Maglev

I rode the worlds only magnetic levitation train today and went 431km/hr (267mph) on land. Wooooshhhhh

HONG KONG

Dim sum downtown

Ginormous snail on the sidewalk in HK.
Korean BBQ with some of John's friends from CUHK.
I got lucky and had a clear day, so I took the bus up to "The Peak" where you can pay to get on the roof of the tallest building and take photos. The tram to get down is extremely steep; almost a 45 degree angle, so you really have to stay in your seat!


Next I took a long cable car on Lantau to see the big Buddha and temple in the mountains. On the way the cable car past the airport where I came in. It's interesting to see the airport from above, because its entirely built on a man made island because the city has run out of flat land.

Kinda like the statue of liberty, but instead of a giant metal woman on an island, its a giant metal Buddha on a mountain. And if you turn around from where this photo is taken you'd see the gift shop... and a starbucks.

Cool details on the temple

Tomorrow I'm taking a 22hour hard sleeper train ride from HK to Shanghai, which should be an adventure.

Hong Kong

The flight from London to HK was pretty nice. Air New Zealand had decent food, free wine, and a good selection of movies including travel documentaries about various places in China. I'm staying with my good friend from RPI, John Britton here in HK. He's here for 6+ months studying Chinese at CUHK, before going back to RPI to finish up and be done with school.
This stick bug doesn't blend in so well on a metal pole.

We took a 1.5 hr ferry ride from the school to Tai Wai. After that, it was about an hour hike over the mountain to get to a great beach. It's extremely hot and humid here, and I don't think I've ever been so sweaty in my life. It was such a relief to dive into the water.


Its pretty amazing how HK goes from extremely dense urban metropolis to green nature with almost no transition. However, most of the remaining nature is too mountainous to cost effectively build there.
This spider's body is as big as one of my fingers. I made sure to let Sven, the tallest guy in the hiking group walk in front of me so I wouldn't end up with a face full of web and one of these.


The ferry back wasn't for another hour, and this woman in a boat started shouting at us in cantonese. Turns out she was running a water taxi so we got a quick ride back to civilization and took a bus the rest of the way back.

Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight and more London

Last night we had a good old fashioned American BBQ at James's apartment. This is James and Mike Sinacore, both of whom I went to elementary school with in Connecticut. Mike is living at James's apartment for the summer and working an investment banking internship at JP Morgan in London.
After dinner I schooled them both in Mario Kart 64.

Sunday morning I went with some people I met to speakers corner in Hyde Park. There were about a dozen speakers on their soap boxes; mostly religious nuts. This socialist guy was actually pretty intelligent and well spoken.

Shouting at sinners...
More speakers corner

Me at the tower bridge
This weekend I decided to get out of London and went to Portsmouth, a town on the south coast of England. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good beach weather, and they only have pebble beaches, no sand. But it was a pretty nice town with some good free museums. I also got to see Wall E which was the best Disney movie ever made in my opinion.
I fulfilled a child hood dream and rode a hovercraft. It was only slightly more expensive than the normal slow ferry boat from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight, and a fun ride (but surprisingly bumpy and rough on the water).
The Hayward Gallery in London has a really great exhibition titled "Psycho Buildings" that meshes art and architecture in some really cool installations, including the geodesic sphere on the roof.
I hung out with Mike for a day in London, and we passed the calvary gaurds on the way to the Winston Churchill museum and underground bunkers.
On Tuesday I took the train out of London to see BEDZED, which stands for Beddington Zero [fossil] Energy Development. Luckily they had a small visitors center and a model home, so I didn't have to resort to ringing doorbells and begging for a tour.


It's architecture week in London, so there are loads of random pavillions and installations like this one all over the city. There are also some special events. I went to see "Garbage Warrior" an excellent documentary on the big screen.

The Eden Project

Sunday morning we woke up early to get to the Eden Project just as it opened. This was definitely a highlight of my trip so far. It was extremely inspiring.

A decade ago this was a polluted desolate former mine. It's been transformed from a scar on the landscape to celebration of life on earth. There are 3 "biomes"; one outside, and two covered by greenhouse domes. The dome on the left is a simulated rain forest tropical environment, and the dome on the right is a Mediterranean climate.


James brought his fancy SLR.

This sculpture (made of waste) represents the amount of E-waste the average brit throws out in their lifetime.

Sculptures in the garden in one of the biomes.


Touch sensitive plants




Me
The core is the educational center which had some really well done exhibits.
And a cool rain spout off of the recycled copper roof.
Living machine; an experiment to grow plants without soil by perfectly balancing nutrients.

Interactive sculpture about the industrial age and climate change.

Road Trip to Cornwall Day 1

This weekend James and I drove about 5.5 hours west out to Cornwall. A tank of gas for his VW Golf cost $120+.
We took the train from London to James's house in Kent to pickup his car. The Allgrove's house is spotless except for this window in the garage. Its hard to see, but in the upper right hand corner I wrote my name and drew a self portrait when I was 13... and it's still there!


Charlie, the newest member of the Allgrove family. Becky is still around too, but she's got some gray hairs.


Sarah, me and James.

Ms. Allgrove, Sarah and me.

On the way to Cornwall we stopped at Stone Henge which was pretty cool.

James is happy after doing some sick hand brake turns on the sandy beach parking lot. This beach was beautiful if you looked left... huge grass topped cliffs and cool caves. But to the right was an industrial complex.

We stayed at this weird bed and breakfast which was just in some normal house in town with no sign or anything. This guy and his wife have 3 houses they operate as B&Bs. Seeing as its cash only and not taxed, they probably make pretty good money.

London

I flew British Airways from Stockholm to London, which was smooth and easy. Here in London I'm staying with an old friend of mine, James Allgrove. We went to elementary school together back in Connecticut. Shortly after I moved to PA, James moved back to the UK. Now he lives in an ideally located apartment in central London, goes to LSE for Economic History and is doing an internship this summer nearby at Merrill Lynch. I got in around dinner time, so we just ate and walked around the area the first night.


I figured a ride up the London Eye would be a great way to start my time in London. The London Eye cantilevered over the Thames River and is currently the largest ferris wheel in the world. The inventor of the ferris wheel went to RPI!

Good view of Big Ben from the top.

After lunch I went to the Tate Modern art museum which was excellent. Its housed in an old power station right at the end of the famous millennium pedestrian bridge which was shut down for 2 years to be re-engineered so it wouldn't wobble so much. The main exhibits are free, but I paid a bit more to see the current exhibitions on Cy Twombly, urban portrait photography and street art.

That night we went with some of James's friends to a club down the street from his apartment, which was pretty fun. College life in London is a lot different than in Troy NY!