myrainasia

Over a month since my last post. Now in Malaysia with my friend Carlos. It’s pouring out and Carlos is looking at the fishies in the aquarium which I will skip. The nice young man in this internet place is clearing the virus from my memory card so that I can continue uploading my pictures and I am trying to figure out how I am possibly going to catch up on 10 cities in China, Bangkok Part II, 4 islands in southern Thailand and my entry into Malaysia.

There are a number of reasons why things slowed down remarkably in China. I think the main problem is that I was a bit concerned about blogging my true opinions of China, yet I find it hard to blog a sanitized version of events. When I sit down to write, I want to write it all, the good and the bad. China had a whole heck of a lot of both. Another problem- I have been busy playing on Facebook. Not as busy as some of my friends who seem to be on Facebook more than one might imagine, but still- it’s a fun toy! Third problem- Lori and Eric came to visit and a few days after they left Carlos showed up- so I have no shortage of people to speak to at the moment. I blog more when I am starved for conversation and tired of talking to myself.

Really sorry to be missing most of the Olympics. Would have loved to see it in the U.S. with all of the puff pieces showing people and places in China, so I could sit there and say “I was there! and there! and saw that!” I have caught some of the actual sporting events although I missed almost all of the gymnastics and the Phelps phenom. I have seen more boxing than ever in my life because I have been watching from Thailand and one of the best stations was Indian. And I have not heard The Star Spangled Banner once! Oh well, there’s always DVD.

But back to the missing travels. I am thrilled that I got to see so much of China, but I do have to admit that it was the hardest place to travel of all of the places I have been. The biggest problem, as predicted, was the lack of English. For the most part this was not a terrible problem in the big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Xi’an. But it was a really big problem in some of the smaller cities that do not see that many foreign tourists. (It is necessary to specify “foreign” tourists, because the Chinese are definitely on the move and are touring their country in droves!) When I say there was a lack of English, this does not refer to a lack of scintillating conversation. This means problems getting food, problems getting a room, and big problems getting out of one town and into another. Eating for example. Some restaurants had English menus but figuring out the Chinglish was another matter entirely. Some places had pictures- I could pick out a whole fish and broccoli, but the finer points of the cuisine are not necessarily obvious. In some restaurants the staff would debate who spoke the best English and then send me out some young guy who would point at an item on the menu and proudly announce “pig” or “chicken”. Impossible to be annoyed with the group efforts displayed to achieve this minimal understanding. When absolutely no English could be found I would simply stroll around the restaurant staring at what other people were eating and trying not to be too obvious about it, and then finally bringing over a waitperson and pointing. Regrettably I am not 10 pounds lighter and managed to stay well fed even if I cannot say I sampled real Chinese food in great depth. However, anyone who suggests eating at a Chinese restaurant when I get home, does so at his or her own peril.

Then there was the transportation issue. There is no such thing as a travel agency in China. There are places that sell plane tickets and each city has a place that sells train tickets in addition to being able to buy them at the train station. And many of the big cities have offices where you can buy packaged tours for the famous sights in that city. But there is no place that you can go and say “Tomorrow I’d like to go …. Should I take a train? Bus? What time is the train? How long does it take to get there? …….” So I would have to find someone at my hotel who understood enough English to write in Chinese (for the taxi driver) “Take me to the bus station”. Then I would have to find someone at the bus station who understood me when I said the name of the city I wanted to get to. (You would be amazed at the amount of things the Chinese don’t understand when said my a non-Chinese speaker. Except for some of the really big cities, like Beijing or Shanghai, most people did not understand me when I said anything, even if I was trying my very very best to say it in Chinese.) Since this usually met with a blank stare I would have to pull out my Lonely Planet and point to the name of the city in Chinese. Then I would pray that the next bus was leaving within the next couple of hours, because once the ticket seller understood where I wanted to go, the only thing I was going to get was a ticket for the next bus going there, whether this was in 5 minutes or 5 hours. There was no way to try and take an alternate route- way too much information involved for that. And then, for the final amusement, I had to find my bus. Since there were no English signs in the station I would have to take my ticket and go from bus to bus until I arrived at the correct one. In a few stations there were hostesses of some sort who would escort me from the ticket window to the correct location and that was always helpful. Finding a bathroom to use before boarding was always successful although miming this request was often a bit embarrassing. (I prefer to mime washing my hands to taking a pee- luckily both get you to the same place.)

I could go on and on with these inconveniences but will stop here. What was more upsetting to me over time, was the attitude of the people to the non-Chinese speakers. I always thought I could make myself understood no matter what. Unfortunately, most Chinese people will not make an effort unless they understand a little bit of English, and are willing to use it. More often efforts are met with a shrug and people turn or walk away. When this would happen in places where I was trying to get service- such as my hotel, or a store or restaurant, I would really lose it and start yelling in English which, of course, no one understood. I guarantee not a soul understood “What am I, chopped liver?” but they definitely caught my tone of voice.

Lest people think I did not have a good time in China, I have to say that many of the people were really lovely and the sights were definitely amazing. I have 26 sets of pictures from China, more than anywhere else I have been, and I, personally, think they are all stunning. The Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an were fantastic. So were the Longmen Caves outside of Luoyang. I stopped in Heifeng because Lonely Planet explained that there had once been a Jewish population there- Jews who had settled there after traveling on the Silk Route- and there were supposed to be some Jewish stellae in the museum- but the museum people, once they finally understood (I think) what I was talking about, said this was no longer in the museum. So Heifeng was nothing much for me, although I did get my hair cut and everybody in the place was very excited to have a westerner there. Qufu was interesting for the home of Confucius but zip on the English. I really liked Qingdao and probably would have liked it even more if I drank (Tsingtao) beer. It once had a large German population and the old part of the new city has some really beautiful buildings. The beaches were amazing- more for the number of people on the beach than anything else. The new part of the city was in the midst of Olympic preparation- Qingdao hosted the sailing events.

That brings me to Beijing where I stayed for 9 days. I could blog for hours about Beijing. But not today. I’m pretty sure this is not my best entry, but it’s a start at catching up.

Promised to keep up to date in China and have fallen behind, yet again.  The good news is I was able to change my ticket (kudos to Eugenia at Airtreks- my round-the-world ticket brokers) and extend China for two additional weeks, so this took some of the pressure off my travels here.  But pressures there are many.  China is not an easy place in which to travel.  This is mostly due to the minimal English spoken here.  It is one thing not to be able to hold a conversation; it is quite another not to be able to figure out how to get somewhere because no one can give you any information and all efforts to pronounce the place you want to go are met with a shrug.  This is not to say that all of my encounters have been negative.  Sometimes people do the sweetest things and, for a moment, you forget how pissed off you were 5 minutes ago.  Like the guy who was going to walk me back to my hotel in Tangkou because it was after 10 pm and, apparently all of the taxis stop working before 10 pm.  Unfortunately I didn’t know the name of my hotel (definitely my fault for not having someone write it down for me in Chinese), and even though I knew where it was I could not communicate it.  I knew it was only about 5 minutes from the center of town; the problem was that it was a rather deserted 5 minute walk and  I was not ecstatic about doing it by myself.  Luckily, a taxi driver came by and, after another 10 minutes of negotiations (conducted by my new friend) he agreed to take me, and I paid him 20 yuan (about $3- or 3 times what the trip was worth) to drive me around the corner.  The plot thickened when I arrived at the hotel and found the door locked and chained. (Locking the door at night is not uncommon in Asia- chaining it up is.)  After yelling a bit, I managed to wiggle under the lock and between the doors at which point someone came down the stairs.  Next day they wanted me to pay for the broken door.  I knew better than to take a hotel room that’s not in the center of town, but it was right next to the bus station and they pounced on me when I got there.  One interesting thing I have learned in China- everyone speaks English when you arrive and before they have your money; afterwards, not a word. 

Ah,  but I digress.  This was to be the Yangtze River story.  I traveled on the President 6- Yangtze Paradise.  Against my desire I was on a Chinese ship.  But it was wonderful.  Also started out with a couple of glitches.  As I was being shown to my room I commented about how happy I was to have my own room.  The response was that I didn’t.  Hissy fit #1- especially since the woman who had booked it had gone through hoops getting me my own room at a negotiated price.  I showed them that my ticket was definitely for more than 1 bed in a double room, and after a bit I was shown to my room without a balcony.  That I was okay with- the absence of a refrigerator was what pissed me off.  At approximately $450 for 3 nights I really wanted a refrigerator.  The next morning I renewed my nudging and ultimately, paid an additional $10 for an upgrade to a lovely room on the next floor up with a large double bed, refrigerator and balcony.  Talk about your happy camper!

The food was really very good and plentiful.  The dining room had all round tables which seated 10.  I would estimate there were about 150 guests- about 50% Chinese, 30% a German tour group, and 20% assorted others with a fair sprinkling of Americans.  There were 2 tables of what were the assorted others and I ended up with a lovely young Swedish couple (who had won the trip based on a business plan they had submitted at their university), 3 Poles (2 men who were colleagues at a university in Poland, and the wife of one of them- 1 man spoke English fairly well and the wife of the other made charming efforts),  2 older German speaking Swiss men who did not join in the conversations much at all, and 1 British woman- Jennie (who I liked very much but who gave me an invalid e-mail address- if you read this Jennie, write!)  The other assorted-other table was all English speaking but it seemed rude to try and switch tables.  I enjoyed hanging out with Nolan (who managed to make it into many of my pictures for those of you who actually look) as well as with Connie and her daughter Cecilia.  Cecilia was lovely and I liked Connie a lot as well until she dissed me at the airport.  The English speaking group rounded out with 2 fascinating guys from Hawaii and the daughter of one of them, and a South African couple who swept up the dance floor.  The Germans pretty much kept to themselves and the Chinese did not speak a word of English and did a lot of hawking and spitting.

The Three Gorges were magnificent.  Much discussion was had about how much the water has risen since the dam was built and how much it will still rise before it reaches its final level.  Our guide at the actual dam (which was huge and very impressive and which would have been a lot more impressive if the day had been less hazy) told us about the wonderful relocations that were done to the million or so whose homes disappeared, but the westerners among us did a lot of wondering- like what about the cemeteries- since we all know that Chinese people are reverential to their departed ancestors.  Lots more questions, but none of us really dared to ask them.

Oh, back to the food for a moment- I was getting there before I digressed to the people.  The center of the table had a rotating platter and all of the dishes were served “family style” in large bowls placed on this platter.  Every meal had a batch of appetizers (which I often managed to miss) followed by a soup, 3 or 4 main courses, 3 or 4 vegetable platters, and, of course, all the rice you could eat.  Then a little dessert and fruit.  Most of the food was quite good and nobody ever went to bed hungry!

The cruise officially started after dinner hours the first night.  The second night was the captain’s welcome banquet and the third and last night was the captain’s farewell banquet.  Wonder what they do on a 4 night cruise.

Evening entertainment was sweet if not brilliant- cruise-like, not Vegas-like.  All of the staff went out of their ways to be helpful.  Seems the Chinese cruise ships have discovered tipping (the envelope with excellent English instructions that was placed in our rooms the last night perfectly resembled tipping suggestions back home- why nothing else does is an interesting question) and I think most of us (can’t speak for the Chinese group) obliged.

There were a few covered shore excursions and I paid for the one extra that was offered although missing it would not have been a tremendous loss except for the cutest tour guide I have had to date.  (Her English name- all of the Chinese that work with foreigners take English names- was Betty and I dubbed her Betty Boop.  She was a teensy little thing with a big smile, good English, and an adorable attitude and I wanted to tuck her under my arm and take her back to the boat.  When she overheard me talking about her, I explained what I had said (not in so many words) which caused her to break into that very Asian giggle and caused one of the other tourists to wonder if I had put her out of commission.) 

One of the other excursions involved taking another boat to an even smaller boat in order to have a little cruise down a side river.  This boat was propelled by 2 guys using oars and 1 guy giving directions.  This was all well and good until we got to the point where the water was too shallow to oar and they showed us how the guys pulled the boats around.  At this point we all felt like pampered rich people watching the slaves at work and most of us wanted to get out of the boat to lighten the load.  Very weird tourist attraction.  Our guide for this excursion was another lovely woman (who looked about 25 but was probably closer to 50) who sang for us on the trip back.  She had a lovely voice so I tipped her at the end even though I did not buy her book or DVD.

I stayed up the last night to watch us pass through 2 of the 3 locks (there are 4 but the last will not be used until the water reaches its final level) although you would think I have seen enough locks after the 17 or so we passed on my Russia cruise last summer (feels like it was about 10 years ago as opposed to last summer).  The last morning we got the tour of the Three Gorges Dam.  A good time was had by all.

Great cruise- worth the splurge.

Now I’m in Xi’an and tomorrow I go to see the terracotta warriors.  Thus, off to bed- which I had planned to do 2 hours ago.  Now I just owe Shanghai, Hangzhou, Huang Shan, and Hefei.  And I am storing up a batch of unrelated Chinese thoughts that I need to share when I have more time.

Stay tuned. 

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