Category Archives: Epic Journey 2

Last Vegas of East (Part 2)

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A couple of words is ought to be said about casinos. I went to a few (Sands, CIty of Dreams and Venetian), did not spend any money and even grabbed a free water bottle, which I later smuggled into the Cirque Du Soleil show (that’s what I call being cheap!). Sands at 11AM Wednesday morning was an interesting sight – quite crowded with many people looking like they spent a night there. Wednesday. 11AM. Inconceivable. Next on the programme was City Of Dreams, a huge building consisting of a casino, several luxurious hotels, a concert hall and numerous shops. Very chic, very modern and very posh. House Of The Dancing Water is the show they currently have there. I did not go to that one, but the trailer looks promising.
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But the most interesting of all was Venetian. It is one gargantuan entertainment complex designed to meet your every need, if you can afford it of course. Here again you can find a hotel, an insanely long boulevard full of designer shops and top-end restaurants, Renaissance type ceiling paintings, an indoor river (with gondolas naturally) and even an artificial sky, which actually looked passable. The scale of Venetian is simply massive, you could spend days indoors without venturing outside. I could not decide whether all this luxury was awesome or way over the top. Probably a little bit of both. Now if they only made this thing more nature-like (the artificial sky and river are the first steps) and self-sustainable, we would have the first biosphere.

Anyways, Cirque Du Soleil Zaia was the reason why I went to Venetian in the first place. I found out about the show completely by accident from a German room-mate and was fortunate enough to buy one of the last tickets for the same day’s show. A bit steep price for a budget traveller in Asia, but you cannot measure a unique experience like this with money. The show was simply mind-blowing and was totally worth the price. Dancing Chinese lions, a cosmonaut, flying bicycles fueled by sparks, a floating polar bear, an Arctic yogi, romantic love – Zaia had it all. Much better than Saltimbanco which I saw last year. I whole-heartedly recommend it, if you ever get a chance to see it. Coincidentally the show marked two months of my travelling. Nice one.

Las Vegas of East (Part 1)

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Macau is an odd beast. Only a walk away from the mainland China, it feels like a China Town somewhere in the heart of Europe. Portuguese architecture, catholic churches and bilingual signs are enough to make you forget that China is not that far away. There are plenty of heritage sites, beautiful architecture, peaceful gardens and labyrinth-like streets that make Macau a very nice place for just walking around. Old architecture is starkly contrasted with casino-entertainment complex and impressive skyways and bridges. This small patch of land is full of casinos, designer shops, luxurious hotels and everything else that is designed to make you part with your money in a more or less pleasant way. As for infrastructure, there are three impressive wavy bridges connecting Manau peninsula with the Tapai island. The longest one is over 5km long. A bit surprising to see something like this in a small place such as Macau, but this is China.

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Despite the fact that Macau is the densest populated area in the world, there is a sizable park on Tapai island. This is partly due to hilly terrain, but I saw signs of development there as well. Hopefully they will keep that area as it is. Unlike Chinese parks, this park is actually a forest with a few maze-like jogging paths. I spent hours in it trying to find a way out, reaching the point when I just wanted to get out of there. Macau itself is not any better from the orientation point of view. Forget Chinese grid cities, Macau is medieval Europe at its best with its narrow abruptly ending streets going in all directions with no clear plan or logic. I still have no idea about Macau’s downtown geography, it is all one big maze to me.

All in all, a surprisingly lovely city and it makes a nice place to visit even if you are not into gambling. Plus t is apparently considerably cheaper to fly to/from Macau than Hong Kong due to lower airport taxes. Unfortunately I found out this only after booking a flight ticket from Hong Kong, but I will save this information until the next time

Yangshuo

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Lonely Planet China 10th Edition describes Yangshuo as backpacker’s paradise. In reality it is a typical tourist resort with tons of bars, hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and no stores that would sell real food. Quite terrible in fact, unless you rent a bicycle and get out of the this tourist nightmare to the countryside with its lovely nature, idyllic village and mandarin fields. And not to forget its scenic karst hills, which make Yangshuo a truly unique place. In fact parts of Avatar were shot here, so you might get the picture what it is like. No Na’vi were spotted in the wild, though. These hills are also perfect for climbing and apparently Yangshuo is one of the most known rock climbing areas in the world. Made me almost regret that I have no experience in leading and I was too cheap to hire a guide. Interestingly enough many hills look quite climbable with no equipment from a distance. But once you attempt to climb, you realize that tight and hostile (= spikes everywhere) vegetation make it impossible. Once again Chinese in their attempt to control the nature equipped several hills with stairs, so you can ascent to at least some hills. TV tower hill near Yangshuo was particularly impressive. High enough to provide a panoramic view over Yangshuo, no entrance fee, old and battered steps and virtually unknown to tourists. It was very hard to find, but a note written in Chinese did wonders.

Water Cave was surprisingly good too. It is a very large cave featuring an underground river, mud bath and hot springs. Not that many tourists too and at some point we were left completely alone and even managed to switch off the lights for the whole cave section. Rather darkroomish. Bamboo PVC boat ride was alright. Lovely views, but the constant boat engine sound was rather unnecessary. A cheap inflatable rubber boat and a bit warmer weather would fit much better.

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On a slightly different note, I met some cool people too, which resulted in prolonging my stay in Yangshuo until my Chinese visa expired. Swedes once again (Max and Robin), very nice Frenchmen (Toma and Fred), a Canadian guy (Chris), who was technically on a work trip to Guangzhuo and a Dutch (Paul). Unfortunately I had a hard deadline in form of the Chinese visa and we had to part our ways. Then again this is the way it goes, when you travel in this mode. C’est la vie.

Top 3 things I brought with me

  1. Business cards. Make you feel all professional and sophisticated, when you hand out one. Moreover it is much more handy than writing down your contact info on a random strip of paper.
  2. Kuksa (aka kåsa, aka guksi, aka magic cup). Not only it makes any drink taste great, it also draws attention everywhere I go. Mongolians were particularly fascinated by kuksa.
  3. Nexus One. Not much use as a phone when abroad, but music player, wi-fi, Lonely Planet in PDF, Angry Birds, offline maps (yet to figure that out, though) and myriads of other things make it a perfect travel companion. Only if battery lasted a little bit longer.

Other notable things:

Buff. Doubles as a hat, a respirator, a scarf and an eye-cover.
Silk linen bag. Keeps you warm when cold, keeps you cool when hot, takes little space and does not weight pretty much at all. Plus it allows you to sleep in filthy hostels and guesthouses without worrying about bed sheets.
A piece of rope. Makes wonders for drying your laundry.

Russia: tales of corruption, trash and those little differences (Part 2)

Living

Russian villages are tightly built. There is very little empty space between houses, but paradoxically enough private property is fenced off from the neighbors. This style of living would make sense somewhere in Tokyo, where each centimeter is at premium, but not in Siberia. There are vast empty areas here and you can actually get land for free from government (as well as an interest-free house loan intended for building a house), but for some mysterious reason people build their houses right next to each other. Is it fear of being alone and xenophobia at the same time? Does not compute.

Little differences

Vincent: Yeah baby, you’d dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it’s just – it’s just there it’s a little different.

from “Pulp Fiction”

It is indeed fun to spot these things when traveling. Some examples 1) State of light switches is reversed in Russia. The off-state in Europe is on in Russia and vice versa. Same applies in China. 2) Direction for hot-cold water in an one-handle tap is opposite. Right for hot water and left for cold water. In some places it is opposite, more familiar right-hot and left-water, but the reverse is much more common. What is actually confusing is that in some places marking and the actual flow is switched.  In China it is even more confusing, as it seems there is no one standard, so it is random guessing every time you use a tap in a new place. There are usually no markings either and crappy boilers make things even more confusing.

I could not think of any logical reason why either way in both cases is better than the other one, so let’s fill these under “little differences” department.