magic soaking my spine…
4:04 pm Thursday, 29 May, 2008
Alex dropped me a line on tipping in China which basically said don’t, it’s really not a tipping culture and it was just stupid Americans that tip. Makes sense really and fits in with everything I saw. I was going to send her back a quick mail but it turned into a rant and so I thought you could all enjoy it!
FUCKING AMERICANS!
I hate hate hate American tourists. They are the reason that you cannot walk down streets without people coming up and trying to sell you anything from bananas to rolex’s or full suits. When the fifty billionth random guy came up to me on the street declaring that he was a tailor, he looked somewhat taken aback when I replied “congratulations you are a tailor now fuck off”. That was the point I decided it was time for headphones and the ignoring of people. I astounded that people who jump in front of me as I walk down the street and offer me cards or pamphlets or try to talk to me think that I’m going to slow down and pay attention to them. Most of them realise it’s a lost cause and move out of the way quickly but a few of them get the shoulder.
I don’t normally go down the street walking into people but I do think that anyone jumping into my way is fair game.
Of course the fucking Americans stop to talk to every one of them! “I’m sure you have nice suits sir, but not today thank you” or perhaps even “ohh yes I’d love a suit sir, can we go to your shop?” What on earth makes anyone see a guy standing on the street and thrusting a business card at passerbys is going to make you a quality suit? I say again, fucking Americans.
Ignore them, keep walking. Don’t take their card, don’t look at their wares, do not collect $200, just keep going. Then perhaps in a short time it might be safe for tourists to walk the streets unmolested!
Alright rant over.
Rewinding…
So a bus from Yangshou to Guilin station and then an overnight train to Shenzen. That was all fine. It was a quiet enough train ride. I did some reading and slept more than I thought. Once we got there it was a fairly simple process to follow signs to Hong Kong and through border control. I still get a kick out of doing that. I’m not sure how Hong Kong/China really works here but as I needed my passport and I got a new stamp, I’m going to consider this a new country and thus it is number 7 on this trip. Hurrah! Train into the city centre and then taxi to the hotel.
It’s mainly good, the beds are not really beds, at least they don’t feel like it. It’s something like a plank of wood with a sheet over it but it’s somewhere to sleep I guess. Yesterday afternoon I just wandered. I picked up some books as I mentioned and importantly I got my Lonely Planet Australia so I have some reading to do before next week to help me decide on my first stop off.
But back to Hong Kong. The light show is alright, it’s worth seeing simply because it’s a great viewing spot for seeing the skyline over the water front, that’s impressive. It’s enough that I’m thinking about buying a tripod for some photos. Really really photogenic stuff. The ferry across is pretty sweet. It’s nothing special, it’s a commuter ferry, but it’s just nice to do. The central travelator thingy is odd, none of the walk is that tough and it just screams laziness though it can bring you from pub to pub I guess.
I did find an Irish pub, actually I lie. I walked past it without noticing. It’s a very small door leading to a basement and I was distracted by tailors! Anyway it was pointed out to me afterwards and I headed there today for a decent pint and a pretty good lunch. I’ve had more than one person recommend Delaneys so I’ll check that out over the next few days.
Christie, one of the girls from the trip is staying on here for another week or so too. Tomorrow we are heading for lunch somewhere around Central and then going to check out the Peak. I don’t hold out much hope for photos given the weather but I shall lug the camera kit anyway. I did manage to get my DVD burner working again, or more so I think that my Mac just didn’t like the local (shitty?) quality DVD’s I had been using. I found a proper computer shop and got a pack of TDK and of course they worked fine first time. So good to get some photos backed up.
I am reading John Connolly’s latest; The Reapers. Angel and Louis take centre stage and well it’s just not working too well. I’m about two thirds of the way through and well it’s more of your standard crime book than the darker (gothic?) crime I expect from Connolly. It’s not bad, it’s just not all that good which is a shame. I was hugely excited to find a new Alastair Reynolds House of Suns on the shelf. I had no idea he had a new book coming out. I’m looking forward to getting into that.
Also nice to grab the latest issue of Wired in the week it came out and I was amazed to see an issue of JPG there so I grabbed that too. Leading nicely onto cameras. I have never seen so many old cameras. There are dozen’s of camera shops around and they must do a roaring second hand business. I’m avoiding going into any of them but there is great window shopping to be done!
I’ve been staring at the page for a while now. I’m flicking between windows and doing some stuff and well that appears to be the lot for this evening.
00.04 Hong Kong, China Friday May 30th.
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