Once again, my apologies for the delay in the blog. I promise, we’re still alive and doing well. We’ve done so much since I last wrote, but I promise that eventually, everything will be accounted for. I’ll just keep plugging along as best I can.
Stepping off the plane in the Phnom Penh airport was such a relief. Although it was nighttime, the air was warm and smelled tropical – a huge change from the cold and smog of our Shanghai. I know there’s something intoxicating about landing in a new place, but something about Cambodia was special even before we exited the airport. It just had a buzz to it. We just knew we were going to like it – and we weren’t disappointed.
We hopped in a beat up but clean Toyota taxi for the ride to the hotel. The driver introduced himself as Chen and we chatted for the duration of the ride into town. He told us a bit of his life story and we were impressed with how much he valued reciprocity and paying good fortune forward. He had once driven some Australian tourists around for a few days and made lifelong friends with them when he returned a very expensive camera to them that they had left behind in his taxi. He could easily have kept it and profited from their loss, but he decided to do the right thing and give it back to them. They were so impressed with his honesty and strong character that they bought he and his family a brand new house in Phnom Penh. Since then, he has vowed to abide by the golden rule and to treat everyone with integrity and kindness. Amazing. Up until that point, we’d been swindled, duped and taken advantage of all across Asia and the first person we meet in Cambodia is a complete 180 from that. We took his card and arranged for him to do all of our driving in P.P.
Our hotel was called the Bougainvillea and was located at the riverside. It was a beautiful boutique place with a great French restaurant on the ground floor. Our room was a 5th floor walk-up, but we had plenty of help with our 6 bags. The room was spacious and cheap. We headed out to town for a quick foot massage before heading to bed. We had an early flight the next morning to the town of Siem Reap in central Cambodia.
Many frequent travelers often enjoy landing in small, out-of-the-way airports. The lack of hustle and the simple joys of walking onto the tarmac in the sunshine are quite a treat after the monotonous international mega-airports all over the world. Siem Reap was just that kind of delightful place. Instead of a baggage carousel, the bags were simply carried in by the ground crew and placed on a low counter for passengers to claim. From there, we walked outside and hired the first tuk-tuk driver we found. Just to explain, a tuk-tuk is a form of transportation common to SE Asia and consists of a moped with a trailer passenger area on its own wheels. Luckily, we were able to leave most of our bags at our hotel in Phnom Penh as we were to return there in just a couple nights, so we loaded our one suitcase into the tuk-tuk and took off. Our driver was competent and fairly talkative. We learned that his house was just down the street from our hotel and we ended up hiring him to drive us around for the 2 days we spent in town. Our hotel was down a dirt road on the new side of town and cost us $6 per person per night. We had a large, clean room with a bathroom. Everything at this hotel was a bargain – the beer was $1, 1-hour in-room massages were $7 and breakfast was $3. Incredible. Cambodia is known for its low prices, but even we were taken aback.
Our reason for coming to Cambodia and Siem Reap in particular was the large temple complex known by the name of the most famous temple – Angkor Wat. It’s an enormous system of temples, moats, and walls carved out of the jungle in the 12th century. The buildings were used for several hundred years through the height of the Khmer Empire, then for reasons unknown, were nearly abandoned and left to rot in the jungle. When European explorers uncovered their remains hundreds of years later, they were astonished at the way these monolithic structures had been subdued by nature. The temples became an icon not only of Cambodia, but of the power of nature to reclaim what humans had worked to build. They have been the backdrop for countless movies including one of the latest Tomb Raider movies starring Angelina Jolie.
After we checked into our hotel, we headed into town to the Mexican restaurant (we make it a point to sample global Mexican cuisine – Japan, Cambodia, China, France, Italy, England, Poland, etc). The food was cheap and decent but it was so hard to sit at the sidewalk and watch all the poor children and land mine victims come by and try to sell things. Through the Khmer Rouge era in the 70’s, wars and massive genocides left the country with thousands of landmines, orphans, and a scarred conscience. Still, the Cambodians do what they can to get by, and many resort to peddling their wares to tourists on the main pub street. Most sell pirated travel books, but others sell DVD’s or sunglasses, all trying to make a living. While we saw hundreds of impoverished or maimed people selling things, we hardly ever saw people just begging for money. They all wanted to make a living as honestly as they could and it actually works in their favor. Tourists are often so impressed at the Khmers’ will to improve their situation that they end up spending far more money buying than they would ever hand out.
From the restaurant, we checked out the local market – a mélange of produce, odds and ends, fish and dollar store type bric-a-brac. Our tour continued with a stop in the local shopping street and some other sites around town. One of the most notable occurrences was a bathroom stop we made at a restaurant further from town than tourists normally venture. As we walked to the back of the restaurant towards the toilets, we passed what was essentially an outdoor kitchen where a man had evidently just slaughtered a pig on the tile and dirt floor. As we passed, he was squatted on the ground with his sleeve rolled up and his arm up to the elbow inside the pig’s carcass. He waved hello to us (with his free hand) and kept on disemboweling the pig. He was just so casual about his pig puppet and so unconcerned about it just bleeding out on the floor that we could only raise our eyebrows in disbelief and keep walking past. The bathrooms had very little plumbing so flies helped keep the mess under control. Needless to say, we didn’t dine there.
After the city tour, we headed off to our first temple in the complex called Bayon. The temple features hundreds of carvings of faces of the god Lokesvara looking out in all directions. The temple looked as if it had been decaying for centuries, but on closer inspection, it had been carefully repaired and preserved to ensure that its broken down look won’t get any worse. It really gives it character. You just can’t walk around and not feel like Indiana Jones.
From Bayon, we went to see the “Elephant Terrace.” This was a large raised platform that was covered with carvings of elephants, but was also used as the royal grandstand to watch parades of elephants as well. As we walked along the top, we saw a group of children playing and singing about half way down the wall. We said hello when we approached and found out that most of the 4 of them spoke at least some English. The undisputed ringleader of the group was a boy of about 9. His English was excellent and he wasted no time impressing us with facts he knew both about our country and his own. He knew state capitals and had a rough idea of US geography and said he learned it in school. His knowledge of the Elephant Terrace was spot on as well. He explained carvings and their significance to us and knew far more than our guidebook could tell us. He led us up to the entrance of the next temple area but said he could go no farther. Then we realized that he was not only good at English, he was a shrewd business man as well. Having just knocked our socks off with his knowledge of the place and his 9 year old charm, he knew he could coax a few bucks out of us. He said that he needed to pay for his own schooling and asked us for money. We only had a couple singles on us which we gave him. Apparently, he is used to impressing more cash flushed tourists because he asked if we had a ten. Honestly, I might have given it to him if I had it. Cambodians do have to pay for education and that burden often falls on the children themselves. It’s something like $40 per month in tuition for the public schools and that’s a tough number to hit for many of them.
We continued on down the path to the next temple. As soon as we came within line of sight, more children approached us to sell us bracelets, scarves, postcards, books and an assortment of carved souvenirs. We didn’t need any of that but it became increasingly hard to say no when the children kept getting cuter and cuter. It really is hard to exaggerate how adorable Cambodian kids are. The country is ethnically half way between China and India so the kids have somewhat Asian features with Indian coloring. They have heads of thick black hair, tanned skin and the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen. Eventually, Alexa broke down and bought some post cards from a young girl who was just too beautiful to say no to. She didn’t really need the postcards but the dollar was well worth the picture or two she was allowed to take.
That particular temple was basically comprised of one pyramid-like structure with impossibly steep steps going up and down both sides – imagine a Mayan temple. It was a climb-at-your-own-risk type thing and me, always excited by activities that stand a real chance of injury, decided to go up. It was a near vertical climb up with only a couple of inches of depth on each step, but I managed to scramble up the side. Alexa met me on the other side and we gathered our strength to face the gauntlet of adorable little salespeople lining the path to the temple.
We made it back to our tuk-tuk mercifully without spending any more money and headed back to town. We had a nice dinner at an Indian place and arranged to have in-room massages back at the hotel. We paid $7 each for our hour long treatments. I had a Thai massage and Alexa had a foot massage and we didn’t even have to leave our hotel. Marvelous. I fell asleep briefly during mine and awoke to find my masseuse standing on top of me, walking up and down my back and legs. No harm done though; she couldn’t have been more than 5’0” and 80 lbs.
The next day, we met our driver after a light breakfast at our hotel and headed back to the temples. We planned on seeing the second most famous temple in the complex called Ta Prom. This was the particular temple featured in the Tomb Raider movie and is the one most covered in vines and trees. On our way there, we drove by an orphanage with a sign that said “Come see our children's paintings!” and we decided to catch it on the way back.
Ta Prom did not disappoint. From the red dirt car park, we walked up a long jungle path until we came to a bridge. The water under the bridge was covered in tiny, bumpy algae that made it look like bright green asphalt. We climbed a slight rise and finally came face to face with the temple. It was a massive stone structure comprised of a protective outer nave and an inner complex of buildings. It wasn’t much different from other temples we had seen except for the fact that this temple had been left for 1200 years, letting nature take its toll. Enormous trees had taken root around the temple with roots that looked like tentacles choking the stones. Roots twisted everywhere, slowly eating away at the structure in a poetic reclamation of the land. Walls were toppled and everything was in ruins. It really felt like something out of a movie. In fact, there were several spots where small plaques denoted filming locations for different films. The pictures really tell the story though.
On our way back to town, we stopped at the orphanage we had passed earlier. It was a terribly shabby place with only one real building and several banana leaf huts. Children of varying ages were playing in the dirt yard as we approached. A young man greeted us in broken English and introduced himself as Cheat (pronounced chee-at). He explained to us that the orphanage took in children from Siem Reap and the surrounding countryside who had lost their parents to a host of reasons. However, instead of just caring for the children, the orphanage required all the kids to take art classes, then produce pieces to sell to passers-by and support the school. He led us inside the front most hut that served as a gallery. 20 or so paintings were on display along with several sculptures and hand made trinkets, all displaying remarkable skill and craftsmanship. As we browsed, several children wandered over to meet us. Cheat introduced the kids and told us that he too was an orphan and had been raised at this very orphanage. Because of the impact it made on his life, he decided to return to volunteer as a caretaker and painting teacher. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a much more rewarding life than that. Each one of the children he introduced us to was so special and so beautiful and so full of life despite the tragedies they’d seen, just standing in front of them was inspirational. We picked out a water color painting of some stilt river houses done by a 12 year old and hung out for a while with the children. We held some of the little ones and talked with some of the older ones (they learn English as well as art in school, so we were able to have basic conversations) and had such a wonderful time that when Cheat invited us back for lunch the next day, we didn’t hesitate. We left after about an hour with huge smiles and most of our hearts still wrapped around the little fingers of the kids.
From the orphanage, we stopped at the base of a mountaintop temple from which we planned on seeing the sunset. But instead of climbing on foot as most of the tourists did, poor saps, we bought tickets to ride an elephant to the top. I had never even stood next to an elephant, let alone climbed on top of one and I was thrilled. We ascended the nearby flight of stairs and sat on the bench strapped to its back. The driver sat over its neck and controlled the elephant with voice commands and apparently pushing its ears with his feet.
It was a bumpy 15 minute ride up the hill but we enjoyed every minute of it. How often does one get the opportunity to ride an elephant through the jungle to see ancient temples? “Not often enough” is the answer.
We were slightly deflated at the sight of 100 or so other tourists already at the top waiting for the same sunset, and clouds threatened to obscure it anyway, so we headed back down early to get back to town.
That night, with our lunch date at the orphanage in mind, we picked up a few items to bring as gifts for the kids – some children’s books and basic groceries, etc. and grabbed another dinner of Indian food.
The next morning we had breakfast at a local pub. For $5.80, we both had a full cooked breakfast, coffee, rolls, fruit, juice and a great atmosphere. What a country.
From the restaurant we continued back to the orphanage to hang out for the morning. We spent several hours playing with the kids and taking pictures. I spent almost the whole time playing a hackey sack type game called “siah” with a group of the older kids and Alexa spent time with the little ones. Each and every one of those kids was so beautiful and so magnetic – it really was a wonderful privilege to spend so much time with them. It was so humbling to think about the tragedies they’ve seen while watching them smile and enjoy themselves. It was especially neat to get a chance to play games with the oldest girls of the group. They normally take on motherly roles for the kids and have lots of assumed responsibility so they really relished the opportunity to relax for a while.
We met the director of the orphanage, a man of 40 or so, who had been working with these kids for years. His English was pretty strong and he told us about the mission of the place. His goal is to equip each one of the kids with an artistic skill so that they’ll be self sufficient by the time they move out. We were really impressed and we hope to be able to support this cause in some meaningful way someday.
As we played, some of the older girls and staff cooked lunch. They had a bowl of rice and a large chicken stew (with two whole chickens in the pot – de-feathered of course). We sat with them as they ate, then said our goodbyes after lunch. It was tough to leave all those smiling faces but we had a feeling that we’d be back. Since then, I’ve kept up with Cheat over email and he sends us little updates on how the kids are doing.
From the orphanage, we took some time to explore the actual Angkor Wat Temple before flying back to Phnom Penh that evening. As we passed through the outer walls and headed down the processional road to the main temple, we saw a group of young girls dressed in traditional Cambodian dress. They would pose with tourists for photos for donations. Of course we did it. When else can you have your picture taken with priestess-looking Cambodian girls in front of one of the most iconic buildings on the planet? It was great and made for really cool photos.
After our shoot, we continued closer to the temple and stopped at a reflection pool to take some more pictures. As we were enjoying the view, a group of Asian tourists approached us for a photo. Unassuming as we were at first, we thought that they wanted us to use their camera to take a group photo of them. No, no, no. We were actually going to be in their photos as the token foreigners. This happens from time to time in Asian countries. White faces are still pretty rare there and sometimes quite a novelty. I’ve posed for several pictures in China and one or two in Japan as well. Perhaps we’re good luck or something. Who knows? Anyway, we ended up taking turns and standing in for 20-some photos, one with each member of the party both with and without a particular pair of sunglasses. So amusing. I think we’ll occasionally miss being novel when we get back home.
We continued on toward the temple, taking time to watch and feed the resident monkeys along the way. Once inside, we had a good look around but, honestly, after some of the other temples in the complex, we were slightly underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong though. Angkor is a fantastic place, just slightly less so than Ta Prom or even Bayon. We both agreed that it looks best from the outside.
To catch the sunset that night, we decided to take a ride in a balloon. It was a large helium sphere to which a circular walkway platform was attached. The entire thing was tethered by a large cable. Just as we were about to buy tickets for what ought to have been a fairly private ride, a large tour bus pulled up and a load of very noisy tourists piled out. We went up anyway and enjoyed the bird’s eye view of the fading light on the temples.
After that, we grabbed some dinner, collected our things from the hotel and headed for the airport. We allowed the usual hour and a half before the domestic flight but we weren’t anticipating the size of the airport. We walked in the doors, turned right, 4 feet to security, then another 10 feet to the check-in desk. We were nearly the only people in the airport. I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten to a departure lounge quite so quickly. Needless to say, we had about 1:28 to kill. Oh well.
Back in Phnom Penh our taxi driver friend Chen picked us up and we headed back for the Bougainvilla. We arranged to have him take us on an early morning sightseeing tour of the city before our flight out the next day. So, when we woke up (seemingly at the crack of dawn), we found him outside our hotel waiting for us. Unfortunately, his car was out of commission for some reason, so he arranged for his friend to show us around. His friend’s English was decent and he made a good tour guide. We went first to the Russian market. No, they don’t sell Russians there, although that would have made for some nifty souvenirs. The name comes from the market’s early popularity with visiting Russians who would take advantage of the low prices and buy tons of stuff. It’s basically a jumbled maze of tiny shops all under one roof. You can buy nearly anything there – food, clothes, hardware, souvenirs, electronics, etc. We had a good look around and bought a couple things from a charity shop that featured handmade goods fabricated by underprivileged kids and single moms out of recycled materials. It’s the kind of place where you’d feel guilty not buying anything, but the quality was top notch and the designs were really cool.
From the market, we made our way to the royal palace complex. Cambodia still has an active monarchy and the fit and finish of the palace shows that it’s still a place of importance. The complex consists of 15 or so buildings of varying sizes. Some are residences, others are temples and at least 2 are formal throne rooms. All are ornately decorated, gilded and encrusted and all are fantastic. Unfortunately, we only had about 45 minutes to look around, but the sun was coming up and the color in the pictures we got made the quick visit worth it.
The royal palace was our last stop before the airport. We loved Cambodia much more than we anticipated but we weren’t too heavy hearted to leave, for our next adventure was the big surprise trip I’d been planning for Alexa over the past months.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
From Japan to Shanghai to Cambodia
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.
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.
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.
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