If you've ever wondered whether there is a place in China where there were no bikes, the answer is yes. Although the new sections of the Qingdao is flat, most of the older (and more charming) parts of the city are on the hilly parts of town, making biking impossible. Thus, bikes are not a mode of transportation here and traffic flows a lot more smoothly. Surprisingly, given the ubiquity of mopeds and motorbikes in Vietnam and Taiwan, there are very few in Beijing and Qingdao (the only 2 places in China I've been to so far). If I had a license, I would totally get a Vespa to get around. Traffic is horrendous in Beijing.
We visited Laoshan, a mountain range about an hour's drive outside Qingdao, where the mineral water (supposedly the purest water in China) for Qingdao beer is sourced. Some local guy convinced us that he could help us bypass the ticket booth and led us through a really sketchy trail up part of the mountain that got us on the main path. We had to crawl through a section of cut-open barb-wired fence. Yes, it did occur to me several times that it was a very dumb idea. Once we got on the main path, we climbed up hundreds of steps to get us up to the top of the mountain where we crawled through the dark Mitian cave (we didn't believe the vendors that were trying to sell us flashlights). It was a hot and sweaty endeavour, but the views from the top of the mountain are incredible, making it worthwhile. There were other things on the mountain but we skipped it since we were starving. We took a chair lift down the mountain.
Post-lunch, we visited the Tsingdao brewery and museum, where we had the opportunity to try several kinds of freshly brewed Tsingdao beers. There was this little house you could go into (called the "Beer House") that was so slanted that even though I was not drunk, I felt drunk and disoriented. It was a really bizarre feeling. And I met a guy, who asked me where I was from. He was surprised that I spoke perfect English. When I told him I was from New York, his response was, "but you look Asian." I could not believe it. He was from South Carolina. I'll leave it at that.
The first time I was served warm beer in Qingdao, I just figured maybe they ran out of cold beer. But after I was repeated served warm beer, I asked someone about it. Apparently the Chinese believe that drinking things that are too cold is bad for the body. They drink warm beer, warm milk, etc. Not a huge fan of beer to begin with and warm beer does not help. It tastes terrible. Oh, and the term "white wine" refers to hard liquor such as vodka. Someone asked me if I liked Qingdao's red wine, which I had tried earlier, and I told him it tasted great but I liked white wine better. He almost fell out of his chair. Apparently you have to specify white "grape" wine if you mean white wine.
On the subject of weird alcohol drinking habits, in Taiwan, people drink red wine with ice cubes. They think it tastes too thick without ice and they prefer to drink it cold. One of my cousins, who is living in Paris, had brought back wine from France... the French would have flipped out if they saw what the Taiwanese were doing to their red wine. In China, they drink red wine without ice, but they literally only pour a taste each time. The tradition is to "ganbei" when you toast someone, which means "dry glass," so they just pour very little each time since you are supposed to finish drinking until your glass is empty when they say "ganbei" and they say "ganbei" a lot.
Tap water is not safe to drink in Beijing (although the water people claim that water that comes out of the plant is drinkable, it's the old pipes that the water pass through that makes it unsafe to drink straight from the tap), making it necessary to buy bottled water. I know that people say that they make fake everything in China, but it shocked me to find out that there's fake water. I got a bottle that tasted funny, and the friend I was with told me to stop drinking it since he thought there was something wrong with it too. Makes me rather paranoid.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
First Week in Beijing
My first week in Beijing was filled with real estate agents. I was originally promised two weeks in a hotel to give me time to find an apartment, but they cut that down to one. After that, I would have to move into a temporary apartment they have rented for their interns (who have not arrived yet). While the apartment itself is fine, the building is located in a dark, dingy old Chinese building on the 6th floor of a 6-story walk-up. That was incentive for me to try and find an apartment - asap.
The apartments near Dongzhimen and Sanlitun (the area close to work) fall into 2 categories - luxury apartment complexes complete with spas, grocery stores, gyms, pools and clubhouses or old Chinese buildings from the Mao era - nothing really in the middle. After looking at a couple of older apartments, I decided to splurge on a nice apartment (which is still only about $400-$500 a month!). I looked at over 20 apartments over the course of 5 days and managed to get a 3BR apartment in the MOMA with a couple of friends. There are so many buildings in Beijing that are named after New York City buildings and neighborhoods. There's the MOMA, Central Park and Upper East Side among others. There's also the Twin Towers and someone said the Empire State Building is going up too. It's sort of a funny reminder of home. The nice thing about apartments in Beijing is that they come furnished, and landlords will replace furniture, within reason. Hopefully the furniture that I've requested will come soon so I can move into my new place!
Although everyone in China speaks Mandarin, the plethora of accents you can hear in Beijing alone is hugely variable. Sometimes, it is hard to understand what others are saying, even though we are speaking the same dialect. There are also many words that are just different here in China. The words for things like spoon, pineapple, bicycle and cabbage are completely different, which has been confusing. Furthermore, I am practically illiterate since I can't read simplified characters. Sometimes, I wonder how I'm going to survive in this country for a year!
Olympic madness continues unabated here. Besides experimenting with the weather and "rain-making" technology to thwart rain during the Olympics, the Chinese government is also trying to figure out how to make the two flowers most associated with China, the chrysanthamum and the lotus flower, bloom next August. Neither flower naturally bloom during that month. The government's goal of pulling off a perfect Olympic is also accompanied with a "service with a smile" campaign. While they can attempt to make rain or stop rain, and make flowers bloom, I am not certain they can ever convince some of the surly, rude and inattentive Chinese locals servicepeople from waiters to cab drivers to be nice and crack a smile. I feel lucky to get acknowledged with an annoyed snort or sound when requesting anything.
I'm in Qingdao (a part of Shandong Province) right now for China's annual National Pediatric AIDS Conference. Qingdao is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and oceans and several lovely beaches. It will be the site of the rowing sports during the Olympics. I actually just missed the regatta held here by a couple of days. Once a German controlled town, there is a charming mix of German-influenced architecture and tall modern buildings that gives Qingdao its uniqueness. In the historic area of town, even new buildings must be built with red-tiled roofs. The people here are proud of how the pretty the contrast of their red rooftops look against the green trees that dot the hills inside the city. Our local guide (courtesy of Yao's dad) took us to Huashi Lou, a castle-like villa perched on the side of the cliffs right over the water. There were dozens of bridal couples here taking their bridal pictures. While the scenery is gorgeous, it must have been a miserable experience for them given the sweltering heat.
Qingdao's German history is also the reason why this city is know for it's Tsingdao beer. I made it to Qingdao just in time to enjoy the last day of their Tsingdao International Beer Festival. Must say it is the first time I've seen local Chinese dance on tables. Their equivalent of vodka in water bottles must have been beer in plastic bags. I saw some of them pour beer into glasses from plastic bags. The men were also unabashed about walking around with naked potbellies. They either roll their shirts up above their bellies, or take their shirts off and sling it over their shoulders. Unsurprisingly, the naked potbellies are also a target of the Chinese government's preparation for the Olympics. There are commercials preaching proper etiquette for next year's big event, which includes keeping your shirt on, and covering your belly.
The apartments near Dongzhimen and Sanlitun (the area close to work) fall into 2 categories - luxury apartment complexes complete with spas, grocery stores, gyms, pools and clubhouses or old Chinese buildings from the Mao era - nothing really in the middle. After looking at a couple of older apartments, I decided to splurge on a nice apartment (which is still only about $400-$500 a month!). I looked at over 20 apartments over the course of 5 days and managed to get a 3BR apartment in the MOMA with a couple of friends. There are so many buildings in Beijing that are named after New York City buildings and neighborhoods. There's the MOMA, Central Park and Upper East Side among others. There's also the Twin Towers and someone said the Empire State Building is going up too. It's sort of a funny reminder of home. The nice thing about apartments in Beijing is that they come furnished, and landlords will replace furniture, within reason. Hopefully the furniture that I've requested will come soon so I can move into my new place!
Although everyone in China speaks Mandarin, the plethora of accents you can hear in Beijing alone is hugely variable. Sometimes, it is hard to understand what others are saying, even though we are speaking the same dialect. There are also many words that are just different here in China. The words for things like spoon, pineapple, bicycle and cabbage are completely different, which has been confusing. Furthermore, I am practically illiterate since I can't read simplified characters. Sometimes, I wonder how I'm going to survive in this country for a year!
Olympic madness continues unabated here. Besides experimenting with the weather and "rain-making" technology to thwart rain during the Olympics, the Chinese government is also trying to figure out how to make the two flowers most associated with China, the chrysanthamum and the lotus flower, bloom next August. Neither flower naturally bloom during that month. The government's goal of pulling off a perfect Olympic is also accompanied with a "service with a smile" campaign. While they can attempt to make rain or stop rain, and make flowers bloom, I am not certain they can ever convince some of the surly, rude and inattentive Chinese locals servicepeople from waiters to cab drivers to be nice and crack a smile. I feel lucky to get acknowledged with an annoyed snort or sound when requesting anything.
I'm in Qingdao (a part of Shandong Province) right now for China's annual National Pediatric AIDS Conference. Qingdao is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and oceans and several lovely beaches. It will be the site of the rowing sports during the Olympics. I actually just missed the regatta held here by a couple of days. Once a German controlled town, there is a charming mix of German-influenced architecture and tall modern buildings that gives Qingdao its uniqueness. In the historic area of town, even new buildings must be built with red-tiled roofs. The people here are proud of how the pretty the contrast of their red rooftops look against the green trees that dot the hills inside the city. Our local guide (courtesy of Yao's dad) took us to Huashi Lou, a castle-like villa perched on the side of the cliffs right over the water. There were dozens of bridal couples here taking their bridal pictures. While the scenery is gorgeous, it must have been a miserable experience for them given the sweltering heat.
Qingdao's German history is also the reason why this city is know for it's Tsingdao beer. I made it to Qingdao just in time to enjoy the last day of their Tsingdao International Beer Festival. Must say it is the first time I've seen local Chinese dance on tables. Their equivalent of vodka in water bottles must have been beer in plastic bags. I saw some of them pour beer into glasses from plastic bags. The men were also unabashed about walking around with naked potbellies. They either roll their shirts up above their bellies, or take their shirts off and sling it over their shoulders. Unsurprisingly, the naked potbellies are also a target of the Chinese government's preparation for the Olympics. There are commercials preaching proper etiquette for next year's big event, which includes keeping your shirt on, and covering your belly.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Government Controls in China
Censorship in the media is clear from the newspaper, which reports mostly innocuous, mundane stories. Someone just asked me if I have noticed any blocked websites, and I said no, but I learned last night that blogs are mostly blocked. So yes, I can post things to the blog, but I can't actually read the blog or see any of my own postings. People use proxy websites to view blocked sites, just like in Myanmar. Where there is a will, there is a way. People will always find a way to access blocked material.
Pollution is terrible in Beijing, despite government efforts to move factories out of the city, plant trees and clean up the air. Over 1,000 new cars hit the roads daily. When I landed a couple of days ago, the sky was so hazy that it was like I was looking through a screen, and it is that way almost everyday. Colors do not appear vibrant through the thick, polluted air. In preparation for the Olympics, when the government wants to allow only about half the cars on the road, they are holding a 4 day practice. Over the weekend, yesterday and today, on alternating days, only even or odd cars are allowed to drive. Those that disobey the rule faces penalties of 50RMB (about $7). When I looked at license plates of the cars on the road, they were indeed almost all odd or even (with the exception of taxis and buses).
Perhaps one of the funniest things I've heard of the government in China doing to prepare for the Olympics is to purchase a super advanced weather system from IBM. In an attempt to prevent it from raining during major outdoor Olympic events like the opening ceremony, they are hoping they can use their new weather system to detech rainclouds early enough to divert the rain using modern technology. I guess we will see whether they succeed at controlling the weather.
Pollution is terrible in Beijing, despite government efforts to move factories out of the city, plant trees and clean up the air. Over 1,000 new cars hit the roads daily. When I landed a couple of days ago, the sky was so hazy that it was like I was looking through a screen, and it is that way almost everyday. Colors do not appear vibrant through the thick, polluted air. In preparation for the Olympics, when the government wants to allow only about half the cars on the road, they are holding a 4 day practice. Over the weekend, yesterday and today, on alternating days, only even or odd cars are allowed to drive. Those that disobey the rule faces penalties of 50RMB (about $7). When I looked at license plates of the cars on the road, they were indeed almost all odd or even (with the exception of taxis and buses).
Perhaps one of the funniest things I've heard of the government in China doing to prepare for the Olympics is to purchase a super advanced weather system from IBM. In an attempt to prevent it from raining during major outdoor Olympic events like the opening ceremony, they are hoping they can use their new weather system to detech rainclouds early enough to divert the rain using modern technology. I guess we will see whether they succeed at controlling the weather.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Rabies Vaccinations in Foreign Countries
After leaving Bangkok, I assumed it would be easy to get subsequent rabies post-exposure vaccinations in Taiwan. Afterall, it's a pretty developed country. It wasn't until I had already gone to the biggest hospital in the area and to the Public Health Center in Pingzhen City, talked to several doctors and nurses, and called the National Center for Disease Control in Taiwan and a travel medicine clinic in Taipei, that I learned: 1) rabies doesn't exist in Taiwan anymore; 2) almost no one even knows how you can get a rabies vaccine in Taiwan (because it doesn't exist anymore); and 3) there is only one hospital where you can get it in all of Northern Taiwan and that is only after registering with the government. What I thought would be a quick trip to a local hospital like the one in Bangkok (I was in and out in about an hour) took literally the whole day yesterday. Who would have guessed that Taiwan would be one of a handful of countries that doesn't have rabies? At least I know where to go for the 3rd vaccine this Friday. In all, I've visited 5 different hospitals in 3 different countries already in the past week. Hopefully, it will be easy to figure out where to get the 4th and last vaccine when I get to Beijing next week. Luckily, rabies is still a problem in China. I think I am going to avoid monkeys for a very long time. No more petting random cats or dogs either, no matter how cute.
Ironically, it was a good thing the monkey bite left a nasty-looking bruise and mark on my shoulder, since no one actually believes it when I first explain to them why I was looking for the rabies vaccine in the first place. In hindsight, the whole experience is sort of funny and it'll definitely make for some funny stories later but figuring out how to navigate foreign health care systems and prevent rabies has been stressful to say the least.
Ironically, it was a good thing the monkey bite left a nasty-looking bruise and mark on my shoulder, since no one actually believes it when I first explain to them why I was looking for the rabies vaccine in the first place. In hindsight, the whole experience is sort of funny and it'll definitely make for some funny stories later but figuring out how to navigate foreign health care systems and prevent rabies has been stressful to say the least.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Adventures in Myanmar
Myanmar is a country that seems to have been suspended in time. Once one of the richest country in South East Asia during the British colonial period, it has been on a steep decline since. Governed by a repressive military regime infamous for human rights abuses and oppression, it has been cut off from most of the world by sanctions and bans, except for a handful of nearby countries. The infrastructure in the country is terrible to say the least. Power outages are a norm here, censorship is a way of life (there are only 2 government channels on tv and many internet sites are blocked including gmail, yahoo and hotmail), and the cars/buses are 30-40 years old (still hot commodities at that age since there are so few of them). The roads are a nightmare making flying around the country somewhat of a necessity as a visitor (it's a 25 minute plane ride to get from Bagan to Mandalay, but a 4+ hour bus ride). Horse carts, oxen carts and covered pickup trucks packed with people both inside and on top and hanging off the back are just a few other modes of transportation in this country. Tourism is still a nascent industry, making this a fascinating place to visit.
We arrived in Yangon (Rangoon), the former capital of the country on August 3rd. The international terminal was new and modern, but practically deserted since it was much larger than necessary for the number of visitors they currently got (only a few hundred thousand a year). We exchanged dollars for kyats through a money changer (this is illegal but no other way to get kyats) and visited a pagoda before dashing off to Bagan later that afternoon. The domestic terminal was old, dirty and extremely ghetto - a truly night and day difference from the international terminal, which was probably built using forced labor. When we got to Bagan, there was no baggage carousel. 4 men, each carrying one of our bags, met us and gave us our bag. After paying the $10 entrance fee to Bagan (fees we had hoped to avoid paying since it went to the government and we were trying to be responsible tourists), we got settled into our hotel in New Bagan (in 1990, the government gave the people one week to move from Old Bagan to New Bagan where they had to build new homes, etc. and then eliminated any trace of a village in Old Bagan, which now houses the upscale resorts and hotels) and had dinner at the Green Elephant Riverview Restaurant at sunset. The views of the mountains, the Ayeyarwady River and one of the pagodas by the river was beautiful as the setting sun changed the sky from blue to shades of pink, orange and yellow.
We randomly met a local university student as we were walking back to the hotel who offered to be our tour guide the next day. We arranged for a horse carriage to take us around Bagan to the many temples that are there. Prior to a big earthquake in the 80s or 90s, there were over 5,000 temples in Bagan, which is a tiny little town. Now, there are 2,217. That number continues to grow as the wealthy people commission temples to be built. We visited 15 of the largest and most magnificent ones, including the Ananda and the Shwedigon Pagodas. Oftentimes, we were the only tourists at the temples. Since you can't wear shoes or socks into the pagodas, it felt like we were barefoot half the time. We even climbed up a few of the temples - the views from the tops of those temples were amazing. It didn't matter which direction you looked, you can see hundreds of temples all around you.
The next day we drove to Mt. Popa, where the statues of the 37 nats (holy spirits that the Burmese people worshipped) were located and where a pagoda was perched at the top of the mountain. On the way there, we stopped by villager's home to see his family collect palm sap, grind peanuts (using an oxen) to make peanut oil, boil the palm sap to make candy, alcohol and sugar. At Mt. Popa, there were hundreds of monkeys and local children selling monkey food (something wrapped in paper). To get to the temple at the top, we had to walk up hundreds of steps under a covered walkway. The monkeys follow you up, in the hopes of getting food. They jump on people and tug at your pant legs. Unfortunately for me, one of them decided to bite me on the shoulder as my back was turned towards it. Although we continued our trip as planned and went up to see the pagoda and the views, this unexpected incident created complications. It was difficult to find information and quality health care in Myanmar.
After Mt. Popa, we went back to Bagan and moved to Nyaung Oo where most of the backpackers stay. There was a small restaurant row where we had lunch and then we rented bikes and biked around the town, passing by the bus station (just a bench by a tree with people and a bus) and the fire department. We looked for the market but never found it. Instead, a random local woman invited us into her home, introduced us to her family, served us tea and some candy, taught us how to apply tanaka (this paste the women apply daily on themselves and the children made from the bark of some tree) on our faces, and sold us longyis (local sarongs that both the men and women wear). They showed us how to tie our longyis and we decided to wear them the next day in Mandalay. When we left her home, we biked to find the section of the main road that has been flooded by recent heavy rains. What we found there was hysterical. People seemed unconcerned that homes were in danger of being flooded. Instead, they turned it into the local swimming pool where little children played in tubes and people swam around. Entrepreneurial people even started water taxi services to get you to the other side. Some people even turned it into a car wash - they brought their cars to the edge of the water and washed their cars. It was crazy.
It was these local interactions and funny local experiences that made the trip to Myanmar really different from the other places. The people of Myanmar has shown surprising upbeat and resilience in the face of poverty and political suppression. Most were friendly and eager to share their culture, and some even invited us to visit their homes. It was a wonderful experience.
After using the slow dial-up internet service at a local internet cafe to look for information about rabies, we decided that I should seek medical care in Mandalay where we were heading the next day. I emailed my sister and enlisted Lisa's help in getting through to the embassy in Yangon to figure out where to find a doctor.
Mandalay, one of the old royal capital cities, was a huge sprawling city. When we arrived, we hired a taxi for the day to take us around the city. Unfortunately, the car broke down when we arrived in Mandalay (the cars there are so old and really not all that safe or roadworthy), and we were forced to switch cars. We went up to Mandalay Hill where we could see the entire city from the temple at the top (you can drive up and then take an escalator or walk up a covered walkway like the one in Mt. Popa). We stopped by the Kuthodaw Paya, located at the bottom of Mandalay Hill, where the world's largest book is housed in white stupas. Even in our longyis, we could not get pass the fee so we ended up walking around the outside where the stupas were located and did not go in. We went to the monk district where we visited Shwe In Bin Kyaung, a monastery built in the late 1800s of teak. The intricate carvings in the wood were amazing. The monks there were nice and allowed us to walk around. It was a beautiful, quiet and relaxing place.
Afterwards, we checked into a hotel and went in search of an internet cafe to get information on the hospitals. Internet was completely down at the first but we found working internet on our second try. We got information on doctors from the embassy and called the embassy doctor from a phone (a person sitting at a desk on a street corner with a phone - they don't really have public phones)). We had our cab driver take us to a hospital. The first one was a local hospital that was old and run down so we got the address to the private city hospital, which was much nicer. However, when we first arrived at the hospital, we thought it was completely deserted and abandoned. The main lobby was like a ghost town. Finally we found a man who lead us to another area and soon I had a doctor looking at my shoulder. She advised that I wait till I get to Bangkok to receive the rabies vaccinations and gave me some antibiotics. That made me feel a bit better about the bite.
After our hospital adventures, we visited the Maha Myat Muni Paya - a beautiful pagoda considered to be the second most holy site in Myanmar. It housed a huge gold buddha. Men (women were not allowed) could go up to the buddha and apply gold flakes to it. There were hundreds of local worshippers in addition to foreign visitors. We managed to get around paying the fee here, bypassing the whole $10 fee required for visiting the major sites in Mandalay.
After that we had our driver take us to Amarapura, another one of the old ancient capitals, where there is a famous teak bridge, the U Bein bridge. It is the world's longest teak bridge at over 1 km long and is made of over 1,000 teak wood boards and posts. The water levels in the lake was so high that some of the rest stops were flooded. Amarapura is a huge center for monastic studies in Myanmar, and we saw hundreds of monks in bright red and burgundy robes walking around. Some even turned the lake into a swimming pool. Local people and monks were jumped in, swimming and tubing in the water. I guess even monks need to have fun. When we got to the other end of the bridge, we wanted to visited the town there but the road was completely flooded so we ended up taking a boat and slowly drifted back to the other side of the lake while watching the people crossing the bridge as the sun slowly set.
For dinner, we ate chapatis and biryani at a local chapati stand on the street. Our waiter was a little boy who was adorable - he could not have been more than 7 or 8 but he was really efficient and professional, even at such a young age. He remembered everyone's orders without writing it down and ran around to serve everyone at the many tables he was covering. Myanmar food is not fabulous so we got around it by eating Shan, Chinese and Indian food which is also readily available in the country. We ended the evening by going to see a performance by the Moustach Brothers, 3 comedians who had been arrested in the 90s and imprisoned for making social commentary against the regime. Now, they're only allowed to perform for Westerners, in English. We took trishaws back to the hotel - bikes with big tricycle wheels attached to a seat that could hold a person facing forward and another facing backwards. Like I mentioned, cars are in short supply.
We flew to Heho the next morning where we took a cab to Kalaw, a town in the mountains. After grabbing a quick lunch at a Nepali restaurant, we went on a 17 km trek in the mountains to visit a couple of villages and see the beautiful verdant mountains and the countryside. The mountains were covered by trees, vegetation, and neat rows of vegetables in every shade of green imaginable. The villages were pretty much deserted, except for children playing, since the adults were all off working in the fields during the day. The children were adorable, but dirty from the mud and dressed in dirty, old and ripped clothing. We gave them cookies, which was probably a big treat for them. The poverty faced by the villagers was visible everywhere. Homes were essentially one large, dark room shared by many people. Cooking was done in the center of the room using fire from burning wood or charcoal. Small generators provide them with light for a few hours at night. Each family were allocated only approximately 40 watts of electricity, not even enough to light a light bulb in the U.S. We bought some handicrafts from one family, just so we could give them some money.
We took a very short speed boat trip in motorized canoes around Inle Lake the next day (2 hours is really not enough). Even though we got on the 6:30am bus, we did not make it to the Lake until almost 9am. The lake is surrounded by mountains on both sides. There were people fishing, collecting seaweed and vegetables on the lake. They balanced on the very tip of the boat with one leg and paddled the oar with their other foot. It was incredible to watch - almost like a delicate dance. We made 2 quick stops, once at a major pagoda where a monk was chanting over loudspeakers, and once at a monastery nicknamed "Jumping Cat Monastery." The monks there have trained their pet cats (15 in all) to jump through hoops on command. When we arrived, one of the monks had a kid show us the cats as they jumped through hoops. It was fun to watch. If we had had more time, we could have visited the villages around the lake where the villagers specialize in various crafts.
After we made it back on land, we raced to the airport and left for Yangon. We stayed in the Central Downtown area near the Sule Paya (a temple in the middle of the street) and the old British colonial buildings. We walked to the Sule Paya and saw the Independence Monument, which looked a lot like the Washington Monument in D.C. The colonial buildings have been abandoned for the most part and already, plantlife has slowly start to take them over. The government left Yangon suddenly a few years ago and has move the capital to some mountain fortress. The deterioration in the buildings is tragic since they were once beautiful and majestic. The rainy and dreary skies made it appear all the more desolate. Streets were squalid and dirty but there were tons of local street food shops set up on the street and people were out and about. We didn't try any of it since it didn't look sanitary. Stores with brand new electronic equipment could also be found. It was such an interesting contrast. We even found the British Council Library located in the UK Embassy. It's a local lending library with only English books and magazines. Children can even take English classes.
That night, we changed again into our longyis and headed to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest temple in Myanmar. Even the local people try to come here at least once in their life. We had been templed out at this point, but even this one blew us away. The massive complex was covered with gold stupas and buddha statues. We managed to look like locals and avoided the entrance fee.
We left Myanmar the next morning. It felt weird to be back in Bangkok, in a developed city.
We arrived in Yangon (Rangoon), the former capital of the country on August 3rd. The international terminal was new and modern, but practically deserted since it was much larger than necessary for the number of visitors they currently got (only a few hundred thousand a year). We exchanged dollars for kyats through a money changer (this is illegal but no other way to get kyats) and visited a pagoda before dashing off to Bagan later that afternoon. The domestic terminal was old, dirty and extremely ghetto - a truly night and day difference from the international terminal, which was probably built using forced labor. When we got to Bagan, there was no baggage carousel. 4 men, each carrying one of our bags, met us and gave us our bag. After paying the $10 entrance fee to Bagan (fees we had hoped to avoid paying since it went to the government and we were trying to be responsible tourists), we got settled into our hotel in New Bagan (in 1990, the government gave the people one week to move from Old Bagan to New Bagan where they had to build new homes, etc. and then eliminated any trace of a village in Old Bagan, which now houses the upscale resorts and hotels) and had dinner at the Green Elephant Riverview Restaurant at sunset. The views of the mountains, the Ayeyarwady River and one of the pagodas by the river was beautiful as the setting sun changed the sky from blue to shades of pink, orange and yellow.
We randomly met a local university student as we were walking back to the hotel who offered to be our tour guide the next day. We arranged for a horse carriage to take us around Bagan to the many temples that are there. Prior to a big earthquake in the 80s or 90s, there were over 5,000 temples in Bagan, which is a tiny little town. Now, there are 2,217. That number continues to grow as the wealthy people commission temples to be built. We visited 15 of the largest and most magnificent ones, including the Ananda and the Shwedigon Pagodas. Oftentimes, we were the only tourists at the temples. Since you can't wear shoes or socks into the pagodas, it felt like we were barefoot half the time. We even climbed up a few of the temples - the views from the tops of those temples were amazing. It didn't matter which direction you looked, you can see hundreds of temples all around you.
The next day we drove to Mt. Popa, where the statues of the 37 nats (holy spirits that the Burmese people worshipped) were located and where a pagoda was perched at the top of the mountain. On the way there, we stopped by villager's home to see his family collect palm sap, grind peanuts (using an oxen) to make peanut oil, boil the palm sap to make candy, alcohol and sugar. At Mt. Popa, there were hundreds of monkeys and local children selling monkey food (something wrapped in paper). To get to the temple at the top, we had to walk up hundreds of steps under a covered walkway. The monkeys follow you up, in the hopes of getting food. They jump on people and tug at your pant legs. Unfortunately for me, one of them decided to bite me on the shoulder as my back was turned towards it. Although we continued our trip as planned and went up to see the pagoda and the views, this unexpected incident created complications. It was difficult to find information and quality health care in Myanmar.
After Mt. Popa, we went back to Bagan and moved to Nyaung Oo where most of the backpackers stay. There was a small restaurant row where we had lunch and then we rented bikes and biked around the town, passing by the bus station (just a bench by a tree with people and a bus) and the fire department. We looked for the market but never found it. Instead, a random local woman invited us into her home, introduced us to her family, served us tea and some candy, taught us how to apply tanaka (this paste the women apply daily on themselves and the children made from the bark of some tree) on our faces, and sold us longyis (local sarongs that both the men and women wear). They showed us how to tie our longyis and we decided to wear them the next day in Mandalay. When we left her home, we biked to find the section of the main road that has been flooded by recent heavy rains. What we found there was hysterical. People seemed unconcerned that homes were in danger of being flooded. Instead, they turned it into the local swimming pool where little children played in tubes and people swam around. Entrepreneurial people even started water taxi services to get you to the other side. Some people even turned it into a car wash - they brought their cars to the edge of the water and washed their cars. It was crazy.
It was these local interactions and funny local experiences that made the trip to Myanmar really different from the other places. The people of Myanmar has shown surprising upbeat and resilience in the face of poverty and political suppression. Most were friendly and eager to share their culture, and some even invited us to visit their homes. It was a wonderful experience.
After using the slow dial-up internet service at a local internet cafe to look for information about rabies, we decided that I should seek medical care in Mandalay where we were heading the next day. I emailed my sister and enlisted Lisa's help in getting through to the embassy in Yangon to figure out where to find a doctor.
Mandalay, one of the old royal capital cities, was a huge sprawling city. When we arrived, we hired a taxi for the day to take us around the city. Unfortunately, the car broke down when we arrived in Mandalay (the cars there are so old and really not all that safe or roadworthy), and we were forced to switch cars. We went up to Mandalay Hill where we could see the entire city from the temple at the top (you can drive up and then take an escalator or walk up a covered walkway like the one in Mt. Popa). We stopped by the Kuthodaw Paya, located at the bottom of Mandalay Hill, where the world's largest book is housed in white stupas. Even in our longyis, we could not get pass the fee so we ended up walking around the outside where the stupas were located and did not go in. We went to the monk district where we visited Shwe In Bin Kyaung, a monastery built in the late 1800s of teak. The intricate carvings in the wood were amazing. The monks there were nice and allowed us to walk around. It was a beautiful, quiet and relaxing place.
Afterwards, we checked into a hotel and went in search of an internet cafe to get information on the hospitals. Internet was completely down at the first but we found working internet on our second try. We got information on doctors from the embassy and called the embassy doctor from a phone (a person sitting at a desk on a street corner with a phone - they don't really have public phones)). We had our cab driver take us to a hospital. The first one was a local hospital that was old and run down so we got the address to the private city hospital, which was much nicer. However, when we first arrived at the hospital, we thought it was completely deserted and abandoned. The main lobby was like a ghost town. Finally we found a man who lead us to another area and soon I had a doctor looking at my shoulder. She advised that I wait till I get to Bangkok to receive the rabies vaccinations and gave me some antibiotics. That made me feel a bit better about the bite.
After our hospital adventures, we visited the Maha Myat Muni Paya - a beautiful pagoda considered to be the second most holy site in Myanmar. It housed a huge gold buddha. Men (women were not allowed) could go up to the buddha and apply gold flakes to it. There were hundreds of local worshippers in addition to foreign visitors. We managed to get around paying the fee here, bypassing the whole $10 fee required for visiting the major sites in Mandalay.
After that we had our driver take us to Amarapura, another one of the old ancient capitals, where there is a famous teak bridge, the U Bein bridge. It is the world's longest teak bridge at over 1 km long and is made of over 1,000 teak wood boards and posts. The water levels in the lake was so high that some of the rest stops were flooded. Amarapura is a huge center for monastic studies in Myanmar, and we saw hundreds of monks in bright red and burgundy robes walking around. Some even turned the lake into a swimming pool. Local people and monks were jumped in, swimming and tubing in the water. I guess even monks need to have fun. When we got to the other end of the bridge, we wanted to visited the town there but the road was completely flooded so we ended up taking a boat and slowly drifted back to the other side of the lake while watching the people crossing the bridge as the sun slowly set.
For dinner, we ate chapatis and biryani at a local chapati stand on the street. Our waiter was a little boy who was adorable - he could not have been more than 7 or 8 but he was really efficient and professional, even at such a young age. He remembered everyone's orders without writing it down and ran around to serve everyone at the many tables he was covering. Myanmar food is not fabulous so we got around it by eating Shan, Chinese and Indian food which is also readily available in the country. We ended the evening by going to see a performance by the Moustach Brothers, 3 comedians who had been arrested in the 90s and imprisoned for making social commentary against the regime. Now, they're only allowed to perform for Westerners, in English. We took trishaws back to the hotel - bikes with big tricycle wheels attached to a seat that could hold a person facing forward and another facing backwards. Like I mentioned, cars are in short supply.
We flew to Heho the next morning where we took a cab to Kalaw, a town in the mountains. After grabbing a quick lunch at a Nepali restaurant, we went on a 17 km trek in the mountains to visit a couple of villages and see the beautiful verdant mountains and the countryside. The mountains were covered by trees, vegetation, and neat rows of vegetables in every shade of green imaginable. The villages were pretty much deserted, except for children playing, since the adults were all off working in the fields during the day. The children were adorable, but dirty from the mud and dressed in dirty, old and ripped clothing. We gave them cookies, which was probably a big treat for them. The poverty faced by the villagers was visible everywhere. Homes were essentially one large, dark room shared by many people. Cooking was done in the center of the room using fire from burning wood or charcoal. Small generators provide them with light for a few hours at night. Each family were allocated only approximately 40 watts of electricity, not even enough to light a light bulb in the U.S. We bought some handicrafts from one family, just so we could give them some money.
We took a very short speed boat trip in motorized canoes around Inle Lake the next day (2 hours is really not enough). Even though we got on the 6:30am bus, we did not make it to the Lake until almost 9am. The lake is surrounded by mountains on both sides. There were people fishing, collecting seaweed and vegetables on the lake. They balanced on the very tip of the boat with one leg and paddled the oar with their other foot. It was incredible to watch - almost like a delicate dance. We made 2 quick stops, once at a major pagoda where a monk was chanting over loudspeakers, and once at a monastery nicknamed "Jumping Cat Monastery." The monks there have trained their pet cats (15 in all) to jump through hoops on command. When we arrived, one of the monks had a kid show us the cats as they jumped through hoops. It was fun to watch. If we had had more time, we could have visited the villages around the lake where the villagers specialize in various crafts.
After we made it back on land, we raced to the airport and left for Yangon. We stayed in the Central Downtown area near the Sule Paya (a temple in the middle of the street) and the old British colonial buildings. We walked to the Sule Paya and saw the Independence Monument, which looked a lot like the Washington Monument in D.C. The colonial buildings have been abandoned for the most part and already, plantlife has slowly start to take them over. The government left Yangon suddenly a few years ago and has move the capital to some mountain fortress. The deterioration in the buildings is tragic since they were once beautiful and majestic. The rainy and dreary skies made it appear all the more desolate. Streets were squalid and dirty but there were tons of local street food shops set up on the street and people were out and about. We didn't try any of it since it didn't look sanitary. Stores with brand new electronic equipment could also be found. It was such an interesting contrast. We even found the British Council Library located in the UK Embassy. It's a local lending library with only English books and magazines. Children can even take English classes.
That night, we changed again into our longyis and headed to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest temple in Myanmar. Even the local people try to come here at least once in their life. We had been templed out at this point, but even this one blew us away. The massive complex was covered with gold stupas and buddha statues. We managed to look like locals and avoided the entrance fee.
We left Myanmar the next morning. It felt weird to be back in Bangkok, in a developed city.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Vang Vieng and Last Minute Changes
Vang Vieng is a town whose entire economy is based on tubing. Someone figured out that a steady stream of crazy foreigners were willing to pay to tube down the Nam Song River in old tractor tires and the town has not only capitalized on that idea, but has also turned a 3-4 km stretch of that river into a veritable amusement park. In terms of pure, unadulterated fun (with no thoughts to cultural learning), our one-day in Vang Vieng has definitely been the most fun on this trip, and it was not even planned.
Our group, which had dwindled to 5, arrived in Vang Vieng at approximately 2am a few days ago. The bus ride took almost 6 hours, through windy mountain roads. According to the guidebook, there is practically "not a stretch of straight road" from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, and that was not an exaggeration. When we hit the mountains, they passed out plastic barf bags. You had to brace yourself in your seat to not fall right out of it on some of the sharp turns. It was dark and rainy, and the Vang Vieng bus station was in the middle of nowhere, and pretty much deserted when we got there. The last-second tubing detour seemed like a bad idea at that moment. We took a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse, where we had to bang on the door to wake someone up to show us to a room.
Things definitely looked a lot better in the morning, when we realized we had a beautiful view of the mountains behind us and the river right below. The morning mist that swirled around the mountain peaks made for a spectacular backdrop. After signing away our lives (people have died in the past), we hit the river. We all could not fathom why a 3-km tubing trip would take 4-6-hours until we noticed the zipline and swing stations set up by entrepreneurial residents in the town. At these stations, you pay to zipline into the river or swing or jump from high platforms into the water. Jumps without beer costs money. The purchase of beer allowed unlimited free jumps. No wonder people die. I was originally freaked out about falling out of the tube into the river since the currents were pretty strong and there are rapids and I can barely swim, but somehow, I was convinced to swing into the river at 2 different stations - twice each time. The first one was about 20 feet high, and both times, I slipped and fell in the water too early (not to mention the fact that there is no way to keep your bikini top on so I flashed the entire group the first time). At the swing in the "last stop" the swing was like a trapeze swing that was suspended about 30 feet above the water. It was scary jumping off the platform but so much fun afterwards. We must have spent about 2-3 hours at this one station alone. We almost missed our car to Vientiane since we kept on pushing back when we planned to return to the town. The boys I travelled with jumped about 10 times each. It was awesome and I even have pictures of me jumping to prove it!
Vientiane was like any other big Asian city and we did not spend any time there. We stayed the night and flew to Bangkok early the next morning to get our visas to Myanmar (completely last minute change of plans). We get our visas tomorrow and leave for Myanmar for 6 days on Friday. Am really excited. We spent last night watching Thai Boxing - the national passtime here, at Lumphini Boxing Stadium. It was seedy to say the least. Almost no females there except a few foreigners. We watched 3 matches. It was an interesting cultural experience - there's an elaborate pre-fight ritual, a live band (playing traditional Thai music), lots of betting on the games, and 5 rounds of fighting during each match. Kicking is allowed in Thai Boxing, which sets it apart from other forms of boxing. We went to Siam Center in the new part of Bangkok and watched Ratatouille. The Siam Paragon is a fancy mall, which one of the guys called the "trophy wife" mall. The theater is massive - it has ultrascreens (huge plush seats that cost way too much), a members-only enigma screen (with couches and cushions), and regular theaters that have love seats in the back.
We're going to Ayuthaya tomorrow. It's one of the ancient capital cities of Thailand. And then, off to Myanmar!
Our group, which had dwindled to 5, arrived in Vang Vieng at approximately 2am a few days ago. The bus ride took almost 6 hours, through windy mountain roads. According to the guidebook, there is practically "not a stretch of straight road" from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, and that was not an exaggeration. When we hit the mountains, they passed out plastic barf bags. You had to brace yourself in your seat to not fall right out of it on some of the sharp turns. It was dark and rainy, and the Vang Vieng bus station was in the middle of nowhere, and pretty much deserted when we got there. The last-second tubing detour seemed like a bad idea at that moment. We took a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse, where we had to bang on the door to wake someone up to show us to a room.
Things definitely looked a lot better in the morning, when we realized we had a beautiful view of the mountains behind us and the river right below. The morning mist that swirled around the mountain peaks made for a spectacular backdrop. After signing away our lives (people have died in the past), we hit the river. We all could not fathom why a 3-km tubing trip would take 4-6-hours until we noticed the zipline and swing stations set up by entrepreneurial residents in the town. At these stations, you pay to zipline into the river or swing or jump from high platforms into the water. Jumps without beer costs money. The purchase of beer allowed unlimited free jumps. No wonder people die. I was originally freaked out about falling out of the tube into the river since the currents were pretty strong and there are rapids and I can barely swim, but somehow, I was convinced to swing into the river at 2 different stations - twice each time. The first one was about 20 feet high, and both times, I slipped and fell in the water too early (not to mention the fact that there is no way to keep your bikini top on so I flashed the entire group the first time). At the swing in the "last stop" the swing was like a trapeze swing that was suspended about 30 feet above the water. It was scary jumping off the platform but so much fun afterwards. We must have spent about 2-3 hours at this one station alone. We almost missed our car to Vientiane since we kept on pushing back when we planned to return to the town. The boys I travelled with jumped about 10 times each. It was awesome and I even have pictures of me jumping to prove it!
Vientiane was like any other big Asian city and we did not spend any time there. We stayed the night and flew to Bangkok early the next morning to get our visas to Myanmar (completely last minute change of plans). We get our visas tomorrow and leave for Myanmar for 6 days on Friday. Am really excited. We spent last night watching Thai Boxing - the national passtime here, at Lumphini Boxing Stadium. It was seedy to say the least. Almost no females there except a few foreigners. We watched 3 matches. It was an interesting cultural experience - there's an elaborate pre-fight ritual, a live band (playing traditional Thai music), lots of betting on the games, and 5 rounds of fighting during each match. Kicking is allowed in Thai Boxing, which sets it apart from other forms of boxing. We went to Siam Center in the new part of Bangkok and watched Ratatouille. The Siam Paragon is a fancy mall, which one of the guys called the "trophy wife" mall. The theater is massive - it has ultrascreens (huge plush seats that cost way too much), a members-only enigma screen (with couches and cushions), and regular theaters that have love seats in the back.
We're going to Ayuthaya tomorrow. It's one of the ancient capital cities of Thailand. And then, off to Myanmar!
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