china 4

i ended up in beijing again for a day after returning from pyongyang...kitty's boyfriend picked up the two of us from the airport, which was really nice...his name is bing (yes, like the new search engine microsoft is trying to promote) and he speaks fluent english...she speaks fluent putonghua, so their conversations go back and forth between the two languages...i loved listening...
we went to kitty's apartment so we could upload all of our photos to her computer and burn them onto dvds together...she had run out of memory on her camera, so she used one of my memory cards during the last day of the tour...she lives in an awesome apartment...it's in one of the diplomatic compounds, and is HUGE...a big living room, two large bedrooms, a nice big bathroom, an entry hallway, a kitchen, etc...NICE!!! we went to lunch, she ordered for all of us...yummy dumplings with various fillings, one even had soup in there!!! she and bing went for massages they had scheduled earlier, and i was able to play around on internet for a while...she's got some program that makes the computer people in china think she's in the states, so i was able to access blogs and sites like facebook that i wasn't normally able to get to in china...clearly, i wasted a couple of hours, but it felt good...when they got back from their massages, bing called a hostel he knew of in xi'an and booked me in for the next day...how great a guy is that??!!!
after hanging out and watching a couple episodes of arrested development (which i've never before seen but kitty enjoys and bing tolerates) we went to a grocery store so i could get some snacks for the train...by that point i had a massive headache from all the traveling during the day and whatnot, and i was incapable of making decisions...kitty found me in one of the aisles just staring at biscuits, not able to think or figure out what i wanted...lol...after the grocery store they drove me to the train station i needed...again, AWESOME PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!
my night train arrived in xian earlier than expected, which was both good and bad...bing had arranged for the hostel people to come pick me up, but they werent there...and i didn't know the name of the hostel...so i called his mobile and he told me to hop in a taxi and have the driver call him, and he'd give the driver directions...which i did, he did, and everything was fantastic...the hostel was GREAT...i had a six bed dorm to myself the whole time...another water filter, more free internet...plus, at the end, when i needed to print out an address in chinese characters the printer wasn't working, but one of the hostel staff wrote it out for me (i pulled up the message from email) on a piece of paper...i love helpful people...
xi'an is another ancient capital of china...it was the seat of emperor qin shi huang, of the qing dynasty...i think...he was known as the great unifier...i guess before him china wasn't really one country, it was a whole bunch of kingdoms and the like that usually worked together a bit, but not always...anywho, his armies got everyone together...like it or not...he thought a lot of himself, and was rather tyrannical...according to some person or another, he even made most tyrants look good compared to him!!...(though chinese historians are trying to make him sound a bit nicer now)...his tomb is not too far from the city...his tomb isn't actually open to go into, as archeologists haven't gone into it themselves...they don't think they'll find much in there, they're pretty sure it was looted not too long after the guy was buried...some people pay to wander around the area anywho...(have i mentioned that nothing in china is free? even an unopened tomb?)...the guy thought so much of himself that he assumed he would continue to rule even after death...in preparation for that, he had two bronze chariots buried in his tomb...he also had the army of terracotta warriors created...it's one of the most famous sights in china...
absolutely STUNNING...around 7000 individual soldiers were created...the detail in which they were created is awesome...each one of them has a different face...all of their uniforms are accurate, and you can even see things like the treads on the bottoms of the shoes of the kneeling archers!!! the site has been excavated in three pits...pit 3 is where the command center would've been...it's filled with senior officers, and the nicer horses...pit 2 is the least excavated, but it's huge, and promises to have quite a few horses and soldiers in it...pit 1 is the most impressive...it's been mostly excavated, and archeologists are doing a great job of putting some of the soldiers back together properly and standing them all as they once stood...an incredible sight...well worth the 90 yuan ($1USD = 6.5 yuan) fee...the whole thing is brilliant...
because xi'an was an ancient city, that means they also had city walls...unlike just about everywhere but nanjing, the city walls are still intact...you can walk all the way around them, it takes about 4 hours at a leisurely pace...i did it in 3, walking quickly...the walls are wide, and the renovations have been done really well...all the original watchtowers and gates have been kept in decent condition as well...xi'an retains it's original drum tower and bell tower as well...i didn't reckon i'd see anything exceptional from inside either one, so i opted just to walk around outside, for free...they're in the middle of the area covered by the old city walls, and there is a large market area near the old drum tower...the market is mostly full of stalls selling kitchy knick knacks, but there are some good food stalls too...during this visit to china i've fallen in love with chinese street food...it's great!!
from xi'an i took a night train to shanghai...now it was my turn to have a standing room ticket...it was definitely a LOOOOOOONG night...especially as the train was over an hour late in arriving in shanghai...fortunately, my friend claire had given me her address written in chinese characters, as well as excellent written directions, so it was easy to get a taxi to the right intersection, then walk to her flat...
claire has a fantastic flat, i'm quite jealous!! she's really close to her university, and really close to any shopping she might need...and not too far from a subway station, though a new one is supposed to open up even closer to her flat in october (a 5 minute walk!)...claire is a friend of mine through rugby in korea, for those of you who don't know...she's canadian...which, as we pointed out to a taxi driver in seoul, long ago, is NOT the same as american...hee hee...
shanghai is under construction at the mo, well, the parts that tourists would want to see...the city is preparing to host the world expo next year...so i didn't get to walk along the bund as i wanted to, but oh well...shanghai is like no other part of china...it's the most modern city, it doesn't have the ancient traditions of xian or beijing...but it still has a personality...
one of the nights claire and i met up with some of the folks she's met for drinks and dinner...dinner for me, drinks for everyone else...lol...one of the funniest nights i've had in a long time...(claire, you'll remember orange jello and lemon jello?)...the following afternoon i attended touch rugby practice...lets just say that i'm a wee bit out of shape...but it felt good to be running around...whereva i end up next, i need to get involved in the local rugby crowd!
anywho, i thought i was flying out of shanghai...b/c the air asia web site lists shanghai...but when i looked closer at my itinerary, it was actually for hangzhou airport, which is a couple hours away...ooops...so i had to train it to hangzhou, then catch a bus to the airport...not difficult at all, except that the train was over an hour late in leaving shanghai, and finding the shuttle bus to the airport in hangzhou was only accomplished with the assistance of a chinese speaking british guy...thank goodness for strangers!!!
and that's the end of china...

the democratic people's republic of korea

north korea...a place most people don't really know much about...sure, there is a lot in the news, but it's almost always bad, and portrays the country in a negative light...

for starters, a few facts: the official name is the democratic people's republic of korea...(in north korea they simply call it korea...just as they do in the south)...the capital is the city of pyongyang, with just over 2 million residents...no one is sure what the total number of north korean citizens is, as the government hasn't been very clear on that figure...back in the 90s ('95 i think?) there was a terrible famine, and the north korean government was (and continues to be) secretive about the effects on the country...anywho, most estimates of north korean citizens range from 20-25 million...though some people say the number could be as low as 18 million...(by comparison, south korea has approximately 50 million citizens)...the language is still korean of course, but it's different from that spoken in south korea...it's a bit more formal...basically, the language hasn't changed in the north like it has in the south...the president is kim il sung, even though he's been dead for 15 years...when he died, (in 1994) the people mourned him and decided they liked him so much that they still wanted him to be president...his son, kim jong il, the current leader of the country has some other official title...
anywho, for those of you who haven't figured it out, yes, americans are allowed into north korea...at least, they are for the time being...the rules on such things vary, and are never stable...it really depends on the current mood of the north korean government...howeva, there is one additional on americans...americans can only get a visa during the time the arirang mass games are going on, which is usually from mid august to mid october each year...americans also get an extra guide for their group...

my trip started with a meeting in beijing the day before we flew to pyongyang...at the meeting, which took place at the offices of the tour company, we were given some general guidelines on behavior, cultural differences, and general expectations...we were also told what we would, and would not (mostly would not) be allowed to do while in the dprk...no photos unless we had permission...no photos of soldiers, except when we were at the DMZ...no walking by ourselves unless we were on hotel property...no doing anything by ourselves...behave respectfully...(one person in particular in the group had quite a bit of trouble with this)...we were given our group visa and told when and where to meet at the beijing airport...

my group was six people in all...i was the 2nd youngest...the other woman in the group has lived in china for nearly a decade, and speaks putonghua generally fluently...there was another esl teacher who lives in beijing, a lawyer who lives in beijing and is married to a chinese woman...a teacher from minnesota, and the youngun was a guy working his way up in the corporate world and putting himself through school at the same time in new york...
the next day i met the group at the airport, we checked in and boarded our flight...koryo air has old russian planes, they're small!!! one of the things i noticed first was the number of north koreans flying back to the dprk...the way the media portrays north korea, i always had the impression that VERY FEW people travel internationally from north korea...it's easy to tell who is a north korean, they all wear small pins of kim il sung on the left side of their chest...we landed, and deplaned down a short flight of stairs...even though we could see the terminal, a mere 200m or less away, (with a rather large picture of kim il sung visible on top of the building) we still had to board a bus to ride to the building...quite possibly the smallest airport i've ever been through...and also the only airport where it seemed to be okay for us to take pictures...not inside, but outside, before getting on the bus to the terminal, long trip that that was...they had four lines for customs/passport inspection/visa inspection...none of them were designated for foreigners, so it didn't matter what line we went through...but since we were on a group visa, we had to do that together as well...howeva, during our time in line, two of the guys in our group were pulled away into a side room...the first time, we didn't know what was happening, and were a little scared...but when he came back, he said it was just a temperature check...(the swine flu has the entire world worried!)...when they pulled the second guy away, he was in the room for longer, it turned out they checked him twice...needless to say, he was a bit nervous, especially as they had taken his passport to use as identification in case his temperature really was too high...

our guides met us at the airport, 1 woman and two men...they were friendly enough, their english good, their accents good as well...we all introduced ourselves, and hopped in the minibus we'd be riding in throughout our stay in korea...we first drove to the arch of triumph...it looks just like the arc de triomphe in paris (france) but this one is 3m taller, as we were quickly told...mostly the arch celebrates the liberation of korea, and has several dates inscribed on it, dates important in the life of kim il sung...i don't remember what they were, sorry...because there isn't a lot of traffic in pyongyang, it was easy to stand in the middle of the road to get a centered photo...

from the arch we went to our hotel, which is on an island in the middle of the river that runs through the city...(again, i've forgotten the name of the river)...our hotel is 47 stories tall, the highest of which is a revolving restaurant...we checked into the 19th floor, and our rooms were just like what you would find in any hotel in the US...two large beds, ensuite bathroom with a tub, trial size stuff on the bathroom counter, area to hang up clothes, tv that got bbc, window with a fabulous view of the city...there didnt seem to be many other tourists...one thing we never did find out was how many floors of the hotel were actually occupied...the hotel also had a basement area with a sauna, casino, and more...

we met our guides for dinner tonight at one of the restaurants in the hotel...i believe it was restaurant #2 that night...it was the first of many HUGE meals...they just kept bringing us food!! i was happy, as i like korean food, but i noticed not everyone in the group felt the same way...anywho...after dinner, we assembled again, hopped in the minibus, and drove to may day stadium to see a performance of the arirang mass games...
WOW...WOW...WOW...WOW...there are no words to adequately describe this performance...think marching band halftime performance at a gridiron game...then make it last 1.5 hours instead of 10 minutes...then multiply the number of people involved until you get to 80,000...then, instead of the entire stadium being spectators, think the other side of the stadium as another 20,000 people holding up coloured cards and creating amazing backdrops...absolutely outstanding...i took a gazillion photos, of course...but they don't do the event justice...it's incredible...after the show, we went back to the hotel, my roommate kitty and i went to sleep fairly quickly...
driving through the city several times that first day one of my observations was that the city seemed so empty...there were six lane and four lane roads everywhere, but so few people have cars (those are only allowed for the super high and mighty elite) that there is virtually no traffic, save for buses and trolleys...it was a bit eerie...while driving back from the mass games i also realized how dark it was...really really dark...the roads are lit at night, but just barely...and i doubt they're lit all night...this is a city of 2 million, but there isn't much light...certainly no neon signs...there is no nightlife...

the next day was a full day of touring around the city...i dont remember each and everything we saw, but the day included several LARGE monuments, the juche idea tower, (north korea isn't the first to come up with the idea of self reliance, but they do take it to a whole new level,) the grand people's study house, and more...lets just say that nothing in korea is normal sized...we saw at least one museum that day, maybe more...we also saw the sight where the USS sherman was fired upon (way back in the 1800s...the dprk generally considers that the beginning of it's ongoing fight against western imperialists) which is where they now display the USS pueblo...according to the dprk it was an american spy ship (in the 1960s?) they captured...after confessing (the written confessions are displayed in the ship,) the crew were repatriated to the states...the US says it was a vessel on a peaceful voyage...i'm sure the truth of the story is somewhere in the middle...throughout the day, as we visited each place, we were given a brief history of what it was, and thanks were usually given to "our president" (kim il sung) or "our leader" (kim jong il) for their assistance in creating these places...the juche tower was one of the most interesting to me, it basically is a tower with a flame (not real) on top of it...i liked it because we were able to ride the elevator to the top, then step outside and have great views of the city...unfortunately, it was rainy and windy, so we didn't stay out there for long...
the next day was another day of touring around the city...but that morning we started with two of the most important places in the city...well, important to koreans...first, the mausoleum of kim il sung...it isn't open to the general public, even koreans must apply for an invitation...for the mausoleum, visitors are asked to dress properly...that is, close toed shoes, knees and shoulders covered for women...korean women wear their traditional dress, called a chosunbok...(hanbok in south korea)...men are asked to wear shirts and ties, preferably with slacks...as soon as we got there, we all wished we were wearing more, they have the air conditioning cranked in the entire complex...and a complex it is...it makes the mausoleums of other former leaders i've visited (lenin, sun yat sen, ho chi minh) look small by comparison...in one of the first rooms we entered, we deposited our cameras...the room is large, but i don't think they ever have to hold onto much, as koreans don't have much...we road along several of those flat escalators for a while, during which we noticed no one was smiling or talking...eventually we reached a large room with a large statur of kim il sung...it was white, and the white area behind it was lit with pinks/blues/purples...supposed to create a sense of peace i think? i'm not entirely sure...i was freezing already...out of that room we walked into another large room where we faced a bank of elevators...we lined up and were ushered into the next elevator to open...(throughout this particular visit we never had to wait for the koreans who were also there visiting...they seemed to just patiently watch us walk ahead)...a quick ride to the next floor, and we lined up again after walking out...walked through a metal detector sort of thingy that blew air at us...combine that with the shoe cleaners we walked over as we entered the complex, they weren't taking chances on anyone bringing anything into the complex, howeva unintentional...and finally, we walked into the room where the body is kept...we lined up again, in rows of 4...starting at the feet...at a cue from our guides, we bowed...then walked clockwise, and bowed again on cue...walked to the head, no bowing...bowed again on the other side, before walking out of the room...so quiet, and so cold...we also visited a room where every single medal/honor given to kim il sung is displayed...they're arranged mostly by area of the world...that is, by continent...he's apparently an honorary citizen of lots of cities, and has a few degrees as well...some of the medals he was given are actual honours in those countries/cities...some of them they probably hand out to just about any visitor...there is one from the US...well, not the country itself...a uni in the US gave him an honorary masters in international relations...whateva your opinion of the guy, you have to admit he knew all about internationa relations...
from the mausoleum we drove to a cemetary dedicated to the martyrs of the anti japanese revolution...(before what we call the korean war, the koreans has finally gotten rid of the japanese colonialists)...i don't remember how many are buried there, but it's quite fancy...each person has a bust, and the busts all face down the hill, looking over the city...they're spaced so that each of them has a view of the city, they're not blocking each other..at the top of the cemetary is a row of the most important folks...one of those is kim il sung's wife (for the life of me i can't remember her name)...she's commonly referred to as the anti japanese heroine...i think she is also kim jong ils mother?
later that day we went to the hut where kim il sung is said to be born...again, history has been changed in korea, no one outside of korea really knows if he was born there...it seems awfully convenient if he was...one of the stories guides like to tell there is that his grandfather continued to work as a farmer, even after kim il sung became leader of the country...he is supposed to have said that he wasn't a leader, he was a farmer...
after that, we went to what they call the schoolchildrens palace...it's not actually a palace, but it is a huge building...the luckiest kids in the city go there for three hours each day and take extracurricular classes...ballet, calligraphy, accordion, and a whole lot more...we were able to peek into a few classrooms...after seeing some of the classes we were taken to the auditorium for a performance...part of the auditorium was filled with korean schoolkids, i'm not sure whether they also attended the schoolpalace classes?...i don't know how often this performance is done, probably once a week or so...anywho, it was another highlight of the trip...singing and dancing...i know part of it is because they practice practice practice, but these kids are good...really really good...and as the pit was raised at the end of the show so we could applaud the orchestra, i realized they had played the entire show w/out any music...really really impressive...i also noticed that the percussion section of the orchestra was more than half female...that's not the norm, at least not in the states...
the last full day in korea, we took a day trip...about a 3 hour bus ride down south, to the town of kaesong...it's an ancient town, and was a capital of one of the dynasties that existed before the current countries of north and south korea...the silla dynasty i think? we saw an old temple, one that was used by that dynasty as a university to teach about confuscionism and buddhism...(the current regime doesn't have religion in any form, but they don't mind showing that it did used to be a part of life)...we also visited the DMZ from the north side...a very different experience from visiting on the south side...believe it or not, the visit on the north side was much shorter, and far less full of propaganda...we saw the blue buildings that sit on the dividing line of the two countries, and entered the middle one through the door on the north side...as i've been in that building previously, it didn't mean as much to me, though i knew a few things that weren't mentioned by our soldier/tour guide...we walked through the buildings where the armistice meetings were held, and where it was actually signed...interestingly, the US formed one side of the meetings, but operated under the flag of the UN...not the US flag...then the drive back to pyongyang, for our last dinner in the country..
the next morning we left the country...after giving gifts to and thanking our guides because they were fantastic...

china 3

o stayed in tai'an that night, and the next morning took a bus to qufu...a name i had never heard until i read it in the guidebook...as the book told me, it was the home of confuscious, and his family...and apparently it still is the home of his descendents...there are three main sights in the town...the temple, his family mansion, and the forest...you can buy one ticket for all three of them, which is handy, though expensive...
qufu itself is actually the smallest place i visited while i was in china...and it has to be one of the smallest "cities" they have..."only" 85,000 people...i liked the atmosphere...a lot...the temple was, well, a temple...nothing terribly exciting...i had my picture taken in front of the study hall place thingy where confuscious supposedly taught...anyone think his spirit is still there and possibly taught me a thing or two? hee hee...the mansions are the family house(s)...not only did confuscious live there, but older and newer generations of his family as well...they were actually quite well off, and pretty much ran the area as their own little business empire...there are a number of buildings, used for different purposes, some of them business, some of them personal...the best part was the garden area out back...i walked up a path to the top of a set of rocks and had fun setting up my camera...it turned out the path i walked up was the only one that wasn't blocked off to go up those rocks, i guess i wasn't supposed to be up there, but i didn't figure that out until i saw the other paths after coming back down!! oh well...
the next day i walked out to the forest, it's a couple kilometers north of the other two sights...the forest is actually the cemetary/graveyard for confuscious and all of his descendents...according to the guidebook, over 2000 people are buried there, and his descendents are still buried there now!! it's quite possibly the quietest place in all of china...i loved it...most people who go take a tour on an electric bus, which createst the only sound...since they're electric, they're quiet...except for the honking they do to let the few people on the paths (me) know they're coming...there are a couple main paths/small roads around the forest, but otherwise everything is small, and dirt...i enjoyed wandering through the overgrowth, checking out the stelae...obviously, i couldn't read anything that had been inscribed, but some looked pretty artistic...some of the people buried there were obviously more important than others...if i knew more chinese history, perhaps i would know who they were...i just enjoyed the quiet, and peacefulness of the area...i ended up with lots of scratches from walking through everything, but it was worth it...
my hostel in qufu was brilliant...the bunks were nice and sturdy, i didn't feel like there was an earthquake each time the person in the bunk under me moved...there was a water filter in the lobby from which we were all encouraged to fill our water bottles, in order to avoid buying new plastic water bottles...and free internet too!! yay!!
from qufu i took a bus back to tai'an, then a night train to beijing...actually, the same train layna had taken a couple days earlier...only i had a seat:)
i arrived in beijing at the lovely hour of 0520...still dark...so i sat in the train station for a while, watching the gbillions of people coming out, after arriving at the same ridiculous hour...apparently there are LOTS of trains going in and out of there! i found my hostel w/out much difficulty, checked in, and promptly fell asleep for a few hours...i can't remember the last time i took a nap in the morning!! i have visited beijing previously, so i didn't feel the need to get out and explore quite so fast...
beijing has definitely changed since i last visited...that was before the olympics...their subways have grown, and continue to grow now...buses are still confusing though...lots and lots of signs are now bilingual, which makes it a bunch easier for visitors to get around and figure out where they are...i walked...and walked...and walked...straight down one street, for over 2 hours!! i stopped in a big market to look around for tea, realized i didn't feel like browsing at all, and walked back out...oops...i walked a bunch more, hopped on the metro and met layna at dairy queen for "dinner"...hey, it had dairy, right? carbs in the brownies too...lol...
the next day i went to the one sight i saw this time in beijing...the lama temple, known in chinese as yonghegong...a tibetan buddhist temple where lamas go to study...i don't remember how one becomes a lama, or all of that is decided...like every other temple in asia, it was actually a complex, with several temple buildings, and halls used for various purposes...overall it was quite different from other buddhist temples i've seen while traveling, so i enjoyed it...while standing around in one courtyard i heard a few folks talking, in an accent any american could identify...that of the south...the slow southern drawl...i asked them where exactly they were from, and ended up chatting for over an hour!! they were two couples, one of whom lived in beijing, the other visiting and being shown around...the couple living in beijing was retired army, including time in germany, so we chatted about that as well...anywho, they were all really sweet and friendly...the kind of americans that actually give us a good name!!
later that afternoon i went to a meeting at the offices of a company called koryo tours...i'll tell you about them in the next blog

china 2

our first major city in china was nanjing...it was the capital for a while, way back...these days, the city is probably most known for two things, the rape of nanking, and as being the site of the mausoleum of sun yat sen, the widely acknowledged founder of modern china...
the rape of nanking happened in the 1500s, i think...(can't remember for sure)...basically, the japanese were advancing and a confrontation seemed inevitable...instead of standing up, the leaders of nanking left the city...but before they left, they told the citizens to stand up and fight...then they left, and locked the city gates!! they only left one open, and loads of people were trampled or burned alive in the tunnel to the gate...anywho, the japanese advanced, and got into the city...and what they did to the citizens is awful...they massacred, tortured, etc...300,000 to 400,000 people died...that is, they were executed, (often after being tortured) sometimes in groups sometimes individually...in the first few days, nearly 20,000 women, ages 11-76 were raped...AWFUL...the japanese aren't known through history as being kind conquerors (or conqueror wannabes)...it's one of the reasons china and korea still harbour ill will toward japan...(that and that japan hasn't really apologized for so much of what it's done through history, and is now whitewashing what it did on many occasions)...anywho...
some of the city walls of nanjing are still standing, i wanted to see them...so i did...not that exciting, to tell the truth...i also wanted to see the mausoleum of sun yat sen...looking at the map in lonely planet, it looked like a longer walk to get there, but i reckoned it would be easy enough...i was wrong...the map in lonely planet left off a few things, and even the maps around the area made things look as if i should be able to go places i couldn't!!! the mausoleum is on a mountain (hill, really) just outside the city walls...there are also several ming dynasty mausoleums on the hill, but i wasn't so interested in those...a little, but not much...anywho, after walking all around and not really knowing how i got to various places, i finally found the mausoleum, and the entrance price had doubled!!! the guidebook was published in may, so who knows if they actually researched this particular site when they put out the new edition...argh...anywho, i still went in...the guy was actually pretty modest, and he probably wouldn't have appreciated what ended up being built...you walk up a bunch of steps to get to the mausoleum...he's in a marble casket, sealed shut...exciting, i know...there were lots of people there, even though the weather was awful...it must be absolutely PACKED when the weather is decent!!
speaking of weather, it was not good while we were in nanjing...there was a typhoon hitting taiwan and the south eastern coast, and the wind and rain definitely reached up to nanjing...ugh...because we weren't going to be in nanjing for very long, i didn't want to stay inside and do nothing...anywho...i ended up walking around the whole day in the wind and rain...the kind of rain that spins around so you never get to keep the umbrella in the same spot...and got splashed by water from cars who were going way too fast from the other side!! i ended up with blisters all over my feet...the only time chacos aren't bad is when my feet get wet, and stay wet...argh...by the end of the day, after being slightly lost, doing a lot of walking in bleeding pain, i was so ready to be back inside...oh well...
from nanjing we took another night train to tai'an...not a particularly exciting city, it's at the foot of tai shan, one of gazillions of sacred mountains in china...there is a temple in the middle of the city, which i enjoyed wandering around for a few hours, layna skipped that...the main reason we came to tai'an was to climb tai shan (mt tai in english)...after resting my feet for a day (remember the blisters i mentioned above?) we got up early one morning, walked to the foot of the mountain, paid the RIDICULOUS entry fee (nothing in china is free, not even mountains!) and started walking...steps upon steps upon steps...at least they were fairly regular, and not too big or steep...the whole way up/down there are lots of temples to stop in, they're mostly taoist...there are also lots of calligraphic inscriptions in many of the rocks...according to those who know, these are considered art...i thought some of them were pretty but since i couldn't read any of them, who knows...lol...half way up we rested, and watched people...chinese folks seem to be a bit more with it when it comes to footwear for hiking...they didn't all have hiking boots, but at least i didn't see any stilettos, which i did often see while hiking in korea...but i digress...since the trail was made of stone and such, hiking boots weren't really even needed at all...i could've done it in my chacos...(if the blisters hadn't still been there)...at several points during the hike i looked up and wondered if i had made any progress toward reaching the top, and it didn't look like it...LOTS OF STEPS...when we did finally get to the top, we weren't rewarded by amazing views...instead, we were able to see the brown layer of smog that hangs over the city...that layer hangs over sooooo many chinese cities, it's awful...there were a couple more temples at the top, and more calligraphic inscriptions...nothing exciting, but we were both glad we had done it...not surprisingly, by the time we got to the bottom, our legs were finished...as they say in french, mes jambes sont fracassee (sp?)...(and i know my tense is wrong, but that's beside the point)...
layna was wonderwoman, and that night took a train to beijing...she had a standing ticket, no seat!!

hong kong and china 1

after a ridiculously long day of traveling, i arrived in hong kong around 2200...the airport is quick and efficient, and it's easy to get into the city...everything is just as crowded as i remember it...getting out of the taxi in front of the building where i had booked us, at least three people tried to get me to look at their rooms...apparently, saying "i already have a room booked" doesn't work...anywho, i figured out where i needed to go, and the first thing the guy at reception demanded was money...he wanted me to pay the rest of the amount we "owed" which i refused to do...i hadn't seen the room, met up with layna, anything!!! he became rather angry and belligerent, and i don't react well to that sort of behaviour...i stood my ground, and refused to hand over money until i at least got to see layna and the room...more than anything i wanted to make sure she was there, and that we had a room...
anywho...the room we had was a box...we each had a single bed, there was a small dresser in between the beds, and we had the smallest bathroom ever...(it makes my bathroom in korea look like a palace!)...there was a tv, though it didn't have much of interest...(but it was still good background noise distraction for me...and i watched the entire bbc newscast)
the main reason we went to hong kong was to get our visas for china...we had heard it was the easiest and quickest place to get them, and that ended up being true...though, being americans, our fee was the highest of any nationality...(ugh)...all we had to do was fill out the form, give them a passport picture and our passport...that was monday morning...thursday morning we went back and picked up our passports, and voila, our visas were in there...after being worried for whateva reason, i'm glad it was so easy to get the visas!!
i'd been to hong kong once before with my irish friend ivan, thank goodness...because i spent the next day in bed, in our room, not doing much...trying to write blogs, get a little caught up on email, upload pictures, etc...i also felt like crap, and was hoping the day of not eating anything would help...but it didn't really...everything i ingested, even just water, made my stomach cramp painfully...two days after this (it had already been going on for 5 or 6 days) it FINALLY got better...i guess i can't complain, this is the only time i've actually been sick during this entire trip...i've definitely been lucky!!
the next day i went out with layna in the afternoon...but the weather was craptastic, thanks to an approaching typhoon...rain, wind, etc...we wandered, but not far...that night i met up for dinner with my friend tanya...she's canadian, we got to know each other through rugby in seoul...she and her partner had moved to hong kong less than a year earlier...(i think?)...it was fantastic to catch up with ty, she's awesome...after dinner we also hung out with david (known to most as jr) who had stayed away from dinner due to an ear infection...a great night, totally chill...
thursday night ended up being the only afternoon/evening with clear skies...we took the opportunity to take the tram up to the peak and look over hong kong at night...beautiful...hong kong has a great night skyline...several of the buildings take part in what's called the night symphony...they light up at night, supposedly working with each other...i never noticed that myself, but i loved all the lights, and watching them change...beautiful...trying to get a picture to work out properly just didn't happen though...darnit...good pictures, but we wanted one with the two of us, and we couldn't make it happen...oh well...
friday morning we crossed the border...really easy to do...take the subway to the border, walk through the appropriate lines, filling out a health form, get passports stamped in the appropriate places, etc and walk out on the other side into a city called shenzen...hong kong residents can cross into shenzen for day trips, it's a special economic zone...a whole lot of CHEAP chinese shopping...cheap foot massages too, i wish i had had time for one:)
we took a bullet train to guangzhou, the capital of that particular province of china...walking out of the train station we walked all over trying to find the ticketing office, it took a while...signs seemed to point one way, but when we went that way, the ticketing office definitely wasn't there...anywho, we finally found it, booked our tickets, and took the metro to where we thought we could find a cheap hotel...we did find a cheap hotel, with the help of a tout, though it wasn't the one we were originally looking for...apparently the posted rates in a hotel in china, mean absolutely nothing...we paid about a 1/3 of what was posted!! we had an air con room, each with our own big bed, a nice bathroom, tv, etc...our own water filter...after some of the places we've stayed, particularly in hong kong, this was a palace...we walked around and explored, and found great street food...(this would be the start of my love affair with real chinese food)...and it's so CHEAP!!! our adventure in china began, and i already loved it, even though it was the country i was least fussed about when our trip started:)

bali

this was my third visit to bali....the way i arrived was totally different from my other visits...this time i took the ferry from java....from the town of ketapan to the town of gilimanuk...it's a pretty quick ferry ride, less than an hour...i sat in a room that had a no smoking sign, but this is indonesia, where NOTHING is non smoking...within 5 minutes of me sitting in that room, i counted at least 10 men lighting up...i might as well take up smoking, for all the second hand smoke i've inhaled in this country...
the ferry arrived at gilimanuk, which is really nothing but a transit point...there is a bus station right next to the ferry station, so i headed that way, and only had to wait 1.5 hours for a bus to denpasar...of course while i was waiting, people tried to convince me to hire private transport, or to pay for the rest of the mini bus so it could leave immediately...i didn't, i'm cheap...i ended up arriving at a bus station in denpasar (the capital of the island) at 2 in the morning...not exactly the optimum time to arrive anywhere...i checked out the hotels near the bus station, but they were all full...so lucky me got to sleep at the bus station, which wasn't nearly as bad as i expected...early morning arrived, and i took a bemo to kuta, one of the best known beach towns...
kuta is crowded...very very crowded...bali has well and truly recovered from the bombings of 2002 and 2005...(it remains to be seen whether this year's bombing in jakarta will affect tourism over the rest of the country)...i arrived to find the town considerably more crowded than it was the last two times i visited...this time i had a much more difficult time finding a place to stay...i walked around to place after place after place, only to find places that were full, or WAY out of my budget range...i started to poke my head through every open gate, some were house compounds, some were temple entrances, and some were hotels...it was by doing this that i stumbled into the place i ended up staying...it was a bit dark, but i was getting desperate...and i got lucky...very very very lucky...it was cheap, and perfectly adequate...WOO HOO!!! kuta is crazy full, and each day i was there, i heard the hotel people tell lots of people that they were full...
kuta is in no way representative of indonesia...at all...it's a beach town, and a touristy one at that...on the beach there are no locals, unless you count the numerous vendors, surf instructors, massage ladies, etc...the beach is filled with tourists, in bikinis, boardies, etc...a few european men in speedos, older ladies in bikinis with skin WAY darker than can possibly be healthy...lots of backpackers...the area where people stay is filled with shops where you can buy everything you don't want...knickknacks, clothes, postcards, bus/train/plane tickets...there are official stores of various brands, like quicksilver, billabong and roxy...i bought two new bikinis, one of which i needed...the other i just couldn't say no to...there are also lots of knockoff stores...i laughed every time someone tried to tell me their wares were authentic...riiiiiiiiight...i now where authentic gurci sunglasses:)
there are LOTS of spas...i ended up treating myself to a couple foot massages, HEAVEN...it would've been very easy to spend a lot of money pampering myself...
i spent my days laying out on the beach...soaking up sun...(yes, i wore suncream AND covered my face)...occasionally cooling off in the water...the waves were good for surfing, at least it seemed that way from the number of people out there surfing...or trying to surf...or trying to learn to surf...lots of people seemed to think they could teach themselves to surf, which was entertaining for me to watch...hee hee...(i'm mean, i know, but it's funny to watch people wipe out)...watching all the people on the beach was also entertaining...some people really need to choose different beach attire...
i flew out of bali at 6 in the morning, which required getting to the airport at 4...not fun...but easy, and probably the least crowded i felt the entire time i was there!