I’ve been in Beijing now for a few days and I have to be honest that, due to the discovery of giant beers for less than a buck and a really fun hostel, I have probably spent more time hungover than being productive.

But I have managed to get a few things done in the five days I’ve been here. On Monday I headed up to the University district where I was planning on living and studying. I was wandering by a real estate office sipping on my iced tea when I was whisked inside and they tried to help me with the apartment search. With me speaking no Chinese and them speaking no English, we were communicating with a Google translating website. Their first question for me was ‘Are you anxious?’ I assume they were wondering how soon I wanted an apartment as opposed to enquiring about my state of the mind at the time. After a few more similarly confusing questions I made a hasty exit and was still apartmentless.

The subway here spells like kilbossa and their stairways smell like spearmint. It makes me hungry every time I travel on it. Something that doesn’t make me hungry… I saw a little kid wearing a pair of pants with a slit in the ass crack which is rumoured to be for unleashing poops on location, on demand. Fortunately I didn’t see this device in action but I’m sure I will soon enough. But back to the subway… it’s really, really busy. There are people going everywhere at all times and I have no idea how the thing survives during rush hour. It looks like there are fences and things set up to corral commuters into lines when it gets really busy. I just can’t see myself wanting to wait in a giant line for the underground when taxis here only cost a few bucks to get anywhere.

So on to taxis… if I don’t get mowed down by one of them soon I will be surprised. If I don’t get moved down by a bke, car or bus I will be more surprised. The corners of the major streets (highways?) are manned by men who direct traffic while you cross the street and even with them there it’s a really scary experience getting anywhere in this place. I just kind of close my eyes and walk off into the street hoping for the best which is probably a strategy that could use some work.

It also doesn’t help that I have no idea where I live. I have  a vague idea where I am on a map of the city but I’m not totally sure how to say it and none of the maps are accurate enough for me to be able to point. This is the most confusing place I’ve ever been but I guess I can’t be too hard on myself after only a week. I don’t think I’ve eaten dog yet by accident and I haven’t been swindled so I’m not doing too bad I suppose.

So ya… I got an apartment. This sounds really dodgy but I met an American guy in a bar the other night and he needed a housemate, I needed a house, and there you have it. Easy as that. So two days later I am sitting in a swish apartment for way less than I was expecting to pay and way way less hassle than I would have had to go through if I got my own place. Internet set up, cleaner arranged, lease under his name, and all that good stuff.

I went to a language school this afternoon and think I might be lazy again and sign up for them because I can’t figure out how to get around this damned city and that place is a 15 minute walk away. The only horrible, horrible problem is that classes start at 8:30am and go for four hours a day, Monday to Friday. That sounds like hell. I might just go for four weeks and see if I can hack it. I have my doubts though.

So all up, Beijing is a pretty cool place. Once I figure out how to leave my house and get back in one piece and learn some of the language and stop feeling like such a moron I think things will be really good here. Looking forward to it!

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Well I’ve been here for 5 days now, spent two of them in bed hungover (old habits die hard) and have still managed to accomplish a couple of things in the meantime.

I’ve bought a cell phone for 500RMB ($71) with a sim card. It is cheap and crappy looking and I’m sure I could have bargained them a bi tlower but I had an employee of the hostel helping me and I felt stupid bargaining through a translator.

I haven’t been out doing the tourist thing much but I have figured out the subway system after taking a trip out to Wudaokou, the university area. I had originally planned to live out there so wanted to scope it out a bit and see what connections into the city were like. The subway is pretty good but seems to be packed at all times and I’m starting to realise why foreigners tend to cab it everywhere.

As for the apartment hunt, this sounds dodgy, but I met some American dude in a bar the other night and got chatting to him. He needed a roomie sharpish, I needed a place to stay, we chatted some more, I went to look at it and now I’m sitting in the lounge room typing away. My room is huge, the apartment is massive, it’s nice, pretty central in the Guomao area and at 2,300RMB ($330) a month it’s a lot cheaper than what I was expecting to have to pay for my own place. Plus I can stay for six months, he’s ok with me having people stay for the Olympics, he’s been here a while and has lots of connections, speaks a bit of Chinese and is a generally laid back kind of guy. Should be good.

Today’s goal was to suss out the language school scene. There’s a place up the road from me that has a class starting next Monday for $530 for four weeks. I am pretty keen to get started somewhere but this place is four hours per day starting at an agonising 8:30am five days a week. Gadzooks. I’m not sure I want to put myself through that but it’s near to my house, the price seems ok, and if I don’t have a reason to get up in the mornings I can see myself wasting all my time here. Still thinking about it…

I’m also on the hunt for a gym to join and apperently there are quite a few in this area. It’s funny wandering around here because I have no decent maps, can’t read the street names even if there were any, and I don’t even know what to tell a taxi driver if I were to get lost and need to take a cab home. It’s pretty exciting but daunting at the same time.

I’m up for a challenge though so we’ll see how it goes!

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For me, the best thing about this whole earning a living online thing is that it really doesn’t take much time to maintain existing sites and to retain a consistent level of income. If I put in a few hours a week, it’s likely that I’ll keep earning the same amount. True, the more work I put in, the more I’m likely to earn, but to stay the same doesn’t require a lot of time.

So… I see this as a huge opportunity to attempt to accomplish a few things I’ve always been meaning to do. I’ll still put in as much work on my sites as possible, but will have lots of free time to get other things done as well.

Here are a few of my goals:

• Learn Mandarin - I’ve always wanted to learn a language that nobody would ever expect me to be able to speak and I think Mandarin is it. I’m under no illusions that in six months I’ll be anywhere close to good at it, but I want to put in a good effort. I’ve been in touch with a language school so will head out to chat with them tomorrow. It’ll be nice to get my brain cells working again.
• Take guitar lessons - I’ve always wanted to learn an instrument. I’m not sure I have a musical bone in my body but if I don’t have a crack at it, I’ll never know. I guess the main issue will be finding a willing, English speaking teacher here.
• Learn PHP - I’m constantly frustrated at not knowing how all those PHP related things work and think if I could learn a bit I’d be able to do some pretty cool things on my sites. I’m hoping I can learn a bit of PHP with some reading, online tutorials and a lot of trial and error.
• Get fit - I love going to the gym but I hate going after a long day at work and a hellish commute. Without these two things forcing me home to laziness, I’m hoping to join a gym and actually go. I want to cycle across a country at some point and am thinking Myanmar or Laos at the end of the year could both be good options. To do that without killing myself I’ll have to ge tmy arse in gear.

I think it would be a waste to have so much free time and not fill it with lessons or things that are productive. If the internet implodes one day and I find myself back in the office you can bet I’ll be kicking myself for not taking advantage of such a great opportunity.

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If you ever find yourself at the airport in Hong Kong with the intention of getting some serious work done I have a bit of advice. If you find a power point, cling to it like your life depends on it. This place is devoid of all power. So while there’s a free wifi connection floating around, it’s not much use if you’ve arrived with a dead battery.

The only one I managed to find is in Terminal 1 and it was sweet. It was behind a coffee place and next to a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream place. Oh ya! Comfy chairs, nice quiet place to work because it’s tucked away and there was a table to spread out on. Only one power point in there though so if someone else is there then you’re out of luck. I had to evacuate to use the toilet and then decided to check in and head into the rest of the airport assuming there would be other places to plug in. Nope. I should have stayed at my secret little ice cream and power point hideaway for longer.

Gotta go. Power… running… out…

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Hong Kong was pretty uneventful for me. I only really stopped off here because it’s meant to be one of the easiest and quickest places to get a Chinese visa. So I booked in for three nights into a very dodgy hostel and went to work trying to get China to let me in.

There seem to be agents all over the city offering to get a Chinese visa for you. Even my dodgy hostel was in on the act but there was no way I’d be leaving my passport with those jokers. I looked up some place on the internet and wandered over to their office only to be told that as of April 15th, visa rules had changed. Well damn. The new rules mean that it’s no longer possible to get a visa for longer than 60 days and that I needed to supply them with a return plane ticket and a hotel voucher for my first night in China. Double damn.

Fortunately I hadn’t made any travel plans yet so my new master plan was to head to an internet cafe, book a one-way ticket to Beijing, buy another one-way ticket out of the country from the cheapest place possible, and make a hostel booking online. So off I went in search of an internet cafe. Do you think I could find one? Of course not. When I did, do you think it had a printer? Hell to the no.
So I wandered back to the visa office to explain my plight. Add to this that fact that it’s now bout 11:20am and I have to have my application in by noon to get my visa back by the next day. If I wasn’t staying in the worst hostel in the world I wouldn’t have minded spending an extra day in Hong Kong but I was pretty eager to get the hell out so getting that application in my noon became my mission.

The visa guy suggested a hotel down the road that might have internet and a printer and also suggested I head to the travel agent next door to see if they could help. I tried the travel agency firstand it seemed like they were used to helping people out with the new visa requirements. They told me that for about $250 I could have a return ticket to the cheapest place in China and a booking for a cheap hotel.

With that knowledge at hand and with time ticking steadily by I headed off in search of the hotel with that elusive printer. I got in the elevator, headed to the ground floor, thought that maybe I wouldn’t have time to go to the hotel so headed back up to the fifth floor, then thought that I would so headed down to the ground floor again, then I thought that the travel agency thing was a good deal, back up to the fifth floor, then I didn’t, back down, then I thought about asking them about a return flight to Beijing since I hadn’t yet bought one, back up. So after a comical display of indecision I was back in the travel agency buying a return ticket to Beijing and booking a hotel.

I got my application in with a few minutes to spare and in the end it only ended up costing my about $100 more than I would have paid had I done things myself online. This might seem like a lot but there were other people there who had already bought train tickets and were going to stay with friends so they had to shell out an extra $250 for the cheap plane and hotel combo. Pretty annoying.

So how is Hong Kong? Meh. It’s full of shopping malls. They do have this big display for the Olympics with giant mascots participating in each of the sporting events. The ones that are meant to be wrestling look like they’re shagging. It made me laugh every time I walked by.

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I don’t usually like these link tagging type things but I’m feeling a bit lazy at the moment and in need of an easy post, so why not? Lissie over at Continuing Adventures tagged me in her post so here goes…

The rules are following:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share four things in these themes.
4. Tag four new blogs at the end by linking to them and leaving a comment on their website.

Four Jobs I’ve Had

• Fruit Picker
• Office Monkey
• Cook on a Sheep Station
• Retail Slave

Four Places I’ve Lived

• Galway, Ireland
• London, England
• Australia
• New Zealand

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

• Team America: World Police
• Spaceballs

Four TV Shows I Love

• Amazing Race
• The Apprentice
• Hell’s Kitchen

Four Places I’ve Been on Holiday

• Egypt
• Turkey
• The Philippines
• Italy

Four of My Favourite Dishes

• Thai green curry
• chicken quesedillas
• lasagne
• chocolate ice cream

Four Websites I Visit Daily

• Google Adsense Stats
• Google Analytics
• Facebook
• Yahoo Mail

Four Places I Would Rather Be Now

• China! (going tomorrow)

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging

• Working Nomad
• The Lost Globe
• Ubertramp
• The Poverty Jetset

So now you know some very random, somewhat useless things about me! I spent mos tof today in a Hong Kong coffee shop that has this wicked iced chocolate drink that I may or may not have had three of. And a piece of chocolate cake. I’ve been catching up on emails and writing hostel reviews for my Wanderstruck site but still have a load of work to do over there. I’m really excited about the prospects of having an apartment to settle into in the coming weeks… especially after spending a few nights in the shittiest hostel ever here in HK (review coming soon!)

Speak to you next time from Beijing… sweet.

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I’m not that big a fan of Starbucks. Actually, that’s not true. I like to think I don’t like Starbucks and globalisation and blah blah blah but the reality of it is that I love frappuccinos too much to ever turn my back on the big ‘Bucks. Now I love their wifi too. I’m a lost cause and I don’t even drink coffee! Oh the shame.

I felt like I was starting to look like too much of a nerd at the hostel, always sitting in the lobby, laptop perched on my lap and looking all busy and stuff. So I decided to take my nerdy escapades on the road and am now sitting in a Starbucks in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

I’ve got a comfy chair, corner location, spacious table and the holy grail of mobile workers - a power point next to me. There are yummy smells swirling around me, chilled out tunes blaring out of the speakers, other nerds all around to detract from my own nerdiness, and access to the finest of all icy beverages, the delightful but expensive mocha frappuccino.

With all these distractions I never would have expected to be able to get much done but it turns out that I’m being pretty productive. I’ve booked some hostels, written a few blog posts, eaten a banana muffin, altered a few images, drank a frappuccino, emailed my mum, read a few blogs, and have even managed to fix some tricky coding type things.

I think I’ll stick around for awhile longer. There’s something about the background noise and hustle bustle of the other customers that makes working here pretty easy. I think I’ll settle in for another couple of hours and see what else I can accomplish.

I suppose I should buy something else at some point. Damn you Starbucks, why do I love you so?

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Malaysia doesn’t feel like Asia to me. What Asia is supposed to feel like, I do not know, but Malaysia seems too modern and organised to be a part of the chaos that can be found elsewhere on the continent. I’ve only been to three places this time around and from what I’ve seen so far, Malaysia is a very good spot for mobile working.

Pros

• Wireless internet widely available - Whenever I turn on my computer, wherever I am, there always seems to be at least a couple of wireless connections floating through the air. Hostels seem clued up to the fact that people are travelling with laptops these days and many have wifi, even outside of Kuala Lumpur.
• Internet everywhere - Anywhere without wireless will still have some kind ofnet connection available. I was on an island that only had electricity on for half the day and even they had the internet.
• Mobile connection of your own is possible - I don’t know the details because my crappy Bangladeshi phone busted just as I was leaving the country, but I think it’s possible to set something similar up in Malaysia where you can get a connection through a mobile phone. As mobile coverage here is excellent, that means a connection anywhere you may go.
• Great location for travelling in Asia - Malaysia is in a great spot if you want to get a lot of Asian travel in. KL is a hub for a few airlines including budget Air Asia and travelling from here is cheap and there are lots of great places nearby.
• Friendly people - I really like Malaysians! The ones I’ve met have been very fun loving and friendly on a level that seems more genuine to me than in other places in Asia.
• Access to perks from home - You can find pretty much anything you want from home in KL. It’s a big, modern city with all the perks that come with it so if you’re afraid of missing out on Western goodies while being in Asia then Malaysia will be a good choice.
• Lots of settings to choose from - If you want to work from the beach, you can. If you’d rather an apartment in KL, no problem. Or if you prefer a jungle setting then Malaysia has that as well. The country is varied enough to having something for everyone.

Cons

• Relatively more expensive that other Asian countries - This is me stretching to find a con because Malaysia is still a cheap place to live when compared to the UK (isn’t everywhere?) but it’s not quite as cheap as the Bangladesh and Cambodia’s of the world.
• Too much like home - I feel like KL could be any city in Canada or the UK and driving between towns in peninsular Malaysia feels the same as at home. It’s obviously a very culturally diverse place but if you’re wanting a challenge or a really big change from home then you might want to look elsewhere or try to get off the beaten path.

I’ve only spent about 10 days total in Malaysia visiting KL, the Cameron Highlands and the Perhentian Islands but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far and could see myself spending some time kicking back on an island here getting some work done. It’s comfortable, connecting and well located and I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up back here in the future for longer than just a few days.

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Hiking for me has never been an enjoyable experience. It’s just a thing I feel like I need to do along the way so I don’t feel lazy. The reality of it is that hiking is a test of whether of not I can drag my unfit arse up a mountain or across a field without hyperventalating or falling down. So a approach these little walks with a bit of apprehension and thought I’d give a report on each to see if I slowly grow more fond of the outdoors.

The Hike: Cameron Highlands, parts of paths 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Distance: No idea.

Time: About 4 hours.

Weather: Beautiful the whole way.

Guide: As I approached where I thought path 4 was to start an old Indian-Malaysian guy asked me where I was heading and then convinced me that path 5 was the way to go. I was quite keen to just put my iPod on and zone out while wandering around snapping some photos but, considering I had no idea where any of these paths started, I decided to follow along. I was kind of expecting (and hoping) him to take me to the beginning of the path and then carry on on his way to wherever he was going. It turns out though that he’s a trekking guide and was going for a walk since he had no customers that day.  So I was stuck with him for the entire walk but except for a somewhat dodgy offer of a leg massage and him putting mosquito cream on a bite above my right boob, it was handy having him around. He explained a lot of the plants, pointed out some cool things and pimped me out with lots of jungle goodies. By the end of my walk I had a plant that could blow like a whistle, a bamboo walking stick, a corporal punishment whipping stick, a hat made from a fern, and a bracelet he weaved out of some sort of bamboo-like plant. The bracelet was way too small for my hand and while it eventually wiggled on, I’m not sure my hand will ever be the same again. He made another one for my right wrist but I managed to dodge that one and put it into my pocket. After the hike he kind of headed off quite abruptly. He said he could show me the way back to my hostel but I had to go to an ATM machine in the opposite direction and off he went. Strangely, a few minutes later when I was paying for stuff at the front of a shop I noticed that he was standing on the sidewalk and then he saw that I saw him and left really quickly without aknowledging that he’d seen me. Which he did. No idea what that was all about. Good guide but a little odd and and semi creepy at times.

Time Spent Lost: Because I bumped into that guy I managed not to get lost at all. If I was without him I doubt very much that I would have even found the start of any of the trails, let alone got myself around a whole bunch of them. Once you’re on them they’re reasonably well signed but finding the start of any of them seemed to involve ducking through schools, into people’s back yards and through farmland. I would still be wandering around now if I was on my own.

Moments of Hyperventalation: I pretty much made the guide guy promise me that there were no steep bits and he assured me that this walk was easy and that families do it. If grandma and the kiddies can do it then I’ll be damned if I’m not going to have a crack. For the most part the trail was easy but due to my extreme lack of fitness and general wimpyness, there were a couple of moments where I thought I was done for. But after a stop for water and a fake shoe tying stop life was good again.

Moments of Injury: I only stacked it once and it was right at the end of the hike. The lame thing is that I managed to fall on a paved path. The entire way was frought with roots, rivers, slippy rocks, soft mud soakers and steep hills but it was the damned path at the end that got me. That thing is slippery. The guide guy actually told me to walk on the dirt beside the path and I did for a minute but then switched back to the path. Then I started thinking ‘wouldn’t it be funny if I fell down because I’m totally ignoring his advice’ and immediately afterwards I bit it, falling backwards onto my hand. No harm done though, only a battered ego.

How much I hated it: Surprisingly, I didn’t hate it at all. It was a nice day, nice trail, nice (if a bit creepy) guide. Maybe hiking isn’t so bad after all.

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