If I Start Digging Now, I could be home within a day

Hello Joggers and Sprinters and TV marathoners
(DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY MOMS PERSPECTIVE ON VIETNAM IN THE POST BELOW THIS ONE!!!)

There I was stepping off the comforts of the boat into the wonderful land of Hong Kong, when I realized we aren’t at your typical harbor here in HK. I was most definitely in a mall the instant I stepped off the ship, I guess it was the equivalent of sail in shopping. The first thing I saw, McDonalds and Starbucks! In mass quantities, they were everywhere with a few KFC’s sprinkled in for effects and diversity and a pizza hut if you are a real hunter of Americanization. The second thing that became somewhat painfully obvious was that the delicious Chinese food down at your local Leean Chin or your local jade fountain wasn’t really Chinese food. It’s kinda like summing up all the McDonalds as American food and expecting all the food in the US to taste like McD’s. Not only was there lots of buildings, ships and people here in HK, there was the pollution to show for it as well. Every city in China has an incredible smog surrounding the horizon preventing anyone from looking too far into the distance. Our time here in Hong Kong passed quickly and it was time to meet our driver and head out of town to meet Michael and Christine Wu.
My friend Nicki and I began our fantastic adventure of the big red giant known as China. The first thing I asked to my local friend was, “Is China really going to be the next big superpower?” and he laughed. He explained to me that most Chinese people are really just looking for peace and it is against their nature to try start a war for any reason (say oil, money, you know like some other countries) Which I didn’t believe at first. But after walking around China it was clear that most people are very laid back and are also very into nature and the natural workings of the world.


The first town we visited was Shanghai (which is preferable to Shanglow) and we went straight to… a German restaurant! It was very tasty and considering the hordes of Chinese that was to come, I didn’t mind just having a tasty steak. After dinner we visited a local bar joint where a local band was playing on stage. They asked in Chinese if anyone wanted to play and Michael Wu volunteered me for the assignment. After singing (a very fast and out of time) when I come around by green day, I got a huge round of applause for the foreign song that nobody knew the words to. It was a really cool experience. Next we visited a dance club and the only people making asses out of themselves dancing… were from California! The next day we explored some beautiful gardens and enjoyed a nice dim sum lunch. After walking by the waterfront and the Bundt we called it a night and headed off for good ol’ Beijing following a particularly exciting argument in Chinese between my friend Michael Wu and the ticket agent lady. You haven’t lived until you watch two people argue out loud in public in a language you don’t understand.
Beijing didn’t quite have the same evil looking skyscrapers as Shanghai, but it was still a avery large city. It reminded me a lot of uptown Minneapolis, only an uptown that stretched on forever and ever. Our first order of business was to visit the temple of heavan. It was very beautiful, including my graceful fall down the steps, with all the shrines. Two highlights included the echo wall very similar to the ceiling of the house of congress where you could talk into the wall and the sound would travel all the way to the otherside of it. Another highlight was the center of the building contained an area where when you talked your voice would reverberate and echo through the entire chamber.
The food in Beijing was exceptional. I am not allowed to talk about a lot of it so as to prevent any jealousy between other parties that do business with Michael Wu, but the duck was particularly amazing. It was cool to eat in a restaurant where bush sr, Arafat, and… yanni? Had eaten. Yes yanni’s picture was up there next to all the world leaders. Every meal was delicious and was very different than what I was expecting.
The next day greeted us with a cold rain and I knew it was going to be an interesting day. We set out with one goal in mind, to scale the Great Wall. As we drove to the wall, the weather felt more and more like fall in Minnesota. It especially felt like fall because it didn’t take long until there white flakes falling from the sky. There was quite a chill to the air and the snow had accumulated to perfect snowball making height. There were lots of people walking along the wall which looks like the most twisted spine any chiropractic has ever seen. With the bricks getting slipperier by the minute, there was lots of people falling especially when the wall gets steep and it got amazingly steep in some places. It was then I whipped out Michael Wu’s cell phone and made a nice 50th birthday call to my mom. HAPPY 50th MOM! It was quite amazing to be on one of the biggest and most prestigious wonders of the world and a structure that I had built in so many cities on my old computer game Civilization.



Our next tourist stops included the Tiananmen Square and the amazing Forbidden city. The lowlight of the forbidden city was the Starbucks that was inside of it. It was more jaw dropping shockingly amazing than anything else. The history in the city was amazing as well and how perfectly square everything was and how it all lined up according to the emperor’s plan. I was amazed with China because it was setup in a style that’s made for industry but there are now random tourist things spring up all over the place. I felt fortunate to exist in a time period where I am even allowed to enter the forbidden city because that kind of access is something that wasn’t available for the first 3,000 years of time.
After all the tourist things we finally made it to the market where a couple fans of handles and steel may soon be rewarded for their odd devotions. The market is interesting because they don’t try and keep you there with words but the ladies in store will grab you by the arm and try and get you not to leave. It was also fun to see all the Olympic stuff setup and the merchandise already selling like beer on the ship, I mean… anyways.
The best part about the entire trip though had to be my interaction with Michael Wu. He was recommended by my good friend Mike and was very instrumental in creating the best time for me possible. I didn’t truly appreciate how good our time was until I got back to the ship and heard about everyone who struggled to communicate with people in China while I had no problems whatsoever in any manner. Every night seem to bring a new surprise and a new joy and I loved every minute of China. The sea’s are pretty rough right now and we will be entering a communications black out tonight at midnight till the day after we leave Kobe. Not too long now till the voyage home!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICHAEL AND CHRISTINE WU!!