Saturday, Sept 26th, Hong Kong

Hello from Hong Kong and for the first time, I can post this myself since they don’t have the same internet blocking as the rest of China. Thanks to my brother Mike for doing all the postings thus far!

This is my last day in China and it’s been a wonderful 22 days! First, thanks to Milly (Ming) our Chinese tour leader on our GAP trip. Milly was just terrific, very organized, yet relaxed and lots of knowledge and fun. She took us to the local places to eat which maybe we wouldn’t have tried on our own and we got much better and cheaper food options, We’re glad we’re the first group she went ballooning with!
And cheers to all my GAP travel mates! I feel very lucky to travel with such a great bunch of folks from around the world. Everyone got along very well and we shared so many laughs and good times. Georgi, remember to triple check this time! Where is Ricky again? – how many 10 yuans does he owe for being late!

Yesterday felt very un-China like as Paul decided to go to Hong Kong Disney on his quest to visit all the parks (along with all the wonders of the world, like me!) Mans and I decided to join him. The park is like mini-Disneyland, a much smaller scale, but many of the same attractions. It had a huge Halloween theme right now and scary houses and alien invasions to visit. The highlights were Mans grabbing MY arm in the scary elevator ride. And when the brave men made ME go first to get jumped on by all the scaries, I could see a figure lurking in the darkness and yelled, “ah, he’s going to jump at me! I have to kung fu him!” Then proceeded to attempt my best kung fu fighting moves. Jill would have been laughing to death at my sad, non-Krav bumbling. But it was hilarious!

Mans kept his serious Mans pose during Space Mountain so Paul and I decided to imitate him for the photo on the ride he skipped! But most all of the food at Hong Kong Disney is still Chinese style, so that was one of the only signs we’re weren’t back in the states.

I thought I’d finish my China part of the blog with a couple of observations about the country and traveling here.

It was MUCH easier to get around with a local guide. There is little English and most signs are only in Chinese characters. I think that’s why so many savvy and experienced travelers came together for the GAP trip, and we all benefited from it.

We rarely saw tourists in the places we ate. Like the stares we drew at the noodle place where each dinner cost about 50 cents and we learned the brown eggs had been hard boiled in tea and soy sauce – yum!

But really we never saw soy sauce on tables and no fortune cookies at all!

The local people love to push and cut in line! It’s like a large family where you have to be aggressive to get anything or it will all be gone. I had little old ladies shoving me with surprising strength to get onto trains first! That part was hard to get used to as Westerners and I won’t miss it.

I was surprised how huge and hazy and pollution filled all the cities were. Even the ones we thought were going to be more small and rural had 6 million people or so. To house everyone, there is an epidemic of huge ugly concrete skyscrapers that can really overshadow the beautiful historic temples.

I was definitely impressed with how industrious everyone is! Everyone works! Even if means having 12 people doing a job that one person could do, like planting flowers, it does give people employment and purpose. And I rarely saw people kicking back or taking breaks. Most all were busy and productive and definitely speaks to this country’s determination to advance on the global economy at every scale.

And nobody is going to lounge around and sleep late in these hard beds! Every hotel was known for extremely firm mattresses that were a bit of an adjustment! When the Chinese go abroad the must sleep horribly in our soft mushy beds!

And lastly, one thing we saw consistently was little kids with an open slit down their trousers! Heck with diapers, these kids were ready at a moment’s notice letting it all hang out! Though knowing babies, I was concerned for their mothers’ clothing during any accidents. However, everyone seemed to have it well down!

Overall, China was fascinating and I’ve truly enjoyed my experiences here. I’ll look forward to cooking veggies with chiles and garlic – yum.

I’ve really liked the Kindle and finished two novels about China while here. The netbook has also been great, as has my trivia game on my iTouch. The camera Eric gave me has been TERRIFIC and everyone has wanted copies of pics. I also have a number of amusing videos. My packs and gear have worked quite well, though I remember my year long trip with just one pack on my back and one little one in front. With all the souvenirs and stairs, I’ve been lugging around more than usual!

Early tomorrow I had for Borneo though I just heard from Kat that there was an issue with her flight and she will have to arrive a day later! Such a bummer that she’ll miss part of the jungle safari time! Hopefully we’ll both get to hold an orangutan like I did a panda! And REALLY looking forward to a break from the heat and humidity with the diving trip.

I likely won’t be able to write until I hit Cambodia in just over a week. It will be wonderful to stay in one place for a while and get to the actual volunteer part of my journey! Hopefully I’ll also be closely following the Sox on their way to their next world series win!

Hope the fall is nice in New England! Miss everyone…
Val

Thursday, Sept 24th, Yangshuo

Well, finally a bit of free time! Spent the last two nights in Yangshuo and it’s been such a great change of pace from the massive hazy cities. This is the first time we’ve seen blue sky in three weeks! Yangshuo is a travelers haven, similar to places like Katmandu or Cuzco, Peru. It’s easy to get around and plenty of western food for a change of pace. Though since our leader Milly has been introducing us to all kinds of local places, the touristy element feels a bit much. At 300,000 people, this is considered tiny. And compared to the other places we’ve been, it definitely is!

I’ve taken WAY too many pictures in the last few days so there may be more pictures than writing on this one! Since I last wrote, we had a really long brutal travel day. I started the voyage off right with a local egg pancake from a street vendor. Then 4 ½ hours by bus to get to the overnight train (15 hours this time!) But the time went pretty quickly with an intense six hour game of 10 Phases (a game our German tourmates taught us.) Maxi, Daniel, Paul, Christine, Emil, Sarah and I were in a fierce competition with barely time for a noodle soup break! Maxi pulled it out in the end! We’ve also learned Mahjong from Milly and played trivia a LOT, so I’m getting my game fix with all my GAP buddies!

The overnight train was a rough one, then we had more than 2 hours by public bus to Yangshuo. Felt like paradise by the time we arrived!

Since then, we went bamboo rafting (thanks to Peter, our Canadian counterpart for the brilliant idea of bringing bottles of local beerfor the ride!) Nicely done, eh! Plus he’s also a Bruins fan, so Boston sports are everywhere!

Following rafting, we saw the local illumination show by the person who did the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

But yesterday was really the packed one. We started at 5:20 with a spectacular sunrise balloon trip over the massive limestone structures all around Yangshuo. Guilan and Yangshuo claim the best scenery in the world and while I haven’t been everywhere (yet!) I’d say they have a fair shot! Paul, Ulla, Georgi, Mans and I got cozy in our basket though Paul and I were of course the ones leaning way out over for the best pics! AWESOME!

Following the balloon ride, we headed out for a countryside bike ride. Apparently we were much faster than other groups, but it was great. I did a good hike to moon palace rock with six of us girls and only one guy. The rest relaxed at the restaurant. Of course, I wouldn’t stop until we reached the peak. We six touch ladies earned our lunch that day.

Next was a calligraphy lesson where I learned to write my name in Chinese. And at night, we went cormorant fishing. Though that was probably our least favoriate as we were packed into a hot boat with a bunch of other tourists watching the birds dive ahead of the fisherman’s raft to catch fish. They tie off the necks so they can’t swallow until their master feeds them. Not really like the Amazing Race bird fishing I was hoping for.

After doing all the activities yesterday, I decided to pass on Tai Chi and the cooking class today and take it easy. We have our final overnight train tonight (yeah!) and arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow early afternoon. Hard to believe China is almost over! They have been a very busy and fun three weeks.

I’ll try to do one more post from Hong Kong before I join Kathy in Borneo for our jungle and diving time.

Cheers everyone!

Val

Sunday, Sept 20th, Yichang

Writing this, I realize tonight is the U2 concert in Boston that I was supposed to go to. Guess I can’t complain to be over here instead. But I hope all the Killington folks have a blast tonight.

We’ve had a great week since I last wrote. The highlight for me was definitely the pandas! We visited the Panda research and breeding center in Chengdu last Thursday and it was truly amazing. Of course, since there are only about 1000 pandas in the whole world, even getting to see one is special. But there are 60 of them at the center and we got to watch them playing, chomping on bamboo and generally living their relaxing panda life. But the best part was getting to hold one! It was definitely expensive, but makes a nice donation and when will I ever have such an opportunity again! So I had a one year old female on my lap (at one year old, she already weighed about 40 pounds!) She was very content to just enjoy being cuddled and eating her reward apples. She was very sweet and it was really wonderful.

Also in Chengdu, we visited the giant buddha. At 71 meters high, it’s the largest Buddha in the world and clearly very popular among the Chinese tourists.

We’ve also been able to experience several dinners of the traditional Sichuan spicy hot pot. It’s like an enormous fondu pot, but half has a serious kick to it as it’s swimming with chilis and hot peppercorns. So your mouth can be on fire for some of the time but it’s SO worth it. Yummmmm.

We next had three nights aboard a boat floating down the Yangtze river to view the three gorges. First our taxi driver let us off at the wrong spot, so after waiting about 30 minutes, we took our tour leader Milly’s advice and asked someone to borrow their cell phone. I guess it’s not a problem to borrow a stranger’s phone in China! The man was very helpful and even guided Milly to find us.

The boat was quite nice and aside from half the group humming the theme song to Titanic all the time, we all had a blast. We had Milly teach us traditional Chinese Mahjong, which is quite different from the computer version. Continuing my competitive streak, I was happy to win the first game! Walking through a park in Chengdu, we’d seen dozens of people playing Mahjong outside so now we’re ready to join in. I actually did join in a woman’s Tibetan dance in the park for a few minutes. They were very forgiving of my bumbling…

The most hilarious part of the boat ride was having our group take over the bar area. After the second night there was a show and then they played music for people to dance. The boat may have been an older crowd, but this music would put anyone to sleep! So we began a quest to find alternative music, but the selection on the boat was bleak. Finally someone came up with the innovative idea to put a loadspeaker next to an ipod and viola! Modern music to rock out to! A bunch of our crew ended up closing out the bar both nights dancing up a storm as our Chinese bartenders looked on with amusement. Of course, closing out the bar in China was 11:30, not exactly B Haus hours!

The boat was very relaxing and the gorges quite impressive. We didn’t enjoy one of the excursions to the City of Ghosts as it was really just overly cheesy and touristy. Filled with things like pay 10 yuan and find out what your son will do as his profession. But other than that, the boat was great and it was nice to have three nights in one place after all the time on the go. The gorges were definitely amazing with massive rock walls on both sides and we also traveled through a lock series like the Panama canal.

I’ve added to my souvenir collection and picked up a lovely embroidery to go with my Ching vase and globe. I’m going to need to move to a bigger place to house all my acquisitions!

Tomorrow will be a very long day. We have a four and a half hour bus ride in the morning to get to the train station. Then a 14 hour overnight hard sleeper train again. Ugh – back to the train pit toilets again!

Cheers!

Val

Monday¸ Sept 14th

Greetings! I hadn’t planned to write again so quickly but we had a couple adventures today so I thought I’d jot them down while they are still fresh in my mind!

We visited the Terracotta Warriors today which is really a spectacular sight. They were placed there over 2000 years ago to guard an emperor’s grave from invaders. They and the many tombs were hidden for centuries until some farmers discovered the site while digging a well in 1974. Only a small bit has yet been excavated and restored, while the main tombs still lie untouched. I continue to fascinate and scare small children as a baby was grabbing my hair with fascination until I turned and he realized that the funny yellow stuff was attached to a very odd looking person! Then his eyes just opened wide and he couldn’t stop staring at me!

Following the warriors, we headed toward the massive wall surrounding the town of Xi’an. They are about 50 feet high and goes for over eight miles. We had planned to ride bikes, but the surface was still too wet and slippery. So I began walking with another woman in my group, Ula from Finland. We ended up finding a shop of very nice antiques and other items and after much debate and haggling, I ended up buying a beautiful globe and an authentic (or so I hope!) Ching dyanasty vase in the traditional blue and white ceramic. The price thankfully included the shipping! Of course, I was a bit afraid that I would hear later from our Chinese trip leader Millie (Ming) that they were all cheap knockoffs and I had been totally scammed, but oh well!

Following our shopping, we started to walk assuming we’d finish after a third or so. After an hour or two, we were enjoying a great walk but the sun was starting to get low in the sky and we were looking for stairs down before sunset. We had no idea what time the wall closed to the public but we were entirely alone on our section. A night on top of the wall did not sound very appealing to us!

We had been told there were stairs by the train station, so finally we arrived there and found the stairs just as the sun was starting to set. There were a couple of men watching us walk down and they were laughing for some reason. We didn’t know why until we got to the bottom and through the opening only to find that these stairs as well were blocked by a gate about 12 feet high.

We considered heading back up and looking for another open stairs, but weren’t sure there were any to be had and it was starting to get dark. So we looked at each other and decided – well, we can climb that gate! So sure enough, we picked the section with at least some cross bars and one at a time, pulled ourselves up and over the 12 foot structure….much to the amusement of the many locals lined up to watch the crazy western women climbing gates! Not bad for a couple of 40 year olds! Thank goodness I decided to wear pants today instead of a skirt!

We found Millie back at the hotel and she got a kick out of our adventure! And even better, she knew the shop that I bought my items and thought that I had actually bargained a great deal! Her exact quote was “Did they cry?” So I guess I did ok.

And Ula and I quite happily celebrated our victory with Chinese beers over dinner. J

Sunday, Sept 13th, Xi’an

Hello all!

Just over a week in and it’s been a terrific time. Finished up in Beijing at the Summer Palace and a lovely time paddling around the lake, that’s where this photo was taken.

Then it was time for our first of four overnight trains. We’re not on any luxury tour here so it’s the “hard sleeper” compartments for us! Actually the beds are hard regardless but the hard vs soft means we had six bunks in a tiny compartment. The bottom bunk isn’t too bad but the top two you can’t even sit up straight. The picture shows our crew sticking their heads out of some of our compartments. There is zero privacy as they open out in to the general area. So I’m trying to be quite careful with my things but so far I’ve felt very safe and comfortable.

Certainly the least pleasant element of the sleeper trains are the quite…uh…fragrant pit toilets available! Yes, pit toilets on a moving train – the joys of adventure travel! But it’s all part of the cultural experience right?

We arrive in Shanghai around noon and spend the afternoon doing a long walking tour of the city. It’s more modern and cosmopolitan than Beijing and clearly in high growth mode. Skyscrapers cover the landscape and the smaller hutong-type buildings where the locals have lived for centuries are quickly being demolished for highrises.

Admittedly, after almost a week of Chinese food three times a day, I took advantage of our free night to just pick up a tuna sandwich at Subway! J

Friday I met up with Kevin Thalmann, a Newport and Killington friend, who is living in Shanghai on an expat assignment. He was a terrific host, showing me some great little areas where the small dwellings have at least been converted into small shops and cafes rather than just demolished. (Of course that meant a bit of shopping!) At least the few heavy items I was able to leave with Kevin since he’s bringing a container home. Wouldn’t have wanted to lug those around in my pack!

After some wandering it was time to do some dumpling sampling! We went to a well known local place and watched them assembling the dumplings. Hundreds of them! There was a line stretched out behind us for the freshly cooked ones. We got our pack of four that I’m showing in the picture and then Kevin taught me the technique of biting just a small hole in the top and sucking all the succulent juice out before it can drain to the ground. Then you pop the rest in your mouth. Yummmmm. Sadly, the terrific local place is also being torn down soon to make way for more subway lines.

Then it was off to experience a different side of Shanghai having cocktails and of course, more dumplings at the Park Hyatt hotel on the 92nd floor of the newly built Financial center. It was a fabulous view, and delectable drinks and food. And the bathrooms were more modern and sophisticated than anyplace I’ve seen with more controls than my car! Quite a change from the train!

We saw the Shanghai acrobats perfrom that night which was highly entertaining, like a Cirque de Soliel show. Then took a break from traditional Chinese with dinner at a fabulous French bistro, with fabulous typical American prices! To give an idea of the contrast, a full Chinese meal split with my tour mates may cost the equivalent of about $4-5 total per person! Slightly more with a beer. So that one French meal cost more than the rest of the trip meals combined but it was absolutely delectable!

Of course the irony is the following morning was the first that my stomach had any bit of nausea! Guess I should stick to the local Chinese food instead of the fancy tourist food! Admittedly, ordering the steak tartar in China may have not been the best choice! But some meds helped fix me up and there was no way that I was going to miss the next event – riding around Shanghai with Kevin on his new scooter!

Scooters and bicycles are everywhere in China and they zip around the traffic and pedestrians within mere millimeters of collisions at every turn! Of course there are absolutely no helmets anywhere. Well, except for the McDonald’s delivery guys! Got to love the American liability mentality!

So just as I didn’t tell my mother I was bungy jumping until after I had already survived, I figured I wouldn’t mention a Shanghai scooter ride experience until after I had lived to tell the tale, as bungy jumping is probably safer! Kevin has a snazzy new bike and it was such a blast to navigate through the crowds and craziness. Though Kevin is far more polite, safe and easy on the horn than any of the locals!

All in all, Shanghai was just fabulous, though all too short. I’ll be looking forward to seeing Kevin again in Hong Kong and then again for a visit in Cambodia and we’re planning a long weekend to Laos too. Great to have a friend on this side of the world to travel with!

Then it was off to another overnight train (16 hours!) My trivia buddies will be pleased to hear that my little trivial pursuit game on my iTouch has become the key activity of the group and we played for hours on the train. Girls against boys (girls won three out of three games!)

Today unfortunately is raining in Xi’an but we are doing a dumpling dinner (sounds like dim sum) tonight so that is sure to be wonderful! And tomorrow is the Terracotta Warriors. All good times!

Zai jian!

Val

Wed Sept 9th, 8:00 am (8:00 pm Tuesday EDT)

Greetings all! I’m just over three days in, though I feel like we’ve packed a month’s worth of activities during that time!

First, thanks to Mike for posting this! Things like Facebook and this blog site are blocked in China, so I won’t be able to access myself for a few weeks.

Flight over was uneventful, though of course I was seated in the “crying baby” section of the plane. Good thing my years at the B Haus have gotten me very proficient with earplugs!

Sunday was a bit rainy and cloudy and my roommate and I walked over a fair amount of Beijing. Though we kept being turned back from roads by armed guards, which was a bit mysterious. We later found out that they have a big celebration on Oct 1st and are preparing and practicing. But for many hours we just walked along large (Great?) walls feeling like we’d never actually get in anywhere! Many of the guards stood on small platforms and surrounded by Plexiglas up to their thighs. Though what protection that would afford other than from a good kick, we couldn’t imagine.
We did discover a lovely park and lake to walk around and found a series of pagodas each with some dancers or performers. They were just locals doing their usual Sunday morning activities, but it was quite fun to watch.

Sunday evening we met up with the rest of our group, 15 in all. All seem like a good bunch so far, mostly from Europe in their 20s and 30s.

Monday was our Great Wall day. Weather was mostly cloudy though we did get some peeks of sun later on. We fortunately went to a less touristy area further from Beijing so we didn’t feel too crowded. We had the option to take a gondola or hike up to the wall. Of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to hike it, though I probably have 10 years or more over many of my trip mates who opted for the ride. It was a solid 30-45 minutes straight up and the a series of more stairs so quite the workout!

It really was spectacular to see this massive structure along the mountains. Took over 400 centuries to build apparently. And each stone hauled up the mountains!
That afternoon some of us visited the Olympic area, which really is beautiful. Then another traditional meal at a local restaurant. Very helpful our leader Milly is native Chinese.

Yesterday, I still was still waking up at 4:30 (NOT my usual for those who know me!) But I used the morning to walk to the Temple of Heaven to wander around and watch all the locals do their morning exercise, fan dances, tie chi, ping pong and strangely – hacky sack! Then our group joined the hordes at Tienniman Square and the Forbidden city.

In general, been walking about eight hours a day and my legs are feeling it! But hopefully it’s burning off some of the major carbs that are part of the daily diet. The food has been wonderful, very flavorful, but yes, lots of rice and noodles. There is never soy sauce on the tables and nary a fortune cookie to be found! Some of my travel mates have never used chopsticks before but they are learning fast to survive! Though most of us declined the fried sea horses, scorpions, larvae, and other “delicacies” from the local night market!

We’re back in the land of pit toilets – fun fun! At least I should have killer quads by ski season! And of course, only bottled water to drink or brush teeth. So far so good though.

One unexpected occurrence is how I’ve become part of the tourist attractions! At several of the sights, I had local people grabbing my arm and pulling me to their photos. I thought they wanted me to take their picture, but no, they wanted me to BE in pictures with them! Apparently, there has been a big bump in Chinese tourism since the Olympics and many people from small villages and remote area are traveling to Beijing for the first time. So they have never actually seen blond hair or a non-Chinese person before. And yes, I’m probably as far from looking like a native as possible! My tour mates have a great time watching me get pulled into all these pictures!

Today looks like a beautiful sunny day. So far we’ve had more overcast skies and cooler temps. Now we may be in for the expected heat! And I actually managed to sleep until 7:00 today so hopefully that’s it for the jet lag! We have a free day today so likely I’ll visit the summer palace and then an overnight train to Shanghai. That should be interesting, with six of us plus luggage per compartment! Then I’ll be seeing Kevin Thalmann.

Well, that’s enough for now!

Cheers!

Val

Final days in the US

Well, I'm in my last week in the states and final prep mode. Everything is pretty well set, though the kids Red Sox t-shirts I ordered for the orphans in Cambodia are big enough to fit the actual Sox players! So looks like that will be tomorrow's project to find new smaller shirts or hats to bring.

Thanks to Kat for bringing over the bag of stuff for the kids so I don't have to lug it all over China! And to Eric for housesitting for me while I'm gone!

Looking forward to seeing Kevin Thalmann while in Shanghai - be great to see a familiar face! I'm prepared to be impressed by his Mandarin. :)

I'm bringing a little netbook computer so hopefully I'll be able to post pics here while I'm traveling. And next post should be from somewhere on the other end of the world!

Cheers all!
Val