Traveling tips:
When in China, have someone with you who speaks Chinese. Or have detailed instructions written in Chinese. One night, the hotel wrote the name and address of a Peking Opera house. The taxi driver looked at the piece of paper and scratched his head. Nevertheless we set off and 40 minutes later, I realized that he was crawling along completely lost and we had passed the same corner 3 times. Needless to say, I did not get to the opera that night. There are 2 kinds of drivers in China – those who drive like maniacs dodging and darting through the traffic and those who are timid, have not learned how to use their gears, drive at 25 kph in 5th gear and jump and at every bicycle. I did get to the opera the next night as I knew exactly where to go!
Also take your own toilet paper EVERYWHERE, hold your nose and get over being shy!
Stay in cheap hotels at the beginning when you are still starry-eyed about the adventure of it all. Upgrade to nice hotels as you start feeling a bit homesick for home comforts.
Don’t eat by yourself in a Chinese restaurant! Chinese food is made for sharing. Even if you are alone, they bring you portions large enough for 4 people. When I ordered dumplings, I received a plate with 20 of them!
And that with an enormous noodle soup and vegetable was still only $3!
Stick to local food in China. Their version of Western food never quite tastes right.
Take time out between intense sightseeing periods to digest what you’ve seen and to get psyched up for the next adventure
June 12, Hong Kong
As I was checking in for my flight from Beijing to Hong Kong, I bumped into my new cousin. Chris married Vicki Weil last year and is a China expert. He was also flying to Hong Kong so we met for an elegant breakfast at the timeless Oriental Hotel. Service was impeccable, the food was delicious and Chris who is a wonderful storyteller recounted stories of his many years living in Asia. What a treat!
The Hong Kong skyline is such a breathtaking sight. While I know hundreds of thousands of expatriates have left and the economy is supposedly suffering since the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese, I could not tell the difference. People seemed to be shopping like mad and the streets were full. The Star Ferry has not changed at all. I still remember the gangways from when I was 5 years old and I visited Hong Kong with Mom and my nanny, Ivy
June 13, Singapore
However, 24 hours in Hong Kong was enough after all my traveling and 24 hours in Singapore was more than enough. Singapore sits almost on the equator. It’s the southernmost place I’ve visited this year and is hot and sticky. I have never seen so many shopping malls in one place in my life. It’s like a copy of the United States gone out of control. And it’s not even cheap. Singapore Airlines is putting on huge promotions to get people to spend time in Singapore instead of just flying through. Shop til you drop! And what did I buy? Nothing
In an attempt to see the more interesting sights of Singapore, I went to the Muslim quarter and Chinatown. The nice thing about Singapore is that there are at least 5 different races and 8 different religions peacefully coexisting.
I also went to the Singapore equivalent of Disneyland where I met a pink dolphin
and a saw an exotic Sea Dragon.
Having been rather anxious to get back home for the past week or so, when I got to the gate, my feet starting dragging. When I started the trip, I had a fat pile of tickets about 1 inch high and a seemingly endless journey in front of me. The Star Alliance round-the-world ticket was going to whisk me to 25 different destinations not to mention all the internal flights in China. I was now down to the last ticket and it seemed so mean. I just wanted to keep going.
The best thing about Singapore is its airline. The cabin staff address you by your name and the seats are so comfortable, I actually got a good night’s sleep on the flight back to London. At 5:30 am when I arrived in London, I was well rested and bouncing around dying to tell friends I was home.
As I had been warned by my travel magazine, it’s a real let-down coming home. I was looking forward to some familiarity after constantly tackling one new place after the next, but it’s a shock when you realize that home hasn’t changed and no matter how many wonderful things you’ve seen and done, home is still the same.
When in Beijing, we met a number of photographers, 4 of whom will feature in Julia and Ludovic’s June show. Cang Xin, who photographs his tongue touching various objects from the Great Wall to coins, wood, silk etc. arrived in London a day earlier than expected. Julia and Ludo didn’t have any space for him, so he came to spend 1 night in my flat. His English is limited to a handful of words and my Chinese is non-existent. I was in a panic about what to feed him but after going through the cupboard and fridge, he created a fine Chinese noodle soup from some Linguine (he refused the Italian tomato sauce) and soy sauce! In the morning, we had a few hours before he was to be picked up. Conversation was impossible and it seemed silly to sit there and stare at each other so at 7am we went for a walk around Hyde Park. He was delighted to find some plaques on the ground and immediately lay face down with his arms outstretched and had me photograph him with his tongue sticking out touching the plaque. Honestly – what people do in the name of art!