Shane Travels

Well… That’s all for now folks. I’m headed back to Toronto tomorrow afternoon (Hong Kong Time) and will arrive around 10:00pm tomorrow EST (Thursday). I’ve enjoyed my time in Hong Kong; however the never ending rain has been a bit of a downer. I still managed to wander the streets, finds lots of good eats and of course read my current book: Special Topics in Calamity physics.

For those curious I do find a noticeable difference between Hong Kong and the mainland. Surprisngly in your face capitalism is not the difference. The Chinese should provide Canada and North Americans in general with a refresher course on Capitalism. The difference I perceive and granted, having been here only a few days I could be way off base, but people smile more in Hong Kong. Things seems slightly lighter.

Things I will miss about asia:

1) Dresses and heels. Women look good in dresses and heels. In asia, many women still wear such things.
2) Relatively cheap beer (outside of Hong Kong)
3) Cities with good metros / subways / elevated trains… the TTC suddenly looks depressing. Shanghai was particularly impressive. One pay card for Buses, Metro and Taxis… love it.
4) Cheap domestic flights. I think the only way we could get this… is to shrink Canada or increase the population significantly. Anyone else have suggestions?
5) Tasty cheap food… Uyghur and Thai were / are my favourites.

Things I’m looking forward to:

1) Eating raw food. I risked this several times without issue… but in general avoided.
2) Fruit shakes for breakfast
3) Mustard & Vinegar
4) Swimming in the lake
5) Seeing family and friends

What’s next? Well… I haven’t quite figured that out yet. In the short term, packing up my house and heading to the cottage. Considering a couple of options after that:

1) More Travel
2) Backpacking a section of the appalachian trail. (Need to figure out if I’m physically up to this first)
3) Returning to work early? Still a few things to think about before doing that

Once I’ve figured it out… I’ll update you here.

hope this finds you well

shane

p.s. Thanks again to Alex. Especially for dropping off my tailored shirts in Hong Kong. I love the shirts!

Well… I wish I could tell you about all of the great things i saw in Shanghai… but my time there didn’t quite work out that way. Instead I met a lot of great people, mostly ex-pats and had a great time enjoying life with them. My most gracious host Alex, my former roommate from second year of University, introduced me to tons of great people and I suspect most of the good bars in town. Bars worth mentioning: The Beaver, Cottons, The Spot, etc… (note: I didn’t meet a bar on this leg of the trip [for that matter any leg of the trip] that I didn’t like). Thanks to the following people[in addition to Alex] for making me feel so welcome: Shirley, Tim, Mer, Ilana and Mel [apologies for any mis-spelt names]

I have to say that between Sunday the 29th and Sat July the 5th, I did not get sufficient sleep and was in degrees of inebriation the entire time. I strongly advise that if you can, avoid any offers of Baijiu. This stuff is awful tasting… and I’d have to be much drunker than I was to actually want to drink it.

I took the enjoyment of drink and general debauchery to new heights in Shanghai. I liked the city. I liked the metro, especially the pay card system. I didn’t like the heat… it was a humid cooker of a place and on a couple of days I felt as if I was literally melting. I liked the food.

In general I have really enjoyed China. Of the countries that I’ve visited.. this is probably the one that I could actually see myself living. I would need the illegal DVDs of course to survive, since television and official news is a wasteland… devoid of that thing… that thing that I think i need.

I arrived in Hong Kong yesterday. I spent the first day recovering from sleep deprivation. Today i ventured out to explore my part of the city and to get my metro (octopus) card. The metro here as in Shanghai is great. Saw “Wanted” today. Wasn’t overly impressed, but not horrible… which is practically a compliment these days.

For those curious about my reading:
Gulliver’s Travels
Second Foundation

I hope this finds you well with a smile on your face

shane