So Many Numbers, So Many Favorites!

Nearly 4 months (16 weeks and 2 day or 114 days) later, we are finally home. Now that we are home and trying to get back to reality and settled into our life, we have been asked many questions regarding our favorite places on our trip.

Our trip emphasized quality over quantity – Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Tibet, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and England. This means if you count Hong Kong and Tibet as separate countries, our journey took us to 10 foreign countries on 4 continents (as well as coming within 500 miles of Antarctica). In order to accomplish this, we flew on 25 flights (11 international, 12 domestic, 1 scenic and 1 helicopter), 2 overnight cruises, 9 day cruises and stayed in 47 different hotels in 45 different cities (not including London and staying with family). We had to pack for 4 seasons, travelled in 6 different time zones, paid with 11 different currencies with various exchange rates, and couldn’t speak 7 of the languages. WHEW!

After getting through all those impressive numbers (yes it took a while to figure all that out), we started thinking about some of our favorite things throughout our time abroad. Here is what we came up with.

Our favorite…:

City – definitely Buenos Aires… beautiful, clean, fun, culture… everything!

Country – we had the best time in Chile – the scenery, horseback riding, hiking, food, wine and culture were all amazing. Cambodia comes a close 2nd for me but while I’d love to visit Cambodia again and would recommend it to everyone, I would love to have a vacation home in Chile… I could go back again and again…

Food – Raj and I disagree about this one – I liked Vietnamese or perhaps Thai food the best, but Raj preferred the food in China though I didn’t particularly enjoy all the oily sauces (we do agree that Tibet was the worst food – I will not be disappointed if I’m never confronted with Yak meat again).

Airline – after all those flights we have some clear preferences. we might have a tie between LAN and British Airways – if you took LAN’s media and BA’s seating and food, you’d have the perfect airline.

Beach – Cape Foulwind in New Zealand – the surf was incredible and we saw seals and other lovely wildlife – and we were all alone (except for the 1 random person we ran into who took the photo on the left) – so nice!

Hotel – Park Hyatt Saigon was my hands down favorite until we stayed at the Intercontinental Bangkok (our last hotel) – that was pretty darn nice too; it even had a humidor bar in addition to its rooftop pool and amazing gym. It was a very nice splurge to finish off Southeast Asia.

Non-hotel accommodation – Helena’s home in Futaleufu with the long pastures, rivers and horses – she was also an amazing cook and they introduced us to mate. We stayed in their guest cabin that they had built themselves to be like a huge tree-house. It was fantastic!

Week – horseback riding in Futaleufu, Chile – it simply can’t be beat

Sunrise– the sunrise on the cruise in southern Patagonia where we woke up to the sound of of seals splashing and the red glow of the sun was so lovely- not only the nicest of the trip, but the nicest I can remember ever.

Sunset - with Brian and Eleanor in Dunedin when we saw seals and penguins was gorgeous and we had so much fun.

Culture – Cambodians were lovely and we enjoyed the unique dancing and authentically friendly people

Sky – Tibet – we were clearly closer to it than usual and the color and the clouds were spectacular.

Temple –I can’t even count how many we saw and many were nice, although at some point they all blend together. Angkor Wat, however, was quite extraordinary.

Shopping/market – Hong Kong night market, with a very close Beijing as second with its snack street.

Currency/exchange rate – Cambodia…. and they accept US dollars as well as Riel

Nightlife – ok, this one is obvious - BA

New friend – Romi is best entertainer (in BA) and Fabian in Futaleufu – though Fabian isn’t returning our emails :( maybe he didn’t feel the same way – really sucks because we were hoping to plan another trip with him).

Transportation – Hong Kong was the most impressive and easiest to use.

Local Drink – we tried many local beers, teas, mate, pisco sours, local wines. I still crave Stella Artois from BA (it just tastes better – can’t explain it, must be the water it is bottled with there)

As you can see, for the most part, Raj and I agree on the answers; we also agree that this trip changed our perception on travel as a whole. We had wanted to travel to places that we might have a harder time travelling to in the future when we have kids. Now that we did this trip, we realize that while some places will surely be easier with kids, no place will be out of reach. Furthermore, we have completely changed perceptions of what a “long flight” or a “long drive” entails.

A huge thanks to all of you who have followed our blog (by the way, at the time of posting, you may be interested in knowing a few more numbers – we had 1645 number of page views and 756 visits in 19 countries!)

Also, a special thanks to my parents for unexpectedly watching our crazy dogs and making sure our house was ok – we still can’t believe how much you were willing to do, and so graciously. With your help, we were able to explore the world without worrying about what was going on at home.

We leave you with a few of our favorite quotes regarding travel:

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

“The world is a book and those that do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

and my favorite: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Lovely London

London was great. In short, we got to spend tons of time with family and friends, managed to do some insane shopping, and explored some new parts of London we’d never seen before.

The morning we arrived in London from Bangkok, our sisters where supposed to pick us up at 7am, but unfortunately they got stuck in good old London traffic and didn’t get to us until 9am. Sud was then running late for work, so Raj had to drive us back from the airport (good thing he got some left hand driving practice in NZ). That day was Maha’s 16th birthday and Su had prepared a BBQ feast for her party.  Nearly 50 people came to Su’s house to celebrate that night and Raj had the privilege of working the BBQ and fighting with the three coal BBQ’s; he clearly missed his gas grill at home, but he got some much needed practice for our return nonetheless.  Ande and some other old friends of Raj’s showed up that night so we had a great time catching up with everyone.

As if Maha’s sweet 16 wasn’t fun enough, the next day was actually her prom!  During the day we did a bit of shopping with her and then went to have her nails done.  Then, of course, we helped our beautiful niece get ready for her date (who we were assured was JUST a friend). After an hour or so of madness, we tried to take a few pictures and saw her off in her black cab.  While she went off enjoying her youth, we met up with Gavin and his girlfriend Carla, as well as Ande and his girlfriend Sarah.  We had a lovely time with them as usual and tried to last into the night, but the jetlag caught up with us and my eyes would only stay open with a great deal of concentration.  When we got back, we managed to stay up with Su until Maha returned from her prom and although we probed relentlessly, we were disappointed to discover that Maha had absolutely no gossip to share regarding her momentous evening!

The rest of the week we alternated shopping, hanging out with the family and going over each picture of our trip (there are over 2000) and visiting with friends that we rarely have the pleasure of seeing.  One day we decided to go into central London and do a bit of sight-seeing – we went to the changing of the guard, the British Museum, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, met up friends for lunch and again for happy hour, and then, spur of the moment, we went to the London Eye, which neither of us had done before.  We could not have timed our visit to the eye better if we had tried; we ended up seeing an amazing sunset as we went around the huge Ferris wheel style capsules and saw beautiful views of the Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace as the sun set slowly behind them!

This trip we were also amazed by how much our nephew Corey has grown!  He just turned 10 and we are already seeing the markings of a young man.  He is much changed from the last time we saw him and even has a new haircut – or lack of haircut depending how you see it- he has a a very impressive afro that he refuses to cut (and he has my vote to keep it, sorry Su)!  As always, the Choudhury family could not have done more to make us feel welcome and we had a wonderful time seeing them.  Thanks again to Dipali Mum, Sud, Su, Maha, Corey, Sasha and Princess- we love you!

A Long Layover in Bangkok

We only had two nights in Bangkok before heading to London so there was not enough time to get out of the city and see more of Thailand.  We stayed in an amazing hotel in a great location and had a wonderful time exploring.  Raj’s sister, Su, had given us the number of a friend of hers near Bangkok who wanted to show us around for a few hours, so for our first day we were fortunate enough to have a wonderful tour guide. Mon took us to the Grand Palace (houses the Thai King, Parliament as well as the Emerald Buddha, among many other things), which we likely would have skipped had we been on our own because we had seen SO many palaces/temples and were feeling very done with the typical tourist sites.  However, Bangkok’s most famous palace was absolutely stunning and we were very glad to have seen it.  Each building had lovely architecture and beautiful detail.  The heat that day was again stifling so we spent a few hours inside before heading out to an early dinner at the waterfront – we went to a restaurant that we never would have found on our own, yet was a very nice local seafood restaurant with great views, and also a collection of strange amphibians (which they don’t eat).  We even got to see how they make dumplings.  Later we went to a night bazaar and spent an hour or so checking out the millions of options.  We picked up a few souvenirs but didn’t have time to work our way through the incredible maze and finish up.

Our last day in Bangkok, and technically our last day of the adventure portion of our trip (because London is all about family and it’s familiar), we decided it was about time to finish up our souvenir shopping.  After months of worrying about baggage restrictions, we were ready to weigh our bags down because we only had international flights left.  We spent hours weaving through the overwhelming traffic in the horrible humidity and crowded markets picking up item after item.  It was such a relief to finally buy things for family and friends that we had been seeing over and over again in Asia but unable to pack.  While we were out shopping we also got the chance to get some street food for a snack; we played it safe and bought a bag of fresh sliced mango and a chilled coconut to drink and it turned out to be the perfect refreshment for getting us through!  Later that night we packed up all our goodies into our bags that suddenly felt much heavier and took off for the airport for our midnight flight to London!!!

Charming Cambodia

After several travelers along the way suggested that we visit Cambodia, we were both excited to go there, but also had high expectations.  At this time of year, the most practical way to get there from Vietnam was to take a flight, but we also had to drive back to Ho Chin Minh City from Mui Ne.  Unfortunately, when I woke up the day we were leaving,  I realized right away that something was very very wrong with my stomach.  After a couple of hours of packing up yet getting no better, I was feeling panicked about the upcoming five hour car ride and subsequent three hours in an airport and on a plane.  Some combination of overdosing on Imodium and pure determination to not be sick while on the rode got me to Siem Reap, Cambodia and our hotel without incident – though it was not a pleasant journey for me.  However, within an hour of checking in, it became apparent that I was very ill.  Although in the end I seem to have either had food poisoning or some horrible 24 hour bug, I was sick enough that Raj was looking up details of Swine Flu symptoms and I was telling him to find the number for our travel insurance so that we could arrange to airlift me out of Cambodia – and I hadn’t even seen anything but the airport yet! By the way, we had a bit of scare at the airport in Siem Reap when we applied for our Visas on Arrival because my passport is FULL! There were NO blank pages that they could place my visa on! In the end, they made me pay an extra $10 so that they would stick the visa on top of other stamps in passport – so now my Cambodian visa hides my stamps from India and my passport is officially full, which I suppose means it is time to go home :)

Thankfully, by the next morning, the worst of my funk was over and we headed out for a very busy day exploring.  The night before we had commissioned our taxi driver to be our personal driver for the duration of our stay in Cambodia (a great tip other travelers gave us - much cheaper than arranging a private driver in advance of arriving, and it worked out beautifully).  More similarities with India assaulted us as we approached Angkor Wat, which is not so unlike the Taj Mahal in scale and impressiveness; were in not in ruins, it would certainly be as popular.  Surrounding the entrance were dozens of people, especially children, trying to sell souvenirs and such, something that we had not seen much of on this trip.   Despite the oppressive heat and humidity, we spent nearly two hours wandering around Angkor Wat and marveling at the scale of the former temple (built as a Hindu temple and later converted to Buddhist).  The grounds were lovely as well and were massive enough that for most of our time there, we felt completely alone in this wondrous place – often we looked around to find no humans, but sometimes a monkey or a stray dog.  The carvings throughout the buildings were beautiful and it must have been unbelievable before it was destroyed.  We also visited Angkor Wat again the next morning at sunrise, which was beautiful lighting to see it by and certainly less hot, but it was surprisingly packed with tourists at 5:30 in the morning!

After Angkor Wat, we went to another temple in ruins called Ta Prohm, which is where Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed.  It was much smaller and in terrible condition, but it was home to the most fantastic trees!  These trees were around 500 years old and grew through walls  with exposed roots – completely awing!   Later that day we also went through the South Gate to the Bayon Temple that is famous for all the faces carved into the stone as well as the Elephant Terrace.  Once again we were mesmerized by the carvings and scale of the places.  It was amazing and a complete maze to find our way around the hundreds of faces!  There was yet another temple we visited about 35 km away from Siem Reap called Banteay Srei, or Temple of the Lady,  which had some of the most intricately carved pieces we have seen. The color of the stone was a beautiful reddish color with some green as well, which must have been moss or mold, but was really lovely.

In Siem Reap we visited the Floating Village, and essentially drove through a very poor area to get there.  Each home we passed seemed to have at least one naked little toddler playing (there were babies EVERYWHERE in Cambodia).  The Floating Village, too, seemed to be very poor and the canals were so polluted, yet we saw kids swimming and playing and people drinking from the water at the same time as washing their clothes in it.  We saw tiny little homes with people chilling out with their monkey, goat and dog in their one room area on the water.  Though the poverty was obvious, what stood out the most was how content everyone seemed to be.  Though it was an appalling lifestyle by our standards, the kids played as if they had everything they wanted.

We got really lucky one night at dinner in the hotel because they was a performance that our table had a front row view of.  The way the girls danced was beautiful and I was particularly fascinated by the way they use their hands – so lovely (Dipali mum, Raj says he remembers you being able to do that and I want to see when we get to London!!!).

Perhaps the most adventurous few hours we had in Cambodia was the 5+ hour drive from Siem Reap to the capital of Phnom Penh.  Our driver timidly requested that we allow his family to make the drive with us (in a van) because his parents live in Phnom Penh and had not met his 10 month old daughter.  Though we knew this also meant his wife and two year old son would be coming as well, we felt he had been so sweet that we could handle a potentially packed van and crying kids – if nothing else, we could call it practice for the future!  Well, his wife and kids were beautiful and the kids hardly cried at all.  Along the way, Sothea, our driver, stopped to buy sticky rice from the side of the rode. This is essentially the equivalent of us stopping in the south for hot boiled peanuts, but instead is some combination of rice, coconut milk and black beans steamed in bamboo. It was delicious and was a perfect driving snack!  Not quite as tempting was when our driver stopped again for some more snacks for his family; this time, he was picking up fried spiders and cockroaches!!!  These spiders were HUGE and the whole family just munched on a confetti bag full of them – it was crazy!  We also saw a colorful sunset over the never-ending rice fields that was simply poetic; I doubt the picture does it justice.

We found Phnom Penh to be a relatively modern city with museums and a nice palace where the king and queen’s son lives alone while they live in Beijing.  Most notably, we visited the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum which serve as memorials to the 3 million victims from 1975 to 1979 who were murdered by Pol Pot during the Khmer Rouge Regime.  While my parents recall hearing about the horrors that occurred, Raj and I were completely ignorant of the atrocities and I assume a large number of our generation are as well.  I’ve never visited the Holocaust museum but I would venture a guess that what we saw was similarly moving and no less baffling; how or why humans do such things absolutely mystifies me.  While I left the museum angry, sad and close to being sick, I am glad we took the time to get a better understanding of Cambodia’s history, especially because it is relatively recent and impacts the people there today.  

A couple of random things about Cambodia:   1) we discovered that US currency is used everywhere.  Though Cambodian Riel is also used, there was absolutely no place that US dollars wasn’t dominate – even when we got money from ATM, it gave us dollars! 2) Cambodian people  generally resemble Indian people; this might be because of their history, but we both noticed it several times. It’s a useless observation, but there you have it 3) everyone was so so nice and authentic 4) Our favorite sight in Cambodia may have been three monks on one motorcycle plus a driver :)

If you have never before considered traveling to Cambodia, we highly recommend you put it near the top of your list.  We were not disappointed at all despite our high expectations and we would love to return there someday. Hopefully, if not likely, it will remain as authentic and beautiful as we found it to be on this all too short trip there.

Vietnam – Land of 5 Million Scooters

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, we didn’t really know what to expect. Since we had decided relatively last minute to even go to Vietnam, we didn’t do much research.  Our hotel was only about 5 km from the airport, but with traffic, it took about 40 minutes to get there and the sun was set by the time we got there.   The drive was fascinating because there were so many motorcycles on the rode!  Our driver told us that Ho Chi Minh has 10 million people and 5 million motorcycles and we do not doubt it after driving there. It is hard to describe how all the different vehicles (buses, cars, motorcycles, scooters,  bicycles) cram in together and somehow don’t kill each other,  especially when you see 3 or 4 people on one scooter often with one or two kids and/or babies.   Also, we were struck by how much our first impressions of Vietnam reminded us of India – not just the driving situation, but also the housing and shops we passed along the way. There was certainly a clear contrast between the 1st and 2nd world countries we have been visiting and 3rd world Vietnam. 

Our hotel in Ho Chi Minh was absolutely lovely.  Our room was fantastic, the pool was refreshing and the restaurants were so good that it was hard to eat outside of the hotel, which we usually prefer to do.  We had ricotta pancakes for breakfast two days in a row and they were, without a doubt, the best darn pancakes either of us have ever had!  The lunch and dinners were splendid as well and we had Vietnamese dishes like spring rolls, green mango salad, and a crushed shrimp wrapped around sugar cane and grilled – SO yummy!  When we ventured out we went to a market that was overwhelming and stifling hot, but it was still a fun experience.

The drive to the beach in Mui Ne was about 4.5 hours but it was great to see the more rural areas.  We saw countless rice fields and also dragon fruit trees.  Dragon fruit was new to both us when we got to China but it is very nice.  It is pinkish-red on the outside and white on the inside with tiny black seeds like poppy.  It is similar to watermelon but milder in flavor and texture.  (Mom, you would like the way it looks in fruit salad).  The place where we stayed was a small resort town called Phan Thiet and we had a villa overlooking the beach.  They had two restaurants as part of the hotel; one was Vietnamese and the other was German (random, but good).  Their gardens were extensive and very well maintained.

For 3 full days and 4 nights we didn’t do a whole lot besides hang out on the beach and read our books, and then go out to dinner at night.  We ate lunch every day on the beach along with mojitos and I think I ate fresh spring rolls with every single meal (sorry to rub it in mama).  The sand was sugary and nice and it was very windy, so we watched a lot of people kite-surfing.  The sun was scorching so we stayed in the shade unless we were playing in the surf or going for walks on the beach.  We also noticed that there were millions of dragonflies! At times there would be almost swarms of them up in the trees!  One day we each enjoyed hot stone massages at the outrageous cost of $15 for an hour and they were fantastic massages – no doubt that was expensive because it was in a resort.  Our villa was nice although not luxurious.  While it was nice to be in a private villa, the downside was the mosquitoes.  Luckily, we had a very nice mosquito net, but unfortunately, we were constantly in our little cocoon hiding from the mosquitoes whenever we were in the villa.  Whenever one of us ventured out of bed the other heard a constant clapping as we tried to kill the buggers.  All in all, we enjoyed Vietnam very much and the R&R was wonderful.  We left there amazed that we had only 2 weeks left of our trip and ready to take advantage and explore Cambodia!

Beijing and finishing up China

We expected Beijing to be crowded and polluted, but surprisingly we found neither to be entirely true.  Perhaps the rain we received cleared the air, but throughout the week we also got some beautiful blue skies, and apart from the tourist spots, Beijing was not as crowded as we had feared and was well laid out for such a large city.

Our hotel room was facing in-ward towards the atrium so unfortunately we didn’t know the sky was falling until we got outside on our first day and we hadn’t dressed for it. We first visited Tiananmen Square, which was pretty much just a big rectangle and unfortunately the rain and thousands of tourists with umbrellas didn’t really do it for us. We headed into the Forbidden City Palace, which was certainly larger than we expected and in amazing condition after the renovations for the Olympics. It is called the Forbidden City because no common people were allowed inside during the emperors rule.  We’d like to tell you more of the Palace, but to be honest, there was so much and the rain really took way from it. Nonetheless, it certainly was impressive.

The next morning we drove about an hour and a half to visit a section of the Great Wall!  It was built by the first emperor of China who also built the terracotta warriors.  We marveled again at his amazing vision and ambitions.  We were overwhelmed by the number of tourists visiting, but we took the route with less people, even though it was very steep. There were mountains all around, and even though the day was hazy, it was beautiful and much cooler than it would have been with the sun blazing.  The wall was remarkable and unbelievably steep at times. We both really enjoyed the hour or so that we walked along the way and it was probably the highlight of Beijing.

Around the corner from our hotel was a snack market and a bizarre that lived up to all our expectations of Chinese markets!   We saw snakes and starfish on sticks as well as LIVE scorpions on sticks as well as many other things that scared the shit out of us.  We were not brave enough to try the more shocking items, but we did sample a few tamer snacks like pot stickers and balls of fried banana.  We also put our crazy bargaining skills to use in the market and picked up some gifts. Our bags are getting really heavy now!  I think it’s time to throw out some clothes to make room for souvenirs!

Other tourist attractions we visited were the Tombs of the Emperors and the Summer Palace. The 14 tombs were built very deep underground with Feng Shui in mind.  It was an impressive engineering project especially considering when they were built.  Only one has been open to the public and the others are still closed.  The Summer Palace was built on a lake and “palace” does not really describe it accurately; as with most Chinese architecture, it was more about the grounds than the buildings.  There were some pretty elements to it, but once again, the overwhelming number of tourists really just left me wanting to run away.

One of our favorite things about China was all the public Parks.  In every city there were beautiful parks and the people certainly take advantage of them, retired people in particular.  All throughout the day people come together in big and small groups to dance, practice Tai Chi, sing, play cards and Chinese chess, fly kites, dance with ribbons and more.  We also saw a lot of very talented Calligraphers writing and drawing on the pavement with large water brushes.  As we were walking by, one artist looked up at Raj and decided to draw him!  In about 90 seconds, he drew a fantastic image of Raj (see video).  Overall, walking through the parks was a great way to see how the people relax and enjoy life, how artistic and vibrate they are. and how content, and social Chinese people are. What we saw in the parks/public areas seemed unique to China and not something we would expect to see anywhere else in the world.

For about a month we have been discussing the last few weeks of our trip which originally included a week in Japan and a week in Thailand before finishing up in London.  Between the riots in Thailand and the feeling that a week was not sufficient for Japan, we decided to change up our trip a bit.   After considering spending the two weeks in only Japan or going to Cambodia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mongolia South Africa or Morocco, we finally decided on skipping Japan for this trip and instead going to Vietnam  and Cambodia with only 2 days in Bangkok (which we had to keep in order to get our international flight to London because our OneWorld pass didn’t fly to London from many of the places were considering.  After some research into visas for Vietnam and Cambodia we found we could get our Vietnam visa in Beijing and our Cambodian visa upon arrival.  However, in Beijing we were confronted with some ridiculous complications.  First of all, if we were going to be flying to Vietnam from any other country, we could have just applied for a visa upon arrival, but China does not allow passengers to board a flight without a visa in hand.  So, we had to surrender our passports to the Vietnam embassy for them to process our visas, but doing that meant that we couldn’t travel or check in to new hotels because they are very strict in China about having a passport at check-in and a photocopy would not suffice.  So, we not only had to pay extra for rush delivery for our visas, but we had to cancel our overnight trip from Beijing to Datong which included seeing a hanging monastery and an overnight train journey back to Beijing.  Despite our frustration, our travel agency was super nice and took on the expense of re-booking our Beijing hotel at no additional cost to us, and in the end we left China with our Vietnam visas and great anticipation for visiting Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and a four night stay at the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam!.

Travelling Thoughts

I think it is widely accepted that international travel, especially for an extended period of time, has the tendency to change people, even if in only small ways.  Obviously, one of the reasons for this is that you witness the way other people live and have the opportunity to compare many differences in lifestyle to your own.  Intrinsic to this comparison, is a greater appreciation for many of the comforts of home.  While I have undoubtedly gained a deeper understanding, appreciation and respect for the Chinese culture, travelling for an extended period of time in this Asian society has made me miss and appreciate some things from home more than others.

Apart from the obvious things like missing my dogs (and I could go on and on about the specific things I miss about each one of them, but i will spare you this whining and instead discuss at length with Raj), and chatting with my mom and dad without worrying about the connection, and working out with Amber, and being able to call my grandparents without worrying about the time difference, and my bed and pillows… you know – all the things anyone misses, here are some of the specific things that I’ve been thinking about:

• I miss Western etiquette.  This one is tricky to discuss because I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like diversity or appreciate different cultures, but certain things must be stated:  when a plane lands, it won’t kill you to let people file out of the plane according to where they sit- pushing your way to the front will really not save you that much time, especially when nearly everyone else is doing the same thing.  Also, and this one is the worst, Chinese people tend to clear the phlegm from their throats and spit it out anywhere and everywhere and it is simply disgusting.
• I miss and appreciate non-smoking restaurants and hotel rooms.  Our favorite moment illustrating this was our first hotel in China where we had booked a non-smoking room. When we entered the room, it smelled a bit funny – not really smoky but more like how it would smell if they were covering it up.  Then we noticed there were two ashtrays in the room, so we called the front desk and said we had requested a nonsmoking room and the response was that we did have a nonsmoking room  We replied that there were ashtrays in the room and there was a bit of a language barrier but their response was that if we wanted ashtrays (in our nonsmoking room) all we had to do was call housekeeping.  (sigh)
• I miss shopping and cooking for myself. I miss salads and hummus and veggie burgers. I miss Trader Joe’s and Costco.
• I miss Sunday brunch with the Ramga’s after a Saturday night shaking our booties.
• I appreciate Western toilets and their being toilet paper in stalls.  Although I’ve gotten rather good at squatting and quickly learned to always carry my own toilet paper, I must say that after a week in Tibet, I will even appreciate dirty gas station bathrooms in the future.
• I miss being able to dress up – at this point I always feel grubby in my travel clothes – really looking forward to shopping in London – like as soon as we get off the plane!
• I miss and appreciate having my own washing machine!  It’s bad enough having to wear the same clothes over and over again, but either washing them in hotel sinks or finding a laundry mat that seems to always get the stink out but also adds stains is getting really old.  Other than my bathing suit and sundress, I don’t expect to keep one article of clothing that I brought with me.
• I miss driving and understanding the rules of the road.
• I miss being able to listen to music and sing along – always using headphones with iPod sort of prevents this.
• I appreciate free press – the news and information in general is censored in China and it’s very frustrating when you know its happening.

Despite these things, with only 3 weeks left of our trip, I feel a renewed sense of adventure and excitement over our trip. I don’t feel as homesick as I had been feeling for a few weeks and am finding it easier to live in the moment. ironically, Raj seems to being feeling homesick for the first time, which actually just makes me happy because I finally know that we feel the same way and are in it together.  We are heading to a beach in Vietnam which makes it feel more like a relaxing vacation and I am super excited to veg-out, read my book and get a tan!  A couple days of down time will be great to make sure we are re-charged for Cambodia, Thailand, London and of course, for coming home! 

Xi’an and Warriors

We had a very short trip in Xian – only 2 nights.  Again, we noticed immediately how much easier breathing was at a normal altitude.  The city of Xi’an was very nice and pretty.  The downtown area is protected by a huge wall which used to be the palace’s borders.  Today, the wall is used for marathons and the entire wall has parks on the outside which the people use well.

The main attraction in Xi’an is the Terracotta Warriors and they are absolutely fascinating. There are an estimated 8,000+ life-size and extremely detailed warriors and another 130 chariots and 700 horses.  Their faces have intricate expressions and the army is situated according to rank, just as it would have been in 246 BCE.   They were built by the first emperor of China – the one that unified all the different dynasties and also built the Great Wall. According to our guide, the emperor built the warriors to protect him in the afterlife. Amazingly, he ordered construction of the army when he was only 13 years old and before he was actually emperor.  After being discovered by a farmer trying to build a well in 1973, hundreds of archaeologists have worked on excavating the army and putting the pieces back together (most were destroyed in a fire and the original weapons were robbed shortly after completion).  They found that the vibrant colors faded completely within 6 months so they halted further excavation.  As of today, they still don’t have the technology to properly preserve the pieces (although we heard on the news a few hours ago they are going to give it a try).

We also visited a Feng shui museum, yet another buddhist temple and one of the four most famous mosques in China. Also, we went to a Tang Dynasty Cultural show.  We have enjoyed all the shows in China and this one was no exception.  The music was nice, costumes were beautiful and there was dancing as well as kung fu elements. It was very entertaining!

The first night at the Hyatt we discovered they had a pub with Pizza so of course we decided to take advantage of the opportunity for a pizza and beer night.  But, we also had the benefit of a live Philippino cover band. As we had more beers the band sounded better. Anyway because we were 2 of 6 people in the bar, the band came over to say hi and chat a little. They were actually really nice and took some requests.  The next and final night we decided to pay them a visit again, however we felt we needed to step it with Martini’s so Raj taught the bartender how to make a dirty martini and we even ended up on stage with the band. We bought the band a few rounds of beer, again because we were 2 of 4 people in the bar and chatted with them during their break. Some of the band members had these really cool cigarette holders with a built in lighter. Anyway we thought they’d be great gifts and when we asked them were to buy them the band members gave us two as a gift. Very sweet of them! Unfortunately at the airport the next day, the airport told us we could not fly with them, even if they were in checked in baggage, so we had to leave them with our guide as gift for her. Very sad... (sorry Fred).

Xi’an was surprisingly fun, and truly a beautiful city in the middle of China with a rich and loooong history like no other – 5000 years.   As we’ve heard from just about every guide, “if you want 50 years of China’s history, go to Shanghai; if you want 500 years of China’s history, go to Beijing; and if you want 5000 years of history, go to Xi’an!”

7 days in Tibet!

(By Tovah)
When we got off the plane in Lhasa, after the most turbulent flight I can remember having, we noticed right away that the air was thin and breathing was more difficult.  Since we had an entire week in Tibet, our tour took us in a large loop beginning and ending in Lhasa, but we stayed the first 2 nights in a town called Tsedang, about 2 hours from Lhasa, and the former capital of Tibet.  The drive to Tsedang was pretty, but not as magnificent as we expected.  Instead of snow-capped mountains, we found that the terrain was more desert and the main vegetation were juniper berry bushes (purple berries with few leaves).  By the time we made it to the hotel, the altitude was getting to us and we both had headaches and felt very tired. Luckily, our guide had planned for this and we had nothing planned except resting in the hotel all afternoon and evening, which we promptly did after taking a couple Tylenol. 

The next morning we felt much better and were eager to visit our first Tibetan monastery and to get a better feel for how the Tibetan culture differs from the Chinese. Our first monastery was a bit of a disappointment, yet it represented one of the very first in the country.  Currently, two hundred monks live at this particular monastery, though we only saw about 10 of them.  Surprisingly, what stood out the most was the awful smell from inside the temple!  It was mainly from the oil they use for the candles, which is more of a buttery-wax than oil, but there was also a blend of dust, mildew and body odor that permeated the stale air.  Not exactly the impression we had in our heads going in! Regardless, we learned about the history of Tibet starting with their story of how the Tibetan people began as monkeys, and continuing through the 42 kings, as well as the what the different buddhas represent.  Our guide told us that 100% of the population is Buddhist, and there was a history of Bundism (not sure about spelling) that perished some time around the revolution. We also found some interesting details about the way monks live (for instance, what and how they eat) and their complicated beliefs in reincarnation both for the general population and the Dalai Lamas.

The following days included several long drives and we finally experienced the beautiful scenery we had expected of Tibet.  We saw lovely rivers, not so impressive, but very high glaciers, snow-capped mountains.  We also visited the world’s highest saltwater lake, which is at 4700 meters.   Simply strolling around the lake was all it took to wear us out!  I guess that is why they have yaks and horses there to walk you around, but we preferred to suffer through rather than get on a tiny horse or a smelly yak.  It was also great to drive through villages and see the way different peoples live, including nomad people that still live on the mountains during the warmer seasons.  It was all very picturesque.

As the days carried on, we visited several more monasteries and temples.  We found the other monasteries smelled better but not great. One day we were incredibly lucky to be finishing up touring a large monastery of 800 monks when they were gathering for a chanting session.  We were allowed watch as all of them gathered first in a courtyard and then in the temple.   We were shocked to see boys as young as 9 years old as monks!  They acted just like boys would expect to act at that age, except they wore robes and had shaved heads! (Su, can you imagine Corey going off to a monastery???)

We found many differences between Tibet and mainland China.   For one, Tibet is much poorer; it is evident in the housing, facilities and general upkeep of the city, The people stand out from the Chinese people – they are incredibly devout, and pray all the time including walking pilgrimages for up to 7 years and they hang prayer flags in many places they consider holy; the flags are a sign of devotion but actually looked trashy.  The people are quick to smile with faces that draw you in.  Also, Tibetans are much more conservative in the way they dress.  We saw many dogs and according to our guide, they do not eat them (nor do they seem to take incredibly good care of them).    The menus we saw were still very scary and they eat a lot of yak, which we didn’t particularly like the taste of.  Instead of dog and turtle on menus, we saw “sheep’s head” and yak testicle… hungry?  We had the opportunity to walk through a part of a city where farmers live with their “farm” animals tied up outside – very sad living conditions.  The air is clean and thin which means the sky is the bluest blue we have ever seen!

Our guide and driver were from Tibet, as is usual for foreign tourists, but when Chinese people visit Tibet, they have to have Chinese guides.  We had heard from a couple of American travelers that had already visited Tibet that their guide was afraid to talk about the political tensions between China and Tibet so waited for the right opportunity to broach the subject with our own guide.  When he pointed out some “relics” of destroyed Tibetan monasteries from the cultural revolution, we delicately brought it up.   Our guide was only mildly reluctant to discuss the issue and opened up a bit more when he realized we weren’t interested in starting a protest riot  and were genuinely curious as to how the Tibetan people feel about it at this point.  According to him, there are mixed feelings;  people who have government jobs that pay very well are obviously quite pleased with the arrangement.  Additionally, the Chinese government does a great deal to help farmers in various ways, so they seem generally satisfied as well. On the other hand, there are many who continue to resent the situation and we found out that there are still uprisings quite often, usually based in Lhasa.  Our guides personal opinion was that he didn’t care who was in control as long as whichever government it was was taking care of the people and most importantly, allowing the Tibetan culture and religion to prosper without interference.  However, he did express confusion of Tibet’s history and told us what Tibetans are taught in school, which is quite different from the Westerners understanding of what happened between mainland China and Tibet.

Yangtse River Cruise

We arrived in Yichang in the afternoon, and met our new guide and driver who told us about the city and took us to a government run museum that was dedicated to artifacts from the three gorges project excavation. Although this museum seemed a little run down and was by no means as big as the Shanghai museum we’d been to, our museum guide did a great job explaining how they’d found artifacts dating back 6000 years. He told us that thousands of archeologists excavated for over two years before the whole area was flooded and the three gorges dam project was complete (2009). Later he took us to another room that had jade, ceramic pottery and bronze artifacts they’d found that were relatively young (100 to 150 years old). The museum was selling a few of these items in order to raise money for renovations. Although we are not antique collectors, a number of items caught our eye and we unexpectedly bought a beautiful red jade incense holder dating back 125 years. Hopefully it makes it back to the USA (China shipping).

Later we had a yummy and spicy dinner and then our guide took us to our river boat, which is really a big cruise ship (not Royal Caribbean size, but larger than expected). When we got to our room we were surprised by the size of it and gladly unpacked for the next 4 nights (we hadn’t stayed anywhere long enough to bother unpacking since Auckland). The rest of the ship didn’t offer much entertainment so we were thrilled to have a large room with a balcony.  We spent a lot of time playing cards and enjoying the scenery from the privacy of our own space.  

The Yangtse River Cruise took us through gorges, the now famous dam, stepped farmland, new towns and absolutely beautiful scenery.  It was hard to imagine how the river must have looked before it was filled because it is still dramatic after rising an average of 155 meters.   The river is much safer now for boats to travel, but the downside of this is that there are now many more boats and barges.  It is difficult to imagine how the water will not end up incredibly polluted with the extra traffic and changes to the natural purification process of before (the air is already rather polluted).  We were especially curious to hear the local people’s opinion of the project since so many people’s villages were flooded (over 900,000 people were displaced by the project).  Generally, their impression seemed mixed, with the younger generations having more favorable opinions because they ended up with larger homes and more space, and the older populations being less thrilled because they watched an entire lifetime of memories be flooded and have a harder time adapting to the many changes.

The day we went to the dam and passed through the 5 lock system was very interesting. The dam is enormous,  but not at all attractive.  The power the station generates is now critical for Shanghai and many other cities on the east coast.  Another day, we went on a smaller boat through the lesser (a.k.a. smaller) gorges which are too narrow for the big ship we were on.  This was some of the most spectacular scenery with many waterfalls, caves and tombs in the mountain.  We also had the pleasure of hearing a local boat man singing, as well as our day guide and both of them had lovely voices and sang beautifully.

The cruise ended in the incredibly large, yet virtually unknown city of Chongqing (pronounced chong-ching).   Though we only had one full day there, we saw so much and had a couple of adventures.  Our guide, Tina, first took us to their zoo where we saw many pandas.  These pandas actually have very nice habitats in the zoo and we were able to get incredible close!   Unfortunately, many of the other animals we saw were not quite as lucky; the elephant and giraffe habitats especially were a bit sad.  We also visited the General Stillwell residence and museum, which is the only museum in China that is dedicated to a foreigner. We realized how incredibly ignorant we were of the alliance between the US and China during WWII in fighting the Japanese.  US General Stillwell is still very highly regarded here in China for the help he supplied during the war (and resentment towards Japan still runs deep).  The museum, also government run, provided us an opportunity to see a local painter paint a beautiful watercolor in less than 10 minutes.  Here, we finally found traditional paintings of the 4 seasons that we had been searching for as souvenirs.  We are quite proud of how effective our negotiating has become and can’t wait to enjoy the 4 paintings in our home – again, assuming China mail gets them to us!  We are definitely done buying souvenirs for ourselves!

After our incredibly spicy yet delicious lunch, Tina walked us through a more local food market that in almost any country other than China would have been where we’d want to eat, except we suspect the menus included mostly things we would prefer not to eat.  Still, seeing and smelling it firsthand was worth it.  Tina recommended that we plan on going to a “hot pot” restaurant for dinner near our hotel as hot pots are very traditional for the area.  Basically, a large steel pan is build right into the table and filled with oil, and then you order skewers of different meats and vegetables to cook in the oil.  On the surface, the experience is not so different from fondue, right?  Except in China, the skewers that are most popular are ox stomach, duck throat and chicken feet. While we thought we could be brave at the time she said to go and we really planned on it, when we walked up to the restaurant later that evening, it all felt a little “too” local for us and without our guide with us to make sure we didn’t order something we didn’t want to eat, we essentially chickened out (no pun intended).

One of the problems with travelling so long is that certain comforts are unattainable. In Chongqing, I finally gave into my need for a haircut.  Tina had pointed out where she goes to get her haircut and it was practically across the street from our hotel, so Raj and I took a walk to check it out.  In much the same way as shop workers usher you into their stores if you show any interest, a young man encouraged me to enter when I looked in.  With a deep breath, I went in and with some sign language indicated I wanted a trim.  The guy took me into the back to wash my hair and it all seemed relatively similar to how it would be in the US.  Then he transferred me to a chair and the man who was actually cutting my hair came over. I tried to indicate that I just wanted a little bit cut off and he went to work.  The first bit seemed fine, but as time went on, it seemed like he was cutting more and more. With the language barrier, I had no way to make sure it was okay, and Raj had decided to go for a walk rather than sit and watch.  So, in the end, I have a new hair style with lots of short layers – not the best look for me :(  Oh well, I’ve learned my lesson – next time, I’ll just buy barrettes and tie it all back :)  In the end, it cost me 45 RmB (less that $7), and I’m pretty sure they upped the price for me!  In any case, don’t be surprised if you don’t see me in too many pictures for the next few weeks!

Shanghai and Suzhou

We arrived in Shanghai pretty late and our guide, Tina (English name), picked us up from the airport and took us to the hotel. The city was was lit up and modern like Hong Kong, but was a lot bigger (over 20 million) and more spread out. We were amazed by how many high-end stores there were – seriously, there seemed to be a Louis Vitton or Gucci on every block!   In the morning our guide and driver took us to a garden in the middle of the city. “Gardens” in China are more like peaceful retreats that have more to do with the buildings, landscaping, and yin-yang harmony. We had a great time walking through the garden and learning about Chinese culture. Later that night we went to see an Acrobatic show. Tovah and I were somewhat reluctant to get our hopes up after our NZ shows. Luckily the show was amazing, and we were treated to 13 different acts, each unique and unbelievable. For about $40 we saw a show that would easily rival any Cirque de Soleil production!  No doubt, this was the highlight of Shanghai – unfortunately, we were too busy trying to pick our jaws up off the floor to get any good pictures or videos for you.  One other high point was when we broke down and had our very first meal from an American chain since leaving Atlanta;  our last night in Shanghai we treated ourselves to a break from Chinese food and instead enjoyed California Pizza Kitchen!  The only downer about Shanghai was our guide – she clearly wasn’t feeling well but continually cleared her throat and nose and generally lacked energy and enthusiasm in every way.

Next we took a train to Suzhou (pronounced sue-joe), which is known for its many gardens.  Our guide was really great (reminded Raj of his mum); she told us many stories, taught us Chinese words, and talked openly about her own experiences with the cultural revolution. We explored many residences, a leaning Pagoda, and two large gardens, as well as took another river boat cruise through canals.   These gardens were much larger than the one in the middle of Shanghai, and one of them took 16 years to build.  Since Suzhou is known for its arts and crafts, we also went to an embroidery museum and a silk painting gallery, both of which absolutely blew us away!  When we walked into the embroidery museum, the first thing they showed us was a picture of Princess Diana, and our initial (internal) reaction was “oh jeez, do we have to hear about how she visited 20 years ago?”  However, when the guide asked us to look closer, we found that the “picture” was actually an embroidered image that was incredibly realistic! We really enjoyed perusing the gallery and seeing amazing landscape, animal, and human pictures that were so incredible that we desperately wanted to buy a large one. However, it turns out we had found the one thing that is actually quite expensive in China. Who would have though we could be so impressed by embroidery?

The next day we drove to a smaller town called Zhouzhuang that’s known for its rivers and is called the Venice of Asia. We saw a few residential buildings that dated back to the 12th century. Unfortunately the weather that day was not great and after lunch we did a bit of souvenir shopping and then drove back to Shanghai where we picked up some laundry and said goodbye to our Suzhou guide and driver.

As many of you may know, Tovah was a bit reluctant to come to China because of some the government’s policies and human/animal rights violations.  While we have certainly noticed their tendency to shelter the citizens through blocking internet sites to editing TV shows, we do want to note a couple of positive things we’ve learned about China’s government.  To begin with, the infrastructure of this country is much better than we expected and certainly eases transportation both locally and long distances.  Also, since we expected to find many homeless and poor people as in India, we have learned that the government does an amazing job keeping people off the streets and providing assistance.  There have also been many positive changes toward education and helping farmers subsidize housing and build irrigation systems.  From what we gather, there have been many changes in the past decade that the people here are quite pleased with.