the waiting finished last sunday, when it was time to go to hong kong. the main reason i went was to renew my visa, so i'll tell you about that first.
i jumped on a plane and flew to shenzhen, then boarded a ferry to hong kong, where i mistakenly entered on my australian passport. to update those who have forgotten or didn't care in the first place, i have a one year tourist visa in my australian passport that only allows me to stay in china for 30 days at a time. how inconvenient! my czech passport had nothing in it.
when i tried to get a new chinese visa at a private company on monday morning, they told me that i couldn't use my czech passport because i didn't have a hong kong entry stamp in it, and couldn't use my aussie passport unless the current (useless) visa was cancelled. (i knew i had been rolled by the consulate-general in melbourne).
i went to chinese embassy in hong kong for the cancellation. the elevator doors swung open and suddenly there i was in the biggest 'waiting place' in the world. dr seuss would have been thrashing in his grave. there were about a million people there waiting for their numbers to be called, some with the lemon-sucking expressions of people who have been waiting all their lives. i took my number - 140, and went and sat down to fill in my form. the screen was
blinking '40'. when i finished 5 minutes later, i looked up to see a big number '41'. i thought: fuck that, tore up my application form and 30 minutes later i was on a jetcat cruising to macau, where i spent the day before re-entering hong kong on my czech passport, in which i successfully got a visa the following morning.
the person i dealt with was a teeny bopper with black nail-polish and big fuck-off boots called 'miss kiko'. she disappeared with my passport in the morning, and reappeared hours later with a 6-month business visa plastered at a rude angle on one of the pages of my czech 'cestovni pas'. her company was in a tiny room on the 13th floor of a building in an obscure part of hong kong, which i only knew about because my local contacts had scanned the newspapers
for me the night before and found it. the company was called 'profit reap international'. i just love the honesty of that name - don't you?
macau was great with its fusion of portuguese and chinese architecture and slabs of pork to be eaten as the local delicacy (see picture). i even climbed onto the roof of one church and found a full skeleton lying around - bizarre and weird...they probably don't think people climb on church rooves in that part of the world...
the pollution both there and in hong kong was just horrendous. i'm told that 3 people died after the last hong kong marathon, but i'm suprised anyone actually crossed the finish line. it just hangs over everything and obscures your view, gets in your eyes, your clothes, your lungs...everywhere.
the weather, however, was perfect. really hot and humid, so that when i went out walking, it would only take a few minutes before my clothes would be plastered to my body and the sweat would just run off me. i was positively transported to a new level of happiness. at night i left the air con off and slept like a baby as the temperatures soared. maybe i'm hypothyroid. i'm sure that's a better explanation for the gut than the fried chicken and snickers i can't stop eating. (the horror...yes...the horror...).
the part of hong kong i lived in - causeway bay - was heaving. people packed onto the streets at all hours of the day and night, more so than any other place i've been in. awesome - just awesome. i have
always maintained that as long as i have a room or a place i can go to where i can shut the door and have my own little space, a city can never be too busy. my boundaries were certainly tested with hong kong, and at times i almost felt like there were too many people...(for someone who had just been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and returned home to find their house burnt to the ground and their own mother implicated as the arsonist).
on tuesday i crossed the island by bus, only 12 hours after doing the same thing in the passenger seat of a porsche with the top down and the wind in my hair.
i jumped on a plane and flew to shenzhen, then boarded a ferry to hong kong, where i mistakenly entered on my australian passport. to update those who have forgotten or didn't care in the first place, i have a one year tourist visa in my australian passport that only allows me to stay in china for 30 days at a time. how inconvenient! my czech passport had nothing in it.
when i tried to get a new chinese visa at a private company on monday morning, they told me that i couldn't use my czech passport because i didn't have a hong kong entry stamp in it, and couldn't use my aussie passport unless the current (useless) visa was cancelled. (i knew i had been rolled by the consulate-general in melbourne).
i went to chinese embassy in hong kong for the cancellation. the elevator doors swung open and suddenly there i was in the biggest 'waiting place' in the world. dr seuss would have been thrashing in his grave. there were about a million people there waiting for their numbers to be called, some with the lemon-sucking expressions of people who have been waiting all their lives. i took my number - 140, and went and sat down to fill in my form. the screen was
blinking '40'. when i finished 5 minutes later, i looked up to see a big number '41'. i thought: fuck that, tore up my application form and 30 minutes later i was on a jetcat cruising to macau, where i spent the day before re-entering hong kong on my czech passport, in which i successfully got a visa the following morning.the person i dealt with was a teeny bopper with black nail-polish and big fuck-off boots called 'miss kiko'. she disappeared with my passport in the morning, and reappeared hours later with a 6-month business visa plastered at a rude angle on one of the pages of my czech 'cestovni pas'. her company was in a tiny room on the 13th floor of a building in an obscure part of hong kong, which i only knew about because my local contacts had scanned the newspapers
for me the night before and found it. the company was called 'profit reap international'. i just love the honesty of that name - don't you?macau was great with its fusion of portuguese and chinese architecture and slabs of pork to be eaten as the local delicacy (see picture). i even climbed onto the roof of one church and found a full skeleton lying around - bizarre and weird...they probably don't think people climb on church rooves in that part of the world...
the pollution both there and in hong kong was just horrendous. i'm told that 3 people died after the last hong kong marathon, but i'm suprised anyone actually crossed the finish line. it just hangs over everything and obscures your view, gets in your eyes, your clothes, your lungs...everywhere.
the weather, however, was perfect. really hot and humid, so that when i went out walking, it would only take a few minutes before my clothes would be plastered to my body and the sweat would just run off me. i was positively transported to a new level of happiness. at night i left the air con off and slept like a baby as the temperatures soared. maybe i'm hypothyroid. i'm sure that's a better explanation for the gut than the fried chicken and snickers i can't stop eating. (the horror...yes...the horror...).
the part of hong kong i lived in - causeway bay - was heaving. people packed onto the streets at all hours of the day and night, more so than any other place i've been in. awesome - just awesome. i have
always maintained that as long as i have a room or a place i can go to where i can shut the door and have my own little space, a city can never be too busy. my boundaries were certainly tested with hong kong, and at times i almost felt like there were too many people...(for someone who had just been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and returned home to find their house burnt to the ground and their own mother implicated as the arsonist).on tuesday i crossed the island by bus, only 12 hours after doing the same thing in the passenger seat of a porsche with the top down and the wind in my hair.
.
the bus was pretty crazy, but to be fair...the porsche was better.
having said that, if adam had been around, there would have been no contest as to the preferred means of transport. none whatsoever.
i visiting some beaches on the south side of the island, including a temple with a bridge in front of it that is supposed to lengthen your life by three days every time you cross it (hopefully it gave back the three days i lost from inhaling the poisonous air). then i hiked across the island to the city in the north. one minute you're surrounded by sky-scrapers - some of the tallest buildings in asia and the world - and 15 minutes later you're in a lush mountainous national park with eagles soaring overhead. just wonderful.
i watched the nightly light show from the deck of the famous star ferry as it crossed the harbour, and the following morning headed back to china.
general comments:
1) hong kong is suprisingly un-multicultural, despite calling itself 'asia's world city', and i was suprised by how many people didn't speak english. surely they haven't forgotten the language since the handover less than a decade ago? i reckon more than half the people i talked to on the street spoke no english whatsoever...just not what i expected.
2) after having pampered my ear with mandarin for the last month, i found the sound of cantonese to be just awful.
3) even though i was having a pretty wild time, i coudn't help feeling excited about the prospect of getting back to the mainland. yes the rumours that i have a new love in my life are true! i'm head over heels for china :)
having said that, if adam had been around, there would have been no contest as to the preferred means of transport. none whatsoever.
i visiting some beaches on the south side of the island, including a temple with a bridge in front of it that is supposed to lengthen your life by three days every time you cross it (hopefully it gave back the three days i lost from inhaling the poisonous air). then i hiked across the island to the city in the north. one minute you're surrounded by sky-scrapers - some of the tallest buildings in asia and the world - and 15 minutes later you're in a lush mountainous national park with eagles soaring overhead. just wonderful.
i watched the nightly light show from the deck of the famous star ferry as it crossed the harbour, and the following morning headed back to china.
general comments:
1) hong kong is suprisingly un-multicultural, despite calling itself 'asia's world city', and i was suprised by how many people didn't speak english. surely they haven't forgotten the language since the handover less than a decade ago? i reckon more than half the people i talked to on the street spoke no english whatsoever...just not what i expected.
2) after having pampered my ear with mandarin for the last month, i found the sound of cantonese to be just awful.
3) even though i was having a pretty wild time, i coudn't help feeling excited about the prospect of getting back to the mainland. yes the rumours that i have a new love in my life are true! i'm head over heels for china :)
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