Day 4 Myanmar - Speed Traveling

After a little rest I went off and started exploring the city and saw the “must see” Pagoda in Mandalay. After seeing the Shwedagon Pagoda I don’t think any pagoda in the world will be as spectacular, but it is worth seeing if you have the chance. I actually even got in and out without paying. I think I remember reading somewhere that that is possible and many foreigners do it to avoid paying the government.

Then I headed to the Zegyo Markets in the hope of finding some souvenirs. But alas the market was basically just clothes and fabrics. A couple floors were actually selling Western products. After about half an hour without seining another foreigner or something interesting to buy I decided that maybe these markets weren’t really for tourist.

So first impressions on Mandalay….If I thought Yangon was a rundown city Mandalay takes the cake. I’m not even quite sure it should be considered a city were just a mere population of a million. There are no tall buildings; most are between 3-5 stories. I imagined it like a cowboy town, a really big one. Like the city, my accommodations pale in comparison to those in Yangon. I’m writing this on the roof because for one my room is not the coolest place to hang out and two there isn’t a room for guests to hang out and talk.

After I finish up here I plan on heading to Mandalay Hill to catch the sunset. So just one final thought before I go for now. I think I’m ready for home. I say this because some of the cultural things people do here is already starting to annoy me. I know cultural are different and everything and perhaps it’s just a little cultural shock but I didn’t expect to become annoyed like this. I’m not sure. Not really finished on this topic, but I’m losing sun and still have to get to the hill and eat some dinner.

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So the keep the theme of firsts alive I had another first today. I rode my first motorcycle. Because this city is quite a metropolitan there aren’t many car taxis here. And after getting tired of waiting I decided to take a motorcycle taxi to the hill. Apparently, as I was told by my driver, I was too late to reach the top of the hill by sunset; but that he would do his best to get me there as quick as possible. At first I thought that was a good thing, until I got on and we started driving. After I got over the fear of crashing and dying I gotta say that the wind in my face was quite relaxing – don’t worry, still not enough to make me want a motorcycle of my own.

Well as I found out climbing the hill, even running up it at parts, I did cut it too close and only reached the halfway part before I stopped and cut my losses and shot what photos I could of the dropping sun. They’re good, but probably not nearly as good if I made it to the top. Hopefully I’ll get better ones while I’m in Bagon. But I think it all worked out for the better because I got to talk with a couple locals. The first local actually wanted to discuss a little about the political situation for a bit – which was a special treat because it’s actually quite dangerous to talk about sensitive stuff like that. The second local was actually a Buddhist monk. After talking for a bit he offered to take me to his monastery. At first I was little apprehensive because the situation was a bit sketchy. Local meets tourist at tourist spot and invites him to unknown location, at night nonetheless. Probably not the smartest or safest decision I made, but I decided to go with him. In the end, it’s safe to say that I’m perfectly alright and that it was a unique experience that I won’t regret.

The monk’s name was quite difficult to pronounce and by the time I got back to my room to write this I completely forgot again. But I do remember that his name’s meaning meant “intelligent.” His monastery wasn’t quite what I expected. It was basically a small gated run-down housing complex. After meeting the monks he lives with and touring the house he sleeps in we decided to go to the local pagoda that they go to usually. On the way we met three fellow monks from his monastery returning from English class. They decided to join us and show me their pagoda. It was a very small one; tourists probably don’t usually visit this particular one. It was nice though with the monks enthusiastically showing me around, pointing at things, saying take a picture of this or that. It was really enjoyable. What’s really cool was that for a parting gift they gave me authentic Buddhist monk robes. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to give them and they wouldn’t accept any money.

So after much thought throughout the day I decided that instead of spending another day in Mandalay I would head to Bagon so I could spend more time there. I planned to travel by ferry, but all the tickets were sold out so I’ll have to take the bus yet again. Early morning tomorrow so I better get some sleep.

The "Final" Post

So because of my horrible blogging record and the fact that my blog is still stuck in Myanmar and I haven't even really blogged at all about this semester I figured I deserve to at least give you something about my present situation. I call this the "Final Post" - because theoretically it should be - I sit in Seoul, South Korea during my layoff waiting for my plane to take me back to the land of free and the home of the brave. But yet, there's still so much to tell and realize that this probably won't be the last post, for better or worse.

It's weird to think that it'e been a year already, god I remember the day I wrote my first post in this same exact airport all full of excitement. And now I'm here again writing some of my finals thoughts of my journey to China. I'm sure I speak for everyone like me when I say that part of me is ready to come home and part of me just wants to stay. But besides that conflicting feeling, I don't think I'm feeling anything else. I don't know. Maybe I don't really realize I'm coming home. This is just another flight. It's still all too surreal.

Man, this is tough to write even. I don't know what to say. I could go on about all those questions that people like to ask; like, how different will returning be, etc. But I don't know. I'm in a very carefree state and going to just go my motto that I've been developing and just go with the flow and take what ever comes for better or worse. More on that in my trip to Myanmar, but that's a different post for a different day haha. I promise that this blog will all be complete before I graduate haha. I'll do my best this summer, I shouldn't be doing that much.

I guess this is where I'll say, see you all state side! bai bai!

Day 3 Myanmar – Trains, Buses, and Rickshaws oh my!

I decided to take it easy today. I went to breakfast and ran it Eric – from Peekskill – and we had a nice conversation. It says 11:18 am on my phone – which is actually only an hour and a half faster than local time. I think I might just chill out on the roof until around noon waiting for check out. It’s really nice up here with the breeze and sun. Ahh how I miss sunny days, they’re pretty rare in China.

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Sitting on the roof and just thinking about things made me realize that I’m running kind of low on money. Money dries up real quick here. I’m already down to 25,000 Kyat from the initial 80,000 I exchanged. I think I’m gonna exchange some more while I’m in Yangon, apparently the exchange rate is the best here. I talked to the front desk and they’ll let me leave my bags, hopefully they’ll be secure.

After I exchanged some more money, at a better rate of 840 Kyat to the dollar, I decided to check out the Yangon train station keeping in my relaxing theme day….

All in all, I think it took about 3 hours to complete the entire train route around Yangon. I’m not sure I would recommend this activity because it isn’t really for everyone. However, it gave quite an interesting perspective on daily life for average people in Myanmar. If you’re looking to take it to see the countryside, you may be a little disappointed because you only catch a glimpse. Anyone coming from a Western country and traveling for the first time in a developing country by train will be in awe. People selling food and water would pop on and off going from one carriage to the next whenever the train stopped.

Once we arrived back at the main station I decided to head to the markets to maybe pick up some souvenirs. However, for the most part all they were selling was clothes, fabric, jewelry and “precious gems.” Basically only things real tourists would buy. I like to consider myself part of a different type of tourist who doesn’t do/buy things of that caliber. Eventually I gave up perusing and decided to call it a day. It was also about time for me to head back anyway to pick up my bags from the hotel and head to the bus station for my bus to Mandalay.

At the bus station I ran into Richard. He actually decided to go to Mandalay as well and that we would be traveling together. Fortunately the ticket collector and the person who was suppose to site next to me were very cooperative and allowed Richard to change his seat so that we could sit together and talk. Out bus took off at 8pm and arrived earlier than anticipated at 4am. For both Richard and I, our guide books and research said to expect a 10-12 hr ride. So when we arrived in Mandalay we weren’t quite sure that we arrived or if we were just at another stop along the way. Actually, we almost didn’t get off the bus until someone told us we arrived. Apparently, Myanmar’s road system has improved drastically in the last year or so.

We decided to share a taxi – which turned out to be a rickshaw to the Royal Guest House and hope that rooms were available. When we arrived we were told rooms would be available later, after people woke up and checked out. I was able to get my room immediately, though, because I didn’t need my own bathroom. After getting to my room I took a long and most need rest.

Pictures

So for those who don't know already, about 100 pictures are up on facebook covering mostly Yangon, Myanmar.

Day 2 - Myanmar Madness

As I haven’t had breakfast anywhere else in Myanmar I can’t really compare, but I think it will do. The eggs and toasts were good; the 100% real fruit juice was delicious; the bananas were a little too sweet for my tastes; and this fruit-like/cheese pastry was interesting to say the least. All in all, I’m definitely looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

After breakfast I headed to the Shwedagon Paya (pagoda). It was simply amazing. I can’t even describe it in words, so I hope the pictures give you a small taste of the magnitude of its AWESOMENESS. God willing you should see some great pictures soon. I decided to hire a tour guide for the entire morning; so he not only gave me a tour of the Shwedagon Paya but also of the surrounding sites. To give a little background information on this pagoda, it is an active site of worship and yes it is made with real gold. One of the really cool things I was able to do while there was wash Buddha. There are eight Buddhas, representing each day of the week – Wednesday for some reason has two, one for the morning and one for the afternoon – and you’re suppose to wash the Buddha according to the day you were born. My tour guide had a book that contained calendars for like the past 50 years or something so we were able to find out that I was born on a Sunday. After, I invited him to lunch to eat some authentic Myanmar food – which was similar to last night, nothing extraordinary.

After lunch I headed back to the hotel. Currently, I’m sitting in a lounge-like room enjoying the shade and cool breeze. It’s a nice place to relax and take a break from the searing sun; also perfect for conversing with the other guests. I’ve actually met a fellow American named Richard from Washington DC. He’s a crazy travel-holic who has been to over 100+ countries. What’s somewhat surprising is he didn’t even get his college degree. He seems to be in his early 60s, retired, worked as a train ticket operator and loudspeaker announcer at Union station.

Later I’m probably gonna head out and get some dinner and maybe check out the Yangon river. I think I forgot to mention, but I’ve booked an overnight bus ride to Mandalay for tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m probably going to do the Yangon train. The route makes a circle around Yangon in around 3-4 hrs. It should be an interesting opportunity to get a little taste of local life.

After I left the lounge I realized that the sun should have started setting so I decided to go all the way to the top and get some pictures from the roof. Up there I met another American and fellow New York, actually quite close to me in Peekskill named Eric. I got distracted in conversation and forgot about the sunset. The pictures I took aren’t the greatest and there’s a building in the way. But at least Eric pointed me into the direction for dinner. He told me how to get to the Indian Quarter so that’s where I’m heading. I ordered fried catfish and curry, but was a little disappointed in the curry. It just didn’t really taste like Indian curry, but then again I haven’t had authentic Indian food from India so I guess I shouldn’t criticize just yet. I guess I need to put India on the list of countries I need to visit.

Well I’m back in the lounge just finishing up writing today’s events. Even though most of the stalls and shops close by 8pm, the city itself is still pretty noisy. The sound of the city is pretty interesting. It has the same feel I would imagine a Muslim country to have – or at least the ones in the movies we watch. What I mean is that throughout the day loudspeakers are constantly saying Buddhism prayers. Sort of like how I imagine the Koran being read in Arabic. It’s nice to listen to during the day, but the morning prayers are a little annoying – or a little too early haha.

Final thing before I go. I found out today that I would be in Myanmar for their Union Day. I think this is similar to what we consider Independence Day. I wonder if anything interesting will happen. If things work out as they are in my head, I’ll probably be in Bagan – home of numerous amounts of temples but very little social life… We’ll see what happens I guess. Night.

Day 1 Myanmar – The Tropical Oasis in the Freezing Desert

What a great day. I finally got out of China, a much needed break. As the day progressed my joy continued to exponentially get larger. I feel like I’m finally setting off on my own adventure. I discount China, to a degree, because I have Danny. Danny is terrific and a life saver; nor am I sure how I would have survived without him. But that’s just it. There was someone there is to assist me. Myanmar marks my first real adventure because there are only two things for certain: I have a plane ticket to Myanmar and I have a ticket out of Myanmar. Everything else is an unknown. An adventurer’s dream and a mom’s worst nightmare. There were two defining moments where I just cracked out a smile. The first was in China as I was preparing to board walking down the long platform towards the plane. The second was after we landed in Myanmar and I walked off the plane. First thoughts were that Myanmar felt like a nice tropical sauna. Just what the doctor called for after spending so much time in Coldville.

But the more I experience the heat, the more I worry. It’s hotter here than expected, probably in the 80’s – this is their winter temperature. I’m a little worried because all I packed – in regards to pants - for the duration of my journey were two pairs of jeans. I didn’t know before leaving Dalian if I would be able to get out of the country so only packed for winter in China. Even still, I probably just of been more prepared. Oh wells, I guess keeping cool is going to be tough. As I write this though I can say at least in the evening and early morning it gets quite a bit cooler.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I was traveling with a couple that is friends with my friends in Kunming. I’m only mentioning them now because of customs. As two custom agents came up to us and started filling out the forms for us, the couple took the liberty to offer them both “gifts” or bribes to ensure getting through customs wouldn’t be a problem. I might do that while leaving Myanmar because I was thinking of smuggling some of the local currency out – which is illegal.

After customs I parted with the couple and took a cab to the White House Hotel. Apparently, this is the number one hotel in Yangoon by a few reputable sources. After paying a $10 USD cab fare, freaking expensive, I found out that rooms were available and was able to score a room for $10 USD a night. I even got a room on the roof, which I thought was a good idea until I found out there are like nine floors and no elevator… The room is actually a triple I think because there are 2 ½ (3) beds – one is broken which is of course the one I’m sleeping on because the other two beds are in an enclave with no windows, fan, or a/c – no thanks. The bed I’m sleeping on is outside – which is getting an excellent breeze this evening. After checking my room I must say I have my doubts about the quality of my accommodations, but supposedly their breakfast is the best in Myanmar for hotels. And no, I did not choose this hotel for their breakfast this time.

After changing into the most appropriate clothes I brought I decided to stroll around downtown and also exchange some money. During the exchange and after reminded me very much of a movie I watched called Lord of War with Nicholas Cage. I don’t remember the exact quote right now, but when I get back I’ll be sure to look it up. But it goes something like “selling a gun for the first time is a lot like sex; you don’t really know what’s going on and before you know realize it’s over.” I felt my feelings very accurately resembled that quote. I had no idea what I was doing or what I should be saying and before I knew it I was walking away with a huge wad of the local currency (Kyat).

For dinner I found a fairly busy restaurant that had pictures and an English menu. I ordered chicken with rice. It was really delicious, reminding me of Indian food. Which does make sense seeing as there is a fairly large Indian minority, the proximity of Myanmar and India, and Myanmar’s history of Indian immigrants.

Myanmar is a melting pot of various different ethnicities. There is also a significant Chinese and Japanese presence. For those who don’t know anything about the Burmese (people from Myanmar), they are quite dark skinned – resembling Indians; making it quite easy to distinguish Burmese from other ethnicities. What I’ve found really interesting is the mix between Orientals (Chinese, etc) and Burmese. Their children are dark-skinned, yet their facial appearance maintains the Oriental look. Or in other words they look Chinese, Japanese, Korean but with really dark skin. This has made me wonder what the cultural future will look like in Myanmar. In China, at least, there is a strong cultural norm to make yourself look as white (Caucasian) as possible. I’m not sure if it is true for Myanmar or if it’ll ever pick up, but an interesting theoretical question and some food for thought.

This brings me to another interesting topic. My own personal experience with my appearance. This is probably one of the most important topics I’ve wanted to discuss but have failed to even mention or talk about it in my blog yet. This is because I’m not sure how to proceed and tackle this nitty-gritty topic. Yet I think it is about time I at least address and get it out in the open. Perhaps this will help me in the future with how to write and cover this completely. But let’s begin. As I went for my walk earlier in the day, I was continuously stared at. I’m not completely sure if it is because of my ethnicity or the way I dress – because I’m not wearing a longyi or basically a skirt like nearly everyone else. Initially, as I left China that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted it to be known that I was a foreigner for various reasons. In China, I’m considered Chinese until I talk. Which I like; but it is the reactions that come after that annoyed me to no end. This was another reason I wanted to get out of China. But now after experiencing what I wanted, I’m not sure I want it anymore. I’m not sure what’s worse right now, being seen as a local or being stared at and looked at as a foreigner. It is only day one. I think I need to experience this feeling more and hopefully time will tell. I think that’s it for now. See you tomorrow.

The Lost Days

As I write this on the plane to Myanmar, I’m attempting to reflect on my stay at an authentic Chinese family. This will be the only section that will be written in a strong past-tense. So I’m sorry because it doesn’t flow like I want it to. I’m not even sure where to begin because so many thoughts and frustrations are going through my mind while I write this. I guess I’ll start out by saying I didn’t get to do anything I thought or expected to do while in Kunming. First, my initial plan to go to Yuanyang fell through because we couldn’t attain a bus ticket. So I tried to be flexible and opted to do a few days trips in and around Kunming. But those, however, fell through as well for two reasons. One I got sick so I had to remain inside for a few days. And second, was their lack of faith in my Chinese language abilities to travel or explore on my own.

Now to be fair, from their point of view there was a certain unspoken rule that they were liable and responsible for me because I was staying at their house and the fact that my camera was stolen didn’t help my case.

However, that isn’t to say that I didn’t get out of the house. The first day I arrived I was ushered out of the house to meet some friends of theirs who were going to take me to the Myanmar embassy. Turns out these friends actually own and run a travel agency which specializes in groups tours to Myanmar. Not only did they help me get my visa, but they also insisted on helping me get my tickets to and from.

Now before I continue on my rant on Chinese culture and thinking, let’s take a break to discuss more positive aspects of my stay in Kunming. First, omg, the weather and temperature was amazing there. As close to perfect as possible. I think it was actually colder inside than outside – in a bad way, unlike during summer when you want it cold inside. The local food was good. It resembled something closer to what I’m used to back home. Some of the more famous things I tried here was erkuai and cross-the-bridge noodles. Things to try if you ever in the area.

Now unfortunately because I wasn’t writing daily all the negative things have overshadowed all the good things and I can’t seem to think of anything else I want to talk about…So, we move back to negative things. All the negative things seem to stem from Chinese culture, so I think, no, I know that I need to get out of country and thank god I am. So there are two events that made me explode inside.

First is traffic awareness. We decided to try and go to Dian Chi a famous lake at Kunming. However, as we neared to the lake, there was only one road into and out. Of course, instead of waiting to enter like any most people in America would do; a good number of the Chinese motorists thought it a good idea to drive on the other side of the road. What ensued was that eventually this road was clogged up because no one could enter or exit the lake. After like ½ an hour of not moving, we called it quits. But the driving escapades don’t end there. We entered a turning circle and what do you know but there’s an accident. Instead of the cars and people involved to drive out of the turning circle where they wouldn’t disrupt traffic, they stopped and got out exactly where the incident occurred. Thus making it nearly impossible for everyone else to use the turning circle…

This second event isn’t directed at Chinese culture, but is more of a sad story of my trip to the local Kunming zoo. Let’s ask ourselves a question, what’s the purpose of a zoo? I believe the answer is to educate and promote preservation. Well, going to this zoo – or any zoo in China – with that outlook, will bring a lot of disappointment. First off, people were littering everywhere and everyone was illegally feeding the animals when there were clearly signs in Chinese and English saying not to. On top of that they were making attractions off of animals. Why put the whack-a-monkey machines right next to the monkeys…like really? None of the exhibits had anything to say about what the animals were or any of their information, etc. It just completely lacked any form of trying to promote conservation of the animals in there zoo – probably something closer to zoos when they first opened in America: a place that holds exotic animals.

But we’re about to land in Myanmar, and I’m really glad to be getting out of this country. Hopefully it’ll be as pleasant as I hope. I’ll let you know soon.

Day 4 - The Day the Earth Stood Still

So today probably felt like the worst day ever. I came to the realization that my camera was missing. Sometime in between the end of the foundation festival and my return to the hostel my camera either fell out of my pocket or someone took the liberty to take it from my pocket, my thoughts points to the latter.

After beating myself up, I resolved to put in time and effort to try and find it. I decided to go to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) to report the theft and file a claim in the rare offshoot that they find it. I got an interesting perspective of how the PSB works now. For better or worse, I an unfamiliar with our own US police force procedures; but I think that it is safe to say that the PSB is more bloated and bureaucratic that our own system. It took about 2-3 hours to complete the entire process. First I went to one police station, where I luckily found someone who spoke English. After a few phone calls, she escorted me to another police station where I filled out one form. After that was done and a few more phone calls I was shuttled to another, even larger, police station – about 25 floors of pig country. There I filled out basically the same form and was finally on merry way.

Instead of being emo and depressed in my room, I decided to continue with my plans and decided to check out the Muslim Quarter – even though I wasn’t really in the mood. I got a few snacks, Muslim bread and lamb is super delicious, and then left. I just couldn’t really get into the right mindset thus diminishing the magic of the Muslim Quarter, guess I’ll substitute it for visiting a Muslim country in the future. For dinner I decided to treat myself to some American food and went to the Hostel’s restaurant and received a fairly delicious BBQ chicken sandwich. Oh how I miss the starch-based foods.

After dinner, I was able to skype with my parents and let them know what happened. I’m going to take a moment to embarrass them. Because true be told, I felt quite miserable after losing my camera, unsure of what I should do, thinking about returning to Dalian. But from comforting and encouraging words from my folks I was able, and decided, to persevere and continue with my trip. It was a pleasant, and welcoming, surprise that instead of anger, disappointment, and/or the “teasing jests” I was received with anxiety and worry. It is quite difficult to express in words without teasing my folks, but it was one of the few times I appreciated everything my parents said – not that I don’t appreciated the constant nagging and whatnot, though I know you mean well…

In better spirits after comforting words from my parents I just chilled in my room and watched some of the Australian Open. The Chinese star Li Na is making waves and history, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Tomorrow to Kunming we go.

Day 3 - Baked earth and a glass of water

It was an early morning, the tour group planned to leave at 8:30am. The terracotta soldiers were amazing, the detail was incredible. What was quite interesting that I didn’t know was that the site is actually an ongoing archeological dig site. The workers apparently come in around 6:30pm when everything closes to the public and continue to dig up a never-ending supply of soldiers from the ground. The tour was nice and I’m glad I decided to take it. It gave me a chance to converse with other people in more substantive material, something I haven’t been able to do in a while it seems. Our tour guide was also able to give us some interesting facts about the soldiers which I probably would never have learned on my own.

A few of the facts include:

- Upward curled shoes indicate your ranking – the higher the better; if they didn’t curl at all it meant you were nothing, just an ordinary foot soldier

- Big bellies and mustaches were in at the time representing how handsome you are

- A nail in the sole of your shoe was a sign that you were married

- The ribbons on the archers indicated if you were left or right handed

After we got back I took the rest of the afternoon off to recuperate. Around dinnertime, I headed out to the Big Goose Pagoda – one of Xian’s most pictured landmarks. The area was gorgeous, at night was even better with all the lights. It was already too late to climb up the Pagoda when I arrived, but the real reason I came was because every night they do what is considered the biggest water foundation show in the world. From my comprehensive background in watching water foundation shows, I can guarantee you that this was by far the largest I’ve ever seen. It started at 8:30pm and was still shooting away when I decided to call it a night at 9. All things aside, it was actually really amazing; I think I managed to get a few good pictures and video clips. It’s on every night and free –something quite rare and unusual for China – so this is a must if you’re ever traveling in Xian.

Day 2 - N-n-now that that don't kill me; can only make me stronger

Breakfast wasn’t horrible. They had the three staple foods: eggs, bacon, and potatoes. Drinks were still served Chinese-style. Meaning that they were served hot – so a delicious glass of hot apple juice to start off the day yum yum. I guess I might think differently once I get outside, but my thirst is not thanking me right now.

After a quick trip to the St. Sophia Cathedral and a stroll down Zhongyang Dajie (the main street in the downtown area) it was back to the airport I go. It seems that Chinese New Year is beginning to take effect on transportation. All day at every airport I was at the loudspeaker kept going nonstop announcing delayed flights. Luckily it seemed that my flight wasn’t affected this time around.

So to be very blunt, Chinese travel culture has been frustrating and annoying to no end; and I kinda want to punch someone (Chinese) in the face. I’ve talked about Guanxi briefly before about how Chinese people only help out people they know and are in their circle of trust. But lately, through traveling, I’ve felt that it has moved further and that the Chinese are just plain rude to anyone who they don’t know. Traveling in China will definitely throw away any notions you have of Chinese culture being extremely polite. For instance, when I was attempting to get my carry-on from the overhead compartment, no one could wait 10 seconds and kept pushing me aside so they could move forward into a line that wasn’t even moving yet.

On top of that Chinese people don’t seem to listen. Like is it that difficult to turn off your phone, put your seatbelt on – after the flight attendant has told you 5 times already – wait for the plane to come to a completely stop before getting out of your seat and retrieving your carry-on from the overhead compartment, and not put your carry-on in the overhead compartments in the front of the place. All of this information is said multiple times in CHINESE, so there is without any doubt that they understand. To the Chinese, traveling is like a race – who can be the first one on the plane and the first one off – everyone trying to get ahead of the next person, pushing people down to get on top, etc. I shudder to imagine what would happen if there was ever a crisis like the landing in the Hudson River – I feel like everyone would die because no one would be listening and everyone would be fending for themselves.

Anyways, I arrived in Xian safe and sound at least. I’m staying at the Shuyuan International Youth Hostel. It’s literally right next on one of the Southern gates of the city wall. The building is an authentic ancient Chinese housing complex. There’s a courtyard and everything. In the morning I’ll take pictures.

After settling in I decided to do a little exploring. Inside the city wall is like the downtown shopping area. I was hoping to find a cheap small local flavor restaurant but no luck. Everywhere around me there were McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen, Western clothing stores, and the list goes on. I felt like I was back in America.

The only thing of interest that happened was that I got to witness my first Chinese fight. I didn’t even realize it at first. There was a minor car incident in the parking lot; they were still touching together and making a really awful noise. I was curious as to why they hadn’t moved their vehicles at least and decided to walk closer. It took me a moment, but then I noticed something strange. Driver A was in Car B punching Driver B in the face…They were starting to garner a small audience, yet no one in the crowd was doing anything about it. I thought it best to continue on my way. Ironically, at the end of the road there was a cop, but he didn’t have a clue in the world what was going on a few minutes away from him.

I returned back to the hostel and am calling it a night. Apparently, the hostel is offering a tour to the Terracotta soldiers. I think for convenience I’m going to do that tomorrow.

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Quick update of the happenings of Dalian. All the new students have arrived. For official BCA students we got 3 new male students, bringing our total to 6 – 5 guys, 1 girl. None of the new students are from my school. It is a much older group this semester. Two of our new members are 27 years of age. One is actually ex-green berets (Special Forces for those who don’t know) who decidedly got married to a Chinese women – making our final total 7. The other is from Colombia but who decided to do his higher learning study in America. The third is my age and goes to Manchester College. Our semester is finally starting – on Monday to be exact. I’m actually quite excited to get this show on the road. I think that’s it for now. I hope you’re enjoying the travelogues.

好久不见 (Long time no see) and Introduction

Note: There are two consecutive posts. I posted them out of order so that when viewed they would look normal to the reader.

Long time no see my loyal fans and paid audience. It’s been a few days now since I’ve been back, but I have just finished up my travels – a little shorter than expected – but I’m back and preparing for the start of our semester, March 7 (finally). Before the semester begins though and I lose all this free time I have, I figure it wise to start rolling out a few blog posts seeing how it has been a while. You are in for a real treat because over the course of a few weeks I will be releasing journal entries that I have wrote while on the road traveling. After much contemplation I have decided that I will not be making any edits to my journal entries. This is being done to keep the integrity of the original writing which expresses in the most real and raw form my experiences, thoughts, and feelings at the current time. The entries, for the most part, were written in the past tense with a narrator-like voice. Most were written in the same day that they took place, with minor exceptions. Because I do not want to flood my blog with posts for both of our sakes, I plan on releasing the posts in random and arbitrary sections; accompanying photos will be released shortly thereafter on Facebook.

There is one final thing before I begin, and to help explain it I’m going to use a quote from the movie Lord of War. To really sum up my travel experience into one theme it is this: “Selling a gun for the first time is a lot like sex for the first time. You’re excited but you don’t really know what the hell you’re doing. And some way, one way or another, it’s over way too fast.” This sentiment and quote kept popping in my head throughout my travels. And as you read the various travelogues you will see me over and over again stressing this theme of “firsts” – in regards to doing something for the first time. Now that I’ve gotten the introduction out of the way, sit back and enjoy as I take you on this magical journey to Neverland.

Final disclaimers: Because while I traveled I thought about how I wanted to present my journal to you, some things I write and do in regards to organizational work and the fact I am not editing will result in some repetition and various rough patches. Furthermore, because I am writing in the stream of consciousness there is a slight chance the censorship is at a minimum.

The Day of Reckoning (Day 1)

Mmmm! I’ve finally made it to my room after a long day of travel. First stop: Harbin; even further north than Dalian, reaching -30 degrees Celsius during winter. The flight was ok. The only snag was after boarding. Our flight was delayed for an hour as we wait on the runway. More importantly, this was the first time I’ve flown alone with no one I knew. It was different. None of that atmosphere that I’m used to when waiting on a plane getting ready to go somewhere different, like when you’re going on vacation. It felt more like a business trip then a getaway to some exotic place. It was definitely quite lonely traveling alone, more so than just hanging around campus – probably because I know the area and some of the shopkeepers. Everyone feels so stoic and indifferent with people minding their own business. Traveling alone seems like it is going to take some of the fun out of it. But I’m not gonna dwell on the things I can’t change and just live it up the best I can.

But besides the delay, everything else ran quite smoothly. One of the moments of truth came when I walked outside of the airport. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’m not sure what I felt first: the grabbing of random people and taxi drivers trying to score or the icy chilling temperature. Like you hear about how cold it is, etc, but like you can’t really imagine what -30 feels like, and boy is it cold. But to be honest, for short-term exposure I thought that it was warmer than Dalian without the crazy wind. But after about an hour when you start to lose your senses and numbing starts to take place – well then I think Harbin takes the cake for the coldest places I’ve ever been to. However, all I wore in Harbin was the same thing I wore in Dalian and I stayed relatively warm. I didn’t go all out like the locals with like 2 pairs of long johns and heavy duty jackets and the works. One thing I did pick up on and copied from the locals was to take breaks and utilize the stores and just walk through them. Using this method one could theoretically walk an entire block inside.

I’m staying in the middle of downtown, so no need to deal with taxis and close enough to the ice festival sites which I came to see. I had to pay a little extra to do so, so I’m staying at a 4-star hotel – by Chinese standards – don’t think they would pass Western standards. My room is quaint, not what I expected for 4-stars, so I’m sure this would just be considered average in America, but at least it’s something I can and exaggerate on back home. The service was just like in the movies though, a bell boy came and took my bags and showed me to my room. Besides for the perfect location, they also serve Western-style breakfast buffet. Now doesn’t that sound delicious? Not to lie, but I’m quite excited to see how it so. I haven’t had Western-style breakfast in forever; I hope I’m not disappointed.

Well after arriving a few hours behind schedule and finishing all that check-in business it was basically dinnertime. Initially, I wanted to go to the ice festival sites in the afternoon so I could see them in the daylight and then again at night when they were lit. But instead I will now only be able to do the latter.

After eating, I went out to see the sites. I took as many pictures as I could. But fighting the bitter cold at night is extremely difficult. Even my camera was having trouble; because it was so cold the battery stopped functioning properly – freeeeezing. What made it was worse was that because my gloves were too bulky, I couldn’t press the buttons on the camera meaning I couldn’t take pictures with my gloves on.

After what felt like the coldest and longest night in my life ever, I decided to call it quits and return to my hotel room and take a very long, hot, and steamy shower mmm. Tomorrow I plan to check out the Russian district – no prostitutes I promise. After that it’s back to the airport for my flight to Xian. Just a short stop to one of the coldest places on Earth.

The Oasis in the Desert

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s been awhile. In the beginning of January, it got hectic with Chinese finals and papers to write. But it is now January 21, 2011. What have I been doing since then? This post will be slightly different than most, because I actually have a focus on what I want to write about and I will touch upon all four topics I have written down on my piece of paper and of course there will be my asides and random strains of thoughts that have been ever present throughout this blog.

So starting with the most recent…I got a haircut. It was…interesting to say the least. For 15 yuan, approximately 3 USD they washed my hair with shampoo, cut my hair, then washed my hair a second time. A pretty good deal if you ask me. You would think that asking the hair stylist what I want would be difficult, but actually it was quite simple – I did cheat a little. I first told them I just wanted a haircut and I wanted it shorter. Then I showed him a picture to aid him. What the stylist gave me wasn’t quite what I wanted, but after second looks it sufficed. I also didn’t have the heart to ask him to make it a little shorter. For the most part he once used scissors, no razors - tedious to say the least. It was, however, an enjoyable experience. US saloons could probably learn a thing or two from them about service. Like come on, they washed my hair twice – not just the squirt squirt from water in a bottle.

But moving on…I ordered KFC delivery. Yes, KFC deliveries. Pretty sweet, right? It was fairly simple, when you call there’s an English line, if you can’t speak Chinese well. I used that option, but attempted to speak as much Chinese as possible to ease the troubles on the receiving side. Now, I must admit, KFC in China is awesome and delicious, definitely compared to KFC in the US. I highly recommend if you come to China to go to KFC at least once and try their spicy chicken burger. I don’t understand what’s up with fast food in China. But it seems that both KFC and McDonald’s are shortchanging us Americans. Let me explain. They offer much better food than in the US. For instance, no spicy chicken burgers in the US; no curly fries in the US. What gives? However, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves; we are in China for the Chinese food though.

Let’s see a little aside on Chinese food. Suggestion of the post: do not order suan cai, it is disgusting. It is sour soup with vegetables – which makes sense because English transliteration is sour vegetables. And when I mean sour, I mean like really sour. I guess if you like extremely sour foods, then order it, but for the rest of us normal people this is a don’t.

Moving on to a little more dangerous and interesting…I have used the black market for the first and probably not the last time. I was exchanging money from CNY to USD. A friend took me to see a guy who he uses to exchange money. The money broker works out of the Bank of China and we actually exchanged the money in said bank. We used the bank’s currency exchange rate of the day, exchanged money, and bam it was done. Instead of waiting on line for what looked like an hour wait. The entire situation was pretty ironic to me. We were exchanging money illegally from the institution I was suppose to exchange money and everyone saw and knew and yet ignored it like it was normal and common – which it is.

The last thing I wanted to touch upon is my travel plans. I have decided to do a little traveling around China and hopefully into a few other countries in the Southeast of Asia. So the bad news first, this is just to let you know that you probably won’t see another post for quite some time as I will probably not have a vpn to post on my blog while I travel. Now the good news, when I get back I will have some awesome stories/posts and some amazing pictures hopefully. Because of the sensitive nature of my trip and for security reasons I will not be publicly disclosing my travel plans. If, however, you would like to know because get in connect with my parents for further information.

Again, sorry I haven’t been posting as frequently as I should and sorry that there won’t be another post anytime in the near future. But at least you have something to look forward to. A happy early Chinese new year to all of you reading this 新年快乐。

Oh yeah, a few closing comments. I am the only American in my dormitory. Out of the other two Americans staying the full year, one is off traveling and the other has returned to America with plans to return sometime in February. The new students for next semester won’t arrive until March. Let’s see…the school is deserted because everyone is heading home for break and Chinese New Year’s. They even closed one of the main gates, meaning I have to hop the fence or walk to a different gate to get out of the school. I guess I know what it must feel like for our international students who don’t go home. I think that’s it for now.

Black Wednesday

22 December 2010,

Today we suffered the worst loss thus far. We lost three companions today to the American-istis disease. We lost one a week ago and another yesterday. Making our death toll five. We have another in the sick bay. I doubt he'll make it through, he'll probably be a goner by tomorrow. Leaving our home land with ten fellow adventurers, today we're down to half. I wonder how the rest of our expedition will go. We received word that reinforcements are coming, but they won't arrive for a fortnight's fortnight so we'll have to make do without.

Without our musician and our drunk it has been quiet camp. The eerie silence before the climax. On top of that, to keep our mind's off our losses we've devoted ourselves to our remaining work; which has isolated ourselves from each other.

It seems a fellow Kensei is convening a Samurai Council Meeting. I must take my ado.

Daimyo 梅

On a more serious note, it was really sad saying good bye to a few friends. Like the above section mentioned, it has gotten really quite. Everyone who is left has been buckling down preparing for their finals or writing their final papers or both. Today there was definitely a different atmosphere. For half the day it felt like I was the one going home. I just had that air of excitement, like you're about to do something new - similar to the experience of the drive from the airport in Dalian to our dorms. I wonder if that's what it'll feel like when it happens for real. Eventually it'll just be me, because everyone else is going back to the US and I've opted to stay in China over break. It's late, I'm tired, good night.

SEVERE WEATHER ADVISORY

*crackle* crr crrr *crackle*

We interrupt your usual broadcast for an emergency weather announcement.

The government has issued a severe weather advisory.

There is a impeding snowfall that will take place over the course of the day.

We advise everyone to remain in their houses.

As usual, the Chinese government announced that they will not shovel the snow to the best of their abilities nor will they salt.

We repeat, they WILL NOT use salt.

If you must leave your house, we advice everyone to take precautions so you don't slip and fall or worse break your head

That is all. We now return you to your usual broadcast.

Thanksgiving with some sides.

As promised, a post on Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of sides – pun intended. We had Thanksgiving on Wednesday, so two days ahead of everyone in America. It wasn’t the most traditional Thanksgiving, but nonetheless it was a delicious one. Danny’s apartment is comparatively large for China; however it isn’t really adequate to fit 15-20 people around a dinner table. Therefore, we all ended up eating in chairs, on the sofa, or on the floor with our plates in our hand. But the food….oh how delicious American food can be sometimes. We ordered the food from some a five star restaurant that cooked a Thanksgiving meal for Americans. Even still, I wasn’t completely confident it how well the food would have turned out. So I must admit that when we saw the food – and ate it of course – it came as a surprise that the food was delicious. They had all the staple foods: turkey, mash potatoes, gravy, etc. I took some pictures. As an aside, I promise that some sort of pictures will be up later this evening. But I think that my favorite dish had to be marshmallows and sweet potatoes yummy. They were home cooked and the marshmallows came from the US of A. They were cooked by some friends of Danny’s, people from Texas – as hard to believe as that is – who have fairly good Chinese. They are actually living in China and are semi-retired.

Now to the pun. I have a bunch of random topics I’m going to throw in to this post. The order of the topics will follow from least serious to most serious.

Seeing how I was just talking about food, I’ll continue that strain of thought. Two words: Brooklyn bar. The Brooklyn bar or an American consulate as we like to call it is well…a bar, to be exact an expat bar, but it also serves American food. When we went, I ordered a cheeseburger and that burger was probably the best burger I had in like four months. I gotta say, I sure do miss American food like a lot. But of course it is an expat bar so it was damn expensive. Burger 50 Yuan, cheese 10 Yuan, milkshake 35 Yuan, a good time and some good food priceless. 95 Yuan isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things (less that 15 USD), but when you usually get dinner for 5 Yuan, that’s a lot of money.

What I want to move to next is the weather in Dalian. It is freaking cold here…like really cold…like negative degrees cold…in Celsius of course. At the time of this writing, it is -3 degrees here, so like 26 degrees Fahrenheit. But what’s worse is the wind, recorded at 18 mph at this current writing. It was so bad, that walking back from dinner was difficult, we were having trouble putting one foot in front of the other and walking straight. Ugh, on another aside, I think that my main light just died.

This post has taken me a lot longer to write than expected because of work constraints, so I’m going to stop here. However, I would eventually like to cover North Korea and the wiki leaks debacle.

Very Robust Guanxi 101

So I must sound like a broken record when I say I’ve just been so busy that I didn’t have time to write a blog post lately. And yes, I know I promised to write more often – I’m working on it. It’s no matter though, because I was unsure of what I wanted to write about anyways until recently. What I want to touch upon is the notion of civility in China. Speaking in general, you can’t trust the average Chinese person - at least those you don’t know. That’s because every Chinese person is out for their own self-interest and they don’t truly care what happens to you if they don’t know you that is. Take for example this situation that I was in. I was walking down the street to get lunch and I hear screaming. I look around and in front of me there is this little girl being crushed by a table that accidently fell on top of her. All the other Chinese people just kept walking past her minding their own business. Luckily I was there and rushed and picked up the table. That is my own personal example. Danny has plenty of similar examples, but I think you get the picture.

This brings me to something that happened quite recently to me. It was raining outside and it was early on a Saturday morning, I figured most people were asleep so I decided to go out and get something to eat on my own. Once I arrive at the cafeteria, I order food, then sit down and wait for my food to be cooked. Eventually, my order is called so I get up – but I leave my umbrella on the table – I get my food I turn around and my umbrella is gone. Now to be honest, I was simmering with anger. I left my umbrella unattended for maybe a minute at most and someone had the courage to steal it. And of course, the week before Danny was lecturing to us about civility in class so my initial thoughts were damn Chinese Guanxi (relationship) culture.

I finished eating, still angry that I didn’t bring my umbrella with me, and was getting ready to go until one of the cleaning staff came up to me talking in Chinese – so for simplicity, I didn’t really understand what she was saying – she eventually gives up and tells me to follow her; I do, and we walk towards a pillar. At this pillar was my umbrella, apparently she thought someone forgot the umbrella and she set up her own lost and found box. This made me feel good inside. Because for all the rhetoric about how China is corrupt, selfish, etc, it showed me that there are some “good” people in China and that everything must be taken with a grain of salt.

On a different note, I’ve uploaded more pictures to facebook. The pictures continue in album one: China1; and then moves into album two. And think, in less than a week it’ll be Thanksgiving. Even though we’re in China, we’ll still be celebrating. Next post will be on Thanksgiving dinner. Peace.

Rural Farm and misc.

Hello again, so I have three things I want to get through this evening. We’ll start with what everyone probably wants to know, how was the farm??!?! Then move to pictures and finally heat. Basic itinerary: We left by plane to Qingdao – yes, where the beer Tsingdao is made; unfortunately we didn’t have time to sample any – at 7:30am (way too early) in the morning on October 22^nd; then took a four hour van-ride in a much too small van out into the countryside to be greeted like the circus came to town; finally leaving and heading home around 9pm on Sunday. A great excuse for not doing any homework that weekend!

So what did we do?...well what is there to do but work? Not much, so work was what entertained throughout the weekend – how sad for a birthday weekend I know. Putting that aside, we did three different activities: gathering sweet potatoes; digging up the roots of corn stalks; and peeling off the pieces of the corn on the cob. After a few minutes of trying to get the sweet potatoes out of the ground, we found out that we pretty bad at it. This is because sweet potatoes are quite fragile and sticking a pitchfork like tool into the ground slices the potatoes when wielded by inexperienced hands – which is bad. After we finally got the potatoes out of the ground, we separated them into the good piles which consisted of large potatoes that had very little damage and the bad piles which well had everything else.

After we killed enough potatoes they figured making fuel for fires would be better suited for us. We then moved to their corn field where we spent our effort digging up corn stalk roots and then beating them with sticks to get the dirt out. Thus, we didn’t have to worry about destroying it.

But what did for the better part of the weekend was pick off corn kettles from the cob. This type was for animals so it had to be de-cobbed? It is kinda hard to explain, so you’ll just the before and after pictures.

Talking about pictures…I think I found a way to get pictures up on the blog so hopefully you’ll see some soon! And the farm pictures have some interesting pictures of the local cuisine…

EDIT: Uploading pictures to the blog would have taken forever with a 8mb limit per post, but I have uploaded the first batch of photos on Facebook.

I don’t want to spoil it too much, but if you have to know we ate…hah, you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of this blog.

Now on to the last subject, heat. So yeah, it is really cold in China and really really windy. It’s kinda horrible actually. But I’ve survived so far…I’ll let you know when we reach the coldest month: January. The interesting though is we have no heat. Yes, NO HEAT. That’s what I would have been saying, but national turn on the heat day was actually today! So the heaters all over China have started to turn on. Unfortunately it isn’t very warm yet still. But yeah, the heat in China is governed by the government. And no has heat until the government decides to turn on heat. This is called National Turn on the Heat Day – unofficially. Supposedly it doesn’t turn on until November 15^th, but it is especially cold this winter (China doesn’t have fall L) and so they turned it on. What was especially interesting though was that every class sent two representatives to meet with government officials and voice their concerns.

So the interesting we ate were: grasshoppers, rabbit, and chicken – we got to see them kill the chicken. Enjoy the pictures when they go up.

Address

For those who were interested in sending a package, I finally have an address for you. A fellow classmate has finally received a package, so we know the address works.

To: Jasun Moy, Foreign Students Dormitory Room 218
Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
Institute of Chinese Language and Culture
China, Liaoning Province
Dalian City, Shahekou District
No. 217 Jianshan Street
Postal Code 116025
CHINA

If you do send a care-package, something filled with some sweets, like chocolate, would be nice.

First Expedition

Sorry for the delay, but it has gotten quite busy on my side. Because of constant nagging and some advice from my father I will try and give you all more frequent but shorter posts so to keep you up-to-date in my life. But without further ado, I want to take you back to my Sunday night on October 3rd because this is the day when we started our excursion inside inner (central) China – to Yinchuan. What follows is a short itinerary of the week of October 3 to 8.

October 3rd:

7:26pm – we take a train from Dalian to Beijing

Because, unfortunately, there is no land bridge connecting these Dalian and Beijing the train must go around the small piece of water between these two cities resulting in a train ride of about 13 hours. Luckily, we took soft sleepers (or first class) so at least had “soft” beds to sleep on for the trip over. I suggest to anyone coming to China to travel by train at least one so that you can experience real China. No one but foreigners and the very wealthy ever take planes so I say travel authentic. Also, if you travel by day, it is also a nice way to see China.

October 4th:

Approximately 6am – we arrive in Beijing and travel hastily from the train station to the airport to catch our 10am flight from Beijing to Yinchuan.

Sometime around noon – we land in Yinchuan. We head towards the hotel to unpack and then get lunch

Lunch was interesting…there were ups and downs. Starting with the low: we ate some sort of animal’s (I think it was lamb/mutton) leg/foot – it tasted horrible. The high, however, was this delicious tea called babao cha (eight treasure tea) which was super sweet and did I mention delicious.

After lunch we went to our first site the Western Xia Tombs (or pyramids). Yeah weird, I know, I didn’t think pyramids were in China either. But eventually, once I get around to these pictures you’ll see that I’m not lying. It was a fairly short day because everyone was tired from a long day of traveling.

October 5th – 7th:

In between these days we like five or six different attractions in the surrounding areas. First we saw two different Buddhist temples – one was actually Tibetan. Then we went to the 108 pagodas (built in the Xixia period). Next was the great wall. This was pretty cool because it is near the Mongolian border so the wall was actually in use there. It is also not an official site, so the wall isn’t renovated and we got to see it in its original condition. Next heading to ancient troop hiding caves (I believe in the Ming dynasty). We got to actually go and travel into the tunnels very cool and scary because they are huge and contained hidden traps incase the enemy ever found the caves. And lastly, we traveled to the Tenggeli desert. This was probably one of the more interesting experiences because well I’ve never been to a desert before. We even got to ride camels! And then we got to eat them! Haha, not exactly, but we did eat camel meat. It tastes very similar to beef.

Then on October 7th we had train tickets at 4:26pm from Yinchuan back to Beijing – another long trek by train. First-class still, so it was at least comfortable. We arrived at Beijing at around 11am the next day.

October 8th:

We spent what was left of this day in Beijing. We went and saw all the traditional sites: the imperial palace, and then Tiananmen Square, the Silk Market, and some tourist street that sold exotic foods. What I’ve found out about Beijing is that days in Beijing are extremely short and quick, in part because of travel time, but just be prepared that either you can’t do everything you want or you’ll rush through things to get to the next site.

Then it was back home we go. With our plane taking off at 9:25pm we all sat down in our seats exhausted from a long week of traveling and a long day in Beijing and took quick nap before landing in Dalian.


Done. On to the next topic: this weekend. Tomorrow early in the morning we travel to rural China to some farm to huck corn and pull up squash and other vegetables and basically live the life of a poor farmer. I’ll let you know how that goes sometime after we get back.