Preperation for China

Less than a week remains until I head to China. It's a combination of dread and excitement for me. I'm excited because I love traveling and seeing new things. And so many things in China are so cheap, especially the food. I am stuffing my face there until I die.

Unless you know, the heat and humidity kill me first.

Yeah, not the greatest time to go, in the middle of summer but it's the only time we are able to go there. Also, I love my internet and China has terrible internet. I lost all job opportunities due to this vacation and I'll miss out on a roadtrip that my friends are going on as well. But what can you do?

Well, I'm getting ready for trip.

1. Internet Access

I'm addicted to my Internet. China, hates the internet. Surprise surprise. I'm certain most of you are aware of the Great Firewall which prevents people from accessing certain sites such as Facebook, Youtube and (sometimes) Gmail. There is a way around it however, by using a Virtual Private Network or VPN you'll be able to bypass the Firewall with no problem.

Unfortunately, I lack the technical abilities to set one up for myself so I'll probably just rent one for a month for $5 again. Not bad. Let's just hope my Macbook doesn't catch on fire...

Uh oh.

2. Money

Theresa completely failed to buy herself anything with the money I gave her when she went to China. If you want something done right, do it yourself.

But not just that, we're going to be going to Hong Kong, a Shanghai tour and then to Taiwan. 3 places, 3 different types of currency. I'm really hoping I've brought enough because I'd rather not try and exchange money in Asia. I've heard enough horror stories of people losing their credit cards and what not.

I am fond of the way the coins look though.

3. Locations

In China we'll be mostly on tours. We'll be running around on our own in both Taiwan (Taipei area) as well as Hong Kong. If anyone has any ideas of what are interesting things to see mentioned it in the comments below. I haven't found anything that really appeals to me yet.

4. Clothing

My worst enemy is heat. I burn extremely fast and it doesn't take long for me to get heat rashes. Seriously, I get rashes on my body from being too hot. This is complicated by my style of clothing which is long jeans, t-shirts + dress shirts.

I'm forced now to wear shorts in an attempt to stay cooler. There's a reason why I refuse to wear shorts unless completely necessary. I'm fairly certain I have chicken legs. It's a curse, being so thin. And my dress shirts usually do a good job at making me look like a normal weight.

So graceful.

So again, anyone with memorable locations in either Taipei or Hong Kong let me know. Preferably indoors or with air conditioning.

Happy Chinese New Years!

I was going to do another post about internet censorship today but let's have a more positive post. I'll save the activism for later. For those of you who are still keen, our next big targets are ACTA and CPIP. If our internet should be censored one day there are alternatives that people are working on. The most promising one I've seen so far is something called a meshnet

More as this develops.

But yes, for those unaware, today is the first day of the Lunar Calender. I know a bunch of people, including my Father, who took the day off. I wasn't as lucky and still had classes. :(

Also it's the year of the Dragon.

So I expect to be able to spend more time with family within the next few weeks. Lots of dinners and what not. We also got some relatives flying in from the other side of the country as well so that's always nice.

But I'm certain most of you are familiar with the red pockets that are handed out at Chinese New Years. Basically, all the kids (doesn't matter that I'm over 20, I still count as a "kid") get these little red envelopes with money from parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. etc..

Money....

So I'm cutting this post short due to it being a holiday. I'll see you guys on Thursday.