China AUG-SEP09

Where to begin and where to end for this one? A tough question indeed. China is a country that both elates and saddens, stimulates and frustrates, and surges emotion of many kinds. In 23 days, I saw so much and yet so little. You cannot help but feel the palpable energy of change throughout the country and many places seem to be in a state of continuous round the clock construction.

Some of the videos are really fun so do check them out on http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld. They are not edited as much as I would have liked but you'll get the idea of the places. There is a playlist for all the China videos.

The Giant Buddha of Leshan was one of my favourite sights and I walked down the super steep steps to his feet and back up the other side. He is in a beautiful park on the confluence of three rivers not far from the lovely mountain town of Emei.

Back to the beginning for a moment. Started out in Beijing where I celebrated my birthday by joining up with my tour group and going out for dinner where I was treated with an adorable birthday cake with a rat on it. I am a rat in Chinese zodiac.

I found Beijing very interesting but lacking in soul. The Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace were all impressive sights and yet diminished somehow by the immense crowds and constant din of talking...and amplified tour guides. The Peking Opera was a special treat and I was fortunate enough to catch it on a night when they were doing the "Monkey King", one of the more famous Peking Operas. The Simatai section of the Great Wall was perfect as it is a seldom visited part of the wall. It was very foggy day when we went which added to the mystique of the whole experience.

3 overnight trains and 3 nights on the Yangtze River were part of our group's travel modes during the trip. The first overnight train took us to Xi'an where we saw the Terracotta Warriors.

The 1st class trains are quite nice with 4 of us sharing a berth with bunk style beds, air con, and a nice window to watch the countryside.

Xi'an is a big college town as well as a big town in general. In fact, it never occurred to me but a town in China is frequently up to 3 million. The word city tends to be reserved for 3 million plus people. The town itself is quite attractive and the Grand Mosque is particularly lovely. This was one of the few religious sites we visited that was quiet. There were also lots of cats wandering around who seemed to enjoy the space as much as I did.

The Warriors are quite impressive and it is fascinating to see how these huge buildings have been built up around them to protect the sites. Lots of excavation is still going and, of course, they have never found the burial site of the First Emperor. All very interesting stuff.

Mt Emei and the Giant Buddha of Leshan were some of my favourite parts of the trip. We were able to see the top Mt Emei on a clear day which our tour guide said he had never seen even thought he had climbed Mt Emei many times. The spectacular blue skies were certainly a welcome sight. The altitude (3000m +) was quite noticeable while hiking.

This multi faced bodhisattva is a more recent addition to some of the very old temples and statues. I just loved the bright blue sky and all of the different roof angles.

The picture on the right is the original pagoda built by the monks in the 1st century. To be able to see it peaking in and out of the clouds was really gorgeous.

While walking back down we were treated to a sighting of the wooly monkeys, also known as Tibetan macaques.

Of course no trip to China would be complete without seeing the pandas, and see them we did at the Chengdu Research Centre where we saw 6 week old twin pandas, a four day old panda, and lots of playful adolescents. They are some of the most surreal animals I have ever seen, especially when they are just frolicking and playing. I had the pure luck to see the red pandas and their keeper right at feeding time when almost no one else was around. The baby pandas were the cutest baby animals I've ever seen. No pictures of any kind allowed but we were able to watch them playing with each other in their playpen. According to the centre, in the wild, there would never be twins as the mother would consume the weaker twin. I suppose that is one of the benefits of the captive breeding.

Chendu is also the captial of Sichuan province. I had the most delicious street food there including fantastic dumplings and spicy chicken and pork BBQd and served on a stick. YUM!!!

After Chengdu, it was off to Chongqing to board our Yangtze River cruise boat, the Victoria Queen.

Here she is at one of our stopping spots along the river.

I ended up catching a bug while on the Yangtze and was lucky we were on the boat as I was able to spend one whole day in bed which is always the most helpful thing to do for me. I coughed and sneezed for the most of the rest of the trip but getting that nice day of rest of really helped.

The dam...that goddamn dam....well ok, from an engineering standpoint it is unbelievable but the environmental impact has only begun and it not good. There are 3 or 4 locks to pass depending on where your ship is positioned and it takes 4-5 hours to make it all the way through.

Approaching the dam on a boat is quite a site and pictures certainly do little to display the gigantic size of it. There are currently 4 slips for ships to enter the locks and they are building one more for smaller boats which will be moved with something like an elevator.

The views along the way were very mountainous with the three gorges being the last bit before the dam. The Yangtze is very dirty and I am still struck by the comment of one of our UK guys in the group..."there are no birds and very little life that isn't human." Unfortunately, he was absolutely accurate and it does make one ponder the progression of such a state. After all, dinosaurs were of the bird family. Nuff said.

Our ship was lovely and comfortable with all rooms having a private balcony. I had a lovely massage, practised tai chi, and got LOTS of sleep.

Everyone who cruises the Yangtze must take the dam tour at the end so you hear all about how "wonderful" the dam is and how it will help people have electricity for many years to come. There is a scary array of high power wires coming out of the back of the dam...a bizarre site for sure.

Yangshuo and the Li River. We took a lovely bamboo raft up the river here and the following day took a long bike ride through loads of farms and villagers finally ending up in a cave and taking a mud bath. This was another highlight of the trip for me.

Check out the water buffalo swimming with her baby.

Along the Li River.

We spent three days in Yangshuo and it was lovely.

The lovely little canal town of Tongli about 2 hours from Shanghai was our last excursion before the group went on their separate ways.

I loved this town!

This sleepy little village doesn't make a peep after about 9 p.m. and lots of people are up and around at 5 a.m. My kind of place for sure.

Some of the canals were built 1000 years ago.

The market was quite a site with loads of gorgeous food on offer.

I spent the last three days in Shanghai on my own and had a

great time at the Shanghai Museum, Art Museum, Xuhui, and Xintiandi. I spent my last evening in Shanghai at the New Heights restaurant looking at the lovely skyline of Shanghai.

Pearl Tower in Shanghai and lovely lotus flower in a garden in Xi'an. The old and the new blending together...a bit like most of what I saw. It was an incredibly memorable trip.

I'm now in Singapore with my darling friends Carolyn and Cher Wee. I must say it was nice to arrive in Singapore and know my way around, feel really cool air con, and hear lots of English...even if it is Singlish.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." ___Lao Tzu

Kyushu

I flew from Tokyo to Miyazaki in Kyushu prefecture which was an experience itself. The Haneda airport in Tokyo is the domestic airport and is packed with people. I think part of it was because a big holiday week was just ending and people were headed off to other parts of the country. I flew to Miyazaki and rented a car. It was a bit of whirlwind as I didn't reserve a car in advance and so had a difficult time, not to mention, out of Tokyo, hardly anything in English. It was still fun and I drove all over the eastern coastline.

There are miles and miles of protected beaches here where there is really no development at all. Little villages are inland from the beach and there are big forest preserves, like the one at left, in between the village and the beach. No doubt this comes in handy during a big storm or tsunami as well.

Check out the videos of Takanabe beach and fireflies. I now understand why so many Japanese paintings have fireflies in them. There are millions of them everywhere. They fly in huge groups like birds. I'm not sure you can really see it that well on the video but they are thick.

Takanabe beach and Dragonflies:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld

Pretty sure this sign is warning you about the storms.

I just love the way the little house protected by the trees is smiling.

I really didn't plan too well for this part of the trip (this was before Yufuin) but enjoyed it just the same. The day I had the car turned out to be quite overcast and rainy so I found a bit of retail therapy in Miyazaki. My first UniGlo in Japan and they were having a big sale. I also stumbled upon a discount store with TONS of fun stuff to look at. I was completely absorbed with the "lost in translation" tshirts.

The whole t-shirt thing is pretty fascinating in Japan. Everyone wearing shirts that say things in English. Frequently they say things that make little or no sense.

Yesterday in Tokyo, in the Shibuya district, I saw the fancy fashionable t-shirt stores where the designs make more sense but they are not nearly as fun as the others.

I imagine I will see tons of this in China as well.

After all of my searching, here is the shirt I ended up with from the store in Miyazaki. Joann, as a native Missourian, can you explain this?: LOL!!!

Life is good...pass it on! And when you figure out where that store is that has the delicious shells and fish of the fresh sea from Missouri is, please let me know.

Numata and gorgeous Japanese countryside

The view from the lovely home of Yoko's parents in Numata, Gunma prefecture, less than two hours from Tokyo by bullet train.

So all these years, I never "got" why of all the adorable Sanrio characters (Hello Kitty), they had a train. I've never liked that character...thinking that's not so cute. But now, in Japan, I get it. It's for the Shinkansen, the bullet trains which whisk travelers all over Japan. The Shinkansen is about as sexy (still not cute) as a train can get so probably well deserving of a Sanrio character. My first experience was to be whisked out of Tokyo to the gorgeous countryside north of the city. Tokyo station is a huge pulsing intersection of multiple subway lines, train lines, and the bullet trains. Somehow the more of these huge stations like this I see in the world, the easier they get to navigate. Rule no. 1, don't freak out and do your best to find your own way. These huge stations can be overwhelming but usually have good signage and at least some in English. English language info is relatively available in Tokyo but not once you are outside of the city.

The Shinkansen trains are fast, on time, and expensive. In fact, everything in Japan is expensive. Do check out the movie of the house. It was great staying in a real Japanese home with such lovely hosts. The food was amazing and I've eaten lots of different types of fish and tofu and bitter gourd prepared in many different ways. They have a huge garden and big bitter gourd vine right outside the dining area.

Here's Yoko walking back into the house after taking me on a tour of the area with Genko, her nephew. Yoko's father is an architect and the house is built on the property of what was once a silk farm and the residence of her grandparents.

That's Yoko laying out some of the dishes for my last delicious meal at the house. The seating area has a well for your legs so you are sitting on the floor but your legs are going down into the floor. It is a comfortable and natural way to sit.

The bounty of the garden which we enjoyed for lunch. Those baby tomatoes are some of the best I've ever eaten.

One of the best parts of our morning walk was seeing the real Hello Kitty. Not sure if you can tell from this photo but this cat is HUGE. I saw her resting under a car and thought it was a dog. I don't think she appreciated being woken up from her nap.

Other pics are posted here http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/NumataAndYokoSHome02#

Video of the house...and the toilet: http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld

I think you could do a whole blog just on the toilets of Japan. I have never seen such interesting variety and so many electronic controls that do all kinds of things. Suffice to say that the Japanese must have the cleanest bottoms in the world. I particularly enjoy the toilets where the lid pops up when you walk in the room. Now how does it know whether to raise the seat of not...mmmm...no doubt there is a toilet that does that as well here.

I was sad to leave Numata as I had a wonderful and peaceful time at this lovely home. I would spend the next 6 days traveling around the south island of Kyushu and a brief stop in Kyoto before returning to Tokyo where I am now back in the Shiodome getting caught up on my blog while looking out at the Tokyo skyline.

Oze National Park

This is Genko and me hanging out in the Oze National Park in Gunma prefecture where I had the unique and fantastic opportunity to stay in a traditional Japanese home with my YTT friend Yoko. This is her darling nephew who happened to be staying with his grandparents while I was there.

To say this park is gorgeous would really be a gross understatement. OK, after a typhoon in Taiwan and an earthquake my first night in Japan, I was ready for something serene and beautiful. I was lucky enough to go with Yoko and her family on their planned hike which was a 16 km loop through Oze National Park. What a day it was without a cloud in the sky and absolutely gorgeous scenery throughout.

The part of the park we hiked is a huge wetland area with km after km of raised wooden walking paths as you can see below where Yoko is headed off the distance. There were tons of wildflowers in bloom and yet it was not the peak wildflower time. The rest stations throughout the park were huge houses with the opportunity to rent a space to roll out a futon and sleep for a night or longer. I was quite fascinated with the enormous range of hikers out on this day including very small children and many mature adults, some that were easily in their seventies.

Our hike was supplemented by delicious homemade rice balls thoughtfully prepared by Yoko's Mom. These wonderful rolls were stuffed with tuna, Japanese pickles, black sesame, and other interesting vegetables. Delicious.

This was view while walking through the wetlands. They are lotus ponds throughout the wetlands and the lotus flowers opened up in the afternoon. It was very special indeed.

This is one of the informative signs at one of the rest areaS. Apparently bears poop on toilets and this is good for the environment. LOL!!! The Japanese toilets are pretty special...I'd want to use them even if I was a bear.

A little more Taiwan

Now that the shock and horror of the Morakot aftermath have started to die down a bit, I've had a bit more time to reflect on what a wonderful place Taiwan is and how much I enjoyed my time there.

It's amazing to me that I was in Kaoshiung county during the typhoon and that is where all the worst damage happened. I read in the paper today that two high level government ministers will likely resign over the slow response to the mudslide and something about a refusal to accept help from mainland China. UGH!

I realized what a lovely place I was in and how well the staff of the resort I was staying in did to keep things under control throughout the storm. We still had piles of fantastic food, were only without electricity and water for a couple hours and most amazing of all, the internet was only down for about 4 hours throughout. That was actually my saving grace as I would have gone a bit nuts without being online as you could see from the video, going outside at all was a bit of challenge.

The wonderful staff at the resort remained cheerful and helpful throughout. In fact, it seemed the people at the resort were pretty unscathed as well. Everyone seemed to be finding things to do (the game room was packed)

and no one was complaining. The sand bags were piled everywhere and many of the entrances and exits were blocked to the tremendous wind.

Oh yeah, the food...the breakfast....here ya go....

How about some nice kidneys for breakfast? Just where do you suppose these kidneys came from anyway? I am going to guess from a pig.

My favourite part of breakfast...the pau and dim sum...YUM!!! Some of the best I've ever had.

This was my favourite breakfast...some delicious watermelon, nice strong coffee, and three kinds of pau (or pow or boa or lots of other interpretations). The purple one (coloured by taro?) is filled with red bean paste, the white with BBQ'd pork, and the yellow one was plain. All delicious and fresh and steaming hot from the bamboo steamers.

Cheers to Taiwan and all the lovely people and food there.

“There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster”___Richard Bach

I felt my first earthquake!!!

Taiwan took quite a beating from Morakot. I'm sure the stories will keep coming for days to come. They are just finding out about a lot of people missing in huge mudslide in the mountains. I wish the best for all the good people of Taiwan. My personal adventure involved waiting it out until Sunday a.m. when I was checking out of the hotel in Kenting anyway. I could tell that the storm had abated a bit but was certainly not gone and the ocean was still rockin' and rollin'.

After checking in several times, I finally heard the 11 a.m. shuttle would leave for Kaoshiung on time. It would take an hour or more longer than usual due to the road conditions. So off I went for a bird's eye view of the destruction. Downed trees and whole fields of crops destroyed. I understand the bananas took it the hardest. Our journey was full of twists and turns and at times on dirt roads or were they roads washed out from the storms....not sure. We had to take a more inland route and at times the road was nearly impassable. I got to play nurse to a poor young girl barfing her guts out through a good part of the journey. I think she was very grateful for my wet wipes, tissues, and essential oil spray. She knew the English workds "thank you" but that was about it. As it turns out, the south of the island took it much harder than the north even though the center of the storm was in the north. The river about 2 hours into the journey was the most surreal. You can't really see the full effect in my video but it was like boiling oil. The river was black and raging and GIGANTIC. This same river a couple days earlier looked mostly like a big beach with huge dry areas everywhere. This is the same river where the hotel fell into the river which has been all over the BBC and CNN. I am not sure of the name of the river but I am sure I will never forget that sight of seeing it after Morakot. So maybe there is a blessing in the storm:

Check out the video...http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld or it should be displaying on the right side of the blog.

So we made it to Kaoshiung and HSR station. I was very lucky in that the station was pretty calm, I had no idea no lucky but would find out the next day. Anyway, there were no trains running at all which made me quite glad that I didn't buy a ticket in advance. I did have the good sense to buy a ticket then even though there was no guarantee of the trains running in the morning. I had to be in Taipei to catch my flight to Toyko at 1450 on Monday. I bought my ticket for the 7:06 train and headed out to the taxi stand. I ended up, with lots of hand signals to help, at a very interesting little motel in town close to the station. I had my own garage and stairwell. Kind of a drive through motel of sorts. Exhausted from the rest of the day, I just crashed into the rock hard bed (typical in many Chinese hotels but surprisingly comfortable) and flipped on the TV. Goodness TV is so boring, how does anyone watch it regularly? Of course, then there are surprises everywhere in life like when channel surfing you come across porn movies. What? Plenty of free porn to go with your Love Cats lubricant and condom (only 1) provided in the room. There was even a choice of porn, very American low budget style and Chinese style where you never see the man's face. How about that? Finally, my favourite part of the room:

VeryNineJoy Cream...see the video on http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld or it should be displaying on the right side of the blog.

6:3o a.m. Monday at the HSR station. I was too lazy to get my camera out but really should have, there must have been 3-4 thousand people trying to get moving. Once again, things were on my side as the one train that was going to run was the one I had bought a ticket for the night before. YIPPEE!!! 2 hours later I was in Taipei and headed to the airport to catch my flight to Tokyo.

Finally, the title of this post must be explained of course. Early this morning (Tuesday 11AUG) in Tokyo there was an earthquake. I am on the 33rd floor of the Shiodome media building and I felt it BIG time. It was bizarre. I thought I was dreaming but then again, I never dream about earthquakes because I have no idea what they feel like. I had been awake at 5:30 and decided to do a little waking sleep meditation practice which frequently means I sleep for another 30 minutes or so. The whole building was swaying and felt like it was moving in a circular way. I didn't hear any noise. I understand there is now a tsunami warning as well. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes. ___Voltaire

Morakot is abating

Looks like Morakot will be settling down by tomorrow morning (Sunday a.m.) This is how it looked at 5p.m. Sat 8AUG09. Not sure if you can tell but this is the infinity pool and the sun loungers around it. Looking a bit rough from the beating it's been taking for the last 2+ days.

I finally found a good spot to view detailed weather and radar stuff. This is a great site if you are into that kind of stuff. There are plenty of great sites for US weather but not much for Asia. This one is very good: Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/

Here are the specifics about Morakot:

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=24.8&lon=120.7&zoom=6&type=hyb&rad=0&wxsn=0&svr=0&cams=0&sat=0&riv=0&mm=0&hur=1&hur.wr=0&hur.cod=1&hur.fx=1&hur.obs=1&fire=0&ft=0&sl=0

My other pics from the US Navy site did not display on the blog so had to pull them off. Darn Navy boys...

Should be an interesting day tomorrow.