2012 Asian Adventure - Panda-monium

Day Nine

After breakfast and a lazy morning, we went to the airport and caught a two hour flight to Chengdu (flight number five).  We checked into the hotel and had a couple hours to ourselves.  I spent the time walking around the shops outside the hotel and buying us a pair of  Coke Zeros.

We were picked up and went out for dinner before we went to the Sichuan Opera (I hadn't eaten lunch and I only picked at my dinner - no appetite). The Chinese opera was not what I expected.  It felt more like a variety show.  We took our seats a few rows from the stage.  There were tables with tea cups in front of all the seats - the Chinese sure like their tea.  Before the show performers sat in front of mirrors in a room off of the main seating area putting on their makeup.  A crowd, including me, gathered around to take their pictures and to see how the colorful makeup was applied.

Actress putting on her makeup.

I returned to our seat as the show began.  Men with long spouted teapots - I'm talking three to five foot spouts - went around filling and refilling the tea cups.  Watching them fill a tea cup from a distance away was a show all by itself.

The show started with musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments.  This was followed by puppetry, singing, dancing. performances resembling opera, and comedy routines.  One of the most interesting was a man doing shadow puppets on a big screen.  He was amazing.

Chinese opera dancer.

The show ended with the amazing face changing dancers (Bian Lian).  The dancers have amazing costumes and their faces are covered.  In a split second the masks change over and over.  It is so fast you can't really see what it happening.  Their method is a secret - only males are taught because would marry out of the family and take the secret with them.  As with all secrets, more outsiders are learning the trick.  It was so mesmerizing I didn't even take a picture of them, the main attraction of the Sichuan Opera.

That night I didn't sleep well.  I think I was suffering from a lack of food, water, and the drop in altitude.  I was in a weird mood and I had difficulty clearing my head enough to sleep.  I was awake at 3:00 AM to hear the people cheering the Euro 2012 games in the bar next door to the hotel.

Day Ten

A terrible night's sleep meant a crappy start to day ten.  I was tired, cranky, and a little wobbly on my feet.  I felt sick.  I tried my best to hide it as we boarded the bus to go to the Chengdu Research base for Panda Breeding.

The Giant Panda - a relative of the raccoon, not the bear.

The morning was drizzly.  This means it was hot and humid.  We arrived at the research station and followed a guide as he took us to the panda enclosure.  The guide was not familiar with what General Tours' groups did but our guide Malinda knew and she let him know exactly what she expected.  The station guide was taken aback but did exactly what she told him.  (Our guide said that Beijing women are known for being pushy and you could hear it in her voice when she talked to the station guide.)  We were led into a building with cages (We were followed in by Chinese tourists who were curious where these foreigners were going.  They were shooed out by the station guide - Chinese can be a little pushy at times).

Inside the building we were given smocks, booties, and gloves to protect the pandas from any strange diseases we may be carrying.  I put this extra layer on and my temp went up immediately.  We helped cut apples for the panda.  Fortunately we'd arrived at the station a little late and the cages had already been cleaned out (cleaning out the cages is one of the things the tours usually did).  A couple panda cubs were called into a cage and, one at a time, we each placed a piece of apple on the end of a stick and fed it to the pandas.  We then went outside and, using a much larger stick ( 'pole' would be a better word), we fed other pandas in the open air pen.  The pandas were trained to stand on their hind legs to get food - this helped them get exercise.  Not feeling great I stood back and skipped this part and just watched the others feed the pandas.  After this it was back into the enclosure where we gave the cubs a bath with a hose.  I skipped this as well.

Panda standing to get a treat and to exercise.

As soon as our panda volunteer experience was over I tore of the smack, booties and gloves and practically ran next door to a small shop and bought bottles of water (and a magnet of course).  I downed my water on the way to our next stop - the babies.  For a $200 donation you could get your picture taken holding a baby panda.  The "baby" was larger than most teddy bears.  The Wife and I decided not to hold the baby.  All the other women in our group payed up and held the baby.  None of the men did.  As we were waiting for the women to cycle through the baby holding experience I found a chair in an air conditioned space and slowly felt myself return from the dead.

It was getting close to lunch time and we headed for the center's restaurant.  Along the way we saw a relative to the panda, the red panda, which showed very clearly that pandas were not bears.  Panda, both the black and white ones and the red ones, are most closely related to the raccoon.  The red panda were more raccoon-like and very cute.

Huge, and hungry, koi.

We ate lunch at the center in a small restaurant not far from a lake.  The lake was full of huge koi and black swans (a first for me).  I decided to go western at the restaurant and ordered spaghetti.  Best. Damn. Spaghetti. Ever!  Well it wasn't that great but it did complete my resurrection.   I'd obviously not eaten enough or had enough liquids in the last twenty-four hours.  I decided to top off the tank with one of those mystery Magnum ice cream bars - the Chinese description apparently said vanilla with dark chocolate coating - Yum!

As we were leaving the drizzle that had been lingering all day turned into a light rain.  We huddled under umbrellas while people of our group went through the little panda center gift shop where all things panda could be purchased before boarding the bus and heading back to the airport.

Flight number six took us to Xi'an.  Our guide was born near Xi'an in, what she described as, a small town ... of 200,000.  When you have a population of 1.35 Billion your idea of small becomes a bit skewed.  I think she was happy to be in a more familiar place.

On the bus to the hotel, for the first time, our guide suggested that there were parts of the city that were not safe for tourists.  This convinced most of our group to stay in the hotel that night and not go out.  We ended up ordering burgers from room service - something almost everyone in our group did - and had a satisfying western meal.  The burger, after almost ten days of Chinese food ... was awesome.

Pictures from days nine and ten (07/01 - 07/02/2012) can be found in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

2012 Asian Adventure - Up On The Roof ... Of The World

Day Seven

Tibet.  The roof of the world.  The two days spent here were some of the more special ones on this trip.

We ate breakfast at the hotel.  We were the only westerners except for a couple, probably of European flavor.  The lack of westerners would be palpable as we moved around Lhasa.  We kind of stuck out.  The lack of westerners also emphasized just how lucky we were to be there.

On the bus and away we went to Norbulingka, the  Dalai Lama's summer palace.  The large complex includes several palaces/temples, a zoo (which we did not visit), and extensive gardens.  We went from palace to temple riding a couple trams.  The architecture and the gardens were incredible.  This is where we discovered that Buddhist monks, at least in Tibet, are camera shy and do not like their pictures taken.  The Buddhist have led much of the protests against the Chinese and exposure may result in  ... trouble ... for the monks.  In Tibet, and the rest of China I expect, to become a monk you must be licensed by the government.    These licenses are getting harder and harder to get and the ranks of the Buddhist monks and nuns is steadily shrinking.

Intricate carving on a column in Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's Summer Palace.

As I was looking at the gardens surrounding a temple, a gentleman in a suit came up to me and casually asked where I was from and how many days we were visiting Tibet.  I told him we were American and, having misunderstood, told him were were staying for sixteen days (The length of our stay in China).  When his eyes grew big I realized my error and said we would be in Tibet for two days.  That calmed him down and, as he walked away, he said that he was from Tokyo.  For some reason I didn't believe him.  In Tibet you always feel watched.

Norbulingka.

After the palace we stopped for lunch.  During our stay in Lhasa I expanded my culinary experience slightly by eating Yak meat.  It tasted like beef, naturally since yaks are bovines, and was a little tough.

After lunch we walked a block or so to Barkhor Plaza.  On the bus our guide had told us that he could answer any of our questions on the bus but in the plaza we had to be careful as there were microphones and people were listening to what we said.  You became keenly aware of all the check points we passed through.  At one point I was walking ahead of the group with another of our group and, apparently, this didn't make the police manning the checkpoints happy.  They talked to our guide.  Seeing the looks we were getting we rejoined the group.

Barkhor Plaza seen from the top of the Jokhang temple.

The Potala palace can be seen in the background on the right.

At Barkhor Plaza we went through a more rigorous checkpoint.  This plaza is famous for two reasons: The Jokhang temple, the holiest of places for Tibetan Buddhists, and the location of several recent self-immolations of Buddhist monks protesting the Chinese control.  This is where I felt the most watched.  Every now and then you would notice a person who didn't belong hanging around the edge of our group.  I am sure we were on video from several angles as well.  It was a bit oppressive.

As we waited for the group to get together to enter the Jokhang temple I noticed something on the ground near a group of police.  It looked like a large clamp, large enough to reach around the hips, connected to a long pole.  Next to it were two fire extinguishers.  They were partially covered by a tarp.  I knew what I was seeing.  The clamp was used to secure anyone attempting to self-immolate so they couldn't run around and the extinguishers were there to put them out if they succeeded.  It sent a shiver up my spine.  I noticed during the changing of the guard at least two of the soldiers carried fire extinguishers on their backs.

Jokhang temple is old, from the seventh century.  We passed by several people prostrating themselves in front of the temple.  This would be a common sight during our visits to temples.  Worshipers often prostrated themselves tens, if not hundreds, of times per day.

The temple was built for a King's two wives, one Chinese and one Nepali.  Both brides brought sacred statues from their respective cultures including a statue of Buddha said to be 2,500 years old.  Photography and all liquids are not permitted in the temple so I have no pictures of the beautiful statuary and temple interiors.  This prohibition of photography would extend to all the Buddhist temples we visited.

Tibetan women sitting in a shop.

The second from the left is holding a prayer wheel.

After the temple we shopped along the sides of the plaza before visiting a shop to see craftsmen painting thangkas.  The intricately painted cloth hangings were incredible detailed.  We didn't buy one here but we would find one in Nepal.

Painting a thangka.

Our first day in Tibet ended with a nice dinner out with the group.

Day Eight

Most of us woke up with headaches.  We later decided that while some of it was due to the altitude, a major component was all the incense we'd breathed in the day before.  Every temple we went to was full of incense smoke.  Some of our group bought surgical masks, a common sight on the street in Tibet and China, to help filter out the smoke.

Our second Tibet day was the big one for me as we were scheduled to visit the Potala Palace.  Due to the large number of visitors to the palace, you were given a ninety minute window to visit.  This means you had to arrive and climb the 300+ steps and be at the main palace door at a specific time and, once you entered the palace, your party had to leave by before the ninety minutes had expired.  Not making it would hurt the guide, possible resulting in them losing their guide license.

Circumnavigating the Gong De Lin Si Temple.

Our window for the palace was around 11:00 AM so we had time to visit another temple first to observe the Kora, a type of Buddhist pilgrimage and/or meditation.   The Kora consist of circumnavigating around a holy site while reciting a mantra or prayer.  Holy sites may include stupa, temples, the Potala Palace, even the city of Lhasa itself.  In Buddhism the Kora is always walked clockwise.  Other local faiths walk in the counterclockwise direction.  Holy sites such as stupa, temples, and the Potala Palace have prayer wheels along their exterior walls.  The prayer wheel contain prayers and mantras.  Spinning the wheels is the same as reciting the prayer orally.  As the pilgrims circumnavigate the site they spin the prayer wheels.   Many Tibetan carry small handheld prayer wheels which they constantly spin as they walk.  Everywhere we went in Tibet we saw people circling the buildings doing their Kora.

Prayer wheels at the Potala palace.

Arriving at the temple we joined the people walking around the stupa.  Next to the stupa were stacks of slate with prayers and mantras carved on them.  As we left the site we passed artisans engraving the slate stones.  I bought a palm sized stone with the mantra carved on it.  Another of the group bought a large piece of carved slate - we wondered if she would have problems getting that on the flight home but apparently it didn't give her any problems.

The Potala palace, home of the Dalai Lama.

Back on the bus we headed to the Potala Palace.  The views were magnificent.  While all of China was shrouded in clouds/fog/smog, the skies over Tibet were clear and blue.  We started up the stairs taking our time as we all were a little short of breath.  A few of the people in our group were elderly and they had to take it slow but we all managed to make it.  We arrived at the door a few minutes early and we got our tickets and went in.  The palace, home to the Dalai Lama before he was forced into exile in 1959, is magnificent.  Once again pictures were not allowed inside the palace so all we could take away were memories.  I have to admit I have never seen so many statues of Buddha in one place ... well ... I have now.  We made it out with only a few minutes to spare.

Nun gathering water ... this soon lead to a water fight amongst the nuns.

After a quick stop for lunch we headed for the Buddhist Ani Canggu nunnery.  We got off the bus and walked through the narrow streets passing stores, including a furniture store owned by our guide's family (We met his sister and aunt), before we arrived at a rather unassuming door.  Inside was a courtyard surrounded by the  living quarters and temple of the nunnery.  As we explored the nunnery we admired the cleanliness of the place and how well cared for it was.  The nuns were much more meticulous than the monks.  The nuns also turned out to be much nicer than the monks.  The nuns were fine with photography, the monks were not.  The nuns welcomed us, the monks were more aloof.  As we walked around there was a commotion in the courtyard.   Before we knew it water was flying all over the place as the nuns engaged in a water fight.  The nuns were smiling and laughing - releasing pressure before they reentered the temple to continue their prayers.  It was one of those spontaneous moments that makes traveling special.

The water fight ended and the nuns began filing into the temple.  We went up the stairs hoping to get a glimpse of the prayers.  Seeing us at the door, the nuns waved us in.  The monks would never had done this.  We stood lining the back wall as the nuns sat and chanted in unison.  They would do this hours at a time.  When they were not eating, sleeping, or working, they were praying.  A nun waved the Wife over and she went in and sat next to the nun.  It was very emotional for the Wife, and most of the women in our group. Tears were shed by some as we witnessed the deep devotion of the nuns.  I know this was one of the highlights of the Wife's trip.

Nuns praying.

Everyone who visits a temple gives a donation.  The donations are collected and a large portion of it goes to the Chinese government.  The nunnery had a store where they sold hand crafts.  All the money from these sales went to the nuns.  Our group made sure they were well compensated for their hospitality.

One hallmark of the General Tours is a visit with a family.  After the nunnery we went to a family's house  to see how the average Tibetan lived.  The family was a friend of our bus driver.  When we got there we discovered that only one of the family members would meet with us, the others afraid to be seen with foreigners.  Our hostess served yak butter tea, yak milk cheese, as well as the local Tibetan barley wine.  I skipped the wine and cheese but drank the tea - I wanted to be polite.  It was not to my liking but then I do not like tea in general.  We toured the house and admired their Buddhist shrine.  When we'd seen most of the house our driver came in and talked to our guides and we were hurried out.  Apparently the neighbors were a little leery about all the foreigners milling about.  The fact that we were making the dogs bark probably didn't help either.  As we pulled away from the house we all hoped we hadn't gotten the family in trouble.

A cup of yak butter tea.

That night, after dinner and some more shopping at Barkhor plaza we went to a live show.  The show was optional and we would have to buy the tickets.  Out Tibetan guide, a little wheeler-dealer, arranged VIP seats for the price of the cheap seats.  We were seated in the second row with almost no one seated in front of us.  A couple of little girls did sit in the front row in front of me.  Every now and then they would look over their shoulders at me and giggle.  The show was a mixture of music and dance and told the story of Tibet.  It was very entertaining.  The only mark on the night was, near the end of the show, a huge Chinese flag was lowered spanning the entire stage. You could feel the change in the atmosphere in the auditorium ... a definite chill.  The night ended with the dancers throwing silk scarves to members of our group (giving white scarves (Katas) is a form of welcome in Buddhism - we received three this trip - similar to Hawaiian leis).  The dancer in the picture below threw hers to the little girls.

Tibetan Dancers.

The two days in Tibet were some of the best of our entire trip.  You could feel the strength of the people even as they were being held down.  I have been in places with strong military presences (Guatemala during their war with the gorillas comes to mind) but I've never felt the sensation of constantly being watched like I did in Tibet.

As I said, we were lucky to get into Tibet.  During our stay here, except for the couple at our hotel, we saw no other caucasian travelers.  When we were at the temples and palace we were the only ones.  As we walked around we drew stares from the Tibetans.  This attention included the squeezing of butts by little Tibetan women - American women were a little more... big-boned than Tibetans were used to.  (The Wife's butt was squeeze by a nun ... she returned the favor.)  One of our group was even bitten - a gentle bite on the arm is a sign of endearment between mother and child in Tibet.

Two weeks after we left another monk self-immolated.  More followed.  I'm sure if it had happened earlier we would not have been able to experience Tibet like we did.  I just wonder how much longer there will be a Tibet to enjoy.

Pictures from days seven and eight (06/29 - 06/30/2012) can be found in my 2012-06 Tibet Google Photos album.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

2012 Asian Adventure - Cruising the Three Gorges (Part Two)

Day Five

Hilltop temple in the morning mist along the Yangtze river.

On our last full day on the Yangtze Explorer we had a choice to make.  We could either go to the relocation village or we could go to the Ghost City.  The relocation village would take you to a village relocated after the water level rose to see how people were taken care of after the dam was built and "get a glimpse of real life in China".  The Ghost City is a temple that represents the Chinese afterlife.

Now, our tour group had been together for a whole four days and we were already getting along awesomely so it was no surprise when everyone said, almost in unison, "Ghost City!"  Our guide was a little flabbergasted I think.  Most of us tour goers are interested in the old China and all the history.  The guide was pushing the modern China.  China has a very different way of looking at its history.  History is to be forgotten and put away to allow for the new, be it a new dynasty or a new form of government, to be front and center, one example of how Confucianism affects Chinese thought.  Elders are to be respected but, as soon as they die, all pictures, painting, or other images of the Elder along with all of his/her possessions are to be disposed of.  That is how China treats its history ... they dispose of it.  I think, it has only changed recently once they realized travelers would pay to see it.

So, instead of seeing the modern China of the relocation village, we went to the Ghost City.  Our guide came with us ... a bit reluctantly I think.  While she said she was not religious she said the city made her nervous.  It may have been the depictions of ghosts and the tortures of Hell ... or it may have been the over 600 steps we would have to climb to get there.

A protector of the heavenly realm.

After climbing steps from the ship up to street level we took a tram to the entrance of the Ghost City.  From there we walked the shop-keeper gauntlet and then up even more steps up to the temples.  To make it feel bit more like Hell, a new escalator had been installed next to the steps we went up ... but they were not working yet.  At the top we passed temples and shrines of various protectors, warriors, and gods.

We reached a set of three bridges -  one of the tests needed to pass into heaven.  One gives you health.  One gives you wealth.  One gives you love.  If I remember right you had to cross the bridge in seven steps so The Wife and I held hands and walked across the love bridge.  Neither of us was thrown into the water so we passed the test.

Golden God.

After another temple we walked a path lined with representations of ghosts, each representing a sin or a virtue.  The statues looked very new but they are supposed to be old.  The temple were built almost 1,600 years ago and rebuilt a thousand years later so a lot of the complex is close to six hundred years old.  This temple complex, unlike many we saw, was not destroyed during the cultural revolution because the soldiers were afraid - They didn't want to end up in Hell.  Who would?

An inebriated ghost.

At the top is a temple to the head deity who determines if you go to Hell or Paradise.  In the temple there were statues depicting the tortures of hell.  Many of these were pretty gruesome.  I see why the superstitious soldiers left everything intact.

By the time we'd gone through the whole temple complex and had returned to the ship I'd pretty much sweated through every item of clothing I was wearing.  It didn't seem hot but the humidity ....

There were things scheduled that afternoon aboard ship.  I ended up skipping some of it.  After a shower and lunch I skipped the Captain's tour of the bridge and the Chinese painting and Calligraphy demonstrations.  Instead I went to the ship's spa and had a ninety minute Chinese Acupressure massage.  When I showed up at the spa I pointed at the acupressure treatment.  They looked at my choice and asked if I were sure I wanted that and tried to steer me more towards a Swedish style massage.  I insisted and take into a room by the tiny little lady who proceeded to kneed my muscles with the strength of an amazon.  I swear she could have snapped your neck like a twig ... with one tiny little hand.  I also discovered that a little pain, when applied appropriately really relaxes your muscles.  The ninety minutes went by like seconds and I left feeling incredible

My massage ended in time for me to join the mahjong class already in progress.  I watched over the Wife's shoulder and learned the basic rules.  After coming really close to winning her first game, the Wife turned her place over to me where I proceeded to lose the next three games ... coming close to winning only once.  (S_H from San Diego won all four games.)

We were all winding down from our three days on the ship and we were all ready to move on to the next stage of our China trip.  We were all getting a little tired of the hazy sunshine and the lack of wildlife - I saw a total of four birds over the three days.  Our guide and the ship's crew couldn't really give us an explanation for the lack of wildlife.  We all suspected a combination of habitat destruction by the dam and pollution.

Our last full day on the river ended with a Captain's dinner with a variety of Chinese food.  All the staff were in costume. We dressed up as best we could - I didn't really pack any really nice clothes but I did have a button down shirt and a nice, but casual, pair of pants.  The food, which up until then was excellent (we all ate way too much on that ship), was only mediocre.  Chinese cuisine is not on the top of my list but it was good enough.

I mentioned that I'd developed a disinterest in cruising.  I have to say my experience aboard the Yangtze Explorer has change my opinion a bit.  Small, intimate, informal cruises up interesting rivers now have an attraction.  I'm already thinking about taking cruises up the Nile and Amazon rivers someday.

Day Six

Our ship had docked in Chongqing the night before.  We had time to kill before our afternoon flight so we got on a bus and went to a shopping district in old Chongqing.  Our guide gave us some time and the Wife and I wandered around, priced a few things, explored the exotic shops (at least for us) and restaurants.  This street felt more authentic compared to what we'd seen in Shanghai.  We didn't buy anything.  We did look at the food ... but octopus tentacles on a stick didn't seem appealing.

Chongqing market street - the Panda is our guide ... follow the panda.

From there we went to the airport.  This is where the weirdness started.  Our next flight was taking us to Lhasa, Tibet and security was tight ... excessively so.  Our guide had told us she was worried about Tibet.  We were on a group visa which meant if one of us got sick and couldn't travel then all of us would not be able to go.  We could not be carrying an "excessive amount of literature" like magazines or books about Tibet.  We had to start being careful what we said and who we spoke to.  The guide also emphasized how lucky we were to have gotten our visa since Tibet had been shut down since some tourists unfurled a "Free Tibet" sign and several monks had self-immolated.

We got through security without any issues and we took the short flight to Lhasa.  From the plane you could see the hills become mountains and plains become valleys.  As we approached the Lhasa airport I looked out the window and saw anti-aircraft missile batteries ... we weren't in Kansas anymore.

Flying over the Himalayan foothills.

We were met at the airport by our Tibetan guide (Full blooded Tibetan - not a Chinese Tibetan), Max, who led us to the bus and talked about Tibet on the way to Lhasa (The airport is about an hour outside the city).  From the beginning you could see there was some tension between our two guides.  I perfect example of the Han Chinese - Tibetan relationship.

Lhasa is divided into old and new towns.  Old Lhasa is Tibetan.  New Lhasa is Han Chinese.  Lhasa is now half Chinese.  We passed through new Lhasa on the way to our hotel and passed several mining and drilling ministry buildings.  I now know why China wants total control of Tibet.

We checked into our hotel.  I crossed the street to a small store and bought some soda and water ... I even used one of the hand signals to indicate that I wanted six cans of Coke Zero.  The rest of the evening was resting, eating, and resting some more.  I felt very tired, had a mild headache, and I felt like I was floating - all altitude related I suspect.  Lhasa would be our highest spot during our Asia trip at 11,450 ft (3,490 m).  Our Tibetan adventure would start tomorrow.

Pictures from days five and six (06/27 - 06/28/2012) can be found in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

Good News To Follow The Other Good News

A quick note about my Mom's health situation.  She's been home for the last three weeks.  Every one of those days, two times each day, she had to go in to get antibiotic infusions.  After a CT scan earlier this week she has been taken off all her antibiotics.  Everything looks awesome, no sign of the infection, and things are healing up.  She is now only on anti-seizure meds which she will be on for a while ... more out of precaution than anything.

Thank you to everyone who had her in your thoughts and prayers.

2012 Asian Adventure - Cruising The Three Gorges (Part One)

Day Two

Day two was a transition day.  We had a mid day flight to Yichang.

In the morning the guide took some of our group to the temple we'd seen on our first day in Shanghai.  Since we'd already been there we had a lazy morning sleeping in and having another good breakfast in the hotel.  I had my first taste of Dragon Fruit here.  The dragon fruit has a white pulp with tiny edible black seeds.  The texture is similar to watermelon.  People describe the taste as a cross between a kiwi and a pear. I definitely tasted the pear.  The flavor is a little too mild for me - almost tasteless actually.

We went to the airport and, as we were checking in the counter agent asked me where I was going.  One of the perks of being on a tour is that transportation is handled for you.  When the agent asked where I was going I came up blank.  Didn't have the foggiest idea.  Fortunately the guide was nearby and I discovered we were flying to Yichang.  The two hour flight, flight number three of the trip, was uneventful.  We arrived in Yinchang, picked up our bags, and boarded a bus.

On the bus our guide taught us simple Chinese words.  Ni Hao ... Hello.  How to count from one to ten.  She also showed us common one hand gestures for counting to ten.  Not much of that stuck with me though I still have the handout she gave us somewhere.

The bus arrived to the edge of the Yangtze river where we boarded the Yangtze Explorer.  The four year old ship holds about 124 passengers but, since we were traveling in the off season there were only about forty or fifty people on board.  After working for the navy for twenty years and riding several navy ships over that time, I'd developed a strong disinterest in taking cruises.   I'd enjoyed our inside passage ferry cruise on the way to Alaska but I'd never really considered that a cruise.  When we boarded my feelings were assuaged a bit by the rather informality of the ship and the large size of our room.  All of the rooms had balconies, large beds, and a nice bathroom.   Okay, we noticed something: The bathrooms on the ship (and in most of our Chinese hotels) had a large window looking from the shower area into the living area.  They all had shades that could be pulled but it seemed strange and a little voyeuristic.  Weird.

The hazy Yangtze river near Yincheng.

We spent the late afternoon and evening exploring our new home for the next four days.  As we ran into crew members, they would introduce themselves (their adopted English name).  After one such encounter, as we were walking away, we could hear her repeating our names over and over as she memorized our names.  The ship was proud of its personal service.  A nice dinner (with some awesome desserts) and an introductory movie about the three gorges dam rounded off our day.  The ship didn't set sail until the next morning.

Day Three

The ship had activities scheduled throughout the day.  Day Three started early with Tai Chi classes at 7:00 AM.  We'd taken Tai Chi classes before.  The young crew member who taught the class was not as good as our teacher.  She went through things a little too quickly.  There was very little warm up (The class was only 30 minutes vs the hour we'd had).  I remembered some of my class moves but it was hard to follow our new teacher.  We ended up skipping the other two Tai Chi sessions.

As we ate our awesome breakfast (The food aboard was incredible) the ship set sail and began chugging up the river.  We soon entered Xiling Gorge, the first of the three gorges of the three gorges dam.  This gorge, being down river from the dam, was the least disturbed when the dam was built.

Sampans along the shores of the Yangtze river.

As we went through the gorge a crew member top side pointed out the various peaks, towns, and other features along the river (I thought she kept pointing out the 'pigs' but she was saying peaks - crazy Chinese accent).  The crew member, Jane, was very knowledgeable about the places along the gorge and its history.

After exiting the gorges we approached the dam.  We docked and we got on a bus that took us to a three gorges museum as well as a large memorial garden which offered a view of the dam.  The dam, one of the largest in the world, generates electricity for a large portion of China as well as prevents flooding along the Yangtze river, something that occurred quite often before the dam was built.  The dam submerged 13 cities, 140 towns, and over 1,600 villages along the river.  All of these people were relocated to higher ground.  While the numbers are impressive, the dam doesn't seem that big.  I think, since you really can't get that close to the dam, it is hard to grasp its true scale.

The Three Gorges Dam.

After our ground tour we got back on the boat, had lunch, and then waited our turn for the ship to go through the locks.  As we waited we attended one of the classes/demonstrations offered by the ship.  This one was about Chinese Reflexology (Chinese massage).

Approaching the dam locks along with a few of our lock mates.

After the demo I went topside to observe the transit through the locks.  This was the first time I've ridden a ship through locks.  It was pretty cool.  The locks were huge.  Along with our ship there were four barges in the lock.  You probably could have fit six full barges in the lock.  There are five locks, though, as the water level was a little low to accommodate the monsoon rains, only four were needed to raise the ships up to the level of the river upstream.  The fit was so tight that you could reach out and touch the slimy sides of the lock.

I left after we passed from the first lock into the second and went to a lecture and demonstration on Traditional Chinese Medicine.  The Wife volunteered for some acupuncture while another lady did cupping.  Our guide was a big proponent of cupping recommending it for everything from a cold, the flu, or just a long day at work.  After the demonstration I would begin seeing the large, perfectly round bruises on the shoulders of people who had been cupped.

After another good dinner we went to a "Cultural Cabaret".  The show, put on my the ship's crew, started out okay but, when the Spice Boys started performing, we'd had enough and we went to bed.

The Cultural Cabaret featuring the crew of the Yangtze Explorer ... a little too cheesy for me.

Day Four

Day four turned out to be one of the busier days of our cruise.  The ship had docked the night before at Badong.  (The view from our cabin that night.)  After breakfast we boarded a smaller ferry that took us up the Shennong Stream.  The "Stream", formerly a roaring rapids, was now a wide and very calm tributary of the Yangtze.

The ferry took us along the steep cliffs and mountain valleys of the Long Chang gorge.  On some cliffs we saw hanging coffins where coffins had been perched up on the cliff.  Many of these coffins were relocated (mostly to museums) when the water level was raised by the dam.

A Hanging Coffin seen in the lower end of the crack in the cliff.

The vistas, marred only by the ever present haze, were spectacular.  The views of cliffs, caverns, stands of bamboo, and more kept coming - the next view better than the one before.

A sampan passes our ferry along the Shennong Stream.

At the end of the stream, where it narrowed, we left the ferry and boarded a sampan.  We were given a demonstration of how sampans once were pulled along the stream by men on the shore.  (You can still see the paths the pullers would run along.) The sampan rowers were very competitive as we passed other boats full of sightseers.  Some of their local festivals feature sampan races and our rowers had won a few races.  We went up the narrowing stream for a while before turning around, returning to our ferry.

A sampan with tourists passes ours.

The ferry returned to the ship and we continued up the Yangtze passing through the other two gorges that make up the three gorges -  the Wu and Qutang gorges.  I was topside for both to listen to the crew commentary.  You wonder what was submerged below the waters when the dam was built.  The towns and cities you see along the shores now are all young ... less than ten years old ... even though they look like they've been there for many years.  Think what you will about the Chinese, they know how to build a city very quickly.

We docked at Baidi City where we took a bus to the City of the White Emperor.  The city, built by Gong Sunshu during the first century AD, changed hands many times over the centuries and is now said to have been built by Liu Bei, described by our tour guide as the ruler of the "good" side during the Three Kingdom wars.  The city and temple is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the intersection of the Yangtze and Mexihe rivers.

We crossed a foot bridge and then climbed some three hundred steps up to the top of the hill.  Many of the buildings here have been destroyed and rebuilt over it's 1,900 plus year history including during the cultural revolution - The Chinese have not been kind to their historical heritage.  I ended up not taking that many pictures up here.  Everything was beautiful but a lot of the interesting shots were in darker areas where my camera only captured out of focus shots.  The one place we did take pictures of is a view of the Yangtze that is famous as it's on some of their currency.  We fortunately got there and got our pictures taken before a large Chinese tour group showed up and crowded us out.

Famous view of the Yangtze displayed on their currency.

We returned to the ship tired and sweaty.  We skipped the ballroom dancing, variety/talent show, and the music of the Stardust Duo, instead opting for dinner, a shower and an early bedtime.   A very satisfying day of new experiences and sights.  One of the better days in China.

Pictures from days two though four (06/24 - 06/26/2012) can be found in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

Godspeed, Neil.

The first moon landing was on my sixth birthday.  I remember some of it ... I remember a televised puppet show explaining the moon landing to the children watching ... myself included.  On that day Neil Armstrong became the first human ever to walk on another heavenly body.  He is one of twelve who have done so ... in the last forty-three years.  Sad we could not continue what he started.

Neil Armstrong

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind"

R.I.P.

1930 - 2012

He strides amongst the stars.

2012 Asian Adventure - Shanghaied!

Getting There (Day Zero)

I think it's about time for me to tell you all about our summer vacation.  This year, as many of you already know, the Wife and I went to China, Nepal, Bhutan, and India.  It would be our most ambitious trip as a couple and it would also turn out to be an incredible experience.

Our flight left early Thursday morning taking us first to Chicago before boarding a flight to Shanghai.  The flight to Shanghai was 14.5 hours long, the longest flight I've ever taken to date.  To my surprise the 14.5 hours went by quickly, possibly because of the two Excedrin PM I took part way through the flight allowing me to sleep through a lot of it.  Possibly because of the book I took to occupy my time.  Possibly the individual video screens we each had with a large selection of movies, television shows, and music to occupy our time.

The two flights, the first two of the thirteen flights we would take on this trip, went incredibly smooth.  the only incident was when the Wife's pants got caught on an armrest while exiting the Chicago flight and tore a hole in the leg of her pants.  Not a major disaster but she'd bought the pants for this trip and it was the first ... and the last .... time that she wore them.

We arrived in Shanghai around two in the afternoon.  This was my first time across the international date line and I didn't really know when I was.  Turns out I was in tomorrow even though I was really sure I was in yesterday.  Very confusing.

In China we were going to be with a tour group.  After going through a rather painless customs process we met up with our guide, Malinda (She used an English name to make it easy on us), F_D and E_D (a couple from Virginia), and P_T and K_K (a Mother/Son duo from Utah).

A quick bus ride got us to the hotel.  Along the way Malinda pointed out buildings along the busy skyline of Shanghai.  It was raining, foggy ... or smoggy ... most of the way to the hotel.  It was monsoon season in this area of the world and I kind of expected the rest of the month would be like this - views through rain spotted bus windows.  Turns out I couldn't have been wronger ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A Shanghai view through a rain spotted bus window.

As we approached the hotel Malinda pointed out a Buddhist temple not far away and, since we had the rest of the afternoon and evening to our selves, suggested that we could visit it on our own if we wanted to.  After checking in and settling into our room, and seeing the drizzle had stopped, we took Malinda's advice and headed to the temple.

Jing An Si - The oldest religious site in Shanghai.

Shanghai is a modern city.  There is new construction everywhere.  The crane is said to be the national bird of China and the number of construction cranes sticking up amongst the tall buildings sure makes it obvious why.  The hotel was on a busy highway but getting to the temple was easy with the rather massive crosswalk system they have on many of the intersections.  Navigating the area was easy as most signs were in both Chinese and English.  The city was in constant motion, not much different from New York, but there was this sense of scope that felt bigger than any place I'd ever been before (Shanghai, with over 23 million people, has about four million more people than New York).

We reached the Jing An Si , the oldest temple in Shanghai, bought our tickets and explored the temple.  We were ready to take off our shoes but we noticed that no one else removed their shoes.  I think this is a result of China being a secular communist country - they have forgotten or actively disregard the old religious ways.  The temple was beautiful and I took lots of pictures.  The show piece of the temple was a fifteen ton silver Buddha near the top of the temple.

15 ton Silver Buddha statue at the Jing'an Si.

As we left we noticed we were among the last to leave - the temple had closed fifteen minutes earlier.  We walked back to the hotel buying water in a store along the way.  I noticed they had ice cream, Magnum brand, the same ice cream I ate in Spain - but the flavor was in Chinese.  Didn't know if I wanted to buy it just to find that I didn't like the flavor (I was torn ... what to do?!? HA!).

We ate dinner in the hotel.  They had a pretty good Chinese spread.  While they had western silverware I decided to see if I could handle chopsticks.  To my surprise they turned out rather easy to use.  The hardest thing to eat was rice.  For the rest of the trip, in most cases, I preferred using chopsticks to forks and spoons.

After dinner the wife went back to the room and I, following another suggestion from our guide, went up to the fortieth floor of our hotel to look at the city.  It was still a little drizzly and the cloud/fog/smog layer hung low over the skyline.  Shanghai's buildings are magnificent.  They are all different and at night each one competes to be to most spectacularly lit.  Even the elevated freeways are lit with blue light.  The lighting and the haze gave the cityscape a futuristic yet dystopian air that reminded me of Blade Runner.

Hazy Shanghai from the 40^th floor of our hotel.

The rest of day zero was spent watching television (CNN international, BBC, Al Jazeera, and a few channels in English with French or Spanish subtitles - an eclectic mix) and trying with mixed success to sleep.

Day One

Our first full day in China started with a good breakfast buffet and meeting the rest of out tour group.  Along with the four we'd already met we were joined by J_Q, S_H, S_U, and N_M from San Diego.  We would meet the three remaining tour group members, J_E, S_E, and E_M from Philidelphia, whose flight had been delayed, at our first tour stop of the day.

Our first stop was the Shanghai museum.  Readers of Homer's Travels may know that we are not museum people.  After a brief introduction, our guide gave us free time and we toured the museum, starting from the fourth floor and working our way down.  We went a lot faster than the others.  There were a lot of beautiful carvings, calligraphy, and jade.  I think that's my issue with museums: there is too much to take in all at once and I just go into overload.  We did manage to buy the first of many travel magnets here.

Shanghai Museum Art.

After the museum we went to the Yuyuan Garden.  The bus dropped us off and we followed our guide through streets lined in shops and vendors.  We reached the gardens and crossed the zig-zag bridge.  The bridge is a zig-zag because the Chinese believed that ghosts could not bend their joints easily which made it difficult for them to turn corners.  The zig-zag bridge helped keep out the ghosts.  Another feature of Chinese architecture are high door thresholds.  Ghosts could not bend their knees so they could not step over the high thresholds.  The higher the thresholds the high the status of the home owner.  The gardens were beautiful with intricately carved buildings, walls, and roofs.

Yuyuan Gardens.

Lunch took us to a restaurant on the Bund.  This restaurant was my  first experience with a table lazy susan.  The food was placed on the lazy susan and we each loaded our plates as we spun it around.  It took some practice - you have to time things right so that dishes didn't get away from you.

This is as good a time as any to talk about my food experience in China.  In China our guide ordered most of the food.  She admitted that it was Americanized Chinese food which mostly meant Chinese food with less spicy heat.  I always found that I liked something on the table.  There were a few things that were too spicy for my taste but in general I was fine.  What was missed by many at the table is the lack of salt - food was a bit bland when the spice was reduced - and a definite lack of sweet.  Most of their dessert were fruit plates.  We ate a lot of watermelon in China.  It was good watermelon but it wasn't chocolate.  Many of the hotels which catered to the international traveler offered sweeter western desserts so we weren't too deprived.  So my fears of having food issues in China, and the other three countries we would visit, turned out to be unfounded.  I've come a long way.

After lunch the rain picked up again and we walked to the edge of the river and looked at the Bund area across the river.  Despite it being a rather famous area in Shanghai, we really didn't spend much time there.  I think our guide considered it too touristy and expensive.

Our next stop was a silk factory where we learned how silk was made and where they tried to sell us expensive silk rugs and comforters.  That is the cost of these types of tours.  To reduce the prices tour companies make deals with factories - bring us your tours and we will buy you tickets for the more popular  attractions in the city.  It's a necessary evil ... and frankly seeing them spin thread from the silk cocoons was kind of cool.

The afternoon ended with a trip to a more common shopping area - a popular area for the non-foreigners - in old Shanghai.  The district had narrow, crowded ways that you could not drive down.  The wiring above your head insured employment for the electricians.  We walked around the area taking in the sights and smells (lots of restaurants) before we were given some free time to shop on our own.

Crowded Shopping district of old Shanghai.

Back to the hotel to freshen up and then we went back out to a dinner at a former slaughter house called the Bull Market.  J_Q and I successfully threw a dish off the lazy susan as we attempted to discover just how fast we could spin that thing.

We got back to the hotel pretty tired.  It was a full day.  Everything was so new - a new country, a new city, a new language, a new group of people to make friends with, and a whole slew of new experiences.  Shanghai was a perfect place to acclimatize ourselves to all the new stuff.  There wasn't anything important to miss in your traveler's stupor but enough to make things interesting at a pace that let you make the necessary adjustments.  Normally the tours start in Beijing.  Beijing would have been too much on the first day.  Shanghai was just right.

I slept pretty hard this night though for some reason I would not wake up rested.  That would take a few more days I'm afraid.

Pictures from days zero and one (06/22 - 06/23/2012) can be found in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure continues ...

Ok, OK ... Here They Are Already!

I've been a little distracted lately and have been slow in processing my pictures from our latest adventure in Asia.  Based on the number of requests to see them, this delay appears to be irritating a lot of people.

I usually only post pictures with the written posts but the number of request has convinced me to handle it different this time.  I have gone through all of our China pictures (Nepal, Bhutan, and India have yet to be gone through) and have posted them to my Google Photos account.  Here is a small sample of the pictures I took.  I reserve the right to reuse them to illustrate any future posts.

Shanghai at night.  The lights and the fog/smog/haze reminds me of the movie Bladerunner.

Cruising up the Yangtze river on the Yangtze Explorer.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.

A Giant Panda at the "Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding".

Terracotta Army in Xi'an.

The famous picture of Chairman Mao on the south gate of the Forbidden City seen from Tiananmen Square.

The outside of the Forbidden City seen from across the moat.

Up the stairs on the Great Wall of China.

We nearly had this whole section to ourselves.

I've upload 295 pictures I took in China, a representative sample of the 2,102 pictures I took in China and Tibet.  You can see these in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

I hope to start posting about the trip sometime  next week.

Some Good News To Follow The Bad

My Mom is in the hospital.  Her husband, E_R, took her to the hospital early Thursday morning when she was having difficulty speaking.  While checking her in she had a seizure.  If you're going to have a seizure then the hospital is the best place to have it.

She was immediately sent to get a CT scan and a mass was found in the left, frontal lobe of her brain.  Over the past four days there have been several theories: tumor, malignant tumor, or an infection.  They put her on anti-inflammatory steroids and anti-seizure medications.

We were woken up early Thursday morning.  When we got to the hospital Mom wasn't quite there.  She was confused and her speech was slurred.  She had trouble remembering things that happened five minutes before.

Over the next forty-eight hours the drugs did their job.  The improvement was tremendous.  Her slurred speech returned to normal.  She still doesn't remember much of last Thursday.  That may be a result of the seizure, the medication, or both.  By late Friday she was sounding like herself and her memory had returned to near normal.

We all spent the weekend, Mom and  E_R , the Wife and I, Mom's brother and sister, all of her friends, holding our collective breaths.  The biopsy/mass removal couldn't come soon enough.

This morning they finally went in and removed the mass.  Of the three possibilities discussed, the reality turned out to be the most benign and treatable: it was an infection.  They cleaned it out and removed the cyst wall.  She is on antibiotics.  Where did the infection come from?  That's one of life's little mysteries.

Every now and then life shakes you up and brings you back to reality.  This was one of those times.  Fortunately for Mom, it was gentle shake.