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29 Mai Bye Bye Beijing - Hello Montreal!Bye Bye Beijing - Hello Montreal!
Today is the last day of my trip and tomorrow morning I set foot on the first of three planes that will bring me home.
Xi'an and Beijing have been a lot of fun.
Xi'an is a city best known for a historical sight named The Terra Cotta Warriors. The first emperor of the Quin Dynasty, who decided to conquor and unite China into one country and who also had the Great Wall built in his spare time, decided that he needed a burial site that was truly fitting to his greatness. So in the year 246 BC, in addition to a small mountain mosoleum that he built, he also had a life-size army built from clay and buried to protect his dead body. This army included infantry, archers, horses, carriages - everything that you could imagine - even carrying real weapons. The real weapons part turned out not to be such a great idea later on when the peasants staged a revolt and broke into the terra cotta army and took the weapons to use against the Emperor's army. Anyway, a Chinese farmer stumbled upon this buried army while digging a well twenty years ago and they have been excavating it ever since. So far they have found something like 8000 soldiars and they have no idea how many they will find before they are done. It is really incredible to see - each soldiar is unique with his own individual face and hair!
Beijing has also been interesting. They wil be hosting the 2008 Olympics here so the city is in a frenzy of preparation. China is funny because the emperors had this tradition of burning down any cities they had conquored and then rebuilding them, so many of the sites that you see in China have been rebuilt from the original. Beijing seems to have enthusiastically grasped the sprit because there is a veil of scaffolding around all of the major sites in the city. I think that almost every temple, gate and pagoda will be brand spanking new by the time that the Olympic tourists start pouring out of the airport.
I visitied The Great Wall yesterday. It was a two and a half hour drive out of Beijing but really fantastic to see! Much of the wall has disintegrated, but the section that I saw runs a few kilometers and is still in good condition. It is unbelievable to imagine the work that went into building The Great Wall. No wonder the first Quin emperor wan't very popluar with his people!
Food item: Rob - the only duck dish that I have come across is Peking Duck, which was delicious though I felt a little rough after eating an entire duck between just myself and my new friend Helene. We ate duck number 151273 - the restaurant numbers each duck and you recieve a certificate to confirm which one you ate! Apart from weird duck dishes, of which you seem to have sampled an awful lot, I have seen a lot of very different and unusual food so I'm not feeling shortchanged.
Lastly, I just want to mention what is probably my favorite thing in China. The public parks here are filled with people out in small groups, singing, playing music, playing Mahjong, doing Tai Chi and practicing dances. It is so wonderful to wak through the parks and to see people enjoying themselves so much and being so social. I hope that it doesn't fade as the new generation seems to spend almost all of their free time in enormous smoke-filled Internet gaming rooms (this is where I am right now - cough cough).
Anyway, I can't believe that it is all over but I am really excited to be heading home. Thank you again to everyone for your kind words, support and enthusiastic correspondance - it added so much to my travels!
Tsi Jian (not sure about the spelling but it means goodbye in Chinese) to everyone and to my friends in Ottawa - I will see you soon, and to my freinds elsewhere - may our paths cross again shortly.
XOXOXO
Hana
20 Mai Homeward Bound - well almost - 10 days and counting...Homeward Bound - well almost - 10 days and counting...
So, I'm just finishing off my bike tour tomorrow. It has been a really great trip! My trip took me across the province of Yunnan in Southern China. We travelled to the cities of Kunming, Dali, to the incredible Tiger Leaping Gorge，Zhongdian, Lijiang, and finally to Lugu Lake or Lugu Hu as it is called here.
Yunnan is incredibly beautiful - lots of rolling green mountains and crystal clear lakes with the Himalayas in the background. It is the province with most of China's minorities so we saw so many interesting tribes of people who are still living in their traditional ways.
One of the tribes that we saw were the Maso people, who are the last living matriarchal tribe. Each family is run by the grandmother, or eldest living female. They practice what they call a "Walking Marriage". This means that when a girl matures into a woman, then she gets her own private bedroom. She finds a man that she likes and he begins to sneak into her room at night as their courtship. Once she becomes pregnant, and not before, he is accepted into the family and is allowed to have dinner and spend the night with her, however every morning he returns to his grandmother's family to farm and all of his money goes into that family. The wife who cares for the children is helped to raise them by her brothers.
As we travel, we have been staying in local guest houses and eating in local restaurants. There are so many tourists here but the vast majority are Chinese from other areas with just a sprinkling of foreigners. I guess that when you have 1.3 billion people then you don't really need foreign tourists! Anyway, the way that you order in a local restaurant is very interesting. You walk into the kitchen and look at the food that is lying out and point at whatever looks interesting and that is what they make for you. There is a real appreciation of local fresh goods here so the snails or seaweed that you see floating by you on your morning boat ride are the same that are proudly served to you a couple of hours later! (Sorry Rob - absolutely no duck yet! Maybe up north).
Meanwhile, my guide has been trying to teach me to speak Chinese (Mandarin actually). I have sort of mastered the essential phrases such as "Where is the toilet please", "How much does this cost?" and "Do you sell dumplings?". I have about a 50-50% success rate of being understood, which I'm quite proud of actually! The only problem is that once I ask how much something costs then I get a good stream of Chinese back and have no idea of what the actual answer was, so I have learned to just smile knowingly, nod my head and pull out a 100 Yuan bill (the largest Chinese bill - worth about $12 US) and hand it over and see what change I get. It seems to work.
Tomorrow I fly back to Kunming where I'm hoping to be able to hunt down an English book - no small feat that! The rest of my plan is:
May 22 - Fly to Xi'An to see The Terra Cotta warriors;
May 25 - Fly to Beijing;
May 30 - Fly to Montreal and be picked up by my fantastic parents;
May 31 - Head to Ottawa after some good pampering from mom and dad and finally;
June 1st - Back to work (no coffee breaks until February - that's for sure, right Dave!).
Hope that everyone is well and I'm definitely looking forward to setting my feet down on Canadian soil (well, kind of - I'm landing in Quebec!) on May 30th - yahoo!
Absolute best regards and huge hugs and kisses to everyone!!!
XOXOXO
Hana
07 Mai Baby Pigeon and Sea BlubberBaby Pigeon and Sea Blubber
I had forgotten how hard it is arriving in a new country and trying to figure out all of the ins and outs. I guess that for all of my moaning and complaining, I got pretty used to India and knew how to get around fairly successfully. China is something else altogether. I spent a few days in Hong Kong and that was wonderful. Hong Kong is a huge bustling metropolis of almost 7 million people and about the same number of designer shops. The city is alight in signs for Prada, Gucci, Versace and all of the others. I'm not much of a designer afficiendo myself but it was fun to explore, plus the big bonus - I got to see the English action movie Mission Inpossible III! What a huge treat! I also happened to be in Hong Kong during their annual Bun Festival. The Bun Festival takes place on Cheung Chau Island and is used to placate the ghosts of pirate's victims 200 years ago. There is a huge parade involving lots of dragons and children dressed as dolls, and then the grand finale where athletes compete to climb enormous towers of Chinese buns! It was very cool to see plus the buns were tasty! Now I'm in city called Shenzhen, just outside Hong Kong on the mainland. There is no English here. No one speaks English and all of the signs and information is Chinese only. I can't make phone calls, find bathrooms, ask questions or pretty much anything. It is quite challenging. I managed to find this Internet Cafe and get online so that was great. The woman working here however really wanted to tell me something so she sat with me for twenty minutes, speaking Chinese, not accepting that I didn't understand her. Finally, frustrated, she decided that if I was too stupid to speak Chinese then surely I must read it, so she started writing down everything that she was saying. Finally after another ten minutes of me shaking my head and waving my arms, she gave up and walked away. I guess that I'll never know what was so important! The food here is also very interesting (I've been told that it's not called Chinese food when you're in China - Thanks Wil!). The menus here offer a large array of different kinds of meats including Bird's Nest, Shark Fin, Baby Pigeon and the diet-busting favorite Sea Blubber. So far I have been a coward and stuck to the chicken and vegetarian options but I have a month so maybe I'll get braver. Tonight I fly to Kunming and tomorrow I begin my two week bicycle tour with Michael my guide. I'm hoping that he is lazy and slow and that the terrain is all downhill but that remains to be seen. 23 days until I fly home. I miss you all and can't believe that I'l see you all in a couple of weeks! Take care and see you in June! P.S. I'm trying to post my Bhutan pictures but am having a hard time. You should see the Internet Cafes in China - it is like two hundred PCs all connected on a huge games network, so there is no way to get a CD onto their network. I'll keep trying...
01 Mai Jaunting to JomolhariJaunting to Jomolhari
I returned recently from Bhutan. For those who have never heard of Bhutan, it is a small country the size of Switerland with the population of Ottawa (800,000); nestled between India and China, and just east of Nepal. Recently, it is becoming increasingly popular with travellers as political unrest in Nepal continues to keep many tourists away from there.
Bhutan only started letting visitors into the country in 1974 so it is quite isolated and unaffected by tourism. It is really beautiful, clean, polite and underdeveloped - making it a beautiful place to visit after the crowds of India. The country is competely Buddhist and is run by a King who seems very popular and who makes all major decisions for his country. He is said to run his country with the view of maximizing "Gross National Happiness", rather than "Gross National Product" as most other countries do.
The result is interesting: Internet and TV were only brought into Bhutan several years ago, and MTV (American Music Video channel) was banned shortly after once it was decided that it was a bad influence (and who can blame them?). Also banned last year was smoking - so it is illegal to buy or sell cigarettes in Bhutan and tourists bringing in their own must pay 200% duty on arrival. Luckily, cold beer is readily available and affordable. (Hey Blouin - I put that in just for you!)
I spent one of my two weeks trekking in the Himalayas. My Bhutanese posse consisted of myself, my excellent guide Tscheten, our cook Dorji and our horseman with his six horses to carry our gear. The walk to the base of Mount Jomolhari took three days and was incredibly beautiful. We stayed a couple of days at base camp doing day hikes - in Bhutan they don't allow anyone to currently climb the mountains because they believe that it disturbs the gods who live there and brings bad luck. It started snowing while we were there and the three days that we trekked back. It was very pretty but made for some cold camping at night but Dorji the cook endeared himself to me by providing an endless supply of hot water bottles for me to tuck into my sleeping bags (yup, I'm a wimp - I had two sleeping bags!).
Back in town, an annual festival was going on called the Paro Tshechu to commemorate the great deeds of Guru Rimpoche, the founding saint of Buddhism in Bhutan. Everyone in town comes dressed in their finest clothes to watch the costumed dances and meet up with all of the friends and neighbors. The Bhutanese are incredibly spiritual and superstituous people - they follow many rituals to show respect to their gods and to bring good luck. One of the interesting things that they do is to paint icons on their homes for good luck - often you will see pictures of tigers or eagles or even penises painted to bring good luck to the inhabitants within.
I'm back in India now and tonight I fly to Hong Kong. One final month in China and then I will be home again. I am almost ready to come home but need to answer just one small but critical question:
- Is Hong Kong Dim Sum better than Ottawa Dim Sum?
Following that, it will be back to Montreal on May 30th for some parental pampering and then home to Ottawa on the 31st to see if my house is still standing and finally back at work on June 1st.
An incredible thank you to everyone who has shown their support and sent me such kind words and greetings - I have never felt alone even halfway around the world with so many wonderful people keeping in touch!
XOXOXO
Hana
09 April Ready To Move OnReady To Move On
Hello everyone!
So sorry to be so incredibly slack about writing in the past few weeks. I last wrote when I had returned from Sri Lanka and was just hanging out in India waiting to meet up with my friend Colleen from the UK.
I had intended to head to Goa but got distracted in South India and so spent a whole lot of time watching the ocean, doing yoga, reading books, listening to music and hanging out with friends that I've made there. Before I knew it, weeks had passed and it was time to head to Delhi to see Colleen.
Colleen and I only got to spend a week together because I had previously booked a flight to Bhutan so we decided to do the classic North India triangle - Delhi, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi.
Unfortunately, we started off on a bad note in Delhi. India is kind of funny for me because I'm like a celebrity here. People ask to take photos with me, and want to talk to me, shake my hand and all that. It's a little strange but I have gotten used to it. Colleen and I headed out one night to see the Gate of India; a beautiful monument in downtown Delhi. We were really enjoying it when a group of young guys came up and all started shaking my hand and talking to me. I shook hands back expecting the usual friendliness but instead they swarmed around me and started trying to grab at my body. I was so shocked so I screamed at them and shoved the one in front of me and then Colleen and I made a hasty retreat but it was pretty awful. Unfortunately, the end result is that it has also made me a bit paranoid now when other peopel come up, when in fact, most of them are just super friendly and nice.
The other bad thing is that a lot of people in India seem to be really racist against black skin, or else they have never seen it before and are shocked - I don't know which. Poor Colleen has been stared at and pointed at non-stop since she got here. I don't think that she'll be in a rush to return.
On the bright side though, we did see some gorgeous forts, temples and of course The Taj Mahal. Really, really incredible! For those who aren't aware, it was built as a love monument from a King to his wife after she died giving birth to their fourteenth child. One could argue that if he loved her so much then maybe he wouldn't have asked her to push fourteen children out of her body but that's just my opinion.
The other super cool thing that we saw was the pilgrims in Varanasi. This is one of India's most sacred towns. It is where the Hindu pilgrims come to worship at the Ganges River, and also where they cremate and put their dead. We took a boat ride at 5:30 am and after making our blessing by releasing flowers and candles into the river, we rode by all of the Hindus bathing, praying, burning their dead and paying homage to the river. It was something really unique and different then anything that I have seen before.
Now we are back in Delhi and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. I head to Bhutan for two weeks and Colleen heads to South India to get her fill of temples and curry, if she hasn't already.
Missing you all a lot, and I really mean, a lot! I think that by the time I fly home then I will really, really appreciate so many things in life such as; family and friends (even more than I already do!); wearing more than three outfits day after day; not having to pack up all my belongings every morning; and not being surrounded by beggers all the time. XOXOXO
Hana
09 März Cycling in Sri LankaCycling in Sri Lanka
I have just returned to India from 12 days of cycling in Sri Lanka. I have a few weeks before I have to meet up with Colleen in Delhi on April 2nd so I'll be slowly starting to make my way up north.
Sri Lanka was beautiful. Truely, one of the most beautiful countries that I have seen. Green fields, turquoise seas, shimmering lakes, and more butterfles and birds than I have ever seen in my life!
My cycling companions were a 61 year old gentleman from England named Graham, and two cycling guides plus one tour guide. The cycling was a wonderful way to see the country - every time we cycled past any store, school or field then the people would stop and wave and shout hello to us. It wsa really incredible and I have never felt more welcome! Graham and I laughed each day at the crowds of semi-toothless children in their school uniforms shouting out "Good Morning, good morning" as we passed!
The cycling however was tough. Really tough. Or maybe I'm just a whiner - could be. Anyway, as the days passed, I got more and more sore and tired, but the cycling just got more and more difficult. We typically rode about 4 hours a day, most of it uphill to my recollection. On day 5, I was so tired, and we started biking at noon so it was incredibly hot. The first 7 kms was straight uphill on a rocky path. I almost cried. Okay - I did cry. But just the once, and just a little, and I had sunglasses on so I don't think that the others noticed. It wasn't all hard biking though - once in a while we stopped to climb thousands of steps up mountains to see the fabulous temples that Sri Lanka has!
We saw the cave paintings at Sirigiya, which were incredible and even worth the 12,000 steps that we climbed to see them! We visited Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka, which had the most incredible botanical gardens - the flowers were just out of this world! We spent two nights at a tea plantation learning about the tea industry - Sri Lanka is the world's largest exporter - and being treated like royalty in the tea plantation bungalow. This was our one day of rest off the bicycles so we made the most of it and sat around and drank beer and tea and did little else! Finally, we went to Udawalawe National Park for a safari, and saw a herd of about 30 elephants bathing in a pool. The smallest babies were just frollicking and jumping around underwater with only the tip of their trunks out! It was so beautiful and funny and once again reaffirmed my need to adopt a baby elephant pet when I get home.
By the way, I learnt a funny lesson today while sending some postcards from India. I was licking the stamps and they kept falling off, so I would lick them again and try to stick them on and they kind of stuck, but then would fall off again. Finally, in frustration, I asked the postal worker if they were supposed to stick and in return he pointed to the bottle of glue on the counter that you are supposed to apply. Ooops. I think that they probably think that I am an idiot in India but I had to laugh outloud at that one. Little things that you get used to.
Missing you all at the halfway mark...
XOXOXO
Hana
23 Februar Sayonara South IndiaSayonara South India
Yes, I know that Sayonara is not Indian in any form but there are at least 24 languages in India, not counting English so it is hard to pick one that everyone understands. I have been complaining to anyone who will listen of my communication difficulties in India. English is the official language in India. As well, many children go to school primarily in English - but the English here is nothing like Canadian English. I have been wandering around for the past few weeks nodding, shaking my head and waving my arms to be understood but to little avail. It's kind of funny because I thought that it would be one of the easier places but not for me unfortunately. Maybe I confuse them by saying "eh" at the end of every sentence, like every good Canadian should...
That being said, life in India is wonderful. I finished up my time in Mamallampuram, and moved down the coast to Pondicherry. This town was once run by the French so they pride themselves on the French flavour of their town. I just thought it was fantastic because I could have wine with my dinner that didn't taste like Sherry - that was good enough for me!
One of the very cool things here is a colony called Auroville, started not surprisingly, in the 1960s. It is defined as an experimental colony dedicated to human unity. It has about 1,700 inhabitants, with a final goal of 5,000. The highlight of the colony is a huge dome covered with golden circular plates - and within the dome is contained a crystal ball with a beam of light directed through it from a hole in the ceiling - intended for all the inhabitants to be able to meditate together to transform their conciousness. It was very cool and freaky.
After Pondicherry, I headed over to the West coast and the state of Kerala. A mere 16 hour bus ride later, I was there and ready to explore. Kerala is most famous for its houseboat tours through the backwaters. They have houseboats of all sizes and shapes; up to ten bedrooms on one! I made friends with two Swiss women next door to me at the hotel and we shared n boat for an overnight excursion. The boats just motor around past green shores where the Keralans live, giving a great view into daily South Indian life. It was really hot and it was so tempting to go swimming, but as we passed by and saw the locals swimming, bathing, dumping garbage, brushing their teeth; all into the same water source - we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We did love sitting on the deck with our huge BBQed prawns and cold beer though so it was a real treat!
Then time ran out, and it was time to move on, so I have left India and just arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tomorrow I meet up with my group of fellow cyclists and begin a two week cycle trip around the island. Hopefully I will survive after two months of laziness.
Huge hugs to everyone and you are all in my thoughts,
XOXOXO
Hana
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