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.