World Travels

From Hong Kong to Beijing: Our Chinese adventure (Part III)

2007-12-20T03:31:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/ChinaBeijing.

After a few lazy days in Shanghai, we finally made our way to Beijing, though this time, we went directly by air. No more trains, since two 15-hour-plus train rides – in sleepers several inches too short for our American frames – were more than enough for us.

But, as always, traveling in Asia resulted in another big adventure (or, at least, the closest I think we’d ever get to adventures).

We arrived at night into Beijing, which, to note, is usually bad. Not specifically for Beijing, but we usually tried to avoid arriving at night, because everything seems much more difficult in the dark. Not that we could really get around all that well during the day, but at least more people are around, and that means more possible help.

So we headed to the taxi stand and hailed a cab. I showed the driver the address we were seeking. Our hostel, after receiving our reservation, sent us an email with the Mandarin version of the address, which they wrote would be intelligible to our taxi driver. Unfortunately, we could not track down a printer in Shanghai, so instead of a nicely printed sheet with the address, I simply offered our driver my feeble attempt to transcribe the address onto the notepad we took from our last hotel room.

It took him a moment to realize where we needed to go, and eventually he signaled us to sit down for the ride, so we were somewhat satisfied. One thing we noticed about Chinese cabbies is that they really did not know any English whatsoever. Not that I would expect them to know any, but in all the previous countries, we had been able to find drivers who knew at least a bit of English with which to communicate. But we did our best, which included doing our best to write Mandarin characters for communications.

So our ride began, and if you have never been to Beijing, this ride will teach you how huge the city really is. It was maybe 45 minutes until we were even in the region we could tell our hostel was located.

Eventually, we left the highways and finally turned down a somewhat residential district of the city. But, as I mentioned, it was very dark, so other than the various food stands and a few street lights, we had no idea how to spot our hostel, or even the streets around it.

Usually, this was not such a big problem, since taxi driver could help.

In China, no such dice.

Our driver was apparently as lost as we were, and after cruising around the various apartment high-rises in the area, he resulted to rolling down his window and flagging down locals to find directions. Let’s just say we were worried about more than a few things.

And, to boot, the driver turns to us and begins to probe us on the whereabouts of the hostel. That’s when we knew this cab ride was over, so we eventually pulled out the money and paid him for the ride.

So as our cab rolled away, we took to the streets and did what we do best: wander aimlessly with vacant or worried looks upon our clearly foreign faces. We passed by several high-rise apartments, scoping out the food options as we went. It seemed that the favorite foods were these various items on sticks. They were all sitting in simmering waters, steam billowing off the surface like smokestacks. Not entirely appetizing.

We continue to soldier on, bickering as we do in these sorts of dire situations, when God Almighty him or herself sends an angel to us. Our savior from endless wandering. Quite appropriate from a few Jews like ourselves.

This angel took the form of a Chinese man, maybe between 40 and 50 years of age, who spoke excellent English, as he spent several years in Vancouver, Canada.

I can only suspect that this was a moment where you needed to be there to see our faces, since this man, upon meeting us for five seconds, took us by the proverbial hand to find our hostel.
This was not the first time we accepted the help of a perfect stranger (I suppose a scarier situation was Ipoh, Malaysia), and since we had no other alternatives, we were basically obliged to take his help, but we certainly did not take his help begrudgingly.

He led us to one of the high-rises, where we saw a few signs for hostels in the windows, though they were not the most convincing of displays. Usually they consisted of a few print sheets of 8.5-by-11 paper, taped together from the back.

We walked up to a security guard at the side entrance to the high-rise courtyard, and our angel started up what seemed like a lively conversation with the guard. After a minute or so, the guard then led us into the courtyard to another room, which, when opened, revealed two more guards. And though these were just like the typical rent-a-cops from back home, there was a certain imposition I felt from their collective presence, what with their official looking police hats and double-breasted overcoats, adorned with a large badge, complete with red hammer and sickle in the center. But I knew our angel had our backs.

So, again, he explains our predicament. We are at the correct address, but there is no indication that a hostel is nearby, so we need help. The most senior-looking guard begins to lead us out to an elevator shaft, and we follow. He chats with our friend, and our friend then lets us know something quite concerning: this is an apartment building, and if someone is renting a room to visitors, they are breaking the law.

Great. Just what we need: a stroll into a Chinese government sting operation on foreign nationals.

As it turns out, illegal or not, the rent-a-cops cared very little about any such operations in the building, and we eventually found our “hostel,” which was introduced to us by a girl who apparently ran the rental room.

So, we bade farewell to our angel, I suppose back to Heaven, but wherever he is, I hope he is being rewarded handsomely for being a great friend to us in our time of need.

But, though we had quite the adventure finding it, the “hostel” was not worth as much as we paid. To boil it down, upon stepping into the room, a large cockroach scurried away from the light, traversing the hallway and kitchen in its escape from the brightness. Yikes.

So, given that the “hostel” was such a hassle to find, somewhat below our cleanliness standards and unavailable for the next few nights, we split the next morning for the hotel down the street, the Home Inn.

We had an almost equally fun time making a reservation at this hotel as we did in Nanning, but this time, instead of someone who could translate for us without error, we met a man who knew only a bit of English, so the conversation through him was a bit trickier. Even so, we made enough gesticulations and random writings on our slips of paper to indicate that we needed a room for the next few nights, and our reservation was set.

From this point on, we spent our time doing only a few things: eating, sleeping, visiting my friend, Angie, and, our favorite, using the Internet place in the back of the hotel.

Yes, we did do a few bits of sightseeing, such as visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square:

The Forbidden City was great to see, as was the square, given the history and all, but we were just burnt out. We were tired of the hustle and bustle of the big cities we had been visiting lately, and Beijing was no exception. So we basically killed a lot of time in our room and in the Internet place behind the hotel, the latter of which was one of the ways in which we really realized the difference between Chinese and American culture, at least in the one respect.

It had to do with smoking. The Internet place was not really like a typical Internet café. It was basically four connected rooms, filled with desks and computers, and usually packed with Chinese teenagers playing World of Warcraft or some other online game. And, with all these bodies packed into unventilated rooms. Hallelujah.

So, when a few people smoked, it was immediately unbearable. The entire room smelled of the burning deathsticks, and though the cost of using the Internet was cheaper than you will find anywhere (we spent about 5 yuan, or about 70 cents, for about two hours of usage for BOTH of us), it was hellish to use the Internet for very long if many of these kids are smoking.

And, to note, smoking was really everywhere, even in our hotel elevator, where a man held a burning cigarette under his hands, as if that was going to prevent the smoke for filling our lungs with early death. It certainly made us appreciate the United States, especially California, where smoking indoors in certainly far from commonplace.

The only other notable activity we embarked upon was a trip to visit my friend, Angie, who works in the 798, a little art neighborhood in eastern Beijing.

The area used to be a center for munitions factories in the city, but in the last decade or two, it has been ground zero for the Beijing’s modern art movement. Angie, who works for an art book publisher in the 798, told us it is quite the happening place, though not without its problems. Apparently, the Chinese government does regular checks on the content being sold and shown in the stores and art houses in the 798, so when the inspectors come around, the stores and shops will put away the various questionable materials being sold. Seemed a bit … hmmmm … off.

But we walked around the area, going around to a few of the art houses and seeing quite a few different forms of art, from installations to a sort of fusion of painting and photography. Very interesting.

But afterward, that was the real highlight. After Angie got off work, we decided to get dinner together. She proposed a few options, and the two top choices were a place famous for Peking duck (though not the very famous, state-owned Peking duck restaurant) and another place. Well, we decided on the second place, since, due to our budget, Peking duck was a bit outside our funds.

But, in a flash of generosity and awesomeness, Angie spoke out, and said we were going to get Peking duck, and it would be on her! Talk about nice. I’m being sure to include this part because it was such a nice gesture that it can’t go unnoted. Angie, you da bomb.

But if you have never tasted Peking duck, you MUST try it. It is something of a specialty in Beijing (which used to be called Peking in English). The restaurant we attended was actually started by a chef from the famous state-owned Peking duck restaurant, who apparently left and started his own shop. Talk about sticking it to the Man.

The menu was remarkable. It had Peking duck, of course, but also maybe in the hundreds of other items, and each item had its own page in the menu. So this menu was basically a coffee table book. It was huge. It took Angie a full 10 minutes just to find all the items we were to try.

But eventually, we settled on Peking duck, preceded by a citrus duck soup, served in the rind of an orange, and some fruit for dessert. The duck was, frankly, delicious. It was very reminiscent of turkey legs, in that the meat was very dark and greasy. The meat was eaten in a sort of wrap, with veggies and sauces in a little roti-esque bread.

But the fun didn’t stop there. In addition to the meat, the skin of the duck is served on another dish. This part of the duck is dipped in sugar, of all things, and then eaten. It was maybe the most interesting food we have ever tasted. The skin is basically pure fat, and combined with the sugar, makes for a sweet treat that literally (and I mean literally) melts in your mouth. You maybe chew it for a few moments before it literally becomes a semi-viscous solution that travels down with an unnatural smoothness. If only for the skin, you MUST try this food.

After dinner, we bade Angie farewell, and unfortunately, that night I came down with a sickness that put me out of commission the next day, our last day in Beijing. In any case, the very last activity in Beijing was arguably one of the most fun: Our trip to the UCLA store.

That’s right. The University of California, Los Angeles sells clothes in China, which are made in South Korea.

The knowledge of this store’s presence was not a mystery to us before heading to Asia. A few years ago, UCLA paid $98,000 for this logo, and subsequently started using it everywhere. This included using the logo as a brand for extremely nice clothing in Asia, where demand for certain Western lifestyles is high. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to hear ASUCLA trademark representatives, who control the outside use of the logo, discuss how Asia markets are interested in clothing that represent the “Southern California” lifestyle. You know, life on the beach, wearing young clothing, yet also being professional and upper-class, all the trimmings from our favorite show, “The O.C.”

So UCLA began peddling the logo, and if you ever get a chance to see the UCLA clothing, it is a trip. It is basically nice Polo shirts and work clothes – all for men – without the typical expensive labels, but instead with UCLA. The shirts even after a UCLA tri-color of blue, white and gold. It was amazing.

But I’ll have to have a chat with ASUCLA Executive Director Bob Williams and the rest of his bunch, because if they think UCLA students even have half a chance of buying these clothes, they are crazy. Shirts were about $50 to $70 a piece, and everything else was even more. The prices were really outrageous. But I suppose none of these clothes are aimed at Americans, so no one is complaining (other than me [Derek], who thinks that these clothes should be cheaper and in the campus UCLA store!). Though, I suppose, with UCLA fees on the rise, the clothes do match the bankroll you’ll eventually need to get into UCLA.

And that, my friends, was Beijing, and the end of our China adventure. Of all the places we had been, China had been the biggest departure from normal, and the most difficult to navigate, it seemed. But it was very interesting, and we are glad we visited it. At least I am, since Sara has been there before, but it certainly was an eye-opening experience for us both.

From Hong Kong to Beijing: Our Chinese adventure (Part II)

2007-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/ChinaShanghai.

After having a pretty good time in Hong Kong, we decided to get on a train to our next destination, Shanghai.

And just like our trip to Guangzhou, we had a lengthy train trip. Much long than the first, in fact. Around 20 hours. Though this time we had the middle berths, which was definitely better than the top bunks.

When we got to Shangahi, we were, to say the least, disoriented. Without a map or any idea of where the railway station was in regard to our hotel, we were quite dumbfounded as to how to get ourselves from point A to point B.

Plus, one fact that did not help was that taxi drivers could not or would not help us get to our hotel.

It was weird.

We had a map (which we bough for 10 RMB, then looked on the back to discover that it was a free tourist map). We could point. We knew the address. Yet these cab drivers just gave us a grunt and moved along in their seemingly neverending line of taxis.

In addition to these unwilling, legitimate, metered taxis, we also dealt with the various illegitimate ones. Guys who hound you to come into their cars. We knew it was probably a scam. One guy even hovered over our shoulders as we tried to converse with the real taxis. Like that was going to encourage us to take their cab.

But the regular taxis were just not complying, and when it came down to it, we had a better shot of taking a sketchy taxi than walking aimlessly. I mean, we were in China; we can't read the street signs, and it is tough to match them with the ones on our map, which is almost completely in Chinese.

So we had one of the illegitimate drivers take us. For 45 RMB. Which is just under $7, but which we found out later, was a complete rip-off. Oh well. That's Asia (or at least, our experience when getting into Asia cities).

We settled into our hotel, the New Asia Hotel, near The Bund, which is the very deluxe, shoreline area of Shanghai. The part that gives Shanghai the title, "The Paris of the East." After that, we ventured out to see what the city had to offer.

What did we find? (Or, actually, what did we meticulously seek?)

Coffee Bean.

Ah, so good. It was glorious to get a sip of that long-desired mocha and caramel. Quite delicious.

With the first few days, we mostly walked around and saw the sights, one of which being the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party in China. I celebrated the sighting with style.

I think the Coke bottle was enough to explain my thoughts on Communism in China: irrelevant.

We also got to see some other sights around the city, including the Oriental Pearl Tower, which is sort of the iconic Shanghai piece of architecture.

The next day we went to the Shanghai aquarium, which is the largest in Asia. It was a pretty good aquarium, overall, though it seemed somewhat less than safe, as indicated in this photo:

Yeah, you could kind of reach into most of the waters, potentially hurting yourself or the fish. I don't think you would ever find this sort of thing in America, since it seems like a huge liability for the aquarium management. But we were sure to keep safe.

Also, it had one very unorthodox display: the amniotic sacs of a small shark.

What you are looking at are ACTUAL amniotic sacs of developing sharks. It seemed remarkable that this was on display, and really demonstrated, in a visual way, how the shark comes to develop before hatching. Very interesting, indeed.

The exhibits ended on a VERY slow-moving walkway, which took you under huge aquariums in glass tubes, a la Marine World Africa USA.

Somewhat terrifying to see all the teeth on some of the sharks. Butt overall, a good aquarium.

The next big activity was a trip to "Old Shanghai," a quaint little area with old-style architecture, and more trinket shops than you can shake a stick at.

It was nice to stroll around and take in the sights, though the area seemed somewhat inauthentic, given that several major chains inhabited the ground levels.

But, nonetheless, it was really nice, after you got over the various pesty merchants.

That night, we went back to the downtown area for a show near the tower, called "Fashion Miniature of History." It was kind of a mix of Chinese historical storytelling and a display of traditional dance and fashion. But it was actually very beautifully performed.

Though a few things about the show were odd. One is that I can show you pictures of it, and many of the viewers were not shy about using flash photography. There is always a ban on photography in American shows, but here, it was commonplace to whip out a camera and snap some shots.

The second thing was that there was constantly a dull roar in the auditorium. It was amazing that the other people in the audience would not SHUT UP. Ridiculous. I couldn't believe it. When we saw a movie in Hong Kong, we thought it was rude that people were constantly whisphering loudly. But this was crazy. Sara compared it to the constant chatter going on in our of her UCLA courses, where people were clearly not paying attention to the professor.

But it was bearable, since the show was actually really impressive and very nicely done.

Our next day was our second to last, and before we left, we wanted to visit the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, a notable Jewish temple in Shanghai.

Okay, history lesson. When 1939 brought the beginning of World War II in Europe, Jews across Europe began to find refuge from Nazism. That part you knew. What you might not have known is that many Jews made their way across Russia and Mongolia to Shanghai on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The community in Shanghai reached into the thousands, and there was actually a thriving Jewish enclave in the city for a time.

It was a very humble sight. Outside, there was no clear marking as to the fact that a synagogue was even in the area. The only clear indication was that the guard in front noticed us looking at our map, and waved us to come by.

A guide took us through the three floors accessible to the public. She had us wear plastic slippers on our shoes, and we walked around inside.

The first floor only had a few benches and a print of the original building plans hanging on the back wall. The alter where the Torah was kept looked very plain, built of wood, and there were no carvings or anything that would indicate that it was used for any Jewish services. On the second floor, images for refugees hang from the walls, with artifacts from their houses sitting against the back wall, such a fan and an old radio. I was a little disappointed when our guide only made a few terse comments on the synagogue and the Jewish community, since I would have liked to learn more. I had to ask to get a limited amount of further information.

The third floor is the one with the various pieces of art, and several images hang from the walls of Israeli diplomats or leaders, such as Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the synagogue.

Overall, it was very, very plain, and seems neglected in terms of history. I felt like it wasn't learning very much about the Jews in Shanghai, which is maybe the reason why the guard tried to sell us a book on the subject as we left. The building itself is kept well-maintained, but I feel as if the history is lacking, or at least, could be presented with more chutzpah.

And that wraps up Shanghai! Whew! Overall, the city was okay. Subways were uncomfortable, but it was pretty metropolitan and fairly nice. Not worth another trip back, but I'm glad I got to see it.

Okay, so Beijing is next on the list. Stay tuned!

From Hong Kong to Beijing: Our Chinese adventure (Part I)

2007-12-06T12:32:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/HongKong.

After leaving our new friend Mandy and the city of Nanning, we headed from Guangzhou, another stop along the way to Hong Kong. This was on an overnight train trip, one which we were in the "hard sleeper," on two top-bunk beds. Not the most comfortable of accommodations, but we could deal.

But when we got to Guangzhou, we had another problem: we didn't know how to get a ticket to Hong Kong. We knew it was possible, but we know no Chinese languages, and we had no means of figuring it out. We were stumped, and quite frustrated. We eventually found someone who knew one solution.

She told us to go to the airport.

Which is what we did. Go figure.

We got to the airport and hopped on the next flight out to Hong Kong (which seemed somewhat ridiculous, since we got there an hour before the flight left, bought the ticket, checked-in, got through customs and immigration, and still had 15 minutes to spare. This, compared to American international flights, which legitimately take a good two to three hours of processing. Not to mention having to buy the actual ticket months in advance.

We got into Hong Kong, and after looking at some somewhat disgusting hostels, we found one that was suitably clean (though the building in which it was housed was somewhat shabby, if not in complete disrepair on the outside). We settled in and took to sightseeing, though this stretch of our trip took on a decidedly more relaxed feel.

Our first full day was one for walking around. We took to the streets of Hong Kong, looking for whatever we could find.

First, we found some interesting foods. Though I knew Chinese shops were big on dried fish products, which are prominently displayed and unmistakably smelled, this one was the most unorthodox to us:

Stretched lizard of some sort. Quite unsettling to our Western sensibilities.

As we walked along, we also had some fun. Most of which involving statues.

That night, we went to a night market to see what the Hong Kongers had to offer. Pretty much the same items we had found in Bangkok and other cities. We weakly haggled for two scarves, and from the sound of her description of the incident, Sara was almost attacked by one lady trying to sell her items. Apparently, this woman thought it was polite to apply her vice-like grip upon Sara's wrist (after Sara repeatedly asked her to leave her alone), as this would clearly ensure a successful transaction. Yikes.

Overall, Hong Kong was a nice place, but very commercialized. Malls everywhere, Starbucks and McDonald's luring you at your every turn. But it was nice to get back to a metropolitan area. Nice to have English more prominent in the various signage.

And nice to visit Disneyland.

Yes. That's right. We went to Hong Kong Disneyland. And yes, it was magical.

You see, going to Hong Kong Disneyland has many advantages over the original happiest place on Earth in Anaheim. First, it is important to note that getting to HK Disneyland is maybe easier than tying your shoe.

I swear to you, that is not an embellishment.

The reason it was so simple to get there is because it is linked to the Hong Kong subway system. There is a special Disneyland line that runs from one station on the western island directly to the park.

No waiting in 405 traffic. No parking garages. No hassle whatsoever. If Disney could reproduce this somehow in California, so many more people would enter the park with smiles on their faces, even after paying the ticket price.

That gets me to the next point. HK Disneyland is $40, and most food and snacks inside are between $2-4. This is compared to Anaheim Disneyland's entry fee of $66 ($91 for the Park-Hopper, which allows you to both Disneyland and California Adventure) and snacks that cost between $6-10. Our entire Disneyland experience in Hong Kong cost $150, well below what I would expect to spend in Anaheim. This makes for very happy customers.

And let me tell you, much of the park is EXACTLY the same as Anaheim.

It is scary how well it is replicated. Main Street, U.S.A. Sleeping Beauty Castle. Awesomeness. Of course, only some of the park is reproduced in Hong Kong. There is no Matterhorn, no Big Thunder Mountain (and no Frontierland at all), no Toon Town (though, who is really broken up about that?). Though there is one part they are adding as we speak:

It's a Small World. Why they chose that ride, I don't know, but it seems like the most illogical addition to the park. I mean, it is corny and fun, but really, I think the Chinese are going to hate it.

In addition to these positives, the park is really not attracting the numbers it had expected. That translates to basically no lines throughout the entire park. Space Mountain was continually a 15-minute wait. You might have waited longer if you got a Fast Pass. It was crazy how few people were there. Disneyland is ALWAYS packed back home, and I expected no less from Hong Kong. Though it certainly worked in our benefit, since we got to go on or see basically every attraction available.

Of course, there are a few things you cannot find in Anaheim. These include a revamped Space Mountain, with a smoother ride and cooler decorations, and "The Golden Mickeys," which is a musical show that reviews several Disney songs at a mock awards ceremony. Pretty fun.

Of course, the show taught me a few things about Disney and Mandarin. It had to do with name pronunciation. Though the songs were in English, the entire speaking parts of the show were in Mandarin, and Mickey and Minnie received very different names: "Mikey" and "Mine-y." Apparently, there are no sounds in Chinese languages for Mickey and Minnie, so those two names are what we get. But I feel like it deprives Chinese children of the real names; I mean, Mickey Mouse just rolls off the tongue so nicely. To change it is sacrilege.

Though some aspects of the park were just unreproducible (Google is telling me that is the correct word). This comes in reference to the famous Jungle Cruise.

Yes, the Jungle Cruise we have all come to know and love just cannot survive when your skipper just can't deliver the punchlines well through a thick Chinese accent. Maybe some of the other skippers could make those oh-so-corny jokes sound realer, but our skipper, who must have spoken English as a second language, failed in her valiant attempt to reproduce the corny jokes for which the Jungle Cruise is known.

Even so, there were some fun moments on the ride. The first of which was when we saw this:

I swear to you: if I had a camera on our bamboo-raft ride in Thailand, THIS is the EXACT I would have taken of an elephant bathing. I swear, it looked JUST like that.

Also, there was a point in the ride, near the end, when a burst of water shot out of the river, blocking passage to the main route and redirecting the ship to a little cove, where a rock resembling the fish we ate with Mandy started to growl and grow louder. Eventually, the boat began to rock and fire leaped across the waves.

It was pretty intense for a typically low-key ride, but I liked it. Afterward, we went to another new addition, a Lion King show. It was interesting how they integrated English and Mandarin into the show, with the main actress speaking English while two men in monkey suits translated to Mandarin, though all singing was done in English.

All in all, the selection of attractions was great at Disneyland, and we were kept busy the entire time we were there.

Overall, Hong Kong Disneyland gets the stamp of approval. Though it is not as big and diverse, in terms of attractions, it is well worth the money. We even got to take a survey when we left, which resulted in some nice souvenirs for free. Though we had to put down on the survey that we were "unlikely" to return to the park in the future. Mostly because, well, it is in Hong Kong. No matter how great it is, Anaheim is only a car ride away from anywhere I am in California, whether north or south!

Our only other big activity in Hong Kong was our trip to Repulse Bay Beach. I know; the name seems unintuitive, but the place is really beautiful. The closest we came to a paradise scene so far on the trip.

We took our time viewing the small waves skip onto the sands. We played some 500 Rummy, which was especially nice with my brand new set of Disneyland playing cards.

And we just relaxed. It was really a beautiful place, and any trip to Hong Kong without a visit is sorely lacking.

Other than those two big excursions, we took our time in Hong Kong. We bought cereal from a market and every morning we bought little cartons of milk to eat breakfast in our room. We hung out in malls and shopped a bit. We even saw two movies ("Lust, Caution," which we highly recommend, and "Lions for Lambs," which we highly recommend you avoid). It was nice to kick back for a bit and quit the hustle and bustle of traveling.

Cool. Stay tuned, gang, for the next edition of World Travels, when we take you to the Paris of the East, Shanghai!

Meeting Mandy: Our visit to Nanning, China (Part II)

2007-12-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/ChinaNanning.

The second day of our trip to Nanning was almost as fun filled as the first, as Mandy helped us find our way to Yangmei, an ancient city about one hour outside of Nanning proper.

The bus ride was a little rough. It was not a proper bus, being only somewhat larger than a VW EuroVan (at least, it felt that way with the number of people packed inside). But it wasn't too bad, as Mandy shared her MP3 player with us, and we discussed her musical interests, which included everything from Backstreet Boys to Britney to Westlife, which is another boy band about which I didn't know.

Once we got there, we started to explore. The city is kind of a tourist sight within China. Sort of like Americans visiting Napa Valley or something, except with Chinese stuff instead of vineyards. So we began to mill around, taking in all the sights to see in the area.

The city is "ancient," I suppose, though if you consider a few hundred years ancient. Many of the structures date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were the later ones in Chinese dynastic history. But still, it was fun to just see everything. There were free-roaming chickens, with chicks in tow, and maybe of the ancient homes were adorned with traditional Chinese decorations.

The first fun activity was actually our exploration of a temple, in which incense was burning and a few old men inhabited. Mandy started talking with one of the men and she found out that one could play a certain game in the temple. It was a fortune-telling game, of which Sara and I actually knew, as our friend Narges had purchased a version in English.

Basically, you kneel on a pillow with a tube of sticks, each with a red section and a Chinese inscription. You forcefully shake the tube up and down until one falls out, and then you show the stick to the fortune teller, who matches the characters with others in a fortune book.

Both Sara and Mandy had good fortunes!

We wandered some more. We found an ancient tree, one that was very old, according to some random old woman we happened upon. Of course, that made the tree noteworthy enough for a photo.

We also saw a little calf and its mother. Downright adorable, if you ask us!

After walking around a bit more, we decided to get some food. We went back to the main area near the river, and sat down in the first restaurant we saw. Of course, the menus were in Chinese, so Mandy was our translator, and helped us determine what to order. After some deliberation, we decided on some soup, sticky rice and a chicken dish. Chicken: easy enough. Or so we thought, right before we saw this.

Yeah. Chicken.

That was going to be our chicken. Our server had gone to get it for us in order to gain our approval of the fowl.

I think it hit me with some wing feathers when it flapped around in a struggle at one point.

We were stunned. Later, Mandy informed us that places that ensure customers that the food was just recently killed are preferred. After the initial shock, we weighed our options. Yes, chicken is delicious, but this was a whole chicken, and we were only three people. We did not want to eat the whole thing, nor send a chicken to its death just to feast on some of the bird. So we opted for fish, instead.

That was a bit more familiar. I have seen people in Asian supermarkets and some restaurants, picking out the fish or crustacean of their choice. We picked us a winner.

And boy, it looked mighty good by the time they fried that sucker gold.

I was quite confused when they brought this out. I mean, fish back home is filleted, and boneless. What were we supposed to do with THIS?

Well, Mandy led the way. All one has to do is jam the chopsticks into the fish and eat. Boy, picking apart that fish was almost as fun as surgically eating buffalo wings, though it was somewhat comical to actually have the skeleton of a recently eaten animal before us after a meal. very Looney Tunes, I thought.

But that wrapped up our time with Mandy. We rode back home, grabbed our stuff, and headed out to the train station, but trading goodbyes in our sleeper car. We miss you, Mandy! And if you ever come to California, you already have two people to help you around, just like you helped us!

Alright, now onto the three big China cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing! Stay tuned!

Meeting Mandy: Our visit to Nanning, China (Part I)

2007-11-28T06:05:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/ChinaNanning.

After hitting up good ol' Vietnam, we high-tailed it outta there over to China, to a city called Nanning.

Sara and I didn't really know what to expect from Nanning. In our hostel in Hanoi, we had heard that there was nothing there. Maybe a few restaurants and office buildings, but nothing of note. Mostly just a place people pass through on their ways to other cities.

Regardless, we knew anything was better than Hanoi, so we got ourselves on the first bus out (Actually, the people at our hostel, who booked our bus, tried to tell us the bus we booked was full, and that we would have to go on a later bus, but we squashed that problem really quickly. We were done taking crap from the people pulling the strings with our travel or money.).

The bus right was okay: 8 hours long, and somewhat nauseating. But we actually got to cross over the Vietnam-China border by "crossing the frontier." Basically, we got out of our bus at the border, filled into the customs checkpoint, got on a tram to the China customs, and then got on a new bus, which would take us the rest of the way. All in all, a fun experience, right?

Well, let's just say it was less than orderly. The process by which we got checked at the Vietnamese customs: everyone throws their passports into a pile, and waited to see the border officer hold it up to indicate that he or she is finished. Man, it was quite the ordeal. If that wasn't enough, we had began talking with an Israeli couple on the bus, and they noticed that the officers had been curiously fingering their passports, trying to pick at the bindings and scratching at their photos.

They told us about how they encountered troubles at a number of different points in their travels, and it made it quite a hassle to get around. I can imagine being suspected just because I was American, and it sucks that anyone should be subjected to such treatment.

Regardless, we finally made it across, and for the rest of the bus ride, we talked with the girl from the Israeli couple. She told us about her travels in the past, to the United States and other countries, and we exchanged details about our current travels. It was actually quite an involved conversation, but the one thing we didn't even think to ask: her name! Oh well, maybe she'll stumble upon our blog, assuming she isn't in China anymore.

We finally arrived in Nanning in the afternoon. It was mild, and as we strolled out of the bus terminal into the city, we realized we had no idea where we were. We didn't have a map. As we walked away from our bus mates, we found not a soul that spoke English. Things we not looking so great, but we kept on keeping on.

Eventually, we spotted some hotels towering above the rest of the low-rise buildings in the area, and stepped into the closest one, the Camelia Hotel. It was nice: very clean lobby, with people milling about. As we walked up to the reception, I noticed the prices we listed in English and Chinese, which was a good sign.

But, of course, upon opening our mouths, it was evident on the faces of the employees that English was not an option. We were helpless, until fortunately, a Chinese man standing beside us realized our plight, and helped to translate. I swear, if these English speakers were not strategically placed at the many sites we have attended, I don't know how we would have gotten by sometimes.

We checked in, and for the rest of the day, simply searched around the area surrounding our hotel. We found the train station, by some miracle, and by saying Hong Kong loudly and indicating our desired departure date, found a way to buy two tickets from Nanning to Guangzhou, a town on the way to Hong Kong.

The next day, we decided to venture out a bit. We had gotten hold of a Nanning tourism pamphlet, and People's Park, or Renmin Park, seemed like a nice enough place to visit. So we hailed a cab, and a few minutes later, we were inside Nanning's People's Park. We didn't have very high hopes for the park, but we had no idea the adventure that followed.

We started out in the bottom of the park, and worked our way up. We saw many an interesting site, including an old fort on the peak of the hill in the park.

After the fort, we headed down to the lake in the middle of the park. We saw several people huddled over the edges of the lake, looking at something intently, and realized that for a few yuan, you could buy fish food and feed the fish in the lake!

It was actually really interesting. These fish went nuts when you sprinkled just a few pellets of fish food into the lake. Eventually, Sara gave some feed to a little Chinese boy, and much fun was to be had.

We traveled through the park a little more, taking in the sights. Until we passed over the lake and came to a clearing. At this moment, a Chinese girl, assumably around our age, approached us from the right. She asked us if we spoke English, and then introduced herself. Her name was Mandy.

When Sara and I started talking to her, we both thought she was maybe just an interested pedestrian. I mean, from the looks of it, Nanning got a white tourist maybe once a year, so we figured, eh, she was interested that two were perusing her town's park.

Until she asked to tag along with us. From that moment forward, we and Mandy were inseperable. She followed us around the entire rest of the park, asking us about our lives, telling us about hers. And as we strolled along, we decided that we would hang out with our new friend more, if only to get around more easily to more sites in Nanning.

Her English, which she had been learning for only three months, was somewhat impressive, considering the short amount of time she had been studying. Still, it was sometimes tough to talk, but we all kept trying our best.

She took us around to various places. She treated us to some "interesting" Chinese snacks. The first stop was at a drink shop, where she bought us one drink made of peas (like the ones we typically eat for dinner), and another with kidney beans and other grains. Like I said, "interesting." Mandy also took us to another little shop, where the food was, like I said, "interesting." Something like peanut butter in gooey white paste, in a sugar water. Yikes. :)

Sara and I weren't too enthralled with these new foods, but we were glad to be trying new things.

Afterward, we continued searching Nanning with Mandy. She took us to a mall, an outdoor shopping area, and to the waterfront, where we relaxed for a bit.

Then, she actually decided to invite us up to her apartment while she dropped off her books! Man, I gotta say, she was more trusting of us than I was when we accepted a ride from a random guy in Malaysia to an Internet cafe. Afterward, we decided to go bowling, which was actually a lot of fun.

One problem for me, though, was that they didn't carry shoe sizes larger than 11. So this is what my feet looked like.

Ouch. Yeah, let's just say, I barely broke 100, as well as my big toe.

Mandy, on the other hand, the only one of us who had never bowled before, was the winner, with 105, to my 103. It was a bit humbling, to lose after averaging a steady 170-175 at home. But I didn't have my shoes, nor did I have my ball, so I can't be blamed!

Afterward, we stopped off at the first noodle shop we found, and had a good time attempting to convey to our servers, through Mandy, that we would prefer chicken. That didn't work out so well, so beef noodles it was! Goodtimes, though.

Alright, that's enough for now! That was just day one! You're going to love day two. I'll let you know when part II is hot of the presses. Stay tuned!

Laos and Vietnam: Two former French colonies to which I will not be rushing back

2007-11-18T05:35:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Laos and http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Vietnam.

As you can tell from the headline on this post, Laos and Vietnam were less than appealing. It was just bad times in both places, for different reasons in both places. But I suppose I'll just start from the top.

Laos actually started out very well. We left by air from Chiang Mai, Thailand, and after about an hour of somewhat shaky travel, we arrived on the ground in Luang Prabang.

As you can tell, the airport used to be a McDonald's. :) At least it was the size of one, anyway.

We got in, searched for a guesthouse, and, after finding a pretty nice one right near the river, we settled in and started to roam. The city itself is not that big; we must have walked from end to end several times throughout our stay. And it is completely gear toward tourists. It seems that Laos has seen something of a boom in tourism in the past few years, and now tourists flock to Luang Prabang. There were probably more tourists there than natives!

We looked around the outdoor markets, had some Laotian food, and got this great pastry afterward. It was called a pancake, but it was filled with bananas, and it was pretty exciting to watch it be created.

Overall, our first night was great. The next day, we were energized to do some more exploring. We ventured out to the local sights, the primary of which was Pho Si, a mountain in the middle of the city with a wat on top (yeah, there were more wats in Laos). Then, we roamed a bit more, booking an elephant trek and a weaving class in the town. That night, we headed to the former Royal Palace (now the city museum) for the Royal Theatre performance of traditional Lao dance.

Then, we made the worst decision we could have made: we ate at an outdoor vegetarian buffet. We thought that the food was all cooked, but man, oh, man, were we wrong.

That night, Sara and I contracted what is known as traveller's diarrhea. Let me tell you, this sickness is no joke. I don't want to go into the details, but if you do, search it on Google. You'll find that it is not pleasant whatsoever. Oh, man. I couldn't even continue reading Roots, the book I am currently reading, because the horrible descriptions in the book made me realize that I felt very similar (except for the slavery part).

Sara had it much worse than I did. We were both very sick for the first night, and then, as we both took our antibiotics, we slowly got better. But we missed out on both our elephant trek and our weaving class, which we were not pleased about one bit.

We ended up finishing out our time in Laos by staying in our room, playing Rummy 500 and switching between CNN and "Bring It On: All or Nothing." Goodtimes, indeed. At least the twilight hours were always pretty.

So, on Nov. 12, we left Laos with high hopes for Vietnam. We flew into Hanoi, and within the first three hours of being in Vietnam, we made a grand realization: we wanted to leave.

I don't think any other city could have engendered so much dislike so quickly. It was amazingly horrible. Everyone is on a motorbike, everyone is going every direction, there is no such thing as pedestrian right-of-way, and the air makes you want to gag with every breath. Then, when you are walking about, every single person is trying to sell you something, or offer you to pose with their hawking scales. Holy Toledo, it was nuts.

We found a means of leaving the next day, for Nanning, China. Unfortunately, we had to navigate this awful town to find the Aeroflot office, where we needed to fix our ticket to Europe.

The only somewhat nice part of the city was the park in the middle of the area we were in.

If you look closely, you can almost make out my somewhat-forced smile.

I'm sorry to anyone who might have had a different experience, but this was ours, and by no means can I ever bring myself to recommend Hanoi for a trip. It was too much for us, which probably means it was too much for most anyone.

Whew. It was harrowing just to write about all of that. I promise that China is better, so stay tuned for that story. I should have it up soon, assuming China hasn't blocked blogger.com from access yet. :)

The King and I: Thai Adventures (Part III)

2007-11-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Thailand.

Time for the conclusion to the epic tale!

The last place we hit up in Thailand was Chiang Mai, which is a city located in the north. We were not sure what to expect from our trip there, but when we got there, we found out that it was sort of like a Thai Queenstown. Everything in the town seems to be geared at tourists, which was a blessing and a curse. Though everything was easily understood and very accessible, there were tourists everywhere, which is just kinda lame. But oh well, what are you going to do, right?

But Chiang Mai was really a nice place. Just like everywhere else in Thailand, there were two 7-Elevens within walking distance, and it was fun to just stroll around the area and see what was going on. Then, we scoped out the options for activities in our guesthouse's lobby. In Chiang Mai, every single guesthouse has a desk where you can book activities and stuff, but we just took some pamphlets. But we noticed a flier for Muay Thai, which is Thai kickboxing. I knew of if because my roommate last year, Darius, told me about his Muay Thai classes at UCLA. So we bought two tickets and took a tuk-tuk over to the stadium, and it was time for some fightin'!

The stadium was filled with tourists, all sitting in the folding chairs, ringside. There were some scattered Thai people sitting in the bleachers, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Usually, the less locals, the less authentic of an activity. But soon, the fighters made their way to the ring, and it was time to fight. But what I thought was interesting was the pre-fight rituals of the fighters.

They basically would walk all around the ring in a sort of roundabout manner, going to each turnbuckle post and kneeling in the middle of the ring, praying to some fighting god for all I know. But as soon as that was over, the fight started. And man, it was intense.

I swear, one blow from these guys, and I would be out cold. The fighting was really high energy, and sometimes the fighters would become entangled and kick each other awkwardly at the sides. As the first fight went on, finally a crowd of Thais made itself known on the side of the ring, shouting with every blow. The second fight was the only TKO we saw, where on guy literally pummeled the other into delirium. He needed two coaches to walk him off the mat.

We stayed for a few fights before leaving, but the last two fights we saw were between kids, not older than 14 or 15 years old! We later spoke to someone who told us they start training as early as seven. It was so weird to see little kids just kicking the crap out of each other.

The next day was our first big activity: a Thai cooking class! We went to a place called Baan Thai. We were with a group of eight: us, a mom and daughter from Miami, a friend of theirs from Long Island, and three people from Holland. Talk about eclectic!

We started the day by going out to a market and buying up a bunch of ingredients. Our teacher would talk to us about the things we need, describing the differences between Thai veggies and fruits from American ones. It was great to learn about all the important things to consider before buying ingredients.

After gathering all the necessary goods, we headed back to cook! And the thing about this class that was kinda scary was that you suffer if you can't cook well! But the teacher was very helpful, and everyone in the class seemed to get pretty comfortable with chopping and arranging all our foods as necessary.

It was actually surprisingly easy to cook. In the end, we made these dishes: prawn stir-fry, chicken spring rolls, papaya salad, Chiang Mai noodles with chicken, and deep-friend bananas. And it was all delicious! What was really great was that you could tailor your foods to how you like them. For instance, I don't do well with spicy curries, so when we made the curry for our noodles, I chose to add less pepper to mine, making it delicious. I highly recommend Baan Thai if you are considering this in Chiang Mai. It was great!

The last big Chiang Mai adventure was our full-day trek through the neighboring areas. It was pretty much the touristy thing to do, but we found a good deal and it seemed legit, so we decided to try it.

The first part of the trip was an elephant ride, which was pretty interesting, to say the least. Throughout the ride, you could buy bananas from people along the elephant trail, and you could give them to the elephants as a snack.

Our elephant begged for many bananas, but there was one problem: we only brought enough baht for one batch! Oh well; sorry, elephant.

The ride was cool, but a little harrowing. I mean, you are on an elephant. Nuff said. But our elephant driver was quite fierce with the elephant. In fact, a little too much for my nerves.

The animal rights activist in me wasn't having the greatest of days, so if you have issues with mild animal mistreatment, I wouldn't endorse these treks. But there was an adorable baby elephant following its family.

Pretty cute, no?

After the ride, we started on a walking tour of the foresty areas, and that was actually very nice. But during the trek, we stopped off at two village, one Hmong and one Karen. It was very interesting to see the different villages. I was very worried that it would be a "people zoo," where we would be awkwardly encroaching on a private culture. But it wasn't so awkward, and our guide explained a lot of things about the peoples in these villages.

And the trails were really beautiful. And somewhat dangerous. Because it was moist from raining the day before, many of the trails were slippery around rocks, and I swear I was two seconds from cracking my neck a bunch of times. But I'm alive, so no worries.

The one part that I didn't get to take photos of was our bamboo raft ride! We actually got on a raft of bamboo, just our captain and us four. And man, it was literally a real-life Jungle Cruise. It even had an elephant bathing in the river! Unfortunately, it wasn't clearly communicated that I needed swim trunks, so my shorts got pretty much soaked through. But it was worth it. Really a lot of fun.

And that was pretty much Chiang Mai. Overall, Thailand was a really amazing place, and definitely the best part of Southeast Asia. From Bangkok to Prachaup, I think we really got a taste of many different facets of Thai tourism, all of them having their own special parts. Definitely recommended!

So stay tuned for our next post: Laos and Vietnam! Yep, they only need one post, and maybe just a few sentences. I'll explain then!

The King and I: Thai Adventures (Part II)

2007-11-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Thailand.

After good ol' Prachuap, which was really an awesome way to see what seemed like typical Thai life, we caught a bus heading to Bangkok, and when we got there, we finally saw the sun! Like, full on, not just breaking through clouds. But it was a nice change of pace, since we had been in small towns for a while. Good to be back in a big city.

But there is one thing I completely forgot to mention about Mayalsia and Thailand: no matter where you go, no matter what street you are on, there is always (and I mean ALWAYS) a 7-Eleven just around the corner. It was literally ridiculous. In Kuala Lumpur, if they didn't have what you liked at one 7-Eleven, you could walk across the street to the other one and check there. In Thailand, there were more 7-Elevens than stray dogs. I had no idea the convenience store was such a big deal in Southeast Asia. But no cherry Slurpees! Talk about having 7-Elevens for no good reason, other than to provide for tourists looking for familiar candies. But if you ever go to Southeast Asia, and you find yourself troubled by the food, you can always rely on good ol' 7-Eleven to provide a little fix of something familiar.

Our first day there was all about wats. Wats and wats of wats (get it?!). As I mentioned before, a wat is a Buddhist temple, and to get to these temples, we took a tuk-tuk, a little motorbike with a large, covered seat in the back.

We paid 60 baht, the equivalent of about $2 USD, for a half-day tour of some of the more famous wats in the city! And these wats are really beautiful: so many colors and little details on every part.

Inside the first was the Lucky Buddha, which our guide told us was lucky if you prayed to it. But Sara and I kept away from praying or doing anything religious in the wats, because, in reality, it means nothing to us. It would be meaningless for us to get down and pray to some diety of which we know very little. So we decided it would be better to just be respectful and admire the insides of the wats. Though this wat freaked us out a bit, since this guy was sitting in the back:

Actually, it wasn't a real guy, but upon first walking in, I couldn't tell, and I refrained from taking photos because I thought he would be offended. Sara knew he was fake from the start, but said for a second, as a result of my paranoia, she second-guessed her assumption. Damn monk scarecrow!

The next wat had much of the same kind of stuff, but in the back, around a courtyard, were several different statues of Buddha. And it was really interesting to see how many different cultures pray to Buddha, and how Buddha is seen by those peoples.

But if you ever go to Bangkok, you'll learn that the one problem with these tuk-tuks is that, while cheap, they are very pushy about making you go where THEY want to go. You'll never get a point-A-to-point-B trip. They took us to some suit-making place to try to sell us what they called Versace suits, which apparently are only Versace when they get the Versace tag in Italy or wherever. Then they took us to a Tourism Authority of Thailand agency, which tried to sell us expensive trips around the nation. Talk about big-time scams. But if you can avoid getting too annoyed with that, they are great deals.

Other than that day, Bangkok was pretty laid back and relaxed. We stayed away from anything too tourist-heavy, and even saw "The Kingdom." The food was pretty good everywhere, and it was just good to not be doing anything too high-energy for a while.

After Bangkok was Ayutthya, the ancient capital of Siam. Here, we did the same thing as on our first day in Bangkok: got a tuk-tuk to take us to all the big sites. And many of them were very beautiful and pretty impressive. I mean, they were built hundreds of years ago, and were still standing, some mostly in tact.

We had a few other fun stops along the way, on of which was feeding the elephants at the elephant park in the city. For 20 baht, or about 66 cents USD, you got a whole basket of goodies to feed directly to the elephants!

At the end of our tuk-tuk trip, we got to see the famous Buddha-head-under-the-tree. I know I have seen it before, but never really knew much about it.

The reason Sara is crouching is because, in Buddhist culture, you are not allowed to have your head above Buddha's. It is disrespectful. So, if you are to take a photo, you have to put your head below his.

I found all the emphasis on Buddha and the statues somewhat uncomfortable. I mean, I don't align myself with any religious in particular, but I think my general association with Western religions makes me dislike idolatry. Or maybe that is just because I like Moses.

Anyway, you guys get to hear more about Thailand later, when I talk about our final stop, Chiang Mai. Stay tuned!

The King and I: Thai Adventures (Part I)

2007-11-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Thailand.

That is the popular saying around Thailand, since they have a king! I was the first nation where a king was still in place that I have yet to visit. Unless Malaysia and Singapore have them. And I suppose New Zealand is still under the British Royalty. But it was still cool!

Thailand was a lot of fun, though it didn't start out that way. Before settling in our first stop, at Ko Phangan (an island off the eastern shore of Thailand), we had literally 3 24-hour days of traveling from Malaysia. You see, after the Cameron Highlands, we were done with Malaysia. So the day we left, it was 2 hours by bus to Ipoh, then 12 hours of waiting for the train, then another 9 hours on the train, before getting off at Hat Yai, Thailand to get on another 6 hour train to Surat Thani! Then, though we did get to sleep, we had to take another 30 minute drive to the 6-hour boat ride to the island! Argh!

So getting into Thailand wasn't so fun, and the weather was horrendous. Cloudy and rainy and just generally ugly, in a place that so many brochures called "paradise!"

We did get a few hours of sun breaking through the clouds one day, and it did look pretty.

But after two days, we were done, so we got on another boat ride to shore. This boat ride was TERRIBLE. Sara was at the back of the ship, vomiting with one half of the passengers, while I was on the verge inside with the rest. It was the worst boat experience of our lives, and has put us off to any more boats on this trip.

But the next stop made up for the bad entry. The city is Prachuap Kiri Khan. We took a bus and were dropped off at what looked like a random stretch of highway in Thailand. Somewhat bewildered, a portly Thai approached us as we crossed the street. He didn't know a lick of English, so interacting was fun. We were trying to indicate, somehow, that we wanted to go into the city.

No dice. So I pulled out the guide book and said the name of one hotel in the city. Luckily, he knew it, and the adventure continued. He proceeded to show us his motorbike, and indicated something about our bags. Turns out, he wanted us to put one bag on the bike, while one of us wore the other, while both traveling on the bike with him.

Let me just say, it was maybe the most harrowing 10 minute bike ride of my life. I was on the back of the bike, holding onto this dude and Sara, and thinking about my will (who says I can't multitask?). But we made it into town, paid him, and then I kissed the ground. We inquired as to the hotel's accommodations, and upon learning that they only had rooms with outdoor bathrooms, the next task was to find the other hotel.

We wandered for a bit before finding the tourist information center at the police station. We thought, "maybe they speak English!" We forgot that we were in Prachuap Kiri Khan. But we had a guide book and the name of the hotel, so we pointed and waited in anticipation as one of the men inside slowly made his way outside. He finally gave us some sort of directions, made clearer with hand motions, and we finally made it to the hotel. And man, for being cheaper than any place we had previously stayed (or close to it), this place was like a palace. Nice, clean room, with a big bed and TELEVISION! It was a miracle.

But Prachuap turned out to be great. We found a night market right near the city's main wat (temple), where tons of food and goods were on sale. We searched around and, in the back of the market, there was a song and dance show going on!

And, also fun, were the critters for sale. Critters being maggots, cockroaches, and other bugs, fried to perfection and sold by the bag for 20 baht. Mmmmm mmmm. I'll get pictures up in the next post.

The next day, we took in Prachuap's biggest sight: an old wat, which sits atop a large hill in the middle of the city. It was 400 steps to the top, and we had some visitors along the way.

That's right. More free-roaming monkeys. I think that is just a staple in Southeast Asia.

Anyway, the view from the top was beautiful, and we had some great weather for that day. Overall, Prachuap turned out to be our favorite stop so far. It was really just a great town, with no real signs that tourism had taken over. We only saw about three or four other white people. It was maybe the closest we could ever get to seeing the sort of real Thai life outside the tourist areas, and it was great to experience.

Anyway, next time: Bangkok and Chiang Mai! Stay tuned...

NZ was "The Land of the Long White Cloud;" SE Asia is "The Land of the Constantly Overcast"

2007-10-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/Malaysia.

As you can tell from my title, the weather on this leg of the trip has been lacking to a degree. I guess I just miss seeing the sun!

Last time I posted, I was in Malaysia, posting about Singapore, and right now, I am in a little town in Thailand called Prachuap Kiri Khan, located on the eastern shore of southern Thailand, posting about Malaysia.

Since we left Singapore, we haven't been having the greatest of times. Malaysia, for all the hype it builds in regard to its "Visit Malaysia 2007" campaign (as 2007 is the 50th year of independence for the nation), was somewhat of a let down. We stayed in Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, and the Cameron Highlands. Each place was decent, but with the weather so terrible it was hard to enjoy much.

But I'll talk about what WAS positive. Melaka was actually okay weather for a period, and we got a good amount of sun to explore the city. It is an old place, with the Porto de Santiago, an old Dutch/Portuguese fort that was built during the colonial period.

The fort was interesting, and there was even a Malaysian dude inside with a guitar busting out "Lodi" by Creedence Clearwater. But the highlight was this dude:

This dude was literally roaming around the ruins in the area. That is a HUGE lizard. Not komodo dragon status, but pretty bad ass by my standards.

Otherwise, Melaka was pretty unremarkable, so we headed to Kuala Lumpur (which is called KL by everyone, but don't say it around me, because it sounds kind of annoying unless you are from around there). I was pretty excited to see the city, though, again, the weather was bad when we got in. Kuala Lumpur is basically a big city, and other than the Petronas Towers (formerly the tallest buildings in the world), there was not much to get excited about. But just outside the city were the Batu Caves, and these were actually impressive and exciting.

The caves are basically inside this huge rock, and inside are several Hindu shrines and status.

The main cave sits atop a long staircase of over 200 steps, and people were all over the complex.

In addition to the shrines, these guys were chilling in the complex:

Yeah, that's right. Free-roaming monkeys (I guess, considering that lizard, notable free-roaming animals were a constant in Malaysia). These guys were everywhere, and were certainly not afraid of humans. In fact, this guy in the next picture actually spotted a little kid with crackers, and, with its baby holding on for dear life, ran down and straight-up jacked this little Asian boy, before scurring up a lamp post for safety.

It was simply awesome. The kid's dad actually tried to retaliate and attack the monkey and others around it, but to no avail. These monkeys showed him who's boss, and Sara and I were all to happy to step quickly off the staircase, for fear that monkeys were going to attack us (they came REALLY close to us).

After the Batu Caves, we made the tourist trip to the Petronas Towers.

They were fun to look at, and definitely did not look tall at all, at least not when I thought about looking up at other tall buildings. We got to travel up to the sky bridge, which sits between the two towers, and looked down on Kuala Lumpur. Not too exciting, and Sara wasn't so pleased to have gone to something so obviously touristy, but I was content to know that I had seen and gone inside them.

What was good was that pricing of food was DEFINITELY in our favor. Sara and I consistently ate for less than a few dollars at almost every place we went. The most common dish we ate was mee goreng, which is something of a Malaysian staple. It was usually sold for about 2.50 or 3 ringgits (the Malaysian currency), which equates to about $1 USD or less. Pretty awesome, and pretty delicious, too. If anything, Malaysia was great for food.

After Kuala Lumpur was a trek to the Cameron Highlands, which is noted for its tea fields and forests and whatnot. It was a 6-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, by bus, and it took maybe the windiest road ever to get to the top, making me sick in the process. When we got there, we were greeted by our old friend: bad weather. Of course, we didn't let that get us down:

The Cameron Highlands, in addition to being a long drive from Kuala Lumpur, was basically unsuitable for exploring in the pouring rain, as the entire area is based on trekking on trails through the wooded areas, where leeches flourish during wet periods. Yikes.

So we left, and had a grueling trek from the Highlands to Hat Yai, Thailand, which included a bus from the Cameron Highlands to Ipoh, an overnight train from Ipoh to Hat Yai, Thailand, and a 6-hour train from Hat Yai to Surat Thani.

All in all, I don't think I'll ever be going back to Malaysia. It is nice to know that I've been, but it was pretty unplesant, even if the weather was nice. The sites, other than the Batu Caves, were pretty unremarkable, the taxis hassle you like none other if you look like a tourist, and the climate did not help at all. Malaysia might have been better during a different time, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I like keeping these posts to one country at a time, so for now, I'll quit talking about our travels. But I do have a few things about which I would like to ask YOU, our faithful readers!

1. To my SoCal brethren: can you see the fires from UCLA? I've been reading about it on latimes.com, and it looks simply horrendous. Those of you from Orange County, are your families okay?

2. To my sports-loving brethren, how did UCLA lose to WSU?!??! And Kevin Love is injured?!??! It sounds minor, but dag yo, UCLA better be protecting his top-prospect behind.

3. To my U.S. fam, how's the weather in all your respective areas? I heard NorCal is nice, but the east coast of the U.S. looked like it was getting some serious rain.

I think that about covers it. Stay tuned for our next post: Thailand!

How I got away with chewing gum in Singapore (Part II)

2007-10-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

NOTE: All the photos in this post, and more, can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/SingaporePartII. Enjoy the rest of the story!

After the Night Safari, we SLEPT (emphasis on the fact that we actually got to sleep this time!). The next day, we were ready to tackle Little India, which, if you ever go to Singapore, is maybe one of the best spots to just walk around and take in the area. We went to the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple in Little India, which, from the outside, was incredible. There are hundreds of small statues situated on this temple's roof. It was amazingly colorful, and the craftsmanship was beautiful.

On the inside, it was also very interesting. I had never been to a Indian temple, but this was an experience I will never forgot. The way people pray and celebrate their faith in this temple was so different from the way Westerners do religion. It was loud and active, with people moving every which way. Some were eating, some were praying with hands together, and others were just milling around. Very different, but I appreciated it.

After that, Sara and I trekked down through an Indian bazaar area, with tons of shops and such. It was fun and interesting. There was a little information in the side on Indian music and other stuff. But one thing that caught my eye was the use of the swastika in some of the "good luck" mechandise and decorations. I had seen it in Buddhisht symbols, but never in Hinduism (more information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Hinduism).

Next, we headed over to Orchard Road. This was a very touristy area, and very commercial; there were tons of malls and shopping areas, and it was all very modern. Not much in the way of interesting sites or information, though, so after I bought some shirts, we made our way to Chinatown.

This Chinatown was amazingly beautiful, since most of the buildings were all painting in various colors, and they looked as if they had been maintained in good condition. Just like the Indian bazaar, it was kind of a tourist trap, so we didn't spend all that much time there. But we did get both of our names written in Chinese. There was this one guy on the road who was selling photographs taken by his father from back-in-the-day Singapore - some of which had won awards in the United States - and even after we said we were not looking to buy any photos, he insisted on writing our names! It was really nice, and a nice souvenir to have.

So after resting up a bit, we headed out again to Little India for dinner, and ended up going to this vegetarian place recommended by our Lonely Planet guidebook. We went in and were seated at a four-person table. Then, out of nowhere, the waiter sits another old man at our table. Sara and I kind of looked at each other and, in our bewilderment, postulated about whether it was a custom to sit perfect strangers together. We order our food, and minutes later, a woman sits down at our table. So it is us and the two random old Indian people, and though most of my friends can say, with ease, that I thrive in awkward situations, this one was just out of my league.

The awkwardness reached new heights when Sara and I made the realization that there was not on piece of silverware in this entire establishment. Or, at least none being used by the other customers. When they brought the food out on banana leaves, the two old Indian people started digging in, hands and all. Sara and I were dumbfounded, and at that point, we struggled to collect rice into little balls of food filled with random Indian spices.

In short, it was hilarious, and we spotted the waiter watching and chuckling to himself as we went along, shamelessly grabbing globs of Indian sauces and rice and licking our fingers after every bite. If there was any point where culture shock was felt, it was that point. At one point, the waiter did bring us forks and spoons, but we soldiered on, just to prove we were not going to sink to the level of "tourists" (we consider ourselves "travellers" :).

And that was Singapore! We are now in Malaysia, and so far, it isn't as great as anywhere else, but we will be treking from the southwest of peninsular Malaysia to the northeast corner, before heading to Thailand. But you'll have to wait for those stories until the next update!

Thanks for reading everyone, and be sure to comment!

How I got away with chewing gum in Singapore (Part I)

2007-10-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

Though I didn't get away from having a somewhat terrible time in the hostel Sara and I are staying at.

Today is our third day in Singapore, and the first day didn't get off to the best start, mostly because the night before was somewhat horrendous. Like I mentioned, we got into Singapore about 1 a.m., and got to sleep by 2 a.m., which was bad for Sara, who does not operate well on little sleep. It got worse when an Indian nightclub across the street continued to blare its techno-Indian music.

The next morning, we switched to a room on the next floor, and thought our problems would be over (at least, the noise problem). Of course, with Sara tired, and me feeling very uncomfortable in the 90-100 percent humidity of Singapore, the first day wasn't all that peachy (especially after a failed attempt to find a Coffee Bean in the area).

Fortunately, we made it to lunch, and that was great, and with some new energy, we made our way to the banks of the Singapore River. Formerly a big spot for trade, the river is now just a spot of tourist to take short ferry rides around, but the view of the downtown is amazing. While around this area, we went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, which was an excellent place to learn about Singapore's history, as well as the history of almost all Asian peoples (including what was termed "West Asia," more commonly known as the Middle East).

After the museum, we decided to just head back, when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the maroon awning in which we had pursued: a Coffee Bean, right on the southern bank of the river!

Of course, both of us ordered drinks with ice in them, not realizing in our euphoria that we are supposed to avoid the ice in Southeast Asian countries. Luckily, we were both fine that night, but it was a lesson learned. While enjoying our drinks, the rain started coming down in buckets, and I was worried we would have to trek back to our hostel in the downpour (without an umbrella!). But we learned that the weather is quite tempermental here, and the rain stopped almost as quickly as it had started. That night, we had some, well, interesting food. Or at least I did. We ate at a little Chinese seafood place on the bank of the river, after the guy out in front offered us 20 percent off if we ate at his restaurant (I never knew you could haggle for meals!). I got the fried noodle plate, not knowing that the noodles we cooked with still-intact shrimp, and baby octopus. Mmm, mmm ... just like mama used to make.

I'm just kidding; my mom never made that.

But that night was terrible. Because when we got back to the hostel to sleep, we were rudely stirred from our sleep by an individual (from now on, The A-Hole). The A-Hole was some Scottish dude, who we thought was high on something more than alcohol or marijuana. He was being a complete idiot. Making noise and waking up people. Even worse, he started to harass Sara and another girl! Sara came up to my top bunk and told me he touched her feet and tried to get into her bed! Ridiculous! The entire rest of the night, Sara and I were constantly up as a result of The A-Hole's behavior.

And what did the staff at our hostel do? NOTHING. They did nothing to kick this idiot out, or to stop him. So, to be sure they never receive any more business, I'll say it now: DO NOT STAY AT THE INNCROWD BACKPACKERS IN SINGAPORE. It is a terrible hostel, and the new hostel at which we are staying, which was just a few hundred feet away, is WORLDS better. That experience kept Sara up into the morning hours, and the next day, she was very tired.

So we left the next day, relieved to be done with The InnCrowd, and set out to have a better day. We got lunch at MOS Burger, which had the most awesome burger I have had to date: it was teriyaki beef on lettuce between two patties made of rice! How awesome are the Japanese?!

After that, we went to the Arab quarter of the city, and went into the Sultan Mosque, which was an amazing building. The artistry and the attention to detail in the mosque was amazing. It was actually the first time I had ever been in a mosque, and I was pleased to read Muhammad's final sermon, which they had posted on the wall in the main area. It was very positive, talking about peace and good treatment of women, and it made me want to learn more about Islam (of which, I know very little, as I have only learned about it in relation to other faiths). Definitely a great experience.

After that, we went to the Malay Heritage Park, where we just chilled for a little. Wait, scratch that; in that weather, chilling was impossible! But we just went back to our hostel later, until later that night, when we went to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo!

If you have never heard on this, you need to learn more about it! It was an entire zoo of nocturnal animals, in a dark and scary park, through which you can take a variety of paths and see some impressive animals (there is a tram ride, too, but it was totally not worth it, because you see most of the animals on the walking paths). But the park was somewhat terrifying. It had just been raining, and there was a light fog throughout all the paths. Some parts were almost completely dark. It was actually like a jungle! And they have a bat cage, where you can walk through a portion of the park where bats are flying around you! Sara and I were actually scared for that part. I jumped when some water dropped on me, and Sara hit me, since she thought I was trying to scare her. Oh man, it was great! If you go to Singapore, definitely go to that park!

Here are some photos from these days activities:

Also available at http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/SingaporePartI.

Okay, well that does it for those few days. I'll fill you in on more in the next park of the post! Stay tuned...

Live from Singapore!

2007-10-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Sara and I just got into our hostel in Singapore, and boy, it is hot. I'm glad I bought shirts that breathe well; my normal shirts would be hyperventilating by now.

It was a pretty long day of flying, with one flight to Kuala Lumpur before connecting to Singapore. But now it is 1 a.m., and I am tired, so I will let you know more about it later. Stay tuned!

Farewell, New Zealand!

2007-10-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Finally, a post! It's ben long enough, eh?

So today we are off to Singapore, but I'd definitely like to think about our time in good ol' NZ before we head off.

If you have never been to New Zealand, or have any idea about it, I have to say, it is quite the lovely place to visit. If you didn't already know, it is where all of the "Lord of the Rings" films were shot, and the landscape of the land (especially in the South Island) is amazingly beautiful.

One of the most beautiful parts of the trip was the trek on the Franz Josef Glacier (which, if you haven't already seen, Sara and I climbed [http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/NewZealandFranzJosefGlacier]). This is a very unique site, as the glacier is moving more rapidly that most others on the planet. You can actually see parts of the hills next to the glacier stripped of foliage, as the glacier kind of destroys anything in its path. But the vistas from the top of the front face (which is as far as we went for all our hours-long climbing) are amazing. Breathtaking, really.

From Franz Josef, we stopped in Fox Glacier, which is a tiny town that stretches one block of road on the highway. Though there is another glacier there, we decided to go to Lake Matheson instead, which had a great walking trail that encircles the entire lake, and offers some great vistas of Mt. Cook (if you have ever seen a picture of Mt. Cook reflecting in a lake, that lake is Lake Matheson probably).

After Fox, we traveled down to Wanaka, which is a nice little town on Lake Wanaka. Nothing of particular note happens here, though we trekked up a mountain trail where you could get some great views of the town.

Actually, that reminds me: if you want to get in shape, go to New Zealand! We must have walked miles and miles before we finally returned to Auckland, and the views you get from many of the walks are beautiful. I'm not an outdoors person by any stretch, but New Zealand almost made me one! So anyway, yeah, go there for some great walking and hiking (though I suppose I could go around the Bay Area and do a similiar trek!).

After Wanaka was the final spot on our trip, Queenstown. This is a little town that was probably just like quiet, little Wanaka, but it has become very commercialized and is crawling with tourists. But it was still nice, and after hiking up a 1,600-foot mountain (see what I mean? The old Derek didn't do things like that!), we went paragliding! We did it mostly because it was a better value than bungy jumping (which is sort of a New Zealand creation), and it was an amazing feeling. There is a pilot with you, so no worries about safety. But the pilot not only has you soar through the air, but then we did loop-de-loops in mid-air! Holy moly was that terrifying! Here's what it looked like:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DerekLipkin/NewZealandParagliding. Mind you, we were about 2,000 feet above ground level when these pictures were shot, so imagine our fear when looking!

Anyway, that pretty much rounds out New Zealand. Now I have to run and make sure everything I have is packed for Singapore! Get excited! And remember to write, and ask questions if you'd like!