Laughingnomad

After a week here, I leave Hong Kong this morning on the 1.5 hour long train ride to Guangzhou China. Hong Kong is Hong Kong. The mainland is China according to the locals here who needless to say do not consider themselves part of China even though China does.

I will be in Guangzhou two nights and then hopefully fly out on an Air China 777 to Beijing 8:00 pm on flight 1302.on the 30th. The news this morning is not good. A cold front has brought snow across much of China and apparently the Guanzhou train station is a mess with people trying to get out to visit relatives for Chinese New Year. Glad I’m taking the plane but even then weather conditions may delay my flight. The chinese parliament met yesterday in an emergency session to assess the lack of coal and electricity needed to keep the country functioning. Oh great! So if I don’t show up in Beijing 11pm, where my son son Josh and his wife Amy will pick me up at the airport, hopefully interested parties will know where to start looking!

I will miss my little neighborhood in Kowloon…Cameron Street between Nathan and Chatham. There is everything I need here….interesting winding streets to explore. A coffee shop owned by a German…noodle shops galore. 7-11’s every block.. Starbucks up on Kimberly street where the taxi driver says I can find lively nightlife. Right! McDonald’s open 24 hours and next door to them a KFC…not that I go to either place. There are sales galore in anticipation of Chinese New Year but I have no room in my backpack for one more thing until I unload onto Josh in Beijing.

I will miss my Philippino housemaid who has taken good care of me at the Star Guesthouse. Her cubicle here in the guesthouse is no bigger than the smallest closet. Her daughter back in the Philippines, a nurse, is trying to get a job in California.

I listen to Bloomberg financial channel to find that markets are down in the U.S. and Europe but up everywhere in Asia except Japn. I listen to Al Jazeera, that I consider the best English language news channel in the world, while tending to my email on my laptop. And make left-over business calls to the U.S. on Skype. Yesterday, I hear about ex-president Suharto’s death. Good riddance to a man who was never conviced of bilking his country …siphoning off billions of dollars to his family and friends….his daughter’s plea to forgive her father for all his mistakes a little too late. But many people in his country are reportedly very forgiving…and still respect this former general for miraculously pulling his country into the modern age economically. Hard to believe he will be given a state funeral. This morning I listened to a Serbian tennis champ from Australia proclaim that his father always believed in him more than he did in himself. Inspiring.

Every morning I cross the street to an all night noodle shop and have delicious chicken congee (rice pooridge) and scrambled eggs with tiny bits of meat mixed in. Yesterday I dined on dim sum which was really no different than that found at the old Fong Chong Company in Portland, OR.

This morning some crazy traveler next door, probably some damn person from the Americas in jetlag, woke me up at 3 am with his TV blaring. So I fled across the street to coffee and early breakfast. “You are here a long time,” I said to the same waiter who was here yesterday afternoon. “Yes, I work 16 hours a day,” he said. “No money!” Then I remembered an article in the English language Hong Kong Magazine that said that, in this very expensive city, the average salary for a waiter is about U.S. $780.00 a month. On the other hand a retail sales rep with just one year of experience receives U.S $1500 a month. In an upscale restaurant there is a 10% service charge but is rarely distributed among the service workers. So waiters live on tips.

The streets here are very clean. People smoke while walking on the street since smoking is not allowed indoors (except for homes) Every few yards there is a large “ashtray” fixed atop a garbage bin. There is a lot of English spoken here, left over from the British occupation, and is a comfortable place for a westerner to transition to mainland China..if you live long enough to keep from being run over by a taxi or knocked off the sidewlk by the fast-walking locals who don’t seem to have the patience to deal with gawking tourists. New York all over again.

I did it! It’s 9pm January 22 here now. Never going to take long 20 hour plane flight again! Will stop off somewhere…anywhere…Hawaii…Figi…anywhere! Fast efficient train to Kowloon and then taxi to the Star Guesthouse on Cameron Rd. 6th floor of a big building. I stayed just down the street at the Lee Garden before…same owner…friendly Charlie Chan. My room is just big enough for a single bed and TV…and small bathroom…and broadband internet access. U.S. $40 per night but it works just fine…friendly helpful staff. Access to refrigerator, microwave and hot water kettle. I will feel at home here for 8 days until I take the train to Guangzhou and then plane to Beijing where son Josh and his wife Amy will pick me up at the Beijing Airport.

Tomorrow I will find a computer store and buy hardware for Josh’s Mac computer. And apply for a China visa…double entry…30 days each. The visa is about 6 times more expensive for U.S. and UK tourists than for others. Sliding scale I guess. Similar in some post-colonial African countries.

Tonight, sushi across the street.