I'm going to temporarily suspend this blog and direct you to our own site once again... Hopefully the technical difficulties are all over for now and we can keep blogging on www.peteandayse.com. Still, keep this site bookmarked in case our home blog fails again!
thanks for reading!
Ayse and Pete (in Kathmandu)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Oct 14: Happy Birthday Alexis!
Today was a slow day. We woke up in Gyantse, visited the monastery there (what else?) and took a bizzillion pictures at the Gyantse Kumbum (means 100,000 images). Lots and lots of murals from the 14th century. Today's drive was only 90km long and we arrived in Shigatse around noon. After a visit to the Tashilhunpo monastery (the only monastery that was not destroyed during the Cultural Revolution) we were free!
It's a Sunday, even the monks have the day off, so we could not find much to do. So here we all are, at a smoked, dirty and loud internet cafe, tending to our blogging and photo editing duties... Pete and John have been shooting photos non-stop so their job will take longer than mine...
My eyes are watering and my nose is burning from the smoke, so much for the fresh air of the mountains...
It's a Sunday, even the monks have the day off, so we could not find much to do. So here we all are, at a smoked, dirty and loud internet cafe, tending to our blogging and photo editing duties... Pete and John have been shooting photos non-stop so their job will take longer than mine...
My eyes are watering and my nose is burning from the smoke, so much for the fresh air of the mountains...
Oct 13: Give the poor man a brake (cylinder)!
Today was our best day on this trip yet, full of amazing sights, some new friends and a little bit of adventure...
We left Tsetang early in the morning to had back east (towards Lhasa) to join the Friendship highway which we will be following south until Nepal border. Our first stop today was at Yamdrok-tso lake. We had to climb and climb and climb a mountain to see this lake. Most of the other cars on the road were other Land-cruisers, filled with tourists. But that's a good thing! 80% of the way up, the driver stopped the car to find out that our alternator belt was broken. He dug through the trunk to find another one, but when this one turned out to be too long, he just stopped a few Land Cruisers passing by and luckily one of them happened to have a spare for us! After this small break, we continued to the top of the mountain pass where we were greeted with the amazing turquoise waters of Yamdrok-tso. It was so beautiful. I am no camper, but I would love to trek and even camp around this lake on my next visit to Tibet! The sad news according to LP is that they are draining this lake to produce hydroelectricity and the lake may "die" within 20 years. How sad...
After taking tons of pictures at the top and chatting with a British guy who just biked up the whole mountain, we set off to our next destination, Gyantse. The road was quite beautiful, following the river in a very steep canyon. Pete and John were hanging out the window, taking photos. We stopped in some dirty little restaurant for lunch, had our noodles and coke, and then started waited by the parking lot for the driver. While I was happily befriending some kids and teaching them new fabulous English songs, Pete was watching the commotion going on around one of the other Land Cruisers in the parking lot. We don't know what was exactly going on of course, but it seemed that their solution to get a ceased rear axle moving was to jack up the backside of the car and bang on it with hammers... Next, they decided to take apart and lube the parts in the brake cylinder and we were happy to find out that our driver was the man they went to for help. He sat there with his WD40 and his cigarette and fixed the whole thing!
The merits of our driver doesn't end here, we took a short-cut to Gyantse and he drove it like a rally driver. We were up and down and dunes (who knew it was desert-y in the middle of Tibet?), past villages with mud houses, and many herds of goats, sheep, and cow. If you want to see towns where time has not affected, take the short-cut!
We had a nice hotel in Gyantze (our first queen bed to date) and a very nice meal at the Gyantse kitchen.
We left Tsetang early in the morning to had back east (towards Lhasa) to join the Friendship highway which we will be following south until Nepal border. Our first stop today was at Yamdrok-tso lake. We had to climb and climb and climb a mountain to see this lake. Most of the other cars on the road were other Land-cruisers, filled with tourists. But that's a good thing! 80% of the way up, the driver stopped the car to find out that our alternator belt was broken. He dug through the trunk to find another one, but when this one turned out to be too long, he just stopped a few Land Cruisers passing by and luckily one of them happened to have a spare for us! After this small break, we continued to the top of the mountain pass where we were greeted with the amazing turquoise waters of Yamdrok-tso. It was so beautiful. I am no camper, but I would love to trek and even camp around this lake on my next visit to Tibet! The sad news according to LP is that they are draining this lake to produce hydroelectricity and the lake may "die" within 20 years. How sad...
After taking tons of pictures at the top and chatting with a British guy who just biked up the whole mountain, we set off to our next destination, Gyantse. The road was quite beautiful, following the river in a very steep canyon. Pete and John were hanging out the window, taking photos. We stopped in some dirty little restaurant for lunch, had our noodles and coke, and then started waited by the parking lot for the driver. While I was happily befriending some kids and teaching them new fabulous English songs, Pete was watching the commotion going on around one of the other Land Cruisers in the parking lot. We don't know what was exactly going on of course, but it seemed that their solution to get a ceased rear axle moving was to jack up the backside of the car and bang on it with hammers... Next, they decided to take apart and lube the parts in the brake cylinder and we were happy to find out that our driver was the man they went to for help. He sat there with his WD40 and his cigarette and fixed the whole thing!
The merits of our driver doesn't end here, we took a short-cut to Gyantse and he drove it like a rally driver. We were up and down and dunes (who knew it was desert-y in the middle of Tibet?), past villages with mud houses, and many herds of goats, sheep, and cow. If you want to see towns where time has not affected, take the short-cut!
We had a nice hotel in Gyantze (our first queen bed to date) and a very nice meal at the Gyantse kitchen.
Oct 12: You win Samye, you lose Samye
(Pete says this is dedicated to the Cubs, who lost despite all of our offerings at various temples)
We are finally off to our big adventure, trying to get from Tibet to Nepal over land. We have a very nice driver, who rarely speaks, drives very well and obviously knows cars very well, and an energetic, yet not too in-your-face guide. Our first stop was Samye monastery south-east of Lhasa. The drive to this monastery was quite rough, since the road had only been blasted open last year and there was no asphalt on it yet. This monastery was quite nice, much less crowded than everything near or in Lhasa and had some very interesting statues in it. It was also the first time we had a guide explain to us the imagery, so everything started making sense now!
After the monastery we drove back on the bumpy road past the town of Tsetang to Yumbulagang. According to our Lonely Planet, this is the oldest building in TIbet. It looked like a fairy tale building, a pointy tower on the top of a steep hill. We didn't stop there of course, we climbed up a bit more to put up our first set of prayer flags!
Our first night on the road was spent in Tsetang, the third largest town in Tibet. There isn't much there... We did not like any of the authentic restaurant options and went into a fast-food chain restaurant. We each ordered our food by pointing at the menu and when the time came, we all received the item that was immediately above the english word we pointed at. Translation:
John's coca-cola = pepsi-cola (lucky guy)
Ayse's chicken leg = "eight jewel", some kind of brown beany, soupy, sweet pudding (like the Turkish Asure but gross)
communal french fries = "bitter coffee"
Pete's tea = lemon juice
Luckily, we were able to stop them from making us ham sandwiches instead of the chicken sandwiches in time!
Yep, we failed at ordering fast-food in Tibet!
We are finally off to our big adventure, trying to get from Tibet to Nepal over land. We have a very nice driver, who rarely speaks, drives very well and obviously knows cars very well, and an energetic, yet not too in-your-face guide. Our first stop was Samye monastery south-east of Lhasa. The drive to this monastery was quite rough, since the road had only been blasted open last year and there was no asphalt on it yet. This monastery was quite nice, much less crowded than everything near or in Lhasa and had some very interesting statues in it. It was also the first time we had a guide explain to us the imagery, so everything started making sense now!
After the monastery we drove back on the bumpy road past the town of Tsetang to Yumbulagang. According to our Lonely Planet, this is the oldest building in TIbet. It looked like a fairy tale building, a pointy tower on the top of a steep hill. We didn't stop there of course, we climbed up a bit more to put up our first set of prayer flags!
Our first night on the road was spent in Tsetang, the third largest town in Tibet. There isn't much there... We did not like any of the authentic restaurant options and went into a fast-food chain restaurant. We each ordered our food by pointing at the menu and when the time came, we all received the item that was immediately above the english word we pointed at. Translation:
John's coca-cola = pepsi-cola (lucky guy)
Ayse's chicken leg = "eight jewel", some kind of brown beany, soupy, sweet pudding (like the Turkish Asure but gross)
communal french fries = "bitter coffee"
Pete's tea = lemon juice
Luckily, we were able to stop them from making us ham sandwiches instead of the chicken sandwiches in time!
Yep, we failed at ordering fast-food in Tibet!
Oct 11: One last look at Lhasa and we're off!
We took it real slow this day. Walked around our favorite parts of Lhasa (tried to avoid the yak butchers, we've had enough of that), avoided buying last minute souvenirs, hung out at Cafe nomad reading our books, and shopped for supplies. Between John, Pete, and I, we invested in a flat of canned Nescafe (sweetened with cream, ready to drink kind), a whole box of chocolates, potato flavored Pringles, and of course instant noodles, just in case... Our guide warned us that it would be very very cold near the (Everest) base camp, so I even invested in the highest quality Chinese sleeping bag for $20. It is as large as a goat (without legs) and if you yank on the compression cords to make it smaller, the strap breaks :)
We then met with the travel agency where we emptied our pockets of all money, and met our driver (Tenzin) and guide (John-Wang?)
We then met with the travel agency where we emptied our pockets of all money, and met our driver (Tenzin) and guide (John-Wang?)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Oct 11: Off-grid
Tomorrow AM we head out via Land Cruiser (along with a few dozen other groups, most likely) to Kathmandu via Everest Base Camp. We'll likely not have internet access out there, but these days you never know!
Next update should be next Fri or Sat... see you then!
Next update should be next Fri or Sat... see you then!
Oct 10: I can't believe it's not yak butter!
Weds we visit the Ganden monastery... It's a way out of town but reachable by (early!) bus. We catch the bus in the dark (6:30am) and ride out about an hour and a half. The last half hour of the ride is an eternal series of switchbacks up the side of the mountain, at the top of which is Ganden.
We arrive and promptly take off on a trail that makes a 40 minute loop around the mountaintop. Spectacular views of the surrounding valley!
The monastery compound itself is huge--at its peak it held over 2000 monks. Today it's somewhat the worse for wear--the late 50's/early 60's in China were not kind to it. But it's being rebuilt, bit by bit--lots of work to get the building materials up the hill!
The views from the hill are the highlight--the interior of the place (no photos allowed as usual) is overrun with the usual overwhelming collection of statues and paintings.
We finish up a bit early and wait near the bus for the return trip. As the bus driver approaches and prepares to unlock the door, everyone crushes in in a stampede to get back on the bus... yet somehow, we realize 10 minutes into the trip, everyone ended up, after the stampede, back in the same seats they had on the way out... except us! We'll never quite understand the system.
We arrive and promptly take off on a trail that makes a 40 minute loop around the mountaintop. Spectacular views of the surrounding valley!
The monastery compound itself is huge--at its peak it held over 2000 monks. Today it's somewhat the worse for wear--the late 50's/early 60's in China were not kind to it. But it's being rebuilt, bit by bit--lots of work to get the building materials up the hill!
The views from the hill are the highlight--the interior of the place (no photos allowed as usual) is overrun with the usual overwhelming collection of statues and paintings.
We finish up a bit early and wait near the bus for the return trip. As the bus driver approaches and prepares to unlock the door, everyone crushes in in a stampede to get back on the bus... yet somehow, we realize 10 minutes into the trip, everyone ended up, after the stampede, back in the same seats they had on the way out... except us! We'll never quite understand the system.
Oct 9: Once you go Yak, you never go back!
We've only been in Lhasa for 5 days now (having spent one night at Lake Nam-tso) but we are in hotel #2! We spent our first few nights at the Yak Hotel, a highly recommended establishment in the Lonely Planet, but we hated every night of it. First of all, our room was on the third floor, right above the bar (on our last night people were rocking out to "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, how random). Next, loud (Chinese) tourists would check-in at 11pm and talk very loudly in the hallway (until I learned how to communicate with them: you just have to get louder to be heard, I was banging on my own door to shut them up and it worked!). The attendants for the rooms were located down the hall from us, the two girls would sit there all night, reading US magazine (I nearly stole it from their hands to catch up on my gossip) and then sometimes answering the loud staff phone that rang in the hallway. Of course, if the phone rang at 1am, nobody would answer for about 10 rings.
So tonight we've moved into the DongCuo International Hostel down the street. For only Y10 more/night we get our own bathroom, yay! The only drawback being that said bathroom evokes smells we thought we left behind at the rustic facilities of Lake Namtso. But if you leave the door shut and the fan on it's ok.
Monday is mostly recovery from Namtso, savoring every O2 molecule we can get our lungs on in Lhasa.
Tuesday we visit the Jokhang temple, less imposing than Potala but actually more important to the pilgrims. We tour and take lots of pictures (outside only, not allowed inside). It's *really* crowded and the best we can muster on most of the peripheral shrines is to peek in over the heads of the pilgrims. We find out later that the pilgrims are supposed to get their circuit over and done by midday (about 2pm on one-zone-fits-all China time) and later on it's pretty much deserted. Whoops. Fun to see the crowd anyway, which was apparently not even that big according to the locals!
So tonight we've moved into the DongCuo International Hostel down the street. For only Y10 more/night we get our own bathroom, yay! The only drawback being that said bathroom evokes smells we thought we left behind at the rustic facilities of Lake Namtso. But if you leave the door shut and the fan on it's ok.
Monday is mostly recovery from Namtso, savoring every O2 molecule we can get our lungs on in Lhasa.
Tuesday we visit the Jokhang temple, less imposing than Potala but actually more important to the pilgrims. We tour and take lots of pictures (outside only, not allowed inside). It's *really* crowded and the best we can muster on most of the peripheral shrines is to peek in over the heads of the pilgrims. We find out later that the pilgrims are supposed to get their circuit over and done by midday (about 2pm on one-zone-fits-all China time) and later on it's pretty much deserted. Whoops. Fun to see the crowd anyway, which was apparently not even that big according to the locals!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Oct 7-8: Feeling Nam-tso good
Since we've been so hard at work traveling and blogging, we decided to get away last weekend... We took a bus 4 hours north to the Nam-tso lake and spent the night in the tent village on the shores of the lake. The bus trip had a lot of stops at many bathrooms (some dumping right into the river behind it) and many photo opportunities where the locals were trying to charge the tourists for taking pictures of their yaks and baby goats (we still haven't seen a baby yak, maybe they are just not very cute...) The bus trip was made more entertaining by the annoying Canadian guy (we were very surpised to find out he was Canadian, we thought they were always super nice) that just wouldn't shut up. Well, right before we got off the bus, he got shut up by the bus driver. Anyways, it turned out that his yapping would be the least of the reasons we got headaches that day... We had already been wheezing in Lhasa (especially climbing the steps of the magnificent Potala Palace) and this lake was located 1100m above Lhasa!
By the time we arrived at the lake, it was already crawling with day-trippers. We waited for all of them to leave (buses left at about 2pm) and took a nap in our tent. The tent had very comfortable beds, 3 thick blankets per person and not one light bulb powered by the solar panel outside the tent!
We walked around slowly that day. It turned out that the altitude hit Ayse on the first day and Pete on the second day. I guess it really didn't help that we both had colds! I (Ayse) could not even make it out of the tent to see the sunset, but Pete was out there, fighting for a good spot with the tripod-wielding Chinese tourists with their $5000 cameras. The Chinese (men) really seem to be very serious about photography. They walk around with their tripods, Nikon vests, super long telephotos lenses and then they pose with all this gear for photos taken by their wives' cellphone cameras.
Both of us had a miserable night up at Nam-tso lake... It was cold (used all 3 blankets) and loud (when the generators stopped (11p) the dogs started barking (until 4a), and then the wind picked up and we listened to our tent and the prayer flags up on the hill behind us flap for another few hours). It really was almost like sleeping on a sailboat...
In the morning we took some pictures, but as soon as the bus arrived at 11am, we all piled into the bus for a windproof shelter and napped in there until we left at about 2pm. All in all, it was miserable while we were there, but now that we are back in the "lowlands" of Lhasa (only 3700m here) we are feeling AWESOME! We can even climb the stairs to second floor restaurants without stopping! The trip to Nam-tso was also a good dry-run for the 7-day trip we are going to take to the Nepalese border via Everest Base Camp (5200m).
By the time we arrived at the lake, it was already crawling with day-trippers. We waited for all of them to leave (buses left at about 2pm) and took a nap in our tent. The tent had very comfortable beds, 3 thick blankets per person and not one light bulb powered by the solar panel outside the tent!
We walked around slowly that day. It turned out that the altitude hit Ayse on the first day and Pete on the second day. I guess it really didn't help that we both had colds! I (Ayse) could not even make it out of the tent to see the sunset, but Pete was out there, fighting for a good spot with the tripod-wielding Chinese tourists with their $5000 cameras. The Chinese (men) really seem to be very serious about photography. They walk around with their tripods, Nikon vests, super long telephotos lenses and then they pose with all this gear for photos taken by their wives' cellphone cameras.
Both of us had a miserable night up at Nam-tso lake... It was cold (used all 3 blankets) and loud (when the generators stopped (11p) the dogs started barking (until 4a), and then the wind picked up and we listened to our tent and the prayer flags up on the hill behind us flap for another few hours). It really was almost like sleeping on a sailboat...
In the morning we took some pictures, but as soon as the bus arrived at 11am, we all piled into the bus for a windproof shelter and napped in there until we left at about 2pm. All in all, it was miserable while we were there, but now that we are back in the "lowlands" of Lhasa (only 3700m here) we are feeling AWESOME! We can even climb the stairs to second floor restaurants without stopping! The trip to Nam-tso was also a good dry-run for the 7-day trip we are going to take to the Nepalese border via Everest Base Camp (5200m).
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Oct 8: Photo update
It took them all morning but Pete and Ayse were able to successfully upload 10 photos from their trip. They apologize for the tasteless ads used on the site.
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc79/peteandayse/Tibet/
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc79/peteandayse/Tibet/
Friday, October 5, 2007
Oct 3-4: Slap-happy monks
Thursday morning Ayse and I got up semi-early to wait in line to get vouchers that confer upon us the privilege to buy tickets to visit Potala palace (the huge building on a hill that overlooks the city of Lhasa) on Friday. Quite simple... After picking up our paperwork, we take a walk (clockwise) around the palace grounds. It's surrounded by a wall with brass (?) prayer wheels that pilgrims spin (clockwise again) as they walk by on their walk arounf the palace. Some carry their own prayer wheels-on-a-stick that they spin as they walk (you guessed it, clockwise). Dizzy yet? If the altitude doesn't do it, this will!
In the afternoon we catch a local bus (lucky guess, mostly, that we got on the right one) to the Sera monastery a few km north of town. The highlight was the 3pm 'debating monks'. The debating courtyard fills with at least 200 red-robed monks. They pair off into a standing guy and a sitting one or two. We have no idea what kind of debate is going on. It seems more like an interrogation--standing guy seems to be in charge, talking pretty rapidly to the sitting guy. Standing guy punctuates his points every 10 seconds or so with a Major-league-baseball windup into a big hand clap in front of the sitting guy. We can't tell if the clap means 'wrong!' or 'time's up!' or 'ding! right answer!' or what. This is all going on in a hundred pairs at once in a cacophony of voices and slapping. They should run the presidential debates this way.
Friday we return to Potala palace with our ticket-buying-tickets, exchange them for tickets, and enter. The climb up about 10 stories worth of ramps and stairs to the main building entrance leaves us woozy and sweaty but it's worth it--we're finally inside the palace that's been hovering over us for 3 days since we arrived. Unfortunately photos are forbidden inside the building but it's full of shrines and huge golden tombs of the past Dalai Lama. Lots of pictures outside though. Thankfully it's partly cloudy which takes the edge off of the otherwise painfully bright midday sun.
Walking back down into town is a piece of cake after the climb up...time for a nap.
Footnote: Big thanks go out to Nate--due to the troubles we've been having with peteandayse.com vs. the People's Internet we've been reduced to emailing him blog entries which he then actually posts for us. Thanks Nate!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Oct 3: Lotsa love from Lhasa
We are in Tibet! It (Lhasa, the capital) is everything we thought it would be. Clear blue skies, colorful clothes, touts, rickshaws and not very much oxygen. The general suggestion is to take it slow for a few days, so we had some "bobis" for lunch (very yummy Tibetan crepes) and took a nap. Even the plane ride had amazing views, I don't think an airplane wing had ever been photographed this much. Especially after barely making it alive to the airport due to our KRAZY van driver we were very grateful to be in the air,away from drivers like him.
Oct 2: Panda-monium
We saw real, live, healthy,and hopefully happy pandas this morning... like, a lot of them! They seemed so human sitting there in a slouched position chewing through bamboo (they eat 40kg a day and "drop" 120 times a day!) Apparently this is where they breed pandas. Yes, we saw lots of panda babies,even a video of a panda birth... We got there ahead of all the other tour groups and it was great. Despite the rain, the mobs were huge, but since Sim's guest house knows what they're doing,we were always one room ahead of them.
We also saw "red pandas". My guess is that the only reason they made it into this beautiful park is because they have white ears, otherwise they look more like big brownish raccoons.
After the pandas, we met again with Chris and XiXi and walked through the "Ancient street" where they had lots of stalls selling stuff to the crowds. According to our sources this street didn't even exist 2 years ago. We didn't believe that ancient buildings had underground garages anyways! After strolling through here (where Pete had to pose for a photo with locals) we headed into the WenShu monastery for lunch. They had great vegetarian food. Yes, we actually enjoyed tofu for the first time! MaPo Tofu is the way to go!
Our next stop was TienFu Square. This is the main square of the town and is presided over by a giant statue of Mao. He's a lucky man because he has full views of the Cartier and Bulgari stores across the street. And if he got hungry, he could hop over to McDonald's for lunch for a Big Mao! If you check google earth, this square is under construction but what we saw was a beautiful square with some huge golden fountains with built-in speakers. They had a major fountain show synchronized to patriotic music in honor of the National holiday. Pete go to pose for another picture here, the couple even had to hire a photographer to prove that they saw a white man.
We also saw "red pandas". My guess is that the only reason they made it into this beautiful park is because they have white ears, otherwise they look more like big brownish raccoons.
After the pandas, we met again with Chris and XiXi and walked through the "Ancient street" where they had lots of stalls selling stuff to the crowds. According to our sources this street didn't even exist 2 years ago. We didn't believe that ancient buildings had underground garages anyways! After strolling through here (where Pete had to pose for a photo with locals) we headed into the WenShu monastery for lunch. They had great vegetarian food. Yes, we actually enjoyed tofu for the first time! MaPo Tofu is the way to go!
Our next stop was TienFu Square. This is the main square of the town and is presided over by a giant statue of Mao. He's a lucky man because he has full views of the Cartier and Bulgari stores across the street. And if he got hungry, he could hop over to McDonald's for lunch for a Big Mao! If you check google earth, this square is under construction but what we saw was a beautiful square with some huge golden fountains with built-in speakers. They had a major fountain show synchronized to patriotic music in honor of the National holiday. Pete go to pose for another picture here, the couple even had to hire a photographer to prove that they saw a white man.
Oct 1: Do you wanna Chengdu?
We arrived in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan on the evening of Sept 30th. We were greeted by Christine at the airport... By now we feel like we've known her forever, but we actually met at the Chengdu airport for the first time ever! It turns out that my friend Liz from Stanford used to live in Chengdu and was a classmate of Christine's in Mandarin classes. Now Liz lives in Beijing but was nice enough to put us in touch with her friend Christine.
Our hostel in Chengdu (Sim's Cozy Guesthouse) is really really cool. Compared to our hostel in Hong Kong, the room is huuuuuuge! We still don't get a bathroom or a queen bed, but at least there is space to unpack a bit from our packs. Besides the room being luxurious, the hostel also comes with a full bar, restaurant, travel agency and lots of travelers.
Yesterday we met with Chris and her host family's 10-year-old daughter, XiXi on the western part of town, near the university where Chris studies. It was a cold, rainy day, so we decided to head into her favorite teashop (Wen Cha). We spent 2.5 hours and some money in here, Mr. Todd would be proud! She poured us loads of tea, explained lots of finer points of tea tasting. We tasted a jasmine green tea, a Sichuan green tea (this one seemed to be made of FRESH leaves), and some pu erh... It was the perfect way to spend a rainy cold morning.
After tea, we had some Gung Pao chicken and some sweet and sour chicken! Yes, they are served at every Chengdu restaurant!
After lunch we borrowed a couple of bikes from Christine's friends and set out on a 30-minute bike ride to a nearby market via the university (SW China U of econ and finance, we think). Ayse gets stuck in mid-crosswalk on a surprise light change...what's Chinese for 'Frogger?' Everyone laughed and honked at the tourist!
In the evening we went to the Sichuan 'opera'--a stage event of music, dancing, acrobatics, puppets, etc. The highlight was some impressive foot-juggling, and a really great shadow puppet show. The performance was only marred by a loud, obnoxious tourist in the row in front of us...from Sacramento of all places.
Our hostel in Chengdu (Sim's Cozy Guesthouse) is really really cool. Compared to our hostel in Hong Kong, the room is huuuuuuge! We still don't get a bathroom or a queen bed, but at least there is space to unpack a bit from our packs. Besides the room being luxurious, the hostel also comes with a full bar, restaurant, travel agency and lots of travelers.
Yesterday we met with Chris and her host family's 10-year-old daughter, XiXi on the western part of town, near the university where Chris studies. It was a cold, rainy day, so we decided to head into her favorite teashop (Wen Cha). We spent 2.5 hours and some money in here, Mr. Todd would be proud! She poured us loads of tea, explained lots of finer points of tea tasting. We tasted a jasmine green tea, a Sichuan green tea (this one seemed to be made of FRESH leaves), and some pu erh... It was the perfect way to spend a rainy cold morning.
After tea, we had some Gung Pao chicken and some sweet and sour chicken! Yes, they are served at every Chengdu restaurant!
After lunch we borrowed a couple of bikes from Christine's friends and set out on a 30-minute bike ride to a nearby market via the university (SW China U of econ and finance, we think). Ayse gets stuck in mid-crosswalk on a surprise light change...what's Chinese for 'Frogger?' Everyone laughed and honked at the tourist!
In the evening we went to the Sichuan 'opera'--a stage event of music, dancing, acrobatics, puppets, etc. The highlight was some impressive foot-juggling, and a really great shadow puppet show. The performance was only marred by a loud, obnoxious tourist in the row in front of us...from Sacramento of all places.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Blog troubles from China
Pete and Ayse seem to be having trouble getting through the Great Firewall to update their blogs. They'll resume blogging once they're in Nepal or India so stay tuned!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Put a spork in me...I'm done (eating!)
Sunday morning we met again with with Uncle Pok Yen's family for dim sum (aka 'yum cha') in the biggest dimsum resturant we've ever seen. Once again we ate and ate. I hope we didn't offend our hosts by eating too much! Everything was delicious. Ayse especially liked the post-dessert serving of tasty bbq morsels.
(If Ayse could post to Yelp she would--we highly recommend Pleasant Palace near the HK ferry Terminal)
I think it's time we called up the number on one of the thousands of weight-loss billboards in the HK subway. It seems they have a surefire solution for getting one from a horrifying blubberous 120 lbs to a more healthy 105. Clearly we are beyond help!
(If Ayse could post to Yelp she would--we highly recommend Pleasant Palace near the HK ferry Terminal)
I think it's time we called up the number on one of the thousands of weight-loss billboards in the HK subway. It seems they have a surefire solution for getting one from a horrifying blubberous 120 lbs to a more healthy 105. Clearly we are beyond help!
Lawyers everywhere!
As if it weren't enough of a coincidence that Ayse's friend Alex was passing through HK Friday, it turns out that Greg Muir (our favorite patent lawyer) was in Hong Kong on business this week too. We met up with Greg at the Avenue of the Stars on the Kowloon shore facing the HK skyline. Avenue of the Stars is just like Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA--handprints of the famous in the sidewalk. Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and a bunch of other people I've never heard of.
At 8pm we watched the super-cheesy light show. All the HK buildings, already plenty well-illuminated, flash and blink their lights and shoot lasers into the sky coordinated to music. Nice :)
At 8pm we watched the super-cheesy light show. All the HK buildings, already plenty well-illuminated, flash and blink their lights and shoot lasers into the sky coordinated to music. Nice :)
Saturday, September 29, 2007
starting to add photos...
WE started adding our photos onto this site. Note that they have not yet been edited.
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc79/peteandayse/Hong%20Kong/
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc79/peteandayse/Hong%20Kong/
more of the same...
still in Hong Kong, still sweaty and sticky... We took things a bit slower today, got up later, tried to reach At& on the phone (and had no success so we're stuck on blogspot for a while... ) and took on Kowloon today. After a nice light breakfast of noodles and roast pork, we spent some time at the Kowloon park watching people do Tai chi or learn ballroom dancing (hot), HK museum art (air'conditioned), Avenue of Stars (hot), lunch at Good Satay (AC), and taking in the Star Ferry Harbour tour (AC if you sit inside and the views were not really worth standing in the sun...) As you can tell, we figured out the sane way to spend time in a hot country, some time in the heat, some time indoors in AC... We now even know which malls to use to get to the nearest metro station. I think the newest addition to the google maps should show the air-conditioned public spaces in Hong Kong....
yep, it was a slow day. The best news of the day was to come back to our room this evening to find freshly washed and dried clothes on out beds! We washed it all in the shower yesterday but even though we had the AC on all the way in the room (I slept in thermal underwear) they didn't dry... REI failed me, dri-fit doesn't dry! Anyway, we splurged and spent $4 having them wash our clothes, so worth it...
We are pretty much ready to leave the big cities behind... Tomorrow we are off to the mainland!
yep, it was a slow day. The best news of the day was to come back to our room this evening to find freshly washed and dried clothes on out beds! We washed it all in the shower yesterday but even though we had the AC on all the way in the room (I slept in thermal underwear) they didn't dry... REI failed me, dri-fit doesn't dry! Anyway, we splurged and spent $4 having them wash our clothes, so worth it...
We are pretty much ready to leave the big cities behind... Tomorrow we are off to the mainland!
Friday, September 28, 2007
our blog has decided to travel, too!
Our homemade blog running from a server under the coffee table did not want to be left behind and apparently also quit his job and go travelling... For now we caught him on blogspot.com, so wel'll just have to see how long he'll last here!
WE had an awesome day until we found out about our website being dwon... We got up at 6am and started wandering about the northern portion of Kowloon. We walked through the bird market, the flower market, and the goldfish market. It turns out we were earlier risers than the market people, most of the stalls were closed. We find very good breakfast though... porridge with Chinese donuts. Martha would be proud!
We spent most of the rest of our day on the Hong Kong island. Basically, this is where the beautiful and rich people live... The hills are alive with lots of luxury apartments, so it was no surprise that loads of German cars were racing down the hill to work (or to the malls?) at 9am... We started at the top and enjoyed the views of the Hong Kong downtown from the top of Victoria peak. The peak has amazing views and we got htere with the tram. The hill was steeper than SF hills! After we were done getting our hair messed up, we walked down the hill to the Hong Kong botanical garden, and then to Hong Kong park. THe walk-through aviary had some fancy looking birds, but the most interesting site to see at this park were the newly married couples posing at the park! The brides were dressed in huge dresses, but the grooms surely did not want to be left behind and went all out with their bedazzlers!
After the park, we took the double decker tram to the Star Ferry to shuttle us back to the Kowloon Peninsula where we are staying! Tonight we will meet Ayse's friend Alex from college for after dinner drinks, how cool is that!
sorry again about the blog problems, but it's hard to maintain a website from this far away..
WE had an awesome day until we found out about our website being dwon... We got up at 6am and started wandering about the northern portion of Kowloon. We walked through the bird market, the flower market, and the goldfish market. It turns out we were earlier risers than the market people, most of the stalls were closed. We find very good breakfast though... porridge with Chinese donuts. Martha would be proud!
We spent most of the rest of our day on the Hong Kong island. Basically, this is where the beautiful and rich people live... The hills are alive with lots of luxury apartments, so it was no surprise that loads of German cars were racing down the hill to work (or to the malls?) at 9am... We started at the top and enjoyed the views of the Hong Kong downtown from the top of Victoria peak. The peak has amazing views and we got htere with the tram. The hill was steeper than SF hills! After we were done getting our hair messed up, we walked down the hill to the Hong Kong botanical garden, and then to Hong Kong park. THe walk-through aviary had some fancy looking birds, but the most interesting site to see at this park were the newly married couples posing at the park! The brides were dressed in huge dresses, but the grooms surely did not want to be left behind and went all out with their bedazzlers!
After the park, we took the double decker tram to the Star Ferry to shuttle us back to the Kowloon Peninsula where we are staying! Tonight we will meet Ayse's friend Alex from college for after dinner drinks, how cool is that!
sorry again about the blog problems, but it's hard to maintain a website from this far away..
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