The Great Leap Forward to China

It's been a busy few days since Macau. We got ready to travel into China, bought
tickets for the overnight busy from Shenzhen to Yangshuo and crossed the Hong Kong border to Szenzhen China. Shenzhen was a small fishing village when the government declared it a special economic zone 30 years ago. It is now a city with over a million people and much of the production for export in China. We spent the afternoon at a Spa (where Richard was snookered into buying a premium service) but we were relaxed and ready to go.

We had only a short time to get from the train station where we were dropped off after the spa to the bus station to catch out bus so we asked a policeman in the train station for directions. He spoke only Mandarin so Judy did the interaction. It was incredible that he said he would show us and proceded to take us on a twenty minute walk first to the wrong bus station and then after asking one of the guards, to the correct station, taking us first to the ticket window get our tickets stamped and then to the departure gate. The bus had beds, upper and lowers and three rows across with aisles separating them. The beds had pillows and blankets and out could easily stretch out. At least someone my size found it possible to stretch out. While it was comfortable, it was difficult to sleep, as initially, the bus television and radio were on, and after that between the driver honking, the baby next to me crying and the man behind us coughing the was constant noise. The weather turned nasty and the rain poured down most of the way.

We arrived at 5am in Yangshuo and had no idea what to do. We had planned on going to a restaurant for breakfast but when the taxi driver took us to an open, water soaked restaurant with the temperature no greater than 50 degrees, we decided to take a cheap room for a few hours and sleep until we were ready for breakfast and to call the school where we would be teaching.

After breakfast, we called and met the director of the school, an expat Canadian who has been in Yangshuo for 7 years now. His position is voluntary and apparently his wife suppports him with
a job heading another English program. He arranged for us to be taken to the school which consists of an adult program teaching ESL to Chinese who are resident at the college and the volunteer program which sends people out to small villages in the area to teach third to fifth graders. They provided us with a dormitory room with private bath with some minimal plumbing and three meals a day from Monday to Friday while we were teaching. The accomodations were comfortable enough and conveniently located in the heart of the Karst mountains of Guanxi.

That afternoon we were taken by minibus with a few other adult students to Moon Hill a famous natural bridge about 15 kilometers from town down the Li River. Trent the acting director of the college led us, Jenny a 42 year old retired Chinese bus driver drove the van with us and two other students and we hiked up to the top. As the weather started to clear a little and warm up, it was a wonderful hike with incredible views of the mountains and fields below. All the way up, we were accompanied by three Chinese women who wanted to sell us bottled drinks. They walked most of the way up the mountain with us in the hope that we would eventually buy something. Trent told us not to buy anything because they come often to hike the mountain and he didn't want them to always pester him to buy drinks. After, hiking to the top and back we went over to Moon Hill Village and had lunch at a Mother Moon's Farm Food restaurant.

The school and its students are very welcoming. Everyone introduces themselves, meals are family style Chinese and ping pong and badminton games are always going on outside in front of the dining room. We are looking forward to teaching on Monday.

Macau - What is Real?

Macau, like Las Vegas or Disneyland (there is one in HK) offers yet another way of seeing. I discussed the difference between touring and traveling, in a previous installment about Thailand. In addition, there is a third possibility, that is to visit a contrived resort/theme park, and to be sucked into the space-time continuum of nowhere. While these sites are often done with great taste, with detailed reproduction, they shouldn't be confused with travel. Many such warps in the continuum exist (kudo's to Doc of "Back to the Future"). Modern day shopping malls are often so similar from one place to the next, that there is little or no way of knowing where you are unless you leave. This homogenization of the upscale shopping experience struck me in Hong Kong where except for the Chinese characters on some signs, one could be anywhere else in the world. The shops sport such names as Bose, Godiva, Chanel, Versace, Gucci etc. These HK malls are entered be exiting any large subway station where you end up at the mall rather than the street. That higher level of contrivance, the theme park casino, is where in addition to the gaming floor there is an upscale thematic mall that reproduces a famous site that you would want to visit. While Macau can't yet compete with Las Vegas, it has casinos in large measure. The Chinese have always loved to gamble.

Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed. It is permitted because it already existed under Portuguese rule when the territory reverted to China in 1999. We visited the Venetian Hotel and Casino the evening of our stay. Many of the same casinos in Las Vegas have set up shop in Macau. This was my third trip to Venice: the first time in Italy, the second in Las Vegas and this time in Macau. I was so familiar with the layout that I was able to tell Judy where the gelati stand would be located. I was wrong, however, it was not gelati but Hagen Daz ice cream. The Grand Canal and St Marks Square were ringed with shops selling the usual designer labeled goods and expensive restaurants catering to international tastes. We found a gelati stand, an easy stroll along the canal and shared one while sitting at a Brazilian Churrosco (meat on a spit) restaurant, served water by a Phillippino, overlooking the Gand Canal of Venice, in a city in China that looked more Mediterranean than Chinese.

So, what is genuine and what is not? I'm sure I have a categorical answer to this question. I've read that the designer goods created by the fashion centers of the US and Europe, made in China and sold the world over is available cheaply in China as knockoffs. Apparently, the Chinese factories continue producing the designer goods in excess of the designer's needs and then freelance them. This allows the workers to have continued employment after the orders have been filled and the owners to profit. These additional goods, do not have the same quality control or labeling as the designers original, but are quite similar to what is being sold by the fancy Fifth Avenue shops in New York or on the Champs Elysee in Paris. Are these items counterfeit or genuine? I'm sure I don't know but they are supposed to be on sale in Szenzhen across the border from Hong Kong. Such pirated production also provides the social benefit of cheaper goods for consumers and additional employment for the workers. In the current state of the world economy both are welcomed.

Another very real encounter was with 4 twenty year old Chinese women at the Antique House Museum in Taipa. Helen, Sheila, Tina, Irene were living in Macau studying business. Their program was taught in English and so communication was easy with them. We talked about our lives, where we were heading, our family, language, life in Macau etc. They were from Beijing, Guilin (where we are headed) and Guandong (north of HK and Macau). They were surprised that we paid for our childrens' education and let them study whatever they want. They were surprised that we were traveling by ourselves through China and that Judy speaks Mandarin. They were very interested in visiting the US but realistically realized that it would not be possible for many years. When we began to say good-bye, they asked if we could exchange email addresses and we invited them to visit us if they were ever near Boston. We took group photos and went on our ways. We visited the fishing village in the south of Taipa in the drizzle and fog and then headed back to HK.

Macau - A Tiny Bit of Europe in China

We have almost exhausted our visits in Hong Kong, so we decided to go to Macau. Macau is about an hour by turbo-ferry from HK Island. We packed minimally to be able to spend the night there if we chose. Leaving HK and arriving in Macau required us to pass customs each time. Both are autonomous and legally distinct from China for the next forty years or so.

We took a pedicab into Macau old town, paying too much, as we didn't do our homework to figure out how to get there and what to visit. After passing through a wide avenue lined with casinos we arrived in old Macau and found it to be a charming Mediterranean city. It much reminded me of Lisbon, Portugal with stone multicolored sidewalks, pastel colored stuccoed buildings, painted tiles embedded in the exterior walls of buildings and old forts and churches in ruins. Macau was colonized in the 1500's by the Portuguese and they remained there until 1999 when it reverted to China retaining some autonomy for 50 more years.

Old town was charming and buzzing with tourists, most of them Chinese from the mainland. We visited the local museum which gave a historical view of the area and a picture of traditional life and I had a discussion with a Phillippine guard about the Boston Celtics. We met a local expat Australian, Louise, who invited us to have coffee with us who had been living in Macau for 8 months while her husband worked for a company manufacturing casino equipment. She gave us her recommendations for additional sites to visit and where to stay and we sat and talked with her for over an hour at the coffee shop. One of the more satisfying parts of travel for me is the meeting of people and sharing for some brief moments glimpses into eachothers lives. Then, more site seeing, on to the Best Western Hotel on Taipa Island (south of the city) dinner, walking around in the village of Taipa and sleep.

Bangkok Redux

The second full day in Bangkok we did another walking tour out of the Lonely Planet Guide. You probably guessed by now, that we saw more temples and Bhuddas. In brief, we visited Wat Saket at the top of an artificial hill name Golden Mount. A happy Buddha smiled at us on the way up the path and good views greated us on the top. After descending, we walked down a street where all manner of religious statues and furnishings is sold in store after store, kind of like the Bowery is for lamps and lighting fixtures on the lower east side of New York.

We walked through a neighborhood that hand made metal monks' bowls. These bowls were traditionally used for alms and for their meals. We watched them hammer them out and then bought one to support a vanishing craft and as a souvenir. The young Thai in the photo sold us the bowl we bought. We visited another temple and sat in on a midday service led by a monk and attended by probably 100 faithful. From there we bought some street food, sat in the shade and walked through several parks and tried to stay out of the sun. We were dog tired at this point, but it is said that only dogs and Englishmen stay out in the noon time sun. When we started to head back to our hotel, we were intercepted by a tuk-tuk driver. These three wheeled, open sided, noisy, gasoline driven golf carts scoot around the city and are often carry tourists. The driver offered to take us to four sites for less than a dollar fare, if we agreed to go with him to three different shops that cater to tourists. We were too tired to object and he promised "free lookings", that is, no need to buy. The deal was that he got coupons for gas or food for his children when he delivered us to the export shops. We were more tired than interested, but it turned out to be a fun afternoon of "free lookings". I even bought two hand tailored shirts from two bolts of fabric I chose (or maybe that Judy chose) at James Tailor's shop. The shirts were really inexpensive and nicely made and they delivered them that evening at 9pm to the hotel. The other tourist

shops sold jewelry or mostly Thai made goods as souvenirs. The driver dropped us at a flower market along a canal (see photo), and we took many pictures of the food dead and alive sold there (see tongue and live fish photos), then took a ferry back to our hotel.

That evening we had curry for dinner and then massages, me a Swedish and Judy a Thai.

Our final day in Bangkok - We took a ferry to the subway (above ground) and then to Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was an American ex-pat architect that fell in love with Thai silks at the end of World War II. He started a business importing silk fabrics to the US and built his compound in the neighborhood across the canal from where the weavers lived. His houses were six reassembled traditional Thai houses around courtyards and quiet gardens . He was also a collector of Thai art and had a grand personal collection at this compound. He mysteriously disappeared while walking in the jungle of Malaysia but his legacy remained for all to see in this collection of art in his houses.

That was all for Thailand, and we went to the airport that afternoon and returned to Hong Kong. We both felt that it would have been really nice to spend more time in Thailand but our tickets were unchangeable and besides China waits.

Bangkok - Buddhist Temples and Travel

Thais are genuinely friendly, open and welcoming. They also seem very religious and take both the Buddha and the king very seriously. Today we visited the three most important temples as well as the former royal palace on a walking tour taken from the "Lonely Planet Guide". To visit the temples, it is necessary to be appropriately dressed: long pants and sleeves and you have to take off your shoes when you enter.

We began our walk by taking one of the ferries that run on the river which passes through the heart of Bangkok from our hotel south a few stops. The conductors of these boats are extremely skilled, signalling the driver with a whistle as to how far from the dock, how fast and when to back up or go forward, then jumping off the boat and tieing it to the dock. The boats spend as much time docking as a bus would stopping at a bus stop. It is a model of efficient urban river travel. By the way, Buddhist monks have their own reserved standing area on the boat.

We walked through a secular and Buddhist university campus and then to the amulet market where people buy good luck charms with religious symbolism. Judy bought the ring right in the middle of the photo. From there we went to the royal palace a sprawling walled compound housing former royal palaces, a museum of precious royal objects, historical pieces, weapons and money. The objects were both rich and precious. We next went to Wat Phra Kaew the holiest of temples in the palace grounds where the Emerald Bhudda is housed (it is actually jade). There are numbers of adorned praangs and stupas (painted towers) housing relics of the kings (invariably name Rama) .

By this time the temperature was near 100 degrees and humid but not to be deterred we went on to visit the golden reclining Buddha, housed in a temple at Wat Pho and taking up most of the space of the temple. The Buddha was awesome in size and beautiful to gaze at and for some reason, pictures were allowed to be taken of him. Along the side of the temple were 112 (not sure of exact numer) of bowls into each of which you placed small change as an offering. I think the tradition represents giving alms to the monks, but I'm not sure of that one.

Finally we crossed the river by ferry to Wat Arum, another temple with a grand view of the city. This temple had a tower that we ascended that had much the feel of a Mayan puramid in Central America. As we went higher, the steps got progressively steeper. This temple had shards and entire small pieces of ceramic bowls and plates embedded in its sides.

Back to the hotel for a swim and shower and then on to Khao San Road for dinner and entertainment, consisting of watching people on the street.

Khao San Road - Bangkok

Wednesday evening - We walked to the neon-lit Khao San Road neighborhood where travelers find rooms, where the whole world mingles, eats Thai curry, satay and pad Thai, where inexpensively manufactured designer goods, knockoffs and unbranded wears are sold, where hole-in-the-wall travel agents arrange transportation and rooms in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and points south, and where travelers chronicle their adventures at internet cafes. It is a noisy, crowded, wonderful scene of all people, with many beer drinking young adults, wearing flip-flops or sandals and carrying backpacks.

A small digression here. According to the Lonely Planet Guide Book, Khao San Road was made famous by Alex Garland's novel "The Beach", (written in 1996) which the film by the same name is based and which I previously mentioned in my blog about Phi Phi Island. The contradictions of Khao San and of travel in general is best summed up by a quote from the novel, "You know, Richard, one of these days I'm going to find one of those Lonely Planet writers and I'm going to ask him, what's so fucking lonely about Khao San Road. " Thailand is a crossroads for travelers and tourists. The tourist is middle aged or older, affluent and staying at hotels with some comfort. Judy and I are tourists despite our extended stay in Asia. Khao San may have a majority of travelers walking its crowded streets.

The young adult, with more time than money, between jobs or not working, in search of the less frequented and ergo less expensive place is the traveler. In Central America these people are said to be on the gringo trail, passing along tales of the next undiscovered town or beach. The same is true here and there is a general dissatisfaction expressed for any place where it is difficult to find a room or floor for more than ten dollars a night or dinner for more than a dollar or two. We constantly ran into travelers on their way to Cambodia because it was cheap, or to another undiscovered island off the coast of Thailand. Phi-Phi Island by contrast was considered over priced and over crowded. The problem is that by its very nature traveling and tourism tend to destroy the undiscovered places. This is especially true in these days of mass communication, transportation and the internet where "the buzz" about a place circles the world in hours rather than in years.

I have been reading Charles Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle", a travel he took as a 23 year old, as the naturalist aboard a ship that circled the globe from 1832 to 1836. It is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth on February 12, 1809 and seemed like a good reason to read it. At each port, Darwin would get off the ship and travel by foot or horseback for hundreds of miles and up to a month or two exploring and mapping the physical land, the flora, fauna, geology and peoples of a region. He was often uncomfortable or in danger. He represents one of the first of the modern travelers and his chronicle expesses many of desires, prejudices and objectivities of an upper class Englishman of his time. It gave me an appreciation for how easy it has become to journey anywhere.

Most of the travel and description was made along both coasts of South America and there was very little about the Galapagos Islands where Darwin made key observations on adaptation of the finches leading to his theory of evolution. The diary was rather dry and technical but those of you interested in geology more than evoluation will find it interesting. His ideas about mountain building and erosion of the land was pretty accurate despite not having any notion of the continental plates colliding leading to uplifting, mountain building and volcanism. He had a good sense that the earth had been undergoing these processes for eons based on the work of Charles Lyle's "Principles of Geology" which he carried with him.

This blog, for me, is a chronicle and a meditation, a way of finding my way in the world and remembering my experiences. I hope that you find it entertaining if not enlightening.

Phi-Phi Island

Friday - Off to Phi Phi
We spent a lazy morning reading and swimming in the pool. We were picked up by van for a 40 minute ride to the ferry in Phuket. The road was lined with shops of all variety catering to both visitor and local. We passed several gated residential complexes reminding me of retirement communities in Florida.

The boat ride took nearly two hours, passing small islets with cliffs rising out of the water. We rode past the massive cliffs of Phi Phi for the last 20 minutes and turned into the harbor, a protected horse shoe bay with rock walls on one side and a white sand beach on the other. We were greeted by locals selling hotel rooms. The island has no motorized vehicles so all the streets are quiet narrow lanes. When we arrive somewhere, we are much like dogs, circling here and there, trying to find a comfortable spot. We finally settled into the Andaman Beach Resort, a 10 minute stroll from "down town".
For dinner, another curry (green this time) and grilled red snapper. While the Indians invented the curry, the Thais perfected it.

Saturday - Sunset Snorkeling

I have come to discover the fate of US Automotive industry products. After the cars rust out, the engines are shipped to Thailand, recycled into motors for the long-tail boats that are the only motorized intra-island transportation. That these engines are American in origin, can be of no doubt, since they are large, noisy and polluting. The engines are mounted on top of the stern of the boat, an extender rod is attached to the crankshaft and a propeller attached to the end of it. The engine is balanced and on a pivot so that it can be rotated to turn the boat and the rotor raised or lowered in the water.

Today was most wonderful, engaging us in our favorite activity, snorkeling. We signed on to a long boat trip around the islands,stopping at 9 different sites and snorkeling at 3 or 4 of them. The trip lasted 7 hours, visited three islands and included a box lunch on the beach of Bamboo Island. In addition to the usual colorful fish, the most prevalent novel under sea life we saw was the giant clam in colors ranging from purple to green to red and responsive to movement. When you passed over them they would close and the color would disappear. There were also large purple and black sea stars which were almost phosphorescent. A spotted moray eel, yellow with dark spots hid beneath a small stand of coral.

The most spectacular of the islands was Phi-Phi Lay a national park with spectacular canyon like coves and no habitation. One of these, Ma Ya Beach was the location for the filming of the film "The Beach", the story of paradise overrun. We reached the beach from another cove by swimming off the boat, walking and crawling through a cave,and walking down a trail through the jungle. Finally, we watched the sunset as the boat gently rocked on the Andaman Sea.

Sunday - Walking About

After a hearty breakfast, we started to hike to a viewpoint a few hundred feet above the town with views of both sides of the island and the town below. Judy managed to go about half way where there was a first glimpse of the island below while I hiked to the top. The afternoon activity was a walk to long beach, about 20 minutes from our hotel where the snorkling from the beach was fine and the water more refreshing. We spent the afternoon snorkeling, sitting mostly in the shade and eating Thai curry on the beach. When Judy and I take winter vacations, it appears that we have been to different places. She is dark and tan while I remain rather pale. I hide from the sun because I darken rather slowly. The sun is so strong here that I have been getting more exposure than normal and Judy has burnt somewhat.

I usually wear a T-shirt and my Red Sox cap and if not walking or swimming, sit in the shade. I have been in search of Red Sox nation in Asia but thus far have been stopped only twice by fans, once by a Korean in HK and earlier today by a women from Hingham. There are not many Americans in Thailand.

Monday - Kayaking and Snorkeling
Today we rented a two person kayak and paddled to the other side of the island. This helped keep Judy off her knee which is improving at much slower rate now and enabled us to visit beach and reef not accessible by foot. The reef had wondrous coral though the number and variety of fish were better on Long Beach. Judy claims to have seen 6 sharks at Long Beach which I could not verify.

Tuesday - We decided to try out a beach closer to the airport so that we would be able to get our flight to Bangkok on Wednesday. So, we took a ferry and van to Mia Yang, another beach town but within walking distance of the Phuket airport. It was a quiet town, a beautiful beach with small hotels and bungalows. The beach had a barrier reef, a quarter mile from the shore but we didn't swim out to it as it was a little far and shallow especially at low tide.

Wednesday - We arrived at the airport for a noon flight and soon found out that our flight was leaving three hours late. So, instead of having the afternoon in Bangkok we spent it at the gate waiting for our flight. We finally arrived, took a taxi to downtown and checked into a hotel with swimming pool and terrace right on the river. The hotel was close to the cultural sights of Bangkok and since there are commuter ferries plying the river, a convenient way to get around the city. The pool was most appreciated as the temperature in Bangkok was around 100 degrees and humid. That evening we walked to Khao San, backpackers neighborhood. More about that in the next blog installment.