Hong Kong

I went that day just because I could. It was overcast as I left my apartment around quarter to 10, but it often is, so I didn't think about taking an umbrella or even a hat. A 10-minute walk brought me to the ferry terminal, where I bought my ticket and shuffled through customs along with the crowd of mostly Chinese. Since it is difficult for the average Chinese citizen to even get a passport, I'm told, they may have been Hong Kong residents. I wish I had more courage to try to strike up conversations. I'm reading "Riding the Iron Rooster" by Paul Theroux, about his travels by train through China in the late '80s, and I realize that he had so many stories precisely because he wasn't afraid to start talking to anyone.

So I sat and marveled out the window instead for the one-hour trip. It is both faster and cheaper to take a bus to the border and the metro from there, but much easier to take the ferry, so I wanted to try it at least once. The picture doesn't capture much but it's a fast boat so you can't stand out on deck. There are a lot of hilly islands scattered all around here, something like the coast of Washington. Once we got inside Hong Kong's harbor we started to see bridges, skyscrapers and new construction going on. It surprised me that most of the island is unpopulated, and there are good walking trails all over the place.

When I got off the boat and through customs on the other side, I was glad to discover a covered walkway above the road along the harbor. Pedestrian bridges head off at intervals to different buildings-they have really planned for all the rain they get. I found the "travelator," which is a long covered escalator that climbs the hill from the harbor. In the morning it runs downhill but the rest of the day it rises to an area called "mid-levels."

My goal for the day was just to wander, so my first stop was at a little cafe for a perfectly toasted bagel with butter and Bonne Maman jam and a divine cup of coffee with my own little pitcher of hot milk. I rode the travelator from street to streeet, vaguely looking for a used books store someone had told me about, but only found a fancy-looking chain one. While in there, I heard a store clerk explaining to a customer how to get to the Victoria Peak tram, so I listened in since it was something I wanted to explore. We ended up trying to find it together, and he turned out to be a priest from France, visiting friends. So we walked in the rain and talked about the things that travelers talk about.

The tram reminded me of a cable car in San Francisco, and probably comes from about the same era. It was quite a steep angle, and I'm sure in good weather it provides stunning views. At the top, we peered out the windows into the mist and imagined what it would look like. There were lots of fancy shops and restaurants at the top, but after a fruit smoothie, it was time for me to head back to catch a 3 pm ferry.

It was a brief trip, but at least it gave me an idea of what to expect, and I look forward to going back and spending more time. I'll keep you all posted.

Yangshuo

I'm hopeless as a photographer, never thinking that my photos will capture the true magic of a moment, as these feeble attempts prove. I also feel conflicted about why I'm taking them; how many times do any of us go back and look at our photos of memorable places? I bought some postcards that do a much finer job, and besides, my Olympus told me to change the batteries even though I'd just changed them recently, so I gave up and left my camera in the room. Still, on the best day of my trip, the couple that I met and went biking with offered to take my picture from the top of Moon Hill, which we climbed, and I will post that when they send it to me.

Picture your stereotypical Chinese landscape with rice paddies, water buffalo, and wizened old men and women wearing conical straw hats and carrying twin baskets suspended from bamboo poles across their shoulders. The terrain here is "karst," limestone rock that was once at the bottom of a sea. Much of it has been eroded over time, leaving a surreal landscape of spires, pinnacles and caves that look like children's drawings of mountains. After a marvelous day of riding around country roads, I ended with an hour and a half float on a raft made of 10 bamboo poles lashed together, about 10 feet long, sitting in a chair in the middle with my bicycle lying behind me and the boatman standing at the end poling us along the shallow river. The weather was perfect, a relief from the heat of Shekou, and late in the day the sun was setting behind the conical hills. Although the area in general was quite crowded with Chinese and western tourists alike since this week is a national holiday, it was incredibly peaceful on the river.