Kellen Smetana
It’s official. You can pretty much disregard the last post because I am EXCITED now. I arrived safely Tuesday night and immediately lugged all my gear over to the hostel to meet up with Ben. Ben had two cold beers awaiting his Sherpa-looking friend – immediately up to 17 out of 10 on the scale. What an excellent start to the trip!
It’s official. You can pretty much disregard the last post because I am EXCITED now. I arrived safely Tuesday night and immediately lugged all my gear over to the hostel to meet up with Ben. Ben had two cold beers awaiting his Sherpa-looking friend – immediately up to 17 out of 10 on the scale. What an excellent start to the trip!
Ben battling the final boss in the wheelbarrow game
Hong Kong is huge: seven million people strewn throughout 200 islands (though there’s really less than ten that anyone cares about). We’ve decided to spend a few days here to get acclimated, build the bikes, and plan our initial route. It’s an amazing place with seemingly ubiquitous construction. We went to the Hong Kong Science Center yesterday, a fascinating institution like any you would find in the US. What was interesting and rather humorous about it though, was that they had a whole exhibit on workplace safety, complete with interactive video games teaching you the benefits of building structurally sound scaffolding, keeping a clean workplace, and lifting a wheelbarrow properly. Not exactly something you’d find in the US, but if they ever release it on Xbox, I’m sure it will make a killing.
Wednesday is also a big horse racing day for everyone here and we were obliged to pay a visit to the track to get ourselves in the mix. The amount of money there is unbelievable. Happy Valley Race Track has a grandstand that makes the recent Big House addition look like a high school gymnasium. It is a worldly place as well: you’ll easily see a couple grungy guys like us who had gotten in for free on coupons rubbing elbows with some of Hong Kong’s illustrious shipping tycoons. Unfortunately, I lost the only bet I made (HK$10 = $1.28).
Happy Valley Racecourse grandstands
Tiny photo, tiny room
As for the trip, we have decided to start biking on April 2, the day after April Fools when people get really serious. It looks like we may take a ferry to the other side of the Zhujiang Kou bay to start as cycling through the Hong Kong – Shenzhen – Guangzhou industrial complex will be impossible. Our hostel room is the size of most US bathrooms, so I took the bike up to the roof earlier today to unpack and build. Unscathed from the journey, I had Gromit running like new in no time. We must have been quite the sight for the heli-tours whizzing past, as Ben brought his bike up for maintenance as well and we took a few test runs around the roof.
Building bikes on the roof
In the supermarket stocking up for the trip I had an absolutely hilarious run-in with American culture dispersion. I was calculating the economics of buying six beer cans over three bottles and the man next to me appeared to be doing the same. He made his decision before me and quickly reached down to grab one of the only two 40 oz. bottles in the store. Holding the Pabst Blue Ribbon 40 oz. bottle like a prize for me to see, he smiled and said “ahhh, American style,” and then walked to the register. I died laughing. Kid Rock would be so proud.
Just returned from the Hong Kong Harbor nightly laser show; I’ll start posting some photos soon. We’ll be doing some hiking around the city tomorrow which should be photographically fruitful as well. Otherwise, the bikes are ready to go and the countdown is on again. I’ll try to post once more before departing.
Just returned from the Hong Kong Harbor nightly laser show; I’ll start posting some photos soon. We’ll be doing some hiking around the city tomorrow which should be photographically fruitful as well. Otherwise, the bikes are ready to go and the countdown is on again. I’ll try to post once more before departing.
RSS Feed