Wednesday, July 30, 2008--Chiang Mai (Continued)
I went to the area market again tonight to eat. I was surprised to see that some of the eateries from the previous night were not there. Maybe they only serve on certain nights of the week. Anyway, I had trouble finding something that appealed to me. Finally, I settled on Phad Thai. It was a good version, though, so I enjoyed it.
I decided to go to Conservation #2 to try their massage in the evening, since I had nothing else to do. I told the woman I had been to #1 and had not been satisfied. I told her I wanted it be be more vigorous (by showing that I didn't want PRESSING; I want RUBBING). She called in a man she said would be good and asked me to return in 40 minutes when he would be there. And he was not just good; he was unbelievably good. I may have had the best massage I have ever had. It was 1 1/2 hours of pure pleasure. It was always strong without hurting. Just perfect.
Thursday, July 31, 2008--Chiang Mai to Bangkok
I awoke around 4:00 this morning with my mind wandering. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I turned on the light and read a couple of chapters from my current book. Then I was able to go back to sleep for about an hour.
I was lucky. I came downstairs around 6:40 thinking I could use the computer for checking e-mail for a few minutes before having breakfast, since breakfast service starts at 7:00. But there was a German couple already eating eggs. Apparently they started the service early for them. Therefore, I ordered my omelette, prepared my toast, etc. I was finished eating and on my way out of the hotel by 7:02.
I walked to the airport. It only took 35 minutes. I knew it wouldn't take long. What's funny is that the German couple from my hotel was waiting for a pre-ordered taxi that was supposed to have arrived at 7:00 when I left at 7:02. I got to the airport, checked in, and started up the stairs to the departure lounge, and the German couple was going up the stairs, too. They had taken their taxi and had not gotten there and checked in any faster than I had while walking!
Well, Around-the-World VIII came to a close today with my flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. That was the last flight coupon from that ticket. When I leave here next week, I will be starting Around-the-World IX with the new ticket that I bought in Chiang Mai.
I am staying in a different hotel than usual here in Bangkok. The Mandarin, where I have stayed the past few years, had a fire after I left last year. When they reopened, their rates more than doubled from my usual $29-33 per night from the Internet discounters to about $69 per night. Therefore, I searched for another place and decided on the Pinnacle Lumpinee. It is a similar hotel from about the time period--a slighted faded luxury hotel. It's not in as good a location, however. I probably won't stay there again next year. I'll look for another place that is more convenient to the places where I want to go. I find it interesting that both the Mandarin and the Pinnacle have a poorer TV channel selection than I got at any of my other hotels in the Chiang Mai area. There are no premium movie channels at the Pinnacle. It has BBC, several local channels, a sports channel, and ANX, a channel that shows old TV shows and an occasional film.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Relaxing in Chiang Mai
Tuesday, July 29, 2008--Chiang Mai (Continued)
I watched BBC to catch up on the news. Then I went out to dinner nearby. I walked to the southern moat which is only 2 blocks south of here. There is a market there, and both sides of the street are filled with food stalls. I walked and looked. Soon I saw a man making a plate of rice covered with sliced duck breast and then with a big dip of sauce made from the duck. It looked so good that I had a portion myself. It came with a bowl of (duck?) soup. Then I wandered more. I bought some fried pastries with sesame seeds that tasted much like cake donuts. They made a nice ending to my only meal of the day.
I wandered around the inner old town some. I had no specific goal in mind. I watched some students playing basketball. I stopped at a corner where two tuk tuk drivers wanted to talk after realizing I wouldn't buy their services (rides, massage, etc.) They were funny and seemed to genuinely enjoy visiting to the point that I felt they were letting tourists pass who might be interested in a ride.
I returned to the room and watched an old French film on TV5 called The Professional. It was about a secret agent who was sold out while on an assignment because the needs of the government had changed. He came back two years later after breaking out of prison to set up the system to pay for what it had done to him.
There are some young men staying at my hotel. Last night, they were quite noisy between 23:00 and 23:30. They were singing and yelling. Of course, they were all drunk. They were so far gone that they had no idea that they might be disturbing someone.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008--Chiang Mai
The hotel has a nice breakfast on its outdoor patio. They cooked me a fresh omelette and made very nice coffee. In the meantime, I made myself toast. After the omelette, I had strawberry jam and peanut butter with the toast. Then I had an assortment of fresh fruits. Ummm!
I wandered around town some. I encountered some students who were practicing their English. It's a common assignment here in Thailand. A teacher gives them a list of questions and a form. They stop tourists to ask them questions. Then they ask the tourist to fill out the form for their class. Unfortunately, none of these were very good at speaking English. Shyness was part of the problem, but they really weren't ready to be on the street yet. I doubt they will learn English unless something changes in their classroom to emphasize speaking orally more than reading.
I stopped at the tourist office to ask if there is a blind massage parlour here. They showed me on the map where to go--a place called Conservation Massage by the Blind far out on the northwest side of town past the town walls and moat. I went there this afternoon and had a 1 1/2 hour oil massage. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best. The man spent too much time just putting pressure on the muscles rather than massaging them. And he spent way too much time on the lower legs to the extent that the rest of the body got far too little time. It was cheap, though. And the guy seemed to be trying. He kept counting (not aloud but moving his lips) to determine how long to hold each pressure point. And he laughed and giggled some, so he was in a good mood. He seemed to be totally blind. Some of the people at this place are legally blind yet can see some.
On the way home from the massage parlour, I took a different route. About two blocks from my hotel, what did I see? Conservation Massage for the Blind No. 2!! I could have been in this area all along rather than going so far across town.
Thailand is one of the countries in the world that has a special visa for retirees. They want retirees to come here and bring their income. Anyone over 50 years old who has either $25,000 U.S. in the bank here or can show a guaranteed income (pension/social security) of $2000 per month can get the resident visa. I guess that is why so many men about my age or a little younger are everywhere I go. It wouldn't be a bad country as a residence. There are so many good restaurants. Prices are cheap so that one can live quite well and have a servant or two. And there are enough expatriates in certain places to provide alternatives in terms of entertainment--foreign films, plays in English, etc. But it would only work well for a couple, I think. I would have a hard time living here on my own. I think I would be bored.
I watched BBC to catch up on the news. Then I went out to dinner nearby. I walked to the southern moat which is only 2 blocks south of here. There is a market there, and both sides of the street are filled with food stalls. I walked and looked. Soon I saw a man making a plate of rice covered with sliced duck breast and then with a big dip of sauce made from the duck. It looked so good that I had a portion myself. It came with a bowl of (duck?) soup. Then I wandered more. I bought some fried pastries with sesame seeds that tasted much like cake donuts. They made a nice ending to my only meal of the day.
I wandered around the inner old town some. I had no specific goal in mind. I watched some students playing basketball. I stopped at a corner where two tuk tuk drivers wanted to talk after realizing I wouldn't buy their services (rides, massage, etc.) They were funny and seemed to genuinely enjoy visiting to the point that I felt they were letting tourists pass who might be interested in a ride.
I returned to the room and watched an old French film on TV5 called The Professional. It was about a secret agent who was sold out while on an assignment because the needs of the government had changed. He came back two years later after breaking out of prison to set up the system to pay for what it had done to him.
There are some young men staying at my hotel. Last night, they were quite noisy between 23:00 and 23:30. They were singing and yelling. Of course, they were all drunk. They were so far gone that they had no idea that they might be disturbing someone.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008--Chiang Mai
The hotel has a nice breakfast on its outdoor patio. They cooked me a fresh omelette and made very nice coffee. In the meantime, I made myself toast. After the omelette, I had strawberry jam and peanut butter with the toast. Then I had an assortment of fresh fruits. Ummm!
I wandered around town some. I encountered some students who were practicing their English. It's a common assignment here in Thailand. A teacher gives them a list of questions and a form. They stop tourists to ask them questions. Then they ask the tourist to fill out the form for their class. Unfortunately, none of these were very good at speaking English. Shyness was part of the problem, but they really weren't ready to be on the street yet. I doubt they will learn English unless something changes in their classroom to emphasize speaking orally more than reading.
I stopped at the tourist office to ask if there is a blind massage parlour here. They showed me on the map where to go--a place called Conservation Massage by the Blind far out on the northwest side of town past the town walls and moat. I went there this afternoon and had a 1 1/2 hour oil massage. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best. The man spent too much time just putting pressure on the muscles rather than massaging them. And he spent way too much time on the lower legs to the extent that the rest of the body got far too little time. It was cheap, though. And the guy seemed to be trying. He kept counting (not aloud but moving his lips) to determine how long to hold each pressure point. And he laughed and giggled some, so he was in a good mood. He seemed to be totally blind. Some of the people at this place are legally blind yet can see some.
On the way home from the massage parlour, I took a different route. About two blocks from my hotel, what did I see? Conservation Massage for the Blind No. 2!! I could have been in this area all along rather than going so far across town.
Thailand is one of the countries in the world that has a special visa for retirees. They want retirees to come here and bring their income. Anyone over 50 years old who has either $25,000 U.S. in the bank here or can show a guaranteed income (pension/social security) of $2000 per month can get the resident visa. I guess that is why so many men about my age or a little younger are everywhere I go. It wouldn't be a bad country as a residence. There are so many good restaurants. Prices are cheap so that one can live quite well and have a servant or two. And there are enough expatriates in certain places to provide alternatives in terms of entertainment--foreign films, plays in English, etc. But it would only work well for a couple, I think. I would have a hard time living here on my own. I think I would be bored.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Continuing Near the Border with Myanmar
Saturday, July 26, 2008--Mae Hong Son
I made a long loop walk into the countryside, but it wasn't as nice a walk as I have had in Mae Sariang. Here, it is difficult to get out to where the native villages are. I passed the airport (where I stopped to get a seat assignment for my flight to Delhi), some countryside tourist bungalows, and some open country. I was disappointed in what I was able to see.
Back in the room, I rested by watching the Australian Channel on TV. I watched a footy match between two Australian teams, one of which I had seen play when I was there. Later, I watched a Rugby Union match between Australia and New Zealand. It was nice to see both.
Between the two matches, I read. I finished The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. It is a difficult book to read. The first chapter is the wandering thoughts of a 33-year-old with the mind of a 3-year-old. The second chapter is the wandering throughts of a man about to commit suicide. There are only 4 chapters, and those first two take up more than half of the book. I did not find it enjoyable to read, but I forced myself to finish it. I give the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
For dinner, I had roasted red pork with rice. It was delicious. I got it at a street stall operated by a local man. With it, I also good pork soup (with bits of crispy skin in it) and iced green tea.
Everywhere up here in the tribal areas, there is a problem with dogs. They growl and bark. It is discouraging when trying to walk and explore. Fortunately, they don't seem to bite, and they back down when confronted. I turn to them, put my arms out with my hands on my hip and stare at them. Then when they have stayed still for a while, I start walking. If they try to growl or follow, I turn and point to them and talk sternly. But it is a turnoff. The tourist authorities should encourage local people with growling dogs to keep them locked up.
Since I find Mae Hong Son to be a bit boring, I will leave tomorrow for Pai. I was lucky coming back to my room tonight. The guest house requires that shoes be removed. But they have a stretch between the front office building and the building with the rooms that is open air. It had been raining, so I knew it would be slippery, since they have smooth tile on the ground. Sure enough, there was a dark spot just as I was entering the back building, and there was a step down there that I couldn't see. My foot hit it too far back. My other foot hit the tile and slid. My knee of the foot that hit the step went to the ground. Fortunately, my knee did not hit hard. It is sore, but it could have resulted in a broken kneecap.
Sunday, July 27, 2008--Mae Hong Son to Pai
It is a fantastic trip between Mae Hong Son and Pai. There are very high mountains and deep valleys. There are many sharp switchbacks on the road. The bus had to travel in low gear much of the way. But what views we enjoyed on the trip!
Pai is a bit of a surprise. It was a hippie colony back in the late 60s and 70s. Today, it has blossomed into a popular resort. I thick it is best to say that it is the equivalent mountain resort in the north to the island resorts in the south. It is filled with westerners. My guidebook which is about 9 years old is completely out of date because of all the developments. Many of the restaurants no longer exist, but so many others do. And there are many, many guest houses here.
I've gone native with my guest house--Baan Pai Village. I am in a bungalow. It is built out of bamboo and has a roof made of a local leaf that is used for roofing material. The bed has a large mosquito net. The front porch is big and covered, and the room has rolled bamboo mats and triangular Thai reading pillows for placing there for resting. It's much like a native hut, except that it has an indoor bath with hot water and it is very clean. The bungalows are placed along winding baths among lush greenery--ficus plants, ferns, palms, orchids, etc. The reception area is very stylish and has modern-design koi pools, an open air restaurant and bar, etc.
It is HOT in Pai. The previous places I have been have been higher in the mountains and have been cool. Here it is cool only after it rains. But it does that 2-3 times per day. This afternoon, however, as I explored the town, I could feel the sun burning the calves of my legs.
It's also more expensive in Pai than where I have been. There seems to be collusion among all the business owners. The prices are exactly the same everywhere for certain services such as using the internet, getting a massage, eating the same dish, etc. The Internet is so expensive that I have decided not to use it while I am here. Why should I reward them for colluding against me? Most other towns, it is possible to go into the local areas and find cheaper Internet cafes that serve the local folks. Here, there is none. My guess is that they all quote the same high price and charge the tourists that, but that they charge the local kids a lower rate. Prices in the tourist restaurants can be about the same as those in similar places in the U.S.--burgers for $5-6, pastries for $1-2, etc.
I ran into two different couples I know from my travels. One is the British couple I met at the bus station in Chiang Mai. I was waiting for my bus to Mae Sariang, and they were all excited about getting to Pai because they had heard so many wonderful things about it. And they are enraptured. They say it is just a wonderful place and that they wish they had more than 6 days to spend here. The other couple is the Danish couple who has been in both the towns where I was before. They have had the same reaction that I am having. They think it is too touristy and that they will be happy to leave.
The British couple did point me toward a local restaurant with good food and more typical Thai prices. I went there had had a fantastic dinner: spicy stir-fired pork with curry paste. It was so tasty. And nice and spicy. It came with chicken soup, too.
On the way back to my room, I noticed a "fun" sign. "Dang" is a family name here in Thailand. And in the U.S., for those of you who don't know it, it is a slang term meaning "awfully" as in "dang good." Well, there is a laundry here owned by a Dang family, and its name is "Dang Quick Laundry"!
Monday, July 28, 2008--Pai
I tried walking into the countryside this morning while it was cool. It's just hopeless here. The development continues out all the roadways for long distances. And the roads are filled with tourists on motorcycles they have rented to explore the area. Therefore, I have decided to give up on Pai. I will stay through tonight, because I don't want to rush back to the room and try to get out by check out time which would then get me to Chiang Mai at the end of the day. Therefore, I will do all day what Pai is best known for among tourists. I will chill out.
I pulled my bamboo mat and my triangular pillow out onto the porch of my bungalow. I read, I napped, I reviewed my travel literature for India, etc. The day slowly passed.
In the late afternoon, I went out again. I stopped at a used bookstore and bought a book. I sat outside the supermarket and drank a beer and overheard the conversations of the local expatriate residents. I went back to my restaurant where I ate last night and had a new dish this time--spicy chicken with basil over rice and topped with a fried egg.
I worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep after napping so much during the daytime. And I had to insert my earplugs because the frogs were making so much noise, but I did sleep another 9 hours.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008--Pai to Chiang Mai
I was up early and caught the first bus to Chiang Mai. The British couple who was here showed up for the same bus along with about 3 other foreigners. It was another twisting trip through high mountains.
I almost had another disaster when I got here. I had already decided to get off the bus when it turned to get on the expressway that goes across the northern side of town. It would be closer to where I wanted to go than staying on the bus all the way to the station. I pushed the button, pointed out my suitcase to the attendant, exited the front of the bus and went to the back to get the suitcase. And just as it pulled away, I realized I had my shoulder bag but had left my backpack on it. I yelled at them and waved, but they didn't hear. I looked for a tuk tuk or taxi, but there was none, so I put out my finger. A car immediately stopped. It was two university students who are studying agriculture. They were right at the point that was their destination. But they took me to the bus station where we arrived just as the others were getting off. The British couple wanted to know how I got there! I retrived my bag, and the students, since they had to return to where they picked me up anyway, took me back to where I got off the bus.
I walked through town and found a place to stay on the south side inside the old moated city. It's nicer than the other places I have stayed, but I decided to splurge. I am in the deluxe (nicest) room with a balcony overlooking the old city. The bathroom is Thai style with the the sink in an open-air area (with walls to make it private). The place includes breakfast, cable tv, mini-fridge, Internet, etc. It's called the Bupatara House.
I made a long loop walk into the countryside, but it wasn't as nice a walk as I have had in Mae Sariang. Here, it is difficult to get out to where the native villages are. I passed the airport (where I stopped to get a seat assignment for my flight to Delhi), some countryside tourist bungalows, and some open country. I was disappointed in what I was able to see.
Back in the room, I rested by watching the Australian Channel on TV. I watched a footy match between two Australian teams, one of which I had seen play when I was there. Later, I watched a Rugby Union match between Australia and New Zealand. It was nice to see both.
Between the two matches, I read. I finished The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. It is a difficult book to read. The first chapter is the wandering thoughts of a 33-year-old with the mind of a 3-year-old. The second chapter is the wandering throughts of a man about to commit suicide. There are only 4 chapters, and those first two take up more than half of the book. I did not find it enjoyable to read, but I forced myself to finish it. I give the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
For dinner, I had roasted red pork with rice. It was delicious. I got it at a street stall operated by a local man. With it, I also good pork soup (with bits of crispy skin in it) and iced green tea.
Everywhere up here in the tribal areas, there is a problem with dogs. They growl and bark. It is discouraging when trying to walk and explore. Fortunately, they don't seem to bite, and they back down when confronted. I turn to them, put my arms out with my hands on my hip and stare at them. Then when they have stayed still for a while, I start walking. If they try to growl or follow, I turn and point to them and talk sternly. But it is a turnoff. The tourist authorities should encourage local people with growling dogs to keep them locked up.
Since I find Mae Hong Son to be a bit boring, I will leave tomorrow for Pai. I was lucky coming back to my room tonight. The guest house requires that shoes be removed. But they have a stretch between the front office building and the building with the rooms that is open air. It had been raining, so I knew it would be slippery, since they have smooth tile on the ground. Sure enough, there was a dark spot just as I was entering the back building, and there was a step down there that I couldn't see. My foot hit it too far back. My other foot hit the tile and slid. My knee of the foot that hit the step went to the ground. Fortunately, my knee did not hit hard. It is sore, but it could have resulted in a broken kneecap.
Sunday, July 27, 2008--Mae Hong Son to Pai
It is a fantastic trip between Mae Hong Son and Pai. There are very high mountains and deep valleys. There are many sharp switchbacks on the road. The bus had to travel in low gear much of the way. But what views we enjoyed on the trip!
Pai is a bit of a surprise. It was a hippie colony back in the late 60s and 70s. Today, it has blossomed into a popular resort. I thick it is best to say that it is the equivalent mountain resort in the north to the island resorts in the south. It is filled with westerners. My guidebook which is about 9 years old is completely out of date because of all the developments. Many of the restaurants no longer exist, but so many others do. And there are many, many guest houses here.
I've gone native with my guest house--Baan Pai Village. I am in a bungalow. It is built out of bamboo and has a roof made of a local leaf that is used for roofing material. The bed has a large mosquito net. The front porch is big and covered, and the room has rolled bamboo mats and triangular Thai reading pillows for placing there for resting. It's much like a native hut, except that it has an indoor bath with hot water and it is very clean. The bungalows are placed along winding baths among lush greenery--ficus plants, ferns, palms, orchids, etc. The reception area is very stylish and has modern-design koi pools, an open air restaurant and bar, etc.
It is HOT in Pai. The previous places I have been have been higher in the mountains and have been cool. Here it is cool only after it rains. But it does that 2-3 times per day. This afternoon, however, as I explored the town, I could feel the sun burning the calves of my legs.
It's also more expensive in Pai than where I have been. There seems to be collusion among all the business owners. The prices are exactly the same everywhere for certain services such as using the internet, getting a massage, eating the same dish, etc. The Internet is so expensive that I have decided not to use it while I am here. Why should I reward them for colluding against me? Most other towns, it is possible to go into the local areas and find cheaper Internet cafes that serve the local folks. Here, there is none. My guess is that they all quote the same high price and charge the tourists that, but that they charge the local kids a lower rate. Prices in the tourist restaurants can be about the same as those in similar places in the U.S.--burgers for $5-6, pastries for $1-2, etc.
I ran into two different couples I know from my travels. One is the British couple I met at the bus station in Chiang Mai. I was waiting for my bus to Mae Sariang, and they were all excited about getting to Pai because they had heard so many wonderful things about it. And they are enraptured. They say it is just a wonderful place and that they wish they had more than 6 days to spend here. The other couple is the Danish couple who has been in both the towns where I was before. They have had the same reaction that I am having. They think it is too touristy and that they will be happy to leave.
The British couple did point me toward a local restaurant with good food and more typical Thai prices. I went there had had a fantastic dinner: spicy stir-fired pork with curry paste. It was so tasty. And nice and spicy. It came with chicken soup, too.
On the way back to my room, I noticed a "fun" sign. "Dang" is a family name here in Thailand. And in the U.S., for those of you who don't know it, it is a slang term meaning "awfully" as in "dang good." Well, there is a laundry here owned by a Dang family, and its name is "Dang Quick Laundry"!
Monday, July 28, 2008--Pai
I tried walking into the countryside this morning while it was cool. It's just hopeless here. The development continues out all the roadways for long distances. And the roads are filled with tourists on motorcycles they have rented to explore the area. Therefore, I have decided to give up on Pai. I will stay through tonight, because I don't want to rush back to the room and try to get out by check out time which would then get me to Chiang Mai at the end of the day. Therefore, I will do all day what Pai is best known for among tourists. I will chill out.
I pulled my bamboo mat and my triangular pillow out onto the porch of my bungalow. I read, I napped, I reviewed my travel literature for India, etc. The day slowly passed.
In the late afternoon, I went out again. I stopped at a used bookstore and bought a book. I sat outside the supermarket and drank a beer and overheard the conversations of the local expatriate residents. I went back to my restaurant where I ate last night and had a new dish this time--spicy chicken with basil over rice and topped with a fried egg.
I worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep after napping so much during the daytime. And I had to insert my earplugs because the frogs were making so much noise, but I did sleep another 9 hours.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008--Pai to Chiang Mai
I was up early and caught the first bus to Chiang Mai. The British couple who was here showed up for the same bus along with about 3 other foreigners. It was another twisting trip through high mountains.
I almost had another disaster when I got here. I had already decided to get off the bus when it turned to get on the expressway that goes across the northern side of town. It would be closer to where I wanted to go than staying on the bus all the way to the station. I pushed the button, pointed out my suitcase to the attendant, exited the front of the bus and went to the back to get the suitcase. And just as it pulled away, I realized I had my shoulder bag but had left my backpack on it. I yelled at them and waved, but they didn't hear. I looked for a tuk tuk or taxi, but there was none, so I put out my finger. A car immediately stopped. It was two university students who are studying agriculture. They were right at the point that was their destination. But they took me to the bus station where we arrived just as the others were getting off. The British couple wanted to know how I got there! I retrived my bag, and the students, since they had to return to where they picked me up anyway, took me back to where I got off the bus.
I walked through town and found a place to stay on the south side inside the old moated city. It's nicer than the other places I have stayed, but I decided to splurge. I am in the deluxe (nicest) room with a balcony overlooking the old city. The bathroom is Thai style with the the sink in an open-air area (with walls to make it private). The place includes breakfast, cable tv, mini-fridge, Internet, etc. It's called the Bupatara House.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Hills and Tropical Rainfalls
Thursday, July 24, 2008--Mae Sariang (Continued)
I walked out of town in another direction late in the afternoon. This time I crossed the river behind my guesthouse and went toward one of the national parks in this area. Although it was only 4.5 km (a little over 2.5 miles) away, I didn't head to the park. It was too late in the day, and I had forgotten to get my flashlight. I didn't want to get caught in the dark and have to be walking on the roadway to return to town. After a while, I peeled off onto a rural road. It went out into a valley of rice farms. One field had about 10 people wearing their tribal costumes working in it. The scenes were just beautiful--verdant fields with the occasional palm frond shack surrounded by the equally green mountains. Occasionally a motorcycle or a pickup would pass, but mostly I was out there by myself in that peaceful atmosphere.
Returning to town, I went to the place where I had watched the sports activities last night. It was even more active tonight. There were two games going involving the bamboo ball, a soccer game, and a basketball game. I had a seat on a curb and just watched it all for almost an hour. By then, it was getting dark, and I was getting hungry.
I returned to the same restaurant where I had eaten last night. They have an English menu, the ingredients were very fresh, and the prices were cheap. Just as before, there were 3-4 men eating when I entered. Each looked at me and smiled in a way that made me think they were happy to see I would eat there. I ordered Thai noodles. It was much like Pad Thai with a similar taste and with the chopped peanuts among the noodles. It was presented, however, inside a thin omelette that made the whole dish form a dome shape.
I bought a beer at the store across the street and took it to the guesthouse with me. I sat on the balcony overlooking the fast-flowing river and drank the beer and relaxed. No one else was around.
Friday, July 25, 2008--Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son
There are no set bus schedules up here in the mountains. The buses leave Chiang Mai to come through here and get here when they get here. They may be delayed by landslides, by road construction, by accidents, etc. So it is necessary to go to the bus station about 30 minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive and wait as long as it takes. There is a wonderful sign at the Mae Sariang station that puts it something like this: Buses arrive when they arrive. Sometimes they are late. Sometimes they are very late. Sometimes you wait and wait and it may never come. Please be patient.
I sat on the bench to await my bus. There was an elderly man sitting there who seemed fascinated by me and my things. He grinned and greeted me. Then he leaned forward to inspect my suitcase. He played with the release that let the handle go up and down. He inspected the wheels. He looked at my locks. Then he moved to my backpack. He seemed to appreciate the thickness of the shoulder straps. Next, he moved to my watch. He liked the velcro as the way for it to attach to the wrist. And he liked the digital display with its green background. The man had 3-4 very long wiry hairs growing from his chin. He was neatly dressed, but my guess is that he has worked hard physically in his life.
After a while, a young Thai man came and joined us. He spoke some English and explained that he is a teacher of social studies. He, too, interacted with the elderly man and learned that he is 66 years old. He also learned that the man does hand analyses. The young Thai agreed to pay him for his own analysis. The man had him trace his hand on a sheet of paper and write his name and birthdate at the top. Then he began to break the fingers and the hand into parts and tell him what he could see. Afterwards, the young Thai told me that it was all even--nothing good and nothing bad.
There were two other westerners waiting for our bus. I was worried that it might arrive full, since it is the beginning of the weekend. But it had plenty of seats. We put our luggage in the rear seat and found seats for sitting. The young Thai had saved me a seat beside him, so I sat there. The other westerners were two rows back.
The trip through the mountains was beautiful. The mountains are so green here, and the valleys can be so deep. We twisted and wound our way up and down and up and down as we made progress on the 4-hour trip. We stopped once for 20 minutes to eat. I went with the Thai and had a spicy bowl of soup with fresh, crispy vegetables. It also had sliced pieces of a dark brown gelatinous product which I have been served before. I never know what it is, but my guess is that it may be made from blood or marrow.
After eating, I spoke to the other westerners and learned that they are from Denmark. His home is Odense and she is from Finnsensvej in Fredericksberg which is just a couple of major streets from where Arne lived and is a street where we sometimes shopped.
On the bus, the Thai asked me where I planned to stay in Mae Hong Son. I told him I had picked out a couple of possibilities and that I would just look for a place. He had a tent with him, because he was traveling to attend a scout camp. He told me I was welcome to stay with him if I wanted. I told him we would see and left it at that. I wouldn't have minded the adventure of it all, but I kept thinking at the rain that falls here and the mosquitoes. It could be quite miserable being in a tent with little protection from either.
There was a surprise when we arrived. There is a new bus station outside of town. Of course, the tuk tuk drivers were clustering around trying to get our business. I just excused myself and started walking as usual. It was only 2 km (a little over a mile) into town. But part of that was uphill and it was a very humid day. I was really sweating by the time I got into town. I recognized almost immediately where I was, because I passed the stadium which was on my map. Therefore, I headed for the first place I had considered staying. I found it to be a bit far from town, however, and the prices seemed inflated for what was offered. I walked back in town. I didn't pass another guesthouse. I stopped at the Buddhist Temple where the Thai thought he was supposed to stay, but there were no campers there; I had already decided I would leave my luggage with him while I looked for a place and that I could stay with him as a last resort. The monk told me the scouts were eastward, so I walked that way but never found them. I realized, however, that I was getting close to my second place I had chosen from my guidebook. I went there. It was a good location, and they had a room. It wasn't very inspiring--just two beds, a fan, and a bath with no view and no other amenities. Also, it was available only for one night due to a large group with reservations for tomorrow. I told her I would continue looking. A little ways down the same street, I tried another place, but no one seemed to be around. Then I went to the next place. They had a room with a view of the lake (a central point here in town with a floating temple), cable TV, hot water, etc. And the price was just 50 Baht (about $1.66 U.S.) more than the place with just the bed, fan, and bath and the same price as a similar plain room at the original place that was far out of town. I took the room! And then the Danish couple came downstairs. They had found the same place, too, and had the upstairs room with the view of the lake.
I dined in style tonight. It had been raining some, so I didn't want to go far from the guesthouse. I found a covered patio restaurant with a men that had reasonable prices (only about double what is charged by the street stalls and small owner-operated eating establishments). There were double tablecloths on the tables. There was a burning cord to keep the mosquitoes away. It was just nice overall. I ordered the large version of green curry with chicken, rice, and a beer.
While there, a young American man and a young Thai man entered and sat at the table next to me. The American almost spoiled the evening. He spoke too loudly. And he was the typical Ugly American who knew best. He criticized the temples for having stalls selling items and said that places of worship should be solemn and quiet. He then described how churches are in America. Then he told about his work as a consierge at a hotel in Boston and how he knows all the best restaurants and other places to go so he can get the best tips from the guests at the hotel. Anyway, it went on and on. He has a lot of growing up to do. I wonder why that hotel has someone so young and self-absorbed working in such a position?
I tried to concentrate on my food and enjoy it. The quality was not as good as I have had before, but it was fine. And there was lots of it since I had ordered the big portion (only 1 1/2 times the price of the smaller portion).
I walked out of town in another direction late in the afternoon. This time I crossed the river behind my guesthouse and went toward one of the national parks in this area. Although it was only 4.5 km (a little over 2.5 miles) away, I didn't head to the park. It was too late in the day, and I had forgotten to get my flashlight. I didn't want to get caught in the dark and have to be walking on the roadway to return to town. After a while, I peeled off onto a rural road. It went out into a valley of rice farms. One field had about 10 people wearing their tribal costumes working in it. The scenes were just beautiful--verdant fields with the occasional palm frond shack surrounded by the equally green mountains. Occasionally a motorcycle or a pickup would pass, but mostly I was out there by myself in that peaceful atmosphere.
Returning to town, I went to the place where I had watched the sports activities last night. It was even more active tonight. There were two games going involving the bamboo ball, a soccer game, and a basketball game. I had a seat on a curb and just watched it all for almost an hour. By then, it was getting dark, and I was getting hungry.
I returned to the same restaurant where I had eaten last night. They have an English menu, the ingredients were very fresh, and the prices were cheap. Just as before, there were 3-4 men eating when I entered. Each looked at me and smiled in a way that made me think they were happy to see I would eat there. I ordered Thai noodles. It was much like Pad Thai with a similar taste and with the chopped peanuts among the noodles. It was presented, however, inside a thin omelette that made the whole dish form a dome shape.
I bought a beer at the store across the street and took it to the guesthouse with me. I sat on the balcony overlooking the fast-flowing river and drank the beer and relaxed. No one else was around.
Friday, July 25, 2008--Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son
There are no set bus schedules up here in the mountains. The buses leave Chiang Mai to come through here and get here when they get here. They may be delayed by landslides, by road construction, by accidents, etc. So it is necessary to go to the bus station about 30 minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive and wait as long as it takes. There is a wonderful sign at the Mae Sariang station that puts it something like this: Buses arrive when they arrive. Sometimes they are late. Sometimes they are very late. Sometimes you wait and wait and it may never come. Please be patient.
I sat on the bench to await my bus. There was an elderly man sitting there who seemed fascinated by me and my things. He grinned and greeted me. Then he leaned forward to inspect my suitcase. He played with the release that let the handle go up and down. He inspected the wheels. He looked at my locks. Then he moved to my backpack. He seemed to appreciate the thickness of the shoulder straps. Next, he moved to my watch. He liked the velcro as the way for it to attach to the wrist. And he liked the digital display with its green background. The man had 3-4 very long wiry hairs growing from his chin. He was neatly dressed, but my guess is that he has worked hard physically in his life.
After a while, a young Thai man came and joined us. He spoke some English and explained that he is a teacher of social studies. He, too, interacted with the elderly man and learned that he is 66 years old. He also learned that the man does hand analyses. The young Thai agreed to pay him for his own analysis. The man had him trace his hand on a sheet of paper and write his name and birthdate at the top. Then he began to break the fingers and the hand into parts and tell him what he could see. Afterwards, the young Thai told me that it was all even--nothing good and nothing bad.
There were two other westerners waiting for our bus. I was worried that it might arrive full, since it is the beginning of the weekend. But it had plenty of seats. We put our luggage in the rear seat and found seats for sitting. The young Thai had saved me a seat beside him, so I sat there. The other westerners were two rows back.
The trip through the mountains was beautiful. The mountains are so green here, and the valleys can be so deep. We twisted and wound our way up and down and up and down as we made progress on the 4-hour trip. We stopped once for 20 minutes to eat. I went with the Thai and had a spicy bowl of soup with fresh, crispy vegetables. It also had sliced pieces of a dark brown gelatinous product which I have been served before. I never know what it is, but my guess is that it may be made from blood or marrow.
After eating, I spoke to the other westerners and learned that they are from Denmark. His home is Odense and she is from Finnsensvej in Fredericksberg which is just a couple of major streets from where Arne lived and is a street where we sometimes shopped.
On the bus, the Thai asked me where I planned to stay in Mae Hong Son. I told him I had picked out a couple of possibilities and that I would just look for a place. He had a tent with him, because he was traveling to attend a scout camp. He told me I was welcome to stay with him if I wanted. I told him we would see and left it at that. I wouldn't have minded the adventure of it all, but I kept thinking at the rain that falls here and the mosquitoes. It could be quite miserable being in a tent with little protection from either.
There was a surprise when we arrived. There is a new bus station outside of town. Of course, the tuk tuk drivers were clustering around trying to get our business. I just excused myself and started walking as usual. It was only 2 km (a little over a mile) into town. But part of that was uphill and it was a very humid day. I was really sweating by the time I got into town. I recognized almost immediately where I was, because I passed the stadium which was on my map. Therefore, I headed for the first place I had considered staying. I found it to be a bit far from town, however, and the prices seemed inflated for what was offered. I walked back in town. I didn't pass another guesthouse. I stopped at the Buddhist Temple where the Thai thought he was supposed to stay, but there were no campers there; I had already decided I would leave my luggage with him while I looked for a place and that I could stay with him as a last resort. The monk told me the scouts were eastward, so I walked that way but never found them. I realized, however, that I was getting close to my second place I had chosen from my guidebook. I went there. It was a good location, and they had a room. It wasn't very inspiring--just two beds, a fan, and a bath with no view and no other amenities. Also, it was available only for one night due to a large group with reservations for tomorrow. I told her I would continue looking. A little ways down the same street, I tried another place, but no one seemed to be around. Then I went to the next place. They had a room with a view of the lake (a central point here in town with a floating temple), cable TV, hot water, etc. And the price was just 50 Baht (about $1.66 U.S.) more than the place with just the bed, fan, and bath and the same price as a similar plain room at the original place that was far out of town. I took the room! And then the Danish couple came downstairs. They had found the same place, too, and had the upstairs room with the view of the lake.
I dined in style tonight. It had been raining some, so I didn't want to go far from the guesthouse. I found a covered patio restaurant with a men that had reasonable prices (only about double what is charged by the street stalls and small owner-operated eating establishments). There were double tablecloths on the tables. There was a burning cord to keep the mosquitoes away. It was just nice overall. I ordered the large version of green curry with chicken, rice, and a beer.
While there, a young American man and a young Thai man entered and sat at the table next to me. The American almost spoiled the evening. He spoke too loudly. And he was the typical Ugly American who knew best. He criticized the temples for having stalls selling items and said that places of worship should be solemn and quiet. He then described how churches are in America. Then he told about his work as a consierge at a hotel in Boston and how he knows all the best restaurants and other places to go so he can get the best tips from the guests at the hotel. Anyway, it went on and on. He has a lot of growing up to do. I wonder why that hotel has someone so young and self-absorbed working in such a position?
I tried to concentrate on my food and enjoy it. The quality was not as good as I have had before, but it was fine. And there was lots of it since I had ordered the big portion (only 1 1/2 times the price of the smaller portion).
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Relaxing in the Hills Near Myanmar
Wednesday, July 23, 2008--Mae Sariang (Continued)
I met a missionary from California as I walked out of the cyber cafe. He told me directions for food stalls here in town. I ate at one of them--peppers and garlic with pork over rice. Tasty.
While out walking, I passed an outdoor games area. I watched some school boys playing basketball, then I walked to another area where adult men were playing with a ball I know from elsewhere (made of woven bamboo and bounced by either kicking it like hackisack or with the forehead). But I had not seen the game the way they were playing it. There were three rings with nets tied together to serve as goals that faced 3 directions (every 120 degrees). The goals were raised on a wire about 3 times the height of the men. They were kicking and head-hitting the ball to try to make a goal by getting it through one of the rings. The nets would hold the ball as proof that the goal was made. A wire would lower the rings/nets for removing the ball after a goal had been made. It was a fun game for them and an enjoyable one for me to watch.
I returned to my room and read for a while, but I was tired. I went to sleep about 21:00. There was rain outside, so I could hear it as well as the flow of the river just below me. The fan and the mountain air kept me cool, but my body was sticky from the humidity.
Thursday, July 24, 2008--Mae Sariang
It is very humid here. Even after showering, the body gets sticky quickly. Of course, it occurs even more quickly when one goes hiking as I did this morning. I went out the road that my guest house is on until I got outside of town. I came to a Karen village that is 200 years old. Most of the houses are wooden and are built on stilts. Many have large animals living under them. And most have other buildings on the grounds housing other animals. The village had a school and a church. (I don't remember seeing a temple; maybe the Karen people are Christians.)
I continued walking for almost 3 hours. I came back into town and went out another local roadway. Then I returned to town again and explored the central area. By then, it was almost noon. I found some ladies selling coconut desserts. I bought two kinds--one was a dark cake I have had before. The other was a sweet gooey pastry with a custard on top. Both came wrapped in banana leaf. The latter was the best. Unfortunately, it was top-heavy, and I lost about 1/3 of it when it plopped out of my banana leaf onto the sidewalk! They made a delicious treat, however.
I napped for 2 hours at the room. It is so easy to sleep here. The moving river makes a nice relaxing sound. Then it started raining hard--just a typical afternoon tropical rainfall. I read while it continued. When it ended, I decided it was time to get out again. Now that I am finished at the cyber cafe, I will go walking another direction. Tomorrow, I head to the next village in this area.
I met a missionary from California as I walked out of the cyber cafe. He told me directions for food stalls here in town. I ate at one of them--peppers and garlic with pork over rice. Tasty.
While out walking, I passed an outdoor games area. I watched some school boys playing basketball, then I walked to another area where adult men were playing with a ball I know from elsewhere (made of woven bamboo and bounced by either kicking it like hackisack or with the forehead). But I had not seen the game the way they were playing it. There were three rings with nets tied together to serve as goals that faced 3 directions (every 120 degrees). The goals were raised on a wire about 3 times the height of the men. They were kicking and head-hitting the ball to try to make a goal by getting it through one of the rings. The nets would hold the ball as proof that the goal was made. A wire would lower the rings/nets for removing the ball after a goal had been made. It was a fun game for them and an enjoyable one for me to watch.
I returned to my room and read for a while, but I was tired. I went to sleep about 21:00. There was rain outside, so I could hear it as well as the flow of the river just below me. The fan and the mountain air kept me cool, but my body was sticky from the humidity.
Thursday, July 24, 2008--Mae Sariang
It is very humid here. Even after showering, the body gets sticky quickly. Of course, it occurs even more quickly when one goes hiking as I did this morning. I went out the road that my guest house is on until I got outside of town. I came to a Karen village that is 200 years old. Most of the houses are wooden and are built on stilts. Many have large animals living under them. And most have other buildings on the grounds housing other animals. The village had a school and a church. (I don't remember seeing a temple; maybe the Karen people are Christians.)
I continued walking for almost 3 hours. I came back into town and went out another local roadway. Then I returned to town again and explored the central area. By then, it was almost noon. I found some ladies selling coconut desserts. I bought two kinds--one was a dark cake I have had before. The other was a sweet gooey pastry with a custard on top. Both came wrapped in banana leaf. The latter was the best. Unfortunately, it was top-heavy, and I lost about 1/3 of it when it plopped out of my banana leaf onto the sidewalk! They made a delicious treat, however.
I napped for 2 hours at the room. It is so easy to sleep here. The moving river makes a nice relaxing sound. Then it started raining hard--just a typical afternoon tropical rainfall. I read while it continued. When it ended, I decided it was time to get out again. Now that I am finished at the cyber cafe, I will go walking another direction. Tomorrow, I head to the next village in this area.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Out of Chiang Mai to Small Villages in the Mountains
Tuesday, July 22, 2008--Chiang Mai (Continued)
After being at the cyber cafe to do some travel research, I returned to Thai Airways and finalized my plans for the new Around-the-World IX ticket. As I wrote yesterday, I had to cancel several parts of my original plans because they have tightened the restrictions for the ticket while increasing the price. My main goal in Asia for next year had been to go to Borneo to visit the Malaysian Provinces there and Brunei, then to go to Cambodia (which I have never visited before) and return to southern Vietnam to see parts of it I missed and to revisit Saigon. Well, that put too many stops on the itinerary. But I knew that low-cost airlines might give me an option of covering part of that. So I went to the cyber cafe and searched. Air Asia has a flight from Bornea to Kuala Lumpur and another flight from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap in Cambodia that together would cost only $140 U.S. today. Next year, it will be more, but probably not much more. Anyway, I canceled plans to fly from Borneo to Singapore, Singapore to Saigon, and from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and substituted traveling overland from Borneo to Saigon and then flying from Saigon to Bangkok. What I can do is buy the tickets on Air Asia to get me from Borneo to Siem Reap (home of Angor Wat) and then travel overland from there down to Phnom Penh, from Phnom Penh down into southern Cambodia and southern Vietnam, and then finally to Saigon. Then I can fly to Bangkok from Saigon to finish the trip. It will work out okay. But the air ticket is so much less than what I have had in the past while costing $4500 U.S.--$900 more than I paid last year. Next year I will either buy one more ticket to go to a few places I have missed so far, or I will just return to Texas from Bangkok. Either way, the around-the-world trips are coming to an end soon!
I walked to the bus station to check on buses into the mountains around Chiang Mai. When I was here a few years ago, I was short on time and didn't get to go into what is called the Mae Rim area and is centered around Mae Hong Son. I got the bus schedule, but was told they do not sell tickets in advance. I'll just arrive early tomorrow. Now that my ATW ticket has been arranged, I'm ready to get out of Chiang Mai and see something new.
On the way back from the bus station, I stopped and ate green curry with chicken over rice. UMMMMM! It was at a very clean place on the street. It wasn't a large plate, but it was absolutely delicious. It had Thai eggplant and another vegetable that looks like a berry that is often in Thai food. Right after that, I stopped at another street stall and bought a waffle with raisins and ate it as I continued to walk back to my hotel.
I wanted to go out in the evening to experience the Night Market. I had nothing I planned to buy, but it is one of THE things to do in Chiang Mai. So I got back out around 7:30. The market wasn't as crowded as it had been when I was here before. Maybe that is because it is spread out coverning a bigger area now. Or maybe it is just because it was Tuesday night. I didn't really look much at the merchandise, because I didn't want to shop. But I did notice the fabric I bought there for my sister Sue when I was here before and the light fixture that I bought for a friend who was looking after my plants at home while I was gone.
I was still hungry. I just haven't been eating much lately. So I broke down and stopped at Burger King. I haven't had a burger in so long, and I don't care for McDonald's which is all they had in China. So I had the meal deal with a Whopper, fries, and diet cola. It was so nice for a change, although I missed the charcoal taste that the meat is supposed to have.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008--Chiang Mai to Mae Sarieng (Sometimes spelled Sariang)
I left the hotel at 9:30 for the bus station. I walked. It was only about 35-40 minutes. My bus wasn't until 11:00, so I had plenty of time. I bought my ticket, put my luggage on the bus, and visited with others who were waiting for buses.
It was a beautiful, but tiring, 4 1/2 hour trip into the mountains to get to Mae Sarieng, my first village I am visiting in the area northwest of Chiang Mai. It and the other two villages are all close to the border with Myanmar. The land is populated by tribal groups (the Karen in particular) that have lived in this area without regard to borders for centuries.
I've checked into a small guesthouse. My room has no TV. But it opens to a balcony overlooking the flowing river that comes through this valley. I plan to relax here for two nights and then head on to the next town I want to visit here in the mountains. It's time for reading, walking, eating, and nothing stressful after finishing the planning for the next air ticket!
After being at the cyber cafe to do some travel research, I returned to Thai Airways and finalized my plans for the new Around-the-World IX ticket. As I wrote yesterday, I had to cancel several parts of my original plans because they have tightened the restrictions for the ticket while increasing the price. My main goal in Asia for next year had been to go to Borneo to visit the Malaysian Provinces there and Brunei, then to go to Cambodia (which I have never visited before) and return to southern Vietnam to see parts of it I missed and to revisit Saigon. Well, that put too many stops on the itinerary. But I knew that low-cost airlines might give me an option of covering part of that. So I went to the cyber cafe and searched. Air Asia has a flight from Bornea to Kuala Lumpur and another flight from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap in Cambodia that together would cost only $140 U.S. today. Next year, it will be more, but probably not much more. Anyway, I canceled plans to fly from Borneo to Singapore, Singapore to Saigon, and from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and substituted traveling overland from Borneo to Saigon and then flying from Saigon to Bangkok. What I can do is buy the tickets on Air Asia to get me from Borneo to Siem Reap (home of Angor Wat) and then travel overland from there down to Phnom Penh, from Phnom Penh down into southern Cambodia and southern Vietnam, and then finally to Saigon. Then I can fly to Bangkok from Saigon to finish the trip. It will work out okay. But the air ticket is so much less than what I have had in the past while costing $4500 U.S.--$900 more than I paid last year. Next year I will either buy one more ticket to go to a few places I have missed so far, or I will just return to Texas from Bangkok. Either way, the around-the-world trips are coming to an end soon!
I walked to the bus station to check on buses into the mountains around Chiang Mai. When I was here a few years ago, I was short on time and didn't get to go into what is called the Mae Rim area and is centered around Mae Hong Son. I got the bus schedule, but was told they do not sell tickets in advance. I'll just arrive early tomorrow. Now that my ATW ticket has been arranged, I'm ready to get out of Chiang Mai and see something new.
On the way back from the bus station, I stopped and ate green curry with chicken over rice. UMMMMM! It was at a very clean place on the street. It wasn't a large plate, but it was absolutely delicious. It had Thai eggplant and another vegetable that looks like a berry that is often in Thai food. Right after that, I stopped at another street stall and bought a waffle with raisins and ate it as I continued to walk back to my hotel.
I wanted to go out in the evening to experience the Night Market. I had nothing I planned to buy, but it is one of THE things to do in Chiang Mai. So I got back out around 7:30. The market wasn't as crowded as it had been when I was here before. Maybe that is because it is spread out coverning a bigger area now. Or maybe it is just because it was Tuesday night. I didn't really look much at the merchandise, because I didn't want to shop. But I did notice the fabric I bought there for my sister Sue when I was here before and the light fixture that I bought for a friend who was looking after my plants at home while I was gone.
I was still hungry. I just haven't been eating much lately. So I broke down and stopped at Burger King. I haven't had a burger in so long, and I don't care for McDonald's which is all they had in China. So I had the meal deal with a Whopper, fries, and diet cola. It was so nice for a change, although I missed the charcoal taste that the meat is supposed to have.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008--Chiang Mai to Mae Sarieng (Sometimes spelled Sariang)
I left the hotel at 9:30 for the bus station. I walked. It was only about 35-40 minutes. My bus wasn't until 11:00, so I had plenty of time. I bought my ticket, put my luggage on the bus, and visited with others who were waiting for buses.
It was a beautiful, but tiring, 4 1/2 hour trip into the mountains to get to Mae Sarieng, my first village I am visiting in the area northwest of Chiang Mai. It and the other two villages are all close to the border with Myanmar. The land is populated by tribal groups (the Karen in particular) that have lived in this area without regard to borders for centuries.
I've checked into a small guesthouse. My room has no TV. But it opens to a balcony overlooking the flowing river that comes through this valley. I plan to relax here for two nights and then head on to the next town I want to visit here in the mountains. It's time for reading, walking, eating, and nothing stressful after finishing the planning for the next air ticket!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Trouble Buying New Around-the-World Ticket
Monday, July 21, 2008--Bangkok
Even though I took a long nap in the afternoon, I still felt tired. It was probably due to two things: 1) the warmer weather here in Chiang Mai, and 2) all the walking I did to get from the airport to my hotel last night. Anyway, after being at the cyber cafe, all I had left to do was eat and then go back to my room. I was too tired to want to do anything else.
I walked to the Anusarn Market which is right beside my hotel. They were just setting up for the evening, since it was 17:30. It is an extension of the famous Night Market in Chiang Mai which is located on the streets and sells mostly souvenirs. Anusarn has it's own grounds and is known mostly for its food, although there are some souvenir stands also. Much of the food is seafood at Anusarn. It looked good, but I skipped it last night. Instead, I went to the side where women operated small stalls. I went to the most popular of these and had a fried rice with chicken dish. It was very tasty. Then I moved to another one of the stalls there and had a chocolate roti. That's an envelope of thin dough (pressed and flung until it has a transparent thinness and then folded to form a square-shaped envelope) that is fired in oil and butter on a griddle until it is crispy. Then it is cut into small pieces and chocolate sauce is squeezed over it. It is served with a toothpick for picking up the pieces to transfer them to the mouth. It was delicious!
After that, I bought a drink at 7-11 around the corner from my hotel and went to the room. I watched a French film on TV that had English subtitles, then I went to bed around 22:00 and slept for 10 hours!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008--Bangkok
Trouble with Around-the-World Ticketing--I went back to the Thai Airlines office this morning and received bad news. They have changed the rules for the around-the-world airfares from Star Alliance. They changed one month ago. As usual with Star Alliance, they are still essential secret, however. There was no publicity about changing them, and there was no notice on their website. So all my planning I did in the spring has to be adjusted. Essentially, this is what I had planned and how it is affected by the new rules:
I planned 29,000 miles, but the new rules put the limit at 26,000 miles.
I planned a total of 15 stops without counting transfer airports, but the new rules allow only 16 coupons, so transfer airports get counted now AND they still continue to count overland routes--now as one of the 16 coupons!!!
Besides all of this, the price of the ticket has gone up dramatically. I am adjusting my routing by eliminating a side trip to Pueblo Colorado, eliminating a segment from Vancouver to San Francisco (which was there to fly United and put in miles to get me to the 29,000 mark) by flying Air Canada straight from Vancouver to Inchon in Korea, by eliminating flights on Star Alliance to get me from Borneo to Saigon via Singapore and having to plan to buy AirAsia (low-cost airline)tickets to cover the same route (On AirAsia, I will go Borneo to Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia and travel overland to Saigon) at a cost to me of $150 at current prices. That eliminates flight segments so that I am down to the 16 maximum. It also eliminates mileage so that I am just under 26,000. And the ticket will cost approximately $4600--$1000 more than I paid a year ago for my present ticket.
With all these changes, the Star Alliance is no longer necessarily the best one for Around-the-World tickets. I think that OneWorld (British, American, Quantas, Cathay Pacific, LanChile, etc.) probably has better offers now. I am glad I had already planned for this to be either my last or my next-to-the-last ticket. I will complete this present ticket (getting me all the way back to Bangkok), but I am not sure I will buy another one next year. I may just buy a one-way ticket back to the U.S. But if I buy ATW X, it will be with an itinerary that will use 14 of coupons to get me to San Antonio and then leave only 2 coupons which would take me directly from San Antonio to Bangkok, and I will throw away those last two coupons. The Golden Age of around-the-world travel is coming to an end, so it's time I quit it.
Even though I took a long nap in the afternoon, I still felt tired. It was probably due to two things: 1) the warmer weather here in Chiang Mai, and 2) all the walking I did to get from the airport to my hotel last night. Anyway, after being at the cyber cafe, all I had left to do was eat and then go back to my room. I was too tired to want to do anything else.
I walked to the Anusarn Market which is right beside my hotel. They were just setting up for the evening, since it was 17:30. It is an extension of the famous Night Market in Chiang Mai which is located on the streets and sells mostly souvenirs. Anusarn has it's own grounds and is known mostly for its food, although there are some souvenir stands also. Much of the food is seafood at Anusarn. It looked good, but I skipped it last night. Instead, I went to the side where women operated small stalls. I went to the most popular of these and had a fried rice with chicken dish. It was very tasty. Then I moved to another one of the stalls there and had a chocolate roti. That's an envelope of thin dough (pressed and flung until it has a transparent thinness and then folded to form a square-shaped envelope) that is fired in oil and butter on a griddle until it is crispy. Then it is cut into small pieces and chocolate sauce is squeezed over it. It is served with a toothpick for picking up the pieces to transfer them to the mouth. It was delicious!
After that, I bought a drink at 7-11 around the corner from my hotel and went to the room. I watched a French film on TV that had English subtitles, then I went to bed around 22:00 and slept for 10 hours!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008--Bangkok
Trouble with Around-the-World Ticketing--I went back to the Thai Airlines office this morning and received bad news. They have changed the rules for the around-the-world airfares from Star Alliance. They changed one month ago. As usual with Star Alliance, they are still essential secret, however. There was no publicity about changing them, and there was no notice on their website. So all my planning I did in the spring has to be adjusted. Essentially, this is what I had planned and how it is affected by the new rules:
I planned 29,000 miles, but the new rules put the limit at 26,000 miles.
I planned a total of 15 stops without counting transfer airports, but the new rules allow only 16 coupons, so transfer airports get counted now AND they still continue to count overland routes--now as one of the 16 coupons!!!
Besides all of this, the price of the ticket has gone up dramatically. I am adjusting my routing by eliminating a side trip to Pueblo Colorado, eliminating a segment from Vancouver to San Francisco (which was there to fly United and put in miles to get me to the 29,000 mark) by flying Air Canada straight from Vancouver to Inchon in Korea, by eliminating flights on Star Alliance to get me from Borneo to Saigon via Singapore and having to plan to buy AirAsia (low-cost airline)tickets to cover the same route (On AirAsia, I will go Borneo to Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia and travel overland to Saigon) at a cost to me of $150 at current prices. That eliminates flight segments so that I am down to the 16 maximum. It also eliminates mileage so that I am just under 26,000. And the ticket will cost approximately $4600--$1000 more than I paid a year ago for my present ticket.
With all these changes, the Star Alliance is no longer necessarily the best one for Around-the-World tickets. I think that OneWorld (British, American, Quantas, Cathay Pacific, LanChile, etc.) probably has better offers now. I am glad I had already planned for this to be either my last or my next-to-the-last ticket. I will complete this present ticket (getting me all the way back to Bangkok), but I am not sure I will buy another one next year. I may just buy a one-way ticket back to the U.S. But if I buy ATW X, it will be with an itinerary that will use 14 of coupons to get me to San Antonio and then leave only 2 coupons which would take me directly from San Antonio to Bangkok, and I will throw away those last two coupons. The Golden Age of around-the-world travel is coming to an end, so it's time I quit it.
Out of China/Into Thailand
Sunday, July 20, 2008--Kunming to Chiang Mai
Today marks the half-way point for my travels this year. Now each day will be closer to my return home than from my leaving home. So far the trip has been good, but it is nice to know that I am making progress. It's difficult to be gone 5 1/2 months.
I went back to the zoo for two hours today after being on the Internet for a while writing e-mails. I didn't want to leave the neighborhood. The admission price is inexpensive, and it is nice to wander and watch the people. I enjoyed myself.
On the Internet I had an e-mail from the guesthouse in Chiang Mai where I have had a reservation since late April asking me to call them. I had written an e-mail to remind them of the reservation and of my planned late arrival. I wrote back telling them I don't have a cell phone and am in China. I also wrote telling them that if there was a problem with the reservation to make arrangements for me to stay elsewhere before I get to their place tonight.
Getting to the airport took quite a while. Kunming has traffic jams even on Sunday afternoon. When I went to the airport here before, it was 5:30 a.m., and I had no problems. This time it took much longer and cost twice as much (due to the fact that I was staying in a hotel further from the airport this time).
I ran into an old communist policy/trick as I tried to leave the country--making it difficult to cash back in the extra currency that hasn't been used. After checking in for my flight, I asked if there was a bank past immigration where I could exchange my Chinese currency I hadn't used. The lady told me there wasn't, so I went back into the main terminal area. But there are no banks there, either. Then I went downstairs where people arrive from flights, but there were only ATMs and no exchange offices open there. Finally, I was told that there is a Bank of China office across from the airport, so I had to walk out of the airport and across the street. Fortunately it was open on a Sunday; otherwise I would have been out of luck. The tellers were slow, but finally they got to me. Then they tried another old communist trick--asking for proof that I had exchanged my money legally and through that exact bank. Fortunately, I had used a Bank of China ATM and I always keep my receipts until I match them to my statements at home. I pulled out the receipt and all went well. If I hadn't had it, I would have been stuck with $76 worth of worthless Chinese currency! I tried to change it into Thai Baht, but they only exchange to U.S. dollars. I took the dollars and was glad that I was rid of the money and still had about 30 minutes to get back to the airport and through immigration before time for the plane to board. Wonder how many people other tourists got stuck with leftover worthless currency?
We arrived at Chiang Mai on time. Immigration there was VERY slow. They were not letting one Middle Eastern man into the country because he didn't have an onward ticket. Fortunately, they took my word on the forms I filled out that I would be leaving on TG 315. There is no reservation for that flight, since I am planning to make it tomorrow when I book my Around-the-World IX ticket. I got in. Maybe it also helped that I am American, that I had a reservation at a guesthouse, and that I have been here every year for 10 years or so without a problem regarding leaving the country. Thailand has been tightening up on its policies regarding non-citizens/non-residents. Used to people could just live here, go to a neighboring country every 6 months to get a new visa, and then return again after only one night away. They are making it tougher now. I believe I read that the trip has to be made every month.
When I tried to get a prepaid taxi, I had trouble getting a price quote. But I was told that there is a 50 Baht airport fee for a taxi. I decided just to walk out of the airport and try to get a taxi on the highway. It was sprinkling, but not enough to bother me. When I got to the highway, however, there were no taxis in sight. I knew from my guidebook that the airport was only about 3.5 km (2 miles) outside of town, so I just started walking. I came to a mall about 1 km (.6 mile) away and tried to get a taxi there, but because I was a westerner, they wanted the same price as from the airport. I was doing fine walking and had a general map in my head of where I needed to go, so I just continued. I stopped occasionally to ask directions. Eventually, I came to the area where I expected my guesthouse to be based on the map. I asked a man there for directions, and he told me they had moved!! (Maybe that was why they wanted me to call them.) Anyway, by that time, I had already walked about 6 km (3.5 miles), since the guesthouse was on the opposite side of town from the airport. There were lots of places to stay in the area, since it is a popular center for tourists here. I just went to a couple of places checking on vacancies and chose one that seemed reasonable. I didn't want to search further at 20:30 after such a long day and a long walk from the airport.
Actually, my hotel is at least a 2-star property (although they show 3 stars on their sign). It has a/c, hot water, mini-fridge, balcony, cable tv, etc., for only about $16 per night. The room lacks character, but it is clean and bright. So I will be fine there. And it is so nice to have BBC News again!!!!
I didn't call the other guesthouse. I was so tired. And I knew they had asked me to call them meaning that something was wrong on their end. I just left them to either be happy or upset with the fact that I never arrived. There has been no e-mail from them today about my not arriving.
Spending Update: During my 41 days in China, I spent $1409.60 for an average of $34.38 per day. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $3652.70 over 76 days for an average of $48.06 per day.
Monday, July 21, 2008--Chiang Mai
I was up early to go to the Thai Airlines office. I got there about 8:45 and spent 3 hours with their employees working on my new around-the-world ticket which will start when I leave Bangkok on Aug. 7. Three different employees worked with me including a supervisor who ended up being the one in charge. I had to drop plans for two stops because they involved side trips on airlines that code-share with Star Alliance airlines but are not officially part of Star Alliance. I had put both in so that I could use up some more of the allowed mileage and one of them was to allow me to visit friends I haven't seen in a while. The trip will still be a good one without the two side trips. The supervisor had to add the airport fees and check with the Star Alliance office to make sure that the trip meets all their requirements, so I told her I would return tomorrow morning. I expect that everything will be fine then and I can finalize the purchase. It will cost a little more than last year, but not as much as I feared. I won't know the final figure until I go back tomorrow, so I will report on the price difference then.
I stopped at a couple of wats (Buddhist Temples) before heading back to my room. One is the oldest in Chiang Mai (from the 1300s) and is beautiful. It has a unique crystal Buddha. The other is a Shan (people of northwest Thailand/northeast Burma) temple and is a different style. But I was tired and essentially just stopped at these because they weren't much out of the way for returning to the room. I also passed a woman selling coconut ice cream and bought a cup on the street and ate it as I walked. When I got back to the room, I went back to bed and napped for 2 hours.
Note: You may be hearing on the news today about two bus bombs that went off in Kunming, China, where I was until I flew out last night. I was not involved in either of those, and I am now in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
Today marks the half-way point for my travels this year. Now each day will be closer to my return home than from my leaving home. So far the trip has been good, but it is nice to know that I am making progress. It's difficult to be gone 5 1/2 months.
I went back to the zoo for two hours today after being on the Internet for a while writing e-mails. I didn't want to leave the neighborhood. The admission price is inexpensive, and it is nice to wander and watch the people. I enjoyed myself.
On the Internet I had an e-mail from the guesthouse in Chiang Mai where I have had a reservation since late April asking me to call them. I had written an e-mail to remind them of the reservation and of my planned late arrival. I wrote back telling them I don't have a cell phone and am in China. I also wrote telling them that if there was a problem with the reservation to make arrangements for me to stay elsewhere before I get to their place tonight.
Getting to the airport took quite a while. Kunming has traffic jams even on Sunday afternoon. When I went to the airport here before, it was 5:30 a.m., and I had no problems. This time it took much longer and cost twice as much (due to the fact that I was staying in a hotel further from the airport this time).
I ran into an old communist policy/trick as I tried to leave the country--making it difficult to cash back in the extra currency that hasn't been used. After checking in for my flight, I asked if there was a bank past immigration where I could exchange my Chinese currency I hadn't used. The lady told me there wasn't, so I went back into the main terminal area. But there are no banks there, either. Then I went downstairs where people arrive from flights, but there were only ATMs and no exchange offices open there. Finally, I was told that there is a Bank of China office across from the airport, so I had to walk out of the airport and across the street. Fortunately it was open on a Sunday; otherwise I would have been out of luck. The tellers were slow, but finally they got to me. Then they tried another old communist trick--asking for proof that I had exchanged my money legally and through that exact bank. Fortunately, I had used a Bank of China ATM and I always keep my receipts until I match them to my statements at home. I pulled out the receipt and all went well. If I hadn't had it, I would have been stuck with $76 worth of worthless Chinese currency! I tried to change it into Thai Baht, but they only exchange to U.S. dollars. I took the dollars and was glad that I was rid of the money and still had about 30 minutes to get back to the airport and through immigration before time for the plane to board. Wonder how many people other tourists got stuck with leftover worthless currency?
We arrived at Chiang Mai on time. Immigration there was VERY slow. They were not letting one Middle Eastern man into the country because he didn't have an onward ticket. Fortunately, they took my word on the forms I filled out that I would be leaving on TG 315. There is no reservation for that flight, since I am planning to make it tomorrow when I book my Around-the-World IX ticket. I got in. Maybe it also helped that I am American, that I had a reservation at a guesthouse, and that I have been here every year for 10 years or so without a problem regarding leaving the country. Thailand has been tightening up on its policies regarding non-citizens/non-residents. Used to people could just live here, go to a neighboring country every 6 months to get a new visa, and then return again after only one night away. They are making it tougher now. I believe I read that the trip has to be made every month.
When I tried to get a prepaid taxi, I had trouble getting a price quote. But I was told that there is a 50 Baht airport fee for a taxi. I decided just to walk out of the airport and try to get a taxi on the highway. It was sprinkling, but not enough to bother me. When I got to the highway, however, there were no taxis in sight. I knew from my guidebook that the airport was only about 3.5 km (2 miles) outside of town, so I just started walking. I came to a mall about 1 km (.6 mile) away and tried to get a taxi there, but because I was a westerner, they wanted the same price as from the airport. I was doing fine walking and had a general map in my head of where I needed to go, so I just continued. I stopped occasionally to ask directions. Eventually, I came to the area where I expected my guesthouse to be based on the map. I asked a man there for directions, and he told me they had moved!! (Maybe that was why they wanted me to call them.) Anyway, by that time, I had already walked about 6 km (3.5 miles), since the guesthouse was on the opposite side of town from the airport. There were lots of places to stay in the area, since it is a popular center for tourists here. I just went to a couple of places checking on vacancies and chose one that seemed reasonable. I didn't want to search further at 20:30 after such a long day and a long walk from the airport.
Actually, my hotel is at least a 2-star property (although they show 3 stars on their sign). It has a/c, hot water, mini-fridge, balcony, cable tv, etc., for only about $16 per night. The room lacks character, but it is clean and bright. So I will be fine there. And it is so nice to have BBC News again!!!!
I didn't call the other guesthouse. I was so tired. And I knew they had asked me to call them meaning that something was wrong on their end. I just left them to either be happy or upset with the fact that I never arrived. There has been no e-mail from them today about my not arriving.
Spending Update: During my 41 days in China, I spent $1409.60 for an average of $34.38 per day. Since leaving Texas, I have spent $3652.70 over 76 days for an average of $48.06 per day.
Monday, July 21, 2008--Chiang Mai
I was up early to go to the Thai Airlines office. I got there about 8:45 and spent 3 hours with their employees working on my new around-the-world ticket which will start when I leave Bangkok on Aug. 7. Three different employees worked with me including a supervisor who ended up being the one in charge. I had to drop plans for two stops because they involved side trips on airlines that code-share with Star Alliance airlines but are not officially part of Star Alliance. I had put both in so that I could use up some more of the allowed mileage and one of them was to allow me to visit friends I haven't seen in a while. The trip will still be a good one without the two side trips. The supervisor had to add the airport fees and check with the Star Alliance office to make sure that the trip meets all their requirements, so I told her I would return tomorrow morning. I expect that everything will be fine then and I can finalize the purchase. It will cost a little more than last year, but not as much as I feared. I won't know the final figure until I go back tomorrow, so I will report on the price difference then.
I stopped at a couple of wats (Buddhist Temples) before heading back to my room. One is the oldest in Chiang Mai (from the 1300s) and is beautiful. It has a unique crystal Buddha. The other is a Shan (people of northwest Thailand/northeast Burma) temple and is a different style. But I was tired and essentially just stopped at these because they weren't much out of the way for returning to the room. I also passed a woman selling coconut ice cream and bought a cup on the street and ate it as I walked. When I got back to the room, I went back to bed and napped for 2 hours.
Note: You may be hearing on the news today about two bus bombs that went off in Kunming, China, where I was until I flew out last night. I was not involved in either of those, and I am now in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sunny Day in Kunming
Saturday, July 19, 2008--Kunming
The free breakfast at the hotel was a typical Chinese one this morning. I skipped many of the items. I had a fried egg, pickled onion, and a steamed bun. For dessert, I had two pieces of banana bread and 3 pieces of fried bread with sugar (much like a churro).
I walked to the Green Lake Park which is in my neighborhood. The guidebook said it was nice to visit there early in the morning. It was filled with people. Many were exercising by either dancing, doing tai chi, or some other means. But most were just walking like me. I stayed there for at least 1 1/2 hours. The lake used to be part of the water supply here. Now they have built islands in the middle of it, so it is possible to wander from island to island seeing what is happening. I listened to singers, listened to musicians, watched children, etc.
I saw a blind massage clinic in my neighborhood when I left for the lake. It was closed then, but I looked for it again on my return. It was open, and the price was very reasonable--about $3.50 U.S. for an hour of massage. I took advantage of it. Unfortunately, they do not do the massage directly to the skin and, therefore, do not use any oils. They do it through the clothing or through a cloth which they put over any exposed skin. But the man was thorough. Every muscle I had that was tight, he found and dwelled on it. Therefore, the process was quite painful at times. But at the end I felt so relaxed and so good.
From the massage clinic, I headed for the nearby zoo. I wanted to wander among people. It's not much of a zoo. There are only a few animals. But it serves as a park and as an amusement park as well as a zoo. I saw a few of the animals, then I was drawn to some speakers. They have a performance at 2:30 with some of the animals who have been trained to do some tricks. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it. I stood in the back and watched what I could. People kept pushing to get in front of me. After the performance, I saw more animals and went to the amusement park. There are about 10 rides--5 for adults and 5 for children. Everyone was enjoying them, especially the most thrilling ride of them all--a wheel of spinning chairs that would turn upside down while the chairs were spinning over and over and over.
It was after 17:00 when I left the zoo. I walked up a small street near the university with local shops and restaurants. I was hungry and decided to have a tub of potatoes. They are chunks of potatoes that have been fried. Then they are stir-fried with peppers and vegetables, placed in a pint tub (about half a liter), and eaten with toothpicks to pick them up. They were tasty. And it was so much food I probably will not eat again tonight. The coating was salty, though, so I need to get something to drink when I get off the computer.
I may not be on the computer again until I am in Thailand. I fly out of here late tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to head to the airport around 15:30, so I'll just relax and read until time to go, I guess.
The free breakfast at the hotel was a typical Chinese one this morning. I skipped many of the items. I had a fried egg, pickled onion, and a steamed bun. For dessert, I had two pieces of banana bread and 3 pieces of fried bread with sugar (much like a churro).
I walked to the Green Lake Park which is in my neighborhood. The guidebook said it was nice to visit there early in the morning. It was filled with people. Many were exercising by either dancing, doing tai chi, or some other means. But most were just walking like me. I stayed there for at least 1 1/2 hours. The lake used to be part of the water supply here. Now they have built islands in the middle of it, so it is possible to wander from island to island seeing what is happening. I listened to singers, listened to musicians, watched children, etc.
I saw a blind massage clinic in my neighborhood when I left for the lake. It was closed then, but I looked for it again on my return. It was open, and the price was very reasonable--about $3.50 U.S. for an hour of massage. I took advantage of it. Unfortunately, they do not do the massage directly to the skin and, therefore, do not use any oils. They do it through the clothing or through a cloth which they put over any exposed skin. But the man was thorough. Every muscle I had that was tight, he found and dwelled on it. Therefore, the process was quite painful at times. But at the end I felt so relaxed and so good.
From the massage clinic, I headed for the nearby zoo. I wanted to wander among people. It's not much of a zoo. There are only a few animals. But it serves as a park and as an amusement park as well as a zoo. I saw a few of the animals, then I was drawn to some speakers. They have a performance at 2:30 with some of the animals who have been trained to do some tricks. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it. I stood in the back and watched what I could. People kept pushing to get in front of me. After the performance, I saw more animals and went to the amusement park. There are about 10 rides--5 for adults and 5 for children. Everyone was enjoying them, especially the most thrilling ride of them all--a wheel of spinning chairs that would turn upside down while the chairs were spinning over and over and over.
It was after 17:00 when I left the zoo. I walked up a small street near the university with local shops and restaurants. I was hungry and decided to have a tub of potatoes. They are chunks of potatoes that have been fried. Then they are stir-fried with peppers and vegetables, placed in a pint tub (about half a liter), and eaten with toothpicks to pick them up. They were tasty. And it was so much food I probably will not eat again tonight. The coating was salty, though, so I need to get something to drink when I get off the computer.
I may not be on the computer again until I am in Thailand. I fly out of here late tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to head to the airport around 15:30, so I'll just relax and read until time to go, I guess.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Last Stop in China
Friday, July 18, 2008--Dali to Kunming
It rained with thunder and lightning all night in Dali. And it was still raining when I got up this morning. I had seen all I wanted to see anyway, including the famous Three Pagodas which supposedly are one of the most familiar photos from all of China.
I had made a reservation to have breakfast again today at The Bakery No. 88, so I headed for there with my umbrella protecting me from most of the rain. They were just opening. I had the same breakfast as yesterday except that I had plum jam instead of the mango-apple jam I had before. The breakfast was just as good. UMMMM!
I had bought a ticket to travel to Kunming by VIP (First Class) bus today. I was glad not to be staying with all of the rain. At 9:00, the driver picked me up and took me and two other passengers we picked up to the nearby city that has the main bus station. The bus was very nice with only 3 seats (2+1) across an aisle. They were leather seats with nice armrests. I was on the side of the aisle with a single seat.
As we made our way toward Kunming, I slept some. And the rain gradually stopped. By the time we got here, the sun was shining. But what a mess it was getting to the bus station. There were crowded streets with construction going on. It took us almost an hour to get to the bus station after being inside the city.
I had decided to stay at a hotel near the university. It was a long walk from the bus station, but I didn't know what bus would take me there. And I was tired of sitting and felt like moving. I just walked the 5+ km (3+ miles) to get there. It would have been easier if Kunming didn't let the bicyclists and the motorcyclists park their vehicles on the sidewalks leaving only a narrow path for pedestrians!!
The room is nice, but it is over-priced like the last room I had here. The TV has only local TV, too, which is strange since the room is so nice physically and since everywhere else in China has had either cable or satellite TV.
I have always been suspicious of vegetarian restaurants that try to duplicate meat or fish dishes. Why would a vegetarian want the taste of meat or fish? And how could a restaurant duplicate the taste of meat or fish without having actually eaten meat or fish before? It just seems like a wrong-headed idea to me. But the guidebook highly recommends a place like that, and my traveling compansion in Shangri La and Deqin had been there and recommended the place, too. So I walked to a nearby vegetarian place for dinner. The whole menu was a list of "meats" and "fish" that were not meats or fish. I picked out a dish called "braised pork and vegetables" and ordered it with rice. Well, it was way too much food to begin with. It was a bowl full that, if filled with something like mashed potatoes, would have served 6-8 people. There were cuts of "bacon" inside--vegetable substitute that even had stripes like bacon. But when I tasted of them, there was no taste of bacon. It was just bland--like any other substitute meat dish I have ever tasted. But the vegetables and the sauce were good, so I ate some of that over my rice. When I finished, I had eaten no more than 20% of what was in the bowl. What a waste of food. And I was wishing I had eaten elsewhere and hadn't wasted my money here.
I finished reading The Lighthouse by P.D. James last night. It's not the type of book (murder mystery) that I normally read, but I enjoyed it. I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Then this morning, I exchanged it at my guesthouse for a copy of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury which someone had left there. I don't think I have read the Faulkner book, but I may have seen a movie version of it. Anyway, it's nice to have a new book to get me through more of my trip.
It rained with thunder and lightning all night in Dali. And it was still raining when I got up this morning. I had seen all I wanted to see anyway, including the famous Three Pagodas which supposedly are one of the most familiar photos from all of China.
I had made a reservation to have breakfast again today at The Bakery No. 88, so I headed for there with my umbrella protecting me from most of the rain. They were just opening. I had the same breakfast as yesterday except that I had plum jam instead of the mango-apple jam I had before. The breakfast was just as good. UMMMM!
I had bought a ticket to travel to Kunming by VIP (First Class) bus today. I was glad not to be staying with all of the rain. At 9:00, the driver picked me up and took me and two other passengers we picked up to the nearby city that has the main bus station. The bus was very nice with only 3 seats (2+1) across an aisle. They were leather seats with nice armrests. I was on the side of the aisle with a single seat.
As we made our way toward Kunming, I slept some. And the rain gradually stopped. By the time we got here, the sun was shining. But what a mess it was getting to the bus station. There were crowded streets with construction going on. It took us almost an hour to get to the bus station after being inside the city.
I had decided to stay at a hotel near the university. It was a long walk from the bus station, but I didn't know what bus would take me there. And I was tired of sitting and felt like moving. I just walked the 5+ km (3+ miles) to get there. It would have been easier if Kunming didn't let the bicyclists and the motorcyclists park their vehicles on the sidewalks leaving only a narrow path for pedestrians!!
The room is nice, but it is over-priced like the last room I had here. The TV has only local TV, too, which is strange since the room is so nice physically and since everywhere else in China has had either cable or satellite TV.
I have always been suspicious of vegetarian restaurants that try to duplicate meat or fish dishes. Why would a vegetarian want the taste of meat or fish? And how could a restaurant duplicate the taste of meat or fish without having actually eaten meat or fish before? It just seems like a wrong-headed idea to me. But the guidebook highly recommends a place like that, and my traveling compansion in Shangri La and Deqin had been there and recommended the place, too. So I walked to a nearby vegetarian place for dinner. The whole menu was a list of "meats" and "fish" that were not meats or fish. I picked out a dish called "braised pork and vegetables" and ordered it with rice. Well, it was way too much food to begin with. It was a bowl full that, if filled with something like mashed potatoes, would have served 6-8 people. There were cuts of "bacon" inside--vegetable substitute that even had stripes like bacon. But when I tasted of them, there was no taste of bacon. It was just bland--like any other substitute meat dish I have ever tasted. But the vegetables and the sauce were good, so I ate some of that over my rice. When I finished, I had eaten no more than 20% of what was in the bowl. What a waste of food. And I was wishing I had eaten elsewhere and hadn't wasted my money here.
I finished reading The Lighthouse by P.D. James last night. It's not the type of book (murder mystery) that I normally read, but I enjoyed it. I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Then this morning, I exchanged it at my guesthouse for a copy of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury which someone had left there. I don't think I have read the Faulkner book, but I may have seen a movie version of it. Anyway, it's nice to have a new book to get me through more of my trip.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A Great Restaurant Find in Dali
Thursday, July 17, 2008--Dali
I went searching for a place to eat this morning and passed a bakery I had seen before. I had noticed that their breads and pastries looked good. But when I tried to get a table to eat, the ones downstairs were full and there were none upstairs (as many places here tend to have). I walked some more enjoying the morning and exploring areas of town where I hadn't been yet. When I returned later, one of their 3 4-top tables was available. I took it and ordered the #2 breakfast. It was FANTASTIC!! The place is very clean and is operated by a woman from Germany with help from Chinese friends and employees. I had two fried eggs, two slices of bacon, 3 big slices of French bread, a large pat of butter, homemade mango-apple jam, a fruit plate (plums, mango, pineapple, banana, and apple), and a pot of coffee. UMMMM!! It was excellent quality and so tasty. I kept thinking of Arne and how much he would have appreciated it if he had been with me.
I wandered the streets then for a while. It's fun just to watch the people. Unfortunately, I find that many of the westerners seem to be frowning for some reason. I am always smiling, especially as I watch the children here. And many of the younger people touring here love to make eye contact and say hello to a westerner.
While walking about, I saw a pharmacy with a scale and used it. I am now down to 74.5 kg (164 lbs). That is still 2.5-4.5 kg (5.5-10 lbs) more than I would like to be which is a goal of 70-72 kg (154-158 lbs). But I am already down to what I weighed when I graduated from high school. Not many 63-year-olds can say that!
I returned to my room for part of the afternoon and read in my book. It's really nice here to explore part of the day and relax part of the day. And my hotel is conveniently placed so that I am within the action of the tourist street within one block of where I am staying. While out later in the afternoon, I bought the first item I have purchased on this trip--a large piece of cotton fabric printed in blue batik. It's a specialty here. And I knew I could use the fabric in various ways while traveling: as a towel if I needed one, as a beach towel to keep the sand off my body, as a sheet if I have to check into a place that doesn't seem so clean, as a cover sheet in India where they sometimes do not give a top sheet, etc. Plus, it folds and is light weight so that it does not create a problem in my luggage.
For dinner I returned to The Bakery No. 88 where I had breakfast. I ate a baba ganouch sandwich on ciabotta bread. I drank a raspberry-yogurt drink and ate a slice of mango-chocolate cake. It was all delicious.
If anyone is coming to Dali, you should definitely find this eatery. Here is a website where I am told there is a description: http://www.adayo.net/uhu/karine
Tomorrow, I am off to Kunming, my last stop in China. I will fly out of there on the 20th for Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. But I am still looking forward to 2 1/2 more days of Chinese holiday there in Kunming.
I went searching for a place to eat this morning and passed a bakery I had seen before. I had noticed that their breads and pastries looked good. But when I tried to get a table to eat, the ones downstairs were full and there were none upstairs (as many places here tend to have). I walked some more enjoying the morning and exploring areas of town where I hadn't been yet. When I returned later, one of their 3 4-top tables was available. I took it and ordered the #2 breakfast. It was FANTASTIC!! The place is very clean and is operated by a woman from Germany with help from Chinese friends and employees. I had two fried eggs, two slices of bacon, 3 big slices of French bread, a large pat of butter, homemade mango-apple jam, a fruit plate (plums, mango, pineapple, banana, and apple), and a pot of coffee. UMMMM!! It was excellent quality and so tasty. I kept thinking of Arne and how much he would have appreciated it if he had been with me.
I wandered the streets then for a while. It's fun just to watch the people. Unfortunately, I find that many of the westerners seem to be frowning for some reason. I am always smiling, especially as I watch the children here. And many of the younger people touring here love to make eye contact and say hello to a westerner.
While walking about, I saw a pharmacy with a scale and used it. I am now down to 74.5 kg (164 lbs). That is still 2.5-4.5 kg (5.5-10 lbs) more than I would like to be which is a goal of 70-72 kg (154-158 lbs). But I am already down to what I weighed when I graduated from high school. Not many 63-year-olds can say that!
I returned to my room for part of the afternoon and read in my book. It's really nice here to explore part of the day and relax part of the day. And my hotel is conveniently placed so that I am within the action of the tourist street within one block of where I am staying. While out later in the afternoon, I bought the first item I have purchased on this trip--a large piece of cotton fabric printed in blue batik. It's a specialty here. And I knew I could use the fabric in various ways while traveling: as a towel if I needed one, as a beach towel to keep the sand off my body, as a sheet if I have to check into a place that doesn't seem so clean, as a cover sheet in India where they sometimes do not give a top sheet, etc. Plus, it folds and is light weight so that it does not create a problem in my luggage.
For dinner I returned to The Bakery No. 88 where I had breakfast. I ate a baba ganouch sandwich on ciabotta bread. I drank a raspberry-yogurt drink and ate a slice of mango-chocolate cake. It was all delicious.
If anyone is coming to Dali, you should definitely find this eatery. Here is a website where I am told there is a description: http://www.adayo.net/uhu/karine
Tomorrow, I am off to Kunming, my last stop in China. I will fly out of there on the 20th for Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. But I am still looking forward to 2 1/2 more days of Chinese holiday there in Kunming.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Sluggish Day with Consequences
Wednesday, July 16, 2008--Dali
It had been raining during the night. And the day remained cloudy until the afternoon. I felt very sluggish. I stayed in my room most of the morning and read. Finally, I pushed myself to get up and do some things. Coming back from taking laundry downstairs to be done, I forgot there was a step-down as I entered the balcony way to my room door. I was barefooted, and the middle of my foot hit the edge. I lost my balance. My little toe got caught on the edge as I went down. Fortunately, I caught the edge of the balcony and didn't fall completely. But the little toe got pressed back. It is bruised and it was cut slightly along the bottom edge of the toenail.
I decided to have a western breakfast. I went to a place recommended by my guidebook. It was a big plate with scrambled eggs, fried goat cheese, two pieces of bacon, sliced tomatoes, a pile of hashbrowned potatoes, and a small banana shake. It came with a slice of buttered toast. I enjoyed it, but I was still a bit hungry for some reason afterwards.
I really didn't feel like exploring, so I returned to the room and read and napped until 17:30 when I went out again. This time, I decided to find a place with onion rings, since I still was sorry not to have had them last night. But I wanted a different place. I started making the rounds looking at the menus posted outside the western restaurants. At one point, I had to go around a construction area and had to pause for traffic to do so. There was a wheelbarrow there, and when I saw traffic was clear and took off, my leg hit the hande. It scraped the skin off. So I had my second injury of the day. Neither one was really anything bad. I can live with both, but it was just a sluggish, bad day in general.
I did find a place for onion rings and ordered them. They were okay, but the batter was more chewy than it was crispy. They don't compare to the kind that are my favorites from home. I wasn't hungry for more, however. So I enjoyed them and then explored town some more.
Dali Old Town is different from the other old towns I have visited. It's difficult to describe. One factor, however, is that it has not been fixed up to look pristine. There is grass growing from the tile roofs. Not all of the buildings house tourist shops; many have local businesses that serve the neighborhoods. Dali is different, too, in that the tourists here do not seem to be as successful as those at Shangri La and Lijiang. In the latter two towns, they are obviously upper-middle class tourists. Here, they are from lower economic classes in general. In a way, that makes this a more "authentic" experience. I like Dali.
There was a rainbow in the sky as I was walking through the old town. Many people were still out exploring and enjoying themselves. But I was still feeling sluggish. I returned to my room and was in bed early--about 21:30, I think.
It had been raining during the night. And the day remained cloudy until the afternoon. I felt very sluggish. I stayed in my room most of the morning and read. Finally, I pushed myself to get up and do some things. Coming back from taking laundry downstairs to be done, I forgot there was a step-down as I entered the balcony way to my room door. I was barefooted, and the middle of my foot hit the edge. I lost my balance. My little toe got caught on the edge as I went down. Fortunately, I caught the edge of the balcony and didn't fall completely. But the little toe got pressed back. It is bruised and it was cut slightly along the bottom edge of the toenail.
I decided to have a western breakfast. I went to a place recommended by my guidebook. It was a big plate with scrambled eggs, fried goat cheese, two pieces of bacon, sliced tomatoes, a pile of hashbrowned potatoes, and a small banana shake. It came with a slice of buttered toast. I enjoyed it, but I was still a bit hungry for some reason afterwards.
I really didn't feel like exploring, so I returned to the room and read and napped until 17:30 when I went out again. This time, I decided to find a place with onion rings, since I still was sorry not to have had them last night. But I wanted a different place. I started making the rounds looking at the menus posted outside the western restaurants. At one point, I had to go around a construction area and had to pause for traffic to do so. There was a wheelbarrow there, and when I saw traffic was clear and took off, my leg hit the hande. It scraped the skin off. So I had my second injury of the day. Neither one was really anything bad. I can live with both, but it was just a sluggish, bad day in general.
I did find a place for onion rings and ordered them. They were okay, but the batter was more chewy than it was crispy. They don't compare to the kind that are my favorites from home. I wasn't hungry for more, however. So I enjoyed them and then explored town some more.
Dali Old Town is different from the other old towns I have visited. It's difficult to describe. One factor, however, is that it has not been fixed up to look pristine. There is grass growing from the tile roofs. Not all of the buildings house tourist shops; many have local businesses that serve the neighborhoods. Dali is different, too, in that the tourists here do not seem to be as successful as those at Shangri La and Lijiang. In the latter two towns, they are obviously upper-middle class tourists. Here, they are from lower economic classes in general. In a way, that makes this a more "authentic" experience. I like Dali.
There was a rainbow in the sky as I was walking through the old town. Many people were still out exploring and enjoying themselves. But I was still feeling sluggish. I returned to my room and was in bed early--about 21:30, I think.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Dali
Tuesday, July 15, 2008--Dali (Continued)
The bus trip was a good one. I had a front seat with a good view. But it was the company that made it so good. Beside me was a student from Singapore who is traveling after completing 6 months of studies at a university near Shanghai. Across the aisle from me was a Chinese couple about my age. She is a retired physics professor and her husband is a retired engineer. And behind me was a couple from the U.S. and Canada who have been here teaching English. We all visited at different times during the trip that came down the mountains with lots of views of rice terraces and villages.
Now that I am down further from where I was before, the heat is catching up with me. It was so cool in Lijiang and in Shangri La that I needed my pullover, at least at night. Here, it is warm.
The first guesthouse I tried was not acceptable. I had gotten a brochure for it from the place I stayed in Shangri La. But it is across the highway from the old town, and the rates they wanted were too high. I crossed the road and entered the old town. I quickly found a very nice place for about half of what the other place requested. For $10 per night, I have a newly furnished room, free Internet, free laundry, etc.
Dali is similar, yet different from the other old towns I have visited. Here, the streets are wider. And essentially, there are just two streets--one that goes north and south and serves as the tourist street and one that goes east and west and serves as the local street. The shops tend to have the same things as at Shangri La and Lijiang. But the atmosphere is a bit different. There are big Chinese-style gates at various points here. There are walls part of the way around the old city. It's worth visiting here as well as the other places, I think.
They were filming outside the South Gate of the city when I explored in the afternoon. A group of women in native costumes were performing a dance. Then they were filming again on the tourist street. I'm not sure if it is for TV or what.
I had not eaten all day, so around 18:00 I went exploring for a place to eat. On the local street, I found a place full of people eating noodles, so I ordered a bowl. They were different from what I have tried before and tasted a bit like something I have had in Thailand before. They were thick, round noodles and were cold. They had pieces of chicken on top and were sprinkled with peanuts. There was a soy sauce-based sauce, and there were chunks of broccoli inside. It made a great meal for just 3 yuan--less than half a dollar.
I went to another place I had seen in the tourist quarter that had onion rings on the menu. I thought I would give myself a treat there. But a party of 9 people had entered just before me and the owner was overwhealmed. I sat there about 15 minutes without him even paying any attention to me. Then I just left. I really didn't need more food anyway.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008--Dali
It rained during the night. And I remember hearing thunder. This morning, it rained again around 8:00. But it has just been cloudy since. I stayed in my room until noon just relaxing and reading. Now I will go exploring again. I may go to one of the tourist places and have a big breakfast today.
I took 6 shirts to the lady downstairs to be washed. I don't know how long it will take them to dry with the cloudy and rainy weather. But since the laundry is free and the hotel is nice and cheap, I will stay an extra day to wait for them if necessary.
The bus trip was a good one. I had a front seat with a good view. But it was the company that made it so good. Beside me was a student from Singapore who is traveling after completing 6 months of studies at a university near Shanghai. Across the aisle from me was a Chinese couple about my age. She is a retired physics professor and her husband is a retired engineer. And behind me was a couple from the U.S. and Canada who have been here teaching English. We all visited at different times during the trip that came down the mountains with lots of views of rice terraces and villages.
Now that I am down further from where I was before, the heat is catching up with me. It was so cool in Lijiang and in Shangri La that I needed my pullover, at least at night. Here, it is warm.
The first guesthouse I tried was not acceptable. I had gotten a brochure for it from the place I stayed in Shangri La. But it is across the highway from the old town, and the rates they wanted were too high. I crossed the road and entered the old town. I quickly found a very nice place for about half of what the other place requested. For $10 per night, I have a newly furnished room, free Internet, free laundry, etc.
Dali is similar, yet different from the other old towns I have visited. Here, the streets are wider. And essentially, there are just two streets--one that goes north and south and serves as the tourist street and one that goes east and west and serves as the local street. The shops tend to have the same things as at Shangri La and Lijiang. But the atmosphere is a bit different. There are big Chinese-style gates at various points here. There are walls part of the way around the old city. It's worth visiting here as well as the other places, I think.
They were filming outside the South Gate of the city when I explored in the afternoon. A group of women in native costumes were performing a dance. Then they were filming again on the tourist street. I'm not sure if it is for TV or what.
I had not eaten all day, so around 18:00 I went exploring for a place to eat. On the local street, I found a place full of people eating noodles, so I ordered a bowl. They were different from what I have tried before and tasted a bit like something I have had in Thailand before. They were thick, round noodles and were cold. They had pieces of chicken on top and were sprinkled with peanuts. There was a soy sauce-based sauce, and there were chunks of broccoli inside. It made a great meal for just 3 yuan--less than half a dollar.
I went to another place I had seen in the tourist quarter that had onion rings on the menu. I thought I would give myself a treat there. But a party of 9 people had entered just before me and the owner was overwhealmed. I sat there about 15 minutes without him even paying any attention to me. Then I just left. I really didn't need more food anyway.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008--Dali
It rained during the night. And I remember hearing thunder. This morning, it rained again around 8:00. But it has just been cloudy since. I stayed in my room until noon just relaxing and reading. Now I will go exploring again. I may go to one of the tourist places and have a big breakfast today.
I took 6 shirts to the lady downstairs to be washed. I don't know how long it will take them to dry with the cloudy and rainy weather. But since the laundry is free and the hotel is nice and cheap, I will stay an extra day to wait for them if necessary.
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Touch of San Antonio Atmosphere in China
Sunday, July 13, 2008--Lijiang (Continued)
I had some difficulty finding a room. The old town has many small streets, and most of the guesthouses are on back ones. I walked down the main street and found only other kinds of businesses. At the end, I went down an alley. The first place I came through was full. The second place I stopped, the man spoke no English, then he answered the phone and left me standing there; I just picked up my luggage and walked away even though I heard a woman calling, "Hello!" The third place had a room that is very nice. Rather than look further, I took it. The owner was so happy to have me, because they usually get only Chinese guests. Their signs are only in Chinese. But she commented she had had some Germans there last week. She probably gets a higher rate for the rooms from us foreigners than she does from the Chinese. The room is large with massive carved ceiling beams. One of the two windows overlooks old tile roofs, and the other overlooks a courtyard. The bath is very modern with glass countertops and sink. And best of all, it is a quiet room with no sounds from elsewhere in the evenings.
Lijiang is a bit like San Antonio in that it has a river that runs through it, and the river has lots of sidewalk restaurants lining it. I sat at one of the restaurants for dinner. The river beside me was different from the San Antonio River, however--a bit narrower and much clearer with swiftly running water and with goldfish swimming in it. San Antonio can only WISH for the kind of tourism this town has, however. All day every day, Lijiang has the kinds of crowds throughout the Old Town that San Antonio gets on the river on a Friday or Saturday night when there is a convention of 25,000 people in town.
I ate a Naxi sandwich for dinner. The Naxi are the local tribal group. The sandwich is a specialty of Lijiang. It consists of layers of flat bread filled with slices of tomato, slices of fried goat cheese, and a fried egg. It had some chile sauce on top. Unfortunately, I found the sandwich to be bland. It could have used some salt and a lot more chile sauce.
Monday, July 14, 2008--Lijiang
I relaxed in my room for part of the morning. It was so nice to have such a quiet pleasant place to work. I went through my Around-the-World IX travel schedule and made some adjustments. I need to have it finalized by next week when I arrive in Thailand so I can buy the ticket then. I had realized I had extra miles, so I figured out a side trip I could take to a part of Korea (Jeju Island) where I did not visit on my two previous trips. Then I had to make notes of the information needed from the cyber cafe to have the full schedule ready for buying the ticket. I ran into one potential problem, however. The non-stop flights from the international airport have been canceled to Jeju. I have to go through other airports to connect to my international flight when leaving the country, and the earliest flight to there arrives just 50 minutes before my departure to Malaysia. I hope they will allow the ticket to be processed with such a short time for an international connection. With that side trip, I will use all but about 600 of the allowed 29,000 miles and will make the maximum number of 15 stops on the new ATW ticket.
I spent the day wandering Old Town after going to the bus station to buy my onward ticket for Dali for tomorrow. The Old Town is so big here. Some of it is rebuilt due to an earthquake in 1999, but most of it is still old, original architecture. In typical Chinese style, the ground floor has shops, and the family operating the shop lives above it. The shops seem to have quality merchandise and a wide variety of offerings. The streets are so narrow that the corners of the sloping tile roofs almost touch at intersections. That narrowness and those roofs also have the advantage of shading the walkways much of the day. It is so easy to get lost. Streets go off in all directions and twist and turn their way through town. Fortunately, the city has placed maps at intersections that show where one is and usually give directions to the main square. Even to get back to my room, I had to worry. I figured out a route that, from the main square, involved takeing a specific street from which at the end I make a right turn. From there, I continue taking the next left turn, a second left turn after a wiggle in the road, and a final right turn.
For dinner, I chose a restaurant facing a quiet, small square. I had pork with tomatoes and peppers. It was ground pork cooked with chopped tomatoes and chopped red and green bell peppers. I had rice with it. It was tasty, but it would have been best to share it with someone else. Meals here are really meant to be shared.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008--Lijiang to Dali
I am so tired of hearing about the Olympics. Talk about them takes up at least 20% of everything on the news programs here. It's worse than being in the U.S. during a Presidential Election period. China seems to think that by hosting the Olympics the whole world's attitude about the country will change to one of glowing admiration and deep respect. I don't think they realize that everyone just plans to watch the games and hope that they win more medals than anyone else. Of course, they will be impressed with some of the venues, but I doubt that that will change their whole perspective on China itself.
I'm off to another old town--Dali. It's near a lake and is another popular stop for tourists here in Yunnan Province. The bus leaves at 11:10 and should take about 3 hours to get there. Then it will be the same old process of finding a place to stay before being able to explore the old walled city.
I had some difficulty finding a room. The old town has many small streets, and most of the guesthouses are on back ones. I walked down the main street and found only other kinds of businesses. At the end, I went down an alley. The first place I came through was full. The second place I stopped, the man spoke no English, then he answered the phone and left me standing there; I just picked up my luggage and walked away even though I heard a woman calling, "Hello!" The third place had a room that is very nice. Rather than look further, I took it. The owner was so happy to have me, because they usually get only Chinese guests. Their signs are only in Chinese. But she commented she had had some Germans there last week. She probably gets a higher rate for the rooms from us foreigners than she does from the Chinese. The room is large with massive carved ceiling beams. One of the two windows overlooks old tile roofs, and the other overlooks a courtyard. The bath is very modern with glass countertops and sink. And best of all, it is a quiet room with no sounds from elsewhere in the evenings.
Lijiang is a bit like San Antonio in that it has a river that runs through it, and the river has lots of sidewalk restaurants lining it. I sat at one of the restaurants for dinner. The river beside me was different from the San Antonio River, however--a bit narrower and much clearer with swiftly running water and with goldfish swimming in it. San Antonio can only WISH for the kind of tourism this town has, however. All day every day, Lijiang has the kinds of crowds throughout the Old Town that San Antonio gets on the river on a Friday or Saturday night when there is a convention of 25,000 people in town.
I ate a Naxi sandwich for dinner. The Naxi are the local tribal group. The sandwich is a specialty of Lijiang. It consists of layers of flat bread filled with slices of tomato, slices of fried goat cheese, and a fried egg. It had some chile sauce on top. Unfortunately, I found the sandwich to be bland. It could have used some salt and a lot more chile sauce.
Monday, July 14, 2008--Lijiang
I relaxed in my room for part of the morning. It was so nice to have such a quiet pleasant place to work. I went through my Around-the-World IX travel schedule and made some adjustments. I need to have it finalized by next week when I arrive in Thailand so I can buy the ticket then. I had realized I had extra miles, so I figured out a side trip I could take to a part of Korea (Jeju Island) where I did not visit on my two previous trips. Then I had to make notes of the information needed from the cyber cafe to have the full schedule ready for buying the ticket. I ran into one potential problem, however. The non-stop flights from the international airport have been canceled to Jeju. I have to go through other airports to connect to my international flight when leaving the country, and the earliest flight to there arrives just 50 minutes before my departure to Malaysia. I hope they will allow the ticket to be processed with such a short time for an international connection. With that side trip, I will use all but about 600 of the allowed 29,000 miles and will make the maximum number of 15 stops on the new ATW ticket.
I spent the day wandering Old Town after going to the bus station to buy my onward ticket for Dali for tomorrow. The Old Town is so big here. Some of it is rebuilt due to an earthquake in 1999, but most of it is still old, original architecture. In typical Chinese style, the ground floor has shops, and the family operating the shop lives above it. The shops seem to have quality merchandise and a wide variety of offerings. The streets are so narrow that the corners of the sloping tile roofs almost touch at intersections. That narrowness and those roofs also have the advantage of shading the walkways much of the day. It is so easy to get lost. Streets go off in all directions and twist and turn their way through town. Fortunately, the city has placed maps at intersections that show where one is and usually give directions to the main square. Even to get back to my room, I had to worry. I figured out a route that, from the main square, involved takeing a specific street from which at the end I make a right turn. From there, I continue taking the next left turn, a second left turn after a wiggle in the road, and a final right turn.
For dinner, I chose a restaurant facing a quiet, small square. I had pork with tomatoes and peppers. It was ground pork cooked with chopped tomatoes and chopped red and green bell peppers. I had rice with it. It was tasty, but it would have been best to share it with someone else. Meals here are really meant to be shared.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008--Lijiang to Dali
I am so tired of hearing about the Olympics. Talk about them takes up at least 20% of everything on the news programs here. It's worse than being in the U.S. during a Presidential Election period. China seems to think that by hosting the Olympics the whole world's attitude about the country will change to one of glowing admiration and deep respect. I don't think they realize that everyone just plans to watch the games and hope that they win more medals than anyone else. Of course, they will be impressed with some of the venues, but I doubt that that will change their whole perspective on China itself.
I'm off to another old town--Dali. It's near a lake and is another popular stop for tourists here in Yunnan Province. The bus leaves at 11:10 and should take about 3 hours to get there. Then it will be the same old process of finding a place to stay before being able to explore the old walled city.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
A Birthday Side Trip
Thursday, July 10, 2008--Shangri La (Continued)
I went to the big Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in the late afternoon. It is outside of town and on top of a small hill with a look that is much like that of the monastery in Lhasa. It's hard to find a photo that does it justice, however. It is much more dramatic to see it in person than the photos seem to show. There are at least 9 temples with the oldest being from the 1600s. The rooflines of the temples have lots of golden ornaments on them. I wandered through each temple and found back doors that allowed me to go up to rooftop walkways with prayer wheels, to other rooftops that gave views of the valley, to the kitchen for the monks (filthy!), etc. Although the temple has 600 monks, I only saw a few. One interesting sight was of a monk going to get water. They have to take a pole with buckets on the end and go outside the monastery to get water probably has they have done there for 100s of years. But as the monk walked along with this pole and buckets, he was chatting on his mobile phone which was color coordinated with his robe he was wearing!
I finished reading The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar. I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4. I enjoyed reading it, but the story gets weak at points. The author tried to write a GRAND novel about 3 generations of a family, and he really just wrote 3 stories and put them in one book. There is nothing really tying them together except the fact that they are about succesive generations of the same family.
Denis, a Brazilian professor at a university in Macau, came to my room in the evening. We had been visiting during the afternoon and had talked about some possible plans. He came to propose that we take a bus tomorrow to Deqin. That's a town as far as you can go from here without offically entering Tibet. We decided to take the bus tomorrow and have a 2-day outing to see the scenery along the route.
Friday, July 11, 2008--Birthday Trip from Shangri La to Deqin
We had hoped to get the bus that leaves at 9:20, but we didn't get to the bus station in time. I had been told it was necessary to buy tickets about 2 hours before a bus departure to assure getting seats, and it was 8:20 before we got to the station. We had to wait for the noon bus and take it. Just before then, we ate fried rice with pork in a small restaurant nearby. The rice was delicious with nice pieces of fresh vegetables and seasoned to be very spicy.
It was a beautiful trip. The scenery changes several times. First, around Shangri La, it is green with pine trees on the mountains. Then there is a stretch of brown, desert-like mountains. Finally, it turns a lush green again with rocky tops that have snow and a glacier on them near Deqin. The road itself has many twists and winds. Denis is a bit of a fatalist and kept pointing out where there would be no hope if the bus went over the side. The trip is 6-hours long, and 1 1/4 hours of that it is cobblestone rather than asphalt; therefore, it was a bit tiring but very exciting and enjoyable.
Deqin itself is not a special town at all. We found a room in a small guesthouse and wandered up and down the streets. We found a temple where the women were walking around the clockwise route for praying with the prayer wheels, but they seemed to be doing it more as exercise somewhat like walking for exercise in the malls at home. Denis and I joined them for 3 rounds, since we had been sitting so long.
The altitude in Deqin is even higher than in Shangri La, so the air is thin. We found ourselves having to go slowly and having to breathe through our mouths to get enough oxygen. But we continued to explore the town. We stopped at a restaurant to eat local food and had a spicy mutton dish with vegetables and rice. Then we found the town square where the locals were all dancing. That's a common occurance in this part of China. In the evenings, there is music at the square and the local people form circles and do Chinese-style line dances. It's a mixture of both young and old, but the old get most of the attention due to the fact that they are often wearing native costumes. Many of the older men were also playing a local stringed instrument as they danced. It is the same as the dancing I had seen in Shangri La earlier in the week which can also be seen in this video.
Saturday, July 12, 2008--Deqin and Return to Shangri La
We went straight to the bus station and bought tickets to return to Shangri La on the noon bus. Then we went out to explore Deqin and the area. First, we stopped to buy some flat bread for breakfast. When we tried to buy some local yak or goat cheese to go with it, however, the yak cheese was not yet ready (they prepare it daily), and the goat cheese sold out to others as we stood in line. But we walked on through the rest of the market which was filled with lots of fresh food.
We then headed out into the countryside. It was a tough walk, however. Everything is uphill and at a rather steep grade. Eventually we broke free of the town and were walking in the hills, however. There were small wildflowers everywhere, a beautiful field of rape in bloom, etc. Eventually, we realized, however, that it was 11:00 and that we had to return to town to check out of our guesthouse and catch the bus.
We had perfectly clear skies for the return trip. Some of the tops of the mountains were shrouded in clouds, but the day was gorgeous. That, combined with the fact that we were going in the opposite direction, made the trip seem almost like a different trip. Denis kept opening the window to lean out and take photos. And the local men sitting behind us on the bus kept tapping him on the shoulder to point out nice scenes so he could shoot them.
Back in Shangri La, we went into Old Town and got a room at a different guesthouse from where we had stayed before. Then we went to the square for the dancing again (see the links at the end of the posts for July 11). Denis took lots of photos, including some short videos using his photo camera. Then we just watched and enjoyed them. We kept pointing out interesting people.
Around 21:00, we went to a restaurant I had found earlier and had dinner. It was a spicy dish of yak filet with tomatoes, onions, and peppers and came with rice. It was both delicious and inexpensive, yet the restaurant had lots of atmosphere. Then as we walked out, we were greeted by the lighted view of the golden temple that is on a hill in Old Town and its giant prayer wheel.
We stopped for a beer across the street from our guesthouse, and the young man operating the place was one of the dancers we had observed on the square earlier. We told him we recognized him. He was both shy about it and excited. He told us he would teach us to do the dances if we would be here for 5 days. Then he gave us our first beer as his treat and sat and visited with us.
Sunday, July 13, 2008--Shangri La to Lijiang
As soon as we got back to town yesterday, Denis and I both bought our tickets for departing today. I got one for the 9:30 luxury bus to Lijiang, and he got his for the 20:00 sleeper bus for Kunming. This morning, therefore, I was up and ready to go while he was still in bed. We said good-bye, then I headed for the bus station.
The bus was such a pleasure to ride. It was huge with lots of leg room and a clean toilet on board. I sat next to a well-dressed local young man. I actually slept much of the way because I was still tired. Just 30 minutes outside of Lijiang, there was a road accident involving 3 vehicles just in front of us. Fortunately, the bus driver stopped quickly so that we weren't involved. It was caused by two vehicles in opposite directions trying to pass vehicles (one of them passing our bus) and not having room to get back into their correct lanes. An unfortunate driver of a car got caught in the middle of their efforts to miss each other and got hit both in the front and the back as her vehicle spun around. That added a whole hour to our trip, since the accident blocked the narrow two-lane roadway completely.
I am now in Lijiang. It is one of the most popular Old Towns in China and is often the setting for films in old times. It was also the setting of a modern Japanese film entitled Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles that my sister and I saw just before I left for my travels this year. Here is the website for the film, and here is the Rotten Tomatoes page for it. I stopped here at a cyber cafe on my way from the bus station to the Old Town because I had not been online for so long. I will now go find myself a place to stay here for 2-3 nights.
I went to the big Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in the late afternoon. It is outside of town and on top of a small hill with a look that is much like that of the monastery in Lhasa. It's hard to find a photo that does it justice, however. It is much more dramatic to see it in person than the photos seem to show. There are at least 9 temples with the oldest being from the 1600s. The rooflines of the temples have lots of golden ornaments on them. I wandered through each temple and found back doors that allowed me to go up to rooftop walkways with prayer wheels, to other rooftops that gave views of the valley, to the kitchen for the monks (filthy!), etc. Although the temple has 600 monks, I only saw a few. One interesting sight was of a monk going to get water. They have to take a pole with buckets on the end and go outside the monastery to get water probably has they have done there for 100s of years. But as the monk walked along with this pole and buckets, he was chatting on his mobile phone which was color coordinated with his robe he was wearing!
I finished reading The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar. I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4. I enjoyed reading it, but the story gets weak at points. The author tried to write a GRAND novel about 3 generations of a family, and he really just wrote 3 stories and put them in one book. There is nothing really tying them together except the fact that they are about succesive generations of the same family.
Denis, a Brazilian professor at a university in Macau, came to my room in the evening. We had been visiting during the afternoon and had talked about some possible plans. He came to propose that we take a bus tomorrow to Deqin. That's a town as far as you can go from here without offically entering Tibet. We decided to take the bus tomorrow and have a 2-day outing to see the scenery along the route.
Friday, July 11, 2008--Birthday Trip from Shangri La to Deqin
We had hoped to get the bus that leaves at 9:20, but we didn't get to the bus station in time. I had been told it was necessary to buy tickets about 2 hours before a bus departure to assure getting seats, and it was 8:20 before we got to the station. We had to wait for the noon bus and take it. Just before then, we ate fried rice with pork in a small restaurant nearby. The rice was delicious with nice pieces of fresh vegetables and seasoned to be very spicy.
It was a beautiful trip. The scenery changes several times. First, around Shangri La, it is green with pine trees on the mountains. Then there is a stretch of brown, desert-like mountains. Finally, it turns a lush green again with rocky tops that have snow and a glacier on them near Deqin. The road itself has many twists and winds. Denis is a bit of a fatalist and kept pointing out where there would be no hope if the bus went over the side. The trip is 6-hours long, and 1 1/4 hours of that it is cobblestone rather than asphalt; therefore, it was a bit tiring but very exciting and enjoyable.
Deqin itself is not a special town at all. We found a room in a small guesthouse and wandered up and down the streets. We found a temple where the women were walking around the clockwise route for praying with the prayer wheels, but they seemed to be doing it more as exercise somewhat like walking for exercise in the malls at home. Denis and I joined them for 3 rounds, since we had been sitting so long.
The altitude in Deqin is even higher than in Shangri La, so the air is thin. We found ourselves having to go slowly and having to breathe through our mouths to get enough oxygen. But we continued to explore the town. We stopped at a restaurant to eat local food and had a spicy mutton dish with vegetables and rice. Then we found the town square where the locals were all dancing. That's a common occurance in this part of China. In the evenings, there is music at the square and the local people form circles and do Chinese-style line dances. It's a mixture of both young and old, but the old get most of the attention due to the fact that they are often wearing native costumes. Many of the older men were also playing a local stringed instrument as they danced. It is the same as the dancing I had seen in Shangri La earlier in the week which can also be seen in this video.
Saturday, July 12, 2008--Deqin and Return to Shangri La
We went straight to the bus station and bought tickets to return to Shangri La on the noon bus. Then we went out to explore Deqin and the area. First, we stopped to buy some flat bread for breakfast. When we tried to buy some local yak or goat cheese to go with it, however, the yak cheese was not yet ready (they prepare it daily), and the goat cheese sold out to others as we stood in line. But we walked on through the rest of the market which was filled with lots of fresh food.
We then headed out into the countryside. It was a tough walk, however. Everything is uphill and at a rather steep grade. Eventually we broke free of the town and were walking in the hills, however. There were small wildflowers everywhere, a beautiful field of rape in bloom, etc. Eventually, we realized, however, that it was 11:00 and that we had to return to town to check out of our guesthouse and catch the bus.
We had perfectly clear skies for the return trip. Some of the tops of the mountains were shrouded in clouds, but the day was gorgeous. That, combined with the fact that we were going in the opposite direction, made the trip seem almost like a different trip. Denis kept opening the window to lean out and take photos. And the local men sitting behind us on the bus kept tapping him on the shoulder to point out nice scenes so he could shoot them.
Back in Shangri La, we went into Old Town and got a room at a different guesthouse from where we had stayed before. Then we went to the square for the dancing again (see the links at the end of the posts for July 11). Denis took lots of photos, including some short videos using his photo camera. Then we just watched and enjoyed them. We kept pointing out interesting people.
Around 21:00, we went to a restaurant I had found earlier and had dinner. It was a spicy dish of yak filet with tomatoes, onions, and peppers and came with rice. It was both delicious and inexpensive, yet the restaurant had lots of atmosphere. Then as we walked out, we were greeted by the lighted view of the golden temple that is on a hill in Old Town and its giant prayer wheel.
We stopped for a beer across the street from our guesthouse, and the young man operating the place was one of the dancers we had observed on the square earlier. We told him we recognized him. He was both shy about it and excited. He told us he would teach us to do the dances if we would be here for 5 days. Then he gave us our first beer as his treat and sat and visited with us.
Sunday, July 13, 2008--Shangri La to Lijiang
As soon as we got back to town yesterday, Denis and I both bought our tickets for departing today. I got one for the 9:30 luxury bus to Lijiang, and he got his for the 20:00 sleeper bus for Kunming. This morning, therefore, I was up and ready to go while he was still in bed. We said good-bye, then I headed for the bus station.
The bus was such a pleasure to ride. It was huge with lots of leg room and a clean toilet on board. I sat next to a well-dressed local young man. I actually slept much of the way because I was still tired. Just 30 minutes outside of Lijiang, there was a road accident involving 3 vehicles just in front of us. Fortunately, the bus driver stopped quickly so that we weren't involved. It was caused by two vehicles in opposite directions trying to pass vehicles (one of them passing our bus) and not having room to get back into their correct lanes. An unfortunate driver of a car got caught in the middle of their efforts to miss each other and got hit both in the front and the back as her vehicle spun around. That added a whole hour to our trip, since the accident blocked the narrow two-lane roadway completely.
I am now in Lijiang. It is one of the most popular Old Towns in China and is often the setting for films in old times. It was also the setting of a modern Japanese film entitled Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles that my sister and I saw just before I left for my travels this year. Here is the website for the film, and here is the Rotten Tomatoes page for it. I stopped here at a cyber cafe on my way from the bus station to the Old Town because I had not been online for so long. I will now go find myself a place to stay here for 2-3 nights.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Exploring Shangri La
Wednesday, July 9, 2008--Shangri La (Continued)
Most of this day was a loss due to being so tired. After napping deeply, my head still felt sluggish. It wasn't until the late afternoon before I felt good and could go out exploring and enjoying myself in this picturesque place.
I met a nice Tibetan young man while walking. We said hello to each other on the street and then stood there visiting for at least half an hour. He has an interesting history. He lived with monks at the monastery from ages 7 to 17 because that was the only way to get an education. He migrated to India as part of the exodus of Tibetans reacting to China's takeover of the country. He went to a Tibetan university in Varinasi. Now he is living here and organizing private tours to area towns and villages and to Tibet. He provides either treks or horseback tours and can arrange bus tours, too. He seemed like a sincere young man. He never tried to talk me into letting him do any kind of business with me. And he commented that if I knew of anyone who would want to arrange travel with him as a guide that his prices were reasonable. This area is really great and is easy to access from Bangkok and other major cities by flying to Kunming.
When I returned to my hotel, I met Denis. He's a Brazilian who is a professor at a university in Macau. He's taken off some time to travel in this area. But he was ill with an upset stomach and fever apparently due to something he had eaten. We visited a long time. He was impressed that I have seen so much of Brazil. He ate some plain rice in the guesthouse restaurant, but he obviously was afraid to try anything else.
I left the guesthouse to go eat dinner and was surprised to find the square in the old town filled with people dancing. Many of them were locals in native costumes. A few tourists had joined in, too. They were in a big circle and were moving as they danced. It was somewhat like a line dance.
I went around the corner to a "tourist" restaurant for dinner. I had seen earlier that they had a wooden fire and offered pizza. Unfortunately, the crust was not that good, and the pepperoni (made from local yak meat, I think) was tough. And the prices were as expensive as eating in the U.S. Anyway, I ate my pizza making the most of it. Tomorrow, I will try local food, I think.
Thursday, July 10, 2008--Shangri La
This area used to be offically a part of Tibet. But the Chinese strategy of taking over Tibet and keeping control of the situation has been based on several tactics. One has been divide-and-conquer. Various parts of Tibet were taken from it and put with Chinese provinces. This area came to be a part of Yunnan through that strategy. Another tactic has been to flood Tibet with Chinese. Everyone says that to see "real" Tibet today it is necessary to go beyond Lhasa today to visit in villages, since Lhasa has such a large proportion of Chinese people forming its population due to this strategy.
The people here look Tibetan, too. Unfortunately, many of them also look dirty. But if I lived in such a high climate and had no hot water for bathing, I might put off taking a bath as long as possible, too.
This morning, after enjoying a very warm shower with water from my private hot water heater, I went hiking into the hills south of here. I wanted to reach a small monastery the guidebook had mentioned. It was a long upward walk. With the high altitude, it was necessary to slow my pace and pause occasionally to get plenty of oxygen into my lungs. I climbed out of the old town and up a trail. I went through an old cemetery and eventually reached the place. The monastery itself wasn't much, but the view was fantastic!! Because it was the top of the mountain, I could see in all directions. Returning, I found a more direct path than the one I took getting up there.
I stopped at the square in old town and bought a special breakfast bread they were selling there. It is a disk of dough about 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter and about 1 cm (half an inch) in thickness. They spread a chile paste on it and sprinkled it with green onions. I walked in the streets eating it.
I visited with Denis some more. He had been sick during the night. But he looked as if he were feeling better this morning. He had just eaten some dry toast with a cup of tea. He was talking about getting out to see some of the town today. The two of us may go out later to see the big monastery here which is the main reason that most people come to Shangri La.
Most of this day was a loss due to being so tired. After napping deeply, my head still felt sluggish. It wasn't until the late afternoon before I felt good and could go out exploring and enjoying myself in this picturesque place.
I met a nice Tibetan young man while walking. We said hello to each other on the street and then stood there visiting for at least half an hour. He has an interesting history. He lived with monks at the monastery from ages 7 to 17 because that was the only way to get an education. He migrated to India as part of the exodus of Tibetans reacting to China's takeover of the country. He went to a Tibetan university in Varinasi. Now he is living here and organizing private tours to area towns and villages and to Tibet. He provides either treks or horseback tours and can arrange bus tours, too. He seemed like a sincere young man. He never tried to talk me into letting him do any kind of business with me. And he commented that if I knew of anyone who would want to arrange travel with him as a guide that his prices were reasonable. This area is really great and is easy to access from Bangkok and other major cities by flying to Kunming.
When I returned to my hotel, I met Denis. He's a Brazilian who is a professor at a university in Macau. He's taken off some time to travel in this area. But he was ill with an upset stomach and fever apparently due to something he had eaten. We visited a long time. He was impressed that I have seen so much of Brazil. He ate some plain rice in the guesthouse restaurant, but he obviously was afraid to try anything else.
I left the guesthouse to go eat dinner and was surprised to find the square in the old town filled with people dancing. Many of them were locals in native costumes. A few tourists had joined in, too. They were in a big circle and were moving as they danced. It was somewhat like a line dance.
I went around the corner to a "tourist" restaurant for dinner. I had seen earlier that they had a wooden fire and offered pizza. Unfortunately, the crust was not that good, and the pepperoni (made from local yak meat, I think) was tough. And the prices were as expensive as eating in the U.S. Anyway, I ate my pizza making the most of it. Tomorrow, I will try local food, I think.
Thursday, July 10, 2008--Shangri La
This area used to be offically a part of Tibet. But the Chinese strategy of taking over Tibet and keeping control of the situation has been based on several tactics. One has been divide-and-conquer. Various parts of Tibet were taken from it and put with Chinese provinces. This area came to be a part of Yunnan through that strategy. Another tactic has been to flood Tibet with Chinese. Everyone says that to see "real" Tibet today it is necessary to go beyond Lhasa today to visit in villages, since Lhasa has such a large proportion of Chinese people forming its population due to this strategy.
The people here look Tibetan, too. Unfortunately, many of them also look dirty. But if I lived in such a high climate and had no hot water for bathing, I might put off taking a bath as long as possible, too.
This morning, after enjoying a very warm shower with water from my private hot water heater, I went hiking into the hills south of here. I wanted to reach a small monastery the guidebook had mentioned. It was a long upward walk. With the high altitude, it was necessary to slow my pace and pause occasionally to get plenty of oxygen into my lungs. I climbed out of the old town and up a trail. I went through an old cemetery and eventually reached the place. The monastery itself wasn't much, but the view was fantastic!! Because it was the top of the mountain, I could see in all directions. Returning, I found a more direct path than the one I took getting up there.
I stopped at the square in old town and bought a special breakfast bread they were selling there. It is a disk of dough about 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter and about 1 cm (half an inch) in thickness. They spread a chile paste on it and sprinkled it with green onions. I walked in the streets eating it.
I visited with Denis some more. He had been sick during the night. But he looked as if he were feeling better this morning. He had just eaten some dry toast with a cup of tea. He was talking about getting out to see some of the town today. The two of us may go out later to see the big monastery here which is the main reason that most people come to Shangri La.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Up in the Cool Himalayas
Tuesday, July 8, 2008--Kunming (Continued)
I tried to eat at a place recommended by my guidebook that has wood-fired pizzas. That just sounded so good. But the directions for finding it were not clear. The guidebook said, "Down a small alley off _____ Street." Well I went down every alley I could find off that street and never found the place. Then I gave up and went to a tourist restaurant I had read about. It offers both western and Chinese food, but I decided to have Chinese, since the prices were much more reasonable for it. I had a very spicy beef with rice. The strands of beef were coated in chile pepper seeds! It was good, though. What was fun, however, was watching everyone else. I had expected there to be many westerners there, but it was all Chinese except for a couple of women and me. I guess that eating western food is stylish here like I found it to be in Bangkok last year. The restaurant only serves its food with knives, forks, and spoons. It was fun watchig the Chinese decide how to eat with them. Most of them tried to adapt their normal chopstick style. For instance, a woman and her daughter eating a pizza would pick up a whole piece speered on a fork and bring it to their mouth to take a bite off it. With chopsticks, they would have put one on each side of the slice and brought it to their mouth to take a bite off it. The little girl dropped her piece onto the table.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008--Kunming to Shangri La via China Eastern Airlines
I didn't sleep well. I kept worrying that the alarm would not go off at the right time. About every hour I awakened and checked the time. Finally, at 4:30, I just got up since the alarm was set for 5:00.
I got to the airport much faster than expected. I walked in at 5:30. It is really close into town, and there was no traffic at that time. They went ahead and put me on the 7:00 flight instead of the 7:30 that I had booked.
I sat next to a nice young boy who played a video game until the plane took off and he had to put it away. Then he started talking to me. He and his family were on their way here to celebrate his birthday which is today. He's 12 and in the 7th grade in school. As time went on, we visited about various things. I offered him a Trail Mix bar for his birthday, and he took it after trying to refuse. Then his father stuck a plastic bag between the seats from behind which they gave to me. It's some kind of dried fish snack. I also tried to give him a fresh $1 bill, but he refused it, and I got the feeling his father was insisting on that. I am wondering if maybe his father is an official in the government since they are from Beijing and had come this far just to celebrate a birthday. It could be that it would not be seemly for the son of an official to have money from the U.S. But that's just speculation. However, their arrival at the airport was greeted by two women dressed in native costume and placing crinkled silk scares around their necks, so he has to have money if he isn't powerful through the government. Leo, the boy, took his scarf and put it around my neck and told me to keep it.
There was great confusion outside the airport. I intended to take a shuttle bus to town. There were many mini-vans, so I wasn't sure which were shuttle buses and which weren't. I went to one and the driver put me on. Then a tour group showed up. It was their own private shuttle bus, so I had to get off and start looking again. Suddenly, I saw what looked like a shuttle bus pulling out of the airport lot too far away for me to get their attention. Then the taxi drivers descended on me. There were 8-10 of them who had not gotten business, and they were all fussing over me. I just walked away. I walked out to the highway intersection, and a local bus stopped and picked me up--easier and much cheaper than any of the options at the airport.
I had already written the Dragoncloud Guesthouse to ask for a reservation, so I went to there. They had a private room for me that is quite fascinating. First, the building must have been an old monastery or something. It is built around a courtyard and has very worn and narrow wooden steps going up to the second floor. My room has old wooden floors, brick walls, wooden posts, etc. There's a smell of smoky wood in the place--maybe from fires that were used there in the past. It has a modern bathroom, a heated bed sheet, a TV, etc. Nice, but also quaint.
I went out to wander the Old Town. It is filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, guesthouses, etc. The lanes are all cobblestoned. The roofs are all broken tiles with stones holding them down. It's quite atmospheric.
By then, I was so tired. First, the altitude here is about 3500 m (11,500 ft). Second, I had walked a lot already at the airport and after arriving in town before explorig the old town. And third, I had not slept enough during the night. So I returned to my room, got under the covers, and napped for 2 hours. Of course, I felt so draggy after that; it was hard to get myself out of bed. But I had seen this cyber cafe and wanted to return to it. And I want to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring one of the monasteries. This town is known for them and has all these gold-domed and tipped temples everywhere. The buildings and the people are all Tibetan, so it is much like being in Tibet itself without the hassle of trying to arrange travel there.
I tried to eat at a place recommended by my guidebook that has wood-fired pizzas. That just sounded so good. But the directions for finding it were not clear. The guidebook said, "Down a small alley off _____ Street." Well I went down every alley I could find off that street and never found the place. Then I gave up and went to a tourist restaurant I had read about. It offers both western and Chinese food, but I decided to have Chinese, since the prices were much more reasonable for it. I had a very spicy beef with rice. The strands of beef were coated in chile pepper seeds! It was good, though. What was fun, however, was watching everyone else. I had expected there to be many westerners there, but it was all Chinese except for a couple of women and me. I guess that eating western food is stylish here like I found it to be in Bangkok last year. The restaurant only serves its food with knives, forks, and spoons. It was fun watchig the Chinese decide how to eat with them. Most of them tried to adapt their normal chopstick style. For instance, a woman and her daughter eating a pizza would pick up a whole piece speered on a fork and bring it to their mouth to take a bite off it. With chopsticks, they would have put one on each side of the slice and brought it to their mouth to take a bite off it. The little girl dropped her piece onto the table.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008--Kunming to Shangri La via China Eastern Airlines
I didn't sleep well. I kept worrying that the alarm would not go off at the right time. About every hour I awakened and checked the time. Finally, at 4:30, I just got up since the alarm was set for 5:00.
I got to the airport much faster than expected. I walked in at 5:30. It is really close into town, and there was no traffic at that time. They went ahead and put me on the 7:00 flight instead of the 7:30 that I had booked.
I sat next to a nice young boy who played a video game until the plane took off and he had to put it away. Then he started talking to me. He and his family were on their way here to celebrate his birthday which is today. He's 12 and in the 7th grade in school. As time went on, we visited about various things. I offered him a Trail Mix bar for his birthday, and he took it after trying to refuse. Then his father stuck a plastic bag between the seats from behind which they gave to me. It's some kind of dried fish snack. I also tried to give him a fresh $1 bill, but he refused it, and I got the feeling his father was insisting on that. I am wondering if maybe his father is an official in the government since they are from Beijing and had come this far just to celebrate a birthday. It could be that it would not be seemly for the son of an official to have money from the U.S. But that's just speculation. However, their arrival at the airport was greeted by two women dressed in native costume and placing crinkled silk scares around their necks, so he has to have money if he isn't powerful through the government. Leo, the boy, took his scarf and put it around my neck and told me to keep it.
There was great confusion outside the airport. I intended to take a shuttle bus to town. There were many mini-vans, so I wasn't sure which were shuttle buses and which weren't. I went to one and the driver put me on. Then a tour group showed up. It was their own private shuttle bus, so I had to get off and start looking again. Suddenly, I saw what looked like a shuttle bus pulling out of the airport lot too far away for me to get their attention. Then the taxi drivers descended on me. There were 8-10 of them who had not gotten business, and they were all fussing over me. I just walked away. I walked out to the highway intersection, and a local bus stopped and picked me up--easier and much cheaper than any of the options at the airport.
I had already written the Dragoncloud Guesthouse to ask for a reservation, so I went to there. They had a private room for me that is quite fascinating. First, the building must have been an old monastery or something. It is built around a courtyard and has very worn and narrow wooden steps going up to the second floor. My room has old wooden floors, brick walls, wooden posts, etc. There's a smell of smoky wood in the place--maybe from fires that were used there in the past. It has a modern bathroom, a heated bed sheet, a TV, etc. Nice, but also quaint.
I went out to wander the Old Town. It is filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, guesthouses, etc. The lanes are all cobblestoned. The roofs are all broken tiles with stones holding them down. It's quite atmospheric.
By then, I was so tired. First, the altitude here is about 3500 m (11,500 ft). Second, I had walked a lot already at the airport and after arriving in town before explorig the old town. And third, I had not slept enough during the night. So I returned to my room, got under the covers, and napped for 2 hours. Of course, I felt so draggy after that; it was hard to get myself out of bed. But I had seen this cyber cafe and wanted to return to it. And I want to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring one of the monasteries. This town is known for them and has all these gold-domed and tipped temples everywhere. The buildings and the people are all Tibetan, so it is much like being in Tibet itself without the hassle of trying to arrange travel there.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Yunnan Province
Monday, July 7, 2008--Huaihua and Train Trip (Continued)
The rain had ended and the sun was out at 17:15 when I left the Internet cafe. How nice! I went to the hotel to get my luggage, and opened it in the lobby to rearrange a couple of things that I would need on the train. I looked up and a huge group of kids (maybe 10-12 years old) had entered the lobby and were staring at me. I moved my things to more convenient locations and closed the suitcase. When I looked back up, they were still there staring. I said, "Bye-bye," which all Chinese seem to know, and in unison, they replied, "Bye-bye." I think they were intriqued by the fact they had run into a foreigner.
When I got to the train station, there were plenty of seats in the waiting room. What a surprise. Of course, as the time approached for catching the train, people were pushing in so that 3 people were seated where there were only 2 seats.
I was a little worried as I got on the train. On sleeper cars, they take your ticket and give you a plastic card to keep during the ride. Then they come back by just before your arrival and give you the ticket back and take up the plastic card. (I've been thinking about this system, and the only reason for it must be to control the long-distance travel of local people. The plastic cards are never used for anything, but the paper ticket is needed to exit the station. Could they go through this effort to make sure that local people do not buy tickets to one location and get off at another without their knowing about it?) Anyway, normally, the exchange takes place on the train after it is going. But the lady was trying to do it as people were boarding the car today. It was taking too long, however. Starting with the people in front of me, she took the paper ticket and motioned for them (and me after taking mine) to go onboard. So I was sitting in a space I knew I had paid for, but I had no proof. And to make matters worth, some people seemed to be contesting spaces within my compartment. Fortunately, one one was claiming my place. It all passed, however. The woman came through the train and gave me my plastic card. And just behind her were policemen checking the IDs of the Chinese (which seems to confirm my speculation about the purpose of these cards).
No one spoke English around me on this train, but it was no problem. Everyone was friendly and helpful. As usual, they looked after me.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008--Train Trip and Kunming
The train trip was miserable. It was over 18 hours long!! The car, although supposedly air conditioned, was warm all night. And there were heavy jolts of the train throughout the night--jolts that were strong enough to cause empty bottles to fall off the table and to constantly awaken people. In the middle of the night, a baby started crying and the mother walked up and down the halls for about 30 minutes with the baby continuing to cry. (Why didn't she go to the toilet and lock themselves in there?) When the baby quieted down and I tried to go back to sleep, I realized that someone nearby was watching a film on an electronic device. I could hear the sound just enough that it annoyed me and kept me awake further until I remembered I had some earplugs in my shoulder bag and pulled them out and put them in. My eye was still watering all night, and I had to use my pillow case to dry it. In addition to all of that, I had a horrible headache just behind my right eyeball. My Advil was in my suitcase under the seats, so I could not get to it until this morning and had to just accept the pain until then.
Fortunately, my allergy situation doesn't seem so bad today. The eye is dry and my nose, although a little runny, is not dripping the way it was yesterday. I guess the climate change may be helping. But I have had to continue taking the Advil today due to the headache that is above and behind my right eyeball.
Kunming is a crowded city. There was hardly room on the sidewalk for me to get through with my luggage. Part of the problem, however, is that they let bicyclists and motorcyclists park their vehicles on the sidewalks. But there do seem to be lots of people here--at least on the main street I was going down.
I stopped at the Thai Airlines office to confirm my flights to get me from here to Chiang Mai and from there to Bangkok. They had been "open" date flights when I bought my ticket, so I wanted to make sure the dates I had set later were still reserved and that the times had not changed. Everything was fine.
I'm staying in a hotel that is over-priced for the room, I think. But it is only for one night. I will stay at a different place when I come back to here in about 8-9 days. It's fine though--clean, big room with nice bed. It's just that the rate seems higher than it should be based on my experiences.
I have to go to bed early tonight. My flight is at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I must leave the hotel around 5:30. Yuck! I hope I have a reserved room in Shangri La, however; I wrote an e-mail requesting one at a place that seems nice.
Various topics about China:
1. China has so many tunnels for its railroads. And they can be very long. Sometimes it is just tunnel after tunnel after tunnel! I wonder if they are built to be earthquake proof?
2. Women in China seem to prefer wearing high heels. It is so strange to me. Two of the three women in my train compartment were wearing heals last night. Even on one of our outings from the Yangtse Cruise in which everyone knew we would be taking dragon boats and then hiking, women were wearing heels as they climbed steps to the top of the mountains!
3. Chinese people tend to be loud, and they seem to yell at each other a lot. There have been so many times on this trip that I have wished that a loud group would lower their voices. And several times a day I hear people yelling at others. It's not nice at all.
The rain had ended and the sun was out at 17:15 when I left the Internet cafe. How nice! I went to the hotel to get my luggage, and opened it in the lobby to rearrange a couple of things that I would need on the train. I looked up and a huge group of kids (maybe 10-12 years old) had entered the lobby and were staring at me. I moved my things to more convenient locations and closed the suitcase. When I looked back up, they were still there staring. I said, "Bye-bye," which all Chinese seem to know, and in unison, they replied, "Bye-bye." I think they were intriqued by the fact they had run into a foreigner.
When I got to the train station, there were plenty of seats in the waiting room. What a surprise. Of course, as the time approached for catching the train, people were pushing in so that 3 people were seated where there were only 2 seats.
I was a little worried as I got on the train. On sleeper cars, they take your ticket and give you a plastic card to keep during the ride. Then they come back by just before your arrival and give you the ticket back and take up the plastic card. (I've been thinking about this system, and the only reason for it must be to control the long-distance travel of local people. The plastic cards are never used for anything, but the paper ticket is needed to exit the station. Could they go through this effort to make sure that local people do not buy tickets to one location and get off at another without their knowing about it?) Anyway, normally, the exchange takes place on the train after it is going. But the lady was trying to do it as people were boarding the car today. It was taking too long, however. Starting with the people in front of me, she took the paper ticket and motioned for them (and me after taking mine) to go onboard. So I was sitting in a space I knew I had paid for, but I had no proof. And to make matters worth, some people seemed to be contesting spaces within my compartment. Fortunately, one one was claiming my place. It all passed, however. The woman came through the train and gave me my plastic card. And just behind her were policemen checking the IDs of the Chinese (which seems to confirm my speculation about the purpose of these cards).
No one spoke English around me on this train, but it was no problem. Everyone was friendly and helpful. As usual, they looked after me.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008--Train Trip and Kunming
The train trip was miserable. It was over 18 hours long!! The car, although supposedly air conditioned, was warm all night. And there were heavy jolts of the train throughout the night--jolts that were strong enough to cause empty bottles to fall off the table and to constantly awaken people. In the middle of the night, a baby started crying and the mother walked up and down the halls for about 30 minutes with the baby continuing to cry. (Why didn't she go to the toilet and lock themselves in there?) When the baby quieted down and I tried to go back to sleep, I realized that someone nearby was watching a film on an electronic device. I could hear the sound just enough that it annoyed me and kept me awake further until I remembered I had some earplugs in my shoulder bag and pulled them out and put them in. My eye was still watering all night, and I had to use my pillow case to dry it. In addition to all of that, I had a horrible headache just behind my right eyeball. My Advil was in my suitcase under the seats, so I could not get to it until this morning and had to just accept the pain until then.
Fortunately, my allergy situation doesn't seem so bad today. The eye is dry and my nose, although a little runny, is not dripping the way it was yesterday. I guess the climate change may be helping. But I have had to continue taking the Advil today due to the headache that is above and behind my right eyeball.
Kunming is a crowded city. There was hardly room on the sidewalk for me to get through with my luggage. Part of the problem, however, is that they let bicyclists and motorcyclists park their vehicles on the sidewalks. But there do seem to be lots of people here--at least on the main street I was going down.
I stopped at the Thai Airlines office to confirm my flights to get me from here to Chiang Mai and from there to Bangkok. They had been "open" date flights when I bought my ticket, so I wanted to make sure the dates I had set later were still reserved and that the times had not changed. Everything was fine.
I'm staying in a hotel that is over-priced for the room, I think. But it is only for one night. I will stay at a different place when I come back to here in about 8-9 days. It's fine though--clean, big room with nice bed. It's just that the rate seems higher than it should be based on my experiences.
I have to go to bed early tonight. My flight is at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I must leave the hotel around 5:30. Yuck! I hope I have a reserved room in Shangri La, however; I wrote an e-mail requesting one at a place that seems nice.
Various topics about China:
1. China has so many tunnels for its railroads. And they can be very long. Sometimes it is just tunnel after tunnel after tunnel! I wonder if they are built to be earthquake proof?
2. Women in China seem to prefer wearing high heels. It is so strange to me. Two of the three women in my train compartment were wearing heals last night. Even on one of our outings from the Yangtse Cruise in which everyone knew we would be taking dragon boats and then hiking, women were wearing heels as they climbed steps to the top of the mountains!
3. Chinese people tend to be loud, and they seem to yell at each other a lot. There have been so many times on this trip that I have wished that a loud group would lower their voices. And several times a day I hear people yelling at others. It's not nice at all.
Monday, July 07, 2008
A Great Experience in China
Sunday, July 6, 2008--Huaihua (Continued)
I went out looking for a place for dinner. It was no longer raining, and many people were out. Also, there were many snack stands being set up along the sidewalks, especially at intersections in town. I never saw a restaurant I wanted to try, but I passed one snack stand that had something different from what others were offering. I ordered one. A piece of dough was rolled out to be very thin and about 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter. Then it was browned in a skillet with a little oil. It looked (and later felt and tasted) much like a flour tortilla. When cooked, the bread was spread with a thin layer of red chile paste. Then it was filled with 3 kinds of pickled vegetables cut into thin sticks (with carrots being the only one I recognized), cilantro, sliced green onions, and roasted peanuts. Then it was rolled as a wrap with one end tucked in to keep it from leaking. It was placed in a plastic bag and handed to me hot. Wow! It was so delicious. I probably should have ordered a second one, but I felt quite full with just the one.
I got lots of stares here while I was out. This city does not usually have western tourists, and the stares proved it. I was a real curiosity for the people here.
About 2 weeks ago, I started having drainage that made my throat raw and my voice hoarse. Now it has progressed to where I have a drippy nose and a watering eye. I say "a," because it is only on my right side. Before, it wasn't too bad, but now I am feeling quite miserable with it. The liquid is runny and clear, so I imagine it is allergies. I didn't think to pack any allergy medications, though. I've looked up the generic name for Claritin on the Internet and may try to buy it and some nose drops at the pharmacy. This same procedure happened last year and eventually caused me to have a middle ear infection that took weeks to cure. Therefore, I would like to dry it up if I can.
Monday, July 7, 2008--Outing from Huaihua to Hongjiang Old Town
It was raining again today. And this time it wasn't a light rain. It was really coming down. I had planned an outing for the day, and I went anyway, since I have to wait around here until 19:00 tonight to catch my train. It wasn't an easy outing, however. I had to wait 20 minutes for a bus for the southern bus station, then catch another bus for 80 minutes. And the whole process had to be repeated to return. But what an outing it was!! I have seen one of the most interesting places I have visited on this whole trip.
Hongjiang Old Town is different from the other old places I have visited. First, it was built in the middle 1800s rather than hundreds of years ago. But most importantly, it has not been fixed up for tourists. It is AUTHENTIC and aged!!
The old town has very narrow alleys with buildings 2-3 stories high built out of brick. Rather than the homes inside the buildings opening to the streets, the they open to courtyards within their walls. As one walks up and down the winding alleys, doorways pass. They have wooden doors covered in spiked metal (I guess to hurt the shoulders of anyone who would try to push his way in). Most of the doorways are open in the Old Town so that it's possible to look inside. And most of the houses are still occupied by family living in there. Looking inside, one sees deep into the house. It tends to be rather dark with the only light coming from openings above the courtyards. Families and friends can be seen playing card games, watching TV, etc. But the buildings all reak with age. I got the same impression I had in Turkish or Egyptian cities when I went through old towns glancing into doorways. The interiors tend to be built of wood with lots of carvings. There are stairways to get to the upper levels.
A few of the old buildings have been opened for tourists to see inside. There is an old bank, an opium den, a licensed brothel, etc. Most of these have rooms established as they were when the businesses operated. It was fascinating going into the opium den and seeing the special louge chairs with straw mats that the clients used for resting while taking their drugs. No one was in the building, so I went up the stairs to see what the rooms up there were like, since I figured that they, rather than the display room set up downstairs, were the actual rooms used by the customers. They were small with only little light coming into them--much like we see in films about that period.
There are several businesses operating within the Old Town, but they are mostly for the local residents. There was only one souvenir shop I saw, and there were no buildings changed into guesthouses for tourists. That helps keep the quarter so authentic looking. I can't imagine, however, that the government will leave this place alone considering what I have seen in the rest of China. I am so happy I have been there now and seen it in this way. It will be ruined if they develop it for tourism.
Unfortunately, the Communist Government of China seems to think that images of Hongjiang Old Town should be off limits to searchers. Maybe it's because they think it should not be exposed to the outside world until they get around to messing it up by modernizing it for tourists!! Anyway, I know the images there must be worth seeing, so here is the link that won't work in China but should take the rest of the world to wonderful photos of this fantastic Hongjiang Old Town. I hope it takes you there.
Well, my train leaves in two hours. It's time for me to go to the hotel and get my luggage and face that horrible wait at the train station with everyone pushing as if it will get us through the gates before they officially open them and let us move through! Tomorrow afternoon, I will be in Kunming. Then the next day, I fly to Shangri La.
I went out looking for a place for dinner. It was no longer raining, and many people were out. Also, there were many snack stands being set up along the sidewalks, especially at intersections in town. I never saw a restaurant I wanted to try, but I passed one snack stand that had something different from what others were offering. I ordered one. A piece of dough was rolled out to be very thin and about 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter. Then it was browned in a skillet with a little oil. It looked (and later felt and tasted) much like a flour tortilla. When cooked, the bread was spread with a thin layer of red chile paste. Then it was filled with 3 kinds of pickled vegetables cut into thin sticks (with carrots being the only one I recognized), cilantro, sliced green onions, and roasted peanuts. Then it was rolled as a wrap with one end tucked in to keep it from leaking. It was placed in a plastic bag and handed to me hot. Wow! It was so delicious. I probably should have ordered a second one, but I felt quite full with just the one.
I got lots of stares here while I was out. This city does not usually have western tourists, and the stares proved it. I was a real curiosity for the people here.
About 2 weeks ago, I started having drainage that made my throat raw and my voice hoarse. Now it has progressed to where I have a drippy nose and a watering eye. I say "a," because it is only on my right side. Before, it wasn't too bad, but now I am feeling quite miserable with it. The liquid is runny and clear, so I imagine it is allergies. I didn't think to pack any allergy medications, though. I've looked up the generic name for Claritin on the Internet and may try to buy it and some nose drops at the pharmacy. This same procedure happened last year and eventually caused me to have a middle ear infection that took weeks to cure. Therefore, I would like to dry it up if I can.
Monday, July 7, 2008--Outing from Huaihua to Hongjiang Old Town
It was raining again today. And this time it wasn't a light rain. It was really coming down. I had planned an outing for the day, and I went anyway, since I have to wait around here until 19:00 tonight to catch my train. It wasn't an easy outing, however. I had to wait 20 minutes for a bus for the southern bus station, then catch another bus for 80 minutes. And the whole process had to be repeated to return. But what an outing it was!! I have seen one of the most interesting places I have visited on this whole trip.
Hongjiang Old Town is different from the other old places I have visited. First, it was built in the middle 1800s rather than hundreds of years ago. But most importantly, it has not been fixed up for tourists. It is AUTHENTIC and aged!!
The old town has very narrow alleys with buildings 2-3 stories high built out of brick. Rather than the homes inside the buildings opening to the streets, the they open to courtyards within their walls. As one walks up and down the winding alleys, doorways pass. They have wooden doors covered in spiked metal (I guess to hurt the shoulders of anyone who would try to push his way in). Most of the doorways are open in the Old Town so that it's possible to look inside. And most of the houses are still occupied by family living in there. Looking inside, one sees deep into the house. It tends to be rather dark with the only light coming from openings above the courtyards. Families and friends can be seen playing card games, watching TV, etc. But the buildings all reak with age. I got the same impression I had in Turkish or Egyptian cities when I went through old towns glancing into doorways. The interiors tend to be built of wood with lots of carvings. There are stairways to get to the upper levels.
A few of the old buildings have been opened for tourists to see inside. There is an old bank, an opium den, a licensed brothel, etc. Most of these have rooms established as they were when the businesses operated. It was fascinating going into the opium den and seeing the special louge chairs with straw mats that the clients used for resting while taking their drugs. No one was in the building, so I went up the stairs to see what the rooms up there were like, since I figured that they, rather than the display room set up downstairs, were the actual rooms used by the customers. They were small with only little light coming into them--much like we see in films about that period.
There are several businesses operating within the Old Town, but they are mostly for the local residents. There was only one souvenir shop I saw, and there were no buildings changed into guesthouses for tourists. That helps keep the quarter so authentic looking. I can't imagine, however, that the government will leave this place alone considering what I have seen in the rest of China. I am so happy I have been there now and seen it in this way. It will be ruined if they develop it for tourism.
Unfortunately, the Communist Government of China seems to think that images of Hongjiang Old Town should be off limits to searchers. Maybe it's because they think it should not be exposed to the outside world until they get around to messing it up by modernizing it for tourists!! Anyway, I know the images there must be worth seeing, so here is the link that won't work in China but should take the rest of the world to wonderful photos of this fantastic Hongjiang Old Town. I hope it takes you there.
Well, my train leaves in two hours. It's time for me to go to the hotel and get my luggage and face that horrible wait at the train station with everyone pushing as if it will get us through the gates before they officially open them and let us move through! Tomorrow afternoon, I will be in Kunming. Then the next day, I fly to Shangri La.
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