan.   

  

We rented bikes and spent the next day cycling from one temple/shrine to the next.  The traditional palaces and parks were all cool in their own right.  I was especially enamored by the completely gold-plated temple and the “world’s most perfect zen garden.”

Kyoto was great, but escalating nuclear fears had our parents neglecting all sorts of international roaming charges as they tried to convince us to hightail it out of the country.  I must say that being in Japan didn’t feel that risky at the time. It felt a lot like what I remember being in California after 9/11 was like.  The country was somber, but the Southwest was physically unaffected by the disaster.  The losses weren’t really felt in Kyoto or Osaka, and thus life went on.  I’d love to return to see Tokyo and experience a less disheveled version of the country.  To me, Japan was a friendlier, cleaner, healthier and more modest version of America where I wouldn’t mind spending a significant amount of time.

So onwards to Osaka, both to follow the schedule and to be closer to the airport.  We spent a great night in the costal metropolis, where our friendly hotel concierge decided that his directions to good sushi would be lost on us.  He opted to join our adventure and navigated to a couple of friend’s bars and some good restaurants.  As tourists we fulfilled our obligatory karaoke requirement.  We sounded terrible.  Best of all was SpaWorld, a 24-hour mega spa with 8 floors of Jacuzzis and gyms and televisions and reclining chairs.  It is the best thing over commercialization could possibly produce; it is the Wal-Mart of hot springs. We made a stop by SpaWorld before dinner - it was a wonderful way to relax after all the chaos of getting around the country.

The next day we left for Seoul. Going into the trip, Korea always had this Walter Cronkite reporting from the front lines in of the Korean War in a 9^th grade history class VHS feel.  What I found was anything but. Seoul is a young city, entirely modern, with an equally young population.  It feels alive, high-tech and booming.  We had a fantastic couple of days seeing museums, palaces, and art expositions all over town.  There was a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit of Chagall paintings, as well as a cool contemporary art museum that was full of abstract garbage (art) to look at.  The coolest of the touristy stops here in Korea was the de-militarized zone, where fully armed South Korean soldiers sit finger-on-trigger staring endlessly out onto the North Korean border.  The DMZ was eerie and heavily regulated by the government, although we did get to take some pictures and see one of the infiltration tunnels discovered by the South Koreans in the 70s and 80s.  Korean food was the only real letdown of the entire trip, as traditional barbeque faire became redundant very quickly.  We managed to survive off of many trips to Dunkin Donuts for much-needed bagels and cream cheese, something which we can’t seem to find in Hong Kong.

Returning to Hong Kong was a welcome experience; it is nice to be back home for a couple of weeks on end.  This past weekend marked the unofficial beginning of spring with the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament.  We spent most of the weekend in costume, wandering Hong Kong with the myriad other western drunkards who had spent the day watching rugby and screaming obscenities at the pitch.  It didn’t take long to understand the game; rugby is basically football without pads and a couple rule changes.  All around the city, previously dormant cherry blossoms are doing what they do best.  There has been an explosion of color and life in Hong Kong over the past two weeks, and I expect that will continue with weather forecasted to be 75 and sunny for the foreseeable future.   March was our most full month by far, and April will undoubtedly demand a little more focus on getting work done and enjoying my last full month in Hong Kong. 

Happy birthday, Dad!

Fine Print:

Best Meal: The Sunday Brunch at the Westin Shanghai Bund Center – WOW!

Worst Meal: Verve SoHo, Hong Kong – Got me so sick. Steer clear of the “U.S.” strip steak.