National Week 2012 Kicks Off in Jingzhou

Back in Jingzhou for 3 days before heading down to Guilin and Yangshuo
to hangout with our old colleagues Hedy and Alex.

Typical of China, but nonetheless still interesting to see.

An awesome parking job in front of Cathy's aunt's restaurant.

Cathy's friend's dog, McGrady.

Cathy's cousin of a cousin works at the Jingzhou Museum
and took us on one of her tours.  It was really busy there.

Whoever wrote this BS was one paranoid guy.  I read something like
"Dear Lord of the Afterlife, please allow this man to be an official in the Afterlife
because he was an official  in this life." Bit of stretch...

The second mummy in the Jingzhou Museum.
Somehow, I missed it last time I was there.
Note the embalmed innards on the right.

We went to see a classic musical performance.

Waiting around for our train to Guilin.

Never again will I travel on a Chinese train for more than 6 hours.
The train to Guilin from Wuhan was a nightmare.  16 hours of nightmare
to be exact.  It was crowded to the point where people were
standing IN the washroom. The seats were so uncomfortable, and I got
a grand total of 0 hours of sleep. I actually begged Cathy to get off at Changsha
so we can fly, but we ended up just taking the train.  Hands down my WORST
 experience in the PRC in the last 3 years...and it will be tough to beat.
Highlights included someone spitting on my pants and a kid
taking a dump next to me. If you take a Chinese train, go berth and not seat.

PVG to SHA and being a hater.

The day's traveling around made me how funny things are here in China.  In the morning, the hotel I was at in Wuhan didn't serve me breakfast, even though they gave me a food ticket.  Luckily, Cathy's mom packed me some extra apples that I ate.

Another funny thing happened.  In Pudong, I walked into a bathroom that was so clean you could eat off the ground.  It wasn't crowded, but a middle aged man who really needed to go pushed past me.  He looked into a stall and then ran out of the washroom.  I glanced in quickly. It was an empty, clean toilet.  But it was a Western sit down toilet. He did not approve.

Coming out of Pudong, I went to the Maglev, only to be told to not go on the Maglev.  Instead, it was suggested I went on the exchange bus, which had a maniacal driver who got us to Hongqiao in a bit under 30 minutes, despite traffic. I nearly crapped my pants in fear of a spectacular crash and painful death.

It reminded me of an increasingly concerning issue in China that Cathy told me about, which will unfortunately affect school on Friday and therefore Cathy's work schedule on Friday.  Around China, the school bus industry are notorious for unsafe practices.  Some schools load up the school buses with kids to max capacity and then  some.  Once said buses have a head-on collision, which has happened around China recently...well...you get the picture.

My school has cancelled Friday school buses for the kids to go back home.  I've been on the school buses before and I must say that whatever company we use do a pretty good job not overcrowding them.  Perhaps during next term, more students will opt to stay on campus for weekends.  Cathy will have to stay longer after school on Fridays, which sucks because that's our eating out day.

Bus safety for kids or better quality times being with Cathy?  I choose the latter.  Aren't I a terrible human being?

...

Now for something completely different, I'm in Seoul.  I love this city.  More posts to follow.

Midnight explosion!!!

Midnight in Jingzhou.  Firecrackers and fireworks have been going off in the distance for the last 2 hours, intensifying as midnight approaches.  Cathy, her mom and I lit some of those red chain firecrackers you always see but never get to experience lit up.  It's one of the clearest nights that I can remember here in Hubei.  Bloody hell, I can see the stars for once, which is a rare sight!  Colorful explosions are everywhere in the sky, across the lake, and behind the Jingzhou city walls.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures do justice to what I saw and heard, so I just stood there and soaked in the experience.  One of the best moments I had in all my travels here in Asia. It will be hard to match.

The firecrackers and fireworks of small-town China during Chinese New Year are equal to the epic Eve of St. James Day fireworks presentation I saw with my mom coming off the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela just after finishing the Camino in Spain. Both were absolutely stunning.

...I'm never seeing another Vancouver Celebration of Lights ever again because it isn't worth my time.

Spring Festival in middle of the Middle Kingdom!

Two more days and I'm off to South Korea.  I've spent the last six days in small-town China with my girlfriend's family for Spring Festival..."Chinese New Year" to all you Westerners out there. Earsplitting firecrackers go off every 30 seconds!

I've been to Jingzhou before, but this time it was a more substantial stay. I've gotten to see Cathy's family in action during the most important celebration of the year here in the Middle Kingdom.  If I had to sum up the entire experience in a word, that word has to be "educational."  I'll leave it at that for now. If you have any questions about what I mean when I say "educational," shoot me a FB message.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The Blind Masseur

Cathy and I have a membership card for a massage place...a blind massage place to be exact.  A massage from a blind masseur isn't for the weak of heart.  Unless otherwise stated, they'll dig right into your muscles as if they were all pressure points...just the way I like it!

We usually go once a month.  But this time, something very peculiar happened to me.  Let's just say you don't know the meaning of embarrassing unless a blind masseur tells you to drop your pants, only to put acupressure cups on your bum...at the front of the store for all passersby to see.

...only in China.


...correction...only in Wuhan.

Hankou NYE

Cathy and I planned to go to Shanghai for New Years Eve.  But her being a councilor meant that she had to work on our January 2nd day-off.  Instead, we opted to go to Hankou to hang out with some colleagues.

We started off by taking the bus to Wuhan Square, a big mall complex in Hankou. We had dinner with another counselor from the school.  I had the "American potato" appie (aka: fries) and lamb chops with red wine sauce.  Yum.

After dinner, we went to a DVD store with a massive English title collection.  It was pretty awesome.  The store front looked a lot like HMV, but on closer inspection (and through a questionably dangerous back-store hallway), there were tons of DVD and bluerays...every conceivable English movie and TV series and some Korean, French and Japanese movies too.  Needless to say, we stayed there for a while just browsing the stacks.

We wanted to get to Hankou's river front area to see some fireworks, but it was way too crowded.  Our taxi got us within 5 blocks of the river, but then stopped dead in its tracks because of the legions of people and cars.  We walked the rest of the way. The walk took a long time because we were baby-stepping it the whole way due to the wall of people and motorcycles in front of us. We met up with some more friends.

From there, we took the ferry across Chang Jiang (The Yangzi River) back into Wuchang. Walked around Simakou Food Street and had some xiao chi. One place we stopped had chou tofu...stinky tofu.  Cathy was into it.  The sign above the kiosk read "The cook's great grandfather served chou tofu to Mao Zedong here."  Apparently, on any regular day, the place would have a massive lineup, but on NYE it was surprisingly short.  I downed some of Cathy's.  Chou tofu from other kiosks smelled like week old sour milk, but Cathy's choice wasn't so bad.  No wonder the Chairman chose this place to eat!

Wo jiao Li Bai!

Yesterday, I recited a memorized poem from the famous drunk-ass poet Li Bai in front of the school for the Mandarin language competition.  The student council set it up for the foreign teachers who were interested in presenting their skills in the Mandarin language.  The name of the poem was called Zeng Wang Lun. I think I did pretty well.  Cathy and her coworkers told me to speak slowly.  My gestures should be somewhere between being deep in thought and utterly tanked.

The competition was intended for groups.  After my group bailed on me, I went in solo with only a day's notice.  The students were going crazy, especially after the first group.  I realized the kids don't see us Canadian expats speak their language at all.  Actually, they probably don't see many foreigners speak putonghua in general, which is a shame because we are in their country. I also realized learning foreign languages is usually a one way street.  People learn English, and English speakers don't usually learn other languages.  When they do, it's a bloody miracle.  Must have been a novelty for the kids to see us foreigners speak Mandarin.

Anyways, I thought I did fairly well.  It definitely made me want to learn more Mandarin, that's for sure! The kids went berserk when I started talking. I even scored second place behind a group of colleagues who speak fluent Mandarin.

Here's the pinyin and rough translation for the poem:

Li Bai cheng zhou jiang yu xing
(Li Bai was about to disembark on a boat across a big pond)
Hu wen an shang ta ge sheng
(When he heard a ballad from the shore; it was his friend who came to see him off)
Tao hua tan shui shen qian chi
(The large pond is very very deep) 
Bu ji wang lun song wo xing
(But the friendship between us (Wang Lun and Li Bai) is much deeper)

Yanoda!

Cathy and I were joined by my friend Stephanie and her colleague Suki on our trip to Yanoda, an "amusement park" of sorts.  It was was more like a segment of rain forest that was undergoing a tourist facelift.  If we just walked around, it wouldn't be all that interesting.  But we weren't there for a "normal" tour. We went to Yanoda for waterfall climbing!

There were some obstacles set up on the way to the biggest waterfall (picture above). Some included crawling through whitewater underneath a net, rope-swinging across deep water, and a submerged tire bridge with nowhere to grab.  Cathy didn't really dress for the occasion, and unfortunately her long skirt got all dirty.  Protection included a bicycle helmet.  That's about it. No harness going up slippery rocks and waterfalls. 

Only Suki, Stephanie and I went up the 2nd last waterfall.  I went up the last one, which had fairly powerful water. It was fun, but the safety issue made me hesitate for a few seconds.

After Yanoda, Cathy and I went to the Dolphin Bar again for dinner.  Last American eats for a while...well...at least until this Friday.  I'm going to be eating with some colleagues at a Hawaiian American restaurant called Aloha for American Thanksgiving in Hanyang here in Wuhan.

In conclusion, Sanya was a relaxing, adventurous and romantic trip.  I loved traveling with Cathy for the first time ever, and look forward to doing it again soon.  If you are looking for a cheap and way to get away from the polluted din of Chinese cities, Sanya is a choice vacation spot.

Sunny Sanya!

Cathy (extremely worried): "Aaa!! Slow down!" Paul (maniacal laughter): "Hahaha! Wei shenme!?"

Our ATV. It was tons of fun!

After quadding across the open expanse of Sanya Beach, we took pictures and went into the water.

In the evening, we decided to go back to the First Market.  The ingredients were good, but unfortunately we didn't pick as good of a restaurant to cook our food.

The next day, we went on a Chinese bus tour to a secluded beach past Yalong Bay.  It was well worth it.  The water was less turbid than the other beaches, and the weather was perfect.  A local family of beach bums ran the place.  They cooked us a barbecue lunch.

At the secluded beach, there were many activities - scuba diving, swimming, paddling, and jet skiing.  The banana boat dragged around by a jet ski was pretty awesome, but only if you let go when it flips over.  Alas, Cathy did not let go and got dragged through the water for about 30 meters. She emerged with bruises on her face and sore muscles all over.

Sanya!

During our first full day in Sanya, Cathy and I took the bus to one of the the 3 major beaches in Sanya.  We went to Dadonghai Bay, the beach that was closest to the downtown area.

For reasons that elude me, there are a lot of Russian tourists in Sanya.Cathy and I stopped at a Russian restaurant that looked out over Dadonghai Bay.  I had borscht and dark beer.

Our first hotel, Sanya Jia Cuo.  It overlooked the water in an isolated area of town.

The next day, we went to another beach called Yalong Bay.  It was lined by posh hotels with clean washrooms.  Unfortunately, it rained a bit. We got our jeans soaking wet and ate at an outdoor barbecue joint instead of a hoity-toity hotel lobby restaurant.

After Yalong, Cathy and I ate and drank at the Dolphin Bar, as suggested from my friend Stephanie.  It was like a sports bar from back home! We even met up with a bunch of my colleagues from Wuhan!

Dolphin Bar's American food was EXCELLENT.

Vacation with Cathy!

Yeeeeaaaah!!! My first vacation with Cathy!  Where was I off to this time?

We opted to go to the "Hawaii of China" - the beautiful beach town of Sanya in the Southern island province of Hainan.  Having gone to Hawaii many times in my youth (thank you Mom and Dad), I knew to be suspicious of Sanya's slogan. It wasn't really like Hawaii at all, and the in general the weather was terrible, but it was fun...especially since I got to spend some quality time with Cathy!

We wanted to cut costs for our vaycay, so we headed to Haikou first.  The plane ride was cheaper and Cathy got to see her old friend "Zepf."

Cathy and her high school friend.  I had to give him an English name. It sounded to me like he wanted a "Z" in his name, so I named him "Zepf."

Zepf is an aspiring lawyer. He just graduated from school, so he showed us around his university on a golf cart.  We also went to a beach because it was a clear day.  Rumor had it that Hainan was hit by a massive typhoon, but there almost no signs of it (except for some trees that were knocked down and sandy beach water that is usually really blue and clear).

The fruit in Haikou was cheap and delicious.  We bought 2 mangoes and 2 papayas that were the size of footballs!

The food in Haikou was great.  Fruit was cheap and very juicy.  Zepf brought Cathy and I to eat xiao chi, which was pretty different from the xiao chi in Wuhan.  The dessert that Zepf got us reminded me a lot of Filipino halo halo.

We took the bus because of inconstant security and this thing.

We wanted to go on the bullet train to Sanya, but they didn't allow me to take my Swiss Army Knife.  Cathy and I were disappointed with this rule because the security were inconsistent.  They didn't allow knives (to cut fruit), but allowed smokers to take their lighters (to stink up the air in the train) even though the rules clearly state no smoking, lighters and flammables?  We called bull but they didn't listen, so we took the 4 hour bus instead.  We made the most of it.  And besides, some of the scenery from the road going towards Sanya from Haikou was gorgeous.

Getting into town late, the first thing we did was to get to our hotel.  It was right next to the water on a small secluded beach in a small fishing village away from the major tourist beaches.  It was a perfect location.  It also had a nice soft bed, which was a huge plus!  It was the best bed I've slept on in all of China!

The rain didn't stop us from getting something to eat.  For dinner, we went to the First Market - a local seafood market.  Only the most adventurous foreigners were seen there.  The place was dirty.  It was filled with fish guts, squid water and rotten vegetables stained across the ground.  But the choices of seafood were endless: all kinds of fish, squid, clams, lobsters, eel, oysters, sponges, sea horses...you name it, they got it for cheap.  With a bag of different kinds of seafood, Cathy and I looked for a restaurant nearby.

The deal of the First Market is this: get your ingredients from the vendors and then go to a restaurant that you like.  The cook would then cook you up a meal and charge you a labor fee. We found one that uses a liberal amount of ginger and fish sauce.  Holy cow, the food was so good, it was the best Chinese food I've had in China so far.  I'm so glad I had it with Cathy.  It definitely beat Wuhan's Wuhang Yu.  It put the Beijing Kaoya I had to shame.  It was even better than the wonton noodle soup and Cantonese BBQ pork I had in HK and xiaolongbao from Shanghai .  And...dare I say...Hainan seafood was even better than Sichuan hot pot in Chengdu!

Great first day in sunny Sanya.  Okay, okay...it was sunny for only 3 of the 6 days we were there, but whatever.  We had fun.  More stories from Sanya are to follow!

This...

...turned into this!

And this...

...turned into THIS!

One of these guys...

...became this guy!

And the juice inside of that there coconut...

...soon ended up in my belly!

And some of these...

Soon became my favorite!  Our first dinner in Sanya = hao chi!!!

Di da di da di da Lijiaaang!

Lijiang Old Town by night

Stayed in a really quiet and contemplative hotel called Zen Garden.

Dad dancing with a bunch of grandmas next to a mountainside temple.

Some of the more "adventurous" cuisine in Lijiang Old Town.  Jim tried the roasted grasshoppers.  I tried one.  Feels like eating shell-on shrimp.

Chilling out in an expat haunt.

Some beautiful Naxi artwork

Mom and I at a Naxi minority shrine and heritage museum. Somehow it reminded me of the Burnaby Village Museum.

All photos on this post courtesy of my mom.

Shilin

On our last full day in Kunming, we decided to go tot Shilin, otherwise known as the Stone Forest.  I remember back in my childhood, my family went to a miniature park called "Splendid China" in Florida.  In that park, there were large models of many of the sights to see in China - one of which was Shilin.  It was the one I remembered the most.  I always wanted to go to the Stone Forest ever since that moment, and now the opportunity arose!

We agreed to take the hostel's rented vehicle to get there.  To decrease the cost per person, however, Mom did some recruiting.  She managed to get a German fellow named Asef and a Columbian woman named Lina to come with. Great making new travel friends!

Bert, Jim, Lina, Pat, and Asef at Shilin.

Once we got there, we were met with hordes of people and tour buses.  The entire forest was surrounded by a road in which golf carts drove through with Chinese tourists inside taking stops to take pictures at key locations.  Our group had none of that.  We walked.  And we saw a lot more. 

We went off the main road to go check out the "Eternal Mushroom" stone formation.  No tourist on a golf cart could get there, unless they decided to break away from the pack.  I have to say the Eternal Mushroom didn't really look like a mushroom at all, but at least we walked through some stunning scenery along the way.  Again, most tourists at Shilin did not get to see such things.

Not the eternal mushroom, but this was a better picture to post!

Walking through the trails away from the main road, we eventually came to a cavernous region of the forest.  We had to walk through places where we had to take off our backpacks and crouch down because it was too narrow to pass through.

No-backpack Asef takes point and leads us through a narrow crevice. Everyone else struggles with their backpacks.

Jim going though a big rock. Believe or not, it's part of the trail to get to another part of the forest.

On the other side of the rock.

 Getting back to the road, we walked towards the hordes of tourists, knowing very well that they only scratched the surface of this place.  We were greatly amused by the Chinglish descriptions on various plaques and billboards before we ate lunch and drove back to Kunming.

Shilin was one of the highlights of my HK-Macau-Kunming-Lijiang-Shanghai trip.  When I go back to Shilin with Cathy one day, we will definitely walk it for sure.