Mutton Mania

So this post comes to you direct from Ulan Baatar. Since you probably don't know where that is, or of which country it is the capital, I will simply enlighten you: Mongolia. However, I will pick up the story from where I left off:

I never did find Charlotte in Shanghai, because she had already left for Qingdao, a place I couldn't get a bus ticket for. As it turns out, I was probably lucky since I ended up enjoying Shanghai, and they didn't like Qingdao, aside from the tour of the Tsingtao brewer, the largest in the world. While I was there, I was particularly impressed by the Shanghai Museum, which has an excellent collection of Chinese artifacts of many different time periods, and in a more frighteningly way, the Shanghai City Planning Museum. Essentially, the government is trying to grow a city of 20 million people by another 10+ percent in the coming years, all without explaining what public transportation will carry the already bursting city and the expanding surrounding cities. And of course, because it's a government that doesn't need to act accountably, there is absolutely not one mention of costs in the entire place, or environmental impact. the government just talks about "ecologically sound development" without any evidence or explanation of what that means to them.

Once I got to Beijing - this time a "soft sleeper" train, which was most excellent (they give you soft slippers to take home!), meeting Charlotte worked out beautifully and we went back to her place since it was really early in the morning.
Visiting in Beijing with Charlotte and Michal (her boyfriend) was wonderful, in part because it was their final days so that we went to all their favorite restaurants. Therefore, my time in Beijing was absolute the most delectable culinary experience of my trip: we ate at one amazing restaurant after the other, I was constantly full of wonderful food. It was almost like Thailand, except that the food was far more varied in terms of the types of food we were eating (Japanese, Yunnan, Persian, fish and chips - and that last one made no sense to me at the time or now, since we'll all be back in England soon, just like our Doner yesterday; however, I did enjoy both AND I realize that this use of the semi-colon was wrong). We also saw some cool sites, although I skipped the Great Wall. Firstly, it's not that cool a site to visit on your own, which I would have had to do, and second because I don't think it's going to pick up and leave anytime soon. On the day we went to the Temple of the Clouds, we actually had pretty much the best weather since Charlotte got to Beijing: as a result, we could see all of the skyline as well as the mountain ranges to the West and North, a rare event in a city so smog covered that even blue sky essentially never exists no matter how "clear" meteorologists say the weather is. Also, it's a really cool and important site that no one ever hears about until they get to Beijing, which i find quite strange.
Then, on Monday morning we boarded a train to Ulan Baatar, the first leg of our trans-Mongolian train journey. However close the two cities might look on a map, they are 28 hours apart. Unlike my first trip of that length though, I was in a sleeping car with Charlotte and Michal, plus their enormous amounts of luggage. As a result, we were in pretty tight, but it was a lot more comfortable than the other ride, believe me. However, Mongolian trains are not to be compared to Chinese soft sleepers: those are the best, as i found between Shanghai and Beijing.
The scenery between the two cities is quite amazing. My favorite parts were the Gobi desert, which was just a huge brown sand expanse that was coming in our window as I woke up in the morning and was covering everything with a thin layer of fine sand, as well as the steppes that came to the north thereof, with the wide valleys of green grass, occasional gers/yurts, and plenty of horses as well as some cattle.
The city itself has impressed me. I guess my expectations weren't that high, as I expected an old, dusty city of Soviet housing blocks (like Biysk) but with yurts scattered around. As it turns out, the city is very modern, people are really well dressed for the most part, by which I mean that the clothing styles are more akin to Europe due to the Russian influence here than in other parts of Asia. Basically, they are tasteful. Also, Mongolian women do not get the credit they deserve: I'm on the verge of declaring them the most attractive of the countries I've visited.

ok, I'm being kicked out of the internet cafe, leaving on the train tomorrow, I'll arrive in Moscow in 4 or 5 days, I think. we'll see how it works out with the luggage and us in the compartment.

Mad dashes

I've had a really crazy week or so (how long has it been?) that has seen me cross most of Asia in very little time. Here's a quick filler, I'm sorry I can't be more informative right now, as I'm far too worn out:
From Thailand, I crossed early morning into Laos via the Friendship Bridge, only 20 or so km from Vientiane, the capital of that country. It's a capital, but real small and not very hectic (especially by Asian standards), where there isn't much more to do than see a couple Wats (monasteries) and the National Museum. Having Watted myself out in Thailand, and headed to Luang Prabang next - a city full of Wats that the UNESCO has protected - I got myself a) A Vietnamese visa (in all of 15 minutes!), b) a bus ticket, and after visiting the national museum, c) a pleasant buzz as I sat on the bank overlooking the Mekong, eating and drinking Beerlao, the cheapest beer I've ever encountered, but without doubt also the best on my trip, except for a few microbrews in New Zealand and Kunstmann in Chile. Beerlao on it's own may be enough to justify a trip to the country. But the weirdest thing was stepping off the municipal bus I had taken from the border to the Morning Market in the center of town (if you can call it that....) and ducking inside to escape the hounding of tuktuk drivers - only to be standing in front of dozens of cases/vendors of cell phones, PDA's, and other potable communications devices generations ahead of what there is in the USA. Weird to see that, especially as a first sight of the country.
After an overnight bus I arrived in Luang Prabang, where I spent the day seeing a few Wats, before picking up a book (David Copperfield), and after 2 nights on cramped buses, finally caught some sleep in a bad. Bright and early the next day, I headed off for Hanoi - which looks only 300-400 km away in a straight line, if you check a map. However, there are no direct connections, and so I spent 10 hours going SE, leaving me 3 hours shy of the Vietnamese border (all of 130km! Lao is not for those in a rush....) at Phonasavan, another UNESCO world heritage site, where I had to stay the night. Found a decent bed for 2 US with a shared toilethole, and a cool owner who shared his rice whiskey with me - yumm! I only wish I'd have had time to stay and see the Fields of Jars, the big archaeological thing there, but I was trying to meet Charlotte in Shanghai, so I had to keep pushing on. Also, and just as an aside - in much of Laos, and especially this part, you can NEVER EVER step off the path - the country is literally full of UXOs (unexploded ordinances) from the USA's "Secret War" - more ordinance was dropped per square kilometer here than anywhere else in the world, ever. This was between 1963 and 1975, and most of that ordinance is still lying around. Quite frankly, I don't understand what they were aiming for, the whole country is just farming villages, and since the US couldn't hit the Viet Cong in Vietnam, I don't know why they thought they'd be able to do so here. In continued ridiculousness, the US has never taken part in removing the mines. There's a non-profit - principally funded by the French - and the UN doing all the work here, but more than 80% of the country is still dangerous, so I've been told. As one of the few non-signatories to the anti-landmine convention, you'd think the least the US could do is help this little country out a bit and pay for some of the removal, but no, the US won't clean up after itself, will it. Wonder what's going to happen on global climate change and the UXOs in Iraq. Well, here's your first vision people, and this vision has lots of people, from children to ancients, running around without hands, feet and legs - or for many, crawling along the streets.
6.30 the next morning, I was on a 12 hour bus to Vinh in Vietnam, where I caught a 6 hour bus to Hanoi, arriving shortly after midnight, not a cent in my pocket, but 10 dollars in debt to a German girl who was on the same mission as I and had lent me the money.

The next morning, I tried to buy train tickets directly from there to Beijing - sold out. So instead I went to see the Palace of Literature, which was first built in 1070 and became the first national university 6 years thereafter - a fine old temple, at the gates of which rides must dismount, as is written there. Although this temple was mostly inscribed with Chinese characters, it generally was really nice to be back in a country that uses Latin script - maybe there is something beneficial to colonialism? No, just kidding, but being able to match up words or show people writing for directions makes a huge difference. But I digress....
Next I tried to see the dead Ho Chi Min. I figured that going through Hanoi, Beijing and Moscow, I could make a nice little tour of seeing various dead communists in their differing state of being made of wax (Lenin is believed to be more than 99% wax at this point). Unfortunately, it was Friday, and thus the mausoleum was closed, and I was running around sweltering Hanoi in long pants for nothing (hottest place on the trip). The mausoleum is also closed on Mondays, apparently as days of rest, although I'm unclear why a dead person needs rest. But at least with the rest coming on Mondays and Fridays, it's evenly distributed throughout the week, just as Communism has successfully distributed the Vietnamese wealth equally among its people..... wait a moment! No it hasn't! Lots of Mercedes Benz in Hanoi, and lots of really really poor people. An all these "communist" countries - Laos, Vietnam, China - seem to have a far more thriving entrepreneurial spirit than anything I've seen in the West. Unfortunately, since leaving Thailand, I've also come to realize that most communist economies are also rip-off economies, so you always have to double check everything, write down every price (a spoken word is worth nothing in the face of corrupt police), and always make sure to count your change. It's quite annoying, to be honest, and makes me appreciate the land of smiles all the more in retrospect, although Bangkok certainly contained many of these elements. It's interesting to contrast Laos and Bolivia in that respect: Both are the poorest, landlocked countries surrounded by others that attract most the tourists, and thus are apt for comparison. In Bolivia, the people are genuinely happy you came, impressed that you did, and generally honest in their business with you. In Laos, you're a big walking dollar sign and everyone wants a piece - including monasteries and monks!
Being disappointed by not seeing Ho and not having a ticket, I left in the early afternoon and headed to the border, where I crossed and then got a bus to Nanning, only to find out that everything is full. The following day I got on a 28 hour train ride to Shanghai - and all that was left were standing tickets. I will say that this ride was by far the most unnerving and uncomfortable in my life. Also, if SARS ever makes a comeback, all the Chinese are f&^%ed, because what observed there nearly made me sick. The trains are overcrowded, people spilling all over the place. And you'd think that would mean some people would sit on the ground, but you'd be wrong if you thought that: the same people who would benefit most from a clean floor - those standing - liberally put their waste there, spit, and generally act as though they are in the mighty outdoors, not a cramped train. This is abetted by the attendants, who every so often come through and sweep up the floor, which means they just spread around the grime as they go, making it really really nasty. The result is that you quite literally have to stand. However, people squeeze together on the benches and get up to stretch occasionally, letting some of the standing passengers get a couple minutes of rest. Only at night do some people sit - but only between cars, near the bathrooms on the metal floors; these areas have had people walking out of the bathrooms (once again toiletholes) and over them, spreading god knows what all day long (the floors inside were always wet), so that was a decision I really didn't understand. I also saw one guy lie down on his stomach, then make like a snake and slither under a bench of seats, not to be seen again for several hours (but then, with a big brownish-black mark on the front of his white shirt), a feat I was quite impressed by if only for his agility, not to mention willingness to sleep on the floor.

Once I arrived in Shanghai, I tried to reach Charlotte by phone, but since she still hadn't sent me her mobile number, I had to call Prachee in the States, where I woke her up at 4 am. Because SkypeOut somehow doesn't seem to work in China, and I can hear other people but they can't hear me, she got on the computer and then called my mother for me, thus supplying me with the appropriate mobile number - thank you again to the 2 most important women in my life. However, it was for naught as Charlotte did not have enough credit left on her phone to receive calls, and so I went to find a hotel near the main railway station, which was another nightmare. Now, I'm staying in a somewhat shady place where not a word of English is spoken. I wonder if my bag will still be there when I get back tonight? I locked it up with my PakSafe and all, but who knows.....

As for China, Nanning really impressed me: it's huge (the name wasn't familiar to me, I have to add, although certainly I must have read of it somewhere), and it was seemingly all new. The bus terminal was amazing, and the new high rise section of the city was like nothing else I've ever seen. I also stayed in a hotel that had a computer in the room, although most the sites I like to use - like blogger, for instance - are user-content oriented and thus not necessarily accessible in China. That said, I really hope this post comes through, because I can't see my own page here, but I'm hoping I can post to it.
As for Shanghai, it too is huge, but even on a clear day like today, you can look at the sun without problems because the air is so filthy. I've also noticed an overabundance of McDonald's. Strangely enough though, trying to find an internet cafe here is akin to seeking out a barbacoa burrito in Tel Aviv - it's probably not going to happen (for those that don't know, barbacoa is string barbecue pork). Moreover, most people here can't even understand the concept. When I try to explain it, I draw blank stares, and the best I have been able to do is the business center at major hotels, although these aren't really what I'm going for since they are kind of expensive and not really oriented to long term use. I think the problem is that China is too connected: every little store here has a computer with internet and printer, and most people have internet on their phones (not to mention at home), so they don't need an internet cafe. Only near the South train station did I find an internet cafe, and I'm contemplating returning, although it's on the far side of the city, 30 minutes by subway.

Wow, this has turned into a really long post. But I still ahve to add a few final notes:
I've gone about 4000km in 4 days, most of it through rural areas - I have seen a lot of Asia, and buses and trains have given me an interesting view of the life of those who get on and off them.

I'm still shocked at how few travelers in SE-Asia are aware that Thailand is no longer a democracy (technically a constitutional monarchy), but that it's democratic leadership was done away in a military coupe last October, and the promised new elections (that were to follow within 6 months) still haven't happened. Now the militaries are trying to solidify their position as political heavyweights, here an article from today. Also, the term People Republic pretty much means top-down autocracy, but that hasn't reached the travellers yet, either.....
In Laos, having a good time is not part of the government's plan. Everything closes early, and the bar in Luang Prabang kicked everyone out 25 minutes before "close" because they said the police was coming in "2 minutes". 15 minutes later, still no pigs on the horizon..... I've used this one at house parties to clear out space, and apparently so do bars in Laos.
Why is Rob Hughes the best football writer on earth? Well, beyond his unique access to the biggest players in the game - both on and off the field - here a sample of his writing: "Far from the maddening nonsense of the Beckhams touching down on a distant Galaxy, in the Asian Cup tournament soccer has real meaning on planet Earth." Delicious.....

The Flying Farang

So on my way towards Laos, I decided to stop off in a city called Nakhsin Rachisima, or something like that. It's known as Khorat, and it's the second largest city in the country, although you wouldn't know from visiting, because there is nothing to see in the city itself, and it has to be the deadest city of 2 million anywhere (kind of like Naples, FL is the deadest city in America). At least according to Lonely Planet, because Wikipedia has a very different opinion. But there are some Angkor cities and monuments nearby, supposedly the best in Thailand, so I thought I'd get a taste of that because I won't get to Angkor Wat for a while. And also, because it was sort of on the way and I'd only seen so little of Thailand despite being there for a full 2 weeks.
In order to get there, I decided to forgo public transportation and rent a motorbike instead (you know, one of those little scooters) with which to race around the countryside. I had a lot of fun doing so, except at one point I was caught in driving rain for about 90 minutes. And starting at a certain speed (not sure which, my speedometer and odometer didn't work) rain drops become really painful when they hit you, so that was not a great experience.
Because I was off the tourist trail, everyone wanted pictures with the white guy, so countless Thais now have pictures with a slightly befuddled looking, grinning German guy two heads taller than anyone else in the picture - all of which was accomplished without a common language.

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I arrived in the border town at 4 am this morning and voila! a mere four hours later I was in a crowded minibus on the Laotian side, headed towards town. Once there, I immediately got my Vietnamese visa, a process that took no more than 15 minutes. Therefore, I'm now set for the rest of my journey, at least as far as crossing borders is concerned. From now on, I'll be sightseeing by day and busing by night - sounds fun, huh?

Here are some final thoughts about things I'll miss from Thailand: the food, standing on the back platform of the saewethang instead of riding inside it, the vast expanses of green rice paddies (especially when they flood after rain), and the commonality of English. But on the upside, I do have YouTube again (it's banned by the military government in Thailand).

Getting a hang

One of the biggest differences - actually, by far the greatest difference - between my travels so far and my time here in Thailand (and from here forward) is the level of immersion in the local culture. While I am not trying to suggest that I have been "part" of the social fabric of the countries I've visited, I have enjoyed some priviledges most other backpackers didn't: I spoke the language, had studied the history, and understood some of the cultural idiosyncracies in the various places I visited in South America, and New Zealand to a lesser degree. In fact, I'd often watch other gringos suffer horribly in trying to ask for basic things, laughing hard on the inside, before helping out a few minutes later (yes, this was my revenge on all the couples travelling together, of whom I was and still am jelous). Most notably, I don't speak the language here, so beyond looking foreign, I really can't communicate with the people, either - I'm definitly a full blown farang.
However, coming to grips with this problem has been easier as I've just decided to give up any pretense of cultural, and especially linguistic, competency. Thus, I now mercilessly employ English, body language, and waving arms in my attempts to convey questions and ideas. All the while, I smile, which is really important in this country- the name means "land of smiles." While not perfect, I have found this approach can win friends also. Today I stopped off in a market where I was probably the first white person in many weeks, if not ever. I ate really spicy food (to the shock/amusement of the local vendors) and laughed along with all their jokes - despite the fact they were making fun of me, and I knew it. By the end of the meal, I was being invited to try meals at other stands - a bite here, a bite there - and a bunch of peoploeinvited me to stay and drink beer with them all night. However, I still had to drive my rental motorcycle back to town, so I only had a beer and moved on.

Tomorrow I head to Laos. Know anyone who's been there? Me neither. All the things I've experienced here in Thailand should be amplified there, and with a little luck I'll find a mosquito net at the border, too. I have no idea what the internet situation will be like, but hopefully I can keep you up to date on the goings on....

Love the Empire Day

I'm in high spirits right now, although I'm sure that will wear off shortly. the reason is that I just checked the baseball standings for the first time this season, to discover a pleasant surprise: going into the all star break, not only is Boston on track for 100 wins, but more importantly, the Pirates aren't last in their division. Can you feel the passion!

Just so no one complains that this post doesn't involve anything about my travels, I'd just like to point out that you learned that I haven't been following baseball. But that really isn't anything new. But today I also had a wonderful culinary experience, one so strange I must relate it, especially as a number of the ingredients aren't my favorites. I had a waffle filled with sweet corn (yellow maize) and shaved fresh coconut. It was amazing, despite the weird combination that it was.

In case you're blind (which would mean you couldn't read this anyway)

My blog has undergone a change! On the right side, you will now find links. Not that these are spectacular in any way, but the first one is a link to my Flickr account, where I've been saving all the pictures from my trip. Si check those out when you get bored at work, or if you want to see (i mean, really see) what Willis is talkin' about.

I know that many of the pictures aren't that great, or don't mean much without some introduction, but I'm sorry, I already spend way too much time in internet cafes, so I haven't yet labeled the 1500+ pictures. Nor have most been geotagged, but that may yet happen sometime in the future.

Have fun procrastinating!

I got duped today

So after about 6 months of travelling (a little more, actually, but who's counting....), I figured I'd be a pretty savvy traveller by now. Well, you'd hope so, or else I need to go buy one of those t-shirts on Khosang Road where a monkey has a bandaged stump for an arm and is juggling a chainsaw with the other arm, and the caption reads "I'm a slow learner." I may do that anyway though. Or maybe Ed deserves that one for his blog earlier about the doctor.

So today, I visited a temple and was then going to go to the palace to check it out. As I'm leaving the monastery compound, the ticket guy starts talking to me, which isn't that unusual since almost all Thais are extremely friendly and super helpful. So after a few minutes of chit chat, he tells me that the royal palace is closed for some kind of holiday or something. This seemed entirely plausible as parts of the monastery I had just visited were closed also. So he suggests these other Wats (monasteries) instead, and says I can go by the travel info center on the way to get some errands I had done. He also gave me a suggestion on which markets might yield good prices for technology stuff, as I needed a storage card for my camera. He also helped me out by negotiating an excellent price with a tuk tuk (motorized rickshaw) driver to run me to these places before dropping me back off at the Royal Palace. Well, I thought it was an excellent price ($1.30) that probably is normal for locals.
Now, at the time I thought "cool, that was nice" but after my first errand, the guy keeps mentioning a specific tailor. Now, I'd been interested in maybe talking to a tailor here, but more out of curiosity than anything else, and it begin to dawn on me that I've fallen for a classic Bangkok scam, one so frequent it's even detailed in my guide book, because there is no way the 40 Baht will cover gas expenses. After another stop, this time at a Wat, I quite frankly tell the driver that I can't take any clothing with me since my bag is full, but he plays it real cool: He straight up tells me that he gets a cut if I go, regardless of whether or not I buy anything, and that's what makes the ride price possible. I tell him I'll take a quick look, but he shouldn't get his hopes up, and indeed, after talking to the tailor for 2 minutes it's clear he won't provide the services I would consider, and so I stroll back outside and the tuk tuk shoots off to the next sight. This was a really cool Wat, located/built as a hill on the top of which is a shrine in which remnants of the Buddha himself are kept (if I understood correctly) and which is topped with a gold spire. From there, you have a fantastic 360 degree view out over the entire city, and I am really happy that I've gotten there.

However, when I descend back down, my driver has disappeared. But since I got a city map that includes the bus lines, I am no longer dependant of the taxis and tuk tuks, and can make my own way around the city for much less money. Moreover, it turns out I'm not that far from the palace anyway, and there is some other stuff even closer by that I wouldn't mind seeing.

So let me summarize the situation: I got an errand done and saw two sites I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise (but am glad I saw), then got dropped down the block from the Democracy Monument (which I felt I had to visit for irony's sake) and did not have to pay for any of this. Pretty much, I got scammed but ended up winning out in the situation while the scammers got nothing. Sweet. If they hadn't "scammed" me, I probably would have spend twice as much (as I didn't pay at the end) just getting to the tourist office to get the bus map. Savvy traveller indeed!

But the best part of the day hadn't even begun: Using my new map, I easily walked over to the Democracy Monument, where I found a huge protest going on. It was a big pro-democracy rally that was moving down the street from the royal palace past the monument and towards the royal residence, as I was to see. So since the protest was going in the direction I needed to head, I walked with them for a while, then decided to stay on and ended up having a great afternoon. The protest was an interesting experience. First and foremost, I think the gratitude of the people there will remain in my mind: Everyone was friendly, someone gave me one of the yellow headbands and a flag, and many people took pictures of me, or even came up to thank me for participating. Clearly, people here feel that they have a better chance of returning to democracy if the international community is on their side. I was offered water and everyone wanted to know where I am from. I got hugs and smiles left and right.
The overall protest was interesting, also. When the protest arrived at a police blockade of the road, the organizers used human chains for a number of purposes. The first one I saw surrounded the main vehicle, presumably in case anyone would try to take control of it. Beyond that, another human chain kept the protest divided so that the people in the front wouldn't be pushed up against the police, creating a confrontation. Instead, space was left so that neither side would feel threatened, and the police did not try to fill that space, either. Then a lot of stuff ion Thai followed, so I'm not exactly sure of what was going on. There was a lot of chanting, back-and-forth calls with speakers on the vehicles, sitting down and standing up. I think the protest was demonstrating unity. Finally, the front of the protest began moving up on the police while the main train of people stayed where they were (being the tallest person in the whole march gave me a good overview of what was happening). Then, as the protesters came close, the police just backed away to the side, blocking off another street but letting the march pass on along its preferred route. I saw some people leave the main vehicle earlier who had returned just before this happened, so I think it may have been a negotiated retreat.
Sever hundred meters further on, the same scenario repeated itself, except that the police did not let the march enter into the grounds of the race track adjoining the royal residency. Instead, the protest turned left, and I turned right, headed towards the tech market (where I found everything I wanted and more).

Good day, saw lots of the city, had a great experience on the use of non-violence (this definitely relates to what we've been discussing on Spears' blog).