bangkok - hong kong - no, bangkok

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there is lots to tell about our thailand adventures - we thought one of the most exciting moments was when our taxi driver to the airport , upon starting up the car, flipped down 2 DVD screens (front and back) popped in a karoke DVD and tested the re-verb on the mic "Helloooo, Helloooo, Welcommmme", before handing it to us. Lisa, myself and our two airport companions (two Europeans) groaned and laughed at the same time. 40 minutes of the Carpenters and The Eagles all the way to Bangkok airport. we didn't use the mic, but we did sing along once in a while.

the excitement got more interesting when i went up to the check-in desk to get our 1:00 flight to Hong Kong (so we could fly out tomorrow as scheduled) and they pointed out - very nicely because Thais are very nice - that the flight was today but at 1 AM not 1 PM. military time!!! who goes by that these days? we don't think like airlines and the military so we missed our flight.

after a lot of coins dropped into bangkok pay phones, using some nice Thai man's cell phone and calling upon the assistance of several airport people we re-arranged all our flights to leave on jan 3rd from Hong Kong. besides the fact that all hte flights are full due to the holiday it would have also cost us an additional $350 to leave bangkok then and there.

our taxi back to our hostel wasn't nearly as exciting, and we got some strange looks when we checked back into the hostel we had checkout of earlier that day, but we have decided to explore bangkok and celebrate new year's 12 hours earlier than all of you on the Stateside.

the up side is that we have a few more days of vacation, bangkok just happens to be one of the cheapest places to stay and we can continue with our strict Thai food diet of mangos, pad thai and anything else we can get our stomachs around - although it would have been nice if our crystal ball could have told us ahead of time of they delay then we would've stayed on the island for 3 more days.

face off -- chinese style

as promised i will back date a bit and tell the story of our face off at the great wall of china.

for all of you who think you might be cold right now, beijing is a 1,000 times colder. we stayed there 3 days. it required lots of layers and purchasing of a few more coats -- hard to resist those knock off mountain hardware and northface jackets. the 3rd day turned out to be our trip to the wall day.

there are several sections of the wall that one can visit, the most popular, easily accessible and nearest is BaDaLing. not wanting to buy a guide book we went to a foreign book store and read / copied all the information we needed for buses, etc. somehow the book failed to mention that the last public bus for badaling left at 9:30am from the station. we arrived at the bus stop at 9:45am and after a lot of going back and forth with some chinese bus stop guy it was figured out that badaling was not in the works for the day. we took the next option to simatai - another, but less developed section of the wall, and much further away. fortunately, we were able to catch the bus out to the nearest city in the area.

for the most part i can ask directions and generally be told what the best route is, so when our bus attendant (a young woman who goes up and down the aisle collecting bus fares once you have boarded) said that we had to take a taxi from the city to the wall i accepted that this was the only option.

because we spent the morning running around beijing trying to catch the right bus it was close to noon by the time our bus pulled up to the city (which i can't remember the name of). the first stop some greasy taxi driver ran on the bus beelined for us and said "taxi"? i told him i was going to wait for the last stop. then i thought -- "maybe we have to get off sooner than the last stop for a taxi." so i asked again and the girl said that we could get off anywhere for a taxi and told us that it shouldn't cost more than 200 yuan for the taxi fare.

we got off at the next stop and started the taxi negotiations. in retrospect i'm pretty certain we were picked by the greasiest taxi driver, Mr. Zhang. at first he wanted 500 yuan, at which point i walked away in disgust. suddenly the price dropped and we agreed on 200 plus a 40yuan parking fee. next thing you know we were on our way to simatai.

on our way there Mr. Zhang mentioned that he knew of a farm house that would feed us lunch for around 5-10yuan each, were we interested in that? it was very clean. in-between all this he told us varying details of the area, since he was native, and some historical facts of the wall. we thought lunch at that price sounded decent so we agreed on the lunch option. (5-10 yuan is about $.75-$1.50).

arriving at the farm house about 1 hr into the drive we were given a menu from which i ordered a few dishes and didn't pay too much attention to the prices. the little farmhousewife was thrilled to have us as no one, and i mean NO ONE else was there. it was a cold but clear day, and NO ONE was there. after ordering she suggested that i replace my beef and pepper dish with a farm raised chicken dish. OK, but once again, i didn't ask price.

we wandered around the small 5 family village, talked with some of the locals then went in for lunch. i had invited Mr. Zhang to eat with us as it is customary to treat your driver to lunch in China. he readily accepted. the tofu was burnt, the greens dish was OK and the chicken was a whole chicken chopped into about 20 parts and stewed in chinese liquid something. it involved a lot of bones and picking to get at the meat. none of it was very good. Mr. Zhang ate everything heartily and then collected all the chicken bones to take home to his dog, or cat, i'm not sure which. at the end we were served 3 mantos (steamed buns), which i had not ordered and believed that they were complimentary.

the farmhousewife was cute and excited when she brought us the bill for 200 yuan!!! about $30us. after a moment of not talking i started asking the details as i was in more sticker shock than i've been in in years. i can get a bowl of noodles that i can't even eat all of for 5 yuan in the city ($.75). sure enough it was all priced as advertised. the chicken just happened to be 88yuan and the mantos had been ordered by Mr. Zhang without him consulting me at all. it was at this point that both Lisa and I's blood pressure almost shot out our ears as we realized that our driver was taking us for a ride in more ways than one - we are convinced that he got a hearty kick back from that meal, along with a bag of chicken bones.

the drive to the wall was 10 more minutes and he offered to buy our wall tickets as he had a special "lisense" that got us in cheaper. i have since learned that drivers get a kick back from this arrangement. even though it was cheaper for us we didn't want him to get anything else off our dollar.

it was cold as cold! so we took a little, and slightly scary, cable car to the top where we then hiked up and enjoyed as much of the wall as we could in 1.5 hrs - while warding off little farm ladies selling picture books and t-shirts of the wall. they followed us the whole way up and back. it was a cold day to stand on the wall and not sell anything - cause NO ONE was there.

still stewing about the driver's inability to hide his dishonesty, i inquired 2 different times as to how much the parking fee was for a taxi and it turned out that it was only 5 yuan. it was at this point that i began to lose it and started composing the biggest ma (scold/yelling) i could come up with for Mr. Zhang when the face off time came, cause it was comin'.

after a quick consultation with lisa and then finding out that there was a 4 yuan bus leaving for town at 4pm (we had 10 minutes), we decided to pay Mr.Zhang 1/2 his driving fare and 5 yuan for the parking fee = 105yuan. because i knew what would happen i was dreading it, but i was more mad than i've been in - probably my lifetime - so i decided to go through with our plan.

lisa ran to catch the bus and i shoved the money at Mr.Zhang and i started making my way across the parking lot for the bus, loudly declaring that he cheated us and i was not going to be riding with a schister such as himself. i was surrounded by 3 of his comrades who tried to wall me in from going to the bus, but i pushed through them an marched on. the march was quite the parade - me yelling about him cheating foreingers and how could he represent Chinese people that way and them yelling that there was no way that we were going to take that bus!!!

lisa was already glued to a seat in the 4th row and about 15 other local Chinese were waiting to ride back as well. i got boarded in a yelling heat and plunked down next to Lisa. my companions followed, also yelling. they started calling me all kinds of things like that i had agreed and i should pay the whole fare no matter what, they were going to call the police, etc. i was yelling here and there to go ahead and call the police, that he cheated me on lunch, and over charged me on the parking fee and i wasn't going to ride back with a ...... you know how it went from there. lisa sat next to me refusing to move, not understanding a word, but getting the idea - every once in awhile i would translate. she just kept saying "there is no way i an riding back with him."

this went of for about 10 minutes and when it became apparent to our fellow busmates that they were now impacted. they started encouraging me to get off the bus and resolve the matter so they could get back. NO!! then the attendant yelled at us to get off, and just ride back with Mr.Zhang - "would you ride with someone who cheated you?!" i yelled back, NO!

from the back of the bus came 2 older women who had seen plenty of these face off's in their Chinese lives (as this is often how public conflicts are handled), so they jumped in and started negotiations. "Give him his fare and we can all go," they encouraged me. NO! i pulled out 40 yuan cause i knew that i had to help him save some face otherwise it would go on and on and i personally wanted the ordeal to be over. he refused, so the yelling and negotiations continued. after the bus driver yelled at me to get off and we refused the diplomats in the back leaned over my seat and said that if i gave him 60 yuan he agreed to leave. i pulled out another 20 yuan handed him the wad.

THE SECOND he accepted the money all the bus riders pushed Mr.Zhang and his comrades out the door and the bus driver started up the bus to take off. once the doors were closed i apologized profusely, took off my face a few times while they warned me more than once to not ride with those "black people" (the chinese term for bad people is black people for a black heart). i told them i just didn't know that there was another option, etc, etc.

it was quite the day. we saw some of the best sections of the wall that i have ever visited and it was topped by a real Chinese face off - something i haven't done in a long time.

malkamikimaka - merry christmas

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas! Once again the day is here, that magical day when special things happen. I woke early this morning, as I always do on Christmas, and walked out the front door of my Thailand beach bungalow to the scene in this photo. It’s a Christmas miracle. I guess I am on Santa’s nice list this year.

After over 10 days of fun (but intensive) travel through China, Lisa and I made our way to Hong Kong on 12/22 for a night’s rest before heading to Bangkok. China makes the ease and efficiency of Hong Kong look like you’ve just gone to heaven. Due to space constraints everything in Hong Kong is small. Think of the largest closet in your house downsize that by 1/3 and that was the size of the hostel room we stayed in at the Chung King Mansion in downtown Kowloon (the main land section of the city right across from Hong Kong island). Somehow, we fit ourselves, 3 large suitcases, 2 backpacks and a camera bag in there for a night. I spent the afternoon making the trek across town to China Air to purchase a re-issue of my return plane ticket while Lisa rested. That evening we made our way through the maze of the Chung King Mansion to the Taj Mahal restaurant for some of the Chung King Mansion’s most famous Indian food, we walked around with the rest of Hong Kong who was out Christmas shopping, then talked our new friend Ramsey into keeping the 3 suitcases at the hostel for the week and went to bed exhausted. Beside that we didn’t do much in Hong Kong.

The next morning we were up and at it and out the door by 7:30am headed for Bangkok. Our goal was Koh Samet Island a small 6k long island just off the southern coast of the upper gulf of Thailand. Our transportation to our end destination - bungalow on Koh Samet - went like this: HK subway – airport shuttle – flight – shuttle bus – bus to coast – taxi ride (in the back of a mini-truck on small benches) – ferry ride – taxi truck (again) on a horrible dirt road – walk to our resort. We arrived almost 12 hours after leaving our hostel in HK. Waiting at the end of it all was a snug beach front bungalow with A/C lots of space and a toilet that you have to throw a bucket of water down to flush. After some of the best pad thai in the world and 2 mango shakes we were here to stay for a week.

For Christmas Eve we slept whenever we felt like it, floated around in the warm ocean water, ran our feet through white sand the consistency of fine flour and generally marveled that we everything had worked out so well for us. Our resort is packed into a small stretch of beach with about 7 other bungalow resorts. It’s one of the smaller beaches so we are sharing the place with a small amount of Euros and that that is about it. Because of the Bangkok airport shutdown 3 weeks ago the typical high tourist season for Thailand isn’t happening this year. It’s sad to see so many of the bungalows empty, but it’s working for us.

Lisa found out about our place after digging through several internet sites and finally found a blog detailing this particular place. Based on that information we had a friend of ours, Margo – who speaks Thai – call ahead and make a reservation for us at the Candlelight Beach resort. We weren’t sure they would hold the reservation as Thais on these islands tend to be very laid back and not too organized. But there was Lisa’s name was on the calendar for a beach front with A/C and hot water and here we are in a perfect place for a week.

For Christmas Eve dinner we ordered up lots of pad thai, basil fried shrimp, 4 mango shakes and a big bowl of tom ka (coconut based soup with chicken lemon grass and all that other yummy stuff that Thais put in their soups). We were so stuffed we had to take a long walk on the beach to work it through – life is certainly hard these days. When we got to the end of our beach stretch, about 15 minutes of slow walking, we sat on some beach chairs and watched Christmas fireworks, listened to the waves lapping and enjoyed the warm night air.

My only Christmas wish is that my family could be here with me. I love you all and hope that your Christmas is filled with the love of Christ and happiness. During this time in Asia I have been reminded over and over again of the love that the Lord has for each of his children individually. I pray that you feel that yourself and also pray that governments that restrict the practice of His gospel will change their policies in order to allow the knowledge of Christ to be preached freely. This would be the biggest Christmas miracle of all.

Merry Christmas from Koh Samet!

December 18, 2008

The time came and the program ended and now I’ve been on the long road of China since last week. Lisa (my friend who arrived on the 8^th) and I spent the 2^nd week of December in Nanjing wrapping up the program, eating good food and shopping as much as was possible in-between. We visited the typical Nanjing sites: Sun Yat Sen Memorial, Nanjing Massacre Memorial, walking around the neighborhood, etc. It’s a lot of fun to have her here as all that has become normalized to me is new for her. We went into a grocery store to pick up food for our train trip to Xi’an. She wanted a drink so I led her over to the drink section of the store to choose something, “WOW!” she exclaimed upon seeing row after row of bottles full of everything from milk fruit juice to cans full of soupy peanut beverage.

Getting out the door was as crazy as ever. Down to the last minute I was packing and stuffing and throwing un-necessaries away. While cleaning out my locked drawer that had held all my important documents I pulled out some plane tickets that for some reason in my mind were receipt tickets from my flight over here. After a glance I put them in the discard pile and shoved them into the kitchen garbage. It wasn’t until 8pm that night, after barely making our train out of town because a taxi wouldn’t stop to get us and getting finally settled on the sleeper bunk for the night that the voice of my travel agent came into my head with the strong reminder that there were “paper tickets” and DO NOT LOSE them. In a split second my brain searched all over remembering that moment, that one moment when everything could have gone a different route. Instead I was stuck on a train between Nanjing and Xi’an with no way to figure out how I was going to get home.

Hoping my maid had put off doing the final cleaning I called her in a frantic. No, she is responsible and reliable to the core – the trash had been emptied already. She jumped on her bike at 8:30pm and rushed over to see if the garbage cans had been taken out for the truck. Somehow one of my students got involved given that my maid didn’t know what she was looking for. After 3-4 calls back and forth by 9:45pm my destiny had been decided – of all the inefficiencies of China apparently the trash pick up is not one of them. They must come once or twice a day! The tickets were gone to some Chinese trash dump and I tossed and turned all night on a sleeper train running the scenario over and over in my head – very helpful for a good night’s rest. Once we arrived in Xi’an I called my BYU travel agent and after working her magic I now have an electronic .jpg of my tickets and only have to pay $100 US to have them re-printed in Hong Kong. I figured it was better than a whole new tickets home.

We did the whirlwind tour of Xi’an given we only had 2 days to see the place. Somehow in a 36 hr period we managed to – see the Terracotta Soliders, roam the Muslim Market, walk around on top of the Xi’an wall, attend church at the Xi’an branch, visit the adoption center and eat as much Xi’an food as possible. Again, it is fun to show Lisa these places as it’s all new to her.

After Xi’an we boarded our next sleeper train for Beijing. Arriving at 7:30am was about the time everyone else in China was arriving in Beijing so the line for the taxi’s was backed up far enough to be quite annoying. Dragging 3 suitcases, 2 backpacks, a camera bag and a few bags full of food and misc we made our way to a public bus that took us to our hostel, The Red Lantern Hostel for Backpackers located in the back HuTongs of Beijing. A Hu Tong are the old neighborhoods of Beijing consisting of courtyard style homes built out of grey brick and decorated with all kinds of traditional Chinese home decore. A lot of the Hu Tongs have been effectively razed over the last 10 years due to push to re-build/develop Beijing, and also due to the fact that many are dilapidated beyond repair. In all the times I’ve visited Beijing I haven’t roamed what is left of these remnants of Beijing traditional life. The hostel we stayed in I specifically picked because it was in a Hu Tong and it provided the experience we were looking for.

After checking in we walked through these narrow bustling streets of pedestrians and bicyclists peering into local shops and ordering up some Beijing breakfast. We turned several heads of course as this area isn’t typically visited by foreigners (except the hostel visitors). Mr. Li, the hostel’s cabbie, loaded up our suitcases on a 3 wheeled cart and pedaled us over to another building where we would be staying. He told me that the area were staying in (Xin Jie Kou Nan Da Jie) had been designated for Hu Tong preservation. I was glad to hear that. Our hostel was great, comfortable and one of the Hu Tong houses. It’s was a true Beijing experience. Check out photos for my adventures thus far. And stay tuned for the drama of the “face off” we had with our taxi driver to the Great Wall.

only 2.5 more weeks and the program is officially over. somehow this entire month has passed without an update on the blog. apologies to the 2 members of my fan club, chris and holly. let me catch you up on a few China happenings.

to answer holly's question - yes! i've been going to acupuncture. my last session of 10 will be tomorrow. and to answer the other question "has it worked" - yes, for the most part. i feel better overall, i have more energy, my back isn't threatening to pop out and leave me paralyzed in pain so - sure, it's working. maybe it's psyco-smatic, maybe it's not, who cares?

if nothing else it has been one of my favorite cultural / social experiences in china - ever. first of all unless your chinese you would never go to this clinic or know how to find it. so it's me and the locals, and since we all need multiple treatments i've made a lot of friends. most of our conversations are centered around the ailments we are all there for, and how i know chinese, how america is this or that, etc.

one friend i have made is 90 years old. when i asked exactly what year she was born in she waved her hand and said "oh, i don't know." she asked if i would show her around the US when she came to visit, i agreed to do so. she lives by herself, her husband died 20 years ago and she doesn't have any children. she walks to the clinic for lower back treatment, which she claims is her only health issue. one day, when i was laying face down unable to move with 12 needles in my back, she went on a long monologue about the benefits of not having to live with one's children - as they boss you around and take away your independence.

for some reason the thought or effort to set up appointments has never occurred to this clinic so on the day you are coming you have to line up for a spot on a bed. (there are about 12 beds that are cubicle style, covered in sheets and blankets that have burn marks in them from the use of moxibustion fire - will explain later). the way one lines up is show up about 5/6am and place your treatment card on the window sill outside the locked doors of the acuptuncture section. the doctor doesn't get going until 8am. it took me about 3-4 appointments to figure this system out. it was then that i figured out that had been getting the "white privledge" treatment.

this means that the doctor who runs the place, Dr. Tao, keeps my card on him, i let him know when i'm coming next and he puts my card down in line - usually before a lot of other people. i had asked how to play fair, but he insisted on keeping my card and cutting me in front of everyone for my appointments. on about the 4th visit everyone started catching on. there i was laying face down with 12 needles in my back and 2 women show up to say things like:

"so, when did you show up to put your card in line this morning?"
"we don't get special treatment from Dr. Tao like you, you must be special"
"we have to wait a long time before we get to see the Dr........., etc"

Dr. Tao was standing right there the whole time, not saying a word as i'm trying to respond to their comments with my face down in a towel that probably hasn't been washed for a month. my responses were to play dumb and say - "i don't know, the Dr. just told me to come to this bed. i'm new here, i don't know how chinese hospitals work." it was an awkward moment of me trying to save the Dr.'s face and as well as my own - even though my face was getting mashed.

the clinic is a communal thing. no one is required to wait out in the waiting area. whenever they feel like it they walk around peeking into everyone's beds, asking personal questions about what the aliment is. if they are next in line for a bed they will sit outside the bed cubicle and as soon as the patient using the bed is finished the next patient immediately moves in and starts setting up shop - even before the person is finished tucking everything in to leave. this has happened to me several times.

i have needles inserted into the lower part of my back (anywhere from 10-12) and then i lay there for about 45 minutes. after that they apply the herbal medicine that Dr. Tao invented by lighting small cardboard tube that it comes in on fire, wrapping it in a wetted rag and massaging it into my muscles. after about 20 minutes of that, they put on the bamboo cups. this means inserting a small torch to draw out all the oxygen then quickly sucking it to my skin. (the torch doesn't stay inside the cup). it all feels weird and sometimes it does hurt when the needles are inserted, but once they are in it doesn't hurt.

one day i was laying there with a bunch of cups sucking my back and i look up to see 2 very old chinese women standing by my bedside counting. "11," one said as she held up her hands in the number 11, "you have 11 cups on your back." indeed i did. (see photos below for cups). they were waiting for my spot on the bed and once those cups came off they nearly pushed me out of the cubicle with my stuff still hanging out.

about 3 times back i showed up at my regular 7:30am time curious to see how it was going to play out this time. that day was particularly busy, and i didn't see my card on the window sill so i started making the rounds to the beds to see if Dr. Tao had placed it on a bed for me. my fellow patient/friends of course noticed what i was doing and quickly informed me that i was in the 2nd round of treatment. (which meant waiting for more than an hour to get to a bed) i got the "ma" (scold) from several of the women, telling me that i needed to show up early if i wanted to be in the first round.

i really don't mind playing by the rules, but Dr. Tao insists on keeping my card and taking care of it for me. since he is older, in charge of the place and knows what is going on i don't argue. i tracked him down (he is super busy all the time cause people are always bugging him to help them next - one thing he says the most is "in a minute..."), and he scurried me to the adjacent room where the moxibustion patients are treated.

MOXIBUSTION - this is a system of inserting the needles into key nerve points, placing wads of herbal medicine on the ends on the needles then lighting them on fire. they idea is that the herbal medicine burns it's way down through the needle into the nerve area and creates a healing of sorts. (see photos below). it fills the whole place with herbal smoke, they close all the windows, one can barely breathe and lingers in my hair and clothes for days after.

i was the first in the moxi-room so i didn't have to breathe the moxi-smoke as the other patients hadn't yet shown up for this part of the day. Dr. Tao got me situated in this room and cut me to the front of the line by treating me first. under his breath he muttered something about "they show up so early! by the time i got here they had already lined up too many to get you in line."

of course they were all observing this so i put my face down into the hole burned blanket so as not to lose it, but not before my 90 year old fellow patient friend wagged her finger at me through the doorway of the other room and ma'ed, loud enough for everyone to hear, "You should be in the 2nd round!" usually i spend about 3 hours for the whole process to finish out. i was out of there in 1 hour that morning, well ahead of everyone else. i no longer have a face, but it was worth the ma.

acupuncture - the healing of life

vote - do it!

i applied for an absentee ballot, but it is lost somewhere between Utah and Nanjing. imagine. while i have been glad to miss all the campaigning hoopla, this election is clearly historic (hysteric) and quite exciting. i hope everyone is getting out to vote today - will someone please help proxy vote for me by picking up an extra ballet and punching out all the holes under the democratic party? happy voting day!!!

happy chinese halloween

the branch had it's annual halloween party tonight. i went as a pu sa (Buddhist statue). easy! and didn't cost more than $4.00. all you need is a red rain coat, some ribbon from the shoe repair vendor, and a packet of incense - voila, pu sa. the branch president said that he may have to re-interview me to see if i could still hold a temple recommend. hope everyone has a wonderfully scary (and fun) halloween!

NAME THAT TUNE

have you seen the ghost of john?
long white bones and the skin all gone....
oooooh, ooooooh
wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?

back in nanjing

i'm finally back home. whew! it was a long and very fun 10 day whirl wind tour of China, and even then we only saw the hot spots (terracotta soliders, xiaolin temple, longmen grottos, tiananmen square, Olympic venues, forbidden city, the great wall {see photo to left} ~ and more). myself and the students were wiped out when we pulled in early sunday morning to nanjing. we traveled on overnight trains and then toured around in buses in the respective cities we visited (luoyang, xi'an and beijing).

it's now tues morning and i'm finally back in the swing of nanjing. to start the day i made my first of 10 visits to my new acupuncture doctor. in october, while shamefully eating at a mcdonald's, i met a guy from Portugal who is here studying acupuncture. he has been under the tutelage of one of China's best acupuncture doctors for 2 months now. i was pretty excited to meet him as i've wanted to have some serious acupuncture done on my lower back. (for those who are unaware, i suffered a major injury to my lower back 2 years ago and it's not quite been the same since).

now that life is back in a quiet rhythm i met my new friend Joao this morning and he took me to the clinic. later i learned that the place lines up with people starting about 6:30am. i walked right in and was immediately given a table to lay down on. of course everyone was shocked and awed that i could speak mandarin, so after going through that conversation i tried to explain in my very limited medical chinese vocab the problem. fortunately, there was a female student, Miss Sun, who knows enough medical terms in English that we able to get through the moment.

i then laid face down on the table while the doctor proceeded to insert about 10 needles into my lower back and light up the moxibustion (little burning things on the top or each needle). it didn't hurt, just felt a little weird. while i lay there for a 1/2 hour the whole area heated up but didn't burn. once the needles had been removed, another, younger, doctor came over and gave me a good rub down. after that came the fun part of sucking bamboo cups to my back. they heat them up so a suction effect is created, then release and then re-suctioning them on. it was funky! almost hurt, but not quite.

most of the other waiting patients in the clinic were unabashedly watching the foreigner with her bum 1/2 exposed get the treatment. i found it a lot of fun, especially when they kept asking questions about if one can get this in the states, how much it costs, etc. everyone in china does this for health healing. it's great. most hospitals here have both western and eastern medicine practices available as a standard.

after finishing up (and everyone watching me pull my clothing back together), the doctor told me to come back every other day for 10 times. then he wrote up the bill for 10 times --- it costs a whopping $75! i went to get acupuncture once in the states, and it wasn't even as good as this clinic, and it cost me $65 (which is why i didn't return).

the dr. thinks that within 10 visits i should be as good as new. even after 1 treatment today i feel better and have more energy than i've had in years. it's remarkable. i'm so happy to be in china right now! be assured - he used needles clean from a package ~ that's the special foreigner treatment.

china in 10 days

china in 10 days

through china

i have been traveling with my student group from nanjing to 3 different chinese cities and ending in beijing. it is part of our program - 10 day study tour. i have so much to complain about my job!

i will post a lot of my photos later as limited on what internet access i have these days. for the most part our trip has gone swimmingly. speaking of which, we visited the famous olympic buildings here in beijing yesterday. it might sound strange, but they seemed 'smaller' than i expected. the bird's nest (the olympic stadium where the opening ceremonies were held) is as big as any large sports arena i've been too - BYU football, UofU stadium - and indeed looks like a bird's nest. the water cube is VERY cool a 5 minute walk right across the way from the bird's nest.

china never ceases to surprise me, which is probably why i like it here so much. after spending the equivalant of the US's annual budget on their olympic venues it seems no one is quite sure what to do next. i had expected that all the tourist stuff would be set up in the strict way that it has every other tourist spot wired.

once we showed up our bus was unclear where to park. after driving around for a time that was finally figured out. no signs were posted as to how and where to access the entrance to the bird's nest so we just followed the pods of people wearing red tour group hats and their flags. even our own tour guide was running around trying to find out where and what to do. finally, we walked about as far away as you can get from the parking area to a make shift ticket station and entry.

once we were in the bird's nest complex it was a free for all. people swarming all over the stadium. which is really unusual for China as most tours are very scripted and regimented. the track was covered where people were crossing to get onto the field, and the field itself was covered in large swaths of fake turf. none of this seemed to be truly protecting the grounds. in the middle of the field was a couple of blow up cartoon character mascots that we saw in the olympics then on each corner of the field were manicans sporting the various costumes of the opening ceremonies. (the manicans wearing the fuffy prom dresses had blown over by the wind and where taking a lay down break).

people were swarming everywhere while the music sound track from the olympics played. some were snapping photos, others walking around enjoying seeing the stadium from the ground level and many others were just sitting on the ground in the sun. we joined them sitting in the sun and myself, along with several students, took the moment to enjoy a nap.

as one of my student's put it "sometimes china won't let you touch a thing and other times the kids are pee'ing on it." it never makes sense. it would be a shame if china can't figure out what to do with these beautiful buildings, but i have no doubts that within a year the tourist industry will be have a full blown infrastructure of tours and memoroblia to sell.

i didn't have time to go into the water cube, although i would like to someday. it is not in the cards for this trip, but i will be back in december with my friend on our dec. travels so perhaps then. i am just happy to say that during my life time i took a nap in a chinese bird's nest.

xi'an - children

this time to China has been a journey of new discovery and joy for me. today was no exception. church was held in a small hotel on a local campus here in Xi'an where we are currently staying for a couple of days. while there we met a wonderful woman, Amanda. She has opened a foster care home for orphan babies, most of whom have severe health problems. in the 3 years that she has been open she has successfully adopted out 15 little ones to foreign families who willingly take on kids with such issues as spina bifada, brain damage, hydrocephalus, cleft palates, etc. (featured photo is one of my guy students holding a 1+ month old little guy with a cleft palate.)

her foundation survives on the good graces of volunteer workers, financial donations, goods donations and volunteer medical assistance.

while we were scheduled to see all kinds of 800 year old historical places after church, i instead worked it out with our tour guides to make room for an hour visit to her foster home. we filled the small apartment that acts as the foster care home, it was already teeming with 20 children and their caretakers (aunties). my students asked a few questions of Amanda, who then rushed out the door to finalize an adoption with a couple from Holland. we then spent over an hour holding the babies, playing with them and touched first hand small people's lives who start out with so many difficulties. i have 13 big strong American guys in my group, and the most touching part was to watch them tenderly hold these little ones in their big arms.

on the way to dinner there was much talk of "what to do." so far some of the students plan to come back to Xi'an in November to volunteer work for a few days, we are going to eat as cheap as possible for a week when we return to Nanjing and donate the extra funds to the foundation, and much more. after talking and brain-storming we sat for about 15 minutes of silence on the bus. my thoughts turned to what i could do - the first thing is to invite any who read my blog to consider spending some of your Christmas gift funds in support of Amanda's cause. you can visit her website to learn how to assist:

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/

hua shan

I haven’t had a lot of time lately, but once again I am on trains, buses and hotels traveling this time with the student group. But before I catch everyone up on the present there is more to tell about our trip to Xi’an during national holiday.

My friend Chris requested a “Chinese” experience while in China. Which meant doing as the Chinese do no matter where we were or what we were doing. This included eating breakfast at the local shops, finding back alley noodle shops for lunch and riding the buses and trains with the locals (for local prices) instead of following the more expensive and foreigner ridden tours. 2 hours out of Xi’an is Hua Shan (Hua Mountain). There are 5 famous mountains in China (Yellow Mountain is not one of them as it stands on it’s own), and their history is riddled with famous historical figures climbing, worshipping, committing suicide, etc from these peaks. The Chinese have as saying that you can climb all the 5 famous mountains in China, but once you have been to Yellow Mountain nothing else compares. Since I started out with the best first it only makes sense to visit the others and see for myself if they really pale in comparison. Chris, had suggested we spend one of our Xi’an days hiking the place so I enquired on where to catch the necessary transportation and we started early with our Chinese breakfast in hand.
The only indication we had that it “might” be crowded when the girls at the hostel mentioned that waiting for the cable car to the top was taking 2 hours of line waiting and that all the tours were full. Nothing could have prepared for what we encountered. Arriving at the transfer bus station in Hua Shan village we saw tall cattle fencing partitions set up to funnel a snake line into the arriving buses. These buses are dedicated to carting tourist to the trailhead/cable car area. The buses were moving fairly quickly, so we only had to squish in the line for a ½ hour making friends with a family from the North of China who were also tourists in town. We were the ONLY white people in this line.

Once we arrived at the trailhead and waiting another ½ hour in line at the bathroom we headed to the cable car line thinking to save our energy and hike around the top trails/peaks instead. A loud speaker was blaring informing the crowd that there was a 2-3 hour wait for the cable car ride. After a quick discussion we decided that at least hiking we would be doing something instead of just standing around, plus the hike was rumored to be only 2-2.5 hours.
Off we went to stand in line to head up the hill. Again, stone steps, straight up and the trail was more narrow that Yellow Mountain had offered. It was slightly hot so it didn’t take long before I had the sweat pumps moving. We had made a friend on the bus from Xi’an to Hua Shan, Emma, a college student from Sichuan province so the 3 of us hiked (staired), passed people in front of us, dodged other resting in the middle or the side of the staircase, rested, took a few photos and plugged on. The 1st 1.5 hrs was doable then we came to the part where hiking became scaling up an almost 80 degree staircase gripping the rusting chains fastened to the side of the rock (thankfully) and not looking back. The scramble up was unnerving in an of itself, but then factor in people in front of you, behind you and to the side coming down the opposite direction (refer to photo).

Now consider that as we neared the top and scrambled several more of these steep stair cases all those who were on the cable car were clogged at the top where those who we hiking were merging. It was a traffic jam of people to get to the top ridge. I actually waiting in line on the side of a steep stone mountain to get somewhat near the beginning of the top. IT WAS NUTS! The best part was that everyone kept complaining about how many people were there, how long it took to get to the top, etc etc. No one thought that perhaps they were contributing to the situation.

Also along the way we made several friends, Li Mama and her niece. Li Mama had her little black purse in one hand and a plastic bag of fruit and food in the other. She was 62 years old, she bragged. They had left the husbands at the bottom with the kid to wait in line for the cable car. We tagged teamed with them on the ascent stopping to talk and share food, and they would give us the update on the wait time for the car below. By the time we all made it to the top the husbands were still at the bottom in line for the car.

By the time we squished, shoved and wiggled our way to the top we were starving. A few enterprising Chinese were selling hot ramen-like noodles for 10 yuan a bowl ($1.50) and they could barely keep up with the demand. We slapped down the money and tried to find a spot to sit that wasn’t “too” close to the bathroom that they had set up shop. Plopping down on a small piece of cement slab I consciously ignored the heaps of garbage that had been left by the crowds and plugged my nose if the bathroom smells happened to waft our way. Near the end of our meal I happened to notice and promptly forget that there was a good sized pile of human excrement under a little tree not more than 10 feet from us.

After lunch, since we still hadn’t reached any ridge to speak of, Chris and I climbed up the steepest run of stairs yet and were able to snap a few photos and see the other side for about 45 minutes. But time was of the essence since now it was 2pm and whether we waiting (for 4 hours) for the cable car down, or hiked down we were barely going to make the bus back to our transfer station. After a bit of debate and some advice from Li Mama and her niece we all decided to hike it down together.

Again, I waited in line for 2 hours as the crowd slowly, step by steep step made their way down about 5-6 steep runs of carved steps all the while pushing through oncoming traffic. Several times I had to remind the people behind me to not push as – well - pushing someone on a steep mountain might result in serious injury if not death.

It took us nearly 2 hours to get to the section of the trail that was less steep and therefore less crowded. This section is about 2/3 of the total trail. Total it took us about 3 hours to hike down. Li Mama carried her purse the whole way, never complained and not once mentioned that her feet hurt in what we would call house shoes that she wore all day.

As we made it out to the bottom of the trail we cheered ourselves and other on, took a lot of sweaty tired photos and slowly made our way back to our transfer buses. Where we thankfully sat down and then transferred to our bus back to Xi’an. Both Chris and I could hardly move and going down any amount of stairs for the next 4 days was painful. But as Chris put it, “Probably not something I would do again under the same circumstances, but I’m so glad I did.”

(PS: Chris and I only saw 7 other foreigners the entire day – otherwise it was a sea of Chinese. THAT is a Chinese experience.)

hua shan photos - the "big climb"

more chinese messages

little bow peep:

danger!

i had forgotten how concerned with danger the chinese are. the topic is frequently discussed as to what is dangerous. things like traveling to the States is dangerous because everyone there has a gun waiting to shoot at you as soon as you step off the plane. traveling in China, to anywhere outside of where one lives and is familiar with, is dangerous.

and yet! the seat belts in taxi's are rarely used and most of the back seat belts are either cut off or completely covered up by seat covers. i have watched pedestrians not even look both ways and wander out into oncoming traffic fully trusting that that big bus will slow, or barely miss them (which they always do!). or like my friend in the photo, and all his construction buddies on the project of my 6 story building, climb around on metal pipe scafolding with tennis shoes, no safety harnesses and no platforms between bars. washing dishes at a public street eatery means rinsing out the bowls and spoons with cold water and leaving them stacked, wet, on the counter top that has been wiped off with a towel that has never been washed - ready for the next customer to use.

over the past week i noticed that the stove top in my kitchen smelled of gas. i told my maid who commented on how dangerous that was. she contacted the landlady who immediately called the gas company. the gas guy sure enough detected a couple of leaks and shut off the pipes telling me all the while that this was very dangerous. then my handman showed up this morning with the stove guy to replace the old stove and fix the problem. the handyman spoke fast and furious saying the work "dangerous" about 20 times.

they were planning on just replacing the stove top since it was old and seemed to have the most obvious leaking problem. but the day before the gas guy had also detected a dangerous leak near the turn off valve on the pipe system, and i wanted to make sure that was addressed as well - since this is very dangerous. to validate that there was a leak there too i showed the handyman the document that the gas guy has written up about the situation (lots of scribbly chinese with gas lines vocab - nothing i could read).

mr. stove guy was all the while busy installing the stove. after hearing our discussion and mr handyman guy saying some things to him, he pulled out his cigarette lighter fired it up and put it right next to the turn off valve where the leak had been detected. "nope, no leak here" - then he put the lighter next to the back of the new stove to test that spot... still OK.

i hurriedly backed out of the room and went to my office, the furthest part of the apartment, and closed the door. about 5 minutes later mr handyman (telling me not to turn on the gas at all cause this was very dangerous and it needed to be fixed properly) informed me that the new stove top also had some leaking problems so he and stove guy would return tomorrow with a new stove top, and new piping to fix the turn off valve area. i'm not sure what changed their minds - but their high tech testing methods must have shown some leaking as they will be back tomorrow to fix my most dangerous situation. no hot oatmeal for me in the morning.

soliders

so i won't explain the terracotta soliders much except to say that they were originally over 6,000 of them and Mr. Qin Shi Huang (China's first real emperor) had them built in 221-207 BC in order to guard him and his tomb in the hereafter. they were discovered in the late 1970s and the farmer who first pulled a head of one from a well was paid a handsome sum of 30 yuan for his efforts (about $4.50 us).

once Mr. Wang (the farmer) discovered the guys the CCP reclaimed the land, that was already theirs, and began excavating the area. since then they have built a fully equipped tourist viewing complex the largest of which is about the size of a football field. i always like visiting one of the 7 wonders of the world, but never again during Chinese holiday.

again, LOTS of people everywhere. herding, herding, pushing, shoving, elbowing, stepping on toes, squishing between each other, violating my personal space bubble over and over, sweating, pushing, elbowing - that about sums up my experience at the solider's home this time around.

at the enterance to complex 1 hangs a sign forbidding the use of flash or tripods when taking pictures - since everyone else ignored the sign, and the guards just looked on, i freely used my flash and got several good shots. after standing my ground at the railing for as long as i could stand it, i finally had had enough and went outside to breathe some un-recycled air and have sit where no one would push me off my place. there are 3 complexes of the excavation and 1 museum. seeing the displays was difficult given the crowds so we eventually just ended up outside.

before you enter the complex there are several women in nice purple suits offering to guide you around and give a tour (for as small sum of course). one of these fine ladies was standing off to the side of a doorway and i had a quesiton that i can now not remember. she enthusiastically answered it and before i knew it was on a tour! she mentioned that Mr. farmer Wang - yes! THE guy that found the soliders - was that very day signing books in the book store.

this peaked our interest so she dragged us over there, telling us all about the soliders, all about Mr. Wang and how he used to have dark hair, but now he had turned grey. he had met Pres. Clinton when Clinton visited China, we could look at the guy, but we couldn't take photos.... etc etc.

when we walked into the bookstore a mob of people were pressed up against the table behind which sat Mr. Wang, with a helper on either side of him. as promised he was elderly. there he sat while hoards of people squished, pushed and elbowed to catch a look. he leisurely smoked a long pipe while open books were put in front of him to sign. a large photo of him shaking Clinton's hand hung behind him for all to see as a verification that this was indeed "the man."

our newly non-hired tour guide swept us over to the side of the table where stacks of books and postcards were being sold - and if you bought the package for 200 yuan ($30.00) Mr. Wang would sign your copy. my friend, Chris, didn't want a chinese copy of the book as - well she couldn't read it - so i was trying to figure out how we could get an English copy for her. they didn't have English copies in the stack and the mob was getting anxious. as i'm trying to figure out how to get an English copy, ms. tour guide is telling me to just buy a Chinese copy and swap it in the bookstore, (which i had my doubts could would happen), the woman selling the books starts yelling at ms. tour guide and the crowd starts squishing me up against the table - all the while Mr. Wang sits behind the table with all the space in world smoking his long pipe and signing if he feels like it.

finally, i had had enough, i shoved my way backwards through the crowd and tried to ditch ms. tour guide. it didn't take long before she found us - since were some of the few foreigners around. "follow me! follow me - i'll help you get an English book then he can sign it" and she headed towards the book store thinking we would follow. chris and i followed her about 10 steps then took a sharp right into the crowds and out the door. not only do think she was going to later tell us that we owed her a tour fee, but i believe she was getting some kind of kick back from the book sales.

i sat on the ledge of a flower garden while chris took a deep breath, waited long enough for ms. tour guide to fade away and then plunged back in to find the english copy and get a signature. while sitting on the ledge i started a conversation with the Chinese guy next to me about life and where he was from, etc. of course the topic turned to Mr. Wang and this lucrative practice of signing books. my new friend told me that since the soliders had become so popular the government took good care of Mr. Wang, as they should. then he said "but i have my doubts if that's even the real guy." i asked him why he felt this way, he didn't have a solid reason, just that it was possible and most likely.

chris made it out alive with an English copy of the book and a large illegible signature in the front of her book. at that point we were done with crowds and needed a bathroom. after looking at the map and doing some deductive logic we decided to head for the bathroom on the further most reaches of the complex next to the movie house. for once we actually outsmarted the crowds as no one was there and we didn't have to wait in yet another line (or mash into a crowd).

after taking care of business we wandering into the movie depicting the soldiers, their creation and eventual demise that is shown in a round-about movie theater. it was actually one of the best parts of the whole day. coming out of the movie we were funneled, not surprisingly, through the gift shop. it was time for an ice cream so i rewarded myself with one. when i asked the very bored, and not so service minded service lady where a garbage can was she pointed down to the floor behind the counter. then i asked her if she could help me throw away my ice cream cone paper, she said no, it's his - and pointed to some guy sitting next to her. (wouldn't it be nice to have a garbage can dedicated only for your personal use?)

i hadn't noticed the fellow before so i looked over and there sat an elderly Chinese guy and on the wall above him was a photo of him motioning to the soldiers in the background. not one person was talking to him, or near his table but there were plenty other people like myself looking at him wondering what it all meant. i asked the "service" lady who he was. "He's the guy that discovered the soldiers." i then said "I thought that guy was over in the bookstore signing books." she held up her hand, all fingers showing, "There were 5 of them." huh, but he hadn't shook Clinton's hand otherwise there would have been a photo ~ so it seems that Mr. Wang has several friends who also come around and sign books for 100 yuan a pop. just as long as you are an old Chinese guy with a photo of you and the soldiers it seems there is some cash to be made. i'm forever amazed at the enterprising spirit of the Chinese, even at some of their most prominent National tourist attractions.