Day 5- Relaxation Nation in Xian

We are awoken 10 minutes before our arrival in Xian, and clean our room and get ready to head into the new town. Right away, Chinese men are peeking into the windows to find Americans, and wait outside of our car to carry our luggage and try to get us to agree to a taxi ride. Right away we upgrade our tickets for a 6 person room to a 4 person (hooray!) and then head to our hotel – which is very nice and right in the middle of the town.

After a long respite in our nice new room, we head out to town to look around and do a little shopping. We first head to the Bell Tower and Drum tower, which again, without a guide, are fun to look at, but we have to idea what they are for and why they are there. Regardless the buildings are very pretty and it is nice.

Shopping is fun, I am getting much better at bartering. We grab a LARGE lunch at a muslim/Chinese (weird mix) restaurant and head to the city wall. Xian is one of the last walled cities back in feudal times. We rent bikes and ride around the wall, which is very nice. We have to pay extra when we return the bikes, as we are 10 minutes past their “closing time.” We are both very angry as they are snickering while requesting the money – but we hand it over anyway.

We head to the local mall, and some other local shops, before heading out to the most American style dinner at Pizza Hut, which is still very Chinese. There is corn on everything! After a quick stop at the local drugstore we head back to the hotel room to unwind while playing uno and drinking wine.

Day 4 – From Good to Hell and Back Again

We wake up early (me too early, about 5am) and head to the breakfast buffet, where they even set out French fries to accommodate their American guests. We decide we’ll do some sight-seeing before we have to board a sleeper train for Xian. We head to the Temple of Heaven , which is a delightful place.

There are elderly people in large groups dancing, doing some ball dancing, exercising outside and just generally being endearing.The temple is gorgeous and has lots to explore. We take a few hundred pictures then head to lunch – a great corporate looking restaurant that lacks the characteristic Chinese mystery taste that is prevalent in the more local cuisine.

After lunch we head to the Lama temple, which is the only one of its kind outside of Tibet.

The temple is amazing, without an English speaking guide, it’s hard to tell what each building is for, but looking at all the Buddhas, which culminates in a 5 story high Buddha carved from a single tree is such a unique and beautiful experience. Everywhere people burn incense in large pots, and kneel to honor Buddha.

Last we head to Bei Hai park, which is a park surrounding a large lake. There is a large temple, and a nice hike up to it that precedes it. There is a cave, but it apparently closed before we got there!

We catch a shady rickshaw ride to snack alley (where Ingrid and I are briefly separated and I am sure I am being kidnapped) where we grab some street food for our train ride.

We arrive at the train station after an hour long cab ride. The train station is like a GIANT airport filled with a million people. While waiting in line we meet an American, Matt – who has been backpacking around Asia for a few months or weeks and is really excited about everything. We make plans to meet up with him once on the sleeper. As we enter our train car- it becomes apparent that we are fish out of water. We enterthe car with some very interesting characters, carrying rucksacks, food and pots for tea. The car is smelly, has wet floors, and a single hole in the back of the train for men and women to use for a toilet. I am beyond horrified, and wonder what happened for my life to take such a turn in the wrong direction. Ingrid apologizes profusely, saying she had no idea it would be this bad. We are in a room with 6 people, and we have the middle bunks. There are a father and daughter above us, and apparently grandma and grandma below us. Regardless, we put our stuff in and sit out in the hall to think of how we will survive this. We are both distraught, and words cannot really describe the wretched condition of the train car. It is if we are human cargo, perhaps being shipped off to a concentration camp – only with more tea (in fact, the only commodity on this car is a hot water tap for making tea).

Ingrid decides that the only thing we can do is upgrade. Her faith in God is renewed as we find that the young girl in our bunk speaks English, and can ask the conductor if we can upgrade to a 4 person car. After much trouble and too much time, he tells us that for the equivalent of $100, we can upgrade to a room with just two of us. We agree (of course), nearly sobbing with joy. As we leave, the other passengers begin cat-calling, asking us where we are going in Chinese. Even one car up conditions improve, the crowding lessens, and toilets appear. As the train cars go up (we were on car 5, and are moving to 14) the train becomes nice, even pleasant. The 4 person rooms don’t even really have people in them, and have doors, and access to sinks. When we reach car 12, we know we have arrived, as the attendant has to unlock this corridor with a special badge. Our room is a two person room, complete with a private bathroom, 2 tv’s, a closet, a table, and a nice little chair…. And even bedskirts. I’m not sure what people picture heaven as – but that day, at that time and place, that room was heaven to me.

We stay awake talking of the horror we felt earlier and how there would be no possible way to sleep in a room with 4 other people, the lights on, no window, no door, and two Chinese people climibing up and down our bunks all night. A cart comes by and we order some beer in celebration, and soon retire to enjoy our private room and the 14 hour ride to Xian.

China Day 3 - The Great Wall

Today my friend and I had booked a private tour to the Great Wall. I

woke up early, too early, and went to hang out in the lobby. I come back to wake up Ingrid, and as soon as we know it, our English speaking guide Sophia showed up to pick us up. It is a two hour drive to the wall – Mutianyu section. We have Sophia, who barely speaks, and our driver, who speaks no English. The ride is interesting (many interesting things to see!) and uneventful. The drive actually reminds me of the drive I once took from the Montego Bay airport in Jamaica to our resort in Falmouth - dirty and dirtier.

We arrive at the wall early enough to use the squat toilets and ride a ski lift to the top.

The ski lift is a quicker ride than expected, and we reach the Wall in no time at all. We are at tower 6, and can walk to tower 1 – so that we may venture back to meet our guides. One thing that I never expected, or even thought of, was that the wall is one giant staircase, and the stairs are very steep!

The hike is very tiring and pretty strenuous – but the view is priceless.

We venture past Tower 1, to a non-visitor area of ruins.

It’s a great hike and makes for beautiful photographs. To end the hike on the wall, we exit via a toboggan run. You cannot go very fast, and of course Ingrid’s need for speed leads to a run-in with an Old Russian lady’s toboggan. It was a very cool way to end the tour.

On the way back to Beijing, the driver takes us on a few stops. First is a cloissne factory. This is an art form of glazing pots covered in copper wire. The factory is very strange, first offering us lunch – where we are the only customers with 5 girls and one older lady waiting on us. As we eat they sit at the opposite table and play video games. When we finish – they all scurry to clean up our table. The factory tour consists of 5 rooms, each representing a different step in the process. In each room there is no activity, except for some old ladies playing cards, and some random vases strewn about. However at the end of the tour lays an entire showroom full of millions of pieces. Ingrid explains that these are made at the sweat factory down the street. It is striking how each place we visit has so many staff members, yet so little customers. I wonder how they all get paid.

Next we stop at a silk museum, which was an eye-opening experience. I had heard of silk worms before but never actually assumed that they did anything. Silk as actually made from the cocoon of the worm, and the cocoon is boiled and the worm removed. The cacoon is then stretched over several different things, until it finally is the length of a full size bed. They act out each stage of the process, and even have dead worms. I doubt I’ll ever use/wear/enjoy silk again. The final stop is a very American-friendly (read: buy-crazy) corporate tea house. They are very irritated when we don’t buy anything.

Back at the hotel, I believe I need a nap, but instead choose to go drink beer in the bar and catch up on email. We stay for about 3 hours just drinking and laughing, then venture out to the same noodle place as the first night. There is old roasted pig parts on the table, and the smell nearly ruins our experience - but the noodles are too good to be ruined by any rancid meat smell. We both head to bed early ready for a new day.

China Day 2 - Assaults A-plenty

We wake up early, around 8am. The city looks so different in the day time. We couldn’t see a bit of Beijing last night. In the day there was so much to see. We first walked to the forbidden city. On the way an art student stopped us, having overheard us speaking in English. He implores us to follow him to his art studio, and shows us his paintings. Says he is coming to NYC next week – a week at NYU for art school with his classmates. If we want, we can buy a painting to help them with a fundraiser! We book it out of there and head to the forbidden city.

The city is breath-taking. The story behind it is unreal – a city for the emperor and his officials, and no one else… except for the spare concubine. There is so much to see, you could stay all day. All characteristic Chinese architecture that I never thought I would ever see up close.

After we go through the forbidden city, we cross the giant walk way and head up to an overlook to view it from above. There are many, many stairs – but the view is worth it.

First we just look at the city – it’s unreal. We don’t realize that we can enter the building at the top, which turns out to be a temple. Inside there is a gold-plated Buddha that is so striking. I kind of want to hang out with him all day.

Heading back down we look for lunch. We choose a bigger restaurant, and the food is pretty crappy. Pancakes, tofu, and scallion dumplings. It doesn’t sit well in my stomach and I feel ill the rest of the afternoon. We head back to the hotel to add more layers before heading to Tiennaman square.

The square is just that, a large square – but again, it’s overwhelming to think about this infamous place, which is plastered with pictures of general Mao.

To cross the street to get anywhere, you have to go underground and enter back onto the street, Each of these corridors is accompanied by a homeless cripple, who is dangling their stump and crying for money. I learn to hate going down into them.

After the square we head to go shopping, which isn’t that far of a hike. We go to the tea distract, where I learn that my friend has developed quite an affliction for tea and tea related products. Shopping is filled with haggling, like many third-world countries (of which classification China is not), and the salespeople are extremely aggressive. They follow you like a shadow around the entire store, to be sure you don’t buy something without their approval. We shop and decide to take a rickshaw back. Of course, the rickshaw takes us on the exact route we just walked in order to find the rickshaw in the first place. He takes us a little further then where we originated, to an old part of town with lots of stereotypical Asian shops full of crap. I visited many of the public squat toilets, which are exactly what they sound like- holes in the ground that you have to squat over. They all have doors, but locals choose to ignore them, they just squat on over and start pooping… and they have terrible aim. The smell is like Slumdog Millionaire incarnate. Also, there is no toilet tissue whatsoever - you must carry it with you – if you don’t have any, you just shake I guess.

After another dinner in a shady-looking hole in the wall, my friend suggests massages, which are about $10 American for 1 hour. She says she gets them here all of the time and they are glorious. This sounds like a bad idea to me, but I am along for the ride. The massage is scarring and upsetting. You don’t take your clothes off, but they put my friend and I in one room, and just start assaulting us- literally. Punching, jumping, kicking. I ask them to stop, but they pretend not to speak English. The pain is unbearable. The desire to bolt out of the room and never look back is the only thing on my mind. As the little girl “masseuse” climbs onto my back and starts jumping, I know I will never fully recover from this experience. Because I can barely walk after the beating my legs and back took – we grab a Gitney (a bike with a motor with a metal contraption on the back) back to the hotel. Ingrid asks how much and he says “3.” We agree and hop in – ready to put an end to the night and forget about the terrible and scarring massage. The ride is about 5 miles an hour, barely over walking pace. We are passed by every other bicycle on the road.

We get to our hotel 5 minuets later, though it was no distance at all. When we get out, my friend hands the driver 3 Yuen. Apparently, when he said 3, he meant 30. He starts yelling, my friend yells back. He yells again and she says take it or leave it. He offers us ten for both of us to get rid of him, and Ingrid turns and walks into the hotel. I follow, more uncomfortable than I was earlier when I was being jumped on. He follows us into the elevator, yelling to be paid. She refuses, saying $3 or nothing. He is livid, yelling and throwing a fit. She tells him she knows he won’t assault us, and I’m not so sure. Finally he takes the $3 and leaves, and we ride back up to our hotel room. I am scared shitless and would have just handed over the 10 he asked for. I am afraid he will follow us back up to the room but we appeared safe enough.

Ahhhhhh!

2 glasses of wine and some sleep is a good way to end the first full day in China. J

3am

Is what time I was wide awake today.... oh it will not be a good day.

I have already been to the gym, had my morning smoothie, made the husband's lunch, and made my lunch. My lunch is an attempt to break my addiction to the Whole Foods salad bar. If you have ever been, you know that it is nearly impossible to spend less than $10 on a salad. Everything is so delicious and they charge by the ounce I think! It's not quite as bad as crack, but it costs about the same per day.

A picture of a typical glorious salad: complete with my favorite orange ginger beets. mmmmm. Looks like a disaster area, I know.


So this morning, when I finally accepted the fact that I would not be sleeping any more today, I whipped up a smoothie, baked some 5-spice tofu (tofu cubed and coated in olive oil, Na++ and pepper, and five spice powder, baked 15 minutes at 450), sliced some zucchini and beets, steamed some edamame, drained some garbanzo beans.... and made my own little kitchen salad bar.
Looks better than whole foods, no?


My goal for today is to stay up until 9pm, so that I can sleep until at least 6 tomorrow. Stupid Asia.

Travel Log Day 1 - The Arrival

Because it's already written, I'm going to share my travel log from China! Hope you enjoy!

Arrived in China last night at 9-ish PM. Took the airport express from the Beijing Airport to our hotel, which is located near tiananmen square.

The hotel is nice – nice enough.

What’s most striking to you (me specifically) right away is that NO ONE speaks English. Usually there is at least one person available that speaks a word or two, but literally here no one knows what you are talking about, starting with the hotel attendants. Everything smells profoundly of cigarette smoke, which you soon assume is a habit one picks up to mask the smell of the city- human waste and rancid meat.

We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out to find a bite to eat. Not much is open immediately around the hotel we are at – so we headed out into the Hutong- alleyways preserved from the times the Forbidden City existed. The Hutong is essentially the alleyways reminiscent of a ghetto – of India, or even NYC. There is garbage lining the street, not in cans, but just loose. I’m assuming someone comes and picks it up the next day… but until then it’s there for you to smell.

We find a noodle shop open, with various pig parts strewn across some tables. The food is great, and we have a great time. Delicious tofu in black bean sauce, vegetable and lo mein, and some wonderful beer and green tea. We grab some wine and head back to the hotel to head in for the night.

Back from Asia

I just got back from Asia.... that was definitely a ONCE IN A LIFETIME trip. I'll share my travel log later- but now I need to concentrate on getting some sleep... I am really off in time and days!!!!!