Its that time of year again, when the sun starts to shine, the birds begin to chirp, and the school decides to cancel all my classes because of midterms. After 2 classes this afternoon, I will have no classes for 10 days. I will be participating in my schools fashion show on friday afternoon, but thats it. Shout out to Casey and Matt and all the other stars of the Garfield '02 sophomore fashion show. What What?? Dont want ya! dont need ya! dont care for ya!
During the break I am going to Hangzhou and Suzhou, both of which are up north near Shanghai. There is a Chinese saying - In heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Hangzhou. A bit pretentious, but this place is supposed to be pretty cool, and I plan on finding out if the saying is true. I'll actually be hanging out in Shenzhen for the weekend, make some money tutoring, attend a pro football match, get my drink on at this beer garden/incredible barbecue restaurant that we just found, get in some hours at bigboxstore.com on monday, and fly out on tuesday. Hard to complain about life in China these days. Ive been having an awesome time lately, and feel like I might want to return. Most days at the end I just have to sit back and say - man, what a great day. I am definitely homesick, but one thing I do not miss is job hunting in America.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
New Job
So after traveling more on his own, Mike came back and spent a night with me in Shenzhen, before catching his plane out of Hong Kong the next morning. On the bus to 3d bar, the evening's destination, we were complaining about the job market in America. A man accross from us introduced himself and asked what we were doing here. His name is Costa, and he is a Russian expat who lived in New Zealand for 10 years, and now lives in Shenzhen. He moved here to start an online electronics company, and just started it about a year ago along with a chinese business partner. I went out for lunch with him and a couple of his colleagues the next day, and I am now a part-time employee of www.bigboxstore.com. They sell wholesale electronics to countries around the world, mainly the US, and also ship private orders. Today was my first day as their Web Content Author/Editor. I am doing a daily blog about new electronics products, and working on a press release. The job is mainly about using search engine optimization to increase the daily traffic on their website. I will also be working on their newsletter, and fixing their English product descriptions. Check out the site, there is some pretty cool stuff, including mini iPhone knock offs for under $100.
Guilin/Yangshuo
Hey folks. Life in China continues. it was recently a holiday here that translates as "tome sweeping day." im not entirely sure what happens on this day, but its basically remembering the dead and lighting fake money on fire and things of that nature. but for Mr. Danny, it meant a couple days off that i could turn into a long weekend and go visit Guilin and Yangshuo. and as luck would have it my buddy Mike from Seattle happened to be here at the time. After a very stressful evening worrying that we wouldnt get out of Shenzhen (we had already bought our tickets, but the powers that be had decided to cancel all trips out for the holiday) our bus company drove us out of the city and put us on an overnight bus up to Guilin. guilin is a pretty awesome place, mostly notable for the awesome rock formations that encroach on the city. There are also some sweet parks and caves that are interesting to see. We spent about two days here sightseeing and then took the bus to yangshuo.
This is a very cute little tourist town surrounded by grass-covered rock formations. We stayed at Monkey Jane's hostel, complete with a rooftop bar with a beer pong table. first night here, predictably, turned into a shit show brought on by mike and I trying to win 6 games in a row in order to get a free tshirt. However, after game 5, the owner of the place, Monkey Jane herself, got on the table and schooled us. now I don't know too many chinese women that can even hold their liquor, let alone play beer pong, but this lady was the truth. After licking our wounds from the night before, Mike and I and our new German friend Anette headed off on bikes into the countryside. We biked to the real Water Cave (Beware the fake water cave!!) and took a boat in with our english speaking guide. after a short boat ride under very low hanging rocks, we got out and started walking around this massive cave. it honestly took us about an hour (stopping periodically to look at stalactite and stalagmite formations that resemble people or animals) to walk around the whole cave. this place was massive, and also included an underground waterfall, mudbath, and hotsprings. We had an awesome time exploring the cave, and then biked back into town.
For dinner we ate pijiu yu, or beer fish, which is a famous dish from yangshuo, and was absolutely delicious. They even invited us back into the room behind the kitchen where they placed a live fish on a scale so we could see how much it weighed, and that it was fresh. then the guy took it off, slammed its head on the ground a couple of times, and handed it to the cook. That night, mike and I went to a light show on the Li River. We werent exactly sure what to expect, and were a little thrown by how expensive it was, but decided it was worth checking out. good decision. it was basically a musical, except it was shown out in the water, with the mountains and hills in the background lit up as part of the stage. there were hundreds (if not thousands) of actors involved, riding boats out into the water with torches, or walking accross bridges with outfits that light up, and massive ribbons and multicolored lights going accross the water. to give you an idea of the scope, picture the opening ceremony to the olympics. apparently the main guy that designed that planned the one in Yangshuo as well.
The next day we biked upriver and took a bamboo raft down. It turned out perfect because this was the first day that the sun came out, and it was beautiful. There are abundant rafts on the way selling pictures of you, fruit, barbecue, and beer. We bought our boat man a beer and just chilled out on the river for a few hours. We spent another evening on Monkey Janes rooftop, and i got on another overnight bus back to Shenzhen. Mike headed off to Kunming to continue his vacation, and I got back to SZ a bit late on tuesday morning and had to apologize to the head of the english department, whose classes I missed, on no sleep. however, she was very understanding, and I made them up later in the week.
My next two lessons are focusing on the comedic genius of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Apparently that movie is funny in all languages.
This is a very cute little tourist town surrounded by grass-covered rock formations. We stayed at Monkey Jane's hostel, complete with a rooftop bar with a beer pong table. first night here, predictably, turned into a shit show brought on by mike and I trying to win 6 games in a row in order to get a free tshirt. However, after game 5, the owner of the place, Monkey Jane herself, got on the table and schooled us. now I don't know too many chinese women that can even hold their liquor, let alone play beer pong, but this lady was the truth. After licking our wounds from the night before, Mike and I and our new German friend Anette headed off on bikes into the countryside. We biked to the real Water Cave (Beware the fake water cave!!) and took a boat in with our english speaking guide. after a short boat ride under very low hanging rocks, we got out and started walking around this massive cave. it honestly took us about an hour (stopping periodically to look at stalactite and stalagmite formations that resemble people or animals) to walk around the whole cave. this place was massive, and also included an underground waterfall, mudbath, and hotsprings. We had an awesome time exploring the cave, and then biked back into town.
For dinner we ate pijiu yu, or beer fish, which is a famous dish from yangshuo, and was absolutely delicious. They even invited us back into the room behind the kitchen where they placed a live fish on a scale so we could see how much it weighed, and that it was fresh. then the guy took it off, slammed its head on the ground a couple of times, and handed it to the cook. That night, mike and I went to a light show on the Li River. We werent exactly sure what to expect, and were a little thrown by how expensive it was, but decided it was worth checking out. good decision. it was basically a musical, except it was shown out in the water, with the mountains and hills in the background lit up as part of the stage. there were hundreds (if not thousands) of actors involved, riding boats out into the water with torches, or walking accross bridges with outfits that light up, and massive ribbons and multicolored lights going accross the water. to give you an idea of the scope, picture the opening ceremony to the olympics. apparently the main guy that designed that planned the one in Yangshuo as well.
The next day we biked upriver and took a bamboo raft down. It turned out perfect because this was the first day that the sun came out, and it was beautiful. There are abundant rafts on the way selling pictures of you, fruit, barbecue, and beer. We bought our boat man a beer and just chilled out on the river for a few hours. We spent another evening on Monkey Janes rooftop, and i got on another overnight bus back to Shenzhen. Mike headed off to Kunming to continue his vacation, and I got back to SZ a bit late on tuesday morning and had to apologize to the head of the english department, whose classes I missed, on no sleep. however, she was very understanding, and I made them up later in the week.
My next two lessons are focusing on the comedic genius of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Apparently that movie is funny in all languages.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Seven Advantages of Squatting (Nearly every toilet in this country is a squat toilet):
1. Makes elimination faster, easier and more complete. This helps prevent "fecal stagnation," a prime factor in colon cancer, appendicitis and inflammatory bowel disease.
2. Protects the nerves that control the prostate, bladder and uterus from becoming stretched and damaged.
3. Securely seals the ileocecal valve, between the colon and the small intestine. In the conventional sitting position, this valve is unsupported and often leaks during evacuation, contaminating the small intestine.
4. Relaxes the puborectalis muscle which normally chokes the rectum in order to maintain continence.
5. Uses the thighs to support the colon and prevent straining. Chronic straining on the toilet can cause hernias, diverticulosis, and pelvic organ prolapse.
6. A highly effective, non-invasive treatment for hemorrhoids, as shown by published clinical research.
7. For pregnant women, squatting avoids pressure on the uterus when using the toilet. Daily squatting helps prepare one for a more natural delivery.
Speaking of Toilets, check out this restaurant I just ate at called "Modern Toilet" http://newmodernluxury.ning.com/forum/topics/would-you-eat-at-the-modern
2. Protects the nerves that control the prostate, bladder and uterus from becoming stretched and damaged.
3. Securely seals the ileocecal valve, between the colon and the small intestine. In the conventional sitting position, this valve is unsupported and often leaks during evacuation, contaminating the small intestine.
4. Relaxes the puborectalis muscle which normally chokes the rectum in order to maintain continence.
5. Uses the thighs to support the colon and prevent straining. Chronic straining on the toilet can cause hernias, diverticulosis, and pelvic organ prolapse.
6. A highly effective, non-invasive treatment for hemorrhoids, as shown by published clinical research.
7. For pregnant women, squatting avoids pressure on the uterus when using the toilet. Daily squatting helps prepare one for a more natural delivery.
Speaking of Toilets, check out this restaurant I just ate at called "Modern Toilet" http://newmodernluxury.ning.com/forum/topics/would-you-eat-at-the-modern
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Spring Festival Travels
Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in blogs, but I didn’t feel like writing one during my travels and have been settling back to life in Shenzhen for the past couple of weeks. Prepare yourself, this is gonna be a long one.
I started out on January 2nd (much earlier than most people in my program because of my school’s schedule) to spend 10 days in Laos traveling on my own, before meeting up with 5 friends in Cambodia. I took a 26 hour train ride from Shenzhen to Kunming, in Yunan province, followed immediately by a 29 hour bus ride from Kunming to Luang Prabang, Laos. This was exhausting and time consuming, and I think it would have been worth the money to fly to Laos. The night on the bus was pretty rough, mostly Chinese men, and at no point was there a break from snoring or loogie hawking. Rosie, you would have killed yourself. The bus also stopped numerous times to pick up giant bags of seeds and boxes of god knows what, because the bus drivers make extra money by transporting goods as well as tourists. At one point there was some dispute over the price and we ended up sitting in a town for like an hour. However, I made it in one piece, thanks to a couple of Chinese people I met along the way that were quite helpful in negotiating my travel arrangements.
Luang Prabang was pretty sweet, it is a very touristy city, with day tours to nearby waterfalls and caves with temples inside. It is on the Mekong River, and I took a boat to see some of the caves, which was very chill. Most of the boats are long, thin little motor boats, where if the ratio of weight is at all off the thing nearly capsizes, so everyone has to be spaced evenly on either side of the boat. At night the whole main street of the city turns into a market, with people selling various wares along the street. My first day in this city, I knew the food on this trip was going to be great. All the things that China doesn’t have, Southeast Asia does. Baguettes, Coffee, pastries that don’t taste like ass, etc. Their cuisine is heavily influenced by Thailand, and I ate a ton of curry with Sticky rice, Phad Thai, all that good stuff. There is also quite a bit of Indian food. I didn’t really get wild and crazy in luang Prabang, as I only spent a couple days there and was recovering from my recent journey.
The next place I hit was Vang Vieng, which is also quite a popular tourist destination. This place is most famous for its tubing. You rent an inner tube and a guy drives you up the river to the starting point, and there are bars along the river. Hum dee dum, oh that might be kinda cool, I heard there is a rope swing too. Oh nice…NO, this scene was ridiculous. You tube for about 30 seconds and are at the first bar. It’s all made of bamboo, and it has a diving board, a volleyball court, and hundreds of tourists from all over the world getting smashed. And it has a giant rope swing coming out of the trees that I was legitimately frightened to go on. A 30 second float down the river and you are at the next bar, with its own scene, and a zipline coming off of a bamboo tower. And these just go on and on, one bar even had a massive water slide. 6 hours later I had made it about 100 yards down the river, when I realized that the sun was setting behind the mountains. The tube the rest of the way down the river into town is about 2 hours and was really beautiful to see at sunset, albeit a little cold. The next day I rented a motobike and cruised around to the various caves and temples in the mountains outside of the city. I got shafted by the gas station guy and had to push my bike for a bit, but it was still a good morning. The other thing this city has is a row of restaurants with couches around the tables that play endless Friends reruns. When I first heard about this my initial thought was, oh that’s totally lame and commercial. And then I was like, wait a minute, that’s AWESOME. I mean, its not like I came to this city to “feel the real Laos”, and I certainly don’t mind watching a little friends with my happy shake…so take that all you snobby travelers. :P
It was really interesting to meet people traveling in this part of the world. Not only was it weird to see so many white people, but there were also almost no Americans. Most people I met were from New Zealand, Holland, or Sweden. There is a kind of backpacker community, and I kept running into the same groups of people in my travels, even in different countries. I ran into a guy on the beach in vietnam that I had met almost a month ago in Laos just totally randomly. I was wandering around Saigon the first night we arrived by myself because all my friends were going to bed. And this guy comes up behind me and goes “Daniel!” and it was this Swedish dude I had partied with in four thousand islands, Laos a couple weeks before. So I went out that night and kicked it with him and his 5 Swedish buddies. Every town you go to you end up seeing the same faces. But anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself.
After doing the tourist towns, I took a bus down to Pakse, and then another bus out to Tat Lo. Tat Lo really has nothing in it, which is why I went there. There is one dirt road with a couple guest houses and restaurants, that’s it. There are some waterfalls about 6 km up a road that winds through a couple of villages. However, I couldn’t find a bicycle, and a motobike was going to be very expensive. So I just decided to jog up there. Kids would run along with me as I ran through the villages, and I got pretty tired because most of it was uphill. As I was walking through the last village toward the path down to the waterfall, an old lady was sitting working on something. As she sees me walking toward the waterfalls by myself she points a finger at me and says something that I, of course, can’t understand a word of. But I understand that she is telling me not to do anything stupid. When I see the falls, I realize why. There is very little water flowing over them, and it is so windy that the water actually arcs back up over the top and sprays all the rocks above. So it was pretty slippery walking around. I carefully made my way to the edge and sat for a while admiring the view. I spent that night getting drunk in an empty restaurant and chatting with a guy from Laos (who spoke almost no English, but I’m pretty sure was hitting on me) and the owner of the place.
Next day I headed south to Champasak, which has some ruins and not much else. I only spent an afternoon there, biked to the ruins, and left the next morning for Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands). This is a place where the Mekong opens up and there are lots of small islands, hence the name. I wanted to go straight to the small party island near the border of Cambodia (Don Det), but was running low on Kip (Lao currency) so I went to the more developed, yet oddly less happening island further north. It has a bank (and electricity after sundown) so I planned to spend the afternoon there and catch a boat to Don Det Monday morning after changing money. There really isn’t much to do on the bigger island, so I rented a motobike and just cruised around the island a couple times, which was actually a lot of fun. The perimeter of the island has great views, and no tourists, just open road (except for the occasional herd of water buffalo) and rice paddies. I spent the evening at a restaurant on the river watching fishermen throw their nets into the Mekong. I woke up early the next morning to get to the bank, only to find that they would not exchange my Chinese currency and had no ATM machine! This turned out to be a hassle throughout the trip, as no one was eager to take China’s money. Luckily, I ran into a guy that I had met tubing in Vang Vieng who happened to be taking the same boat as me that morning. He loaned me the money to pay for my guesthouse, and I convinced the boatman to stop at a river town with an ATM along the way to Don Det, vowing to never let this happen again.
Don Det was pretty awesome, I biked around the whole Island with the previously mentioned Swedish dude, Ludvig, and chilled out at the various beaches and waterfalls. We got pretty faded that night and wandered around the town, ending up playing pool and ordering crepes. Hard to complain.
The next day I caught a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where I met up with the other 5 people from my program that I would be traveling with for the rest of the trip.
Phnom Penh was cool, although the most memorable sites were the school that was used as a detention facility during the Pol Pot regime, and the killing fields outside the city where 17,000 people were systematically exterminated. These places don’t hold anything back. The school still has a lot of the machines in it that were used, the cells are still intact, and there is a whole room of mug shot like photos of many of the deceased prisoners that are just eerie. The killing fields have a GIANT tower of skulls that that were dug up, with the victim’s tattered clothes alongside. There are pits of grass that have signs next to them which say things like “Mass grave of 166 victims without heads.” Or “Killing tree against which executioners beat children.” Pretty disturbing stuff. It’s hard to get back to your carefree vacation lifestyle after touring these places, but we managed. Phnom Penh has a solid nightlife scene, great food, and everything is dirt cheap. Also, throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia, or at least everywhere we went, the prices are in US Dollars. It was nice to see some greenbacks again. J
The next place we hit was Angkor Wat. You stay in the town of Siem Reap (Khmer for “Siamese Defeated”) and can get a tuk tuk to take you around the ruins of Angkor Wat for the whole day for pretty cheap. I’m not gonna say I’m an expert, but I’ve seen some Ruins in my day, and these were some of the best. There are a ton of different sites throughout the Jungle around Siem Reap, with massive buildings that are still intact. We watched a sunrise and sunset at different sites (very overcrowded), and spent a full 2 days driving around to different abandoned cities and towers. You can walk up and around all of them, and many have Buddha statues within. Outside of every single site are children selling water, bracelets, travel books, etc. that are a little over aggressive, but excellent salesman. “you buy water! no? ok you buy when you come back, you remember me you come back you buy from me I remember you. Whats your name? where are you from? America? What state. Washington? If I tell you the capital you buy from me.” And those kids actually knew the capital of every state. Oooh, before I forget, for all you Warcraft fans out there, all of the ruins have tons of statues of Naga. That’s right, blizzard totally jacked the Naga idea from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. However, at least they got their purpose right, as they are indeed protectors of water. We took a boat ride out onto the lake near Siem Reap with just our group and watched a sunset as well.
After we were ruined out, we decided to spend a few days just lounging on the beach. The town we hit was Sihanoukville, which has about everything you could want in a beach town. There is a strip of bars and restaurants that provide a happening nightlife, but also plenty of beaches nearby that you can ride a motobike to which are completely isolated. For a couple of days we just sat on the beach eating bananas and swimming in the sea. There were almost no waves and it stays shallow for a long way out. Occasionally cows would wander by. The town also had a casino with 2 dollar blackjack and neverending beers, which I think I went to for at least part of every night. I mean, why pay for beers at the bar when the casino is giving them out for free? Sihanoukville was also the spot where we celebrated Obama day. His inauguration aired in Cambodia live at 12 midnight and we were quite inebriated. I was hella into it at the time but had to go watch it again at the internet café in the morning to remember what he had actually said. Our last day we took a day-long boat excursion to some of the nearby islands and went snorkeling and sat on the beach some more.
After a few days on the beach we headed off to Vietnam. The first place we hit was Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, which ill use from here on because it’s faster to write). Here we met up with a few other groups of people from our program traveling in the area, and had a large group (about 15) for 2-3 days. The first place I wanted to go was the Vietnamese war memorial museum, which was really interesting They didn’t sugarcoat anything about the actions of the US during the war, but I thought it was very fair. All of the massacres were documented and there was an actual aborted fetus in the Agent Orange section. We also went to the palace that the tanks stormed into during the Fall of Saigon, and it’s very surreal standing on the roof looking out at the gates imagining the scene on that day.
Saigon was also the place where I celebrated my 25th birthday. We all went out and partied in a Vietnamese club near our guesthouse the night before, and got up at 7 the next morning to go see the Viet Cong tunnels outside of Saigon. They show you all the Booby traps that they built, the camouflaged entrance to the tunnels, and the organization of life underground. And then you actually crawl through some of them, which have been lined with concrete since the war and, I’m sure, widened for tourists my size. However, you get a small taste of what it feels like to crawl around underground. Also at this place is a shooting range where you can pay by the bullet to shoot various automatic rifles. They had an M16, M60, AK 47 and some other types. I chose the AK 47 just for the novelty of it, and totally wasted this wooden picture of a camel at the end of the shooting range. That night was Tet, the lunar New Year celebration in Vietnam. The streets were absolutely packed, with concerts playing all night and an incredible fireworks show at midnight. It was a cool celebration to witness, but the holiday that followed turned out to be a bit of a hassle later on.
Saigon is absolutely packed with motorbikes whizzing by, the sheer number of them is amazing. It’s also pretty frightening as one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get around is by motorbike taxi. And they aren’t afraid to put 2 people on the back or put your backpacking backpack between their legs. I actually witnessed a crash on the last day we were there, which surprised me, since I had watched these motorbikes weave in and out of each other seemingly effortlessly for 3 days. There is also still a lot of prostitution still going on, and pretty much any time I was walking alone or with all men after dark I was offered sex. Also, the Vietnamese currency is called the Dong…and that joke doesn’t get old.
Next place we went was Nha Trang. Supposedly an awesome beach town about 10 hours north of Saigon. Maybe it was because we were all going through Cambodia withdrawal, but I didn’t find this place all that awesome. It was overpriced, the food and service was sub-par, the beach was dirty, and the waves were the kind that if you catch them right they slam you on the sand and you just regret it. There are some “ruins” nearby, but they were pretty lame after seeing Angkor Wat. However, I did get a chance to go Scuba Diving here. Two of the girls we met up with in Saigon ended up traveling with us for a while, and they had just gotten their dive certification in Thailand. Nha Trang is supposed to be one of the best spots for diving in Vietnam. It wasn’t incredible wildlife or visibility, but I haven’t been in a while and it was fun just to get back underwater again. They took us out for 2 dives at nearby islands, and it was a beautiful day. After I think only 2 days here we had had our fill, and decided to go inland.
The next town we visited was Dalat, which is a very unique part of Vietnam. It was untouched during the war, and the architecture looks more European than southeast Asian. We arrived here, as in every town, with no hotel reservations. This had worked out fine, except now, because of Tet, every Vietnamese person was on holiday. As we walked around to the numerous guesthouses near where the bus dropped us off, we realized that we had made a mistake. Every hotel was completely booked. From holes in the wall to the giant resorts, no place had even one room available. We found one lady who would let us sleep in her undeveloped backhouse with mattresses on the floor and a very weird smell. The price was quite high, and we tried to bargain with her, but she was unwilling to negotiate. Recognizing that this was not a good sign, we left and continued looking for places available rooms. We even had a motorbike taxi drive all around the city asking for us and he couldn’t find anything. When we went back to that lady with our tail between our legs, the backhouse was already taken. She was nice enough to let the 8 of us sleep on her living room floor, for an exorbitant amount of money. Fortunately we were able to find cheap alcohol that night, and booked a place at a hotel early the next morning.
After that debacle, Dalat turned out to be pretty awesome. There are hiking trails through pine trees in the nearby forests, and great food. One of my favorite days on the trip, a few of us went out into the woods with a guide and went “canyoning.” You basically repel off a cliff with a harness around your waist like after you have just gone rock climbing. Except there is no rock climbing, just lowering yourself. Very little training involved in this (and certainly no paperwork), but it’s not that complicated, and is pretty exciting. After a few increasingly high cliffs, they take you to a waterfall and you lower yourself off with the water running over you. When you get to a certain point you just leap off backwards into the pool below. There are a couple of waterfall repels, some cliff jumping, and even a small waterfall that you can slide down like a water slide. The scenery is beautiful around Dalat, comparable to that of eastern Washington, and you almost forget where you are. I can’t say all that much about the nightlife in Dalat, because we spent most of them in the hotel room watching the Australian Open. For those of you that didn’t watch it, the men’s semi-final and final were pretty epic.
Our last stop in Vietnam was Mui Ne. This was the beach town we should have gone to originally (instead of Nha Trang). Tet was over, and we found a beachside hotel that was just beautiful. The beach was clean, the sea was calm, and there was a volleyball net right out in front of our hotel, with ladies offering massages as you sit on the beach chairs. Unfortunately, we only had one full day to spend there, and rented motorbikes to go out to the nearby sand dunes. Here we went sand sledding, which is actually much less fun than it sounds. You have to dig down to get to moist sand, and throw it down the hill in a line, then cover the back of your sled with sand, and get someone to push you with all their might, and you don’t even go all that fast. Just one of those things you do because it’s there and it’s different, but we were all happy to head back to our hotel early to lounge on the beach and watch the sunset. The next morning we caught a bus back to Saigon and flew to Bangkok.
We had two full days in Bangkok, just stopping through on our way back to Shenzhen. Since our flight stopped in Bangkok and there is no tourist Visa requirement for Thailand, we figured we might as well spend a bit of time here. The first day I spent with the family that my Grandparents lived with while my Grandpa Bob was working for the Thai government. Panarai, the daughter of the couple that my grandparents rented from, met me at my hotel with their driver and drove me and a friend out to their house. They served us lunch, and told me stories about my grandparents. They also showed us around the elementary school that they run, attached to their housing complex. Afterwards, Panarai took us on a boat ride back to our guesthouse. The rest of the day I spent shopping (much easier to find clothes that fit in touristy areas of Bangkok than in Shenzhen) and getting a massage. That night we all went out and partied, Bangkok style. The next day we went on a day trip to the countryside around Bangkok. We walked across the Bridge over the River Kwai, took a bamboo raft down the river, and saw some waterfalls. The real highlight, though, was the elephant ride. For most of the ride you sit on a wooden bench on a platform strapped to their back. However, my buddy and I were lucky enough to get the guide that let us climb up and sit directly on the neck of the elephant. It’s a bumpy ride, but good times. It’s pretty fun to climb around barefoot on the rough skin of this giant animal. At one point, my friend drops his camera. The guide turns his elephant around and it picks the camera up off the ground with its trunk and hands it above his head to the guide. I was pretty impressed. You can also buy food there and feed it to the elephants.
Our guesthouse was located near Kao San rd, which is a giant road full of bars, restaurants, and street vendors (no cars). Most meals I ate street Phad Thai, and sticky rice with mango for dessert (which is just to die for). There are dudes along the street that will make you any kind of fake ID you want, along with fake degrees from different Universities, scuba diving cards, whatever you need. These men are ironically situated next to bars that have signs saying “VERY STRONG COCKTAILS, WE DO NOT CHECK ID.” The next day we went around to see some of the sights in Bangkok – various temples, giant Buddhas, and the royal palace. The deal with the tuk tuk drivers is that they charge you almost no money as long as you let them take you to a couple of tailoring shops around the city on the way. Here you have to walk in and pretend you are interested in having some clothes made, then politely decline. For this, the tuk tuk driver gets a gas card from the tailoring place (and probably commission if you buy anything).
That evening we flew back to Shenzhen. I went through a rough couple days of vacation withdrawal and homesickness, and felt no desire to entertain middle school kids for the next 4 months. But now I’m back in the swing of things and I really do enjoy teaching…most of the time, and in June I get to travel for another month or so. Plus, this weekend my school took us to the nearby city of Mei Zhou, all expenses paid. We went to a mud bath and hot springs on Friday night, and went sightseeing all day yesterday.
This week I am teaching about nutrition, focusing on McDonald’s and the movie SuperSize Me. Speaking of which, I could go for a Big Mac right about now.
I started out on January 2nd (much earlier than most people in my program because of my school’s schedule) to spend 10 days in Laos traveling on my own, before meeting up with 5 friends in Cambodia. I took a 26 hour train ride from Shenzhen to Kunming, in Yunan province, followed immediately by a 29 hour bus ride from Kunming to Luang Prabang, Laos. This was exhausting and time consuming, and I think it would have been worth the money to fly to Laos. The night on the bus was pretty rough, mostly Chinese men, and at no point was there a break from snoring or loogie hawking. Rosie, you would have killed yourself. The bus also stopped numerous times to pick up giant bags of seeds and boxes of god knows what, because the bus drivers make extra money by transporting goods as well as tourists. At one point there was some dispute over the price and we ended up sitting in a town for like an hour. However, I made it in one piece, thanks to a couple of Chinese people I met along the way that were quite helpful in negotiating my travel arrangements.
Luang Prabang was pretty sweet, it is a very touristy city, with day tours to nearby waterfalls and caves with temples inside. It is on the Mekong River, and I took a boat to see some of the caves, which was very chill. Most of the boats are long, thin little motor boats, where if the ratio of weight is at all off the thing nearly capsizes, so everyone has to be spaced evenly on either side of the boat. At night the whole main street of the city turns into a market, with people selling various wares along the street. My first day in this city, I knew the food on this trip was going to be great. All the things that China doesn’t have, Southeast Asia does. Baguettes, Coffee, pastries that don’t taste like ass, etc. Their cuisine is heavily influenced by Thailand, and I ate a ton of curry with Sticky rice, Phad Thai, all that good stuff. There is also quite a bit of Indian food. I didn’t really get wild and crazy in luang Prabang, as I only spent a couple days there and was recovering from my recent journey.
The next place I hit was Vang Vieng, which is also quite a popular tourist destination. This place is most famous for its tubing. You rent an inner tube and a guy drives you up the river to the starting point, and there are bars along the river. Hum dee dum, oh that might be kinda cool, I heard there is a rope swing too. Oh nice…NO, this scene was ridiculous. You tube for about 30 seconds and are at the first bar. It’s all made of bamboo, and it has a diving board, a volleyball court, and hundreds of tourists from all over the world getting smashed. And it has a giant rope swing coming out of the trees that I was legitimately frightened to go on. A 30 second float down the river and you are at the next bar, with its own scene, and a zipline coming off of a bamboo tower. And these just go on and on, one bar even had a massive water slide. 6 hours later I had made it about 100 yards down the river, when I realized that the sun was setting behind the mountains. The tube the rest of the way down the river into town is about 2 hours and was really beautiful to see at sunset, albeit a little cold. The next day I rented a motobike and cruised around to the various caves and temples in the mountains outside of the city. I got shafted by the gas station guy and had to push my bike for a bit, but it was still a good morning. The other thing this city has is a row of restaurants with couches around the tables that play endless Friends reruns. When I first heard about this my initial thought was, oh that’s totally lame and commercial. And then I was like, wait a minute, that’s AWESOME. I mean, its not like I came to this city to “feel the real Laos”, and I certainly don’t mind watching a little friends with my happy shake…so take that all you snobby travelers. :P
It was really interesting to meet people traveling in this part of the world. Not only was it weird to see so many white people, but there were also almost no Americans. Most people I met were from New Zealand, Holland, or Sweden. There is a kind of backpacker community, and I kept running into the same groups of people in my travels, even in different countries. I ran into a guy on the beach in vietnam that I had met almost a month ago in Laos just totally randomly. I was wandering around Saigon the first night we arrived by myself because all my friends were going to bed. And this guy comes up behind me and goes “Daniel!” and it was this Swedish dude I had partied with in four thousand islands, Laos a couple weeks before. So I went out that night and kicked it with him and his 5 Swedish buddies. Every town you go to you end up seeing the same faces. But anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself.
After doing the tourist towns, I took a bus down to Pakse, and then another bus out to Tat Lo. Tat Lo really has nothing in it, which is why I went there. There is one dirt road with a couple guest houses and restaurants, that’s it. There are some waterfalls about 6 km up a road that winds through a couple of villages. However, I couldn’t find a bicycle, and a motobike was going to be very expensive. So I just decided to jog up there. Kids would run along with me as I ran through the villages, and I got pretty tired because most of it was uphill. As I was walking through the last village toward the path down to the waterfall, an old lady was sitting working on something. As she sees me walking toward the waterfalls by myself she points a finger at me and says something that I, of course, can’t understand a word of. But I understand that she is telling me not to do anything stupid. When I see the falls, I realize why. There is very little water flowing over them, and it is so windy that the water actually arcs back up over the top and sprays all the rocks above. So it was pretty slippery walking around. I carefully made my way to the edge and sat for a while admiring the view. I spent that night getting drunk in an empty restaurant and chatting with a guy from Laos (who spoke almost no English, but I’m pretty sure was hitting on me) and the owner of the place.
Next day I headed south to Champasak, which has some ruins and not much else. I only spent an afternoon there, biked to the ruins, and left the next morning for Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands). This is a place where the Mekong opens up and there are lots of small islands, hence the name. I wanted to go straight to the small party island near the border of Cambodia (Don Det), but was running low on Kip (Lao currency) so I went to the more developed, yet oddly less happening island further north. It has a bank (and electricity after sundown) so I planned to spend the afternoon there and catch a boat to Don Det Monday morning after changing money. There really isn’t much to do on the bigger island, so I rented a motobike and just cruised around the island a couple times, which was actually a lot of fun. The perimeter of the island has great views, and no tourists, just open road (except for the occasional herd of water buffalo) and rice paddies. I spent the evening at a restaurant on the river watching fishermen throw their nets into the Mekong. I woke up early the next morning to get to the bank, only to find that they would not exchange my Chinese currency and had no ATM machine! This turned out to be a hassle throughout the trip, as no one was eager to take China’s money. Luckily, I ran into a guy that I had met tubing in Vang Vieng who happened to be taking the same boat as me that morning. He loaned me the money to pay for my guesthouse, and I convinced the boatman to stop at a river town with an ATM along the way to Don Det, vowing to never let this happen again.
Don Det was pretty awesome, I biked around the whole Island with the previously mentioned Swedish dude, Ludvig, and chilled out at the various beaches and waterfalls. We got pretty faded that night and wandered around the town, ending up playing pool and ordering crepes. Hard to complain.
The next day I caught a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where I met up with the other 5 people from my program that I would be traveling with for the rest of the trip.
Phnom Penh was cool, although the most memorable sites were the school that was used as a detention facility during the Pol Pot regime, and the killing fields outside the city where 17,000 people were systematically exterminated. These places don’t hold anything back. The school still has a lot of the machines in it that were used, the cells are still intact, and there is a whole room of mug shot like photos of many of the deceased prisoners that are just eerie. The killing fields have a GIANT tower of skulls that that were dug up, with the victim’s tattered clothes alongside. There are pits of grass that have signs next to them which say things like “Mass grave of 166 victims without heads.” Or “Killing tree against which executioners beat children.” Pretty disturbing stuff. It’s hard to get back to your carefree vacation lifestyle after touring these places, but we managed. Phnom Penh has a solid nightlife scene, great food, and everything is dirt cheap. Also, throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia, or at least everywhere we went, the prices are in US Dollars. It was nice to see some greenbacks again. J
The next place we hit was Angkor Wat. You stay in the town of Siem Reap (Khmer for “Siamese Defeated”) and can get a tuk tuk to take you around the ruins of Angkor Wat for the whole day for pretty cheap. I’m not gonna say I’m an expert, but I’ve seen some Ruins in my day, and these were some of the best. There are a ton of different sites throughout the Jungle around Siem Reap, with massive buildings that are still intact. We watched a sunrise and sunset at different sites (very overcrowded), and spent a full 2 days driving around to different abandoned cities and towers. You can walk up and around all of them, and many have Buddha statues within. Outside of every single site are children selling water, bracelets, travel books, etc. that are a little over aggressive, but excellent salesman. “you buy water! no? ok you buy when you come back, you remember me you come back you buy from me I remember you. Whats your name? where are you from? America? What state. Washington? If I tell you the capital you buy from me.” And those kids actually knew the capital of every state. Oooh, before I forget, for all you Warcraft fans out there, all of the ruins have tons of statues of Naga. That’s right, blizzard totally jacked the Naga idea from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. However, at least they got their purpose right, as they are indeed protectors of water. We took a boat ride out onto the lake near Siem Reap with just our group and watched a sunset as well.
After we were ruined out, we decided to spend a few days just lounging on the beach. The town we hit was Sihanoukville, which has about everything you could want in a beach town. There is a strip of bars and restaurants that provide a happening nightlife, but also plenty of beaches nearby that you can ride a motobike to which are completely isolated. For a couple of days we just sat on the beach eating bananas and swimming in the sea. There were almost no waves and it stays shallow for a long way out. Occasionally cows would wander by. The town also had a casino with 2 dollar blackjack and neverending beers, which I think I went to for at least part of every night. I mean, why pay for beers at the bar when the casino is giving them out for free? Sihanoukville was also the spot where we celebrated Obama day. His inauguration aired in Cambodia live at 12 midnight and we were quite inebriated. I was hella into it at the time but had to go watch it again at the internet café in the morning to remember what he had actually said. Our last day we took a day-long boat excursion to some of the nearby islands and went snorkeling and sat on the beach some more.
After a few days on the beach we headed off to Vietnam. The first place we hit was Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, which ill use from here on because it’s faster to write). Here we met up with a few other groups of people from our program traveling in the area, and had a large group (about 15) for 2-3 days. The first place I wanted to go was the Vietnamese war memorial museum, which was really interesting They didn’t sugarcoat anything about the actions of the US during the war, but I thought it was very fair. All of the massacres were documented and there was an actual aborted fetus in the Agent Orange section. We also went to the palace that the tanks stormed into during the Fall of Saigon, and it’s very surreal standing on the roof looking out at the gates imagining the scene on that day.
Saigon was also the place where I celebrated my 25th birthday. We all went out and partied in a Vietnamese club near our guesthouse the night before, and got up at 7 the next morning to go see the Viet Cong tunnels outside of Saigon. They show you all the Booby traps that they built, the camouflaged entrance to the tunnels, and the organization of life underground. And then you actually crawl through some of them, which have been lined with concrete since the war and, I’m sure, widened for tourists my size. However, you get a small taste of what it feels like to crawl around underground. Also at this place is a shooting range where you can pay by the bullet to shoot various automatic rifles. They had an M16, M60, AK 47 and some other types. I chose the AK 47 just for the novelty of it, and totally wasted this wooden picture of a camel at the end of the shooting range. That night was Tet, the lunar New Year celebration in Vietnam. The streets were absolutely packed, with concerts playing all night and an incredible fireworks show at midnight. It was a cool celebration to witness, but the holiday that followed turned out to be a bit of a hassle later on.
Saigon is absolutely packed with motorbikes whizzing by, the sheer number of them is amazing. It’s also pretty frightening as one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get around is by motorbike taxi. And they aren’t afraid to put 2 people on the back or put your backpacking backpack between their legs. I actually witnessed a crash on the last day we were there, which surprised me, since I had watched these motorbikes weave in and out of each other seemingly effortlessly for 3 days. There is also still a lot of prostitution still going on, and pretty much any time I was walking alone or with all men after dark I was offered sex. Also, the Vietnamese currency is called the Dong…and that joke doesn’t get old.
Next place we went was Nha Trang. Supposedly an awesome beach town about 10 hours north of Saigon. Maybe it was because we were all going through Cambodia withdrawal, but I didn’t find this place all that awesome. It was overpriced, the food and service was sub-par, the beach was dirty, and the waves were the kind that if you catch them right they slam you on the sand and you just regret it. There are some “ruins” nearby, but they were pretty lame after seeing Angkor Wat. However, I did get a chance to go Scuba Diving here. Two of the girls we met up with in Saigon ended up traveling with us for a while, and they had just gotten their dive certification in Thailand. Nha Trang is supposed to be one of the best spots for diving in Vietnam. It wasn’t incredible wildlife or visibility, but I haven’t been in a while and it was fun just to get back underwater again. They took us out for 2 dives at nearby islands, and it was a beautiful day. After I think only 2 days here we had had our fill, and decided to go inland.
The next town we visited was Dalat, which is a very unique part of Vietnam. It was untouched during the war, and the architecture looks more European than southeast Asian. We arrived here, as in every town, with no hotel reservations. This had worked out fine, except now, because of Tet, every Vietnamese person was on holiday. As we walked around to the numerous guesthouses near where the bus dropped us off, we realized that we had made a mistake. Every hotel was completely booked. From holes in the wall to the giant resorts, no place had even one room available. We found one lady who would let us sleep in her undeveloped backhouse with mattresses on the floor and a very weird smell. The price was quite high, and we tried to bargain with her, but she was unwilling to negotiate. Recognizing that this was not a good sign, we left and continued looking for places available rooms. We even had a motorbike taxi drive all around the city asking for us and he couldn’t find anything. When we went back to that lady with our tail between our legs, the backhouse was already taken. She was nice enough to let the 8 of us sleep on her living room floor, for an exorbitant amount of money. Fortunately we were able to find cheap alcohol that night, and booked a place at a hotel early the next morning.
After that debacle, Dalat turned out to be pretty awesome. There are hiking trails through pine trees in the nearby forests, and great food. One of my favorite days on the trip, a few of us went out into the woods with a guide and went “canyoning.” You basically repel off a cliff with a harness around your waist like after you have just gone rock climbing. Except there is no rock climbing, just lowering yourself. Very little training involved in this (and certainly no paperwork), but it’s not that complicated, and is pretty exciting. After a few increasingly high cliffs, they take you to a waterfall and you lower yourself off with the water running over you. When you get to a certain point you just leap off backwards into the pool below. There are a couple of waterfall repels, some cliff jumping, and even a small waterfall that you can slide down like a water slide. The scenery is beautiful around Dalat, comparable to that of eastern Washington, and you almost forget where you are. I can’t say all that much about the nightlife in Dalat, because we spent most of them in the hotel room watching the Australian Open. For those of you that didn’t watch it, the men’s semi-final and final were pretty epic.
Our last stop in Vietnam was Mui Ne. This was the beach town we should have gone to originally (instead of Nha Trang). Tet was over, and we found a beachside hotel that was just beautiful. The beach was clean, the sea was calm, and there was a volleyball net right out in front of our hotel, with ladies offering massages as you sit on the beach chairs. Unfortunately, we only had one full day to spend there, and rented motorbikes to go out to the nearby sand dunes. Here we went sand sledding, which is actually much less fun than it sounds. You have to dig down to get to moist sand, and throw it down the hill in a line, then cover the back of your sled with sand, and get someone to push you with all their might, and you don’t even go all that fast. Just one of those things you do because it’s there and it’s different, but we were all happy to head back to our hotel early to lounge on the beach and watch the sunset. The next morning we caught a bus back to Saigon and flew to Bangkok.
We had two full days in Bangkok, just stopping through on our way back to Shenzhen. Since our flight stopped in Bangkok and there is no tourist Visa requirement for Thailand, we figured we might as well spend a bit of time here. The first day I spent with the family that my Grandparents lived with while my Grandpa Bob was working for the Thai government. Panarai, the daughter of the couple that my grandparents rented from, met me at my hotel with their driver and drove me and a friend out to their house. They served us lunch, and told me stories about my grandparents. They also showed us around the elementary school that they run, attached to their housing complex. Afterwards, Panarai took us on a boat ride back to our guesthouse. The rest of the day I spent shopping (much easier to find clothes that fit in touristy areas of Bangkok than in Shenzhen) and getting a massage. That night we all went out and partied, Bangkok style. The next day we went on a day trip to the countryside around Bangkok. We walked across the Bridge over the River Kwai, took a bamboo raft down the river, and saw some waterfalls. The real highlight, though, was the elephant ride. For most of the ride you sit on a wooden bench on a platform strapped to their back. However, my buddy and I were lucky enough to get the guide that let us climb up and sit directly on the neck of the elephant. It’s a bumpy ride, but good times. It’s pretty fun to climb around barefoot on the rough skin of this giant animal. At one point, my friend drops his camera. The guide turns his elephant around and it picks the camera up off the ground with its trunk and hands it above his head to the guide. I was pretty impressed. You can also buy food there and feed it to the elephants.
Our guesthouse was located near Kao San rd, which is a giant road full of bars, restaurants, and street vendors (no cars). Most meals I ate street Phad Thai, and sticky rice with mango for dessert (which is just to die for). There are dudes along the street that will make you any kind of fake ID you want, along with fake degrees from different Universities, scuba diving cards, whatever you need. These men are ironically situated next to bars that have signs saying “VERY STRONG COCKTAILS, WE DO NOT CHECK ID.” The next day we went around to see some of the sights in Bangkok – various temples, giant Buddhas, and the royal palace. The deal with the tuk tuk drivers is that they charge you almost no money as long as you let them take you to a couple of tailoring shops around the city on the way. Here you have to walk in and pretend you are interested in having some clothes made, then politely decline. For this, the tuk tuk driver gets a gas card from the tailoring place (and probably commission if you buy anything).
That evening we flew back to Shenzhen. I went through a rough couple days of vacation withdrawal and homesickness, and felt no desire to entertain middle school kids for the next 4 months. But now I’m back in the swing of things and I really do enjoy teaching…most of the time, and in June I get to travel for another month or so. Plus, this weekend my school took us to the nearby city of Mei Zhou, all expenses paid. We went to a mud bath and hot springs on Friday night, and went sightseeing all day yesterday.
This week I am teaching about nutrition, focusing on McDonald’s and the movie SuperSize Me. Speaking of which, I could go for a Big Mac right about now.
Monday, December 22, 2008
China is Awesome
Just had to sit down and write a quick blog about the generosity of Chinese people on this particular day. Before today starts, the school is already planning to throw a Christmas party for me tomorrow. They will also give me a gift of anything I want up to $200 Yuan ($30), which may not seem like a lot to you, but it goes a long way over here. I asked for a ping pong paddle which I had planned to buy tomorrow.
I woke up this morning practically still full from the dinner I was treated to the night before by a couple I met randomly on the subway.
7:50 am - I am with all the students and teachers at my school out on the basketball courts. The Chinese national anthem and flag raising has just finished, and I am wondering what the man on stage is talking about, as I do every Monday morning. A lady that I recognize as someone important (and therefore unable to speak English) comes up to me and hands me a slip of paper. after a bit of translating from a nearby English teacher, I understand that the school is giving me, and all the teachers, 350 Yuan (about $55) to spend on items at a nearby mall.
10:00 am - I return from teaching class and start trying to book plane flights to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand for the 5 PAID WEEKS OF VACATION I HAVE COMING UP. This is quite difficult given the amount of Chinese characters you must understand to even deal with my bank. I have two different teachers helping me, Laura and Susan. they spend the morning checking different flights, calling my bank to ask questions, and calling friends for advice. I have to leave in the middle to go to the school's recording booth to tape a dialogue which will be used on an upcoming test for the junior 3s. "What does your sister make those beautiful kites for?" "On the weekends I like to spend time with my friends."...after working on my travel arrangements all morning, Susan even takes me to the bank during lunchtime to help me hook up online banking.
1:00 pm - After lunch I continue trying to book flights (I eventually had to use my US credit card, which WAMU decided to cancel after the first transaction for my security. After an unnecessarily long international phone conversation my card was back up and I was able to book my flights). Laura comes to my desk and tells me that one of the girls in her class thought today was my birthday (I’m not sure why). She then hands me a Tupperware full of sushi that the girl made me and brought to school! At that point I start feeling guilty because I don’t even know the student's name and I have never liked sushi. But it turned out to be delicious, and I thanked the girl profusely. I guess I like Sushi after all.
4pm - I return to my desk from the second batch of classes to find a brand new, creme-colored trench coat sitting on my desk. Apparently our school ordered these for all of the teachers (men and women) at my school, because winter is here. Being XXXL size as are most things that have a chance of fitting me in China, it is a bit wide for me, but it’s really nice. While I could see it invoking columbine/flasher emotions in Americans, it is a pretty common style in china. I wear this around for the rest of the day and receive praises of "ooh you so cool" and "oh so handsome" from the majority of people I pass (students and teachers).
4:30 pm - I am still trying to figure out how I will get to Laos for the beginning of my vacation, because the plane flights aren't working out. Laura is still helping me, and asks one of the PE teachers, Simon, to come help because he knows Yunnan province (the one from which I will enter Laos). I meet Simon for the first time, and after Laura explains to him what I hope to do, he tells Laura he will write out detailed instructions and give them to me tomorrow (Simon speaks almost no English). Pretty sweet guy. Then for some reason Laura tells Simon that the school is giving me a 200 Yuan ping pong paddle. Before I know what is happening, Simon has decided that this is not enough money for a really quality ping pong paddle, and he is going to give me one instead! I mean, are you kidding me?
6pm - My friend Alice, another English teacher, gives me a box of fancy chocolates and a very sweet Christmas card.
Needless to say, it was a pretty great day. And a much needed one to power me through the holidays with no family around.
Much love,
Danny
I woke up this morning practically still full from the dinner I was treated to the night before by a couple I met randomly on the subway.
7:50 am - I am with all the students and teachers at my school out on the basketball courts. The Chinese national anthem and flag raising has just finished, and I am wondering what the man on stage is talking about, as I do every Monday morning. A lady that I recognize as someone important (and therefore unable to speak English) comes up to me and hands me a slip of paper. after a bit of translating from a nearby English teacher, I understand that the school is giving me, and all the teachers, 350 Yuan (about $55) to spend on items at a nearby mall.
10:00 am - I return from teaching class and start trying to book plane flights to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand for the 5 PAID WEEKS OF VACATION I HAVE COMING UP. This is quite difficult given the amount of Chinese characters you must understand to even deal with my bank. I have two different teachers helping me, Laura and Susan. they spend the morning checking different flights, calling my bank to ask questions, and calling friends for advice. I have to leave in the middle to go to the school's recording booth to tape a dialogue which will be used on an upcoming test for the junior 3s. "What does your sister make those beautiful kites for?" "On the weekends I like to spend time with my friends."...after working on my travel arrangements all morning, Susan even takes me to the bank during lunchtime to help me hook up online banking.
1:00 pm - After lunch I continue trying to book flights (I eventually had to use my US credit card, which WAMU decided to cancel after the first transaction for my security. After an unnecessarily long international phone conversation my card was back up and I was able to book my flights). Laura comes to my desk and tells me that one of the girls in her class thought today was my birthday (I’m not sure why). She then hands me a Tupperware full of sushi that the girl made me and brought to school! At that point I start feeling guilty because I don’t even know the student's name and I have never liked sushi. But it turned out to be delicious, and I thanked the girl profusely. I guess I like Sushi after all.
4pm - I return to my desk from the second batch of classes to find a brand new, creme-colored trench coat sitting on my desk. Apparently our school ordered these for all of the teachers (men and women) at my school, because winter is here. Being XXXL size as are most things that have a chance of fitting me in China, it is a bit wide for me, but it’s really nice. While I could see it invoking columbine/flasher emotions in Americans, it is a pretty common style in china. I wear this around for the rest of the day and receive praises of "ooh you so cool" and "oh so handsome" from the majority of people I pass (students and teachers).
4:30 pm - I am still trying to figure out how I will get to Laos for the beginning of my vacation, because the plane flights aren't working out. Laura is still helping me, and asks one of the PE teachers, Simon, to come help because he knows Yunnan province (the one from which I will enter Laos). I meet Simon for the first time, and after Laura explains to him what I hope to do, he tells Laura he will write out detailed instructions and give them to me tomorrow (Simon speaks almost no English). Pretty sweet guy. Then for some reason Laura tells Simon that the school is giving me a 200 Yuan ping pong paddle. Before I know what is happening, Simon has decided that this is not enough money for a really quality ping pong paddle, and he is going to give me one instead! I mean, are you kidding me?
6pm - My friend Alice, another English teacher, gives me a box of fancy chocolates and a very sweet Christmas card.
Needless to say, it was a pretty great day. And a much needed one to power me through the holidays with no family around.
Much love,
Danny
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