Weirdo Mountains and PVC Pipes: What They Have in Common

We got to Guilin and were picked up at the airport by the taxi the hostel arranged for us. This is the first time my parents arranged this and it is nice. Usually we battle our way wherever we have to go on local transport, but this many weeks into our trip my mom says she is getting too old for all that.

The exterior of the hostel was a bit unpromising with the gambling house on the bottom floor and the crumbling stairs. It was so late we just grabbed our key and went to bed. In the morning after looking around a bit the hostel proved to be pretty nice. The rooms have air conditioning, there is a pool table, it is clean and we found where they were hiding the western style toilets. I HATE squat potties, or as my dad calls them, “cat toilets”.

After breakfast we took some buses out to the Reed Flute Cave. I never found out why it is called that. Perhaps it is because of all the vendors outside selling noisy plastic whistles. It should probably be called Over Excited Rainbow Cave. That’s because practically every surface in the cave is illuminated with a rainbow of fluorescent neon lights. All of the formations have fruity names like “A centipede frightened by a magic mirror”, “A bumper harvest of melons and fruits”, and “The crystal palace”. The crystal palace is a large chamber with a lake and a photo booth and a large row of stalactites and stalagmites backlit with in a harsh blue. We saw several people putting their hands, feet and trash in the water. One girl filled her water bottle in the lake and then drank from it! Near the exit of the cave we entered what I will call the bat cave as it had several mid-sized bats swooping here and there. After the cave we took the bus back to town and stopped for lunch at a Pizza Hut where they served excellent Oreo milkshakes.

The next day we went on a bamboo raft trip down the Li River. We were picked up at our hostel by a mini bus and taken to a section of river south of town. After fending off the vendors trying to sell us squirt guns and flowered headbands we set sail in our “bamboo” (PVC pipe) boat. The mountains are some of the most famous in China. They come in a wide variety of unusual shapes like spikes, columns, camel humps, goat horns, and one I thought was shaped like a hot air balloon rising out of the river. The shoreline was covered with long fingers of bamboo. It made me wish there were some pandas around. During the trip we also saw water buffalos on the shore and when we stopped for a break we saw a large herd of them go into the water to cool off and go poo. Back on the water two families squirted us with river water (with its buffalo poo) and looked shocked when we all screamed at them to stop. The rest of the ride was thankfully uneventful.

At the end of the cruise we took motorcycle cabs down the mountain and then a couple of buses back to the hostel. Along the way we stopped in Yangshuo for dinner. Pizza and ice cream again! My chocolate milk came with a small cup of sugar syrup to sweeten it with!

The next day we went on an exploration of the city. After walking around all day we went on a nighttime cruise of the 2 rivers and 4 lakes. The whole town was lit up just like the Reed Flute Cave. There were pavilions with musicians playing traditional instruments and one where there were fake musicians pretending to play instruments. The cruise took us past the twin pagodas of the sun and the moon. These thankfully had no flashing neon lights. By the time the cruise was over the buses had stopped running so we had to walk all the way back to the hostel. We arrived exhausted and drenched in sweat.

We are staying here until we go to Hong Kong – my mom says HK is like Disneyland and I will love it. Actually, there IS a Disneyland in HK! I wonder if my mom will surprise me with that?

Pandas make it all better- Chengdu

The next morning after our arrival in Chengdu was our panda tour. The guide told us to look at the first enclosure until she called us. In half of the enclosure were 3 young pandas happily pulling and stuffing their faces with bamboo. After we took millions of pictures and watched them a while, we were intrigued by another large clump of people, so we headed over and saw a larger panda doing some weird routine.

He would climb into his cave halfway, with his rear sticking out, climb in fully, stay there a couple seconds, climb out, walk around a corner, come back, stand up, and start over. This became less of a mystery as we rounded the bend, where we saw that he was going in and out of his air- conditioned room between bites of bamboo from his feeding area! Our guide called us and so we headed to the next exhibit.

This exhibit turned out to be home ground, and if you’ve read any of my New Zealand blogs, you know what I’m talking about. We turned the corner and saw the unmistakable red panda. A review:

 Red pandas are not related to pandas, but raccoons

 Called pandas because they eat bamboo

 Live naturally in the Himalayan area

 Cute

 Picky eaters

Several of the red pandas were lazing about eating bamboo, but others were climbing into the red panda playground and sitting in trees. Some had ruined tails, and one had no tail at all. This was because the red pandas fight and bite each-others tails.

Soon the keepers brought apples for the red pandas. One stood up on his hind legs and begged, but came down soon after no one threw him apples. The worker set down the apple basket next to what I assume was medicine, and turned around to get something. The red pandas sniffed the medicine, and after judging it to be inedible, crowded around and set to work on the apples. Our guide called us again, and we went to an indoor exhibit. There were about six 3 year old pandas eating bamboo. Some were lying down while eating like a Roman banquet, others sitting like toddlers eating cookies, and one was completely hidden in bamboo. We also heard a pandas three goals in life. Here they are, in Panda and English:

1. Lose Weight(Too Fat!)

2. No More Dark Circles Under the Eyes (Ugly!)

3. Have Color Photo (My Pictures Are Always Black and White!)

1. Rrrm Grrmmf(Rrr Grr!)

2. Mm Grar Rrrg Growll(Grrm)

3. Rarf Rrrrr Ggrfm(G’r Rrrrf arf Rrrrg!)

We admired the pandas, and then headed for the nursery. There were no BABY baby pandas, but young ones. Our tour guide pulled away because we had something else planned. We put on plastic aprons, gloves, and shoe covers, and headed in to the panda holding place. Basically, they stuffed a piece of bamboo or fruit in the baby panda’s mouth, and plunked him into your lap. On my turn, the panda flopped over onto the bench, so I didn’t get to hold it for long. It weighed surprisingly little – I guess they are 95% fur. Its fur was coarse and fuzzy and he didn’t pay any attention to me because he was so busy stuffing his mouth the whole time. Pandas pretty much eat all day long. I snuggled the panda and then we left.

That night we went to the Sichuan Opera and, after they served us tea, the show began. First they played music only, and then they did the dances. They did a play where a guy danced and crawled on his knees with a bowl of fire on his head, a shadow puppeteer (who made a flying and sitting bird, and owl, a horse, a dog, fighting monkeys, a rabbit who got eaten by a dog, and a swan), the flame breathing and face changing,( I alone know the secret) a person who could imitate his flute, and a puppet dance. We got an early night’s rest for our flight to Guilin.

Terracotta Warriors: The Worst Guards Known to Mankind

After our plane flight, we took a bus to the Terracotta Warriors. WARNING: For all those who are considering a Qin Dynasty burial, terracotta warriors, in addition to not lasting for long, can NOT, I repeat can NOT protect you from the ever-flowing mass of invading tourists.

Pit 2 was mainly terracotta shards and crumbled dust, but we did see some whole pieces, such as a wagon wheel and a head. Pit 3 had mostly complete parts, like torsos, arms, legs, heads, and even horse heads, appendages, and 1 horse behind. There was one cavern filled with headless bodies.

However, Pit 1 has complete bodies of warriors, each with their own face. Invisible chariots are pulled by horses, and, despite the missing arrows and spears, the severity in their faces make it seem like they are going to attack at any moment. One room was filled with soldiers, many of whom had lost their heads, I assume discussing battle strategy. The horses behind them make my nickname, ‘’The Headless Horsemens’ Convention,’’ seem accurate. Where spears used to stand, there are empty hands, but the way the hands are put up, it looks like they once held drinks.

We excavated our way out, and were chilled by the sight of REAL DOG SKINS hanging on stands all around the marketplace. We hurried back to our hotel, and after unpacking, headed out for dinner. We first stopped at a hotel, but then we saw the sea turtles next to an aquarium full of animals that they serve for dinner and cleared out.

Next we stopped at a restaurant and got noodles, tofu and steamed broccoli in garlic. First they brought out my cold noodles in sesame sauce. They were spicy and hurt my mouth, so I stopped eating them. Accidentally they brought out a plate of steaming meat, so we had them take it away and bring out our tofu. Our tofu was also spicy, resulting in me drinking half of the giant water bottle. Lastly, they brought out the steamed broccoli in garlic. It was alright, but what really drew my attention to it was that it was the only part of the meal not trying to burn my face off. We went back to our hotel and got an early night’s sleep.

Shanghai! I LOVE this place!

We took a bullet train from Beijing. It was very clean and comfortable and the ride was really smooth. I didn’t even know we were going so fast until my mom pointed out the monitors that showed our speed – 198 miles per hour!

We took the wrong exit from the subway, but immediately walked into a STARBUCKS!!! I got a vanilla frappuccino and some vanilla macaroons! The workers were so friendly and my parents were really happy to get some coffee. My mom brought some via packets, but they ran out a long time ago and she now knows why tea comes in lined packets and sealed canisters! All the tea she brought from home is in Ziploc bags and it just colors the water now and tastes like nothing.

Our hotel had a wonderful view of Pudong and part of the Bund. We headed out to see the sights and do a walking tour. There was a tower named after Big Ben and a lot of other cool buildings. We went into the 5 star hotel that the people in charge of destroying all of China’s old relics stayed in while they were ordering everything wrecked. We ate at the Pizza Hut and had dessert at the Haagen Dazs! My parents felt guilt about the Papa Johns thing in Beijing!

The next day we got up early and headed out to the Costa café for breakfast. I had a croissant and apple juice and my parents order these giant coffees. We decided to visit the Yu Yuan gardens. It was really hot so we were glad to find another Starbucks! 1 vanilla frappuccino and some iced coffee later, we were ready to go. The area around the garden was really beautiful too. It was all these really nice shops and restaurants surrounding a lake with ducks, tons of goldfish and turtles.

It was wonderful inside the gardens There were little vase shaped archways, moon gates and lots of lovely pavilions. Water lilies and carp ornamented every pond and canal. After walking around and admiring all the wonderful we head back out into the market and ate delicious fried noodles and some rice.

We went to a traditional teahouse that was on a marble bridge overlooking the goldfish pond. It was really nice! We all ordered teas with fun names – my dad got the Jasmine Fairy, my mom got Golden Lotus with Jade Sleeves and I got the Dragon Well tea. Mine was awful! My dad won’t stop harping about it because mine cost more than $20 – US dollars! I mostly had my mom and dad’s teas – his was the best. The leaves opened to show a red flower and the red flower opened to show a string of small jasmine flowers. My mom’s was nice too. I bravely ate all the tofu tea snacks to make up for not drinking my tea.

We walked around the market streets some more, just enjoying the scene.

I really love Shanghai!

Beijing- If only the Forbidden City were still forbidden

We arrived in Beijing, China at 2pm and, getting some Yuan, caught a taxi to our hotel. Apparently the driver didn’t want us in his cab because we’d only have to pay 10 Yuan. So he gave us a mini tour around Beijing efficiently raising our fare to 26 Yuan. After all that, he drove us to a street near our hotel and told us we’d have to get out and walk the rest of the way. We walked to hotel and stowed our stuff. Then we went to look for some food, because we hadn’t eaten real food for days and my stomach sounded like a car engine starting. We wandered around Tiananmen Square for some time until, after looking at several gasoline smelling Chinese places and a MacDonald’s with only hamburgers, we found a KFC. Now you may think, “A Kentucky Fried Chicken? You’re a vegetarian!”. However, I took down a 7-Up, a huge box of fries, a chocolate sundae, and a roll.

Next we found the Chinese Classics Theater and bought tickets for the 8pm show. After the prelude was “The Drunken Princess”, in which the Emperor asks a Princess to meet him at the Flower Pavillion but then goes to another palace and the princess he was supposed to meet drinks all the wine herself and gets drunk. Unfortunately, some jerk was screaming the entire time. The next one was about a 50 year old woman who commands and army. That one was not very interesting but the next one was awesome. A king came out with interesting face paint and very intricate robes. A queen, also with elaborate robes, also comes out. They have just lost their kingdom to the wicked Qin. After several dramatic hugs and tear wiping the queen does some extremely cool tricks with a sword that splits in half. The queen commits suicide and then so does the king. The last one was about a heavenly maiden who goes at the Buddha’s behest to scatter flowers to test the faith of one of his followers. She does some tricks with her very long scarf while standing amidst the fog machines. She and her attendant nymphs threw silk flower petals all over the audience and then the show was over.

The next day we went to the Forbidden City. A billion people don’t really do it any favors. The marble steps and pathways are cracked and disintegrating. You have to push and shove to see anything. A million sweaty strangers are touching you and there is trash everywhere. Some of the paint is chipped and peeling and large sections are closed off. The Palace of Eternal Happiness is a rust hulk with rotten floors letting you see down into the disgusting water filled with trash at the bottom. Don’t you feel the happiness? Then we looked at the chips of porcelain in the museum where I found the most remarkable thing to be the imprint of where people had actually put their mouths on the glass.

Next we took the subway to find a Papa John’s. I keep getting the pizza treats because I have been really good about trying all the local foods. We didn’t find it, but we did find a place called Tous Les Jours, it was delicious. Then it was back to the subway for the trip back to our hotel. My parents found a place called “Grandma’s Kitchen”. They were really excited because things were actually marked as vegetarian or not – there have been a lot of problems with that. My dad can speak some Chinese and we all know how to ask if it is vegetarian, but even when we show people the phrase in the phrasebook actually written in Mandarin, they act like they can’t understand what it means. Meat is in everything. My mom is flipping out because she said it used to be really easy to find vegetarian stuff everywhere, but now the noodles are in animal broth and pork or chicken is in everything. Anyhow, the stuff from Grandma’s was great, but I had eaten so much at the bakery that I just had the rice.

The next day we had our Great Wall tour. We were with extremely friendly people, which was really nice. First we went to the Great Wall. We saw the Imperial cell phone towers (that is what they are now anyway). I made it 3/4ths of the way up, but it was so crowded and went so slowly that my mom was afraid we couldn’t get back in time for our bus. It was also really sad. There was trash everywhere! People were throwing water and coke bottles off the wall, food wrappers, used tissues, and various other unpleasantness were all over the hillsides. Everyone was pushing and shoving, again a million sweaty strangers all touching you.

I decided to stop at the Great Wall gift shop – it is right on the Wall! – and then head back down. I was already a “hero” for climbing even that far. I got my hero medal and we pushed and shoved our way down.

Me with all my Chinese friends

We went to the jade factory and watched them making jade sculptures. After that was the silk factory, where we watched them make silk and go to touch the different kinds. We then made our way to the Olympic park to see the Bird’s Nest and other venues. It started to rain and we hurried through that. Next was the pearl factory. Freshwater pearls can have 40 pearls in them! I got a pearl for free and then we went to the tea ceremony. The tea was very good. There was one where when it opened a flower came out of it! She also showed us the “pee-pee boy” this is a clay statue that you use to tell if the water is the right temperature. You pour hot water over it and if the temperature is right, it pees everywhere. Ugh! Sadly, that was the end of our tour.

Trans-mongolian train, the final leg

Back on the train again. Two things made this part of the trip was super cool for two reasons. One, there were herds of camels all over the place. (See terrible picture from moving train.) Two, when we got to the Chinese border they had to lift our train up, take the wheels off and put a new set of wheels on. This is because Russia and Mongolia use different tracks than the rest of the world.

wild camel




changing train wheels



Thank you again to Dr. Crossthwait, Uncle Daryl, Grandma, Aunt Nancy and Uncle David, Aunt Natalie and everyone else who has sent comments and been following along. Sorry for the long time between posts but it was not possible to access our blogs in Mainland China.

Mongolia! The Land of Camels, Gers and Ankle Bones.

We got to Mongolia at 6AM and had a long, wet walk to the International Ticket Office to get our tickets to Beijing. My mom 7 I watched “Flight Plan” in Mongolian while my dad bought the tickets.

After we got that taken care of, we walked to our hotel, but got side-tracked by a military procession. We saw all of the soldiers, the head of the armed services and possibly the president. There was a big force of warriors on horseback and tanks and missiles! It was awesome! There was a giant statue of Chinggis Khan (that is how they spell it in English here) seated on a throne in the front of their parliament building.

We got to our hotel and went on an exploration for lunch at 2PM. We found a cool tour on the 12th and booked it; we were also able to eat their pizza.

After that we went shopping. I loved the camel calendars and all of the cashmere. It was so soft! I couldn’t figure out what cashmere I wanted. They also had felted crafts and camel wool. I got a flag and we went to the State Department Store. We didn’t even see ½ of the cashmere floor. On the fifth floor, they have a giant selection of traditional clothing, bags, tsam masks, huge paintings, ankle bones, traditional weapons and musical instruments, and basically everything Mongolian. They had these pearl sewn elephant pillow cases that I really wanted, but I couldn’t figure out what elephants have to do with Mongolia. Darn it!

Next we went to a non-profit handmade crafts store called “Mary & Martha’s”. It is a store that helps out women. They set up and work with cooperatives in rural communities. The poor women make their traditional crafts and they get 50% of the money themselves. The store owners took the name from Mary and Martha in the bible; it’s actually a lady and her husband. I got a hand embroidered bag, a felt necklace and a felted, fuchsia rose. They make their own shopping bags out of old newspaper!

When we got up the next morning, we went to the Nadaam festival. After lots of clueless meandering, we finally found one station, archery. It was just getting started and we saw three men and two women shoot. People come all day long to compete over the two days. The targets were stacks of cups, and I think points were given based on where you hit the stack and how many cups you knock down.

We heard large amounts of cheering and discovered the ankle bone shooting. Well, it seems to consist of a large oval of people chanting while tossing a white tile. When the tile reaches the half-way point one of two people with a wooden block like a Scrabble tile holder would take the tile and put it on the block. Then, after a long time, he flicked the tile at two ankle bones on a table at the other end of the oval. Then the tile was tossed around the other side of the oval for the other contestant to shoot.

It was a large collection of busy tents with throngs of traditionally dressed people moving from event to event. We saw troops of Mongol warriors invading the stadium! There were Tsam dancers in their gorgeous costumes with their incredible masks. There was a flag procession with people dressed like ancient royalty. The woman with the American flag had the most beautiful robes and a phenomenal peacock headdress. After a while, it was all too much amazing and we were starving. We headed back into town. It was so crowded that we couldn’t see the wrestling (we saw it later on TV - the horse racing is out in the countryside, but is almost constantly on TV!).

For dinner we went to the Grand Khan Irish Pub – so we wouldn’t be late for the theater! I had French fries and vegetable rice (it was like Mexicali corn mixed with white rice). My mom made me try the Mongolian pie – hers wasn’t very authentic because it was vegetarian.

The orchestra was dressed in traditional robes and headdresses of red and gold. There were several sizes of horse-head fiddle (which is square box with a long neck with a head shaped like a horse head) all of which make a beautiful sound. The fiddle only has two strings, the male string is made with hairs from a stallion’s tail and the female string with hair from a mare’s tail. They played and people came out to sing a “long song” which is not about the length. It is a song about the land of Mongolia. The orchestra also played a song by Mozart entirely on the traditional instruments. An ensemble came out a performed a “throat singing” piece. This is when a singer sings two or three notes at one time. It sounded amazing. We also saw dancers performing different traditional dances. One of them was about Nadaam and featured archers and wrestlers. My favorite part was the contortionist. She was incredible. She put her behind over her head and framed her face with her feet and smiled. For her last trick she folded herself in half with her behind over her head holding on to a pole with her teeth and spinning around. There was also a tsam dance which is a Buddhist dance to keep away evil spirits.

When we got out of the performance it was raining buckets and quite cold. We did not have our rain jackets because it had been sunny all day. All the people we had seen selling umbrellas earlier in the day had gone inside and there were no taxis around. Luckily we found a restaurant call Le Bistrot Francais where I got hot milk and a chocolate mousse.

The next day, we got up, had some salty Mongolian corn flakes, and headed out with our tour guide to Terelj National Park. First we stopped at Turtle Rock which I thought looked more like a bird with a boy’s head. We climbed about half way up to take in the view of the valley and then got back in the car and drove to a monastery that was shaped like the head of an elephant. It was brightly painted with pictures of various important Buddhist figures on the walls. There was a large censer of burning incense and a large gold Buddha image. On each beam there was a painting of a mouse who looked like he was regurgitating Easter eggs. Our guide told us that this was symbolic of money and good fortune. Outside, we spun all the prayer wheels. On our way out we found a prayer wheel that is meant to be spun by several people at once and so we all spun it by taking a handle and walking around it clockwise 3 times.

The walk around the monastery was beautiful with the monks’ school, paintings on the mountainsides, panels with quotations from a Buddhist holy book and millions of wildflowers, butterflies and crickets.

Next we came to a collection of 3 gers where we were going to ride horses and then have lunch. They offered us pickles before our ride and then the father came home with a sheep in a large yellow plastic bag. The sheep did not seem happy with this manner of arrival and was wiggling and squirming wildly to escape the bag. We were sure the sheep would not have a happily-ever-after, so we mounted our horses and rode away.

I’ve nicknamed my mother’s horse “Gassiopeia”. Can you guess why? Ashe said it was like a cartoon it was so outrageous and she said she was afraid the saddle would slip off because he seemed to be deflating. When we returned a sheep skin was draped over a fence post and the yellow bag lay empty on the ground. Our lunch consisted of steamed yak milk, potato pies, and vegetable soup. Our tour guides had the same except their all had meat (not the yak milk). It was very nice of them to make our lunch vegetarian. They probably think we are crazy. It was all very dense and filling and they made way too much food for us to eat. We all stuffed ourselves to not offend them, but there was no way to eat it all.

Our next stop was the 40 meter tall Chinggis Khan statue with a golden whip. The statue is placed on the site where he found the whip; the whip was a divine sign that he was to conquer the globe (or at least China). We climbed up the interior of the horse he was riding and soon made our way to the viewing platform on top of the horse’s mane. From up there his (Chinggis Khan) face is huge and stares at you like, “what are you doing on my horse?” The view was spectacular. They were constructing hundreds of gers that will eventually replicate the pattern of the ancient Mongolian horse brand. We saw a bunch of golden eagles surfing thermals right beside us.

After we clambered down the stairs (and I got my picture with the Mongolian warrior guarding the door) we got back into the car – I had hoped to ride a Bactrian camel, however, the camels were apparently kjust for sitting on and taking pictures, so we didn’t bother. My mom says we will go on a camel safari in the Negev someday, but they won’t be Bactrian. My dad says he’ll wait for us in Jerusalem. He hates riding animals. It was a wonderful day and we finished up with dessert at Le Bistrot Francais!

Mongolia has been amazing!

The Nerpa-tastic-ness of Lake Baikal

We got up extremely early and caught the first bus to Listvyanka, a town on Lake Baikal. The lake was immense and was a deep, rich blue. It was beautiful. We waited for the nerpa show, which was awesome. The nerpas sang, danced, kissed each other and played soccer and basketball. One painted a picture and they each rescued two Barbie dolls. They were so cute! We were going to take a boat ride, but it was too cold. We got the next bus back to Irkutsk and headed for the train station to catch our train to Mongolia.

The first pizza we ate in Irkutsk was at a place called Picasso. They have an abstract idea of pizza. It was like soggy white bread with ketchup and mayonnaise with rubbery cheese. On our way to the train station we saw a red and green delivery vehicle with a Papa John’s logo (in Russian) on the side. “Nonsense,” we said. But it was true, there around the corner was a Papa John’s, and we were saved!

  

Life on a Train

Our home for 88 hours!

Life on a train is not very comfortable. The ladders are useless, the beds are leathery and lumpy, and random people burst into your compartment in the middle of the night. Your legs fall asleep from doing nothing, and when people open the doors at the end of the cars, you can smell people smoking. Ugh! The dining car was 6 cars away. We went there a lot because it had air conditioning. We were boiling in our compartment and couldn’t play cards together. We could not shower, so we were disgusting when we got off.

To stay busy I sketched and doodled. Sometimes I listened to my Ipod but I had to use it sparingly so as not to run down the battery. We played cards a lot. I lost all of the pinochle games but won several games of rummy. I also read the Kindle and was wishing that we had more than one. I am reading “Emma” by Jane Austen. It is more challenging than what I usually read because there many words and phrases with which I am unfamiliar. Often I stared out the window thinking and watching the land roll by. The scenery was beautiful, with big patches of flowers everywhere, and 80 million birch trees. We saw a couple of rivers, but no moose or water birds.

I do not like living on a train. However, we were able to get off the train a couple times a day and buy ice cream, soda, M&Ms, and water. We got to see a lot of the Russian countryside and it was an interesting way to travel. It was better than an overnight plane or bus because there were beds and there was room get up and walk around. Still, no showering was tough.

The End

I was finally able to post my pictures!

We have arrived in Irkutsk! I was FINALLY able to post my pictures for Tallinn & St. Petersburg so click on this link to go to my actual blog and see the edited posts:
http://www.bearsontheroad.blogspot.com/

Allie! Thanks for sending me a comment! Hope your summer is really amazing. Miss you,
Zada