Blog du Wren

Jilin Tidbits

My visit to Tumen ended appropriately: with another scheduled power outage, so I couldn't make a final post from the cozy, non-time constrained, free internet at Trista's. But here I am, waiting up late at the Beijing hostel for my turn at the internet to bring you, dear readers, this:

Careful - cobra: part 2

Our visit to Hunchun, where Russia, North Korea, and China meet, was eventful. Trista and I watched some serious diplomacy going down

"Look, I'm in Russia" ("please take our picture")

Saturday October 28 2006

File under: travel, China

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Another food post

What is there to do in a small town with limited tourist activities? Why, eat, of course! In what seems to be the high class tradition here in Tumen, we went out to another cook your own food place. This time, it was hot pot, which instead of grilling the plates of raw meat, you boil them in a broth. Along with the meat, we got lots of non-pickled veggies, so I got my weekly dose of greens. (Mom, you'll be happy to know that bean sprouts are my new favorite vegetable). Hot pot is really quite an experience. Good times.

Besides the local cuisine (I am told hot pot is the most expensive meal in Tumen at a whopping $10.00 to [over]feed 3 people), I'm also getting a taste of the local transportation.

Thursday October 26 2006

File under: China, travel

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Pictures,pictures, and more pictures

Here at BdW, we are using this week to get caught up and betterifying the site. Latest addition: a favicon

. Everyone who is anyone has one has a favicon. Hopefully there will be another functionality addition or two soon, but don't worry, I will scale back the techo-nerd speak and quit pointing them out.

Anyhoo, the real reason for this post: I finally got a few Thailand pictures in order and have them ready for viewing. Again, no fancy slideshow (well fancy in a different sort of way), but it gets the job done. Please excuse the random order and only sometimes relevant captions.

But enough already. On with the show (no need to sign up. Just click the "View photos now" link under the elephant.

Wednesday October 25 2006

File under: Thailand, travel

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Outta the city!

So far, China has been big city after big city for me. (Okay, well just 2 big cities, but they were really big.) Now I am in Tumen, which is about 25 hours by train Northeast of Beijing, right on the border with North Korea and about 3 hours from Russia.

While it was quite a haul getting here, I love seeing this other side of China. Not only is the town much smaller than Beijing, it is somewhat of a border town, with much Korean influence. Anyway, getting to hike on real mountain and go more than an hour with out hearing a taxi honk has been awesome. (Things are so po dunk here that the electricity was out all day today.)

Anyway, another bonus about being here is free internet (courtesy of Trista) and lots of down time. So, as saxtor so observantly pointed out, I've added a few features to the blog (ability to see old posts, and real-time comment tracking). I also threw together a little slide show. Now it isn't a BrothesrRoot worthy slideshow with autoplay, music, etc., but it will have to do. Mine does have captions though. Zing! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday October 24 2006

File under: travel, China

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The Pretty Good Wall

Okay, just kidding. The Great Wall is exactly that: great. Even better than great, in fact. Visiting the wall is something I have been wanting to do for a long long time. Often times, that means the experience doesn't live up to any expectations. I'm so glad to report that this wasn't the case at all. Even though the day was a little overcast, and the tour that took me there dragged us through a million different government run shops and factories, my time on the great wall was spectacular.

There are a couple different places you can go on the wall, each with its own assets. I chose to visit Mutianya, because it was supposed to be less touristy. "Less touristy" is a relative term, I guess. There was still a cable car to take visitors to the top and a tobogon slide to take them down. I did neither although the tobogon was pretty tempting. But because of the weather and time of the year, there weren't too many people.

I got it in my mind to hike and hike and hike, so that is exactly what I did. Beyond about 3 towers from the ski lift, there were very few people, so that I could get some decent pictures. I made the 3 or so kilometers to the end of the reconstructed part, enjoying some of the best views and best hiking of my life. (Walking on such a huge part of history just seems to have that effect, I guess.) By the time I got to the end, I realized that I had to get back to the bus ASAP. So it was an almost-jog the rest of the way back, which, considering the terrain, was quite a feat.

All in all, I must have hiked 5 miles and my body is feeling it, esp. on top of all the walking I've been doing here in Beijing (Forbidden City, Tienamen Square, etc. etc.) I think today shall be a rest day.

Saturday October 21 2006

File under: China, travel

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Beijing - Day 1

6:30 - Arrive train station.
6:31-8:00 - Get horribly lost. Feel lonely and depressed.
8:01 - Meet local. Exchange English practice for directions to hotel.
8:30-10:30 - Roam around downtown Beijing with new friend, again with the English practice. Marvel at Forbidden City from afar.
10:31-11:30 - Get situated in hostel.
11:30 - Eat 16 potstickers. Rethink badmouthing of chinese chinese food.
12:30-2:30 - Meet new locals, again for the English practice. Roam old town with new friends.
2:30-3:00 - Spend 2 weeks' budget on tea.
3:00-4:00 - Write postcards in beautiful Beijing park. Rethink tea purchase.
4:00-dusk - Smile about the happy first day in Beijing.

Wednesday October 18 2006

File under: travel, China

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Unfamilar Territory

not my picture, because my camera is kind of on the fritz

It has taken me a few days to get my mindset shifted to be able to enjoy China, but I think I am coming around. Not only is it the change from Thailand to China, but the change from small town to big city, warm weather to chillier, and traveling with folks to traveling solo all happening at once. Those things considered, I'm doing pretty well.

The big thing to see here in Xi'an is Emperor Qin's Terra Cotta Army. If you've never heard of it, any explanation I give will sound dumb, so I suggest you go learn about it. Sufficive to say, it was pretty cool. They've built a great museum around the whole thing and showed the whole process of excavating them.

Yesterday, I went to see the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. It was built in 709 or something, way way back. Around the pagoda, there are beautiful grounds an other buildings in the traditional style. It was a great place to sit and soak up the traditional China-ness of everything.

not my picture, because my camera is kind of on the fritz

All my other efforts here are in regards to the small things. While they don't sound like much, the few small victories I've managed have raised my spirits much. Riding public transportation, ordering food by pointing and smiling, and purchasing a train ticket to Beijing using only gestures. But with my small victories have also come small defeats. Last night, somewhat down about the whole Chinese-Chinese-food-is-not-at-all-like-American-Chinese-food thing, I opted to indulge myself in the cultural experience that is pizza hut. Same same, but different.

The whole time that I have been in Xi'an, it has been foggy(/smoggy?) and it rained pretty good yesterday, so I haven't been too inclined to go adventuring. But that has allowed me to catch up on a few movies here in the hostel and also catch up on my reading. Tonite, I leave on a sleeper train to Beijing, which I am greatly looking forward to. I hope to see some of the country side that is the China in my mind. Just as long as we get out of this fog(/smog?), I think I'll be fine.

Tuesday October 17 2006

File under: travel, China

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Month 1 round up

Who would have thought a month could go by so quickly? Looking back, there were so many good times. I was fortunate in so many respects; everything aligning with my job, visas, and tickets to allow me to come here, meeting up with so many good friends and having a great time with them, and avoiding all the stuff travel horror stories are made of like sickness, robbery, and that crazy stuff that you never even want to hear about.

It works out nicely that my month 1 round up can exactly coincide with my Thailand round up. (I left the country on the last day possible on my 30 day visa.) There is so much to say about Thailand. Firstly, the Thai are some of the nicest people I have met. There was always someone around to help you suggest restaurants (sometimes a little forcefully, mind you), help you make travel arrangements, and always to offer a smile. Shane commented that there wasn't one person who didn't return his smile. Besides the people, Thailand has much natural beauty on its side. The islands of the south have beautiful beaches with picturesque views everywhere you look. The caves and waterfalls seem straight out of some idealic deserted island movie. In the north, you can barely walk 3 block in any given city without running into some gilded temple, almost all of which were open and welcoming to passing tourists.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Thailand. As a country, it is so tourist friendly that it served as a great jumping off point for me to kind of ease into unfamiliar territory. Speaking of unfamilar territory, I'm now in China. But we'll have to save that until next post.

Sunday October 15 2006

File under: travel, Thailand

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Goodbye Thailand. Hello China

Okay, so this will be a quick one because I am at a funky computer kiosk at the Bangkok airport (and it is 4:30 in the morning). Just a quick note to say that after a wonderful month in Thailand, I am headed to China.

I had to get out of the country to renew my Thai visa anyway, and I've got this Chinese visa that I paid out the nose for, so I figured why not, right? So I bought a one way ticket to Xi'an China. Where's that?, you ask. I don't really know. In fact, I've never known less about a place I am traveling to. All I've got a is a Berlitz pocket guide to China and an adventurous spirit. We'll see how that goes, I suppose.

I've been meaning to make a couple of posts recently with pictures and the works but the tropical island internet gods have been conspiring against me. I hope to find a good internet connection in China and do a big ole picture dump soon. I've got a couple of good ones of Shane getting harrassed by a monkey, more caves (no cobra this time), a live puffer fish, and more monuments. I'll try to get those up soon.

So sawadee kahp Thailand, nee hao China!

Friday October 13 2006

File under: travel, Thailand

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Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

Wednesday October 11 2006

File under: Thailand, travel

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