Catching up

I haven't posted much recently because, well, we've been kinda busy. When I started writing this, we were on the ship going from Athens to Mykonos, so there's been a bit of a chance to pull back and catch a breath.

It's all becoming something of a blur at this point. Another airplane, or train station, or ferry, or all three -- more pretty good accented English (thank God!), which I can usually figure out once I remember which accent filter to activate, except for a few days ago, when the right filter was "Arkansas redneck". Another hotel, another search for a place for dinner and something other than CNN on the TV. But things are going well, somewhat amazingly so. We've been hit with a couple of different versions of Traveler's Tummy (not so much the tummy, but you get the idea), but that's about it. No missed flights, no lost bags, at least so far -- knock on wood.

It's all becoming something of a blur at this point.

So, what's been going on?

Hong Kong: Major frenzy. I wasn't here before the handover, so I can't have a clear sense of how it's evolved since then, and I don't really know how HK fits in with other parts of modern China. But, to me, its British heritage only comes through in the street names and liberal use of English in street signs and many (but not all) of its people. That's surely helpful to the western tourist -- we found it quite easy to get around -- but there's really no question that you're in China, and there are some different rules at play. At times it feels you're in San Francisco's Chinatown, and, at other times, you might as well be on Mars.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the energy of the place -- the rush of people, the buildings and lights along the harbor. Is this any different than someone from China might feel after being droppped into New York? Probably not. But it's certainly different, which, from the Rampaging Tourist's perspective, is good enough. Things are just recognizable enough to let you get by, and then something weird hits you upside the head and reminds where you are.

Much of what you do in HK is shop, so we had no choice to oblige. We passed on the Chanel and Bulgari shops in city center, and headed out of town on the Metro to the Golden Plaza Computer Centre, three floors of tiny independent stores crammed one after another selling gear from the common to the bizarre. In some sense, this was more fun than Akihibara. $15 webcams in the shape of cartoon characters -- stuff like that.

Later, we went to the Night Market elsewhere in the city, looking for something approximating adventure. Janet is still learning the finer points of street market bargaining, but there are signs of progress. The most noticable purchase, carried out as a professional exploration only, is that I picked up a few DVDs -- Cars, Mission Impossible 3, and DaVinci Code. US$2 each. The video transfers are okay, although the sound leaves a bit to be desired (dubbed off a telecine?), and they come complete with subtitles and soundtracks in multiple Asian languages. I dunno -- I really am opposed to piracy, but there's gotta be a solution to this problem that doesn't require us to believe that people living on an astronomically smaller level of income than Americans are going to plunk down US$25 for a DVD when a much cheaper alternative is right in front of them, probably being sold by people they already know. It's hard to expect that people bargaining HARD over 25 cents are going to care a lot about taking a buck or two out of Tom Cruise's mouth. But if I had to solve this? Mumble. Maybe site licensing, from the studios to China, and co-opt the pirates into being the distribution channel? (Update from Athens -- street vendors were selling Superman Returns last Thursday in the tourist areas we were in, just as we saw "genuine fake watches" (love the term!) being sold in Turkey.) Dunno -- sleep might help me think about this, but there's precious little of that in sight, and not much more wisdom.

So now I'm only two countries behind, as we head from Athens to Cairo via Zurich. (If you think this routing sucks (check a map), you're right.) And those are tough countries to figure out. But airplanes are meant for sleeping, reading, and writing, right?