Kerala

Well, I'm home now, in good old Ontario, and bored out of my gourd. I never finished blogging the last few places we went to, so I figure I'll do that now.

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Arriving in Fort Cochin, Kerala, I was finally feeling better from my bout of illness. Everything about Kerala was a great change from Goa. Fort Cochin itself is the nice old, touristy part of the city, Kochi. We have learned our lesson about staying at places recommend by the Lonely Planet--they are generally over-priced and full of white people with their noses buried in their Lonely Planets. So we found a place just down the street called the "Taj Mahal Guest House", which was really just a person's house with a few guest rooms set up for rent. Actually, this meant that the room was unusually large and full of character, like we were just staying in someone's actual room.

Fort Cochin is known for its Catholic heritage, so we were sure to see the well-known cathedral and bascillica (whose names escape me). I really enjoyed strolling along the boardwalk the runs beside the Arabian sea. One of the things Fort Cochin is known for are its very old fishing nets, still used, which they call Chinese fishing nets. Here is a picture.

Walking by a market set up at night, we were offered all sorts of fresh fish, and even this giant, weird looking crab. We declined because we had just ate--fish and chips! It was delicious.

The highlight of Kerala was our house-boat. A popular thing to do is travel a couple hours outside of the city and get a boat to tour the backwaters. These natural canals made in the jungle by the rains. For a very good price you can rent a houseboat for a night, complete with your own cook and pilot, to take you through the backwaters. It was a very luxurious experience! The food was very good, although maybe it didn't set well with me, because I did not have a good sleep on that boat, even though our room was really nice. I was up all night with the Delhi Belly--not fun.

Pictures (the first is of the same kind of boat we saw near us):




To get back to Kochi, we took a bus rather than paying for a hired car. The people of Kerala were really nice. A couple boys helped us get on the right bus, without any expectation of recompense. It was very refreshing. I have been told that Kerala is one of the nicest places in India and I have no evidence to the contrary.

Leaving Kochi for the train station was one of the most dangerous occurances of our trip. We made the mistake of getting a rickshaw in the pouring rain, and at night. Not only did I get absolutely soaked, but we came close to death at one point as the rickshaw hit a giant pothole and one whole side of the thing actually left the ground. Pan-Pan and I were speechless with shock, and all the driver said was, "see, very bad roads". Yes, the roads were very poorly maintained. At one point earlier, after hitting another bump, we actually broke down temporarily by the side of a crazy, busy road.

However, in the end we managed to get to the train station in one piece, and waited for our very last train in India.

The train to Madras, on the other side of the sub-continent, was one of the longest we had taken. When we finally arrived, we went immediately to a bus station to get a bus to Pondicherry, since there was nothing we wanted to do in Madras. The bus to Pondicherry was also long--four hours--and though we thought we were getting a super fast luxury bus, it still frequent stops and wasn't all that comfortable at all.

Goa

Our last day in Mumbai was pretty relaxing, mostly because I began to come down with a cold that really drained my energy. In the morning we went on a boat to Elephanta Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to see some old Hindu cave sculptures. We went back in the afternoon and had an expensive lunch at Ruby Tuesday's and then went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It felt like we spent the evening in Toronto, or some other Western place, really. There was a Versace store next to the theatre and restaurant.

In the night we took a train, at 11PM, to Goa. We're old hands at this by now, so there were no surprises. Except, by this time, my cold was getting worse, and I had a pretty bad sleep.

We arrived in Anjuna in Goa on time, at noon, and went right to our resort--a nice-ish place with airconditioning and even a pool. I have been very sick today--deep chest cough, and worse, I feel like I have absolutely no energy. I'm sore all over. I've done nothing but sleep in our room today, from 12 to 6:30, and tonight we plan to do nothing but watch a movie. It's also pouring rain here. Goa may not be the party place we were expecting. It might just be a chance for me to recuperate, which I hope happens soon!

Mumbai

The journey to Mumbai (Bombay) from Udaipur was long, as expected. It began at 10:00 PM, when we waited in front of a travel agency for our sleeper bus to Ahmedabad. Actually, this went pretty smoothly. We had a compartment at the front of the bus, so the bumps weren't nearly as bad, and this time we also made sure to get our packs put in the trunk. I think we managed to sleep for a few hours before we ended up at Ahmedabad, which dropped us off at the train station. We had to get our tickets, which Pan-Pan did while I watched our stuff. During this time I thought I was going to throw up--I felt very sick. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the 5 AM train and had to wait until the 7 AM one. So we had to wait for two and a half hours at the railyard, at a bench by the tracks. I will never complain about VIA Rail again! The tracks at the railyards are sort of like giant septic systems. When trains come in, they dump their tanks right on the tracks, so you can imagine the sort of vileness that sits in big piles and stinks up the entire station. There's also garbage all over, and Indians lying randomly on the ground. We bought a samosa from a stand and couldn't finish it so we threw it on the ground to a dog that was lying near us. It didn't eat it, but half an hour later a poor person picked it up and ate it. That was sad to watch.

The wait was long, but finally the train arrived, thankfully on time. We got A/C class seats, so it was fairly comfortable (more leg room than VIA trains, even). If anything, the air-conditioning made it a little too cold! Even though it was an upper class car, we still saw a couple mice running across the aisle, and, of course, insects. The ride was nine hours, meaning that including our wait, we had been travelling for a total of 15 hours, once we arrived in Mumbai at 5:00--a long time, but not altogether terrible, because I managed to make great headway in my new book, "The Moor's Last Sigh", by Salman Rushdie (I figured that since I'm in India, I might as well explore the literature).

The Mumbai station was pleasantly easy to navigate, with the exit right near the road. However, we had to ask where the foreign ticket bureau was so that we could book our tickets to Goa. It turned out that we had to drive somewhere else to pick them up. We asked a security guard but it was a man nearby who answered our question, and he then offered to show us the way--via his taxi, of course. (One interesting thing about Mumbai is that rickshaws aren't allowed, so there are tons of '60s era black and yellow cabs).

This man turned out to be a shameless (and inept) shister. Here's the story. First, he tried to tell us that the foreign tickets office would close at 6:00 and, it being 5:25, we couldn't make it in time and should just let him take us to a hotel. In fact, it was only 5:10, so we made him take us there. (We later found out that it closed at 8, not 6--a fact that will become relevant later in the story). On the way, he was very friendly, pointing out facts about various buildings and what-not. When we did get to the place after 15 minutes or so, he told us the office was closed, because there was a closed gate. I pointed out a smaller sign saying "use other gate -->". He wanted to take us right to the hotel. But we told him we'd get out there, and that's when it became immediately evident that he was a low-life. First, he said it would cost about 500 rupees--he pointed to the meter and said that it read "18.00", when it clearly read "8.00"-the "1" was in fact a ":" that wasn't even part of the reading. We disputed him, and when it became clear that he wouldn't get away with that sleazy trick, he tried another. He started fiddling with the meter (right in front of our eyes) and changed the whole reading to a different set of numbers, one of which was a "1". "See, 1!", he said. Unbelievable. I was like, "Um, you clearly just changed the reading. That wasn't our reading." Pan-Pan said we were going to get out and ask what the proper rate should be from the train station, and he supported this decision. We went over to some people and asked how much it should cost. He came over to and started saying things in Hindu. His new tact was to try to convince them, or possibly us, that he had driven us from a station 25km north of Mumbai Central station, hence the higher charge. Of course, this was a blatant lie that we caught him on, and we had our ticket with the station name on it ready to prove it. I asked another passerby how much the ride should cost and he said about 100 rupees, and by this time a scene was beginning to form. Pan-Pan and I were furious by this point, while the idiot sleazeball was starting to see that he wasn't going to get away with anything. He relented that the meter reading was actually 8 and said to give him 150 rupees, which indeed was what his "official" chart said. But we didn't trust his chart either and said 110 rupees, which was all we had without breaking a 500. He didn't go for this, so I said, "how about we give you 110 rupees and I don't go to the police right now", and this deal seemed to work for him. I called him a cheat and said that people like him give India a bad name. He muttered something and basically ran off with his tail between his legs. We later realized that the reason for his attempts to get us to a hotel rather than the ticket office was that not only did he stand to get commission if we stayed there, but also he'd be able to ask his friends to confirm that we owed him 500 rupees. Pan-Pan and I were still furious, and even incredulous, at the brazeness of his sleazy attempts to rip us off. Still, I found something almost humourous about the whole thing, his idiocy and patheticness. The sad thing is that what gives him the gall to try these things is probably it having worked on less-discerning foreigners in the past. But he had to do a whole lot better than that to rip us off! The whole thing was also sad because he seemed like a nice guy on the way over, but that's India for you--the decent taxi or rickshaw drivers, i.e. the ones who take you where you want to go for a reasonable price, have no interest in making friendly chit-chat. Only the con-artists do this. Consequently, we always have made an effort to find the world-weary old men, too tired and apathetic for acts of capitalist sleaze, to take us where we want to go. Sometimes, alas, we let our guard down.

Mumbai is unlike the rest of India in that it's least back-wards looking to tradition and culture. Home of "Bollywood" it is, with Bangalore, India's youngest, fastest, and most modern city. You can even find beef in some restaurants! For dinner last night, we went to Leopold's Cafe, which is famous for being a place frequented by agents looking for foreign extras in Bollywood flicks. We saw a sea of white faces but not one agent looking for extras. Today we went to what was formerly called the Prince of Whales Museum, which had a terrific collection, particularly of old Hindu sculpture and bronze-work. We had an audio guide and spent at least two hours here. We had a scare when we couldn't get any ATM to accept our debit cards, but managed to get money from our VISAs when we went to a money changer. We took a taxi along the waterfront and had our first glimpse of the Arabian sea. We went to Malabar Hills to look for all the big mansions but couldn't find any, so we just went to Chowpatty Beach and walked along it until taking a cab back to our area for dinner. Unbelievably, this taxi driver also tried to rip us off. Because it was pouring rain (suddenly) and the meter, which is outside, was hard to read, he tried to convince us that it read 5.7 rather than 4.0. I went outside in the rain and checked it and we paid him for 4.0--these people are just shameless. We had some delicious chicken hyderabad and tikka for dinner and then came to this internet cafe. Pan-Pan has been finding a place in Goa to stay while I've been blogging.

We are both looking forward to Goa, even though Mumbai has lots to do. Tomorrow, we're taking a boat to the small island of Elephanta, and are planning on seeing the new Harry Potter movie at night. Then, we catch an 11:00 PM sleeper train to Goa. We're old hands at sleeper trains by now, and it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Goa will be relaxing, and after that, we just have Kerala, in the far south, and Pondicherry to visit, before flying back to Shanghai and then returning home. We have less than two weeks of our trip left, which is hard to believe. It is sad in a way, even though we're both ready to get back to the comforts of Canada.

Udaipur

We left Pushkar on a midnight bus that was forty minutes late. Walking to the bus station through the dark alleys, we heard a raucus approaching quickly in the dark, and it was this donkey being chased by a growling dog. They disappeared ahead of us in the night. Then a motorcycle ran by and this man said "a donkey's kick is worse than a man's!" The whole thing was surreal. As for the bus, it was pretty nice, but still a difficult experience, mainly because nobody would open the trunk to put our big bags in, so we had to keep them in this tiny, clausterphobic sleeper compartment with us, making it very, very cramped. We were at the very back of the bus, meaning that the bumpiness was unbelievable. Not fifteen minutes into the ride, I'm sorry to report that Pan-Pan started to cry, because she was so unhappy--this is the first time she has cried from transportation on this trip. She gets really bad motionsickness, if you recall, and it didn't get much worse than that. She threw up out the window, and then took two gravals, and was fine after that. I woke up in the middle of the night having to pee more than I ever had to before in my life, so I had to extricate myself from the compartment (no small feat) and ask the driver to pull over. He said we'd stop in five minutes, so I sat near the front and took my mind off my bladder with some of the most terrifying driving I've ever seen in my life. A giant bus barelling down a narrow road at 3 AM, veering out of the way of oncoming "Tata" trucks that for some reason always put their highbeams when they see us. Like China, India has yet to cultivate high-beam etiquette, and I felt sorry for the driver, but more than that I felt fear for our lives.

Anyways, we arrived in Udaipur safely, and it's a beautiful city. Like Pushkar, it's on a lake, but the lake is much, much bigger and the city doesn't encircle it. Udaipur's main claim to fame is its floating palace in the middle of the lake. Well, it isn't actually floating--it's built on an island. Of interest to Dad will be that this is Octopussy's palace in the James Bond movie of the same name. The locals really play up the connection, too, with a jewellry store bearing the same name, and local restaurants offering nightly showings of the movie. In fact, Pan-Pan and I had a delicious roof-top dinner last night, overlooking the lake and watching the movie--we could see the real palace, with its lanterns sparkling in the water, while also seeing it on TV! That was really neat. And it was a beautiful scene, Octopussy notwithstanding--the sun had just set over the city. We had some crazy monkey experiences when a troupe randomly decended from a higher part of the roof and made their way on the rail beside us to an adjecent roof. All the tourists were thrilled. Also, the sky became absolutely full of giant bats (I'm talking at least three feet wide, including wing span). I don't know where they came from--maybe nearby mountains--but there were just thousands of them.

Today took a paddle boat out on the water; this despite the fact that after Beijing I vowed never to go in a paddle boat again. We made our way towards the palace and as we got near I kept trying to ask whether we could dock there and explore it (it's not a fancy hotel, I think) but they kept shaking their arms "no". I yelled "can we come?" and some man yelled back, "no, no, no allowed". So we went around it and then went back (working up a massive sweat in the process!).

Udaipur is nice because it's so beautiful, and from what I can tell, relatively clean. Whereas Pushkar was a bit of a one-horse town, consisting mainly of one main drag along the water, Udaipur is much bigger and home to a lot of interesting artchitecture, temples and hotels. Tomorrow we are going in a private car with two French people to Ranakpur, two hours away, to see a famous Jain temple. At night we begin our journey to Mumbai, which we are not looking forward to at all. At 10 PM, we catch another sleeper bus to Ahmedebad, some shit-show near the Pakistani border where, ifI recall, there is occasionally violence. We get there at 4 AM, and need to be at the train station at 5 AM to catch a train to Mumbai, arriving at noon. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Aside from the annoying stop over, which will be hectic and crazy, I have generally gotten completely used to very long train/bus rides.

No pictures because this computer has no USB connection, but don't worry Dad, I will show you the pictures of Octopussy's palace soon enough!

Jaipur and Pushkar

Jaipur (by Pan-Pan)

The best thing about Jaipur was the hotel we stayed in. It was a haveli, which is the old mansion of former Maharajahs. The place was huge, and had a peaceful garden full of attentive waiters. Our room was small, but tastefully decorated, and clean. Jaipur is full of vendors selling things, and we passed by many shops with folded silks and chiffons piled floor to ceiling. They were of all different colours (pinks, oranges, turqoises), all of them covered with decorative gold details. It was pretty overwhelming in fact, the whole shopping experience, but much better than Agra (which had so many hawkers and sellers and chaos that it basically made James lose the will to live for an afternoon). In the end, we bought some nice pashminas and blockprint fabrics and souvenir elephants. Oh one more note about Agra: we got there the very night the city celebrated Taj Mahal being named one of the new 7 wonders of the world, so there were film crews and festivities everywhere.

(our friendly shopkeeper in Jaipur. If you look closely, you'll even see some of the pashminas we bought!)

(We did see a few sights in Jaipur, one of them being Jantar Mantar, an ancient observatory. Right away, James started using an ancient astronomical tool to figure out whether there was going to be rain the next day...just kidding. We had no idea how those things worked.)

Pushkar (by James)

Pushkar is called a "mini-Varanasi" because it's also considered a holy city, on a sacred body of water. It is a very small city (so small that it's not even connected to the main bus lines) situated around a lake. Like Varanasi, there are ghats leading to the water on all sides. Also like Varanasi, there are tons of cows wandering about or lazing by the water. There are also lots of Indian holy men or "sadhus", identifiable by their long hair and beards, and the watering cans they carry around--their only possessions.

Because it's so atmospheric, the city is a real hot spot for tourists. There are a huge number of foriegners here, especially Israelie. (India is a hot spot for young Israelies to travel to after they complete their mandatory stint in the army, and before they go to university.) The city has a really hippy vibe to it. Apparently it's another part of India where the hippies came (and still come).

The city is also a true Rajhasthan experience, as its located on the edge of the desert. There are lots of camels going through the streets hauling carts.

We've had a really good time in this place. Our hotel is right on the lake, so every morning we just have to step outside onto the roof and look down at the water and the ghat right below us.
Today we went on a "camel safari", a three hour excursion-by-camel outside the town and around a nearby mountain. It was desert, but not sand dune-type desert-more like scrub brush, short grass and only the occasional tree. This was a painful experience. First, riding a camel isn't that comfortable. In fact, it got downright uncomfortable. Then, I got a face full of thorns when I failed to see a low hanging thorny branch and move my face in time. There was no blood but my face and neck got scratched up. And lastly, when I was mounting my camel after taking a break, he rolled over and knocked me off! Luckily I only fell in some sand so I didn't get hurt. My camel--"Krishna"--was really ill-tempered. It would always groan and make weird noises, and several times it tried to turn around and run in the wrong direction. I always get the ornery animals. Pan-Pan's camel, "Joni", was much better tempered.

Later in the day, we went back to the tourist agency to pick up our motorbike that we had rented. The plan was to ride around some of the deserted stretches of road outside of town. Well, this didn't go according to plan at all. First, I spent twenty minutes or so trying to learn how to operate a full on motorcycle. At one point, I got it started and before I knew what was happening, I was 200m down the road (kind of like what happened to you, Mom). Then the thing sputtered and died, and I had to some local boys to help me start it again. Eventually it was decided that it would be better if we took the gearless, smaller bike, which was almost more like a scooter, and much easier to operate. So we took this one and set out down the road, with Pan-Pan holding on tight and both of us generally scared as hell of the giant Indian "Tata" trucks that would barrel past us on our right. If at this point in the story, mothers are freaking out (and I should add that there were no helmets, even though we requested them!), they need not worry because our motorcycle adventure ended very quickly. We barely made it five minutes up the road when the damn thing died, or ran out of gas. I was really mad because the guy had had trouble getting it started before, and I asked if he was sure the thing worked. He said yes, we just had to drive to a gas station to fill it up, which we were attempting to do. Anyways, we stopped in front of this store/home(?) and this man got his son to siphon gas from his bike to get us enough to make it to the gas station. He charged us 40 rupees--hardly altruistic of him. Anyway, we didn't make it 20m before it died again, so this time we walked the bike to a phone and called the place and demanded that they come and bring us back. 20 minutes later another bike showed up, and after they tried fixing, they drove me and Pan-Pan back. Surprising enough, we even managed to get our money back. They offered us a working bike but we said "no thanks, we've had enough motorcycling for today". Then we went back to our place.

Tonight, at midnight, we are catching a sleeper bus out of Pushkar to Udaipur. Supposedly it's a delux bus, air-conditioned and very nice, but I'm not expecting this, even though we paid for it. In India, you have to get used to being ripped off in hundreds of big and small ways. So long as it has a sleeper and some open-able windows, I'll be fine.

Pictures:

(Two views of Pushkar from our hotel room window (left) and balcony (right))

(Joanie, the nicest camel I've personally ever met. Krishna was too cranky to be photographed)

(written by Pan-Pan)

Think of the most luxurious hotel you know, and multiply that by 100. That is the Amarvilas Hotel in Agra. Last night, James and I walked through some dark streets to reach this paradise. We walked in, were greeted by supremely well dressed doormen in full turban and gown, and entered the dome-like , sparkling lobby. Don't get me wrong, we weren't there to get a room! (Rooms start at $650 USD a night). We just went in pretending we were interested in getting a room and then got a full tour. It was great because it was like having a guided tour of an architecture wonder...for free! We were guided by a very well spoken young Indian man in Indian turban who called us "Sir" and "Madam". We saw the lit up pool area, which was like something out of a dream, plus the turqoise pool that is open 24/7. Everything was opulent, everyone was polite and respectful, the halls were lavishly decorated and the whole place was wonderfully cool. After the chaos and heat and hustle of the rest of India, it honestly felt like heaven. Our guide showed us one of the rooms, and it was just insane. The bathroom floors were made of marble, it had a balcony overlooking the Taj (as does every room at this hotel, somehow), and it was just so beautifully decorated. You would have loved it Mrs. Campbell, James says you like visiting nice hotels. Since it was night time, we couldn't get any pictures, so I took some off the internet to show you an idea of what its like.

(A room with a view of the Taj at Amarvilas)

Mark Twain once said "There are two types of people in the world: those who have seen the Taj Mahal and those who have not." Well I am thrilled to report that as of 6 am this morning, James and I are officially of the "have" group. I don't think pictures can do this monument justice, it is really just indescribably beautiful and luminescent. The whole thing is made of white marble, and it is inlaid with intricate flower designs made of precious stones. It really is a great monument to love - brief history: it was built by emperor Shan Jahan for his favourite wife who died during childbirth. Its whiteness has recently been protected by the Indian Government who has banned fueled vehicles from driving with a 2km radius of the Taj. (Note from James: They also don't turn on the lights at night, to prevent insects from landing on it.)

Us at the Taj Mahal. James is wearing his traditional Indian shirt and I'm wearing my traditional Indian dress called a Salwar Kameez (both tailor made)

We left Varanasi on a sleeper train headed for Dehli. The train station was just crazy--a mammoth concrete structure, serving at least four or five seperate rail lines, with people absolutely everywhere, mostly lying on the cement as they awaited their train. While Pan-Pan and I waited for our train, we made friends with some Indians waiting beside us. First, a student from a small village was very interested to know everything about me, so we talked for a while and he shared mangoes from his garden at home. On the other side of us were two little children. They'd show us their little toys and we took a picture of them, which they enjoyed immensely.



When the train arrived, at midnight, boarding it was just mayhem. Indian trains are just packed with people. We struggled with our packs through the narrow aisles, literally stepping over piles of sleeping babies and children, at an amazingly slow pace. When we finally got to our berth in the foreigners cabin, there were Indians sleeping there, so we had to shoo them away. This little girl in my berth really didn't want to leave but really there was no choice--I needed the entire space. We fell asleep pretty quickly and actually it was a pleasant enough sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we waited for at least five hours until we arrived. The train was about two hours late getting to Dehli.

When we arrived in Dehli, we walked to our hostel, which is very close to the train station. It's in the older part of town, right beside the train station, comprised of narrow streets lined with shops and hostels, sort of like Kathmandu but a million times more "Indian" (and it isn't as touristy as Kathmandu). Everyone yells out "Hello! Sir! Excuse me..." in an official sounding voice, so that you turn your head, but in fact they just want to peddle some useless trinkets, or maybe some clothes or jewellry. The streets are very hectic and bustling, packed to the brim with pedestrian traffic and motorcycles and rickshaws and cows.

Pan-Pan gets much unwanted attention that leaves us feeling sour about Indians, and I get very frustrated with all the hawkers and with rickshaw drivers who try to rip us off or want to take us on one of their personal "tours" of the city (with stops at their friends' shops, of course). In fact one time a rickshaw driver told me to get out of his rickshaw after I lost my temper at him.
But for every negative experience we have, there is at least one other positive one that sets the balance right. We meet interesting and friendly people, for instance, who just genuinely want to chat and learn about us, no hawking or scamming involved. We went to a McDonalds (at Pan-Pan's bequest-we had a McAloo [curried potatoes] because there is no beef!) and met a nice guy and had a long conversation. We have learned to keep an open mind, as much as possible, and to not ever think that we've figured out India. It's a bewildering place that we probably won't begin to make sense of until months after we get back. There are a billion people here and so obviously they are a mixed bag, like anywhere--but generally they seem like a genuine people.

Dehli is home to hundreds of thousands of impoverished people. At intersections, when the rickshaw is stopped, we are almost inevitably approached by small, dirty children, holding out their hands pathetically pleading for a coin, or mothers holding infants, or even cripples with missing legs crawling up beside us. It's all very sad, and we give sometimes, but we can't give all the time and in fact giving is illegal in Dehli. They want to discourage begging and the purported rings of beggers that make exploit children to collect money for them.

We've seen some very interesting sights in Dehli. At the center of Dehli is Connaught place, a huge ring of old buildings built by the British and now the sheek place for fashionable shopping (or a McAloo burger). Two days ago we went to the massive Red Fort, in old Dehli, and then explored the old streets looking for Karim's restaurant, a national landmark. The same day we went to the largest mosque in India. The best, though, was visiting a Sikh temple. A man led us around and showed us where to take off our shoes, where to wash our hands, how to sit, and everything, and he didn't even expect any money in return (this was a relieving surprise for us!) This temple can house 20,000 people in its dorms, and you don't have to pay anything. You don't have to pay for food either. It's all free by the temple. It was a great experience seeing the whole thing, like the meal halls or the massive kitchens where everything is made, or the prayer hall itself.

Yesterday we explored New Dehli, first going to Parliament and then India Gate, and then Humayum's tomb, which is what inspired the Taj Mahal. I will post pictures when I have more time. Yesterday we also went and saw Shrek III at a big theatre in a very priviledged and modern part of Dehli. It was all very interesting, but the heat is incredible. I've never sweated so much in my life. Because of this, it is very easy to get frustrated and tired and grouchy. It is a significant factor when deciding how to get around (walking vs. rickshaw) or what to do. I often miss Canada.

Today we are catching a four hour train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, and the day after that we are going to Jaipur, in the desert land of Rajasthan. We're very much looking forward to seeing the Taj, and to leaving Dehli, which is just overwhelming!

Kathmandu, Chitwan and Varanasi

Kathmandu has to be just about the funnest, coolest city I've ever been in.

Shopping: we went a little overboard here. There were too damn many places selling cheap DVDs (we're talking about $1-2) so I stocked up on music DVDs. We got a few little knick-knacky things, but of course our real treasures are the thongkas. We bought two more the other day--much smaller ones. I'm very excited to get them framed and put up in a room.

Entertainment: Kathmandu's Thamel area is just a labyrinth of shops and bars and clubs and restaurants. We saw plenty of live music. We had some amazing food and the other night we hung out with our American friends. There are some great hooka bars where you can get sheesha (flavoured tabacco) and have a social smoke, Arab-style. Kathmandu is also known for its leaf, which did not disappoint (although getting it was one of the more sketchier things I've ever done).

Sights: Although sight-seeing was much lower on our list of things to do than in other places, we went to Durbar square to see the old palace and temples. (Connected to this is "Freak St"--where the hippies first came--where we got the best samosas ever). We waited around until 4:00 to see the "Living Goddess" make an appearance on a patio in a palace. Nepal hindus revere this nine year old girl as a God, but when she came to the window all I saw was a bratty little girl who gave the crowd a brief, disinterested look, before disappearing. Then her little sister went to the patio, playing her game boy, and also disappeared. Weird.

We were really sad to leave Kathmandu. It's really a great place--extremely cheap, fun, and even safe. The Maoists have two seats in parliament now, so the political situation is much more stable than it used to be, to the great relief of Kathmandu's tourist industry.

Here is a picture of the Thamel region in Kathmandu (note the Thongka shop on the right):

We left on a bus to go to Chitwan National park. We shelled out the extra money for a place in a resort inside the park, and it was well worth it. My time here was among the best of my entire life.

First, we had to take a jeep through a little village, and then we got a boat across the river. We walked into the resort (really more of a camp) and within five minutes of getting there, it was time for elephant bathing. Four elephants made their way to the lagoon off the river and there, with the elephants and their trainers, you can swim/ride the elephants. This was the funnest thing I've ever done. You have to hold on tight because sometimes they try and wiggle you off, or shower you with their trunks, or submerge themselves. Nothing can adequately describe how amazing this was (and the leaf from Kathmandu didn't hurt the experience!). We got to do this three times over the course of our stay. THe first two days we had another couple with us, the last day we had the elphants all to ourselves.

Some pictures of the elephants:

Later that day, after we settled in our cottage by the river, we went for our first nature hike. The high-light was when we heard a rhino snort, and the guide took off into the thicket to investigate. A few minutes later he came walking quickly back, mouthing the word "tiger" and looking genuinely terrified. This was only 20 minutes after he gave us his intro speech about how to protect ourselves in the rare case of animal attack. Pan-Pan and the others (a dutch woman and an American couple) ran back but he told them to stop and not make any noise. He said that the tiger growled aggressively at him--"the bad kind" of growl. He had never had this in his 20+ years experience. Then he said he would call his friend--we were expecting a cell phone or something but instead he starting making this wild jungle noises. We waited until we heard a similar call through the woods, and then waited about 15 frightful minutes in the jungle for backup to arrive (an elephant). It led the way for us and presumably scared off the tiger, so we were free to continue. Pan-Pna was really scared though.

The elephant safaris were terrific. We went on three of them. They take you through the jungle looking for animals, and I mean literally THROUGH THE JUNGLE--no paths, just this elphant tearing down and bursting through trees with its trunk in front of you. We saw small deer and monkeys and weird birds, and the high-light was when we chased a black rhino through the jungle. It was like a real live safari. Then we finally encountered a giant black rhino and stood face to face with it for a couple minutes while it munched on some grass by the river.

Our Chitwan park experience was unforgettable. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance. We had to stay an extra day because the transportation in Nepal was on strike for a day, but we didn't mind at all--we just had another full day of elephants, just for ourselves.

When we left this little piece of paradise, our crazy trip to India began. I'll let Pan-Pan describe this because my fingers are getting tired.

..

After leaving chitwan national park with heavy hearts and an intense desire to return sometime in the future, we left early yesterday morning for the Nepal-India bordertown of Sonauli. there really is nothing there...except scam artists. So far on this trip, J and I have been lucky not to have been really scammed, but our luck ran out in Sonauli. As we walked towards the bus station looking for the bus to take us to Varanasi, a man approached us and took us to the "ticket office" where we were sold an express bus ticket for a bus that only made "3 stops". We should have known something was wrong since real government employed transportation workers are never so eager to help lost tourists out. Anyway, we paid 335 rupees per person for what we thought would be a nice comfortable bus with only 11 people on it (as we were again told). When the bus finally pulled up, it was huge, dirty, and crammed to the brim with Indian people. we managed to find a seat, but there was about 6 inches of leg room, and poor James was miserable! There was one other western tourist couple there, and they told us that they too had bought the 335 rupees "express bus' ticket, but when they asked the bus driver, he had said this bus was a local bus, making all the stops, and that the price was only 196 rupees for everyone! We were so mad that we had been conned so easily! Anyway, this bus was literally hell for 11 hours. we drove only 325 km in that time, made about 40 stops, and were crammed into a seat so tiny only children should be able to fit in. I literally had to curl up into a fetal position and stay that way for many hours while god only knows the physical and emotional torture James endured! while on this bus, I got accidentally spit on by some Indian men, went over countless bumps that literally bounced us 3-4 inches into the air and jostled our internal organs, had babies grab my hair and punch James repeatedly, and drove through miles of dust storms in our non-airconditioned bus. The worse was that there were maybe 100 people on this bus that should have only seated 60. People were standing for many hours, I couldn't believe it!

Anyway, we finally got to Varanasi at 3:30 am this morning, and i'd never been that happy to get off a bus. We made some nice friends on the ride though and they helped orient us in the city. Its weird being in the holiest Indian city at that hour though, since there's no one awake but tons of people sleeping on the streets, dogs roaming everywhere, and of course holy cows blocking all the roads. It was a bit scary since we were entirely dependent on our rickshaw driver to get us where we wanted to, but we ended up staying at a pretty nice place. It is enervatingly hot here. we walked around for a bit but soon gave up and got rickshaws. We went for some music lessons at this music store and it was awesome! our teacher taught us drums for about 1.5 hours and then played the traditional Indian drum, the Tabla, while James played on his guitar. I think I have quite a knack for the jambli (that drum we were taught) since our teacher would praise me every now and then. We also went on a 2 hour dawn cruise of the ganges river as soon as we got settled in. We saw pilgrims bathing in the holy waters, sadhus (Hindu holy men) chanting or praying, and dead bodies burning at the crematoriums by the river. ironically the ganges is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, although Hindus here believe it to have magical cleansing powers. Hindus also believe that if you die in Varanasi, your soul will finally be allowed to enter Nirvana (and not be perpetually reincarnated into different forms on earth which is the ultimate suffering) so many old people come here to die.

so we're off to explore the rest of the city now, tomorrow we're off to Sarnath, the place where the Buddha first revealed his Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. We're leaving for Delhi the day after that, its going to be hectic!

Day 5 on the Friendship Highway (written by Pan-Pan and James)

This was another long day of travelling, with some interesting high-lights. Of course, waking up to a snow-storm was crazy. Good thing I had my attractive new yak-wool hat to keep me warm. Anyhow, it was only useful for about 20 km down the mountain, after which point it began to get hot and dusty again (weird).

We stopped at a shit-hole of a town called Old Tingri, a series of ugly, dirty buildings along a dirt strip with almost nothing good to say about it except that it was our last stop before the border town, Zhangmu. We had lunch here and then set off for Zhangmu.

Halfway there we encountered an obstacle: the road was closed for a few hours because of "construction". Tommy, one of companions who speaks Mandarin, tried to convince the guard that it was an emergency, and then offered a bribe, but nothing could happen to let us go through. So we set out walking the 14 kilometres.

The walk along the road was pretty and good enough, were it not so long and so, so dusty. We tried numerous times to hitch-hike with passing gravel trucks until we were finally picked up by one who we offered 20 RMB. The four of us crowded into the tiny cab, sitting on each others laps and generally in a LOT of discomfort! But we were all laughing so hard. The high-light of this day, for me (James) was when we turned a corner along the high mountain road and almost ran into one of these weird Tibetan tractor-rickshaw things. They look like rickshaws with giant lawnmowner engines in front, with handle bars like a motorcycle. The poor guy couldn't keep control of the thing, and he had a look of genuine fear on his face as he tried to reign in this beast of a machine that seemed intent on going wherever it wanted (even right off the cliff, if not into our gravel truck!). Four of his construction companions had to actually restrain the possessed machine by holding it back, while the front wheels spun wildly above the ground! We all just laughed our asses off! We joked that if the machine went flying off the cliff, the People's Republic would make him pay to replace it. Poor guy!

The rest of the ride to Zhangmu was similarly filled with lots of laughter. Tommy is deathly afraid of heights, and the Zhangmu river gorge is one of the highest (most magnificent and beautiful) roads in the world--albeit calling it a road is sometimes generous. At one terrifying point, he was heard to remark "Golly gee Molly Poppers!" These Americans say weird and wonderful things! The road was often quite treacherous. We also were held up for an hour or so at one point on the road where a landslide of rocks made the road impassable. We had to wait with several other jeeps while a giant construction machine cleared it. While waiting, I saw huge flocks of bats flying amidst the clouds in the valley below--just beautiful.

(this part written by Pan-Pan because of J’s finger-aching issues again J)

The bordertown of Zhangmu (between Nepal and Tibet) is one dirty, hectic, crazy town (as all bordertowns have the reputation of being. We got there pretty late and had a very late dinner with the other two boys. They had some really interesting stories from their travels (they had started in Moscow, worked their way to Kazakhstan, through Xinjiang and finally to Tibet), and we also discussed some politics and philosophy. The four of us decided to go out for some drinks, and this is where the craziness started. We saw some stairs leading down to a bar, lined with red lanterns. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we turned the corner and came upon the sketchiest, dirtiest bar we’d ever seen. The only people in it were about 20 girls sitting around eating watermelon or lone-ily dancing on the dirty dance floor. Needless to say, it was obviously a bar where men could, ahem, buy the company of ladies. We felt very very awkward, especially me because it was a weird place for a girl to walk into! We all left hastily and laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. In fact, we couldn’t find one legitimate bar in the whole town, and ended up going back to our hotel and chatting in the American boys’ rooms until late.

The next day, we woke up late and started our trip to Nepal! The border crossing was relatively hassle-free although the Chinese officials seemed more diligent and checked us many times, while the Nepalese officials barely seemed to care that we were entering. In fact, little Nepalese children kept scuttling back and forth between the borders carefreely! We rented a car for 2000 rupees (about 40 CDN) for the 4 hour ride through the mountains to Kathmandu, and this is where we are now, in beautiful, vibrant Thamel region of Kathmandu, where we are staying at the cleanest, nicest, prettiest hotel we’ve seen in a LONG time – the Kathmandu Guest House. Nepalese people are generally very nice, but bartering can be a lengthy and heart-wrenching process. The food is DELICIOUS (such a change from Tibetan fare), and there are just endless interesting streets to explore and exotic souvenirs to buy. We both bought Tibetan thangkas (hand-painted scrolls), which are real works of art – J’s is about 4 feet by 3 feet for 6000 rupees and mine is a bit smaller for 3200 rupees. We can’t wait for you guys to see them!

Day 4 on the Friendship Highway (written by Pan-Pan)

Me (Pan-Pan) again! So we were in Sakya in the morning and circumabulated the monastery there. It is strongly Mongol-influenced and so looks different from anything else we’d seen – thick grey walls with white stripes down the sides. We opted not to go in though because we’d already seen so many monasteries and didn’t want to pay the 55 RMB (about 8 CDN) per person to go in. Honestly, I think we’ve seen about 50 temples/monasteries/nunneries by now! I was glad to get out of Sakya because there’s nothing to do there, and it’s so ridiculously dusty.

We traveled for the full day to reach Mount Everest. Most of the ride was smooth, and even ascending 1000 m in 20 km of road wasn’t as bad as we thought. Everest Base Camp is an interesting tent city. There were no expeditions going on at the time, so there were no actual climber tents. All the tents were for tourists who come to stay there. It was pretty cold while we were there so we bundled up as best as we could. James bought a yak wool hat which was really cool and only cost 20 RMB. We decided to walk 4km to the actual Mount Everest base camp where climbers would stay, and the walk was sooooo hard! Because the altitude was 5200 m, there was very little oxygen and after climbing a small mountain, we all had to stop and rest, huffing and puffing and drinking lots of water. The walk was interesting because we saw some Tibetan gophers, and of course, tons of yaks. When we finally got to the official base camp, the clouds cleared up for just long enough for us to snap a few great pictures (which we’ll put up as soon as we can, either on this blog or on my photo blog). There was a Chinese police station with a sign that said “Mount Everest Police Station” which we wanted to take a picture of, but they wouldn’t let us! Its so weird. The actual Base Camp sign disappointingly doesn’t even say “Everest”, it just says Mt. Qomolangma, which is the Chinese name for Everest. The walk back was so great and light because we were going downhill and with the wind this time.

We were served some basic Tibetan food in our tent, which by this time we were really tired of! Tibetan food is just a lot of yak, noodles, and fried rice. None of us had much of an appetite, there’s only so much yak and noodles we can eat before we’d rather just go hungry. Our tent was designed in a basic Tibetan way – lots of reds, blues, greens, and whites, representing the four elements. They lit a fire, and soon our tent was the hub of activity as all the guides and drivers and some tourists from other vans came in. James and I had a game of chess too, which has been keeping our minds stimulated on this trip. I won, which is rare, since J is much better than me usually! We went to bed at around midnight, and soon the night was still and the air was chilly as the fire slowly died. I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely frozen to the bone even under two full winter quilts and had to put on my pants and long shirts and socks just to stay warm.

When we woke up in the morning, I looked outside and felt as if we had been transported to another world. There, right outside our door, was our tent city covered with a foot of snow and a blizzard happily blasting everything! I couldn’t believe how snowy and cold everything was! I’m sure James will write about this, but it blew us away how within the next 8 hours of leaving Everest, we would travel through 3 different biomes – snow, desert, and tropics! Altitude is more of an influence on climate than I had ever really though possible!

Day 3 on the Friendship Highway

This was a hard day of travelling. We spent just about the entire day in the jeep, driving across the roughest "roads" you'll ever see (never paved, hardly ever gravel, mostly just rock and dirt--very bumpy). The Tibetan landscape is harsh. There are green agricultural areas in some of the valleys but the plateau mostly resembles desert. It's rocky and very, very dusty.
At Shigatse we were determined to find thongkas (traditional Tibetan art-works) since we missed our chance in Lhasa.

We only had a couple hours in this town to see a monastery and haev lunch, and we spent half of it running through markets and alleys looking for thongkas. Finally we gave up and saw the monastery, which, if I recall, was not particularly unique. This was the center of the Gelupga order of Tibetan Buddhism, and is significant because it is the spiritual center of the Panchen Llama, second holiest man in Tibet next to the Dali Llama, who is from a different order. But the last Panchen llama is buried in Shigatse. I say the last even though there is a current Panchen llama, 11 years old, but he is being held captive by the Chinese--he's called the youngest political prisoner in the world. (On that note, Tibet is obviously an extremely sensitive political issue--you can get in serious trouble for bringing in pictures of the Dali Llama or discussing politics with local Tibetans or monks--some of whome are known to be undercover agents).

Sakya was where we stayed the night, and it was nothing special. We saw a ruined monastery and walked through it, which was quite interesting. The monastery was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (along with a reported 6000 other monasteries in Tibet). There was no power on in this town, so we had an early night, in candlelight, in our hotel room (which, again, was nothing special).

Additionally, we began at this point to tire of Tibetan food, which is not a particularly good reason to visit Tibet. Because of the scarcity of resources, Tibetan food tends to be drab and limited compared to Chinese cuisine. We survived the Friendship Highway mostly on fried rice or chowmein.

Our American friends are great travelling partners. We got along really well with them. They have a ton of funny stories!

Day 2 on the Friendship Highway (written by Pan-Pan)

I’ve taken over for James for a few of the entries because there’s just so much to write about and James’ fingers get awfully tired!

After spending the night in Samye, we left early in the morning to cross the river by boat, which took about one hour. The landscape around Samye is extremely interesting, all desert and dunes, next to crystal clear lakes, which are themselves striated by blond sand dunes. In the morning, Tommy and Brendan told us about a crazy encounter with some Tibetan police that barged into their room the night before and told them they couldn’t stay in the hotel we were all staying at because it hadn’t been approved by the government for foreigners to stay at. We think it was all a big scam to get rich foreign tourists to stay in their hotels, some of which are owned by police sheriffs, very sketchy indeed.

The boat ride was relaxing as the boat was almost empty. This day, it was James’ turn to sit in the very back of the jeep, with all the luggage, and he did so well, didn’t get sick at all! In fact, all the boys took a turn in the car, and I tried one day for 18 minutes, but then got so car sick, James had to take over my shift. For the rest of the trip, they were all very benevolent about sitting in the back, and all of them offered to take my shifts so that I wouldn’t get sick. Sitting in the back though makes one feel like an animal because it’s cage-like and opening the back door requires the driver to come around. Everytime James got let out, we laughed and said “Release the beast!” We drove for about 9 hours that day, stopping in between at Yamdrok-tso lake, which is a winding turqoise gem. When we were pulling into the parking lot though our jeep got kicked by a yak! It was pretty startling. We got hassled again by some Tibetan shop vendors, who are not friendly at all sometimes. Very different from the monks and nuns who are always smiling!

When we finally got to Gyatse, we entered the monastery there and enjoyed the biggest stupa I had ever seen. It takes too long to post pictures, but I highly suggest you google these places we mentioned because they are all beautiful. Gyatse is full of wild dogs, so I opted to go back to our dorm room early while James went to an internet café. I also got a shower in which is more than I can say about the boys (for your own sakes, I won’t mention how many days my travel companions went without showers!)

Day 1 on the Friendship Highway

We left Lhasa on the 19th after having spent four nights there. It was quite enough time there, I think. As I may have mentioned before, we met two American guys our age to share the cost of a jeep + driver/guide across the Friendship Highway to the Nepal border: trip duration, 5 days and 6 nights. Our driver and guide were nice Tibetan men, and the jeep was just big enough to hold all six of us. One person had to sit in a fold out seat in the very back, with the luggage, but it wasn't so bad because you could just lie down (albeit rather awkwardly).

The first day we travelled to a monastery about two hours away from Lhasa called Samye. We had to take a very rickety Tibetan boat-thing for an hour to get there. Once there, we saw the monastery, which is the oldest monastery in Tibet. I think it's 1400 years old or something like that. It was really impressive, and we got to hear those crazy Tibetan horns that are enormously long and produce a deep, resonate bellow.

We hiked some pretty hills and I took a short video of some a field of grass blowing in the high wind--it was a very pretty place. We had dinner with our companions and later that night we circumambulated the temple and made friends with some Tibetans in the process. Two women called out "hello!" and we met them and took some pictures of us with them--they were very impressed with how their pictures showed up immediately on the camera for them to see.

Later that night I played some pool--there are lots of pool tables in Tibet. I won one game and lost another, but both were really fun. Of course, I drew quite a crowd of onlookers. Maybe they all assumed I was a pool pro because I'm Western or something. Anyhow, these rural Tibetans were quite nice and seemed eager to laugh and smile.

Lhasa

I wasn't planning on making another post until Nepal, but the last two days have been so interesting that I don't want to leave it for a week and risk forgetting the details.

Yesterday we saw the Potala Palace, which is magnificent. There are 999 different chambers. We didn't go in them all, of course, there was a pre-set course that led through some of the most interesting and important rooms, like shrines and tombs. The rooms are mostly lit by candles burning in yak butter wax (which smells like yak). Of course there is also plenty of incense smoke in most places. There were a number of Western tourists, very many Chinese tourists, and also a sizable amount of pilgrims who would prostrate themselves at important places. There is a very mystical feel to it all. It was definitely worth the 100 yuan entrance fee, and the tiring climb up the thousands of stairs leading to it.

Later that day we went to another temple in Lhasa called Ramoche. For a fee we went into the main prayer hall, absolutely filled to the brim with monks, and circumambulated (walked counter clock wise) the room, drawing the stares of many (we were the only tourists there). We didn't know it at the time, but they were all waiting for their venerable teacher to show up. We went outside--around the temple were hundreds of people also waiting for him to show up. So we waited too. Soon enough, officials starting pushing people back to allow room for an SUV to get near the temple. Army and police officials led the way, pushing people back. Then the SUV pulled in and a monk in one of those wild, yellow hats started blowing on one of those deep Tibetan horn instruments. As soon as the door opened, people swarmed the SUV. In the raucus I caught a glimpse of him. He was short and old, and surrounded by other monks and the officials, who escorted him into the temple.

Here's a picture of the SUV entering the temple compound:

Today has been a very full day. We took a city bus 20 minutes to a monastery called Sera, from which we hiked an hour through fields and small Tibetan villages to a small monastery called Pabonke. We never made it there because on the way we encountered a small monastery--actually a nunnery--and were waylaid. They were so nice and welcome, they actually invited us into their prayer hall to sit with them for their mid-day meal. So Pan-Pan and I sat in this room filled with Tibetan nuns, and ate with them. We didn't eat much though, just a little to be polite. The food was small balls of yak butter and meal, and we didn't like it very much. After we ate, they all started chanting, and we just sat back and tried to do a little meditating. All in all we were with them for at least an hour, and even managed to communicate a little with a very nice nun sitting across from us. They seem like very happy people, always smiling and joking around, even though their lives are very austere. I didn't take any photos because flashes aren't permitted in prayer halls, but I didn't manage to capture some poor quality video which I will share when I get back.

Here are some pictures of the Tibetan landscape on our way to the nunnery.

(That black-ish thing in the foreground is a yak, by the way. They smell.)

When we got back to Sera, we were just in time for the "monk debates", a huge tourist draw, where the monks sit in a big courtyard and have heated debates with each other. This was very interesting and we got some great photos. They are very emphatic when they argue, and they clap their hands at the others when they feel they've made a point. I didn't see anyone get angry or upset though. Everyone was either looking inquisitive, thoughtful, or joyful.

A picture of the monks debating:

Today we also settled our plans for our trip on the Friendship Highway, which starts tomorrow morning. We met our American comrades again and paid the travel agency and even got to see the jeep we'll be taking. This should be quite the adventure.

Chengdu, Tibet

The days since Lijiang have been a blur. We arrived at Chengdu very late and spent two nights at the Mix Hostel. Our first day in Chengdu we went to the Panda Breeding Center, a world renouned facility that studies, breeds and displays the giant panda and lesser red panda. I think this was Pan-Pan's favourite site so far. We went very early (6:30) to avoid the crowds and because we heard that the pandas are more active in the morning. We weren't disappointed at all, they were very active. We have some great pictures and videos that we will share when we get back. There are a couple good ones of panda cubs rough-housing on a wooden climbing structure. They seem like very friendly creatures! There was also a panda museum on the site. Here is a picture:

Later that day we went to what is said to be the first Taoist temple in China, where Lao-Tzu himself (writer of the Tao-te-Ching) is said to have lived part of his life. It was very interesting to me. Here's a picture:

The next day we left for Mt. Emei, but not before visiting the Leshan Buddha on the way. This is the biggest Buddha in the world. It was really incredible.

Mt. Emei is two hours outside of Chengdu. It's famous for its great scenic spots, the monastaries that dot the mountain, its incredible height, and the hordes of monkeys you encounter in several places. We took a bus to almost the top, where there was a small stretch of development including a couple hotels and a few restaurants, and the next morning, bright and early, we took a gondola to the very top. The monastery at the top is incredible. Here's a picture of the massive statue in front of the monastery:

We then climbed seven hours down the mountain. Going down is HARD, let me tell you. The last hour, I was hobbling--my ankle was hurting, but worse still, my right leg was just destroyed. Later that night I couldn't bend it at all and could barely walk. But overall it was an enjoyable experience. We saw some magnificent sites, some really magical looking temples, and they monkeys were just crazy! They would grab people's bags, pull out anything edible (juice boxes, bottles of water, raw eggs) and run into the trees to eat them. One of them attacked this older woman who was screaming "hozi!" ("monkey!") I tried to stop myself laughing but I couldn't, it was too funny. The official policy with the monkeys is don't feed them--the authorities have put them on a diet because they are getting fat and greedy from tourists' food. You have to be very careful with them and are advised to carry a big stick. There are some wardens who walk the paths but they are few and far between. It is a little scary when you're descending the trail by yourself, with at least an hour between you and the nearest little mountain concession stand or warden.

Here's a monkey after stealing a person's plastic bag. He then opens the bottle of water and drinks it (they are quite clever).

Then we left for Tibet. The flight was just great. For the second time we managed to get a seat in the third row, right behind first class, with no seats in front of us and so with lots of leg room.

Lhasa is such an interesting city. We've been here for two days now. On the one hand, it is so developed by the Han Chinese that much of it looks like an old Chinese city. In fact, there are more Han in Lhasa than Tibetans. But there is still a core of Tibetan culture, like the Potala palace (the old residence of the Dali Llama), the Jokhang temple, or the old neighborhoods bustling with circumabulating monks and with the smell of frying yak in the air. Speaking of yak, I had a yak burger, and it was pretty good--tasted like beef. At the Jokhang temple, Pan-Pan was yelled at by some woman at a concession stand for dressing inappropriately! She said something like "respect the temple when you're here, I hate that sort of thing." We were very confused and figured that she must have been referring to PP's skirt, which stopped around mid-calf--pretty long by most standards. Anyways, now we know to be extra careful. In India it will be even more intense, I'm sure.

Today we got our ticket vouchers for Potala Palace, and we can use them tomorrow (you have to get tickets a day in advance). Then we're going to the Sera Monastery to see the monk debates. We've already located two travelling companions to go with us on the Friendship Highway, which will take us to the Nepal border and visit most of the main sites along the way. We found them on the notice board at our hostel. We met them today--two American boys our age--and I think we'll have a good time with them. We'll get a jeep with a driver and a guide and spend five nights on the road, going from place to place, until we get to Nepal. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Samye monastery, oldest in Tibet, and the Everest base camp, which has amazing views of Everest. But even the Friendship Highway itself is supposed to be very scenic, though treacherous.

Here are a couple pictures, the first a view of the area around Johkbar temple, seen from the rooftop, and the second of Potala palace.

This will probably be the last post I'll be able to make until Nepal. I'm sure I'll arrive in Kathmandu with all sorts of stories and pictures--hopefully I'll be able to post a few!

Chongqing and Lijiang

We left Fengjie to spend a couple nights in Chongqing, mainly to see Pan-Pan's grandmother and cousin. Chongqing is known to have the most beautiful girls in China, and is also called the city of fire because of its scorching temperatures (we got lucky with overcast skies and light rain). Pan-Pan's family is really nice, and fun. Pan-Pan's grandmother made some of the most delicious Chinese food I've ever had. She is a very vivacious woman! And we had a lot of fun with her cousin who is 16. We mostly used these two days to relax, but also to get our Tibet entry permits arranged. We were originally very worried that we'd have to go with a tour group, since they say that getting individual travel permits to Tibet now is exceedingly difficult ever since a demonstration last year. We really didn't want to spend our entire week there being sheperded around with a group of old Chinese business men, having meals with them and not even having an English tour guide! So we were very happy when we found a way to get independent entry permits. We went to a travel forum and got the contact from other travellers for someone who can arrange independent permits. We called her up and she was very helpful, and we were able to get the permits, in addition to the flight from Chengdu to Lhasa, for 2000 yuan each. So we're very pleased with this.

Pan-Pan's aunt and cousin took us to the airport and saw us to the security gate. It was sad saying goodbye to them. We took the 9:30 flight to Lijiang, but our plane was two hours delayed. It was a short trip though, only two hours. It would have taken a couple days travel by train and bus otherwise.

Here is a picture of us and Pan-Pan's family on the Peng side: her aunt, her grandmother, and her cousin.

I think that Lijiang has been my favourite city so far. It's beautiful and a lot of fun. The ancient part of the city has been preserved and restored and is very touristy. The narrow cobbled streets (the stones are called "Lijiang five coloured granite") are packed with people. The bustle just adds to the charm, in a way. It still manages to retain the feel of an ancient Chinese city, with traditional Chinese architexture, even though it's packed with interesting shops and hostels and yes, even internet cafes. Everything is done to make this city look ancient, from the Chinese lanterns that hang everywhere to the old buildings. Two small rivers run through the old town and there are many smaller tributaries with ancient stone or wooden bridges crossing them.

Our hostel is decent and we found a really cool English bar across the street. It's tiny, but it has free pool, great Western music (a nice change from the same Chinese flute song that the shops here repeat ad nauseum) and a cool bartender/owner who is from England and may have played for Manchester United.

There are beautiful restaurants and bars built beside them. I'm not good enough with words to do justice to the scenes here, so here are some pictures.

We've spent plenty of time just strolling the labyrinth of alleyways and, of course, eating, but Lijiang has some interesting sites as well. Our favourite was horseback riding out near Jade Mountain (the city is situated high up with mountains surrounding on every side). PP had never riden a horse before so she had a really great time. Our horses had a lot of personality. Mine was really struggling. At one point it tripped on a steep path through the woods and I thought it was the end of me. At another point it turned suddenly and started running in the wrong direction. Our guide said it was because he was spooked by a bag of somesort that was on the path and he hadn't seen before. And Pan-Pan's horse, Sesame, was a little skittish. Here's a picture of us on our horses (Sesame and Little Blacky) in a big meadow, at the base of the mountains.

The other main attraction, aside from the city itself, is Black Dragon lake. It's really incredibly scenic, and the site of some famous photographs. Here is my attempt at capturing its famous bridge, temple, and mountain range in the background.

We've spent four days in Lijiang and they've all been great. We're leaving tomorrow for Chengdu, where we'll spend three or so days before heading off to Tibet. I will definitely miss Lijiang.

More pictures...

A view of Fengjie.

The Jiang family on the trip to the Little Three Gorges.

Me getting acupuncture on my foot in a Chinese hospital.

Our last meal at Pan-Pan's aunt's.

... at the farm

Our two days at Pan-Pan's grandparents has been incredibly interesting. They live in a village of about two hundred people about an hour outside of the city of Fengjie. On the curving mountain road we experienced some of the most scary driving to date. The road is fairly new but it still is full of pot holes and holes too big to be called pot holes. The day we went up, it had stormed recently, and there had been several landslides that left heaps of stone in the middle of the road. At some places, red, muddy water streamed down the mountain and across the road. And if you think that the drivers here would refrain from passing cement trucks or motorcycles while taking a blind curve on a wet road on the edge of a cliff, then come to China and take a drive in the mountains and bring a sedative with you, because Pan-Pan almost had an anxiety attack! The driving in the cities was downright heavenly by comparison--at least our lives didn't seem at stake.

Anyway, the village is nestled in a mountain range that sits beside the mighty Yangtze river. It is very picturesque, although the farm and the village looks nothing like what the words might suggest. There isn't a whole lot of green space in the village itself, and the farms mostly consist of very small patches of land and maybe a pig sty. There is litter everywhere. It's pretty gritty. Of course, the people there were fascinated by me and I everywhere I went, I got plenty of stares.

Most of all I enjoyed meeting Pan-Pan's grandparents and the rest of her family on the Jiang side. Even knowing what I know about familial piety in China, their hospitality exceeded all expectations. Even with very little I was quite comfortable. We had many big feasts and I tried more interesting and traditional foods like pig's feet, which I didn't like. Typically, to eat, we would walk through a path through the woods to some sort of community cooking place. There'd be huge woks and pots sizzling under the tents and lots of people sitting around tables, who were very surprised to see me there. I was told that I'm the only foreigner to ever have been in the village. We ate very well because one of the old men was celebrating his 70th birthday. At night there were fireworks, with the mountains in the background--it was beautiful. Here is a view of the village, along with PP's little cousin:

And here is one of me and PP with her grandparents:

The next day we all travelled in PP's uncle's police SUV (he's a police officer) to a town to see a dragon boat race. SO many people. It took a long time to get there over treacherous roads and we didn't even see the dragon boats, because there was a miscommunication with a travel agent. We couldn't stay in time to see them because we had to get to another town on the Yangtze to leave for our Yangtze cruise, which took us to a site called the little Three Gorges. It is well known to be more gorgeous than the Three Gorges, because it is narrower and deeper. The scenery was very nice. PP and I had a good time with the whole family, but especially her 13 year old cousin Yao. He's a great kid. Here are a couple views from the boat:

When we left the farm the next day, it was sad, even though we were both ready to get back to the relative luxury of Fengjie. We are both going to miss PP's grandparents, who are really incredibly cute/funny/nice. They both cried when we left. They tried to give me 500 yuan (about $80-90 CDN) because its tradition. PP accepted but I didn't because it would be crazy for me to take such a huge amount of money from them, when they have so little and I already have so much.

We got back to Fengjie and have spent another couple of days here--originally supposed to be one day, made two because our ride to Chongqing was postponed. We've had some more huge meals at PP's aunts place.

I played a game of basketball at the community courts with PP's cousins and her uncle and I guess I wasn't up for it because I sprained my ankle pretty badly. Today, I went back to the hospital to get acupuncture for the second time. He stuck needles in my foot, around the bruise, and surged electricity through it--it was a strange feeling, at first very painful. Then he put sunction things on the bruise. I don't know what any of it did, or if it did any good. My ankle felt a little stronger afterwards. I guess I'll have to wait to see if it helped anything.

Yichang, and travelling on the Yangtze...

We left Xian, and there has been absolutely no time to miss the hostel. We caught a train at 9:00 AM and arrived in Yichang, on the Yangtze, at about 10:45 PM. Yes, it was a full day on the train. We originally had hard sleepers, which we were familiar with from our night journey, but we found it too noisy/smokey/cramped and opted to upgrade to the soft sleepers. Despite the name, the soft sleepers are not much softer than the hard ones. They are, however, much more private, with four bunks in a private room rather than six in an open room with no door. Most of the time we shared it with one other man who just slept. The ride was not as bad as we thought. With much sleep, hanging out in the dining hall, and a little bit of chess as well, the time passed fairly quickly.

Ever since arriving in Yangtze, we have had so much help from Pan-Pan's family that I feel like a VIP rather than a student backpacker. PP's aunt had someone pick us up at the train station in Yichang, and he took us to a very nice hotel. In the morning, some activities were already set up for us. We had a private driver, in a black car with "VIP" on it, take us to a beautiful site on the river, with old temples and great views. Then he took us to a hot pot restaurant, which was delicious, and not unbearably spicy when washed down with Tsingtao beer. All of this, of course, was paid for by him.

In the afternoon, another man picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the boat we took down the Yangtze. He is a friend of PP's aunt, and quite powerful, apparently. Everyone was surprised that he was taking us there himself. He also got us free tickets on the cruise, because he is friends with the owner of the boat. We were so surprised when he showed us to our berth and it was a nice private room with a TV, air conditioning and a bathroom! Although the TV and airconditioner didn't work, and the bathroom smelled simply awful, it was still one of the best rooms on the boat. It was quite an interesting cruise down the beautiful Yangtze, through the locks by the big dam and then through the Three Gorges. We arrived in the morning and were picked up by PP's aunt Hong.

Since then, we've been living in luxury. PP's aunt and her uncle have been unbelievably gracious hosts to us, as is the Chinese way. The food they prepare for breakfast and lunch is delicious. The last three nights we have gone out to fancy restaurants with large parties of friends and assorted dignitaries (I've met a bunch of top city officials around the table--and at one restaurant the owner came and joined us for a while). The feasts are massive and I feel bad about all the food that is wasted. I've tried some exotic things like pigs tongue (they taste like pork and are pretty tasted--I had a few of them), chicken intenstine, shark fin soup (actually quite good), and fish stomach. These meals have been a wild experience. Everyone is drinking and smoking and "cheers'ing" and we are, of course, considered VIPs. I have made a couple awkward attempts at toasting by standing up and saying in Chinese "Thank you everyone very much for this delicious meal--I like China very much" which always elicits much laughter and applause. The food is lavish and delicious but me and PP actually miss our simpler meals at the greasy hole-in-the-wall joints in Beijing and elsewhere.

The first two mornings here, I played basketball with PP's uncle at the community courts (waking up at 6:00 so we could play before he goes to work at the government). The courts are full of people shooting baskets, playing badminton or doing group calesthenics like Tai Chi--you'd never see this in North America. It's a lot of fun. Apparently I am getting known around town as the foreigner of Fengjie. It's a very different experience for me.

A couple nights ago, on Monday night, we went to the big market square--the Jiangs and I--they made me dance a waltz with Pan-Pan in the square with a bunch of other people to a band. It was something, with the moon overhead and the traditional Chinese music being played. Then Pan-Pan's feet hurt so I danced with her aunt. When the music ended, the MC said something like "... and welcome to our foreign friend" and the audience (hundreds of people) applauded. There was a huge crowd around us as we played carnival games--PP won a couple ceramic toys from a ring toss game!

Yesterday we visited Yan-Yan's family across the river. Very rural experience. We saw their fish farm which is this small structure built on the water and we took an ancient looking skiff to get there. This place was very rural--I imagine some people had never seen a white person before, judging by the way they stared at me. Her family there was also very nice, and we had a huge lunch including fresh fish. On the way back across the river, it started thunder storming very hard, and our boat actually got pushed against the rocky shore by the waves, and we had to achor against a rock because we couldn't get past the breakers! I must admit, it was a little unnerving. Finally the storm subsided enough that we could set out again across the river, but we had to wait for about 20 minutes.

This morning I went with PP and her aunt to the local hospital and tried out some traditional Chinese medicine techniques, since her aunt is friends with the town's best acupuncturist and I mentioned an interest in it. So I tried two things for my back (which is holding up but still weak, especially in the morning). First he put this electric pillow on my back that sent electric pulses to my back muscles, which felt like thousands of pins and needles poking me at various intensities and frequencies for half an hour. It felt very weird. PP tried it too but she didn't like it and cried a little so she stopped a few minutes into it. Then I had some apuncture, just a couple needles to try it out. It didn't hurt so much after they were in. I'm not sure it did any good. I probably needed more needles and more time. It was a really cool experience, anyhow.

We just had noodles at a place that is supposedly famous in Fengjie, and later today we are going to PP's grandparent's farm in the country. It will be another night of feasting, no doubt. Hopefully I can get a nap in before that. I had a bit of a cold yesterday but I feel better today.

All in all, I've had a wonderful time here so far. I'm learning more about the Chinese people, particularly about how important family is. We have literally not had to pay for one thing the last few days, despite our attempts. One of PP's aunts even bought me a new belt, because I needed one. It's really incredible. Family ties are considered very, very strong. I've also learned how useful connections are. We've gotten an awful lot from people just because of who PP is related to, and what strings they can pull for us. Her mom is apparently pretty famous around here.

It will be difficult getting used to being humble backpackers again after all this VIP treatment of feasts at five star restaurants and private drivers.