nz vol. 4 iss 2

after the weekend in taranaki, lynne and i hired a car, so we could drive ourselves around for the next few days..well, more like lynne would drive us around..given that i have barely driven in the past few years, everyone seemed to think it a better idea that she do the driving..
after a late start (my fault) we made our way out of auckland on a rainy morning..we originally thought we were going to start our trip in rotorua, because of the not so good weather..howeva, the weather started to clear, so we changed our minds and decided to go to the coromandel peninsula..it's an area of the north island of new zealand where lots of people go on holiday..it's beautiful, and close to auckland..after driving for a while, and following the directions of the gps, i realized we were going way too far south, even for taking a scenic route to the peninsula..and whaddya know, we were...it turned out that since it was my first time using a gps system, i had no idea out it worked..surprise, eh?..when lynne asked me if it was set to the peninsula, that's what was showing on the screen at that moment, so i thought that yes, it was set to take us to the peninsula..turns out i was wrong..apparently you had to hit enter a few more times..oh well..anywho, we made sure to set it to a particular beach on the peninsula, made a u-turn, and got going in the right direction..
we made it to hahei beach mid afternoon, and played around for a while...another absolutely beautiful new zealand beach..(i'm pretty sure every beach in new zealand is gorgeous, and there are lots of them)..there used to be a rope swing under a tree, but that seems to have disappeared in the past year and a half..we found the path that leads to cathedral cove, and started walking..with the absolutely wonderful weather we had stunning views (which seems to be another plus of new zealand..the country is full of stunning views)..the walk doesn't take nearly as long as the signs say, and is fairly easy..cathedral cove is a naturally formed area, beautiful, of course...the action of the water over the millenia has formed nifty caves and rocks and what not..one of the caves was used to film the opening scene from one of the narnia movies..(or so i'm told, i haven't seen the movie myself)..as we walked back to the car the weather started to change, the sun went behind clouds, and the wind picked up..not so wonderful anymore..
we drove around the tiny little town of hahei and lucked into finding an amazing little hotel..up the hill, we had a great view all around..the the price was fantastic..the owner said it used to be a restaurant, it was too bad we didn't get to take advantage of the fantastic kitchen..we left our stuff and drove to hot water beach..according to the tide tables i had found, low tide was supposed to be that evening around 2030..hot water beach is a spot where hot water springs come up through the earth and visitors can dig themselves jacuzzis in the sand..ideally you can dig a hole, the hot water will come up and fill the hole and you can hang out and enjoy yourself..lynne and i didnt manage to find one of the hot spots, but we weren't the only ones missing out..we saw a number of other folks looking/digging but only one group was successful, and they had taken over from others..we were disappointed, but hey, life goes on..
the next morning we drove to rotorua..it's a smelly town, sometimes better known as rottenrua..the earth's crust is relatively thin under rotorua, only about a kilometer thick..(i think)..because of that, there are hot springs everywhere, and the whole town is geothermally heated..every hotel in town has jacuzzis in every room, woo hoo!! after checking out a few, we settled on one..(one of the things i love about new zealand is that you can almost always negotiate a price)..rotorua is one of the most popular tourist spots in new zealand, because it has a little bit of everything..activities, natural beauty, (it's on a lake,) good food, etc..we made our way to a hill just out of town, and took the cable car up, read the rules, donned helmets, and got ready for the luge..it's a cement track (three actually, beginning, intermediate and advanced) and you can ride a plastic sled on wheels (lets face it, it's not a real luge, but it's a lot of fun anywho)..the first ride has to be on the beginning track, and it's the most scenic..that's the one where you can pull off in a few places to take pictures, as well as get used to how the little sleds work..the medium track is a bit speedier, and fun..but the advanced track is the best..lynne and i both caught air on the advanced track, and loved every minute of it..we both wanted to stay up there longer and keep riding, but it was closing time..darnit..
next up that evening was a quick stop at a takeaway shop for dinner, then on to kerosene creek..amy had also loaned us a book about the hot springs of new zealand, it has directions to EVERYWHERE..totally awesome..kerosene creek is a naturally heated creek..until a year ago, it wasn't even in lonely planet..locals wanted to keep it that way, and i understand why..it's fantastic..there are lots of little areas in the creek to hang out and enjoy the heated water..we were in there for two hours, both my rings changed colour!! while floating around we ended up talking to another couple, he's kiwi and she's american..she and lynne are from the same area in the states, they had similar accents..the heated water was amazing, even though we were both pretty smelly when we finally dashed out..the air wasn't warm, so we both changed really fast and got back to the hotel..
the next morning we packed up and after a dispute on the price of the motel room, went to visit a place called te puia..it's home to the new zealand maori arts and crafts institute as well as the pohutu geyser..it's almost constantly blowing up, the steam clouds are pretty impressive..the weather wasn't so great, it poured down at times, but we still had fun..there are a steaming mud spots, and beautiful mineral pools..the area is pretty big, so we took a free tour, and went to a maori show..that afternoon we went zorbing..soooooooo much fun..imagine this: a giant plastic hampster ball, with another ball inside..the employees fill the inside ball with a little bit of warm water, and you superman yourself into the inner ball, wearing nothing but a swim suit and socks..lynne and i chose to ride together..and what a ride..the hill the ball rolls down doesn't look very big, but the ride is a lot longer than either of us had imagined..laughing and giggling and screaming the whole way down..FUN!!
we drove to taupo, another cute little town on a lake..windy as all get out..we took amy's suggestion and booked a room in a nicer place..it was HUGE!!! we each had a huge bed (lynne actually had two beds to choose from) and there was a jacuzzi just outside..a wonderful way to relax for an evening..
the following morning we drove to waitomo, to see the caves..there are several different caves in the area, it's possible to take tours of many of them..lynne decided to go blackwater rafting, and she loved it..absolutely loved it..after the caves we drove back up to auckland, and met up with my mom for dinner..
as you all know, my immediate family is very much into traveling..before i planned this visit in new zealand, mom had already planned her holiday to new zealand and australia..perfect timing, i got to see my mom on the other side of the world for the first time in over a year:)..dinner was lovely, we all had a good time..lynne and i heard stories about me that i've never heard before..hee hee..an awesome evening..

another fourth visit

i arrived in auckland new zealand on a blustery rainy sort of day...exactly the same type of day ive arrived on in each of my three past visits...wierd...

amy picked me up at the airport, and we got me into the flat i'm hiring from her and her husband...it's been great to hang out with the two of them, and catch up on everything...

two days later i ran a half marathon...a beautiful morning, blue skies and very very crisp...to me it seemed like fall weather, even though it's spring here...anywho, i spent the first 3K of the race hoping for feeling to come back into my toes...there were plenty of volunteers out on the course to make sure people didn't get lost, which was nice...and there were aid stations (with water, nothing else) every 3 miles or so...the race itself was a loop, us half marathoners did it twice, those running the 11k 'fun run' did it just once...i was pleased that i ran the whole thing...(except for walking through aid stations...i long ago discovered that i can't run and drink, even walking and drinking isn't always the best)...my time was all right, not great, but not bad; and i wasn't sore later that day or the next day, so i had no real complaints...

another night i had dinner with clive and sarah...friends i met the second time i visited new zealand, it was fantastic to catch up with them...clive is in a band, they're doing quite well, and i enjoyed their music...time flew by, and five hours had gone by when i thought to look at my watch!!! sarah's son connor was there as well, but he's going through the quiet teenager stage and wasn't talking to anyone...he's grown like a weed in the past year though...

there were others i had hoped to get together with, but plans changed a few times, i was forgotten once, and then there wasn't any more time available..i was disappointed, to say the least...
just before labour weekend, my friend lynne flew in from the states..i know her from uni, and we've stayed in touch ever since..when i lived in germany she came to visit me there as well..this time she came over to run the auckland marathon with me..we saw a bit of downtown auckland (the view from mt eden is brilliant when the weather is nice, and i hadn't been there previously) when amy showed us around..the friday of labour weekend, after ivan was done with work we drove south, to the taranaki area of the north island..it's not a heavily touristed area, though it's gorgeous..in the middle of the area is mt taranaki (the english called it mt egmont) which is similar in appearance to mt fuji, in japan..so similar in fact that "the last samurai" was filmed around taranaki..most of the time the mountain is covered by clouds, even when the weather is otherwise good, we only got to see the mountain at all on our third and final morning..we stayed with amy's mom and her partner, in a beautiful house hand built 22 yrs ago..as we arrived after dark, all we did was bring everything in from the car, tour the house, and sit around to catch up with each other..amy's mom makes a lot of yummy stuff by hand (chutneys, wines, sauces, etc) so there was some wine tasting as well...(these are the times i miss being able to drink)..
the next morning when we woke up we were treated to a most amazing view..from all the bedrooms of the house one can see the ocean and the black sand beach..you can also see the cows grazing in the area..nothing short of stunning..if i lived in that house, i reckon it would be hard to get me to ever leave the area..AMAZING!! amy made a kiwi classic for breakfast, bacon and egg pie..(since it was lynne's first visit to nz, we tried to make sure she had as many traditional kiwi foods as possible..her first night in auckland we had takeaways, fish and chips)..after getting dressed properly, and sending jill off to work, amy, ivan, howard, lynne and i made our way down to the beach..fortunately, jill and howard have quite a few pairs of wellies in the house, because we had to walk through cow paddocks to get to the beach..and cows, well, they're not potty trained..the beach itself is lovely..a black sand beach, with a river coming through part of it..there is a lot of driftwood on the beach, shells as well..
this is a time of year when whitebaiting is allowed..that is, catching whitebait..(it's only allowed for a couple months out of the year, and not allowed to be done commercially)..the mechanics are easy: put a net into the river, the whitebait swim into it..they're small, and not smart enough to turn around and swim back out..take the net out of the water, put the whitebait in a bucket with a little water in it, then do it again..we all did this, i was the only one who didn't catch anything:(..in time for lunch we packed up the net and buckets, grabbed our shoes, and made our way back up to the house..the afternoon was passed it was some might call a lazy way, but i reckon we all thought it was perfect..reading, enjoying the sun, napping (ivan,) and just hanging out..
it was during the walk to and from the beach that we all realized cows are really good at the game of red light green light..though i doubt they would call it that..hee hee..(they probably don't even know it's a game:)..they would follow us as we walked, but would stop and just stare when we turned to look at them..if any of us started to move toward them, they moved away in a hurry..really amusing, but i suppose you had to be there..
dinner was mostly prepared by howard..whitebait fritters..i admit i wasn't too keen on them, but lynne was even more "unkeen"..it was actually amusing to watch her distaste for the idea of eating whitebait..nevertheless, she documented the entire process of making whitebait fritters..she even got a picture where one of the whitebait looks as though it's screaming "don't eat me!!"..(again, i guess you had to be there)..when we ate, lynne ended up eating two fritters..lol..
the next morning i woke up earlier than everyone else, and went for a run..(remember that i came back to new zealand to run the auckland marathon..given that i hadn't trained much, i reckoned i really needed to do a long run)..so i ran to the end of the road and back..including the driveway, that was around a half marathon! i came back, showered, and hopped in the car with amy, ivan and lynne..we drove to new plymouth, about 30 minutes away..(howard and jill live just outside urenui, a VERY small town)..new plymouth is by far the biggest city in the area, with 50-55,000 people..not a very exciting town to begin with, and since it was a holiday weekend, even quieter than normal..a nice brunch for us, in a cafe near the boardwalk, ice cream for dessert (when i'm around, dessert is always on the menu:)..on the way out of town we stopped at a lookout point, new zealand has lots of them..it's one of the reasons i adore the country..it's BEAUTIFUL!! dinner that night was at the cafe where jill works..very slow service (definitely NOT the fault of the waitstaff) but good food, and we knew it would be slow, so we didn't mind..good conversation, which included meeting a dairy farmer named taemon..(sp?)
taemon is a dairy farmer..we learned he milks 172 cows twice each day..lynne had expressed an interest in seeing a dairy farm, so ivan arranged for it to happen the next morning..we awoke to another BEAUTIFUL day, appreciated again the BEAUTIFUL view and life jill and howard have every single day, and got ready to go to the dairy farm..again, the wellies proved helpful..when we first arrived, taemon saw us, and brought out a big bucket of fresh, warm milk..he indicated that we should poor it into a giant funnel looking thing that had rubber teats around the outside lip..on the inside of the funnel looking thing, each of those rubber teats was attached to a tube that went down to the bottom, and into the milk we poured in there..each of us put a finger in the milk, then found one of the brand new calves in the pen, and put our finger in it's mouth..the calves were so young that they didn't yet know that the funnel looking thing held milk for them..one of them seemed to think it could find milk by drooling all over my knee..we had to bring them over to the "teats" and get them to start drinking..calves have no teeth, and they seemed to love our fingers!! soooooooooooooooooo cute..once drinking properly, they drank rather quickly..from there we moved into the milking shed..the cows are lined up in two rows, with their backsides faced inward..in between is a lower pathway, about 2m wide..along this pathway, on rails, are the milkers..each one is like half an octopus..that is, there are four little suction things that are attached to the cow and when turned on, do the milking..it's an easy process, you just want to avoid being kicked, peed, or shat upon..(it's not the cleanest area i've ever visited..lynne and i were the only ones who actually wanted to try putting on the milking machines..i've gotta admit it was a little scary when the cows stamped their feet as i was reaching toward their udders, because i know i wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to avoid being kicked had they decided to do so..anywho..at one point i looked up to see ivan, amy and jill laughing hysterically, though i hadn't seen or heard anything funny..it turns out, they had..remember me mentioning that cows aren't potty trained? taemon had been putting on the milking machines as well, but had also been watching lynne and i with the cows..he had noticed that one cow was about to go #2, and that it would've gone all over me..so he "defended" me..he stepped in between me and the cow..so everything that exited the cow went all over him, and almost none of it onto me..he did such a good job of blocking me that i had no idea anything had even happened!! and he didn't say anything either..i wouldn't have known it had happened had amy, ivan and jill not seen it..sooooooooo funny..anywho..after getting out of the area between the cows, taemon shows us the barrel into which he had some of the fresh milk being pumped, and told us we should try it..so we did..who knew that fresh cow's milk could be so good? YUM!!! next we took milk out to some more young calves, though they were old enough that they recognized what was happening, and drank 100L of milk i about 10 minutes..our last activity on the farm was to feed the mama pig who had just given birth..she is a wild pig, and quite ugly..she got to drink the same fresh milk we had tried ourselves and given to the calves..the entire time the piglets were cowering in the back corner of the pen, climbing over themselves continuously in order to try to get warm..very very cute..after taemon had taken off his rubber apron and put on some clean clothes, he took us to his house in progress..it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous..it's not finished (howard reckoned it had taken him 10 years to get to where it is now) but it's easy to see how amazing it'll be when it is finished..taemon has done all the work himself, including milling local logs!! he also took us down to the creek, and fed his "pet" eels..ugly suckers!! they recognized him, and would eat pieces of luncheon right off his boot, or out of his fingers!!
that was our last morning in taranaki..upon getting back to jill and howard's, we cleaned up, put everything in the car, and drove back up to auckland..amy and ivan dropped lynne and i off at the airport, where we were able to hire a car, as she and i were planning to do a little traveling for the next few days..lynne drove the car back to amy and ivan's as no one trusted me to do so:)

my fourth visit

my flight arrived in bali late at night...rather than pay for a prepaid taxi (ridiculously high rates) into kuta just to find a place to sleep, i spent the night at the airport...morning rolled around, the flies became more active, and it began to be warm...i hopped into a taxi that had just dropped someone off, so i got a metered ride into kuta, for less than half the price of a prepaid taxi...i stayed at the same place i had stayed in july, so that was convenient...

during this trip to bali, i started running...i've done a lot of running in my past, but i haven't done ANY running in the past year or so...after my first half hour of jogging, i slowed down to a walk, and realized that my legs felt like jello...no pain, but they were awfully wiggly...i sped up a few more times for a total of an hour or so of running...the next morning, when i started jogging again, it wasn't very easy...and didn't get any easier as i kept going...later, during that second day, i had problems everytime i wanted to go down...that is, step off a curb, sit down, walk down a hill, etc...my legs would pretty much give out at the very last second...NOT GOOD...so i took off the third day...

while starting again, pretty much entirely from scratch, i realized that it really does involve your entire body!!! who knew your oblique muscles actually are used while running? back in high school when my cross country team did so many ab exercises i always thought it was silly...now i know there was actually a purpose!! and i realized that even though i can walk all day long, it doesn't translate much at all to being fit, and being able to run...i don't think i'd ever been that completely out of shape...embarassing...

my days were all pretty much the same...get up early, go running, go check email, lay out on the beach...eat dinner, read a bit, go to sleep early...

as i was walking from the beach back to my room one day i walked past a little stand set up to register people for a charity run taking place that weekend...the next day i went back with money, and signed myself up...the organizing company was hard rock, but it was sponsored by a number of other companies...the charity being benefited helped kids with cleft palates...the run was supposed to be a 5K...

by taking off that third day from running, i made sure i would be okay for the run on the 4th...and i was...it was just a loop around a really busy block of kuta...but it wasn't so busy at 0730 on a sunday morning:)...after everyone finished, (about 700 people had entered, they said it was the biggest run they'd had, and this was the 9th annual run) they handed out all the raffle prizes, as well as the auction prizes...all in all, it was a well organized event...perhaps one of the nicest parts was the free 10 minute foot massage i got at one of the sponsor tents...so nice:)...sadly, it wasn't a 5K, it was only a 4K...according to the organizers, the police who were doing traffic control turned everyone a little early, so that's why we had all had such fast times...hee hee...oh well...

the rest of my days followed the same pattern i mentioned before...i was tan as all get out when i left bali this time:)...

a new passport

after the retreat in thailand, i came to malaysia again...my passport was nearing 6 months until it expired, and in many countries, if you wish to enter, your passport has to be valid for at least 6 months longer...so i needed a new passport...since malaysia and thailand are the only countries in that area with visas on arrival that are free, and i've seen enough of thailand for now, i decided to come to malaysia to have my passport renewed...
landing in kuala lumpur after the relaxation of the retreat was quite a shock...i like KL, but in comparison it was really really big and crazy and LOUD...
anywho, the morning after arriving, i made my way to the US embassy (which technically meant i left malaysian soil and spent an hour in the US) and dropped off my application and way too much money...go figure, i had turned in the wrong size photos, so i had to run to a kodak shop, have proper size photos taken, and turn those in...they accepted them, and told me to come back with my receipt in a couple weeks...
that night, i met up with layna and a friend of hers, we all boarded a bus that took us to a little town called kuala besut...there is no reason to go there, except to catch a ferry to the perhentian islands...there are two islands, besar (big) and kecil (small)...they're virtually the same in terms of physical appearance (other than size of course) so we went to kecil, because accomodation is cheaper...layna had stayed on kecil when she was last in malaysia, and really enjoyed it...we stayed in the same place she stayed the last time, and i loved it...my original plan was to stay on kecil for 4 nights or so...but i ended up staying 11 nights!!
the water was SUPER clear, and warm...the sand on the beach wasn't the greatest i've ever seen, but it was far from the worst...it was mostly white, and the beach was relatively quiet...there are two main beaches on kecil, coral bay and long beach...long beach is bigger, and much better for laying out...(and we all know i'm the queen of laying out)...you could hire an umbrella for the day, but since that would block all those harmful rays of the sun, i didn't do that...the water was warm, sometimes too warm...it was really really really clear, and absolutely lovely...there were small waves, but you didn't have to worry about being knocked over when the waves came in...during my days on the beach i saw several ladies sitting in the water reading!! more sun for themselves, i'm guessing...hee hee...

anywho, my days were filled with checking email, reading novels, talking to layna and a few other random travelers, and eating yummy pakistani food...nothing strenuous or stressful...in a way, it was nice to be back in the quiet mindset i had during the meditation retreat...

one of the books i read while on that beach was moby dick...it's always been referred to as a classic, but after reading it i have no idea why...i felt like i could've written it...and i'm not a good writer...the author got off topic as much as i do!!! A LOT!!! i know that if i had ever turned in a manuscript like that one to any of my english teachers, they would've covered it in red ink, and returned it to me and told me to rewrite it entirely...there is a lot in that story that has nothing to do with the main storyline...argh...they didn't even see the stupid whale until the last 30 pages of a 580 page book!! i definitely won't be recommending that one to anyone...

the islamic holiday of hari raya took place while i was on kecil...hari raya is the last two or three days of the fasting month of ramaddan...even on the island, which basically depends entirely on tourism, nearly everything was closed...there was only one place open to eat on each beach...i was lucky to be eating with the guys who ran the place i was staying!! during hari raya, friends and family get together and enjoy time together, and eat special foods...ramaddan itself is when muslims fast in order to prove their faith to allah...at least, that's the very general idea...during the month of ramaddan, muslims don't eat OR DRINK between sunrise and sunset...i know i could go w/out eating all day, but in the heat and humidity of malaysia, it doesn't seem healthy or safe to go w/out liquid...anywho...

anywho, after 11 nights on the island, i made my way back to KL...a day trip to the nearby town of seremban, which is easily reachable by commuter train...a very quiet town, especially considering how close it is to KL...i saw a couple churches, a couple mosques, a hindu temple, and met a british lady who had just moved there with her husband who worked on semiconductors...exciting stuff i tell ya...

i often miss what is written right in front of me...the receipt i got when i turned in my passport for renewal said to come back between 0900-1100 m-f mornings...somehow, i missed that, and showed up around 1230 when i came back...oooops...the security people took pity on me, and still let me in...being in that room all by myself was kinda eerie, because it's actually quite loud when everyone is there in the morning...and it's FREEZING when there are no other bodies in there to soak up the air conditioning...i was finally called up to a window, collected my new passport (i hate the picture, the guy taking it wouldn't let me smile...argh) and made my way back to chinatown, where i was staying...i stopped at coffee bean along the way for a much looked forward to chai latte, and they said they were out of the tea they use to make those...HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN???? definitely a disappointment...

after that, i went back to my hostel, picked up my stuff, and went to the aiport...i wasn't completely aware of it, but KL has two major international airports...one is the LCCT, the low coast carrier terminal...basically almost entirely filled with air asia flights...the other is the "normal" international terminal...fully modern, efficient, etc...this time i flew out of LCCT...

a meditation retreat

while we were trekking in nepal, layna and i got to know a couple of brits, nikki and ray...one day, as we were all standing around at the top of our acclimatization day hike, they mentioned a meditation retreat they had done several years ago...i don't know what brought it into the conversation, but layna and i wanted to know as much as possible...after that, we talked regularly about doing this retreat ourselves...i was finally able to do it, in september, toward the end of the trip...
the retreat starts on the 1st of each month, and there is no advance registration...you simply show up the last day of the previous month and register...so i did, on 31 august...during registration i was interviewed by one of the monks who would be talking during the retreat, as well as read the rules for the retreat, paid my (ridiculously small) fees, found my room and set myself up...
during this retreat, everyone has their own room...everyone sleeps on a cement bed that is covered with a simple mat, and a wooden pillow...(i slept like a rock, the entire time!)...electricity is on in the dorms only about 5 hours a day...two hours in the morning, and three hours in the evening...there is no talking, no eye contact...no communication with each other...no cameras, no writing other than to take notes during the dhamma talks, no leaving retreat property...(well, you can, but you don't get to come back...at least 20 people left over the course of the retreat...when i noticed that someone wasn't there anymore, i was dying to know why they'd left, but that information obviously wasn't given out)...i thought no talking would be difficult for me, but it wasn't...the most difficult part for me was not having any dairy...we ate only twice a day, which i thought would be a challenge, but wasn't...the food was good, and there was plenty...

 this is the daily schedule we followed...
0400 - morning wakeup bell
0430 - morning reading
0445-0515 - sitting meditation
0515-0645 - mindfulness through motion
0700-0800 - morning talk by the abbott or more sitting meditation
0800 - breakfast
1000-1100 - sitting meditation or listening to a translated dhamma talk
1100-1145 - walking/standing meditation
1145-1230 - sitting meditation
1230 - lunch
1430-1530 - dhamma talk, usually by the british monk, or sitting meditation
1530-1615 - walking/standing meditation
1615-1700 - sitting meditation
1700-1800 - chanting in pali (the language of the buddha)
1800 - tea time
1930-2000 - sitting meditation
2000-2030 - group walking meditation
2030-2100 - sitting meditation
2130 - lights out
i won't go on and on to describe things, because it think this is an experience you have to have for yourself...it wasn't enjoyable, that's the wrong word to use...but i loved it, and definitely want to go back someday for another retreat...i've heard that your second retreat is far more difficult than your first!

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:)