HA! Today I finessed my laziness and started writing on this blog again, after struggling with too many excuses, why not to do it right now.
The most important news first:
SPERLING DOWN UNDER 3: I have reached the maximum capacity of data, I can upload for free on this blog. Logically, this is my last entry on the site. Of course, there is no reason to finish my blog activity in general – the simple solution is: Another sequel has to be launched! My journey becomes a trilogy by proudly presenting:
http://www.sperlingdownunder3.wordpress.com
The same question as last time could be prompted: Why “Down Under” if you write articles from and about China and Thailand? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to name it “Sperling Goes Asia”?
My travel started with the idea to start a new life in Australia, and so far this hasn’t changed. In fact, I am intensively pursuing my visa, which allows me to stay as a permanent resident in Oz. In the big scheme of things, my travels to New Zealand and Asian countries are just side tracks and detours, while finding a way to come back to Australia for good. As long as I post some of my upcoming posts from somewhere in kangaroo country, I can easily justify my chosen name-giving. 🙂
To avoid futile clicking on the link above, I have already uploaded a first post on my third blog, dealing with an in-depth review of the months I stayed and toured in China. Like, subscribe, share or simply enjoy the read and forget about that social media network hype. I don’t care about the numbers of blog followers and I don’t have to implement a view counter somewhere on my page. However, I was happy to see that my blog even got a view from Fiji! :-p
Hong Kong Follow Up: I ended my last post by telling you that I want to head out for some night pictures…and that’s what I did. In the past I had seen breathtaking photographs from Hong Kong at night, taken from a hill/mountain. I had dreamed of having such a view by myself and getting my own photos. Now there was the chance to realize that dream. My preparation and research where to go and how to get there, had not been profound at all. I knew that there was a cable car going up a hill, close to the subway station in the city centre. That’s all. I also read online about a bus connection to the main sightseeing spot on top of a mountain.
I strayed for more than 30 minutes downtown and asked several people, before I found a bus station with a line having stopping on the mountain. In review, I can tell you that there is a bunch of lines operating between city centre and that super-touristy summit. The cable car might be the quickest way, but certainly also the priciest. Besides regular double deckers, there are also minibuses with 16 seats commuting between peak and a lower terminus for HKD $9.50 (less than €1.00) per single ticket.
If I am talking about mountains and cable cars I should make clear, that it is not about Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, another must see in Hong Kong, but about the Victoria Peak. I had the strange misconception, that I would maybe the only person at night-time on a lonesome mountain top, walking off-track to find a sweet spot for a photograph. Once I arrived at the huge bus station on the top and saw the huge sculpturesque terminus of the cable car with hundreds of people in a long queue, waiting for a transport back to town, I knew that I was totally wrong. A shopping centre, multiple cafés, hotels, etc., this spot is everything else than remote. The peak platform has developed an extensive infrastructure to comfort and bleed tourists from all over the world. Therefore, I was surprised that it was still possible to go there for so cheap.
After 100 metres walk, very close to the cable car station, was a small stone-made, temple-like sight-seeing platform with a little pavilion and a moon gate, crowded by people with top camera gear, but also tablets and mobile phones…whatever you can use to take a picture.
(I have no photo of that platform, but to give you an idea how it looks, here are two links:
http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/hong_kong/lookout_point_victoria_peakt_hong_kong_photo_gove.jpg
http://www.asiabeautyspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Victoria-Peak-in-Hong-Kong-3.jpg
If the links are broken, simply search for images by using the key words “Hong Kong Victoria Peak”).
It was windy and cold – compared to the average temperature of 20 °C and more during daylight. After 15 minutes my hands were stiff due to coldness, but the view which absolutely matched my high expectations didn’t allow me to bother about this minor inconvenience. I took several pictures with different settings, mounting the camera on my gorilla pod for more flexibility and mobility compared to all the other photographers with their tripods (one guy generously offered me to use his tripod). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attach the gorilla pod perfectly to the railing and on the head of a stone statue. The wind made my efforts to get a steady shot even harder. In consequence, I constantly fought with motion blur in my pictures.
After a while I had enough of all the tourists, swarming around like ants, but thought that I had to max out my experience and to justify the two hours I had needed to get from my hostel to the top spot. I decided to walk a small concrete path further up the mountain. The path lead to a road, lined with luxury villas and mansions. I followed the constantly ascending road for nearly a kilometre until I couldn’t go further, because it was a dead-end. I had already entered private property and was advised by a security guard to leave. For me it was not visible when the public road had become a private road, but I was not in the mood to argue and to investigate. I was there to shoot a photo not taken by millions of other tourists before. I reckon that not many tourists walk up the road that far as I did, especially not at night-time. Finally I found what I had searched for: a spot with a beautiful view on Hong Kong ,half-framed by tree branches, where I could mount my gorilla pod on a railing for a long-exposure photo.
Maybe the photo is not as perfect and exceptional as I thought it would be at the moment when I took it, but I was and still am very happy to have a visual memory which feels more personal and unique than the average Victoria Peak night-scenery view.
I returned to my hotel at about 11:00pm, went to bed – too late as usual – and left my super-tiny, but by all means acceptable accommodation early on the next morning. The ride to the airport went smoothly and without any harassment. When I stepped off the Airport Express train with my heavy luggage, I was more than delighted. 3 metres in front of every carriage door were trolleys lined up for passengers to use. That’s what I call service! Hong Kong’s Airport looks modern, clean, albeit architecturally not as impressive as Shenzhen. Having seen a lot of airports in the last 16 months, I was really pleased with the clear signage and how well everything was layed out. As a traveller I have started to appreciate in particular big train stations and airports, which not only have friendly staff, but are designed thoroughly, so you don’t need to consult the information desk to find out where toilets are, your gate or a charging station for your electric devices.
Did you know that Hong Kong Airport has its own subway train network? To reach my gate I even had to change the train! I was a bit under time pressure, since I had not expected to spend so much time to get to my gate after passing the security control area. I am used to delayed flights, but my connection to Chiang Mai was supposed to take off EARLIER than shown on my flight itinerary. When I arrived at my designated gate and read that the flight had rescheduled to another gate about 600 metres away, my stress level rose. I was the last passenger going on board, they had been already waiting for me, but at least they hadn’t called out for me by loudspeaker. 😉
After I had sat down on my window seat and verified that all my personal belongings (1.camera – check!, 2.passport – check!, 3. wallet – check!, 4. mobile phone – check! ) were at hand, all the tension fell off me and I was ready to come back to a place I feel so comfortable with, although it lacks of huge, green parks, underperforms regarding air quality and does not satisfy my German standards in terms of architectural build quality and hygiene in general. But to be honest: Berlin is dirty in some parts, stinky and grey,too, – especially in winter. I still love the city, which was my home town for more than three decades. Ergo my final verdict: If you have to spend some time in Chiang Mai, be assured, it could be MUCH worse – so don’t complain too much, unless you love to carp about things like me! 😀
Chiang Mai: What have I done in the last 3.5 Chiang Mai weeks? I was and still am way more busy with my Australian visa – mainly organising and providing required documents – than I ever imagined. Currently I am in contact with different Australian translation companies to negotiate about the horrendous prices for NAATI-certified German to English translations. Besides that I went to an accredited hospital for another health check-up, because the one I did in Beijing a month ago is not accepted by the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Control.
Apart from the never-ending visa procedure, I am quite disciplined and restarted to do sports by jogging and stretching/work out alternatingly. I failed to keep up my discipline in the last week, but it is a good feeling to be able again to run for an hour without being too exhausted.
Another almost daily routine is learning Mandarin, basically vocabulary and a little bit of grammar. Compared to other languages it seems very difficult for me and my progress is quite slow.
All the other things I hoped to do, like learning new magic card tricks by watching tutorials on youtube, updating my unique expansion “The Dragonfly” for the abstract game HIVE, as well as frequent photo shootings at day-time and night-time, remained in the world of “What-I-will-do-if-I-have-plenty-of-spare-time”.
I am residing in the hotel Noble House again. They brazenly increased their monthly rate by 12.5%…but I will still get some indirect discount, when it comes to my electricity/water bill, so I agreed. Not much has changed in the premise: Rooms are tidy and clean, the staff is super friendly and I enjoy my spacious 30m² room (including a 6m² balcony). On the negative side, if there are annoying issues occurring – preferably a broken internet connection. The support and the time frame for fixing such a problem in particular, are unacceptable. The personnel tries to help, but often they lack in competence or it is just out of their sphere of action, so they can’t do more than excuse and request the hotel guest to show lot of patience.
The key factor for feeling so comfortable in Chiang Mai is definitely the food. I know where to buy my fruit supplies and the import goods like muesli and bread, and I know a handful of vegan/vegetarian restaurants which satisfy my needs. Besides that, affordable foot/oil/Thai/herbal compress/etc. massages, available at almost every time of the day/night are a bliss. You can choose between at least 300, probably more, massage parlours in and around Chiang Mai!
I have rented a bicycle again, but this time not a mountain bike – but a classic simple bike with gears. People ask me why I don’t rent a scooter. I never need more than 10 minutes to reach my desired destination, in spite of traffic jams. With a bicycle, I can always squeeze through somehow and I enjoy the “work out”.
It was on day 2 or 3 when I thought, somebody is calling my name. I ignored it, because I estimated the chances this to happen in Chiang Mai very low. When I stopped to talk to an old friend, a minute later someone approached me from behind, yelling: CHRISTIAAAN! It was Soraya….the women I helped to renovate her restaurant in May 2013. What a surprise! I absolutely love to see people’s face changing into a bright smile, when they see me and recognize me from an earlier visit. It happened to different restaurant staff, merchants on the Chiang Mai market, long-term guests of my hotel and the owners of the bike rental shop. It is undeniable proof that I haven’t treated these people too badly in the past. 😉 And it encourages me to continue like that.
For the remaining four days, before I travel back to China to spend another 4 weeks with my girlfriend Sakeenah, I try to be as productive as possible and to breathe the life style of Chiang Mai to the fullest, because I know, that I won’t come back soon, and that I will terribly miss that city. No reason for wailing – there is only one direction to go in time: (until time travel finally becomes available for everybody! 😀 ) FORWARD! What lies ahead looks already pretty promising. And the best thing is: if I am not happy with my upcoming future…I simply change plans and turn things upside down. BAM! Okay, in most instances, it rarely went the way I intended, but I see it as part of the challenge and it shuts out effectively any chance of boredom in my life! 🙂
Above, I have chitchatted so much in general, but I also like to share a very specific story with you, which happened to me yesterday. This accident had a huge impact on me, and I couldn’t think of anything else for hours.I posted it already on Facebook, but there is nothing wrong to republish it here:
A Chiang Mai Story about Life&Death:
I crossed the traffic light with my bicycle and entered the nearly empty Chiang Mai Gate Market. Suddenly I recognized a saurian with beautiful matte-green/blue skin texture, 2 metres in front of me. It perfectly blended in the concrete it was sitting on, while motionlessly taking a sunbath. It had a length of appx. 30cm, and a height of 10-13cm. I descended from my bike to take the camera out my bag. A young tourist couple were approaching the scene. The guy walked straight towards the reptile. I anticipated that the guy might not have spotted the creature yet. Indeed, he was not paying attention to the ground at all. The saurian, facing the other direction, remained inert. I looked at the guy, pointed in front of him and shouted: CAREFUL! …but it was too late. If the man had intended to swat that creature, he couldn’t have timed his steps better. The body of the unsuspecting fellow in stealth mode was covered by a large tourist shoe. It happened in a fraction of a second, but I noticed like in slow motion, how the animal’s body became deformed. The saurian opened its mouth cobra-like in surprise or pain, as if it wanted to swallow up prey of its own size. I started to turn around not to witness the cruelty about to happen. My inner eye envisioned already the blood splashing sideways out of the squashed critter. From the corner of my physical eye, I saw the guy freezing in his action. Then, he lifted up his food and the saurian spurted away instantly, looking for shelter behind a huge plant tub. Everybody was shocked: The guy not knowing what he had stepped on, his girlfriend watching a quicksilver creature passing by only a few centimetres in front of her feet, me observing the whole occurrence and most likely the almost flattened reptile, too.
I just hope that the little fellow’s bone structure was flexible enough to avoid a broken rip cage. I don’t know if my shouted warning had any effect on the guy’s reaction, but if it raised his awareness and caused him to stop his movement 3cm earlier than without my interference, it was definitely life-saving for that gorgeous, but too venturesome animal, resting in the middle of a market place.
Have a lovely day, everybody! I hope to keep you as my loyal readers also on my new blog http://www.sperlingdownunder3.wordpress.com . CU there!
Chris