Wow… Sorry again about the long gap between updates. It’s a catch 22 really. The more things that happen means more to write in the blog but it also means less time to write it. If we weren’t doing anything noteworthy, I’d have all the time in the world to write, but nothing to write about.
For the sake of continuity and record keeping, I’ll stick to the chronological order of things despite the space it will take.
From Tokyo, we left for a small town called Takayama. With less than 50,000 people, it was a huge size difference than Tokyo and a very welcome change. By the time we took the 3 hours worth of trains to get there it was dark and freezing cold, but the small town feel and empty, quiet streets were such a relief. Alexa had booked us into a traditional Japanese room in one of the local boutique hotels called the Rickshaw Inn. The proprietor showed us to our room and we were very impressed with how authentic it was. The floor was covered in those grass fiber mats and our beds were thick pads on the floor called tatamis. We had a table at which we had to sit on cushions on the floor. The window covered in a rice paper screen and the exposed wooden beams rounded out the feel of the room.
After dropping off our bags, we hit the nearly closed town to find some dinner. We had read about a Mexican restaurant in town and were dying to check it out, so we headed in that direction. When we arrived, we were delighted to find a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place decorated in a very authentic Mexi-nese style and run by a young Japanese guy who had studied cooking in Guadalajara. The food was even better than the novelty of eating in an authentic Mexican restaurant in the middle of nowhere Japan. With stomachs full of a good meal, we retired for the night and actually slept pretty well despite the unusual sleeping arrangements.
We hit the town the next day, enjoying the few sights and soaking up the small town atmosphere. Many of the buildings and main streets were preserved in their original style and it made for a very quaint feel that we enjoyed very much. It was so nice to be out of the bustle of big cities for the first time in months that it really started to turn our overall impression of Japan around. The weather was nice, there was no smog and hardly any people (relatively speaking – this was still Japan afterall).
From Takayma, we headed south for a town called Nara. It’s a town known for its large temple and shrine filled park and hundreds of wandering and friendly deer. This time we stayed in a business hotel near the train station that proved to be very convenient. We visited a temple that is the current record holder for largest wooden structure in the entire world and also holds one of the largest statues of Buddha. I definitely believe the claims as I was very impressed with the size, detail and grandeur of the place. We trekked across the park to see a shrine famed for its famous entrance path lined with stone lanterns. This was definitely the best sight in Nara. The lanterns lining the path were old and moss covered and looked exactly like you want them to. There were hundreds of them of all shapes and sizes lining the path and each one warranted a good look and a photo. The shrine itself wasn’t particularly special, but the lanterns made it worth the walk.
The deer were a really fun addition to the experience. They were miniature by American standards, but not nearly as skittish and liked to eat right from our hands. We fed them some of our leftovers from our convenience store breakfast from the day before in addition to some stale sour cream and onion Pringles we had in our possession from Kyoto a week prior. So do us a favor, if the city of Nara ever calls you wondering what happened to their deer, deny everything.
From Nara, we made a brief stop in Himeji to see the famous castle there. It dominates the city, sitting high above the main boulevard and acting as a focal point. Alexa and I decided to trade cameras for the day, so I had her digital still camera and she had my video camera. It was a lot of fun to trade jobs for the day and I really got into taking pictures of the place. We took a tour of the inside of the castle, but it turns out that the outside is much more photogenic. Even still, we took our time touring the place and documenting it before we headed on to the nearby gardens. The castle gardens were almost as impressive as the castle. Impeccably manicured and thoughtfully arranged into 12 parts, each with a different theme, they were well worth the extra several dollars on the admission ticket.
From Himeji, we continued on to Hiroshima, a city we were both very keen to see. I’m a bit of a history nerd at times and I was thrilled to see such a significant site from both WWII and human history in general. We arrived in town early and left our stuff at the hostel to head out to the peace park and museum.
Our first stop is the Atomic Bomb Dome – essentially the remains of a city administration building that was almost directly below the bomb blast (the detonation was about 600m overhead to maximize its effectiveness). Because the shockwave came down from overhead, the building’s structure survived surprisingly intact. What remains is a bizarrely twisted frame of a dome and some brick walls preserved exactly as it looked after the bomb went off. It’s left as a memorial to the victims and a reminder of the devastation of nuclear weapons.
From there, we visited the children’s memorial dedicated to all the young victims of the bomb. It was erected in honor of one girl in particular who was two years old at the time of the blast and was exposed to high doses of radiation. However, she didn’t see any effects until she contracted leukemia at the age of 10. When she was diagnosed, she became determined to live and started folding paper cranes (a symbol of longevity in Japan) in an effort to pull through. Her goal was to fold 1000 of them, but died before she could finish. Her classmates were aware of her efforts and, in honor of her, finished folding the cranes for her. Ever since, students around the world have folded cranes and put them around this memorial to promote peace and remember the children who died as a result of the bomb.
We moved on to the peace flame – a flame left burning until the last nuclear weapon has been destroyed. I think it’s a nice idea and I hope and yearn for that as much as anyone, but I just don’t think that it will realistically ever happen. There are just too many people who see possession of such a weapon as a safety measure or ticket to power. It’s very sad thought, especially in a place like Hiroshima whose residents still carry the memories and scars from that day.
Just beyond the flame is the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum. It starts with a very informative account of the events leading up to the bomb including Japan’s involvement in the war and the Manhattan Project (the codename for the development project in the US). Then the feel changes when you walk to the next display – two scale models of the city, one before and one after. It is truly frightening to see the damage wrought in three dimensions. The bomb reduced a bustling city into a flat plane. There was simply nothing left in a multi kilometer radius save the burned out shells of some concrete structures. Many of the casualties were instantly vaporized. The temperature at the center of the initial fireball was millions of degrees, or to put it in another way, several magnitudes hotter than the surface of the sun. The heat blast caused surfaces to blacken and consequential shadows where there was something in the way. One of the most poignant was a staircase from a bank with the shadow of a man etched permanently onto the stone. The man was incinerated and left a heat shadow of himself on the stone behind him.
The museum continued on in this manner for quite a while and finally dumped us on the other side with quite heavy hearts. It was very, very moving to be in Hiroshima in person and witness firsthand the destructive power of those weapons. I’ve studied WWII history, with an emphasis on the atomic bombs no less, and had always held the academic opinion that the bombs were necessary to end the war. After being there and witnessing the surreal suffering inflicted on the citizens that day, it’s tough to remain so detached. So many people who were completely blameless suffered so terribly and that’s not condonable regardless of the outcome. The bomb was so indiscriminate in its victims and the radiation had such long term effects that it was much more than a weapon. After seeing that museum and hearing the stories, seeing the pictures and experiencing the museum, it’s hard to imagine weapons like that ever being used against humans ever again. I sincerely hope that it never happens.
That day was Thanksgiving for us, so we decided to go out to a nice dinner. We found a quaint Italian place near the museum and had a 3 hour long meal and great conversation. We lasted that long due to a cold and steady rain that threatened the walk home.
The next day, we headed to a nearby island called Miya Jima. Jima is the word for island in Japanese, hence the bells ringing in your head and connections made to names like Iwo Jima. It’s famous for a large wooden archway (called a torii) that sits out in the water off the coast of the island. It was believed that the island was sacred and that commoners were unable to set foot on it before traversing through the archway. Even then, they were confined to the shrine on the shore. Nowadays, we commoners can enjoy the natural beauty of the island, so that’s what we did. We checked out the beautiful shrine and its floating torii, then headed up the mountain in a cable car. The fall colors were really starting to come through with the crimson Japanese maples and maize gingko trees stealing the show. We made it to the top of the lift and were greeted with stunning views over a vast bay filled with smaller islands. We took lots of pictures, did some light hiking and enjoyed a long view from the coffee shop before heading down again. All in all, a really nice day.
After leaving Hiroshima, we headed for the other city with a similarly dark past – Nagasaki. We arrived mid-morning and checked into our hostel. Upon entering our room, we were greeted with the quite unpleasant smell of old tatami mats used as a floor covering. The room was Spartan at best and looked as if no one had stayed there since 1973 or so. We had to make our own bed, the heat didn’t work, the sink had separate faucets for hot and cold water, and the shower didn’t have hot water until 8:15am when they turned their boilers on. The bed was tucked into a nook in the room with nearly no space on either side, so getting in or out of bed was something more akin to a gymnastic routine than a graceful egress. Nonetheless, it was cheap and close enough to what we wanted to see.
The first day in Nagasaki was full of colonial era sightseeing. It was one of the only places that Europeans were allowed back in the 1800’s and there was a small settlement of traders and merchants. There is a collection of European style buildings clustered on a hillside called Glover Gardens – a sort of outdoor museum – that we wiled our afternoon away visiting. It felt like we stepped out of Japan momentarily and into colonial Europe. It started to get increasingly cold, a change for which we were not dressed, so we headed back not long afterwards.
The second day at Nagasaki was what we were really there for. Although we had visited the sites in Hiroshima only a couple days before, we wanted to see the museum and monuments in Nagasaki as well. Given such grave and important events, we felt it necessary to see both cities and their memorials. And I’m really glad we did. Hiroshima definitely seems to get more of the attention as the first city ever attacked with a nuke, but I think that Nagasaki does a much more respectful and professional job remembering the victims. The bomb dropped there was much further off target than the one dropped before and instead of hitting the naval dockyard, it landed in a residential area north of the city. Out of the 70,000 or so killed, almost all were women and children. The memorial in the city consisted of 4 parts. First was a statue park with pieces donated by all manner of countries and cities from around the world (including the now non-existent USSR, Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic). It was really interesting to see how each place decided to design their small monument to peace. From a sphere of nude bronze children holding each other’s hands and ankles from Minnesota, to a simple cutout of Brazil from, you guessed it, Brazil. They were all donated for the mid 80’s opening of the park to promote peace. The second monument was a large, black stone obelisk in the middle of a large open space designating the hypocenter. It was very moving to stand right there where the bomb hit, but more so by what happened while we were there. As we were taking pictures and taking it in, we were approached by an old Japanese man handing out flyers. He was a survivor from the bomb dropped there. His English was basic, but he told us a bit of his story. He was 8 years old at the time and he and his family lived just outside of town. When the bomb went off, he and his family were too far away to be hurt, but because they were able bodied, they were conscripted to help clean up. He didn’t get into much detail, but I can only imagine the unspeakable and grotesque horrors he must have seen as a child. 64 years later, he was there at the park to give flyers to tourists advertising a website where survivors had recorded their testimonies about the bomb. I couldn’t believe that despite what he had witnessed, he was able to stand there in that place with a soft smile, encouraging passers-by not to forget what had happened. I was already emotional from the gravity of the monument and his courage and dignity to keep those distressing but important memories alive, but was all I could do to hold the tears back when, with a nod and a look in his eyes that spoke volumes of emotion and forgiveness, he told us to have a nice day. I thought that seeing the museum in Hiroshima had made the tragedies real to me, but until I shook hands with that man, I really had no idea. With just those few moments of interaction, I knew that I could say that I really understood what had happened there.
After the hypocenter monument, we continued on to the third memorial, the actual bomb museum. It was more spread out and had a much better design than the one in Hiroshima. The layout had a logical flow and the short films they displayed were really top notch. The second atomic blast was much more documented and the museum is testament to that. As you exit the museum, you are directed toward the fourth memorial, the remembrance hall for the victims. It’s constructed completely underground as a type of catacomb, but is absolutely beautiful in its modern architecture. The main hall is several stories high and has 8 illuminated pillars through the center. At the front is a floor to ceiling glass case filled with the names of those who died as a result of the blast. It was so peaceful and tastefully done that we hardly spoke a word the entire time. Overall, quite an amazing set of memorials that is worth a pilgrimage.
After our long morning of touring the memorials, we grabbed a late lunch and set out to find a book store. We were looking for a couple of Lonely Planet guides for some future travel and hadn’t had much luck in other cities. We happened upon a department store but our luck ran out when we found the English book section to be only a few square meters and mostly filled with books designed to teach English. The experience wasn’t a total loss though. Throughout the store, Japanese style Christmas music was being piped at ear shattering volumes. Just imagine your favorite Yule-tide melodies digitized and laid over an incessant techno beat. Pure magic – if you want to induce a pounding headache. Even still, worth the cultural experience.
We left Nagasaki the following morning for a town called Kumamoto. We arrived at the station and asked the information desk for directions to the Kumamoto Station Hotel. As promised, it was only a couple blocks away, but my…what a few blocks they were. If Japan had a Detroit, Kumamoto would be it. Graffiti, boarded up buildings and trash all greeted us on our 5 minute walk. Our hotel was clearly constructed by someone with a penchant for Stalinist concrete architecture. It was stark and austere and featured no English lettering for identification. The old woman at the reception desk was quite nice though. She spoke no English but checked us in without much fuss. We had a large room (the largest we’d had in Japan) that was actually quite well equipped. We even had access to free laundry facilities, albeit they were outdoors and quite beat up.
Kumamoto was to be our base of operations for 2 days as we did some laundry and headed off to see the Aso-san volcano. The laundry went without a fuss and the day at the volcano proved to be an expensive but unique experience. We took two trains, a bus and a cable car to reach the summit of a steaming, active volcano. You could see right down into the crater to the steaming sulfuric water down below. Because of the toxicity of the gasses coming out, they keep constant measurements. If the levels get too high, they close the summit and everyone is evacuated. Additionally, if the volcano ever decides to erupt, as it occasionally does, they’ve constructed small concrete huts to shield any unfortunate souls from the rush of lava. I don’t know about you, but sightseeing is almost always better if there’s an element of danger.
From Kumamoto, we headed for Beppu, our final stop on our 3 week Japanese adventure. The town is famous for its “onsen” – Japanese hot spring baths and we thought it fitting to end the trip with some relaxation. We’d opted to stay just one night at a hostel with its own onsen built in which was simple but still did the trick. We did check out another onsen outside of town as per a friend’s recommendation which was also quite good. It was a very back-to-nature type place with natural looking rock pools and facilities integrated into the landscape. Aside from some spa hopping, we really didn’t do much besides relax and recover from our trip.
We left Beppu the following afternoon to get to Osaka again to catch our flight to Shanghai the next day. We stayed in the Ramada airport hotel and transferred flights and airports in Korea on the way back. Arriving in Shanghai was a very bizarre experience. Having lived there for 3 months, then being gone for a month to other (frankly, much better) places, we had a strange sense of familiarity but not really a sense of home. We needed to come back to Shanghai to swap suitcases for the second phase of our trip to warmer weather. Thankfully, our friend Wei Tan, whom we like to call the nicest woman in China, agreed to hold our bags for us. We dragged our stuff to her place, swapped stories and clothes then headed down the street to the hotel we’d booked. We had seen this hotel many times before but had never gone inside. We booked it because of its proximity to Wei’s but were delighted to find that it was infinitely classier than we had expected. The room was huge and very well decorated. Everything was modern and elegant and we had a great view of the city. Unfortunately, we didn’t have long to enjoy it. We left for our long night out of dinner at Element Fresh (one of our favorite restaurants in SH) and foot massages at our favorite massage parlor. It was so nice to be in the city but of the city, so to speak. We could treat our brief stay there as former residents – taking the best of, while not being bothered by the host of annoyances we faced while living there. Unfortunately, the freezing cold weather put a damper on things and I started to catch a cold.
The next morning, we got some breakfast and headed to our old apartment to meet our leasing agent one last time. He had a gift of some really nice Chinese tea and was genuinely sad to see us go. He really was a great guy and worked so hard to get us into that great apartment. After he left, I went and got a haircut while Alexa stayed with our bags in a Starbucks. From there it was a quick stop at the pearl market for some last minute gifts, then off to the airport again to fly to Cambodia.
I honestly think that China is out to get us sometimes. We had a stopover in Guanghzou (southern China) on our way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where, for some reason, we would have to re-check our bags and re-check in ourselves. Unfortunately, our flight out of Shanghai was late by about 30 minutes which left us absolutely no time to make our next flight. I was feeling pretty miserable with the cold I had come down with in SH the night before and we were way overloaded with bags but there we were literally running down the corridors of the airport trying to make our connection. When we arrived at the check in desk about 20 minutes before scheduled departure, the agent told us that the flight was closed and we would have to go to the manager’s counter for rebooking. Miraculously, with begging, pleading, and a promise to give them our firstborn, we were allowed to check in. We literally threw our luggage on the conveyor and pushed through security as fast as we could without looking dangerous. Because I was carrying on an extra bag, Alexa beat me in the dash for the gate. When she arrived, she asked if she could still board the plane and was told that it was impossible. I watched her from afar, still dragging my bags, as she nearly collapsed in disappointment and exhaustion. I knew we had missed the flight and we were stuck in China again. However, when I arrived, I too asked the agents about the status of the flight and they said “10 minutes,” which of course I took to mean that we were 10 minutes late. Just then, I realized that I was being stared at. I turned around to see a group of very tan and confused south east asian looking faces looking back at me. Then I realized what was happening. I rephrased my question to the ticket agents and they explained, very matter of factly, that the plane was being cleaned and we couldn’t board for another 10 minutes. Now I want you to imagine that you are a Cambodian family on vacation in China and you are on your way home. You’re waiting patiently for your flight to begin boarding when two crazed, sweating and generally disheveled looking white people come running toward you at full speed as if being chased. They come to a screeching halt at the counter only to explode in anger for no apparent reason. As one of them starts crying, the other looks at you blankly, then as if something has just clicked, his expression changed from bewilderment to puzzlement. Then as he addresses the agent again, the emotions change almost as quickly as the two came running down the moving sidewalk. They start to laugh and hug each other and strip off several layers of clothing, releasing a thick cloud of BO throughout the area before standing in line behind you.
Needless to say, we made the flight and arrived on time and with our bags to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tokyo
After a 2 and a half hour bullet train ride from Kyoto, we glided into Tokyo central station. What a nightmare. Not only does Japan have, far and away, the most confusing public transit system in the world, but we were navigating the nerve center of it with bags in tow during rush hour. Now, the Tokyo metro system is very comprehensive and can take you most anywhere you want to go, but you REALLY have to know what you’re doing. There are three separate entities that operate the various lines and they all have their own tickets. So, for example you wanted to get across town and make two line changes along the way, that could mean buying 3 tickets and actually re-surfacing to find the adjacent but identically named station. The disjointedness of having three separate networks of trains running around the city is just stupid. It’s way overcomplicated and not user friendly at all. There are long walks during changes and often, one has to surface, walk down the side walk and go back underground again to continue on the next train. Just terrible.
Sorry about the rant. The metro just really got to us during our 4 days in Tokyo. Aside from that, it was a pretty cool city. The first day we were there, we went and applied for new Chinese tourist visas so we can re-enter China to change out our suitcases in a couple weeks. The process was painless and we even got one-year, multi entry visas for the same price as a 30 day single entry. So bizarre. All that hassle with our work visas, but they’re just handing out long-term tourist visas like crazy. After that, we checked out an all in one work-live-play development called Roppongi Hills. It’s a huge and beautiful complex including offices, apartments and shops and designed to be a city within a city. Pretty neat. We had Indian food for lunch (it’s become a staple food for us here in Japan) and continued on to see the Shinjuku area. Shinjuku is known for its wild shopping, red light districts and first class people watching. However, Shinjuku metro station is the busiest in the world, serving more than 750,000 people…per day… and is a huge maze of corridors and exits. We arrived at Shinjuku station but didn’t actually find the right exit for at least 20 minutes. When we got out on the street, we realized Shinjuku is kind of a seedier part of town and we weren’t in the mood to see Tokyo’s red light district. So, it was back to the dreaded Shinjuku station.
One stop away was Shibuya with it’s famous crossing. We got out of the station and onto the street. And then we saw Shibuya crossing, the biggest convergence of moving people in all of Tokyo. Alexa was gleeful to be crossing amongst the hundreds of other people. There were black heads in all directions. Above us and to the right and left were giant screens. It was wild. We made our way across the street to the two-storey Starbucks and got some drinks. And then we camped out. We sat on the second floor bar and watched the crossing for two hours as the afternoon faded to evening and rush hour began. The Starbucks was playing jazzy Christmas music and we were able to just relax as we watched the frenetic energy below. I didn’t want to leave. But, we had another view waiting for us at our next stop…
(Alexa) Ryan had told me the day before that he had a surprise for me, something the Scottish guys in Osaka had told him about. Little did I know that he was taking me to the bar at the top of the Park Hyatt where they filmed Lost In Translation, one of my favorite movies. When we got to the hotel we kept reciting lines from the movie and pointing out where they filmed scenes. We took the elevator to the 52nd floor and when the doors opened our jaws fell open at the blanket of colored lights below us. The bar is encased in floor to ceiling windows so it’s almost impossible to take it all in at once. Luckily, the waiter directed us to the best table in the house, right next to the piano. We ordered drinks (Whew! The cost what we would have paid two meals for on a normal day!) and just sat in awe at the view for the second time that day.
Other highlights from Tokyo included the Tsuki Fish market (the largest in the world), the Sony Exhibition Center (where they display all the new gadgets that have yet to be available to consumers), a day trip to Mt. Fuji (which actually ended up being a bit of an expensive disappointment) and eating breakfast every day at Denny's. Yeah, the cheap American diner Denny's!
All in all, Tokyo was cool. A bit overwhelming at times, but it's essential Japan.
LINK TO TOKYO PHOTOS
Sorry about the rant. The metro just really got to us during our 4 days in Tokyo. Aside from that, it was a pretty cool city. The first day we were there, we went and applied for new Chinese tourist visas so we can re-enter China to change out our suitcases in a couple weeks. The process was painless and we even got one-year, multi entry visas for the same price as a 30 day single entry. So bizarre. All that hassle with our work visas, but they’re just handing out long-term tourist visas like crazy. After that, we checked out an all in one work-live-play development called Roppongi Hills. It’s a huge and beautiful complex including offices, apartments and shops and designed to be a city within a city. Pretty neat. We had Indian food for lunch (it’s become a staple food for us here in Japan) and continued on to see the Shinjuku area. Shinjuku is known for its wild shopping, red light districts and first class people watching. However, Shinjuku metro station is the busiest in the world, serving more than 750,000 people…per day… and is a huge maze of corridors and exits. We arrived at Shinjuku station but didn’t actually find the right exit for at least 20 minutes. When we got out on the street, we realized Shinjuku is kind of a seedier part of town and we weren’t in the mood to see Tokyo’s red light district. So, it was back to the dreaded Shinjuku station.
One stop away was Shibuya with it’s famous crossing. We got out of the station and onto the street. And then we saw Shibuya crossing, the biggest convergence of moving people in all of Tokyo. Alexa was gleeful to be crossing amongst the hundreds of other people. There were black heads in all directions. Above us and to the right and left were giant screens. It was wild. We made our way across the street to the two-storey Starbucks and got some drinks. And then we camped out. We sat on the second floor bar and watched the crossing for two hours as the afternoon faded to evening and rush hour began. The Starbucks was playing jazzy Christmas music and we were able to just relax as we watched the frenetic energy below. I didn’t want to leave. But, we had another view waiting for us at our next stop…
(Alexa) Ryan had told me the day before that he had a surprise for me, something the Scottish guys in Osaka had told him about. Little did I know that he was taking me to the bar at the top of the Park Hyatt where they filmed Lost In Translation, one of my favorite movies. When we got to the hotel we kept reciting lines from the movie and pointing out where they filmed scenes. We took the elevator to the 52nd floor and when the doors opened our jaws fell open at the blanket of colored lights below us. The bar is encased in floor to ceiling windows so it’s almost impossible to take it all in at once. Luckily, the waiter directed us to the best table in the house, right next to the piano. We ordered drinks (Whew! The cost what we would have paid two meals for on a normal day!) and just sat in awe at the view for the second time that day.
Other highlights from Tokyo included the Tsuki Fish market (the largest in the world), the Sony Exhibition Center (where they display all the new gadgets that have yet to be available to consumers), a day trip to Mt. Fuji (which actually ended up being a bit of an expensive disappointment) and eating breakfast every day at Denny's. Yeah, the cheap American diner Denny's!
All in all, Tokyo was cool. A bit overwhelming at times, but it's essential Japan.
LINK TO TOKYO PHOTOS
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Our first few days in Japan
Konichiwa from Japan.
We've been here in Japan for the past week and a half or so and have had a great time thus far. Here's a brief rundown of our experiences:
Landing in Osaka early in the morning and enduring another painfully long train ride to the city, we made it to our hotel only to find that our room was on the 5th floor with no elevator. So with the help of the reception clerk, we muscled our 3 suitcases, 2 camera bags, one backpack and one large purse up the stairs to our $80/night, 30sft, bunk bed room with a shared toilet. The shower was two floors down and shared amongst about 15 people. What a bargain! To its credit, the hotel was clean and the beds were far better than those in Korea so it wasn’t a total rip-off. The other guests were friendly and I made friends with some Scotch lads on vacation from Edinburgh. They were just finishing their 2 week tour of Japan and gave me some great tips for Tokyo.
The city of Osaka is known as the working heart of the Kansai region of Japan. That’s a nice way of saying “industrial.” There were a few highlights though. We rode the world’s largest Ferris Wheel (112m high) and saw the world’s largest aquarium tank that houses, amongst other things, two whale sharks and one manta-ray. Alexa had read about the whale sharks and was excited to see them even before we got to Japan. She may look all grown up, but she's still a little kid inside.
LINK TO OSAKA PHOTOS
From Osaka, we took a 15 minute bullet train ride to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan. We dragged our bags 10 or so blocks to our next home - "Kyoto's Cheapest Inn." No kidding. That's the name of the place and it's a pretty good description as well. We had a private room with an ensuite bath (ooohh la la!) but it was pretty basic. We spent that afternoon at the Golden Pavilion - literally a building covered in gold - and some other smaller temples. We turned in early that night as Alexa was feeling a bit under the weather. The next day, we checked out the main sight seeing district of Kyoto, home to most of the famous temples and shrines. We spent the afternoon meandering through ancient neighborhoods and Zen gardens soaking in the Japanese atmosphere. The fall colors were just beginning to show and we got some great pictures. We even ran into some Geisha in the backstreets. Such a quintessential "only in Japan" moment.
After we walked the equivalent of about 7 miles, we were feeling pretty beat and headed back to the hostel. Alexa was feeling pretty sick at this point and called it quits early. I stayed up and made friends with a British couple who was taking 2 years to travel the world. They were taking a break from a 6 month tour of Australia and had come to Japan for a while for something different. Alexa and I are planning on seeing Aus sometime soon, so I picked their brains for a while to get some good ideas.
Alexa woke up the next morning feeling terrible and decided that it was best for her to stay in that day. I ran some errands and did some light sight seeing but not much worth mentioning. We met with the Brit couple that night for more Aus talk though.
The final day in Kyoto was a quick blitz down to a famous shrine seen in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." At this particular shrine called Fushimi-Inari, there are thousands of orange colored toriis (Japanese style archways) lined up one after another. They create tunnels through the woods and make for some really cool pictures.
After the shrine, we made our way to the train station and had a great meal overlooking the city before we left for Tokyo.
LINK TO KYOTO PHOTOS
LINK TO FUSHIMI-INARI PHOTOS
I'll pick up where I left off soon. As you can tell, we've been pretty busy as of late. We're having a blast though and wouldn't want it any other way.
We've been here in Japan for the past week and a half or so and have had a great time thus far. Here's a brief rundown of our experiences:
Landing in Osaka early in the morning and enduring another painfully long train ride to the city, we made it to our hotel only to find that our room was on the 5th floor with no elevator. So with the help of the reception clerk, we muscled our 3 suitcases, 2 camera bags, one backpack and one large purse up the stairs to our $80/night, 30sft, bunk bed room with a shared toilet. The shower was two floors down and shared amongst about 15 people. What a bargain! To its credit, the hotel was clean and the beds were far better than those in Korea so it wasn’t a total rip-off. The other guests were friendly and I made friends with some Scotch lads on vacation from Edinburgh. They were just finishing their 2 week tour of Japan and gave me some great tips for Tokyo.
The city of Osaka is known as the working heart of the Kansai region of Japan. That’s a nice way of saying “industrial.” There were a few highlights though. We rode the world’s largest Ferris Wheel (112m high) and saw the world’s largest aquarium tank that houses, amongst other things, two whale sharks and one manta-ray. Alexa had read about the whale sharks and was excited to see them even before we got to Japan. She may look all grown up, but she's still a little kid inside.
LINK TO OSAKA PHOTOS
From Osaka, we took a 15 minute bullet train ride to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan. We dragged our bags 10 or so blocks to our next home - "Kyoto's Cheapest Inn." No kidding. That's the name of the place and it's a pretty good description as well. We had a private room with an ensuite bath (ooohh la la!) but it was pretty basic. We spent that afternoon at the Golden Pavilion - literally a building covered in gold - and some other smaller temples. We turned in early that night as Alexa was feeling a bit under the weather. The next day, we checked out the main sight seeing district of Kyoto, home to most of the famous temples and shrines. We spent the afternoon meandering through ancient neighborhoods and Zen gardens soaking in the Japanese atmosphere. The fall colors were just beginning to show and we got some great pictures. We even ran into some Geisha in the backstreets. Such a quintessential "only in Japan" moment.
After we walked the equivalent of about 7 miles, we were feeling pretty beat and headed back to the hostel. Alexa was feeling pretty sick at this point and called it quits early. I stayed up and made friends with a British couple who was taking 2 years to travel the world. They were taking a break from a 6 month tour of Australia and had come to Japan for a while for something different. Alexa and I are planning on seeing Aus sometime soon, so I picked their brains for a while to get some good ideas.
Alexa woke up the next morning feeling terrible and decided that it was best for her to stay in that day. I ran some errands and did some light sight seeing but not much worth mentioning. We met with the Brit couple that night for more Aus talk though.
The final day in Kyoto was a quick blitz down to a famous shrine seen in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." At this particular shrine called Fushimi-Inari, there are thousands of orange colored toriis (Japanese style archways) lined up one after another. They create tunnels through the woods and make for some really cool pictures.
After the shrine, we made our way to the train station and had a great meal overlooking the city before we left for Tokyo.
LINK TO KYOTO PHOTOS
LINK TO FUSHIMI-INARI PHOTOS
I'll pick up where I left off soon. As you can tell, we've been pretty busy as of late. We're having a blast though and wouldn't want it any other way.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Seoul and the DMZ
So we’ve said our goodbyes, closed up the apartment and left Shanghai for good. We’ve reflected on our time there in previous posts so I won’t dwell on the sentiments.
From China we left for Seoul, South Korea on November 8. I can’t tell you what a relief we felt when our plane lifted off the runway. We were free from the hardships of China. After a pleasant 2 hour flight, we landed in Seoul and made our way (via the worlds longest and most stair-ed subway system) to our hotel, the Bee Won Guesthouse. It was a shabby but welcoming place with exceptionally small rooms and a modest price. We spent the next several days poking around the tranquil city of Seoul. The tourism commercial that we frequently saw on Discovery channel in China used the tag line “calm yet exciting” to describe the city and it was actually pretty accurate. Even at rush hour, the city didn’t seem overcrowded or frenetic. The streets are often lined with trees and everything, including the air, is very clean – a world of difference from our gray and polluted former home.
LINK TO SEOUL PHOTOS
After a couple days of seeing the city (and doing our best to appreciate Korean food), we took a day trip to see the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the border with North Korea. Unfortunately, the tour to Panmunjom (the UN area with the famous blue negotiation buildings was booked) so we went to the very tourist friendly observatory instead. From there we could actually see N. Korea and the fake villages constructed at the border to feign affluence and success. What a strange country. A nearly completely hermit society with a personality cult for a leader who has only ever uttered one publicly documented sentence. Work camps, starvation and oppression are a way of life there, but the people still talk of Kim Jung Il as a demigod. Bizarre. I have to admit that I’m morbidly curious to see it someday.
LINK TO DMZ PHOTOS
Anyway, we left Seoul the next day and headed for the land of the rising sun – Japan. More soon.
From China we left for Seoul, South Korea on November 8. I can’t tell you what a relief we felt when our plane lifted off the runway. We were free from the hardships of China. After a pleasant 2 hour flight, we landed in Seoul and made our way (via the worlds longest and most stair-ed subway system) to our hotel, the Bee Won Guesthouse. It was a shabby but welcoming place with exceptionally small rooms and a modest price. We spent the next several days poking around the tranquil city of Seoul. The tourism commercial that we frequently saw on Discovery channel in China used the tag line “calm yet exciting” to describe the city and it was actually pretty accurate. Even at rush hour, the city didn’t seem overcrowded or frenetic. The streets are often lined with trees and everything, including the air, is very clean – a world of difference from our gray and polluted former home.
LINK TO SEOUL PHOTOS
After a couple days of seeing the city (and doing our best to appreciate Korean food), we took a day trip to see the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the border with North Korea. Unfortunately, the tour to Panmunjom (the UN area with the famous blue negotiation buildings was booked) so we went to the very tourist friendly observatory instead. From there we could actually see N. Korea and the fake villages constructed at the border to feign affluence and success. What a strange country. A nearly completely hermit society with a personality cult for a leader who has only ever uttered one publicly documented sentence. Work camps, starvation and oppression are a way of life there, but the people still talk of Kim Jung Il as a demigod. Bizarre. I have to admit that I’m morbidly curious to see it someday.
LINK TO DMZ PHOTOS
Anyway, we left Seoul the next day and headed for the land of the rising sun – Japan. More soon.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Looking Back
So, we’ve made it. It’s finally our last night in Shanghai. Over the past week, I’ve been compiling a list. Things I like and things I loathe about this incredible city.
Like:
• Cheap foot massages – There’s something about a full stomach and a foot massage that will brighten even your darkest day.
• Cheap DVDs – When you can buy a DVD for cheaper than you can rent one back in the States, you see a lot more.
• No tipping – It may not encourage good service, but at least you never have to make a split decision or pay for bad service.
• The chestnut smell – I think this is the only good vendor smell in the whole of China. Whenever I smell it from now on, I will think of Shanghai.
• The Chinglish – On shirts, signs, everywhere. In fact, the World Expo 2010 count down sign even has Chinglish on it. I mean, you’d think when designing a sign on which they bolted electric lights, they would have checked the English first. So amusing. And then there were the great text messages from our dear friend Xu Bin. I used to read them aloud to Ryan like they were haikus. For example (word for word with original punctuation): “NI HAO! IMPICIT consulting; have a row; in formation; be disappointed; pleasantly surprised – maybe – set sb a task – promise of secrecy-sth embarrassing to mention.” Classic. And I’ll never forget him writing, “Auntie come your house washes and cookies.” This means the ayi (in Chinese it means aunt) will come to your house to cook and clean. I will miss Xu!
• The fabric market - Where else can you get tailor made clothes for 1/5 the price? Bring in a picture or something to copy and you can have it in any color.
• The Hongqiao market – Pearls, shoes, luggage, sunglasses, fake bags, you name it. And we got pretty good at haggling too. It can be fun when you make it like a little game. The vendors stay pretty light spirited with it.
• The friends we made here – far and away, the best part of being here were the wonderful friendships we made. Nancy, Wei, Sue, Xu, Steven, James, Molly, Jean, Michelle, Jenn, Christy and everyone else we’ve befriended here have been absolutely wonderful as a support system.
Loathe:
• The grit – There’s no where on Earth like China in terms of dirt. It’s just dirty in every way. Things that come to mind include:
• The discrimination – See above. Once, my good friend Jean, from Zimbabwe went to Starbucks and ordered a drink. When she got the cup, it said, “Black girl” in Chinese like it was her name. This same friend told me that she often makes babies cry. They look at her foreign face and cry to their mothers. It seems like we’re always being pointed or starred at. Or when Ryan and I go to Ajisen (the local noodle chain restaurant), they say, “2 laowai (foreign devils)?” That’s like the equivalent of us saying, “Two chinks?” at Denny’s.
• Bad Chinese pop music – The play it over and over at 50 decibels too loud. The chorus is always in English and the rest is in Chinese. “You are my superstar,” “When you touch me, I become a hero,” “We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun,” “Everyone is number one.” What does that even mean?
• The repetition – See above. Megaphone messages, the same music over and over, toys that make the same noise. The Chinese are completely un-phased by it. It’s rather remarkable.
• The pushing/lack of common courtesy – When the doors open on the subway, people just push right through without letting people get off. If you aren’t aggressive and push back, you won’t get off the train. It’s the same with the elevator.
• The lack of volume control – It’s absolutely incredible how loud it is here. It’s not just the people. It’s the horns, the music, the mopeds…
• The scratchy grunt “Wei?” – This is what the Chinese say when they pick up the phone. It’s nothing like the smooth Italian “Pronto.”
• The way they say “uh huh” – “Uh uh uh uh.” Frankly, it sounds like they’re having boring sex. I remember being in the office, on an interview one afternoon and hearing one of the HR girls on her cell phone. I looked and across the cubicle to Molly and we both just cracked up.
• The lack of imagination at solving problems – There’s a way things are done and that’s it. Sometimes I think the Chinese could do anything they put their mind to. Think of the amazing road system they’ve built! But then at the same time, sometimes they can’t even ring up a pizza correctly.
• Pure sensory overload – Try going to Carrefour before breakfast. It’s enough to make you really dizzy on an empty stomach. There is music blaring, bright signs everywhere, women with megaphones promoting various products, people pushing into you, and to top it all off, a woman drops a huge bottle of vinegar on the conveyor belt right in front of you. No problem! They’ve got “the China rag” on hand.
• Above all, not being able to communicate is the most frustrating aspect of life here – after three months directing a cab is about all we can do. It limits our experience and makes us feel alone in the crowds of millions. I’m ready to be in an English speaking country again!
So there you have it. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor is it meant to be slighting against China or Chinese people. It’s just a compilation of impressions from our wild 3-month experience. As you all know, China has been an enormous struggle for the two of us and in almost every way, we’re glad it’s over. I do believe that if things had been different, we might not mind it so much. Had we both been employed or better prepared in our language skills or not suffered such crushing setbacks with the fire etc, we might be sailing along just fine. But that’s just not meant to be.
As we sign off from China tomorrow at 6:05pm local time, we’ll look back on these three months as the hardest, most challenging, most disheartening, most frustrating and least rewarding time of our lives. Yet even still, we’re holding on to our last shred of optimism that the lessons learned here will pay off later in life and that our brutally expensive experiment won’t be in vain.
As the French (the inhabitants of that wonderful country we miss so much) say, “C’est la vie.”
Stay tuned to our blog as tomorrow we embark on a 3 month journey through Asia and Australia. We promise to update more often and not write novels every time.
Like:
• Cheap foot massages – There’s something about a full stomach and a foot massage that will brighten even your darkest day.
• Cheap DVDs – When you can buy a DVD for cheaper than you can rent one back in the States, you see a lot more.
• No tipping – It may not encourage good service, but at least you never have to make a split decision or pay for bad service.
• The chestnut smell – I think this is the only good vendor smell in the whole of China. Whenever I smell it from now on, I will think of Shanghai.
• The Chinglish – On shirts, signs, everywhere. In fact, the World Expo 2010 count down sign even has Chinglish on it. I mean, you’d think when designing a sign on which they bolted electric lights, they would have checked the English first. So amusing. And then there were the great text messages from our dear friend Xu Bin. I used to read them aloud to Ryan like they were haikus. For example (word for word with original punctuation): “NI HAO! IMPICIT consulting; have a row; in formation; be disappointed; pleasantly surprised – maybe – set sb a task – promise of secrecy-sth embarrassing to mention.” Classic. And I’ll never forget him writing, “Auntie come your house washes and cookies.” This means the ayi (in Chinese it means aunt) will come to your house to cook and clean. I will miss Xu!
• The fabric market - Where else can you get tailor made clothes for 1/5 the price? Bring in a picture or something to copy and you can have it in any color.
• The Hongqiao market – Pearls, shoes, luggage, sunglasses, fake bags, you name it. And we got pretty good at haggling too. It can be fun when you make it like a little game. The vendors stay pretty light spirited with it.
• The friends we made here – far and away, the best part of being here were the wonderful friendships we made. Nancy, Wei, Sue, Xu, Steven, James, Molly, Jean, Michelle, Jenn, Christy and everyone else we’ve befriended here have been absolutely wonderful as a support system.
Loathe:
• The grit – There’s no where on Earth like China in terms of dirt. It’s just dirty in every way. Things that come to mind include:
- • “The China rag” – the Chinese have this rag that they use to clean everything. Dishes, the floor, the walls…My friend Steven once told me about a time that he was in a grocery store and the woman in front of him was buying chicken. The meat was in a leaky plastic bag, which she had set on the conveyor belt. There was chicken juice and blood all over the belt. The cashier looked at Steven and pulled out “the rag” and wiped it off. “No problem.” Who knows where the rag will be next?
- • Some dirty things that I saw first hand:
- • A man riding a moped down the street in rush hour, buses spewing black smoke, with a lamb carcass on the back.
- • A woman putting her bear-butted son on the subway seat across from me. You see, in China, they simply don’t use diapers. The parents cut a hole in the pants of the children and then let them pee or poo in the street.
- • The hocking and spitting. Anywhere you go, men, old women, beautiful girls – they all do it. They just hock a loogie and spit in your walking path without blinking.
• The discrimination – See above. Once, my good friend Jean, from Zimbabwe went to Starbucks and ordered a drink. When she got the cup, it said, “Black girl” in Chinese like it was her name. This same friend told me that she often makes babies cry. They look at her foreign face and cry to their mothers. It seems like we’re always being pointed or starred at. Or when Ryan and I go to Ajisen (the local noodle chain restaurant), they say, “2 laowai (foreign devils)?” That’s like the equivalent of us saying, “Two chinks?” at Denny’s.
• Bad Chinese pop music – The play it over and over at 50 decibels too loud. The chorus is always in English and the rest is in Chinese. “You are my superstar,” “When you touch me, I become a hero,” “We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun,” “Everyone is number one.” What does that even mean?
• The repetition – See above. Megaphone messages, the same music over and over, toys that make the same noise. The Chinese are completely un-phased by it. It’s rather remarkable.
• The pushing/lack of common courtesy – When the doors open on the subway, people just push right through without letting people get off. If you aren’t aggressive and push back, you won’t get off the train. It’s the same with the elevator.
• The lack of volume control – It’s absolutely incredible how loud it is here. It’s not just the people. It’s the horns, the music, the mopeds…
• The scratchy grunt “Wei?” – This is what the Chinese say when they pick up the phone. It’s nothing like the smooth Italian “Pronto.”
• The way they say “uh huh” – “Uh uh uh uh.” Frankly, it sounds like they’re having boring sex. I remember being in the office, on an interview one afternoon and hearing one of the HR girls on her cell phone. I looked and across the cubicle to Molly and we both just cracked up.
• The lack of imagination at solving problems – There’s a way things are done and that’s it. Sometimes I think the Chinese could do anything they put their mind to. Think of the amazing road system they’ve built! But then at the same time, sometimes they can’t even ring up a pizza correctly.
• Pure sensory overload – Try going to Carrefour before breakfast. It’s enough to make you really dizzy on an empty stomach. There is music blaring, bright signs everywhere, women with megaphones promoting various products, people pushing into you, and to top it all off, a woman drops a huge bottle of vinegar on the conveyor belt right in front of you. No problem! They’ve got “the China rag” on hand.
• Above all, not being able to communicate is the most frustrating aspect of life here – after three months directing a cab is about all we can do. It limits our experience and makes us feel alone in the crowds of millions. I’m ready to be in an English speaking country again!
So there you have it. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor is it meant to be slighting against China or Chinese people. It’s just a compilation of impressions from our wild 3-month experience. As you all know, China has been an enormous struggle for the two of us and in almost every way, we’re glad it’s over. I do believe that if things had been different, we might not mind it so much. Had we both been employed or better prepared in our language skills or not suffered such crushing setbacks with the fire etc, we might be sailing along just fine. But that’s just not meant to be.
As we sign off from China tomorrow at 6:05pm local time, we’ll look back on these three months as the hardest, most challenging, most disheartening, most frustrating and least rewarding time of our lives. Yet even still, we’re holding on to our last shred of optimism that the lessons learned here will pay off later in life and that our brutally expensive experiment won’t be in vain.
As the French (the inhabitants of that wonderful country we miss so much) say, “C’est la vie.”
Stay tuned to our blog as tomorrow we embark on a 3 month journey through Asia and Australia. We promise to update more often and not write novels every time.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Three Months and We're Out
The wait is finally over. The last say has been said. The fat lady has sung and we're not going to be able to stay in China. Earlier this week, my work permit application (needed to work and live in China) was rejected for the second and last time by the Chinese government. Apparently I don't have the post-graduate work experience I need to qualify as a "Foreign Expert" in my field. This means that I can not legally work in the country and all my reasonable hopes for spending a year here just evaporated.
Considering the astronomical efforts we've made over the past 10 months to get here, survive here and thrive here, it's quite a shock to know that everything just came to an abrupt end. But now, instead of taking time to reflect on things, we're forced to get on with our lives as soon as possible. My tourist visa expires in about a week and I need to be out of the country by then. Just imagine you'd struggled, fought and exhausted yourself to achieve a dream only to have it snuffed out by something beyond your control. Then, pack up your life in a week. It's tough. It's just sickening to think of the losses we've suffered since arriving here. We've put so much into this and I can't believe it's all over so soon. Unfortunately, our time for reflection has been cut short by our very pressing need to get on with things.
We've definitely built a life for ourselves here. We've settled into an apartment and the accompanying lease, we've learned our way around, learned how to get what we need, and made friends… All of which we need to cancel, abort, write off or let go in the next week. In order to say goodbye to some of our friends, we're having a bit of a Halloween/take our stuff party. Should be nice to see everyone one last time.
Side note: at 7pm on the 31st, Alexa and I will be on TV here in Shanghai. The local English TV channel did a feature on the day in the life of a friend of ours and he asked us to be in the show. We'll be getting foot massages with him at the end of his day. This ought to be a hit at our party.
That's not to say that there's a part of us that's grateful for this ending. We've been battered and bruised for the past 3 months and we've neared our breaking point on at least 6 occasions (the job loss before we left, the heat/smog, Alexa's terrible job, the flood, the fire, and the lay-off). Being here has taken a lot out of us and we really do need a break.
Though instead of just heading for home, we've decided to go ahead with the original post-china travel plans of Korea, Japan, SE Asia and Australia. While we're in Asia, we might as well be here and see all we can before we go home. Plus, when in our lives will we have the time, freedom and energy to do something like this ever again? Carpe Diem, my friends. We don't want this opportunity to be wasted. The only problem is that this throws an enormous heap of trip planning onto our already overloaded plates. But like my dad always says, you gotta do what you gotta do.
So here's the plan. We say goodbye to Shanghai on the 8th of November and head for Seoul, South Korea. We spend a few days there seeing the sights (possibly including the demilitarized border with North Korea), then head on to Japan for about 3 weeks. We're going to see most of the southern half of the country and do our best not to spend more than the GDP of Myanmar. Japan is brutally expensive, so we're doing as much on the cheap as we can.
From Japan, we head back to Shanghai for a quick overnight to change out our suitcases – trading cold weather clothes for warm ones. The next morning, we leave for Cambodia for a few days to see the temple of Angkor Wat (the overgrown jungle temple complex from the Tomb Raider movie). From there, we go on a surprise trip that I'm planning for Alexa for about a week before arriving in Singapore to board the cruise with Pat, Lisa and Ian. Phew… take a deep breath. The cruise ends in Hong Kong and we'll spend an extra day or two there seeing Macau with Pat. For the last leg, we're headed all the way down to Australia where we'll rent a small RV and hit the road. We're just going to plan as we go, not worrying about schedules or anything. We'll probably drive a loop around half of the continent or so before we turn in the keys and head home. We figure that with the US economy so bad, it's not like we'll be in high demand back home, so there's no use hurrying.
So as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. These just happen to be very different doors.
Considering the astronomical efforts we've made over the past 10 months to get here, survive here and thrive here, it's quite a shock to know that everything just came to an abrupt end. But now, instead of taking time to reflect on things, we're forced to get on with our lives as soon as possible. My tourist visa expires in about a week and I need to be out of the country by then. Just imagine you'd struggled, fought and exhausted yourself to achieve a dream only to have it snuffed out by something beyond your control. Then, pack up your life in a week. It's tough. It's just sickening to think of the losses we've suffered since arriving here. We've put so much into this and I can't believe it's all over so soon. Unfortunately, our time for reflection has been cut short by our very pressing need to get on with things.
We've definitely built a life for ourselves here. We've settled into an apartment and the accompanying lease, we've learned our way around, learned how to get what we need, and made friends… All of which we need to cancel, abort, write off or let go in the next week. In order to say goodbye to some of our friends, we're having a bit of a Halloween/take our stuff party. Should be nice to see everyone one last time.
Side note: at 7pm on the 31st, Alexa and I will be on TV here in Shanghai. The local English TV channel did a feature on the day in the life of a friend of ours and he asked us to be in the show. We'll be getting foot massages with him at the end of his day. This ought to be a hit at our party.
That's not to say that there's a part of us that's grateful for this ending. We've been battered and bruised for the past 3 months and we've neared our breaking point on at least 6 occasions (the job loss before we left, the heat/smog, Alexa's terrible job, the flood, the fire, and the lay-off). Being here has taken a lot out of us and we really do need a break.
Though instead of just heading for home, we've decided to go ahead with the original post-china travel plans of Korea, Japan, SE Asia and Australia. While we're in Asia, we might as well be here and see all we can before we go home. Plus, when in our lives will we have the time, freedom and energy to do something like this ever again? Carpe Diem, my friends. We don't want this opportunity to be wasted. The only problem is that this throws an enormous heap of trip planning onto our already overloaded plates. But like my dad always says, you gotta do what you gotta do.
So here's the plan. We say goodbye to Shanghai on the 8th of November and head for Seoul, South Korea. We spend a few days there seeing the sights (possibly including the demilitarized border with North Korea), then head on to Japan for about 3 weeks. We're going to see most of the southern half of the country and do our best not to spend more than the GDP of Myanmar. Japan is brutally expensive, so we're doing as much on the cheap as we can.
From Japan, we head back to Shanghai for a quick overnight to change out our suitcases – trading cold weather clothes for warm ones. The next morning, we leave for Cambodia for a few days to see the temple of Angkor Wat (the overgrown jungle temple complex from the Tomb Raider movie). From there, we go on a surprise trip that I'm planning for Alexa for about a week before arriving in Singapore to board the cruise with Pat, Lisa and Ian. Phew… take a deep breath. The cruise ends in Hong Kong and we'll spend an extra day or two there seeing Macau with Pat. For the last leg, we're headed all the way down to Australia where we'll rent a small RV and hit the road. We're just going to plan as we go, not worrying about schedules or anything. We'll probably drive a loop around half of the continent or so before we turn in the keys and head home. We figure that with the US economy so bad, it's not like we'll be in high demand back home, so there's no use hurrying.
So as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. These just happen to be very different doors.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I want to know right now what will it be
So it’s been about a week since we last posted and not too much has happened. I was struck down with a pretty bad head cold after we got back from Beijing. I spent three days in bed, never leaving the apartment. I was grateful that I didn’t have to work and could enjoy the down time. I clearly needed it.
However, we had a nice weekend once I was better. On Saturday night we went out with Molly (from EF) and her cousin, Ryan (whom we affectionately call ‘cousin’ to prevent the confusion), to the vegetarian restaurant that I love. It helps that both Molly and cousin are veggies too! We had a feast. Afterwards, they came over to our apartment and we hung out. The Ryans played DJ and Molly and I lounged on the couch. Ryan was excited to have people over and he broke out some cheap Italian wine and a block of Gruyere. It was so nice to have a little taste of Europe in China. With the blinds closed I could almost pretend that we were all meeting at a new apartment in France. We laughed a lot. I wished we’d had a fresh baguette.
The next day we met Molly and cousin again. We took them to the Hongqiao Pearl Market, a place that Molly actually hadn’t been to yet. We introduced her to Alice, our friend who gives great deals on all sorts of pearl jewelry. She was able to buy gifts for her family back home in Maine. I felt happy that I was able to show Molly, who has been in China for 4 years, something new! After that we went to a fabulous Indian restaurant on Hong Mei Lu and had another feast. It’s so fun to have vegetarian friends because I finally get to share dishes! It makes for such a fun and tasty dining experience. If I was able to do this all the time, I think I’d like food a lot more.
Next, cousin took us to a curio market downtown. We meandered through the stalls selling everything from Mao watches (a saluting arm is the second hand!) to old jade carvings to birdcages to jarred crickets. It was interesting to see the stuff that people had accumulated over the years and were now trying to sell. Markets like this always fascinate me, no matter what the country. I’m convinced that you can tell a lot about a culture by its junk!
Yesterday was a good day too. Ryan and I had an interesting lunch at Ajisen, the cheap Japanese ramen place a block away from our apartment. We talk almost every day about our life and China. We talk about how we’re feeling about the whole situation that day and what we would do if we could just forget it and spend the rest of our lives as nomads. Spend three months in Qatar learning Arabic. Work in a pub in England. Work on an organic farm in Australia. Write a book. Float. What wouldn’t I do to just take off and float? And really, what do we do next if China kicks us out? Should we go home? Should we try another country? I hate this waiting game. I have that Paula Cole song, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” playing over and over in my head. “I don’t wanna wait for our lives to be over. I want to know right now what will it be.”…stay or go?
After that we went to a foreign bookstore to pick up some Lonely Planets: Japan and Australia. We decided that since we have some time, we might as well read up. If we have to leave China, we need to have a plan. If we stay, we’ll just postpone the plan a year until after we finish working. It’s a fun diversion from the waiting game.
Next, we caught a cab down to the fabric market just before it closed. We need outfits for four black tie nights on the cruise. Ryan had two tuxedos made. One looks a lot like the tux that James Bond wore in Casino Royale. Matte black, pointed lapels with a plain white collared shirt. The second one is a more classic British look (or so I’m told) with rounded lapels in black silk with a ruffled white shirt. We got both the suits and the shirts for about $295 and they’re be fitted exactly to Ryan’s body. Then we got a recommendation from our usual tailor for a dressmaker. I had two silk evening gowns made from pictures of a Calvin Klein dress I printed. One is dark navy blue and the other is bullet gray. If they come out like the picture, I’ll be looking pretty nice next to Ryan in his tuxes. Altogether the tailor-made dresses cost me about $120. Absurd considering the dress I modeled it after cost $238 for one dress!
We walked back to the subway station, a bit in shock of how much money we just spent. Rather than taking a $7 cab, we opted for the 75-cent subway ride ten stops back to Zhongshan Park. It was a long and crowded ride. We were shoulder to shoulder with the rush hour crowd for 7 stops. But, we did have the Japan Lonely Planet to keep us occupied and in the end, I was happy to have saved a little money. Every little bit counts when you’re unemployed.
So this is what the rhythm of our days look like here. We wake up late, work out in the empty gym and read travel books. It’s not a bad life at all really. Until that question starts gnawing at us…
We’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, here are the links to the photos from Melanie's visit and Beijing:
Melanie and I explore the Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2466906&l=b66bf&id=2209008
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467008&l=b763d&id=2209008
The Great Wall Experience: (a favorite)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467272&l=6006b&id=2209008
The Forbidden City, Tiananmen and the Olympic Park: (also a favorite)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467500&l=2b5ba&id=2209008
Around Beijing:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2468586&l=88a75&id=2209008
Hutong (traditional Beijing neighborhood) Walking Tour:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2468954&l=ca22d&id=2209008
However, we had a nice weekend once I was better. On Saturday night we went out with Molly (from EF) and her cousin, Ryan (whom we affectionately call ‘cousin’ to prevent the confusion), to the vegetarian restaurant that I love. It helps that both Molly and cousin are veggies too! We had a feast. Afterwards, they came over to our apartment and we hung out. The Ryans played DJ and Molly and I lounged on the couch. Ryan was excited to have people over and he broke out some cheap Italian wine and a block of Gruyere. It was so nice to have a little taste of Europe in China. With the blinds closed I could almost pretend that we were all meeting at a new apartment in France. We laughed a lot. I wished we’d had a fresh baguette.
The next day we met Molly and cousin again. We took them to the Hongqiao Pearl Market, a place that Molly actually hadn’t been to yet. We introduced her to Alice, our friend who gives great deals on all sorts of pearl jewelry. She was able to buy gifts for her family back home in Maine. I felt happy that I was able to show Molly, who has been in China for 4 years, something new! After that we went to a fabulous Indian restaurant on Hong Mei Lu and had another feast. It’s so fun to have vegetarian friends because I finally get to share dishes! It makes for such a fun and tasty dining experience. If I was able to do this all the time, I think I’d like food a lot more.
Next, cousin took us to a curio market downtown. We meandered through the stalls selling everything from Mao watches (a saluting arm is the second hand!) to old jade carvings to birdcages to jarred crickets. It was interesting to see the stuff that people had accumulated over the years and were now trying to sell. Markets like this always fascinate me, no matter what the country. I’m convinced that you can tell a lot about a culture by its junk!
Yesterday was a good day too. Ryan and I had an interesting lunch at Ajisen, the cheap Japanese ramen place a block away from our apartment. We talk almost every day about our life and China. We talk about how we’re feeling about the whole situation that day and what we would do if we could just forget it and spend the rest of our lives as nomads. Spend three months in Qatar learning Arabic. Work in a pub in England. Work on an organic farm in Australia. Write a book. Float. What wouldn’t I do to just take off and float? And really, what do we do next if China kicks us out? Should we go home? Should we try another country? I hate this waiting game. I have that Paula Cole song, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” playing over and over in my head. “I don’t wanna wait for our lives to be over. I want to know right now what will it be.”…stay or go?
After that we went to a foreign bookstore to pick up some Lonely Planets: Japan and Australia. We decided that since we have some time, we might as well read up. If we have to leave China, we need to have a plan. If we stay, we’ll just postpone the plan a year until after we finish working. It’s a fun diversion from the waiting game.
Next, we caught a cab down to the fabric market just before it closed. We need outfits for four black tie nights on the cruise. Ryan had two tuxedos made. One looks a lot like the tux that James Bond wore in Casino Royale. Matte black, pointed lapels with a plain white collared shirt. The second one is a more classic British look (or so I’m told) with rounded lapels in black silk with a ruffled white shirt. We got both the suits and the shirts for about $295 and they’re be fitted exactly to Ryan’s body. Then we got a recommendation from our usual tailor for a dressmaker. I had two silk evening gowns made from pictures of a Calvin Klein dress I printed. One is dark navy blue and the other is bullet gray. If they come out like the picture, I’ll be looking pretty nice next to Ryan in his tuxes. Altogether the tailor-made dresses cost me about $120. Absurd considering the dress I modeled it after cost $238 for one dress!
We walked back to the subway station, a bit in shock of how much money we just spent. Rather than taking a $7 cab, we opted for the 75-cent subway ride ten stops back to Zhongshan Park. It was a long and crowded ride. We were shoulder to shoulder with the rush hour crowd for 7 stops. But, we did have the Japan Lonely Planet to keep us occupied and in the end, I was happy to have saved a little money. Every little bit counts when you’re unemployed.
So this is what the rhythm of our days look like here. We wake up late, work out in the empty gym and read travel books. It’s not a bad life at all really. Until that question starts gnawing at us…
We’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, here are the links to the photos from Melanie's visit and Beijing:
Melanie and I explore the Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2466906&l=b66bf&id=2209008
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467008&l=b763d&id=2209008
The Great Wall Experience: (a favorite)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467272&l=6006b&id=2209008
The Forbidden City, Tiananmen and the Olympic Park: (also a favorite)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2467500&l=2b5ba&id=2209008
Around Beijing:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2468586&l=88a75&id=2209008
Hutong (traditional Beijing neighborhood) Walking Tour:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2468954&l=ca22d&id=2209008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Melanie's visit and our trip to Beijing
Hey all,
Sorry it's been so long (again) but we've really had some problems accessing our blog in China. We can view it, but can't log in to publish anything. I think I've found a way around it though and we should be able to update a bit more regularly.
So to catch everyone up on the latest -
Alexa got laid off from English First a week and a half ago. Things had been really slow for a while due to the economy and because she was the last to be hired to the team, she was the first to be laid off. She didn't feel that the job was the right fit in the first place, plus, they gave her a nice severance package, so the layoff was ultimately a good thing. Unfortunately though, she now has less than a month to find a new job before her visa expires and she has to go home. She's got a couple potential opportunities in the works, so we'll keep you posted.
I'm still waiting on my work permit to come through. I should know whether it's going to work out in the next 2 weeks. If this doesn't come through, I'm not allowed to work in China and I have to come home. We just can't afford to hang out in China without the two incomes we were planning on from the start. I haven't worked since I arrived 9 weeks ago and it's really starting to take its toll.
So in short, unless my work permit comes through AND Alexa gets a job, we're coming home early. In a way, we'd feel defeated, but in another, it might be a relief to have something simply out of our control (the Chinese gov't) against us. Finally telling us that we can go with our dignity intact, never actually having given up.
Anyway... Our friend from Switzerland, Melanie (a girl I studied French with in France), came to visit us last week. We get to see her about every 6 months and it's always nice to catch up. She flew in early on the 3rd and I picked her up from the airport. We spent a bit of that day sleeping then met Alexa for lunch (on what would be her last day of work). I showed Mel around the town for a while that afternoon and we met Alexa here at the apartment after she got let go. She was in a great mood and we decided to live it up that night. We went out for dinner and had great foot massages.
We spent the rest of that weekend seeing the sights of Shanghai - the pearl market, the fabric market, the Bund, Pu Dong, etc but realized that we would run out of things to do during her 10 day stay. So, we decided to look into going to Beijing. The most common way to go is by overnight train. They have "soft sleeper" bunks that are four to a cabin and are really quite nice. We went to the train station to get tickets but were told that they were sold out and the only space they had were on "hard seats." The train is 12 hours and "hard seats" didn't appeal to us. We started looking into flights, but I realized that because my visa was being renewed and I didn't have my passport (it was at the visa center), I was unable to fly. Ultimately, I took the overnight train in a seat and the girls flew the next morning. The train was pretty rough. I didn't sleep much, but it ended up being ok. I arrived in Beijing several hours before they did and was able to get some sleep at the hotel.
We stayed at a 2ish star hotel toward the middle of of the city. It was nice enough but had some quirks. For example, the bathroom was the shower. There was simply a shower head on the wall of the bathroom and a drain in the floor. So everything got wet. Melanie's heater broke and they had to bring her a new one. Plus, the staff's english wasn't fantastic and it was kind of difficult to communicate. Other than that, it was close to the metro and wasn't too dirty so we can't really complain.
The first afternoon in Beijing was spent seeing the Temple of Heaven, an enormous temple complex in the center of the city that must have been more than 50 acres. It was pretty busy with tourists but still had a nice, peaceful sense to it. The buildings were beautiful and the walks through the green gardens were a nice break from the concrete expanse outside.
Afterwards, we visited the pearl market across the street (they sell all kinds of goods other than pearls) and we picked up a few gifts and necessities. That night, we planned on having Beijing Duck at a famous restaurant, but both the price and line were enormous. We walked down the street and stumbled upon a wonderful Japanese restaurant instead. That night, we collapsed from the long day and prepared ourselves for the next.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to meet our tour guide to see the great wall of China. He met us in the lobby at 7am for our long day of sightseeing. What we thought was going to be a full day at the wall turned into a full day of getting stuck in traffic and getting the run around by the guide. We spent the first 2 hours picking up other tour guests (the driver got lost at least twice) then were stuck in traffic all the way to our first stop: the Ming Tombs. The tombs are a worthy site unto themselves, but that's not what we were there for. Besides, we had to pay full admission price for what was a 45 minute tour not going in any of the tombs. Then we stopped at a jade museum - total tourist trap. It's this enormous jade factory/store with rediculously overpriced jade bracelets and carvings. They make their money on unwitting tourists who are simply shuttled there and led to believe that they're getting great deals on these "rare Chinese treasures - all major credit cards accepted." Having lived in China for a while now, I know a rip off when I see it and made sure to spread the word to the other guests about the deals they weren't getting.
We had lunch at the in house restaurant of western style Chinese food and continued on our way to the Wall (finally...). When we arrived at the parking lot, we realized that we were not the only people hoping to see the wall that day. I would estimate that about 75% of China's 1.5 billlion people wanted to see the wall that day too and were waiting in the same line. That would be bad enough, except that the Chinese don't wait in line. They cut, push and herd like no other culture I've ever seen. Beware of bottlenecks and Chinese tourists - we were nearly crushed as we were pushed ahead in line. Honestly, it was dangerous. People were yelling and shoving and nearly trying to climb over each other to get in line for the cable car up the mountain. You would think that there was a pot of gold at the top or something. After doing our fair share of pushing and waiting in line for the better part of 2 hours, we finally made it to what we were told was a cable car. Indeed, it was not. It was more akin to a roller coaster than a gondola style cable car. Individual cars were on a roller coaster track and were pulled up the side of the hill. Boarding the cars was a continuous effort as they did not stop moving. They were old and beat up and were not very confidence inspiring. Talbot family, think Ghost Town in the Sky and you get the idea. Others, think of what a theme park would look like if maintenance had not been performed since 1982. Even still, we made it to the top of the hill intact. When we climbed up the last few stairs onto the wall, we were greeted with one of those moments that you only have when standing in front of something you've always wanted to see. Think of seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty or something. We looked out and saw the ribbon of wall cresting the mountains for as far as we could see. Fortunately, the weather was perfect and the visibility was as good as we could have hoped for. We took tons of pictures (they'll be posted soon) and enjoyed a brief walk on the wall. The crowds were still heavy, but the wall is so long that you can find some space for yourself. Unfortunately, we had only an hour or so until we had to be back to the bus and we had to make our way down. The ride down the roller coaster was much better than the ride up and provided us with some decent views.
After the wall, we had a long, traffic congested ride back to town for our last stop at a silk factory/store. By this point, we were exhausted from all the time in the bus and would have rather skipped the tour. No dice. It was the same experience as the jade museum but with far less interest by the tour group. We had a brief look around and reconveined to leave, but the guide told us that we needed to stay longer. After pressing him, I learned that the tour company has a deal with this store and the jade store to take their customers there. However, we must stay for a certain amount of time so we had to sit around for another 20 minutes, awkwardly, complaining about our captivity. Finally, we were free to go and the bus dropped us off at a metro stop so we could go to dinner. We had already decided that we'd had enough adventure for one day and opted for Papa John's for dinner. As usual, a foot massage followed but this one was way overpriced and the man in the next room was sleeping and snoring loudly. Despite the dissappointments that day, seeing the wall made it all worth it.
Saturday was the Forbidden City, Tianmen Square and the Olympic Park. We woke up early again and headed out on the subway to the stop for Tianmen. When we emerged from the stairs, we were standing at the edge of the square looking out towards the gate of the Forbidden City (The big red gate with the picture of Chairman Mao on it). It was amazing to be there. It was another one of those "Whoa... I'm really here..." moments. From there, we toured the Forbidden City. It's the palace complex where many emperors ruled. It's "forbidden" because the common people were never allowed inside under punishment of death. The servants and concubines were often never allowed to leave either. After the communist revolution in 1949, the complex was opened to the public for the first time since it was built in 1405. It's very elaborate and and very crowded but big enough to find some space. Again, the flow through the city was impeded by several narrow doorways that caused immense pedestrian traffic jams (though much smaller than the ones at the wall) so we tended to stay to the outskirts and let the Chinese people see their palace.
We took pedicabs to a pedestrian street for lunch and headed back to Tianmen Square. It's the largest public gathering space in the world and I believe it. It has a few monuments and museums and is flanked by the people's congress building and the national museum of China. Quite impressive (if not imposing) looking buildings no doubt built to showcase the power of the government. Throughout the square, we never saw any mention of the demonstrations there nearly 20 years ago. It's like it never actually happened.
From Tianmen, we headed up to the Olympic Park to see the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Watercube natatorium. Again, quite a site, quite crowded and very impressive. At this point in the day, we were getting pretty tired of sightseeing and decided to head off to find foot massages and dinner. We ended up eating at a great Irish pub and having far cheaper and far better massages than the night before.
Finally, the last day in town, we decided to have a more relaxed day and see some of the old neighborhoods. We had a walk prescribed by our guidebooks that turned out to be pretty nice. We saw some great little streets full of old Chinese charm, some nice lakes with people enjoying some time on the water, and got a look at what everyday life looks like for everyday people. We finally got our Beijing duck for lunch but I don't think we ordered the right kind. It was terrible... all fat and too spicy. Lunch was fun though due to some comical complications with the squatting toilets, all of which will not be posted to a public blog, thank you very much.
After lunch, we climbed an ancient tower to get a view of the city. The tower was originally used as a public alert and announcement system and housed massive drums at the top. When the drums were beat, they could be heard for miles. We got to see a short drumming show while we were up there then made our way down, ears ringing. We taxied back to our hotel and decided just to take it easy for the last few hours until we had to leave. Alexa took a solid nap and Mel and I went to a nearby mall to get some coffee. We happened upon a concert in the mall of some up and coming Chinese pop stars. It was so funny to hear a concert where absolutely nothing was inteligible. The most amusing aspect of it were the guards posted throughout the 200 or so people. Police in full, crisp uniforms stood perfectly still watching over the crowd of 14-19yr old girls as if they were going to incite a riot. Very funny. I could tell that they weren't totally thrilled with the assignment but weren't totally upset either about watching some short-skirted pop singer dance around for an hour or two.
We came back, packed up and left. Alexa and Mel got to fly back to Shanghai via the brand new Beijing airport (one of the biggest and most spectacular in the world) and on a sparkling clean 747. Once again, I was on the 12 hour train. This time, it wasn't so bad. I had a soft sleeper and was able to sleep through the night and arrive refreshed the next morning. Honestly, given the choice of waking up super early to fly or take a sleeper train the night before, I might take the train. It was stress free and pretty easy. Not to mention, it was a third of the price.
We had one more day with Mel in Shanghai before she had to leave, so we went back to an area of town that she particularly liked, had lunch at a cool 50's American diner and got more massages. We headed down to the river to see the lights that night but were too late for most of them. A fitting farewell to Melanie from China.
She left in a cab early the next morning and Alexa and I have been hanging out at the apartment since. Alexa's got a pretty bad cold that she's waiting out and I'm continuing to try not to go crazy waiting for my work permit. I just got an email from my (future?) boss saying that it might be tougher to get than he thought because I don't have 2 years of relevant work experience. Again... China, do you really want us here? Is there any way to win?
Until next time, still unemployed, still being beat up by the Middle Kingdom on a daily basis,
Ryan
Sorry it's been so long (again) but we've really had some problems accessing our blog in China. We can view it, but can't log in to publish anything. I think I've found a way around it though and we should be able to update a bit more regularly.
So to catch everyone up on the latest -
Alexa got laid off from English First a week and a half ago. Things had been really slow for a while due to the economy and because she was the last to be hired to the team, she was the first to be laid off. She didn't feel that the job was the right fit in the first place, plus, they gave her a nice severance package, so the layoff was ultimately a good thing. Unfortunately though, she now has less than a month to find a new job before her visa expires and she has to go home. She's got a couple potential opportunities in the works, so we'll keep you posted.
I'm still waiting on my work permit to come through. I should know whether it's going to work out in the next 2 weeks. If this doesn't come through, I'm not allowed to work in China and I have to come home. We just can't afford to hang out in China without the two incomes we were planning on from the start. I haven't worked since I arrived 9 weeks ago and it's really starting to take its toll.
So in short, unless my work permit comes through AND Alexa gets a job, we're coming home early. In a way, we'd feel defeated, but in another, it might be a relief to have something simply out of our control (the Chinese gov't) against us. Finally telling us that we can go with our dignity intact, never actually having given up.
Anyway... Our friend from Switzerland, Melanie (a girl I studied French with in France), came to visit us last week. We get to see her about every 6 months and it's always nice to catch up. She flew in early on the 3rd and I picked her up from the airport. We spent a bit of that day sleeping then met Alexa for lunch (on what would be her last day of work). I showed Mel around the town for a while that afternoon and we met Alexa here at the apartment after she got let go. She was in a great mood and we decided to live it up that night. We went out for dinner and had great foot massages.
We spent the rest of that weekend seeing the sights of Shanghai - the pearl market, the fabric market, the Bund, Pu Dong, etc but realized that we would run out of things to do during her 10 day stay. So, we decided to look into going to Beijing. The most common way to go is by overnight train. They have "soft sleeper" bunks that are four to a cabin and are really quite nice. We went to the train station to get tickets but were told that they were sold out and the only space they had were on "hard seats." The train is 12 hours and "hard seats" didn't appeal to us. We started looking into flights, but I realized that because my visa was being renewed and I didn't have my passport (it was at the visa center), I was unable to fly. Ultimately, I took the overnight train in a seat and the girls flew the next morning. The train was pretty rough. I didn't sleep much, but it ended up being ok. I arrived in Beijing several hours before they did and was able to get some sleep at the hotel.
We stayed at a 2ish star hotel toward the middle of of the city. It was nice enough but had some quirks. For example, the bathroom was the shower. There was simply a shower head on the wall of the bathroom and a drain in the floor. So everything got wet. Melanie's heater broke and they had to bring her a new one. Plus, the staff's english wasn't fantastic and it was kind of difficult to communicate. Other than that, it was close to the metro and wasn't too dirty so we can't really complain.
The first afternoon in Beijing was spent seeing the Temple of Heaven, an enormous temple complex in the center of the city that must have been more than 50 acres. It was pretty busy with tourists but still had a nice, peaceful sense to it. The buildings were beautiful and the walks through the green gardens were a nice break from the concrete expanse outside.
Afterwards, we visited the pearl market across the street (they sell all kinds of goods other than pearls) and we picked up a few gifts and necessities. That night, we planned on having Beijing Duck at a famous restaurant, but both the price and line were enormous. We walked down the street and stumbled upon a wonderful Japanese restaurant instead. That night, we collapsed from the long day and prepared ourselves for the next.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to meet our tour guide to see the great wall of China. He met us in the lobby at 7am for our long day of sightseeing. What we thought was going to be a full day at the wall turned into a full day of getting stuck in traffic and getting the run around by the guide. We spent the first 2 hours picking up other tour guests (the driver got lost at least twice) then were stuck in traffic all the way to our first stop: the Ming Tombs. The tombs are a worthy site unto themselves, but that's not what we were there for. Besides, we had to pay full admission price for what was a 45 minute tour not going in any of the tombs. Then we stopped at a jade museum - total tourist trap. It's this enormous jade factory/store with rediculously overpriced jade bracelets and carvings. They make their money on unwitting tourists who are simply shuttled there and led to believe that they're getting great deals on these "rare Chinese treasures - all major credit cards accepted." Having lived in China for a while now, I know a rip off when I see it and made sure to spread the word to the other guests about the deals they weren't getting.
We had lunch at the in house restaurant of western style Chinese food and continued on our way to the Wall (finally...). When we arrived at the parking lot, we realized that we were not the only people hoping to see the wall that day. I would estimate that about 75% of China's 1.5 billlion people wanted to see the wall that day too and were waiting in the same line. That would be bad enough, except that the Chinese don't wait in line. They cut, push and herd like no other culture I've ever seen. Beware of bottlenecks and Chinese tourists - we were nearly crushed as we were pushed ahead in line. Honestly, it was dangerous. People were yelling and shoving and nearly trying to climb over each other to get in line for the cable car up the mountain. You would think that there was a pot of gold at the top or something. After doing our fair share of pushing and waiting in line for the better part of 2 hours, we finally made it to what we were told was a cable car. Indeed, it was not. It was more akin to a roller coaster than a gondola style cable car. Individual cars were on a roller coaster track and were pulled up the side of the hill. Boarding the cars was a continuous effort as they did not stop moving. They were old and beat up and were not very confidence inspiring. Talbot family, think Ghost Town in the Sky and you get the idea. Others, think of what a theme park would look like if maintenance had not been performed since 1982. Even still, we made it to the top of the hill intact. When we climbed up the last few stairs onto the wall, we were greeted with one of those moments that you only have when standing in front of something you've always wanted to see. Think of seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Statue of Liberty or something. We looked out and saw the ribbon of wall cresting the mountains for as far as we could see. Fortunately, the weather was perfect and the visibility was as good as we could have hoped for. We took tons of pictures (they'll be posted soon) and enjoyed a brief walk on the wall. The crowds were still heavy, but the wall is so long that you can find some space for yourself. Unfortunately, we had only an hour or so until we had to be back to the bus and we had to make our way down. The ride down the roller coaster was much better than the ride up and provided us with some decent views.
After the wall, we had a long, traffic congested ride back to town for our last stop at a silk factory/store. By this point, we were exhausted from all the time in the bus and would have rather skipped the tour. No dice. It was the same experience as the jade museum but with far less interest by the tour group. We had a brief look around and reconveined to leave, but the guide told us that we needed to stay longer. After pressing him, I learned that the tour company has a deal with this store and the jade store to take their customers there. However, we must stay for a certain amount of time so we had to sit around for another 20 minutes, awkwardly, complaining about our captivity. Finally, we were free to go and the bus dropped us off at a metro stop so we could go to dinner. We had already decided that we'd had enough adventure for one day and opted for Papa John's for dinner. As usual, a foot massage followed but this one was way overpriced and the man in the next room was sleeping and snoring loudly. Despite the dissappointments that day, seeing the wall made it all worth it.
Saturday was the Forbidden City, Tianmen Square and the Olympic Park. We woke up early again and headed out on the subway to the stop for Tianmen. When we emerged from the stairs, we were standing at the edge of the square looking out towards the gate of the Forbidden City (The big red gate with the picture of Chairman Mao on it). It was amazing to be there. It was another one of those "Whoa... I'm really here..." moments. From there, we toured the Forbidden City. It's the palace complex where many emperors ruled. It's "forbidden" because the common people were never allowed inside under punishment of death. The servants and concubines were often never allowed to leave either. After the communist revolution in 1949, the complex was opened to the public for the first time since it was built in 1405. It's very elaborate and and very crowded but big enough to find some space. Again, the flow through the city was impeded by several narrow doorways that caused immense pedestrian traffic jams (though much smaller than the ones at the wall) so we tended to stay to the outskirts and let the Chinese people see their palace.
We took pedicabs to a pedestrian street for lunch and headed back to Tianmen Square. It's the largest public gathering space in the world and I believe it. It has a few monuments and museums and is flanked by the people's congress building and the national museum of China. Quite impressive (if not imposing) looking buildings no doubt built to showcase the power of the government. Throughout the square, we never saw any mention of the demonstrations there nearly 20 years ago. It's like it never actually happened.
From Tianmen, we headed up to the Olympic Park to see the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Watercube natatorium. Again, quite a site, quite crowded and very impressive. At this point in the day, we were getting pretty tired of sightseeing and decided to head off to find foot massages and dinner. We ended up eating at a great Irish pub and having far cheaper and far better massages than the night before.
Finally, the last day in town, we decided to have a more relaxed day and see some of the old neighborhoods. We had a walk prescribed by our guidebooks that turned out to be pretty nice. We saw some great little streets full of old Chinese charm, some nice lakes with people enjoying some time on the water, and got a look at what everyday life looks like for everyday people. We finally got our Beijing duck for lunch but I don't think we ordered the right kind. It was terrible... all fat and too spicy. Lunch was fun though due to some comical complications with the squatting toilets, all of which will not be posted to a public blog, thank you very much.
After lunch, we climbed an ancient tower to get a view of the city. The tower was originally used as a public alert and announcement system and housed massive drums at the top. When the drums were beat, they could be heard for miles. We got to see a short drumming show while we were up there then made our way down, ears ringing. We taxied back to our hotel and decided just to take it easy for the last few hours until we had to leave. Alexa took a solid nap and Mel and I went to a nearby mall to get some coffee. We happened upon a concert in the mall of some up and coming Chinese pop stars. It was so funny to hear a concert where absolutely nothing was inteligible. The most amusing aspect of it were the guards posted throughout the 200 or so people. Police in full, crisp uniforms stood perfectly still watching over the crowd of 14-19yr old girls as if they were going to incite a riot. Very funny. I could tell that they weren't totally thrilled with the assignment but weren't totally upset either about watching some short-skirted pop singer dance around for an hour or two.
We came back, packed up and left. Alexa and Mel got to fly back to Shanghai via the brand new Beijing airport (one of the biggest and most spectacular in the world) and on a sparkling clean 747. Once again, I was on the 12 hour train. This time, it wasn't so bad. I had a soft sleeper and was able to sleep through the night and arrive refreshed the next morning. Honestly, given the choice of waking up super early to fly or take a sleeper train the night before, I might take the train. It was stress free and pretty easy. Not to mention, it was a third of the price.
We had one more day with Mel in Shanghai before she had to leave, so we went back to an area of town that she particularly liked, had lunch at a cool 50's American diner and got more massages. We headed down to the river to see the lights that night but were too late for most of them. A fitting farewell to Melanie from China.
She left in a cab early the next morning and Alexa and I have been hanging out at the apartment since. Alexa's got a pretty bad cold that she's waiting out and I'm continuing to try not to go crazy waiting for my work permit. I just got an email from my (future?) boss saying that it might be tougher to get than he thought because I don't have 2 years of relevant work experience. Again... China, do you really want us here? Is there any way to win?
Until next time, still unemployed, still being beat up by the Middle Kingdom on a daily basis,
Ryan
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
As if it couldn't get any worse...
I got let go from EF today. Fired.
"They hired too many people."
And now I'm free.
"They hired too many people."
And now I'm free.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Photos of the Apartment!
Hey everyone. Finally, here is the link to the pictures of our apartment: the safe haven...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2457794&l=5a02e&id=2204920
Enjoy and remember that you are all invited to come stay with us!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2457794&l=5a02e&id=2204920
Enjoy and remember that you are all invited to come stay with us!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
And another couple of weeks go by with out a post…
You just can’t keep up here. I mean really, the pace of life is just too fast. Although, this week seems a little slower. It’s National Day (the founding of the People’s Republic of China) today. People take the whole week off. Well, they work the weekend before so that they can take five straight days. (In contrast to the French who would see it as a perfect excuse to “faire le pont” – literally “make the bridge” – by taking the whole week off and never think twice about not working!). In China, workers get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, but they work Saturday and Sunday to get Monday and Tuesday off.
Anyways, there’s a change in the air. People are walking the sidewalks slower. They’re strolling. No one’s rushing about. It’s weird actually. And I can actually get a seat in the morning on the subway. It’s eerily empty. Maybe that part is kind of refreshing. But it’s hard not to run at full tilt when I’ve been fighting my way through the metro every day for the last two months.
Unlike all my coworkers, I didn’t work the weekend. I’m trying to work this week like normal so that I can bank the holidays for later when Ryan and I have the money to travel. I thought it would be great. No one around to compete with. No one talking while I’m trying to conduct interviews. And then I get to use those vacation days whenever I want. But, it’s not working out so well. I guess they use the holiday as a time to do all the maintenance in the building. They’re tearing up the stairs right now. I’m absolutely blasting the Beach Boys on my I-pod to block out the noise. It’s happy music. And it makes me laugh at how absurd it is to be sitting here in a completely empty office, staring blankly at my computer screen, waiting for an email to pop into my inbox while they’re hammering away downstairs, wishing I was at the beach. Oh China…I can’t win.
In other news, our good friend, Melanie, from Switzerland is coming to visit on Friday! It’s so amazing that she’s actually coming. She works for Swiss (airline), so she can fly standby. It’s just cool when you talk about someone coming to visit you and then they actually come! I mean, we talked about her coming out when we were sitting in a café in Budapest in February. We’ve now seen her in France, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and now China. Pretty cool.
I’m really excited to see her, but I’m a bit worried about how I will do as a tour guide/host. France I could do with my eyes closed. I spoke the language. I knew what to expect. I knew where to take people for the “wow factor.” But here, I still get cheated. I can barely direct a taxi. I’ve been to the Bund (the main tourist area) once. I eat the same food every day to save money. I mean, seriously, when I get home from work all I want to do is go to the gym and watch one of the hundreds of DVDs we got from Sue Foster (Side note: Sue sent over a box containing literally hundreds of DVDs for us! We won’t need to ever buy another DVD in China). I’m sure we’ll find good things to show Mel. Foot massages every day, right? Can’t be too bad a vacation if that’s all you do.
I just wish I liked China more. When you love a place, visitors get to see the good side through your eyes. I just want her to have a good time, despite the fact that we’re still trying to understand why we’re in Shanghai.
The apartment continues to be the best thing about China thus far. It is so comfortable and nice to come home to. We do have a maid – an “ayi” (sounds like “I-E”) as they call them here. Her name is Zhang and she’s like the sweetest little Chinese woman ever. She charges us a whopping 20 RMB (the equivalent of $2.90 USD) an hour. She speaks one word of English (“bye”), but we communicate somehow. We just end up laughing. It’s these kind of exchanges that are so nice in China. She doesn’t get mad at us for not speaking Chinese and we don’t get mad at her for not speaking English. It’s just a fact of life. She comes three times a week. One solid day of cleaning and laundry and two short days of light cleaning and cooking. I’ve eaten her vegetarian dumplings three nights in a row now. I could eat them all month! It’s actually saving us money in that sense. Ryan and I would go to Carrefour and drop $50 on groceries buying Western foods (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are still a staple). But Zhang goes, buys Chinese foods and brings us a receipt for $4. I can eat four meals for like $10 when she cooks. She does have an advantage though. She can actually read the labels! I might buy Chinese food too if I could read the ingredients…except for the milk of course…That whole scandal is absolutely horrific. I mean, the US adds bad things to its milk, but they do it indirectly through the cows. In the PRC, they just add the chemicals directly to the milk! Way to go.
Other than that, I’m getting through. I go to work. I come home. Ryan and I hang out. I go to bed. My happiest times each day are spent kicking back in front of the TV with Ryan, watching Blue Planet and sometimes CNN (Only when they’re making fun of Sarah Palin. Not when they’re talking about the US economy going down the tube.), eating Zhang’s delicious dumplings. Other than that, I worry a lot. The fire drained my savings and with Ryan not working yet (more on that in a second), we are actually broke. We’ve paid off our rent until December, but all the money I earn right now from EF will go into saving for the next three installments. Literally, all of my salary goes to the apartment. I have 5 RMB (about 65 cents) leftover. It’s a great place to live and I probably wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s where I can turn off China and that’s invaluable. But, it comes at a price. We just thought Ryan would be working by now, almost 8 weeks after we arrived in Shanghai.
Ryan’s tourist visa expires next Saturday. We will have been in the country for 60 days. Lenox is trying to work things out with Deloitte. It looks like Ryan will have to leave the country, perhaps go to Japan or Thailand to renew his tourist visa. The company needs to apply for a work permit, which can take weeks. Then he will need to go back to the States at a later point to apply for a work visa. But the real problem is that during this whole time while they're figuring out the logistics, we won’t have the two incomes we were counting on when we signed our lease.
Adult problems. This is what I keep thinking. This is what it’s like to be an adult, to constantly worry about money. I mean, thank god Ryan and I are on the same page, or our relationship would be taking a hit. But, it’s tough. I know there are people worse off, much worse off. It’s not that I’m feeling sorry for myself. I’m still grateful that I have a job, that I’m trying to live my dream, that I had the courage to come over here. It’s just a lot harder that I imagined.
At least we don’t have expensive tastes. I mean, I can eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for days on end to save a buck. But, it’s out of our control which is the frustrating part. We came here to work. We came here to live a modest life and save a little bit of money. Ryan can’t even work, so our modest lifestyle is looking more and more glum. It’s turning into the same meals every single day and not going out with friends because we can’t afford it.
Not exactly what I dreamt about…
You just can’t keep up here. I mean really, the pace of life is just too fast. Although, this week seems a little slower. It’s National Day (the founding of the People’s Republic of China) today. People take the whole week off. Well, they work the weekend before so that they can take five straight days. (In contrast to the French who would see it as a perfect excuse to “faire le pont” – literally “make the bridge” – by taking the whole week off and never think twice about not working!). In China, workers get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, but they work Saturday and Sunday to get Monday and Tuesday off.
Anyways, there’s a change in the air. People are walking the sidewalks slower. They’re strolling. No one’s rushing about. It’s weird actually. And I can actually get a seat in the morning on the subway. It’s eerily empty. Maybe that part is kind of refreshing. But it’s hard not to run at full tilt when I’ve been fighting my way through the metro every day for the last two months.
Unlike all my coworkers, I didn’t work the weekend. I’m trying to work this week like normal so that I can bank the holidays for later when Ryan and I have the money to travel. I thought it would be great. No one around to compete with. No one talking while I’m trying to conduct interviews. And then I get to use those vacation days whenever I want. But, it’s not working out so well. I guess they use the holiday as a time to do all the maintenance in the building. They’re tearing up the stairs right now. I’m absolutely blasting the Beach Boys on my I-pod to block out the noise. It’s happy music. And it makes me laugh at how absurd it is to be sitting here in a completely empty office, staring blankly at my computer screen, waiting for an email to pop into my inbox while they’re hammering away downstairs, wishing I was at the beach. Oh China…I can’t win.
In other news, our good friend, Melanie, from Switzerland is coming to visit on Friday! It’s so amazing that she’s actually coming. She works for Swiss (airline), so she can fly standby. It’s just cool when you talk about someone coming to visit you and then they actually come! I mean, we talked about her coming out when we were sitting in a café in Budapest in February. We’ve now seen her in France, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and now China. Pretty cool.
I’m really excited to see her, but I’m a bit worried about how I will do as a tour guide/host. France I could do with my eyes closed. I spoke the language. I knew what to expect. I knew where to take people for the “wow factor.” But here, I still get cheated. I can barely direct a taxi. I’ve been to the Bund (the main tourist area) once. I eat the same food every day to save money. I mean, seriously, when I get home from work all I want to do is go to the gym and watch one of the hundreds of DVDs we got from Sue Foster (Side note: Sue sent over a box containing literally hundreds of DVDs for us! We won’t need to ever buy another DVD in China). I’m sure we’ll find good things to show Mel. Foot massages every day, right? Can’t be too bad a vacation if that’s all you do.
I just wish I liked China more. When you love a place, visitors get to see the good side through your eyes. I just want her to have a good time, despite the fact that we’re still trying to understand why we’re in Shanghai.
The apartment continues to be the best thing about China thus far. It is so comfortable and nice to come home to. We do have a maid – an “ayi” (sounds like “I-E”) as they call them here. Her name is Zhang and she’s like the sweetest little Chinese woman ever. She charges us a whopping 20 RMB (the equivalent of $2.90 USD) an hour. She speaks one word of English (“bye”), but we communicate somehow. We just end up laughing. It’s these kind of exchanges that are so nice in China. She doesn’t get mad at us for not speaking Chinese and we don’t get mad at her for not speaking English. It’s just a fact of life. She comes three times a week. One solid day of cleaning and laundry and two short days of light cleaning and cooking. I’ve eaten her vegetarian dumplings three nights in a row now. I could eat them all month! It’s actually saving us money in that sense. Ryan and I would go to Carrefour and drop $50 on groceries buying Western foods (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are still a staple). But Zhang goes, buys Chinese foods and brings us a receipt for $4. I can eat four meals for like $10 when she cooks. She does have an advantage though. She can actually read the labels! I might buy Chinese food too if I could read the ingredients…except for the milk of course…That whole scandal is absolutely horrific. I mean, the US adds bad things to its milk, but they do it indirectly through the cows. In the PRC, they just add the chemicals directly to the milk! Way to go.
Other than that, I’m getting through. I go to work. I come home. Ryan and I hang out. I go to bed. My happiest times each day are spent kicking back in front of the TV with Ryan, watching Blue Planet and sometimes CNN (Only when they’re making fun of Sarah Palin. Not when they’re talking about the US economy going down the tube.), eating Zhang’s delicious dumplings. Other than that, I worry a lot. The fire drained my savings and with Ryan not working yet (more on that in a second), we are actually broke. We’ve paid off our rent until December, but all the money I earn right now from EF will go into saving for the next three installments. Literally, all of my salary goes to the apartment. I have 5 RMB (about 65 cents) leftover. It’s a great place to live and I probably wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s where I can turn off China and that’s invaluable. But, it comes at a price. We just thought Ryan would be working by now, almost 8 weeks after we arrived in Shanghai.
Ryan’s tourist visa expires next Saturday. We will have been in the country for 60 days. Lenox is trying to work things out with Deloitte. It looks like Ryan will have to leave the country, perhaps go to Japan or Thailand to renew his tourist visa. The company needs to apply for a work permit, which can take weeks. Then he will need to go back to the States at a later point to apply for a work visa. But the real problem is that during this whole time while they're figuring out the logistics, we won’t have the two incomes we were counting on when we signed our lease.
Adult problems. This is what I keep thinking. This is what it’s like to be an adult, to constantly worry about money. I mean, thank god Ryan and I are on the same page, or our relationship would be taking a hit. But, it’s tough. I know there are people worse off, much worse off. It’s not that I’m feeling sorry for myself. I’m still grateful that I have a job, that I’m trying to live my dream, that I had the courage to come over here. It’s just a lot harder that I imagined.
At least we don’t have expensive tastes. I mean, I can eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for days on end to save a buck. But, it’s out of our control which is the frustrating part. We came here to work. We came here to live a modest life and save a little bit of money. Ryan can’t even work, so our modest lifestyle is looking more and more glum. It’s turning into the same meals every single day and not going out with friends because we can’t afford it.
Not exactly what I dreamt about…
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The Mega Post
…Where do we start? Sorry for the distinct lack of blog updates, but as many of you know, we’ve had quite a, shall we say…trying recent few weeks. So much has happened since we last posted that we scarcely know where to start.
The past three weeks have included a hundred-year flood, a challenging weekend trip, a house fire and a seemingly endless search for the perfect apartment. Obviously, this is a lot to catch up on, but we’ll do our best to tell it like it happened.
August 25: The day it rained. (Written just days after the events)
Hey all. Ryan here. I though I’d fill you in on the events from Monday of this week. Since I’m still technically unemployed, I spend many of my mornings hanging out at the house. I normally meet Alexa for lunch and spend the afternoon in town. Since I feel like I get to spend so little time with her, as she goes to bed so early, I normally get up with her at 5:45 to have breakfast and hang out with her while she’s getting ready.
Monday morning, we awoke to an enormous thunderstorm. The rain was falling like someone was holding a fire hose off the roof and the thunder and lightning kept ripping across the sky. Apparently, we were experiencing the remnants of a tropical storm that had battered Hong Kong the day before.
Andy, the driver, has the day off on Monday so Alexa called for a cab to get to the metro station. The guard at the front gate who hails cabs sounded bewildered on the other end, but said he would do his best. So, we sat in the living room watching the storm out the window for about 20 minutes while we waited. The storm kept getting worse but Alexa still had to get to work, so we called the front gate again. The guard said that he was trying but now would call the dispatcher number for us. We figured that from then on, we would wait in the garage so she could be ready to jump in right away.
As many of you saw, this house is built with a sunken garage that leads into the basement. The driveway slopes downward to the house and there is a large grated drain that stretches the width of the driveway right as it meets the garage. When we opened the garage door, the drain was doing its job and was whisking the water away without complaint. But just then, the real storm started. The rainfall went from very heavy to completely surreal. Growing up in Michigan, I’ve seen some pretty amazing rainfall, but nothing could have prepared me for this. It was as if the garage was one of those caves behind a waterfall. Alexa’s cab finally arrived and she did her best to stay upright under what must have been an immensely heavy and overwhelmed umbrella as she walked up the driveway. I was so astonished at the sheer volume of water coming down that I almost didn’t notice the water pooling on top of the drain. It just couldn’t keep up with the rain and the garage began to flood. The water started to inch its way toward the back and I immediately knew that we had a major problem on our hands.
With Alexa pulling away in the cab, I had to change gears into survival mode. I decided that the best way to prevent the house from being flooded was to build a dam in front of the man-door to the garage. I found old newspapers and magazines and did what I could to stem the flow. My levee held for a while, but the water kept rising and finding cracks to penetrate and soon it was making its way into the house under the door.
Have any of you ever flushed the toilet at your friend’s house only to watch the water rise further and further toward the brim? Do you know that terrible realization, that creeping panic brought about by an unstoppable force of catastrophe? Yeah? My sentiments exactly. There I was – alone, in a foreign country, in the house of people I’ve gotten to know for only a few days – watching this disaster unfold in slow motion. The rain kept pace and the water, now filling the garage, had only one place to go – the Gougarty’s basement. I left my newspaper dam and went inside to move any valuables off the floor and enlist the help of all the towels I could get my hands on. I stuffed them under the door and held them in place on either side of the landing, but my efforts could only mitigate the water’s progress so much. I got on the phone with Alexa to tell her to come home to help and I found that trouble had come to both of us that day. This rainstorm, which we later found out caused hundred year flooding, had made the roads impassible. The scene on the street was like something from Katrina. In some places the water was so deep that it was coming in the side of the taxi. In others, it reached the top of truck tires. She had gone about a mile when the taxi driver decided to turn back. By the time she got home, the flood had covered several hundred square feet of basement space and was still pouring in through the door. I was doing my best to hold my dams in place (each one holding back another inch or two of water) and she got right in to help, looking like a drowned rat wearing a silk skirt. The rain continued for another 20 minutes before starting to let up, letting the drain relieve the water from the garage.
From there, it was a long morning of mopping up the basement. A carpeted storage room, adjacent to the garage door, had flooded severely and after we soaked as much water from the carpet as we could, plugged in a fan to dry the carpet (remember this detail). We emailed Nancy, the owner of the house and currently out of the country for 6 weeks, to explain what had happened. She sounded concerned, but grateful that we were there and said she would call the front desk of the club house to arrange for professional cleaners.
After the basement was as dry as we could get it, we retired upstairs to wait out the rest of the storm. Alexa finally made it to work that afternoon. No one said that moving to China would be easy.
August 29-31: Our weekend in Hangzhou
After the excitement of the flood finally started to subside, we decided that we needed a weekend away from the city. We had heard that a nearby town called Hangzhou (pronounced “hong-joe”) offered a retreat from the busy life in Shanghai. With plenty of cheap hotels, a peaceful lake, and the award for China’s best tourist city, we didn’t’ hesitate to buy train tickets and book a hostel. The rest of the week, we eagerly anticipated what we thought would be a relaxing weekend away.
With our suitcases packed, Ryan met me as I left work to grab a quick dinner and head for the train station. After a light Western dinner at Jamaica Blue (which has become one of our favorite haunts), we rolled our suitcases onto the street in front of Le Meriden hotel. A red taxi driver called out, “Airport?” “No, train station.” He started to open his trunk and lift our bags. “100 RMB.” Yeah, right. It should only cost like 40. We lifted our bags out and kept walking. I remember thinking how proud I was that for once, we weren’t the stupid tourists. It seems like we’re always walking around with this sign on our foreheads that says, “Please, take my money.” Not this time. But, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when the taxi driver just sat there, waiting to prey on the next unsuspecting foreigner. I have heard that the Chinese pride themselves on being clever. Sure, they can outsmart the naive laowai, but at what cost to their integrity? Their value system is just totally different here.
When we found a cab to take us to the train station, we got stuck in horrific elevated road traffic and it took us an hour and a half to make it to the south station. We ran to our platform and barely had a moment to sit down before the train started pulling away. We rode most of the way in silence, tired and frustrated from our intense run.
At the Hangzhou station, we exited along with the other thousand or so people on the train. It always amazes me to be amongst so many black heads all moving in the same direction. It’s like salmon swimming, bouncing off each other, fighting their way upstream. Outside, we searched for our bus. But of course, after starring blankly at the bus map, which was written exclusively in Chinese characters, for ten minutes, a young man told us that the buses stop running at 10. It was 10:30. This kid, who couldn’t have been more than 19, told us that we were the first foreigners he had ever spoken to.
He directed us to a cabstand, where a line of a 100 people stood waiting. We waited our turn, balking at the people jumping line. Finally at the front, we climbed in a cab and proceeded to get totally lost on the way to the hostel. That’s the problem with cabs in China. Most of them have no idea where they’re going. The demand for taxis has risen so much in the last year that the cities have released thousands of completely unqualified drivers to catch up. After all, this isn’t London. The taxi drivers here don’t need to pass a test to drive. Anyways, the worst part of it is that you don’t know if the driver is actually lost or if he’s just driving in circles to run up the meter. How were we to know?
We finally made it to the West Lake Guesthouse. We dragged our stuff into our tiny $15-a-night room and collapsed on the beds only to find out that they were more like felt-covered cement blocks nearing producing concussions upon impact. “I want to go home,” I said as I reached for the light. It would not be the last time I uttered those words that weekend.
After a restless night, we were delighted to hear that the guesthouse served a full English breakfast. We ate our breakfast happily, feeling more optimistic about the day as we planned what we wanted to see. There was the West Lake, the Leifeng pagoda, the Linying Temple…We decided to rent bikes and explore the city that way. The government subsidizes these orange tourist bikes, so it only cost 2 RMB (25 cents) an hour after a 300 RMB deposit. Hoping to ride by the lake, we were really disappointed when the security guards shooed us away from the path next to the water. We were forced to ride with the cars on the street. After being passed by trucks that looked like they were from Inner Mongolia, we had inhaled more diesel smoke in an hour than we do in Shanghai in a day. We stopped riding to buy a cold drink at a café. The waiters brought out the English menu, something of which I have grown increasingly weary. The Chinese menu has the real prices, while the English menu has the “special friend” prices. We paid 28 RMB each ($4) for a ginger ale. A total rip off, but we were too beaten down to argue. “I want to go home.”
We spent the day riding around the road that runs near the Lake. It was pretty and lined with plain trees. That afternoon, we sucked it up (the smog that is) and rode to the Leifeng pagoda. The view was beautiful. That night we went into town to see the night market. It was the kind of thing one expects to see in China, bustling with vendors and red lanterns. We took a lot of pictures that day:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448301&l=b6b92&id=2209008 (Hangzhou Day Photos)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448616&l=7f01b&id=2209008 (Hangzhou Night Photos)
The next day, it was pouring when we woke up. We groaned getting out of bed. Both of us had sore backs from the rock mattresses. Luckily, the rain stopped while we were having breakfast. We decided to go to the Linying Temple, which is just outside Hangzhou in the surrounding mountains. Determined not to get ripped off in a taxi, we boarded a 3 RMB (40 cents) bus bound for the suburbs. When the bus stopped at the end of the line, we had no idea where to go and it began to pour again. We ducked into a shop selling incense and prayer candles. The rain didn’t stop. It was miserable. “I want to go home.”
We grabbed a taxi, ditching our plans to visit the Buddhist temple, and decided to go into the city to get foot massages, or “footeh massahjeh” as we lovingly call them after the Chinese pronunciation. Without hesitation, we bought the 90-minute deluxe special. We had out own private room and we relaxed in the beds as the masseuses worked out the stress in our feet. It was then and there that Ryan and I decided we should just go on a foot massage tour of the Middle Kingdom and call it a day.
After the massages, we felt strong enough to give the Linying temple another shot. We took the bus to the end of the line again and walked to the temple. It was surreal. There were Chinese tourist groups shouting over microphones as far as the eye could see. “I think they just like the sound of their own voices,” Ryan muttered. We were getting so cynical at this point. It was hard to hold it back. But the temple was amazing. It was calm and quiet in the courtyards between the buildings and people were actually burning incense and praying. It seemed that the worshippers outnumbered the tourists. We watched in awe for an hour or so before it was time to leave. It was so peaceful until I realized that I had 28 (!) bug bites (19 on one leg)…
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448739&l=d3c7f&id=2209008 (Linying Temple Photos)
All in all, our trip to Hangzhou was not what we expected. But this is China, and we’ve learned that we have to check our expectations at the door.
September 1: The Fire
As many of you know, the major event defining our last several weeks here has been a massive house fire in our host's basement. To summarize, a fire broke out while Alexa and I were at the gym on the evening of September 1. The fire was apparently caused by faulty wiring and burned out a large storage room. The smoke damage was heavy throughout the house and many items have to be replaced. Nancy, the owner, flew back from the US on an emergency flight the day after to attend to the situation. No one was hurt, but we suffered very heavy losses. Nancy lost most of her furniture and personal effects to the smoke and Alexa and I have estimated our losses at about $6,000. Luckily, our stuff is going to be covered by Nancy's insurance so it's more of a hassle than a disaster. We've moved out of the burned house into an empty one down the street.
The cleanup process has been lengthy but not as difficult as I had imagined. Nancy has enlisted the help of an army of maids and movers to move her smoke damaged things out of the house and clean them if possible. Our stuff has been handled by a man who I am convinced is the nicest in China. His name is Xu Bing (Shoo-Been) and he is a friend of a friend. He works as a taxi driver and knows just about anything one would want to know about where to go to get things done. He has taken load after load of our stuff off to be cleaned - clothes, computers, toiletries, books, etc. He just knows where to take them (something Alexa and I wouldn't figure out in a million years) and returns a couple days later with clean belongings and receipts. It's been so great to have that burden lifted. All of our stuff smelled like smoke and while a good portion of it wasn't salvageable, Xu did manage to save about 80% of it. He has saved us literally thousands of dollars in replacement costs and an even greater amount of headache and stress. Other friends have stepped up and offered support as well. Wei Tan, a coworker of Alexa's mom, Pat, and a Shanghai native has been priceless and a friend of hers, Sue Foster, is the one who connected us to Xu.
Now that the fire has been put out for 2 weeks, life is starting to resemble something like it once was. Most of our stuff smells normal again and we don't spend most of our day covered in soot. Every once in a while, we'll catch a whiff it though, and it reminds us how far we've come in 14 days.
For a more detailed account of the fire, here is the document that Alexa and I wrote up the night of the fire to organize our thoughts and get all the details on paper. We based our testimony on this when we met with the fire department the next day.
Timeline of events: Taken from the testimony we typed up the night of the fire. Pretty boring unless you want to know all the little details and really understand just how absurd this experience was.
8-31 – Around 10:30, Alexa and I arrived home from the train station from Hangzhou. Andy picked us up from the Shanghai south railway station and dropped us off at the garage. We walked in the house and noticed that it felt warmer than usual in the basement. We checked the thermostat and saw that it was set to 69 F but the room temperature was 76 F. The switches were set to “On” and “Cool” and had been so the entire weekend, so the house ought to have been cool. Air was still flowing out of the vents. The AC was still working fine upstairs.
9-1 - Around 5 a.m., we awoke to find that the blower had stopped. I checked the thermostat and saw that it was completely dead – no lights or numbers on the display. The switches were in the same position as before. We woke up the next morning to the same status. I remained home for much of that day but didn’t spend any time in the basement. After alexa returned home at about 17:10, she reminded me to call the front desk to request that the AC system be repaired. I phoned the front desk and they said that a repairman would arrive shortly. The repairman showed up about 20 minutes later. Alexa and I were planning on going to the gym but I wanted to make sure that the repair was finished. She left ahead of me for the gym at about 17:35. I speak essentially no Chinese and the man spoke no English, so the communication was mostly non-verbal. I first showed him that the main floor thermostat was working properly, then had him follow me to the downstairs thermostat to demonstrate that it was not working. He took the cover off and started to work on the wiring. At that point, I left him to do his work and went to get ready for the gym. I noticed that he, at one point, was working in the electrical room just off the main bar room of the basement. He must have flipped a circuit breaker, because he demonstrated that the thermostat was now working. I checked the airflow from the vent in our bedroom (the one across from the main downstairs bathroom) and found that it was working and cooling. I left again and came back down the stairs to see that he was walking out the house-garage door. He seemed to indicate to me that he had finished his work and was leaving. I got on a bike and started to head up the driveway. I did my best to explain to him that if he needed to go in and keep working, the door was unlocked and he was free to do so. I left for the gym at about 17:45.
Alexa and I remained at the gym (located at the clubhouse) until roughly 18:40. We rode our bikes home and pulled into the garage. As we walked toward the man-door to the house, I heard what sounded like what could have been fire. Alexa remembers smelling something burning. I put my hand against the door to feel for heat, but finding it cool, I opened it. As soon as it was cracked open, thick, black smoke billowed out. I quickly shut the door and we ran out of the garage. Just as we reached the street, we saw a guard on a bike riding toward the house. We yelled FIRE but he seemed to already know that something was wrong. We guessed that he was the first response to the fire alarm. He saw the smoke that had been let out from the garage door and immediately got on his radio to alert the other guards. Not knowing where the fire was coming from and how big it was, we (Alexa, the guard and I) decided to try the front door. I again felt for heat and opened it with the key. We were met with another thick cloud of smoke. We retreated to the driveway as more guards showed up. They were not equipped with fire extinguishers or other fire fighting equipment. They went in the garage and opened the door. Smoke poured out but they tried to enter the house to assess the fire. They spoke only in Chinese and neither Alexa nor I could understand what was being said. Over the next 20-25 minutes, about 5 more guards showed up, maybe one or two carried hand held fire extinguishers, which they clearly couldn’t use because the smoke was too thick for them to get inside the house. Alexa took the yellow bike to the clubhouse to see if someone could help us translate. The woman at the front desk, Michelle, answered phones while Alexa was standing at the desk, even after she had communicated that there was a fire. Perhaps she was talking to the guards. She asked Alexa if anyone in the house smoked. No one smokes. Alexa decided to leave because Michelle wasn’t going to come with her or help it seemed.
Back at the house, the guards were running around the house, but did not go inside. The next door neighbor from house 66, James Pallash, came out to see what was going on. Upon understanding what was happening, James went back to his house to call his bi-lingual driver, Michael. Ryan then went to the front desk to try to bring someone to the house who could speak English. He was told that there was someone already on site and they were on the phone with what he assumed to be the fire department.
While he was gone, a golf cart carrying four men, two of whom were dressed as chefs, showed up. People were moving around, but nothing was really happening. Ryan returned and we heard the sound of glass breaking from impact on the right (kitchen side) of the house. The men kept running around with a few fire extinguishers and gas masks but the fire seemed to continue to get worse judging by the amount of smoke that was coming from the garage, the front door and what looked to be the basement window of the storage room.
Ryan approached the group of people in the driveway, asking for someone who spoke English. When one of them answered, Ryan asked what was going on. The man named Mark who appeared to be the leader of the group, answered Ryan’s question with a stern “No comment” and pushed Ryan out of the way. Alexa was going back and forth to James’ house to get air and call the US to get a hold of Nancy Gougarty. She used James’ land line to call because both cell phones were inside the house. Nancy was finally notified via Pat Zigarmi, Alexa’s mother.
Michael, James’ father’s driver showed up. He is bilingual and after listening to the conversations, became suspicious that the fire department had not been called. He said that the “Le Chateau” complex could be fined if the FD was called, and they would do anything to handle it on their own. Michael then called the fire department at about 19:30. About that time, the guards (8 or so) had gotten a hold of a hose and we hooking it up to the fire hydrant on the street. The men in the golf cart pulled up to the house again. We asked them repeatedly, what was happening, where was the fire and the man who was driving the cart said, “No problem, no problem” and drove off.
It was getting dark, so it was hard to see in the house with no lights on. The guards had a couple of flashlights. They went in through the basement door with the hose and started spraying. We had no idea where the fire was or even if there were flames. Andy, Nancy’s driver showed up about that time. We don’t know who called him, but we presume it was Nancy. Ryan found a woman amongst the group who was bilingual to explain what was going on. Her name is Helen and she apparently works for Le Chateau. She said that the cause of the fire was yet unknown and the guards were still trying to put out the flames. During the commotion, a call came through on one of the guard’s radios that Michael seemed to think came from the front gate. He thought that the fire department had showed up but the guards said that they had the situation under control. The fire was still burning at this point - the smoke continued to billow from the garage, front door and basement window and didn’t show signs of slowing for another hour or so. The fire was not put out until around 20:00 or 20:30, as far as we could tell. The men continued spraying the basement for a while and things finally started to calm down at about 21:00. At some point during this period, Nancy’s assistant, Michelle, as well as 2 policemen and one (apparently) fire safety officer showed up. Michelle is fluently bilingual and was on the phone with Nancy explaining the damage. She strongly suggested that Nancy come back to see the damage for herself. She took the lead in talking with the guards and officers. About this time, some of the guards went around the house and started opening the windows and doors to help ventilate the smoke.
We were finally able to get back in the house. We first noticed that smoke had damaged the walls in the garage but we were horrified at the extent of the damage when we entered the basement. The storage room, where the fire had apparently taken place, was in ashes, burnt out completely. Things continued to crumble and the room was extremely hot there were still a couple of men with the fire hose spraying water at the A/C closet. The basement floor was covered in 3 or 4 inches of ashy, grey water. Things were floating around (shoes, etc). It seemed that much of the basement had been sprayed with water although we couldn’t say for sure. The floors were soaked but not all the furniture was wet. The walls were stained black and a layer of soot covered everything. The smoke was still really heavy and it was very difficult to breathe. Upstairs on the main floor, soot covered the floor and walls. On Ryan’s second trip into the house, he used his video camera with night vision to record some of the damage. Mark was with him, but Ryan was careful to not let Mark know that he was filming. Ryan got the feeling that Mark would not like the damage to be filmed at that point.
We grabbed our most important possessions (passports, credit cards, cell phones, etc) and on subsequent trips we got more of our stuff. We ended up leaving about 60% of our belongings in the basement for the night. We were told that we could come back the next day after the investigation to retrieve the rest of it. We were told that guards with dogs would be posted in front of the house to prevent any looting or contamination of the site.
During the process of moving things out of the house, Ryan spoke with Tom Gougarty on the phone. Ryan told Tom what he knew and described the damage as well as possible. Ryan then handed the phone to Mark. Ryan left Mark to continue the evacuation. Tom and Mark spoke for at least 15 minutes about cleanup procedures.
During our trips in and out of the house, we only moved our own belongings. We never disturbed any of the Gougarty’s belongings. Michelle, while on the phone with Nancy made a trip to the second floor to retrieve some valuables of hers. We don’t know what exactly was removed.
The police had a document that Michelle translated for Ryan with Nancy on the phone. As far as he understood, it said that the house was to be left as-is until the following morning at 9:00 when a formal investigation could begin. He signed and dated it with Michelle’s direction. We made another few trips in the house to gather a few final things and then everyone dispersed for the night.
Let the record show that at no point throughout the evening, did any professional fire fighters, fire trucks or anyone other than Le Chateau staff fight the fire. Even after Michael called the FD, none of them ever showed up to the scene. Our best guess is that they were stopped at the gate and told that the situation was under control.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2451092&l=6cda7&id=2209008 (Fire Photos)
Post Script: After the investigation, the fire department determined the cause of the fire to be faulty wiring in a plug strip to which an oscillating fan was plugged in. The fan had been used to help dry the carpet after the flood a week before, but was on a timer and would turn itself off automatically. Ryan had reset the timer several times throughout the week, but we both knew that the fan had been turned off after the professional cleaners had come in on the Wednesday or Thursday of that week. We figure that the circuit breaker tripped as a result of a short circuit. The AC repairman flipped the breaker back, causing the short to spark and ignite the blaze.
So after the smog, heat, language barrier, occasional digestive battles with the local cuisine, floods, vampiric mosquitoes, and a fire, we felt that we had some serious soul searching to do about our time here in China. Many times now, we’ve come very very close to pulling the plug and going home. We decided, though, that we needed to let things settle for a day or two and have a serious talk about this next year.
We weighed our options, but ultimately decided that as long as we’re still standing and in relatively good health, we’ve invested too much of ourselves in this to give up after 3 (albeit terrible) weeks. We decided that we’re going to give it our very best shot and we felt that we still had more shot to give. So, we focused our efforts on moving forward with our plans. First, rebuild, then relocate out of the Gougarty’s (cursed?) basement.
The past three weeks have included a hundred-year flood, a challenging weekend trip, a house fire and a seemingly endless search for the perfect apartment. Obviously, this is a lot to catch up on, but we’ll do our best to tell it like it happened.
August 25: The day it rained. (Written just days after the events)
Hey all. Ryan here. I though I’d fill you in on the events from Monday of this week. Since I’m still technically unemployed, I spend many of my mornings hanging out at the house. I normally meet Alexa for lunch and spend the afternoon in town. Since I feel like I get to spend so little time with her, as she goes to bed so early, I normally get up with her at 5:45 to have breakfast and hang out with her while she’s getting ready.
Monday morning, we awoke to an enormous thunderstorm. The rain was falling like someone was holding a fire hose off the roof and the thunder and lightning kept ripping across the sky. Apparently, we were experiencing the remnants of a tropical storm that had battered Hong Kong the day before.
Andy, the driver, has the day off on Monday so Alexa called for a cab to get to the metro station. The guard at the front gate who hails cabs sounded bewildered on the other end, but said he would do his best. So, we sat in the living room watching the storm out the window for about 20 minutes while we waited. The storm kept getting worse but Alexa still had to get to work, so we called the front gate again. The guard said that he was trying but now would call the dispatcher number for us. We figured that from then on, we would wait in the garage so she could be ready to jump in right away.
As many of you saw, this house is built with a sunken garage that leads into the basement. The driveway slopes downward to the house and there is a large grated drain that stretches the width of the driveway right as it meets the garage. When we opened the garage door, the drain was doing its job and was whisking the water away without complaint. But just then, the real storm started. The rainfall went from very heavy to completely surreal. Growing up in Michigan, I’ve seen some pretty amazing rainfall, but nothing could have prepared me for this. It was as if the garage was one of those caves behind a waterfall. Alexa’s cab finally arrived and she did her best to stay upright under what must have been an immensely heavy and overwhelmed umbrella as she walked up the driveway. I was so astonished at the sheer volume of water coming down that I almost didn’t notice the water pooling on top of the drain. It just couldn’t keep up with the rain and the garage began to flood. The water started to inch its way toward the back and I immediately knew that we had a major problem on our hands.
With Alexa pulling away in the cab, I had to change gears into survival mode. I decided that the best way to prevent the house from being flooded was to build a dam in front of the man-door to the garage. I found old newspapers and magazines and did what I could to stem the flow. My levee held for a while, but the water kept rising and finding cracks to penetrate and soon it was making its way into the house under the door.
Have any of you ever flushed the toilet at your friend’s house only to watch the water rise further and further toward the brim? Do you know that terrible realization, that creeping panic brought about by an unstoppable force of catastrophe? Yeah? My sentiments exactly. There I was – alone, in a foreign country, in the house of people I’ve gotten to know for only a few days – watching this disaster unfold in slow motion. The rain kept pace and the water, now filling the garage, had only one place to go – the Gougarty’s basement. I left my newspaper dam and went inside to move any valuables off the floor and enlist the help of all the towels I could get my hands on. I stuffed them under the door and held them in place on either side of the landing, but my efforts could only mitigate the water’s progress so much. I got on the phone with Alexa to tell her to come home to help and I found that trouble had come to both of us that day. This rainstorm, which we later found out caused hundred year flooding, had made the roads impassible. The scene on the street was like something from Katrina. In some places the water was so deep that it was coming in the side of the taxi. In others, it reached the top of truck tires. She had gone about a mile when the taxi driver decided to turn back. By the time she got home, the flood had covered several hundred square feet of basement space and was still pouring in through the door. I was doing my best to hold my dams in place (each one holding back another inch or two of water) and she got right in to help, looking like a drowned rat wearing a silk skirt. The rain continued for another 20 minutes before starting to let up, letting the drain relieve the water from the garage.
From there, it was a long morning of mopping up the basement. A carpeted storage room, adjacent to the garage door, had flooded severely and after we soaked as much water from the carpet as we could, plugged in a fan to dry the carpet (remember this detail). We emailed Nancy, the owner of the house and currently out of the country for 6 weeks, to explain what had happened. She sounded concerned, but grateful that we were there and said she would call the front desk of the club house to arrange for professional cleaners.
After the basement was as dry as we could get it, we retired upstairs to wait out the rest of the storm. Alexa finally made it to work that afternoon. No one said that moving to China would be easy.
August 29-31: Our weekend in Hangzhou
After the excitement of the flood finally started to subside, we decided that we needed a weekend away from the city. We had heard that a nearby town called Hangzhou (pronounced “hong-joe”) offered a retreat from the busy life in Shanghai. With plenty of cheap hotels, a peaceful lake, and the award for China’s best tourist city, we didn’t’ hesitate to buy train tickets and book a hostel. The rest of the week, we eagerly anticipated what we thought would be a relaxing weekend away.
With our suitcases packed, Ryan met me as I left work to grab a quick dinner and head for the train station. After a light Western dinner at Jamaica Blue (which has become one of our favorite haunts), we rolled our suitcases onto the street in front of Le Meriden hotel. A red taxi driver called out, “Airport?” “No, train station.” He started to open his trunk and lift our bags. “100 RMB.” Yeah, right. It should only cost like 40. We lifted our bags out and kept walking. I remember thinking how proud I was that for once, we weren’t the stupid tourists. It seems like we’re always walking around with this sign on our foreheads that says, “Please, take my money.” Not this time. But, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when the taxi driver just sat there, waiting to prey on the next unsuspecting foreigner. I have heard that the Chinese pride themselves on being clever. Sure, they can outsmart the naive laowai, but at what cost to their integrity? Their value system is just totally different here.
When we found a cab to take us to the train station, we got stuck in horrific elevated road traffic and it took us an hour and a half to make it to the south station. We ran to our platform and barely had a moment to sit down before the train started pulling away. We rode most of the way in silence, tired and frustrated from our intense run.
At the Hangzhou station, we exited along with the other thousand or so people on the train. It always amazes me to be amongst so many black heads all moving in the same direction. It’s like salmon swimming, bouncing off each other, fighting their way upstream. Outside, we searched for our bus. But of course, after starring blankly at the bus map, which was written exclusively in Chinese characters, for ten minutes, a young man told us that the buses stop running at 10. It was 10:30. This kid, who couldn’t have been more than 19, told us that we were the first foreigners he had ever spoken to.
He directed us to a cabstand, where a line of a 100 people stood waiting. We waited our turn, balking at the people jumping line. Finally at the front, we climbed in a cab and proceeded to get totally lost on the way to the hostel. That’s the problem with cabs in China. Most of them have no idea where they’re going. The demand for taxis has risen so much in the last year that the cities have released thousands of completely unqualified drivers to catch up. After all, this isn’t London. The taxi drivers here don’t need to pass a test to drive. Anyways, the worst part of it is that you don’t know if the driver is actually lost or if he’s just driving in circles to run up the meter. How were we to know?
We finally made it to the West Lake Guesthouse. We dragged our stuff into our tiny $15-a-night room and collapsed on the beds only to find out that they were more like felt-covered cement blocks nearing producing concussions upon impact. “I want to go home,” I said as I reached for the light. It would not be the last time I uttered those words that weekend.
After a restless night, we were delighted to hear that the guesthouse served a full English breakfast. We ate our breakfast happily, feeling more optimistic about the day as we planned what we wanted to see. There was the West Lake, the Leifeng pagoda, the Linying Temple…We decided to rent bikes and explore the city that way. The government subsidizes these orange tourist bikes, so it only cost 2 RMB (25 cents) an hour after a 300 RMB deposit. Hoping to ride by the lake, we were really disappointed when the security guards shooed us away from the path next to the water. We were forced to ride with the cars on the street. After being passed by trucks that looked like they were from Inner Mongolia, we had inhaled more diesel smoke in an hour than we do in Shanghai in a day. We stopped riding to buy a cold drink at a café. The waiters brought out the English menu, something of which I have grown increasingly weary. The Chinese menu has the real prices, while the English menu has the “special friend” prices. We paid 28 RMB each ($4) for a ginger ale. A total rip off, but we were too beaten down to argue. “I want to go home.”
We spent the day riding around the road that runs near the Lake. It was pretty and lined with plain trees. That afternoon, we sucked it up (the smog that is) and rode to the Leifeng pagoda. The view was beautiful. That night we went into town to see the night market. It was the kind of thing one expects to see in China, bustling with vendors and red lanterns. We took a lot of pictures that day:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448301&l=b6b92&id=2209008 (Hangzhou Day Photos)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448616&l=7f01b&id=2209008 (Hangzhou Night Photos)
The next day, it was pouring when we woke up. We groaned getting out of bed. Both of us had sore backs from the rock mattresses. Luckily, the rain stopped while we were having breakfast. We decided to go to the Linying Temple, which is just outside Hangzhou in the surrounding mountains. Determined not to get ripped off in a taxi, we boarded a 3 RMB (40 cents) bus bound for the suburbs. When the bus stopped at the end of the line, we had no idea where to go and it began to pour again. We ducked into a shop selling incense and prayer candles. The rain didn’t stop. It was miserable. “I want to go home.”
We grabbed a taxi, ditching our plans to visit the Buddhist temple, and decided to go into the city to get foot massages, or “footeh massahjeh” as we lovingly call them after the Chinese pronunciation. Without hesitation, we bought the 90-minute deluxe special. We had out own private room and we relaxed in the beds as the masseuses worked out the stress in our feet. It was then and there that Ryan and I decided we should just go on a foot massage tour of the Middle Kingdom and call it a day.
After the massages, we felt strong enough to give the Linying temple another shot. We took the bus to the end of the line again and walked to the temple. It was surreal. There were Chinese tourist groups shouting over microphones as far as the eye could see. “I think they just like the sound of their own voices,” Ryan muttered. We were getting so cynical at this point. It was hard to hold it back. But the temple was amazing. It was calm and quiet in the courtyards between the buildings and people were actually burning incense and praying. It seemed that the worshippers outnumbered the tourists. We watched in awe for an hour or so before it was time to leave. It was so peaceful until I realized that I had 28 (!) bug bites (19 on one leg)…
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2448739&l=d3c7f&id=2209008 (Linying Temple Photos)
All in all, our trip to Hangzhou was not what we expected. But this is China, and we’ve learned that we have to check our expectations at the door.
September 1: The Fire
As many of you know, the major event defining our last several weeks here has been a massive house fire in our host's basement. To summarize, a fire broke out while Alexa and I were at the gym on the evening of September 1. The fire was apparently caused by faulty wiring and burned out a large storage room. The smoke damage was heavy throughout the house and many items have to be replaced. Nancy, the owner, flew back from the US on an emergency flight the day after to attend to the situation. No one was hurt, but we suffered very heavy losses. Nancy lost most of her furniture and personal effects to the smoke and Alexa and I have estimated our losses at about $6,000. Luckily, our stuff is going to be covered by Nancy's insurance so it's more of a hassle than a disaster. We've moved out of the burned house into an empty one down the street.
The cleanup process has been lengthy but not as difficult as I had imagined. Nancy has enlisted the help of an army of maids and movers to move her smoke damaged things out of the house and clean them if possible. Our stuff has been handled by a man who I am convinced is the nicest in China. His name is Xu Bing (Shoo-Been) and he is a friend of a friend. He works as a taxi driver and knows just about anything one would want to know about where to go to get things done. He has taken load after load of our stuff off to be cleaned - clothes, computers, toiletries, books, etc. He just knows where to take them (something Alexa and I wouldn't figure out in a million years) and returns a couple days later with clean belongings and receipts. It's been so great to have that burden lifted. All of our stuff smelled like smoke and while a good portion of it wasn't salvageable, Xu did manage to save about 80% of it. He has saved us literally thousands of dollars in replacement costs and an even greater amount of headache and stress. Other friends have stepped up and offered support as well. Wei Tan, a coworker of Alexa's mom, Pat, and a Shanghai native has been priceless and a friend of hers, Sue Foster, is the one who connected us to Xu.
Now that the fire has been put out for 2 weeks, life is starting to resemble something like it once was. Most of our stuff smells normal again and we don't spend most of our day covered in soot. Every once in a while, we'll catch a whiff it though, and it reminds us how far we've come in 14 days.
For a more detailed account of the fire, here is the document that Alexa and I wrote up the night of the fire to organize our thoughts and get all the details on paper. We based our testimony on this when we met with the fire department the next day.
Timeline of events: Taken from the testimony we typed up the night of the fire. Pretty boring unless you want to know all the little details and really understand just how absurd this experience was.
8-31 – Around 10:30, Alexa and I arrived home from the train station from Hangzhou. Andy picked us up from the Shanghai south railway station and dropped us off at the garage. We walked in the house and noticed that it felt warmer than usual in the basement. We checked the thermostat and saw that it was set to 69 F but the room temperature was 76 F. The switches were set to “On” and “Cool” and had been so the entire weekend, so the house ought to have been cool. Air was still flowing out of the vents. The AC was still working fine upstairs.
9-1 - Around 5 a.m., we awoke to find that the blower had stopped. I checked the thermostat and saw that it was completely dead – no lights or numbers on the display. The switches were in the same position as before. We woke up the next morning to the same status. I remained home for much of that day but didn’t spend any time in the basement. After alexa returned home at about 17:10, she reminded me to call the front desk to request that the AC system be repaired. I phoned the front desk and they said that a repairman would arrive shortly. The repairman showed up about 20 minutes later. Alexa and I were planning on going to the gym but I wanted to make sure that the repair was finished. She left ahead of me for the gym at about 17:35. I speak essentially no Chinese and the man spoke no English, so the communication was mostly non-verbal. I first showed him that the main floor thermostat was working properly, then had him follow me to the downstairs thermostat to demonstrate that it was not working. He took the cover off and started to work on the wiring. At that point, I left him to do his work and went to get ready for the gym. I noticed that he, at one point, was working in the electrical room just off the main bar room of the basement. He must have flipped a circuit breaker, because he demonstrated that the thermostat was now working. I checked the airflow from the vent in our bedroom (the one across from the main downstairs bathroom) and found that it was working and cooling. I left again and came back down the stairs to see that he was walking out the house-garage door. He seemed to indicate to me that he had finished his work and was leaving. I got on a bike and started to head up the driveway. I did my best to explain to him that if he needed to go in and keep working, the door was unlocked and he was free to do so. I left for the gym at about 17:45.
Alexa and I remained at the gym (located at the clubhouse) until roughly 18:40. We rode our bikes home and pulled into the garage. As we walked toward the man-door to the house, I heard what sounded like what could have been fire. Alexa remembers smelling something burning. I put my hand against the door to feel for heat, but finding it cool, I opened it. As soon as it was cracked open, thick, black smoke billowed out. I quickly shut the door and we ran out of the garage. Just as we reached the street, we saw a guard on a bike riding toward the house. We yelled FIRE but he seemed to already know that something was wrong. We guessed that he was the first response to the fire alarm. He saw the smoke that had been let out from the garage door and immediately got on his radio to alert the other guards. Not knowing where the fire was coming from and how big it was, we (Alexa, the guard and I) decided to try the front door. I again felt for heat and opened it with the key. We were met with another thick cloud of smoke. We retreated to the driveway as more guards showed up. They were not equipped with fire extinguishers or other fire fighting equipment. They went in the garage and opened the door. Smoke poured out but they tried to enter the house to assess the fire. They spoke only in Chinese and neither Alexa nor I could understand what was being said. Over the next 20-25 minutes, about 5 more guards showed up, maybe one or two carried hand held fire extinguishers, which they clearly couldn’t use because the smoke was too thick for them to get inside the house. Alexa took the yellow bike to the clubhouse to see if someone could help us translate. The woman at the front desk, Michelle, answered phones while Alexa was standing at the desk, even after she had communicated that there was a fire. Perhaps she was talking to the guards. She asked Alexa if anyone in the house smoked. No one smokes. Alexa decided to leave because Michelle wasn’t going to come with her or help it seemed.
Back at the house, the guards were running around the house, but did not go inside. The next door neighbor from house 66, James Pallash, came out to see what was going on. Upon understanding what was happening, James went back to his house to call his bi-lingual driver, Michael. Ryan then went to the front desk to try to bring someone to the house who could speak English. He was told that there was someone already on site and they were on the phone with what he assumed to be the fire department.
While he was gone, a golf cart carrying four men, two of whom were dressed as chefs, showed up. People were moving around, but nothing was really happening. Ryan returned and we heard the sound of glass breaking from impact on the right (kitchen side) of the house. The men kept running around with a few fire extinguishers and gas masks but the fire seemed to continue to get worse judging by the amount of smoke that was coming from the garage, the front door and what looked to be the basement window of the storage room.
Ryan approached the group of people in the driveway, asking for someone who spoke English. When one of them answered, Ryan asked what was going on. The man named Mark who appeared to be the leader of the group, answered Ryan’s question with a stern “No comment” and pushed Ryan out of the way. Alexa was going back and forth to James’ house to get air and call the US to get a hold of Nancy Gougarty. She used James’ land line to call because both cell phones were inside the house. Nancy was finally notified via Pat Zigarmi, Alexa’s mother.
Michael, James’ father’s driver showed up. He is bilingual and after listening to the conversations, became suspicious that the fire department had not been called. He said that the “Le Chateau” complex could be fined if the FD was called, and they would do anything to handle it on their own. Michael then called the fire department at about 19:30. About that time, the guards (8 or so) had gotten a hold of a hose and we hooking it up to the fire hydrant on the street. The men in the golf cart pulled up to the house again. We asked them repeatedly, what was happening, where was the fire and the man who was driving the cart said, “No problem, no problem” and drove off.
It was getting dark, so it was hard to see in the house with no lights on. The guards had a couple of flashlights. They went in through the basement door with the hose and started spraying. We had no idea where the fire was or even if there were flames. Andy, Nancy’s driver showed up about that time. We don’t know who called him, but we presume it was Nancy. Ryan found a woman amongst the group who was bilingual to explain what was going on. Her name is Helen and she apparently works for Le Chateau. She said that the cause of the fire was yet unknown and the guards were still trying to put out the flames. During the commotion, a call came through on one of the guard’s radios that Michael seemed to think came from the front gate. He thought that the fire department had showed up but the guards said that they had the situation under control. The fire was still burning at this point - the smoke continued to billow from the garage, front door and basement window and didn’t show signs of slowing for another hour or so. The fire was not put out until around 20:00 or 20:30, as far as we could tell. The men continued spraying the basement for a while and things finally started to calm down at about 21:00. At some point during this period, Nancy’s assistant, Michelle, as well as 2 policemen and one (apparently) fire safety officer showed up. Michelle is fluently bilingual and was on the phone with Nancy explaining the damage. She strongly suggested that Nancy come back to see the damage for herself. She took the lead in talking with the guards and officers. About this time, some of the guards went around the house and started opening the windows and doors to help ventilate the smoke.
We were finally able to get back in the house. We first noticed that smoke had damaged the walls in the garage but we were horrified at the extent of the damage when we entered the basement. The storage room, where the fire had apparently taken place, was in ashes, burnt out completely. Things continued to crumble and the room was extremely hot there were still a couple of men with the fire hose spraying water at the A/C closet. The basement floor was covered in 3 or 4 inches of ashy, grey water. Things were floating around (shoes, etc). It seemed that much of the basement had been sprayed with water although we couldn’t say for sure. The floors were soaked but not all the furniture was wet. The walls were stained black and a layer of soot covered everything. The smoke was still really heavy and it was very difficult to breathe. Upstairs on the main floor, soot covered the floor and walls. On Ryan’s second trip into the house, he used his video camera with night vision to record some of the damage. Mark was with him, but Ryan was careful to not let Mark know that he was filming. Ryan got the feeling that Mark would not like the damage to be filmed at that point.
We grabbed our most important possessions (passports, credit cards, cell phones, etc) and on subsequent trips we got more of our stuff. We ended up leaving about 60% of our belongings in the basement for the night. We were told that we could come back the next day after the investigation to retrieve the rest of it. We were told that guards with dogs would be posted in front of the house to prevent any looting or contamination of the site.
During the process of moving things out of the house, Ryan spoke with Tom Gougarty on the phone. Ryan told Tom what he knew and described the damage as well as possible. Ryan then handed the phone to Mark. Ryan left Mark to continue the evacuation. Tom and Mark spoke for at least 15 minutes about cleanup procedures.
During our trips in and out of the house, we only moved our own belongings. We never disturbed any of the Gougarty’s belongings. Michelle, while on the phone with Nancy made a trip to the second floor to retrieve some valuables of hers. We don’t know what exactly was removed.
The police had a document that Michelle translated for Ryan with Nancy on the phone. As far as he understood, it said that the house was to be left as-is until the following morning at 9:00 when a formal investigation could begin. He signed and dated it with Michelle’s direction. We made another few trips in the house to gather a few final things and then everyone dispersed for the night.
Let the record show that at no point throughout the evening, did any professional fire fighters, fire trucks or anyone other than Le Chateau staff fight the fire. Even after Michael called the FD, none of them ever showed up to the scene. Our best guess is that they were stopped at the gate and told that the situation was under control.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2451092&l=6cda7&id=2209008 (Fire Photos)
Post Script: After the investigation, the fire department determined the cause of the fire to be faulty wiring in a plug strip to which an oscillating fan was plugged in. The fan had been used to help dry the carpet after the flood a week before, but was on a timer and would turn itself off automatically. Ryan had reset the timer several times throughout the week, but we both knew that the fan had been turned off after the professional cleaners had come in on the Wednesday or Thursday of that week. We figure that the circuit breaker tripped as a result of a short circuit. The AC repairman flipped the breaker back, causing the short to spark and ignite the blaze.
So after the smog, heat, language barrier, occasional digestive battles with the local cuisine, floods, vampiric mosquitoes, and a fire, we felt that we had some serious soul searching to do about our time here in China. Many times now, we’ve come very very close to pulling the plug and going home. We decided, though, that we needed to let things settle for a day or two and have a serious talk about this next year.
We weighed our options, but ultimately decided that as long as we’re still standing and in relatively good health, we’ve invested too much of ourselves in this to give up after 3 (albeit terrible) weeks. We decided that we’re going to give it our very best shot and we felt that we still had more shot to give. So, we focused our efforts on moving forward with our plans. First, rebuild, then relocate out of the Gougarty’s (cursed?) basement.
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