Bishkek to Hong Kong

Since I never did a proper summary of Bishkek, here it is:

The capital of Kyrgyzstan is basically like the rest of the country: very much former soviet, central asian, and all the drivers (particularly the minibus drivers) are trying to kill you. There are some nice bazaars with very cheap fruit and vegetables (30 cents for a kilo of tomatoes). Bishkek also has a lot of parks which was nice, and there was tons of western food as well since a lot of expats apparently live there. I can see why since it's a cheap and relatively modern city compared to the rest of central Asia.

The inscription says "We were fighting for communism"

Of course Bishkek also has the standard wide open squares, with more statues in them:

My flight out was at 4am on the 9th, so the day before I had a bike shop box up my bike, then call me a taxi to the airport where I managed to score one of two plugs in the whole place to pass the time on my laptop. I flew on S7, a Russian airline, that was actually quite pleasant. The seats were much better than the two flights I flew on Aeroflot a few years ago, and they didn't even charge me any extra for the bike though that was probably just a mistake on their part.

My flight connected in Novosibirsk, where since I didn't have a Russian visa they wouldn't let me through customs. I was ferried directly from the landing zone back into the terminal, where I proceeded to wait a solid 14 hours, again scoring a plug. The Novosibirsk airport is weird because since they only have a flight every few hours many of the shops open up shortly before the flight, then close down after. It was annoying that while I had my itinerary, I didn't actually have my ticket for the flight to Hong Kong, and since I couldn't leave the terminal I couldn't check in, and I had to repeatedly ask the security people before I finally had someone from the airline come, take my passport to the check-in desk, then come back with my ticket. Also about half the passengers on the plane were drunk. I was browsing through the duty free shop at one point and one of the attendants mentioned something about how I should buy some alcohol for the long flight.

I arrived in Hong Kong around 6am where things were much more organized, except the cheap bag I had bought in Bishkek to combine my 5 bags into 1 to save on luggage fees had come apart as I suspected it would so they had lost my luggage (at least I had the bike, camera, and laptop). Luckily the bag was at least in Hong Kong and I received it a day later. However, no bag meant no multitool which meant I had to take the train and a taxi to get to the place I was staying rather than put my bike together in the terminal like I had planned. Not wanting to go without the bike for what I had assumed might be a while (since the next flight from Novosibirsk wasn't for days) I bought a multitool and put the bike together, only to find the genius in Bishkek had forgotten the topcap to the headset. Of the four times in my life I have had a bike boxed up, twice there has been a missing part so I guess I should've learned by now to do it myself, even though he only charged me $4 to do it.

I made up an itinerary and applied for and received a Chinese visa (without needing an invitation letter). After that I figured I should probably apply for a Vietnamese visa as well rather than be forced to extend my visa in Kunming, where if I wasn't granted the extension I wouldn't have time to apply for the Vietnamese visa and I would essentially be forced to fly out of the country before being deported. This has left me with a lot of time to explore Hong Kong.

Hong Kong: A city that takes itself waaaaaaay too seriously.
Warning signs everywhere.

Signs denoting fines everywhere. $1500-5000 fine for smoking in most places. $1500 fine for feeding the pigeons. $1500 fine for eating on the metro.
A sign in a public park:

"No dogs, no skateboarding, no drying clothes, please keep clean, no cycling, no  loud noises [and no FUN!]"
I've been yelled at plenty of times now for riding my bike in a park, or on a waterfront promenade.
If you look closely in this picture you can see the guy walking towards me about to yell at me for riding here, because clearly a bike is a menace to society.

Batumi, Baku, and now Hong Kong. Places where no fun is to be had in parks. Jogging in designated areas only. Biking in designated areas only. Oh well, I make up for it by jaywalking which most people here don't do. It's not as crazy as Munich where I was the only one jaywalking, but still I'd say about 90% of the people here will obey the law and wait for the little green man before bravely crossing the street.

Anyway, some pictures from Hong Kong:
High rises in the middle of the jungle/beach:

Gigantic Buddha:

Both the old and the new near Aberdeen:

Some old and impressive temples:

There are over 12000 Buddhas in this one, keeping the ever burning incense company:

Interesting skyline:

Monkeys:

Avenue of the Stars:

The biggest thing I've noticed is that the drivers are mostly polite, and you can actually go more than five seconds without hearing a car horn. In fact it's quite rare to hear someone honk. After more than five months of constant honking, this is a welcome change. I've been told the drivers in the mainland are as awful as ever though, so I'm preparing myself for a return to the onslaught in a few days. My other impression with Hong Kong is that there are just too many people. I've decided I definitely don't like big cities. Also, It's quite expensive here compared to other places I've been. It's hard to find a meal for less than $50HK. The food that I have had tastes almost exactly like Chinese food in the US, with one major difference: bones. Stir fry, sweat and sour, curry chicken. All of it has had the bones still in it, which really ruins the eating experience.

While I've been here, I've had some work done on the bike. I got a new bottom bracket, new handlebar tape, and another rear tire. My handlebars no longer look like this:

After receiving my Vietnamese visa, I took the ferry to Macau, and I will shortly cross into mainland China, where I will probably get lost beyond all hope.