Sat, 29 Jun 2002 07:40:38

Hello everyone,

This will probably be the last email that I send from Asia since I will be flying out of here on July 7th. I know that I told some of you that I would be coming home in August, but I was unable to change my original flight and I actually I feel like I am getting ready to come home, especially after China. I probably will not start work right away since I want to spend a few weeks in Toronto to get over the culture shock of Canada :) It is going to be so strange getting used to things like: flat sidewalks, English street signs, western toilets, knives+forks, and seat belts. I apologize in advance for my wonderful Asian eating habits, I will try to eat nicely when with company :)

Last time I wrote I had just crossed the border into China: what a difference from Vietnam. There is just so much more time and money spent on things like roads and bridges and keeping the streets clean. I also noticed that people didn't seem to smile as much as the rest of South East Asia where people were super-friendly. I later realized that many Chinese are just as friendly, they just don't show it when you first meet. Same as in many countries, some people see you as a walking dollar sign while others will go out of their way to help you.

What I saw in China was amazing, but you will probably be more surprised by what I have not seen in China. It is such a big country that I didn’t get a chance to see many of the main sights such as: The Great Wall, The Terracotta Warriors, The Forbidden City, and Shanghai. I have focused instead on the South-Western rural areas and Tibet and have just loved it.

I took an overnight train from the border to the provincial capital of Kunming. It was a big, clean city and I enjoyed biking around for the day and purposefully getting lost. There were a few nice old streets, but unfortunately Kunming is tearing down a lot of the old streets and houses for progress! What a shame that they aren't trying to keep some.

Then I bused my way on to Dali and spent a few days just chilling out and relaxing in the cool backpacker town. I got a group of 10 people together and we went for a special all-you-can-eat Tibetan dinner at a nearby restaurant (only 20Yuan=4CDN each). The food was excellent and there was so much choice of over 20 dishes. The next day 6 of us stayed together and signed up for a special tour of the local area. I was so glad that I did that, since I was able to see some of the local communities that I would not have been able to see otherwise. Our guide was excellent and told us lots about the local people, the communist party and other interesting facts. We visited a local market and I bought some "antique" shoes worn by women whose feet were bound at birth. (a strange symbol of oppression.) After the market we went for a hike out in the countryside and we saw women in the rice fields dressed in local traditional costume and they were so sweet. We stopped for lunch at the next village for some more great food and were invited to a funeral in the courtyard of a nearby house. We were surprised that everyone was celebrating and offering us cookies, candy and tea. Our guide told us that it was customary in this region to celebrate the continuation to the next life. The next day I went to visit two Canadians that I had met at a monastery where you can learn Kung Fu and Tai Chi. It was fun to watch them practice, and it was a great peaceful place to catch up on my journal.

Then a bus to Lijiang which is another great town for backpackers. I was working to get a group together to go hike along the Tiger Leaping Gorge, but it took a few days before all the people I was with were all healthy enough. It is strange how many more travelers have been sick in China in comparison with the rest of South East Asia. After a few days of Lijiang, wandering the o ld alleyways and streets and doing some shopping, we were all set to go. Two Americans, a Dutch guy and me. We decided to hike the Gorge in 4 days (even though most people do it in 2). The gorge is really beautiful, with a powerful river at the bottom and steep cliffs rising 2km vertically on both sides. On our second day we hiked down from the main road to the river and it was even more powerful up close than we had imagined. Then we climbed back up to Sean's guesthouse for lunch. After lunch we tried to find the path from Sean's to the Halfway guesthouse. I don't think we ever found it, we did find some nice goat paths and at one point just hacked our way across the slope. We walked up over 1km vertically and I don't know how many kilometers horizontally. We were walking along for hours, and by 6pm I started to get worried since we still did not know how far we were from the Halfway guesthouse. Then at 7pm we came across a big deep ravine with a waterfall through it and could not see how to get across. Also there was a landslide through the path on the other side so we didn't even want to try. We had to hike all the way back down to the road following more goat paths in the near-dark and finally made it to Tina's guest house 5 hours after leaving Sean’s (it is only a 45minute walk along the road :) I don't regret any of it since it was great to see a part of the Gorge most people never see. The rest of the walk wasn't as eventful since the path was well marked. There were beautiful small waterfalls along the way, and at the end a lovely cedar forest.

Once we got back to Lijiang, I had to decide where I wanted to go next. There was an interesting route to visit Tibetan people along the border of Tibet (they are supposedly more “Tibetan” than the people living in Tibet), or I could go straight up to Chengdu. I decided to head straight to Chengdu since I was planning on going to Tibet and I really didn't have the time for the slow route.

In Chengdu a few of us went to go visit the Pandas in the Panda reserve just outside of town. The pandas were really cute, just like big teddy bears. The young ones were especially playful, and I had fun sketching them (even though it was difficult since they wouldn't stay still). The Chinese were really amazed at my sketching and many of them took photos of me drawing the sketches. How strange is that?

I decided to fly to Lhasa, Tibet from Chengdu. The only way to visit Tibet is buying a package, so I bought a package which included transfer to the airport, Permit and flight. When the bus from the airport entered Lhasa and I saw the Potala Palace up on its hill for the first time I was really blown away. I have seen the Dali Lama’s Palace many times in photos, on TV, and in movies, but nothing compares to actually seeing it with your own eyes. It sits on its own hill right in the middle of town, and it is surprising how suddenly you come across it.

When I got off the bus in Lhasa, I was met by a guy with my name on a piece of paper. He represented Tibet Tourism and told me that the travel agency had not bought a permit for me and they must have just pocketed the money. I had to sit in the PSB office and tell them all I knew about the travel agency. They said that many travelers got scammed this way, and I was really glad that they didn't make me pay for another permit. It actually worked out best for me since the package was much cheaper than the legal way, but I didn't enjoy sitting in the office. Luckily another traveler who spoke Chinese and English came with me and helped sort things out.

The rest of the day I spent wandering around Lhasa and just spent some time acclimatizing. I walked around Jokhang Temple and saw so many Tibetans dressed in local costumes. There were also many dressed in modern clothes, and the mix was really interesting. I sat in a restaurant above the street and just loved watching t he old Pilgrims walking and spinning their prayer wheels. I later realized that I had walked around the temple the wrong way. There is a pilgrim path (called a Kora) around every religious building and you are supposed to walk around clockwise. So from then on I always walked the correct way.

The next day I climbed up to the Potala Palce (a lot of effort at that altitude). Visiting the Palace was interesting, but it is so sad that it is so dark and unlived-in since the Dali Lama is still living in Nepal. There were lots of relics, Buddha images and murals, but they all start to look the same after a while.

I visited some beautiful monasteries over the next two days and enjoyed watching the pilgrims as they also visited the pilgrimage sites. I was able to see the monks at Drepung monastery at their lunchtime gathering and to hear them chanting. I also did some sketches and it was nice to have a subject that didn’t move much. Everywhere I went I was offered this horrible yak butter tea which tastes horrible and is very greasy. I am very glad that I don’t have to live a monk’s life. Ganden monastery had a really long Kora twisting around the mountainside and it was a great walk (even though it was too cloudy for a good view). The other people walking offered us: dried yak meat, yak cheese, cookies and candies. We accepted the candies, but declined the yak products :).

I also spent some time in Lhasa, doing some shopping and watching people go past. At one point I bought some cookies and fruit roll-ups. When the woman held up two fingers I handed her 2 Yuan and was very pleasantly surprised when she gave me 1.8 in change. She could have so easily just taken the 2 Yuan and I would never have known. It is moments like this, which help you believe in people again after so many people have been trying to squeeze as much money out of you as possible.

I found a group of travelers who wanted to go to Everest Base Camp (EBC) at the same time as I did, and over the same number of days. There were five of us and it was a very international group (a Dane, a Norweigan, an American, a Chinese and me). We hired a land cruiser and driver to take us for 8 days to EBC and back. We saw some monasteries and forts on the way, but the highlight of the trip was definitely the scenery. Beautiful mountains reflected in lakes with Yaks and sheep and goats dotting the hillsides. The driver only had one English tape, so I bought a couple more in Shigatse. By the end of the 8 days we really knew all the songs well and were singing along (even with Brittany Spears, but don’t tell anyone:)

When we got to Everest (called Qomolangma by the Tibetans), we stayed at Rongphu Monastery Guesthouse and were lucky to have a great view of Everest when we arrived with very few clouds. There was a big Yak in the courtyard of the guesthouse and when I got near to take a picture it hopped towards me and snorted, scaring the living daylights out of me. All the Tibetans nearby laughed at me and were even laughing later each time they saw me. The next day we woke up to snow and I was glad I had bought a down jacket. We hiked up to base camp in the morning. It was quite a difficult walk at that altitude 5400m. I felt tired, but otherwise ok. Base camp itself is nothing much to see, but we hiked up further and sat and waited for the clouds to clear so we could see Everest. It was amazing how hot and sunny it was, especially compared to the snow and clouds in the morning. We had decided to head down at 4pm, no matter what, but just before our time ran out the sky cleared and we had another great view of the tallest mountain (8848m). On the way back down we were hit by a hail storm and had to cover our faces with our scarves. It didn't last long, and we were glad when it was over. The path back down seemed a lot longer than the way up, even though it took us less time we were all really tired and feeling the altitude. It was great to get back down to Rongphu and sit in the smoky restaurant and have dinner and play cards.

On the way back to Lhasa we had some car trouble. We had one flat tire, then fixed it at the next town. The next day the tire broke again and we fixed it. Then the brakes on a tire went, plus another flat. The driver tried to fix the brakes but couldn't. We still had three good brakes, but we didn't feel very happy on the mountain roads. But then the tire went flat again and we were stuck without a spare. Our driver started trying to patch the tires, but was not successful. A truck came by and helped us, but after fixing the tire we only got 1-2km before it was flat again. Then another truck stopped to help and there were over 10 people trying to fix the tire. They finally managed to patch the existing patches and we were on our way again, crossing our fingers to see how far we could get. We finally arrived in Nangartse after dark at 10:00pm and were very glad to be safe in a town.

The next day three of us hired another land cruiser and driver to take us to Nam Tso lake which is just a few hours North of Lhasa. We went for some great walks up the cliffs on the peninsula in the lake. The views again were spectacular (am I repeating myself :) with the snow covered mountains ringing the lake. We stayed in tents that were setup at the edge of the mini-town. They were quite comfortable, but not very warm. In the middle of the night I heard a strange noise. I thought it was Heidi (my roommate), but when I turned on my torch (oops sorry: flashlight) we saw a goat in our tent. We jumped up and ushered the goat out of the tent and put a heavy water thermos on the tent flap. The night was quite cold, but as long as I didn’t move to a cold spot in the bed then I was fine. The next morning, when I woke up I was surprised to find another goat in the tent (actually it was probably the same one). We chased it out and then noticed all the droppings on the floor; the goat must have been in our tent for hours to produce so much poo! Then we drove back to Lhasa and had one more day of visiting the market and temple square before heading back to Chengdu.

Three of us continued north to Songpan and signed up for a 4-day horse trek to “Ice Mountain”. At first I felt very unstable on the horse, but by the end of the trip it felt much more normal. At some points we got off the horses and walked, especially on the steep downward parts where I was very glad to be on my own two feet. The path in some places was really steep and I was so glad that my horse didn’t fall, but then these horses have done this trip so often they know what they are doing. We didn’t guide our horses much; they just followed the path and the verbal commands of our guides. The horses were competitive, and were always trying to get into the first spot in line. They were even biting at each other and cutting in front of each other when they tried to overtake. Camping was a lot of fun; the guides setup the tents and cooked the food for us. Unfortunately they only had a few ingredients for cooking with (flour, sugar, potatoes, cabbage, and spices). They were able to make a surprising number of dishes from this including some nice baked bread. The tents were fine, but there was no floor so the guides spread out some pine or cedar boughs each night and we slept on those, plus the Tibetan coats and sleeping bags that they brought along for us. It was a good trip, but I was glad when it was over and I could get back and shower.

Then I spent a whole day on buses getting to Chongqing, which was a horrible city with too many people, all trying to sell me stuff. The taxi driver took me to 4 places before we got to the location that I asked for since he wanted me to stay at one of the hotels that give out commissions. I got very frustrated trying to buy a boat ticket and finding a hotel. I finally found a hotel that wasn’t too expensive and just woke up early the next morning to get a ticket. I bought the ticket for the boat to Yichang, but didn’t realize that the boat did not stop at the “Three Little Gorges” like all the other tourist boats do. I was the only foreigner on board and had no one to talk to for 2 days so I spent a lot of time reading and watching the big three gorges go by. The weather was also bad since the pollution haze was really thick. The dam was big, but not really worth seeing. I found the large locks that our boat went through more interesting. I must say, I was very glad to be off the boat when we got to Yichang. The next morning I took a bus to Wuhan. A really nice student on the bus chatted with me. When we got to Wuhan he came with me to help me find a hotel and to book my flight to Bangkok. It would have been so much harder without his help. I offered to buy him lunch, but all he would order was a coke. Again, another really nice person to offset all the money-grabbers. My last few days in China were a bit disappointing, so I am just going to try to remember the South-West areas and Tibet and all the people and places I saw there.

The next day was spent flying. When I got to Bangkok, I immediately looked into flights to Ko Samui and found that one left in 30 minutes. I quickly bought a ticket and sorted out some luggage to leave at the airport (since I didn’t think I would need my down-filled coat, prayer flags or other souvenirs). It was so strange to get to this tropical Thailand Island, everything was just so different from China. I really experienced some major culture shock. Everything was so easy again. I could order food, sleep in a bungalow on the beach, watch English TV, do whatever I wanted, and not have to worry about getting bus tickets or finding my way around a strange city.I spent two nights on Ko Samui just relaxing, eating good food again, getting a massage, doing my yoga, and just chilling out. It was so weird to be sitting on the beach drinking a margarita when I compared it to being on the boat to Wuhan in China.

This morning I took a ferry to Ko Tau and I have signed up to do some scuba diving over the next few days before I return. After that I go to Bangkok, Hong Kong and then TO.

The flight home will be long, but I am used to long trips by now. It will be really strange for me to come back to Canada, but now I am really looking forward to being home and seeing everyone again whom I have missed so much. I am also looking forward to familiar places, a good cup of tea, being able to choose what I wear from my whole closet!

If you have read all these emails, then I am really impressed. I can't wait to share my photos with you when I get back (I just have to get them developed and sort them all first)

Take Care,See you soon;
Jen