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Asia Travel Blog, Part 1

Posted on
3 Jan 2010
by
Ricky

Beijing Trip

Hong Kong – Happy New Years to you! I figure someone woulda posted it by now. Anyways, as some of you may know, I went to Beijing on December 28 for a wedding and then went to Hong Kong on Jan 2 for the rest of my vacation (til the 17th), so, since I have no music to write about, here is some random notes from my trip to Beijing.

The Flight Over
It just so happens I left about two days after that dude tried to blow up a plane going to Detroit. Why bother even blowing up a plane in Detroit? No one even cares about that city, you can’t possibly do more damage to it. Idiot. Anyways, as a result, the security was boosted even higher.

Luck
I’m so lucky. Originally my flight was a 10 AM flight to Chicago. My parents, before they moved here to Canada, both worked in China Airlines for awhile, as a result, they know airline people. One of their friends works on United. He told them to tell me to go to the 8am flight due to possible delays, and he was working that day so all I had to do was find him.

I leave my house around 4 am to get to the airport, halfway to the airport, I realize I forgot my suit. FML. When I get there, the lineup is insane. Everyone realized they need to go early apparently. Luckily for me, I didn’t need lineup, I just walked up to my parents friend, and he hooked me up with the flight. Haha, I was probably hated by the people in line. Don’t care. I later find out that my original flight was canceled.

The security check blows. It took forever, I’m sure you read news reports about it. This is one of those times when I wish they did racial profiling. I know that sounds so wrong, but really, we all know a majority of the attacks (successful or not) have been done by certain types of people. Put them through a harder test. Obviously, in this scenario, I would be more then willing to have someone put me through tough security measures should I board a bus, for fear I decapitate someone. Just a thought. Took about 3 hours for the security. Everyone was super miserable. I think the terrorist have won.

– read the Skymall shopping catalog if you are ever on United. It’s hilarious

Notes about Beijing
– It is a lot cleaner here then it used to be, still kinda ghetto in some areas, but overall, a hella lot cleaner

– clubbing here is insane. they have no fire regulations I think, so they just let everyone in. I went on NYE so it was probably why it was so packed. They played Dizzee Rascal – Holiday!!! The Dj’s were black. Clubbing here is kinda cool because theres so many people from so many countries at the same time, and lemme tell you, repressed Asians know how to party.

– the food here is so cheap for foreigners. you could eat like gods and still it will come down to less then 20 bucks CAD a person. Peking duck twice in three days is a bit excessive though.

– I’ll never get used to pissing into a hole in the ground.

– It’s way too cold in Beijing.

– rush hour is always an interesting experience when a city has 18 million people.

– I could get used to 1 hour full body massages for around 22$ Canadian. So good.

– I love how all the domestic flights are in another airport..hides all the other mainlanders from more ghetto places from the foreigners.

That’s about it for now. I’m pretty lucky in that I escaped the snow storm and am now in sunny Hong Kong, where it is suppose to be 20 degrees today.

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