Well took awhile to find a decent connection, and then I had to use a new site but here goes:
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANGTFo5cuXDg4
Good luck and enjoy!
Monday, June 27, 2005
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Fireflies, food, and other things making Thailand awesome
So I've survived another working week (maybe got a reaction to work, did an aerobics class in Thai, and gave a presentation on Fri) and just returned from the planned weekend trip with our Thai students.
Oi and the other CRI students organized this trip, leaving hella early on Saturday from our rooms to minibus about an hour and a half west of Bangkok. First we checked in at Dara Resort where we were to spend the night. Traditional Thai style house with a big open space underneath to sit during the heat of the day. From there we traveled mostly by boat as we were in a region known for palm plantations and generally using canals for transport. We had a tour of the town and life along the river. The houses tend to go right up and into the water's edge on stilts. People were out cleaning dishes, swimming, fishing, and even bathing as our long-tailed boat drove by. It almost felt like an invasion of privacy but they seemed to take it in stride. Being only an hr from Bangkok, it wasn't exactly isolated but such a large group of Westerners was definitely noticed. The tour led then to the large floating market where the canal became clogged with boats selling an infinite variety of fruits, noodles, hats and other clothing. We got out to wander along the riverside and enjoy the chaos. Our students declared it was time to eat around 10:30, so noodles for everybody! Of course through some miscommunication I got the extra spicy... not a good thing in Thailand. Nothing like being so hot that you sweat constantly and THEN eating things that make you cry and your lips burn. hahaha... So from there we went to one local temple which was actually inside and completely hidden by a copse of trees - apparent protection from invading Burmese at some point or another. No tourists here really, just a few Thai people and monks running the place. Went inside and our guid showed us how to shake this can of sticks until one falls out and then use the number on the stick to get a fortune from a list. Mine was 'overall good.' (legal case is favorable!) Hahaha. Then our whole group headed to another temple with time enough to stop as an icecream boat went by. This temple was much larger and filled with carved wood murals of scenes throughout Buddha's life. The last stop of the afternoon was a park with traditional Thai homes and one that used to belong to their King Rama II. A short trip back to our tropical resort for the rest of the afternoon. A nap, some more snacking and wandering around the nearby coconut plantations and then it was time for dinner!
After dinner we headed to our second floating market which was much more local in nature. In other words we got a LOT more stares. Fair enough though, as I was able to find one of my favorite Thai sweet things - Chai-ling which is this iced, sugared, tea type drink. I've been using it as dessert since despite the high quality of Thai food I've found desserts lacking pretty seriously - almost always jelly/fruity/salty/or containing way to much coconut. Plus towards the end we found another quality desert which was basically mini doughnuts with sugar coating and bannanas inside... delicious! On the way out we found Chai-ling smoothies and ended up getting free ones since the lady selling them was running out of ice. Absolutely fabulous let me tell ya. So suitably high on sugar we all pile back into the boat and they take us to see the fireflies of the Mae Klong river. We're excited but skeptical at the same time since we haven't seen any yet. We eventually turned off the boat lights and there they were - like thousands of flashing christmas lights. Definitely cool looking, but these fireflies are only about 1/3 the size of the ones at home, so we win that one.
Back at the resort it turned out that the 6 of us Americans (Matt and Wendy, the couple, didn't come since they were sick), were staying in these really swanky bungalows while all the Thai kids were camping underneath the main house in mosquito nets. Crazyness! Some cheap Scotch later had us on the karoke machine (very popular here) and singing some classics. I think we suitably entertained with our dancing at least. It's great that we have such a good group! So shower and crashed.
This morning we got to sleep in before having some high quality rice and toast for breakfast. I went on a good 40 min bike ride and got absolutely drenched in sweat and tends to happen relatively instantaneously if I exert myself in this country. Everybody ended up jumping in the river despite having seen all the things floating in it previously. So hanging out eating more fresh grown pamelo (like a giant grapefruit) before returning to the big city.
This trip is absolutely flying by. Things are so laid back, inexpensive, and generally delicious here that having a good time is hard not to do! Speaking of - I'm meeting everybody for ice cream at Swenson's... now!
Oi and the other CRI students organized this trip, leaving hella early on Saturday from our rooms to minibus about an hour and a half west of Bangkok. First we checked in at Dara Resort where we were to spend the night. Traditional Thai style house with a big open space underneath to sit during the heat of the day. From there we traveled mostly by boat as we were in a region known for palm plantations and generally using canals for transport. We had a tour of the town and life along the river. The houses tend to go right up and into the water's edge on stilts. People were out cleaning dishes, swimming, fishing, and even bathing as our long-tailed boat drove by. It almost felt like an invasion of privacy but they seemed to take it in stride. Being only an hr from Bangkok, it wasn't exactly isolated but such a large group of Westerners was definitely noticed. The tour led then to the large floating market where the canal became clogged with boats selling an infinite variety of fruits, noodles, hats and other clothing. We got out to wander along the riverside and enjoy the chaos. Our students declared it was time to eat around 10:30, so noodles for everybody! Of course through some miscommunication I got the extra spicy... not a good thing in Thailand. Nothing like being so hot that you sweat constantly and THEN eating things that make you cry and your lips burn. hahaha... So from there we went to one local temple which was actually inside and completely hidden by a copse of trees - apparent protection from invading Burmese at some point or another. No tourists here really, just a few Thai people and monks running the place. Went inside and our guid showed us how to shake this can of sticks until one falls out and then use the number on the stick to get a fortune from a list. Mine was 'overall good.' (legal case is favorable!) Hahaha. Then our whole group headed to another temple with time enough to stop as an icecream boat went by. This temple was much larger and filled with carved wood murals of scenes throughout Buddha's life. The last stop of the afternoon was a park with traditional Thai homes and one that used to belong to their King Rama II. A short trip back to our tropical resort for the rest of the afternoon. A nap, some more snacking and wandering around the nearby coconut plantations and then it was time for dinner!
After dinner we headed to our second floating market which was much more local in nature. In other words we got a LOT more stares. Fair enough though, as I was able to find one of my favorite Thai sweet things - Chai-ling which is this iced, sugared, tea type drink. I've been using it as dessert since despite the high quality of Thai food I've found desserts lacking pretty seriously - almost always jelly/fruity/salty/or containing way to much coconut. Plus towards the end we found another quality desert which was basically mini doughnuts with sugar coating and bannanas inside... delicious! On the way out we found Chai-ling smoothies and ended up getting free ones since the lady selling them was running out of ice. Absolutely fabulous let me tell ya. So suitably high on sugar we all pile back into the boat and they take us to see the fireflies of the Mae Klong river. We're excited but skeptical at the same time since we haven't seen any yet. We eventually turned off the boat lights and there they were - like thousands of flashing christmas lights. Definitely cool looking, but these fireflies are only about 1/3 the size of the ones at home, so we win that one.
Back at the resort it turned out that the 6 of us Americans (Matt and Wendy, the couple, didn't come since they were sick), were staying in these really swanky bungalows while all the Thai kids were camping underneath the main house in mosquito nets. Crazyness! Some cheap Scotch later had us on the karoke machine (very popular here) and singing some classics. I think we suitably entertained with our dancing at least. It's great that we have such a good group! So shower and crashed.
This morning we got to sleep in before having some high quality rice and toast for breakfast. I went on a good 40 min bike ride and got absolutely drenched in sweat and tends to happen relatively instantaneously if I exert myself in this country. Everybody ended up jumping in the river despite having seen all the things floating in it previously. So hanging out eating more fresh grown pamelo (like a giant grapefruit) before returning to the big city.
This trip is absolutely flying by. Things are so laid back, inexpensive, and generally delicious here that having a good time is hard not to do! Speaking of - I'm meeting everybody for ice cream at Swenson's... now!
Monday, June 20, 2005
Ko Samet
So to wrap up my first week: Wed was another relatively non-eventful day at work except that I finally met my advisor and had a short talk with him. Apparently I'm synthesizing this natural product that hasn't even been biologically tested. Ah well, we can't all do exciting chemistry I suppose. At least things are laid back around here.
Thursday was our day long language and culture class held here at CRI. We led all 8 of us here and even got off at the right bus stop. It was defintely intense learning everything from the basic hello/thank you to counting and asking directions. I've absorbed enough to be polite and order things like chicken fried rice with water. haha.. After that we even got a mini-presentation from some of our advisors about our weekend trip to Ko Samet - they've been absolutely incredibly helpful in planning even looking up sites for bus and ferry times for us. Thurs night a bunch of us went to see Batman Begins at MBK. Before all movies here they play the national anthem and everybody stands while they show a bunch of pictures of the king. Very interesting. They have an incredible amount of respect for their monarchy system. I've only run across it once or twice but at around 8am and 6pm, public places will play the anthem and everybody stops what they're doing for a bit to stand. Other then that, a decent movie that caused our group at least to laugh a lot.
Friday was a hectic day as I actually did a reaction at work! Plus there was a seminar (boring!) then around 3:30 a camera crew showed up and we had to go to lab and pretend to work. Apparently they were filming for the news due to the fact that the princess' birthday is next month... Then we had to run out at around 4pm to head to the eastern bus station. From there it was pretty easy to get our tickets, connect with the other 4 students and get going to Ban Phe. Arrived around 9:30pm and with our large group were just about enough to justify a boat out to Ko Samet. A gorgeous night on the water with some lightening to the east. So nice just to get out of Bangkok! Wendy was sick so her and Matt kindof slowed the group down and it's likely that they won't be going on too many more trips with us. Walked from the pier about 20 min to the 2nd largest beach Ao Phai and luckily one of the bungalow places was still open with 3 bungalows. I shared with Hannah, Matt and Wendy had one as did Travis and Kirk. Doug and Elliott walked further down and pitched tents on the beach. Hannah, Travis, Kirk and I headed back out and just hung around on the beach for a few hours taking a night swim and just enjoying the water. To bed too late - mosquito netting and a fan saving the day in our bungalow! The thunderstorm started around 3 or 4am and it was a huge downpour. Doug got pretty soaked as he didn't put the rain tarp on his tent. Rained a little on Sat morning but slowed down by 8:30am
I wandered down the beaches with Travis and we found the boys' campsite. Scrambed on the rocks between beaches and were dripping sweat by the time we got to the 4th beach. Headed back up towards the bungalows and took time to swim out to a floating pier for awhile. The water was gorgeously blue and clear with white sand beaches that you could walk out from. The whole group met up again at 10am and headed south on our mission to find more secluded beaches. Took a taxi (pickup with seats in the back) all the way down to Ao Kai which was recommended. Turned out however that there was no longer affordable accomadation there - only 15,000b a night bungalows!! ridiculous. So Matt and Wendy took off back to the more toursity part of the island while the rest of us walked further south - basically rock climbing our way to the most southern beach. Not too much of a beach but the only reef on the island was there so lots of snorklers. Some bungalows but still over our cheap price range. However a restaurant and hammocks on the beach convinced us it would be a decent place to spend the night. We stashed our bags up in some bushes and took off swimming for awhile. Doug had decided to walk from our original beach and eventually we saw him get to Ao Kai so we decided to swim over there. Distances are deceiving sometime and it was definitely a good swim. Got there and all of us just chilled out for an hour or two under this great tree. Ao Kai was beautiful and no one was there since no sane person would pay so much for a bungalow (even one with a pool !) Then we had to swim back - against the tide. Kirk managed to step on a sea urchin and get spines in his foot and I managed to get pretty impressively sunburned despite the spf 45 sunscreen. So somewhat injured and pretty tired we hung about on the southern beach and had several meals at the outdoor restaurant. The people there were great - awesome food and they even helped Kirk's foot when we showed them what happened. The plan was to sleep in the hammocks which I attempted until about 1:30am when it started to rain. Luckily we had Doug's one person tent and Elliott's two person tent. So we managed to squeeze 2 people into Doug's, 3 people into Elliott's and Travis who was still up reading saught shelter underneath the restaurant roof until the rain stopped. Nothing like being sweaty/covered in salt/most of us sunburned... Means it was a good weekend!
Sunday we ate again before catching a boat from the beach all the way back up to the main pier. Doug and Elliott had to show the rest of us up by hiking all the way back (took them almost 3 hrs). The rest of us were injured by sun and just wanted to hang in the shade. Went to the main beach and found some chairs. Set up camp and timed our forays back into the sun carefully. Ran into Matt and Wendy who decided to go back a bit earlier then us. We caught a 3pm ferry back to the mainland and managed to get on the 3:30 bus! Back in Bangkok we stopped at MBK and put away some serious amounts of Swenson's ice cream before heading home for showers and recovery.
So overall awesome intro weekend! Can't believe I'm back at work again. Ran another rxn today. It's hard in lab sometimes with Oi as our conversations are somewhat limited and most of the time I can't quite understand when she's talking about lab stuff. She's so sweet though, wish I spoke thai! All the students and our Thai partners are taking a trip together this weekend to a homestay and firefly watching. Goodtimes all around
Thursday was our day long language and culture class held here at CRI. We led all 8 of us here and even got off at the right bus stop. It was defintely intense learning everything from the basic hello/thank you to counting and asking directions. I've absorbed enough to be polite and order things like chicken fried rice with water. haha.. After that we even got a mini-presentation from some of our advisors about our weekend trip to Ko Samet - they've been absolutely incredibly helpful in planning even looking up sites for bus and ferry times for us. Thurs night a bunch of us went to see Batman Begins at MBK. Before all movies here they play the national anthem and everybody stands while they show a bunch of pictures of the king. Very interesting. They have an incredible amount of respect for their monarchy system. I've only run across it once or twice but at around 8am and 6pm, public places will play the anthem and everybody stops what they're doing for a bit to stand. Other then that, a decent movie that caused our group at least to laugh a lot.
Friday was a hectic day as I actually did a reaction at work! Plus there was a seminar (boring!) then around 3:30 a camera crew showed up and we had to go to lab and pretend to work. Apparently they were filming for the news due to the fact that the princess' birthday is next month... Then we had to run out at around 4pm to head to the eastern bus station. From there it was pretty easy to get our tickets, connect with the other 4 students and get going to Ban Phe. Arrived around 9:30pm and with our large group were just about enough to justify a boat out to Ko Samet. A gorgeous night on the water with some lightening to the east. So nice just to get out of Bangkok! Wendy was sick so her and Matt kindof slowed the group down and it's likely that they won't be going on too many more trips with us. Walked from the pier about 20 min to the 2nd largest beach Ao Phai and luckily one of the bungalow places was still open with 3 bungalows. I shared with Hannah, Matt and Wendy had one as did Travis and Kirk. Doug and Elliott walked further down and pitched tents on the beach. Hannah, Travis, Kirk and I headed back out and just hung around on the beach for a few hours taking a night swim and just enjoying the water. To bed too late - mosquito netting and a fan saving the day in our bungalow! The thunderstorm started around 3 or 4am and it was a huge downpour. Doug got pretty soaked as he didn't put the rain tarp on his tent. Rained a little on Sat morning but slowed down by 8:30am
I wandered down the beaches with Travis and we found the boys' campsite. Scrambed on the rocks between beaches and were dripping sweat by the time we got to the 4th beach. Headed back up towards the bungalows and took time to swim out to a floating pier for awhile. The water was gorgeously blue and clear with white sand beaches that you could walk out from. The whole group met up again at 10am and headed south on our mission to find more secluded beaches. Took a taxi (pickup with seats in the back) all the way down to Ao Kai which was recommended. Turned out however that there was no longer affordable accomadation there - only 15,000b a night bungalows!! ridiculous. So Matt and Wendy took off back to the more toursity part of the island while the rest of us walked further south - basically rock climbing our way to the most southern beach. Not too much of a beach but the only reef on the island was there so lots of snorklers. Some bungalows but still over our cheap price range. However a restaurant and hammocks on the beach convinced us it would be a decent place to spend the night. We stashed our bags up in some bushes and took off swimming for awhile. Doug had decided to walk from our original beach and eventually we saw him get to Ao Kai so we decided to swim over there. Distances are deceiving sometime and it was definitely a good swim. Got there and all of us just chilled out for an hour or two under this great tree. Ao Kai was beautiful and no one was there since no sane person would pay so much for a bungalow (even one with a pool !) Then we had to swim back - against the tide. Kirk managed to step on a sea urchin and get spines in his foot and I managed to get pretty impressively sunburned despite the spf 45 sunscreen. So somewhat injured and pretty tired we hung about on the southern beach and had several meals at the outdoor restaurant. The people there were great - awesome food and they even helped Kirk's foot when we showed them what happened. The plan was to sleep in the hammocks which I attempted until about 1:30am when it started to rain. Luckily we had Doug's one person tent and Elliott's two person tent. So we managed to squeeze 2 people into Doug's, 3 people into Elliott's and Travis who was still up reading saught shelter underneath the restaurant roof until the rain stopped. Nothing like being sweaty/covered in salt/most of us sunburned... Means it was a good weekend!
Sunday we ate again before catching a boat from the beach all the way back up to the main pier. Doug and Elliott had to show the rest of us up by hiking all the way back (took them almost 3 hrs). The rest of us were injured by sun and just wanted to hang in the shade. Went to the main beach and found some chairs. Set up camp and timed our forays back into the sun carefully. Ran into Matt and Wendy who decided to go back a bit earlier then us. We caught a 3pm ferry back to the mainland and managed to get on the 3:30 bus! Back in Bangkok we stopped at MBK and put away some serious amounts of Swenson's ice cream before heading home for showers and recovery.
So overall awesome intro weekend! Can't believe I'm back at work again. Ran another rxn today. It's hard in lab sometimes with Oi as our conversations are somewhat limited and most of the time I can't quite understand when she's talking about lab stuff. She's so sweet though, wish I spoke thai! All the students and our Thai partners are taking a trip together this weekend to a homestay and firefly watching. Goodtimes all around
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
While at work...
So currently wrapping up my second day of 'work.' The Thai's seem to be incredibly relaxed about things and I've already started adding 10 or 15 minutes to any scheduled time. Showing up early is out of place!
So Saturday afternoon they had us all gathered together. Met the 8th guy - Kirk from Idaho goes to Western Kentucky, so Purdue definitely wins the big school catagory on this trip. They talked for a bit about logistics before taking us to the skytrain and to the weekend or J.J. markets. Thank goodness I got some market experience in before coming because this place was definitely sensory overload. The size of 5 football fields and completely brimming with stalls selling everything from clothes to illegal animals. We spent a couple of hours there. In my case mostly searching for work clothes. They don't bargain chinese style, I think they're overall too nice for it - and I'm basically guaranteed not the best deal since I don't speak Thai. Nonetheless things are CHEAP. I'm lovin the exchange rate. Picked up 3 skirts and 2 shirts for around $20. Not too bad. Headed back to the dorms sweaty and probably a bit dehydrated. We all ended up meeting to head over to MBK (the big shopping center about 2 blocks from where we live). The place is a life saver as it has everything you could possibly need. The cafeteria is on the 6th floor and you can get incredibly cheap food - around $.50 for a meal. Then back to our rooms for a welcome shower and some sleep.
Sunday morning we were all up and they took us via skytrain to a major pier on the river where we caught a river taxi to the Grand Palace. Definitely an interesting trip down the river, as old style huts and houses are crowded together on stilts. Bangkok has many canals and along all of them are delapidated shacks that teeter on the edge. Needless to say the water was none to clean... Thank goodness for malaria medicine! Apparently there have been quite a few cases of Dengue fever spread around by mosquitos as well so they've been telling us to watch out. The Grand Palace was absolutely incredible. Although it might not sound incredibly descriptive, the place was just so sparkly. All the buildings were covered in either gold leaf or shiny mirror pieces. Colorful to say the least. We wandered around and went into the main temple to see the Emerald Buddha. Lots of group pictures to prove to the NSF that we showed up in Thailand. Next was lunch before headed to the world's largest golden teakwood mansion. Interesting enough as mansions go I suppose. Built by their King Rama V around 1900, lots of European influence as he traveled there quite often. We did get to see a display of traditional Thai dance and fighting before taking the tour. After that we were all wiped out from the heat and headed back. Enough time to do my laundry and hang out with Hannah in MBK.
Monday was the first day of work and the 4 of us (me, Elliott, Doug, and Matt) who work at CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute - funded by Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn who got her Ph.D. in organic chemistry) were all picked up by Dr. Poonsakdi in a van. Finally met the american professor that helps with the program - Dr. Brauslau who is in Thailand for just a week. She came with us to the institute for the day. First we had presentations from all the PI's telling a bit about what our projects would be. I made the mistake of somehow having my advisor be one of the head honchos, so to date I have only met him 2x just long enough to say hello. At any rate, my Thai student 'Oi' (they all have really long names, but everyone goes by much shorter nicknames even amongst themselves) is really nice. After that they showed us around the buildings and our labs. A HUGE lunch, Thai style, where one person orders several dishes and they are just passed around the table. Definitely a good chance to sample everything from green curry to fishcakes to rice noodles and coconut ice cream. Back to the institute where I started reading Oi's masters thesis for background. Coffee/tea break at about 4 until it was time to go home. All of us had dinner with Rebecca to discuss and turn in paperwork and then basically gave up for the night.
Today was our first day to make it to CRI on our own. We have to take the Skytrain about 15-20min to Mo Chit where we get out and get on a bus or a taxi. Today one of the students Boon met us to show us which buses to take and where to get off. Traffic wasn't bad and so we made it to the institute (or at least the highway near by it) in about 20 min. Then you walk down the highway and across a railroad track to get to it. It's out close to the airport which could be convenient for friday evening flights.... So we got here about 8:45, coffee when Oi and the girls showed up at 9. Then I checked my email and sat around. Hung out with the boys - Elliott's PI was out sick today, so he didn't have anything to do either. Lunch at 11 down in the cafeteria. Definitely cafeteria food and will get very boring by the end. I'm not up to Thai level hotness by any means so that's going to be a problem as well. I just don't look forward to EVERY meal being spicy. Anyway, out of here by 5pm every day to miss traffic!
So Saturday afternoon they had us all gathered together. Met the 8th guy - Kirk from Idaho goes to Western Kentucky, so Purdue definitely wins the big school catagory on this trip. They talked for a bit about logistics before taking us to the skytrain and to the weekend or J.J. markets. Thank goodness I got some market experience in before coming because this place was definitely sensory overload. The size of 5 football fields and completely brimming with stalls selling everything from clothes to illegal animals. We spent a couple of hours there. In my case mostly searching for work clothes. They don't bargain chinese style, I think they're overall too nice for it - and I'm basically guaranteed not the best deal since I don't speak Thai. Nonetheless things are CHEAP. I'm lovin the exchange rate. Picked up 3 skirts and 2 shirts for around $20. Not too bad. Headed back to the dorms sweaty and probably a bit dehydrated. We all ended up meeting to head over to MBK (the big shopping center about 2 blocks from where we live). The place is a life saver as it has everything you could possibly need. The cafeteria is on the 6th floor and you can get incredibly cheap food - around $.50 for a meal. Then back to our rooms for a welcome shower and some sleep.
Sunday morning we were all up and they took us via skytrain to a major pier on the river where we caught a river taxi to the Grand Palace. Definitely an interesting trip down the river, as old style huts and houses are crowded together on stilts. Bangkok has many canals and along all of them are delapidated shacks that teeter on the edge. Needless to say the water was none to clean... Thank goodness for malaria medicine! Apparently there have been quite a few cases of Dengue fever spread around by mosquitos as well so they've been telling us to watch out. The Grand Palace was absolutely incredible. Although it might not sound incredibly descriptive, the place was just so sparkly. All the buildings were covered in either gold leaf or shiny mirror pieces. Colorful to say the least. We wandered around and went into the main temple to see the Emerald Buddha. Lots of group pictures to prove to the NSF that we showed up in Thailand. Next was lunch before headed to the world's largest golden teakwood mansion. Interesting enough as mansions go I suppose. Built by their King Rama V around 1900, lots of European influence as he traveled there quite often. We did get to see a display of traditional Thai dance and fighting before taking the tour. After that we were all wiped out from the heat and headed back. Enough time to do my laundry and hang out with Hannah in MBK.
Monday was the first day of work and the 4 of us (me, Elliott, Doug, and Matt) who work at CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute - funded by Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn who got her Ph.D. in organic chemistry) were all picked up by Dr. Poonsakdi in a van. Finally met the american professor that helps with the program - Dr. Brauslau who is in Thailand for just a week. She came with us to the institute for the day. First we had presentations from all the PI's telling a bit about what our projects would be. I made the mistake of somehow having my advisor be one of the head honchos, so to date I have only met him 2x just long enough to say hello. At any rate, my Thai student 'Oi' (they all have really long names, but everyone goes by much shorter nicknames even amongst themselves) is really nice. After that they showed us around the buildings and our labs. A HUGE lunch, Thai style, where one person orders several dishes and they are just passed around the table. Definitely a good chance to sample everything from green curry to fishcakes to rice noodles and coconut ice cream. Back to the institute where I started reading Oi's masters thesis for background. Coffee/tea break at about 4 until it was time to go home. All of us had dinner with Rebecca to discuss and turn in paperwork and then basically gave up for the night.
Today was our first day to make it to CRI on our own. We have to take the Skytrain about 15-20min to Mo Chit where we get out and get on a bus or a taxi. Today one of the students Boon met us to show us which buses to take and where to get off. Traffic wasn't bad and so we made it to the institute (or at least the highway near by it) in about 20 min. Then you walk down the highway and across a railroad track to get to it. It's out close to the airport which could be convenient for friday evening flights.... So we got here about 8:45, coffee when Oi and the girls showed up at 9. Then I checked my email and sat around. Hung out with the boys - Elliott's PI was out sick today, so he didn't have anything to do either. Lunch at 11 down in the cafeteria. Definitely cafeteria food and will get very boring by the end. I'm not up to Thai level hotness by any means so that's going to be a problem as well. I just don't look forward to EVERY meal being spicy. Anyway, out of here by 5pm every day to miss traffic!
Saturday, June 11, 2005
China Commentary from Thailand
Alright - I've made it to Thailand in one piece!
During our last couple of days in China, the weather was not at it's best but we attempted to see the remainder of the main tourist sites. On Wednesday, Ash slept in so Les and I walked south over to the Temple of Heaven where the Emperor used to go to pray for good harvests and whatnot. The grounds were twice the size of the Forbidden city, so we ended up wandering around in the park like area for awhile before finding the actual buildings. At least we ran across plenty of entertainment in groups of people doing Tai Chi, dancing around with paddles, and even singing in random spots. The group of buildings didn't seem incredibly impressive. The main Hall was of course closed for renovations and supposedly it's built without any nails, just a bunch of supporting pillars or somesuch. Took a break for lunch and then all 3 of us found our way to the Silk Market which basically a 4 story mall thats been converted to a marketplace. As soon as you step through the door you're surrounded by vendors selling Northface, all sorts of pearls, jade, watches, silk, fabrics, basically anything you can think of. It was way to easy to kill a few hours there since it was looking ominous outside. Both Ash and Les ended up getting fitted for suits! Hilarious, but now that they did it, I'm considering it for while I'm in Thailand. Not too much more excitement that day since it started to rain later on.
Thursday morning we made ourselves get up and head out to the Summer Palace which is quite a distance away from central Beijing. It was sprinkling off and on, but the palace and grounds were interesting. In the center is a huge lake and around are buildings used by Dowager Empress Cixi and her son or nephew who was emperor until she put him on house arrest there. If it had been a nicer day the place definitely would have been great for just hanging out and enjoying a picnic, but as it was we headed back to the silk market so they could have there last fitting for the suits. Then quickly to the hostel for lunch and before I knew it I was in a taxi to the airport. There in plenty of time and found there was no departure tax so attempted to spend the rest of my Chinese money before boarding the 4.5 hr flight to Thailand.
So before we get off the subject of China - a few random comments:
Driving - the place is ridiculously insane. No traffic laws at all as far as we could see. Basically just drive wherever/however you want. The problem is compounded by non coordinated traffic signals. True example: in a bus at an intersection, we had a green light to turn right, the cars on our left had a green light to go straight, and the bikes and pedestrians had a green light to go straight as well. This amounts to inching the vehicle forward, between bicycles and then merging with oncoming traffic.... Boston driving is tame in comparison.
Spitting - all the time everywhere. you walk down the street and here this big howcking sound and its just grandma spitting off to the side.
Toilets - apparently it's ancient chinese tradition to have squat toilets, so even in pretty nice places you'll have maybe one western style at most. At the Forbidden City, I used a restroom and found out that the 4star bathrooms have squat toilets with motion detectors! fancy!
personal space - or rather lack there of. Makes sense probably since there are 1.5 billion people in the country. Still very hard to get used to the constant push/shove/people walking between you if there was a space wide enough. The thing is you push and shove back and ellicit no reaction since it's normal.
Barbar shops - haircut = prostitutes on hand... just so you know ;)
So arrived in Thailand on Thursday night and was met by 2 guys whose names I can't really say. We waited for 3 others on later flights. Hannah - from NY goes to Lafayette University in PA. Dough - from PA goes to Evergreen University in Oregan. Travis - from N. California goes to school on the west coast but the name of the school escapes me. Spent most of Friday wandering the area around Chulalongkorn University, apparently the most famous Uni in Thailand. Tons of shopping centers and Siam square is full of vendors selling all sorts of things. Met Wendy and Matt in the afternoon who were in Malaysia visiting Wendy's family and who go to school in Texas. Elliott got in that evening from a week in Chaing Mai in the N part of Thailand; he's from South Dakota and goes to Nebraska. Still one more guy who has been here for a couple of days but none of us have run into him yet. We're all on the same floor of one of the university buildings. Pretty nice place to live - rooms with air con, our own bathrooms, a balcony, a tv that gets BBC as its one english channel. So this morning I'm wandering around a bit more before we have our official welcome meeting at 2pm and are then taken to the weekend markets. Tomorrow they're taking us to see some of the main Bangkok sites and on Monday work starts!! Hot and humid here, but I think I'm almost to the getting used to it point.
During our last couple of days in China, the weather was not at it's best but we attempted to see the remainder of the main tourist sites. On Wednesday, Ash slept in so Les and I walked south over to the Temple of Heaven where the Emperor used to go to pray for good harvests and whatnot. The grounds were twice the size of the Forbidden city, so we ended up wandering around in the park like area for awhile before finding the actual buildings. At least we ran across plenty of entertainment in groups of people doing Tai Chi, dancing around with paddles, and even singing in random spots. The group of buildings didn't seem incredibly impressive. The main Hall was of course closed for renovations and supposedly it's built without any nails, just a bunch of supporting pillars or somesuch. Took a break for lunch and then all 3 of us found our way to the Silk Market which basically a 4 story mall thats been converted to a marketplace. As soon as you step through the door you're surrounded by vendors selling Northface, all sorts of pearls, jade, watches, silk, fabrics, basically anything you can think of. It was way to easy to kill a few hours there since it was looking ominous outside. Both Ash and Les ended up getting fitted for suits! Hilarious, but now that they did it, I'm considering it for while I'm in Thailand. Not too much more excitement that day since it started to rain later on.
Thursday morning we made ourselves get up and head out to the Summer Palace which is quite a distance away from central Beijing. It was sprinkling off and on, but the palace and grounds were interesting. In the center is a huge lake and around are buildings used by Dowager Empress Cixi and her son or nephew who was emperor until she put him on house arrest there. If it had been a nicer day the place definitely would have been great for just hanging out and enjoying a picnic, but as it was we headed back to the silk market so they could have there last fitting for the suits. Then quickly to the hostel for lunch and before I knew it I was in a taxi to the airport. There in plenty of time and found there was no departure tax so attempted to spend the rest of my Chinese money before boarding the 4.5 hr flight to Thailand.
So before we get off the subject of China - a few random comments:
Driving - the place is ridiculously insane. No traffic laws at all as far as we could see. Basically just drive wherever/however you want. The problem is compounded by non coordinated traffic signals. True example: in a bus at an intersection, we had a green light to turn right, the cars on our left had a green light to go straight, and the bikes and pedestrians had a green light to go straight as well. This amounts to inching the vehicle forward, between bicycles and then merging with oncoming traffic.... Boston driving is tame in comparison.
Spitting - all the time everywhere. you walk down the street and here this big howcking sound and its just grandma spitting off to the side.
Toilets - apparently it's ancient chinese tradition to have squat toilets, so even in pretty nice places you'll have maybe one western style at most. At the Forbidden City, I used a restroom and found out that the 4star bathrooms have squat toilets with motion detectors! fancy!
personal space - or rather lack there of. Makes sense probably since there are 1.5 billion people in the country. Still very hard to get used to the constant push/shove/people walking between you if there was a space wide enough. The thing is you push and shove back and ellicit no reaction since it's normal.
Barbar shops - haircut = prostitutes on hand... just so you know ;)
So arrived in Thailand on Thursday night and was met by 2 guys whose names I can't really say. We waited for 3 others on later flights. Hannah - from NY goes to Lafayette University in PA. Dough - from PA goes to Evergreen University in Oregan. Travis - from N. California goes to school on the west coast but the name of the school escapes me. Spent most of Friday wandering the area around Chulalongkorn University, apparently the most famous Uni in Thailand. Tons of shopping centers and Siam square is full of vendors selling all sorts of things. Met Wendy and Matt in the afternoon who were in Malaysia visiting Wendy's family and who go to school in Texas. Elliott got in that evening from a week in Chaing Mai in the N part of Thailand; he's from South Dakota and goes to Nebraska. Still one more guy who has been here for a couple of days but none of us have run into him yet. We're all on the same floor of one of the university buildings. Pretty nice place to live - rooms with air con, our own bathrooms, a balcony, a tv that gets BBC as its one english channel. So this morning I'm wandering around a bit more before we have our official welcome meeting at 2pm and are then taken to the weekend markets. Tomorrow they're taking us to see some of the main Bangkok sites and on Monday work starts!! Hot and humid here, but I think I'm almost to the getting used to it point.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Forbidden City and the Great Wall
So to catch up on the past few days:
Sunday morning we headed over to one of the more famous Sunday morning markets whose name I can neither pronounce nor spell correctly. At any rate, the thing was basically the largest garage sale ever. 20 rows of vendors selling beads, at least as many each selling antique furniture, carvings, pottery, carpets, and tapestries. That doesn't even include the unofficial part of the market where people have small stands of whatever random items they've collected. Made a few buys but am finding it hard to spend over about 40RMB ($5!!) hahaha... we've all adjusted to prices here plus bargaining for anything and everthing. The rest of the day was mostly a wash as we were recovering from the train ride. Attempted and failed to find the CITS office for Les to get his Tibet permit and flights, then mostly sat around downstairs watching movies in the hostel - which ended up being a good idea when it started pouring in mid-afternoon.
Monday dragged ourselves out of bed and walked through the hutong (a crazy overwhelming place) up to Tienanmen Square. Right before we go there we ran into a big crowd surrounding some police tape so of course checked it out. There was a woman on the 4th floor of a building holding a sign out the window that we assumed was some sort of political dissent. No clue really but we took a picture! Inside Tienanmen Square, the place really is unimaginably huge. Walked around it and got plenty of photo ops before spending a few hrs and finally succeeding in finding the right place for Tibet permits. (Only after a taxi ride to a random gov't office that provides commericial permits and another cab ride to the other side of town where at the Tibet Hotel a travel agent made us wait before naming prices and demanding all the money up front.) At any rate, with that done, we went to walk through the Forbidden City starting North and heading South back towards our hostel. An incredible amount of it is under construction. We reckon to get it cleaned up for the 2008 olympics. It basically left only the center path and pavilions open when there are many buildings to each side. Definitely a grandious place. I wish we'd had time to watch 'the last emperor' before going. No longer forbidden, the place even has a Starbucks in it right next to the Gate of Purity. Crazy.
Since so much was closed off, it didn't take as much time as expected and after more photo ops with the picture of Mao outside Tienanmen Gate we headed south on the street on the West side of the Square. We had just about gotten to the People's Congress Hall when all of a sudden these military guys appear and push everyone who was walking by back North. We didn't know what was going on so kindof dilly dallyed, acted stupid, trying to see something. Ended up going under the street and over to Tienanmen where things looked normal and walking South to end up across the street from the Congress building. Out front the had all sorts of red carpets set up, a pavilion, and as we watched as 3 buses pulled in via the shutdown street, military band got out, warmed up and played a few numbers. They weren't very good either. Then all of a sudden they drove all these police cars with lights flashing into the square and angry sounding policemen with megaphones literally started clearing out Tienanmen Square. As best we could guess the government was planning a big public demonstration minus the public. They pushed the crowd south to the very edge of the square. This has been our first glimpse of the real communist (fascist??) government. We were told that the closer you are to Beijing the more control the gov't has, and that seems to be true. At the same time, as we were walking out of the square you just want to scream at the Chinese people around you - 'this is your excuse for a government?" It's hard to imagine any big rebellion or protest from these people. No wonder communism took root since for the past 5000 yrs they have been following the orders of one emperor or another. It's almost bred in to not question authority too much.
Made it back to the hostel without further incident and decided to make it our night to try Peking duck. Walked to a nearby duck restaurant where they serve everything from duck soup to duck intestines. Got the basic roast duck feast, and they brought out the whole roast duck and a chef carved it up. One of the servers showed us out to eat it correctly - seems a kindof combo of Chinese and Mexican. You take a 'pancake' (basically a thin smaller tortilla type thing) grab some of the sliced duck meat/skin, dip it in sauce and spread it on the pancake, add a couple of scallions, roll it up and enjoy! Actually very delicious...
Today was our trip to the Great Wall day. Met at 6:30am to catch the bus to Jinseling. 3 hours later we were dropped off the bus in a tiny village. It took a good 1/2 hr to actually walk up to the wall and we were already sweating by that time. Our hike took us about 12km from Jinseling to Simati great wall. Most tourists go to Badeling which is much closer to Beijing so this spot was nearly deserted in comparison. Still plenty of farmers wife's from Mongolia to follow us for the first 1/4 way trying to sell books, postcards, and tshirts. I really did almost feel guilty not giving the poor people money, but they might have followed us the whole way otherwise. Anyway, the mist burned off eventually, and most of the hard work was getting up to the High Tower which was about half way. Gorgeous scenery - mountains in all directions! This is what one imagines when one thinks of the Great Wall! It was a great hike for sure, I'll try to get the pics up when I get to Thailand. Made it to Simatai with plenty of time before the 3hr bus ride back. Now time to relax for the night!
In other news, my Thailand address is:
Vitayanivej House, Chulalongkorn University
Phaya Thai Road, Bangkok
Thailand 10330
Sunday morning we headed over to one of the more famous Sunday morning markets whose name I can neither pronounce nor spell correctly. At any rate, the thing was basically the largest garage sale ever. 20 rows of vendors selling beads, at least as many each selling antique furniture, carvings, pottery, carpets, and tapestries. That doesn't even include the unofficial part of the market where people have small stands of whatever random items they've collected. Made a few buys but am finding it hard to spend over about 40RMB ($5!!) hahaha... we've all adjusted to prices here plus bargaining for anything and everthing. The rest of the day was mostly a wash as we were recovering from the train ride. Attempted and failed to find the CITS office for Les to get his Tibet permit and flights, then mostly sat around downstairs watching movies in the hostel - which ended up being a good idea when it started pouring in mid-afternoon.
Monday dragged ourselves out of bed and walked through the hutong (a crazy overwhelming place) up to Tienanmen Square. Right before we go there we ran into a big crowd surrounding some police tape so of course checked it out. There was a woman on the 4th floor of a building holding a sign out the window that we assumed was some sort of political dissent. No clue really but we took a picture! Inside Tienanmen Square, the place really is unimaginably huge. Walked around it and got plenty of photo ops before spending a few hrs and finally succeeding in finding the right place for Tibet permits. (Only after a taxi ride to a random gov't office that provides commericial permits and another cab ride to the other side of town where at the Tibet Hotel a travel agent made us wait before naming prices and demanding all the money up front.) At any rate, with that done, we went to walk through the Forbidden City starting North and heading South back towards our hostel. An incredible amount of it is under construction. We reckon to get it cleaned up for the 2008 olympics. It basically left only the center path and pavilions open when there are many buildings to each side. Definitely a grandious place. I wish we'd had time to watch 'the last emperor' before going. No longer forbidden, the place even has a Starbucks in it right next to the Gate of Purity. Crazy.
Since so much was closed off, it didn't take as much time as expected and after more photo ops with the picture of Mao outside Tienanmen Gate we headed south on the street on the West side of the Square. We had just about gotten to the People's Congress Hall when all of a sudden these military guys appear and push everyone who was walking by back North. We didn't know what was going on so kindof dilly dallyed, acted stupid, trying to see something. Ended up going under the street and over to Tienanmen where things looked normal and walking South to end up across the street from the Congress building. Out front the had all sorts of red carpets set up, a pavilion, and as we watched as 3 buses pulled in via the shutdown street, military band got out, warmed up and played a few numbers. They weren't very good either. Then all of a sudden they drove all these police cars with lights flashing into the square and angry sounding policemen with megaphones literally started clearing out Tienanmen Square. As best we could guess the government was planning a big public demonstration minus the public. They pushed the crowd south to the very edge of the square. This has been our first glimpse of the real communist (fascist??) government. We were told that the closer you are to Beijing the more control the gov't has, and that seems to be true. At the same time, as we were walking out of the square you just want to scream at the Chinese people around you - 'this is your excuse for a government?" It's hard to imagine any big rebellion or protest from these people. No wonder communism took root since for the past 5000 yrs they have been following the orders of one emperor or another. It's almost bred in to not question authority too much.
Made it back to the hostel without further incident and decided to make it our night to try Peking duck. Walked to a nearby duck restaurant where they serve everything from duck soup to duck intestines. Got the basic roast duck feast, and they brought out the whole roast duck and a chef carved it up. One of the servers showed us out to eat it correctly - seems a kindof combo of Chinese and Mexican. You take a 'pancake' (basically a thin smaller tortilla type thing) grab some of the sliced duck meat/skin, dip it in sauce and spread it on the pancake, add a couple of scallions, roll it up and enjoy! Actually very delicious...
Today was our trip to the Great Wall day. Met at 6:30am to catch the bus to Jinseling. 3 hours later we were dropped off the bus in a tiny village. It took a good 1/2 hr to actually walk up to the wall and we were already sweating by that time. Our hike took us about 12km from Jinseling to Simati great wall. Most tourists go to Badeling which is much closer to Beijing so this spot was nearly deserted in comparison. Still plenty of farmers wife's from Mongolia to follow us for the first 1/4 way trying to sell books, postcards, and tshirts. I really did almost feel guilty not giving the poor people money, but they might have followed us the whole way otherwise. Anyway, the mist burned off eventually, and most of the hard work was getting up to the High Tower which was about half way. Gorgeous scenery - mountains in all directions! This is what one imagines when one thinks of the Great Wall! It was a great hike for sure, I'll try to get the pics up when I get to Thailand. Made it to Simatai with plenty of time before the 3hr bus ride back. Now time to relax for the night!
In other news, my Thailand address is:
Vitayanivej House, Chulalongkorn University
Phaya Thai Road, Bangkok
Thailand 10330
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Shanghai to Xi'an to Beijing
So we spent our extra day (Thursday) in Shanghai hanging out with Hannah Phares and watching our bootleg DVD's - I got to see star wars III which was actually a pretty good copy except that the script at the beginning was randomly in Greek or something.
So overnight train to Xi'an which took maybe 15 hrs or so. We had beds near each other in a 'hard sleeper.' In this sort of car there are groupings of 6 bunk beds open to a common corridor. Actually we found it to be quite comfy and when the lights went out at 10pm things actually completely shut down, got quiet. There were 2 Chinese men in our car that spoke English - 'Mr. Andy' and 'Mr. Sam.' Andy is a retired electrical engineer who taught himself English at some point but had never traveled out of the country while Sam was an aeronautical designer who had studied English at Uni. Definitely interesting to speak with them as they both seemed excited to practice their English. China is the first country I've been to with the exception of maybe Turkey that people really welcome you as an American. At least as far as the educated people we talk to, Chinese tend to like America. We even had Andy bashing Mao a bit at the end for poor decisions.
The countryside changed drastically overnight. We went from rice paddies to dry semiarrid looking land where the main crops are wheat and various sorts of orchards. It's been unfortunate that we are not supposed to eat raw fruits or veggies as I'd be interested to see what's growing. So we woke up and found ourselves in Xi'an, an old city with plenty of history. It was the beginning (or end depending on which direction you were traveling) of the Silk Road. The city walls are still impressive and about 14km long. After getting settled in at the hostel we walked downtown to the central bell tower and drum tower (bells in the morning, drums at night apparently). Gorged ourselves on dumplings for lunch and then wandered the area around the Great Mosque which was jam packed with food and market stands. Definitely a buyers market and a good place to practice bargaining skills. It was what one thinks of when trying to picture China - crowded streets lined with vendors and dodging bikes down the middle.
A break back at the hostel (it was hot but at least less humid then Shanghai) and then we went out again. Walked around the area of the Temple of Stone Tablets but didn't pay to get in figuring we wouldn't appreciate a bunch of tablets in Chinese. That area was packed with stands selling more artistic things - brushes, calligraphy, and the ubiquitous soapstone seals which you can get engraved with your name in Chinese. Then we hiked way the heck out to Little Goose Pagoda which was 1300 yrs old, but otherwise not incredibly impressive. Xi'an is considered a relatively small city of only 7 million, but still definitely gets hazy during the day. Dinner and hanging out back at the hostel before participating in a dumpling party and learning how to make and cook the things we've been eating.
Saturday we took a trip out to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Almost difficult to get out there and seemed to take forever. We were all a bit lethargic and blamed the beds at the hostel for being too nice and soft. The warriors were incredible to see in person - 3 pits full of half excavated artifacts. The first and largest pit has almost 6000 warriors in it, all with different faces. They keep the lights low in the buildings to preserve them and it creates quite a creepy atmosphere. After lunch we stopped by the Lingtong history museum which had some nice Chinese architecture but seemed kindof random. It was our first rainy day here. Not too bad most of the time, but it was good to have done our walking the day before. Back to the hostel to relax before a taxi to the train station. Perfect timing as we found the gate and walked to the train.
We had 'soft sleeper' this time and were split up with Ash and I in one booth and Les on one the next car down. We decided that soft sleepers are the Hilton of overnight trains - 4 people to a room that closes off from the corridor, plenty of headroom for both beds so that you can actually sit up, and a TV for each bed to watch a selection of Chinese channels. 2 random Chinese in our compartment but Les was with 3 Aussies on a holiday so we hung out and chatted with them till bedtime. A much faster train ride and we arrived this morning in Beijing at 7am. Our hostel seems in a rather interesting area, but we haven't explored much yet. We'll probably take it easy and walk around today before planning our trip to the Great Wall and which days we should allot to which sites. Hard to believe we're at our last stop in China!
So overnight train to Xi'an which took maybe 15 hrs or so. We had beds near each other in a 'hard sleeper.' In this sort of car there are groupings of 6 bunk beds open to a common corridor. Actually we found it to be quite comfy and when the lights went out at 10pm things actually completely shut down, got quiet. There were 2 Chinese men in our car that spoke English - 'Mr. Andy' and 'Mr. Sam.' Andy is a retired electrical engineer who taught himself English at some point but had never traveled out of the country while Sam was an aeronautical designer who had studied English at Uni. Definitely interesting to speak with them as they both seemed excited to practice their English. China is the first country I've been to with the exception of maybe Turkey that people really welcome you as an American. At least as far as the educated people we talk to, Chinese tend to like America. We even had Andy bashing Mao a bit at the end for poor decisions.
The countryside changed drastically overnight. We went from rice paddies to dry semiarrid looking land where the main crops are wheat and various sorts of orchards. It's been unfortunate that we are not supposed to eat raw fruits or veggies as I'd be interested to see what's growing. So we woke up and found ourselves in Xi'an, an old city with plenty of history. It was the beginning (or end depending on which direction you were traveling) of the Silk Road. The city walls are still impressive and about 14km long. After getting settled in at the hostel we walked downtown to the central bell tower and drum tower (bells in the morning, drums at night apparently). Gorged ourselves on dumplings for lunch and then wandered the area around the Great Mosque which was jam packed with food and market stands. Definitely a buyers market and a good place to practice bargaining skills. It was what one thinks of when trying to picture China - crowded streets lined with vendors and dodging bikes down the middle.
A break back at the hostel (it was hot but at least less humid then Shanghai) and then we went out again. Walked around the area of the Temple of Stone Tablets but didn't pay to get in figuring we wouldn't appreciate a bunch of tablets in Chinese. That area was packed with stands selling more artistic things - brushes, calligraphy, and the ubiquitous soapstone seals which you can get engraved with your name in Chinese. Then we hiked way the heck out to Little Goose Pagoda which was 1300 yrs old, but otherwise not incredibly impressive. Xi'an is considered a relatively small city of only 7 million, but still definitely gets hazy during the day. Dinner and hanging out back at the hostel before participating in a dumpling party and learning how to make and cook the things we've been eating.
Saturday we took a trip out to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Almost difficult to get out there and seemed to take forever. We were all a bit lethargic and blamed the beds at the hostel for being too nice and soft. The warriors were incredible to see in person - 3 pits full of half excavated artifacts. The first and largest pit has almost 6000 warriors in it, all with different faces. They keep the lights low in the buildings to preserve them and it creates quite a creepy atmosphere. After lunch we stopped by the Lingtong history museum which had some nice Chinese architecture but seemed kindof random. It was our first rainy day here. Not too bad most of the time, but it was good to have done our walking the day before. Back to the hostel to relax before a taxi to the train station. Perfect timing as we found the gate and walked to the train.
We had 'soft sleeper' this time and were split up with Ash and I in one booth and Les on one the next car down. We decided that soft sleepers are the Hilton of overnight trains - 4 people to a room that closes off from the corridor, plenty of headroom for both beds so that you can actually sit up, and a TV for each bed to watch a selection of Chinese channels. 2 random Chinese in our compartment but Les was with 3 Aussies on a holiday so we hung out and chatted with them till bedtime. A much faster train ride and we arrived this morning in Beijing at 7am. Our hostel seems in a rather interesting area, but we haven't explored much yet. We'll probably take it easy and walk around today before planning our trip to the Great Wall and which days we should allot to which sites. Hard to believe we're at our last stop in China!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Nanjing, Suzhou, back to Shanghai
Well to further the Huangshan adventure - after we hiked down the mtn and had been hanging around Tangkou, we were convinced to go visit the local 9 dragon waterfalls... What we didnt know is that it was a further hike up and down in the hottest part of the day. Definitely gets up over 90 most days and wicked humid. Good practice for Thailand. So completely exhausted, we got ourselves on the bus to Nanjing... A most HORRIFIC experience. Words can not describe the pain involved. A normal looking bus and whatnot but we had a 5.5 hr journey over what seemed like complete gravel roads. ridiculous! Every part of the bus was shaking and I was surprised that it held together for the whole trip. As for the 3 of us, we just had to hunker down, kindof try to hold on to our insides, close our eyes, and wish for the end - be it arriving in Nanjing or driving off a cliff...
So after all our adventures we splurged in Nanjing and directed the taxi driver to take us directly to the Hilton! Definitely worth the extra money as we got our first showers in about 3 days, air conditioning, and glorious sleep on real beds. The next day we went out on a walk, hiked up to the city walls (painfully) and decided to see the sights on Purple mtn just outside the walls. Well, as we have yet to find a map that is to scale while in China, what looked like a short distance was a mildly ridiculous hike that would could have/should have easily paid 7RMB for. We saw the 700 yr old Ming tombs and Sun Yat-Sen's masoleum before calling for a break. Just too hot to keep walking. Definitely took a taxi back and returned to see the 3rd main sight Laggu Pagoda. Much nicer outside after about 4:30pm and a great breeze up on the 7th floor of the pagoda. Good 'view' of the city too. View is in quotations because you can't ever really see very far. We had some clear days up on the mountain, but they were an exception. The vast majority of the time it feels like you either have an eye problem or there is veil over everything about 5 ft. in front of you. A country in the middle of the industrial revolution, the haze is absolutely horrible. everywhere.
From Nanjing a train ride (glorious after that bus!!) to Suzhou, the 'venice of the east.' A small town of only 5 million people... Yesterday we explored and visited several of the famous gardens. Hard to compare gardens with gorgeous natural landscapes though and I think that none of us were very impressed. Visited the 'humble administrators garden' the cities largest and the 'lion grove garden' which is full of weird shaped rocks and man made caves. During the evening we walked around all the shops and whatnot, bargaining for DVD's mostly. This morning slept in and caught a train to Shanghai. Ran into some other american's on the train - undergrads at MIT who teach in here in the summer. When white folks are so rare, it's nice to sit and chat with people from similar backgrounds. Our plan is a night here and tomorrow catching the 4pm overnight train to Xi'an.
We've finally gotten the hang of traveling in China - when you run into people who speak english, make them write everything/place necessary in the forseable future down in Chinese. Hand said paper to the taxi driver or the people selling train tickets and you'll be just fine. In fact, I think it would be quite simple to get around if any of us knew ANY chinese!
So after all our adventures we splurged in Nanjing and directed the taxi driver to take us directly to the Hilton! Definitely worth the extra money as we got our first showers in about 3 days, air conditioning, and glorious sleep on real beds. The next day we went out on a walk, hiked up to the city walls (painfully) and decided to see the sights on Purple mtn just outside the walls. Well, as we have yet to find a map that is to scale while in China, what looked like a short distance was a mildly ridiculous hike that would could have/should have easily paid 7RMB for. We saw the 700 yr old Ming tombs and Sun Yat-Sen's masoleum before calling for a break. Just too hot to keep walking. Definitely took a taxi back and returned to see the 3rd main sight Laggu Pagoda. Much nicer outside after about 4:30pm and a great breeze up on the 7th floor of the pagoda. Good 'view' of the city too. View is in quotations because you can't ever really see very far. We had some clear days up on the mountain, but they were an exception. The vast majority of the time it feels like you either have an eye problem or there is veil over everything about 5 ft. in front of you. A country in the middle of the industrial revolution, the haze is absolutely horrible. everywhere.
From Nanjing a train ride (glorious after that bus!!) to Suzhou, the 'venice of the east.' A small town of only 5 million people... Yesterday we explored and visited several of the famous gardens. Hard to compare gardens with gorgeous natural landscapes though and I think that none of us were very impressed. Visited the 'humble administrators garden' the cities largest and the 'lion grove garden' which is full of weird shaped rocks and man made caves. During the evening we walked around all the shops and whatnot, bargaining for DVD's mostly. This morning slept in and caught a train to Shanghai. Ran into some other american's on the train - undergrads at MIT who teach in here in the summer. When white folks are so rare, it's nice to sit and chat with people from similar backgrounds. Our plan is a night here and tomorrow catching the 4pm overnight train to Xi'an.
We've finally gotten the hang of traveling in China - when you run into people who speak english, make them write everything/place necessary in the forseable future down in Chinese. Hand said paper to the taxi driver or the people selling train tickets and you'll be just fine. In fact, I think it would be quite simple to get around if any of us knew ANY chinese!
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