Melting

Early in the morning, which was becoming the theme for our travels through China, Chris and I boarded our bus from Xiahe to Langmusi, another small Tibetan town featuring a monastery and beautiful scenery. The leg room, astoundingly, was quite good on this bus, and we comfortably settled in for the 4 hour drive. The scenery continued to keep us entertained,and as our bus rumbled along the hilly roads, we chatted to a nice French couple, Julie and Guillaume, about their travels in China. We exchanged stories and told them about the horse festival, which they regrettably missed. Unlike many bus journeys, the time flew by along with the numerous peaks and valleys outside. We arrived in Langmusi uneventfully and without a warning, with no signs or characteristics to show us that the journey had ended. We walked around the small town and looked for accomodation, searching in vain for a guesthouse that apparently doesn’t exist anymore. We finally settled on the first one we went to, and for less than half the price of a double room in their new wing, we had a dorm room to ourselves with comfy beds and less than clean floors. Julie and Guillaume had a room down the hall from us, so we arranged to meet them a popular cafe for lunch, where we hoped to get some information about travels to the next stop on our itinerary, to where there was no direct bus. The small town of Langmusi was surrounded by beautiful and unique scenery on every side. Facing one side was a huge red plateau similar to the scenery I saw in Australia at Kakadu, while on two other sides huge hills, or possibly they were mountains now, displayed rocky formations out of the ground known as the Stone Forest. The last side showed small hills in comparison, but was built with small homes and temples for the monastery in town. It was a bright clear day and we were looking forward to doing some exploring in the surrounding hills. But first was lunch, and at the small cafe, famous for its enormous Big Yak Attack burgers, we chatted with Julie and Guillaume about their next plans, and we agree to find some transport together to Songpan, the next town we wanted to visit. Read the rest of this entry »

Exiting the train station in Lanzhou, I had only one thought on my mind, and that was how crappy I felt. I pushed this thought aside however, and managed to concentrate on the new task at hand. We needed to get to the bus station to head to our actual destination, Xiahe, and the next bus was leaving in about 15 minutes. Luckily, Chris and I had used our brains for once in Xi’an the night before, and had the girl at our hostel write down a key phrase for us in Chinese: south bus station. We quickly found a taxi driver and showed her the card, and she nodded, agreed on a price and we set off for the station. We arrived just as the bus was about to leave, and though there were touts trying to sell us tickets on that bus, we couldn’t think fast enough and walked past them inside the station. We both knew that we needed a bathroom and some water at the very least before our bus ride, and after easily buying tickets for the next bus an hour later, we took care of some basic needs while we waited to depart. Much to our dismay, we saw as we boarded the bus, there was very little leg room on our seats as well, and our legs ached just looking at them. Tired as I was, I couldn’t sleep on the bus, and mostly stared out the window at the rapidly changing landscapes outside. Read the rest of this entry »

It is a common practice among travelers that you try to read a book about the country you are currently traveling in. Almost everyone I met was reading “First They Killed My Father,” a story about the Khmer Rouge regime, while traveling in Cambodia. For China, I found a book by one of my favorite authors Paul Theroux called “Riding the Iron Rooster: Traveling by Train Through China.” Though it was written in the late 1980’s and a bit outdated as China has changed quite a lot in those years, it was still a fascinating read about his trip through many of the same places we were going. It is also an unscientifically agreed upon fact with travelers, that train travel is always a better option than bus travel, and most people are willing to pay more money to travel by train whenever possible. You can get up and walk around, there is a bar car or restaurant, it’s more social, there are bathrooms (however disgusting) and numerous other pluses. The minuses are few, except for maybe this key phrase: hard seat on overnight train in China. Read the rest of this entry »

Boarding our Thai Airways flight in the morning, I had some little jitters about my next destination. Every person I have spoke with who has been to China has just said how hard it is to travel there, that no one speaks English, the food is bad, it’s hot, it’s polluted, it’s overwhelming etc. No other destination that I’ve been to so far has instilled this sense of anxiety in me, and no other have I been given such dire warnings about the state of travel. As I boarded my Thai Airways flight in Bangkok and settled into my very nice economy seat (with plenty of leg room, ahem, United), I felt an urge to flee back to Southeast Asia. That feeling didn’t leave me for the first entire day I spent in Beijing, but it quickly subsided and has left me breathless, a combination of the smog, the throngs of people, and the unbelievable “newness” of a country. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a short hour or so flight from Pnomh Penh brought me back to Bangkok around 10am in the morning. I had one day to do a bunch of errands and things I needed to do before I would meet my friend Chris again and prepare to go to China. Since my flight got in so early, I assumed that I would have most of the day to get everything done and still have time to spare. But of course, in Asia, nothing should ever be assumed. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t know too much about Cambodia before I went, and I’m actually really glad that I didn’t do too much reading or preparing for my traveling there, as I was pleasantly surprised by many things there, especially the main tourist sights such as Angkor Wat, Tuol Sleng Museum and the Kratie Irrawaddy dolphins, along with the delicious food and the warm and friendly people. Learning about what a horrible history the country has had, makes travel there even more interesting, especially when you realize their civil war only really ended about 9 years ago. The infrastructure is appalling however, and getting to and from certain places definitely needs patience, and sometimes, buns of steel. First impressions the day or two at the border crossing aside, I found my travels through the country my most rewarding so far. Sometimes, the worst day or event turned into my favorite memory or adventure, which is something that no guidebook can arrange for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Feeling refreshed on my last morning in Siem Reap, I decided to do a last minute,very touristy activity, and take a ride in the hot air balloon over Angkor Wat. Since my 3 day pass had expired the day before, I was concerned that I would need to buy another one day pass, but my moto driver Red assured me that he knew a way around the checkpoint, and after calling the place to make sure they were flying, off we went. Red took me the long way around, towards the airport and onto a backroad, where the checkpoint to enter Angkor Wat was only two blocks further up from the the hot air balloon place. Relieved, I was greeted quickly by an attendant, and told it would be only about 30 minutes, since they were in the middle of a large tour group. I was the only person there on my own, the entire waiting area was full of Japanese tourists. Since I had never been in a hot air balloon before, I was a little nervous, but quickly assured after realizing it was attached to a large wire. After paying my exhorbant $15 fee, I waited my turn and finally boarded the huge platform area with about 15 other people. The balloon quickly took off, and lucky for us, it was a nice clear day, or else we wouldn’t have been able to see diddly squat. Angkor Wat was miles away, and without a decent telephoto lens, the pictures I took are laughable.  The breezey 20 minute ride was soon over, and with that so was my visit to Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temples. Read the rest of this entry »

The Temples of Angkor Wat is a huge and vast complex of temples, varying in degree of age, architectural style, and cultural and religious significance. Slightly misleading is the name, as Angkor Wat is actually just one particular temple, but the name “Angkor” refers to the capital of the ancient Khmer empire, spanning over 600 yearsfrom AD 802 to 1432. There are hundreds of temples included in the complex, as well as some that are hours away from Siem Reap and are not included in the Angkor Wat pass. The big decision is always on how many days to visit the temples, as you have choices of only a one, three or seven day pass. Most people I’ve met go for three days, though I’ve met one woman who did a seven day and loved it, and a few who did a one day and said that was enough for them. Paul and I opted for a three day pass, based solely on time restraints, and though I think I might have been able to do a few more days, we managed to accomplish quite a lot in the time we had. Read the rest of this entry »

The town of Battambang is actually Cambodia’s second largest city, situated on the banks of the Stung Sangker river. Paul and I didn’t know much about Battambang, only that the boat trip to Siem Reap was the main reason people stop here, and that Chanta, our travel companion, was born there before emigrating to the US. But for us, what we thought would be a short day before heading north to Angkor Wat turned out to be two great days, our favorite so far in Cambodia. Read the rest of this entry »

The sun was shining brightly as I woke up in our luxurious guesthouse in Pnomh Penh. I checked my watch, and it was only about 8:30am, which was clearly not a long enough sleep after the previous days’ travel, but with the prospect of no rain, I forced myself out of bed and tried to calmly wake Paul up. Finally, after some negotiating, he too realized that it was too nice of a day, and while we were in no mood for sightseeing some of the major attractions in Pnomh Penh, we wanted to get out and explore the city. But our first goal would have to be food. We set off in what would be the first of many tuk-tuk rides to find something to eat, and began to catch of glimpse of what a completely different place Cambodia is, to what our first two days impression was. Read the rest of this entry »