We landed in Hong kong 2 days ago, but it seems like a week. The flight went well, all 14 hours of it. I read, dozed, and took some Xanax. Repeat that about three times and that was my flight. I guess I was lucky, one instructor had a screaming child behind him the whole flight that kept kicking his chair... It can always be worse right?
We didn't spend too much time in Hong Kong, just long enough to browse the avenue of the stars (think hollywood and add Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan to the sidewalk.)
That's Bruce Lee...
Jackie is the Payton Manning of commercials here. He's on everything from shampoo to Ice cream.
From Hong Kong we took a hydrofoil type Ferry to Jiangmen China. Jiangmen is a southern chinese city of about 3 million with the prodominant industry light manufacturing. So there's not much to see in the ways of sights and even less tourists. So much so that when I went to the mall (adjacent to the hotel) people would stop and stare at me. Maybe it was just my dashing good looks :-) The Hotel here in Jiangmen is as lavash and opulent as any I have ever seen. Last years Peninsula in Beijing included. OK so there's no 50 inch plasma in the room, but its almost as big as a suite with a separate area with a sitting chair and full sized couch. The Hotel, called the Yucca, makes the best coffee I think I've ever had. I don't know how they do it, but its one cup at a time and $4 for a size not much larger than an espresso. Its one of the only things I've spent money on here so far.
We visited a small villiage called King Mui where our particular brand of Kung Fu, Choy Li Fut was invented. We visited the founders house and were greeted by dancing lions and firecrackers by the chinese students.
We went to a few Kung Fu schools and watched many different Kung Fu exhibitions with many of our guys performing. Kinda cool to know the americans can hold their own with the Chinese. If fact at every school we stop at they treat us like celebraties. They take pictures of us and shake our hands as we walk in the schools. People come out their houses or stand in the windows or balconies to watch us and we walk by. The exhibitions here are really cool and I've seen some great performances.
We visited the Jade Terrace Temple, quite a sight. I used to say if you've one (insert temple/cathedral/palace here) you've seen em all, but this one was quite breathtaking. The roof was tile, like our spanish tile but made of Jade. Neeto.
The food has been pretty good, still a little hard to get accustomed to. They feed us so much and so often and its all included in the package price. I am continuing my tradition of trying everything they put in front of me. I've stopped asking "what is it?" Nobody seems to know anyway so whats the point? Its a little trying at times and I have to admit like last night when some really fishy smelling mussels or oyesters came around and I saw three people try them and cringe... OK I admit I skipped that ONE plate. I did break down this morning and have the western buffet, eggs french toast and bacon. It was worth the $11.
I think most of us here all have the same general feeling of mild fatigue. All the heavy travel, sleep disruption and jet lag tends to wear a person down and throw off the system. On the bright side, the roomate I was supposed to have switched to another traveler and I have my own room hopefully for the full trip. We'll see but I'm on night three and loving it! All the exhibitions are over so things should calm down with the schedule. We fly into Shanghai tomorrow, I'm looking forward to that.
Now if I could just figure out what day it is...
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