Blog 8

After Realizing that my attempts to post pictures throughout my blog have all been failures, I am now aware that these works may, at times, seem incomplete. I will have to be more descriptive in my explanations. Sorry for the technical difficulties

The country of China! Where to begin!

I woke up on the day that we ported in Shanghai at 5AM again, I keep doing this and we usually won't get in until way later anyway. So it's usually just me standing on the front deck staring into the black water in the freezing cold and wind. For Shanghai, however, that was not the case. The city is up a very large river that the ship sailed through in order to get to where we would dock. It was unbelievable to cruise through the industrial areas and more and more lights spring up and the city gets closer and closer. We started to go under bridges, pass by other boats and see the formation of the skyline until we arrived at where we would dock, which just so happened to be right next to the Oriental Pearl Tower (the big needle). it was a great view from the ship. After being on the ship for the majority of the morning, immigration finally cleared us to get off. The first thing I did was head to a commercial district which was in full celebration effect for the Chinese New Year, which was going on at the time. The time that we were there, we were told most of the city and it's inhabitants were in the suburbs with their families for the holiday, but judging by the crowds, I strongly wanted to argue otherwise. The city of Shanghai, however, has 18 million people! I had not known crowds until I got there. It was a dog eat dog world out there. It was all business, and bustle, and come-look-at-my-shop, and special-price-for-you, and people open fire peeing all over the place, and octopus on sticks, and… just a free-for-all.

That day I was hanging out with my buddy Griffin, and we were on the hunt for a camera. Not just any camera either, I've been known to snap a few pics and my Dad encouraged me to get a nice one. I was looking for a Nikon, and a Nikon is what I got. With my buddy looking up the best buy prices on his phone, I was able to haggle down the price for a Nikon D5000 with a 18;55 VR lens and 4 GB memory card for a decent price. Now after that, it was getting to be night time and we were getting hungry. So, as we were in a foreign country and very cultural individuals, we settle on Pizza Hut to eat dinner; aka my employer. I know… Griffin's idea. However my Chinese Pizza Hut experience was a cultural experience on its own. It was more like a California Pizza Kitchen than a Pizza Hut. I looked over at a lady who was enjoying some hot wings, and she was eating it with a fork. As my Dad would say, it's not a pop sickle (BOBsickle). We ordered a beer each and they brought them to us at room temperature, and customers do not get water with their meals in China either. We began the journey back to the ship and then got ready for a night out. We ended up at a bar where the SASers seemed to be congregating and found that the bars were mostly comprised of foreigners. I think white people are the world's drinkers, I will have to explore that theory further, but it's interesting because I met so many people from other countries at bars (not to say that I went to a lot of bars) and not very many locals or even Asian looking people. Or maybe we were just hitting the foreigner spots. Another thing is that China was so dirt cheap with everything; food, snacks, clothes. But drinks were pretty expensive, about 6 or 7 USD. Anyway, we had a found a cool bar at the top of the Hyatt hotel called Cloud 9. It was rumored that it is the highest bar in the world. I didn't care because the only thing higher than that was the cost my drink at that place. Given, it WAS a cool view… I get it… Over it. We found another spot which was on the 7^th story somewhere else, chilled out, did some dancing, and it was a great night.

The next day, I set out solo in search of some new cultural stuff for my new camera to capture. I went back the same way that I went yesterday, skyped my Mom from a coffee house, and then heard about a place which was rich with more traditional culture, food, architecture, and cheap shopping. After wandering around for a while snapping away, I found a little nook in the street where it looked like there was a market with food and produce sales going on. I followed this small alley, (which I could literally stick out my hands and touch each wall) where people yelled and me and pointed to there food items or whatever they were selling until I got to an opening. The opening was just another small street that was bustling with people. This place, though, was amazingly packed with people and very cool. It smelled kinda funny; like dirty clothes, wet dog, filthy street, and fried food and noodles. There were vendors everywhere making their food. There was everything… from squid to udon noodles to duckhead with the eyes still in it. I wanted to eat the duck head just to say I did, but I felt like I just needed that little push to do it. You know like if someone would have dared me, then it would have been on. There were these weird bread type things that came up to about my waist on the table they were sitting on and I was taking pictures when I witnessed a little kid come up to the vendors table and just chomp on one of them. He got smacked the hell out of, by his Dad and I laughed and smiled at the Dad. Further down, was more shopping, I got a cool coat for super cheap, but am now realizing now that it may be too small in the arms for me. Anybody need a coat?

After eating some noodles and dirt cheap peanuts that I bought, I filled up my memory on the camera, and started to walk back to the ship. On my way, 3 random Asian kids, who looked about my age, approached me and wanted a picture. Not me to take a picture of them, they wanted a picture of me and them. This was not the first time this had happen or would happen, funny huh? Also, this was when I realized the rule about public urination. That day I saw at least 3 little kid's dicks, just open fire wherever they please. When I was walking to the market, I saw an old man in an ally taking a wiz, and then I saw a younger guy in a weird crouched position doing the same. I just assumed the old guy was a drunk and the other one was being a punk, but after these little kids just started whipping it out and let her rip, I realized that I must have not been fully briefed on the situation. I never joined in the fun, but looking back on it, I will definitely take advantage of that convenient way of life if I ever return. I got back to the ship in time to eat and then met up with Betsy,(the girl form Boulder) McKenna (her roommate from Hawaii with giant boobs), and a kid named Oliver… and I don't know where he's from but he's pretty cool. He's the kinda' guy that's always cookin'. You know, you never really know what he's up to, but he's always got a plan, and he's always got the coolest shit and the funnest thing to do; but you should probably think twice before you co-sign with him.

So as a collective group, we decide we're gonna go to this spot that's at the top of the other Hyatt hotel which was not as high as Cloud 9, but here's the kicker; there was a hot tub at the top! So we go to this hot tub bar to kick it and relax. By now, there's a crew of SASers up there and we're all hangin' and having a good time. Around midnight, we see fireworks start to go off. They start in random places throughout the city and just continue to light up and crack and pow throughout. This was an absolutely breathtaking experience. Apparently, this was the night when the Chinese just go ape-shit with their fireworks for the new year. We noticed that all the city lights and skyscrapers are no longer lit up and couldn't figure out why until this started happening. Literally, as far as the eye could see in any direction, it was just sparks, shapes, colors, and beautiful light going non-stop. So we're in a hot tub at the top of a hotel, and around us there is a beautiful cityscape of Chinas biggest city and everywhere we look there are balls of colored sparks. It was absolutely unbelievable.

The next day was the last day in Shanghai, I was lucky enough to get my plans changed so that I could stay on the ship and sail from Shanghai to Hong Kong to save money. I spent the day looking for a specific kind of purse for my Mom at a good price, so Ma, I hope you like it. I got back on the ship at 8 and we departed. That's about all I can write right now because it is 1:30 in the morning and I'm getting tired.

The next entry will be a little about the ship experience and all about Honk Kong!