Shane Travels

I departed Beijing and Arrived in Xi’an on Monday. Xi’an has a number of claims to fame, which I’ll let you read about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian

My primary interest was the Terracotta warriors and other archeological / historical treats in and around the city. After arriving and getting settled in at the hostel (too nice to be a hostel), I decided to spend a day wandering around the city, literally. I walked the entire perimiter of the wall, in a park, between the wall and the moat just outside the wall. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding 4 hours. For those curious about such things the perimiter is around 14Km; however you probably log a few more miles (i guess I should say kms) than that, as you need to avoid traffic around each of the gates through the wall.

In the park they are busy installing exercise equipment… which was being used by citizens of all shapes, sizes and ages. I was impressed. Could something like this work at home? Would teenagers (of course I recognize that adults and pre-teens are also capable of causing destruction) vandalize the equipment? (For the record I see no evidence of vandalism… but have no idea why that is) In addition to the exercise equipment there were lots of outdoor ping-pong tables (metal nets/fences). I was invited to play ping-pong three separate times. It was fun for me and I think it was amusing for the locals. My first game attracted quite a bit of attention. A young lad provided some color commentary: “Laowai (foreigner) not good”. I actually did improve with each of the games that I played; however I have a new appreciation for those who can really make that little ball do their bidding. I ran after lots of balls that blew past me… to keep them from ending up in the moat. It was humbling, but lots of good fun.

The park also seemed to be the favourite place for teenagers and other youngish amorous couples. They tended to be tucked into various corners of the park. Their activities were strictly on the up and up… I’d have to say that you can see more action any day on Yonge street.

I went to see the terracotta warriors today. It was cool, but lately I’ve been finding the living parts of my surroundings much more interesting than the relics. In other words I had more fun playing ping-pong. With that said it was pretty neat and obviously something that is a point of pride for the Chinese. I took the local bus (to save kuai/yuan), and it was pretty straightforward. Lots of buses to and from the warriors. The warriors themselves are in three pits, which have permanent structures built over them to protect them from the elements, including the sun. I guess the first pit is a little too exposed to sunlight so they actually ended up putting the dirt back into several sections to protect the artifacts from discoloration and oxidation. It’s pretty amazing to see all those soldiers staring at you, each with it’s own unique features.

I’ve been getting most of my meals in the muslim quarter… where I can indulge my love of meat and barbecue in particular. Lots of kebabs to be had and cheap beer. For the record, I’ve been ordering a plate of veggies with each meal. The muslim quarter is a cool place to walk around in. A lot less kitsch that others places I’ve been. Plus lots of great (and yes occasionally not so great) smells to take in. My first meal was a bit of a challenge (as no english menu and no pictures… yikes); however a young lady came to my rescue and provided some on the spot translation for me… my flapping my arms like a chicken wasn’t working

I met a couple of young gentlemen from Finland this evening and passed on the book I just finished reading. All the World in Trouble by P.J. O’Rourke. I really enjoyed this book. Thanks Doug and Sarah! For the book and for putting up with me in Beijing. During my conversation with the Finnish lads I committed Canada to come to their aid in case of attack from the bear like country who will remain nameless to avoid google search matches and needs no further introduction. These gentlemen were fresh from their mandatory military service… mandatory military service in Finland… who knew??

I hope you are having a great day

shane

Slept in today for the first day in weeks… felt good. I look out the window and I see a thick haze… which I’m told is pollution… but I left my air quality analysis tools at home… so I have no idea… Regardless I’ve decided to spend a day catching up on the blog, posting some photos and visiting the bookworm (expat library/watering hole) here in Beijing.

I arrived in Beijing late Sunday evening. I’m staying with friends in their huge… feels bigger than the house I sold… apartment near the Austrailian and Canadian Embassies. It’s about a 5-10 minute walk to “Line 2″ of the Beijing metro, so it’s quite convenient. In addition it’s expat central… so there are comfort foods and expat hangouts where people speak english (although often as second language)… yes I should have listened to Ma and Pa regarding sticking out French in high school. In particular there is a very nice french bakery, where one can purchase a fairly high quality croissant (sp?). It’s a good thing i’m walking lots everyday… otherwise between the croissants and my beer consumption habits I would be returning to my previous physical dimensions.

The subway has recently been upgraded to use passes (cards) with automated terminals for purchasing rather than paper tickets and human ticket salespeople. There are some new trains as well, but some of the older trains (with many fans lining the roof the train) are still in service. This is apparently one of the improvements that have been brought for the olympics. It’s handy for me, as the automated terminals are available in English as well as Mandarin. In the new trains your current stop and next stop are indicated on an electronic map… makes getting around quite simple. The only sort of tricky bit is picking the correct exit when you leave the underground. There are signs (which are also in English) explaining each exit and what can be reached via that exit, but I didn’t spot these signs the first couple times and emerged to a large intersection… with street names that are sometimes only differentiated by different endings. Also construction is ubiquitous in Beijing… so trying to use a construction site as a landmark… doesn’t work.

Over the last three days I’ve taken in a couple of different sights. I visited Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City the first day. The forbidden city is huge… I took the automated guide and got to hear (learn is too strong) about several palace intrigues. Thankfully benches are provided at each of the halls… after the first hour of walking around, you can’t wait to sit and listen to the intrigues amongst the concubines. I haven’t had a chance to visit Mao’s Mausoleum yet… as It was closed on Monday. Not sure if i’ll check it out or not…

Yesterday I took one of the tour buses to see the Great Wall. I took the tour bus, as It’s one of the cheaper ways of getting to the wall… I wouldn’t do it again. I spent most of the day in the bus and got shuttled to two other places that were not of interest to me. I spent about 2 hours at the wall, which probably wouldn’t be enough for me on a good weather day; however the weather wasn’t that great, so two hours was actually the perfect amount. I hiked all over the wall, but you’ll see from my pictures that the views, unfortunately, we’re obscured by mist (i think mist rather than mystery haze). Some of the steps on the wall are pretty tricky and some sections remind me of a half pipe… no steps in some of these sections… so your toes end up at the front of your shoes. Thankfully hand railings have been put in some of the steeper sections. I was a bit of celebrity at the wall… as apparently some of the Chinese tourists visiting the wall think it’s fun to get a picture of themselves with a foreigner. I’m told that Beijing citizens are used to seeing foreigners, but that people from the more rural areas, don’t see a lot of us… so we’re a bit a novelty.

Last night I played a few games of go, with an expat go club here in Beijing. Found them on the web. Was fun to play go again. Lots of interesting folks at the Go Club. It was weird to be in a room with so many people flexing their brains… flexing muscles… flexing brains… seems like the same kind of behaviour . I had a great time and would highly recommend any go players visiting Beijing to check it out.

That’s all for now. I’m going to post my photos in a few minutes. So if you visit my picassa site you can check them out. The link is in the previous post… I’m getting quite lazy.

I hope you are having a great day…

shane

p.s. Thanks again to Dan (my cousin) for supplying me with the GSM Blackberry. I picked up a SIM card for here in China… very convenient. One thing was intersting… the Chinese are quite concerned with numerology and the significance of phone numbers… so price for the SIM card was based on the number associated with it. Since it doesn’t matter to me… i bought the cheapest number available

As promised, here is my brief summary of Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor as well as an update on my travels in China. Let’s start with Siem Reap and Angkor.

Siem Reap is a dusty, dusty city. I understand from other travellers that all of Cambodia is this dusty… but it’s hard to believe. I spent most of my time in Siem Reap travelling around on the back of scooters… so whenever I arrived anywhere I usually had a good coating of dust mixed with my sweat and hair blown half off my head. The town itself is pleasent… i took a few walks along the river and usually settled on Pub Street with a good book when I wasn’t visiting the temples. For those who are interested in what I’ve been reading here was the list in Siem Reap:

- Contact (author slipping my mind)
- Clear and Present Danger (Tom Clancy)
- The Odyssey (Homer - The Penquin books version)
- Fear of Flying (Erica Jong)

This is the list for Lijiang:

- News of a Kidnapping (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
- IV (Chuck Klosterman)

Food in Siem Reap was good, but nothing really blew me away.

Now the temples of Angkor. These are incredibly impressive from Angkor Wat to Angkor Thom (especially the Bayon Temple) and all of the rest of the assorted temples. I have to be honest though… after the second day of temples… i was all templed out. Each one is impressive.. but they start to blend in merge in your head. I enjoyed climbing the pyrimid like temples and hiding from the sun in the buildings and passageways throughout them. I took lots of “door” shot pictures… which I’m posting as I write this.

After Siem Reap I headed to Lijiang China… which was a bit of an air travel challenge. First I couldn’t get a flight to Lijiang from Cambodia and in fact I had to transit through Bangkok to arrive in Guangzhou . From Guangzhou I was able to book a flight to Lijiang via Kunming. This is where the fun begins. I show up the next day for my flight to Lijiang. I board the aircraft and and we taxi to the run way. The pilot spools up the engines, starts down the runway… then slams on the brakes. He then continues down the runway at a slow speed, turns around and heads back for another attempt. The second attempt is a repeat of the first. Then the flight attendant informs us that we are unable to take off due to mechanical problems. They drive the plane with all of us on board to a maintenance area of the airport, where they spend a couple of hours trying to fix the problem. They then back out to attempt another takeoff… get about 20 meters and decide that they’d better not try it… they finally offload the plane and we are left to figure out for ourselves what we need to do next… total confusion reigns. Eventuallay about 3 hours later they inform us that the plane is fixed and we will be able to fly to Lijiang via Kunming. We get on the plane and takeoff successfully. We land in Kunming and for some reason we are asked to disembark… after we are off the plane it becomes clear that we’re not going to be going on Lijiang today. Needless to say a lot of people were very pissed off. A lot of loud mandarin was being yelled at the airline people… rightfully so since they had lied to everyone about being able to go Lijiang that night. Anyway long story short they paid for a nice hotel for me in Kunming and i got on the first flight to Lijiang the next day.

Lijiang is a beautful city that’s nestled amongst mountains. Take a look at wikipedia for an overview of the old town where I’m staying. It took me a couple of days to adjust to the altitude of the town. It’s around 2400 meters in town. Climbing stairs in the first 2 days was pretty torturous… really gasping for air. I’m fine now, but had a couple of headaches the first two days. There is lots to see around the old town and I spent the first day exploring. The second day I was joined by a good friend of mine who’s been living in China for two years with her husband, and their two friends. We all visited the Tiger Leaping Gorge… which was incredible. We hiked down to the river at the base of the gorge and then back up. Amazing views.. highly recommend this to anyone considering a visit to China.

anyway… i think I’ve run out of typing energy

Here is a link to my picassa galleries… I’ve create two new albums one for Cambodia and one for Lijiang. I’ll try to get my elephant pictures up tomorrow. I’ve heard from several people that more pictures are required

My Pictures

shane

p.s. The olympic torch came through Lijiang during my stay… pretty cool

Goodbye Thailand… Hello Cambodia

I’m going to cram a whole lot of unrelated information into this post… so please bear with me.

First, following up on my previous driving post, here are some brief observations on driving in Cambodia: I’m going to focus on the difference with the Thailand driving experience in order to be as brief as possible and I’m in Phnom Penh at the moment, not the country side, so I may add to this in the future. Cambodian drivers do not appear to follow much in the way of any traffic laws. When people turn left they routinely start out by making the left turn on to the right hand side of oncoming traffic. Then when there is a break in the oncoming traffic they slide across to the correct lane. This can be done with either a car or motorcycles, but is more common with two wheeled vehicles… generally uncoming traffic is forced to stop when a car or truck attempts this. There are very traffic lights in the city that I have seen. Cambodia differs from Thailand in another important way… they make much more use of their horns and their lights to communicate with other drivers. They have both verbal and non-verbal car language.

Second, The sights so far in Phnom Penh. I have visited the Grand Palace, Silver Pagoda, National Musuem and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. I decided to get a tour guide for the Grand Palace and the Silver Pagoda and I didn’t regret. The printed information is somewhat limited and having someone able to explain to you and answer questions really added to the experience. In general sights/museums over here (Thailand, Cambodia) are not like sights/museums in North America, in that they are generally mere collections of artifacts and buildings, without the abundance of information that i’m spoilt with at home. None of the buildings really blew me away, but the silver tiles in the Silver Pagoda were pretty cool and the formal dancing pavillion was an impressive structure… The National Museum, was a collection of artifacts and some information, but not enough to really educate me on what I was seeing… The stone and bronze statues we’re impressive though.

This post sat in draft for a long while… I’m in china now, so my next post will summarize the Siem Reap and fill you in on my crazy two day odyssey to Lijiang…

Writing with wifi on my blackberry, hope you are having a great day.

Shane