I work with several people, but there are three of us that live at the two apartments where we work and keep the turtles. Frederick, my boss, Fong and myself. Frederick is busy most all of the time but we hang out when he needs a break from work. Fong also works a lot but he has more time off and so he and I often go to eat together or run errands in our free time. He has a few restaurants picked out nearby that are his favorites and frequent them because they are delicious and cheap. After a while Fong noticed that after going to all of these restaurants there was not a single thing that i did not like. Now we have a cook and cleaner from the company who cooks two meals a day and for while I liked everything that she cooked as well. Fong thought this was really strange partially because he is a bit picky and partially because I eat almost everything. The result of this was Fong taking note of everything that I do not like and yesterday at the lunch table he gave me what he had found. This is what he said, "You do not like chicken head, chicken feet, chicken kidney, and chicken ass. Now I know what you do not like." After he resighted this list I laughed really hard and then realized that I am proud to not eat any of the above.
Since my last post I have been up to a lot. A lot of that has been work and I have also changed the work that I do. I decided a week or two ago that I was not enjoying the work that I am doing here. Not because of any reason except that I spend a minimum of 8 hours working on the computer everyday and I enjoy the real world too much to do that. So I have sat down with Frederick about it twice now to talk about changing my responsibilities. He has been very open about it and all around helpful in finding ways that I can help the organization that I also enjoy. Some of my new duties will be: teaching an english class about sea turtles once a week, working with local resorts to place our turtles in the community while they are still in need of care, and other things that will get me off of the computer. I am glad that Frederick is so open to change because he likes having me around.
In other news, I visited a place called "the floating village" where we keep a few of our turtles because they can stay in natural salt water. This was a place that I had heard about, but it was much more than i had imagined. So to get there we left Sanya and drove for about an hour until we pulled into a town filled with two and three story buildings and the streets were packed with barbeque places cooking all different kinds of fish. we pulled up next to the curb as we go closer to the water and we got out and headed towards the 'dock'. This was really just a continuation of the side walk but the road and the shoulder fell away leaving me stanging on a piece of concrete about 3 feet wide and feet above some muddy water.
From here we boarded a boat that rammed itself against the dock while all of the passengers boarded. Then we started off through the maze of the floating village. Picture a rural village with small one story houses, crops on all sides and narrow streets. This is what the floating village is like except that it is floating. It is in a well protected bay and it has been there for while. Every house is surrounded by square networks of planks that are connected to drop nets that hold fish. There were boats with single cylinder engines lining just about every passageway and larger boats mixed in every so often. Also, the place was huge we traveled by the baot taxi for about 15 minutes and I did not even see an edge. It was really stunning to see and I hope to get out there again soon.
That is not all though. A few nights ago, Frederick got a call from one of his friends who works as a professional diver. We met up with him and had dinner and he invited us to go crabbing with him the next dat. We of course said yes. It rained the next day and he cancelled because he said it would not be clear enough to see anything. Then he called again the next day and told us to pick him up at 8. We met him at 8 near his house and he came out with a net/cage, three snorkles and masks, and an underwater flashlight. Then we went down to one of the beaches and were in the water before we knew it.
Walking out the a point were we could swim was a pain because he had not mentioned that we should bring shoes to wear in the water and because he had the flashlight and he did not wait up for us. As soon as it got deep enough it was amazing. We spent about an hour and a half scouring along rocks and dead coral looking for crabs and shell fish. I held the net and out friend the diver did most of the catching. We ended up with five crabs (about 5-6 inches in diameter), a dozen or so snails, a few conches, and a lot of small crabs. He also said the next time we go he will bring his spear gun so we can get some fish. Afterwards we went to a restaurant to have it all cooked up. It delicious to say the least and I think I will be buying a snorkel soon.
One last thing. I work with several chinese and one of them, Fong, asks me to help him correct english or explain english sometimes. A few days ago he was chatting with one of his friends online and asked for my help. I told him that I needed to know the context of the english to make it correct and so he showed me what he was talking about. It was then that I discovered chin-glish. Check out what it was.
say yinggelishi ok???
ok san kiu !!!
3Q
THe first one is, "say english, ok?" which just means, "is it okay to speak english" or maybe "can you speak english?". The spelling (yinggelishi) is using chinese words that sound like the english sounds to spell out the word. I have been told that this happens often with beginning students here. The second one is "ok, thank you!" and the third one is the same but using an abreviated form of the second one. He told me he knows lots of these and I will post them when we have time to sit down and write them out.
I leave for Hong Kong tommorow and wil come back by the weekend. I just need to leave the country for my visa. Also, I am going to try to visit a state funded sea turtle reserve in Guandong while I am nearby. I cannot wait to have indian food in hong kong though.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Getting over my lazyness
Since I last wrote, I went to Hong Kong to meet my friend Jessie and we were there for a week. The week was full of big city life, Disney land Hong Kong (thanks to our friend who happens to be a princess), islands, and crazy night markets that went on for miles in narrow alleys. It was great but after a week we went to china. Our first stop was Hunan province where we met up with my dear friend Amy and headed off to Wulingyuan park. I had already been here a few weeks before but it was so beautiful that I could not pass up going again. Also, this time we got to see tons of monkeys and that made it all that much better.
From there we headed south to the town of Fenghuang or Phoenix Town, which is nothing like the one in Arizona. This town was a drizzly little river town with winding little roads and lots of chinese tourism. It was quaint and really refreshing, partially because it was not the tourist season so we had it all to ourselves.
We took off from Fenghuang with one goal in mind; warm weather. So straight south we went. First by bus, then by train and after an eight hour over crowded and seated train ride we were in an small town where we caught one more train to Nanning, Guanxi Province. Although when we stepped out of the train station we were a bit disheartened to see it was also raining. There was a unexpected rainstorm that was being followed by a small monsoon. We had originally planned to go straight to the southern coast, but when Jason told me that he had wonderful weather in Kunming we headed there instead.
Once in Kunming the weather was beautiful and it stayed that way for the next month. Jessie and amy both left within a week and I soon started to get restless. I did not have a job, I was not enrolled in chinese lessons, and Jason's study was not nearly enough for two. So after tossing up options, I decided to get a job. I started looking around and applied for a field research position in Qinghai province on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau doing grassland research, but it turned out they were looking for Amdo Tibetan people for the position. Then I found seaturtles911.org and before I knew it I was packing my bag for yet another new town, province, and climate.
So right now I am working for an organization that rescues sea turtles and I live in an apartment with six turtles. Two very young green turtles, one green turtle that is around ten, and three hawksbills that are between 3 and 7 or so. I live on the top floor (8th) of an apartment building that faces the ocean and is only separated from from it by a road and a beach. I am living in Sanya, Hainan which is the southern most town on the southern most island in China. It is very hot here and often humid, but I have been getting used to it and it is kind of nice to be able to swim in a warm ocean. I also work for the company that funds the organization that sells online gaming services, which is pretty much the last guess that I would have had for a funding source but it is cool all the same.
I have only been here for six days, but I have been pretty busy plus I work nights which gives me the whole day to do stuff. So last week I went surfing for the first time and managed to get a few 10 second rides, which I hear is pretty good but I do not know if they were exciting enough for me to want to go again. I also really want to explore the snorkeling around, so surfing may have to wait. I also stayed up until six one morning (on my day off) fishing with a line net (a long net that is about 2-3 feet tall that you stretch out over rocky areas on the coast to catch crabs on fish that get tangled). After we gathered up the net we came back to my apartment and untangled the crabs and fish and fed them live to the turtles. You could hear the crunch of a crab when the turtles would bite down in the next room. It was awesome.
In the next few days I will hopefully be going out my bosses z_____ boat (the ones that look like a raft, but have outboard on the back. I keep on picturing them in navy seal movies. Silently creeping onto some beach in the dead of night loaded with guys holding harpoon guns.) This should be a beautiful day and a great chance to check out some snorkeling on nearby islands. I will try to update soon and I will get some pictures up too.
From there we headed south to the town of Fenghuang or Phoenix Town, which is nothing like the one in Arizona. This town was a drizzly little river town with winding little roads and lots of chinese tourism. It was quaint and really refreshing, partially because it was not the tourist season so we had it all to ourselves.
We took off from Fenghuang with one goal in mind; warm weather. So straight south we went. First by bus, then by train and after an eight hour over crowded and seated train ride we were in an small town where we caught one more train to Nanning, Guanxi Province. Although when we stepped out of the train station we were a bit disheartened to see it was also raining. There was a unexpected rainstorm that was being followed by a small monsoon. We had originally planned to go straight to the southern coast, but when Jason told me that he had wonderful weather in Kunming we headed there instead.
Once in Kunming the weather was beautiful and it stayed that way for the next month. Jessie and amy both left within a week and I soon started to get restless. I did not have a job, I was not enrolled in chinese lessons, and Jason's study was not nearly enough for two. So after tossing up options, I decided to get a job. I started looking around and applied for a field research position in Qinghai province on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau doing grassland research, but it turned out they were looking for Amdo Tibetan people for the position. Then I found seaturtles911.org and before I knew it I was packing my bag for yet another new town, province, and climate.
So right now I am working for an organization that rescues sea turtles and I live in an apartment with six turtles. Two very young green turtles, one green turtle that is around ten, and three hawksbills that are between 3 and 7 or so. I live on the top floor (8th) of an apartment building that faces the ocean and is only separated from from it by a road and a beach. I am living in Sanya, Hainan which is the southern most town on the southern most island in China. It is very hot here and often humid, but I have been getting used to it and it is kind of nice to be able to swim in a warm ocean. I also work for the company that funds the organization that sells online gaming services, which is pretty much the last guess that I would have had for a funding source but it is cool all the same.
I have only been here for six days, but I have been pretty busy plus I work nights which gives me the whole day to do stuff. So last week I went surfing for the first time and managed to get a few 10 second rides, which I hear is pretty good but I do not know if they were exciting enough for me to want to go again. I also really want to explore the snorkeling around, so surfing may have to wait. I also stayed up until six one morning (on my day off) fishing with a line net (a long net that is about 2-3 feet tall that you stretch out over rocky areas on the coast to catch crabs on fish that get tangled). After we gathered up the net we came back to my apartment and untangled the crabs and fish and fed them live to the turtles. You could hear the crunch of a crab when the turtles would bite down in the next room. It was awesome.
In the next few days I will hopefully be going out my bosses z_____ boat (the ones that look like a raft, but have outboard on the back. I keep on picturing them in navy seal movies. Silently creeping onto some beach in the dead of night loaded with guys holding harpoon guns.) This should be a beautiful day and a great chance to check out some snorkeling on nearby islands. I will try to update soon and I will get some pictures up too.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A long time a travelin'
Right now I am in Kunming and yesterday Jason and I put a deposit on an apartment. Our almost two months of traveling has come to close… almost. Jason has his Fulbright meeting in Honk Kong next week but, while I am also going to Hong Kong, I am not going for his meeting. No, instead I am going to meet up with one friend who lives in Honk Kong and works for Disney and another that is flying into Hong Kong as a launching point to travel in China. We will be there for a few days and then the plan is as follows: Hunan => Sichuan => Back into Yunnan from the North through Dali and back to Kunming. My guess right now is that I will be back in Kunming around mid march, but that all may change.
Now on to what we have been up to. The last time I wrote, I was in Luang Prabang, Laos and I had been there for a few days. I spent another two days there biking and hiking around outside of the city as well as volunteering to teach English in the mornings. Also, my last day there I met up with a bunch of the folk from World teach and went with three of them (Rebecca, Lucie, and Karen) to a gorgeous waterfall. The water was refreshingly clean, beautifully blue-green, and although a bit cold it was wonderful to jump into from the top of one fall or off of a tree.
We arrived back just before five and I said my goodbyes and got into a half motorcycle half truck bed vehicle to be taken to the bus station. My bus was set to leave at 6:30 but did not depart until nearly eight. This was partly because the battery was dead and until one of the employees figured out just what they needed to get the old battery out and new one in was one of the station benches. The bus barely made it out of the station, but did make it into the middle of the road, before the driver killed it. Luckily it started right back up and the worst bus ride I have ever been on began.
I had plopped myself down in the back of the bus next to a window so I could lean on it to sleep and so I could cool myself down. This was great plan and one that I had used several times before but it was not meant to be. The bus stopped for dinner at a bit before midnight in a small town built around the road. There were two places with lights on: a convenience shop with soda and potato chips and a small restaurant with bowls of food sitting in a line on the front table. The contents of the bowls were as follows from left to right: something with chicken in it, something with beef in it, whole rats gutted and roasted with the teeth still in, something unrecognizable, and a steamer with rice. I chose to eat chicken because it was furthest away from the rats.
When I got back on the bus it was easy to see that we had picked up a few more passengers. By this I mean a few more passenger than there were seats for on the bus. This meant first that my seat had been taken and I had to go retrieve my sweater from under the man who had taken it. It also meant that there were already people getting comfortable in the aisle. My only lucky point of the night happened when I noticed that a Japanese tourist had been aggressively saving a seat next to him and he gave it willingly to me. He was very, very nice man in his mid twenties. We talked for an hour or so and decided to try to get some sleep.
At this point the bus had stopped a few more times and picked up more people, although none got off. The aisle, which was filthy, was full almost to the front of the bus but people were expected to either stand for the rest of the ride or sit on the floor. The guy next to me decided to sit on my armrest instead. If I was in his position I probably would have done the same, but that does not change the fact that now there was a guy sitting on my armrest and arm and leaning on my seat and me. This all got much better when the guy would fall asleep and fall over onto me only to wake up and start the course over again. This went on for the remainder of the ride, which I will define in a bit, and it was only interrupted when the guy would wake to take care of what motion sickness usually leads to into a rather small plastic bag. He was one of many that had the same reaction to the switch-backed and windy road.
My second bit of, what I have decided was luck, happened when the bus arrived two hours ahead of schedule. It pulled into the station as it had several times throughout the night and the driver yelled out “Luang Nam Tha”, my destination. I gathered up my things and was off the bus as quickly as I could. After retrieving my bag from underneath the bus I walked over to the station waiting area, sat down, and got out my travel book. The bus driver honked the horn and all of the ill people, who had gotten off to do the deed on the ground instead of into a bag, hurried back on and the bus was gone.
The reason why I had to decide whether or not getting off of that bus early was a stroke of luck was due to what I realized next. It was just barely after three in the morning. This would have been okay if I had any place to go to. I could have still gotten a decent night’s sleep and then gotten up the next morning and went on with my travels. The problem was that I did not have a place to go. I got a ride in the back of a truck into town with the others that had disembarked. Unfortunately none of them spoke English so I could not get my dilemma across. So I took off towards the nearest hostel. When I got there the front door was locked and no one was in sight. Often hostels will pay someone to work the night shift, which means they sleep until someone arrives in the middle of the night then they wake up, check the person(s) in and go back to sleep. Apparently this town is not this way because I went to 3 more hostels and was not able to wake anyone to let me in, if there even was someone to wake.
I set off to the only hotel in town only to find out that it was closed for the off season and would open again in March or so. By this point I was ready to just sit down and so I did. I found a well lit bench, sat down, pulled out some warm socks, my book, and some food, and began to read. At 5 the light above me went out and I moved to the front of a bank that had a 24 hour ATM, where I stayed until 6 o’clock when I went for breakfast.
Luang Nam Tha served as a base camp for a massive National Park that started in Laos and stretched into Yunnan, China. The park was well known for its natural landscapes as well as traditional tribes that lived within its borders. This is why I was here, but after my bus ride and early morning experience I was not sure. Over a hot cup of instant coffee I told myself, “I think I just want to go back to China” and so I did. I was on the first bus to Jinghong, Yunnan. Needless to say, I slept really well the following night.
I spent just one night in Jinghong and bought a ticket to Kunming on an overnight sleeper bus for the next night. I arrived at eight in the morning and reunited with Jason soon after. I think from this point on Jason covered most of what I would say so I will just sum up what I think were the most notable parts. Feel free to ask me to expand on any of the below.
- Walking on top of, around, and generally amongst rice terraces with our accidental guide near the town of Yuanyang. Then eating lunch with his family and hiking on to the next town.
- Taking a sleeper bus that was definitely made for people under 5’ for 15 hours.
- Riding bikes outside of Jinghong amongst rubber plantations and finding a spider the size of my hand. (its legs were as long as my fingers)
- Meeting up with a nice family in Menghan and drinking rice wine at lunch. Followed by watching a once annual Dai traditional celebration that is now performed daily for Chinese tourists.
- Eating a fabulous meal of roasted rosemary and mustard seed pork, potatoes, carrots, and onions served with amazing stir fry, squash and carrot soup, and mint juleps. This was for dinner to kick off the start of the Chinese New Year. We were in Kunming and Jason, Jono and I cooked it all ourselves. Afterward we drank baijiu while watching fireworks, lighting fireworks, and even sending off our own paper lanterns. We got home at about 5 in the morning.
- Drinking and eating for hours in the afternoon of each day we spent in Hanzhong. Hanzhong is the town nearest to where Song Li Long’s father’s family is from and Song Li Long was Jason’s roommate over the summer in Haerbin. The entire family was incredibly wonderful and all too generous with their food and baijiu. On one day we went straight from being toasted shots around 15 to 20 times at lunch with the family to a dinner with Li long’s father and friends where we did the same thing all over again. It was rough although quite an experience.
- Riding bikes one day and tandems the next in Yangshuo, Guanxi with Caitlin and Cicilia.
- The Wulingyuan (Zhangjiajie) Park in Northern Hunan. It is absolutely amazing.
Tomorrow I head for Hong Kong to meet up with Jessie and Tessa. Here are pictures of mainly just Laos.
Now on to what we have been up to. The last time I wrote, I was in Luang Prabang, Laos and I had been there for a few days. I spent another two days there biking and hiking around outside of the city as well as volunteering to teach English in the mornings. Also, my last day there I met up with a bunch of the folk from World teach and went with three of them (Rebecca, Lucie, and Karen) to a gorgeous waterfall. The water was refreshingly clean, beautifully blue-green, and although a bit cold it was wonderful to jump into from the top of one fall or off of a tree.
We arrived back just before five and I said my goodbyes and got into a half motorcycle half truck bed vehicle to be taken to the bus station. My bus was set to leave at 6:30 but did not depart until nearly eight. This was partly because the battery was dead and until one of the employees figured out just what they needed to get the old battery out and new one in was one of the station benches. The bus barely made it out of the station, but did make it into the middle of the road, before the driver killed it. Luckily it started right back up and the worst bus ride I have ever been on began.
I had plopped myself down in the back of the bus next to a window so I could lean on it to sleep and so I could cool myself down. This was great plan and one that I had used several times before but it was not meant to be. The bus stopped for dinner at a bit before midnight in a small town built around the road. There were two places with lights on: a convenience shop with soda and potato chips and a small restaurant with bowls of food sitting in a line on the front table. The contents of the bowls were as follows from left to right: something with chicken in it, something with beef in it, whole rats gutted and roasted with the teeth still in, something unrecognizable, and a steamer with rice. I chose to eat chicken because it was furthest away from the rats.
When I got back on the bus it was easy to see that we had picked up a few more passengers. By this I mean a few more passenger than there were seats for on the bus. This meant first that my seat had been taken and I had to go retrieve my sweater from under the man who had taken it. It also meant that there were already people getting comfortable in the aisle. My only lucky point of the night happened when I noticed that a Japanese tourist had been aggressively saving a seat next to him and he gave it willingly to me. He was very, very nice man in his mid twenties. We talked for an hour or so and decided to try to get some sleep.
At this point the bus had stopped a few more times and picked up more people, although none got off. The aisle, which was filthy, was full almost to the front of the bus but people were expected to either stand for the rest of the ride or sit on the floor. The guy next to me decided to sit on my armrest instead. If I was in his position I probably would have done the same, but that does not change the fact that now there was a guy sitting on my armrest and arm and leaning on my seat and me. This all got much better when the guy would fall asleep and fall over onto me only to wake up and start the course over again. This went on for the remainder of the ride, which I will define in a bit, and it was only interrupted when the guy would wake to take care of what motion sickness usually leads to into a rather small plastic bag. He was one of many that had the same reaction to the switch-backed and windy road.
My second bit of, what I have decided was luck, happened when the bus arrived two hours ahead of schedule. It pulled into the station as it had several times throughout the night and the driver yelled out “Luang Nam Tha”, my destination. I gathered up my things and was off the bus as quickly as I could. After retrieving my bag from underneath the bus I walked over to the station waiting area, sat down, and got out my travel book. The bus driver honked the horn and all of the ill people, who had gotten off to do the deed on the ground instead of into a bag, hurried back on and the bus was gone.
The reason why I had to decide whether or not getting off of that bus early was a stroke of luck was due to what I realized next. It was just barely after three in the morning. This would have been okay if I had any place to go to. I could have still gotten a decent night’s sleep and then gotten up the next morning and went on with my travels. The problem was that I did not have a place to go. I got a ride in the back of a truck into town with the others that had disembarked. Unfortunately none of them spoke English so I could not get my dilemma across. So I took off towards the nearest hostel. When I got there the front door was locked and no one was in sight. Often hostels will pay someone to work the night shift, which means they sleep until someone arrives in the middle of the night then they wake up, check the person(s) in and go back to sleep. Apparently this town is not this way because I went to 3 more hostels and was not able to wake anyone to let me in, if there even was someone to wake.
I set off to the only hotel in town only to find out that it was closed for the off season and would open again in March or so. By this point I was ready to just sit down and so I did. I found a well lit bench, sat down, pulled out some warm socks, my book, and some food, and began to read. At 5 the light above me went out and I moved to the front of a bank that had a 24 hour ATM, where I stayed until 6 o’clock when I went for breakfast.
Luang Nam Tha served as a base camp for a massive National Park that started in Laos and stretched into Yunnan, China. The park was well known for its natural landscapes as well as traditional tribes that lived within its borders. This is why I was here, but after my bus ride and early morning experience I was not sure. Over a hot cup of instant coffee I told myself, “I think I just want to go back to China” and so I did. I was on the first bus to Jinghong, Yunnan. Needless to say, I slept really well the following night.
I spent just one night in Jinghong and bought a ticket to Kunming on an overnight sleeper bus for the next night. I arrived at eight in the morning and reunited with Jason soon after. I think from this point on Jason covered most of what I would say so I will just sum up what I think were the most notable parts. Feel free to ask me to expand on any of the below.
- Walking on top of, around, and generally amongst rice terraces with our accidental guide near the town of Yuanyang. Then eating lunch with his family and hiking on to the next town.
- Taking a sleeper bus that was definitely made for people under 5’ for 15 hours.
- Riding bikes outside of Jinghong amongst rubber plantations and finding a spider the size of my hand. (its legs were as long as my fingers)
- Meeting up with a nice family in Menghan and drinking rice wine at lunch. Followed by watching a once annual Dai traditional celebration that is now performed daily for Chinese tourists.
- Eating a fabulous meal of roasted rosemary and mustard seed pork, potatoes, carrots, and onions served with amazing stir fry, squash and carrot soup, and mint juleps. This was for dinner to kick off the start of the Chinese New Year. We were in Kunming and Jason, Jono and I cooked it all ourselves. Afterward we drank baijiu while watching fireworks, lighting fireworks, and even sending off our own paper lanterns. We got home at about 5 in the morning.
- Drinking and eating for hours in the afternoon of each day we spent in Hanzhong. Hanzhong is the town nearest to where Song Li Long’s father’s family is from and Song Li Long was Jason’s roommate over the summer in Haerbin. The entire family was incredibly wonderful and all too generous with their food and baijiu. On one day we went straight from being toasted shots around 15 to 20 times at lunch with the family to a dinner with Li long’s father and friends where we did the same thing all over again. It was rough although quite an experience.
- Riding bikes one day and tandems the next in Yangshuo, Guanxi with Caitlin and Cicilia.
- The Wulingyuan (Zhangjiajie) Park in Northern Hunan. It is absolutely amazing.
Tomorrow I head for Hong Kong to meet up with Jessie and Tessa. Here are pictures of mainly just Laos.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Still alive. I promise.
I am still alive. I am also doig well minus some digestive tract issues that have cleared up. I will elaborate at some point in the near future.
Monday, January 12, 2009
I'm back in China
I arrived back into Kunming today. Laos was great with only one planning failure on my part. Jason and I met up today. We will head out tomorrow for Jianshui, a town south of Kunming. I will try to write a full post before then.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Kunming, Yunnan to somewhere in Laos
I arrived in Kunming at around 7pm on friday evening. My flights were uneventful with one exception, a little boy that would stop crying long enough to be baffled every time I turned around to look at him. Unfortunately his confusion would wear off after a few minutes and he would go back to crying.
Saturday morning I bought my ticket to Laos after David and I picked up Rabecca and Lucie at the train station. It was so early it was still dark and I think that this had something to do with why I did not ask more questions when I bought my ticket. Also, according to Lonely Planet, a bus that went across the border did not exsist. These two factors ended in the purchasing of a ticket on a sleeper bus to Laos that was less than $50 and would take two days (that was as specific as the lady behind the desk could go).
I spent the day with the three metioned above at a so called hot springs. It was amazing. I think that the most relaxing thing that a person could do is to lay around in spas all day, but we did so much more. We layed around in mint, rose, strawberry, orange, or coconut milk scented spas all day and ate ice cream. After we tired of that (some 4 and a half hours later) we went for a brief swim, had our dead skin scrubbed off, and had an oil massage. It was an amaxingly lazy day.
My bus was schedualed to leave at 6:30 on Sunday afternoon, so I had the day on Kunming. David showed me around, taking me to bookstores, markets, and parks. Kunming is a vibrant and beautiful city. Also, the pollution in Kunming is very low so I actually saw the sky and it was a wonderful blue. I even searched out a moutain bike shop and was surprised to find that it had real mountian bikes, parts, and accesories. All in all, I would be happy if Jason and I ended up licing in Kunming for a while, which we might end up doing. (we are not 100% sure yet, but we do know that we will not be living in Haerbin).
It was rush hour, so I left for my bus at 5:15 to ensure I made it to the station early. After arriving at the station I was pointed to my bus quickly and the driver gave me the front, top bunk just behind him. It was a double, which was good because I had to lay diagonally to get close to streaching out. I quickly discovered that niether of the drivers spoke any english and began putting together important sentences in my head. Eamples include: "How long are we stopped for?" "I have to go", and more importantly, "Where am I going to?"
I knew that I was going to Laos and I knew that there is only one border crossing between China and Laos. That was it though. My original plan was to get just across the border and faff my way through some of the small towns eventually ending up in Luang Prabang near the end of the week. My plans changed.
After falling asleep to chinese films, I woke up to find that we were pulling into a city. (Of course it would be too much to ask for a road sign saying which one) It was just after 6 in the morning and the majority of the bus got off for the pit stop. I did the same and noticed that many of them did not come back quickly as they had at other stops. (ususally lasting only a few minutes and not long enough for the driver to bother to shut off the bus. Even though he was also taking a pit stop.) I asked the driver where we were and to my amazement we were in a town very close to the border. At this point I still did not know where my final destination was but I began to talk to the driver to find out. Unfortunaelty most of the words that he used to answer my questions were new to me. A nice chinese guy came along soon and translated a bit for me. I learned two things from him. First, I held a ticket that took me all the way through to Luang Prabang. Second, Luang Prabang sounds nothing like Luang Prabang in Chinese.
At the border a few fellow travelers got on making the ratio of foriegners to chinese more than just me. The rest of the trip took about 13 hours. The border crossing was about two of those since we had to go through the chinese side, the laos side, customs (another 15km down the road), and a random checkpoint (about half way to luang prabang). After that I got to lay on my bed and enjoy scenery as it bumped by. The roads were bad on the laos side, but it was okay because we went slower and the foliage was lush and there were tons of things to look at.
I have been in Luang Prabang for two days now and it is pretty nice. I will be here for at least one more day, but maybe two.
Saturday morning I bought my ticket to Laos after David and I picked up Rabecca and Lucie at the train station. It was so early it was still dark and I think that this had something to do with why I did not ask more questions when I bought my ticket. Also, according to Lonely Planet, a bus that went across the border did not exsist. These two factors ended in the purchasing of a ticket on a sleeper bus to Laos that was less than $50 and would take two days (that was as specific as the lady behind the desk could go).
I spent the day with the three metioned above at a so called hot springs. It was amazing. I think that the most relaxing thing that a person could do is to lay around in spas all day, but we did so much more. We layed around in mint, rose, strawberry, orange, or coconut milk scented spas all day and ate ice cream. After we tired of that (some 4 and a half hours later) we went for a brief swim, had our dead skin scrubbed off, and had an oil massage. It was an amaxingly lazy day.
My bus was schedualed to leave at 6:30 on Sunday afternoon, so I had the day on Kunming. David showed me around, taking me to bookstores, markets, and parks. Kunming is a vibrant and beautiful city. Also, the pollution in Kunming is very low so I actually saw the sky and it was a wonderful blue. I even searched out a moutain bike shop and was surprised to find that it had real mountian bikes, parts, and accesories. All in all, I would be happy if Jason and I ended up licing in Kunming for a while, which we might end up doing. (we are not 100% sure yet, but we do know that we will not be living in Haerbin).
It was rush hour, so I left for my bus at 5:15 to ensure I made it to the station early. After arriving at the station I was pointed to my bus quickly and the driver gave me the front, top bunk just behind him. It was a double, which was good because I had to lay diagonally to get close to streaching out. I quickly discovered that niether of the drivers spoke any english and began putting together important sentences in my head. Eamples include: "How long are we stopped for?" "I have to go", and more importantly, "Where am I going to?"
I knew that I was going to Laos and I knew that there is only one border crossing between China and Laos. That was it though. My original plan was to get just across the border and faff my way through some of the small towns eventually ending up in Luang Prabang near the end of the week. My plans changed.
After falling asleep to chinese films, I woke up to find that we were pulling into a city. (Of course it would be too much to ask for a road sign saying which one) It was just after 6 in the morning and the majority of the bus got off for the pit stop. I did the same and noticed that many of them did not come back quickly as they had at other stops. (ususally lasting only a few minutes and not long enough for the driver to bother to shut off the bus. Even though he was also taking a pit stop.) I asked the driver where we were and to my amazement we were in a town very close to the border. At this point I still did not know where my final destination was but I began to talk to the driver to find out. Unfortunaelty most of the words that he used to answer my questions were new to me. A nice chinese guy came along soon and translated a bit for me. I learned two things from him. First, I held a ticket that took me all the way through to Luang Prabang. Second, Luang Prabang sounds nothing like Luang Prabang in Chinese.
At the border a few fellow travelers got on making the ratio of foriegners to chinese more than just me. The rest of the trip took about 13 hours. The border crossing was about two of those since we had to go through the chinese side, the laos side, customs (another 15km down the road), and a random checkpoint (about half way to luang prabang). After that I got to lay on my bed and enjoy scenery as it bumped by. The roads were bad on the laos side, but it was okay because we went slower and the foliage was lush and there were tons of things to look at.
I have been in Luang Prabang for two days now and it is pretty nice. I will be here for at least one more day, but maybe two.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Phone Number
Also I have a chinese cell phone just in case anyone needs to reach me. I have been meaning to put it up for a while but keep forgetting. I will not have it on while I am in Laos because I will not have service but I should be back in China in a week.
The number is 086 137668 18643
The number is 086 137668 18643
For the next little while...
For the next little while I may not update this as often, nor will I check my email as often. My vacation has begun so I will not be around a consistent internet source. That being said I still will check things when I can and I will update this, probably briefly, with saying like "I am in (insert country/city) and I am good/great/sunburned". I am not sure about the last one, but after two months of winter I am excited for a lot of things that I used to take for granted.
Right now I am in Kunming, Yunnan, although I will not be here for long. I arrived friday night and I leave this afternoon. I am going from here to Laos by bus. I am not exactly sure how long it will take but I was told we will not arrive until Tuesday. By the way today is Sunday. I do not know a better way to start my trip than to ride a bus for two days.
I will update when I can until then cross your finngers that the sleeping compartment is big enough for me.
Right now I am in Kunming, Yunnan, although I will not be here for long. I arrived friday night and I leave this afternoon. I am going from here to Laos by bus. I am not exactly sure how long it will take but I was told we will not arrive until Tuesday. By the way today is Sunday. I do not know a better way to start my trip than to ride a bus for two days.
I will update when I can until then cross your finngers that the sleeping compartment is big enough for me.
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