Correction

The cows I saw were yaks.

Sent from my iPhone

Prayer flags, monastery on hill

From yesterday

Countryside hangout

Riding

Sitting on the side of a country road, waiting for the rest of the tour to show up. Mr. Yuen is here. He's the driver, caretaker, mother. Not a word gets passed between us, but he will authoritatively make sure I nap, eat a peach, and relax in the right way. I wanted to sit on the side of the road and watch the sheep in the field, but he strongly suggested I sit in the van. Then as I started to rest in the backseat, he strongly suggested I sit in the front seat, reclined the seat for me, and when I complied, he laid a warm jacket on top of me. So all this to say that I've been sitting in this van too long... 2 hrs?... while the others try their hand at mountain biking some rough terrain. From the tiny chards I can gather from his phone conversation with the tour guide just now, it seems like the others turned around and are coming back the way they came, instead of completing the trail.

* turns out they took a wrong turn. Next time I'll bring a book, but I think there is only 1 other mountain biking day.

The way back into town felt short. Thats always a bonus with reliving a road - the 2nd time is always shorter.

The roads around here are like this:
An assortment of a few nice cars, huge black smoking Mexican haul-it trucks (or at least I saw tons of these in Mexico), lawn-mower /electric bike / cart hack jobs, old taxis, mini-van combi-style buses... The boulevards leading out of town look new: impeccable pavement, and they are divided with nice shrubbery in middle. Maybe not everyone is on board with these divided blvds: many cars will drive against traffic to find a parking spot. The standard method for passing a bike out here: hooooooonk. Yay. But it doesn't feel unsafe because people don't follow the rules: everyone's in the lookout. The country roads are 1 lane, pleasant.

The countryside around here: hogs, big wooden harvest drying racks, made from sharpened stakes, looks more like a pirate impalement implement. Cows, sheep, cultivated fields of yellow flowers.

Tomorrow we ride some 50 miles to get to the next town. No wifi for next few days but I may be able to find a computer somewhere.

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Of explorations and chaos in Shangri-La

So, Old Town Zhongdian has been pretty cool.  While fairly touristy, the area still has traditional Tibetan influence.  People wash their clothes in buckets on the street, people peddle vegetables, meats, and beads, and bicycle carts are a relevant mode of transport.  The streets, while blinged out with shop ads, still feel historic.

The culture of the minority groups here reminds me of the Incan culture in the Andes.  Llamas-> yaks; teas, wool ear-flapped caps, ornate shawls.... I even got to see a flash parade, similar to the ones that would appear out of nowhere in Peru.

Today was spent wandering the streets of Old Town, trying yak, buying things, wandering to the monastery on top of the hill overlooking Shangri-la, (awesome view, roosters, tons of prayer flags flying in the wind), and engaging in a weird activity of spinning a massive yellow tower with 20 or so other tourists.  I am pleased to find that the most of the other tourists here are not Western.  Makes me feel a bit more like a discovery.  Plus, if this is the destination Chinese pick for their vacations, it must be pretty good, right? 

I also enjoy traveling around people who are very camera-happy.  In other places, I am very sensitive about snapping pictures of strangers who may not appreciate it.  But with such camera-happiness around here, I am actually being very ordinary in taking pictures of everything.

The bike tour officially started today as well, but not without a bit of chaos.  Apparently I stayed in the wrong hotel.  I was only given an address to the hotel, and the taxi driver and hotel receptionist both confirmed I was at the right place. At 6pm, our meeting time, I quickly realized I was not in the right place.  Long story short, it appears that 65 Da Wa Rd is about 0.5 mile away from 66 Da Wa Rd.  Fortunately, the tour leader came looking for me, and I was still able to attend a traditional Tibetan dinner with the other folks on the tour.

I am very pleased with the posse the tour has assembled, as well.  The Aussie's joining me on the tour are Sarah and Andy, from Sydney.  They are friendly, with a good sense of humor.  The tour leader Julie also seems easy to get along with.   Lastly, we have two non-English speaking escorts: one leading the bike pack, one driving the van.

Tomorrow we assemble our bikes, and ride out to a hot spring.

what's that again!?

Last one for today.

Fwd: a few more from old town zhongdian

 

Fwd: a few more from old town zhongdian

 

Disclaimer on this blog

Turns out blogger is blocked in China. All posts are being made by email, often from my phone, over spotty or weak wifi. Excuse the lack of editing that will go into these posts.

Any comments (Mom, you're on a roll!) get sent to my email, so I do still see those.

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Yak and yunnan coffee

Trying out some yak (pepper sauce runs this dish. The yak flavor must be a bit gamey. I imagine this is run-of-the-mill tourist yak. I picked this place because of the combination of wifi, quiet street, outdoor seating, and yak on the menu ), listening to throat singing chants. Until a light rain starts falling, so I move to inside where they're listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn. Ha!

How well can you get around

In mandarin? I find I can at least navigate google empire in mandarin

Kunming airport

Kunming airport was brand new - 1 year in use. Impressive, massive. And I crossed the space between security and Gate 39 (probably 1 km, one way) about 5 times.

Carrie's place in Shenzhen

Hong kong bridges and sky rises

Your ATM money comes with advice

The airport has squat toilets

Sit down toilets are for the weak.

A most incredible number of flight delays

Kunming to dequen, but at least I met some locals while I waited. One woman even had her picture taken with me.

Old town Zhongdian, Yunnan

Fwd:

Untrustworthy wifi...

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Begin forwarded message:

From: Robin Bobo <robinbobo@gmail.com>
Date: June 28, 2013 10:20:19 PM GMT+08:00
To: China Blog <robin314159.rentdino@blogger.com>

I am feeling the jet lag, and noticing the mental whirl that comes from processing a lot of new info at once, particularly when it's also sweltering out.. Some notes from the whirl

A 1.5 hr subway ride to get to the shenzhen airport... This city is huge. The subway was new (less than 5 years old).  Video, cartoon art and inefficient progress visualizations adorned the wall. A ¥7 green token, which can only be purchased at a kiosk with only ¥5 notes

* I am surprised that the airport toilets are all squat toilets. There was a regular toilet "for the weak," which no one used even though there was a line.  Smelled like urine.

* I'm the only white person on this flight.  Scratch that... There's one other. 

* feeling like a German tourist.  Boots, plaid shorts, and I can lift my bag into the overhead bin....

Sent from my iPhone

I am feeling the jet lag, and noticing the mental whirl that comes from processing a lot of new info at once, particularly when it's also sweltering out.. Some notes from the whirl

A 1.5 hr subway ride to get to the shenzhen airport... This city is huge. The subway was new (less than 5 years old).  Video, cartoon art and inefficient progress visualizations adorned the wall. A ¥7 green token, which can only be purchased at a kiosk with only ¥5 notes

* I am surprised that the airport toilets are all squat toilets. There was a regular toilet "for the weak," which no one used even though there was a line.  Smelled like urine.

* I'm the only white person on this flight.  Scratch that... There's one other. 

* feeling like a German tourist.  Boots, plaid shorts, and I can lift my bag into the overhead bin....

Sent from my iPhone

First impressions

My Asia experience has not disappointed so far. When traveling to a new country/ continent, it can be hard to know what to expect. The new place can be envisioned like this big, shapeless Nothing; any scary possibilities could exist there. But in the last few years, many countries have not felt that different from each other. Much of the world's city-level operations and layouts work in similar ways.

So far China (or the little ive seen of Hong Kong/ Shenzhen) breaks the mould.

* high rises. The first thing visible driving out of HK airport are multiple, uniform apartment building high rises, set in what appears to be no proximity to a business district. It's skyscraper as suburbia.

* no houses. Where are the houses? Guess those kind of hoods are less popular around here. (did see shanty towns though.)

* bridges. A fellow in my airport minivan was keen to point out -- longest suspension bridge here, cable guided here, very long bridge there. Boston meets SF on one drive.

* no downtown. Shenzhen is one of China's top tier cities and it grew up over 30 years. Like Phoenix growth on steroids. The skyscrapers span across the horizon. Seems like there couldn't have been enough of a historical rallying point to build a downtown around. (In fact, Carrie, who I'm staying with, says they've created fake historical statues...?)

* and again: 4 of the exact same skyscrapers all next to each other

* Carrie: "this [ apartment she lives in ] building is old- like 10 years old."

* ATMs around here like to give advice. (pic later)

* they drive on the left here, British-style ( figures)

* mmm, lychees

No wifi. Will check in w folks if I can ever get a qual moment w some wifi.

Got bugs, whatever they are

Somehow my alarms for 3:48am and 3:53am turned into an alarm for 4:38am and a sweet dream, forcing me to make some hasty, command decisions when I did finally wake up. Yes: final dishes, No: pack water bottle. But alas, I escaped on time.

It's early enough to see Davis Square and my beloved commuter bike path in a unique mode. Barely light, almost no one walking around. The day lillies along the path are asleep, birds are chirping, and a Dunkin Donuts ice coffee 18-wheeler just made a U-turn on College St. Incredible.

Now on the T, the first of many steps. I thought this would be the easiest, most peaceful step, but a very crazy man across the car from me is shouting: greeting, loving us, asking forgiveness, railing, warning us... ("have a good day ol boy. I never liked bugs. They got me, whatever they are. *cackle*")

The rest of the trip goes: Plane, customs, plane, plane, customs, bus, customs taxi, subway, plane, plane.... 3 days til Yunnan.

Here's what fits in the bag.

At risk of providing too much info, here is a pack list of what's coming along on the trip.

Pack list pdf.

Woman pack light

67% packed.

My friend Joanne, who is currently traveling in Portugal, recently pointed out that acceptable international carry on baggage sizes vary by .5". That is, Old Faithful, my Eagle Creek travel bag from 2007 through today is .5" too short to be accepted by Air Canada. So... Alarm! Worry! (This never caused a problem on previous international flights, but now that i know the rules, they'll read the crushing guilt on my face.) After some troubleshooting with removing the backpack's metal spine, and squishing the bag vertically with a bungee, I'm confident that I can force my bag to be 21.5" long if interrogated by Air Canada officials. Carry on or stay!

In the meantime, other lingering concerns are one by one being assuaged: my colleague Stacey's husband agreed to let me park my car under their poopberry tree, so that I won't have to worry about moving my car for the weekly street cleaning. I'm closing down on the final todos before I get out of here. Things are looking good.