China

China

Day 1, November 3^rd 2011: Hong Kong

In just three days, we arrived in Hong Kong. Expectations from China were high, especially for me, since I was dreaming to visit the Great Wall. Me, Megan and Chelsey decided to go to the Peak Tram that day, since was sunny and nice day ahead us. Our ship was located in one of the islands, so we took a 10 minutes ferry to go to downtown of Hong Kong. Crossing to the other side of the city, it reminded me of New York and Statue of Liberty. Hong Kong is nothing else, but New York City with a little bit different culture. Very fast, we realized which bus to take and go to the Peak.

The Peak tram is a tram which goes from downtown to the highest point of Hong Kong. It was nice to see the whole city from the tram, but at the end we ended up in the highest point from which we could see the entire city; skyscrapers all around the city, lights and flash absolutely everywhere. One of the first things I noticed was that Hong Kong was more expensive than previous countries, but the prices were affordable.

On the way to China everyone was talking about communism which made me sick. The worst part was listening about communism from people that have no idea what communism actually means, but I don’t blame them, it is media that taught them to hate something, before even getting know. However, I was ready to explore the city.

On the top of the Peak, we found huge hearts made of carton where you could live a message for people that you love. Since it was Filip’s birthday, I decided to live him a big heart and short message, since my letter from Vietnam still didn’t arrive. I left couple more messages for people that I love and care. After taking some good pictures, we decided to go down and explore the market place. On the way to the market place, we met Luke who joined us.

As it usually goes, we didn’t end up in market place, but we found well known escalators in the middle of city which takes you probably couple of kilometers up. It was really cool, since there were a lot of stops, so we could jump off, explore that part of the city and take escalators again to the next stop and so on. Next destination was delicious local food, as we usually eat in the port. The food sucks on the ship; I am sick and tired of pasta and potato J

However, this day pretty short and many people went out that night, but I decided to stay in my room, since I didn’t feel very well that night. Oh, and yes, we watched the great light show from the ship. It was amazing. All the buildings have special effects which are connected to each other and all combine make incredible light show. It was definitely reminder of New York and great time with my brother. Nevertheless, it was time for bad and I was really excited to go next day to the Great Wall of China.

Day 2, November 4^th 2011: American health system

Welcome to the United States, first economy of the world, first military and the strongest soft power country. I woke up with pain in my pain that I could not stand, so I went to the clinic on the ship. My stomachache started just before Malaysia and it was the time when I visited ship clinic for the first time. It was really good, everyone was nice and smiled, which makes you feel comfortable, even though I was there because I was sick. I got 6 pills which supposed to help make the pain go away, but it did not happen, it just helped a little bit. After that, I was making excuses for the pain, such as seasickness and tiredness, which ended up with unbearable pain in Hong Kong. I visited clinic again. Honestly, I would not call that examination; it was more like hall conversation that finished with the sentence: “You will take these pills for next 60 days, every morning before breakfast. One pill is 2 dollars, so all in all is 120 dollars.” I said three times that my body is weak and that I would like to check if I have some bacteria, since I already had e-coli couple years ago and it caused me symptoms similar to this. Unfortunately, they told me they cannot check it in the clinic and that there might me couple of things going on in my body. What does it mean? I was shocked. As a doctor and medical clinic, you are there to help me. I was thinking: “That is cool, but I do not have 120 dollars and I have not been told what is wrong with me and why do I have to take these pills for such a long time? Who normal would take pills for two months without even having diagnosis?”  I said that I do not have that money and I got sad face from the clinic saying that I can try to get cheaper one in some pharmacy in Hong Kong. How can I possibly go around Hong Kong and look for pills with such a pain? I guess they were not thinking about that.

For the first time in my life I faced a bad health system of the United States. It is probably really miserable example, but there are thousands going on in the US all the time. First, I had to force myself to be in the clinic at 7:30am, since it is open all big 30 minutes a day, which can be compared with making appointments in the states. Second, I have been told to buy expensive pills for my stomach, but without actual diagnosis what is wrong with me, which can be compared with if you cannot afford it, die. Finally, I faced 24 hours train ride in China with my American friends who asked me twice how I feel, even I got temperature and I could not move from the bed. That was so opposite from the way of living I used to live. Even, friends that I do not spend 24/7 like I do one the ship with people would try everything to help not just me, but anyone in that situation. I guess it can be connected with individualism that Americans grow up with. “It is your problem, not mine.” I understand “right” to serve your own interest, but it is just something that I did not use to and I will not be probably able to understand.

However, I took the train to Beijing together with Chelsey, Woody, Luke, Kemel and Caroline. In the middle of the night, I got a temperature, but it was gone next morning. We arrived in Beijing the day after at the same time we left. Ah, I love 24h trains J

Day 3, November 5^th 2011:

We arrived in Beijing in the afternoon. It was weird because on the train station they checked us as we arrived from foreign country and not Hong Kong. Technology was impressive. Once you pass the immigration desk, they scan whole your body and check the temperature. The point is that you don’t see that, only Luke got it, but he is Lukipedia, so it doesn’t count for average person. J Once we left the train station, the huge city was right in front of us. Since nobody speak English, we were really lucky that we found a guy who took us to the “hotel”. We split in two rooms and it was definitely the most disgusting bathroom I have ever seen. Since I was sick, I stayed in the room trying to prepare myself for the day after and the Great Wall of China.

Day 4, November 6^th 2011: The Great Wall of China

We woke up at 5am and took the bus to the Great Wall. It was freezing in the morning, but I had my cool winter jacket, so I was fine. The bus was full of Chinese people and obviously the tour guide spoke only Chinese. We passed Forbidden City the City Hall which looks amazing. In less than two hours we got to the Great Wall. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I was so excited. The Great Wall was my dream and one of the things I wanted to see really badly. Since I taught it was not going to happen before I came to the ship, this feeling was even better. We arrived and the huge monument just took my breath away. It is massive and there are no words that can describe what Chinese built in the 5^th century BC. Impressive. Even though I did not feel the best, I decided to climb the Great Wall. It was not easy, but I made it. I was sitting for a while on one of the stops and looking to the wall which does not end made me thinking of my family, friends all around the world and the person I loved the most Filip. I want him to see this wonderful wall one day.

After couple of hours, we took a ride to the museum of dynasty Ming. It was cool. Next stop was lovely lunch time. We got to the place where we could buy some souvenirs and where we had a lunch. We ended up sitting with some Chinese people from our bus. I guess it was typical Chinese food, but I did not like it. Except the fish that everyone on the table was fighting for, I did not like it anything but the rise. However, we left that lovely place and took a ride to the Olympic area. Yeah. We saw the big “Aquarium” that was built for Olympics and where all water sports took a place. It was a huge and really amazing building. Stadium was next to it, huge and impressive as “Aquarium”.

We might see China as poor or developing country, but Chinese economy is growing so rapidly that in the 20 years it is questionable who is going to be world power number one. China is investing every year 300 million dollars in infrastructure, comparing to the United States and India that spend only 30 million a year. Chinese rail roads are more than developed; they are actually the 21^st century trains, roads, high ways and airports. Another fact about Chinese people is that they used to save money comparing to the Western countries that have way of living “Shop till you drop” and “If it feels good, do it”. I am sure the way of living is going to raise China really fast and decrease poverty very fast.

After exploring Beijing, we took a train to Shanghai in the night. It was extremely comfortable and fast overnight train.

Day 5, November 6^th 2011: Shanghai

We arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, tired and dirty, but ready to explore the new city. After taking a shower on the ship, me and Chelsey went to explore Shanghai. What we could see from the ship is skyscrapers and one more New York in Asia. However, Shanghai is combination of history, culture and 21^st century. We went to the main pedestrian street which was full of branded shops and at the same time small shops with cheap clothes, souvenirs and all other Chinese craps.:) Walking all the way down to the street, after more than hour we got to the beautiful park and National Museum which was actually our goal. Chelsey is the type of person that during the day likes parks and museums, but in the evening she prefers alcohol. Haha J Just kidding.

Chatting in the park, we met couple of Chinese students who believe or not spoke English. We talked with them for like an hour when we decided to go to the restaurant to have dinner. We spoke with them about Facebook and communism and I realized how the same we are. Students are students everywhere in the world. These things do not depend on region, religion, political system, race or sex. Most of us have dreams to travel, to meet new people, and to be educated. China is the country where, according to the U.N., violation is high and many rights are limited. I remember how many students were shocked when they heard that Facebook is forbidden in China and how they taught it is not normal. Also, China’s government controls information and limits some web sites, so people can hear only the side of their government. I think that everyone should have the right to watch news from different channels and see different perspectives, but at the same time, these effects of censorships are not far away from ignorance that western students have. We are uninformed and uneducated too. Many of us cannot show Libya on the world’s map, but we can say it is good that Ghadafi is dead. We judge Muslim countries for covering their women, but are our habits to show as much as possible of our body normal? Our cultures are different and if nothing else we should respect each other. Nevertheless, we exchanged email addresses and went to eat. On the way to the restaurant we met Woody, Luke and Caroline and decided to join them. All together we had delicious dinner. After that we walked and explored Shanghai a little bit more and went back to the ship. The whole city was shining and from the key next to the sea, you could see all business buildings on the other side of the coast. I wanted to go there, so I made my plans for tomorrow and really happy went to sleep.

Day 6, November 7^th 2011: China-priceless

Last day in Shanghai, me, Chelsey, Miki, a girl from Japan and Patrick, a guy from Bolivia went together to the other side of the sea. We took a ferry and ended up in business area of Shanghai. Me and Patrick decided to go up to the Pudong building, which is the symbol of Shanghai. It was so cool. We could see the whole Shanghai and the most amazing thing is that glass floor so we could see everything under our feet. It reminded me of Chicago and Sears Tower. After that, we both had lunch and Patrick was ready to go to the ship, since he had dock time. So sad. I stayed with Miki exploring Shanghai a little bit more and finally we came back to the ship around 6pm excited for Japan in two days.