tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38564139161943712052024-03-13T02:43:23.455-07:00Emily's Asia Tour 2010Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-48464071039519829892010-06-08T22:26:00.000-07:002010-06-08T22:49:10.566-07:00Korea ah ahI’m back in Seattle now and the cherry blossoms are already out. We’ve<br />had amazingly gorgeous weather for a few days, which has been a nice<br />welcome to the start of my settled life here. After 52 days, seven<br />countries, fourteen cities, 24,000 miles, and 18 flights, I have to<br />admit that it’s nice to have my own bed and not to live out of a<br />backpack any more. Before I get too carried away with life at home,<br />though, I’d like to finish up this blog with accounts of my time in<br />Korea – ending in Seoul – or as they call it: “The Soul of Asia.”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GVa_BNMadpbotvkhoX6JPqLOBJ4wWXR87wwl5TrDVbaeTfAO8h268Pg1NtDPjSmtPAHfW1KCv1nuBRn4TP6e29ziHRNL_KSE_veOxT5jD66ObAeEhYKc459Al_IXnWHvQJGnldCm-gk/s1600/P2231054.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GVa_BNMadpbotvkhoX6JPqLOBJ4wWXR87wwl5TrDVbaeTfAO8h268Pg1NtDPjSmtPAHfW1KCv1nuBRn4TP6e29ziHRNL_KSE_veOxT5jD66ObAeEhYKc459Al_IXnWHvQJGnldCm-gk/s320/P2231054.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480643647010507394" /></a><br /><br />After our speedy (whale encounter free) ferry ride, we ended up in<br />Busan, Korea. From there we found our way to a subway, and then a bus<br />and about two hours later to the Gyeong Ju bus station. We wandered<br />around with our heavy stuff for far too long and eventually convinced<br />a reluctant cab driver to take us to our hostel. SaRang Chae was<br />described in the book as “the best hostel in the country.” At this<br />point we’ve realized that the meaning of “best” can be highly<br />subjective when it comes to hostels, and Gyeong Ju is pretty small, so<br />we weren’t really sure what to expect. This hostel is nestled between<br />a lot of narrow little alleyways and a massive park of hill shaped<br />tombs. It’s made up of a bunch of traditional style rooms all facing<br />in towards a courtyard where a couple of big dogs are constantly<br />napping. Our room was pretty large, but instead of beds, we were<br />given two sets of thin pads, blankets and pillows to unfold and sleep<br />on. The bathroom had a western style toilet and a showerhead attached<br />to the wall, but no sink. It was very clean, just much sparser than we<br />expected. The ambiance was great though and the couple that runs it is<br />very sweet and helpful. Also, surprisingly for the time of year, it<br />was pretty full of guests –from America, Canada, and Britain. The<br />first night we spent there, we discovered that the floors are<br />mysteriously heated. Our book said that it’s the traditional way of<br />heating using fire under the buildings. It sounds pretty dangerous,<br />but it definitely made it more comfortable. The hostel also puts out<br />bread, eggs, and jam in the morning so that you can fix your own<br />breakfast for free. It was kind of nice and homey to be able to make<br />food for ourselves for the first time in a few weeks.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2GzxtPrO7P0Pecp4mbcdgj82uvAYqRSX4qfcmg1-9Ll6XYjVJt8Qs5ppncI2vXnRMAjEZPmKtPZgdnoTw6KhnwJ5ngqEidgNks2o9Yf2TEnwlj2hyphenhyphen_-ZI93JvqDKgHWxE5qhX1O2YA-Y/s1600/P2231058.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2GzxtPrO7P0Pecp4mbcdgj82uvAYqRSX4qfcmg1-9Ll6XYjVJt8Qs5ppncI2vXnRMAjEZPmKtPZgdnoTw6KhnwJ5ngqEidgNks2o9Yf2TEnwlj2hyphenhyphen_-ZI93JvqDKgHWxE5qhX1O2YA-Y/s320/P2231058.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480643659142587906" /></a><br /><br />When we woke up the next morning, it was grey and drizzling, but we<br />were only there for one day so we borrowed umbrellas and set off to<br />see the sights anyway. First on the list was Bulguksa, an ancient<br />temple complex from the Silla dynasty. It was about half an hour bus<br />ride outside of town, and consisted of a raised, walled-in area with<br />Buddhist temple buildings and Silla style pillars. There was also a<br />very pretty drum on a turtle. After that we came back to our hostel<br />area to the Tilimum Park where a lot of the Silla kings are buried and<br />went into the only tomb open to the public – the Changma tomb. A very<br />friendly free English-speaking tour guide met us outside and took us<br />through, explaining everything. All of the artifacts displayed in the<br />tomb are actually fake versions, replicas, but you get to see the<br />traditional layout and what the inside of all the hills are filled<br />with. There’s a wooden chamber at the center – at ground level, which<br />is covered by a huge mound of rocks (to prevent burglary), and then a<br />layer of clay around the rocks covered with dirt and grass. The tour<br />guide said that this king’s name is unknown, but that a painting found<br />in the tomb of a horse inspired the naming of the tomb as the<br />“Heavenly Horse Tomb.” Apparently this king was the first to decide<br />not to have a group burial, which consists of a number of people being<br />buried alive with the king’s coffin. How sweet of him. The Silla<br />dynasty ran for about 1000 years uninterrupted and had three queens<br />who ruled.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLkVx4wYGr7bfSEjHRhrWs7N3WGlmsM2uGMJl23TRiRLIenDTFPsW0N5nqq5IZYFpgaUbmsqE8XqBWcnXCdrxeKOY_WwcPxrPd7VHCB5Y7hLOCGkvQrFg6zZrkg5UFy7m8WilkFt2ZbM/s1600/P2241063.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLkVx4wYGr7bfSEjHRhrWs7N3WGlmsM2uGMJl23TRiRLIenDTFPsW0N5nqq5IZYFpgaUbmsqE8XqBWcnXCdrxeKOY_WwcPxrPd7VHCB5Y7hLOCGkvQrFg6zZrkg5UFy7m8WilkFt2ZbM/s320/P2241063.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480643693815806978" /></a><br /><br />After that we trekked to the National Museum, which is very nice and<br />large and has free admission. Unfortunately, by the time we got there<br />we were soaking wet, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been.<br />All the real original artifacts unearthed from the tomb we had seen<br />were there, including a very impressive gold crown with little jade<br />“commas” hanging from it. Our tour guide had told us that they<br />represent embryos and therefore fertility. After seeing a famously<br />large and melodious bell and some other artifacts, and being mistaken<br />for a Korean by some people from our hostel, we headed back to change<br />and rest for a while.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3dmzkPR3MzSXd53kD-DGDZjfQJiuDVYmOw4ZiELEvg_6Y4fAFcsEHULjeGL8QS7yTrXnjUGG6LKRBePs67C5rAfdz0oDZYB1RzP2Ol98hbYKvD_cndyp9199mLF2HnJWDdGdNTTz75-o/s1600/P2241085.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3dmzkPR3MzSXd53kD-DGDZjfQJiuDVYmOw4ZiELEvg_6Y4fAFcsEHULjeGL8QS7yTrXnjUGG6LKRBePs67C5rAfdz0oDZYB1RzP2Ol98hbYKvD_cndyp9199mLF2HnJWDdGdNTTz75-o/s320/P2241085.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480643705626670130" /></a><br /><br />The food we had in Gyeong Ju was traditional Korean style, where each<br />person gets a small bowl of fish, meat, or tofu with a bowl of rice,<br />and then there are a lot of little shared veggie dishes including<br />kimchi. Carly didn’t really like not knowing what everything was, so<br />we also found a place called Paris Baguette, which had amazing French<br />style pastries and little baguette pizzas.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKwNReMRkak5Qfdfc0yRrBQv6kW-N5hFDAtW3kkDu6Zeq3evNAxzb6YxxAMyj1wZ0LN9UhzhUVenSRKk5nEQWbRdZAkb9_bKBVjCBaMbsFLey8ddajbGGIgRlz38ki-PgE9F6BLz-XiU/s1600/P2261095.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKwNReMRkak5Qfdfc0yRrBQv6kW-N5hFDAtW3kkDu6Zeq3evNAxzb6YxxAMyj1wZ0LN9UhzhUVenSRKk5nEQWbRdZAkb9_bKBVjCBaMbsFLey8ddajbGGIgRlz38ki-PgE9F6BLz-XiU/s320/P2261095.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480643712232054962" /></a><br /><br />During our time in Korea, the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver were<br />going on, and the star both locally and abroad was the charming<br />19-year-old ice skater, Kim Yuna. After she won the gold, all the<br />Koreans called her “Queen Yuna” and her pictures were all over the<br />place. They also played her long program skate on repeat during our<br />whole 5 hour bus ride to Seoul the next day. Yuna seems very humble<br />and sweet and it’s hard not to be instantly in love with her. We were<br />definitely rooting for her. I probably have her routine memorized at<br />this point, and never really need to see it again.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqzrFV0VLu1qCLOn8-YY5NXpRO4-EnIxxpSe8ZlPiOuILpwpWC1ThCaWf_Ucy6hM5gNaXNPDh9z3PIubsIcGxKsqPp8Psqqidv-c6O4gD_iMq-OIHifOyn2Z0ULvXVhKjdMcZxI686vs0/s1600/P2261101.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqzrFV0VLu1qCLOn8-YY5NXpRO4-EnIxxpSe8ZlPiOuILpwpWC1ThCaWf_Ucy6hM5gNaXNPDh9z3PIubsIcGxKsqPp8Psqqidv-c6O4gD_iMq-OIHifOyn2Z0ULvXVhKjdMcZxI686vs0/s320/P2261101.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480645825715213826" /></a><br /><br /><br />Our Seoul hostel was highly recommended by my book, and the book<br />provided a map and very clear instructions of how to get there.<br />Everything went really smoothly, until we came to the location that it<br />was supposed to be – and it was nowhere to be found. After we wandered<br />around and got very sore backs from lugging our stuff everywhere, a<br />young Korean man approached us. He asked us in very good English if we<br />were looking for a backpacker’s hostel. Relieved, we told him we were,<br />and showed him the map and the name and number of the place. He<br />called them up, and then told us that it was very far – probably a<br />15-minute drive from where we were. I was a bit skeptical. We had<br />followed the directions exactly and our location exactly matched up<br />with the map. I figured we had just not seen it down one of the<br />alleyways. After looking around more and deciding it definitely wasn’t<br />there, our new friend jumped in a cab with us and took us to the real<br />location. He said he had a test in accounting the next day but not to<br />feel sorry for him because he had given up studying anyway and didn’t<br />want us to get ripped off by a cab driver. It turns out, the hostel<br />had moved two years ago, right after my book was published. We were so<br />grateful when we found the place that we took him to dinner at a<br />nearby fast food Korean place (classy, I know). His name is Ilnam and<br />he studied abroad in Alabama for about 10 months last year and is<br />still mourning the end of his relationship with an American girl,<br />which is why he hasn’t studied much for his exam. He was very sweet<br />and brought us little Korean pouches as presents later in the night to<br />thank us for dinner. He used “ya’ll” when he wrote on our facebook<br />walls later too, which we found very entertaining.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL2wWFd_nfd1EI9g0Wt60AjPHSzjZXG6ZTw6eMFLji09LPPMn9a0xL7lxZK2soqwv2wdxB4PPfElJHGRSeQ-_rrI2xIwaSRdzWmcabVXkow6gWcXlWczWDyeGNFo8O3wjh4DNdq017KE/s1600/P2261106.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL2wWFd_nfd1EI9g0Wt60AjPHSzjZXG6ZTw6eMFLji09LPPMn9a0xL7lxZK2soqwv2wdxB4PPfElJHGRSeQ-_rrI2xIwaSRdzWmcabVXkow6gWcXlWczWDyeGNFo8O3wjh4DNdq017KE/s320/P2261106.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480645836012492898" /></a><br /><br />That night, at Ilnam’s suggestion, we went to see the Seoul Tower. We<br />were kind of towered out at this point, but it was definitely the most<br />exciting tower we saw on the trip because you take a cable car to get<br />there. The tower sits on the top of a big hill in the middle of the<br />city, so it has a 360-degree amazing view. It’s apparently the most<br />romantic place in Seoul.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgQe7BnZQVX-Sy63cI9DQvkMt7NNvxIygk99KAcWcFygBR6Rh7Fi3iHss2dcrI7CWELSj5lfKAWuyHhNDO3X7-XPSF7vXqWsx3zx_3FxLjq4TNmHBvZfBvKi31Bp9UjskuS3Rk9bakew/s1600/P2261115.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgQe7BnZQVX-Sy63cI9DQvkMt7NNvxIygk99KAcWcFygBR6Rh7Fi3iHss2dcrI7CWELSj5lfKAWuyHhNDO3X7-XPSF7vXqWsx3zx_3FxLjq4TNmHBvZfBvKi31Bp9UjskuS3Rk9bakew/s320/P2261115.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480645847336555266" /></a><br /><br />The next day was our last full day of the trip, so we started off<br />earlier than usual and went to the GyeongbukGung palace. It’s the most<br />popular of the 5 palaces in the city and has been restored a lot since<br />the Japanese destroyed it during the war. All of the old buildings in<br />Korea are very similar to ancient Chinese architecture, with some<br />differences in color schemes and patterns. The characters on the<br />buildings are all Chinese though, because apparently the Koreans used<br />the Chinese writing system until the 1940s or so. After the palace we<br />went to the Namdeomung market, which happened to be right by our<br />hostel. Since it was our last day, we decided that we were allowed to<br />shop and we bought a few fun knock off socks and scarves and the like.<br />I got a sweatshirt that says “Proud to be a bunny hugger” that I love.<br />The vendors in the market quoted us really high prices that were all<br />the same and didn’t seem to budge when we tried to bargain. I got the<br />feeling that the prices they told the locals were much lower, but I<br />guess that’s what I get for not being able to speak Korean.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUaANZN_s-7mysIgiug1vluF0VHZ6j4YsQ4rrqM_NleBQmchYJKTvDQhxjJALnSPT-HxD3mD9ioUnHv_uSO2WlX4yDbOzWwUt8XYMSEZhgrZWFv4-7LJecsmCslJO5te-gjYWe-DLX_U/s1600/P2261117.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUaANZN_s-7mysIgiug1vluF0VHZ6j4YsQ4rrqM_NleBQmchYJKTvDQhxjJALnSPT-HxD3mD9ioUnHv_uSO2WlX4yDbOzWwUt8XYMSEZhgrZWFv4-7LJecsmCslJO5te-gjYWe-DLX_U/s320/P2261117.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480645854864278434" /></a><br /><br />Our last Korean dinner was delicious Korean BBQ, and then that night<br />we met up with a friend from Seattle named Liz. She’s teaching English<br />in Seoul for a year and took us out to Hongdae (the big bar scene)<br />with her other expat and teacher friends. It was really fun to see her<br />and get a sense of the international scene in Seoul.<br /><br />I didn’t expect to dislike Korea, but I was definitely pleasantly<br />surprised by it. It’s very easy to travel there – especially in Seoul<br />there are a lot of English speakers and everything is well labeled and<br />easy to figure out. It’s a bit more expensive than China, but cheaper<br />than Japan. Seoul is very cosmopolitan and has a youthful and fun<br />vibe. I was really glad that we got to see Gyeong Ju too, though. It’s<br />a much smaller city where everything is within walking distance and it<br />doesn’t seem very permeated by Western influence and travelers. Gyeong<br />Ju and Seoul complimented each other nicely – giving us a broad, but<br />quick, introduction to Korea. I definitely want to go back sometime<br />and explore more.<br /><br /><br /><br />Well, it’s really been a crazy and amazing adventure. I think the best<br />but also most frustrating part of traveling is how much it makes you<br />want to see more of the world. For now I’m happy to be settling in to<br />Seattle and excited for my next big adventure – joining the real<br />working world. We’ll see how long that excitement lasts. ☺ So, it is<br />with bitter sweetness that I must declare this story officially over…<br />but…<br />Expect to see more of me, world! I’m not through with you yet.Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-20649473361651192212010-02-24T02:51:00.000-08:002010-02-24T03:11:55.646-08:00Kickin it in KyotoThis morning we woke up at 4 am and took a train to another train to a taxi to meet our hydrofoil boat at 10 am. Now we’re sitting on the Beetle – a high speed boat that goes between Hakata, Japan and Busan, Korea – heading towards the last leg of our journey. Despite the many health issues we had throughout our time in Japan, it was still sad to leave it so soon. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpiO1ZnSsPfo2h1PnIZlMrR076CkNg3445Obzn564qiuqtWA6iNF3QZ7T_0erVGbhBQWuoLeiIM_MWTdF95jmoe9QTsknMBEAUruH9RMIvstRLY-W7VJkXEVycsY_Vjx_IvhWucSfrHCI/s1600-h/tower.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpiO1ZnSsPfo2h1PnIZlMrR076CkNg3445Obzn564qiuqtWA6iNF3QZ7T_0erVGbhBQWuoLeiIM_MWTdF95jmoe9QTsknMBEAUruH9RMIvstRLY-W7VJkXEVycsY_Vjx_IvhWucSfrHCI/s320/tower.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441763511966327778" /></a><br /><br />Kyoto is a fairly big city, but is much calmer and more slowly paced than Tokyo. People are okay with riding the escalators all the way up instead of briskly walking up them, and oldsters stroll on the sidewalks with their tiny dogs. Aside from a few taller office buildings, the city seems to be mostly filled with one or two story shops and houses. Also, surprisingly we found that we had slightly fewer communication problems there, and the “I don’t eat pork or shellfish” napkin only had to make a couple appearances (which is good because it’s pretty abused looking at this point). The public transportation in both Tokyo and Kyoto was easy to use and didn’t cause us too much stress. In Tokyo we rode the subways around and in Kyoto we used the busses. Overall this is the country where we’ve used the most public transport – partly because the cabs are so expensive, but also because everything is nicely labeled and there always seems to be a line that will take you exactly where you want to go. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr2UXeFFAsiTl6zS7ZYh2bFP50GccsNUdGDfGrggPyBqYgBr5u-8KqJ911GGOFSAbuOXLR9jIupbE6c4lfTY6BgL_YZB2Uu-BtrlZiZGPJbV0Yessv7z53RQS5D7P1wgxHiVsTJLCNlI/s1600-h/kimonos.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr2UXeFFAsiTl6zS7ZYh2bFP50GccsNUdGDfGrggPyBqYgBr5u-8KqJ911GGOFSAbuOXLR9jIupbE6c4lfTY6BgL_YZB2Uu-BtrlZiZGPJbV0Yessv7z53RQS5D7P1wgxHiVsTJLCNlI/s320/kimonos.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441761873112078306" /></a><br /><br />Kyoto is an ancient capital of Japan (after Nara I think?). It doesn’t seem like the city relies on tourism, but there are amazing parks and extremely old temples scattered throughout the city – it seems like almost anywhere you are, you’re within walking distance of something historically significant. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3hpJIqJOWitgqNfxk_oEqQC4E14_8OHNFArbcaNFqnD_OKPW1Ax2wuR8ixul5ESQkHDzymakkvdo0FzUOA2I7BEcIBtxaEdFGtzoBLuRi9llURIyP5trHMUzmV0_9NSUDBGWiAPI4HU/s1600-h/viewt.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3hpJIqJOWitgqNfxk_oEqQC4E14_8OHNFArbcaNFqnD_OKPW1Ax2wuR8ixul5ESQkHDzymakkvdo0FzUOA2I7BEcIBtxaEdFGtzoBLuRi9llURIyP5trHMUzmV0_9NSUDBGWiAPI4HU/s320/viewt.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441763534636193986" /></a><br /><br />A few days before we got to Kyoto, I found out that my friend Brett from high school, who is in the Marines, is stationed in Japan. Although his base is kind of out of the way, he said he’d never been to Kyoto and decided to come out and meet us there on his day off. I was a little worried that we’d have trouble finding him at the train station, but the fact that he’s about twice as tall as most Japanese people made it pretty easy. Interestingly enough, the Kyoto train station is one of the flashiest sights in Kyoto, so we started out there with a nice Italian lunch. The station has an open air center with stairs and escalators that go up about 11 floors straight in succession. The building is an odd shape that is mostly covered with glass and juts in and out at weird angles. After that we walked over to the To-ji temple to check out a market that only happens on the 21st on every month. Unfortunately, the temple itself was closed, but we saw the outside and walked through the market, picking up some delicious dried mango and some red bean pancakes. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjpLsT-uCtT7SeeIR6HePeNUF9VyQoA0qFD-UK3i1ytRRT6bD7I9FvK3oltypwL5NEtPvaqWKLxhxZRKd16tEDa-m8mFAPubRktdYrdFxRzNfRcOElyVi-Ee5ZXagHA3Z9ukrMFC6jziY/s1600-h/station.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjpLsT-uCtT7SeeIR6HePeNUF9VyQoA0qFD-UK3i1ytRRT6bD7I9FvK3oltypwL5NEtPvaqWKLxhxZRKd16tEDa-m8mFAPubRktdYrdFxRzNfRcOElyVi-Ee5ZXagHA3Z9ukrMFC6jziY/s320/station.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441762869498981410" /></a><br /><br />Across from the train station is the Kyoto Tower, which looks like a slightly more cartoonish version of the space needle and comes out of a large office building. We went up to the round observation deck to catch the sunset over the mountains and see the whole city light up in the orange tinted evening light. After the tower, Brett headed back to his base and job building jet engines. It’s crazy to have found so many familiar faces on this side of the world. It was really great to see him - hopefully having some American female company was worth hanging out with two diseased people for an afternoon. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1IjxBxN8Wa5QonG5Nm0QVnvlPoENgAZAHyS-DKINrKwUR_-fAwiol4M4R-rxBlIuw5Clzik0_6UtpQXL92vUmnCLTinElp1IYwzWG_lsCaQwGdcoIgs5Ig77-M5QvTnz4xh2GWNpWByk/s1600-h/brett.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1IjxBxN8Wa5QonG5Nm0QVnvlPoENgAZAHyS-DKINrKwUR_-fAwiol4M4R-rxBlIuw5Clzik0_6UtpQXL92vUmnCLTinElp1IYwzWG_lsCaQwGdcoIgs5Ig77-M5QvTnz4xh2GWNpWByk/s320/brett.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441761821816013954" /></a><br /><br />The next morning my eye was still very red, so we decided it was time to go to an eye clinic. I got checked out and given some eye drops and we were about to leave, when Carly wanted to quickly ask the doctor if her eyes looked okay – just in case. What should have been a two minute conversation turned into ten, white clad Japanese nurses giving us a “deer in the headlights” stare, and some very awkward English attempts at telling us not to share eye drops. Finally the doctor took a look at her and declared that she was fine and we were on our way. We bought a day pass for the busses and Carly skillfully navigated our way around the city to the three most popular sights – the Kinkaku-ji, the Ginkaku-ji, and Kiyomizu-dera. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VR6QLOKD06I5tIN85-3FhWJc4MbqnupfiJ8q0NG1jgYVUdM6I8ox9Hw2e8Zw9Ku8H_aNWRTareFIIPretBQtVruPxVf9UfAJWwzNWVOnlteFMUawejvCKKxzC9Uo-tYZkjU0FWndbv4/s1600-h/silverp.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VR6QLOKD06I5tIN85-3FhWJc4MbqnupfiJ8q0NG1jgYVUdM6I8ox9Hw2e8Zw9Ku8H_aNWRTareFIIPretBQtVruPxVf9UfAJWwzNWVOnlteFMUawejvCKKxzC9Uo-tYZkjU0FWndbv4/s320/silverp.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441762854557559314" /></a><br /><br />The Kinkaku-ji, or Golden Pavillion, is a stunning, gold encased building that sits on a small picturesque pond, surrounded by trees and peaceful walkways. The Ginkaku-ji, or Silver Pavillion, was supposed to be covered in silver, but according to our brochure that plan was never realized. It’s currently under construction, and the ponds around it were drained, but there were some cool sand sculptures and designs in the garden around it. It also sits in front of a small hill, which you can climb up and get a nice view of the city. The Kiyomizu-dera was a much larger complex with a number of old wooden Japanese temple buildings scattered on the side of a hill. It seems like a lot of people still go there to worship or make formal visits at least because there were a number of men and women in traditional Japanese dress. After our sightseeing, we went to a famous shopping area called Gion and found a delicious Indian restaurant for dinner. There are tons of sights in Kyoto that we missed, but I think we hit the important ones and we were pretty satisfied with the flavor we got. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRq2OVhOK3iMcOgZx6L1VA6gOmB87DW7Y5W67aMOBV_kD2vwTUFNxyxhIA_y-QBA_4Wuroz_cxY7aN7frmjzVYNoWoWvjq4_rxLJfb5o1BrgEXZsHrt0CjHVpfMesxnSTOeEFcSTMIfs/s1600-h/goldenp.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRq2OVhOK3iMcOgZx6L1VA6gOmB87DW7Y5W67aMOBV_kD2vwTUFNxyxhIA_y-QBA_4Wuroz_cxY7aN7frmjzVYNoWoWvjq4_rxLJfb5o1BrgEXZsHrt0CjHVpfMesxnSTOeEFcSTMIfs/s320/goldenp.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441761864614463426" /></a><br /><br />The next morning we woke up and took an hour train ride to spend the day in Nara. Nara was the first capital of Japan and now seems to be a small and sleepy city next to its main historical attraction – Nara Park. Nara Park is a large grass and tree covered area full of ancient wooden buildings, gardens, pagodas, shrines and ponds. Also, since deer were considered messengers to the gods, they are now considered national treasures and the park is full of literally thousands of tame deer, who just wander around and get fed and petted by tourists. We were really excited when we walked by Kofuku-ji and saw the deer everywhere, and immediately went up and posed for some pictures with a nice buck. Since we didn’t have any of the little vendor sold deer food pancakes for him, he was not really interested in entertaining us. We thought the deer were very endearing until, as we posed for a picture with the five level pagoda, a national treasure came up and ate our nicely marked map of the park. He literally ripped it out of Carly’s hand, played tug of war with her for a while, and then proceeded to chomp up and swallow the whole thing. After that we tended to avoid the deer and keep our Lonely Planet and other loose items away from them. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0l4wjqdxOV-NLI5iSjlRIc2Mo3DNlWPTnqF8h-waniPiO2VXiGBOBhJteBu7wsXXK5YkJk5fSKbY83xpBD7EO5jxeo4W6VMo4CIDoNmYUPp6PUqxITlng67IXQaUTorY12P9r8Nh7ras/s1600-h/cardeer.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0l4wjqdxOV-NLI5iSjlRIc2Mo3DNlWPTnqF8h-waniPiO2VXiGBOBhJteBu7wsXXK5YkJk5fSKbY83xpBD7EO5jxeo4W6VMo4CIDoNmYUPp6PUqxITlng67IXQaUTorY12P9r8Nh7ras/s320/cardeer.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441761844744028066" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03xYj2ud9FsCHv8YSGFkAGGaQ4_lPMCPMrpnTQ135ErhwQRDxyPBkn2NFKKL5hhv4KX8trPbdx02hLC_srYnUjU-cyCIm-NLWNy-j88N6x7XYJ1DAnEmwfMh7kUeyX7T4b2El9syhrhg/s1600-h/todaiji.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03xYj2ud9FsCHv8YSGFkAGGaQ4_lPMCPMrpnTQ135ErhwQRDxyPBkn2NFKKL5hhv4KX8trPbdx02hLC_srYnUjU-cyCIm-NLWNy-j88N6x7XYJ1DAnEmwfMh7kUeyX7T4b2El9syhrhg/s320/todaiji.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441762880637675794" /></a><br /><br />The most famous attraction in Nara is the Todai-ji, which houses a very large Buddha. I think we were a bit jaded by the Bronze Buddha in Hong Kong, so it didn’t seem as impressive, but I think it’s a lot older and therefore probably a greater artistic feat for its time. After taking some pictures of the Buddha and some of the angry looking figures who share the temple with him, we headed over to Nigatsu-do for a view of the park from above, and then to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. They were all very beautiful, decorated with intricate lanterns and surrounded by huge, twisty trees that sometimes were supported by wooden props because they had spread so far from their trunks. The whole park was very peaceful and the weather was gorgeous which made the walk around the park and up the twisty pathways very pleasant. Our guide book had warned us against being “those” tourists who buy the deer food pancakes and eat them by accident, so when we bought a red bean pancake as a snack, we inspected it thoroughly and found it hard to convince ourselves that it was people food. The fact that Carly hasn’t been able to taste her food for a few days made it a little more challenging. Regardless, it tasted pretty good to me so I think it was okay. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidX0uK1G698NqjGpF6vavvavpJePLtmzyAlOzhlTWHGd_ODR_GwRDllH1RSm7B91Mb_Tc_HhBxsnjCvYLF8wfjrwFEL6uBRqHDY8cJqoI7NIzOYnq5KHDRnLGJ7yyjrZ1AmlN9Whn2-6g/s1600-h/tree.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidX0uK1G698NqjGpF6vavvavpJePLtmzyAlOzhlTWHGd_ODR_GwRDllH1RSm7B91Mb_Tc_HhBxsnjCvYLF8wfjrwFEL6uBRqHDY8cJqoI7NIzOYnq5KHDRnLGJ7yyjrZ1AmlN9Whn2-6g/s320/tree.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441763522742951506" /></a><br /><br />After our long day of sightseeing, we headed back to Kyoto and tried to find a restaurant that was recommended in my guidebook because it has an English menu. After walking around in circles and deciding that it must have been plowed down and turned into a parking lot, we stopped at a different place. They had a smaller English menu but the descriptions were not very clear so it was still difficult to order. After a long session of pointing and making the “X” sign or the “OK” sign with our hands back and forth with the waitress, we had four dishes picked out. We tried, then, to ask her if that was enough for two people using simple English and hand signals. I said – “four dishes, two people, okay??” pointing from myself to Carly and holding up two fingers. The waitress looked confused for a minute, and then held her stomach and pointed to Carly nodding. Figuring she was getting the fact that we wanted to be “full” I started nodding and then realized she had started making pregnant belly hand motions out from her stomach. Anyway, we ordered another dish, and decided that at least the fact that we were starving and gobbled down the food would be justified to them because they probably thought one or both of us was pregnant. I’d love to hear their interpretation of that conversation. Saying we were vegetarian and then ordering chicken probably didn’t help much either. Crazy Americans. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvB-nUl-z1tGAyQiNDnlxv2Xlf6YkL18K_w2krg9f0n3L9NUickbgmHsk8kNKkkK78RakWfZOBE88LktAx5bM8u2C0gcKfyb4HX7uTfdXguifqv8_hpJsu-zDzaNENn8aYCKEPPmDcGc4/s1600-h/P2221013.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvB-nUl-z1tGAyQiNDnlxv2Xlf6YkL18K_w2krg9f0n3L9NUickbgmHsk8kNKkkK78RakWfZOBE88LktAx5bM8u2C0gcKfyb4HX7uTfdXguifqv8_hpJsu-zDzaNENn8aYCKEPPmDcGc4/s320/P2221013.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441762847429146178" /></a><br /><br />Our hostel – called K’s Kyoto House – was very nice and clean and our room was much bigger than in Tokyo. It seemed like it was kind of a social place, but we were feeling a bit too tired and diseased to go out and meet people. At least we got to see all the major sights in the short amount of time we had there. I think Japan will definitely have to go on my “revisit in the future list.” <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7amY-19Kq1wp-3P0xU-8fz5JFpeMgcKkSkAN1JFbN9VLK7r7TnCqFz_B3WdU7cTXEb1nK6UETxZrz3T-9iP76MHa8mHzoSUrAaYEsD27Nyc82040W0zgOzuDjJepo8zyz8GPyizJcuQ/s1600-h/medeer.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7amY-19Kq1wp-3P0xU-8fz5JFpeMgcKkSkAN1JFbN9VLK7r7TnCqFz_B3WdU7cTXEb1nK6UETxZrz3T-9iP76MHa8mHzoSUrAaYEsD27Nyc82040W0zgOzuDjJepo8zyz8GPyizJcuQ/s320/medeer.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441761892097613874" /></a><br /><br />Apparently a few years ago one of these Beetle hydrofoils hit a whale and had to be towed to Busan. Luckily we haven’t hit any whales yet, and should be in Korea soon. We’re getting a little worn out from the constant flow of tourist sights, but I think that after our day in Gyeong Ju, we’ll be able to just enjoy Seoul more as a city than a succession of sights. I can’t believe this trip is coming to an end, and we’re about to go through our last immigration process before going home. There’s never a dull moment though, so I’m anticipating an action packed, exciting last few days. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcFijJpZiiSX4DLm4LvFX_r50gSp2W6R1OAajAPj-YiEnOrjdXpvjaaBpccBZD2W7vjO5L4ufIydjBd7SzqeYuzxz8sKW0jhyphenhyphen3Su-Qvs0ga1kxZbZLr-nT1s3HvyPOYaZEoYH9kP4HWA/s1600-h/toilet.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcFijJpZiiSX4DLm4LvFX_r50gSp2W6R1OAajAPj-YiEnOrjdXpvjaaBpccBZD2W7vjO5L4ufIydjBd7SzqeYuzxz8sKW0jhyphenhyphen3Su-Qvs0ga1kxZbZLr-nT1s3HvyPOYaZEoYH9kP4HWA/s320/toilet.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441762889828473298" /></a>Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-77382523609339142682010-02-22T05:37:00.000-08:002010-02-22T06:40:33.618-08:00Tokyo RushWe are now sitting in our hostel in Kyoto. Time seems to be flying by so quickly – I can’t believe we have only about a week left! There aren’t many opportunities for me to write now since this last part is kind of crammed into ten days or so, but I’ll try to quickly recall as much as I can about Tokyo.<br /><br /> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeadNDxjAhbUsVVfsOaOpgLO1maZDIG1ISOrauyYoPszKmXHGUXv61u3ZOBNjkjhs34n6Yv-MjXp-5mx5jFoR9_7_a1OYlMJ0udpA2C9D3xXKaw16mJHnyaLTYErWe9T1CPFpQfvLVhE/s1600-h/P2200904.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441067859968040786 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeadNDxjAhbUsVVfsOaOpgLO1maZDIG1ISOrauyYoPszKmXHGUXv61u3ZOBNjkjhs34n6Yv-MjXp-5mx5jFoR9_7_a1OYlMJ0udpA2C9D3xXKaw16mJHnyaLTYErWe9T1CPFpQfvLVhE/s320/P2200904.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />I just walked past someone in our hostel with a British accent saying “I think this is the most civilized place I’ve ever seen!” I guess it’s hard to define “civilized” after a point, but I think by most definitions it is the most “civilized” place in the world. Everything is very clean, efficient, and orderly around here. From what I’ve seen – a very telling sign about a country’s civilization level is usually the state of the public bathrooms. Well good luck trying to beat Japan in that category. Most of the bathrooms here are outfitted with high tech toilets that have seat warmers, butt sprayers, fake flushing noises, and “Strong Deodorizers.” There is a sink that runs over the tank, so that the water that you wash your hands with can be reused to flush the tank the next time the toilet is used. What more could you ever want from a toilet? Also, as you walk down the street, every five steps or so there is a vending machine with a selection of drinks, instant noodles, coffee, and cigarettes. Even in the quietest of side streets, you can pretty much instantly satisfy any sort of craving as long as you have a few 100 yen coins. Despite their reputation for being overly polite, uptight, workaholics, the Japanese people are freakishly nice. When we first emerged from the (wrong) subway exit trying to find our hostel, we only had to stand on the sidewalk looking hopelessly lost for a few minutes before someone stopped and cheerfully pointed us in the right direction (pass the POOOlice! Bam Bam! You know? POOlice!). At one point, I accidentally dropped a 100 yen coin (about 1 US dollar) and it rolled under a parked car. I didn’t even have time to bend down before a man dove under the car to retrieve it for me. The one main disorienting thing is that not many of the people seem to speak English here. I thought that would be a problem in Cambodia, or Indonesia, and it never was – but here in the most “civilized” place in the world, it is hard to come by a menu with English writing. (Gasp! You mean a place can be civilized without English?) I guess it makes sense since they’re beyond having to impress anyone. Anyway, I have a little phrasebook which has been extremely handy, and the people sit through my broken Japanese phrase attempts very patiently and manage not to laugh in my face. My main complaint (which is completely unreasonable, of course) is that the prices for things here are pretty much the same as in America. China will spoil you that way. <br /><br /><A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqoUiMAU2A_NYge8FkAa7VLNaGgxgpeOvBaS6hGZHQMDX6Zb8ofSL2Jeb3HTPo6p4d08rjDh-ilZtCqJI0eVwjspVkMT3i5tgpKKcA-Z_CLeTUjqa89ebaEcBzwmxVUeBYwlpsijDo8g/s1600-h/P2190866.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441068535425796290 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqoUiMAU2A_NYge8FkAa7VLNaGgxgpeOvBaS6hGZHQMDX6Zb8ofSL2Jeb3HTPo6p4d08rjDh-ilZtCqJI0eVwjspVkMT3i5tgpKKcA-Z_CLeTUjqa89ebaEcBzwmxVUeBYwlpsijDo8g/s320/P2190866.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />On our first night in Tokyo, we stumbled into a Ramen restaurant and had our first communication difficulty encounter. Let’s just say it ended well, but took a lot of sign language and me fishing through the phrasebook to write “I do not eat pork or shellfish” in Japanese on a napkin for Carly to show to the waiter. She has since used it at literally every restaurant we’ve eaten at. After dinner, we decided to explore the Japan Rail (JR) system with our handy dandy JR Pass. We took it to the “Tokyo” stop from our Bakurocho station. That was all easy enough, but then once we were in the Tokyo station, we literally could not find our way out. We followed exit signs through corridor after corridor, ended up in an underground mall, and finally emerged onto a street that didn’t seem to have anything except a minimart. The minimart did have delicious tiny round cookies on sale though, and ever since then I’ve gotten a roll every time we find them. We also found a Golden Spoon – Carly’s favorite Frozen Yogurt store from home – in the subway which was very exciting even though the portions are much smaller in Japan. When we got back to our hostel, which was a very cute, clean little place called Khaosan Tokyo Ninja, we wandered downstairs and met a bunch of other people who were working or staying there. Apparently, they’ll let you stay there for free if you clean for 3 hours a day, so some of the people were just living there for two months or so, cleaning from 11-2, and then hanging out the rest of the day in Tokyo. It’s a rough life. <br /><br /><A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLhzQoKMldcJe0yTELuLMA4KR_-g0-R1gFg8E3xU5JoSObMeV6NgtZcUDGdnIC0ZlxfPy3j6bj0_SxlvtKYwQXxHb7HdvFu0vwM4Y8zUwQruzMNK1T_lMvlhxSvm78pXzBUin8X5z2xNs/s1600-h/fish.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441065182493077586 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLhzQoKMldcJe0yTELuLMA4KR_-g0-R1gFg8E3xU5JoSObMeV6NgtZcUDGdnIC0ZlxfPy3j6bj0_SxlvtKYwQXxHb7HdvFu0vwM4Y8zUwQruzMNK1T_lMvlhxSvm78pXzBUin8X5z2xNs/s320/fish.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />We made a friend who said he wanted to go to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market the next day at 4 am, so we decided to have an early night and wake up early to go with him. A really nice local guy working at the hostel said he’d go with us to show us around. Three hours later we rolled out of bed and went downstairs to meet up with the group. We were joined by a girl from Germany who had just arrived to work at the hostel for a few weeks, and together we set off to see the famed fish. The Tsukiji market is a place where super large, frozen tuna are brought in from all over the world and auctioned off every morning for thousands of dollars. We took one of Tokyo’s expensive, but pleasant and doily covered cabs and got there around 5 am to watch them set up. Market workers dragged the massive frozen tuna across the floor and lined them up on wooden planks. Each fish had a section of its tail sliced off and buyers and sellers walked down the rows, carefully inspecting the meat and hacking at the fish with large hooks. Then each fish was labeled with red paint. At about 6 the auction started. A man would stand up on a bench in front of a section of fish, ring a large bell for a while, and then proceed to yell and make noises while the buyers silently signaled their bids. If this description doesn’t really do it for you, then check out the video (hopefully) posted below. After a while, Carly was feeling faint, and our German friend felt nauseous, so we headed home and proceeded to sleep away most of the day.<br /><br /><OBJECT class=BLOG_video_class id=BLOG_video-cc90d7331a3b144c height=266 width=320 contentId="cc90d7331a3b144c"></OBJECT><br /><br /> When we woke up, we relaxed a bit and did some laundry, and then headed downstairs and spent the night hanging out with the people at the hostel. Our new friend, Leo, stayed up till all hours of the night with us as we chatted with people who came in and out. We met people from Japan, Australia, Canada, Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and America, all staying there for different reasons and with different experiences with Japan and with Asia. Our Korean friend, (who says he’ll meet up with us in Seoul!) told us how talking with people from all different countries in English had been a dream of his. We joked with our Japanese phrasebooks, showed each other photos and you tube videos, snacked and talked for hours. It is pretty amazing to be able to meet so many random, interesting people in one place. <br /><br /><A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbFOhtrZC_X8dpP6XhitQJmy7Bf2oVvjz69b3V4ZcxDAIKxd1zqMdTJH5Jv76s3ODdAKJavZAoKula5eBYiPWnm_PB7V725saAU_R5QxbusTbtbRbV1WLvTyldpx2ZmFdTX2WjDuv0cU/s1600-h/yygi.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441066569824596754 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbFOhtrZC_X8dpP6XhitQJmy7Bf2oVvjz69b3V4ZcxDAIKxd1zqMdTJH5Jv76s3ODdAKJavZAoKula5eBYiPWnm_PB7V725saAU_R5QxbusTbtbRbV1WLvTyldpx2ZmFdTX2WjDuv0cU/s320/yygi.JPG" border=0></A><br /><br /> The next day we had to make up for lost time sightseeing so we decided to start strong by waking up early. That plan failed, and we woke up around 11. We started out the day by checking out Yoyogi park, which is a large park with a Shinto temple dedicated to the Meiji emperor and his empress. It’s also known as a hotspot for teenage girls who do “cosplay” (costume play – they dress up in weird random costumes and go hang out), boys who like to dress up as Elvis, dancers, musicians, and any other sort of (softcore) social deviant imaginable. When we got to the park and past a group of little bow peeps, we were approached by a Japanese lady who told us she was a free tour guide and wanted to take us around the park. The smart immediate reaction to this situation is to look down and walk away. In Japan, however, the government hires people to go around and be free tour guides. We had read about this in our guidebook, so we accepted her offer, and she took us around the park, telling us about how they had planted all the trees in the forest there in the early 1900s, and teaching us how to pray to the soul of the emperor in the traditional Shinto style. We found out that she used to be the editor for the official Hello Kitty magazine, and had gotten to travel to America several times for work. She was very sweet and just asked us to fill out a quick survey at the end that was it. See? Freakishly nice.<br /><br /> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPVbDr_A0WO-Q-eOyrzCNDnQhbgUG_jB2TKcVaBZyc23hibyZ2VD-bDiobTMCxIT9O0P0dDE5wDGvr5Jc5JXND1Jc0pL-Nl4MxZKU2nb_fxWKuizQMQKGt0k6yHl_lsafhX4gFe0IXcuo/s1600-h/ginz2.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441065196664375298 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPVbDr_A0WO-Q-eOyrzCNDnQhbgUG_jB2TKcVaBZyc23hibyZ2VD-bDiobTMCxIT9O0P0dDE5wDGvr5Jc5JXND1Jc0pL-Nl4MxZKU2nb_fxWKuizQMQKGt0k6yHl_lsafhX4gFe0IXcuo/s320/ginz2.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />After Yoyogi, we tried to check out the gardens at the Imperial Palace, but they had just closed so we headed to the Ginza. The Ginza is the main shopping street in Tokyo with designer shopping and famous Japanese style busy crosswalks and neon signs. Our first stop was the Sony Showroom/Store which is a multilevel center for selling the latest and greatest Sony products and also for displaying unreleased future merchandise. The big things they are showing these days are large, flat-screen 3D TVs and tiny super high definition video cameras. It’s pretty crazy. It also successfully made me want everything in the store. Luckily my backpack is too small for that. After the Sony shop we ate dinner and walked around some more, picking up amazing red bean mochi balls, each with a full strawberry in the center. Tokyo is very fast paced but has an exciting vibe. It’s a lot more fun and energetic than other cities I’ve seen and is exceptionally good for people watching. You’re as likely to see women in kimonos or girls dressed up like gothic anime characters as people in business suits. Most of the people are very stylish and made us feel a bit like sloppy Americans.<br /><br /> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQ9jPPax3gK3JB0tyG00gU_YyT-iECg0A5LMLuulcP8iv205tlrI3orrQBaSFBFsVooP4DGulrksbjyRQw8IdyWkEIGyhbpuicS-2bG3olqpn4S2G89hf89ulXaCU9iK6ntli2DhZf5E/s1600-h/ginza.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441065222087565650 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQ9jPPax3gK3JB0tyG00gU_YyT-iECg0A5LMLuulcP8iv205tlrI3orrQBaSFBFsVooP4DGulrksbjyRQw8IdyWkEIGyhbpuicS-2bG3olqpn4S2G89hf89ulXaCU9iK6ntli2DhZf5E/s320/ginza.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />After the Ginza we went to Shibuya to see the famous crossing that Tokyo is so well known for. Of course, there’s a Starbucks there, so we got a cookie and crossed the street a few times as part of the lively mob. Later we headed to the Mori building in Roppongi, which is the main bar district. We went up to the 54th floor and admired the view of the Tokyo Tower and beautiful lit up city from above. It was about then that my eyeball started aching, so we went back to the hostel. That night we pretty much had to give in to the fact that we are walking disasters. My eye turned bright red and puffy and Carly still doesn’t have her voice back from the China cold. Together we make for what amounts to the worst asian horror scene possible. I bet they’re happy they wear those SARS masks now. They’re probably telling their kids.. “See Sally? That’s what happens to the bad children who don't wear their masks.” Once those kids see my eye, they’ll probably go back and ask for the full body suit. But that’s neither here nor there. We’ll deal with the result of this situation in the Kyoto blog. <br /><br /><A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkdHQ-eNPV4A94Q7XNJvvg4Ew0oG-O9_DrR2myF90j8I-5bdT-CvSzZNHriIpV8PjqHnBjQRj_M-5XEAIw0UrqJxGC7N4O_IjIRkAtcxhVBpsxIJzIL9rLsNaLEemjyOFbF_SXePpmts/s1600-h/tower.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441065261643307634 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkdHQ-eNPV4A94Q7XNJvvg4Ew0oG-O9_DrR2myF90j8I-5bdT-CvSzZNHriIpV8PjqHnBjQRj_M-5XEAIw0UrqJxGC7N4O_IjIRkAtcxhVBpsxIJzIL9rLsNaLEemjyOFbF_SXePpmts/s320/tower.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />The only thing I’ve not mentioned yet that I think is notable is that there are many people who live in boxes in the subway stops. They make long, cardboard box cells and sleep in them with their shoes propped neatly on top and a little rolley suitcase next to the end of the box. In Singapore a news report said that the unemployment rates are soaring here and that many Japanese men get kicked out by their wives if they fail to bring home a good salary. I wonder if they’re now living in boxes. It’s pretty sad. I guess not everything in Japan is perfect. <br /><br /><A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgES-8ysDadka0etcYp84pOn_ssrbbzi7UoDxkf7t8azlaZioEaEq6QS8H3BsRI1NjeflsxhaRIeuR2Et2bfAe5tnTwJbLdrChytF1lp-5WuzVoQfEJIppjnTU38byfGi3MUVFzmKd09VU/s1600-h/subway.JPG"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441065235612702482 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgES-8ysDadka0etcYp84pOn_ssrbbzi7UoDxkf7t8azlaZioEaEq6QS8H3BsRI1NjeflsxhaRIeuR2Et2bfAe5tnTwJbLdrChytF1lp-5WuzVoQfEJIppjnTU38byfGi3MUVFzmKd09VU/s320/subway.JPG" border=0></A> <br /><br />So far Kyoto is very nice. More to come. Hope everything is well state side! Email me or comment!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-23606831037886905052010-02-19T03:13:00.000-08:002010-02-19T03:27:48.777-08:00Shangha...a...aaachooo!Oh dear, I’ve fallen behind. We’re sitting in our hostel in Tokyo now and have already had a few adventures here, but you’ll have to stay tuned for that. For now let’s talk about Shanghai. <br /><br />Remember our friend in Xi’an who we shook hands with for good luck? Well he sure must have saved us from some sort of disaster because we each got out with just a cold. Unfortunately it’s been kind of a lingering recovery process so rather than describing all our time in Shanghai – which was mostly filled with long naps and huge meals – I’ll try to just cover the highlights. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFZ-GDXvrNbTELyXjU1uajxoiBayz7y7Y4rvi-2oKpYzfSN17Jxr19qnpv2dFF9_sFphvXLp7RXa8XAZ2_kTNMio8kcXmclm8b6YpTXfPVxTzzqLzihnpM9czAcWXP-28E0eI8QepVkTU/s1600-h/P2130805.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFZ-GDXvrNbTELyXjU1uajxoiBayz7y7Y4rvi-2oKpYzfSN17Jxr19qnpv2dFF9_sFphvXLp7RXa8XAZ2_kTNMio8kcXmclm8b6YpTXfPVxTzzqLzihnpM9czAcWXP-28E0eI8QepVkTU/s320/P2130805.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439914716322065714" /></a><br /><br />Shanghai is a very large, business oriented city with a lot of western influence. It’s another one of those port cities like Hong Kong and Singapore that were pretty much little fishing villages until the West came in and declared that it was a good spot for trade. I feel like all of my texts in school that talked about the Opium wars described the after effect as the western powers carving out “slices” of China like a pie.. (or pizza? Something baked anyway..) and I think Shanghai shows a pretty good example of that. We stayed in a part of it called the French Concession, where the architecture, clubs, restaurants, and even the large amounts of expats in the area make it pretty obvious that it isn’t exactly traditional Chinese. There’s also a big high-rise, downtown, business district called Pudong that boasts what has now been demoted to the 3rd tallest building in the world, along with some other impressive office space. Across the river from Pudong is the bund, which has a lot of the old European style buildings and hotels and an impressive view of the cityscape. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPXbCOUaOQTa-_Uy_0X1Pvp-PgksD98TpKr-VP5ASNjEg8iZhYIEuHysNXQBillzVoK9DofsqAQQ-UA1B0keJIVJ07SUk5jWllx4sAErZJkY_ZukWESaOUI3J2eu-vpps5tThJxTnc0Y/s1600-h/fireworks.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPXbCOUaOQTa-_Uy_0X1Pvp-PgksD98TpKr-VP5ASNjEg8iZhYIEuHysNXQBillzVoK9DofsqAQQ-UA1B0keJIVJ07SUk5jWllx4sAErZJkY_ZukWESaOUI3J2eu-vpps5tThJxTnc0Y/s320/fireworks.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913309622414658" /></a><br />(fireworks leftovers outside our hotel)<br /><br />So let’s see... The day we got to Shanghai was Chinese New Year Eve. Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China. Pretty much everyone gets a two week break from school or work to go home and spend time with family, or to travel. From what I can tell, the people who stay behind, along with the explosive happy expats spend most of their time setting off boxes and boxes of fireworks and firecrackers on every street corner, at all hours of the night. Most things were closed that day (and the next) but we did end up finding a great New Years Eve party a block away from our hotel at a place called No. 88 Bar. We just stumbled upon it but it turns out it’s one of the most popular ones in Shanghai, so we got to experience some interesting live singers and dancers and get blasted with confetti after the midnight countdown. The singers had a selection of American pop songs that they serenaded us with throughout the night, but they clearly were having trouble with the English words – saying things like “I saw your face, in a shrowded place.. and I donno whattenn dooo..” Later on that night our friend Tal - fellow WashU DG and freshmen floor buddy – came out and met up with us. It’s a small world after all. <br />One of the most impressive sights we saw was the Shanghai Museum, which has four floors of just about everything Chinese you can think of including: jade, bronzes, traditional costumes of the ethnic minorities, currency, painting etc – much of it dating back hundreds to thousands of years. Apparently the day we chose to go was also the day everyone else in Shanghai went, because we had to wait outside in the rain for over an hour just to get in the door. All the bronzes that were left from thousands of years ago were wine vessels, food vessels, and musical instruments - looks like they knew how to live. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFr-JI6PDHI20unTebj2xNiwQf2EXbZUSN5rpw_BtHyntMDBMxZXEikQH02gpKRvTs46Ysm-36sIJLv-uyHSnm-AY9o8RTn368B1TWooD7vbYMXpmuJIVhSHjx1sII4wYB0Ot1PAJEYs/s1600-h/syn.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFr-JI6PDHI20unTebj2xNiwQf2EXbZUSN5rpw_BtHyntMDBMxZXEikQH02gpKRvTs46Ysm-36sIJLv-uyHSnm-AY9o8RTn368B1TWooD7vbYMXpmuJIVhSHjx1sII4wYB0Ot1PAJEYs/s320/syn.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913341002726978" /></a><br /><br />Another afternoon we stopped by the Jewish Refugee Ohel Moishe Synagogue that had been built for the 30,000 Jews who fled from Europe and Russia during the Russian Revolution and also WWII. Neither of us had any idea that there had been that many in China. Apparently during WWII all the other countries made immigration almost impossible, but Shanghai was relatively easy to get to and kept them safe. The building is now a museum and was actually closed for the whole New Year holiday, but after seeing our forlorn faces staring through the bars of the front gate, a nice Chinese man came out and let us walk around for free. I told him that Carly is Jewish and he excitedly said “Shana tova!!” and “Shalom!” He was not Jewish himself, but seemed very proud of his Hebrew. We walked through the Synagogue, which is three stories, but pretty small, with brick on the outside and dark wood on the inside, and then through a very high tech little museum building that they have in the back courtyard. The museum had videos, pictures, and descriptions of some of the refugees. It seems like most of them left Shanghai within 10 years or so of coming, either for Europe or other Asian cities like Hong Kong. I don’t think there are very many who stayed. Anyway, it was a very interesting side of Shanghai that I’ve never seen before. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCGYf8AbE_1tnOH85WT27dGztmF4hy57BfAdZF-5Qh4Ynv2R8ae3oFDLYC4q2jLu4_qjUQr9AUd4Z_mLX3lKBpL_jjmBVfuhhtNylkH8S0R7ZfGer-rJlKG-9Co1qG9_Omn6ssKlCdxxQ/s1600-h/pudongv.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCGYf8AbE_1tnOH85WT27dGztmF4hy57BfAdZF-5Qh4Ynv2R8ae3oFDLYC4q2jLu4_qjUQr9AUd4Z_mLX3lKBpL_jjmBVfuhhtNylkH8S0R7ZfGer-rJlKG-9Co1qG9_Omn6ssKlCdxxQ/s320/pudongv.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913319962000770" /></a><br /><br />Later on, we went to check out the Bund. Sadly, it’s currently a massive construction site that will someday be a very pleasant walkway with impressive buildings and a stunning view of the city. We did manage to get lost in an underground tunnel that lead to massive crowd of people milling around with random arcade games. I’m still not really sure what that was. I guess it’s just one of those moments lost in translation. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgH1itoOKzDZw89A4i-mg3lc7UH4s1gvb4qDe0GoIZ49wVFQPRFTATG4q0TbUY36_c4jtGzzUdYTWL0dxOTEfDFomYe0SCWhM0zg5v6vhtBTtPU_BPed2wT0z8LISwLPggplCFIeBiBBE/s1600-h/crowds.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgH1itoOKzDZw89A4i-mg3lc7UH4s1gvb4qDe0GoIZ49wVFQPRFTATG4q0TbUY36_c4jtGzzUdYTWL0dxOTEfDFomYe0SCWhM0zg5v6vhtBTtPU_BPed2wT0z8LISwLPggplCFIeBiBBE/s320/crowds.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913301081988946" /></a><br /><br />One of the days we went to a place called Cheng Huang Miao, which is supposed to have amazing Shanghai style dumplings and buns and some nice souvenir shops. Instead, it ended up being a lesson on why most Chinese people support the “one child policy.” If there is such thing as an ocean of people, we found it. You literally could not move on your own accord once you were in the area – basically you were smashed against the person in front of you, and constantly being pushed by the person behind you until you desperately flung yourself towards an exit. The poor children who were being dragged along with their parents must have gotten pretty trampled – I think we each tripped over a few very small, unsuspecting victims. At least we got an authentic Chinese crowd experience before leaving. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOaVDEiA1eF7_6-V2EwKIbmB5PIFfU4BsjXD8SRTtQCwOsqgca11o5BWhkwj-Tk48mXQHcc5xZtPMVniYDXpuk7dC8bS1rS9UkQ74nyTE4VsPnICFYGmtVaEmiU4NHsMr9nIaKtnBNcQ/s1600-h/shell.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOaVDEiA1eF7_6-V2EwKIbmB5PIFfU4BsjXD8SRTtQCwOsqgca11o5BWhkwj-Tk48mXQHcc5xZtPMVniYDXpuk7dC8bS1rS9UkQ74nyTE4VsPnICFYGmtVaEmiU4NHsMr9nIaKtnBNcQ/s320/shell.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913327583744146" /></a><br /><br />The last of the big sites that we saw was the Jinmao tower – literally meaning “Gold Trade” tower. It was the tallest building in Shanghai until the World Financial Center came along and cast a pretty large shadow on it. Fortunately, unlike the WFC, you can still go pretty far up the Jinmao tower for free. The 54th floor is the beginning of a large hotel, which has a 50+ storey atrium of open space going up from a little café to the top of the building. It’s pretty stunning and looks kind of like a seashell. We got up to the 87th floor to take some pictures of the buildings stretching as far as the eye can see, and then passed up the expensive coffee shop for our new favorite slice of home – Starbucks. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRFwWsYPPXqWcncnMm3-lxFmFVIPqwRwyoYTYebUICrmrlxudJLrqxxB-Dv5TFU5-19bwmpJVYFYw4t8jL1TU48U-T5ZaDA1gu0ZZCOPtAXgP6ivYMxeTX76KnREPOJ6inYph7MQTtJg/s1600-h/view.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRFwWsYPPXqWcncnMm3-lxFmFVIPqwRwyoYTYebUICrmrlxudJLrqxxB-Dv5TFU5-19bwmpJVYFYw4t8jL1TU48U-T5ZaDA1gu0ZZCOPtAXgP6ivYMxeTX76KnREPOJ6inYph7MQTtJg/s320/view.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913746679384610" /></a><br /><br />I can’t express how nice it is to see a familiar face every now and then when you’re abroad - and we got really lucky in Shanghai because Tal happened to be there, living not too far from our hotel. She’s been in Shanghai since November working for an Architecture firm. She told us they’re designing a new club, and that since everything is so cheap in China, it’s been moving very quickly and is currently under construction – due to be finished in April. As part of their design research, their client took them out to a bunch of clubs to show them what he liked and disliked about them. It sounded like a pretty amazing job. She introduced us to some of her co workers – from France and Switzerland – which was really fun and gave us a taste of the diverse expat community in Shanghai. Despite her busy work schedule, we got to have dinner with her a few times. On the last night, I went out with her to a little Jazz club, that seemed reminiscent of the pre war Shanghai days. It’s pretty crazy to think of the glitz and glamour that was in Shanghai and how westernized it was even over 50 years ago. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDK0HVueAiyLzgmurvpCGCRYhSTSxOoUfa0UWhPm4FPfZP0CB1ReTq1CMiIPtFbvOd21Kn6UU2wS_mesKJ7bLe8ZbAvHIcarwkuFUJm9LjLg-vt9pX3lLknu2FVXD1kZ6QZJV8gM1stfg/s1600-h/tal.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDK0HVueAiyLzgmurvpCGCRYhSTSxOoUfa0UWhPm4FPfZP0CB1ReTq1CMiIPtFbvOd21Kn6UU2wS_mesKJ7bLe8ZbAvHIcarwkuFUJm9LjLg-vt9pX3lLknu2FVXD1kZ6QZJV8gM1stfg/s320/tal.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439913736826438674" /></a><br /><br />The last thing I have to say about Shanghai, is that we gave the “best red bean buns of the century” award to the buns we had at the DingTaiFeng in XinTianDi. Ding Tai Feng is the soup dumpling restaurant that I mentioned back in Singapore, and although it’s actually from Taiwan, the food it serves is supposed to be classic Shanghainese food. After some amazing dumplings, we had double servings of these magical buns. Life will never be the same.<br /><br /><br />Okay, well we’ve officially spent too much time in our room in Tokyo now and have to get out and explore a bit. Look forward to some fishy stories for next time. Zai Jian (goodbye)!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-83138316723001905142010-02-13T12:11:00.000-08:002010-02-13T12:19:42.624-08:00Gel Together in Xi'an<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QnEvOGMfw8t2ZZCqteEnspBgKAelnSFfnthSJiI9H9XH7ZO-8czDHgCoZcOqBP79F1zX3VrJz9LwWkGqpd1ccNx9tOQyvCQ6vxALXlR8ZJiWvQrJX-PvsfFuvGf3c4W3DAd6MWR4h2A/s1600-h/terracottaCarly.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QnEvOGMfw8t2ZZCqteEnspBgKAelnSFfnthSJiI9H9XH7ZO-8czDHgCoZcOqBP79F1zX3VrJz9LwWkGqpd1ccNx9tOQyvCQ6vxALXlR8ZJiWvQrJX-PvsfFuvGf3c4W3DAd6MWR4h2A/s320/terracottaCarly.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437824459079344306" /></a><br />Hello again! I’m back with updates about our latest adventure in Xi’an. (pronounced “She-ahn”) We kept it short and sweet with this city, which is probably a good thing given that in the winter it is extremely cold and dry. Xi’an is the site of the ancient Chinese capital called “Chang’an” and thus is home to many extremely old and important pieces of Chinese history. It has established itself as a popular tourist destination mainly because of the terra cotta warriors, but it also has numerous tombs and is itself a sort of antique. The city is not very big (compared to Beijing and Shanghai) but is fairly developed and clean. Every now and then the more fun and local mannerisms come out because it wasn’t prepped and polished quite as completely as the other big tourist cities before the Olympics. The old city wall, built during the Ming dynasty, still stands surrounding the center part of town, but Xi’an has since overflowed these walls and developed far beyond them. Still though, the wall is kept as a tourist attraction and offers scenic strolls and tandem bike rides along its broad “Great Wall style” walkway. At the center of the walled city is the old bell tower, and slightly offset is the drum tower, both built with traditional Chinese wooden architecture and used in ancient times to tell time or to give warning signals. Because of the cold weather and short amount of time, we didn’t get to go up on the city wall, but our hostel was very close to its beautiful south gate so we saw it pretty often. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnc0x2HNxsAOdQAIJa1tAwqK4M0bkkaOUGfUq6bdEBl9LutVa5N36OryjQiEjWK5MZPH6cV0vrs1e3Obw4pJJpNaHOlcifvP6w8CKLPj9qXeRp1YJ9bKOuTc5K3FdCVJRg69tTihYgBI4/s1600-h/XianSnow.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnc0x2HNxsAOdQAIJa1tAwqK4M0bkkaOUGfUq6bdEBl9LutVa5N36OryjQiEjWK5MZPH6cV0vrs1e3Obw4pJJpNaHOlcifvP6w8CKLPj9qXeRp1YJ9bKOuTc5K3FdCVJRg69tTihYgBI4/s320/XianSnow.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437825007116960770" /></a><br />We stayed at a place called Ancient Street hostel, which is very close to the south gate and Calligraphy Street and about a 10 to 15 minute walk into the center of town. When we first got there I was feeling a bit suspicious and defensive because of our last hostel experience, but the staff there was so sweet and accommodating that I kind of felt bad afterwards. The room was a bit chilly and only had one large bed, but it was much larger than our last few rooms and had a functional bathroom and lots of large blankets so we were pretty happy with it. After checking in and dropping our stuff, we walked down to the drum tower and then explored the Muslim street. Xi’an is home to a group of the Chinese Muslim minorities and the Muslim street is the center of their area, where most of the restaurants and other vendors are owned by and/or cater to them. They have very distinctive types of street food, including red bean and sesame sticky rice, spiced meat kabobs, and lots of sweet, dried fruit. After browsing a bit, we stopped for dinner and tried their most popular soup dish, which has shredded pieces of condensed bread, some green veggies, and beef in beef broth. <br />The next morning we woke up and met up with a tour we had signed up for the night before. Our tour guide was not quite as exciting as Eric, but her English was pretty good and she smiled a lot. She always seemed to be in a rush, though, which was kind of annoying. There were nine people on our tour: two from Ireland, two from Germany, two from Canada, and one from Texas. Carly tried her best to befriend the Germans in hopes of scoring a place to stay when she travels in Europe this summer. It didn’t quite work out, but they were very friendly and they gave her some good tips about where to go. <br />Our first stop was the Banpo Museum, which was the first “on site” museum in Xi’an. I had never heard of it before, but it was actually really cool. The Banpo people were the inhabitants of this area around 6000 years ago. They lived in a matriarchal society and the museum shows the excavated areas where they lived, fired pottery, and buried their dead. They had uncovered a few graves, where you can see the skeletons of the people and also the pots they were buried with. Since males were so inferior to females, they were buried separately. One grave showed a group of four females buried together. I guess it’s the ultimate form of the “going to the bathroom in groups” phenomenon. From the different burial patterns it is thought that the people were buried either facing upwards if they were “good,” downwards if they were “bad” and sideways if they were killed by an animal or in a fight. Each person is buried with a pot for water and a pot for food. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm3opmIspGd0lNfkFzHaAaEt0s0pMJfg0Hm4l8brLJ7sW0FOSt1P3DJwr11c4z6VNy7SlSwthbh5rMlwEFF88z24gDXzrz4-jDyPHAoZjo4MDj_hHuzDiYR_RD3MQOV5pjxj3l4bJ0im8/s1600-h/Banpo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm3opmIspGd0lNfkFzHaAaEt0s0pMJfg0Hm4l8brLJ7sW0FOSt1P3DJwr11c4z6VNy7SlSwthbh5rMlwEFF88z24gDXzrz4-jDyPHAoZjo4MDj_hHuzDiYR_RD3MQOV5pjxj3l4bJ0im8/s320/Banpo.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437823859345305602" /></a><br />The pots were very well formed, probably made from coiled clay and then fired. It’s pretty crazy to think that people were living in such organized societies 6000 years ago, with the technology to fire pottery. Carly and I were wondering what people would think of our societies if they found remains in 6000 years. Maybe we should start burying people with computers and stuff so they’ll have something to go off of. <br />After that we were taken to a large, government sponsored store where they make fake terra cotta soldiers in the “same way” they were made 2200 years ago and try to sell them to you. I guess they didn’t figure out that you’re supposed to put the gift shop at the end of the tourist site. <br />Our lunch was pretty mediocre, but still a Chinese family style feast. According to proper form, we all filled our bowls and began shoveling food into our faces as fast as possible. As this was going on, a man from the large table of Chinese tourists next to us stood up, completely flabbergasted, and shouted as loud as possible while pointing to Carly: “OHH!?? THE FOREIGNER CAN USE CHOPSTICKS!!!!!” Slightly embarrassed, I tried to explain to him that in America, a lot of people can use chopsticks. He was still unable to hold back his excitement and continued to make all of the people at his table stand up and take a look at how she was using her chopsticks “just like a Chinese person!” Sigh. I guess we taught her well at least. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZyZlz_759x2Yljo2DsGack07Mc-O6yx-M0tsay5SFG9l6wjLraZ8K704E44QOL52jzBtTLsyFWlC8R26nXqsrQIkKOkuEO4c5IiTofZPTioySgvy7HYgTGKNoJzecWgzck5nhwstIJo/s1600-h/rowsofwarriors.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZyZlz_759x2Yljo2DsGack07Mc-O6yx-M0tsay5SFG9l6wjLraZ8K704E44QOL52jzBtTLsyFWlC8R26nXqsrQIkKOkuEO4c5IiTofZPTioySgvy7HYgTGKNoJzecWgzck5nhwstIJo/s320/rowsofwarriors.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437824194242275554" /></a><br />Finally, we arrived at the site of the terra cotta warriors. The warriors were made about 2200 years ago as a supplement to the tomb of the emperor of the first unified Chinese dynasty: the Qin. There is a full army of them, including generals, cavalry men, infantry men, standing archers, kneeling archers, horses, carriages, etc. They are all life size, made of clay, and were once intricately carved and painted such that each one has a unique face. They were placed in battle formation into underground corridors that had brick floors and wooden panel siding. The corridors were then covered with strong wooden beams, a thick layer of woven mats, and then soil. The soldiers are buried a few kilometers away from the mound that houses the emperor’s tomb. The ancient belief was that the dead person could take what was buried with him to the next world. I guess that emperor anticipated a lot of armed conflict. I sure hope he was wrong. Anyway, there is no written record of any of this happening, which seems odd because it clearly took a lot of people and a lot of time to make hundreds of soldiers. The rumor is that all the artists and people who knew about it were killed when it was completed. So then in 1970, some farmers were digging a well to set up an irrigation system for their crops and came across some angry looking life-size clay people. Unfortunately, most of the soldiers were broken into little pieces, possibly because of tomb raiders shortly after the emperor’s death. Archeologists came, studied the area and reassembled many of them, but there are still many that are not yet uncovered. The emperor’s tomb (which we visited after the soldiers) has also not been uncovered or opened. The hope is that soon we will have technology that will allow us to excavate ancient sites like this and not expose them to oxygen, which damages them. Our tour guide said to come back in 15 years and that should be good. <br />The soldiers are still mostly standing in their rows in the uncovered corridors, which are covered now by large tent-like buildings and surrounded by walkways so that you can look down and see them. The size of the largest group is about the same as two football fields. <br />It’s pretty insane to see, but probably more impressive to know the story and how old they are. Only one of the farmers who found the site is still alive, but he is thought to have very good luck, so he now sits in the museum all day and will shake your hand or sign a book for you if you’d like to have good luck too. We shook his hand, but are skeptical because we still haven’t won the lottery on the Chinese receipts.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo154zaG0DfQZBN5AKWeSMaXMcY1mztxb1BDT6IHcSe5kR3AejDePzQu1tw8bKlw-0fXblKaDVTf_wpb-VzrD-cToN8A5P3QxZPhngqirHgvJgVsLbcICoaX-dfd3RyIUSGHsX40sftUM/s1600-h/The+farmer.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo154zaG0DfQZBN5AKWeSMaXMcY1mztxb1BDT6IHcSe5kR3AejDePzQu1tw8bKlw-0fXblKaDVTf_wpb-VzrD-cToN8A5P3QxZPhngqirHgvJgVsLbcICoaX-dfd3RyIUSGHsX40sftUM/s320/The+farmer.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437824683641137218" /></a> <br />After the soldiers, we visited the emperor’s tomb, which pretty much just looks like a large hill now, although apparently when it was built it was a trapezoid. The story is that the emperor had automatic weapons buried in the ground around his tomb, so that if any tomb raiders tried to dig in the area with shovels they would be shot. This made the tomb raiders believe that it was guarded by evil spirits and so supposedly it remains intact. I guess we’ll have to wait 15 years to find out. At the very least we know that emperor had some serious issues with paranoia. <br />Since the New Year was so close most of the stores and restaurants were closed when we got back. We did, however, find a nice Pizza Hut and Starbucks to get our Western food cravings satisfied. I am ashamed to say that this is my second Pizza Hut adventure in Asia. On the bright side, you can’t get beef and kimchi pizza at Pizza Hut in the States. Later on, we checked out the bar whose music blasted very clearly into our room and listened to a live Chinese rock band. We had noticed the bar before and thought that it was called “Gel Together Club.” We thought this was very clever and were impressed by the club owners’ command of the English language until we realized from the business card that it’s actually called “Get together club” … or maybe “Get Together Elub”... Either way it was disappointing. <br />This morning we got up and made our way back to the airport to fly to Shanghai. It’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, which is the beginning of the most important holiday here so almost everything is closed, but firecrackers and fireworks are popping, crackling, and lighting up the sky. We have five days to explore Shanghai and then we’re off to Japan. More updates to come.<br />Xin Nian Kuai Le!!! (Happy New Year!!!) 新年快樂!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-37516328399450742712010-02-11T07:40:00.000-08:002010-02-13T12:10:53.932-08:00I love Beijing more than everI bought a T shirt from the Great Wall that says: “I *heart* Beijing” and then below that: “I love Beijing more than ever!” I thought it was pretty funny at the time, but ever since then I’ve realized that it very appropriately sums up my feelings over the past few days. I do love Hong Kong, but I think that Beijing will always be my Chinese home. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYtWdUD8CXNR4r6cmEyYxwpV-qy6WfpyCbDg1irfz0FDrQT2twRMzV4nLlYl-gSB_CGjfUb_AWHhYAmEQmZyUApHaU9-hlNgWE6VrCl61_GSf2UJSVpYmm3k4aZHyvHBW7g0udcw7Bks/s1600-h/mao.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYtWdUD8CXNR4r6cmEyYxwpV-qy6WfpyCbDg1irfz0FDrQT2twRMzV4nLlYl-gSB_CGjfUb_AWHhYAmEQmZyUApHaU9-hlNgWE6VrCl61_GSf2UJSVpYmm3k4aZHyvHBW7g0udcw7Bks/s320/mao.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437013519237453474" border="0"></a><br />Our hotel in Beijing is called Joy Inn and it did, indeed, bring us much joy after our Hong Kong hostel adventure. After excitedly checking out the real, glass walled shower and flushing toilet, we headed out to the school where I studied abroad in fall of 2007 and went to my favorite restaurant (dong bei yi er san) for some delicious egg plant, chicken, and veggie dishes. The road outside had been completely fixed up and redone, and some of my favorite hole-in-the-wall, street food places were gone, but it looked much cleaner. After that we hit up my favorite shopping destination – the Silk Street market – for some bargaining practice. Carly and Tara loved the jewelry floor so we spent most of our time there picking up pretty beaded necklaces. Later that night I took them to our old weekend night scene area called San Li Tun and showed them some of my favorite bars like Bar Blu and Smugglers. It was pretty crazy to be back, and so nice to feel comfortable and know where to go and what to expect. Everything seems much cleaner and more organized since the Olympics, but luckily the people are still so sweet and fun and not hardened big city style. You can make friends with almost anyone you start a conversation with and people are very rarely creepy or aggressive. <br />The next day we jumped on the subway and headed into the heart of town to see Tiananmen Square. It had snowed the day before, so we were pretty bundled up and still freezing. As we walked through the square, I explained what I knew about the Tiananmen Square incident, and some other things about China. We saw a couple walking near us holding a very chubby baby, bundled with so many clothes that its whole body was literally a sphere. As I started saying how some parents don’t put diapers on their babies, but dress them in pants with large slits down the butt instead, we noticed that two very pink butt cheeks were quickly approaching us. The parents of the spherical child came up timidly and asked if we could take a picture. I reached for the camera, ready to take a nice family photo for them, but instead received the large baby. Carly, Tara and I were arranged in a line with the baby, and stood there (rather confused) as the father took tons of pictures and the mother chirped happily at the baby to look at the camera. Someday that poor child will wonder why he has 50 pictures of himself with three random foreign girls. Luckily we got our own copy of the photo, so at least we can appreciate it.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-URzaZ043yQ3gculx41lbQ4gEQ0EHeOTNZwrnwz_hyphenhyphenY_Zj6Y2WuIFziGeUCKCweYYkyBVP6YKRLK7sHLDqfe464lYgPfrpDMVagyEpHbUgHLO6Vbh76-uxmYmnMnrJeDbaJr0FJJH4Y/s1600-h/baby.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-URzaZ043yQ3gculx41lbQ4gEQ0EHeOTNZwrnwz_hyphenhyphenY_Zj6Y2WuIFziGeUCKCweYYkyBVP6YKRLK7sHLDqfe464lYgPfrpDMVagyEpHbUgHLO6Vbh76-uxmYmnMnrJeDbaJr0FJJH4Y/s320/baby.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437013284023207362" border="0"></a><br />After Tiananmen, we went over to the Forbidden City, which was home to the emperors of the last two dynasties (Ming and Qing). It’s a huge complex with all sorts of beautiful Chinese wooden architecture. Unfortunately, the fact that it seems to go on forever is not as awe-inspiring when it’s below freezing outside, and we spent most of the last half hour on a search for the legendary Starbucks that had been so protested against. We didn’t find it, but we did find some awesome hot chocolate. For dinner we met up with my friend Sammy who worked at the gym I used to go to, and his new wife. They took us to an amazing Beijing duck feast. It was really fun to see them, and (as always) the duck was to die for. Sammy went to intense Chinese athletic school since elementary school and ended up being the national wrestling champion multiple years in a row. It’s crazy how different the school systems are here.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI_7JV3HzsJ3_xLZh7N-V_l9kH880JeQyCYDjtsHdKcQxMN5SY1Xz2EU23vs1SDGZnJn6-P5T8eVsRqvx9QlroleHh8ZsiNiHQyeJIH0qUCpRWJLd2uy_rjgF_B_RWwiK_JT2af26xGv4/s1600-h/sammy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI_7JV3HzsJ3_xLZh7N-V_l9kH880JeQyCYDjtsHdKcQxMN5SY1Xz2EU23vs1SDGZnJn6-P5T8eVsRqvx9QlroleHh8ZsiNiHQyeJIH0qUCpRWJLd2uy_rjgF_B_RWwiK_JT2af26xGv4/s320/sammy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437013681182165554" border="0"></a><br />On the third day we had signed up for a tour of some Ming dynasty tombs and the Great Wall. We were picked up by a small bus with an English-speaking tour guide named Eric (Yuan Ming) and an Argentinian couple. Eric was extremely enthusiastic and explained China’s whole history to us on the way to the Ming tombs. He was also pretty excited that I could speak Chinese, and called me Mei Mei (which means little sister) and announced to every Chinese person we encountered that my father is Chinese and I am mixed blood. He spoke a lot of Chinese to me, telling me his views about Google and Obama and Americans in general, which made the Argentinians kind of frustrated. At the Ming tombs, we were looking at the jade that had been excavated and Eric tried to explain about how jade bracelets were passed down as Heirlooms by taking Tara’s hand and saying: “The mother-in-law will take the daughter- in-law’s hand like this.. and then say ‘SOON!.... I will be died.’ And then she will move the bracelet over to the daughter.” - after which he dramatically acted out his death and almost completely fell over a banister. <br />After the Ming Tombs we went to a jade factory, where we watched the whole process of carving jade and then were shown a huge store with every jade thing imaginable (very strategically place gift shop..). Finally, after a very nice lunch, we got to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall. Eric talked us into taking the Gondolas up since it was so icy and cold. The sky was kind of cloudy, so you couldn’t see as far as you usually can, but it was very pretty to see it in the snow. The Great Wall is really shockingly impressive no matter how you see it. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUTB0TKNRXew6_uqtIKyXS5MBvG5Ifo4HQNBW7BeXg_-00JjFnnQZXhmzBZ0SsvMzfp5_KEavNSUbpfmi0mK6xP7i1_xGJ9Tv_uK850X0ygtAIofJ5CtXJYEFw56CYOvGWeQpw1LV7kGQ/s1600-h/gwall.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUTB0TKNRXew6_uqtIKyXS5MBvG5Ifo4HQNBW7BeXg_-00JjFnnQZXhmzBZ0SsvMzfp5_KEavNSUbpfmi0mK6xP7i1_xGJ9Tv_uK850X0ygtAIofJ5CtXJYEFw56CYOvGWeQpw1LV7kGQ/s320/gwall.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437012733407536482" border="0"></a><br />After that we headed back into town and made a last stop at a silk factory. They showed us the whole cycle of silk production in great detail, from the bugs, to the worms, to the cocoons, to the silk threads. What a surprise! - that tour ended in a large store also. It was really cool to see, though. Each worm creates a silk thread that’s about one kilometer long, and then it must be killed inside the cocoon in order to preserve the thread with no breaks. Each silk garment takes thousands and thousands of threads. Next time you wear silk, think about how many worms died for you. Poor worms. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkUC9gyvSq33Zs73uludYXNIouocni0yerrT5BhmCC6CFdFXPssIUz5zQfOLcStALU7kEH3tDIpXxvF34Iqy81X0Q4YxAmqYvAdvHYiL4OecD6zb7Q42q9EuPJQoCl2Huz0TZ4CIpp2w/s1600-h/silkfact.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkUC9gyvSq33Zs73uludYXNIouocni0yerrT5BhmCC6CFdFXPssIUz5zQfOLcStALU7kEH3tDIpXxvF34Iqy81X0Q4YxAmqYvAdvHYiL4OecD6zb7Q42q9EuPJQoCl2Huz0TZ4CIpp2w/s320/silkfact.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437014179210836834" border="0"></a><br />We had Eric drop us off at the Lao Shi Cha Guan (Lao Shi Tea House) where we drank tea and watched short performances of Beijing Opera, Sound imitation, Chinese Comedy, Martial Arts, and some other fun Chinese-style stunts. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr27i8mTebkTDkU0c4tCM6vsBAwoxTsf7t1uIsK3-Wxj8qAnv8JvvXyc1BSyOFhO7ZLitvGU1DytrqTqbovdp5Kzx0UkBMY1u1DRrpbeIdFtd7o04mPGeD_QUUH_rHGewo84aS6h-WfLY/s1600-h/teahouse.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr27i8mTebkTDkU0c4tCM6vsBAwoxTsf7t1uIsK3-Wxj8qAnv8JvvXyc1BSyOFhO7ZLitvGU1DytrqTqbovdp5Kzx0UkBMY1u1DRrpbeIdFtd7o04mPGeD_QUUH_rHGewo84aS6h-WfLY/s320/teahouse.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437014425915582914" border="0"></a><br />Afterwards, we walked down the new Front Gate Ancient Street, which is supposed to be modeled on a traditional-style Beijing street, but looks a lot more like a Chinese-style modern shopping street. Most of the stores were closed already, though, so it was pretty quiet and relaxing. <br />On the fourth day, we started out at my favorite Western-style breakfast place. It seems silly, but it was comfort food for when I missed home in China and therefore worth revisiting. This place is called Grandma’s Kitchen and has amazing skillets. It also happens to be very close to where I lived in the summer of 2008, so I took Carly and Tara over to see one of the most interesting Beijing sites I’ve discovered: Walmart. Walmart in China is hilariously different from America, with cases of Chinese buns, men hacking meat with cleavers, hanging dried fish and roasted ducks, live turtles for sale to be cooked, and so much more. That particular Walmart is 4 stories of that sort of magic. They may be the Evil Empire, but at least we know they’re good at regionalizing. After Walmart we headed over to my old apartment building to visit the couple who work in the little store on the first floor. They have a beautiful fluffy dog named Hei Mei (Black Beauty). They remembered me and gave me two bottles of water and let us play with Hei Mei for a while. They’re so sweet. I’m really glad I got to see them again. <br />Next we went to the Summer Palace, which is also much harder to get through in the freezing cold even though it is very beautiful. It covers a large hill and a lake with beautiful architecture and pretty little bridges and long covered walkways. The whole lake was frozen over and people had jumped the fences to go walk on it. The site itself is amazing, but we apparently added bonus scenery because hordes of school children swarmed Carly, eager to see the foreigner and practice their English: “Hello! What is your name? Goodbye!”<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR8_wjnQWlCDcW42BkyOHxqBRl5-5svCFHVuQUkxzmRWDmTnDfWebr3RE7JFiEnt8SnK_Jwl_6kJkN-J45VVfdxL_meVCVHUMKsvh1LOPztCKSZR8bsGenGqis8K_TAOwKQ-oP120UY4/s1600-h/summerp.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR8_wjnQWlCDcW42BkyOHxqBRl5-5svCFHVuQUkxzmRWDmTnDfWebr3RE7JFiEnt8SnK_Jwl_6kJkN-J45VVfdxL_meVCVHUMKsvh1LOPztCKSZR8bsGenGqis8K_TAOwKQ-oP120UY4/s320/summerp.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437012468493047522" border="0"></a><br />That night we went to probably my (real) favorite undiscovered attraction in Beijing – a Tibetan Restaurant near the Silk Market that Sammy showed me. It has delicious authentic food, warm and inviting Tibetan décor, and best of all, a free Tibetan song and dance show every night around 8. The Tibetan boys who were singing made us all get up and do the last dance with them around the restaurant and left us giggling like school girls. Carly claimed a very dashing Tibetan singer with a cool faux-hawk as her next boyfriend. I think the feeling was mutual and he probably would have come back to America with us, except we decided he wouldn’t be as cute if he didn’t keep his Tibetan garb on all the time. It’s amazing that they do the same thing every night - they always seem to enjoy it so much. It’s nice to see a performance that feels like it’s more about sharing culture than making money.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzSRHtyfoJfi6EAwgooTpFgGQKtlD7JwFciJHLutB_D12YTSAE290UZ_PTstl2NYAVmP_wBRmPYYecbiOZkuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />After dinner we went to meet up with my roommate from study abroad, Wendy. She’s been studying Chinese in Beijing at a university for a year now. We met her and two of her friends at a little bar in Hou Hai, which is a bar and restaurant district around a beautiful man-made lake. It was really fun to see her and catch up. <br />The next morning, our beloved Tara left us for home. She will be dearly missed. Carly and I slept in that morning, and then headed over to see the last big Beijing site: the Temple of Heaven. It was very cold, but we got some good pictures. While we were there, a Chinese man came up to Carly and did some very odd sign language. I thought at first that he might not be able to hear, so I wasn’t sure whether or not I should try to speak Chinese to him. After far too many minutes of this going on, however, we established that he could speak Chinese and just wanted to have a picture taken with her. I have no idea what message he thought he was getting across before. Carly will now be in the long-term memories and photo albums of many Chinese tourists.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3R1bmGaJ72ZK5jELF41sVw8haHfhcq31g-fu8NedSkNAEFC6ZnMuR0RF56jRlQM6gqOokVS8vpq0dRu2RogCKOCEDauch0LJhoSB3Iq63hYGJtRdd6LkIlWf94vLhtNHZBKIIu1_Vw8/s1600-h/tofh.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3R1bmGaJ72ZK5jELF41sVw8haHfhcq31g-fu8NedSkNAEFC6ZnMuR0RF56jRlQM6gqOokVS8vpq0dRu2RogCKOCEDauch0LJhoSB3Iq63hYGJtRdd6LkIlWf94vLhtNHZBKIIu1_Vw8/s320/tofh.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437012056589206866" border="0"></a> <br />Next we headed over to 798, which is the art district, and met up with Wendy and my friend from home, Alisa. Alisa is teaching English in Kunming, but happened to be visiting and overlap with our time in Beijing. Most of the galleries and museums were closed already for the holidays (Chinese New Year), but Alisa came along with us to check out the Silk Market again and have dinner. The Silk Market was kind of crowded and stressful, but we got in our last-minute cheap souvenir shopping and then went to one of my favorite restaurants – Bellagio. Bellagio is kind of a stylish Chinese restaurant, with most of the normal dishes, but presented much more artistically. All of the waitresses are forced to have extremely short, boy haircuts. What makes it my favorite, though, is that it boasts a huge, separate dessert menu, with something called the “Mango Supreme.” This amazing concoction is composed of a scoop of coconut ice cream, a scoop of mango ice cream, some mango pudding, and mango chunks, all swimming in mango shaved ice. I dream about that dessert. It’s unreal. The food was good, and so was the company. It was really nice to catch up with Alisa. We grew up spending our breaks together, but sadly I haven’t seen her much for the last few years. She said she’s biking down to Vietnam with some friends after she leaves Beijing. Awesome. I’m jealous.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX67LmfmiMuH6YO6XGufHmihs7o9Z-3czI1nxAvhH0WbII8naj_D5Uw8nKq6r6cOdvDi26qOVFqc-0p_pVlhpgLMHZspvr0wpQbeQ4v-i9fHXhW6Pd__-NDMIjbP69jp3Gw6ZWhqAJgDU/s1600-h/girls.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX67LmfmiMuH6YO6XGufHmihs7o9Z-3czI1nxAvhH0WbII8naj_D5Uw8nKq6r6cOdvDi26qOVFqc-0p_pVlhpgLMHZspvr0wpQbeQ4v-i9fHXhW6Pd__-NDMIjbP69jp3Gw6ZWhqAJgDU/s320/girls.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437011711742068626" border="0"></a><br />Well that just about brings us up to date! We’re actually in Xi’an now. I’ve been running a bit behind on these but it’s harder now that blogger’s blocked in China. Facebook, too. Blast. Hope there are still people reading! Haha. Anyway, we’ll only be in Xi’an for two days so the next one will for sure be shorter. Talk soon!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-62661328148274708802010-02-08T07:57:00.000-08:002010-02-08T08:18:20.367-08:00Hong Kong: Misty Memories, Short Tempers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCISoGIFmS7z_K1Kvwmuwk_hVL7AUBef2z1usdOhnvGYPQQGtdFwnrXzvA4KvoTLMlj4ZJn6pGYYXwZYFzutwDye2Kz_SE5wwTxPsWjEh0DMOBvXwTPuXMjuSuSONS4meIy4QH91CabGM/s1600-h/ferry.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCISoGIFmS7z_K1Kvwmuwk_hVL7AUBef2z1usdOhnvGYPQQGtdFwnrXzvA4KvoTLMlj4ZJn6pGYYXwZYFzutwDye2Kz_SE5wwTxPsWjEh0DMOBvXwTPuXMjuSuSONS4meIy4QH91CabGM/s320/ferry.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435905169831916850" /></a><br />I always love going to Hong Kong. I may not have many memories of living there but it still feels like home in a way. Tara and I arrived late at night on the 2nd and made our way to Kowloon and then got a cab to our guest house. The place I booked was on the main tourist/shopping street in Kowloon called Nathan Road and was pretty cheap so we weren’t sure what to expect. We were dropped off in front of a big building with a bunch of little stores selling knock off watches and purses and no sign of any type of accommodation. After asking a few people directions, we were directed inside, towards an old group of elevators and told to go to the 12th floor. At the front office for the Cosmic Guest House, we were asked to pay in full for all four nights and then taken to a room. They told us that we would have to move after the first night because our other room was not yet vacated, but that they’d put us in a nicer room for the first night. The room they took us to was the size of a large closet, with three small cots packed in, and a one square meter shower, and one square meter toilet/sink room. We decided that it was a bit small, but very clean and pretty safe feeling, and the crazy jet/rain shower made up for it. <br />The next morning, we went across the street to have our first dim sum. I asked the front desk for a recommendation and they told me there was a superstar dim sum restaurant across the street. I was pretty excited because I figured this must mean the food was amazing, but when we walked over I realized that the place is actually called “Superstar Restaurant.” Luckily, it lived up to its name, and we feasted on dumplings and buns for as long as our stomachs could handle. When we got back, they had us switch rooms to an interior (no window) one that was a tad bit larger, except it only had one square meter bathroom area where there was a dinky little shower head connected to a hot water box on the wall behind the toilet: definitely the definition of a one-butt bathroom. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-LBeqFTyU6-u4d-SbLGb9Ybl0E51toqtspkW7jfwB-H5NA4JrP_qcczC-5myv3_hAOVedhzUkbljNJUhu16Jpkjh5MhROIKldydvQQNuc-qrEo6MQTkFx5sEJL2aKtjTWLPpR5PLZCk/s1600-h/funnyface.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-LBeqFTyU6-u4d-SbLGb9Ybl0E51toqtspkW7jfwB-H5NA4JrP_qcczC-5myv3_hAOVedhzUkbljNJUhu16Jpkjh5MhROIKldydvQQNuc-qrEo6MQTkFx5sEJL2aKtjTWLPpR5PLZCk/s320/funnyface.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435903694773300482" /></a><br />We moved just in time for Carly’s arrival and went down to meet her on the street. She was quite the trooper and was ready to go out and explore even though she had just gotten off a long flight from South Africa. After grabbing a quick lunch for her, we walked down towards the water on the Kowloon side, passing the famous Peninsula Hotel, and down the Avenue of the Stars. Unfortunately there was a thick fog covering the whole city, so you could see the first few rows of buildings on Hong Kong Island but none of the hills behind. Later we had some quick noodles for dinner and then met up with my friend Mamta, who was also a Computer Science student at WashU and just graduated in December in the same program as me. She took us to a delicious mango dessert place in the mall across the street from our hotel and then to the Mong Kok market, which sells fun, cheap little trinkets in a long, outdoor stretch of stalls. It was really nice to be with someone who knew the area well and it was fun to see her.<br />That night we decided to check out the night life in Kowloon and went to Knucsford Terrace to a place called Bahama Mama that had been recommended by the guide book and my friend Simon. It was fun, but kind of quiet since it was a Wednesday, so we decided to walk around and see what else there was. Carly spotted a sign that said it was Ladies night at a club called “Bubbles” so we went up to take a look. Turns out it was the hotspot for the night and we were given free Bubbles planners and free drinks by the owner who was pretty amused by his only non-Chinese patrons and wanted to practice his English. We got back to find that, although we had complained earlier, our toilet was still broken and would not flush. A hotel staff member told us it couldn’t be fixed that night and we couldn’t move rooms until after 11 the next day, so we should use the shower head to fill up the tank and then fill a bucket with water to pour in the bowl to flush it. <br />The next morning, we happily found that our toilet was working again. Apparently they had been working on the toilet pipes for the whole section of our building, and had just left them not hooked up over night. We got up and found it was another cloudy day, so we decided to save the Peak for the last day and go to Lantau Island instead. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong and then jumped on the fast ferry over to Lantau. When we got there, we hired a cab to drive us through the twisty hill roads to the Big Buddha. The Big Buddha pretty much fits his description. He is a very large bronze Buddha statue that sits high up on a hill overlooking a monastery, the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world, in fact. We climbed up the 260-stair pathway leading to him and circumambulated a few times. Then we went down and walked through the monastery, enjoying the smell of the incense and the singing voices of the monks. After that there wasn’t much to do except get gelato and go home. It was nice to see though, very pleasant and peaceful. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3b-rlJcyvywQeODgLHhXhMo2Wx5RKaRgJvdiHORzQImMaPVH2AYMTgean95vMWLK2-d3AnbeVckI-b-w_AyEZ4XQYc-7sJ2PIHQYSN7aXYW_qfGk-d-_05rc0v_BwoyyiQeLsm9DvA8/s1600-h/buddha.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3b-rlJcyvywQeODgLHhXhMo2Wx5RKaRgJvdiHORzQImMaPVH2AYMTgean95vMWLK2-d3AnbeVckI-b-w_AyEZ4XQYc-7sJ2PIHQYSN7aXYW_qfGk-d-_05rc0v_BwoyyiQeLsm9DvA8/s320/buddha.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435904546006963010" /></a><br />For dinner we went back to the mall across the street and went to a Japanese place that made pizzas that had rice as the crust. It was pretty good and we decided to start a chain in America when we get back. Back in our room, we turned on our air conditioning and it started making loud noises and spitting water everywhere. It had also leaked a whole puddle of water all over my bed, and our stuff on the bedside table. I called the front desk, and the lady came down, took it apart, wiped off the table with a rag, frowned at it for a while, and told us that she didn’t know what to do and she’d fix it tomorrow. I asked her to get me dry sheets and she said she’d rather not because she would have to get them from upstairs, but that I should put them under the fan and then they would dry. We were feeling tired that night, so we went back over to the mall and saw Avatar in 3D because Carly and Tara hadn’t seen it yet. It’s an amazing movie even with Chinese subtitles. If you haven’t seen it yet you definitely should. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXxPAOdbM2OeWcVZLelC18_ISqp-2E4BGUTyGI7FtZVzGgfbYOdMYOaULRY7hlMNiMWWrJmTnxo6bF_LWNiuklsMt6uznmfHPBeyV_26z131M8WHrrKYcNmz0V2JGriVBSqxvwIexm2k/s1600-h/cityferry.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXxPAOdbM2OeWcVZLelC18_ISqp-2E4BGUTyGI7FtZVzGgfbYOdMYOaULRY7hlMNiMWWrJmTnxo6bF_LWNiuklsMt6uznmfHPBeyV_26z131M8WHrrKYcNmz0V2JGriVBSqxvwIexm2k/s320/cityferry.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435906479864650370" /></a><br />We had decided that we’d spend our last day exploring Hong Kong Island. Much to our dismay, there was still a fat cloud squatting over the whole city. We took the Star Ferry over again and then got an angry cab driver to take us to Central where we found the famous Luk Yu Tea House and had dim sum. Unfortunately the waiter (who was also very angry… bad day for Hong Kongers, I guess) told us that EVERYTHING HAS PORK! So we found a nice little vegetarian café afterwards for Carly. The man who worked there was in a much better mood and said he had lived in San Francisco for a while. His whole place was decorated with vintage American signs, clothes and toys, and apparently it’s a member’s-only restaurant, but he made an exception since we were only visiting. <br />After lunch, we made our way over to the Peak Tram, and went up to the Peak. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3CAOpYbGhG12d3sXYARvfViDVfbOfOq5DKYF80LKScoVJWxPknXbkctP9smJd-hp8M8ITteRNA4T8vN9AeE3I6hyEL9NWUkiEaW1Tqd0YuIA845e63kADhX9S7dfeCFkYFUTvFApR80/s1600-h/tram.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3CAOpYbGhG12d3sXYARvfViDVfbOfOq5DKYF80LKScoVJWxPknXbkctP9smJd-hp8M8ITteRNA4T8vN9AeE3I6hyEL9NWUkiEaW1Tqd0YuIA845e63kADhX9S7dfeCFkYFUTvFApR80/s320/tram.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435905764501197666" /></a><br />The Peak Tram is an old cable tram system that goes almost vertically up Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. The peak is supposed to have the most spectacular view of the city, harbor, and Kowloon all together. We could vaguely see the harbor once we were at the top, but everything was coated in white mist and not very clear… so we got gelato. On our way down, we got off at the Kennedy Road stop, and after confusing a lot of people and resorting to our trusty iPhones for directions, we found the place where I used to live - #1 Monmouth Terrace. I explained to the man at the gate that I was born here, and used to live in apartment 20A and got just about the exact reaction I expected: a completely blank stare and a “so… what?” He told me that no agents had come that day, and that I’d have to come back with an agent to see an apartment. Oh well... it was fun to see the outside at least. From there we made our way back... to the trusty mall again… for some pho dinner and mango dessert. Since our flight was early this morning, we stayed in and rested a bit. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjr7r5dkdEWdcXIzZmVOtM0xyDpeIOt6ZiyBXHxgXNMECk9Vk0e7-f_F2JvwrfsrADioYEz3tpZbLFXIvdk79IcvSzqAOUVYQXpiyns7Go4uGxHEUSs1sb9jM6eo_R7jOlcb_rS-thFI/s1600-h/mmth.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjr7r5dkdEWdcXIzZmVOtM0xyDpeIOt6ZiyBXHxgXNMECk9Vk0e7-f_F2JvwrfsrADioYEz3tpZbLFXIvdk79IcvSzqAOUVYQXpiyns7Go4uGxHEUSs1sb9jM6eo_R7jOlcb_rS-thFI/s320/mmth.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435905403996624562" /></a><br />At about 10 pm, the fire alarm went off, which thoroughly freaked us out. We jumped out of bed, got dressed and got our bags and were about to quickly head out when a little security man came down with a Cosmic staff lady and started yelling at us to “not smoke in the room!” We had clearly not been smoking in the room – it was so tiny and boxed in that it would have been pretty obvious if we had. This accusation was the last straw and made me pretty angry. I started yelling back that we weren’t smoking and that they were being irresponsible and should check the other rooms because there could still be a fire. They walked down the hall, looked at each of the doors without opening them, came back, and told me that it was probably someone’s shower making too much steam and to forget about it. This is about the time that I decided that I do not like the Cosmic Guest House. I wish I was a Lonely Planet writer and I could go up tell them they were thrown out of our book for bad behavior. Unfortunately, I had already paid in full, so my yelling really came to nothing. <br />I guess since I’m more familiar with Hong Kong I didn’t really describe much about it, so for those of you who have never been there, here are the things I can think of that might be interesting. All the cabs are red and kind of old fashioned, boxy cars. The cab drivers are much angrier than anywhere else I’ve been, I think. It seems like even since last time I was there less people speak English and more people speak Mandarin (the local language is Cantonese). I guess that makes sense since its part of China now and not a British colony any more. It’s a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city with people of all sorts of ethnicities everywhere. It’s mostly made up of Hong Kong island, which has the downtown area as well as some beautiful rolling, green hills. The buildings line the beautiful turquoise harbor and the mountains make a crazy contrasting backdrop. On the other side of the harbor is Kowloon on a peninsula. Kowloon is also highly populated and has a lot of shopping and hotels. What a city. Love it. <br />Anyway - Sorry I’m running behind on these. We’re now been in Beijing for a day and have already had some interesting adventures… but I’ll save those for the next entry.Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-22991450282793000972010-02-02T23:19:00.000-08:002010-02-02T23:49:26.459-08:00Balinese Dance vs. Javanese DanceHere are the videos I took during both of the Indonesian dances I went to. I also just posted a blog entry below!!<br /><br /><OBJECT class=BLOG_video_class id=BLOG_video-8e6d2ef770a8d12 height=266 width=320 contentId="8e6d2ef770a8d12"></OBJECT><br /><br /><OBJECT class=BLOG_video_class id=BLOG_video-9ffd0b67067a9997 height=266 width=320 contentId="9ffd0b67067a9997"></OBJECT>Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-74999644878824004382010-02-02T22:39:00.000-08:002010-02-02T22:51:19.393-08:00Yogyakarta. Your face is like from IndiaaaaI think that Yogyakarta is in its awkward teenage phase of development. You can see traces of Javanese culture, and countryside or small town mannerisms, but it’s also packed with people, buildings, cars, bikes and a bit of city grime that makes it rough around the edges to say the least. I think that it takes a few days to get used to, especially after experiencing the openness and innocence of Bali. Luckily we were there just long enough to grow fond of it despite the intense stares and “Hallooo lady! Yes! You have boyfriend?” calls we frequently heard. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIMDG795T-B9o6jRp0iLynT7_NO6l-NYJOekcMoItarvmagqikG5TNCjISyr0YTTH2XGv9CdOiFOo0lWuu4ZRCam4irpLG3uGrrGk4UuspZ2pgERLNhlcZ0UyTGIGOneFoCw5_H8NtXJY/s1600-h/ally.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIMDG795T-B9o6jRp0iLynT7_NO6l-NYJOekcMoItarvmagqikG5TNCjISyr0YTTH2XGv9CdOiFOo0lWuu4ZRCam4irpLG3uGrrGk4UuspZ2pgERLNhlcZ0UyTGIGOneFoCw5_H8NtXJY/s320/ally.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433904168232812210" /></a><br /><br />Everything in Yogya (Pronounced Jogja) is much cheaper than in Bali. The exchange rate is about 9000 rupiah to the dollar, which makes you a millionaire if you have a little over 100 US dollars. When we booked our internal flights in Indonesia, we cringed as the automatic voice announced in a very Dr. Evil way that our tickets cost “one…… MILLION … four… hundred… rupiah.” It makes it very hard to tip people, because you feel generous giving someone 5000 rupiah… but then remember it’s only about 50 cents. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjn3WypKLR6-2nNHJ9gMx7y1WJnJm1X3C5F2FUF67_h50JeveaBHpONFeAyaCu1KJXVZ109nxhDD35zXq4OMnfWzhlNFPQACgC624ngQyVRYLc0jd4ufdyaDzIv2oaDWImuqgbL5zjaQ/s1600-h/pedi.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjn3WypKLR6-2nNHJ9gMx7y1WJnJm1X3C5F2FUF67_h50JeveaBHpONFeAyaCu1KJXVZ109nxhDD35zXq4OMnfWzhlNFPQACgC624ngQyVRYLc0jd4ufdyaDzIv2oaDWImuqgbL5zjaQ/s320/pedi.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433905653649809282" /></a><br /><br />We arrived around noon on the 30th and asked our cab driver to take us to Losmen Setia Kawan in the Sosrowijayan area, and luckily he understood us despite our horrible pronunciation. The way you actually say “sosrowijayan” is really amazing. They force it into something that sounds like a two or three syllable word but still uses all the letters. This is the one hostel that I couldn’t figure out how to book online, so I had called from Skype and talked to a man on the phone who could barely understand me. Not only did he say my name very strangely, but I was unsure about whether or not he understood what day we were arriving on, and he didn’t ask me for any spellings or contact information. We decided we’d just cross our fingers, show up, and hope that he had written something down. When our cab stopped, there was a very excited little man waiting at the mouth of a narrow alleyway, who asked if we were staying at Setia Kawan. He led us down the long narrow alley, past little Laundry places and Batik shops to the hostel. Impressively enough, they did actually have a record that “Amoe” was coming today. We decided to live it up a little and upgraded to a room with AC AND hot water for about 25 dollars a night. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXjzcTwqneQ94cs6biumUcqnZnKkMu6MdrbgEX5t1Y9V07YlbfQLzfa4ZiYQ2S8HlxP13QF4dWDFs_E0rCIGK38TMiEHWuLl8XfbgjpodsBwL7c8g66jrr6wa33iYHTgHezYMji7pbEg/s1600-h/room.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXjzcTwqneQ94cs6biumUcqnZnKkMu6MdrbgEX5t1Y9V07YlbfQLzfa4ZiYQ2S8HlxP13QF4dWDFs_E0rCIGK38TMiEHWuLl8XfbgjpodsBwL7c8g66jrr6wa33iYHTgHezYMji7pbEg/s320/room.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433905674986871922" /></a><br /><br />The part we stayed in is the newly built extension of an older hostel. Even though it is crammed in a tiny space in a tiny alley, it’s very peaceful and pleasant. It has a center courtyard with plants, flowers, a large fan palm, and a fake rock wall that has a fountain on it. Facing in towards the courtyard are all the rooms, which are each hand painted with crazy, colorful hippie looking pictures of large hands, faces, moons, suns etc. Our room was very clean and new looking. It did seem, however, that they had left out a few important things in order to accommodate their artistic touches. The only pieces of furniture in the room were the two beds, each with a very thin shawl like blanket on it to serve as the only form of covering. I also feel as though I’ve always taken nightstands for granted. Not having one turned out to be much more inconvenient than I ever would have thought. The bathroom had a very stylish bowl sink and pretty tiles, but there was literally nothing in the whole room to hang anything on. This makes hand washing clothes especially hard. They had also put in three, very pretty and modern light fixtures on the ceilings. They were the kinds that you see in restaurants for “mood lighting” or maybe in rows in houses for more dramatic point lighting. Tara and I would probably have preferred to be able to see at night to having roman tic lighting, though, so they were kind of wasted on us. All in all it was very clean and pretty, even featuring a very nice umbrella displayed in the corner painted with lizards. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaiHi-7OCJe81KB3WganO9yTQXjszzRnq_uFm4jpvRorjSdoDOhIJdtCZrJcAhyphenhyphene50QGUSjnZ2sA-RJ5RChAztFPwMearbwaLbQ7LbVqW1OZMOQVLhCxzbJMv-05C5QMBOtA5rz6M71Ws/s1600-h/pbn.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaiHi-7OCJe81KB3WganO9yTQXjszzRnq_uFm4jpvRorjSdoDOhIJdtCZrJcAhyphenhyphene50QGUSjnZ2sA-RJ5RChAztFPwMearbwaLbQ7LbVqW1OZMOQVLhCxzbJMv-05C5QMBOtA5rz6M71Ws/s320/pbn.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433904214098064498" /></a><br /><br />The day we arrived, we set up a tour to see the famous sights (Prambanan and Borobudur) the next day, and decided to take a stroll to see what the city was all about. There are not many sidewalks around, so after dodging a few motorbikes and large busses, we got to the end of our street and found the entrance to a market. The market was jam packed with locals, and after an hour or so, we were feeling very overwhelmed by the shoving, yelling, and creepy noises that men were making at us even though we were wearing jeans and big T shirts. It is in times like these that it’s very comforting to run into something familiar, which is maybe a good excuse we can use for heading straight into a Pizza Hut for dinner. Sometimes it’s worth indulging in over-priced American food. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzEI_cM9WHZNVsklGFR1fQ-oiKRxs-SKcprc3j3GhyphenhyphenG7Ra6GrnLSo6lnQtpRKraeYJlYIYag4wf2rHQI3ZjzcXEPBmq0p03YRqz_cch78OAx-LzWyeLkOAwn0f3jOxEAfrT6xvS5OyxVE/s1600-h/bbdr.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzEI_cM9WHZNVsklGFR1fQ-oiKRxs-SKcprc3j3GhyphenhyphenG7Ra6GrnLSo6lnQtpRKraeYJlYIYag4wf2rHQI3ZjzcXEPBmq0p03YRqz_cch78OAx-LzWyeLkOAwn0f3jOxEAfrT6xvS5OyxVE/s320/bbdr.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433904179582040802" /></a><br /><br />The next day, our tour left at 5 am, so we had to get up and ready at some ridiculous hour of the night. A driver picked us up, along with a couple from Canada. By six we were at Borobudur, which is a stunning Hindu turned Buddhist temple/monument from around the 9th century AD. It was rediscovered by Raffles when he was doing his whole SE Asia/British rule gig. Since then they’ve restored it really nicely. It’s made up of multiple levels of stone bas reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu stories and sitting Buddha sculptures that lead up to a large stupa at the very top. After that, we checked out a smaller temple, and then Prambanan. Prambanan is a site also from around the 9th century with multiple Hindu temple structures, each dedicated to a different manifestation of God. They were tall, stone, somewhat circular structures that came to a point at the top, much like many of the temples I saw earlier at Angkor. They were very impressive, but definitely a bit less intricately carved and carefully designed than the ones at Angkor. There was also a Buddhist temple structure nearby and a random park with pretty, spotted deer roaming around in it. It was nice to see how much these structures are still valued and taken care of despite the fact that Indonesia is now predominantly Muslim. <br /><br /><br /><br />We were very hot and wiped out after that so we took a long nap and then had a delicious Indonesian dinner of eggplant curry and spiced chicken. Taking advantage of our second wind, we decided to go to a Javanese dance performance of the Ramayana. It was very classy and well done, with very talented dancers and tasteful costumes. Javanese dance is very different from the dance we saw in Bali. It was much slower and smoother and easier to follow the story (I guess it’s unfair because we already knew the story too). <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1hxdlrd4Y05OKmUsx_mx-nisPu0S3US-TwmKQ8JnkQMHoJe0Xg7_U0kePBXP2ErkLM-h-YETUn6r0k_0yhvR2eo-asfT2JHmsYam20kVzSD4VQVlMk302VZttc9Z1Bz287FHDqpUZiq0/s1600-h/dance.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1hxdlrd4Y05OKmUsx_mx-nisPu0S3US-TwmKQ8JnkQMHoJe0Xg7_U0kePBXP2ErkLM-h-YETUn6r0k_0yhvR2eo-asfT2JHmsYam20kVzSD4VQVlMk302VZttc9Z1Bz287FHDqpUZiq0/s320/dance.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433904190429580258" /></a><br /><br />The next day we hired a little pedi cab to take us to Kraton, the old part of the city. The pedi cabs are very interesting in Jogja. Instead of having a bike with a seat area trailing behind, the seat area is in the front, right above the front wheel. The driver sits on a high bike seat so that he can just see over your head and pedals in an almost standing posture. This is a little unnerving, given the traffic patterns there, and seeing as how you would be the padding for your driver if he were to be hit by something. Our driver was very nice though, and distracted us by talking the whole time in English that we mostly couldn’t understand. We did catch words here and then like “blah blah blah... swimming pool!... blah blah..kraton.. blah.. palace!” We mostly smiled and nodded and hoped that we wouldn’t get slammed by a huge bus of Japanese tourists. First we checked out the palace, where the current sultan lives. An English speaking guide took us around, showing us the little museums and pictures of the sultan, where they have big parties, and where he keeps his wine for guests. Since we were asking about the royal Batik, she took us back into a private area where women were making it by hand. They were really sweet and showed us how it was done and how to tie it on as a sarong. It was right next to the sultan’s garage, which housed his daughter’s tricked out Celica. After that, we went to the Sultan’s swimming pool. Apparently the current sultan is number 10 and the pool was deserted after sultan number 3. They recently restored it for tourism. It was built by sultan number 1 as a little escape for him, his wives, and his children. It consisted of three swimming pools: one private one for him, one for his wives, and one for his daughters. I guess his sons also had one but it was further off and has since been destroyed. The sultan’s private pool was separated from the others by a three storey building. Apparently back in the day, the sultan sometimes had around 40 wives. He would go up to the third storey, watch his wives swim for a while, and then pick one to come join him in his private pool. Sounds like kind of a creepster to me. As you can guess, the sultans have had many children through the years, and the ones that are not set up to be the next sultan are, at some point, ejected into society. Our guide at the palace told us she was descended from the third sultan. It sounds like many people in Jogja are descended from some sultan, or from some palace worker. Unfortunately, descendants beyond the grandchildren of the current sultan are not considered part of the royal family. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsd11bKBbTmOZWzE7WNZHTP8UwDBhLnbnYtfJy1zi0NkcXRfNrRcO_LxL5-Hhx0LwM8dTg6p0fiQSUu-2tzue4IJeNMs8IdYscQrlIs5qC4wY5CYEyzIyHKFbvetMnaSIV1gScWjGkYA/s1600-h/IMG_2841.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsd11bKBbTmOZWzE7WNZHTP8UwDBhLnbnYtfJy1zi0NkcXRfNrRcO_LxL5-Hhx0LwM8dTg6p0fiQSUu-2tzue4IJeNMs8IdYscQrlIs5qC4wY5CYEyzIyHKFbvetMnaSIV1gScWjGkYA/s320/IMG_2841.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433904203464385746" /></a><br /><br />Everywhere we went, people were confused about our nationality. They’d say “Where you from??” and we’d say “America” and then they would chuckle and give us a “yeah right” look followed by the declaration that my face “is like from Japan” and Tara’s “is like from India!” She got it a lot more though, with random people stopping her on the street, staring intensely, and then saying “Your FACE!... is like from INDIAAAAA.” She also got a few people thinking she looked Javanese which was cool. By the time we left, most of the men who sat along our alley chatting and lounging in the shade knew us and would make fun of us for walking back and forth so much. We’d leave our hostel to a chorus of “Hallooooo!!!s and every now and then an “Amoeee!” with enthusiastic waves. We learned to walk through quickly to avoid getting taught how batik is made for the 40th time. We also discovered these really yummy cookie pastries stuffed with pineapple paste at a nearby store. After a few tries with the crusty, fake Tim Tam cookies they sold next door, we defaulted to the pineapple cookies as a sugar source. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsxXw61cYcBCoRt3EoJ6q44DZ54xxHUH39ne-w9GNWZcem_WF1fYUJwLBtElFy0qjNem5-xC87AL8t33FubAYjx-Ng99d1IGsF6IqaD74k66UW3bNIRGZ861qt0b-dDGSvYA21aHjBxg/s1600-h/pool.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsxXw61cYcBCoRt3EoJ6q44DZ54xxHUH39ne-w9GNWZcem_WF1fYUJwLBtElFy0qjNem5-xC87AL8t33FubAYjx-Ng99d1IGsF6IqaD74k66UW3bNIRGZ861qt0b-dDGSvYA21aHjBxg/s320/pool.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433905658705124274" /></a><br /><br />Today is a whole, long day of travel for us. We had to wake up at 4 am to make a 6 am flight to Jakarta, followed by a flight to Singapore, where we’re now waiting for 5 hours for our final flight to Hong Kong. Our flight to Singapore was packed with hordes of small school children, all dressed the same and making loud noises. They all screeched when the plane landed, which was kind of startling. <br /><br /><br />I will definitely miss Indonesia. I’m glad we got to see two very different parts of it. There is still so much to see – hopefully someday I can dedicate like a month to visiting all the islands. I’m not gonna lie though, I’m ridiculously excited for Hong Kong and Beijing. The next two weeks should be a blast. <br /><br /><br /><br />Sorry this is so long again, but I figure if anyone is still reading at this point then they must be used to it . As always, comments make me happy and so do update emails. Later gaters.Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-1266944285011114032010-01-29T23:23:00.000-08:002010-01-30T03:32:08.058-08:00Ubud, Bali: Livin the Island Life<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiSp_gPTzq-1tZU1qLgDsV6e7Gy96hit-jMevNh611Ut3N5dlWUo1sTKHz8cGQcfi9WLJFFr8lcECrFO-aU1PITv2Z3vxlMhXkimk3-N_pw_WNMQ5xKHnMIltoJTLHFdggYkVF3MyW28/s1600-h/P1280463.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiSp_gPTzq-1tZU1qLgDsV6e7Gy96hit-jMevNh611Ut3N5dlWUo1sTKHz8cGQcfi9WLJFFr8lcECrFO-aU1PITv2Z3vxlMhXkimk3-N_pw_WNMQ5xKHnMIltoJTLHFdggYkVF3MyW28/s320/P1280463.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432439081449926498" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODHT5XGEAItXcZS-PDa4VejqIobQovkCIKrpO4CSpvGDZqLn0fMstR6Mrst1GI3teEz2Wg6b6_1D07WobqqHFOVtO3rtDbjslUVU4jJis6nw98LvUfjKsF2UfnLQ0PLyTrHawTGzmvNM/s1600-h/P1280461.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODHT5XGEAItXcZS-PDa4VejqIobQovkCIKrpO4CSpvGDZqLn0fMstR6Mrst1GI3teEz2Wg6b6_1D07WobqqHFOVtO3rtDbjslUVU4jJis6nw98LvUfjKsF2UfnLQ0PLyTrHawTGzmvNM/s320/P1280461.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432439052334160050" /></a><br /><br />Wow, Bali is amazing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but somewhere between the laidback island feel, the beautiful scenery, the traditional dress and customs everywhere, and the friendliness of the people, it’s really hard not to love. Bali has a lot of places to go for being a relatively small island. The main attraction is Kuta beach, which has great surfing and white sand beaches and also now has a plethora of bars, malls and stores as well as sun burnt tourists. Another popular place to visit on the island is called Ubud, and is more of a cultural center with a lot of Hindu temples and kind of a small town feel, although it’s also clearly been changed by tourism. Tara and I decided we’d skip the beach scene and spend our time in Ubud, which is up in the hills near the center of the island, about an hour drive from Denpasar and Kuta. I was so excited to see her walk out of the airport and catch up, that we talked for an hour standing in the receiving area and barely noticed that the guy picking us up from the hotel was very late. When I was booking hotels for this part of the trip, I was looking for budget places, and we were expecting to be in kind of a dirty, slightly uncomfortable place, so the brand new, leather seated car that picked us up was a bit confusing. When we pulled up at the hotel itself (called Taman Harum) we were sure that there had been some mistake. The outside was beautiful traditional stonework and carving. We were led through a pathway lined with hibiscus flowers and overflowing greenery, passing a beautiful infinity pool that overlooked rice paddies, to a covered check in area where they fed us tropical juice. After we checked in, we were led further down the pathway, past little cottages, to a slightly larger building, where up the stairs we were faced with a huge, intricately carved and painted, Balinese style wooden door. Our room was huge, with two twin beds, air conditioning, free bottles of water, and a large bathroom with a western style toilet and hot shower. It also included a nice American breakfast of eggs, ham, toast, fruit, and coffee every morning and free rides into Ubud (about 10 mintues away) whenever we wanted. We really hit the jackpot. This place was 40 US dollars per night. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxfaQwSTO_qXQ7sv5Cbcsq59HEiYqAKhPHtVTrGYv4hP0WqqXSo-AQB0-ZTdz9YNarZMbHitBsYhzhNJqV_6ZGw1vqafVsXkFQkKykI6GzOvHZk04RAnNj_WiKxYBmApgEUfE3dMj71c/s1600-h/P1270376.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxfaQwSTO_qXQ7sv5Cbcsq59HEiYqAKhPHtVTrGYv4hP0WqqXSo-AQB0-ZTdz9YNarZMbHitBsYhzhNJqV_6ZGw1vqafVsXkFQkKykI6GzOvHZk04RAnNj_WiKxYBmApgEUfE3dMj71c/s320/P1270376.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432435154177464706" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xoG6LPjD6cYEsxua2J5BTqZXioVByvrSd7yexBLezImT-AhcEpdnFma4RqE9OiDa9IfoIz_KztXu68iE6IO3lvrhvQKe2kBbC7TuwxOQrZ4WDzALuYuF4Rd4xMLGBKKHVrlE4u75upw/s1600-h/P1270390.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xoG6LPjD6cYEsxua2J5BTqZXioVByvrSd7yexBLezImT-AhcEpdnFma4RqE9OiDa9IfoIz_KztXu68iE6IO3lvrhvQKe2kBbC7TuwxOQrZ4WDzALuYuF4Rd4xMLGBKKHVrlE4u75upw/s320/P1270390.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432435167952491266" /></a><br /><br />We decided we didn’t want to waste any time, so after checking in we asked to be taken into Ubud to grab dinner and see a dance show. We had a nice meal at a place near Ubud Palace, which is where the dance was to be performed, that included the famous “Gado-gado,” a vegetable dish with peanut sauce and rice. Bali has a lot of traditional dance forms, and the one we saw was called “Legong.” It was very interesting and completely different from anything either of us had seen before. The music accompanying it is kind of a repetitive, metallic/xylophone pattern, with a quiet flute melody. The dancing is very other worldly, with quick, flipping of the hands, shimmying of the shoulders, and shuffling of the feet. One of the things that stands out the most is the facial expressions and eye movements of the dancers. The female dancers keep their eyes very wide open, and quickly switch the direction they’re looking along with the beat of the music (picture one of those cat clocks where the tail and the eyes tick back and forth). The best description we could come up with for the facial expression that they very impressively held for the whole dance was kind of a gangster “She said WHATTTT?!” face. They wore beautiful traditional costumes and hats. We didn’t really get the story, but it seemed to go something like this: A beautiful princess dances with her two attendants. A large dragon dog comes out and plays with some monkeys and a banana. Four large kings come out and look very concerned and dance around with each other. Then, four comical men come out and have some sort of dialog, after which the princess appears again with many more attendants. Later there are two larger kings who come out and argue about who gets to have the princess. She dances some more after they leave, and then the dog comes back out, along with the comical men and they all dance together. Clearly I missed the point, but it was very nice to watch anyway. <br /><br />The next morning, we got up and went into Ubud to walk around and have lunch. It’s very pretty, with Hindu temples on almost every block, and little artsy stores lining narrow roads that wind up towards the center of the town. The people are very friendly and relaxed, mostly wearing traditional style clothes like sarongs, and head scarves. We were surprised to find that almost everyone we met spoke English very well. Apparently they start learning it in elementary school, and continue up through secondary school and some in university. People walk up and down the streets, carrying their loads on their heads, cushioned by their headscarves and sometimes small towels. Along every sidewalk and ledge there are little offerings that they put out periodically throughout the day with fruit, flowers, incense, and little grass woven holders. We shopped for a while and had a nice lunch, brownie, and “detox” smoothie, and then headed back to the hotel. As soon as we got back, it promptly started torrential down pouring - flooding the walkways with huge fat raindrops that would soak you immediately if you stood outside. We decided to stay in that night, have dinner at our hotel, and go for a warm swim when the rain stopped. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL2hGP4GFNjtKAJiijDpsHcwDwQGOpKwz3LNLU5gxZlIqcUKCglIZczexiI60ySscm3IKN5YJwQ4DNpZWkCLFDx9JvPlqB0El_60t2-yjU-EWN6YHUR0tsiTiv0Vs_Cpl7ZcamC3-710/s1600-h/P1270369.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL2hGP4GFNjtKAJiijDpsHcwDwQGOpKwz3LNLU5gxZlIqcUKCglIZczexiI60ySscm3IKN5YJwQ4DNpZWkCLFDx9JvPlqB0El_60t2-yjU-EWN6YHUR0tsiTiv0Vs_Cpl7ZcamC3-710/s320/P1270369.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432435150577447266" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE04Y9m_ge3RaA6w5EnDtUiqPXEF8lVUj9SizFLPt6vlGv-k2XPbgQ-04utGopopRmvgztXM4fOKZEvgYsLBizh3-WW6YiTixHWN-Un17ytguUL-NjK9qGsZAaq7gHm4J8gPb3RdOkEs/s1600-h/P1280407.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE04Y9m_ge3RaA6w5EnDtUiqPXEF8lVUj9SizFLPt6vlGv-k2XPbgQ-04utGopopRmvgztXM4fOKZEvgYsLBizh3-WW6YiTixHWN-Un17ytguUL-NjK9qGsZAaq7gHm4J8gPb3RdOkEs/s320/P1280407.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432435176403257746" /></a><br /><br />The next morning, we woke up early and hired a local guide to take us on an advertised “Nature Walk.” He took us first on about a two hour walk through nearby rice paddies. Although it was a bit muddy, and the “path” often involved scooting over tiny bridges and jumping over ditches, it was cool because our guide had grown up in the area and his father was still a farmer there. He pointed out birds and snakes to us, and explained just about every plant we passed, telling us to smell their leaves and saying what they were used for in medicine, food, or tradition. It was beautiful and green, and we could see Bali’s big volcano in the distance. It was also extremely hot, and we were relieved to come to the end of the walk at his father’s hut with fresh coconuts to drink. After that he took us to see a pretty black sand beach, a waterfall, and a few little local craftsman stores selling batik, silver, and paintings. He was a very interesting character – extremely forward - and had apparently met Obama when he came to Indonesia. By the end we were pretty worn out, so we went back to shower and eat lunch. We had made friends with one of the drivers at our hotel named Balik, who had offered to take us to see Kuta for a cheaper price than the hotel charged, so we agreed to go with him around 5, and decided to make a last run to Ubud to get some souvenirs. As soon as we got into town, it started down pouring again turning the streets into rivers. Although we bought an umbrella, by the time we got picked up we were pretty drenched. Despite that, we got back and quickly got ready to go check out Kuta. Balik was a very interesting person. He has a car and two motorcycles and lives nearby with his parents. He said he went to university to study Tourism, and has been to Japan to visit his sister, who married a Japanese man and now does Indonesian dance in Tokyo. He drove us down to Kuta, proudly playing his top 40 hits American music CD and teaching us some Balinese words. When we got there, he took us to a mall that faces the ocean, where we were able to catch the last part of the sunset. He ended up hanging out with us there, and going to dinner with us at an Indonesian food place in the mall. We walked around and shopped a little afterwards, and then he drove us back. We paid him for the rides even though he insisted that we shouldn’t, but we figured we got a good deal – a cheap door to door ride, nice dinner, and new friend. He told us next time we come to Bali he’ll show us all the amazing things we missed this time. Kuta was nice, and we’re glad we saw it, but also glad we didn’t stay there. It almost felt like it could be in Florida. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtO_ISbhbFi8PsPLyXvOsoZdc490GAoGnfWO1PJKX9QYQuMJU_XE3u-0RVQWpnoEGDSeP10XpawoIPq34WbQYJfb2Sa5R3ADcMFo6g2gC-ba39xxFXsje2jk5jaidjmdZSvfHxJd96MvQ/s1600-h/P1280437.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtO_ISbhbFi8PsPLyXvOsoZdc490GAoGnfWO1PJKX9QYQuMJU_XE3u-0RVQWpnoEGDSeP10XpawoIPq34WbQYJfb2Sa5R3ADcMFo6g2gC-ba39xxFXsje2jk5jaidjmdZSvfHxJd96MvQ/s320/P1280437.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432439046932931266" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-7GuUe7vTN_PUBbXsbVn0vX6F-3BQdPhehoDhSVt-az1dlFB9CXAfPju9m0qK9IGcvKqFVnDzMwVhF-d7e0Bd65Ltk_yg_8JK-tGS5TLqejDBh4GhBcpmr2FCcrboMPh-R-y1iHRsPU/s1600-h/P1280426.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-7GuUe7vTN_PUBbXsbVn0vX6F-3BQdPhehoDhSVt-az1dlFB9CXAfPju9m0qK9IGcvKqFVnDzMwVhF-d7e0Bd65Ltk_yg_8JK-tGS5TLqejDBh4GhBcpmr2FCcrboMPh-R-y1iHRsPU/s320/P1280426.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432435184338182882" /></a><br /><br />This morning we sadly packed up after our delicious breakfast and left our paradise, promising them all we’d be back someday. Luckily our flight did not fall out of the sky, and we got into Yogyakarta around noon. It’s very hot here and the vibe is definitely different from Bali, so it’ll be exciting to see other ways in which it is different. Our hotel is called Setia Kawan, and we decided to upgrade from 15$ per night to 25 so we can have hot water showers and AC. Tough life . Anyway, now that we’re all cooled off, we should probably go explore the city. Talk soon! <br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Oxr0dWWTsUPB9MQAGgRF5JBL-N_ai6Pul5c_lKJSHD3kpZN2dCbzeeBxo90u8KG1LylXs9e2fHhE6M5chm_sZdjogAozEjiySv5mbIDfVJYTXtmiJhZiGGPnURdba4N0bOp9hUCmJec/s1600-h/P1280451.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Oxr0dWWTsUPB9MQAGgRF5JBL-N_ai6Pul5c_lKJSHD3kpZN2dCbzeeBxo90u8KG1LylXs9e2fHhE6M5chm_sZdjogAozEjiySv5mbIDfVJYTXtmiJhZiGGPnURdba4N0bOp9hUCmJec/s320/P1280451.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432439069286675666" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfQ61oy9gX92INGqj8x7bHCsQ6XGsBMYzKk2sb63qivMJvLGuiGmoMXvyiqHgR7R57Mt0cwcgek1_r07rP2nmrJwMftZaGHQffTMCxQ4aevZXn-2mPOvu2URzloNpU-okGGoXzW-r4yQ/s1600-h/P1290481.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfQ61oy9gX92INGqj8x7bHCsQ6XGsBMYzKk2sb63qivMJvLGuiGmoMXvyiqHgR7R57Mt0cwcgek1_r07rP2nmrJwMftZaGHQffTMCxQ4aevZXn-2mPOvu2URzloNpU-okGGoXzW-r4yQ/s320/P1290481.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432439061178506802" /></a>Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-11434788185259274552010-01-27T02:15:00.000-08:002010-01-27T23:45:46.116-08:00Lion City<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5QP_ZXZaTRWF5Kn9Ex_CZ9zH_VmAdoxVZAOK8tj64w2lR8_ikRS2H5oxYw8bH1j2NS7wQXuspeYzkj1n6g3c9iMLERLEaXL2uSIuc5LDuRqvxrU2nP1ozfaorBLTvYKEpuJZmyz2BEs/s1600-h/durians.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5QP_ZXZaTRWF5Kn9Ex_CZ9zH_VmAdoxVZAOK8tj64w2lR8_ikRS2H5oxYw8bH1j2NS7wQXuspeYzkj1n6g3c9iMLERLEaXL2uSIuc5LDuRqvxrU2nP1ozfaorBLTvYKEpuJZmyz2BEs/s320/durians.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431692970551501922" /></a><br />(this picture was in a cab we took in singapore. luckily I had left my Durian at home so it wasn't a problem) (for those of you who don't know, Durian is a large, spikey, extremly smelly fruit)<br /><br />This morning I said goodbye to my Mom at 3 am when she left for the airport to fly home, and then a few hours later I got on a plane to Denpasar airport in Bali, Indonesia. The airport is a little old, but I was happy to find that it was air conditioned. After going through customs, however, I was immediately ejected, first into a huge line of money changers waving and yelling at me, and then straight outside where I was bombarded by taxi drivers. This posed a bit of a problem since I’m waiting here for 4 hours for Tara’s plane to come in, so I awkwardly pushed through them and darted towards a little café that I saw a few yards away. Seeing that most of the customers were airport workers and locals, I tried to quietly buy a bottle of water, ended up knocking over a chair with my backpack and scaring the crap out of everyone else, and then finally sitting down a bit flustered. So here I am, slightly roasting outside, but happily hydrated at least, and ready to tell you about Singapore. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoE31lXFMIqdLa6BD0Rf6dk7l605EVXIqVXt84sI2PzTvFgLK4slvY5JSfMXzjeTozOT6Rf1sj3t875SIRDQcDgcMRYllzZwlBaGjVpzypUovW63NpwFMhw38xzu7r6xnt4KDqk0I9j_Y/s1600-h/cityscape.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoE31lXFMIqdLa6BD0Rf6dk7l605EVXIqVXt84sI2PzTvFgLK4slvY5JSfMXzjeTozOT6Rf1sj3t875SIRDQcDgcMRYllzZwlBaGjVpzypUovW63NpwFMhw38xzu7r6xnt4KDqk0I9j_Y/s320/cityscape.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431691386182286594" /></a><br /><br />I have to start out by saying, that if you are afraid of traveling in Asia and want the most cushioned, Western introduction possible, Singapore is your place. Not only are the bathrooms mostly western style and generally clean, pretty much everyone speaks English, and most shocking of all: the tap water is drinkable! The name Singapore comes from a story of a Sumatran king who came to the island and saw a Lion. SInga means Lion, so he named it Lion city -> Singapura and thus now we have Singapore. Although it was involved in some China and India trade through the centuries, it was mostly a smallish fishing village until Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived in 1819 and decided it would be a great coastal city to help British trade in SE Asia. The British planned out the Island and developed it, and many people moved in from Southern China. After WWII, it was part of the Malay Federation, until it was kicked out in 1965. At this point, most people thought there was no way the little island city could make it as its own country, but a Chinese guy named Lee Kuan Yew, leader of the socialist People’s Action Party, took over and set strict regulations on social behavior and started an intense industrialization plan. He’s why Singapore is known for having tons of ridiculous rules and fines for things like chewing gum, spitting, smoking, drugs (for smaller offenses you get flogged), etc. On the upside, the government has done a lot of things like building tons of condos and subsidizing them such that pretty much everyone owns their own property. It is very rare to see an extremely poor person in Singapore. There aren’t really people selling cheapy trinkets or fruit on the street (except for in little shops), and you don’t see beggars, and unlike China, it’s not because they bus them out to the countryside periodically to clean up. Anyway, now Lee Kuan Yew’s son is in charge, and he’s apparently much more tolerant and a little less strict with his policies. The population is mostly Chinese (~75%) and the rest are mostly Malay or Indian. The country has four national languages, one of which is English, and children are encouraged to maintain the language and culture of their family, as well as learn English from an early age and take university classes in English. When you’re walking around you hear a lot of different languages and dialects, but pretty much anyone you stop on the street will be able to speak to you in accented, but fluent English. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFWYbdERAAKBOcRvTVHzUcMYK5Hqj0YD-aIrZmPqSwQAu_HtisKk9yL25_UCFkVgvjjJE3ohVvV4cVBvzezsaBkFq946YH7nd65al9PYle4mlnl4swa-ryK7TyWYrfnTh_rnMy8SKa5I/s1600-h/raffles.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFWYbdERAAKBOcRvTVHzUcMYK5Hqj0YD-aIrZmPqSwQAu_HtisKk9yL25_UCFkVgvjjJE3ohVvV4cVBvzezsaBkFq946YH7nd65al9PYle4mlnl4swa-ryK7TyWYrfnTh_rnMy8SKa5I/s320/raffles.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431691363684761090" /></a><br /><br />Singapore is basically a huge city on a little island, with a little sub island that has casinos and beaches on it for the tourists, and a bit of fringe forest and less populated area. We stayed in a hotel right in the heart of the city. It’s a great walking city, with huge clean sidewalks, orderly street crossing (gasp, in Asia??), and lots of greenery. Also, there are still a lot of colonial style old buildings mixed in with the modern skyscrapers. We arrived in the morning, so after hitting up an AMAZING Indian lunch buffet we walked around the old colonial parts of town. We ended up walking into the Asian Civilizations Museum, which was really interesting and in depth. It covered SE Asian artifacts, culture and history in detail, along with China and West Asia. It has so many floors and displays that we only ended up scratching the surface before we got tired and decided to head out early. After that we walked a bit more, but it was so hot that we decided to head over to the famous Raffles Hotel for their signature drink the “Singapore Sling.” They have a lot of places to eat and drink there, but the famous one is called the Long Bar, which is kind of an old fashioned setting, where you crack peanuts and throw their shells on the ground as you enjoy your drinks. We had eaten so much for lunch at the buffet, and then so many peanuts that we decided to skip dinner and take a swim instead that night. The air is so thick and hot and humid that constantly being close to air conditioning or a pool is important. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTFK3QMT2V-PkEfpnhsoU9aXPm-eeKjXcCqW-jqjl1CNgB-S4PFrkovxaiL3OSQ-n8ufgaK1HVRNUkVo-2D09wHoHyjsRyHIi_2xke0Xkv1QVwtAk7rSD2YiiV2PGRAKm0oE3kZpLEKk/s1600-h/riverfront.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTFK3QMT2V-PkEfpnhsoU9aXPm-eeKjXcCqW-jqjl1CNgB-S4PFrkovxaiL3OSQ-n8ufgaK1HVRNUkVo-2D09wHoHyjsRyHIi_2xke0Xkv1QVwtAk7rSD2YiiV2PGRAKm0oE3kZpLEKk/s320/riverfront.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431691379001188530" /></a><br /><br />When my mom graduated from college, she came straight out to Singapore to live for two years, study Chinese and teach English. The school where she taught was called Nanyang University, and has since been almost completely reconstructed and renamed Nanyang Technical University. It’s a little ways outside the city, and the next morning we hired a cab to take us there and drive around a bit. My mom didn’t really recognize much except the old administration building, but she found the hill where her old apartment had been. Coincidentally, in its place is now a massive Computer Engineering building. After that, we headed over to the zoo, which sounds hokey, but it was actually really cool. It uses this new “open concept” layout, where basically it mostly feels like you’re walking on a pathway through the jungle, and you look over the railings and see the animals. They are actually enclosed in their areas somehow, but the settings are very natural and large. The most impressive display is that of the Orang-tans, which is a system of trees, ropes, and ledges where they can freely swing and wander over the heads of the people watching them. The zoo also has public feeding times for each of the animals, where they either bring the animals close to the windows or fences to feed them, or actually allow people to pay and feed them themselves. Obviously that doesn’t work for animals with sharp teeth, but for white rhinos and the Orang-utans its fine. The sign there said that the local people had originally thought the Orang-utans were another tribe of people in the jungle, so the name literally means “Man of the Jungle.” It must have been surprising to try to trade or communicate with them and figure out they were much smaller, hairier, and oranger than expected. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MQvfPQD9ol_Tl4a9rWgeQpoIgf7NTdA6c6e0TxkI9YwS8zphi_SPqOwdv_rRGrH7_hNwPqm-3KwtxhW3vI64gN0CMYQfpFdpM6ONDi0C7XoJ-c06KwOb1nGPvu4Nh4xYtcLxPgg1j4Q/s1600-h/orangs.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MQvfPQD9ol_Tl4a9rWgeQpoIgf7NTdA6c6e0TxkI9YwS8zphi_SPqOwdv_rRGrH7_hNwPqm-3KwtxhW3vI64gN0CMYQfpFdpM6ONDi0C7XoJ-c06KwOb1nGPvu4Nh4xYtcLxPgg1j4Q/s320/orangs.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431691393515357826" /></a><br /><br />That night we went to this newish, classy bar and restaurant scene called Clark Quay for dinner. The river that runs through the city used to be filled with little boats and waste and was extremely dirty, but also part of the sea trade personality of the city. In the late 70s, they decided to start a ten year clean-up program and have the river be clean enough to swim in by the end of the time. They cleared out all the boats and waste from the river, and lined it with walls, walkways, and a food and nightlife area. I guess people were pretty upset, but it is really nice now (for tourists at least). The future plan is to turn it into a fresh water supply that will make it so Singapore is no longer dependent on Malaysia for their water. <br />The next day we walked along Orchard Road, which is the main shopping street in the city. It’s mostly designer now, with huge malls and Gucci, Prada, D&G etc. I swear each mall has the same stores, and none of them are really even worth going into. As you get down the street, it gets a little more reasonable with stores like Aldo and Banana Republic, and then way down it turns into cheap souvenir shops (more my budget). For lunch we went to Din Tai Feng, which is an amazing Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant (they actually have one in LA), and for dinner we went to this cool little complex called “Chijmes” that looks like it used to be some sort of Church with a school or something attached. It’s all nice restaurants now though. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A6Nu9yAEAiQDDMqhZFd1l2yaeQvHLzj8lZmCL1kqyGyB0owOyCz6N5HszN4ePD0v3Q8qnneFmcBfubUsnz9vOqI3i_yp_SPl8F2x-GgqJ9xl8x67sDVxQqE8YBMmy-b5dZdwRE790Pw/s1600-h/funnynose.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A6Nu9yAEAiQDDMqhZFd1l2yaeQvHLzj8lZmCL1kqyGyB0owOyCz6N5HszN4ePD0v3Q8qnneFmcBfubUsnz9vOqI3i_yp_SPl8F2x-GgqJ9xl8x67sDVxQqE8YBMmy-b5dZdwRE790Pw/s320/funnynose.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431691402905588066" /></a><br /><br />So that was Singapore. There’s also a Chinatown and Little India that are recommended that I didn’t check out. On the plane ride here I was reading my Southeast Asia on a Shoestring book and it kept talking about how there’s bird flu in Indonesia and how recently the local airlines have had planes falling out of the sky, so I’m feeling a little nervous about this, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m very excited for Tara to get here, mostly to see her, but also because there’s sweat dripping down my back and I’m kind of missing that nice cool hotel in Singapore. We’re getting picked up by someone from our hotel, which is called Taman Harum and is in Ubud, up in the hills of Bali. Ubud is known for being kind of a cultural center of Bali, which is the only Hindu island left in Indonesia (the rest are Muslim). Kuta beach is where most tourists come for clubs and surfing, and I didn’t really plan that into the schedule at all, but now I’m kind of wishing there was time to check it out and see what all the hype is about. Maybe in the next few days we’ll find time. Well, I guess I’m kind of rambling now to avoid the stares I’m getting for furiously typing on a tiny computer, but maybe a better answer is to put it away. <br /><br />As always, I love to get comments and email updates! Talk soon.Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-83978307932970806282010-01-24T16:54:00.000-08:002010-01-24T17:25:09.380-08:00Goodbye Bangkok, Hello Singapore!Well, we’ve just said goodbye (or Sawasdee rather...) to Thailand and are on our way to Singapore. It’s much further than I thought – about a 2 hour flight, but it gives me a good break to write about the past few days we spent in Bangkok. Honestly, my opinion of Bangkok is not very high, which may be because I was pretty tired from the trekking days in Chiang Mai, or because it was generally overcast (or smoggy...) the whole time, but we did do some interesting things. Luckily our hotel (called Tenface Hotel) was great, had amazingly soft beds in modern suite style rooms and, best of all, delicious breakfasts which included dim sum every morning. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijC2ZixhEqGT8t1Yxs_5yQe1xrdh7wXKR34RJRKOEHwtJhigU0nT8-iR5LWOoWwO-0tLKLEThDvruNzLF1yvYOLj1gqNYwNobhWDt-4iq1-QUFQdxpAEYqAmemTERCmz-F7pmdpnJXrRg/s1600-h/DSC_0709.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijC2ZixhEqGT8t1Yxs_5yQe1xrdh7wXKR34RJRKOEHwtJhigU0nT8-iR5LWOoWwO-0tLKLEThDvruNzLF1yvYOLj1gqNYwNobhWDt-4iq1-QUFQdxpAEYqAmemTERCmz-F7pmdpnJXrRg/s320/DSC_0709.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430480003385694978" /></a><br /><br />The train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was comfortable as far as trains go – there were two levels of beds that folded out from the chairs. Unfortunately, although they require that everyone be quiet at 10 pm, they leave the lights on all night, so being in the top bunk was kind of like sleeping in a dentist chair with the lights blaring in your face. I guess it’s okay though, because we saw some little cockroaches and Tony told us that if we killed them, all their friends would come looking for them and we would be swarmed. Luckily they don’t like the light very much, so they mostly stayed away and we didn’t have to kill any. Tony kept us company most of the afternoon, explaining some Thai customs, telling us about his fiancé named Golf, and telling us our horoscopes based on our days and years of birth. He told me it is best if I marry a man born on a Sunday, and that the small Thai Buddha that I bought is actually my Buddha (because its pose signifies that it’s a Thursday Buddha) and it will be good luck. Who knew. He also told us some funny translation stories, about Thai names that don’t translate well to English. He said that the word “Fuk” means “pumpkin”, and that “uman” (pronounced “You Man”) means something like “strong man” (you can probably see where this is going).. anyway he has a friend named “Fuk Uman” who will most likely have to change his name if he ever chooses to move to an English speaking country. Also, the word “porn” means wishes, so many people have names with “porn” in them, like … “Siriporn” which means “good wishes,” and also “Tittiporn” which means “fulfilled wishes.” He said that some English names sound really funny in Thai… but he wouldn’t tell us which ones so we suspected that maybe someone in our group has one of them.<br /><br />Everyone in our group got off at the train station before ours, so we had to say goodbye sleepily at around 6:30 am when we arrived in Bangkok. It was definitely fun traveling in a group. Hopefully we’ll keep in touch. <br /><br />After that, we went to our hotel, and sat in the café until we were allowed to check in and pass out in the huge bed. Needless to say, we didn’t do much that day. That night, we met up with a friend named Siriporn, who was introduced to us by the Welkes when she worked for Microsoft in Redmond. She has since moved back to Bangkok, and now works as a Microsoft evangelist there. She took us to a wonderful Thai seafood dinner on the river and told us all about her encounters with the princess. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_er6iSiJHC3hxg9KtrBExJlFT2ZDGdoLbDLCia8YmbKbyoStOSlBczXjBXfTd0edMwIvAxyRQ1eO6-U9QJ8I9RlQZzBw_dJMpNlhseNJrTXhZ6JInPjhwr6Wd_RS4usXgs7qrDEPecU/s1600-h/DSC_0777.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_er6iSiJHC3hxg9KtrBExJlFT2ZDGdoLbDLCia8YmbKbyoStOSlBczXjBXfTd0edMwIvAxyRQ1eO6-U9QJ8I9RlQZzBw_dJMpNlhseNJrTXhZ6JInPjhwr6Wd_RS4usXgs7qrDEPecU/s320/DSC_0777.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430477677052366482" /></a><br /><br />It’s so cute how much the Thai people love their royal family. The king’s pictures are seriously EVERYWHERE. As you drive down most major streets you’re bombarded with pictures of him doing various things – standing in his royal garb, talking to little school children, visiting remote villages. His wife is in most of them as well. We learned that he has four children, three daughters and one son. The first daughter married an American and renounced her royalness. She has since divorced, so instead of being addressed as “Her Royal Highness” she is just “princess.” The second child is the son, who is the Crown Prince and is set to take over the throne from his father (who is now 82 and has been in the hospital for 3 months). The third is the princess that most people seem to love the most. She’s remained single, but has followed in her father’s footsteps, taking great concern for the Thai people, traveling to remote areas to hear their requests, etc. We didn’t hear much about the fourth daughter, but I think she’s married in Thailand and kind of lays low. Anyway, they’re the local celebrities, and saying anything negative about the king is punishable by law. My guidebook says that someone once referred to him as the “skipper” and was arrested because people weren’t sure what it meant. Also, since his picture is printed on every bill and imprinted on every coin, it is illegal to step on money. So I guess I’ve strayed a bit from dinner… but the point is that it was great food and company. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbJbFrr8Y7BNextzuVRbJiKhBmKZdSwvb-JEab09vHhnXfVmUFnooRiRi6gUd4zQx0cGTu8bU_W76T6PoLY5CGI7rJlUanyph3f2rkpdmLM4TdQ8T3icu9FxhRe7kBXrm2c_2BZ1l0YE/s1600-h/DSC_0779.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbJbFrr8Y7BNextzuVRbJiKhBmKZdSwvb-JEab09vHhnXfVmUFnooRiRi6gUd4zQx0cGTu8bU_W76T6PoLY5CGI7rJlUanyph3f2rkpdmLM4TdQ8T3icu9FxhRe7kBXrm2c_2BZ1l0YE/s320/DSC_0779.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430477687347052530" /></a><br />(a sticker in one of our taxis)<br /><br />We’re landing in Singapore now, so I’ll have to write the rest of this later. Also there’s a man hacking out his lungs three seats away that’s making everyone nervous. Poor guy. Everyone’s holding napkins to their faces and glaring at him. Hopefully we don’t all get the swine. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3nJVi3jMYuXyc1E2qG3YYsFkpYLvn7ooAPQawVpNkbLkgGRsIzJxKDv_ATkH4_HSCifxn__rCraaERKxbRiGAj67y2ZeyLFPiU9_rQob6lJ94pAY_-EkSCf9YBULszUcoDMFtFWQZqX0/s1600-h/DSC_0739.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3nJVi3jMYuXyc1E2qG3YYsFkpYLvn7ooAPQawVpNkbLkgGRsIzJxKDv_ATkH4_HSCifxn__rCraaERKxbRiGAj67y2ZeyLFPiU9_rQob6lJ94pAY_-EkSCf9YBULszUcoDMFtFWQZqX0/s320/DSC_0739.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430477666168150002" /></a><br /><br />.. Okay, where was I... oh yes, Bangkok. So the city itself is very depressing from what I could tell. There is no city planning or zoning work to speak of, so it’s kind of just a jumbled mass of grey concrete, some of which is tall office buildings, and some of which is probably the gloomiest slum-like apartments I’ve ever seen. There is very little greenery, and there also seem to be very few sidewalks, and thus not many pedestrians. It’s PACKED with cars though, and during rush hour it’s literally at a standstill. The one upside is that many of the taxis are hot pink. So there you have it. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtx5q0cGgdgOHmbX4YUmGYKZDgRyWYByRNdIpyAVX9mTvWNfIyMRHT0BXYW5MVWnIMgM2juuewgffS7fnwgfLS55g43Vohq0N5Jp2_eQWGobt3kQobmxdknjabhJj78bh7YYgwbUyCeU/s1600-h/P1230329.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtx5q0cGgdgOHmbX4YUmGYKZDgRyWYByRNdIpyAVX9mTvWNfIyMRHT0BXYW5MVWnIMgM2juuewgffS7fnwgfLS55g43Vohq0N5Jp2_eQWGobt3kQobmxdknjabhJj78bh7YYgwbUyCeU/s320/P1230329.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430479985129030770" /></a><br /><br />While in Bangkok, we heard the major must-see site is the Grand Palace, so we checked that out on the second morning. It is, indeed, very impressive. Although it’s made up of a lot of beautiful things that are tightly packed together and pretty confusing to navigate through, each building is a masterpiece. Especially the temple area that houses the “Emerald Buddha” (remember Tony told us the lightning story earlier?) has amazing detail. All the buildings are either completely covered with gold encasing, or completely covered with the most intricate mosaic designs and patterns. The Emerald Buddha himself has three different gold outfits to go with the changing weather (rainy seasons, summer, winter) that they swap out ceremonially three times a year. The rest of the grand palace area has an interesting mix of European and Thai style buildings, including living areas, throne rooms, and weapon displays. There is also a Haagen Dasz that serves amazing caramel brownie ice cream - definitely an important part of the experience.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh30xYC4QEdYSK0Lu_ZjAvnlrcPLTtoNrFzW33vX2wg_ALsN84husvW4AhwIE-7bDaEsQ2dZrSbDChpFbf_vvNwDwG2K1WMpjsnHAXj86cUZdYaiZ7fFlqqF8SZt0vWF6uE9mXe7WJ4Egg/s1600-h/DSC_0742.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh30xYC4QEdYSK0Lu_ZjAvnlrcPLTtoNrFzW33vX2wg_ALsN84husvW4AhwIE-7bDaEsQ2dZrSbDChpFbf_vvNwDwG2K1WMpjsnHAXj86cUZdYaiZ7fFlqqF8SZt0vWF6uE9mXe7WJ4Egg/s320/DSC_0742.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430477677571988338" /></a><br /><br />Later that day we checked out the big famous shopping area called MBK. It’s basically six floors packed with knockoff stuff. The tech area was actually pretty crazy. They have iPhones and every camera you can think of. It’s strange because it’s a lot like the silk road shopping area in Beijing, but the stuff seems like much better quality. It’s also much more expensive. I figure if you’re going to buy knockoff stuff, it might as well be cheap right? I’ll wait for China. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYMeZNS37fdxVCPgWG1T-9f2kqEWxX8_UNG_UgHj6DOnqqZ0pXFbPJwGaaMDgORWq8vSmcIO2wFnyNYeiwz4_aqXYNT1DZPlX5Bpf38xk7p1wAXsxqhqCtwlTxV_ZNOOwfRXygO2Tw-c/s1600-h/P1220319.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYMeZNS37fdxVCPgWG1T-9f2kqEWxX8_UNG_UgHj6DOnqqZ0pXFbPJwGaaMDgORWq8vSmcIO2wFnyNYeiwz4_aqXYNT1DZPlX5Bpf38xk7p1wAXsxqhqCtwlTxV_ZNOOwfRXygO2Tw-c/s320/P1220319.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430479976161063810" /></a><br /><br />The next morning we went to the famous “Floating Market” which is about an hour and a half outside Bangkok. I think at one point, it was a local market where people went to buy their veggies and other goods for daily life from merchants who fill little boats with things to sell and float around. Now the experience goes something like this: pay a guy to take you out in his little narrow boat -> get stuck in something that resembles Bangkok car traffic, but is on the water and involves boat exhaust spewing at you from odd angles -> get pulled from every direction by boat merchants selling the exact same souvenirs as each other and as every other land market merchant -> get back to the dock and have them attempt to sell you an awkward picture of you printed on a bowl. I guess after the Cambodia floating village, it just seems insincere and overly populated with tourists. Honestly, it’s not horrible, but you should only go if you really want to buy souvenirs and fruit and are sick of the normal market scene. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifzEdUy9cRKA7PQHf93g6wVV6VSYE1j7XjRwMrJ3VhPRKhQCrJZtLlUudQFgvaqOJjcsSXO89vOnel3HJdSalA9WOdIgl0r1EOQkldjcOK1dFIIIB1GF0FL-sSszmlAeqw2aOEFBYEQwE/s1600-h/P1220316.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifzEdUy9cRKA7PQHf93g6wVV6VSYE1j7XjRwMrJ3VhPRKhQCrJZtLlUudQFgvaqOJjcsSXO89vOnel3HJdSalA9WOdIgl0r1EOQkldjcOK1dFIIIB1GF0FL-sSszmlAeqw2aOEFBYEQwE/s320/P1220316.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430477694749623458" /></a><br /><br />That night we went to a dinner and traditional Thai dancing show. The dinner was great – they gave us little bowls of a lot of different things – curries, veggies, spring rolls etc. The dancing was also good, although I think I don’t quite understand the technique enough to appreciate it. They had beautiful sparkly traditional costumes, and the dancing involved a lot of kind of “move and pose, move and pose” type thing – with really subtle head and hip movements. The most striking thing is that the dancers curled their fingers back at what seemed like a very unnatural angle as they dance. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnn03f7nLsOq6OApc8Oxpnt9R4u7PJLfDFo69RDxSh4B17gdFicW39dPgmRxnI4RGHht_QNk_fiFhj7xZhMXy77FtSwbnbhc4Ijt4Z-heG16nqveY6imr1PX-KBxXOUYOrjN1-6QvBp9U/s1600-h/P1230341.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnn03f7nLsOq6OApc8Oxpnt9R4u7PJLfDFo69RDxSh4B17gdFicW39dPgmRxnI4RGHht_QNk_fiFhj7xZhMXy77FtSwbnbhc4Ijt4Z-heG16nqveY6imr1PX-KBxXOUYOrjN1-6QvBp9U/s320/P1230341.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430479988843132194" /></a><br /><br />Anyway, that just about brings us up to date – to Singapore. Landing here was like a breath of fresh air – the lawns are all perfectly manicured, there’s green everywhere, everything is orderly - the palm trees are even strategically placed. We landed over beautiful blue, tropical water and islands, and the sky has been blue and clear all day. It’s definitely a large contrast to the chaos and grit of Bangkok. Maybe I just went at the wrong time and saw the wrong things. We did miss the two biggest temples because I was a bit templed out. I guess I won’t meet the large reclining Buddha until next time. So, I’ll update again after we see some exciting things here. Also, I posted a lot of my pictures from Cambodia and Thailand here:<br /><br /><table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyMYang/Thailand?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_g9rBWIo-4X0/S1mNxubafhE/AAAAAAAAAU8/vQY-9VHXi0A/s160-c/Thailand.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyMYang/Thailand?feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Thailand</a></td></tr></table><br /><br /><table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyMYang/Cambodia?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_g9rBWIo-4X0/S1q7PZ4xt_E/AAAAAAAAA1A/jPm3alK_PiY/s160-c/Cambodia.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyMYang/Cambodia?feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Cambodia</a></td></tr></table><br /><br />I still have more to add, but there are probably already more up than any of you will have time to look through, haha. If you’re interested though, I’ll write again when I add the rest. Talk soon! <br />P.S. comment! Because it makes me happy! and I can never tell if anyone is reading this Cop Koon Kaa (Thank you) <3Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-90180926825134982742010-01-20T18:24:00.000-08:002010-01-20T19:09:22.112-08:00Sawasdee!In Thailand, Sawasdee (Kaa/Kup for Female/Male) is kind of like Aloha, and serves as a polite hello and goodbye. It’s pretty much the only Thai that I’ve learned that I remember.. except that Mai Pai means bamboo… But anyhow, it’s a good one to know. <br />Well, now we’re on a train, heading from Chiang Mai to Bangkok after a crazy trekking adventure through the hills. It all started three days ago, when we packed up our rented day packs with rented sleeping bags and all our stuff for 3 days, loaded up into one of those pickup trucks, like bench taxis, and headed off into the wilds. And by wilds, I mean that a lot of people live there but the bathrooms have no running water, the roads are not paved, and most electricity comes from solar panels. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX3o-gP1nKTWcybH-tsl3Z7ruyrgEeA93nMP0YeVqeUlBCazDsIC-SXgip16J9TCBmmCURSpA8S9r-IZzc-Vp-UriQ8UKieQbtSPwxJQbRaIgpSxJ47V2XJnaUE5t8vqx7ZJ7C4q28j0/s1600-h/IMG_5175.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX3o-gP1nKTWcybH-tsl3Z7ruyrgEeA93nMP0YeVqeUlBCazDsIC-SXgip16J9TCBmmCURSpA8S9r-IZzc-Vp-UriQ8UKieQbtSPwxJQbRaIgpSxJ47V2XJnaUE5t8vqx7ZJ7C4q28j0/s320/IMG_5175.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429022393719782450" /></a><br /><br /><br />After stopping to check out a pretty waterfall in the woods and grabbing some fried rice lunch in a bamboo hut, we were left off at a trailhead that led into the jungle, about 2 hours out of Chiang Mai. It was hot, and immediately required a steep uphill climb that got most of us panting. I was kind of expecting a nice little nature walk, but it ended up being mostly dramatic up-hills and down-hills with a sprinkling of level ground, much of it through what seemed like never- or relatively infrequently-trekked through areas. The jungle was beautiful, very green and lush and a fairly cool temperature in the shade. Every now and then I got a buzz in my ear, but other than that the bugs were minimal. The first part was through mostly pine tree forest, with huge rubbery vines hanging down that some people tried swinging and climbing on a bit. Our Thai tour guide, Tony, is apparently a budding archeologist, and he showed us a few foundations of old structures, mostly made out of brick remnants, that he claims were temples about 400 years ago. They both had large pits in a certain area, where he said there used to be gold Buddhas, but that someone must have tried to come dig them up and steal them. Everywhere you looked, there were green rolling hills, and sometimes if you got low enough there were rice paddies visible at the bottoms of the hills. The trek was about two and a half hours, but seemed much longer because of the strenuous ups and downs. My mom took a dramatic fall on one of the down hills, which was scary but she was pretty much completely fine (a little shaken) afterwards, so we trekked on. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6D3Qd7573q2OHjE5QB3LwSFCTsKTYNvpBWVwyuwDqgMZ8E7Q174emcjP4Kq76IrhYsoXWegzTHIyeM_oL4L7LfqlJqfeKHQ19N58IgAVuA7wOD-CFddIzfhEtLwWpwYeaR1rTff-WC4Y/s1600-h/IMG_5104.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6D3Qd7573q2OHjE5QB3LwSFCTsKTYNvpBWVwyuwDqgMZ8E7Q174emcjP4Kq76IrhYsoXWegzTHIyeM_oL4L7LfqlJqfeKHQ19N58IgAVuA7wOD-CFddIzfhEtLwWpwYeaR1rTff-WC4Y/s320/IMG_5104.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429021361482496658" /></a><br /><br />Finally, after a particularly steep downhill stretch, we saw a little village appear beyond the bright red, long stemmed poinsettias. It was a village of about 200 people, and most of the structures were made out of bamboo with either thatched or metal roofs, raised above the ground. Chickens, dogs, and water buffalo wandered around, and the people watched us walk through, pretty unphased and uninterested, except for a few little giggling girls who kept peeping over the ledges at us. Most of the women were dressed in shirts and sarongs, and we watched one of them sift through some rice to separate the hulls. Tony led us to a larger structure, also made of bamboo, right next to a stream, which was our home for the night. In the stream they had set up a bamboo log that ran the same way the water flowed. The log stuck straight out over a small drop off in the stream, so we went and stood on the flat lower area and the water that ran through the log and shot out, serving as an extremely cold but also refreshing shower. The boys chose, instead, to grab beers and go chill in a waterfall area a little further downstream. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib7fecViYPBzeyQRVqXEQd2s2pW77lsAzpcv-jCrrfQRBKAOVHWShtV5LYP7hD62kVtP_8TZjPim18_6DL2432llZ10H0aMDdOyquLwg6cgIUxxjgspfSWEXwboz-76QTs6MZxfugooL0/s1600-h/IMG_5057.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib7fecViYPBzeyQRVqXEQd2s2pW77lsAzpcv-jCrrfQRBKAOVHWShtV5LYP7hD62kVtP_8TZjPim18_6DL2432llZ10H0aMDdOyquLwg6cgIUxxjgspfSWEXwboz-76QTs6MZxfugooL0/s320/IMG_5057.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429021353794169666" /></a><br /><br />Our local guide, whom we called Mr. G, had bought a lot of food at the local market for us and served as our chef (among other things) for the whole trip. On the first night he made some delicious spring rolls and curry. There were two outhouse-type bathrooms, one with a western toilet and one with a squattie, and two large bedrooms, one for girls and one for boys. After dinner it was actually pretty cold, so we all sat around the fire for a while and enjoyed Tony’s baffling magic tricks (he’s a jack of many trades), which used strings and coins and cards, for a few hours. Then we passed out early to the loud sound of water running right by the cottage. There was no electricity, so we used little flashlights, which made for scary treks to the outhouse in the dark. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiv0sgvndhKMVXHDtPqgZcSKdrwzYhIaS-rmPSXdc2wOLBS3TZGJsnZRqb8Ysn_voj62J-RVTdMttJWpTp9YKXpHsGUvaCZnSGquQylOreUpiMd0i4dx0BY7prCN9qKsYMB3z7FZwTUPY/s1600-h/IMG_5015.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiv0sgvndhKMVXHDtPqgZcSKdrwzYhIaS-rmPSXdc2wOLBS3TZGJsnZRqb8Ysn_voj62J-RVTdMttJWpTp9YKXpHsGUvaCZnSGquQylOreUpiMd0i4dx0BY7prCN9qKsYMB3z7FZwTUPY/s320/IMG_5015.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429021345926580354" /></a><br /><br />The next day my mom decided that her trekking days were over, so she hired a local guy to take her to the next village on his motorbike. After a few hardboiled eggs and some toast, the rest of us set out on our second trek. At first we trekked through some hills in a bamboo forest, which led to a lower area with rice paddies. We stopped for lunch in an empty raised hut by a rice paddy and Mr. G pulled out our lunches – noodles wrapped in big beautiful banana leaves, with grilled chicken and fresh-cut pineapple, which was really delicious. On the way, he had carved chopsticks for us out of bamboo. He and Tony never ceased to surprise us with their talents. The water buffalo around us made funny little noises that sounded like “hmm?” as we passed them and trekked on through more rice paddies, and then back into a bamboo forest, and over multiple little streams. The trek ended up being about 4 and a half hours total, including lunch, but it went by quickly and painlessly and was pretty fun and pleasant. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ioOxwrKBYW3KNySj-Frb-xhvpKQnkqm9Cyr1qklTxJnrGpXik3SE5BKTInTgrR_0dq78Kk8vcFy1IiDPgGpSIi1B_YT-vfvk2qWTh1Y9uoiyTrDB58QiKH089lnoYY9En1wM_cXZMQ8/s1600-h/IMG_5008.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ioOxwrKBYW3KNySj-Frb-xhvpKQnkqm9Cyr1qklTxJnrGpXik3SE5BKTInTgrR_0dq78Kk8vcFy1IiDPgGpSIi1B_YT-vfvk2qWTh1Y9uoiyTrDB58QiKH089lnoYY9En1wM_cXZMQ8/s320/IMG_5008.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429021336317841842" /></a><br /><br />The second village we stopped at was about twice as big as the first, 400-500 people. The bathrooms were also like outhouses, but much closer to the raised hut where we were sleeping. They had Southeast Asian-style baths, which are huge tubs of water and a small bucket in a little outhouse, where you stand and repeatedly fill the little bucket and pour it over yourself. The water was very cold, but it was nice to be able to at least control it and brace yourself before each splash. This hut was bigger, so we got to sleep about two people per room, but the beds were the same type of thin pad on the bamboo floor. After arriving, they called in a group of elephants to take us for an hour ride. It was really fun! We sat in little boxes on their backs, while their trainers sat on their heads and directed them. They took us on a path through some fields and woods, and then back through the river. One of the elephants had a 6-month-old baby that tagged along, weaving in and out between its mother’s feet. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPJEBq-wPr5HzanIWO90eFKz3UofF3Hm-vxP36iRZO3UppGuHK4dE7aGzEV3zjc6XB_qgA6f-eP5hvpuwivs6guoy-y0ssLKNep5v7REBHjMvNShqCBjIFmOUfSL5lUxsWHv1UtWdiNk/s1600-h/IMG_4991.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPJEBq-wPr5HzanIWO90eFKz3UofF3Hm-vxP36iRZO3UppGuHK4dE7aGzEV3zjc6XB_qgA6f-eP5hvpuwivs6guoy-y0ssLKNep5v7REBHjMvNShqCBjIFmOUfSL5lUxsWHv1UtWdiNk/s320/IMG_4991.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429021327420587250" /></a><br /><br />When we got back, we washed and freshened up a bit, and then took a walk into town to visit the local school. Since this was one of the largest villages in the area, it was where all the surrounding villages’ children came to school. Most of them lived there Monday through Friday, going home to their parents only on the weekends. Tony explained to us how they learned to cook and clean there, along with their other lessons. Some of the boys on our trip joined a large game of soccer with the kids after they finished dinner. Later, we enjoyed another wonderful Mr. G meal, which included banana spring rolls and a sweet pumpkin dish. <br /><br />We stayed up a little later talking and listening to Tony tell us about the king and queen and princesses of Thailand to candlelight for a while after dinner. Apparently the king hand-picked his third child, a princess, to succeed him. It seems that although the government has changed hands multiple times in recent history, the royal family as served as kind of a stable form of leadership. They are highly respected throughout Thailand, and most businesses have their pictures up, and sometimes a large, elaborate shrine for them. Tony told us about how he encourages the kids in the villages to write to the princess to ask for improvements in their roads and other more modern accommodations. Unfortunately, it ended up being very hard to sleep that night because the roosters decided to have some sort of crowing festival under our hut. <br /><br />In the morning, we woke up early, had breakfast, and then loaded ourselves and all our stuff onto two bamboo rafts that had just been built by the local people. They each were basically made of about 15 long bamboo trunks tied together, with a little tee-pee type structure at the front to hold our bags above water. We put 5-6 people on each raft, and Mr. G and Tony served as rowers along with two local guys (2 rowers on each boat, one front and one back) each rowing with a long bamboo pole. We all mostly stood on the rafts, since the bamboo floated just below the water and a lot of water came through the cracks. The morning was a bit chilly and overcast, and sometimes we would go over small rapids and have to kneel down, so we ended up getting kind of wet (except Kate and Bill were talented enough to stay dry through the whole thing). Jim, Marc, Mr. G and Tony all went for a swim when it got a little warmer and the river was deep enough. We rafted for about 3 and a half hours, through peaceful jungle scenery, listening to Tony and Mr. G sing random popular American music (you know:.. “hey jude”, the Titanic song(!), the typical ones..) and some Thai ones. We ended up at another little bamboo hut, where we were served great phad thai, and then loaded back into our truck taxi and drove for 2 hours back to the city.<br /><br />I have to say, as fun as the trek was, it was so amazing to have a hot shower and a soft bed back in Chiang Mai. Our 2 star hotel seemed like the most luxurious 5 star possible and I think we all slept very well. <br /><br />This morning we woke up, and my mom, Kate and I went to an Elephant Training Camp that Tony recommended. It was really awesome, and there were tons of elephants with their trainers walking around. We got there just in time to see them get washed in the river that runs through the camp. As they walked past us they reached out their trunks to us, hoping to find some bananas or sugar cane. They didn’t find any, but we got to pet them, which was cool. They went down into the river and rolled around and sprayed themselves as their trainers scrubbed them down with brushes. Then we bought some bananas and headed over to the nursery to feed them to a baby elephant. The elephant mom was jealous, I think, because she kept blasting me with air.. and snot and other things.. with her nose.. so that was gross. But the baby was cute. After that we watched the main show, where the elephants played soccer, darts, harmonicas, and even painted pictures. It’s shocking how smart they are. One of the elephants painted a whole landscape, while another painted pretty little flowers growing out of a pot, and another drew a tree. <br /><br />In the afternoon, Tony took us to look around the old part of Chiang Mai town, which included a few temples, one of which was about 600 years old called Wat Chedi Luang and used to house the “emerald” Buddha. Tony told us a story about how the emerald Buddha didn’t want to be in Chiang Mai, and its temple kept getting hit by lightning and then collapsed during an earthquake in 1545, so the king took a hint and moved it, and himself, just in time before Chiang Mai got attacked and overrun by the Burmese. <br /><br />This afternoon we packed up our stuff and loaded up on to a train, which we’ll spend about 14 hours on, and wake up in Bangkok tomorrow morning. Phew.. it’s been a packed couple of days. Sorry I had to save it all up again and pack it into one entry, but needless to say the villages didn’t have internet access. <br /><br />So far, I love Thailand. The people are very friendly, and not super aggressive (not as much as in China anyway). It has a very pretty and respectful culture, and the people are very proud of their culture and history and love to share it with visitors. My one complaint is a problem that I suppose I’m contributing to, which is that there are SO MANY tourists here. I swear in some parts there are more European -looking people than Thai. Anyhow, I can’t blame any of them for wanting to visit or live here. It’s beautiful, warm and the food is amazing. The temples are very intricately designed, often using either gold encasing or trim. It is very rude to point the sole of your foot at someone, and just like in Cambodia, the sign for thank you is to put your palms together under your chin with your elbows out and bow slightly. The people here definitely look more East Asian than those in Cambodia. Cambodians have generally darker skin and rounder eyes than the Thais or Vietnamese. It’s interesting how Cambodia got so much more Indian influence than the countries around it. It makes me wonder what Laos is like. <br /><br />We had to say Goodbye to Mr. G yesterday, which was very sad, and will soon have to part from Tony and his many skills, which will also be unfortunate. Luckily we have a long train ride to rack his brain for ideas of how to spend our next few days in Bangkok…. Till next time. <br /><br />PS. I didn't realize that my small camera uses an XD card, and I don't have a card reader yet, so I can't put some of my awesome bamboo rafting and other pictures up until later. These ones are from my mom's cameraEmilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-43521953203758077962010-01-16T07:22:00.000-08:002010-01-16T08:09:47.127-08:00Cambodia to Chiang Mai, ThailandAhhhh I have so much to write about and only an hour of internet time so I'm going to have to try to practice a bit of restraint and not write as much detail. (I know some of you are sighing with relief :) ) <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavpcjg_EGB5U-k_DDDEExGY74PDZ22YLXQga6B9zla7x4XcjH7PlwxeimJRoxdqzxh3L8h_azKcxKudIIeRnkvqvNcWZ3MEiYOLNFjSLhWc_sl2btsdEM2aEVPzGOi8uiHNJAiWJZpLA/s1600-h/DSC_0653.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavpcjg_EGB5U-k_DDDEExGY74PDZ22YLXQga6B9zla7x4XcjH7PlwxeimJRoxdqzxh3L8h_azKcxKudIIeRnkvqvNcWZ3MEiYOLNFjSLhWc_sl2btsdEM2aEVPzGOi8uiHNJAiWJZpLA/s320/DSC_0653.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427369936848280514" /></a><br /><br />After I posted last time, we ended up going into Siem Reap's market area for dinner where we had a great meal at a place called Khmer Kitchen. Khmer food has a lot of Indian flavoring, with curry and other spices that aren't so much East Asian. The night market area was really crowded, mostly with foreigners from all over the place. From what I gathered, it consists mostly of three streets: one market street that has cars and bikes driving on it, one ally way that's fully pedestrian, and one bar street. They sell cool little silver trinkets, pirated DVDs, pretty little dress/sarongs, jewelery, and pretty much any other random thing you can think of. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicg8PJOVGewlW1tOTw3NO9JA0LfM7Vy65aTp4_rfK4LxN5T_-vkRB_M5KFrSzegYHpshyXvKyEtrZczy3hppkcMuGpo1ahjz4U_dWytCrG4CRH143kyPAQn_070-5nB777SvIBJaMUUFI/s1600-h/DSC_0650.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicg8PJOVGewlW1tOTw3NO9JA0LfM7Vy65aTp4_rfK4LxN5T_-vkRB_M5KFrSzegYHpshyXvKyEtrZczy3hppkcMuGpo1ahjz4U_dWytCrG4CRH143kyPAQn_070-5nB777SvIBJaMUUFI/s320/DSC_0650.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427369929231563474" /></a><br /><br />The next morning we woke up early and had Mr. Lai take us to a place called the "Floating Village." I guess after the Khmer Rouge killed so many Cambodians, some Vietnamese people took advantage of the shortage of fishers on the Tongle Sap (the largest lake in southeast Asia) and moved in.. not on land, though, on the water. All the people live in boats or house boats that are tied to trees that grow out of the marshlands around the lake. They have little paddle or motor boats that they use to get around, and slightly larger retail boats often circulate around selling groceries and goods. The markets, basketball court, clinic, and even the school are all also floating and only accessible by boat. When we got to near the Tongle Sap we hired a boat to take us out with a guide named Mr. Tao. Mr. Tao had gone to university in Siem Reap and studied English and how to be a tour guide, so we really had the pros on our side. He took us to a large, multilevel floating marketplace to show us how they held fish and crocodiles there for sale (live! ahh!). He said the crocs go for about 3000 US dollars each and are really good for their meat and for shoes. We went to visit the school, where we distributed pencils (fresh from costco) to the kids. The teacher was Vietamese, but he said that in the afternoon they learn Cambodian. A Korean tour group who went before us had just handed out toys and candy so they were a little more popular, but we got some good pictures. <br /><br />After that we packed up and left Cambodia. It was pretty hard to go. The people are just so nice and the whole atmosphere is so pleasant and relaxed. It's hard to believe there was ever war there. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij37AnFIR4-FEv0foIjJxK2eskTmJio-TOzm4AqOu6NbYfx3zWalAt5-a5YVPvH_99kZhpc5a-1gkqT0xJBcXsZurfw02cbIu7RhCc8g6r01cpK-xe2jiu4K5Bu8SAx6U_vJ2ovZh4GA0/s1600-h/DSC_0647.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij37AnFIR4-FEv0foIjJxK2eskTmJio-TOzm4AqOu6NbYfx3zWalAt5-a5YVPvH_99kZhpc5a-1gkqT0xJBcXsZurfw02cbIu7RhCc8g6r01cpK-xe2jiu4K5Bu8SAx6U_vJ2ovZh4GA0/s320/DSC_0647.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427369958486773282" /></a><br /><br />We flew through Bangkok and ended up in Chiang Mai by late afternoon, where we checked into the Tapae Place hotel and went to the riverside to find a place for Dinner. Compared to Cambodia, Chiang Mai is shockingly developed. It's packed with cars and feels kind of like a typical Asian city. There are still Tuk Tuks that serve as the cheapest form of Taxi, but the motorbikes are built into the whole structure so its a bit different. The other popular form of taxi (other than a car) is a pickup truck, with two benches on the inside along either wall, and a roof over the top. The back of it is open, and there are two long windows that run along the sides. They drive on the left side of the road here, and very fast, so its kind of a startling ride as you're jostled around in the back of one of these vehicles. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfI6z_zvvpDRdUWC_-ylCpwm5WQMPMS46JgeZgID9-mWqPrGIpA_Ba88g0jVWF0lMolfTqZFUnQzO9VaHPEGsOOHp7RmZHYH3XgQwD3feCmV7H7WvP3lzCfIm1WWh53RedwNScZP2n8k/s1600-h/DSC_0554.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfI6z_zvvpDRdUWC_-ylCpwm5WQMPMS46JgeZgID9-mWqPrGIpA_Ba88g0jVWF0lMolfTqZFUnQzO9VaHPEGsOOHp7RmZHYH3XgQwD3feCmV7H7WvP3lzCfIm1WWh53RedwNScZP2n8k/s320/DSC_0554.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427369950542237090" /></a><br /><br />Today we woke up and met up with our tour group in the morning, which consists of four Australians and one American girl. They all seem about mid to late range 20s, except a father and son pair. Our tour guide is a very enthusiastic Thai man named Tony, who adviced us not to wear tall leather boots as we trek, and told us that we shouldn't swim in G string bikinis (so we don't offend the locals). He's really funny and animated. He set us up to go to a cooking class for the afternoon, which ended up being out in the countryside in a really pretty, idyllic little place. Only 5 of us went, and we ended up cooking 4 dishes each: Phad Thai, Tom Yam Gong, Spring Rolls, and Green/Red Curry. Our instructur, named Golf, was great and there were helpers who prepped everything for us. Naturally because of our phenomenal cooking skills, the food was delicious and very artistic looking. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyV3ngJAxjn9AYufcfs_l0ffSbBj5-rue1o503nl9owIh3ZkKkEk5UFsza3MsjaQDieEyrJB5gpJGLXMFPapvaBl89zIjaaiq-Gt-4cm06Dr-wGLeWKYlaBgRjuGuuVoNw9dDcvkql2Y/s1600-h/DSC_0584.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyV3ngJAxjn9AYufcfs_l0ffSbBj5-rue1o503nl9owIh3ZkKkEk5UFsza3MsjaQDieEyrJB5gpJGLXMFPapvaBl89zIjaaiq-Gt-4cm06Dr-wGLeWKYlaBgRjuGuuVoNw9dDcvkql2Y/s320/DSC_0584.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427369939781497730" /></a><br /><br />Tonight we went to a vegitarian Thai place that donates money to help preserve elephant habitats. It was also very good (although nothing can really beat our cooking from earlier). Later we checked out a local night weekend market that had all sorts of clothes, shoes, arts and crafts mostly selling to local people. I bought a cool lamp that's probably not at all practical. It's pretty though and is made out of leaves. Hopefully that doesn't count for veggitation in customs.. haha. <br /><br />Anyway, I'm going to try to put some pictures on and post this before my internet time runs out (this hotel is a little less accomodating than Villa Kiara unfortunately.) We leave tomorrow for a 3 day trek into the hills! I'll write after that and hopefully have some pretty awesome pictures to post. Hope everything is going well!!! Miss you!!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-70951791465935380452010-01-14T06:13:00.000-08:002010-01-14T06:43:02.085-08:00Siem Reap, Cambodiawell, I want to be upset that I wasted two out of my four days in Cambodia in bed with a high fever and in a clinic hooked up to an IV, but at this point I'm really just so relieved to be out of bed and moving around that I can't complain. Instead I'll tell you about the two days (day one and day four) that I did have in this amazing country and just claim that the illness is a good excuse to come back again when I come to see Vietnam. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtXWAXp6ZR3OEiKc3WCsnIbK11oR-wwpbUEFBiqaXJZzbem6PCIum9y8MDOVGj378B7YhE5CPwKPFox5NYmWf3xzl-vwiIH3UmZU-qMTS09Whg76t7WFLezZPGLpf1cYytv1l5hXSxBq4/s1600-h/DSC_0196.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtXWAXp6ZR3OEiKc3WCsnIbK11oR-wwpbUEFBiqaXJZzbem6PCIum9y8MDOVGj378B7YhE5CPwKPFox5NYmWf3xzl-vwiIH3UmZU-qMTS09Whg76t7WFLezZPGLpf1cYytv1l5hXSxBq4/s320/DSC_0196.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426600226453666770" /></a><br /><br />Although it is the dry season here, Cambodia is very lush and green. Instead of dirt, there is orange tinted sand lining the roads and under the palm, banana, and banyan trees. There is a lot of water around, whether it be just little puddles, the river that runs through town, or the huge moat around Angkor Wat. Skinny looking white and brown cows chill out on the sides (or sometimes in the middle..) of the roads, usually in large fields of tall grass. There are also a lot of very slim black roosters, and tired, scruffy looking dogs scattered around. The air is very hot and thick, but not humid. Even in the hottest parts of the day, walking into the shade makes it feel at least ten degrees cooler. Especially in town, the air often smells like incense because most businesses burn it in small pagoda podiums setup outside their shops. Once you escape from the motor noises of the busier areas, your ears are filled with jungle sounds, probably birds, maybe bugs, its hard to say really. There's an odd chirp that sounds like it's coming from inside our room sometimes... let's hope that one's small and doesn't bite. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVy5-5Pr7uad50wx_gtQtGdiM-ZBwTXn_ZDx95THPF7eUtbVHPzlT5eySdLl98GPH_UFDr63UrOf9Dv9J6wjUDQ7wD9I_M2Q893wCmHgxJebDeQ8-dfNqcViYoj8P-6DWYttl5B_PPnU/s1600-h/DSC_0504.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVy5-5Pr7uad50wx_gtQtGdiM-ZBwTXn_ZDx95THPF7eUtbVHPzlT5eySdLl98GPH_UFDr63UrOf9Dv9J6wjUDQ7wD9I_M2Q893wCmHgxJebDeQ8-dfNqcViYoj8P-6DWYttl5B_PPnU/s320/DSC_0504.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426603718299802578" /></a><br /><br /><br />Most of the roads are paved, although some are just bumpy orange sand and gravel. There are some cars, (oddly enough mostly toyota camrys with a sprinkling of sketchy mercedes mini buses, and also a good number of Lexus RX300s) but most people get around on fairly modern looking little motor bikes, or just normal manual bicycles. It is not uncommon to see a family of 4 on one motor bike, with dad driving, and then two kids squashed between him and mom, who hangs on at the end. Every now and then there is a "gas station" on the side of the road for these motor bikes, which usually consists of a man dozing in a hammock next to a large barrel with a long, plastic tube coming out of it. There are not many stop lights, and it seems the general rule for crossing an intersection is "just keep driving unless it looks like someone's going to hit you", while the rule for turning left is "drive into the oncoming traffic lane-> stay in that lane and dodge oncoming traffic as you turn into new oncomming traffic lane-> slowly weave back into your lane". <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5x-1RZx7gr7M28dKuvOm_hvDrapN3jyQeOEMJgNfyP7dAGdFueP_zudWjsJoaZFwKm1u7Tkb3I1XN6nJqvbMJSc4VhK31yBRLlr5U8xN386m8Mqq26LAz4YqkTNRoF-kyoqMMSjWhuc/s1600-h/DSC_0601.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB5x-1RZx7gr7M28dKuvOm_hvDrapN3jyQeOEMJgNfyP7dAGdFueP_zudWjsJoaZFwKm1u7Tkb3I1XN6nJqvbMJSc4VhK31yBRLlr5U8xN386m8Mqq26LAz4YqkTNRoF-kyoqMMSjWhuc/s320/DSC_0601.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426603747879787650" /></a><br /><br />Lining the busier streets are large new looking hotels and restaraunts, and most of them are labeled both with the beautiful khmer language, which is very swirly and not at all like asian characters (probably derived from sanskrit?), as well as English. There are also lots of open markets with fruit and veggies, and other goods. I've seen a good number of stores with every style of accesorized, flowered flip flop you can imagine. Probably my favorite was a store called "modern laundry" where the clothes are all hanging out on racks by the side of the dusty road (I saw that in Beijing a lot.. maybe that was the Chinese influence?). There are also a scattering of small houses and other more run down looking buildings. Most buildings that aren't new looking are made out of some patchwork combination of tarp, ridged scraps of metal, scraps of wood, and palm/banana leaves all strapped to a wooden or metal frame. The houses seem to mostly be on stilts, probably to avoid flooding problems during the wet season. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX1yZ3bS8TNYZfmXVY90QPyd6L0Bt9DSBRj6uOmOmBKwqfishAFBTMDExW8l29NadH8xLmJaP0ylXzk3VddNVxWSUDH3pCLk1gjXlfBeI5dxrWiQ0p2vq4RTReG_nbchMJg5ZoV63XCO8/s1600-h/DSC_0603.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX1yZ3bS8TNYZfmXVY90QPyd6L0Bt9DSBRj6uOmOmBKwqfishAFBTMDExW8l29NadH8xLmJaP0ylXzk3VddNVxWSUDH3pCLk1gjXlfBeI5dxrWiQ0p2vq4RTReG_nbchMJg5ZoV63XCO8/s320/DSC_0603.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426603724751141346" /></a><br /><br />The people here are very sweet and friendly and often eager to chat. They are not shy about using what English they know, and many of them can actually speak very well. It's actually pretty crazy how multilingual everyone is. Even the small children who sell postcards at the temples will switch off languages until they find one you understand, repeating their whole schpeal in the language of your choice. Today, a girl was trying to sell me a guidebook, and when I said "No Thank you" and tried to move on, she asked where I was from. I told her "America" and she asked "what state?" I said Washington, sure that she'd be confused and think I meant Washington DC (as do most people.. even in America..) when she said "Oh! Washington. Capital is Olympia! President of America is Obama. Alaska is the biggest state and capital of Hawaii is Honolulu!" I figure she probably knows more about America than most American children. Another little girl, probably about 3 years old, followed my mom around counting to 10 in seriously, at least 10 to 15 different languages. If you buy something, or donate a dollar to someone, they will often wish you "Good Luck!" or even "Good luck for your WHOLE life!!!" Which makes you feel as though you've really tallied up the Karma points (although I got sick after that.. so I guess I need more..). The sales people at the temple, though very persistent, will stop at the entrance to the temple and say, "I remember your name Emily! You don't have to buy, but if you buy coconut, you buy from me okay! You remember my clothes look like this!! okay?!" and then smile and wave you in. People are always quick to smile at you. Even a few people who we pulled up next to on the road would pull up their helmets and smile. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vLvDA8HdNEt8Nl3Le8A2KAorz8wDcZnGgilaiVE3EQ08vEdYlr5vOTjHEex99VDo1fL71mXrFq1ItskxAPNAKS2iyDSmnIVURXYurconOL-pG7Mnr9xwlzydgRjuInofCFPohddER8Y/s1600-h/DSC_0319.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vLvDA8HdNEt8Nl3Le8A2KAorz8wDcZnGgilaiVE3EQ08vEdYlr5vOTjHEex99VDo1fL71mXrFq1ItskxAPNAKS2iyDSmnIVURXYurconOL-pG7Mnr9xwlzydgRjuInofCFPohddER8Y/s320/DSC_0319.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426603697729461154" /></a><br /><br />The students of all ages wear white button-up shirts and navy pants or skirts to school, and at certain hours you can see hordes of them biking along the side of the road, probably on their way home after class, or for lunch. You often also see Orange draped clad monks walking around with buzz cuts and flip flops. I've seen them with everything from cell phones, to laptops which seems unlikely, but I hear that many men will dedicate a few months of their lives to being a monk rather than living their whole life that way. The rest of the people dress in pretty much the average jeans and T-shirt style that you can see anywhere else, occasionally sporting the "Armani Jeans" or other knock off brand name logo. The city and area around the temples is very alive, and there are tons of people lounging by their carts or stands, sleeping in hammocks, or walking around with their families. The general population is very young, I think a huge percent is under 30, and it's pretty obvious just by the massive amounts of little children you see everywhere. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABkME2Vmq5Nyedg6C7FAbwBmP0NmpsUkthit5ZuvsuULPR7Nt3WAFUUBQrDxizUzQRCU-hocM5FQy26bU7yq5xCMOEpttnYzi2gEo6PIpOC68HjGjOSC7jc04RoWZuQFKCBHYcYD5TE/s1600-h/DSC_0274.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABkME2Vmq5Nyedg6C7FAbwBmP0NmpsUkthit5ZuvsuULPR7Nt3WAFUUBQrDxizUzQRCU-hocM5FQy26bU7yq5xCMOEpttnYzi2gEo6PIpOC68HjGjOSC7jc04RoWZuQFKCBHYcYD5TE/s320/DSC_0274.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426603684157888146" /></a><br /><br />Instead of taxis, most tourists will hire a "Tuk tuk", which is a little wheeled seating carriage attached to a motor bike. On the first day, our Tuk Tuk driver was Mr. Lai, a 25 year old Khmer, who lives with his mother and two of his siblings. He said that after his father passed away, his mother sent him to a Buddhist monestary for a while, where he learned some English, and a little bit about the history of the Angkor Temples. <br /><br />At the suggestion of our guidebook, we asked Mr. Lai to show us 10 or 12 of the smaller, older temples on the first day. This included the Roluos Group (Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei), which were built around 800 AD, as well as Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean, and Preah Khan (all part of the "large circuit"). So.. to be honest, I still can't pronounce most of their names, and probably couldn't tell most of them apart even after seeing them, but I'll try to describe them as a whole in a way that will hopefully at least hint at their grandeur. Apparently this whole area, around and between the temples, used to be a highly populated city, with many wooden structures and houses that are now long gone. The Stone temples still stand remarkably in place, and although they are over 1000 years old, you can still tell how intricately designed they were. The general structure is a sort of rectangular base, with a rounded terraced roof that goes up and ends in a point. Each temple usually has one large one of these, surrounded by at least four smaller ones, all sitting on a raised platform area, sometimes requiring a hike up extremely steep steps reach. The structures themselves are all intricately carved with buddhas, dancing ladies, or ornate designs, usually with a fake door carved on each side, and a real door facing East. On the inside, there is a central platform where it seems there used to be a Buddha, but I think, unfortunately, most of them have been destroyed or looted. If you go inside, and look up, you can see that the whole structure is hollow, and then open at the very tip, like a skylight. Some of the local people have put little buddha statues in the corners of them, with incense and other religious objects. At most of the temples, it seems that there is always music in the air, and as corny as it sounds, it's often actually true, sadly though, because it comes from troups of land-mine victims who play traditional cambodian instruments on the sidewalks leading to the temples. They take donations, and also sell their CDs, and if you give them a dollar they will wish you "Good luck!" and wave, although many cannot see. Many of the temples also have long hallways, with doorway after doorway, so that when you look down them you see each one framed by the one before it and then the little bit of green at the end. Because they are usually at least partly destroyed, there are many freestanding pillars and doorways, and platforms and stairs that were probably once inside, but now have no cover. Many of the temples have piles and piles of blocks of carved stone, that were clearly part of something important once. I guess they couldn't be placed but were too precious to throw away, so now they're just stacked up for people to see. Some of the temples like Bayon (one of the ones we saw today) look as though they were sliced up into cubes and then pieced back together. It's really odd, and I'm not really sure how they're still standing, but it looks very interesting. Sometimes the pieces will be from one bas relief, with each block being a slightly different color, and the pieces slightly mismatched but generally contributing to the same picture. The textures and colors of the stones are really dramatic and different from place to place too. Sometimes it looks a lot like lava rock. Other times its colored with green, white, or red tints, or looks like it's black from being burned. A few of the temples had been so overtaken by the jungle, that huge trees were growing in, around, and even out of the structres, giving it a very lost world, Indiana Jones feel. <br /><br />Today we went out and saw the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, which includes Bayon, The Terrace of the Elephants, and The Terrace of the Leper King. On the roads between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, there are a lot of monkeys just sitting around and waiting for you to buy them bananas and feed them. I didn't buy any bananas, but I got some freebee pictures. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a huge, thick moat and to get there you walk across a big bridge, railed on either side by men holding a large snake (probably a naga?). The inside is much like the temples I described above, but perhaps a little more intact and orderly. Bayon, as I mentioned is crazy because of how pieced together it is. It's almost like a huge jigsaw puzzle. The terraces are intricately carved, raised platforms that you can walk along. I think there was more to see, but I started fading at that point, so I never got my Angkor Wat sunset. Next time.<br /><br />We are staying at a charming boutique hotel called Villa Kiara, owned by a French husband and Cambodian/French wife. They moved here in 2007, after spending three years in Seattle, where they lived in Issaquah and he ran Le Petit Bistro, a French restaurant in Belltown. He is quite a chef. we enjoyed his scampi and duck specials on the first night. They have a three-year-old son, born in Seattle, and an 18-month old daughter, Kiara. The hotel has only 17 rooms. Ours is furnished simply, with two beds on a wooden platform and a semi-open bathroom. The Internet is free, but you have to displace the hotel receptionist to use it. There is a nice swimming pool, surrounded by palm trees, and if you order a coconut shake, they will climb a palm tree to pick a coconut for you. The dining area is open-air, underneath an older wooden building on stilts, built in the traditional style. At night little white geckos run across the ceiling. The people who work here are very friendly and helpful. <br /><br />Well, I'm sorry that this has turned into such a long entry, I guess my excuse will be that it covers 4 days. I'm feeling much better now, which is good, because we have to be trekking in the hills in 2 days... haha. Thankfully I had my mommy here to feed me french pain killers, electrolytes (not french), and good old TLC. Anyway, we're flying to Chiang Mai tomorrow, hopefully with enough time to check out the floating village here before we go. I'll write more often from now on hopefully, so long as I don't get ridiculously ill.<br /><br />miss you all! hope everything is goign well! email me updates or comment!Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856413916194371205.post-18706539427627502722010-01-10T17:30:00.000-08:002010-01-10T17:31:41.502-08:00And it begins...Well, the adventure has begun. My mom and I left Seattle around noon on the 8th for Hong Kong via Tokyo. 18 hours, 4 suspicous looking airplane meals, 3 movies, and one box of pocky sticks later we arrived in Hong Kong and checked in to our space age "sky city" hotel around midnight. This morning we got up for an awesome continental breakfast, which included dim sum (now I remember why I love Hong Kong) and headed to the airport again for a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, and then another one to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I'm writing now from our plane to Hanoi, as the questionable smells of our 5th airplane meal in two days waft down the aisle (It ended up being spagetti with meatsauce, which they called "beef with noodles". I guess that's actually a better description..). Interestingly enough, at least half the people on the plane are caucasian and I've heard a few people mention that they're "going home." There must be a big expat community there, but I guess I'll have to wait for my next Asia trip to find out. Also, the flight attendants have been trying to speak to me in Vietnamese, which is strange because even in China people usually assume I'm foreign. Unfortunately, Vietnam Air does not have wifi on their planes yet so I'll post this later, but I thought I'd take the time to write a little bit about Cambodia for those of you who don't know much, and also briefly talk about what this blog will cover over the next 7 weeks or so. <br /><br />So, I'll start off by admitting that the little that I do know about Cambodia is all from my Lonely Planet "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring" travel book. Basically they jammed all of Cambodian History into 4 or 5 pages, and now I'm going to further condense it into one paragraph, but I figure it's better than nothing. For those of you with no interest in history, skip the next paragraph. <br /><br />From the 1st to 6th centuries AD, Cambodia was part of the Funan kingdom, which prospered due to the trade route between China and India which was part of the famous silk road (you know, Marco Polo and all that). As part of this large cultural exchange network, Cambodia adopted many aspects of Indian culture and tradition, including Hinduism and Buddhism. In 802 AD Cambodia, as well as much of Vietnam and Thailand, were part of the Khmer Empire, which ended up being the largest and most powerful empire in Southeast Asian history, known for its amazing architecture and sculpture. To this day, the Cambodians are known as the Khmer people, and much of their national pride is centered around Angkor, the ancient capital and home of the largest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat. In 1432 the Thais sacked Angkor and the capital was moved to Phnom Penh, which remains the capital today. The French controlled Cambodia from 1864 to 1953, but were more interested in Vietnam and did not do much in Cambodia. Still, there is apparently some French influence left over, and in fact we're staying in a French style hotel run by a French man and his Cambodian wife who just moved there recently from Seattle (go figure..). King Norodom Sihanouk ruled from 1953 to 1970 when he was overthrown and fled to Beijing, where he was pressured to support a small communist rebel group, the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia was sucked into the Vietnam conflict, bombed by the US and fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, ruled by Pol Pot (not a popular character). During this rule, about 2 million people a third of the population) died from famine, warfare, execution.. lots of bad stuff. This included most of the educated people and also people who spoke foreign languages, who were gathered and executed. In 1978 Vietnam invaded, which spurred famine and guerrilla warfare throughout the 1980s, during which China, Thailand and the US (you'd think we'd have learned by now..) funded the khmer rouge. In 1991 a peace accord was signed, and in 1993 UN-facilitated elections were held and Norodom <br />Sihanouk was installed as king again. Since then, Hun Sen, leader of the Cambodian Peoples' Party (actually he was originally installed as the leader by the Vietnamese) has essentially ruled Cambodia. In 1998 the Khmer Rouge was finally ended officially and some of its leaders are being brought to trial. Unfortunately Pol Pot died already so he escaped any punishment. The Cambodian people suffered a lot over the last few decades, but right now everything seems stable and (fortunately for me, and them) the tourism business is booming. <br /><br />Today we will fly into Siem Reap, which has gotten kind of a reputation as the hub city for visiting the temples of Angkor. Although Angkor Wat is the biggest temple both there and in the world, there are many others scattered throughout the area that used to make up the city of Angkor, each with its own character and artistic differences. We will spend the next four days touring the temples. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and write more as we see them so keep checking in. After that we're heading to Chiang mai, Thailand to meet up with intrepid travel's Trekking Thailand tour (we're trekking up into the hills to stay in a village). Then we'll hit up Bangkok, and then Singapore for a few days. Mommy dear will fly home after that and I'll meet up with the lovely Tara Singh in Bali, where we'll stay in Ubud for a few days and then fly to Yogyakarta (Pronounced Jogjakarta, or just Jogja) for a few. That brings us to early February when we'll fly back to Hong Kong to meet up with homegirl Carly Schlosberg, and then to my favorite Chinese city, Beijing, for a week. Tara will then leave us :( and Carly and I will continue on to Xi'an, and Shanghai, and then fly to Tokyo. After a few days there, we'll train down to Kyoto and Nara, and then take the "Beetle" hydrofoil boat from Hakata to Busan in Korea. We'll then jump on a train and go up to Gyeong ju, and then up to our last city Seoul. Hopefully by that time, my backpack and small bag won't have multiplied into multiple bags of souvenirs and piles of knock off clothes and bags, but you just never know.. better just be prepared for the worst.<br /><br />Speaking of souvenirs, I just bought my first one in the Hanoi airport. We flew in over the fields and colorful clusters of houses and I'm kind of jealous of the other kids who got to stay there. The airport had a lot of little vendors with Vietnamese junk food (Pringles?) and little trinkets (Jason, I doubt you'll read this but I got you a keychain from the motherland). The airport was small, but pretty modern and the magazines and ads around boast of tall modern office space and condos for rent and sale, and international standard malls. It seems amazing that just a few decades ago Vietnam and Cambodia were being torn apart by war (largely with the US) and there was no way to travel there (unless you were a soldier..). When my mom graduated from college she traveled through Southeast Asia and also in the Middle East. She couldn't visit Vietnam or Cambodia, but she was able to go through Afghanistan and Iran just 6 months before they were closed to the US. Maybe when our generation's kids graduate from college we'll be able to take them on trips through Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. It would be nice to someday explore their rich culture and history, rather than just associate them with war, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Well, I guess the moral of the story is travel all you can, cause you never know who we'll be at war with next.. haha.. sigh. On that cheerful note, I think I'll put away the netbook and enjoy the bright orange sunset as we land in Cambodia. Till next time. <br /><br />PS (I'll post pictures with this post soon but i'm using the front desk computer at our hotel and its super awkward...) <3Emilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04203248147980788508noreply@blogger.com2