The following day my arrival in Beijing which I have documented was the high point although the tour to the great wall was fine with a small group of 2 arranged by the concierge desk not the tourist desk at the Novotel. We were warned to buy only at government stores to avoid scams involving over priced fake products. Seems that scamming tourists is the biggest industry in Beijing.

For the past 2 years Jerry at Great Lakes College in Toronto has been telling me that when I get to Beijing just call the school there & some one would be happy to show me around.

HORSEFEATHERS

I called Jerry from Lhasa letting him know when I would be arriving in Beijing but disappointingly though not unexpectedly, never heard boo from anyone. However this is not just a Chinese thing it’s endemic all over. Give good service at good rates & all the thanks you get, even in Canada is “so long sucker!!!”

Did email one of the teachers but her reply came 3 days later on the morning I was to fly to the Philippines, too late.

So I won’t recommend China for anyone’s bucket list unless they have a bit of a sadistic streak & enjoy arguing with scammers or a death wish then they can go to Tibet & start a political argument!

That said on the tour to the great wall my companion mentioned that he had a skin condition that ordinary medicine was at a loss to cure or even relieve & wondered if Chinese traditional medicine might offer relief. Now the tour guide said that it was early enough in the day that should be able to get an appointment at the clinic that day. Dream on Canadians. She got on the phone & made 2, one for each of us, consultation is free.

After our tour we stopped at the clinic where first our temperature was taken (Almighty WHO & their pandemic) then he had a consultation where the doctor said he would send for the specialist, who arrived in less than 10 minutes (yes Canadians 10 MINUTES NOT months!!!!). 5 minutes later diagnosis done & prescription written.

As I have no doctor in Crapanada & little chance of finding one at my age & was there anyway & cost was zilch figured what’s to loose. The diagnosis covered the minor symptoms I have (Crapadian licensed quack couldn’t even diagnose stroke symptoms HMMMM!!!) so I spent the approx $100 on a 3 month supply on natural meds that’s supposed to be all I need. Scam???? Not knowing. Will let you know in 3 months. Any way less than 1/2 hr for 2 diagnosis’, prescriptions filled & out the door. Definitely NOT Canada!!!!! Maybe Cuba or India!!!

At least I kept my promise to the policeman at the border who stole my Lonely Planet, I got to Beijing saw the wall & got the first plane out of Dodge with no plans to return EVER!!!

Trivia & food for thought, hmmm might be time to start those courses in Mandarin if you plan on remaining in Canada. The combined population of Beijing + Shanghi is greater than all of Canada!

Not impressed with the seamier side of Manila but was warned about that & have cheap flight booked to Borocay in the morning. Hello beach & DHL winter clothes home, never again caca blanca LOL!!!!

She is now in a nice new assisted retirement home in near the family, thanks in part to my daughters SIL who works there who managed to pull some strings. Guess I did some thing right in bringing them up.

The only thing left to say about Nepal is it’s only 3 1/2 hrs away from the border with Tibet & the 1st 1 1/2 hr leaving KTM is on roads under construction that are the worst I have seen. The infrastructure problems apparently stem from being set up for around 350,000 people but population now is 3 – 4 million (depending on who you ask) with a corrupt government that funnels the money away from where it’s needed.

That Nepal is an interesting small country where one can enjoy the jungle’s wildlife in Chitwan National Park, climb Mt Everest or do various treks, shouldn’t be missed if in the area but it is best not to stay in the Thamel area. IMHO

After the bone shaking bus ride to the border it,s off the bus & walk up the hill to Nepal immigration then uphill some more & across the bridge where first thing you do is go through medical screening for swine flu (thanks loads WHO for the asinine level 5 pandemic alert) then immigration & customs baggage X-ray & check then the same process with the police where all they are interested in is stealing your Lonely Planet China guide book because Taiwan on the map. Naturally I put up a bit of a fuss about this so have to be careful what I write here while still traveling in China.

A warm & fuzzy welcome to China!!! NOT

My plans for a 25 day stay that my visa allows have changed, think when I reach Beijing it will be a trip out to the wall then the 1st flight I can get to Manila, or not depending on whether or not Great Lakes College comes through on their promise to show me around?

So far Tibet has lived up to it’s mystic of being “The roof of the world” & just seeing Mt Everest, all be it from afar was just an out of this world experience that all 4 of us in the jeep expressed together “WOW!! Mt Everest I never really believed I would actually see it!”

Of coarse no one was prepared for the state of oppression caused by the presence of the occupying Chinese army + the police force made up almost entirely of Chinese or the fact that our guide warned us about political discussion or taking pictures of the occupying forces. This presence was evident in all towns we passed through on the way to Lhasa where it was extreme! Therefore I didn’t feel safe in writing these remarks in the draft of my blog where they were on my computer visible to any one who chose to look as one has no rights in China.

Our tour group of 33 + another small group is traveling in a loose convoy of 12 Toyota Land Cruiser’s 4 people each, stayed at a fairly primitive guest house in Nyalam with 4 bed dorms the 1st night. Each jeep’s passengers to a dorm. Our group consists of a 30 something Brit girl + a Polish girl a bit younger & a 22 yr old guy from Maryland who get along well.

The 1st day we only traveled an hour or so from the border then had to stop until dark as the road was closed for construction during daylight hours then another 3 hrs to the guest house.

Second day we crossed the highest pass at 5200 meters then later on got our sight of Everest which stayed in sight on & off for the next couple hours & was the highlight of the day. We then spent the night at Lhaste a bit higher class with only 2/room.

Third day we only traveled 3 hours, with a stop for some good photo’s of the local domestic animals including Yak’s, to Shigaste where we are staying in a hotel with real western style toilets en suite + hot water showers (Ah paradise!! as anything where you don’t have to walk outside to a squat toilet is 5* Royal treatment LOL) & even one English channel on CCTV 9, no decadent CNN!

Fourth day was a short hop to Gyantse to visit the Khumbula stupa & the Phalkhor Monastery & stay at the Everest Hotel which lacked the hot water shower. Although did manage to locate some Chinese peanut butter in the local market along with fresh oranges & bananas not bad for the last week of Oct but this whole journey in Tibet has been amazing & no one on it really believes we are here, it will take some time for it to sink in that we are actually traveling on the roof of the world.

Day 5 saw us drive the final 200+ km to Lhasa with a couple photo stops for the incredible views. So yes Dorothy Lhasa really exists but it’s NOT in Kansas & this farm boy from the Townships is sitting in the Mandala Hotel updating busman’s blog (providing this isn’t one big dream)!!

Day 6 & 7 spent visiting local monasteries, prowling the Barkhor St market adjacent to the Mandela Hotel & watching the worshippers at the Jokhang temple which “is the busiest place in the center of old city “ the Roof of the world” Lhasa city” so says the hotel brochure. Our hotel was in a super location providing access to a fantastic market area with ATM & internet only a short walk away, even got a much needed haircut along with a massage just down the street.

Now the occupying army presence in Lhasa was taken from the extreme to the ridiculous with kids in “clown” suits & riot gear carrying BIG guns strutting through groups praying before the stuka just showing off how macho they thought they were. That along with the persistent rumors of a country road outside of town where dissenters were taken & used for target practice kind of left one with a not nice warm feeling for the Chinese which wasn’t alleviated in Beijing!

Day 8 & 9 train to Beijing arriving the morning of day 10.

Met some interesting people the first day of the train trip including an ex-pat Canadian working for the 4th largest Chinese cement company which alone does business equivalent to all North American companies (food for thought!) however most got off the next morning leaving the train quiet most of the day, then filling up once again as we neared Beijing.

Not sure if the design of the train cars was Bombardier’s or the Chinese but the old hard-sleeper cars on the Chinese Trans-Mongolian are preferable (IMHO) to the soft-sleeper ones on this train. A combination of little things adding up to making the 2 day trip more an endurance test than the enjoyable adventure of the 6 day trip from Moscow to Beijing.

After a bit in the queue he realises the folly of that approach as the chance of getting a driver that understands English is virtually nil. So he starts back tracking while thinking which plan “B” might-be best, as he stops to adjust his bags a young Chinese stops to offer assistance, he speaks no English but in a bit his friend who speaks very good English appears & when she is informed of the problem, takes charge asking what I want to do while in town & the price I want to pay for a room.

She then decides on a hotel that fits the bill with a central location & the 2 of them proceed to guide me to a place where a taxi can be flagged down, now this is rush hour with the temp hoovering around zero so they aren’t readily available but eventually, a couple blocks away from the station we have success.

Now these two kids have spent approximately 1/2 hr helping me & absolutely refuse any tip for doing so. Kind of restores one’s faith in humanity!!

The hotel turned out to be a Novetel & in the mid range price that I had asked for. Actually a bit more than I wanted to pay but prices in Beijing are up there & after the last couple weeks I deserve a bit of pampering + when finished with China I will be crashing on a beach some where in the Philippines for the 3 weeks allowed on a visa & saving the money I am spending here.

So once again have proven that having a bit of faith in destiny pays off  & as my Nepalese guide said “no hurry, no worry, have some more chicken curry” LOL

The Hotel Jungle Lodge (1 of 65 in the area) in Sauraha next to the park was excellent value for the money & Laxmi an incredible guide as he was raised in the jungle & has a home in it a couple hours away.

Have to get in a bit of a rant here as it always amazes me when some one to whom English is a second language uses better grammar than a lot of Canadians/Americans do. Now one of my pet peeves are the proper use of the words “can” & “may” so when out in the Nepalese jungle a local person asks “May I sit with you?”. This makes me think that the Nepal education system has to be pretty good as he said they start English lessons in grade 5 & his English was very good just needed a bit of practice. Now a lot (most) of Canadians would just say “can I sit with you” completely oblivious of being wrong. Oh well just reinforces my argument that our education system has gone to the dogs!

However the American was confusing the jungle districts, which are pretty laid back in Central America also, with the rest of the country. A girl from Tibet that is a nursing student in Delhi whom I met on the bus down claimed that the Tibetan & Nepalese people were too work driven & government controlled to relax & have fun than the Indian’s, this was the feeling I got also from my short stay in Delhi.

As to Kathmandu it’s a major disappointment, Bouda, the first area I stayed in was nothing to write home about & even the one restaurant bragging about being listed in Lonely Planet had so so curry & expensive beer, only reason I can see for the listing was free Wi-Fi which puts LP’s food listings in a questionable light!

Thamel, where I am now as my bus leaves from just across the street in the morning, reminds me of Havana on steroids but without the redeeming aspects of interesting Spanish architecture & the Prado, it’s a filthy place  occupied by in your face touts for hotels, taxis & tour companies whom you have tell to F*** off as they won’t take NO for an answer & the hordes of tourists that make them that way. There must be some decent food in town but I have yet to find it & haven’t had a decent cup of tea since leaving India!

I highly recommend a visit to the park & Praveen at Getaway www.Trekking-in-Nepal.com has been excellent.

More to come on northern Nepal

HORSEFEATHERS!!!

Another example of Canadian incompetence in a government regulated job.

My Capitol One only failed once in Korea but worked at a larger bank down the street when BMO failed once again.

My BMO debit card is useless about 50% of the time as Iceland & Greenland were a no go & approximately 50% of the countries I have visited the ATM’s only gave cash advances on credit cards not debit cards, guess as they can’t charge interest on debit card advances they just refuse to give them which is tantamount to theft as everywhere charges the 6% fee on your bill (some times hidden most times not) when paying by cc so if they won’t give cash on debit cards you are forced to pay the greedy banks 6% whether you like it or not!

So Canadians leave your government bank monopoly controlled cc’s at home & use a US one at least you know they will work & not be stuck with no cash by believing the lies told you by your bank!!

Not sure when I will be updating again as the trek to Lhasa doesn’t likely pass to many internet café’s & not sure what access in China is like?

Will post when possible as time allows.

Firstly one can not judge India by North American standards & get an accurate reading on the country. Sure you can go staying at the 5* hotels in the area of the government offices & headquarters of business. See the nice parks & homes then take a tour of other areas, form the impression that the masses live in abject poverty, come back & write about it & have your one sided distorted view taken as gospel by the sheep.

Or

You can go stay at one of the $10 or less hotels in one of the Bazar neighborhoods & comeback with a view that the majority are doing what it takes to have a decent life with the support of family & are fairly content & happy. The truth is probably somewhere in between but it would take living there long term to discover it.

The Taj Mahal is an extraordinary piece of architecture in an amazing setting & a must see on any ones bucket list! Now here again we have erroneous news being spread as I read somewhere on the net that they were considering closing it to the public to preserve it from pollution. BS. They have closed all the factories in Agra to stop the air pollution that was harming it + stopped all vehicle traffic within 500 meters of it, of course in true government idiocy they exempted a few motorcycles (driven by lazy simple serpents, some things are the same the world over). At 750 Rupees/visitor it brings in way too much foreign cash to close!

For a self-proclaimed city hater to form an attraction to a big noisy polluted city like Delhi means that culturally it has something unique to offer especially after an 8 1/2 hr flight & going back 2 1/2 time zones arriving just after dark at 6pm local time, passing through relatively painless immigration & customs then finding the “prepaid taxi” booth (given the tip by my seatmate on the plane a UBC student returning home for a bit). Then when the streets became too small & crowded he got me a rickshaw to take me the rest of the way to The Hotel Double R. A mighty fine introduction to Delhi!!

Now there is just something about the traffic mix on the streets of Delhi that is intriguing, fascinating & addictive, take your cars, Tata trucks & multitude of buses & motor bikes throw in masses of Tuk-tuks as many rickshaws & bicycles now just add a few farm tractors horse & ox carts, mustn’t forget the pedestrians running through the 8 or so lanes of traffic along with the inevitable English roundabouts then just for fun make a few traffic lights in operational then make sure everyone has a working horn & you can pretty much imagine Delhi’s fascinating traffic. Super cool LOL

Then you have the Bazar’s, similar to the markets of CA & Korea only the people live there & also hotels are located there making for a self-contained community with all the hustle & bustle just a normal part of daily life where the unique Indian music just fits like a glove. Another amazing experience that should carry the warning label “Caution too much exposure can be addictive” as can the best tea I have ever tasted.

The reason for the long bus ride is that my trip to Kathmandu coincided with a major Hindu festival & everyone was traveling home for it so no seats were available on the trains. Preferred route would have been train then bus across into Kathmandu but guess I was lucky even getting a bus seat. That’s the problem with a set itinerary which will be over once I hit Beijing then I will just follow the wind.

At first the people seem a bit standoffish but as I found out on the 38 hr bus ride from Delhi to Kathmandu, supposedly a “tourist” bus but with the exception of myself & 2 Israeli back packers was full of local Indians & Nepalese, they just reserve their judgment until they know a bit about you then turn out to be friendly & helpful.

At the Nepal border a couple girls from Nepal gave us some advise on the procedures which were reinforced by the guy from the bus company that led us through the relatively painless procedures (if done properly) like you can only entre Nepal with 500 Indian Rupees (money changer just before border) & the visa fee is $40 US payable in CASH only + if you left your extra passport photo packed in your bags (DUH) you only had to get a copy of your passport (5 Rupee). Then get exit stamp from India & off to the pink immigration building on the Nepal side, walk back to bus wait for customs check & hello Nepal.

Talking with these girls while waiting at the border they said they had wondered what “the  old white guy” (not in those words) was doing on the 2 day bus trip with the locals but that I had handled myself well (no bitching & eating the local food at stops??). Before we reached Kathmandu another 1/2 dozen had asked me in their broken English where I was from & wished me well. As I got off at a suburb before the heart of town an older lady asked if that was the stop I wanted & I assured her it was as one of the girls had said there were numerous hotels & guest houses there & since it was 4am not the 8am I had been told (hadn’t booked a room) I figured some one that spoke the language might be an asset! Guess it pays to try & blend in as much as you can.

Guess the bottom line on India & SE Asia is that they do what they have to for the survival of the family & if you figure you were overcharged it wasn’t really a scam but your lack of knowledge or bargaining ability. This I know from dealings with them in the bus business in Toronto where they do business the same way. Personally I much prefer that way than the western way of bigger is better & use any devious tactic to drive the small businessman out & replace them with a multi-national corporation that then simply screws the public with no sense of morals what so ever!!

Kathmandu is larger than I imagined with way more, mainly European trekkers but quite a few grey haired Nikon toting tourists & the shops in Boudha where I am caters to them.

Upon entering Japan the first thing they do, other than the obligatory health questions although they don’t seem so paranoid about it as Korea (no masks) is photograph you while taking your finger prints. Oh yeah they don’t seem to like it when you haven’t listed a hotel where you are staying & go overboard on the luggage search, although they were very nice about it & curious about my Guatemalan bag & Mongolian change purse, saying the designs were cool. The whole effort was put in a ridiculous light when a few hours later in the underground complex at the Hiroshima Station there was an information centre that would book you a cheap (for Japan) hotel room.

Took the 1st local train out of Simolineski to Hiroshima (express was twice the price) & arrived 4 hrs later with only one change so the express would have been a waste of money. Now sitting by the fountain (a great people watching place) at the station getting my bearings I formed my opinion of the westernization based on the number of bad dye jobs that passed by (not horrid ones like Russia but there is something NOT right about blonde Japanese!!)

Sitting around train or bus stations in the rest of the world sure makes one realize how backward we North Americans really are in public transportation. Not to mention how much better passengers are treated at Narita airport in Tokyo than the abomination of Pearson or the BS you are subjected to at at the absolute worst I have flown out of the Gestapo run Heathrow! Plus have to give JAL bonus points for NOT being politically correct & hiring male stewardess’s.

Upon leaving Shimoeeski on the local train it seemed like the better part of 2 hrs before getting out in the country with the the city being jammed in the valley between the mountains & everything just seemed small & crowded, a feeling I didn’t get in Korea. While the Japanese people are every bit as friendly & helpful AS Korea + more English is spoken Japan just didn’t turn my crank!

That said my visit to Hiroshima Memorial Park was very enlightening & thought provoking. In light of what happened there plus the the goings on in Central & South America over the 40 or so years two of my pet theories were proven beyond a doubt! (This is where I may alienate a few readers)

1) There is an embedded core group of extremely EVIL people running the CIA!

2) There is NO God as portrayed by Christianity!

Now if Obama took the “Peace Prize” seriously he would pinpoint that core group & do away with them but we all know that won’t happen which goes to rove what a sham the prize has become.

For those still with me next comes ubiquitous India.

So as we are leaving the harbor & South Korea after 5 restful & enlightening days I figured it would be a good time to reflect on my trip so far as it has covered 14 time zones & a lot of diverse country & cultures.

As of now I have in my travels visited 24 countries including last winters trip & only found 1 that I didn’t care for (Costa Rica). Also found my “Paradise” Guatemala (unequaled so far). All were interesting & worth the visit . Naturally some took my fancy more than others, namely Iceland & the ice fjord at Ilulissat Greenland which is absolutely amazing & mustn’t forget Birmingham which took my fancy much to my (& Tall Paul’s surprise). Even though I didn’t care for Amsterdam it was still an interesting part of the adventure.

However what most amazes me is how fate can play such a significant role in enhancing the great times on a trip!! Last year it kept me on the bus when it stopped in David Panama, where I had planned to get off, allowing me to meet Bob & a great group of ex-pats living there. I merely returned to David later in the week.

Now last week fate cancelled the ferry I had planned on taking from Vladivostok to Japan leaving me with the option of coming to Korea, not only that but she delayed the sailing of the Korea ferry by a day so I had time in Vladivostok. How strange is that!!!

I had considered Korea & might have come any way but it is doubtful as I erroneously thought with visiting Japan &  China Korea would likely be much the same. Now I have yet to make it to Japan (2moro morn) or China but I will go out on a limb here & say no, Korea is unique, for one thing it has been divided for over 50 years but my time here has been so different from any thing I have experienced elsewhere that I know it will not be repeated.

Any one coming to the area DO pay a visit, you won’t regret ii!!

I am also starting to like ferry travel which is strange as I never cared for boats but it’s a pretty cool way to travel & saves the cost of a hostel or hotel room. Of course I haven’t experienced any dough weather on one yet so I may well have a change of heart one day.

One thing that I learned last year is that travel changes one not only their outlook on life but their perception of the world. That lesson has been reinforced in spades since leaving the Americas & visiting a small part of Europe 7 Asia. It is unreal how slanted & biased the news reporting is in Canadian media which must take their feed from CNN.

This means that you are really limited as to whom you can have a serious conversation with as most won’t believe what you are saying based on experience as they have only listened to the propaganda & refuse to believe the truth. what is really sad is when someone is so brainwashed about how great a country Canada is they refuse to acknowledge the obvious flaws & just label any one who can see them a pessimist! Oh well that’s their problem.