the land of the yellow polo shirts

boy, thailand is hot! yeah, i didn’t realize how close thailand is to the equator. i wonder what it’s like in the summertime...

my whirlwind tour of bangkok (i.e. a 24-hour layover) started with a delicious street meat dinner (tepan...not sure about pinyin...for all those chinese folks out there and for those of you who know that my weakness is pork, pork fat, and pork skin all rolled into one artery-clogging treat) and ended with a visit to 3 of bangkok’s finest temples (i.e.Wat Phra Kaeo, Wat Suthat, and Wat Pho) and its Giant Buddha. i know i missed out (e.g. Wat Arun), but that was all the time and patience i had. i say patience because of the masses at Wat Phra Kaeo, because of the heat, and because so many of the Thai people were willing to help but kept telling me that Wat Pho was closed until 2pm, which was not the case when i managed to find it myself. each temple was definitely worth seeing though. Wat Phra Kaeo for the enormity of it all, the glittering gold, the Emerald Buddha, and the amazing wall paintings that surround the complex. Wat Suthat for the fact that there were not many people and therefore very serene. Wat Pho for the largest reclining Buddha (ever...don’t know) and mother-of-pearl feet.

i know i would like to go back to finish seeing all that thailand has to offer, to get a classic thai massage, to buy a drink that comes in a plastic bag, and maybe to buy a yellow shirt.

i have officially survived china..

...and made it to hong kong!

hong kong is reminiscent of tokyo but brighter at night. in fact, like shanghai, hong kong is prettier at night when all the buildings are fluorescently decked out and the hazy pollution and everyday grime disappear under the cover of darkness. there is a little more to see than shanghai and i have happily explored kowloon (the lotus pond garden is a sweet getaway from the urban jungle and temple street night market is great for more tschotkes and blackmarket dvds) and hong kong island. i have also discovered that hong kong is a tourist's dream with signposts everywhere and very pedestrian friendly. i've gotten so used to speaking chinese that it's slow for me to realize that i can communicate in english too...so much so that is sad to say that chinglish has become the norm!

as an aside, i'm sure everyone has heard or witnessed the excessive spitting in china (except hong kong). now that i have been in china for almost 3 weeks, i seem to have built up some phlegm/mucus in the back of my throat that i want to spit out but can't since i've never purposely hacked and spit before. i did have a cold, but that has long gone away, leaving me to wonder if this "problem" is more due to pollution and that's why it's so normal to spit anywhere one pleases in china...

oh and yes, that is a koi hopping out of the water in order to eat the turkey that was thrown down to them (right by the sign that said "don't feed the fish")!

since i don't have money to burn shopping at the high end stores or shopping for high end fakes, i hopped the ferry to macau today. macau is quite different, mainly because of how pedestrian unfriendly it is! right when you leave the ferry terminal, there are absolutely no signs as to where to go. i tried their buses too and managed to keep getting off too early because i was afraid of missing my stop since there was no scrolling bus stop signs that even beijing had. yet, macau is quite beautiful and very portuguese (kind of odd to see the portuguese-cantonese intermingling of signs, people, architecture, and food, which is completely embodied by a sign for a dentist named Dr. Jorge Chou).

sad to report that there are no more funny lost in translation signs, but i've got one more shot since i have a forced layover for one night in bangkok...everyone sing the song now!

cheongsams, chopsticks, and xiaolongbao!

i have recovered from my deliciously cold river cruise by taking an hour-long very hot shower in yichang. i then had the luck to be stuck at the frigid yichang airport for a few extra hours because of foggy conditions. thankfully i ran into the super sweet scharenbroich family, so that we could while the hours away together...again!

i arrived in shanghai ...or as i like to call it...civilization soon after where i have now spent about 2 days under the care of family friends. if beijing seemed cold, dirty, and industrial, then shanghai is definitely more cosmopolitan, clean, and cheerier (even though it has been cloudy), especially at night where the city lights put vegas to shame. i didn't plan on seeing many sights, except the Bund and the Oriental Pearl, but i did plan on shopping and eating. i will say, there are more KFC stores than McDonald's, Burger King, Dairy Queen, and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf stores combined. i think just Starbucks and Häagen-Dazs can give KFC a run for its money in terms of the number of shops i've seen. and boy was i in heaven eating those delicious xiaolongbao, which i'm sure my boston friends remember eating at Taiwan Cafe in chinatown. i even found a "new" version that is pan-fried...mmmm, yummy. now i just need to find a swimming pool or a jogging path to shed those xiaolongbao pounds. i also discovered the chinese blackmarket dvds, which cost 5rmb (~$0.65) each! very tantalizing, especially since i'll be meeting up with jenn soon in australia where we'll be doing some serious driving.

i'm off to hong kong next...yeah, i didn't realize that's where those cheesy Kowloon restaurants gets their name (you know the one...nashua has one)...

chungking express

well, i’ve left beijing and have arrived for a brief stay in chongqing (or chungking in the old english spelling). hooray, it is a bit warmer (with a low of 3ºC as opposed to a high of 3ºC as seen in beijing)! the business center of chongqing is situated on a peninsula where the jialing and yangtze rivers meet, making for some dramatic skyline and steep streets. these steeper streets have also led to the need for porters who wait around on the streets of chongqing with bamboo pole and rope in tow in order to help carry anything through the city. and when i mean anything, i do mean anything...vegetables, fruits, tvs, luggage, trash, shoeboxes, knickknacks for sale, etc.! and these aren’t always young and spry men, but men of all ages who seem to walk quickly and nimbly through the streets and traffic. as a tourist, it almost looks like they’re dancing too since they sashay as they carry their heavy load so that the loads bob along in sync with their walking stride. i’ve even seen them lugging pallets on wheels or pulling large dollies on the street like they’re a car, which of course pisses off all the other real motor vehicles.

i then embarked on my first ever cruise (i know it’s only a riverboat cruise) down the yangtze river in order to see the three gorges up close and personal before the three gorges dam is completed and the river environment is forever changed. luckily i had the foresight to book a 1^st class ticket so that i can sail down the river in relative chinese style with free karaoke and tea. too bad the cabins aren’t heated or that there’s no hot water to take a shower in my shower/toilet/sink closet...well i am in china! i did meet a super nice family of 5 from minnesota (the Scharenbroichs) who have the cabins next to me and have been kind enough to let me join in on their family vacation. i believe the rest of the chinese people on board think that i’m their tour guide...heheh...a poor one at that since i couldn’t translate everything the tour guide was saying but i did my best, especially when it came to ordering food. in any case, the scenery is beautiful and can be enjoyed from the deck or the relative warmth of the cabin.

on the day that we were to enter the three gorges, the sun came up!! a

very exciting moment since the previous few days were shrouded in fog. besides making the scenery that much more colorful, the sun also added a nice touch of warmth. photos cannot capture the immensity and grandeur of the three gorges, you kind of have to be here to experience and take it all in. the water level of the yangtze river has already risen 50m and will rise another 20m by 2009 (indicated markers scattered along the river). it’s odd to see houses and terraces filled with crops that will eventually be underwater in a couple of years. my river cruise was capped off by a tour of the area around the actual dam. i don’t know if it is the largest dam in the world, but it is dam impressive!

oh and one last thing...

xiao jie (little miss) in a big city

so i've pretty much finished exploring beijing, although we didn't get a chance to see some of the sights (i.e. White Dagoba, Temple of Heaven, eating another round of Peking Duck) because we ran out of time or we had seen enough temples or it was just too cold to warrant further exploration as we sipped our delicious hot tea. one bonus due to the freezing weather is that the rivers and lakes are all frozen over...so much so that you can definitely shortcut across the frozen lake (like at the Summer Palace) from the Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion to the 17-Arch Bridge (yep, all the chinese residents disregard the "stay off the ice" signs so we joined in as well like a good pair of lemmings). at Beihai Park, you could even pay an exorbitant amount (100 rmb or about $12.50) to ride across the lake on a bicycle with sleigh runners! the Great Wall was quite a sight, but the scenery was not as delightful as it would have been in the spring, summer, or fall. incidentally, the driver we hired was great and if you will be in beijing, check out www.beijing-driver.com.










on our last day, we tackled the Panjiayuan or Dirt Market, which takes place only on the weekends and is jam-packed with vendors selling all kinds of "antiques" and tchotchkes. we did find some fun stuff and attempted bargaining, which we were sort of successful at considering i would sometimes give up because i was too worn out from haggling or was too cold. i did "trick" some sellers into thinking i was from beijing with my improving chinese conversational skills.
so now i'm in chongqing (or chungking) and will be embarking on a river cruise down the Yangtze to see the 3 Gorges in first-class style before the area becomes flooded with the opening of the 3 Gorges Dam. hopefully i'll be able to post some purdy photos. oh and i have yet to find funny chinglish signs in beijing. the signs are almost too well-translated and have an odd ring to them, such as the sign that said "a single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of beauty" which was seen in the Forbidden City, but i'm still keeping an eye peeled for the next one to share with you all!

beijing - one world, one dream - or so they say...

i know it's a week after-the-fact, but happy new year! i took in the ringing of new year’s in taipei with friends atop a rooftop in order to enjoy the spectacular display of fireworks set off from the 101 building (the tallest building in taiwan). it was quite a display! unfortunately, we tried to head over to a club around 1:00am, but instead got stuck in the biggest traffic jam i’ve ever witnessed. even if we had found a free cab, it would have gone nowhere...fast. we just kept walking and walking past the “parked” cars until we reached a point where not even the motorcycles could move. then we reached a point where not even the people were moving. we had to zigzag and shimmy through the maze of parked cars, motorcycles, and people. when we finally reached a main thoroughfare near a subway station, it was 2:30am and we had hardly walked 1km! well, at least i know next time to not even go near that area or to get a hotel room nearby and throw my own club party.
my last week in taipei was happily spent having fun with the peeps from the taiwan tour. i now know why so many people out here and in japan love renting a karaoke room and just spending hours singing, laughing, drinking, and eating. i also returned to some of the tourist spots that i remembered when i last came to taiwan 15 years ago, such as the tsui night market which has changed a lot. this night market is known for its restaurants that serve snake meat and turtle meat soup. when i was 8 (or 13...can’t remember which trip), i vividly remember standing in awe and horror as a man hung up a snake by its head and made a cut down the snake’s body with guts and blood spilling out into an awaiting bucket. i guess the pro-animal activists made a fuss because there’s none of that now...just a video-tape of how they (more kindly) kill the snake to make for you to enjoy.
now, after saying good-bye to my grandparents and parents, i’ve reached beijing, where i met up with my college friend michele, and it is freezing! california has made me soft...i have to bundle up head-to-toe with 4 layers on top and 2 layers on bottom. from what i have seen so far, beijing is quite a bit more grimy than even taipei and the people are even more rough around the edges. don’t get me wrong, i have encountered some very nice folks as i try to navigate the bus system and the area in general with my very limited chinese reading skills. at least i had a couple of weeks in taiwan to bone up on my conversational skills!
michele and i spent the day at the forbidden city, tiananmen square, and jingshan park. we were planning on doing more, but the forbidden city is absolutely immense (enough to even have a basketball court for the guards to try to imitate yao ming)! and yes, we did manage to find a starbucks inside the city after a man came up to us, pointed, and exclaimed, “starbucks!”. we then rode on a tricycle to find the hidden li qun peking duck restaurant to eat the delicious dish that beijing is known for. tomorrow, we head off to do some shopping, to see the temple of heaven, to find an internet café, and maybe get a massage for our tired feet. then we’ll attack the great wall and the summer palace with the help of a hired driver that the vp of michele’s company highly recommends and used when he was in beijing.