Pet peeve!

Monday morning of my 4th week....

THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE KEY IN THIS COUNTRY THAT WORKS ON THE FIRST TURN!!! every insert requires endless jiggling, pulling, twisting, wiping of sweating hands, more jiggling, etc.... and as the finco, I have many keys to manage!!

Perks

The security situation here in the other Congo remains unstable, but I think the greater threats to my well-being are the roads (holey cow!!) and such things as the tumbu fly.

Myaisis - tumbu flies - nest their eggs on moist clothes. So when wearing unironed clothes the fly larvae invade into the skin. The characteristic lesion is a boil-like swelling with a small central opening thru which the larvae breathes and serous fluid is exuded. Prevention - all clothing must be ironed before wearing!

So, lucky for me, we have staff who do our laundry, which includes ironing everything. The house staff also keep my room clean and Ida, our cook, is very good - so lunch is my favorite time of the day! Which comes after a very long morning.... I leave for my 3 minute walk to the office before 7 (after having a yogurt and banana) and I don't return for lunch until 1:30 - the agreed upon time for lunch. I'm not too happy about this and do start to get a little grouchy by that time, but I am pretty busy so there isn't much time to think about food anyway.

Today's chuckle

Gute fahrt - german

Bon voyage - french

Have a nice trip - english

euro prepping

only one afternoon to stroll the streets of bonn and enjoy scrumptuous apple streudel with a velvety vanilla sauce and a kaffee at an outdoor cafe, and then it was 7 long full days of training... during the intake of info i quickly realized that my decision to go to the congo was an easy one compared to the decision i had to make about malaria... so, as i had agreed to sign a one year contract to live and work in malaria territory - and that the #1 reason for repatriation is malaria - i decided that i couldn't not take some kind of drug... but which one? i engaged absolutely everyone i could in malaria conversation and to further complicate things, learned that everyone had a different story and a different opinion... the week ended and i immediately hopped on the 3 hour evening express train to amsterdam so i could have one full day to sightsee before starting another 6 days of training... and then there was another 3 hour train to brussels for yet 2 more weeks of classes... after a week in a city populated by potential supermodels, i felt normal again in brussels and this time the schedule was more relaxed... however my frustration level was thru the roof as i struggled with great effort to improve my french... at least i had my own space and i could enjoy heavenly belgian chocolates and warm waffles on my walks home from school (i thot callebaut was the best, but mary will make you moan http://www.mary.be)

and then there was boredom... in bruxelles... unbelievable!! my instructor threw out her back so i was without lessons for two full days - even more frustrating! but now, c'est fini, finalement!! and i am finally off to congo-brazza very very early monday morning, after a final weekend in amsterdam to satisfy any last desires... au revoir!

Don’t Worry, Do Yoga
(sing to the tune of Don't Worry, Be Happy)
August 2005 Prana Teacher Training Class

So here’s a little song we wrote
We bring it from the navel, not the throat.
We don’t worry. We do yoga.

We came to Prana Teacher Training School
Our teacher Shakti, she is beautiful.
Be happy. Keep breathing.

When she teaches, she is super duper
When she poops, she’s a Super Pooper.
Don’t worry. Sheet happens.

She drinks her urine and now we do too
She answers questions from God to poo.

Pause: ‘Can God create a poo so big, that he can’t pass it?’

Don’t worry. There’s enemas.

Contract your abs, your anus too
Shlook your urine and squat to poo.
We’re learning. More than asanas.

You make our hearts sing with your stories and joy
We do asanas and we eat Emma’s soy.
We’re thankful. You teach yoga.

We think that Mylowe’s cute and Daniel is too
We know who's number one and who’s number two.
Kinishinai. Yoga suru (Japanese)

Daniel comes and Daniel goes
Wearing his Lululemon clothes
Don’t worry. He does yoga.

We do our work, then we let it go
Who needs a guru when we’ve got Mylowe.
Don’t worry. Do Down Dog.

There is no right, there is no wrong
But doing Window in a thong?
Exposes, the first chakra.
Exposes, the first chakra.

Less and less I need to force things
We learn a lot from the Tao Te Ching
Don’t worry. We’re gonna die.
Don’t worry. We’re gonna die.

We know, Shakti, you’re the cream of the crop
You taught us so much, our brains almost popped.
We’re thankful. We teach yoga.
We’re thankful. We teach yoga.

And Breeeeeeeathe!

Iced Coffee

I was lamenting to my new friend Yumiko that I have never had iced coffee like the delicious iced kohi I first tasted in Japan. She gave me her magical recipe that she said results in the perfect drink everytime. It sounds like a practice in mindfulness.

The season may be over, but here it is:

* water & coffee grounds (according to # of people) in a pot
* stir very slowly - 3 slow times to the right, then 3 slow times to the left
* cover with plastic wrap
* slowly and carefully, put in fridge over night

And in the morning just filter and drink!

etre

Beaucoup de personnes ont peur d'etre elles-memes, ou de le devenir.
Elles ont peur de perdre des amis, des etres chers.
Elles ont peur de perdre leurs femmes, leurs maris.
Si vous essayes d'etre vous-memes, il y a des etres qui
vous entourent qui partiront (peut-etre?).
Ceux-la, ce sont les faux, ceux qui se collent a vous pour en tirer quelque chose.
Les vrais resteront, ils n'attendent rien de vous, ils se
contentent de votre rayonnement, de ce que vous etres vraiment.
Si vous apprenez a etre une personne qui se suffit et qui
ne s'accroche pas aux autres, ils resteront encoure plus, car
ils n'auront jamais peur d'etre exploites par vous.
N'oublions pas aussi que, lorsqu'on enchaine les autres, on s'enchaine aussi.
Pour etre nous-memes, il faut d'abord laisser l'autre ETRE.
Fiez-vous a votre intuition, laissez-la vous guider, elle ne
vous trompera jamais. Et si un jour vous echouez dans
une demarche, dites-vous que c'est par cette experience
que vous deviendrez, encore plus vous-memes...

Marcel Gagnon

the end has come

There was only one more thing to be done... see the Great Wall. And that was yesterday. We hiked an untouristed 30 tower, 10 km section from Jinshanling to Simitai. It was only 10 km, but it was 90% stairs (tall stairs) and 90% uphill (where was the down??) and it was in the heat of the day. I walked with Marci from Vancouver.

One moment I'm glad to be leaving for the comforts of the homeland, the next I am sad to be leaving China so soon. There's so much more I want to do. If there's a next time, I'd study the language here for a few weeks before I'd set off traveling - I want to talk, find out what's really happening here, and of course, have better luck with food.

I won't miss the squalor, the nose-blowing onto the street, the nose routing, the horns, the smoking, the retching sound of the ejection of phlegm, the elbowing, staring, shouting and pushing... the train tables smeared with food and grease, piles of sunflower seeds and pools of unknown liquids on the floor, mothers aiding children with their slit trousers to urinate (on buses, trains, flowerbeds, anywhere), the suffocating heat.

I will miss smiling and saying hello. Sure, the kids who point and giggle (or scream), who mock me with their repeated hallooowww, hallooowww, or those who stare open-mouthed make me a little crazy. But I have spent my days during the last 6 months saying hello - saying hello to break a stare, saying hello to return a hello, and saying hello to get a hello, and seriously, the responses have been the highlight of my traveling.

I think if I try hello-ing at home, I'll be perceived as psycho.

BUT I found a shirt. Everywhere people are wearing bad-English t-shirts. It's sooo tempting to walk up to them, point to their shirt and say boo ming bai. So I've been looking for my own bad-English shirt.

I missed out on one in the Philippines because they didn't have my size. On the t-shirt was written Beauty is a white sin - or maybe it was White beauty is a sin - either way I thought it was a very provocative t-shirt. This is in an area of the world where the store shelves are loaded with creams, lotions, toners, soaps, pills, teas that promise to whiten your skin. And we buy dark, medium, and light self-tanners.

Anyway, I found a little white t-shirt here in Beijing that I thought was appropriately bad-English - your smile make me happy.

Now it's time to move on to other things.

What the Chinese Yuan will buy

CDN 1 = CNY 6.7

Pepsi 500 ml - 3.5
bottle of water 750 ml - 1.5
Tsintao beer 630 ml - 2.0
McDonald's Big Mac - 10.5 (no, I haven't been eating them!)
Starbucks daily coffee - 15.0 (occasionally, only found in Beijing)
noodle soup - 2-5
avg lunch/dinner in small eatery - <> 15
roll of toilet paper - 1.0
bananas inYunnan province - small bunch for 1.0
bananas north of Yunnan - not possible to get more than one banana for less than 1.5
Potala Entrance fee - 100
city bus - 1, or 2 for air-con bus
Beijing subway - 3
intercity bus ticket - roughly it is about 10/hour of trip
train tickets slightly cheaper than buses

All transportation that is Beijing bound is about double.

Cheapest trip - 30 for 11 hr train trip from Hohhot to Erlianhot on the Mongolian border
Beijing bound - 182 for 11 hr trip, hard sleeper night train

Salaries:
Summer - 28 yr old train policeman on Pingyao-Beijing route - 1500/mo
Guan - 23 yr old university grad in hotel marketing, Yinchuan - 1000/mo
Albert - cafe owner in Yunnan said the avg salary in the area was 500/mo
Beijing - avg salary about 2000/mo reported by French guy studying in China for 2 years

So, I'm wondering who is buying all the cars, cameras and drinking at Starbucks? Same French guy was told the wealthy Chinese make up about 10% of the population, altho this is hard to verify.

"In China, cigarettes are a kind of miracle drug"

Smoking may not be killing them, but being a second hand smoker is killing me - cough, cough!!

Sometimes, only sometimes, there are No Smoking signs around - like on buses and on trains. But nobody takes them seriously. And usually they look at me like I'm odd when I motion in some way that the smoke in my face is making it difficult for me to breathe. While I've been in China I've only seen one woman who smoked - and she sat across from me on the train.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050611/CHINA11/TPInternational/Asia

By GEOFFREY YORK
Saturday, June 11, 2005

GUIYANG, CHINA -- Here's some exciting medical news from the Chinese government: Smoking is great for your health.

Cigarettes, according to China's tobacco authorities, are an excellent way to prevent ulcers. They also reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease, relieve schizophrenia, boost your brain cells, speed up your thinking, improve your reactions and increase your working efficiency. And all those warnings about lung cancer? Nonsense.
You're more likely to get cancer from cooking smoke than from your cigarette habit.

Welcome to the bizarre parallel universe of China's state-owned tobacco monopoly, the world's most successful cigarette-marketing agency. With annual sales of 1.8 trillion cigarettes, the Chinese monopoly is responsible for almost one-third of all cigarettes smoked on the planet today.

If you believe the official website of the tobacco monopoly, cigarettes are a kind of miracle drug: solving your health problems, helping your lifestyle, strengthening the equality of women, and even eliminating loneliness and depression.

"Smoking removes your troubles and worries," says a 37-year-old female magazine editor, quoted approvingly on the website. "Holding a cigarette is like having a walking stick in your hand, giving you support.
"Quitting smoking would bring you misery, shortening your life."

Such statements are widely believed in China.

Two-thirds of Chinese men are smokers, and surveys show that as many as 90 per cent believe their habit has little effect on their health, or is good for them.

Even in China's medical community, 60 per cent of male doctors are smokers. Few are aware of the studies forecasting that cigarettes will soon be responsible for one-third of all premature deaths among Chinese men.
Little wonder that Western tobacco companies are hungrily circling the Chinese market, lobbying eagerly for entry into this lucrative market of 360 million smokers, the biggest market in the world.

So far, 99 per cent of the market is controlled by the Chinese monopoly, but Western tobacco companies are convinced they will soon crack it, especially now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization and is obliged to reduce its tariffs on foreign cigarettes.

For the anti-smoking movement, China is the ultimate challenge. Nonetheless, this week, a group of Canadian experts arrived in southwestern China in a bid to convince Chinese smokers that cigarettes might not be quite as beneficial as they believe.

They distributed anti-smoking posters, visited cancer patients, showed the graphic warnings on Canadian cigarette packs, and lectured on how the anti-smoking campaign has reduced Canada's lung-cancer rate. But they admitted that they face an uphill struggle in a country where the tobacco industry provides 60 million jobs and 10 per cent of national tax revenue.

"The magnitude of the problem is overwhelming," said Jean Couture, a Quebec surgeon who has been travelling to China since 1990 to work on cancer-education programs.

"In China today, the economy comes first and everything else is secondary, including health care," Dr. Couture said. "You wonder if anyone in the government is conscious of how great the smoking problem is. There's no public education program. The Chinese anti-smoking association is very weak and has almost no money. Within 20 years, China could have the majority of all smoking deaths in the world."

Chinese doctors have called Dr. Couture a "second Norman Bethune" -- a reference to the Canadian surgeon who became a Chinese hero after dying while giving care to Chinese Communist soldiers in 1939. The Quebec doctor, who has helped create an 80-bed cancer unit at a hospital in northeastern China, is now leading an anti-smoking campaign in four Chinese provinces.

When the Canadians arrived this week in Guizhou province in southwestern China, they were worried about the power of the local tobacco industry. The province is filled with tobacco farms and cigarette factories. As they distributed posters at a hospital in one of Guizhou's biggest cities yesterday, the Canadians saw a number of people smoking in the hospital. A hospital shop was openly selling cigarettes.

"The tobacco industry is so huge and the anti-tobacco movement is so weak," said Mark Rowswell, a Canadian television personality and Chinese celebrity (under the name Da Shan), who helps promote the anti-smoking campaign. "What we're doing is just a drop in the ocean."

While smoking rates have fallen sharply in Canada in the past two decades, the rate in China is still rising.
"Ten years ago, when we first came to China, it was unheard of for young women to smoke," said Nicole Magnan, executive director of the Quebec division of the Canadian Cancer Society, who was in the Canadian delegation this week. "Now there are more and more of them."

While China has proclaimed that the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be a smoke-free Olympics, it has done little to discourage smoking. The number of Chinese smokers is growing by three million a year, despite an estimated 1.3 million tobacco-related deaths annually.

Chinese cigarettes are cheap -- as little as 30 cents a pack -- and the health warnings are hidden in small print on the sides of the packages. Though cigarette advertising is technically illegal, tobacco companies are allowed to promote their corporate names. When sprinter Liu Xiang won a gold medal for China at the Athens Olympics last summer, he promptly went out and filmed a television commercial for China's biggest cigarette company.
Children can easily buy cigarettes at Chinese shops, despite an official ban on sales to those under the age of 18. "Shop owners never refuse to sell us cigarettes," said one 16-year-old boy who was smoking as he played pool near a Guizhou school this week.

"They only care about money."

Che Chuangao, a construction worker, started smoking when he was 20. "More than 90 per cent of my friends smoked, so I couldn't be different," he said. "And it's helpful for my work. Offering a cigarette is a social greeting, whenever you meet a friend or a stranger. I know that smoking isn't good. Once I stopped smoking for a month or two. But my friends persuaded me to smoke again."

While their task is daunting, the Canadians are scoring some small successes. After listening to a speech by the Canadians this week, 27-year-old medical student Li Dongbo said he was inspired to work on anti-smoking projects.

The student's uncle, who had smoked for 30 years, died of lung cancer in February. To spare his feelings, his family had never told him the truth about his illness.

"I was shocked," Mr. Li said. "The government should be doing more. We need promotion campaigns to tell people about it."

Very, very curious

7 p.m. - a perfect evening in Zhongwei. I went to see the sand dunes along the Yellow River today and it had cooled down from a very hot afternoon.

I was sitting in the public plaza outside the train station waiting for the night train to Hohhot (ho-huh-ha-te), the capital of the province of Inner Mongolia. Everybody was enjoying the plaza. They were playing badminton, Chinese hackey-sac, taking pictures of each other, chatting with friends. Chinese music started playing and then the fountain began dancing.

I had a bench to myself so I pulled out my journal to write about the day.

I soon noticed a young couple move to my side to try to peek at my writing. Then a few others in front of me were trying to catch a peek too.

I motioned for the young woman to come over. Using my phrase book, I tried to communicate that what I was doing was simple and that Chinese writing was very difficult and much more interesting. She gently took my journal and wrote something in Chinese. I apologized and said, as usual, boo ming bai (I feel so pathetic). I asked again if she understood what I was trying to tell her. She smiled and nodded.

Then I looked up. I counted. There were now 20 people crowded around. As some left, others came over. They stared at me and my writing, and talked amongst themselves - gee, I wish I knew what they were saying.

After a short while, I decided I should let them get on with their night. So I closed my journal, put on my pack and said bye-bye.

Not unusual...

It was a rough day with lots of travel and haggling with taxi drivers, which I normally don't do, but didn't have much choice. But I'm back and I should eat. I haven't eaten since this morning when I had 10 bao-zir - tiny little dumplings.

However, it's early, before dinnertime, which is a problem. I usually order by looking at what others have on their table and pointing to something that looks good. Nobody is eating yet.

Menus in China of course are not written in English and rarely do they have pictures, so they are meaningless to me.

I walked into the restaurant and tried ordering some good ol' standbys, but the girls weren't helpful at all and just kept saying may-yo - no. In southern China it was easier. They expected you to come in and point to the ingredients that you liked on their shelves and they would whip you up something. But it seems here it is strictly by the menu. I kept trying... I finally asked for chao myen. Ok, they said. One of the girls came back soon though and said in English no noodles. So I asked for chao fun (fried rice). Ok. Then she came back and asked if I wanted rice with that. Hmm, wonder what I'm getting cuz I thought I ordered rice.

While I was waiting, my beer arrived. I was looking forward to a nice cold beer after a rough day. But the beer wasn't cold. I keep forgetting that it is something I need to ask for. Oh well.

Then my chao fun arrived - and it was a plate of noodles.

I realized that it is not that I have lost my appetite, it's that my appetite has given up.

Note to self

email down
internet slow

article on Mao to check again later:
CHINA Must Confront Dark Past, says Mao confidant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1496991,00.html

Randoms

There are very few blue skies in China.

Drivers do not know anything about yielding, right of way, or even slow down, for cryin' out loud! They do not slow down when turning a corner, when pulling out on to a road or even when passing in front of me while I walk with a green pedestrian light (and whether it's green or red means nothing). I realize this may sound like drivers in many countries, but I am more fearful crossing roadways here than I have been anywhere else. And on a bad day it makes me absolutely crazy - I have even hit a few cars with my hand to release some frustration. That, and the incessant honking!! They honk when they are passing, when they are being passed, when they are thinking of passing, they honk at other vehicles, they honk at people, they honk because they are driving!

While I have learned enough of the language to be understood when I am bargaining, ordering food, buying train/bus tickets, almost never am I understood when I ask for a toilet! No matter how many different ways I pronounce the word for toilet, using various intonations, I almost always receive looks of fright and calls for somebody/anybody to come deal with me. I'd rather that my need for a toilet didn't involve so many people, but c'est la vie. So I came up with a solution to reduce this aggravation. I copied the characters for toilet onto a little flash card, which I can pull out when needed. Unfortunately, now that I am in Beijing I haven't had the opportunity to try it out - there are plenty of high-end hotels, McDonalds, KFCs and public toilets - so I'm never far from a tser-swor.

Despite what I found out about their success rate with dams, I still believe that if you need a road, bridge, tunnel or rail-line in a hurry, the Chinese are the ones to call.

They're not bad with parks either! And they know how to use their parks. Parks are fantastic places to relax and people watch. They are flying kites, playing badminton, ballroom dancing, doing Taichi, group dancing with scarves, group dancing with fans, group dancing with swords. practicing with the Chinese yo-yo, playing cards, playing mahjong, running, stretching, walking backwards, singing (group and solos), Chinese hackey sac, paddle ball - and this is all usually happening before most of us are out of bed.

How can you not like people who take their birds out for a walk? It's wonderful to walk down the street or walk through a park and listen to birds everywhere singing from their beautiful bamboo cages.

Men rarely wear shorts, but can sometimes be seen wearing pyjamas. Most often they are dressed in Western-style suits with the tailor's label prominently on the sleeve. Beepers and cell phones are also prominent and clipped to their belts.

Women wear ankle or shin-high stockings with their dresses and skirts. Maybe I've been away too long, but I don't think it's such a bad look.

There's a famous Canadian over here. I've wondered who the goofy looking white guy is that I see on TV all the time. Now I know - Mark Rowswell aka Da Shan.
http://www.cctv.com/program/UpClose/20041028/101784.shtml
... and has he gotten into a bit of trouble?
http://english.sohu.com/20050512/n225531197.shtml

Three Gorges Dam - postscript

Some info I've come across that I found interesting:

The dam is being built on an earthquake fault.

The Gorges have a long history of enormous landslides that cause massive waves.

The resulting reservoir will flood 13 cities, 140 towns, and 1,352 villages; it will swamp 650 factories and 139 power stations.

Over 350 million people live in the Yangze watershed and over 2 million will be displaced.

3200 Chinese dams have burst since 1949. The Chinese dam failure rate is 3.7% vs. 0.6% for the rest of the world.

The advantages that are discussed are electricity, flood control, and transportation.

The dam will create enough electricity to replace the burning of 50 million tons of coal/year. The dam's 26 massive turbines will produce the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors, enough energy to boost China's national output by 10%.

The Three Gorges Dam as a topic has been banned from public debate since 1987.

Welcome to Beijing

I had a window seat on the upper level of the traincar going into Beijing. It was a 3 hour journey with only one stop on the way. And across from me sat a man who was getting off at that stop.

He was Chinese, but had Australian citizenship - so that led to some very interesting conversation about how and why. We talked about how he was able to acquire citizenship when he fled China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. We talked about living in Australia vs. living in China and how he wanted to move back when he got older. He is now living in China because he is married to a Chinese woman and has a small child - and he doesn't want to risk trying to leave under these circumstances. We also talked about traveling as a foreigner in China, the language, the food and so on.

After he got off, I was fortunate to find that the young man who had been sitting next to him also spoke English. His name is Lucky Yang. Beijing is his hometown and he asked me if I had been to Beijing before. No. Do you know where you are staying? Yes. Do you know how to get there? I think so, I am going to take bus #52. Can I help you to make sure you get on the bus? Yes, that would be very nice!

We arrived in Beijing at 9 p.m., after dark. Lucky got on bus #52 with me and asked to see my guidebook to read the directions to the hostel. Along the way he pointed out the important buildings and told me that the bus was traveling along the most famous road in China - Chang-an. It was great to have my own personal guide!

He then said that he thought there was a better way to get to the hostel and so we got off at the Tiananmen stop - and what a nice introduction. The massive square is well lit at night and there was very little traffic. We had to walk through the square to catch a taxi - he said it was too far to walk to the hostel.

And how nice to have someone who speaks the language helping me out. We hopped into a cab and between Lucky and the cab driver and a few folks on the street we eventually pulled up outside the hostel, which is tucked away on a tiny lane in one of the old hutongs (Chinese neighborhoods). We both got out of the cab, I hoisted my pack on my back and asked if I could pay for the taxi. He said no, no, as he hopped back into the front seat and then he said welcome to Beijing! Indeed!!

Thank you very much Lucky!

more chuckles

After finding that the PSB (police) in Taiyuan (a hot, dirty, trying-hard-to-be-something town) were not interested in helping me extend my visa, I made a quick change of plans and am heading to Beijing where I can get my extension, drop off some weight and head out again.

On the way to Beijing I decided to stop for a day in Shijiazhung from where there is a good day trip to a monastery in a dramatic location, perched high on a mountain.

As seems to happen too often, the guidebook suggests this is an unremarkable town, yet it looks to me like a nice place to hangout for a day or two. Unfortunately, there seems to be no budget accommodation in town. So I am paying four times more than I'd like to pay. And as I move north, I am finding it increasingly frustrating getting inexpensive rooms. Hotels often have pictures of the types of rooms with their prices. When I point to the room that I am interested in, it is never available and I am always directed to the more expensive rooms.

I am staying at the Zhong Jing Grand Hotel. There are 218 guest rooms, each has been provided with a luxurious bathroom, auto-fire-fighting alarm and water spray equipment. Thank goodness.

The guest rooms, which are in various vigorous styles and ready with complete modernized installation, are just the perfect place for businessmen and tourists to have a nice rest in order to dispel fatigue.

My room is on the 19th floor and has a magnificent floor-to-ceiling view of the city. Off to the right are 5 nuclear cooling towers, and not far to the left are 3 more.

On the street I met a young woman from Saskatchewan who is here studying Chinese with her husband. When I told here about my view, she said she wants to believe her husband who said they are not nuclear, but are for the enormous coal industry (later confirmed by a Chinese man).

When I came back from my evening walk the assistant manager came running over to communicate to me that I would not get breakfast. Ah... so breakfast could be included? I asked why I could not have breakfast and was told because I had bargained down and gotten a reduced room rate. I looked sad, and gave a few chings (please) and was soon given a ticket for breakfast.

Now, do I stick around and hike 2 hours to the monastery, or go see the tribute in Martyrs Park to Dr. Norman Bethune? Dr. Bethune, a Canadian doctor (and member of the Cdn Communist Party), came to China to help the Communists in the fight against the Japanese. He became a close confidant of Mao. Mao was so impressed with Bethune's devotion to his work that he told the Chinese to "learn selflessness from Dr. Bethune." Bethune's remains were moved to China at the request of the Chinese government in 1953.

I'm feeling lazy.

Cruising - Chinese style

Down the Yangze River, the longest river in China and the third longest river in the world, beginning in the mountains above Tibet, flowing 6400 kms to Shanghai on the east coast.

Everybody is rushing to do the cruise before the Three Gorges Dam is completed in 2009. The largest dam in the world will submerge historic sites and towns and requires the relocation of millions of people.

Altho I've never relished the idea of cruising and hanging out with hundreds of people, I thought this was something I should do since I was in the area.

I arrived in the city of Chongqing (one of China's most heavily industrialized cities, population 30 million), checked into a hotel, and immediately started to source out cruise info. I was chased down by hundreds of touts - how many boats would be on the river?! I could take the 2 day/3 night trip on a luxury cruise ship ($300) or a Chinese cruise ship (300 RMB/$40). I chose the lower bunk in a six bed room on a Chinese boat.

At 6:30 pm it was time to board. I found my bed, introduced myself to the two older Chinese couples and the single Chinese woman in my room as best I could, then off to the top deck. The staff tried to tell me I had to pay 20 RMB to sit up here!! Sorry, boo ming bai - I don't understand (but I didn't think I'd get away with this everytime). I pulled up a little stool and got ready. At 8:00, just after sundown, we started to sail away, admiring the night lights of the city - how exciting!

Then I toured the ship (capacity about 600 people) and went back to our tiny cabin where the TV was at top volume. At about 10 everybody was ready for bed. It seemed they were going to sleep in their clothes, nylons, belts with attached cell phones. I showered and put on my shorts and t-shirt - was this ok? We discovered that the light switch wasn't connected to the light. Oh well, I'd read a bit longer and was thankful to have the lower bunk.

I was finding it hard to fall asleep in a daylight-lit room so I read until 1:30 before finally nodding off. Then at 4 am the ship's horn droned and another cruise ship pulled up right beside us. After 15 minutes of commotion and noise it took off for the opposite bank. Time for a bit more sleep? Nope, here comes another ship and what a ship! A red and gold dragon (Dragon Cruisers) and every room had a private piece of deck. And, we also noticed it was pouring rain. I gave up on sleep (and could feel a blog coming on) as everyone started to wash up, share my bed and slurp their instant noodles. It was also getting more difficult to breathe with the ship exhaust coming in the windows. And the 'elevator' music soon started.

Their first tour began at 6 - a chance for me to be alone and scout the town for some breakfast. The first stop was at Fengdu - a ghost town - a town being relocated. Some of the dilapidated and abandoned buildings were still occupied by residents who had small shops selling food and camera film to the hundreds/thousands of tourists parading the streets. I could count at least 8 ships out there - how could they fill them every day? (I would see later that boats stop at different interest points, so there were even more boats out there, including the boats coming up-river. Everything in China is on a grand scale!)

The first day was a very hazy grey/brown. The second day was green - thank goodness.

One of the highlights of this trip would be passing through the Three Gorges. After a goodnight's sleep (we found the proper light switch), we were awoken early with announcements, which of course meant nothing to me. I was guessing that everyone was being given instructions for the morning's stop - a separate tour through the Three Little Gorges, which I was passing up. I didn't want to be crushed on a small boat with hundreds and I didn't need a bright new yellow ballcap.

As my cabin mates rushed out the door, I thought yeah - I could change and wash with more privacy. I was wrong. After changing and washing, I strolled out to the deck to discover I had just missed the first gorge - oh well, there were two more later on.

While they were off on the Little tour, I toured the town and hung out on deck. I met a Chinese couple who retired to Ottawa ten years ago to be closer to their daughter. Their English was a little rough, but it was nice to talk. They insisted I join them later for lunch. Well, I had tried the food on board on Day 1 and it was nothing special... and I had just secured myself a place along the rail because once we set off, which would be about lunch time, we'd be heading into the second gorge. But how could I say no?

I was wrong. We were about fifteen minutes into the gorge, the scenery was good and then I got a tap on the shoulder. "Follow me."

In the dining room we took a table with a great view into the gorge from the back of the boat. And then the food started to arrive - it seems that they had special ordered. It was a very nice lunch. Then they asked me to join them on the last tour of the day - to the dam itself. I had planned to do a very cheap local bus version the next day to pass time until the evening train. I accepted.

It was 7:30 pm and we were docking for the last tour - the dam. On my way off the boat I ran into the two beautiful blonde Norwegian 20 year old girls I'd met in the dorm in Chongqing. They were at their wits end as they had done every side trip, and after all, who knows gorges better than Norwegians! I listened to them vent as hundreds of us pushed on to the cable cars to get up to the buses and vent more as we all pushed on to the buses. Nobody pushes better than the Chinese - I had quite a tussle with an old lady!

It was about an hour drive to the dam site. I feel incredible frustration here because I don't know the language - more than for my traveling convenience, I want to know what's really going on here. The tour guide on the bus talked non-stop. What did she say?

Everybody lined up with incredible enthusiasm to have their pictures taken in front of the dam. Given the controversy of the dam (any dam), what do they think of this project? I think the woman sitting next to me on the bus was trying to express her great pride when she excitedly talked to me, touching her heart, pointing out the window, beaming and spreading here arms out. After viewing the dam we walked backed to our buses along a beautifully landscaped promenade where one could relax on a bench and further enjoy the view of the dam.

A ten minute drive took us to another section of the dam park with colourful lights, large fountains, streams, statues, a huge indoor model of the project area and the largest gift shop I've seen yet, where you could buy everything from DVDs, jewelry, silk robes and NY sun visors. After confirming that it was 'New York' I had to ask why, there was only a little smile in reply.

Well, that was interesting, but I didn't think it was worth 120 RMB. Oh... but we weren't done yet.

At the next stop we passed by many food stands and then into an aquarium. I walked through the aquarium and followed everyone to the next area. We could hear loud music and a sign said something about War Horses and the Three Kingdoms. I walked through the Enterance and gasped - oh my! It was a large muddy outdoor arena with a grand Chinese gate at one end, through which strode 20+ horses and historically costumed riders. I didn't stick around for the entire mock battle because my stomach was set on some dumplings I'd seen.

Back on the bus I was thinking it would be quite late by the time we got back to the boat, I was tired and it would be an early morning because we were to arrive in Yichang about 4 am, but could sleep until 6 when we'd be kicked off the boat.

Another stop. I was on the verge of a giggling fit. We piled off and were toured through a temple, where among the artifacts there were corpses that had been dug up during the dam construction (only two). On the way out, through a large snack shop, I ran up to the Norwegians and asked with a laugh "So how many more stops do you think?"

They looked at me and said "This is it." After struggling with the English speaking guide, they had figured out that we weren't going back, we were to wait here for our boats. It was 11:30 and ours was scheduled to arrive at 2 am. The guide told us to find a seat in one of the many outdoor tea/eating areas, for which we had to pay 2 RMB.

Good thing I had bought a pack of Three Gorges playing cards at the last stop. While many of the tourists marched and sang pop songs, the three of us played Hearts.

There was no sleep last night, and I'm on the overnight train to the ancient city of Xian, where I should park myself for a week to catch up on my sleep.

Next attraction: Terracotta Army

Experimental Travel

Check out these sites for some new ideas:

http://www.journalism.ryerson.ca/online/shift/fetish/aali.htm

http://latourex.org/

China so far...

Incredible scenery, mountain passes, cobbled highways, paved highways, deep valleys, landslide scarred terrain, pine plantations, extensive rice terraces, denudation, rubber plantations, dusty skies, wide boulevards empty of traffic, ghost-towns of concrete and glass, minorities in wildly colorful costumes, tea terraces, tea harvesting, tea rolling, tea pots, tea flasks, eating all day, steamed dumplings, boiled dumplings, jelly soup, fried dough twists, steamed corn, noodle stalls, more noodle stalls, still more noodle stalls, dumpling stalls, more dumpling stalls, chilis, chili oil, green chilis, red chilis, crushed chilis, flower chilis that numb the gums, hot hot chilis, spicy noodles, spicy soup, spicy cookies, spicy beer, spicy everything, piles of shit, my own shit, pigshit, chickenshit, dogshit, maggots in shit, frozen shit, streams of shit, babies shitting on sidewalks, hawking and spitting, highway and street-cleaners in flourescent orange suits, garbage trucks whistling It's a small world after all and Jingle Bells!, landscaped roadways, towns which feel like they have been built last week, villages which have been around for centuries, sleeper buses, pink buses, broken buses, shiny new buses, internet cafes with over 100 computers, regions with no power, roads lit like Vegas, endless smoking, bus drivers bribed with cigs, cigs sparked on leaving the parking lot, cigs sparked on arrival, cigs sparked in friendship, cigs sparked in anger, rocks, crushed rocks, piled rocks, rocks rocks rocks, Mao suits, whispy beards, cokebottle glasses, high stylin' shoes, barefeet, Armani, Escada, Ferragamo, shaggy hair, orange hair, Avon, Tupperware, Chinese TV, 30 year-old imported circus and magic shows, Chinese Price is Right, Chinese Survivor, games, cards slapping, majong clinking, heated chess discussions, happy faces, surprised faces, so many hellos....

Today's Quotes

"Memories are permanent. Sorrowful one remained sad even with the passing of time, yet happy ones could never be recreated - not with the same joy. Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain. So what was the point of possessing memory? It didn't help anything."

"... our lives are but a sequence of accidents - a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life."


A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

TongHai, Yunnan - Hotel Review

I stayed at the LiYue Hotel in the lovely town of Tonghai for two nights. When I was checking out I found on the counter a wonderful glossy brochure with pictures and description - which gave me a chuckle on the bus ride outta town. Here it is:

Briep Lntrodoction of Lgyerlotel

LYUE Hotel stands on the No 56 West City-rounding road, TongHai, which is famous for it manners, YunNan province, South of the city is the Sue-Hill and north of the city is QiLu-lake. The surrounding of our hotel is beautiful, the devices are modern, the service are good, and the manogement is scientific. Our hotel is TWO_STARS hotel towards foreign.

LIYE Hotel was built in 1981. Now it has became the well-known hotel to many people.

Facing the new market, The Hard condition and soft condition of our hotel are made better to you. The appearance of the hotel is the classic Europe style. We provide a lot of services such as custom rooms, restaurant, entertainment, beauty, chess and puke, commercial affairs. In our hotel, there are sculptures, frest flowers, green meadows all these made our hotel full of the smell of good manner. We provide luxuious set, 20 luxurious standard rooms, 210 beds, lavatory, Telecommunication, TV set, big&small, east&west dining room. All this can provide the best service for 1000 people. Dishes in the restaurant are made by our chefs, who certificate with 1st, 2nd or special 3rd level, In our dancing hall, KTV rooms, Chess&puke rooms, you can satisfied with yourself. Beside this, we provide mini-hall, convince hall, big hall, and meeting hall for sorts of conferences.

We are solidarity, brave and creative, reinforcing inter management, standing outer figure. Number 1 is our target. perfect service is the guarantee of improving the ecomomic benefit. Our motto is always being the best and satisfying the public.

Perhaps management's service has slipped since the writing of this brochure as I've never killed so many cockroaches! The first night it was over 10, I lost count. The second night it was only 5 before I finally fell asleep. Did they come in from the green meadows or the puke room?
But it really wasn't a bad place to stay for just under $3/night/person.

Water splashing - part 2

Two days of getting drenched in Ruili was enough. We spent day 3 of the festivities on a sleeper bus to Nanson. This meant we were reclined from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eleven beds, 2 levels - at first glance I thought it looked like a death trap, but it turned out to be not a bad way to watch the scenery. A fairly uneventful day except for 2 police checkpoints. We foreigners held the bus up each time as the police struggled with their English and went thru our things. They seemed more curious than intent on finding anything... Why are you in China? to travel.... Do you like China? yes... Do you like the culture? yes... Do you like sightseeing? yes...

Day 4 of the 3 day festivities.. we should be safe. We bought tickets for the 11 a.m. minibus to Gengma, deeper into rural areas. We then strolled the streets to watch the morning activities. Just before 10 a.m. we saw our bus driver looking for us. The bus was full, so we were leaving early. Sounded good!

Half an hour into the journey a bad smell caused everyone to cover noses and the bus driver pulled over. The dog in the bag in the aisle next to me wasn't too happy and had relieved himself, leaving a runny mess on the floor of the bus. Altho the 3 chickens in the bag next to him didn't seem to care, everybody else piled off the bus and the bus driver cleaned. The dog was then double bagged, tied to the roof and at 11:00 we were off again. Good thing we got an early start!

Chris commented that this was probably the most exciting trip he's had yet - what with the dog, the mess, chickens and the excited passengers. How true this would be....

Just before 12:30 we pulled into a small village and it didn't look good. There was a log across the road and it seemed that they weren't letting vehicles thru without a water splashing and a fee.

The bus driver stopped.

We watched another vehicle get doused and sprayed.

We shut the windows and waited.

Then 3 young men with the angry enthusiasm of men with guns pushed their way thru the door (the door was positioned in the middle of the small 18 seat bus). They stood there shouting, poised with buckets and hose. Then they let 'er rip. They started spraying water everywhere. In an effort to do something, anything to stop the water, I stood up and reached for one of the pails. I managed to dump some, but was getting absolutely soaked! As I turned my face from the water, Chris pushed past me and pushed the boys out the door and wrestled the lead instigator down to the mud to put a stop to everything. While the other passengers didn't see anything wrong with this, the villagers sure did.

The police were called. We all sat in the bus, windows shut, door locked and waited. Angry villagers banged on the windows, pointed and shouted. The bus driver stood outside and passed cigarettes around. I sat and imagined being pulled apart by the villagers, spending the rest of my life in a Chinese prison, or at best, being kicked out of the country.

Half an hour later the police arrived. They walked around the bus, talked to the villagers, then came on board. We spoke no Chinese, they spoke no English and our Mandarin phrasebook was useful for helping us with getting transportation, accomodation and food, but not too useful for this kind of situation.

They motioned for Chris to get off the bus. I followed and was horrified at what I saw. They were showing Chris the poor guy he had "beaten." This was turning into a full-on nightmare!!

The same guy who was screaming and banging on the windows and rallying the others before the police arrived, was now barely alive it seemed. His ribs were bruised and he could only sit with eyes half closed, bobbing his head.

AND it now seemed that I was being accused of kicking him!! Little ol' me?!?! I need the Chinese words for "fucking liar." I found the word for actor, but it wasn't looking good. And the other passengers didn't seem so keen to be with us anymore.

So, we were going with the cops. We grabbed our bags and got into the police 4x4 with a young, happy cop and an old, tough cop.

First stop was at a small hospital to drop the "actor" off. Next stop was at a school, presumably to get some help with English, but no luck. And finally, we were stopping at the police station, which the tough cop really wanted us to understand. As we stopped outside the gate, he pointed repeatedly to the English words "Police Station."

We still got no where and I think they were getting tired of us. We answered the same questions... why are we in China?... where are we traveling?... do we speak Chinese?

Back into the 4x4 and again the old cop pointed to the words Police Station as we pulled away.

Back to the hospital, where the drunken ass was fast asleep with an IV drip.

Finally, the old cop showed us a 100Y note. Why, we asked. For medications. I asked how much. The hospital employees went into the office and came up with the total of 40Y. Chris emptied his pocket and handed over 32Y. The cop wasn't satisfied, but the hospital employees accepted it. I asked for a receipt. We said our thank-yous and were back in the 4x4, speeding off to ....?

Back to the village... and there was the little pink minibus loaded up with our fellow passengers!!! After everything we had just been thru, it was most unbelievable to me that the bus waiting for us.

It was now 3:00!

I gave a sheepish little ni hao (hello) to a couple of the women as I got on. They ni hao'd back, but really wanted to know how much we had to pay.

We settled in and were off again... into the 5th hour of what was supposed to be a 6 hour trip.

That wasn't the end of the splashing, but at least I got to have a shower and a beer in a room of my choice at the end of the day.

Never a dull day, as I often say.

... and the dog... he survived the heat of the sun up there in the bag, and was yelping when the journey was done.

I'm getting old

I found myself on a bus to Ruili on April 13th, the first day of the 3 day Water-splashing Festival.

The Water-splashing Festival is part of the Dai New Year celebrations. The Dai are one of 28 different indigenous groups living in Yunnan. Ruili is Yunnan's most westerly town and 30 minutes from the Burmese border.

The water splashing is supposed to wash away bad luck and encourage a good wet season. However, it seems it is really just an excuse for kids and young adults to run and drive thru the streets, screaming, laughing and heaving pails of water at anyone and everyone. It is also a great time for toy companies to sell gargantuan water guns - guns so large they must be supported by a should sling.

I got off the bus with my pack on my back and prepared myself. As I walked the street looking for a hotel I begged and pleaded, but I was still drenched by the time I checked in.

Is this something I could take pictures of? Absolutely not!! My camera had to remain in my shoulder bag, double protected by a plastic bag.

Is this something I was glad to be a part of? Not really.

Tibet Everest Base Camp - Hotel Review

About 8km down from EBC, at 5200m elevation, there are two hotels across from Rongpu Monastery, the highest monastery in the world (those monks are a hardy lot!).

First we checked the Tibetan Guesthouse. Rooms all w/o bath and power were basic and had heavy bedsize pads to weigh you down and keep you warm. There was a full view of Everest from each room, but I was frightened of the wind that whistled in thru the windows and blew the curtains around. The rate was 25Y/person.

Next we checked a new 3-storey Chinese hotel which employed Tibetans. Room all w/o bath had carpet, heavy bedsize pads with nice bedspreads, high ceilings and desk with mirror. There was a full view of Everest from each room and the windows seemed to have a better seal. We asked the rate…. 200Y/person!!! I was outraged!! Especially because I had heard about the toilets. I forced the receptionist up the stairs with me to look at the toilets. I pointed to the shit piled high in each of the new porcelain squat toilets. The staff explained that there was no water. Do you have a shovel, I asked. Then a male staff pushed me aside and locked the door to the room, thereby keeping everyone from the toilets!

The other foreigners staying at the hotel seemed fine with the situation. I wasn't. I sat in the reception area and struggled. My need for feelings of warmth and comfort eventually overruled my outrage at being held hostage. And fortunately, somewhere during all this the price came down to 100Y/person. I gave in.

We checked in. The room had a TV, but the electric socket was on the other side of the room. The carpets had never been vacuumed. The bedside console controlling the lights and TV was not connected to the lights or TV. The only heat in this building at the base of Everest was on the second floor in the common area – it came from a wood stove fuelled by goat pellets, around which all the Tibetans sat, leaving no room for the hotel guests.

As for the toilet, you could go outside into the biting wind or you could rig something in the room. We discovered the next morning that the trash pail had a leak – oh well.

We woke up the next morning to thick clouds, so there were no views of Everest. We got out of bed, put our clothes on over our bed clothes and got back under the covers, where we stayed until one of us was brave enough to go out and find our driver to tell him that we wanted to leave sooner rather than later.

Hotel: Zhu Feng View and Admire Floor
Rating: Worst hotel in the world

Tibet Photos

On the morning of day 2 (March 16) in Lhasa I knew there was something not right in the air when I became far too upset when I couldn't get any info on where I could shower.

We were staying at the Banak Shol, a Tibetan hotel and old meditaton retreat. Rooms without bath were half the price of rooms with bath. During check-in I was shown where the showers were, but on this morning the doors were locked and the receptionist would only wave generally in the direction of the courtyard when I tried to ask where I could shower. So I stood in the sun, in the courtyard, and pouted... holding my laundry. Laundry is a free service offered at the Banak Shol. Bonus - cuz it would be nice to have a break from washing my clothes. But I was sure the receptionist had said laundry could be turned in at 8:30, but today I was told to wait until 9:30. When the laundry lady showed up she said she wouldn't do socks - bummer!

Chris was finally able to find out where to shower and so off I went. However, there was absolutely no cold water, only scalding hot water - this was a first! I discovered it was far easier to take a cold shower than a hot one. I poured a small puddle of very hot water into the tub, splashed a few parts and that was that.

This was the day we would explore the Barkhor Kora - Lhasa's most interesting pilgrimage circuit. It is the spiritual heart of Lhasa and the main commercial district for Tibetans. The whole circuit is lined with stalls selling absolutely everything a Tibetan or tourist might want.

We attracted crowds whenever we stopped at a stall to bargain... and bargaining was brutal! A vendor might start at 160Y and I would offer an opening price of 10Y - so it takes a long, long time to get them down to a price I will even consider accepting. I wasn't buying much.

About 2/3 of the way around the kora I looked down and froze. The zippered pocket that held my camera was open ... and empty. Was I seeing correctly? I was stunned. I checked all my pockets, even though I knew my camera wouldn't be there. I looked up at the crowds walking by. The bargaining stopped.

My camera was gone and there was nothing that could be done. I was scared, angry and very sad.

Here I am in a Buddhist region where Buddha teaches that detachment from material possessions lessens the suffering that desire brings. I realized how attached I had become to my camera. I learned from the Philippines that my pics help me remember the fantastic experiences I'm having and having the camera is a great way to interact with people. But more than my camera, I wanted my pics back. We had been in China a little over a week and I had taken over 60 pics.

I've recovered from the loss. It took a few days to get over the urge to pull out my camera every time I saw a good photo op. And fortunately I have a travel mate with a camera to record the trip.

And the shock hasn't ruined my experience of Tibet, as I had feared it might. In fact, I have been trying to think of how to describe a smile that is bigger and more powerful than a smile.

More than I enjoyed visiting the Potala or Everest, my favorite activity here has been walking the koras. If there's a kora, I want to walk it. I like to spin the prayer wheels and listen to the prayer flags whipping in the wind.

But most I love to say tashi de lay (hello, altho I'm sure the direct translation is something far richer) to the little old ladies walking the circuits. I spy one and then tashi de lay I say... and then their beautiful weathered and wrinkled faces explode as they beam back at me with almost toothless smiles, tashi de lay, and giggling. It makes my entire body smile. I'm addicted. I can't get enough of that feeling. What will be left of Tibet when they are gone?

I'll be back in China in a couple of days. I'll buy another camera and start snapping away again.

Om mani padme hum

Om mani padme hum

Om mani padme hum

Sunday: wake up early to tour the Potala

In a city where Amway occupies one of the largest buildings it's easy to forget where you are. Girls are wearing heels and leather and jeans, all the roads are paved and clean, and there's not a thing you can't buy here. There are more outdoor gear/clothing shops here than in Calgary! Hint: if you are coming this way don't bring anything more than what you are wearing - you can get it all here, good quality and cheap.

Fortunately, McDo's and Starbucks haven't arrived and I was glad to see that the sidewalk in front of the Potala wasn't lined with souvenir and hot dog stands.

We have gotten as high as 4200m and I seem to be acclimatizing well. I just need to remember to walk more slowly and breathe more deeply. But I haven't been sleeping much.

Last night while I was trying to sleep I composed a brilliant (of course) blog. Too bad I didn't get up and write it down, cuz now it's gone.

Now I'm off to try to get some sleep tonight. We're heading off early in the morning on a 6 day jeep trip to Everest Base Camp. We replied to a note on the bulletin board last Tuesday - Jim and Maeve, a Brit/Irish couple, had organized jeep and driver and were looking to share costs. Everything is organized and we're ready to go.

I'm expecting cold, few showers and some interesting road. I'm excited!

China!!

Monday - received a 3 month Visa
Tuesday - we set off on the train to Lo Wu, the town just before the border. Then we crossed over. Mr. T. Law checked me out of Hong Kong and another serious looking guy checked me into China. Never before have I felt so much like I was going in. And now here I am.

Spent the first night in Shenzhen, in a youth hostel in the middle of numerous theme lands... and we spent the evening browsing thru Wal-Mart!! Yes, very weird, but bought some cheap food for the next phase... a 25 hour train journey to Kunming. STUNNING scenery the entire route.

Sitting in the French Cafe having a Tsing Tao beer on the free internet so don't want to be too greedy. Just want to say all is well... oh and the food, this is looking like it will be a very tasty and exciting experience.

So much to see and do, so little time.

'til next time... and please send me news from the outside as I think the likelihood of getting it here is slim!

Need a haircut?

As every female knows, a good haircut is hard to find. Well, I've been very lucky since arriving in this part of the world.

While in Taiwan I was feeling frumpy and so went in search of a fix. I was very fortunate to get a good short cut by a 40 yr old guy named Here. He spoke perfect English, once taught styling in Hong Kong, and has cut hair for many foreigners. We got along fabulously and I walked away with a big smile.

Today, I was again feeling in need of a fix of some kind. As I was malling at Robinson's Galleria, Ortigas Centre, I noticed an empty salon with a male stylist who had a great cut. I went inside and told him so and asked if he could help me. My hair was washed, my head massaged and I was lead to a very comfortable black leather armchair. As he started snipping, his assistant brought me a good cup of coffee (in a country where instant Nescafe is the norm), and then she massaged my arms and hands. After, she hovered about and whisked away hairs as they fell to my face. Others in the salon came by to make sure I was happy... and I was. I got another great cut. I asked for their calling card. My stylist was Kurt, the assistant was Tanya. Then I read the words under Pranav, the name of the salon... Male Spa. Perhaps that explains my experience there.

I walked away with a big smile.

Most Memorable Mentionables

Sketchy Accommodation
- Gloria DeCastro’s – Taal Lake, Luzon – expensive for a creepy little room at 500P, but run by a cute (sly) old lady
- Bicolana Hotel & Restaurant – Allen, Samar – but for 200P you can’t really complain, and it was run by cut little old ladies

Room with a View
- San Bernadino Mountain Resort run by Fred and Wilma, San Joaquin, Panay – rice terraces
- Nuts Huts Resort run by Chris and Rita, Loboc, Bohol – jungle/river view
- Simons Inn, Batad, Ifugao - a view of the village of Batad in the rice terraces, declared the 8th Wonder of the World by UNESCO

Beach
- Aninuan, Puerto Gallera, Mindoro

Boat Ride
- Ferry from Manila to Romblon Town – 13 hrs on a listing ferry, 1st class = bunk in a room with 60 people, air con and mat, rather than on deck with 300 people, no mat or air con
- Looc, Tablas to Boracay Island – very old boat in very rough water for 2.5 hours, was glad to be alive when we stepped ashore
- Bohol to Bato, Leyte – 3 hrs on a deck fitted with mats for lounging, very comfortable
- Ormoc, Leyte to Camotes Islands – a 1 hr trip became a 3 hr milk run. It started at 8 a.m. with the peanut seller singing karaoke, and by 9 a.m. the guys were guzzling beer and belting out tunes such as You Make Me Feel Brand New and anything by Air Supply

Bus/Jeepney Ride
- Baguio - bus up into and down out of, stunning mountain scenery
- Suyo to Cervantes - they told us it couldn't be done, that it was dangerous. Stunning scenery over Bessing Pass at 5200 ft, in a jeepney - 41 km, 2.5 hrs

Walk
- Batad to Campulo to Banaue - terrace and mountain trekking, 20+ km. The only way into and out of the villages of Batad and Campulo is on foot, so no wonder the price of a cola sky rockets to 30P from its usual 10P!

Cheapest Internet
- Ormoc, Leyte – 15P/hr

Bakery
- Dumagete, Negros – real cinnamon buns, real cookies
- Silay, Negros – guappa/guava pie – YUM!

Turo Turo (Filipino Eatery)
- Dumagete, Negros (Chinese influenced)

Filipino Food Favourites
- Lumpia – spring rolls
- Goto – congee with chopped intestines fried up in garlic and ginger, a great breakfast for 10P
- Lomi – great tasting noodle/veg/meat soup
- Filipino breakfasts – tapsilog (beef), tocinolog (pork), chicksilog (chicken), etcilog …. with a fried egg and rice
- Fruits – mango, pineapple, jackfruit, star apple, guiyabano, pomello
- Bibinga – moist, sweet rice cake
- Garlic rice
- Coconut jam – a very delish sweet brown spread
- Empanadas in Vigan
- Oyok - deep fried shrimp omelettes in Vigan - yum!!

Ice Cream
- Jollibees Cheese Crunch Twirl Cone for 12P - but we gave up on Jollibees, the competition that MacDonalds can not beat in this country, because twice we have gone to get a cone and they had no cones!!! They could only offer us a cup - how does that happen??

Street Snacks
- BBQ banana on a stick rolled in sugar or syrup
- Peanut brittle
- Garlic roasted spicy peanuts
- Choco Crinkle cookies
- Banana wrapped in a crepe

Freaky Food
- Balut – duck embryo hard boiled egg
- Adidas – chicken feet
- Crickets - a plate of spicy, crunchy crickets, not bad
- Frogs - first time for me
- BBQ just too freaky to try: intestines, fat chunks, one day old chicks, chicken heads (seems that no parts are wasted, but where is the meat on a chicken head?)

Morning Coffee Café
- New New City Café, Silay, Negros - cheap coffee and we got to watch the cops take a criminal down right outside the door!

Meals
- San Bernadino Mountain Resort, San Joaquin, Panay – fried chicken and chips, goulash, huge salad and huge breakfast
- Kookoos Nest Resort, Tambobo Bay, Negros – buffet dinners of sashimi, fajitas and Thai curry
- Italian restaurant, Talipanan Beach Resort, Mindoro – calzone, penne and great music
- Lloyd’s Eatery, Poro, Camotes Island – although the sign on the building led us to believe we were entering an eatery, we were introduced to a family playing cards at the kitchen table; they looked into their fridge to see what they could put together to feed us; we didn’t linger after we ate

Sunsets
- Kookoos Nest Resort, Tambobo Bay, Negros
- Islanders Paradise Beach Resort, Sandugan Point, Siquijor Island
- White Beach, Mindoro
- Manila Bay

He/Shes
- Bars at White Beach
- Family Pension, Iloilo, Panay

Closed Facilites (always discovered after considerable effort!)
- Whitewater Kayaking Inn, Tibiao, Panay
- Fortuna Pension, Silay, Negros
- Palanunitan San Silay Restaurant, Silay, Negros
- Calalinan Beach Gardan Resort, Siquijor
- Cheng Sian Café & snack Haus, Lazi, Siquijor

Motorcycle Journeys
- Sibuyan Island – island circuit trip (would you call that a road?), my ass was so sore at the end of the day I almost couldn’t remove myself from the bike
- Siquijor Island – around and over island trip, good roads thru lush mountain, jungle and seaside scenery
- Bohol Island – a bike so bad the ride was the roughest yet, and ran outta gas twice (gauges never work so it’s always a guessing game)
- Camotes Island – remote, rural jungle towns, very pleasant, leaving one town there was a sign Thank You for Living

Disappointments
- Mambucal Mountain Resort, Negros – where’s the bubbling mud?
- Boracay Island – described as the most beautiful beach in the world, but where was the sun?
- Kiwi Dive Resort – for so many reasons, so we didn’t stay
- Filipino bakeries – Filipinos like their breads white and sweet; many cookies, but just different shapes of the same bland flavour; although there are things that look like chocolate I have accepted that there is no real chocolate
- Laura’s Shop, German Community, Sibuyan Island – after a rough bike ride we were dreaming of a lunch of German food, but had to settle for Filipino food and conversation with Hans
- Silay, Negros – closed, closed and closed! Not at all what the guide book suggested.
- Philippine National Railway - runs no longer. There was a derailment a few months ago and it seems that the track is being salvaged by the locals....
- Mount Pinatubo - the Pinatubo Tourist Office was not able to give us information on how to get there, and since we were trying to find it during our last week in the Philippines, we lost the steam and enthusiasm to try further - oh well.

Jeepney Notes
- “The traditional recipe for the jeepney, a uniquely Philippine concoction, is as follows: take on ex-US Army jeep, put two benches in the back with enough room for about 12 people, paint it every colour of the rainbow, add badges, horns, aerials, air fresheners, icons, lots of mirrors, a tape deck that plays only Philippine pop, a chrome horse (or a whole herd of them) and anything else you can think of. Then stuff 20 passengers on those benches, add four in front, hang a few more off the roof and drive like a maniac.” LP
- Manila – best graphics and slogans
- Jeepneys plying the Bacolod to Silay, Negros route – worst music (hits from the 50s & 60s)
- Districts between Miagao and Iloilo, Panay – modern new vehicles with perfect paint jobs
- Siquijor Island – squashed mini versions of the original
- Tacloban, Leyte – the most gawdy, colourful, fantastically decorated
- Baguio - with doors and windows, perhaps because it is chilly up in the mountains
- God Bless Our Trip!!

Things that made me laugh
- After a very disappointing dinner of a very fatty deep fried porkchop and rice (the only thing offered at the only restaurant in town), walking back to our pension past a Sari Sari (tiny store), Chris asked “Are you full? Do you want a tin of corned beef?” Where else could a person be tempted by such an offer?
- During a rest stop on a very rough motorcycle ride and giddy from the beating my body was taking on the bike, I bust into a hysterical fit of laughter when Chris asked “Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?” We’ve learned that just because you want to eat doesn’t mean you can. Passing thru many a town we see funerias, chainsaw repair and vulcanizing shops, but you need God’s help to find an eatery. And the many, many bakeries provide only tasteless filler for the stomach.
- Watching chickens skid across the road as you speed up on them with the horn honking
- Filipinos love to pose when they see the camera, then they thank us for taking their picture
- the kids pose by framing their chin with their thumb and forefinger - I think it's a GQ thing
- how I jumped up on the bed like a girl the first time I had an experience with a flying cockroach - now I just announce that there is a cockroach that needs to be taken care of

Things that make me go hmmm….
- Cheese flavoured ice cream
- Karaoke – morning, day and night, it seems to be a need as strong as food and water
- Philippine Government Tourism Department
- Beer that is cheaper than water
- Government service
- “Child Friendly” schools
- “Clean and Green” and WOW (War on Waste) campaigns
- GMA Cares billboards (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo)
- Dayglo pink hotdogs for breakfast
- Fried chicken with spaghetti and rice combo fast food meals
- I now use ketchup on everything for added flavour
- Road sign seen only once: Warning – Defective Pavement Ahead
- "all you can eat buffet" but you pay a penalty if you leave anything on your plate, good idea huh?
- absolutely NOTHING is sign posted, making it very difficult to visit points of interest as advertised by the Philippine Tourism Department. This is the Philippine way as a Filipina explained to us, shaking her head.
- banana ketchup (it is red too)

Filipino Musical Favorites
- Bread
- Air Supply
- ABBA
- Kenny Rogers (country music is very popular up north, never heard any down south)

Most People Seen on a Motorcycle
- 5 adults – all on one seat!

Islands in the Philippines
- 7100+
Islands Visited
- 17

100 Pesos = Cdn $2.50

Honourable Mention
- the people of the Philippines - the friendliest people I have ever met; they always have a smile or a greeting for you

God Bless the Philippines

Ba hala na

This phrase is referred to as the national philosophy, somewhere between no worries and so it goes. Or all things shall pass and in the meantime life is to be lived.

This should help me during any times of struggle. Although I'm not expecting any. I'm looking forward to getting-going. The people are some of the friendliest I've ever met and it looks like there's lots of good stuff to see.

The Ba hala na Tour begins with a 8-14 hour boat trip to the island of Romblon, famous for its marble. We'd like to start around January 10th, but as of yet we haven't been able to get any clear info on the ferries .... ba hala na.

The Philippines so far...

If you're looking for a quiet, tranquil place to visit, this is not the country. The louder and busier the better. Construction goes 24/7, the noises of the different modes of transport including the ubiquitous jeepney, and businesses are all trying to outdo their neighbours with louder music... and it's bad music - all the old, cheezy American popular love songs.

For Christmas dinner we followed our noses to a tiny Italian restaurant at the far end of a very long lonely beach and had some of the best Italian food I've ever had, but another high point of the meal was the excellent music they played... rare.

I've been listening to the radio a lot and watching MTV Asia and there is some good Filipino popular music. And if you feel the need for some karaoke there is a TV channel that runs the words to the songs, but so far I haven't had the urge.

All the Filipino food I've tried so far has been pretty good. One challenge I had was trying balut - boiled egg with a partially formed duck embryo, but I got it down and it really wasn't that bad. The plan for this Friday is to have lunch at the SPAM restaurant at the mall. SPAM is an ingredient in all the menu items - yum! Something I've tried a couple of times, and like, is a dipped cone. Not chocolate dipped ... cheese dipped. It reminds me of the flavour of Cheezies. These can be found at Jollibees - McDo's (McDonald's) Filipino competition. They are only $0.25, so a nice treat during an afternoon of malling. I've been staying in Ortigas, a wealthier area of Manila with more malls within walking distance of the condo than in all of Calgary.

A couple of other small challenges: I can't be doing my usual mindless jaywalking here. Vehicles do not slow for pedestrians, the zebra crossings are "decoration" only and there are no flashing walk signals for us ... you are on your own. Stay alert, choose your path, and don't hesitate, just GO. Holding out your hand toward the oncoming traffic might help a bit too. Although you could be lucky... you may have one of the omnipresent security guards hold out his hand and stop traffic just for YOU. I think one in three Filipino men is employed as a security guard. They greet you with a smile and a Good day ma'am as they open every door to every building ... Jollibees, metro stations, malls - everywhere! Then they will search through your bags with a stick, and if you are a guy, they will also feel along your back for a gun.

Another noise heard everyday is the bang of firecrackers. I've stopped thinking that some of them might be bombs. I'd read that the Filipinos like their firecrackers and that Manila is quite a show on New Year's Eve... no kidding!! We sat on the roof of the 30-storey condo complex where Chris lives. We started to watch the sky about 10 p.m. and the intensity just grew and grew as we moved towards midnight. It was pretty crazy -- we had a 360 degree full-on fireworks show. I've never seen anything like it.

Here's to a very happy 2005!