emLogs #08 - I Ate Mr. Ed

We made it to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia in one piece. Ragged, but in one piece. We

took a 28 hour train ride north and across the border.

Actually, the story starts before we left for the train station. Leavitt, Nat and me

spent our last night in Beijing going to see the Chinese Acrobats! It was the coolest

thing EVER!! They did things that only Spiderman or Mr Fantastic could do. The

girl acrobats could do this weird crazy contorted thing that was a little too creepy.

But then they got more daring and 15 piled on to one bike and cruised around on

stage. It was very cool.

The guys totally defied gravity and would do all these flips 30 feet into the air landing

on to some little chair held by a go on stilts. I don't even know if I'm painting

this picture very well-- suffice it to say, it was well worth the 160 yuan!

Afterwards we hopped on the subway to go to the bug market. Thats where you

find things that people that should just not be on a stick. This aint no corndog or

popcicle. We saw: silk worms, centipedes, scorpions, snake and even a tape worm.

The guy would bang on the counter and the scorpions would wiggle with a stick

through them. I wont lie, it was gross. We didn't eat them.

The train wasn't that bad. The three of us shared it with Keri from the U.K. In fact,

she's my hotel mate now. She's very funny and has a quick wit. We're really liking

her and have a blast hanging out together.

We walked around Ulaanbataar or UB and I must say, I love it soooo much more

than China. I feel a though Mongolia is more my speed. It's not as crowded, people

are nicer and we don't get anyone doing sneaky pictures of us. Not that the pictures

were a huge problem, I would shamelessly pose for all of them :)

UB itself reminds me of a cross between Comodoro, Argentina and Beijing. So basically

a concrete jungle with unrecognizable words. As we came in from the outskirts,

it's like everything you see in movies, large grassy landscapes with horses

crowded around a yurt or the Mongolian Ger. We'll be staying here in the capital

for a few nights and then head to the national forest where I will begin my black

hole communication part of the trip. So be prepared to be bombarded with emails!

Tonight we did the Mongolian BBQ thing and it's just like you would see back

home, except with one exception-- you can eat horse! I totally did! It was great, but

it felt almost wrong. The odd thing is, there isn't a McDonald's on every corner-- in

fact, I have yet to see one.

One thing that is kind of weird about this region of the world. Is that at the country's

borders you have to stop for about 2 hours while the border people change the

train wheels. I guess the wheels in China are different for Mongolian tracks. We sat

there at midnight waiting for these to get changed out. Then we got woken up at

1:30am to hand people our passports. It was an interesting night.

Despite being on the train that long, it was surprisingly not bad. I passed the time

by watching House Season 5 and playing my travel ukulele. In fact, I got the Dutch

girls to sing along! It was awesome, we have definitely livened up the place.

Well I better get some laundry done. I need to clean the China out of it! Talk to you

all soon enough!

Emily Khaan

emLogs #07 – “No, diarrhea”

Greetings from Beijing!

      

Nat has been teaching us some basic Chinese here and there. Mostly to fend ourselves off from overzealous vendors. My biggest phrase is, “Boo, shiu shiu” which I probably spelled wrong. It means “No, thank you” however, if I say “shiu shiu” with a slightly different pronounciation I just told people, “No, diarrhea”. I’m still wondering how many vendors are laughing at me trying to speak Chinese or if I told them no about diarrhea.

 

The last few days have been a lot of fun. We’ve met up with the tour group and everyone seems to be getting along rather nicely. I think it’s mostly Leavitt and I and our charming personalities J It’s a great group with fun personalities. Very dynamic and I’m really enjoying traveling around with them so far.

 

Yesterday we headed to the Great Wall that extends from horizon to horizon. Leavitt created a stir when she asked someone about a fan or something at one of the stands. She opened up the capitalistic Pandora’s box and we were suddenly swarmed. Thank you Leavitt!

 

I took a different route to the top i.e. the gondola. There was no way I was going to spend my time hiking up to the top, I was going to be up there taking pictures and walking the wall! It was great though, I headed from tower to tower along the wall. The steps are a bit dodgy because they aren’t very tall, but they are wide and so you can’t take long strides across or go in a set rhythm along the wall. This made walking a little more tedious—having to watch your step and all that. Besides, I really wasn’t in the mood to biff it in front of the vendors. My self esteem couldn’t handle that.

 

We had a few options of getting from the Great Wall down to our bus. We chose the most fun route via toboggans! Totally serious, we had these little sled things and a really fun chute that we would go down. Unfortunately we had these old French ladies in front of us that were especially brake happy. Other wise, we were always being told to slow down or slamming into the back of one another! Crappy French ladies!

 

Today we did the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City thing. Tiananmen Square is huge, I guess you can fit a million people there. It’s mostly a peaceful gathering place for festivals and things. The only thing that popped in my head was, “Where is the place where the tanks came through?” It’s a very large square though and with Mao’s mug hanging in the middle.

 

The Forbidden Palace was pretty awesome. The movies make it look larger than I had thought it would be. It was still mighty impressive though. They said that the weather was going to be 37 degrees Celsius (I have no idea Fahrenheit), there was a nice cool breeze that helped alleviate the dry heat. Our guide Kevin, told us that he’s been taking tour groups through here for 6 years and this is only the tenth time where he had blue skies—we had been very fortunate!

 

Most guides that take you through any place we’ve seen in China so far, have these obnoxious megaphones and flags that people follow. When we saw our local guide Kevin, we immediately pounced on him telling him, “No flag!” We couldn’t emphasis that enough. Instead he would walk around with his water bottle which looked a little less stupid.

 

Tomorrow we get up crazy bright and early to head on the train to Mongolia. We will take the train for just over 24 hours to the capital, Ulaanbataar. We’ll be crossing the Gobi desert and hopefully not getting too much cabin fever. Leavitt is itchin’ to ride a camel. Apparently they have 2 humps, so why not?

 

I’ll do my best to get a full report of Mongolia soon! Cheers!

 

E

emLogs #06 - Chinese Customer Service

This morning we arrived in Beijing by first class train. They were all sold out of the cattle cars they call "hard sleepers", so we were spoiled and had the whole cabin to ourselves. Beijing is a drier heat which is what we needed.

It had a rocky start though, our first taxi driver told us he would take us to our hotel for 100 yuan (15 USD) and we're like, "No waaaay!" What an insult that was. THe second one quoted us 80 yuan and after telling him where to stick it-- all in English mind you-- our 3rd taxi driver said he would take us and run the meter. It ended up being 36 yuan; so there are honest taxi drivers in the universe. The real big event today, was watching Leavitt haggle her way to a great price.

These sales people are scary! They would start overly inflating the price so much that it's an insult. Here's how the conversation went for me today:
"Hello would you like uh chessa set?""No thank you, I already have one"
"I make you a goodeh deal""Well, how much""For you, I give you good price" She punches in 2,200 on her calculator.
"What?? You've got to be kidding?!"
"Ok, ok for you I give you cheap" The sales lady punches in 1,500
"Um, I don't even have 1,500 yuan"
"how much you have?"
"I can give you 100 yuan but that's it" The lady is obviously miffed and she then comes down to 500 yuan in price.
"100 yuan is too low, dis is good quality ya? You like ya?"
"It's a nice chess set, but I really don't want it"
"I give it to you for 50 US dollars, you have US dollars no?"
"I have to US dollars and that's it, you want it for that?" She scoffs at my offer and then gives me this angry look.
"You need to meet me in price so we both be happy! You do not come up in price, we both not be happy..."
She berates me for a while and seeing as I really don't care at this point I start talking to her back,"If it wasn't for this chess set, I could see us being friends. You seem nice enough-- almost like kindred spirits."
"How about I give you chess for 150 yuan..." She keeps yacking on and I am so not having her whiney fit.
"Well I just have 100 yuan and only 2 US dollars on me, it's yours if you want it, but thats it."I start to walk away and she is giving me this fuming look. Which is hilarious coming from such a petite Asian. I'm half way down the walk way and she comes over to me, "Ok fine 100 yuan and your 2 US dollah" Yeah, I've got a chess set now :)

It just got worse as we walked around the little markets. In fact, Nat got pinched and Leavitt and I both got slapped with Chinese fans. Seriously, these sales people are brutal! It's funny too, because everything they sell is seriously a dime a dozen. We walked through this place that had gobs and gobs of pearls, another place that was all silk and another place with all sorts of jade.

Beijing has been a whole different beast compared to Xian or even Shanghai. Different dialect (not that it would effect me any) and haggling for everything. We had to haggle prices for water bottles! Which by the way, I drink so much water it's not even funny. I feel like a camel. We met up with our tour group today and we've got a great mix of Hollandish girls, UK chick, Australian couple, Seattle folk, New Englander and our tour guide who is a Thai gypsy. Yep, we are a real pair.

We all went out to dinner tonight and that was a lot of fun. Our 12th girl has been quarantined in a hotel for 5 days with the "swine flu", yeah, I guess she got nabbed. She is not sick with it. Tomorrow is the Great Wall of China and so I'm excited for that. And no, you cannot see the Great Wall from outter space, I lost a bet saying that.

Until the next update, bye all!

Emily the Bruised and Battered Haggler

emLogs #05 - Not for the Faint of Heart

Today was the day we climbed Mt. Huashan. We're talking sheer cliffs, high humidity and lots of stairs to climb. This was seriously our route to getting to the begining of the hike to Mt. Huashan: Bus to Train Station, Train to Huashan, taxi to park entrance, mini bus to gondola, gondola to the mountainside.

This was quite a journey in itself. By the time we got to the gondola we were drenched in sweat. Mt Huashan is one of the 5 sacred mountains in China and is amazing. It reminds me of Yosemite but the mountain peaks are higher. There are old stone steps that wind up and around Mt Huashan. Leavitt and Nat went all the way to East and South Peak.

Remember the movie "Kung Fu Panda"? It's like that, but with more Asian tourists. Leavitt and Nat conquered the mountain by doing what only the bold can do-- walk the plank. Yep, there are these planks and sometimes carved out steps that wind around the sheer cliffs on the mountain face. It would be like walking a very thin walk way that wraps around El Capitan in Yosemite. One bad slip and you will be dropping a few thousand feet to the trees below. I thought Angel's Landing at Zions was wicked-nuts! You can buy a little harness that goes around you in case you do accidently make that slip. As they were walking the planks around the mountain, things got a little more intense when they had to pass people along the way. One dude didn't even have a harness (he had a death wish). My story was a little more tame.

I took my time heading up the mountain and ended up more in the shaded area. It's really unbelievable how many Asian tourists are there. What's worse is that I had more people approach me to take pictures with them than ever before. It got to the point where it was boring just standing there and smiling with them. So I usually whipped out a peace sign or a thumbs up and did some cheesey grin. They would put their arm around me as if we were good friends and just wanted to snap a photo with a white person. Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what they wanted, a soggy white person with unbelievably dirty shorts and a stupid look on their face.

There's no hiding ourselves, people are curious about us North Americans and it's impossible to avoid the constant stares. Which is a bummer, because you can't do anything that could be potentially embarrassing to yourself. So no picking your nose or adjusting your bra in public. Once the three of us met up again we made our way back to the railway station.

Leavitt said it best, "I feel like I'm wearing a wet diaper!" Our clothes were clinging to us and we had flies circling around us. What made us feel better was that we didn't attract nearly the same buggy attention as some of the locals (that would be an ewe factor of 10).

We waited for the train to finally get there after being delayed. Since we don't speak Chinese, everytime the railway lady got on the intercom we would jump up with absolute desperation to hop on to that train. Several times being turned down, we would walk back to our seats, defeated. She then called again for the 4th time, but we didn't want to get our hopes up, we were much to sweaty and tired for that. Then one guy said, "You go". Apparently everyone noticed our multiple rejections and made sure we knew when to get on the train. Our train ride back was interesting.

We met some people our age and somehow it ended up into a mini concert. I had my travel uke on me and so we started busting out jams. You can't beat a Chinese dude singing "Hey Jude" to a ukulele! We got a lot of curious stares and some smiles as well. I think the biggest hit was Surfin USA though-- Nat and I rocked that one.

We finished our night by eating a real chinese dinner. It consisted of noodles that looked like brains, some mushrooms, dumplings, rice and of course my chaser, a Coke. It was good, I love the dumplings and everything else was pretty tasty. Keep in mind, we did avoid the other foods on the menu: eel, chicken feet, duck tongues, abalone, pig tongue and tripe. We'll save that for another day.

Tomorrow is the Terracotta Warrior day and we take the overnight train to Beijing where we actually officially meet up with our group. Oddly enough, we met some girls here at the hostel who will also be taking the same tour (they're from Holland). It should be a lot of fun. These past few days have been so physically demanding with the intensity of the heat and all the running around that we've done.

At the end of the day, we've collapsed on our beds happy. One thing I will say for myself, I am so glad I can't smell very well because those city buses--- oooeee!

Emily the Mountaineer

P.S.Here are some phrases on people's shirts that were obviously poor translations:
"Jenni Girls Smile"
"Original Comfortablement"
"Everting You Want From a Detergent and More"

emLogs #04 - Hotter Than Hades

Our overnight train from Xian was something special. After hoping on Natalie's dubbed "C-Train" we got to the station and made a mad dash to our cabin. We slept on the hard beds which meant that they were less expensive and that would make a lot of sense for what it looked like...The cabins are very narrow and there are six beds. Top, middle, bottom and Leavitt and I took the middle bunks. There isn't much softness to the mattresses (I have yet to witness that here in China).

We were dog tired from the whole Shanghai running around tour. So we were absolutely beat.The bathrooms are um... well, lets just put it this way, hole in the ground with a broom off to the corner. The best way I can describe using one is like trying to do your business while riding a surf board. I decided to wait till we got to the hostel.Xian has been a great sight so far. The buildings are so old-- apparently there it used to be China's capital, very cool!

It's hot and humid here as well. When we got off the train I have never felt so gross and sweaty in my life. It got to the point where it didn't matter how sticky and hot I was, everyone was in the same boat as me!

We decided to skip Terracotta Warriors today since our train came in so late. We opted to go to the Muslim Quarter to see some cool mosque. After several hours of wandering the streets of Xian-- no luck finding it. Xian is a beautiful city with old architecture and hidden streets. Mix that with poor maps and you aren't going to find anything! We did the lunch thing and had dumplings, which were great. It was mostly an excuse to escape the heat. I would liken Xian to the hottest day of the year in New York City. High humidity coupled with hot vehicle exaust.

One thing I was excited about was the rickshaws. Those little bikes that can carry two passengers (or really, just one American). Leavitt and Nat decided to give the Muslim mosque a second try, but seeing as my feet completely quit on me, I opted to head back to the hostel. I ended up hoping in one of those rickshaws-- instead of a bike it was a scooter. The guy kept trying to get me to pay 20 yuan, I told him no way and it should be 10 yuan. I gave up and was a push over. At that point, I didn't care.

This heat is like nothing else, it's completely inescapable. Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow, however they are still saying it will be a very hot day. And people wonder why I lose weight on my trips!

Tomorrow is Mt Huashan hike, I can only imagine what is in store for us tomorrow!

Em the Mayor of Sweatville

emLogs #03 - Over Population + High Humidity = Shanghai

What a hot, sweltering day. I am beyond needing a bath, especially since we'll be on a train to Xian tonight (no showers or luxuries like that). Leavitt and I had a surprisingly easy time adjusting to the jet lag-- mostly due to my friend Windy's recommendation to take No Jetlag pills (miracle pills).

Actually, we got a knock on our door last night and we were so dead asleep that we thought it was time to wake up and we would have been okay with it. Until we looked at the time and it was 1:30am. Some guy got his room wrong and knocked on ours. We walked EVERYWHERE around Shanghai and it got perpetually hotter, stickier and smellier. I'll be ready to get out of Shanghai tonight.

It was funny, I was standing at a corner getting some shots of the bustling city. When two guys in robe-like outfits looked at me and said, "Welcome to Shanghai" and I thanked them and shook their hands. He then took my wrist and started to slip on these Buddhist looking bead bracelet on my hand. I thanked him, but was mostly on the confused side. A policeman drove by and quickly pulled over yelling at the guy and demanding that the guys in robes open their bags. Was this a strict communist no no? I had no idea, I fled the scene.

I went over to Leavitt and Nat at the ATM. The two men in robes were surrounded by more policeman and I felt so bad for abandoning them. Eventually the police officer waved for me to come over and I was like, "Huh? What's going on?" Realizing I couldn't make a statement they waved me off. I know, not even 24 hours in the country and I've already managed to cause trouble. We hit up the markets in the downtown area and man haggling is exausting! It's not my favorite, I let Nat do all the work. I got a sweet chess set from 320 yuan to 100 yuan-- then I went and got ripped off on a pair of chopsticks (I didn't have Nat with me). I'm trying to keep purchases to a minimum since i have to pack it around for the next month in a wee backpack.

We took a break for lunch and Leavitt and I hit up the McDonald's. I can honestly say, it tastes the same. Fries to Big Mac, tis the same! Sure there is a McEggroll on the menu, but it's got the basics and no big shockers on there. As we made our way back to the hostel it was a tedious weaving in and out of streets and alley ways. The hot sticky smell from the rotting food on the pavement was something like a garbage dump.

Again, Shanghai is not our cup of Chinese tea. One hilarious thing we started to notice is how many people take pictures of us. I'm not even kidding you, Asian tourists (oh yes, they do exist here and in droves!) have been going nuts taking our pictures. Some have gotten so serious as to have us pose with them. I keep trying to pawn off Nat as Kelly Clarkson-- no go yet.

We'll be jumping on the night train to Xian soon. Tomorrow is Terracotta Warriors day. I hope we can leave this humidity behind, it's not my favorite by any means!

Talk to you all soon!

Em aka the problematic tourist

emLogs #02 - Fun and Games Till Someone Gets Puked On

Leavitt and I got all screwed up with our internal clocks. Even though it was a one our difference then normal we woke up to catch our bus before 7am (we didn't even have to wake up till 8am).

We get to the airport and it turned out there is a 3 our delay for our plane, so we had to hang out at the airport for 6 hours. Fortunately we've got the ukulele and some sleep to keep us occupied! Nat will be picking us up in Shanghai and the poor girl keeps getting mixed signals-- We may have told her to meet us at 5pm, then we realized it was 3pm and now our flight is delayed until 6pm. If I were her, I would let us figure out how to get to the hotel for being travel tarded! Our flight was um... interesting.

Once we got underway it was flying as usual. I didn't think 12 hours would be that bad-- boy was I wrong. I was so bored and what made it worse is the b-movies they showed on the flight. I was sitting across the aisle next to this kid. Out of no where the kid totally ralphed into the aisle. Yep, I got the tail end of that! Fortunately it hit my blanket that I wrapped around my legs (won't be taking that as a souvenier). Yeah, he made a nice little obstacle in the middle of the aisle with a smooth sour scent to it.

It wasn't until later in the flight when I learned two very valuable things while flying:

1. Make sure and seal your barf bag when full
2. Don't put your barf bag in the seat pocket in front of you-- your liable to kick it while sleeping (oh yes he did, all over himself)

It really wasn't the worst flight imaginable. It was more like a very, very long flight. Leavitt was completely oblivious to all these events, she was completely engrossed in her Genghis Khan novel. I found Ralphy McVomit more interesting than our inflight entertainment.

Once we landed they had us stay in our seats and they came by with these laser things and checked our temperatures. People in full on quarantine suits came through our cabin and checked us-- don't worry, I totally got pictures!

Nat was waiting for us dutifully at the airport with a sign saying: Welcome to China Shrek and Donkey! It was very cute. We're in our hostel here in Shanghai and it's surprisingly decent. It's really unbelievable that we're here-- that we're half way around the world!

Well I better get to sleep, I think we've been officially up for 24 hours and oddly enough I haven't hit that wall yet. Tomorrow were going to run around Shanghai and then catch our night train to Xian!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily aka the vomit victim

emLogs #01 - Capilano Bridge

We made it to Vancouver and was surprised to see sunny skies (Salt Lake has been throwing me off with all the rain). Then Vancouver did a very Vancouver thing and rained on us.

Leavitt and I dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed to Capilano bridge-- the largest suspension bridge of some sort. There is a lot to see there, but the most entertaining thing was watching this poor Asian woman weep and wail her way across the large suspension bridge. By the time you get to the middle it is swaying back and forth above a large gorge-- very Indiana Jones.

She death gripped the sides and her husband had to drag her forward the whole time. I did hear some kids start crying, but it was nothing like this lady. Hmm, I never did see if she made it back to the other side.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is an awesome place, it's the northern part with huge douglas firs and suspension bridge trails that weave through the treetops! I seriously expecting some ewoks to show up (or Cylons, vampires or MacGyver depending on how big of a nerd you are).

By the time we headed back to the ferry, Leavitt and I were pretty hungry. We went to this great Japanese restaurant and had the whole place to ourselves! We decided to do the seafood thing since we were in a seafood hot spot.

We had a great time running around downtown Vancouver. It's almost 9pm and we're already dead tired. Tomorrow we take off at noon and take our 12 hour flight to Shanghai. I hope that Asian lady won't be on the flight, we'll have to sedate her with alcohol!

- Em