A Hanoi Friday Night

No pictures really to post tonight, only words. Tonight was pretty amazing. Friday night is take out your girlfriend night. Everywhere I looked, there were girls with latched arms around their men on scooters. I've never seen anything more pure. Smiles everywhere, lovers laughing and smiling, truly happy. Fuck fine dining and wine, all you need here is a scooter and an ice cream cone. This is love. I've never felt this optimistic about life. I love this place.

A bit more of Hong Kong and some Hanoi (minus text)

Sorry this post lacks tales of my adventures, but I think the pictures do enough justice. I just haven't had enough time to really do much of anything. Hope you enjoy the pictures!


Hong Kong:

View outside our Hotel Room

Funny store name.

Some of the numerous skyscrapers

Hanoi:

A view from the hotel

A nice sunset


Number one scooter of choice here

The most amazing intersection of Hanoi. I'll get a video tonight so you can get a better feeling of the chaos

The number one bar of Hanoi

Mao's again.

A Day of Travel

Well stupid me forgot my USB cable to transfer pictures to my computer. I'll update later tonight with pictures but for those interested, here is my post for Wednesday:


Sorry all, this post is clearly very late. Today was primarily a day of traveling. The father and co-workers had to finish up some work and I spent my morning having a cup of coffee. Pictured below is the father with the other R&D dudes.

From left to right: Trey, Gary, Father

We then proceeded to the airport by China’s super-fast train, the Maglev. During the day, this train hits 430km/h, which is about 267 miles per hour. Crazy fast.

The Maglev train station

A constant update of the train's speed

The rest of the day was spent sitting on the airplane or in lines, endless lines... Although the flight was only two hours, from the time we left our Hotel in Shanghai to when we checked into our hotel in Hong Kong, the entire journey took about 8 hours. I would guess that of those 8 hours, three were spent in lines, be it customs or waiting to get a taxi. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time we reached our destination.

The Hong Kong Airport

Tired and hungry we decided to walk around a bit to find a quick bite to eat. The big area outside our hotel looked like a fun place to explore. None of us being able to think clearly, we decided to just grab a bite back at the hotel. Hooray for a burger in Hong Kong.

Really cool street right outside our hotel.

Sorry this post wasn’t nearly as exciting as previous posts, but things should pick up again when we reach Vietnam. Until then, see ya.

Day Two in Shanghai

Miraculously, I think I may already be over the jet lag. Seems like depriving myself of sleep for the two nights leading up to my trip actually worked. We'll see how I adjust back to California time though. Anyway, today was an interesting day. The first thing that caught my attention was this:

If you can guess what this is, you win a prize! Is it a horror movie about Shanghai burning down? Some strange adult film?

On advise of my dad's coworkers, I decided today would be a good day to check out the markets. The markets that sell all of that fake crap. First though I wanted to visit Shanghai's Science and Technology Museum. This place was huge.

A view of the whole building.

A perspective shot. Use the people as a size guide.

Think the Tech Museum + the Museum of Natural history + a children's museum, and multiply by 100. This place blew me away. They had exhibits for everything from biology to robotics to a stuffed animal zoo. Today also happened to be field trip day for elementry school students. It was really awesome seeing so many young kids, happy, full of energy, smiling ear to ear. All of them were staring at me the entire time. Some would say "hello" and proceeed to giggle with their friends. Here are some pictures of the different groups of students:

Check the kid on the right.

Every group had a different jumpsuit.

My favorite part of the museum was this playground-like structure that allowed kids to practice being construction workers. These kids were busting their asses. At first I thought it was a show with trained kids. Their actions were perfectly orchestrated. Looks like China has a bright future.

This kid was amazing. He would load up his wheelbarrow and speed around looking for fellow workers that needed more bricks.

A shot of the team's finest.

Another humerous exhibit was a robotic table tennis machine. Training I suppose for the next Olympics.

With perfect form, this kid proceeded with a perfect slam.

The last stop at the museum was the zoo. Lucky for me, I was there to witness nature at its finest.

This shot is for you Luke.

After a good three hours, I was getting hungry and wanted to try my luck at the markets. Unfortunately I was not so lucky, leaving with only disturbed and depressed feelings. The vendors never let up. Every five steps was a new one asking me if I want a watch or DVDs or iPods. I was immediately turned off by the whole experience but pressed on to possibly find random gifts for people. Most of the goods sold were complete garbage. Even spending 10 bucks on a knockoff iPod seemed like a ripoff. They really never took no for an answer (We won't take nofernancers). After several failed negotiations (I wasn't really in the mood for negotiating and would usually offer them the equivalent of 10 bucks for everything to see if one would ever bite) I was tired and starving. It was more than time to leave.

I walked away from the market feeling down. It was beyond depressing. Every "no" I had to give got harder and harder. The desperation of everyone killed me. I would have rather just given some of the vendors money (the nice ones that didn't pester me too much). I feel better I guess knowing that I did not support the counterfit market.

My day ended with stopping at a fast food joint. I got a bowl of noodles with beef (I think) and vegetables. It wasn't bad. I feel much better now with a full belly and the air conditoning in our hotel room. Stay tuned for an update later tonight.

Day One in Shanghai (Update)

Well, sorry. I forgot my camera on my adventures tonight. I spent the rest of my evening in the second tallest building of Shanghai. Round One was on the 57th floor with a Chimay Red. Round Two was on the 87th (!!!) floor enjoying an extra dry martini with Bombay Sapphire Gin. Pretty delicious. I'll remember my camera tomorrow night and will include some spectacular shots of the Shanghai skyline. Until tomorrow, goodnight all.

Day One in Shanghai

Jet lag is kicking in. It's currently 12:43AM California time, only 3:43PM Shanghai time. I still have a ways to go to make it through the day, but I'm resisting the urge to nap by logging my adventure today in Shanghai.

I decided to ease my way into the inner reaches of Shanghai by venturing to Nanjing Road, one of the biggest shopping districts in China and the world. The travels began with a metro ride. Rush hour traffic had dissipated, and I had the entire train practically to myself.

A view of the metro train. Surprisingly empty

After the short 15 minute ride, I reached my destination. Not one minute after stepping foot on the street was I was bombarded with "Excuse me sir! DVDs, Watches, Shoes!" The relentless vendors did not stop bothering me for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Luckily, a brisk "no," and walking with a purpose was usually enough to thwart them.

The main section of Nanjing Road


One of the numerous department stores

Scooters are everywhere here. Locals are super-pro at driving

A bunch more of the scooters parked alongside Nanjing Road

Men cleaning the walls of this building

After walking up and down East Nanjing Road, I decided to venture to the Bund, another tourist hot-spot. The Bund is basically a financial district on the river's banks with old, classical-style buildings and a beautiful view of Shanghai's more modern skyscrapers. Here too were masses of vendors selling junk to tourists. It was entertaining watching other tourists trying to get away from the vendors. One of them was selling these wheel-like things for your shoes. The tourists kept walking, but the vendor rolled along side them refusing to accepting defeat.

The Bund


Another view of the Bund


Several of the classical-style financial buildings


These trashcans caught my eye for some reason


Chen Yi, the first mayor of Shanghai


Some men hanging out while their wives take pictures


A guy selling fruit

Once I had my fill of the Bund, I began walking back into the shopping district. On my way there, I took a side street. To my lucky suprise, I stumbled across the "ShangHai Bund Brewage Co.,Ltd.," the oldest microbrewery in Shanghai. I got myself a large dark ale.

Sadly this picture came out blurry. The camera battery decided to start dying and I rushed to snap the picture. You get the idea though.

Now with a full belly of beer, I started craving some food (salty food). I remembered walking past a huge noodle house earlier in the day and set forth to curb my hunger. The noodle house was on the top floor of a tall building that overlooked much of Nanjing road. For only 29RMB (roughly four dollars), I got myself a bowl of cold noodles with some sort of sesame/miso sauce and some Chinese 7up. Overall, a very satisfying meal.

7up

That pretty much concludes my first day in Shanghai. There is still much of the day left, so I'll update if anything exciting happens at dinner. If not, see you tomorrow for another update.