🍱 Delicacy of the Day

Apashe - Lost in Mumbai (IMANU Remix)

Alright, this week we’re pulling all the heavy hitters.

This is a remix of a song we previously sent at the start of this whole “trip saga.”

And who better than Netherland Neanderthal IMANU to demonstrate what every good remix should do?

In my opinon, that is:

So by definition, this a perfect remix.

The song itself is a masterclass in sound design and melody.

It can also be addicting if you’re not careful.

IMANU is a generational artist who excels at both original songs and remixes.

If you haven’t been acquainted, you can’t skip out on this one.

Njoy.

💭 Quick Drivel

After a crazy day like yesterday, there’s no better to start the day than with a healthy dose of hotel food.

What surprises me the most is that they only had boiled egg for “breakfast” food.

Other than that? its spicy noodles for breakfast, lmao.

Lets see what the day has in stock eh?

Yeah so this is not like traditional hotels.

The building actually has dozens of hotels. Every floor has its own check-in counter; some even have 2.

The rooms are spread across the building. Your neighbor might actually be from another hotel!

How they set this up, I don’t know. It's like one of those things you come up in dystopian stories.

The elevator rabbit hole goes much deeper too.

There’s about 10 elevators per floor. Each one goes to different places, except ONE goes from floor 1 to floor 40.

…the only problem is that its always packed, lmao.

The other curious thing is that every elevator row has its own unique design.

One row is all mirrors, another has tile everywhere, and the one I used mixes both.

Another curious thing is that all elevator screens show “Fire survival ads.”

Which is not surprising for reasons you’ll see later.

Since the main tourist spots were nearby, I opted to take the train instead of more crazy taxis.

Except that when I got to the train station, I saw a security checkpoint with a full X-ray scanner.

After they scanned me, my backpack, and my water bottle, I could go into the actual train station.

That wasn’t the only thing.

There are cameras EVERYWHERE.

Even more than out in the wild.

I can only imagine what the hard drive maintenance is like.

At this point its a curious thing, but why in the world do they need so many cameras?

The trains are alright. They’re a bit bigger than the Korean and Japanese ones. The seats are like plastic chairs though, not too comfortable.

Regardless, it seems I have to stop taking trains as I got lost in the massive complexes they call “train stations”

I can’t put into words how incredible this place is, gonna attempt to let the pictures do the talking.

Every turn will send you to a completely new layer of the city.

Every floor is its own “micro world”

It genuinely feels like that infinite world from that one Marvel movie about the doctor. Not sure what he is called.

Another fun part about this spot is the “sticker book” culture (that seems a bit more like marketing strategy).

The gist was simple:

…yeah, if you’ve been following along you know what happens next.

HOWEVER, In my defense, its not a tourist trap.

Mostly because there are no tourists.

But also because most people were actively carrying the notebooks and stamping them all over the place.

Its a very nice souvenir.

Now I have an admission to make.

I came across this chocolate store. They had this “gold standard” Dubai chocolate.

Since it was extremely trendy at the moment, I tried a sample, and it was REALLY good.

The problem: It’s like $30 for a bar lmfao.

That ain’t stopping your boy though! I got ready to pay for it.

…Except that WeChat rejected the payment.

ohno.

It seems that my bank detected a horrible decision and locked my bank account. (That or it found the constant charges from China weird.)

Unfortunately, unlocking it through chat was not happening as they had to… verify my voice?

No biggie! But just for the sake of the argument…

How do you call a US number from CHINA?

For starters, the T-Mobile “roaming” plan can barely provide 154kbps of data.

Calling is like $4 per minute.

Not only that, calling a US number wasn’t going through the Great Firewall.

So how would you do it?

If your answer was

“Through the wonders of VPNs, bumming outside of a bathroom that has free wifi, using “call through wifi”, and a LOT of patience.”

You win!

The whole endeavor took like an hour hahaha, took longer to get the call to work than to reactivate the card.

After that experience, I decided against getting the Dubai chocolate.

…but not against buying a trillion souvenirs to fill the stamp book.

After satisfying my carnal tourist desires, I moved on to the next spot.

This city ain’t real man.

That mall in the building above has 10 floors.

5 overground and 5 underground.

There is so much light and life everywhere it feels like a genuine joy to explore.

The tricky thing is that entering any building will throw you for a spin.

Even if it looks like a small building, you’ll quickly come to realize there’s like 20 underground floors to explore.

There’s also a trillion stores, which isn’t surprising.

You can find anything you want and more.

I thought of getting a Chinese phone to replace the dogwater motorola device I was carrying.

…but the thought quickly died after realizing I had to go back to the US. Putting in the TMobile chip was probably going to cause the Chinese phone to implode.

Mostly from how bad T-Mobile is lmao. Huawei definitely got a cooler OS and better-looking cameras.

So after being lost for a good hour (I actually went in circles for a good 30 minutes lmao) I managed to get to the next activity.

This was a recommended spot by both the internet and locals.

It was a cool sightseeing spot, got to see a good chunk of the city.

Also got the popular picture everyone gets when they come here:

Overall a cool experience!

You already know…

This one I genuinely found by accident.

After taking the last picture you see above, I got lost again.

And by whatever twist of fate, I turn to my left to see:

318m high point!

That sounds like a place for Hz.

Well, it ain’t that simple getting there eh?

I boarded an elevator with the following floors:

“1” “3” “26” “30” “45”

Thankfully the tower provided instructions on how to get there!

…Unforuntantely, I can’t read!

Another man was also in the elevator.

He couldn’t read either.

We both mutually agreed we were lost and tried finding the entrance.

And then, after playing “guess the elevator” for another a good 10 mintues, we got to the fated spot.

It’s this cool helipad spot that gives you a full view of the city.

This is also where I approached the man I had met on the elevator earlier. We bonded over the same DJI camera. (Men friendships are this simple.)

He then let me in on a cool thing you could do at this tower:

Yeah, the picture he showed me was much better looking hahaha, but this was at like 1.5% zoom.

After that we started talking back and forth through a translator app.

He explained how Chongqing went from a mountain village to the most impressive city in the lapse of 30 years.

And yeah, it genuinely is insane to think about.

I mean just look at this SUNSET:

And then the city started coming to life.

I thought this was as good as it got.

But then my new friend said:

“Wait until 8.”

Unfortunately, I had a big issue.

“Man, I’d love to, but I’m running out of battery. My camera is already dead.”

“No problem. You came all the way here to China. Have this”

And then my man gave me his DJI battery to get these pictures.

This above is 7:59pm.

And THIS is 8:00pm.

Seeing the whole city light up was magical.

I also understand why they have “in case of fire” ads everywhere hahaha, the amount of LEDs in the buildings is no joke.

I am forever grateful to this man for letting a complete stranger borrow a battery.

After that we both said our goodbyes.

So uh… there was a slight problem.

Both my phones are dead.

I can’t pay for a portable charger since without WeChat there’s no way to actually pay for anything.

Fortuntately I had seen the hotel from the tower and knew that the hotel was the last train stop before station 9.

Problem: It’s VERY easy to get lost in this city.

I’m still not sure how I made it back. I think I followed some people to the right train station and boarded the right one to get home.

Overall, this city is INCREDIBLE.

Probably in my top 3 cities ever.

This was the Busan to my Shanghai (which was kinda underwhelming imo).

I highly recommend any first time China visitors to come here. Your mind will be blown in all the right ways.

Just make sure your phone is charged hahaha.

Hz

P.S. TRIP SCORE: (27 days)

Hours slept total: 160.

Times phone died: 9.

Times lost/taking the wrong train: 27.

Strangers met and talked to: 38.

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