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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Its almost Christmas

Sorry I have not updated this is a while. There has not been all that much going on besides the usual and I have been lazy. That being said there have been a few things. First, last week I caught an awful cold that lasted for a few days and gave me a decent excuse to not go to class for two days. Partly connected to that incident, I started watching Chinese television. This includes but is not limited to:

Cartoons- some Chinese and some American, but all in Chinese

American (English) movies dubbed in Chinese- so far parts golden eye of sister act and parts of a few others

Chinese game shows- including a Chinese version of price is right and a few physical/skill testing shows that make fun of the common Chinese person’s physical ability

That is most of them, but there are also a few more like Beijing Opera and really bad music videos. I have slightly convinced myself that having these on while I study will be good for my Chinese, but I kind of doubt it. Nonetheless, they are great for a laugh.

In addition to having a cold, I also managed to scald myself. The story goes: Jason and I went to a friend’s house for dinner. He made spaghetti for us and we arrived just before he finished cooking. He turned off the noodles and grabbed the plastic strainer. Handing it to me, he asked if I would hold it over the sink. I listened to him, because I clearly was not thinking.

Fortunately the steam from the recently boiling water pouring through the strainer did not burn me. Unfortunately, when the last bit of water and noodles were poured from the pot they did not land in the strainer. Instead they landed on my left hand. I instantly ran cold water on it and for the rest of the evening kept meat or frozen goods on it, but the damage was done. We spent the rest of the night gorging on spaghetti and assorted other foods and talking. To help the pain we drank some of Jason’s mead, most of my bottle of Jameson and two bottles of French wine.

The majority of the burn is on my ring finger from just below the first knuckle on the finger almost to the next knuckle. It also is on my pinky finger around the first knuckle and on one spot on my thumb, though the worst is in on my ring finger where it extends for about an inch and a half. The morning after the incident, I awoke to find to large blisters. The larger of which was almost the size of a dime. Since then it has gotten better, though it will take a while to heal.

In last day or so the pattern from the strainer has become more prominent, which makes me very curious as to what it will look like when it heels. This is by far the worst burn that I can remember having, but at least it is just on my already scared hands. Maybe, because of the strainer, I will end up with something pretty? Like a scar resembling something drawn by a small child with a very limited section of stencils. It’s almost like one of those eggs that I had as a child. You know, the blue, green, yellow, or red small eggs/tablets that you would throw into water to see what would burst out as the shell/capsule dissolved. The only difference is, when all is said and done, my finger will not look like my favorite dinosaur or sea creature.

Other than that everything has been pretty mundane. We are getting close to the end of the term here and I have Chinese tests for the next few days and am finished on Friday. I doubt that I will do very well on my exams, because I am still behind the other students. If I had it to do over I would not have enrolled at this university and instead would have tried to find a smaller private school that would have started at the beginning for me. I have noticed that while I have learned a lot, I am missing many basic things that make basic communication difficult. Oh well, though I have learned and I will continue to learn wherever we go next.

Speaking of which, I am only going to be in Harbin until the 2^nd of January! Next week I will put together a bag to travel with and pack up the rest of my things. I will either drop them at a friend’s house for storage or take them with me to be stored with someone in the South, because Jason and I are determined to live somewhere different when we come back from our break. Harbin has been alright, but we want someplace more vibrant, more exciting and also it would be nice if it was warmer.

Break for Jason for about seven weeks but I get out a week earlier than Jason, giving me about two months. Our break is longer than most, but most Chinese will get at least a week or more off to go home for Chinese New year. This year the actual day is January 26^th. So our plans are rough but we do have a few plane tickets to give us direction. Go to this link to follow along with the itinerary below and see a places of interest.

January 2^nd - I fly from Harbin to Beijing and Beijing to Kunming, Yunnan. From Kunming I will take a train and a bus south to reach and cross the border into Laos. I am going to Laos primarily because I need to leave China because of my visa, but I am staying for about a week because Laos sounds pretty great. I am not sure what I will do, but a UN World Heritage Site maybe in my future. If anyone has any good information let me know. All I know is that I will probably stay in northern part of the country because I will only be there for a week.

January 9^thish – Jason will fly from Beijing to Kunming. He may be in Beijing for a few days prior to this depending on how quickly he decides to leave Harbin. We will meet up in the next couple days, depending ground travel times and where we meet up. Depending on how cool Kunming is, I may meet Jason there or we may meet up in the area near the border, because we have heard that there are some really beautiful and interesting places there.

After we meet up we will spend the next few weeks traveling wherever we want for how ever long, while eventually working our way to Guiyang, Guizhou. We will honestly stay in a place for as long as it is interesting and then move on. We have heard of a few fun things to do such as hikes and cool cities, but we do not have any firm plans besides our next plane ticket.

January 29^th - We fly out of Guiyang headed for Xi’an, Shaanxi in central China, to stay with one of Jason’s Chinese roommates from the summer. I am not sure what is planned for our stay but I am sure that it will be great since we will have such an awesome tour guide.

January 8^th - We fly from Xi’an to Guangzhou, Guangdong in the South. From here it gets a little fuzzy. We will meet up with a few of Jason’s friends from Pomona and maybe a friend of mine from Bellingham. Our only obligation after this flight is to get Jason to Hong Kong for a Fulbright meeting that starts on March 3^rd.

My goals for the trip are:
1) Have fun and enjoy China
2) Practice my spoken Chinese (this will be inevitable)
3) Eat lots of good, spicy, Southern Chinese food.
4) Take lots of pictures (because I have not been taking very many so far)
5) Setup/figure out where we are going to live next. This means finding a project, another university, or a contact.
6) Meet up with Amy G!

Also, as promised here is a link to the tiger park pictures as well as a few others on my brother’s site. Here is a clothed dancer at a new bar that we went to a week ago, another one, and some that are really good.

On behalf of the industrial art planners of the city of Haerbin and myself, I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!