Time warp! The Road to Mandalay (Ruili–Jiegao–Mu-Se–Lashio–Hsipaw–Pyin U Lwin–Mandalay)

Hello, everyone! Actually, I'm not in Mandalay yet...but I was able to get online faster than I thought! The internet is indeed slooow. As such, I'm not going to attempt to post any pictures in this post.

I am currently in Pyin U Lwin (or Pyin Oo Lwin, however you want to spell it), a lovely old town about 2 hours drive outside of Mandalay where one still feels the lingering presence of the British colonial air.

In fact, I imagine that much of the Myanmar that I have seen has not changed much since the British left in the 1940s. This is the type of place where most people still get excited and wave at trains as they pass. It's a place that remains very sweet and innocent, something that I honestly haven't seen very much of in my travels this year.

On Monday, I crossed the border from Jiegao (China) to Mu-Se (Myanmar). The Chinese border guards were awesome! I had a great chat with this wonderful bunch of fellows. They were very kind...and extremely amused to see an American passport!

It took a bit of time to exit the Chinese side (the customs officials took a digital photo of every single page of my passport), but this was nothing compared to the paperwork on the Myanmar side. Holy crap! I had to sign copies upon copies of...stuff. OK, I'm ashamed to say I signed all sorts of stuff without even reading it! But – trust me, legal types - I wouldn't have had time to! Luckily, my guide (if you cross overland from China, you must have an official "guide"), Mr. Tong Kai, assured me I wasn't agreeing to anything crazy. In Mu-Se, Mr. Tong Kai – an adorable (as in "little kid" adorable) Burmese guy who looked like he was about 15 (he was 27)– said, "I just have to make some photocopies for the government and our personal records, OK?" He proceeded to photocopy non-stop for about 45 minutes. Yikes.

I learned that my overland passage into Myanmar is actually an arrangement that the owner of the travel agency has with a high-up government (i.e, military) official. The officials gets a little bribe for allowing foreigners' passages overland. Hmmm...so that's what my "tourist permit" fee was for!

I eventually did get to leave Mu-Se, in a hired car that took me on the 4 ½ hour trip from Mu-Se to Lashio on the old Burma Road. This particular Burma Road (this is just one of the three actual "Burma Roads" used during WWII) was an overland route from Mandalay to Kunming (in China) that the Allies used to supply the Chinese Nationalist troops. The road was decent, but the views were stunningly beautiful (darn! A picture is really necessary here!). Along the way were a few police checkpoints, which the Myanmar government has set up in an attempt to curb smuggling over the Chinese border. "You can take pictures of anything along the journey,\" Mr. Tong Kai tells me, "But please do not take pictures of the checkpoints. The military will be very mad." Thanks for the tip, Mr. Tong Kai!

In any case, I eventually got to Hsipaw without too much incident, although I have already had experiences with frequently blocked roads (traffic comes to a standstill for hours on these old single lane roads) and inconsistent electricity (power in Hsipaw only from 6 to 10 PM!). I stayed at a wonderful guesthouse and took some lovely treks out to local villages. In the Hsipaw area (Shan state in general), there are many ethnic Chinese, so I was delighted that I could still practice my Mandarin with some of them!! It was a great experience chatting with the villagers, either with my own Mandarin or through the help of my guide (the owner of the guesthouse, Mr. Charles, who spoke excellent Mandarin).

I had to drop the dream of hiking in Namhsan, the "Switzerland of Myanmar" (why is everyone forever comparing nice places with Switzerland?!?!), because – after waiting for transport for 5 hours – it was apparent that the bus to this very remote area of Myanmar was not coming...ever. Boo! So I headed to Pyin U Lwin on a sloooooow train, packed with people, baskets of fruit, and various other cargo. The journey took 7 hours (would have taken only 2-3 hours by road), but it was fun! We slowed to a creep over the Gokteik Railway bridge, built by American engineers in the early 1900s over a deep gorge. Felt like we would fall into the gorge at any second, but what an experience!

I hired a guide today to try to hike to the Anisakan Waterfalls outside of Pyin U Lwin, but it was too rainy to brave the steep 45 minute descent into the waterfall valley. Boo! On the bright side, I did get to see the lovely old buildings of Pyin U Lwin, built by the British during their time here (red brick = British!), as well as some other little sites out of town (smaller waterfalls and a weird cave filled with Buddha statues). My guide is also an awesome dude – he invited me to his house for tea, and I ended up chatting for a long time with his uncle. It turns out a lot of the older folks here – around 50-60ish years old – speak terrific, quaint British-accented English because of their education in British schools during the old days (before the military government nationalized the schools and education became crap). They love chatting about country's current situation and just about anything. It is an extremely humbling experience. If you don't know much about Myanmar, please read up on it! You'll be amazed at what has been happening here for the past 40 or so years.

So I guess things aren't working out 100% in terms of visits to sites I want to see, but that's just more excuses to come back here. I already realize that I won't have enough time to see all of this wonderful country, and it certainly deserves a better look!

Off to Mandalay, then! Hopefully another blog is right around the corner...

Zaijian, Zhongguo! (Goodbye, China!)

Well, this was my second trip to China, and I can definitively say that I appreciated it much more at the ripe old age of 25 than at 19.

It is hard to compare my two trips here, as I visited different places each time. Indeed, it would be like comparing apples and oranges (pardon the cliché!). One thing that is very noticeable is that China is no longer as cheap as it was when I last traveled here. Sure, accomodation and food are still very cheap, but I was shocked to see that train and bus ticket prices had literally doubled (even tripled) in price since 2000. This is due not only to the increased number of foreign tourists visiting China these days, but also to the growing middle-class in China that can afford to travel now. In fact, I was surprised to learn that most of the Chinese tourists I bumped into actually flew from city to city, something that was quite uncommon when I was last in China (airfare is twice as expensive as traveling by train, and in 2000, the only people I knew who could afford to travel via airplane were foreign tourists). The Chinese tourists, meanwhile, thought I was superweird for taking the train.

On a sour note, I also realized just how much the Chinese will try to rip off foreigners - vendors, taxi drivers, etc. Yes, if you are "white", the ripping off is sometimes just obscene and much more apparent. For example, I was bargaining with a vendor for a hat, and he claimed that he was giving it to me for a good price at 15 RMB. I asked what he would charge if I was white. "Nothing less than 40 RMB," he responded. Even at that point, I still knew I was being ripped off. You see, one is not exempt from the gouging simply because his/her skin is yellow, or even if one speaks fluent Chinese. There are so many regional dialects and accents in China that simply opening your mouth will give away whether you're a waidiren (outsider). Still, I can understand why they do it to a point. Obviously, the west is much more affluent, and the need to make a living is obviously important. Plus, there are very honest people out there (I was helped by many of them), so for them I am grateful. I just wish that the price gouging was a little more...civil?

By the way, I did buy the hat for 15 RMB. :)

As an older, more reflective (I hope?) traveler this time around, I also took more care to observe more around me. Nothing specific, perse, just what I've been doing throughout my travels, I suppose. And, given the loooonnnnng distances I've had to travel during this trip, I had a lot of time to reflect upon the things I've learned.

(1) We westerners are likely to be enraged by what we perceive as China's disrepect towards environment and history, what with their flooding villages to build huge hydroelectric dams and ripping down centuries-old buildings to make way for skyscrapers. However, the average Chinese is rather nonplussed by such occurrences. The typical train of thought is "Well, if it's newer, then it's better. And that's progress." Maybe it's that a people with 5,000 years of history can deal with loss/progress a little better than Americans with a history of just 230 years. Or...maybe it's something else? I'm not quite sure.

(2) Similar nonchalant Chinese attitudes apply to Tibet. When I asked Mr. Yang, the Tibetan who drove me to Yak Meadow, what he thought about the Tibet situation, he simply replied, "Well, Tibet is part of China. I mean, they conquered Tibet hundreds of years of ago, so all's fair, right? Isn't that what happened in the rest of the world?" He said that many/most Tibetans inside China (the ones from his community, anyway) probably feel the same, and noted that they do distinguish themselves from the "Free Tibet" Tibetans who live outside the country. Maybe we could argue brainwashing, but Mr. Yang answered so simply and sincerely that I would find it hard to disrespect his views.

(3) China's big cities are incredible - truly. It would be hard to find cleaner/wider streets, more orderly public transport, more impressive urban planning in any of the biggest cities in the world. However, I do see how it is window dressing for many of the problems in the country. You can very easily duck behind the side streets of the big cities to see how they are so not clean, and the disparity between life in the city and the country are heart-rendingly sad. In Yangshuo, I chatted with a lady from the countryside, Mrs. Zhang, who climbed all the way up Moon Hill (big tourist spot) with me just to be able to sell me a drink or some postcards. She seemed pleasant enough (plus, call me super Chinese, I can't stand to be rude to older people), so we chatted during the climb up. She said that she came to Moon Hill everyday just so that she could maybe sell something to a tourist. She didn't sell something everyday. I eventually bought some postcards from her for 10 RMB (US$1.25), the least I could do for her interesting insight and company.

(4) In two weeks, I have probably seen more of China - and the world - than the average Chinese will ever see. In Tengchong, I bought yogurt (aloe flavor! How you like them apples?!?) from a small dairy store near my hotel. Naturally, given the lactose intolerance suffered by most Chinese, the store was always empty, and so the cute little shopgirl, maybe 16 or so, and I got to chatting. During my second visit there, she asked if I was from Kunming, seeming really impressed that I was from the "big city" (by the way, she probably thought I was from Kunming because I didn't speak with the local accent, which was completely incomprehensible to me. Therefore, anyone who speaks with a somewhat "standard" accent must be from the big city!). When I said I was actually from America, her eyes got superwide. "You're really from America?" she said, "Wow!" She had never even been to Kunming before (12 hours away), so I could only imagine what she actually thought of meeting something from outside the country when she came from a place where seemingly no one visited. There are just moments when you feel very lucky for and humbled by your place in the world, and this was one of them.

(5) Although my Chinese is crap, I have had lots of fun chatting with local people. It is terribly fun, especially when they ask where I am from and I ask them to guess ("Korea?" "No? Not Korea? Are you sure you're not Korean?"). One of my favorite conversations was with one Mrs. Pei, a really sweet 40-ish lady from Sichuan, who will always remain near and dear to my heart because she thought I was 18! :) Anyhoo, her husband and she were on vacation in Lijiang, staying at the same hotel where I stayed. I had just arrived, while they were preparing to leave. I asked them for recommendations on what was fun to do in Lijiang. Her husband started raving on and on about some Xianggelila, the Chinese transliteration for "Shangri-La" (it took me a while to figure this out!), which most people believe is in Yunnan Province (Zhongdian, actually). I must have looked confused on why he was going on and on about Shangri-La, until Mrs. Pei interrupted.

Mrs. Pei: He's just kidding...he's just saying that everywhere around here is pretty nice, so you can probably see whatever you like. You know Shangri-La is just an imaginary place? It doesn't really exist. It's just that perfect someplace that is in your heart.

Me: So if it's that perfect someplace in your heart, then Shangri-La could be anywhere then? Every country and every place could have it's own Shangri-La?

Mrs. Pei: Well, yes! That's exactly right!

That said, I'm hoping that my travels to Myanmar (which I expect to last about 3 weeks) will bring some Shangri-La moments, too! The trip will also bring a temporary hiatus to blogging activity, given that most of the country is not online and, where it is online, the connections are slow and censored. Boo. I'll miss you, dear readers, but hope to come back with many tales and pictures of my Burmese days!

Tengchong to Ruili: The road that time nearly forgot

Quite frankly, the most quality dirt road on which I've ever had the pleasure to travel!

I spent the better half of today traveling from Tengchong to Ruili, two towns in the further reaches of already far-reaching Yunnan Province. How can I tell that these two towns are a bit off the beaten path? Both lack a KFC.

Paddies...crop fields...repeat scenery for several hours.

Anyhoo, the trip took little more than 6 hours by bus, half of which was on a dirt road crossing through some countryside that China's modernization had apparently not yet reached (save the occasional power line or two). Locals still trotted along the road herding their water buffalo and the occasional donkey, and the countryside was lush with rice paddies and farms. Unlike much of the rest of China, it seems that time had stood still for decades (maybe centuries?) in this little stretch of the country. I sat in the front seat of the bus (right next to the driver!), trying not to get freaked out by the fact that I had no seatbelt and could be thrown from the vehicle if any of the bus driver's crazy attempts at passing vehicles on the curvy mountain roads went awry. The voyage was very scenic, and I really enjoyed it. I barely noticed that my I-Pod finally died...but at least I was expecting this (unlike with my camera!), as it has been acting funny for weeks.

Mmm...dog meat restaurant! (Yes, they do eat dog in certain parts of China, but the Chinese also love to keep doggies - really cute ones! - as their pets, too. It seems that man's best friend for man's best friend sake is particularly popular in Yunnan Province, where pampered pups roam the streets!)

Ruili is the (seedy?) town on the border with Myanmar (it's the only place in China where I've stumbled across an open sex shop), and I will be crossing over tomorrow. The town itself has an interesting mix of people - there are Chinese, Burmese, Uighurs, Thai, and even some South Asians. At dinner, my waiter was actually Burmese (his longyi - the wrap-around sarong "skirt" that both Burmese men and women wear - gave it away). He spoke no Chinese, but did speak English, so he gave me some tips on where to eat when I was in Mandalay (his hometown). The little kids in the restaurant were also Burmese, but spoke Chinese, so I had a nice chat with them. So cute!

Around these parts, it doesn't seem so much like China anymore, but I guess it will make the transition to Myanmar easier!

RIP "Poddy" (November 2004-June 2006) "Oh, we knew ye all too well."

How I know I'm not Chinese (nationality-wise, I mean...I know I'm ethnically Chinese! Yeesh, the terms are so technical!)

How I know I am not a Chinese girl

(1) My hair is not bleached blonde (or, rather, orange) or colored bright red, nor is it streaked, tipped, highlighted in any of these colors. Now, as someone who did color their hair a bit in the past, I'm a fan of haircoloring as a means to enhance your own natural color; however, the orange-blond look is utterly ridiculous. By the way, bonus points to being a real Chinese girl if one has an unevenly spiky haircut or a frizzy perm with her colored locks!

(2) I do not wear spiky, high-heeled sandals or three-inch wedges, which seem to be very popular with the Chinese chicks, especially when climbing mountains and stairs at tourist sites. Even if I did wear such inappropriate footwear, I would hope that I wouldn't pair them with "ankle-highs," which is exactly what they sound like - stockings (in all the usual stocking colors like nude, beige, sand, etc.) that only go up to the ankle. They look weird.

(3) I don't use an umbrella on a sunny day. To be fair, I can sort of understand the girls. An umbrella on a sunny day does keep you cool. But the girls here seem to fear the sun because they do not want to get tanned. Historically and culturally, anyway, dark skin meant that you worked out in the fields and were too "common" or unladylike (for a more disturbing reason for the fear of the sun, please also see #4). Ah, well, at least it's good for the umbrella industry here - there are lots of cute umbrellas for sale all the time...regardless of the weather!

(4) I don't use skin-whitening cream. Again, from the historical-cultural reason, I could understand wanting to be pale. However, it was explained to me from some Chinese friends that most girls use these creams because they actually want to be whiter...like a white American or European. What?!?! Sigh. I'd like to point out that no one is whiter than white people than Chinese girls. Well, except maybe the Japanese girls. Darn, why do they have to be better than the Chinese in everything?!?! :)

(5) I'm not obsessed with enlarging my breasts. In Shanghai, I kept seeing posters (even in taxis!) advertising breast-enlargement clinics. I've also seen several infomercials for a "breast pump" that is suppose to enhance one's cleavage. Yikes!

All of the above reasons are actually a bit disturbing to me, because they all indicate a desire to look "western" or "white." Kind of ironic that Chinese are always so proud to be Chinese...except when it comes to their looks. Next thing you know, they'll be getting surgery to form a "crease" on their eyelid so th at they can look "white," too. ::shudder:: Yes, I know that I might be a bit harsh here, since we can argue cultural imperialism of the West and whatnot as opposed to Chinese hypocrisy, but I feel sad when people can't be proud of the way they naturally are. Hey, Chinese girls! Your hair is supposed to be black! On average, you are likely to be petite! Your skin is supposed to be a bit yellow, and your boobs are probably going to be a bit small! Don't be ashamed of it!!!


How I know I am not a Chinese guy

(1) On hot days, I don't walk down the street with my T-shirt pulled over my belly.

(2) I don't hack up phlegm on the streets (Note: My lack of hacking also distinguishes me from many Chinese girls).

(3) I'm not obsessed with my cellphone (Note: My lack of obsession also distinguishes me from Chinese girls).

(4) I don't have a spiky, anime-type hairdo or a mullet haircut a la hip Koreans.

(5) I don't spend hours and hours (and I mean, hours and hours...) "gaming" (that is, playing video games online) or watching VCDs at the local internet cafe. Dorks!

(6) My pinky fingernail isn't 2 inches long (eeeeew).

(7) I don't smoke like a chimney...no, wait, make that car wreck...no, wait, make that big flaming plane crash (Boeing 747 or Airbus Jet variety). Call me the spoiled westerner, but the cigarette smoking here is intolerable. I guess that's what you get when ciggies cost about 10RMB (about US$1.25) per pack.

Lijiang Luck: In addition to the natural beauty of Southwest China, I also discover that yak jerky is tasty!

According to Lonely Planet, the view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan) from Lijiang's Black Dragon Pool Park is the "most obligatory photo shoot in Southwestern China." Entry fee cost too much, though (thank goodness for my old student ID...discount!). By the way, I still hate my new camera.

Working my way westward through Yunnan province, I realize that even cheesiest of tourist set-ups (Dress up like a Tibetan Princess! Take a picture with this gussied-up yak!) cannot detract from the great natural beauty of Yunnan. Sure, imperial buildings and the Great Wall in Beijing are impressive, and Shanghai is pretty nifty with its use of neon, but Yunnan (which, because of the high altitude of much of the province, means "South of the Clouds") is simply beautiful. It is in the far southwest of China, bordering Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, as well as next door to Tibet. The minority presence here is quite strong and definitely makes for an interesting cultural experience. In Lijiang, the most prevalent minorities are the Naxi/Nakhi (their written language is a form of hieroglyphics! Cool!) and the Tibetans. The Naxi and Tibetans, of course, were originally nomadic people dependent on the humble yak for much in their lives. Thus the yak jerky. Yum (although I must admit it doesn't taste terribly different from beef jerky)!

Oooh, old.

Lijiang is famed for its "Old Town", or Gucheng, which is basically a part of town that hasn't changed very much since it was founded (ignore the whole electricity and running water thing, will you?). There is also the "New Town," but it's just your typical modern Chinese city...nothing special! After a big earthquake in 1996, much of the New Town suffered damage, but the Old Town stood up pretty well. The government decided to pour some money into developing tourism in the Old Town, and UNESCO eventually granted the Lijiang Old Town World Heritage status (all right! Another World Heritage Site that I have visited!). Anyhoo, the Old Town is pedestrianized (no cars allowed!) - a good thing, considering that bikes would barely fit in the narrow, winding alleys that are the "streets" of Old Town! It's a twisting maze to get anywhere, but it's sort of fun to get lost in the mix. Other than that, I have to say that Lijiang isn't terribly exciting. Nice, but kinda boring. The exciting part about this place is the nature that surrounds it!

So I took a daytrip out to see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (by the way, the name sounds so much cooler in Chinese...). At first I was really mad, because package tourist touts kept telling me that I couldn't get to Yak Meadow (Maoniuping, one of the nicest sites from where one can view the mountains and surrounding scenery) by myself and, even if I did manage to get there, I would never be able to finish the trip in time to catch my bus out of Lijiang. So everyone kept telling me the wrong directions as to where to catch the bus to Yak Meadow! Jerks! Finally, the clerk at a camera shop clued me in, and I was able to get there myself. I did have to relent and hire private transport, though. At 80RMB (about US$10) roundtrip to Yak Meadow (which is about a 90 km total trip), I figured it was worth the cost. It was!

Apparently, we are not far enough south of the clouds so that I can actually see the snow peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Bummer.

My driver, Mr. Yang, was actually a really nice Tibetan guy who grew up in Lijiang. He will also remain near and dear to me because he guessed that I looked about 19 or 20 - God bless you, Mr. Yang! Anyhoo, we chatted about differences between China and America (a common topic once people find out I'm a Meiji huaqiao - overseas Chinese living in America), what he thought about minorities in Lijiang, what he thought about China, his wanting to leave the country, and his thoughts about Tibet. Really interesting!

The view from Yak Meadow isn't too bad, wouldn't you say?

Mr. Yang also helped me have a very Chinese experience of zou houmen - "going through the backdoor," so the Chinese say. The only way to get up to Yak Meadow (which is approximately 3,700 meters, or a bit more than 10,000 feet, high up on a hill) is to take a 60 RMB cable car. Mr. Yang said he "knew people," and so he could get me in the cable car for 40RMB. Sweet! This, combined with my sly use of my old University ID in getting a "student" entry ticket, saved me tons on what would have been a really expensive trip. Well, it was still pretty expensive, but it was definitely worth it.

Mr. Yang made a pretty clever observation, too. On the way back from Yak Meadow, he saw me snapping pictures out the car window. "Ah," he says, "I know you are really a foreigner (waiguoren) because you like taking pictures of only the scenery. We Chinese like to take pictures of ourselves, you know."

Yeah, I know!

Local people working on the tourist walkway that runs through Yak Meadow.

Unfortunately, you can't hike too much on the meadow or the surrounding mountains, just walk on a rickety wooden walkway and admire the view all around. Also unfortunately for me, it was a cloudy day, so I couldn't really see the snow peaks of the mountains...which is really the point of a place called Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, right? Still, very lovely. The weather was great for being at such a high altitude.

Just one type of the beautiful little field flowers growing around Yak Meadow.

You're not supposed to stray off the wooden walkway, but at one point I had to because the workmen were rebuilding part of the walkway. Great! Time to prance in the meadow! The meadow is wonderfully green and dotted with so many little wild flowers. There is not much development for miles and miles around (save for touristy kiosks) and, at the time, I was the only tourist in the area. It was so peaceful.

The snow from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain actually melts and flows all the way down to this natural reservoir, which is called Whitewater River (Baishui He) because the water is so incredibly clear. You're not likely to find water so clear in fast-developing (read: fast-polluting) China.

I would love to come back to Yunnan (and Lijiang) again to see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on a clear day and also to try hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. Let me know if you'd like to join me!

Ah, off to Tengchong then, where I will try to hike some local volcanoes (haven't quite kicked that Guatemalan volcano addiction just yet) before crossing into Myanmar. Until next time!

Bad news, bears: A slight setback...but don't worry! I'm OK!

I had originally planned to title this post "Guilin Gabbin' and Yangshuo Yappin'", so that I could perhaps describe to you the awesome beauty of the karst topography of both Guilin and Yangshuo in Guanxi Province. If you've ever seen a "traditional" Chinese shan-shui (mountain-water) painting, you might have an idea of what this scenery might have looked like. Indeed, it was awesome.

Actually, Guilin was just OK - too big of a city...I couldn't see the mountains past the big buildings, but the city parks were pretty nice. Yangshuo, on the other hand, was terrific. I would have described in greater detail about how I rode a twin-bike with my guide (a lovely local woman who lived in the countryside...best 20RMB I've ever spent!) through the Yangshuo countryside, bought flower tiaras from sweet elderly women on the side of the road, how I climbed Moon Hill, how I ate the local specialty of pijiu yu (beer fish!), my boat ride down the beautiful Lijiang River and just what a wonderful time I had in general. And, of course, I would have posted plenty of pictures.

Would, of course, is the operative word.

I'm now in Kunming, where I came to arrange my land crossing into Myanmar/Burma (as you wish...). Last night, happy that everything was arranged (surprisingly easy!), I took a stroll down the main town square, happily snacking on street food and looking at the cute things on sale in the street...all the while taking pictures of course. I usually keep my camera in my pocket, with my hand on it at all times. Yesterday night, however, I must have pulled my hand out for a second too long when I was picking at some of the street goods.

My camera was stolen. Right out of my pocket. And I didn't even feel a thing.

At first, I thought I just dropped it, so I just went back and forth on the square, asking everyone if they had seen something. No go. There were definitely lots of people around me and quite a few street kids, all bumping into me as we were on the crowded sidewalk. It took me a while to accept the fact that the camera was really gone. I just kinda sat in the square for a while, in denial that something so bad could happen that quickly. Maybe it would have helped if I cried, but I was too tired to do even that. If the camera was just gone, I could deal with that, but I was really sad about the wonderful pictures that I wanted to show my family and, of course, you guys! Needless to say, the night was kind of a bummer. This morning I filed a police report for my beloved Canon (yeah, I know my camera is gone, but when there's hope there's possibility!). I had to skip climbing Xi Shan, a mountain with lovely views over Dianchi Lake.

Well, perhaps I've been traveling too long without bad stuff happening to me! Everyone needs a good "I was robbed!" story, and here's mine. Pretty anticlimatic, huh? Anyhoo, it's a good lesson that you can never be too careful. Actually, I feel quite OK now...just trying to maintain a zen-like approach to life. Plus, I can say that I had a good experience practicing my Chinese with the nice police officers. I also got to know Jenny, the local girl who helped me arrange my land crossing permit to Myanmar/Burma, a lot better. We started chatting about my bad day and ended up chatting for a long time about everything else instead. She eventually took me to the lovely city park by her house so that I could take some pictures for some (good) memories and introduced me to Kunming's famous "across the bridge" noodles (guoqiao mixian...yum!).

So gaining a new friend isn't bad, considering I only lost a material thing. Plus, I know that my memories will always remain sweetest in my mind, even if I don't have any pictures to show for it. If anything, this experience provides a good excuse to visit Yangshuo next time I am in China (something I would do in a heartbeat, anyway). At least I still have my health...oh, yeah, and my passport and money! But, of course, I went out and bought a new camera (crappy!) right away, so even the money is slowly disappearing.

This trip is getting expensive! Still fun, though...I think! In any case, I've decided to stay in China for an extra week before crossing into Myanmar. Need to catch up on my picture-taking, of course! I promise that I won't disappoint! :)

RIP "Canny" (July 2005 - June 2006) "Oh, we hardly knew ye."

Shanghai Stories: Quite the city!

Bright lights + big city + Chinese fascination with neon = Shanghai! This is Pudong, the "newer" district of China's would-be business capital.

New York City is the biggest city in the U.S. of A at a respectable 8 million people. Shanghai is the largest city in the People's Republic at a massive 16-plus million...and growing.

Wowee.

I enjoyed my time in Shanghai. It was pretty much what one might expect of a big city - I spent quite a lot of time looking at big buildings and walking around brightly neon-lit shopping districts. The city is really very cosmopolitan, due in part to its colonial past. It seemed appropriate, then, that my journey began on a German train.

Ready to fly on a magnetic track?

OK, it is lame that I took a picture of the Maglev poster to represent my ride on it, but - trust me - the poster is much more impressive than the train itself. Actually, let me rephrase: the train is pretty cool...inside. Outside it looks rather unspectacular (go figure). But the fact that the train can hit top speed of 430 kilometers per hour is pretty neat. Um, I guess. As I expected, the Maglev ride was anticlimatic: 8 minutes, with less than 30 seconds at the top speed. Obviously, it's just a show of modernity. A 50RMB (that's RMB = Renminbi, aka kuai...about US$6.25) show. At least I got to keep myself amused by this guy on the train:

This one's for the grandkids.

It was my humorous re-introduction to how much Chinese people love taking pictures of seemingly pointless things. Oh, how could I ever forget?!? Anyhoo, each car of the Maglev train has a display to show passengers how fast the train is going. The dude above kept telling his friend to take a picture of him by the speedometer display. First at 250 km/hr...then at 320...("Oh, no, wait! It goes faster!")...then at 399...then 429...("Wait! It goes up to 430! Wait 'til it goes up to 430!!")...and finally at 430 km/hr ("Hurry up and take the picture before it slows down!"). Of course, I had to take the opportunity to capture this moment. After all, I'm Chinese, too. :)

Gardening tip #1: Nothing brightens up hazy polluted vistas like a manicured lawn with pink flowers.

Maybe I've forgotten what the streets of Beijing look like, but I found Shanghai to be clean, green, and very wide. The streets are impressively wide! And the pollution isn't nearly as bad as Beijing.

I had a flashback when I saw this sign and started convulsing in the street, all the while foaming at the mouth...just kidding! I think...

As every good youke (tourist) must do, I took a stroll for several hours on the Bund, which is basically all the classic colonial-power-built business buildings of Old Shanghai. Imagine my surprise to find my old employer's Shanghai branch! Just FYI, ABN AMRO's Chinese name is translated simply as "Dutch Bank."

More taking pictures of pointless signs in the street! Hey, I really am Chinese!

The building that is going to house this Dolce & Gabanna is huge They don't build stores like this because of the demand from foreign tourists...in case you had any doubt how rich the Chinese are getting!

The Bund at night, in all its Bundy goodness.

The Bund is lovely, especially when lit up at night. Here are the two classic buildings of the street: the old Customs House and the old HSBC bank. In my opinion, the Bund really resembles Chicago's Michigan Avenue (around the Wrigley building, for those "in the know"), so much that, when I was strolling along, I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and thought, "I think I've seen this before!" Still, I love looking at old architecture, so it was quite fun to walk around.

Mmm...small birds on sticks.

Thanks to a certain set of Shanghai-born Chicago twins, I got hooked up with Edith (above) and her mom. They were the cutest, sweetest people ever! Besides inviting me into their home, showing me around, and refusing my money, they also introduced me to the wonders of Shanghainese street food, such as fried sparrow on a stick shown here! You can eat the bones!

An aside on Urban Planning (and general government power) in the People's Republic
I mentioned in my last post that Shanghai was really quite fascinating from a urban planning point of view. And, seeing that one faithful reader even expressed interest in learning more about this (thanks for indulging me, Panda!), here we go!

You should first know, faithful readers, that Shanghai has historically been quite an international city. This is due to the fact that, when China opened (or, depending on your point of view, was forced opened) to the West in the 19th century, many colonial powers came in and basically divied up the city into their own spheres of influence. As the city was eventually built into the "Paris of the Orient," a glamorous if capitalistic representation of the Far East.

Then the Commmunists took power in 1949, and for many years Shanghai's development - economically, culturally, architecturally - lagged. The British (one of those colonial powers with great influence in Old Shanghai) concentrated their efforts in further developing Hong Kong. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore took off in their own ways, too.

If history was different, Shanghai may have developed into the economic center of the Far East. Alas, history can be a cruel bee-otch. I think that the Communist Party in China has realized this (as they well should, since the lag of development is partly their fault...but I digress...and plus, I'm probably being watched by some Chinese internet security!). Thus, Shanghai has been - and indeed is - undergoing the quickest development of any city in recent history.

The heart of the city is found on the banks of the Huangpu river. The west bank is where the famous Bund is located. Much newer is the Pudong business district on the east bank, and the construction here is, in a word, mad. The government wants Shanghai to be the premier business capital of Asia, and Pudong shows it. High rise office buildings abound, with more being built by the day. The Pudong area is also being built up with luxury high-rise apartments all along the banks of the river, replacing old riverside port warehouses, which are being razed alongside old low-rise residences.

At night (partly, I've long discovered, thanks to the Chinese's fascination with neon and bright lights), the Bund and Pudong are lit up in a dazzling display of modernity and wealth. Both banks of the Huangpu sparkle, and it's hard to imagine that the sky above Shanghai could ever be totally dark with such a luminous display. Still, along the southern end of the river, the banks are still dark, as shuttered warehouses are still standing, waiting for demolition. Indeed, some parts of the city which still hold older residences look pitch black against the brightness of the Bund and Pudong.

Because a lot of construction takes place along the riverbanks of the Huangpu River and there is little space on land, huge barges with cranes and building equipment are docked in the river during the construction of the new buildings.

In two or three years, I doubt that any part of the Huangpu's banks - or much of Shanghai, for that matter - will be dark. The plan is to build the city into an (even more) modern one, with the banks of the river replete with high rise luxury apartments and commerical buildings. Richer residents can live in luxurious single-family homes in outer Pudong, and poorer local residents will likely be pushed out further into the city edges in high-rise block apartments.

In America, this type of razing-and-building would take years, with developers having to buy land from the owners of businesses and residences, getting proper licences, and eventually building. In China, the process is considerably shorter, since the PRC government simply says, "We're relocating you! Suck it up!" and then starts the whole building process. Plus, given the availability of manpower and, well, strong desire to develop the city, this means buildings can be up in a matter of months.

This type of government power is pretty incredible. I got a good taste of it while I was actually in Shanghai. I was staying with an old friend from college, Kristen, who informed me that the Shanghai city government was declaring a 5-day holiday from Wednesday to Sunday (June 14-18), because there was an scheduled Shanghai Cooperation Organization)conference of political leaders in the city. The entire Bund was effectively closed down so that the politicos could move freely about the city. I found this to be pretty crazy! We Americans would step up the security for political conferences and people would be pissed off at the traffic jams, but shutting down an entire city is almost unimaginable to me! Edith and her mom ironically remarked that maybe the government didn't really want regular Chinese folks to be walking around with the politicos. Hmmm, interesting. Anyhoo, they also informed me nonchalantly that their apartment will be getting torn down in a couple of years, so maybe they will need to start finding a new place to live.

::Sigh::

Anyhoo, quasi-political soapbox aside, if you are in Shanghai and want to learn more about the city's urban planning, they actually have a museum (or is it "exhibition center"?) on all this stuff! Pretty spiffy architecture job on the place, too!


One last note...
It's official: the U.S. is probably the only place in the whole wide world (maybe universe) where people don't care about the World Cup (or should I say Shijie Bei. The many channels of CCTV have nightly reports on the weather conditions in Germany, people! Come on, America! Why don't you like football/soccer?!?!

Shanghai stories pending, I realize that my Mandarin is horrible...and, oh yeah, I'm really really fat

Hello from the People's Republic! I have spent the last several days wandering around the streets of Shanghai and recovering from jet lag.

As it is, I realize that my Mandarin is in a sorry state. More than a few times, people I have talked to have given me that "Uh, what did you just say?" look. Oops. Looks like someone needs a language brush up!

Also, as different as Shanghai may be from the rest of China, it's nice to know that one thing stays constant throughout the mainland: super skinny Chinese girls. Really, I'm like King Kong compared with these chicks. My arm might be the girth of their their thighs or something. ::Sigh:: Well, I guess my constant eating of Chinese street snacks (sooooo delicious!) isn't exactly helping either. Ahh, well...you only live once, right?

As for Shanghai, it's a terrific city - incredibly modern and quite different from Beijing. In terms of traditional culture, there doesn't seem to be too much. The architecture of the buildings is pretty amazing, though, and this place is a great feat in modern urban planning (if you're into nerdy stuff like that). When I get a chance, I will definitely post some pictures.

Oddly enough, while I am able to access Blogger to post new entries, I can't actually see my own blog in China. When I type in "http://thewilltoblog.blogspot.com", the browser mysteriously stops loading anything. Ah, government censorship!

King Kong, signing out!

Nearing the end of my year of irresponsibility, I kick off the Repressive Regimes Tour ‘06

I suppose it’s true: the third time (or, I suppose, the third country or continent...if you can count Central America as a separate continent) is a charm. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my travels to Ghana and to France, I have to say that the 3 ½ months in Guatemala (and bits of Honduras) have really been among my favorites since I started this year-long sabbatical. Not only was I able to pick up some Spanish skills, as per my original plan, but I also saw some of the most beautiful places on earth, did some things that would have been wholly unimaginable to me last year (climbing volcanoes and scuba diving!), met some wonderful people, and learned a lot about a culture of which I knew nothing just a short while ago. Moreover, I left Guatemala feeling a lot more confident about myself and surer about what I want out of life. Whoa, sorry about that cheese factor, folks! Anyhoo, you really can’t ask for more out of life more than that! Ahh, the power of travel! I will always have special memories of Guatemala and sincerely recommend it for anyone looking for a great travel destination, whether you are looking to backpack or go “posh” on your next vacation.

The only problem now is that I can’t seem to remember that it is OK to flush toilet paper down the toilet. Oh, I forgot how nice it was to be in a country with a modern sewage system! I suppose I shouldn't get too comfortable...

...because the final leg (I can't believe it!) of the International Hello! Tour begins this Friday: I will be flying to Shanghai, China (the Motherland!), and am giving myself 7 ½ weeks to trek down to Singapore (land of my birth and shudder-inducing Singlish). I admittedly don’t have a lot of time, but I hope to travel through southern China, Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma), Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Given that I plan on spending quite a lot of time (about 3 weeks) in Myanmar and the rest of the countries are a bit, er, strict/screwy either currently or historically, I guess I can call this leg of my travels the Repressive Regimes Tour?

To be fair, I’d say that most of the governments of the world are repressive in some way, but some of the ones on my itinerary are pretty spiffy in their freakiness. Malaysia and Singapore seem fairly benign and nominally democratic, but I know that this isn’t totally true in practice, particularly when you look at history. Cambodia = Killing Fields, so stew on that a while. Thailand...um, does the Prime Minister really want to be Prime Minister? China...well, just a heads up, I might not be able to blog from there because Blogger is reportedly still blocked in some parts of the country (oh, those crazy Chinese with their ideas that blogging promotes democracy! Crazy!). I just hope that my recent bloggin’-like-crazy ways will keep you occupied for some time! And Myanmar? Dude, forgeddaboudit. The military government there is pretty 1984ish and blocks mail portals of Yahoo!, Gmail, and Hotmail, so I will have to find some non-threatening email portal works that decently. Hey, maybe this is a perfect time to use my Hello Kitty email (yes, I really do have an email here…you got a problem with that, punk?!)!

In any case, Southeast Asia is actually my first attempt at an extended backpacking trip – moving from place to place in relatively quick order as opposed to living in one town for an extended period of time. Also, outside of China and Singapore (and parts of Malaysia, where English and Mandarin may be spoken), I really won’t speak any of the local language. GULP! Plus, it’s going to be blazing hot and disgustingly humid throughout the region. Double GULP! Well, given that it’s my last adventure of the year, the Repressive Regimes Tour will be an excellent test of my travel savvy and general mettle...or lack thereof. Let’s see if I make it back in one piece. I just hope this trip is worth my missing the NBA finals and World Cup!

I'll see you from the road!

A quick note
This blog officially turned 1 year old this week! Thanks for reading, especially if you have been doing so since the shaky/boring beginning! :)

Charming little Antigua (a.k.a., Gringolandia)

Classic Antigua: cobblestone streets with a view Volcán Agua from just about everywhere in town.

If you visit Guatemala, chances are you’ll end up in Antigua. Just an hour outside the seriously urban (i.e., crowded, dirty, dangerous) capital of Guatemala City, it couldn’t be more different. Antigua (I believe its official name is actually La Antigua Guatemala – "The Old Guatemala") is a classic colonial town nestled between several volcanoes and lined with cobblestone streets. It was the first capital of Guatemala during the Spanish colonial times, originally named Santiago. Apparently, the Spanish named a lot of their colonial capitals “Santiago”, thereby explaining the excessive number of “Santiagos” in Latin America. Similarly, the imported Catholic faith explains the reason why the region is also rife with towns named San Pedro (Saint Peter).

Because of the city’s propensity to be destroyed every so often by earthquakes, the Spanish decided to move the capital from Antigua to Guatemala City in the late 18th century, after a particularly nasty earthquake had leveled the town in the 1770s. Antigua is still filled with remnants of the colonial days – there are buildings and (especially!) churches that are beautifully restored, just as there are still crumbling ruins that remain. The entire town is appropriately designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The ruins of an old church in Antigua.

In any case, Antigua is impossibly charming. Really lovely with a very European feel – at times, you wouldn’t even know you were in Guatemala. Still, I had avoided Antigua like the plague during my first three months in the country because of its reputation as “Gringolandia.” The city is famed for its Spanish schools, but, ironically, because of the popularity of tourism here, you can actually walk around Antigua all day without speaking any Spanish at all. Eventually, I caved and visited twice: spending a night when I traveled my way back to Xelá from my 3-week holiday and another night before I flew back to the U.S. (because I hate staying overnight in Guatemala City!).

The only bad part about my stay in Antigua was the youth hostel where I stayed during my second visit (during my first visit, I stayed at a basic but cheap local guesthouse owned by some lovely Guatemalans). Usually I don’t do the hostel thing, as I find that I have little in common with young’uns who travel solely to party and get drunk or high. That said, it wasn’t a bad hostel – in fact, it was quite new and packed full of nice travelers (in my room, anyway). Rather, my experience involved an incident that further reminded me of the inequalities that exist in countries like Guatemala, and the price that locals have to pay for the benefits of tourism. I had to wait for my airport shuttle very early in the morning (around 3:30 AM), so it was basically me and the hostel’s nighttime security guard, an older gentleman named Javier, sitting around for awhile. I asked how he was (the usual niceties of waiting-around conversation), and we ended up chatting for a bit about his work. That particular night was Javier’s last night of work after 3 weeks on the job – he confessed that he could no longer take the rude, drunk gringos stumbling in every night and giving him a hard time for no reason, so he was quitting the next day. He used to be a tour guide for local Guatemalans, but now the English-speaking tourists far outnumber local ones, so work is hard to come by. Javier took the security guard job at the hostel because he needed work, but he only got paid Q$50 (US$6.50) for 9 hours of work (whereas the hostel charged Q$50 per night per person – and the place was full every night). Of course, many people in Guatemala would feel lucky to make Q$50, but this is Antigua – where prices are simply sky-high for everyone because of tourists. He seemed pretty bummed, not only about his impending unemployment, but also about the fact that rude, dumbass gringos were ruling the streets of Antigua and not respecting local culture. When my shuttle came, I said thank you and goodbye to Javier, and he said that it was a pleasure to finally talk to someone nice. This made me happy and sad at the same time.

The famous Antigua Arch.

Despite the drunken assholes that give gringos a bad name, I can say that – for the most part – I do like Antigua. There are terrific museums (hello, Textiles and Weaving!), restaurants, art galleries, shops (Antigua is famous for jade), and hotels (not like I was able to afford any of the nice ones). One of the favorite places that I visited was Casa Popenoe, an old colonial home from the 1600s that was restored by an American businessman who lived in Antigua in the 1930s. It’s amazing, and the original owner’s daughters (now in their 70s) still live there! I only regret that I wasn’t able to climb Volcán Pacaya, a nearby volcano that is still active – you can even see the lava flow from the top. All in all, Antigua was a great way to spend my last day in Guatemala. Maybe next time I will stay in Antigua for more than 24 hours at a time? :)


Speaking of “lasts” in Guatemala, my last meal was quite Guatemala-appropriate: Pollo Campero. Campero, as it’s known, is just fast food fried chicken, but it’s amazingly tasty. Chapines (nickname for Guatemalans) are very proud of the chain, because it’s a Guatemalan-owned company that is so successful that KFC is actually unable to enter the domestic fried chicken market! There is actually a Campero restaurant in the Guatemala City Airport, and many Guatemalans flying out of the country – presumably to visit their relatives abroad – buy huge 24-piece boxes of fried chicken as gifts. The smell on the plane almost drove me crazy...I should have been so smart as to buy a box for myself. Mmmm...chicken.



As long as we’re talking about food, I might as well share this lovely photo of my last meal in Xelá, from my favorite (and only) Indian (yes, Indian!) restaurant in town. Mmmm...I miss those mango-pineapple licuados (smoothies) already.

Adventures in Fiber Arts

Weaving: The Final Frontier

A part of my Guatemala trip that I didn’t get a chance to share with you was my foray into the fiber arts! (NOTE: I'm experimenting with my new Photobucket account, so apologies for the screwy picture sizes!)

I went with other students from my school to Momostenango (popularly known as "Momo" – how cute!), which is famous for its woven wool carpets and blankets. We visited the home of Thelma and Luis (for real!), a wonderful married couple whose entire family (kids and all!) work together weaving goods for sale. They give tours of their home, which is a equipped with looms and spinning wheels. Yup, they raise their own sheep, spin their own wool, and weave all the products. Really cool stuff. They let the students give it a try, too...

Look at me spin!



And weave (only with the help of awesome Luis, of course).



I also took Mayan backstrap weaving lessons during my time in Xela. This is really difficult! A backstrap loom is really simple – it just consists of a couple of rods and some rope (one end that you must secure to a column or maybe a tree, the other you must tie around your back). You line up your material on it and start a-weaving, which I can’t even really being how to describe. Unfortunately, there is no friggin’ way you can remember how to do this after making just one piece (this scarf took me about 11 hours to complete from beginning to end).



My finished scarf kinda looks like crap and, in retrospect, it would have been a lot easier to just buy a nicer scarf, but I really enjoyed learning more about the art of weaving. My teachers (Aurelia and Amparo, two Ki'che women who head the women’s weaving cooperative that runs the classes) were really sweet, and I definitely have a greater appreciation for the hard-working women who weave these pieces (they put in all the labor and are able to sell them for only ludicrously low prices).

Salcaja, a town just outside of Xela, is famous for the fabrics that its craftsmen weave. Each town in Guatemala has its own special pattern for traditional clothing (and many Guatemalans still wear traditional clothing on an everyday basis), so these guys work hard creating the different fabrics!



Keeping up with my usual nerdy, museum-going ways, I also visited the Textile and Weaving Museum in Antigua. Actually, it was closed, but the nice man running the museum opened it up just for me and walked me through all the exhibits, giving me commentary on the exhibits. He even let me take photos for free (usually you have to pay). How nice! The museum itself, although small, was interesting, and the fabrics inside were all beautiful.

Belated Guatemala Travel Report: That was a gooder

General formula at Semuc Champey: Natural wonder + Lovely weather = Gooder

I recently learned a bit of Canadian slang that will definitely be a keeper in the YuhChic lexicon: "gooder." As in, something that is good. If you’ve had a good day or a really good experience (i.e., movie, meal, trip, etc.), you can say, "That was a gooder." This was just one of the excellent little pieces of knowledge that I picked up as I worked my way westward from Honduras to Guatemala – a journey that was full of gooders. By this time, I had resumed to traveling alone (my usual mode of traveling), so was just getting reacquainted with answering the age-old, female-traveling-alone questions of "How old are you?" (apparently, I still look 20-21, everyone! YESSSSS!) and "Are you married?"/"Do you have a boyfriend?" A nice thing about Guatemala, however (as opposed to my travels in Ghana), is that there is a well-established backpacker crowd in the country, so one never finds themselves traveling alone for long – you’ll inevitably meet another lone traveler and pair up to go to your next destination.

So it was with me as I left El Estor (at long friggin’ last) for Semuc Champey. After the challenge of being stuck in a quasi-middle of nowhere, I traveled for about 10 hours straight (stopping only to change buses, from 1:00 AM to 10:00 AM) and finally arrived in Lanquin, a small town just outside Semuc Champey. I stayed at an incredible hostel called El Retiro, which consists of cozy, thatched-roof huts dotted along a hill beside the River Lanquin. It was here that I learned to appreciate the relaxing properties of a hammock. Aaaah.

You might be asking what’s so special about this Semuc Champey place that I was willing to get stuck in a bohunk town and travel for 10 hours on buses? To be truthful, Semuc Champey as a place is very difficult to describe. All I can say is that it has got to be one of the great natural wonders of Guatemala and is truly a beautiful place. I guess it’s a...park? Yeah, a park! Not an amusement park...a national park type thing. And it’s famous because of the natural jade-green pools of crystal clear water that flow from a the source of the River Cahabon and Semuc’s famous natural 300-meter limestone bridge.




I know, I know – you’re thinking, "What? What does that even mean, natural limestone bridge? That sounds boring!" That’s what I thought, too! All that kept me going as that bus plunked along the crap road was that my Guatemalan Spanish teachers told me that Semuc Champey was where they dreamed of going for vacation...you know, when they got time off from teaching gringos English, found someone to watch their four kids and actually saved up enough money to make the long trip. OK, good enough for me! But I was initially confused about what I was getting myself into, too. But trust me, it’s a gooder! I swam in the pools and did a bit of hiking up to the Mirador (lookout point), where I captured the photo above.

I will never harm a tree ever again

Incidentally, from the amusing and really cute "save the environment" signs posted throughout Semuc Champey (did they get someone in from Sanrio to design this tree?), I learned that the park is actually an eco-tourism initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This makes for at least two USAID project sites that I have visited so far (remember that rainforest canopy bridge I trekked across in Ghana?). Quite honestly, nice job, USAID! My experience from both sites has convinced me a little more that self-sustaining eco-tourism projects are quite beneficial to the local community. I'll have to keep a lookout for more and try to research some downsides as well, analytical pessismist that I am!

While near Semuc Champey, I also managed to go spelunking in a nearby cave called Kan’bal, swimming through it (yup, it was filled with water...up to about 10-15 feet at some points?) with just a candle in hand and squeezing through some claustrophobia-inducing spaces. Really fun! Obviously, no photos on this outing, as I didn’t think my camera would be good to bring along...I was busy trying to keep my candle above water the whole time!


After the whole spelunking thing, I also managed to jump off this bridge. Y’know...just for fun. Luckily, as you can see, there was a river below and not cold, hard concrete. Whew.

As long as we’re talking about fun, nature-y type things I have done in Guatemala, I mentioned a while back that I climbed the Volcán Tajumulco, the tallest point in Central America. Since that was a gooder, too, here are some pictures!


I took the trek up to 4,220 meters (yes, that's high...13,845 feet!) with Quetzaltrekkers, a great group of volunteer guides that donates all profits from their hikes to their nonprofit school for streetkids. The trek itself wasn't too difficult, and we were already pretty high up (at around 3,000 meters) when we started, so obviously I'm just trying to sound cool. It took the group about 7-8 hours (over two days) to hike up to the top of the volcano. I met a lot of really nice people during the trek - including an English couple that is planning to travel around England next year in search of the most delicious sausages (they're going to write a book!). Very amusing.


The volcano is so high that it casts a shadow over the landscape. Nifty.


From the top of Tajumulco on a clear day, you are supposed to be able to see into Mexico, El Salvador and even Nicaragua. It would have been amazing, but, unfortunately, it was very cloudy the day I was there. Still a nice view, though.


I made it!

More Honduras visuals; Sudden realization about amateur travel photography

Usually I ask before taking a picture, but I always end up sneaking photos of private moments...like this elderly gentleman fishing on the pier in Omoa.

Upon re-reading my previous Honduras post, I have realized that, visually, I did a piss poor job of giving you a sense of what Honduras was like. Admittedly, part of this was due to my impatience and laziness with loading photos via dial-up modem, but that’s not even a good excuse. Because, seriously, letting you share a bit of my travel experience is the point of this blog after all! I endeavored to dig up some more photos of the Honduras, because much of it is really beautiful.


This way to the ruins!


And what ruins they are. Copan Ruinas are really incredible.


The Honduran countryside can range from mountainous and cool...


...to lush and intensely tropical.


The only thing for sure is that cows rule the land! As I traveled through Honduras, I wondered, "Is this place like Ireland, with more livestock than people?" Most of the cows I saw were pathetically skinny. I think I took a picture of this fine bovine because it actually seemed quite fat in comparison. Still, notice protrusion of ribcage on this creature. We wouldn't stand for such skinny cows in America!! :)



Omoa, the first of the two Caribbean villages where I stayed, was really very lovely. The pier was quite nice place just to hang out around sunset, where locals would do a bit of fishing with just line (no fancy schmancy fishing poles for these folks) and gather to chat. It seemed rarely empty, so I was lucky to capture this the photo above early in the morning. I should have posted more pictures in the first place!


One of the original Spanish colonial forts is also found in Omoa (Fortaleza de San Fernando de Omoa). You can climb to the top of the fort - here's just one of the lovely views! The grounds and facilities were kept up so nicely by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History that I couldn't help but be impressed. The Institute is even working their way slowly to restoring all the rooms of the fort so that they are not so damp, moldy, or bat-inhabited (although I actually find the damp, moldy, bat-inhabited nature part of the charm). Really excellent museum on the history of colonialism and of the fort, too (yes, I'm a dork).


Here is lovely Tornabé in all its one-street glory.


OK, so the beach in Tornabé wasn't exactly empty...there were lots of fishing boats scattered along the shore.


A shy, cute, but slightly bored kid manning one of the tiendas in Tornabé (photo credit to Christian). Did I mention they sell drinking water out of little plastic pouches in Honduras, too? Ah, memories...

I’ve realized that photos can never fully capture the beautiful places that I have seen and the wonderful experiences I have had over the past year. The memories of these things remain clearer and so much more incredible in my mind, that – after I describe them to you – I feel that showing you the pictures is somehow a letdown. Indeed, I always feel a bit bummed when I go back to review my pictures, only to realize that “Hey...that’s just not as cool as it seemed in person!” I suppose my shoddy photography skills don’t really help matters! Still, I do hope you can enjoy the visual images provided here while I desperately attempt to describe the coolness factor of certain places/things. And, if you find something in a picture to be honestly gorgeous, well, just imagine how incredible the actual place/thing is in person!