Really, more active? - 5 October 2008

The monastery of the day is Drak Yerpa, site of several caves used for meditation by influential Buddhists. As you'd expect, it's on a hillside, so it actually qualifies as exercise for a change.

On the way up we ran into a monk that Mil recognized from a previous visit. He seemed like a pleasant fellow, but I still can't get over it when a Buddhist monk whips out their cellphone - it just blows my mind.

Since this is such a holy site, there are prayer flags all over the place. As you ascend on the path there are vendors selling them so that you may hang your own. Here's an example of how many flags there are:

Mike, Mil, Renee, and I climbed to a pretty high point (although not the top) where we found the top opening to a chimney cave. It was really neat to look through the top down to the opening below, but unfortunately none of my pictures turned out. The funny thing is that Mil would like more of this sort of thing in the GAP tour, so that it would be more active. While my masculine pride would like to agree, it's a little difficult while gasping for air.

For the ride down one of the monks joined us - evidently bus service back to Lhasa is sporadic at best. The driver stopped by a stream, and he and the monk tried to wash the dust off of the bus by throwing dishes of water on it. Unfortunately the monk didn't realize that the driver left his window open, and got the driver's seat all wet.

In what's turning into a theme in Lhasa, we ended up back at the Summit Cafe after lunch. As you'd expect, it's filled with westerners and we actually struck up a conversation with a guy who's been coming to Tibet since the '80s.

It's an interesting thing about traveling - I'm grateful to see all of these places, but the more we travel the more I want to travel. I'd like to have context on these places - to see how they've changed and try to understand why.

Things that we're seeing (like glaciers, and possibly Tibetan culture) are receding, and may not last our lifetime. I can't say that it's a bad thing in all cases, but it makes me wonder what we're already too late for.

The Magical Monastery Tour is coming to take you away - 4 October 2008

Today we visited the Potala Palace, which I mentioned yesterday. Traditionally this was the home of the Dalai Lama. Given that he fled the country in 1959, though, it's mostly a shell. The Chinese have converted it to a Museum, and it's now impossible to get a picture of the place that doesn't include a Chinese flag. Here's a shot from the same place as yesterday, only in the daytime:
It's quite impressive, even though we only saw a small subsection of it. The tomb of the 5th Dalai Lama is especially so, dwarfing the other tombs that we saw. What strikes you, though, is a sense of emptiness.

Afterwards, there was a bit of a mix-up regarding the prayer wheels that surround the palace. Some folks wanted to spin them, so while they went to do that a few of us just hung around the exit. The group that went to spin the prayer wheels got split up, and it took about 30 minutes to gather everyone up. It was a good opportunity to people watch (and be watched), though. Here's the beginning of the prayer wheels:
Each wheel contains a scroll (or scrolls) with a prayer on it. When you turn the wheel clockwise it is as though you've said the prayer, thereby accumulating karma. I'll resist the temptation to construct an extended metaphor comparing it to a video game...

Once we were all gathered up, we headed for Sera Monastery. Older editions of Lonely Planet talk about the debating monks, but like so many Tibetan cultural activities, that doesn't happen anymore. Again, like the Potala Palace, it's mostly a shell of what it used to be.

For lunch we had our first Yak burger - and it was outstanding. There's a running joke that we should take the "Yak, Yak, Yak" shirts that are sold and have a tailor stitch a circle-slash over the yak pictures.

To top it off, we went back to the Summit Cafe for dessert. Since we ate so much for lunch I ended up skipping dinner.

Jai Guru Deva - Hey, what's up with the trash bag full of money? - 3 October 2008

We're in Lhasa, Tibet which should probably be referred to as the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China. I didn't (and probably don't) know a lot about Tibet or the struggle for Tibetan independence, but I can say that it is beyond a doubt an occupied country. There are armed Chinese soldiers everywhere. Again, no pictures in the interest of not visiting a Chinese prison.

We visited the Jokhang this morning, along with our local guide. He's very, very quiet, to the point that I usually can't hear what he's saying. I'm hesitant to say anything, though, since I don't know the pressures that he's under.

Jen took an amazing picture of some blue ceiling beams inside the Jokhong, shown below:

Image courtesy Jennifer Hodges :)

Tibetan Buddhists come to the Jokhang to pay respects to the Buddhas with offerings of Yak Butter and money. Some of them prostrate themselves over and over - legs bound @ the knees, some with pads for their hands, others using cardboard cut outs to soften the fall.

The smell of incense is overpowering, and the temple is so crowded that not everyone can follow a clockwise path. Wizened women nudge us out of the way so that they can offer prayers and money to deities I don't understand. And that's where the dissonance comes in.

There are literally hefty bags full of money. Obviously I was (am?) naive, but I just didn't expect to see this sort of materialism out in the open. Thinking about it I know that we always knew what was tithed, but at least they counted the money in a special room in the back of the church. I've just got a little difficulty reconciling this.

After the tour we grabbed lunch and then Jen and I went to a grocery store. This is where we found the White Lightning for 40 cents a bottle, along with an even cheaper offering, not that we bought either. We did see twin Chinese girls staring at the tank of live fish, all of us sharing surprise when a fish leaped, breaking the surface of the water. We got water and Orion Pies (the Chinese equivalent of a moon pie) and took them back to the room.

Later we went to the Summit Cafe, which was outstanding. It's basically a western style coffee bar, with free Wi-Fi access. We both had a cappuccino, and *NERD ALERT* Jennifer bought a book about the Tibetan language.

After dinner we walked to the plaza near the Potala Palace and took pictures at night. We tour it tomorrow, so I'll save the discussion for then. In the meanwhile here's a picture:

Are we there yet? - 2 October 2008

They turned the oxygen on during the night.  Since there's such an altitude difference between Beijing and Lhasa they pump oxygen into the cars to help you acclimatize.  Since I woke up every couple of hours I heard when it came on.

Any novelty of the train experience has worn off.  Mil warned us all to get snacks before we got on the train, so most of us grabbed a Noodle Bucket, as modeled below:

They're better than the Ramen I ate in college, but a cut below restaurant noodles.  Somehow Jennifer managed to mace herself with the sauce packet from her noodle bucket.  I think I managed to express some sympathy before laughing, but probably too much of the latter and not enough of the former.

As you might expect, we're ready to be off of the train, and ready for more food variety.  The dining car has basically 3 vegetables and 3 meats, and there are only so many ways to combine them.  Plus, as the trip goes on they're running out of things.

I did, however, add another thing to my life's to-do list:  Race against the sausages from the Milwaukee Brewers.  Kirk, who is from Chicago, told us about this race, and that he beat one of the sausages.  I'll admit that I'm intimidated, but assuming it's in July 2009 I intend to go give it a shot.  If you're curious, here's the link on the Brewers site.

We're on a train to Lhasa, come on inside - 1 October 2008

The train is another of those experiences that Lost on Planet China makes out to be worse than it really is (or at least my experience of it was).  Before reading the book I had the popular, romantic misconceptions of train travel - namely that it would be a genteel affair, similar to something out of an Agatha Christie novel (excepting the murder of course).  When Troost described it as the worst toilet he came across, though, that notion quickly evaporated.

A word about the accomodations - there are multiple classes, including soft sleeper, hard sleeper, and what I'll call non-sleeper (i.e., chairs).  We were in hard sleeper, which has 6 bunks to a compartment, and no closing door.  Here's a pic:

For comparison's sake, soft sleeper only has 4 beds and a closing door, while what I'm terming non-sleeper is just hard-backed chairs.  We passed through the non-sleeper cars on the way to the dining cart, and it just looked miserable.

If you ever happen to ride on this train YOU WANT THE TOP BUNK.  Although it's a hassle to get into, there are two very good reasons you want it:

1. You get _marginally_ more room
2. The bottom bunks are considered communal space, since that's where people sit

Jen got an object lesson in #2 this morning when the Chinese family that had 2 of our 6 bunks came in and had breakfast, using the bunk she was still trying to sleep in as sitting space.  I was in a middle bunk, and there wasn't room for me to sit up.  I basically had to lever myself into place when I wanted to sleep.

A great(?) thing about being on the train is the people watching.  One of the Chinese guys got onto the train and immediately took his pants off.  To be fair he was wearing long johns, but it still caught most of us by surprise.  Especially since he saw fit to accessorize with a sport coat.  During one of the stops he actually got off of to smoke a cigarette wearing his loafers, sport coat, and long-john bottoms.  For the entire two days we were on the train he was a constant.  Secretly I think we were all envious, especially since he was travelling with a much younger (and more attractive) Chinese lady.

Early on, Jen saw fit to take a group picture, so here most of us are before our spirits were crushed by the train:

Putting my Dale Carnegie training to good use, this is what I spent most of the time doing:

Wrapped in a nurturing cocoon of technology

The evening took a strange turn.  I came back from dinner to find Mil conversing with a Chinese gentleman, one of two who replaced the folks that previously were in our compartment.  (Another aside:  passengers may change on the train, but the bedding stays the same *shudder*).

He asked Mil to ask me if most Americans have mistresses.  I'm not sure why he asked, but I told him that we don't, in my experience.  We talked a little while longer, and then he read my palms, offering several predictions.  The most interesting to me was that my first child will be a male child.  No idea if he's the Chinese equivalent of Luco Brasi, though.

Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and when the train was new - 30 September 2008

Today we went to the Forbidden City in the morning.  Off of Tiananmen Square, this sprawling complex was used as the imperial palace during multiple Chinese dynasties.  Our local guide took us through Tiananmen square, and explained that we were in the country during a week-long holiday, meaning that it was more crowded that usual, and that we wouldn't be able to see Mao's tomb.

Tiananmen is still decorated for the Olympics and Paralympics, including the paralympic mascot, Fu Niu Lele, who is a cow, and to my mind resembles Mooby (which is itself a reference to the Old Testament golden calf).  Judge for yourself:

Initially I felt that we were rushed through the Forbidden City, but as the day wore on it became clear that it's just too large to meander through.  You either need to move (like we did) or plan to spend a full day (or more).  The scale is just massive:

After touring the Forbidden City we went to lunch.  Originally we planned to take the bus, but after 20 minutes of waiting (and seeing multiple busses with the right number going the other way) we gave up and walked to the restaurant.  

During the walk, Melissa had the misfortune to be accosted by a lady trying to sell something.  When Melissa said "No thank you," the lady would just yell it back at her "NO THANK YOU."  This went on until they inadvertently got their feet tangled, and the lady fell down.  It was surreal, frankly.

After lunch, six of us went to the Summer Palace.  Jen and I tried to get there the day we joined the GAP tour, but ran out of time.  Unfortunately we were all worn out by the time we got there, and decided (after a walk down the aptly named "Long Corridor") to just sit and relax.  The funny thing is that we were quite the object of curiousity.  Folks in Beijing are used to foreigners, but because it was a nation-wide holiday there were plenty of people who had never seen anything like us before.  Some would surreptiously take photographs, trying to make it look as though we were sitting in an particularly interesting place.  Others actually asked if we could take a picture together:

One of these things is not like the other ones...

We also spent some time discussing the phenomenon of "split pants."  Evidently infants in China wear onesies with a slit in the nether region so that they can do their business whenever they need to.  This is discussed (at some length) in Lost on Planet China, so it didn't come as a surprise to me, but it's still shocking to see.  No pictures, though, thanks to my paranoia regarding border crossings and child pornography laws.

After a quick dinner we all loaded on a bus to head for the train station.  Thanks to a traffic jam, we got to carry our stuff several blocks, meaning that I was basically dressed up as luggage for Halloween.

We made it onto the train, and were introduced to what Mil (our trip leader) refers to as "White Lightning".  I can assure you that it is neither mighty pleasin', nor pappa's corn squeezin's.  Instead it is the Chinese version of rotgut.  For context, we later found it in a grocery store for about 40 cents per quarter liter, and that's too much.

It's not the worst thing I've ever tasted but it's definitely not something I'd seek out.

China Reset

Ok, we've finally gotten to Bangkok and after a bout of food poisoning last night, I'm ready to start the blog-a-thon.

My apologies to those of you who thought the chronology was confusing before, but before I get started I'm going to do a quick reset.

If you haven't already figured it out, I'm mostly along for the ride on our vacations.  I provide some input but Jen does the planning.  Usually I'll deign to crack a guide book when we get where we're going.

For a change, though, I actually had some preconceived notions about China from reading J. Maarten Troost's Lost on Planet China.  Likewise, I had preconceptions about Nepal and the Everest Base Camp trek from Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer), The Climb (Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt), and Left for Dead (Beck Weathers).

In general, things weren't as bad as I expected.  China, especially, wasn't as bad as I expected, probably because of the Olympics.

There are exceptions, though, and they'll be going up over the next couple of days.

Good intentions

I just spent an hour watching Jennifer's blood pressure rise while she waited for 3.2 MB worth of attachments to upload to her email.  All of that to say that updates aren't going to be forthcoming.

We leave tomorrow morning at 6:15 to start our 12-day hike to Everest base camp.  Hopefully we'll have better internet in Bangkok (oriental city, but the city don't know what the city is getting) when we get there on the 28th.

Sitting at the New Orleans Cafe in Kathmandu

Just a quickie.  Justin (presumably) gets a gold star for tracking down the GI Joe episode, available here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKovXdSYafk.  I say presumably, because there's no way I'm going to be able to watch it on the slow web connection I've got here.  

We'll look for something better tomorrow and I'll start catching you up then.  In the meanwhile to whet your appetite, here are some things to look for in the coming days:

1. Noodle Bucket
2. White Lightning
3. Split Pants
4. NO THANK YOU
5. Bazooka disease
6. Hallomoney
7. Me so hungry
8. Children of the corn
9. The party loft
10. The "fake" lama, and V for Vendetta
11. Taxi problems from the Summer Palace
12. Mil "bringing up the rear"
13. Sausage racing