The below is really not finished yet. It's a work in progress, I've more notes to integrate!

2007.05.06 07:57

Ferry to Dalian.

I am passing rocks shrouded in smog. Dalian in coming up as the ferry races through the water. Smog takes away so much beauty. I think these islands or peninsulas would be beautiful if the air was no so thick with smoke.

The ferry port in Incheon continues to be a rather bothersome one. I called ahead to see about tickets to Dalian and asked about the location. I believed there was more than one ferry terminal. The Dain ferry company told me not to worry that there is only one international terminal. So I took the metro out to Incheon Station. The ferry companies say to go to Dongincheon, and last time I took a ferry from Incheon this is what I did. That time it was very difficult to find the terminal. There was no map at the station as every other station in Seoul I've seen has so I searched and eventually took a taxi. On a map it looks as if Incheon Station is about the same distance from Terminal 2, and closer to the ocean so with an easier reference point. This turned out to all be true. I reached Terminal 2 about twenty minutes to 14:00. The time the Dain company told me I had to arrive. I looked for the Dain ticket window and couldn't find it. There is a tourist information booth at Terminal 2 and I asked there where the Dain ticket window was, where I could buy a ticket for Dalian, she told me it was just in the corner by the other companies. So I looked again. This time I asked some official where the ticket window was and he directed me to wait while he had a cigarette and then take a taxi. He didn't speak much English to I went to the tourist information booth again. This time I talked with another woman and she told me there was ANOTHER terminal. It was about 14:00 at this time and I was worried. So she called Dain and they said I could buy the ticket at any time before the ferry left. There was a bus going just to the terminal. Number 24 bus. I had just used up my T-Money card on the metro to Incheon but fortunately I took a bit of extra Korean cash just in case. It was only 1000 won. So after waiting for 20 minutes I was at the terminal, or so I thought. I looked around for a sign for Dalian, there were a lot of ferries leaving but they were all domestic. I found someone who spoke English and as it turned out the International Terminal 1 was just next door. It was a big new building almost empty and I was able to finally buy my ticket for Dalian. 124.600 won.

Incheon is a maritime city. It smelled of the sea as well as some less pleasant things. This somehow brought memories of Hilo. Incheon station is nowhere near the downtown. If there is one. I imagine there must be since Incheon is the second largest city in Korea, although really it is part of the Greater Seoul. A map the tourist lady at Terminal 2 gave me says that it is Jung-gu. So Jung-gu has an interesting atmosphere. There were many garages with maritime periphanelia. One full of tackle, another full of chains. Many more of the same. Hanging over it all is the smog. This bad air hangs on me. When I can see the air I frown. The brown gray of it. Ah but the sea is beautiful. I think my next home should be on the sea. A clean sea, with clean air. I wonder if you can ever see the sea from McMurdo?

2007.05.08 13:35

From Dalian to Haerbin.

Now I sit in the largest shopping mall in Haerbin. It is huge and appears to be one of the more modern major airports or a hanger for the construction of dirigibles. It is like almost everything in the Chinese cities under intensive construction. It is also open and I have just had some bubble tea. A particular delight.

Dalian was perfect as far as the weather is concerned. The air, once within the city and away from horizon vistas was clean, much cleaner than Seoul certainly. It had a nice feel and made me question my dislike of China in general. The train station was easy to find and the walk from the port, which is convenient in it's location, very much unlike Incheon, was a nice one. What I did walk by was mostly very new and I didn't see much that made me think of the Russian or Japanese period of which makes up almost half the history of the city. To get to the train station I got off out of the terminal near Harbor Square, walked up Renmin Rd., went straight through Zhongshan Square and then the railway station was to the right.

I always seem to be in China when there is some sort of holiday period going on. Which means the trains are packed. I think foreigners usually buy their tickets from some sort of company to save the hassle but I always get it at the station, and often the seats are all sold out. This was the case in Dalian and all I could get was standing room. After buying the ticket and wandering around a bit more I found myself at an internet café and caught up a bit.

The train itself reminded me why I don't like China so much. I really should travel at a higher class than hard seat but it costs so much more. If I want to keep traveling for a long time I have to keep costs down. This train wasn't as crowded as some I took last year but it was very crowded nonetheless. I got on early enough to have a seat but then the owner of the seat got on at a later station. Then some students got off and gave me their seat, luckily for me the owner of that seat never came to claim it. So at least I had a seat, but the car was stuffy, smelly, and always there were people smoking. Chinese trains all are clearly labeled no smoking, yet always there is someone lighting up, even the train workers, and even the police. To top it off the train even sells packs of cigarettes along with drinks and food. When I am in the cities in China it seems to be an almost completely developed country. It is only seeing all the people from the countryside that I can observe how unequal this development is. Those with the countryside look tend to be shorter with the look of past malnutrition, especially the eyes, they are darker from time in the sun, and their customs seem a bit different as well. In many ways they fit the stereotype of country folks anywhere. The hard seat class is full of the country folks. The countryside that the train passes does look poor much of the time but still there is a surprising amount of infrastructure even in these areas. Roads and such. There is never in my eyes the buzz of Chinese cities though. The cities are crowded with cranes, everywhere new buildings are going up. So after 13 long hours I was finally in Haerbin, I will take a break for a little while here before taking another hard seat to Beijing.

2007.05.09 07:54

My friend Xu Jie.

I sit in my cozy clean bed waiting for Xu Jie to come and collect me for the day. I am at a 'restaurant' as she calls them. Very cheap places officially closed to foreigners. It isn't beautiful and the area outside is a mess. But the most important thing is the bed and it is both comfortable and clean, and at 20RMB the price is very good. I would stay at Xu Jie's place but her mother isn't comfortable with that.

Xu Jie I met by chance last time I was in Haerbin. I missed my flight back to Korea in January because of difficulties crossing the border from Russia. It turned out that particular border has only one crossing a day and if you miss it then tough luck. So in the end I was exactly a day late to return to Haerbin. I went to the airport to see about a flight and they said I couldn't go that day because there were no direct flights but I could go the next day for no charge. A nice thing about many of these airlines in 'less developed' countries, and well everything in these countries is things are often more flexible and friendly. So you miss your flight, its alright, you can take a later one. In the States I believe the response would be tough, unless you bought some special ticket that costs twice as much and allows for such things. But anyway I got on the bus to return to the city from the airport in Haerbin, and I was thinking about what I would do for the day. So I got to talking to a nice girl who turned out to be Xu Jie. First I tried to contact an HC contact but he was a bit of a ways away. In the end Xu Jie got her friend from English school and we wandered the city together. Since then we have kept pretty good contact and now I am in Haerbin for the second time. If I can arrange a trip to North Korea for August from Shenyang then I plan to swing by yet again.

The train from Dalian was about 40 min early to Haerbin. I recollect the same thing happening last time I came to this city. The station as with many in China is not well labeled in a way visible to those on the train. Not even in Chinese. So far this has not been a problem, but I fear it may be in the future if I am in a city with a west or east station and I get off at the wrong one. But anyway I was here, I called up Xu Jie and after a bit we started wandering the city.

2007.05.10 07:32

More of Haerbin.

I'm sitting in a random park in Haerbin. It reminds me of parks in Korea. Old people are using various exercise equipment and practicing tai chi. In Haerbin the flowers have just come out and it feels like I have stepped back a month or two. I have just been unsuccessful in my search for an internet café once again. Monday was pretty relaxing. Xu Jie just showed me around a bit and I cooked dinner, then she found me an internet café and place to sleep in her neighborhood. I was planning to catch up with things and begin another website overhaul. The net café as it turned out wasn't really suitable for this. I've got most of my files on a USB stick and this café had all the computers completely inaccessible. So I went off wandering the city with my eyes open for another net café. After some time I came across another one that was similarly locked down, and then later found myself at the giant mall, the one that appears to be a air ship factory. I decided to do a little bit of shopping, on Monday I found at the carrefour, deodorant! Koreans don't use deodorant and so I had a hard time finding it in Korea. I did see some overpriced sticks in a foreign market but nothing else. So on Tuesday I bought a couple things I had been meaning to get before my trip and others I forgot to bring, like a flashlight. On seeing how much everything was priced I rather think I should have done all my shopping in China. Most of the things I bought before hand are made in China anyway. Then I wandered the open section of the mall. Apparently the grand opening is next week but one level is already functioning. I met a Canadian English teacher who after asking about my religion immediately concluded I was working for the “other side”. Beyond that Bill was nice enough and he was heading for an net café so I tagged along. I imagine he has a hard time living in China with his particular brand of Christianity. The net café he showed me was perfect for my needs so I did some work there before meeting Xu Jie once again.

Tuesday afternoon I spent at Xu Jie's grandmother, and met her little brother. Her grandmother was nice even if we couldn't talk at all, and her brother reminded me of those kids in Korea I have left behind. They cooked me a nice vegetarian meal, and finally someone in China understands that no meat means no meat. Last time I was in Haerbin Xu Jie didn't really get it but now she does. They insisted I have a little egg, which I don't like and am allergic to but it is better to try and be polite. In general I've found northern Chinese cuisine to be quite nice, it isn't as oily as food further south.

On Wednesday Xu Jie collected me early and we wandered the town once again. After I tried without success to fix her computer and in the end made things worse. The difficulty for me is everything on it is in Chinese and Xu Jie doesn't know much about computers so the translations are difficult. After giving up on that we went to see the Russian church and the river, and then relaxed for the afternoon. This time Xu Jie cooked dinner and it was absolutely delicious. I have really been spoiled lately with food. When I moved out of my flat the last week of April and took my main bag to my friend Yerang she made me delicious Korean food. Then I lived my last week in Korea with my friend Jade and she is also a wonderful cook with a style similar to Alice. I suspect it is something to do with New England since that is where Alice has been living for the last couple years and she has changed a bit. Jade says it isn't but oh well. I like what I cook simple as it is. But all this incredible food that others are cooking for me is even better!

My plan this morning was to do some more work on the internet but the café I used on Tuesday doesn't open until 8 as it turns out. So I came here to the park for a bit. Now I see eight o'clock has rolled around and so I am off.

2007.05.11

Bad news.

Trouble. I went to try and buy a ticket for Beijing yesterday but they were all sold out. Sold out for Saturday. I guess the minute I get to a town I should buy the ticket out! For some reason I was very tired when we went down to the train station. I spent too many hours working on the site. It is a never ending obsession and I spend too much time on a computer. I find myself in a foul mood after too much time with computers. There has been a bit of bad news of late as well. North Korea being canceled for the second time and it looks like Antarctica won't work out this year AGAIN.

2007.05.12 09:30

Hitchhiking in China.

Hitchhiking in China. Now I am on the Jinghua expressway leaving Harbin. My first ride John is going to Changchun, it is about 210 km away and is a really good start to my hitching career in China. Hitching is such a nicer way to get around. More comfortable then the overcrowded trains and cheaper. It did cost 35RMB to get out of the city by taxi. Xu Jie thought I was crazy and didn't know what bus to take to get to the expressway. Chinese expressways, like so much else in the country are very new and of a high standard. I think with one quarter of the people China would be considered one of the most developed countries. Of course not all the roads are good ones. I just happen to be on a good one at the moment. My current ride doesn't speak much English but is a very friendly chap. What a luxury compared to trains. Augh! I forgot to ask if he wanted any money first. Well he doesn't seem the sort so it will hopefully be ok. I will definitely use the highways more in China. The last couple days Xu Jie has been busy and I think her family has decided they don't like her hanging out with a strange foreigner. I have been doing a major website update. For the travel section I have replaced all the 160x120 pixel previews with 300x225 pictures(except the journals) and the actual pictures have moved from 480x360 to 600x450. It took two solid days just to do that and still needs a bit of cleanup. The pictures are now javascript pop ups instead of separate pages. Not only is it cleaner but future updates will be much easier. So far I have left the obsession pages as they are though. Those separate pages do carry some information as well so I will probably leave them as they are. Once I put the coins online I will as use pop ups though. The rewriting of the HTML is still beginning and will take at least another day or two of solid work. So now my page is full of broken links. I don't think people are looking at it so often though. Hopefully it will be ok.

Now the car is driving though agricultural land with a lot of tree breaks and trees planted along the road.

11:12.

Good driver.

John is a wonderful driver. He is very safe which is amazing in China. Following the speed limit and being careful when passing.

21:34

Spending the night in Shenyang.

Chinese are very nice and very helpful. But it is so very hard for them to understand an alien idea. Even those who speak good English. John let me off at a toll gate and asked if I wanted to go to a bus station or train station. After giving me a ride for hours he thought still I must somehow be lost. It was 13:30 and the very next car that came along took me the rest of the way to Shenyang. John in the end was going to Siping. The next guys were very nice. The bought be a pepsi and offered me food. Again they were rather too helpful. As they left the expressway I said “wait that is where I want to get off”. This was at 15:30 and it wasn't until 19:00 that I found the expressway again. My driver called his wife who speaks English and she asked where in Shenyang I wanted to be let off. I said the expressway, highway, lu(road in Chinese), gan su(expressway in Chinese). She asked if I wanted to go to the train station. I did NOT want to go there. But I said yes ok that would be great. So lesson there. If I don't want to stay in the particular city I am in then DON'T LEAVE THE EXPRESSWAY. It is so easy to find a ride when on the expressway and impossible to get to the expressway once you leave it. My driver took me to and English school where after some time I convinced them I really did want to go to the expressway. So how do I get there by city bus. Oh you can't they said. Same as Xu Jie said in Harbin. Finally they said take the 258 and switch to the 207. On the 207 I tried to ask people how to get to the expressway and again it was a huge challenge to get them to understand, yes I really did not want the train station. I did and the 207 did get me to a point where signs pointed out Beijing. So I walked, and walked. For two hours I walked. I kept thinking ok I am almost there. All along the route there was the 135 bus of course I didn't know it went all my way until the end. Eventually I was at the toll gate, but the sun had just gone down and so not the best time for hitching. I decided to make a go of it anyway, and gave up after half an hour. Then I searched for a place to sleep, which was very close. A few different places really. The first one had some prices listed but they wouldn't sell me one at 10RMB only 60RMB so I went across the street meanwhile picking up a really shady character who was trying to “help me”. Maybe he was a nice guy but he just oozed bad news. He wanted me to take a taxi somewhere. Then when I keep going to check out the next place, which he seems to say isn't a place I can sleep. And then follows me in and tries to talk to the front desk lady before me. UGG. So at first they are trying to sell me a room for 150RMB. I see some listed for 30 and 40 but again they won't sell me them. I think these are some sort of dorm and they won't let me stay there. It is a place for truckers and workers I think. The front desk girl says I need a TV and such. I say no I don't. In the end, with some hassle she sells me a 150RMB room for 50RMB. It really is a nice room, big and clean with a private bathroom. Then who comes along 90 min later. The police. Ugg, I don't like police and papers please. They never cause much trouble in China beyond being really annoying! And he was smoking a cigarette. So now my room is all smoky. I asked him to put it out so of course he uses the rooms ash tray. Argh! That was another plus of my first driver of the day John. He smoked but did it outside the car. Really he was very different than many Chinese I have come across.

I need to do something about my feet. I have had athletes foot for a couple months now. I got some medicine for it in Seoul which helped at first but I was just wearing shoes too much I think. Now that I am on the road and in shoes even more my feet feel like they are rotting! So next time I stop in a city for a few days I will try and get a cure!

2007.05.14 11:00

Back in Beijing.

Time flies by. I always seem to recall it passing more slowly in the past. Now it races no matter what I do. If I am working or traveling. Now I sit on Fay's couch in Beijing. It is near the top of a huge building in a Korean enclave. Here China again feels like a different country. I am pleasantly surprised to be surprised and dismayed. Last year the problems of China seemed most visible in my eyes. I couldn't imagine it leading the world. Hitching shows me a bit of the developed side of it. The roads are so new and those who pick me up are more cultured and educated. Of course they are an elite of sorts, with cars to drive. I still feel a patriotism for the West. Although Asia is little different in major ways and the cultures are growing together.

Yesterday I woke early and got cleaned up for the road. When I came down to the front desk the lady there had a message for me. She had called someone who spoke English and transcribed it for me. “Why don't you find a nice hotel”. “Here is dangerous for you”. Besides the bother of the police and the one shady character everyone else seemed very nice if overly curious that a foreigner was electing to stay at a trucker hotel. The woman was glad to hear I was going to Beijing immediately. I went to the same place I had located the day before and had to wait all of five minutes until I was picked up by a geo-physics professor and his student, Linny, both of which spoke quite good English. They were returning to their university in Beijing and could give me a ride all the way. So again hitching in China is working wonderfully. It always seems for me the hard part is getting on the road, but once I am there it is so easy and much nicer than buses or trains. We soon stopped for breakfast and the professor actually understood that I was a vegetarian. Oh how different those who are educated are in China! Then we raced along the road and with one more short petrol stop were in Beijing. The whole trip taking a little over six hours. I left Shenyang slightly after seven in the morning and was let off in Beijing a bit after one, and right where I needed to be to continue on north to Erlian. They took me right to the exit for the Badaling gao su, or expressway. Before I continued on I found a phone to call Zu Jie to let her know I made it safely to Beijing, and yes hitching really works in China. Then I tried to call Fay again to see if she was home, and she was! So now I am hanging out with her for a few days before I head north to Mongolia.

The professor really was a bit of a scary driver, he drove very fast and had a speed trap device that told him with spoken warnings whenever he was coming up on a camera, there being quite a lot of them on the freeways here. Also he weaved between the ever present trucks and sometimes braked hard where the freeway became one lane due to road work.

In Beijing I am also hoping to meet the North Korean contact I got last year, just for coffee and now since my North Korea plans fell apart AGAIN to ask about going in August. Also I will check out the Temple of Heaven I didn't see last time and see about a permit for Tibet.

Oh and at the supermarket last night they gave me a 1 fen coin in change! It is worth almost nothing and I didn't know anyone calculated that decimal place anymore. It was the same in South Africa though. The supermarkets were the only ones that used the smallest denominations. And like there they are mostly shiny and unused.

2007.05.18 06:07

Searching for the TTB and Temple of Heaven.

On Monday I waited for hours for Fay to wake up. Finally she got out of her room at 14:00 or so and was in quite a bad mood. She is one friend that changes her feelings from one minute to the next. She will be cheerful one moment and angry the next.

Once Fay was finally up and about Monday afternoon we went to take a look at 798. The artist enclave of Beijing. Apparently they have formed such areas in the past, only to have the government destroy then, this time they have government support however. The art mostly wasn't really my cup of tea. Very modern, and a lot of it very abstract. Apparently it is quite popular in some circles and does sell quite well. Although I have some artist friends I really don't understand the industry. After looking around for a while we went to talk to one of Fay's artist friends. Well he didn't speak any English so I sat there quite bored while Fay had a long conversation. Then we went to dinner with a big group of them and fortunately some of this group spoke English. It was an interesting experience but didn't help me to understand artists any better.

Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday. I waited for Fay to awake and puttered around. Watching some films and catching up on some email. We went to 798 again and joined the group for dinner. This time I was just too bored. I thought Fay meant to just stay for a while but hour after hour went by. About 01:00 I asked if we could go in a rude way and finally I could sleep.

I did not sleep long into Wednesday morning however. I was finally planning to go into the city. To meet a North Korean for coffee and see the Temple of Heaven. So I got up, and I got ready in time to catch a taxi to the meeting place, which was a company specializing in DPRK tours. Then my contact wasn't even there. He had other business come up at the last minute. Quite annoying. So I scheduled to swing by later and also meet a Brit working at the company who I'd been in correspondence with before. From there I walked to the Tibet Tourism Bureau. I'd called them previously and they had said it was right next to a metro station. I was near this station and so went looking for it. And looked for it for quite some time. The building is called the Oriental Kenzo Plaza. Even people who spoke English and worked in the information of the mall connected to this building didn't know the English name of it, even a security guard who spoke English had no idea. So it did take quite some time to find. Once I found the office building the search was not over. The front desk didn't know where the Tibet Tourist Bureau was and had to call around to find out. While I was waiting a couple Americans who were looking for the same office came by. So eventually we were off to find it. It is a tiny office, high in a building, but the women working there were quite nice. The situation in Tibet has gotten more difficult as an American burned a Chinese flag(I think) in Lhasa. I'm not sure of the story as I keep hearing bits and pieces from different people. So now the cheapest way in was to buy a four day tour, which I don't actually have to use, for 780CNY. Not great considering it was 450CNY for only the permit a couple weeks ago. But what can you do? Also it is much harder to go without a permit as many would get away with in the past. So I will take the train up on the 4th of June from Shanghai. After dealing with that I chatted a bit with the Americans they were both engineering students from Georgia tech. Then I started walking towards the Temple of Heaven, Beijing is a big city and it was a lot further than I thought it would be. It took hours. I happened to walk by the station where a couchsurfing girl works and so gave her a call. Elyse was expecting me to call in the morning and was pretty busy. In the end we arranged to meet in the evening and I would crash on her floor. She lives in a more convenient location for leaving the city. So after a great deal more walking I was finally at the Temple of Heaven. 15CNY for just entrance or 35CNY with entrance to the a couple main parts of it. I got the 35CNY ticket and started wandering around. It is really a beautiful complex, although it has all the crowding and hawkers of tourist sites everywhere. These groups are only concentrated in the main locations though. There are heaps of trails leading all over the place through a small forest with almost no one around. The Temple of Heaven is a good place for wandering. The main areas are as beautiful as anything I have seen in China and the forest parts are very peaceful. After I was done with the temple I made my way back to the DPRK tour office, mostly by metro this time, to find that the North Korean and Brit were still not there. Quite a bother but it couldn't be helped. I headed back to Fay's flat to collect my bag and then I was off to Elyse's. Saying goodbye to Fay. I wished again I had more time to visit her. It took ages to get to Elyse's, going by one bus and three metro lines. They don't seem to run too often in the evening. Eventually I found the place and fortunately she was just home herself. She is very interesting and someone I hope to meet again one of these days.

2007.05.18 18:04

The road to Erlian.

I sit now in the very comfortable wagon of a Mongolian train. It has certainly been a day of jumps and starts.

China...the line 2 of the Beijing metro made me suddenly think of China as a poor country once again. Compared to the lines in Korea is was slow jerky and run down. But then I got on line 13 and the difference was amazing. 13 was just like Korean metros. With an amazing plus that there were no advertisements. The cars were built for it. There were little places on the side. But I didn't see any ads. I think this is the first metro I've seen in such a state except perhaps the metro in Minsk. I can't recall if there were only few advertisements or none there. Walking the streets of Beijing it can seem for hours like a completely developed city, but then you can run into some very poor areas where horses are dragging bricks around. I guess this is true of many cities in the completely developed world though. You can find the financial districts and the slums.

Yesterday morning I had breakfast with Elyse and Jessica, her other CS guest. A girl learning Chinese in Chengdu. When I woke I did not feel good at all. Perhaps I shouldn't have hit the road. I did though. I went and took the 919 bus to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. It was 12CNY for the air conditioned bus and I figured it was best to get out of town to have a better chance of hitching. When I hopped out and went to the expressway I immediately had some taxi drivers trying to take me back to Beijing, and then I waited. I only waited 20 min or so, but then a bus slowed without me waving it down it was going towards Zhang Gia Kou. On my route to Erlian so I got on. Then I found out it was 50CNY. Annoying, I could have hopped it but figured it might be good to get a bit more out of town, after we were getting close to Zhang Gia Kou the freeway split. I remembered seeing on the map that ZGK was a bit off the expressway so I hopped out to the other route. Which I was later to learn was a mistake. This expressway was going to Datong. I didn't know where Datong was but as it turned out it was about 100km south of the city I was aiming to get to on my route to Erlian. The guys that picked me up were very nice, too nice in the end. Once again I made the mistake of getting off the expressway once we got to Datong. The stopped a few times to ask for directions where I was heading and then took me to the train station! Ugg. Again the lesson is DON'T leave the expressway.

So I left Beijing at 10 something, the bus picked me up about 11:00 and then we passed through wine country. There was even a gaudy wine bottle marking the route. It was dryer than other parts of China and this trend would continue right up to the border with Mongolia. Going to grasslands and then perhaps desert. Right after Badaling the traffic got very congested. It was a traffic jam for quite some time. I've heard this is often the case the root being too many trucks bringing coal to Beijing. The expressway became the Xuanda, and then later towards Datong it became the Jingda. The bus dropped me off at about 13:14 and I got my ride to Datong about five minutes later. As we were coming into Datong I felt I should get out. There were a couple expressways branching off, the first going to the north said Jining 106km. Where did I hear Jining before I thought. As it turned out that is exactly the route I should have taken. I got into Datong at three something. After quite some time they dropped me at the train station. Then I tried to figure out just where exactly I was trying to go from there. After walking for a time I saw a computer in a shop and thought maybe it was an internet café. I think it was actually some architects but I'm not sure. They let me use the internet and were very interested by what I was doing. What I found out was that the city next on my route was Jining! They told me how to find a cheap place to sleep, I just needed to take the number 30 bus to the end and that was a south motor station. I thought it was one I passed coming into town, near the expressway. I went to the street I came into town on and went to a bus stop. The 30 didn't stop there but on another street. I didn't want to leave the street though because I felt I might get lost. So I walked and walked. I began to doubt, not the street, but my travels. Why do I do it? Times when it really sucks I ask myself this. I felt very sick, weak, walking endlessly. Why travel? I must make new friends, I can't have a long relationship. Learning new cities. And then the rushed, cheap jaunts in between, why don't I at least travel in comfort? This I ask myself when I put myself in a place of suffering. I thought about a taxi, but now and then I was asking people about where to sleep, either they didn't know or would point vaguely. Once I got sent to a place that was fancy and then said no. Once I was pointed to an international hotel. I didn't even check there though. I imagined it would be out of my budget. I suffer mostly because I am too stubborn. I saw buses going my route for hours, but I didn't try any because I thought it might turn, the same as in Shenyang. After hours of this, as the sun was going down, as my spirits were at bottom, as I was now looking for places to rough it and sleep outdoors, I came close to the south motor station and what did I see, but bus #30. If only I had listened. Five min later I had walked the whole way and directly there was a cheap hotel. One of the few Chinese characters I can read at this point. It is somehow related to cheap restaurant. One of the two characters is the same. They seemed nervous about taking me. I'm pretty sure it is illegal for these sorts of places to take foreigners. Sure they aren't great, but what will give a worse impression of China, staying in a bad hotel or having to sleep outside? It was quite a bit worse than a similar class of place I stayed at for a few days in Harbin, but then Datong was a lot poorer a place. China grows poorer very quickly in the west. There are still some very good roads and some new buildings, but it is nothing like the east. There isn't a fever of construction. It is older, much more run down. The slums are larger and there are less new cars. People are more shocked to see me. I felt that Beijing had more foreigners than Seoul although this is probably not the case, since leaving yesterday morning I haven't seen one. Well that isn't completely true. There were some Mongolians at the border.

This place was very basic, a few rooms crammed into a sort of industrial area with walls added later, the toilet was a bucket but 20CNY for a night was good enough.

2007.05.20

A day of short rides.

Laying in a backpackers in Ulan Bator is a treat. The climate of these places is nice to experience now and then. Also while there are a couple couchsurfers in town none have accommodation at the moment.

Friday was of mixed success for hitching. It didn't start particularly well. I left the place where I was staying a little before seven and it was a 20 or 30 minute walk to the expressway, but then I didn't get a ride for quite some time. Then some guys stopped but they were going to Taiyuen to the south and not towards Jining in the north where I was headed. They did give me a ride for a kilometer or so to where the road branched off, then I waited again for some time before some guys going to Beijing stopped for me. So again I got a short ride, this time for a couple kilometers, until the Deda Expressway branched off. This road was almost deserted. For the first time hitching in China I tried flagging down some big trucks, and one soon stopped that was going to Jining, perfect for me. The truckers were really amazed to see me and didn't speak a word of English. So we tried communicating for a while and then just left it to smiling. They were two nice guys and I hope they didn't get into trouble. There was a police check point where the road split for the local road to Jining. Just where I was hopping off. The police seemed nice, but still had my trucker hosts waiting as I caught my next ride, which happened to be another truck. Before we got to the area of Jining the Deda Expressway ended and became Highway 208. I think this was on the border of Inner Mongolia. The road didn't change but the signs unfortunately did. In all the other Chinese provinces I've been in road signs are in Chinese and English, at least many of them. In Inner Mongolia however they are in Chinese and Mongolian, not the Mongolian of Mongolia, which I would be able to figure out since it is written in Cyrillic, but the old Mongolian script.

The next truck didn't take me so far before he was heading in a different direction, so once again I was on the road. Then a car came, which was nice. Trucks and truckers are good enough, but they are slow. They seem to drive about 70km per hour, while cars are often going at 150km per hour, sometimes 200km per hour. These guys also weren't going so far in my direction though, and before long the highway changed. At 289km from the end of 208 it stops being a multi-lane freeway type thing and there is an exit to another 208 that is just a road, two lanes, passing through the middle of towns instead of over or around them. So with more personality but harder to get a ride. I think the plan is that 208 will eventually go as a multi-lane thing all the way to the border. It appeared that way. My hosts were heading in another direction so I set off through Ben Hong on foot, with shocked people watching me. After a little while a motorcycle gave me a ride for a kilometer or so and as I got off I heard him saying something about the foreigner in excited tones. Next another car gave me a ride 30km down the road, he offered to take me all the way to Erlian if I would pay him, but I wasn't interested. So once he left for another direction I was on my own again. I got a ride from a man who spoke pretty good English, something I hadn't come across in a while. He seemed to think my hitching was great and lived for some time in Australia. He was going another direction after a little while but wanted to wait until I got another ride. His name is La Fu. I can see because he gave me his business card. I did soon get a ride, from a man and what I think was his mother. She seemed very unhappy about him giving me a ride and I got the general impression she was an unpleasant character. After a little while she told him to ask for money. So he did, in English. It is funny how sometimes you know exactly what someone is talking about even though you don't know the language. I said no thanks and I would find another ride, so they let me off. By this time the road had transformed once again. It had become multi-lane once more. This happened about 115km from the end of the road. I got off at 103km and was a little worried I would have trouble getting a ride since I wasn't by a real exit. This was flat country and many people just drove out into the desert to avoid the toll stations. I imagine working those posts must get rather tiring. More so I mean than just a regular toll station. So I was at kilometer 103 for a little while and what did I see, but a truck carrying a very particular engine, I noticed it the first time saw that truck and noticed again the five or so times I passed it and then it passed me. The three guys in the truck certainly noticed me as well. I wonder what they thought as I kept appearing ahead of them on the road. Then a truck stopped for me and it turned out they were going all the way to the border. Through the border actually but I had to find my own way to do that. The Chinese/Mongolian border is a bit of a bother. They won't let you walk over it and there is a 5CNY charge for using the road. Some Mongolian official picked me up and took me through. So at first I thought well isn't this a nice country. The border was quite straight forward. If a little awkward. The Chinese didn't believe I was me looking at my passport photo and the Mongolian official didn't seem to know that U.S. Citizens don't need a visa for Mongolia. But it was quickly over. Now my driver asked for cash, and when I took it out he just grabbed the biggest bill without asking. Extremely rude in my book, I said it wasn't ok and he laughed. So my first impression of Mongolians is they are criminals. It was only 10.000MNT, not bad considering some borders, but still they way of it was not ok. He did get me on the train without a ticket though so I shouldn't complain too strenuously. This became it's own difficulty in the end though.

Coming into Erlian there were some dinosaurs making a gate over the road, they were pretty large statues if not very attractive to look at. Then along the road for a time there were a couple dozen statues of dinosaurs. They looked to be of bronze and some had been knocked over. Strange. Then I passed the truck with its strange engine for the last time. Erlian is not a big town, and I didn't see a lot of it.

The train was a nice treat after a couple days on the road. It was exactly the same as Russian trains and was one of the first things that made me feel that Mongolia is very Russian. The guy who took me over the border first gave a package to some police, and then a little while later after driving on a bit and after he was helping me get on the train got a bunch of money from some other police. It felt very illegal. He talked with some of the train workers and I got on. This was about 17:30 and the train left at 17:50. I thought I had missed it when I got to the border. I remembered reading that it left at 17:20 but perhaps I remembered wrong. The man who took me on was Gambal. Once he put me in his car he first asked for my passport. I though ok this is sketchy, I am not getting a ticket, officially I'm probably not even on the train, but trains have asked for it in the past, and I let him have it. To my regret. The other workers on the train were nice and seemed pleased to see me.

In the morning I awoke before Gambal. I thought about just grabbing my passport then, but in the end just waited to see how things progressed. Once he woke and we were an hour or two from UB he asked for money. First he wrote 23.000MNT. I said no way! That is about 20USD and I also remember reading that the train from the border should be about 12USD. Plus I am positive he was just pocketing it. Next he wrote 15USD. Now I have some USD but I am saving it for when I really need it, plus I didn't like this guy by this point. I offered him 5120MNT and 39.2CNY. He went and got a ticket to show me. It said 12.800MNT. Hmm, and he had just asked for 23.000. I didn't have any other small bills except for my USD which I wasn't planning to spend. At this point I was thinking I would just have to take my passport once we got to UB, but then he gave in and took the 39.2CNY and 5120MNT and gave me my passport back. Whew.

2007.05.25 19:26

Mongolia.

27. It doesn't seem real yet. Time passes more and more quickly. Beneath a tree I am lying. In Shanxi province perhaps? I am not sure of the city, Shuozhou? About 100km south of Datong on the Dayun Expressway.

Last Saturday I got into Ulan Bator at about 9:45 in the morning. Off the train it was cold. I had rearranged my bags for more comfort, and I looked for my hat. The first time since spring came that I felt a need for it. After a little searching I had it and was glad for it's warmth. Walking away from the train station I felt I was in Russia. The buildings are Russian, the feeling is Russian. The language to me sounds like a mix of Russian and Inuit. Of course everything being in Cyrillic is part of it as well. So I walked towards what felt like the city center and this time I was fortunate in my senses. UB has many banks, but not so many ATMs. Once I came across one it did not work. This was beginning to feel a bit stressful. I was hungry and tired from the road. After the bank I found a travel shop. Mongolia does not feel off the beaten track at all. Everywhere in UB there are foreign tourists and residents. Shops for them. Travel agencies. There are internet cafés on every street, most of the cars are not old Russian models but recent Asian imports. Most annoying there are heaps of beggars. Mostly street urchins. So while I came to like UB my first impression wasn't at all positive. The travel agency was quite helpful. Their tours were ridiculously expensive but the guy working there said it was simple to just take a local bus to the countryside and told me where I could find another ATM. This was at the State Department Store. The information booth of which was quite helpful. Second floor by the elevators. These elevators were very slow so I took the stairs, which unfortunately were locked on the second floor. So I went back down to take the elevator, which also didn't stop on the second floor. On the third floor I didn't even try the stairs but hoped to catch the other elevator back down to the second floor. When I tried this I got the same elevator again. After waiting for it to leave...success the other one came and I was on the second floor. I saw the ATM and..it was the same bank that didn't work before. I tried again in vain and turned back towards the elevator and noticed another ATM. This one, the Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia or some such worked just fine and now I had some local currency. I first went to an internet café and caught up, called Hawai'i. And tried without success to call Xu Jie to wish her a happy birthday. Teresa from couchsurfing recommended that I go to the Golden Gobi for accommodation and as it turned out it was just behind the internet café where I was. So by early afternoon I had my accommodation, took a shower and went to the supermarket. I felt the pleasant tightness in my belly of hunger. Among other things I got some sour horse milk to try out, which wasn't THAT bad, but isn't going to be a favorite any time soon. In the Golden Gobi I had found one of the most pleasant backpackers I have yet to come across. The staff are just about perfect, not too polite, very informal. The spaces are comfortable and the beds clean. I met some nice folks that first evening and at the moment I am still traveling with one of them. I had been chatting with a British girl and we went to the supermarket together, I got back first and as she came in I said “Did you get anything nice” and some stranger I hadn't noticed said yeah sure. Wade is a nice travel partner. We are both pretty relaxed and we are going in the same direction.

2007.05.27 21:51

Suzhou hostel.

Suzhou. Hosteling International. What a rather crappy network. I don't think I have ever been to one of their hostels that was nice in the least. They are always overpriced for the market and far too institutional. So I don't believe I will be staying at the Suzhou Youth Hostel again. Hopefully not even tomorrow night.

2007.05.28 09:51

The other Suzhou hostel, more Mongolia.

My mistake. I am at the Suzhou International Youth Hostel. Elena meant me to stay at the Suzhou Youth Hostel a few streets away, it does seem more inviting and I will probably relocate there in a couple hours.

Sunday in Ulan Bator was one of exploration. I went to the main monastery. The style is very similar to those of Siberia, China, Korea and Japan. I can't decide which it most resembles. I suppose Chinese but it isn't exactly it. I entered the compound at walked towards the main building. It was peaceful if slightly crowded. Not with foreigners although there were some, mostly it was just Mongolians, as I step into the main building some guy screams about a ticket and grabs me. Now I thought that there was a need to buy a ticket to the whole monastery complex and another for the main temple with a large Buddha statue. But I hadn't seen any signs of it nor was anyone else buying tickets. This guy was wearing so sort of uniform at all, and on examination I saw a very poorly made ID, on backwards around his neck. However after the welcome he gave me I just shrugged him off and took a look at the statue for a minute while he screamed at me. Then I left. So I imagine the rule is, locals don't need a ticket but everyone else does. I looked at a couple other buildings in the complex, which didn't have visitors but only monks. Friendly ones I should add. That didn't grab me or scream. As I left the whole complex I saw a place to buy tickets but again it seemed to be unused by everyone.

I wandered UB some more. The city grew on me. It is third world. There are the horrid little urchins. But most Mongolians are very nice. The phones have their own character. The pay phones in UB are desk phones with antennas, so many of the phone operators walk the streets freely with them.

As I walked towards the street that would take me to the war memorial that overlooks the city I ran across the British girl I had met the night before. She was with a guide from her project and this guide told me which bus to take for the monument. It was #33 Zaisan. Buses in UB and Mongolia as a whole are mostly Korean. They come straight from their routes in Korea and often, as in the Far East of Russia there are still Korean advertisements and route information which no one bothered to take down. As I got on #33 some urchins darted out of nowhere to pick my back pockets. I was rather annoyed at them and my not noticing them before, but fortunately I don't keep anything of value in my back pockets and had nothing in them at the time. I recall once going to San Francisco as a child, I usually never kept a wallet, and if I did I would keep it in my front pocket. My brother for some reason told me that you are supposed to keep your wallet in your back pocket. So I put it there and then it disappeared in the airport. I don't know if someone took it, or if it only fell out during one of my rides on the hand rails of the escalators. But it was gone and I was quite distraught. Inside was either 53USD or 28USD. I'm not sure how much. From that time I have never kept a wallet in my back pocket. It still doesn't make much sense to me why people would keep their wallets there. It means you have to sit on it, and this valuable thing is much more out of awareness. So I was on #33 and some older urchin seems to assign another one to sit next to me. Looking for opportunity I guess. The normal Mongolians around seemed rather annoyed at the urchins as well. Although they and the urchins were pretty low key. I got to my stop and started walking up the stairs. I was happy to arrive at the top without any pauses. All this walking around has me in pretty decent physical shape. It feels much better to have a good constitution. Even the fasting of travel is a positive experience. Food is so much nicer when you are really hungry, and never feel bloated with a meal. The view of this Soviet war memorial is quite a good one and the city lay below me. It is surrounded by hills and the suburbs crawl up the various slopes. Thousands of yurts, or gers as the Mongolians call them.

I made it back to town in time for lunch with a French girl traveling through UB. Actually I misunderstood where we should meet and did my laundry before she arrived. It was good to get done but the old lady of the hostel was annoyed that I did my own laundry and used hot water. For lunch we went to a Mongolian place and there was almost nothing without meat. I ordered a salad only to find there was no salad. So I ate a bread roll and sat with my legs crossed. Suddenly some angry and perhaps drunk Mongolian comes and tries to force me to put my feet down. Perhaps I was being rude in Mongolian terms, but it isn't how you tell someone they are violating custom. He sat down again and cursed a bit longer, muttering angrily. Some of the Mongolians around seemed embarrassed by his show, but then he left. After a little while I then put my feet down. Later in the day I met Teresa from couchsurfing and we went to a foreign café. There I had a milkshake that they told me would have ice cream in it. As in so many other places it did not. It was thin flavored milk basically. How anyone can get satisfaction from such things I do not know. This was after Teresa had shown me an unfortunately closed vegetarian restaurant. After the milkshake she did show me a supermarket with a wonderful dairy section. Mongolia has a wonderful selection of fresh dairy products. I bought a nice hunk of fresh cheese and munched on it while we went to a sort of pub. Here was a friend of hers and some other ex-pats. There is a bit ex pat community in UB. Two of these were working for a mining and exploration company while another was the partner of the head of UNICEF in Mongolia. A professional cook sort of on vacation as a househusband but also trying to make the food scene of UB more gourmet. Mongolia is one of the largest recipients of aid per capita. I heard it is 2nd in the world from someone there. Again I don't really agree with the aid, definitely with how it is done. At least things function in Mongolia, it is not like the messed up parts of Africa. Perhaps the aid is doing something. But what I saw was the aid workers and bureaucracy eats up a lot of that. There were a lot of peace corps folks, and they are paid almost nothing and really work hard towards their missions, although I question some of the good of those missions. There are many fancy aid headquarters in UB. This is a poor country but the aid offices are posh. From what I heard the higher ups have huge salaries by western standards, and live in extreme luxury with diplomatic immunities. So in Mongolia I believe aid helps, but so much is wasted. At the pub there was a quite good performance by a local band. They sort of mixed traditional Mongolian styles with something more modern. It was excellent.

On Monday I pretty much spent most of the day trying to catch up on my website. I am still trying to migrate the pictures to a larger size, using javascript pop ups instead of separate pages. It is not done but I made progress. In the afternoon me and Wade tried to take the bus to Terel National Park about two hours from UB. Unfortunately we didn't find the bus stop in time so it was back to the Golden Gobi. Wednesday was about the same but this time we made it. A young Swedish family came along as well. I noticed in Mongolia there were a few couples traveling with very young children. It is nice to see. The bus got crowded and then far more crowded. More people jammed into this old Seoul city bus than probably ever used it in Seoul. The roads in Mongolia are interesting. They seem to just follow old trails. Snaking here and there around the countryside. Going over hills and in big loops. The bridges are very sudden and appear out of nowhere. Here the bus slows and you here the clackity clack as it passes over. For a two hour bus ride the cost was only 1.500MNT. We found ourselves at some village in the park where the Swedish family had heard there was a nice Dutch man living. He arrived eventually with his car, after we almost had gotten some horses to go to his place. On reflection I wish we had been able to get them in time as I didn't come across another chance to ride while in Mongolia. The Dutch man was a crabby hermit, but nice enough in his way. He had some first class guests so we were kind of shoved to the side. It worked out well enough. The road was largely the gravel bed of a river with some channels of water to cross, so it is good we didn't try to walk, and the farm was just that. It was a beautiful area, but unfortunately due to some forest fire the air wasn't especially good. The Swedes bought some cheese and we had an amazing meal we all worked on, me, Wade and the Swedes. Potatoes, onions, tomato sauce and a little bit of spices, along with that cheese. It was heaven in the chill. Filling and very complete. For the night we had a ger to share, which was quite large enough for all. The morning was cold. Very cold. It was a nice place, but the only sure option to get back to UB that day was by the daily bus which left at 8:00. So after a very short stay of about 14 hours me and Wade returned to UB. The bus was perhaps even more full this time and the two hours were long ones. Of course I was standing on the return trip which does get tiring. In UB I decided to get a train out for Thursday afternoon. Wade said he wanted to go as well so I took off for the train station to buy the tickets. I wanted one for Zamin Uud. The border town with China. For some reason I thought I would go to the International Office for this, but they sent me to the main train station near by. Although I had a happy discovery here in the same building of a bank with the unused coins of Mongolia, once they understood what I wanted a nice woman opened a vault and looked through a coffee can for one of each. It came out to 870MNT for all of them. Quite a nice find. In the same building there were pay phone, seemingly unused, but the first proper ones I had seen in Mongolia. Then I went to the train station and after some searching learned that you can't buy tickets there but have to go to yet another building. In this one I was able to get some seats, third class was all sold out at 7.900MNT with reservation but the higher class at 13.300MNT was available so I just got two of those.

2007.05.28 16:47

Relaxing in Suzhou.

In a gazebo by a canal in Suzhou. The canals are certainly not clean. But they are pretty. Today has been pretty relaxing. After getting out of bed I haven't done much of anything. The Suzhou Youth Hostel is actually not that bad. It is the other hostel a few blocks over from where I stayed last night. It is also hosteling international but feels like a hostel instead of..well how the other place felt. Now I have wandered the streets some. It is a nice little city. There are far too many people. Just this instant there was a bike crash and the two people part of it are arguing. While I walked earlier I saw a man bleeding quite a bit, being helped up from the street. His tea bottle smashed dazed, the traffic already swarming past as he tried to get on his bike and head somewhere. I am reminded again I should get travel insurance once again. I keep feeling China is a dangerous place, not because of hostility but just that there is no thought for safety. It often seems no one is paying any attention at all. I could give this country a shot but still the wages I've seen for what I am qualified for are just not attractive compared to what I can make elsewhere.

2007.06.06 10:27

Crossing the Tibetan plateau, and leaving Mongolia.

Crossing the Tibetan plateau via train. Glaciers off to the side, mountains in the distance. The people along the way look very poor here. Pulling carts along the road where there is nothing. Little traffic. Laborers living in tents and working on the railroad. This must be a hard life. The landscape in many ways looks quite similar to Mongolia. Dry, without many people. The train is Chinese hard seat. I am reminded why I don't like to travel this way. It really isn't too crowded and people aren't smoking much now that there were announcements against it. But even though this is a new train with a carpet people spit on the floor. And there is the different idea of personal space. Now and then I nudge away someone using me as a cushion. Of course also I am an exotic foreigner, and the topic of conversation. The have become mostly used to me. But it is a show if I do anything. If I eat people are watching and commenting. If I go to the bathroom it is an exciting event. Quite annoying. They are ready for foreigners on this train though. There are announcements of the wonder of the highest train in the world. How it will bring prosperity to Qinghai and Tibet. Especially to the minorities. Yesterday the police looked through many peoples things for forbidden literature. They didn't check my things but did look at my passport. They did not ask to see my Tibet permit. I am beginning to think I didn't need to get it at all. I was able to buy my train ticket without it, and this evening I will reach Lhasa. So far no one has asked to see it.

Two weeks ago, on the 23rd, after buying my ticket from Ulan Bator to Zamin Uud. I walked back to the Golden Gobi. UB is a pretty compact town, at least the urban part of it and this was only about a half hour walk. By this time I had come to like the town even if it isn't the most beautiful place. The urchins were less noticeable than when I first came to town. I met a few guys I met in the backpackers to go find a vegetarian restaurant. It was quite a good place for lunch, the food was very good and it was inexpensive. The rest of Wednesday I relaxed and worked on my website a bit. Thursday morning I did the same. Although I also went to buy some excellent Mongolian cheese for the trip back to China. Cheese and cookies. Those cookies were to do me well the next couple days on the road.

The train from UB to Zamin Uud on the border with China was a nice one. Me and Wade shared a compartment with a mother and two daughters. The girls spoke some English so we were able to chat a bit. They were just going for a few days to China and then coming back to Mongolia. As it often is with food, when I have gotten it I can't resist to quickly consume my favorite bits. So by the morning all my lovely cheese was gone. I haven't had any good cheese since.

Having had quite a quick time coming from China to Mongolia I had the idea it was a quick border. Coming in it took about 20 min tops. This was NOT the case getting back to China. This time it took about five hours. Coming in I just got picked up on the Chinese side, it was more organized meeting all the people coming from UB. Me and wade caught a van, for 8000MNT and got in line. All that was left was to wait and wait. Eventually we were through, but there wasn't any money exchange so I am still stuck with some 40 some thousand tugriks to get rid of. I hope to come across somewhere I can do that before too long. I suppose it won't happen in until I get back to China now though. Maybe I will come across something in Lhasa. Although they probably don't want Mongolian currency whatever the links between the two areas. Me and Wade were let off at some sort of market area filled with Mongolians. Having come further into Erlian this time I realized it is a larger town than I first thought. Now it was about 12:30 on Friday. I was hoping to make it down to Taiyuen or Pingyao when I first set out, but with how long the border took this didn't look likely. We walked to the highway and waited. We got very lucky. Three business men in a car were going all the way to Datong. The week before I came from Datong to Erlian and it took from the early morning and many short rides to get there. Now, starting at 12:30 I got back to Datong in very good time. The guys didn't speak any English but Wade speaks Chinese so he did the talking. We stopped a couple times, first to take pictures by the dinosaurs crossing the road near Erlian but really made excellent time. Outside Erlian we got out at the exit for the expressway heading south. Before we could even get from the exit to the road itself we were picked up again. This time by a computer programmer who spoke English and drove insanely. He was only going another 100km south but covered it very quickly. He was going at more than 200km/h much of the time. Weaving past trucks and cars on both sides of the road. Racing by the police. So soon we were outside Shuozhou. There we hopped out before he could take us to the train station and decided to bed down under a nice tree by some fields in order to get an early start in the morning. The weather was good and it wasn't a bad place to sleep. There were some mosquitoes and it got cold in the night but beyond that a nice place. The landscape changed a lot from the Mongolian border. Growing ever more humid. The sandy wastes giving way to grasslands and then scattered trees. Where we camped out was a flat area of trees and farms surrounded by mountains. Near Mongolia there were horses and camels these were no longer apparent some hours down the road.

13:39

Hitching to Suzhou.

On Saturday morning we were optimistic. We got down to the expressway before six in the morning and thought perhaps if we were lucky we could make it to the region of Shanghai by the evening. It didn't end up being such a lucky day however. Before too long a truck stopped to pick us up. The road was entering the mountains and so this was a SLOW ride. A ride it was though. Parts of the Great Wall were visible near the road. Hitching around in China I have seen the Great Wall a few times. Sometimes it is rebuilt and in good upkeep for tourists. At other times I think it is the original. Sometimes also in decent shape and sometimes just a line going along the ridge line with crumbling piles of stones here and there. After the truck came through the pass they got lost. They said the correct way was leaving the expressway, but soon turned around and came back to it. So the next time they left the expressway we took our leave. The next car wanted money so we left them soon after getting in. The next car was the same but didn't tell us until we got out. So we just said no. By this time we were on the expressway circling Taiyuen, and it was still pretty early in the morning. I had entertained the idea of continuing south to Pingyao but had already decided against it before reaching Taiyuen. I didn't feel like another tourist site, especially one not really on my path. The ring road wasn't the best place to catch a ride, too much traffic, mostly local, and it just felt dangerous. Soon we flagged down a taxi to take us to our exit. As I was running to catch it I had a very close call. Along the road here there was a drainage ditch. It was covered with a concrete grill the holes of with were just big enough for my shoe. Suddenly I found myself half under the road. One of my shoes had gone into the hole. My hand had a hole in it quickly dripping blood. The taxi gave me some tissue paper and we hopped in. A couple kilometers down the road we hopped out. The taxi asked for 20CNY and we gave him 10CNY. About right for the distance. Now I took a better look at myself. My hand wasn't pretty. It was just a small rip in my hand but kinda deep. Wade fortunately had some iodine and a band aid. Also the bleeding had stopped. So I cleaned the blood off my hands and cleaned the cut. My leg was very fortunate. My jeans got a rip in them, and my leg was a bit sore, but ok beyond that. Very lucky! It was the kind of fall that can cause a nasty break. Later on a pretty major bruise developed on my leg but I feel I was very fortunate in my minor losses from the fall. After a short time I noticed what has made me most sad about it. My watch strap broke and my watch was gone. This was a watch I got in a bar for 1USD right after my birthday in 2001. Since then while I have used other watches now and then it has been my primary watch. I thought about going back for it, but in the end decided to just let it go.

We were on the expressway leaving Taiyuen for the east. Here there were some Chinese hitchhikers as well. I'm not sure how long it took for them to get a ride but we quickly got a ride from a van going to Shijiazhuang. After a few kilometers they asked about money. We said no and they let us off. Not at an exit just on the bloody road. This really was not pleasant at all. It was NOT a good place to get a ride either, full of trucks, going up hill. We walked along the road for quite a long time before finally flagging down a bus going to Shijiazhuang. They wanted 100CNY for the two of us and so we just got off at the next town and gave them 20CNY. It wouldn't have been a nice ride anyway. Everyone on the bus seemed pretty depressed, there were no seats, and right before we got off some kid started throwing up. The day continued this way. Long waits and short rides. It was one of the ugliest parts of China I have seen as well. Industrial wasteland. As we were coming towards Taiyuen the air got bad. As it is in so much of China. Thick with smog, coal dust I believe. Even in the countryside it is like this. Along the road east the air got worse, the people all seemed unhappy and the land was ripped apart. We got a short ride from some young folks in a jeep. They wanted us to come and hang out with them for a while. They day was going badly so we figured why not. Hanging out was mostly taking pictures with them and their friends. Quite often in China people have wanted to take pictures with me. It makes me feel like a celebrity a bit. This group was a jeep club meeting for the weekend. Not all of them had jeeps but I suppose they at least wanted them. So we spent an hour or two there they bought us lunch and understood about me not eating meat! I thought I wasn't so hungry but then I realized yes I was. Makes sense after two days without a real meal. Soon we said goodbye and got back on the road. For more of the same, small rides. Finally we got outside Shijiazhuang as the afternoon was getting on. Not a successful day at all. They we had luck, two businessmen going all the way to Ji'nan. So from here we made up for the whole hellish day through the wasteland, and it turned out one of them was going past Jinan all the way to Tai'an. Another 80km or so in our direction. When we got to Tai'an it was dark and we decided to sleep one last time by the road, this wasn't as nice a place. Under a tree again but now near some swampy ground.

On Sunday we were once again optimistic. Now we just had to go south. Now we were on a road with a lot of traffic. Not just trucks but many cars as well. We were on the road shortly after five and we waited, and waited. After a couple HOURS and not a single hit we went to find water in the town. It was really getting us down. Hitching is great when it goes well. It feels like everyone is so nice, you are on top of the world. When it doesn't work it really sucks. So many people rejecting you. The burning sun, the car exhaust. Expressways are not a pleasant place to hang out. When we got back to the road we got a ride right away though! Things were looking up. They guy was going some distance our way, but thought we were crazy or something to be hitching. He let us off at the first rest stop saying it was a good place to get a ride, then continued down the road the direction we wanted to go. I suppose he didn't want the trouble of two crazy people. So again we waited. Shortly before ten in the morning Wade gave up. He crossed the road and headed back towards Tai'an with a plan to take the train to Hangzhou, and of course. Less than 15 min after he gave up I got a ride straight to Suzhou. This was many hundreds of kilometers away and took until late afternoon to arrive. My ride was nice enough but we could not communicate. They thought of course I was in trouble, called someone who spoke English to ask if I was ok. Then later they called some relative to say they wanted a few dollars. Ok I thought. Annoying but fair. The guy said they wanted 300CNY. This is more than a few dollars, it is more than taking the train from Beijing to Shanghai and Tai'an was quite a bit on the way. I said no and asked to be let off. The guy said don't worry about it. Then when they let me off they didn't ask for anything! Nice.

I was in Suzhou. A very pretty town. I called Elena and asked what she was up to. Unfortunately she had a big work project and had to work, even though it was Sunday. So she told me where to find a hostel. Not the one she thought she was referring me to and we met up for coffee after she got off work at 22:00. Her work continued like this the next couple nights and so this was the only time I got to see her while I was in Suzhou. I had a sandwich at the coffee shop. It was a vegetarian sandwich. This was part of my intro to the Shanghai area. There are far more western people than in the rest of China. The people seem different as well. Not only do far more speak English but the culture is far more cosmopolitan than elsewhere in China. Not even Beijing comes close. Is isn't as open minded a place as Hong Kong, but at least it is somewhere I can imagine comfortably spending some time.

On Monday I was lazy. I did pretty much nothing. I moved to the other hostel. Bought some food and finally had my first proper meal since Thursday in Ulan Bator. Then I just caught up on email, worked on my website and wandered the streets a little. I heard that Suzhou has some very beautiful gardens but I didn't see one. I didn't feel like doing much of anything and it was nice. In the evening I chatted for a while with Briar from Toronto I met in the hostel and went to bed.

Tuesday began in much the same way. I got up and worked on the computer a bit. Got breakfast and then found out I had to move dorms. Some group had the whole top floor. As I was moving I started talking with a Dutch girl Yvonne and we decided to go see the Tiger pagoda after lunch. So I cooked once again. I really like to cook when I get the chance, and we took off for the pagoda. We just needed to find bus number 2. After a little confusion we were on it and going towards the outskirts of Suzhou. When we got there we found entrance was 60CNY. More than I wanted to spend and Yvonne felt the same way. So we just wandered the area keeping our eyes out for a back entrance. We never found one but just the wandering about was quite nice. People we of course shocked to see us on the back streets and while it was probably beautiful inside, the outside area for tourists was lots of overpriced little shops. The kind around all tourist sites and with people trying the hard sell. After getting back and eating some more we just relaxed and watched movies. Another very nice day.

On Wednesday I had breakfast and prepared to go to the Pudong airport to meet Jade. The day before the folks at the hostel said it would take 30min to get to the airport from the bus station. In the morning they said 90min and I had to go to some obscure place to find the direct bus. When I got there the lady on the bus said three hours and at a cost of 82CNY. Ridiculous for such a short ride in China. I stayed on though knowing I couldn't figure out something else without being very late to meet Jade. It would have been cheaper and faster, had I known how shitty the bus situation from Suzhou was to take the train into Shanghai, the metro the the maglev station and then from there to the airport. So now I know what to do in the future. Not that I plan to be going direct from Suzhou to Pudong airport again. The bus in the end was closer to 2.5 hours and while I arrived after Jade had landed she had not come through immigration yet. So everything worked out swimmingly. We took the maglev into Shanghai and this was a treat I'd been looking forward to for years. It was only a very fast expensive train but completely different technology. Floating on magnets. Amazing. The top speed was 431km/h and it was a smooth ride along the way we passed the train going in the other direction, this happened in under a second and it was a blur. The track took a long curve and the whole track angled for it. Worth the 50CNY for me definitely. Switching to the metro was simple and Shanghai has a good one. All very modern and cheap. The rides are between 3-6CNY. They give you single use cards like in Singapore. So it is easy to just buy one for 3CNY and keep it for a souvenir. No tokens sadly. Oh well. Me and Jade decided to stay in a hostel the first night. LeTour Youth Hostel was very nice although the being the most expensive place I have stayed in China. The youth hostels in Suzhou were 50CNY and 45CNY respectively, this one would have been 70CNY for a dorm but we just split a double for 80CNY each, then we went shopping for something to eat. Again I we got to do some home cooking. And the yogurt was excellent. Jade was shocked at how cheap the food is in China. And I guess it is a lot cheaper than Korea. After that we had plans to go out and see the town but we just napped and then it was quite late. So it was another day of relaxing.

16:24

Shanghai.

Thursday I finally got a look at Shanghai properly. Me and Jade made a pretty early start first going to see the Jade Temple. It was the first time I went to a temple in China that was busy with locals. Later I found out this was because on the 1st and 5th of the lunar month Buddhists go to temple. It was a nice temple and only 10CNY to enter. I don't like the idea of paying anything to enter religious places but 10CNY isn't bad. It was another 10CNY to see the Jade Buddha. Maybe not worth it. It was to me only another statue. The koi in the fish pond were nice. Some of them being reportedly hundreds of years old. Also attached to the temple is a vegetarian restaurant. For another 10CNY we had a delicious meal of mushrooms and noodles. After this we returned to the hostel, after learning my couchsurfing host was still busy moving so I had to stay in the hostel for another night. Jade joined me once again which was nice. After we booked for another night and Jade contacted her couchsurfing host we headed back to the city center. After walking around the lovely park at the People's Square we went to the Shanghai Museum. Another very good deal at 20CNY. I think the only other museum I've been to in China is the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. This was quite forgettable and not really even worth the time of going to. Not much stuff and poorly laid out. The Shanghai Museum is wonderful though. Modern, clean and well organized. We spent hours there and wanted to continue but had to leave at closing time. We had only gotten to the coin section! So sadly I missed much of it. And Jade completely missed the jade section which she had been looking forward to seeing.

After the museum we made our way east on Nanjing Road. A large pedestrian street mostly filled with tourists. This was after we had a rest chatting with some Chinese students. Who then invited us to a tea ceremony. Not only was I not interested but this is one of the classic scams in China. Go to a tea ceremony that ends up being really expensive. They didn't seem like the sort but we didn't want to go regardless. From Nanjing Road we took the metro one stop over, or under the river, to Pudong and went up to the Jinmao Tower. There was the option of taking the elevator to the 88th floor for 50CNY, this wasn't something I wanted to do myself. Instead we went to an expensive restaurant on the 56th floor. We found a great looking pizza for 160CNY. Hey why not splurge now and then? It had black truffles and some fancy cheese. Oh how tempting it was. The only seating they had was in smoking though. And it would only be a short wait, 90min! For a seat in non-smoking. So we gave up and went back to Nanjing Road for dinner. There we had seen an all you can eat pizza place. First we passed another vegetarian restaurant! Like I said the Shanghai area is really unlike the rest of China. But decided on all you can eat. There was a decent amount for me to eat and 49CNY each wasn't bad. It was funny how the place was located, you had to follow signs through a clothing mall. As I always do at a buffet I ate quite a good deal. It was nice though. Pizza and spaghetti, ice cream mmm. By the time we got out we only caught one of the two metros we needed to get back to the hostel. The other line had finished for the night. It is amazing how early the Shanghai metro lines stop. It wasn't even 22:00! We were only 1.5 stops away though so we just walked. Then it was time to sleep.

Friday morning I took my bag over to Emma's. Emma was my couchsurfing host in Shanghai. She is a really nice girl. One of those people you immediately feel like you have known for quite some time. She gave me a key to her flat and said come back whenever. I went back to meet up with Jade and we took off for Sharon, Jade's couchsurfing host in Shanghai. After meeting her we went to check out some gardens. Jade hadn't been feeling so well and she quickly went downhill on the way there. So instead we ended up taking a taxi to a Western hospital to get her checked out. They gave her some pills and after some hours she was doing better. She didn't feel like couchsurfing so we found a hotel instead. It was just like those in the West and in a different sort of neighborhood. I was offered prostitutes for the first time in China when I went out to find some dinner at a convenience store. So not my sort of area at all. The room was nice, but not something I would choose myself. No kitchen and too institutional. Plus it was more expensive than a hostel. Jade wouldn't let me pay anything. She said it was for her. Just so she could rest. So Friday wasn't the best day in the world but I was glad I was a friend who could be there for Jade.

Saturday was pretty laid back. After Jade changed clothes at Sharon's I went to buy my train ticket for Lhasa. It was pretty simple. They didn't ask for my Tibet permit at all. It did take while since the lines we long and the one I was in had a printer breakdown just before I got to the front. It took some time before this was fixed. For lunch we went back to the all you can eat buffet. Which during the day was 39CNY. In the late afternoon Jade decided to sleep at Emma's as well so we got her things from Sharon's and headed over. The evening we just sat around and chatted. Along with Emma's friend from Sweden.

On Sunday I went with Jade as far as the maglev station and said farewell. It was really nice to have a break from my travel and spend time with an old friend. Strange to think I only met her in March. I helped Emma move the rest of her things and caught up on email. A pretty relaxing day.

Monday night I caught the train. Emma left for work so I went to the Shanghai Library to do some more work on my website. It seems a lot of foreigners use the internet there. It was a nice climate. Much quieter than Chinese internet cafés and no smoke! I finally finished the major update in the format I began in early May. I still have to update the photos from last October. But with the new format it should go much faster. I also did a bit of job searching. Hopefully I will have some responses when I next check my email in Lhasa. I inquired about jobs in Hong Kong, Moscow and the Middle East. I think the Middle East is what I will go for since the money looks to be very good and it is a new part of the world for me. Russia is very tempting if I can find something with good pay though. In the evening I went to the station and boarded my train. Not too crowded, no one in the aisles and quite new. But still it is hard seat on a Chinese train. During the night and until Tuesday afternoon I just read a book. Always easy to do when I have one. Once again I am glad I didn't bring my ebook. Otherwise I would just be reading all the time.

When I travel hard seat in China I don't like the Chinese. Many of the common people just disgust me. Most of them aren't that bad but there are always some that are horrid. The smoking isn't so bad on this train. But there have been specific warnings against it because of the altitude. Too many people are spitting on the floor though. Bits of food and phlegm. One guy has been doing it pretty constantly for almost two days now. He also blows his nose on the floor. This, plus the attention to the exotic foreigner, plus the lack of personal space, I mean people trying to lean on me makes this another unpleasant journey in many ways. Ah and just now I was reminded about the nose digging. I dig my nose, everyone does. But in public is for me disgusting. On these trains many people do it. Not just a momentary cleaning but getting deep in there for minutes at a time.

The air has gotten better as we come west. Shanghai is beautiful and I can't imagine how much more so it would be with clean air. For some time the air grows even worse once you leave the coast. Just as I experienced last year the sun becomes an orange disk at noon and what can be seen is gray. You can feel the smoke with each breath. A couple hours west of Xi'an it began to get better. I haven't had such an interest in seeing Xi'an, and now that I have passed through the station there much less so. The air was very bad. Once some blue is visible in the sky is is much nicer. It is possible to see further and further to the sides. Details become visible. There is a lot of beautiful landscape. From the humid coast things have grown more arid. Sometimes there are plains, sometimes we pass through hills and mountains. We reached Xining yesterday night and by the morning we were only new tracks of the Golmund-Lhasa section. Just in operation since last July. All day today we are in wilderness, the people few and far between, settlements more so. And I have seen wildlife. In China! Antelope, a small wolf sort of thing. A lot of other animals too, some horses, lots of sheep and yaks. The Tibetans are working here and there, they look very poor and live in tents when in temporary places. One thing I've noticed all this trip I didn't see last year is many Chinese men like to keep some of their nails long, especially the pinky finger. I wonder if this is a new fashion of if I just didn't notice it last year. Now I wait for Lhasa and look forward to a real meal. Perhaps with some fresh dairy products. I am hoping to find some vegetarian Tibetan food.

2007.06.13 12:35

Lhasa.

Sitting for lunch. Ah the food of South Asia is very excellent. So excellent and so cheap. I think perhaps in this part of the world I will gain back some of the weight I lost traveling in the past six weeks or so.

Last Wednesday I arrived in Lhasa. It was late and the sky was just beginning to darken. From the endless empty spaces of the Tibetan plateau the train came down towards Lhasa. The mountains closed around and then opened up again. As the altitude came down and a stream came near the railroad there were finally farms. Whereas the farms in China proper are square and very organized those in Tibet are usually round and not as orderly. As the sun was setting there was a bit more tourist information and propaganda from the PA system. Once the train reached Tibet there was information now and then about how wonderful and amazing the train to Lhasa is and how much it is for the Tibetan people. The language of these announcements was quite over the top. Too grand, too amazing. For me it was disturbing to hear.

Lhasa. Coming into Lhasa by train didn't feel like coming into other Chinese train stations. Where was the city? Also the station in Lhasa is huge. The PA told me it is ready for something like 3000 people arriving at once. Mostly it is an empty cavern. I followed the stream of people and found myself on bus #89. This took me right into the city. Interestingly although it cost 1CNY the ticket lady wouldn't take a coin. In some parts of China they use coins more often and in some places notes for small money. In Tibet I did not see any coin use at all. Everything was in notes. I hopped out when I saw Beijing Lu as I had the addresses of a couple places I might stay on this street. Where I got out was right by the Potala Palace which is beautiful at night. Just as I was walking by there was some very Chinese display in the adjacent square. A show of lights and music I was told happens every night. From there I kept walking for some time until I came across one of the places I'd heard about I read it was to cost 20CNY per night but they asked for 30CNY so I kept going. That is after stopping for my first real meal in days at the Tashi 2 restaurant next to the hotel. The food was quite good and the family that works there very nice. The portions were small and like everywhere else in Tibet the prices are rather higher than in China. It became my regular eating place in Lhasa because of the friendly service and veggie friendly nature of the place. I tried eating elsewhere a few times but kept coming back. As I was eating I chatted with a couple German doctors who like the idea of my lifestyle. I always feel a bit strange when people feel this way. I mean I understand it. However I am always somehow baffled at the same time. I checked another place that was 30CNY and then settled into Banak Shol Hotel which asked 25CNY for their dorms. This place was pretty disgusting, and after a couple nights I switched dorms. Now I was just ready to sleep and sleep well. I chatted a bit with an American staying there. He was just taking it easy in Lhasa. Resting for days and just going out now and then to take pictures. He had been going for sometime in the far West of China so I could understand his desire to relax. So then I slept. In a bed, able to lie down. It was a good sleep.

2007.06.15 09:59

Wandering Lhasa.

I am at Arjun's house. He is my host here in Kathmandu for some time. Sometimes couchsurfing makes me tired. Usually it is so very comfortable and yet now I find myself trying to think of a polite way to tell Arjun I would rather stay in a hotel in town. He is a wonderfully nice and polite fellow but I just want my own space. He has given me a room, it isn't that. It is a feeling. Confusing really. Perhaps it is the family situation. He is very nice to his wife, but she is obviously below him. This is the culture of South Asia but it is too alien to me.

These last days from Lhasa I have a group to hang out with once again. Andrea from California is leaving for home this morning and so I have already said goodbye. Shelly is from Bristol and used to work for Ikea in the corporate side rather than the shops. Although after a long time on the road she cannot imagine going back. Rick used to be in the air force but now he is a substitute teacher in the L.A. area, and Paul is an accountant, although he is also on the road most of the time. I like this group even as it begins to splinter. I feel young as the others are all 30 somethings. As I do meet more people and then go a separate way I less often keep any contact. Nepal is cheaper than China. The first nights I paid 150NPR and looking around yesterday I found a place with 75NPR dorm beds. The prices vary so much. It is another place to haggle. The prices often start at more than double what they will go down to after only a moment of indecision. I guess I will have to get used to this way of things once again.

Last Thursday I wandered Lhasa. I had a mission. To find the Nepali consulate and get a visa. This was some kilometers from the Tibetan side of town but a nice walk. Passing the Potala palace, and through the Chinese part of town. This part isn't pretty in the least but I felt more comfortable here than in the Tibetan side. I have spent enough time in China to get used to the way that things operate. I remember when I was first in China I was very uncomfortable. Now I can relax. Also the Chinese are far more honest in general than the Tibetans. It is the plague of poor people in tourist sites everywhere. They beg, scam, and it becomes quite difficult to interact as a person to a person. I did meet a couple nice Tibetans, but in general they were thoroughly unpleasant. The smell of Lhasa is often shit, and as I was walking along perhaps the very main street of the city I saw why. Just off the road in the bushes a man was taking a crap. Now I don't like in China how much people spit everywhere, and often piss everywhere, at least the men. But in Lhasa the Tibetans shit everywhere. I am glad I saw this city, the architecture was lovely. But man do I have issues with the local culture. They are very repressed. The Chinese police presence is everywhere, and visibly unkind. Searching bags, harassing people. It doesn't excuse the unpleasantness though. This was a disappointment. On my way to the Nepali consulate I got lost. This can be an interesting experience but it was stressful to know how little time I had left. Eventually I came across a woman with excellent English and she told me the way to go. I should mention here that while this area was very dirty the people were so much nicer. Just walking a hour away from the tourist area everyone had a completely different attitude. So some of my complaints are too extreme. I went along some tiny alleys. And then there it was the Nepali consulate. The Chinese guard wouldn't let me in though. He got the paperwork for me and then I had to use a street sign to write on. I don't know where these silly rules come from. Just inside the door was an obvious area for filling out the forms. I was nervous as the clock went towards noon. At about 11:58 he let me in and it was quite simple 255CNY and I could come back the next afternoon to pick it up. While I was there I met a group from Hong Kong. So we walked back towards the Tibetan part of town and chatted a bit. I have this idea of Hong Kong being a wonderful place to work. You work hard but there are high wages. These girls certainly didn't make much in publishing though and it seemed they worked constantly. They were recently out of university but it does seem Hong Kong is not completely a wonderland. The rest of the day was relaxing. I think the altitude had me tired so I spent much of the day reading a Dan Brown novel. I feel a bit guilty, but his books are enjoyable. I am a snob but sometimes look down on books that are very popular.

On Friday I looked for my bus to the Nepali border. The town is called Zhangmu in Chinese, Dram I believe in Tibetan. In the Tibetan side they said I couldn't take the public bus. Because the Chinese won't let foreigners on it. This bus is 260CNY and I was unhappy to be left without that option. Further the tourist buses and jeeps don't leave every day. Most places said they didn't know of anything. One day probably there was one leaving on the 13th for 400CNY, another said possibly one on the 10th for the same. My bank transfer between two of my accounts was taking ages so I had to go and sell some other currencies to have the cash for a ticket. By then I was on the Chinese side of town, there they told me sure I could take the public bus. This sounded great. I worked on my website for a couple hours. Picked up my passport from the Nepali consulate and made my way to the bus station, unfortunately not the right bus station. After another hour or two of searching and public buses I was at the north bus station. There they wouldn't sell me a ticket and told me to call a number. I called but the man at the other end didn't speak much English. He did tell me the bus I wanted was leaving the next evening. Great! He didn't say anything about my not being able to get on it. I found someone who spoke better English to call him back and he told him that well in fact because I'm not Chinese I can't take the bus! So some hours of searching in vain. I think if I looked Chinese it may have been good enough. I heard of some Koreans and Singaporeans getting through that way on pubic buses. I had one more shot. A group trying to get a bus for the 10th. I went to the meeting and they had 18 out of 20 they needed for the per person cost to be 425CNY. I reserved a spot.

2007.06.24 13:10

Lhasa to Kathmandu, and on to Pokhara.

I have been lazy. Forever putting off the journal. If only I would write every day then it would be so very simple to keep it up to date. Now it has been quite some time since I wrote anything and I still have Lhasa to finish.

My last full day in Lhasa I didn't get up to much at all. I spent some hours working on my website. Finally finishing the change in format that I started in early May. So now all the pictures in the travel sections are larger. And each picture is a pop up instead of a separate page. In the evening I tried a new restaurant and paid for the bus to the Nepal border.

Sunday morning at 8:00 the bus set off. Everyone was on time and it felt good to get back on the road. As we were waiting for the bus to leave I noticed some Chinese people walking around taking pictures and talking to people. I don't know what they were up to but they had the feel of some sort of government agents. Evil police state information people. Maybe they were just tourists. The asked the driver some questions and were taking pictures of everything around.

The bus began. First there were fields by the river that feeds Lhasa. I even saw some rice. Soon these were left behind as the road went into some dramatic mountain scenery. A glacial river tumbling between jagged cliffs. After some hours the road was again in a relatively flat area and we came to Shigatse. The second largest city of Tibet. During the lunch break I wandered the town and then sat about reading. Unfortunately almost the entire bus choose to eat right where the bus stopped. Food in Tibet is generally slow in coming and the number of eaters surely didn't hurry things. So it was a while before the bus was away again. Sometimes the road was in good repair and the speed was high. In many places there was road work. We went on temporary roads, and sometimes through sandy dirt. Over mountain passes and often far too close to abrupt drop offs. It was a beautiful day of watching the world pass by. For the night we stopped in Tigri. There was, or I should say is an Old Tigri and a New Tigri. Which one was our home for the night I am not particularly clear about. From this town Mount Everest is visible when the weather is right. It was interesting to see this highest peak, ever so far away but still there. Sitting small and cloudy near the horizon. Although some passes were over 5km in elevation it did not feel so high. The sky didn't get as dark and purple as I remember at home on Mauna Kea.

Tigri was straight out of a Wild West film. Even with guys sauntering along in cowboy hats. The food amazingly took even longer to come than in Lhasa. Besides those annoying beggars and salespeople the locals were pretty distant. Mostly ignoring us all in an unfriendly way. We learned that night that near the Nepal border, due to road work, the road was closed most of the day. So we had to wait until after lunch on Monday before setting out, and we ended up sleeping on the Chinese side of the border.

Monday morning was when I started to chat with those two Brits and two Americans that became the group I met with for the next week. This was after a night in a hotel that was probably a former horse stall. They had us two to a room for 30CNY each. Not a good deal in the least, but less than the first place asked in Tigri. Wandering the town gave the feeling that wow, Tibet is really poor. I had this feeling before. But I felt it again here. Many were just like the not so well of in much of China, the poor ones though looked as poor as poor can be. Weathered and malnourished. Not starving granted.

The road continued in the dry mountains, sometimes in a small valley and at times going over a pass. Suddenly though, almost without my noticing it, it was green. The road went down, and more green it became. This continued hour after hour. More than before it felt like coming down from the top of the world. The side from China wasn't nearly so dramatic, towards Nepal the winding road went ever downwards. Here there was major roadwork. The workers doing most things by hand. They worked in a tiny area of road and far far below was a river. There were tents just on or off the road as well. These people lived on this cliff, worked on the cliff. Making the road ever wider, better. It was scary at times. Inching along so close to the edge. Sometimes racing along too close to the edge. Finally there was Zangmu. Also hugging the road. Snaking back and forth as the road went downwards.

Zangmu is a border town, it feels like a border town. I wonder who grows up in a town like that. With prostitutes and trade, trucks and a constant stream of people and goods. We got a dorm for 30CNY. Not a bad place but not great. The best feature was it was right on the border.

Tuesday morning we all got in line for Nepal. As borders go it was a middling one. No problems but a long line and thus rather slow. For some reason Chinese immigration is several kilometers from the actual border so after going through we caught a jeep for the last bit, only 10CNY. The border is a bridge with quite a view. They didn't seem to mind when we stopped to take pictures as well. There was even a Chinese border guard doing it. It seemed he was new to the area and wanted pictures of exotic poor Nepalese. Entering Nepal was easy and then we looked for a jeep. It was complicated by a landslide some 10 km down the road. In the end we paid 80NPR each to get to the landslide and another 500NPR each for the ride to Kathmandu. We rode in a sort of truck/jeep combo and made pretty good time, this being because Nepalese are insane drivers. The roads in Nepal are full of blind curves and everyone seems to race around them with the assumption that no one is coming the other way. Often when cars are passing each other it is around one of these curves and near misses were very common. The landscape of Nepal is very familiar to me. It could easily be in Hawai'i. It is very green, lush. Plants everywhere. There are far more people than Hawai'i. It is a crowded land. At least where I went. Everywhere little bits of farming. The people are very diverse. Some look East Asian, some Indian, some even look South European, with blue eyes and dark brown hair. In general I found Nepalese to be quite friendly and outside of tourist areas pleasant. In the tourist areas almost everyone is horrid. Begging, demanding that you buy everything. Lodging, food, stuff, drugs, girls. The lot. The same nastiness of other tourist areas is in the tourist parts of Nepal. Fortunately all I had to do is walk 10 min away and the people were normal people again, and the tourists had disappeared. The jeep to Kathmandu had one particularly close call when a girl ran across the road. She didn't look at all and as the jeep braked it looked like she was gone for sure. She raced out the other side as men in shops of the town yelled at her. She was very lucky. Later the road was blocked. It seems whenever there is a local argument in a town in Nepal the first thing they do is block the road. I don't know what this one was about but it was quite ridiculous. Probably it generates a lot of business for the people of the town. After a while they started to let cars through if there were no tourists. Our jeep went through and we met him a little up the road. Then there was a communist road block but after a word with the driver we were waved through. The communists, although now part of the government are still being quite a bother to many people. Those I talked to didn't seem to like the king or the Maoists. Kathmandu is a third world city. Not bad as they go. Crowded and dirty but not a shock. I wasn't used to the heat and after booking into the Hotel Yanqi I slept. Tuesday afternoon was relaxing. Wandering about and getting a feel of the city. Then we all met for dinner at 19:00. The first couple nights I shared a double for 150NPR.

On Wednesday I went to check out the Embassy of Pakistan. It didn't look to be so far away so I walked off towards it. I passed many different embassies on the way and took a picture of the new U.S. Embassy under construction. This freaked out the Nepali guards and they had me wait while they found some American boss. The guy I was waiting with was nice enough, he had the security job part of the time while he wasn't helping his family on the farm. The American was all that is annoying about the U.S. government. Mildly threatening while saying he wasn't being so. So I am probably now on some list I would rather not be on. I assume this since one thing he assured me of was that they were going to put me on a local list and not anything else. Kathmandu is a city, and Nepal a country full of police and army. They are all with shotguns and AK-47's. Or machine guns at least. I can't say I am positive of the model. I think it was the first time since Africa that I have seen so many guns around, and they are far too casual with them, aiming here and there randomly. After my little adventure with the Americans I found the Pakistan Embassy, unfortunately without enough time to get the documents together before noon, when they stop accepting applications. What I needed was the application, two normal sized passport photos, one tiny one, a xerox of my passport, a letter from the U.S. Embassy, my passport and 120USD. The tiny passport photo was strange, but I could get it next door. The letter from the U.S. Embassy was stranger, I went to the U.S. consulate and they were used to it so it was only a moment. They also had me register my location and scolded me because there is no emergency contact info in my passport. They were actually really friendly. It was a nice contrast my morning experience with the photo of the Embassy. I spent the rest of the day wandering the town. It wasn't so hot in Kathmandu but hotter than were I had come from and so it took some getting used to. In the park there was a statue covered by red cloth and some police with riot gear. At 19:00 my group from Lhasa met for dinner again.

I met a couple Nepalese couchsurfers in Kathmandu and stayed for a couple nights with Arjun, starting Thursday. Thursday morning I went back to the Embassy of Pakistan with all the paperwork. The lady working there was very nice, but I had come too early. I had to have an interview and the man to give it wasn't yet there. So I had to wait an hour for him. It was just a formality and after a minute he told me to come back on Monday for my passport with the 120USD. I met Arjun for lunch and wandered the city again. I think one reason I wasn't so comfortable staying with Arjun is he lives quite a ways from the foreign district. In Kathmandu, even though it was a foreign district, even though the Nepalese there were unpleasant, it was comfortable. An easy place to sit in a café and relax. Also there I had some of the best Western food I've had in Asia. Some excellent macaroni and cheese and pizza. On Thursday at 19:00 we met again for dinner.

Friday I stayed near Arjun's place. We went to the Monkey Temple in his part of town. This temple gives a wonderful view over Kathmandu. It reminded me I thought of Nepal before coming as a mountain country now I feel it is a tropical forest land. We wandered about and relaxed. This day was the birthday of his son and this time the group from Lhasa came there. Again everyone was nice, but we all felt a bit on display.

Saturday I left for Thamel, the foreign district, once again. I hope that it wasn't rude of me towards Arjun, but I was more comfortable to just lay about in a dorm room rather than be a guest. Being a guest can sometimes be tiring! I found a nice place for 75NPR on the main street. It was a dorm bed in an empty dorm. Quite a good deal. The people at the Happy Home Hotel were nice as well. Just a good place to relax. Once again we had our 19:00 dinner. On Sunday I didn't get up to a whole lot either. More wandering and reading. I met Emma, a nice Australian running an orphanage. She joined us for the customary 19:00 dinner. On Sunday I started taking a weekly anti-malaria pill and it gave a nasty turn to my guts. So Monday in Kathmandu wasn't the most pleasant of days. I got my passport back from the Pakistan Embassy and went across the street to the Embassy of Bangladesh. The have same day processing in Kathmandu so I only had to wait for the afternoon to get it back. It cost 100USD. I don't like the cost of all these visas. They often charge more if you are a U.S. citizen, and so often they only take U.S. dollars. Really a bother since I must take out local currency and then change it. I hope it isn't such a bother if I make it to Central Asia later on this trip. When I wasn't being so effective as to traipse here and there to the embassies I read and worked on my website. To get around in Kathmandu I mostly took shared tuk-tuks or buses going in the direction I was going. It cost between 7-9NPR each time for these rides, a good deal although sometimes it was cramped. Everything in Nepal is made for people much smaller than me. Although at 193cm I am tall even in the West. We met again at 19:00 although there were less than before. Over the week the Americans had gone there separate ways so there were three.

Tuesday I could have gone to Pokhara but the malaria pill still had me tired. Kathmandu is an easy place to just wander and relax day after day. I could easily have stayed longer. That night there were only two of us for dinner and afterwards I met another couchsurfer. Jasmine from Edmonton. Nice girl, doing aid work in Nepal for the summer. I went early to bed and Wednesday morning I took off for Pokhara by "tourist" bus. Just a normal local bus as far as I could tell. The size of the seats was certainly for locals. It was 250NPR for the maybe seven or eight hour ride. The scenery was beautiful but I was very cramped the whole way and so in a foul mood. Pokhara did not give a good first impression. I walked to lakeside, ignoring the taxis. It wasn't a long walk. Then there was the walk though town. Constant, buy this, stay here etc. Annoying, very much so. I went to the end to check out some cheap places, and they said they were full! Low season as it is I find that odd. I asked a couple places on the way back to the center but they quoted 300NPR, in low season. I know I have to bargain in Nepal, but I just don't like to bother all the time. So I went some place listed in the Lonely Planet I'd been given. He said the dorm was 200NPR but the single was 150NPR. Strange, but oh well why not? I stayed there and ended up hanging out with Ananda from Holland and Kevin from Australia. We chatted for hours and had dinner at a nice local place with great mango lassies.

2007.06.24 18:00

Pokhara to Benares.

At the station in Mughal Serai. I couldn't get a train direct from Benares to Siliguri. But I could get one from only 20km down the line. So I have come here to wait for my train at 21:20. It was nicer sitting by the Ganges but I had to make sure I had plenty of time to get here. Being stuck somewhere when the train took off would not have been a happy thing. I just hope they don't kick me out of the restaurant. When we bought a meal at the station in Benares they wanted us to leave once we were finished eating.

Last Thursday I went into Pokhara proper with Ananda and Kevin. In the tourist part of town they want 99NPR per hr for internet use. Pretty crazy when the standard price is 20NPR. So we took the local bus for 10NPR and hopped off by the bus station. Ananda figured out her bus to Kathmandu and I to the Indian border. Then we had some excellent chai and samosas at a street café. It is nice to be where vegetarian food is so easy to get. 5NPR per samosa and 6NPR for excellent tea. Then we all went to use the internet for some time. I worked on my website some more. Bringing China up to date at least as far as Lhasa and looking for jobs for the fall. Also I finally found a tourist agency that would sell me a one day package for Bhutan. Right now I am on my way to meet it. It is expensive 235USD. But Bhutan! Who can resist. It should be a very interesting place to spend a little bit of time. After spending far too long online, it was a very nice net café however, I went back to the Butterfly lodge. Thursday morning I found out the front desk man had given me false information and the proper dorm price was 100NPR. So that morning I switched rooms. Back at lakeside I had a giant mango lassi. Four glasses! Oh it was the perfect late lunch. Keven joined me for the feast but unfortunately the giant lassi was not as kind to him. After finishing his he was a bit ill the rest of the day. I chatted with Ananda some more we all went out to dinner and talked with a middle school girl and quizzed her on her computer science textbook. She had it quite well memorized. Another nice day.

Friday me and Ananda went to the city bus station to take our respective buses. They both left at 07:50. My bus to the border cost 300NPR. It was a long ride. Not so far by kilometers but a crazy, bumpy road. I thankfully had the whole back row to myself much of the time but often I flew into the air as we raced over the bigger bumps. Near collisions came regularly and it was less stressful to pay no attention to where the bus was going. Now and then there were teachers hopping on to go to their villages for school. I talked to one for quite some time. His dream as so many others is to work in the U.S. As always I try to caution those so hopeful. The ideas they have of how it would be in the U.S. are really too fantastic. If he ever did make it I think he would be quite disappointed. After nine hours we were near the border and I met a Dutch couple and an American couple. They were headed to Benares as well so I went along with them. I was tempted not to since they were going rather expensively but when I meet people it is my time to splurge. So from the Chinese border to Kathmandu I took the 500NPR jeep instead of 200NPR public bus, I was happy for it. So instead of trying to find a 150INR direct bus I joined them on their 425INR arrangement. We had dinner and crossed the border. My first impression of India was chaos. Even finding immigration wasn't so clear. It would be a very easy border to just wander around if one wanted to avoid it. We were supposed to have a jeep waiting inside India, but along comes the travel agent and says that it had left. This is a jeep we had already paid for. First he tried to put us on a public bus. A bus that never would have reached the station in Gorakpur where we were to catch the 22:45 train for Benares. Also we had paid him 200INR each just for the jeep. Whereas the bus was 70INR. Then he said well you each paid 100INR for the jeep so he would give that back. This argument grew heated before he gave in and returned us each the 200INR that we had all just paid for the jeep. The American girl Daysha found another jeep for 1200INR not a good price but we were in a hurry. So we each paid 240INR and got to Gorakpur about 45min before the train was due to set off. The agent made a very good profit off the train as well. My ticket lists the cost as 134INR and he charged 225INR. This is why I organize things for myself much of the time. Saves all this hassle and being cheated. It was a nice train. I was in 2nd class sleeper which has open windows with bars. A bit scary if there is an accident! The breeze coming through was wonderful. It is a great way to travel. I asked the conductor when we would get to Benares and he said 4:30! Ugg! I set my alarm and woke again. And waited. At about 5:30 the train finally arrived. I almost jumped off a station too soon. Before Varanasi(Benares) station there is Varanasi City station. Quite confusing. Once we were there the Americans went to find a place near the station and sleep, while the Dutch and I stayed around to wait for the foreign ticket office to open so we could get our tickets out of Benares the next day. All off in different directions. There was a decent café connected to the station and we waited there while ordering tea now and then to keep the manager from getting angry at our presence. At 8:00 we got the tickets settled. The fellow in the office was quite nice and helpful. Also it was nice to see the variety of people who use the foreign ticket office. Before us in line there were some monks from Cambodia going to an important Buddhist center in Bihar. Tickets settled we headed for the river front. In Benares the rickshaws want to take you to a place where they will get a commission. It is really very annoying. We got one and agreed on 30INR to the river. Then he mysteriously ran out of gas once it was clear we weren't going to his place. Nice. So we didn't pay him a thing and found another rickshaw. This one again didn't take us all the way but stopped at his chosen place. We were at the ghats though so we gave him 20INR instead of the children. Out by the river it is a relief. There is a breeze and you don't feel confined to a tight maze. Some people seem camped out by the water, there are others doing laundry, all day, maybe the laundry caste? Many are bathing or playing. The river fills only part of its channel and others are across the water on the sand bars. Much of Saturday I slept. During the high heat of the day I was lying in the shade and sleeping or reading. That day I read "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho. I got it in the morning from the Dutch couple. It was an excellent book. I had been meaning to read it and in fact bought it last Christmas for my brother Leif. It was a nice day and I could have had many more like it. Drinking lemon lassi and eating thali. The standard meal of India like dal bhat in Nepal.

2007.06.29 10:26

Sitting in Thimphu.

Thimphu, Bhutan. Sitting in what seems to be the main public square. There is a clock in the centre. I could not find a proper pay phone here. Here there is the STD, ISD, PCO phones of elsewhere in South Asia. Booths in shops. It is a comfortable place. Very different than India. The guidebook description of the border I found in this case to be accurate. On the Indian side is noise and chaos, pass the gate into Bhutan and it is quiet and calm. Everything here is quite orderly. It is much cleaner and no one begs. I have seen few who look very poor. One retarded young man insisted on shaking my hand but was happy with that and wandered off. Mostly it seems more western than India and Nepal except most people wear the traditional dress instead of jeans and shirts. Mostly people seem quite open and modern in their thinking. Men and women can date here, the birthrate is low. People strike me as educated. I am surprised at how much English is in use since there is a national language and script. The school system is entirely in English. Except for Bhutanese language courses. People are polite and friendly and don't stare even though I have seen almost no other foreigners in the country apart from Indians. I saw one man who looked very Japanese and one Western man. But that is it. Interestingly both men and women can have multiple partners. Usually siblings. The king for example has four wives, all sisters. For my two days and one night here I paid 235USD. For me it was very much worth it.

The money is beautiful. Especially the smaller notes. I had a hard time getting coins but once acquired they are very nice, especially the 50 chetrums. It is exactly as a coin should be.

Last Sunday I woke early and walked along the ghats lining the holy Ganges. The water was full of bathers and the washing caste washing clothes. The steady whack, whack of the wet laundry. I met a Danish girl and we had breakfast and wandered the town. I never did go on a boat ride. It should have been a very nice experience but those trying to sell these rides where just too bothersome. What I should really say is I was lazy.

2007.06.30 18:25

New Jalpaiguri.

I'm in New Jalpaiguri for the second time. Just waiting for the bloody train which is two hours late.

2007.07.04 07:30

Benares, Siliguri, Darjeeling, Jaigon, Thimphu, Jaigon, Siliguri, Guwahati, Agartala and finally Dhaka.

I'm sitting in my room in Dhaka. Since I had time at the train station a few days ago I was going to catch up then. Unfortunately using this keyboard thing attracts too much attention so I can't really use it in public.

My second day in Benares was a lazy one as I wrote before. In wandering I came across the burning ghats where a body was just being lit on fire. Everything to be dumped in the Ganges. Right at the burning Ghat there were people washing and playing in the water. At one point I saw a dead cow, and a few meters away people playing and washing in the water. Perhaps another reason I didn't go on a boat ride. I'm sure many rivers are very unclean, but this one is in a way too visible. Although just looking at the water it doesn't look bad at all as rivers go.

After wandering the city I had lunch and relaxed for some hours reading and writing. Sitting on the roof top restaurant of the Vishnu Rest House and watching the mighty Ganges flow by. Eventually it was time to make my way to the train station. I left quite early since my train wasn't leaving from Varanasi Station but from Mughal Serai, a junction some kilometers down the line. It was 20INR for a rickshaw to Varanasi Station and I just hopped on next train going in the direction of Mughal Serai. It was 18INR for a second class seat. In Mughal Serai I ate dinner and spent another while waiting, reading a book mostly. As the time approached for my train to leave I went looking for it, and ran into Fiona from Austria. She was also headed to Darjeeling by way of New Jalpaiguri and was in the bunk right above mine. So we waited together for our train and after some time it came, only about an hour late. My experience of Indian trains is so far that they are always late. Often very late. At first I was thinking how much nicer than Chinese trains they are. In China my experience was that the trains were always on time. Also in China I have only gone by hard seat class which is often crowded and uncomfortable for long trips. Indian trains are quite a bit cheaper than those in China. India in general is cheaper. I have been traveling mostly by 2nd class sleeper in India and not the 2nd class seats. For the 2nd class seat class they sell as many as will fit and not just the seats. The principle of the 2nd class sleeper is there is only supposed to be one person per bunk. Unfortunately what I have experienced is that while it isn't so crowded as 2nd class seat class there is often far more than one person per bunk. Also I always have to wake someone up who is sleeping on my bunk. On the plus side Indians don't smoke very much and don't smoke on the trains. So the air is fresher. The freshness is helped by there being no windows but only bars over the place where windows would be. Although from a safety standpoint this is very bad. In the case of a fire I think it would be quite scary, and I recall reading of some horrible cases where these bars have led to tragedy. There aren't only bars on trains. Pretty much everything is locked down. All the windows in the hotels where I have stayed for example. Also they put down locked gates at night. When I have left places early in the morning I have had to find someone to unlock the gate so I could leave. In an emergency situation I wouldn't want to be in a place like this. Well back to the trains.. Indians also don't spit and throw trash one the floor AS MUCH as Chinese, another plus. They are also very physical though. Again there seems to be little private space that I expect coming from a mostly Western place. So I am constantly woken as someone bumps against me walking by on the train. Or tries to sit on my legs, different problems depending on where my bunk is situated. Also there are the noisy people selling things. I'm afraid I whacked one tea seller with my shoe who not only started screaming "chai" or tea, at 3:50 in the morning but used my leg as a hand hold as he walked through the train. I get ahead of myself though. This happened on a train to Guwahati and I was writing about the train from Mughal Serai.

Me and Fiona got on our train for New Jalpaiguri and I woke up the men who where in our bunks. After a short time the conductor came along and told Fiona she had been bumped up to AC class, so I didn't have a traveling companion for the train after all. It would have been nice as I didn't have much luck with English speakers on this train ride. After I woke up in the morning I just read a book and watched the landscape pass by. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are mostly flat, very flat and all I saw was under agricultural production. I wrote down some of the towns we passed by: Mansi, at 8:00 Pasraha, 8:25 Nara Yanpur, 8:40 Thana Bihpur, 9:00 Naugacha, 10:30 Katihar. Eventually the train came to the north of West Bengal and there were hills in the distance. It was mid-afternoon when the train finally came into New Jalpaiguri. I met Fiona again, she had befriended a group of Indians who were headed to Darjeeling as well. So we went along with the jeeps they rented although at 150INR each it wasn't a very good deal for Darjeeling. Easier than getting up to the motor pool in Siliguri and well it still isn't very much money! The road up to Darjeeling is beautiful. While Mongolia and Tibet often reminded me of Iceland. South Asia often reminds me of Hawai'i.

Up to Darjeeling there runs a toy train. The way is too steep and curved for a full size train so this small engine runs very slowly on a 1 meter track at a very slow pace, from Siliguri, right by New Jalpaiguri it takes nine hours for the train to reach Darjeeling. By car it takes only about three hours. So our jeep drove endlessly upwards curving here and there, passing over the tracks of the toy train time and again. We even passed by the train itself coming the other way, and also an unattached steam engine. Much of the time the landscape was lost in fog. With what a beautiful part of the world it is I cannot imagine what it is like when the fog lifts completely. So far my experience of the hill station areas is they are in amazing areas. I can see why the British held them in such high regard. While much of the Sub-Continent is unpleasantly hot these areas have perfect weather. The surroundings are beautiful, and there isn't the crush of overpopulation of the lower areas. It is true there were a lot less people during the British Raj but I imagine the situation was similar then. Teeming masses in the plains and a more relaxed atmosphere in the hills.

The jeep stopped in Kurseong and me and Fiona got some samosas for 2INR a piece. India is just wonderful food wise for me. Vegetarian food everywhere. Good food too! The winding road to Darjeeling was well posted with notices to drive safely. Not that many in India do so. It is another quite stressful place to be on the road. The number of close calls is immense. The notices where quite cute one being "If your married, divorce speed.". Mostly they were that sort of thing. It was growing dark as we came into Darjeeling and we suspected the driver took so long during the break to drop us at his favoured hotel and collect a commission. The idea of commissions is very strong in India. Everywhere people try to guide you to a restaurant, a place to sleep, a shop. So if you buy something you pay a higher price so the guide may get his reward, and almost always it is a man. Everywhere in South Asia women are in the background. There are less of them on the street. They are less likely to speak to you or interact in any way. This is not only my experience as a man, but that of women travelers I have met as well.

Coming into Darjeeling after dusk was beautiful. All the thousands of homes spread over ridges lit up. There was the appearance of stars on a blanket. Me and Fiona shopped around for a room. Places were asking 450INR or 300INR. We kept up until we found a place that would go down to 200INR. The Blue Diamond hotel. Not particularly beautiful, but decent. The room had an attached bathroom and even a TV. So not bad for 100INR each. We went to find some food and ended up eating potatoes in a very English pub right next to the hotel, Joe's. As in Nepal a single beer costs more than a meal in India. I don't drink so much and the idea of spending more for a beer than my nights accommodation or dinner strikes me as odd. It was nice to chat and relax with a beer though. After a long ride from Benares. We had to be back at the hotel by 21:30 when they locked the gate. So we went back and watched a movie on the tv. TV is really so addictive. Especially after months of not seeing one.

On Tuesday morning we wandered the town. Darjeeling is really very nice. It is cute, there aren't so many tourists, although it is the off season. People aren't so pushy. I first had to get some USD for Bhutan. I had some but not the 235USD I needed. This as it turns out is quite a hassle in India. As in Nepal I had to get out rupees from an ATM and then go to a private money changer. The banks won't change rupees into dollars only the other way around. Unless you have an exchange certificate. Which I don't have since I just got rupees from an ATM. The exchange rate wasn't nearly as good in India as in Nepal. So in the end it was unpleasant. Also he tried to give me only large bills, which can be a bother down the road. So I had to come back in the afternoon to get the rest of my money.

Me and Fiona wandered the streets looking for the top of the town, or at least the center. A lot of Darjeeling feels very British. The old buildings especially. We wandered ever upwards and in the end we found ourselves inside a military camp where no foreigners are allowed. I imagine we weren't the first to end up there since they weren't very dramatic as they pointed towards the exit. It seems a poorly guided camp that you can wander into the back way by some clear walking paths. Fortunately no one cared that we had been taking plenty of pictures unaware we were in a military area. So we wandered back downwards. Darjeeling would be a nightmare if there is ever ice on the roads. They are all very steep. We had lunch at a Bhutanese restaurant with a very stoned proprietor. He wandered in and out starting disjointed conversations and him and his friends were practicing a guitar and listening to stoner music. The food was pretty good and was a nice look at what I would see in Bhutan a couple days later. I tried to buy some socks since mine were all dirty, but with no luck. The sellers didn't want to bargain at all. In Nepal it was quite easy to find a place to do laundry. Not so in India. Everywhere I have gone charges by the piece rather than by weight. By piece is expensive. So I do my own laundry when I can, but if I am going too fast without stopping then there isn't time for it to dry. This was my problem in Darjeeling. Plus it is cool and damp there so clothes would probably take a week to dry. We went to a tea shop and sampled some fancy tea. Fiona bought some for friends and family back home. We got milkshakes, advertised as ice cream milkshakes. This meant a milky drink with a scoop of ice cream in it. So my search for a proper milkshake continues. It was a nice day of wandering Darjeeling. We had another break at Joe's and returned to the Blue Diamond by 21:30 once again, and once again we spent some hours watching tv.

On Wednesday I woke early and went to find some breakfast and check my email. In Darjeeling I got an excellent job offer for Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately as with work in Antarctica I must be hired from the U.S. So it looks like I might be headed home to Hawai'i this summer after all. In Darjeeling the internet cost 30INR per hr, verses 20INR per hr in Benares. Samosas for breakfast are perfect although at 3INR in Darjeeling they are slightly more expensive, ha. I checked out of the Blue Diamond while Fiona stayed on another night after we agreed with the hotel that 100INR for her was fair. After a failed attempt at getting a train down to Ghoom, it was booked, I hopped on a jeep for Siliguri for 80INR. The route it took down the mountain was different than the one coming up. This one didn't parallel the train tracks. It was also a pretty trip, passing through Pankhambi and Gardihura on the way. I got to Siliguri just to see the Bhutan government bus leaving for the border. It worked out alright though, there was another one leaving in about 2 hours. So I bought the ticket for 60INR and wandered the town. Most things were closed due to a strike called by the communists. Over time I have come to have less and less sympathy for communists. It is an interesting ideology but those who practice it seem to be all very unpleasant, and those who come to power under its banner seem to be almost entirely murderous thieving bastards. Strikes by communists are common in South Asia. In Nepal they blocked the road a couple times. In Siliguri last Wednesday they closed all the shops. I found a place to eat and had a thali for 15INR. All you can eat rice, curry and dal. Fortunately I went to the bus station a little early because the 14:00 bus left at 13:50. The countryside going to the Bhutan border is flat tea country. This is the part of India where much of the tea for the world comes. The bus was quite comfortable by South Asian standards. It passed through Jalpaiguri, Maynaguri and Banarhat on the way to Jaigon. All these town names are just the ones I notice and jot down. There are endless other towns and villages that I never know the name of. In Jaigon I hopped off just at the Bhutan gate, the border with Bhutan. After looking around for a room for a bit I got an offer of 100INR. Not bad, and better than the hundreds more the other places asked. Then I wandered the streets of Jaigon looking for an internet café, I was told to go to the Bhutan side of the border. I did try but it is definitely no longer possible to enter Bhutan without a visa not even the border town of Phuntsholing. This apparently used to be possible. It is even mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Eventually I found one at 30INR per hr, and had an email from the tour company in Bhutan. My guide Sonam was on his way and I got his phone number. After this I returned to my hotel and had dinner there for 15INR. On the menu it gave the room rate as being 80INR and so I told them this is what I would be paying in the morning.

On Thursday morning they were angry at the 80INR but that is all I gave. I was annoyed they said 100INR for a room when they had 80INR posted. Usually there is nothing posted and you just negotiate. Usually for half or a third of the original asking price. I went to the border to see if my guide was there, he wasn't but the border guard went with me to a phone booth on the Bhutan side so I could call him. He said he would be there in half an hour. So I wandered Jaigon some more and then sat and chatted with the border guard. Mostly he said he was there to keep out illegal Indian workers and Nepalese. Bhutan deported some tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalese about 15 years ago and since then they have been trying to come back to Bhutan. As the border guard described it the king of Bhutan told the Nepalese that they had to adopt Bhutanese customs and dress, they refused and there was some violence. I have mixed feelings about this. I think if it happened in a Western country there would be a HUGE uproar. But if Bhutan is ever considered at all then it is seen as this magical land of peace and harmony. As I have written about some in the past this double standard annoys me. I think the West should also do more to force those immigrants from other cultural groups to conform or perhaps face deportation. However those deported from Bhutan were born there and not immigrants. For a while the Bhutanese border guards just let everyone through. Then they started checking people and a long line quickly formed. I have noticed everywhere in South Asia that authorities are very nice and friendly towards me, but towards locals they are rude and unkind. Eventually Sonam showed up and we went to find the immigration officer since the office wasn't open yet. He was busy getting his kid off to school so we went to have breakfast. It feels too convenient to have a guide and it definitely isn't my style of travel. He went off to figure out paperwork and I relaxed and wandered around. Before I even went into Bhutan I needed to get stamped out of India though. As with the border with Nepal the Indian immigration point is very easy to miss. I imagine it would be a hassle if I didn't have that stamp though! I read that the border between Bhutan and India is a dramatic one and with this I agree. The Indian side is chaotic, crowded and dirty. In Bhutan it is relatively clean and there are much less people. The dress is a bit different. With far fewer wearing Western clothes. We got on the 10:00 bus for Thimphu and started off. I paid 235USD all inclusive, so my meals, transport etc were paid for. I noticed this six hour bus ride cost 174INR. Bhutan has it's own money but it is just Indian rupees with another name.

Bhutan is a country of hills. It is also a country of conformity. All the buildings follow a certain style and the signs on them do as well. Mostly white writing on a blue background, and usually no pictures. It makes for a beautiful clean appearance, but it is as I pondered it more unsettling. This was pretty much my feeling of Bhutan as well. A wonderful place, especially my first impression, but in the end unsettling. The road went up through tropical forest. Through clouds. Endlessly curving. From the border to Thimphu is only 172km, but it was supposed to take six hours and in the end it was more like seven. The road has few bridges. It will wind all the way into a valley and then all the way out of it. Zig zagging slowly up the hills. We stopped once for lunch and was pretty good. Quite similar to other food of the region. Maybe more like Tibetan food than anything else. The Bhutanese see themselves as being closer in culture etc to the Tibetans than anyone else. I think the Indian worry that China had it's eyes on taking Bhutan as well are probably quite valid. I am glad that this didn't happen and I imagine Tibet would probably be similar to Bhutan had China left it alone. Thimphu is small and all the buildings look quite similar. Even in the countryside along the road the building style was the same. Quite large multi apartment houses quite separated from each other. All along the way were also Indian labourers working on the road. From what I saw and talking with people, Indians do all the hard work in Bhutan. As in much of the world there is a richer country next to a poorer one and this unhealthy relationship develops. The Indians don't live in the grand Bhutanese houses though. They have squatter camps hidden down slope from the road. These are makeshift and made of various waste materials. There was a immigration checkpoint in the middle of the trip to Thimphu. One more little thing to make it feel controlled. It was only little things, but there felt to be an aura of control. The police in Bhutan don't carry guns, at least I didn't notice any. The people seem a lot freer and richer than elsewhere I have been so far in South Asia, there is this funny feeling though. In India and Nepal the police are all over the place and always have weapons. Often WWII rifles. I've seem them with shotguns and machine guns as well. And also with sticks they are liberal with using to get peoples attention. In Bhutan there is none of this. I wandered around Thimphu on my own. I would meet Sonam again at 8:00 Friday morning for a tour of the town. I was happy to have time to myself for wandering. It is a pretty place. The people too were nice, they didn't stare at all. When a sudden rain hit I started a conversation with a couple local guys and we chatted for a couple hours. One was hoping I would send tourists his way. It seems many people want to be tour guides in Bhutan. It does pay well. I had a coffee in his sisters shop. They found me some old Bhutanese coins that no one really uses any more. It was nice. The guide also works at the parliament. As it turns out I just missed the closing ceremony. It happened the day I arrived. It is only a mock parliament though, they are testing out the whole concept and plan to have the first election next year. It should be a big year, there is also the 100th anniversary of the monarchy. I went back to the hotel for dinner, the prices were about the same as India although again I didn't pay anything as it was included in the tour. I had some mushroom and cheese dish that was quite good and chatted with Taishi, a guy working at the hotel. He lived in Korea for a while as well, he was studying cooking there. Bhutanese for the most part seemed educated and open minded. At least those I came across. They can even date unlike elsewhere in South Asia. I didn't talk with any women though. In this way it is similar to South Asia. The women didn't seem approachable for conversation. Actually the next day in the bus I was seated next to a woman and we started chatting. Then the men next to her,

On Friday morning I was supposed to meet a friends cousin for tea. I have an internet pen pal from Thimphu who lives in Bangkok. Otherwise I would have visited her and maybe stayed longer and not had to do the 200USD night dealy. Her cousin sadly didn't show up. So I wrote some post cards and read an Indian newspaper. I tried calling but her phone was off. When Sonam came we started the tour. We drove up to a point overlooking the city, I like these high points and it was nice to look over the town, in a valley surrounded by pine forests. We visited a monastery. A little reserve where the national animal of Bhutan wanders about. The story is that it was created by a monk with the head of a goat and body of a cow. Really just this rather large goat like animal by my eyes. We went to the post office and another monastery. Then I wandered on my own for a while, and sat in the square to write. This is when I mentioned not seeing any foreigners. Of course right after that I saw a hippie couple off in the distance (I wonder how they could afford Bhutan, most hippies I've met are pretty poor), and then I saw a girl walking into a shop. Then I went to meet Sonam for lunch. At the same little hole in the wall place was that same guy I saw the day before that I thought looked Japanese, I was quite satisfied to hear him speaking Japanese to his Bhutanese table mate. For lunch I ate more of the mushroom and cheese dish and cheese momos. A sort of dumpling. Good food. Then we went to the bus station and waited for the bus back to the border. I offered to just go alone since it seemed silly for Sonam to do another long round trip, but he had to come with me. It is the law of Bhutan for me to have my guide. The bus back was a lot more tiring than coming up. Mostly I think it was the businessman that ended up sitting next to me after they made the woman move. He was fat and I felt squeezed in. Also for hours he muttered a mantra or something to himself. Mantras aren't inherently annoying, but when some guy is muttering them for hours as if he is speaking to himself then it is unbelievably annoying. We stopped for tea along the way and then made the border just as it was about to close, whew. I said goodbye to Sonam and went to Indian immigration just as the man working there was headed out the door, he was very cheerful and seemed to think it was quite funny I caught him just as he was leaving. So the formalities settled I went off to find a room for the night. My target was once again 100INR and in the end, after a bit of searching I found a place with a starting offer of 100INR. It was pretty shitty and I got in for 80INR in the end. Then I wandered about looking for dinner and after giving up slept very soundly.

On Saturday morning I had to wake someone up to let me out of the hotel. It was locked down tight. Once again I thought of the danger if there were a fire or something. Oy vey. I was in luck as there were some people waiting for the bus to Siliguri just by the hotel and the next bus came along after about 15min. I had learned on Thursday I could have gotten a bus straight from Darjeeling to Jaigon, three hours. Instead of the three hours down to Siliguri, waiting there for two hours and another three to Jaigon. Oh well. Also where I was at Jaigon was much closer to Guwahati, my next destination. However I wanted to go by train and not bus and in Darjeeling the train worker said I could only make a reservation from New Jalpaiguri. This being right by Siliguri. So back to New Jalpaiguri I went. This time I had a bad seat and was again next to a fat man. I noticed one open in the back and moved there. After I hopped off the bus I started talking with Vanita, a Goan girl from Delhi. She and a group of university friends were just coming back from a holiday in Bhutan. Indians don't have to pay the 200USD a day deal to be tourists there. Vanita is just finishing up her poli. sci. degree and I had a lovely time chatting with her. It was the first time I had a real conversation on the trip with a South Asian woman. So I got to hear a different perspective. They were going to the train station as well so we shared a auto rickshaw for 20INR each, then we sat in a restaurant for some hours while they waited for their train to Delhi. The one they were hoping for didn't work out but they found another slower one leaving around the same time. I have some female friends who have had bad experiences with men in South Asia. Men, quite often, will say things or do things sexual. They will grab women, they will ask for sex, ask to buy sex, etc. My belief was that they just treated foreign women this way, talking with Vanita I found they treat Indian women the same way. This is at the same time sad and refreshing to hear in a sad way. Sad this is how they treat women, but at least it isn't only foreigners. In general the young educated upper middle class Indians seem very western. Even more so than young educated upper middle class Chinese. They can date and party, although they have to be careful and their families might get a bit angry. Among this group caste is not at all pc and I think I offended her a little asking if they were all brahmans. She said she didn't know. I also chatted with a guy from Benares finishing his maths degree. It was a nice way to wait for my train. Then they left and I wandered around. There isn't much near the New Jalpaiguri station, it was a boring place to wait and I wished very much for a book. When I bought my ticket I was number six on the waiting list. I got a seat no problem but the train was very late. Eventually I got out this keyboard to write but it attracted too much attention. So it was impossible to actually do so. I ended up talking with a big group of military recruits who were kind of stupid as too many military I meet are. One interesting contrast with my conversation of the morning was they proudly told me they were all brahmans. So for the educated it is not pc, but for other groups it is very important. I didn't ask about caste but they brought it up. It was actually very uncomfortable. Having about 30 guys surrounding me asking question after question. They were very friendly but I still didn't like it. Eventually there lieutenant came along a chased them away for which I was very happy. I had to exchange names and shake hands with about 20 of them. This seems quite a big deal all over the region. First there was a message that my train was two hours late "inconvenience caused is deeply regretted" in the end it was just shy of three hours late. I suppose I am glad in the end it was so late as it arrived in Guwahati at 5:30 in the morning and that was already too early for me. This was the horrible ride where I was on the upper bunk along the corridor. So perfectly placed as a handhold, ARG

Guwahati wasn't much. I wandered the town. Went along by the Brahmaputra river which was quite nice. It was too early for anything to be open. I read in a couple books it should be about 10INR for a boat out to Peacock Island in the river where there is an interesting temple. The only offer I got for a ride was 500INR I didn't bother doing anything but laugh at that. Eventually I found a hotel with a restaurant they opened for me. It was 7:00 by this time and I took my time with breakfast and tea reading a newspaper until 8:30 hoping more would be open. I shopped around for the bus to Agartala but 460INR was all I heard as to the price. So I got a ticket for 10:00, and found a place to check email while I waited. The bus was full and sweaty until we got going at 10:30. I was told it would take 24hours, although this was rather optimistic in the end. I was happy to get on the 10:00 bus as one place told me there wasn't a bus until 17:00, always in India ask multiple places. People lie very easily. Soon after leaving Guwahati the bus left Assam state and left the plains again.

The hills of Meghalaya are beautiful as hills are in this part of the world. I can see why the capital of British Assam was at Shillong. Shillong has some British flavour too it although not a whole lot. We stopped along the way for lunch and I got a veg roti for 25INR. All you can eat flat bread, dal and curry. Yum! The landscape of Meghalaya could be Scotland, as I have read it described. The towns are less crowded and as in other hill areas it feels more relaxed and it is cleaner. We stopped again for dinner and I got some samosas. Very expensive at 4INR a piece. I wonder if they got a commission. I didn't get it at the place we stopped by though. There they were asking 5INR for a samosa. From the evening the bus ride became endless. For hours it would stop, I don't know the reasons. This continued in the morning. Here I think we entered rebel held territory. Or at least communist. All buses would stop, while other traffic went through. And guys in jeeps with bandannas and machine guns drove around. Also they were handing out pamphlets and playing some sort of rant through a loud speaker. No one on the bus I tried asking spoke any English. Some villages had Indian flags and some Communist ones. I wonder what the situation is there. The whole region seems to be full of military. Army trucks and army people. One drunk guy from Rajasthan I talked with a Guwahati was there for the army. Most of those on the bus had army suitcases if not uniforms. In my travels I have come to see less universal good in democracy and less universal bad in dictatorships. It seems poor dictatorships are often run better, and the people mostly better off than poor democracies. India feels to be in many ways a pretty big mess, certainly when compared to China. China is a dictatorship (calling itself Communist but this is a joke) and India a democracy. I think the Chinese government in the past was horrid and far worse than the Indian, but today while not great the Chinese government is unfortunately better in my opinion than the Indian one. So I did not arrive in Agartala at 10:00 as I optimistically thought was a possibility but at 14:00. I suppose it could have been worse, it was a very unpleasant bus journey and I just wanted to push on to Dhaka. Perhaps I should have spent more time in Agartala though. It is a nice quiet town without many tourists. In fact I haven't seen any westerners since I was at New Jalpaiguri station on Saturday. I wandered around town for a couple hours, taking a long look at the beautiful Ujjayanta Palace. Entry was free although they had to look at my passport. It is also the state capital building for Tripura. I'd read you can't go inside the building but I had no problem wandering all around. After that I took a rickshaw for the border, or tried to with the help of a local. We agreed 10INR and then he took me to some other guy who spoke English to say 10INR more for the border. This is very little money but on principle is annoying. So I paid the first guy nothing to his protests and got another ride to the border, for 10INR. The border between Tripura and Bangladesh is beautiful and so photogenic. It felt like a place where it would not be a good idea to take a picture though so I didn't try. It is just a normal road split by a border. It doesn't feel like a natural one at all and it must have been strange when it appeared in the 1940s. Going through was problem free but slow. Officials on both sides offered to change money at very bad rates. I should have gotten 850BDT for 500INR but the offers started at 600BDT and went up to 750BDT. So I decided to try my luck in the town. The rickshaw wanted 40INR to get there and I said no, I hitched a ride on a motorcycle for nothing, but then changed 500INR with him for 750BDT, so it worked out ok. There didn't seem to be a place to change money in town, except the bank that was already closed. My ride really wasn't eager to change money and while it wasn't a good rate I think it was still a genuine favor to me. I bought a train ticket for Dhaka at 45BDT, and waited the h angry and walked off. Everyone else just smiles and has seemingly no clue where Hawai'i is. Although if I say its an island they think I said Ireland which is fine by them. Mostly people guess Hawai'i is in Europe. So finally the train came, I had no seat, but some man got the conductor to find me one, then I should tip him 20BDT so I did. Then about 20min later he bumped me up to a higher class seat. Really comfortable seats, with fans, and a break from conversation. When I got on more people wanted to try there English and well they are just so friendly. Plus more beggars. One guy gave me a boxed drink and told me about his time working in Iraq. He loved it, and he really liked the American military, he worked with a lot of them and said they were very nice. So when the conductor came it was a relief to just sit and rest, a nice smooth train ride and then Dhaka. I gave him a 15BDT tip for the better seat but I think maybe it was supposed to be 50BDT because while he smiled he seemed disappointed. I called a couchsurfer in town, but he didn't have any recommendations for lodging, and couldn't offer any himself. So when I got to town I went looking for a place recommended at wikitravel. The first one didn't accept foreigners but the second did. So this is where I sit now. 100BDT a night, it is comfortable if a bit dirty. My own private bath although no hot water. I've washed my clothes and wandered the city. This morning I have just relaxed though. I am doing nothing much and it is good.

When I arrived in Dhaka the immediate feel was chaos. It was 22:00 and there were beggars and such. I walked away from the station and asked at the first hotel I saw. Their cheapest was 325BDT and the next hotel didn't take foreigners. I was tired and hit away the hands of beggars and someone trying to take me to another hotel. I walked a bit more and then chatted a bit with a shop owner. He told me how far my hotel was and how much I should pay the rickshaw. So I went to the right street and handed over the taka. I didn't count my change and was charged 26BDT instead of 20BDT. I don't mention these tiny prices because I am annoyed, but it is funny. The people on the street were friendly and talkative as they are here in Bangladesh and I found the Hotel Sugandha International after the Grameen said no foreigners. However wikitravel had the address wrong. It is at 243/244 Nawabpur, not 24. This isn't very far from 24 strangely enough. The logic of the street numbers in Dhaka is not one I understand. Numbers can change direction and jump around. Although they are mostly orderly. Being in a proper bed for the first time in a few nights was nice. I tend to push too hard and travel too fast when I am on my own.

Yesterday I set out to find an ATM and an internet café. This took quite some time. Actually just finding food took quite some time. Bangladesh isn't the veggie friendly place India is, also much fewer people speak English. So I wandered the city asking for directions now and then and often being pointed in a new direction. After a while I found an ATM that would take a foreign card, there are heaps of banks, but most said my card wouldn't work before I even tried. Found an internet café and wandered some more. Eventually I came to the bus station and checked out routes to the beach and Calcutta. Then I went to take a break and think about my plans. I tried contacting the American couchsurfer a few times with no luck and realized the Bangladeshi couchsurfer said she was out of town this week. The constant celebrity status is tiring so I went back to the station and bought a ticket to Calcutta for Friday morning. So I have today and tomorrow to wander the city and then I take off for India again.

2007.07.10 09:43

Ex-pat life in Dhaka.

I am at the Salvation Army guest house in Calcutta. Bedbugs and all. It is full of French Catholics doing volunteer work for the Mother Teresa organization. I am tempted to try this myself, but it sounds as if the sort of work that they are doing would rather horrify me. Cleaning the festering wounds of the poor. Cleaning the dying. Yesterday I went along with a few who were looking for a children's home, but in the end we couldn't find it.

Last Wednesday was 4th of July. After I spent the morning relaxing and writing I was off again into the chaos of Old Dhaka. I tried to go into a restaurant I had been in the night before. It had been a strange place, very dark and they asked me if I wanted to buy meals for one or two people. Then a guy asked me if I wanted a girl. I don't know if he worked at the restaurant or not, I don't think so but this place had a strange feel to it. It was the second restaurant I went to with this strangeness to it. But the food was pretty good and it is near the hotel where I stayed, so I went back. I was stopped by some nervous security guards who told me there was a private party on so I couldn't eat there. I really suspect that besides being a restaurant it is some sort of brothel as well. So then I had to find somewhere else to wander off to and find some food. As I was trying to figure the way a man took me under his wing and insisted I come along with him as he was going to the financial district, on the way where I was going. This is Bangladesh, people so very active in trying to help a stranger. Many times I would have people offer to come along in rickshaws to help me find what I was looking for. In some places this would be an uncomfortable feeling but in Dhaka it mostly felt only like kindness. So I went with this man and he paid for the rickshaw and directed it to the main mosque, where I decided to next take a look. This mosque isn't such a fancy place but it felt nice. Of course many people came and asked me where I was from and if I was a Muslim. They didn't mind that I wasn't only insisting I wash my feet before walking in the holiest part of the mosque. Only one man said “Hawai'i, oh America, you shouldn't be here.” The others were very nice. After that I went to the main post office near by, a guy who was at the mosque guided me there. This man didn't give me a good feeling at all however. He seemed to want to keep following me. Fortunately it started to rain and I wandered off under my umbrella while all the Bangladeshis waited under shelter for it too pass. I found a bakery and therefore lunch, a bank machine and net café. In Bangladesh I kept changing my mind on how long to stay and I didn't want to have extra taka to get rid of and so I went to the ATM a lot. At the net café I had a message from a Dhaka couchsurfer who had left Bangladesh. He gave me the address of a good friend of his in Dhaka and after a very short time she emailed me back saying there was a 4th of July party that very night, and they had a place for me to crash as well. So I called her on the phone to see how to get there and she said “I thought you were a girl.” The curse of my name, always people think it is a girls name. I really grow tired of it. It wasn't a big deal. The guy in the phone shop was nice, but I'm not sure about him. He didn't charge me for using the phone and gave me coffee while he had someone find an auto-rickshaw. Before this he mentioned it should be 70-80BDT where I was going but when it came along it asked 150BDT. So I wonder if he got a cut. I should have demanded they use the meter but I was in a hurry and really 150BDT is very little money. In the end it took almost an hour and Maeve, my new host in Dhaka, was quite worried by the time I found her flat. The party was interesting if a bit disturbing. Almost all the people there were U.S. Embassy staff and the feel and music was ultra-nationalistic. It was fun, I met a Swede and was able to practice a little Icelandic. It was nice to have a little red wine after not drinking any in quite some time. Mostly it was nice to see westerners for the first time since New Jalpaiguri, and have the first conversation since I met the Indian university students there. After the 4th of July party we went to visit an American Steve, who does aid work in Dhaka as so many others I met. We talked about politics and the world situation.

I had a ticket to leave Dhaka on Friday morning. The 4th was Maeve's birthday and she was having a party on Friday, so on Thursday I went to see about changing my ticket. I couldn't find the Green Line bus office in Gulshan, the international neighborhood of Dhaka, and so I went back to Old Dhaka to check out of my room. First I went walking along to find the river. After quite a long walk and exhausted by the smoke and crowding I turned back. I did have some wonderful success though. I found a real pay phone! The only time in Bangladesh I saw one. Also I bought replacement blades for my razor and shaving cream. The day before I spent ages with a cheap disposable razor and soap, it was hell! I grabbed by bag and rested a minute before checking out of the hotel. It was a strange place to be. A street of hardware stores. Every minute someone wanting a conversation. By spending just a couple days there it seemed the whole part of town knew where I was staying. I must have been the talk of the town. I went to the bus station, changing the ticket was a simple task. Finding the bus station wasn't. The rickshaw driver didn't actually know how to get there and so tried to overcharge me once he finally found the place. I only gave him 20BDT. After that I went to the parliament building. An interesting structure where there were news cameras and commotion. They were just arresting a former communications minister. I went to a mall, with a food court. Western food at nearly western prices. I ate at Taco Bell for the first time in some years. I thought a milkshake there would be like Western ones. It was not. Sadly being a thin milky concoction. The view from the top of the mall was good and after some time I left to find Maeve again. This turned out to be a difficult task. I just couldn't find an auto-rickshaw, or a taxi. I kept walking in the right general direction, I walked for an hour until I was lucky to come across a taxi just letting out it's charge. So I hopped in and went to the British club. Gulshan is really another world from Bangladesh. There are clubs for the different nations, there are fancy restaurants and endless gates and armed guards. Shops and almost clean streets. It was good to have a bite to eat and chat with more friendly people. The BBC corespondent for Bangladesh, John, was there. He is moving to Korea so I had a bit to chat about. A relaxing evening after the chaos of real Dhaka.

2007.07.11 06:53

Cruising on a Bangladeshi river.

Friday morning we had to prepare for Maeve's birthday party. This meant me and Sylvain, another guest of Maeve's, mostly stayed out of the way while she prepared endless things for her own celebration. Given how much work ones own party is I am not surprised that I never have these sorts of things myself. At about 11:30 we went to the riverside where we were supposed to find the boat. This party was to be basically a pot luck on the water. However the boat was nowhere to be found. By this time Maeve was getting a bit concerned and the greater number of us there endeavored to stay out of her way. It all worked out in the end. Someone was called, someone came who knew where the boat was and the rest of the guests arrived.

The cruise was a beautiful thing. Meandering down the river eating heaps of food and drinking more wine. I chatting for some time with the Swedish girl, Linda. She lived for some time in Lund. Just the city where I have some current fantasies about studying. Most of those on the boat seemed to be working for one NGO or another. So many aid workers in Bangladesh. There were a couple locals and Bangladeshis who had grown up overseas. I was again happy at my good fortune to fall into this group after many lonely days without any conversation at all.

After the boat some of us went to the British club to hang out by the pool for some time. It is the first time on this trip I have actually used my swimming trunks. Then we moved on to the American club where there was another 4th of July party. This one wasn't so interesting as the previous one but very patriotic regardless. To enter was 700BDT and of course those Bangladeshis in attendance were from the elite.

The food was ok. There being in particular a very tasty veggie lasagna. I chatted with the various folks from the boat trip and eventually we moved on to some after party. There I mostly talked with two British Bangladeshi sisters. One working for the BBC and one a publisher. Both professions that are probably pretty nice as these things go but I think both were not really satisfied with their careers. This to me is a bit worrying. I dream of something more concrete. Of having the stability of a REAL job, a career. I imagine it to be an endlessly satisfying path but even those in these lines seem often to not be so very satisfied with their work. It was a very long yet quite satisfying day.

On Saturday both I and Maeve were meant to join a game of ultimate frisbee. I set my alarm and woke at 8:00. After going to Maeve's room and trying to wake her for a moment I went back to bed.

2007.07.15 06:16

My lazy week in Calcutta.

The days fly by. It is all too easy to sit and relax. Strange to choose Calcutta of all places to take a break!

My last day in Dhaka I didn't get around to doing very much. I spent some hours reading a book. I met Hamida. A Bangladeshi couchsurfer, for a coffee. That was nice, chatting with someone actually from Bangladesh. She studies in the U.S. And was only home for the summer to do an internship at an aid organization. With her were a couple Scots, newly arrived and also in the country to do aid work. I was able to introduce them to some of the ex-pats I met during my time in Dhaka. In the end we spent a time by the pool at the American club. Then I went to get my things and head off to the bus station. The bus was a grand one. Huge comfortable seats and good AC. You get what you pay for I suppose. 670BDT is a lot of money in Bangladesh. My understanding was that this was for the whole journey to Calcutta. It wasn't to be at all. 550BDT was for the border and 120BDT was for services and taxes. I'm not sure what the services were but I didn't use them all. They basically have a rickshaw take you to the border from where the bus stops and go and process your exit tax. When leaving Bangladesh you must pay 300BDT to the government. I fortunately had just enough but it meant I didn't get to keep any 100BDT notes as a souvenir. The border was not a particularly nice one. Several buses were coming through at the same time and it took 3.5 hours to get from one end of the border to the other. All along the Bangladeshi side were people begging as well. It was good to get away from there. Bangladesh was an interesting country to visit. It is a poor place, even in the capital there were not so many cars on the road, mostly the streets are filled with cycle-rickshaws. Even though it is far poorer then India the people were more friendly in general. Those who were begging were more desperate but there weren't so many more of them.

Back in India on Sunday morning I made my way to Calcutta. I continued on a Green Line bus. Probably I could have gone a cheaper route. 120INR from the border isn't really a good deal. The bus wasn't as new or fancy as the one in Bangladesh. But the seats were still comfortable and the AC cold. The bus got into Calcutta at New Market, it arrived about lunch time and from there I only had to walk five minutes to be in the heart of Sudder St. and the traveling center of the city. There were the immediate calls for accommodation and I ignored them all and followed the street to where I believed I would find the Salvation Army Guest House. There it was, refuge. A place to relax. The Salvation Army in Calcutta is a mix. The staff are not unfriendly and there are so many foreigners in residence. Lots of people to chat with and pass the time. The downside is it is rather dirty and there is a problem with bed bugs. When I first arrived I chatted with David from the U.S. And he pointed out a bed in the dorm he believed was free of bed bugs. On Sunday I wandered the town, heading down to the Victoria Memorial, walking in the park. It is a beautiful building. With wonderful surroundings. Sadly while it is 10INR for locals the cost is 150INR for foreigners. This is to go inside the building. This is the pattern all over India for historical sites. I could maybe accept a rate a bit higher for foreigners. 15X the local price is disgusting. It is rude and in my opinion very poor taste. The Indian treatment of foreigners is such a mix. In some ways it is very positive, having a separate quota for foreigners on the train is very kind. Then there is the difference in prices for attractions which is not. To enter the gardens around the Victoria Memorial was only 4INR and this is what I did. I also wandered another park nearby with a 3INR entry charge.

After visiting the Victoria Monument. I took the metro back to Park St. Station near Sudder St. A metro always gives a bit of magic to a city for me. Going down the stairs and getting in a magic box only to appear somewhere else. I love the metros of the world. Sadly there are no tokens for the Calcutta metro although the design of the gate indicates there used to be tokens. It is cheap at 4INR for the shorter rides. As these things go Calcutta doesn't have the most beautiful of metros it is a bit dirty, but the stations have interesting themes and art work, and it is fast with frequent trains.

Around Sudder St. there are many different restaurants and in my wanderings of the area I have tried many of them. I keep coming back to one in particular though. Kalique Restaurant. It is on the next street down from Sudder and I have never seen another foreigner there during my time in the city. Usually it is full of locals and the food is excellent and cheap. There are a lot of restaurants that target the foreign community and the prices are often a few times the local restaurants. Having tried a few of them just for variety I can say that the food isn't really any better and the local place I have been eating has the best food in this part of town. The service is quick and they already know what I want when I come in, since I always get four paratha (a fried flat bread) and veggie curry.

The Salvation Army hostel is full of French Catholics. I have met many French people and my picture of the French is that they are a very secular people. Here in Calcutta there are a huge number of very religious French. It has been an interesting contrast to talk with them and spend a little time wandering the town.

On Monday morning I didn't do a whole lot, but Monday afternoon I went with Claire and a couple others to try and find Diya Den. A Mother Teresa house with the mission to care for crippled and retarded children. We didn't find it in the end but had an interesting time wandering that part of the city. After giving up the search we rested at a university for some time. It gave me a feeling of déjà vu to be there and I think it reminded me of somewhere in Rome. The buildings were quite beautiful.

Monday night I met Rudradeb, a local couchsurfer, for dinner. It was very nice to chat with someone from the area and him and his wife were very friendly. Perhaps most refreshing is they seemed to be on an equal footing. Perhaps my biggest complaint for this whole part of the world is the status of women. It is for the most part dismal. These two felt like they were equals to one another and this was a wonderful change. They invited me to come stay with them, which I found very tempting but I am lazy and I was already settled into the world of Sudder St. The country club where they were members reminded me of the other side of Dhaka. Most of Calcutta is poor and crowded but here there is space and tranquility. In the developing world these contrasts are so dramatic.

On Tuesday morning I also didn't do a whole lot. This has been pretty much my story the whole time I have been in Calcutta. I kept meaning to go and buy a ticket out of town but I wait and wait. I think to myself, I will do it in the afternoon. Then it is hot and I think I will do it the next day. Tuesday afternoon I wandered up to the government area. This was the capital of British India until it was moved to Delhi and the buildings are grand and very British. This is also where the foreign booking office is but I was too late to go there on Tuesday it having closed at 17:00. Walking back to Sudder St. I had the worst samosas I believe I have ever eaten. Usually I love samosas but these three were really quite foul. I should have just tossed them after the first bite, well they didn't make me ill at least.

On Wednesday I went with Lucy to Daya Din. It made me very sad to be there. The children didn't seem really human to me. In their eyes was nothing, they were empty. So I spent some hours flexing their arms and massaging them a bit. Probably this would have gotten easy with time. For me it brought no satisfaction. Maybe there is something else all these religious people get out of the experience. After I left I had no interest in coming back. It was interesting to talk with Lucy, her family is an old right wing political family and it was interesting to hear her thoughts on the current situation of France. Probably she will follow her family but still she is searching for her own direction politically. Her mother held a seat for the right wing in Bordeaux, but lost it in the last election.

On Thursday I didn't accomplish much besides reading and working on a bit of editing.

Friday morning I found bed bugs. Ugg! Disgusting creatures. So I moved from the Salvation Army to the Maria Hotel. It is the same price 70INR a night for the dorm, but it is a bit cleaner here. While I was moving I met a British girl who had just arrived, Andrea. So we went up to the foreign booking office of the train station together. Finally I had my ticket to Madras. I bought it for Sunday evening meaning to finish updating the web site before I leave Calcutta. After the booking office, a nice break from the heat of the city, we wandering for a while. We took a ferry across the river, only 4INR and it goes right to Howrah station, now I know how to leave Calcutta tonight. Walked over there for a while, and then took the ferry back. It was nice to see a bit more of the city. To look at the government area in the light of the morning instead of the evening, and to stretch my legs a bit.

On Saturday I spent a very long time on the computer and finished updating the blog up to early July. So I feel I've accomplished a small bit. Today I hope to bring the pictures up to date. I have started making pages for the new countries I made it to since I left China so perhaps I will finish this task today. Now I have again brought things up to date in writing as well. It feels good to write.

India is not my favorite part of the world. This is an interesting place. I have heard that you should love or hate South Asia. I feel neither. I don't like the culture. The caste system and gender relations are horrid here. The food is wonderful though. There are some very nice people and not everyone follows the worst of the system, but it is almost everywhere. It poisons the society. Here the population is still growing out of control. The landscapes are often beautiful. The architecture as well. Especially I am attracted to the remnants of British India. The colonial period is a romantic one for me. I see a lot of value in how it shaped the world.

In India so much is done by the muscle of man alone. I had seen cycle-rickshaws before but avoided them because I don't like to buy raw muscle. It makes me feel guilty in a way. Here there is often no choice but to use this transport. In Calcutta there are even rickshaws drawn by walking men. This is too much for me and I have not taken one of these. I might as well walk myself then have someone else do my walking for me. In the countryside there are an endless number of brick towers. These are kilns for making more bricks, distressingly these bricks, I have also often seen, are used to make gravel, by hand. This I can barely imagine. The work to make a brick by hand, then people sit with a hammer and break the brick apart into gravel. Here it feels that humans and human life have no value. There are too many people and not enough machines. Especially in Calcutta there are too many people. The street is their bedroom and toilet. It is a city of extremes in a country of extremes and I wonder how long before there will be a collapse.

Appendix I: Travel Timetable

2007.03.20 Korea, Embassy of India, Seoul, 6 month multi entry visa 115000KRW
2007.04.10 Korea, Embassy of China, Seoul, 6 month multi entry visa 128000KRW
2007.04.14 Korea admission ticket Jongmyo Royal Shrine 1000KRW (in misc Fall 06/ Spring 07)
2007.05.05 Korea ferry ticket Incheon-Dalian 18:00-?, Economy Class, Seat 201-11, 124600KRW, Route 466W
2007.05.06 China train ticket Dalian-Haerbin 18:19-?, Class Hard Seat, No Reserved Seat, Route 2019, 96CNY
2007.05.12 China Shenyang hotel 50CNY
2007.05.13 China taxi Beijing 13:46-14:16, 13.8km, 36CNY
2007.05.16 China fee for Tibet permit and required tour 780CNY + faxed permit
2007.05.16 China Temple of Heaven entry ticket 35CNY
2007.05.19 Mongolia ATM 150000MNT
2007.05.24 Mongolia train ticket Ulan Bator-Zamin Uud, Class 2nd, Wagon 05, Seat 11 12800MNT
2007.05.28 China Suzhou Youth Hostel, room 306 45CNY 100CNY deposit
2007.05.29 China Suzhou Youth Hostel room 205 45CNY
2007.05.30 China bus ticket Suzhou-Pudong 10:20-? Airport 82?CNY
2007.05.30 China maglev ticket Pudong Airport-Longyang Road 50CNY
2007.05.31 China Shanghai Museum 20CNY
2007.06.04 China train ticket Shanghai-Lasa 20:08-?, Class Hard Seat, Wagon 08, Seat 050, Route T164, 406CNY
2007.06.06 China Banakshol Lhasa hostel, Room 3-3, 25CNY
2007.06.07 China Banakshol Lhasa hostel, Room 3-3, 25CNY
2007.06.09 China bus ticket, Tibet F.I.T. Travel, Lhasa-Zhangmu 425CNY
2007.06.14 Nepal, Embassy of Pakistan 1 month single entry visa 120USD
2007.06.18 Nepal, Embassy of The People's Republic of Bangladesh 1 month single entry visa 100USD
2007.06.20 Nepal bus ticket Grey-Hound Nepal, Kathmandu-Pokhara 08:00-?, Seat B13, 300NPR
2007.06.22 Nepal bus ticket Prithwi Rajmarga Bus Sanchalak Samiti, Pokhara-Sunali 07:50-?, 300NPR
2007.06.22 India train ticket Gorakhpur Jn-Varanasi Jn(231km), Class Sleeper, Wagon S2, Seat 55, Route 5004 (Chaurichaura Exp), 134INR(paid 225?INR)
2007.06.24 India train ticket Varanasi-Mughal Sarai(17km), Class 2nd Class Seat, Route 3414 (Parakhai Exp), 18INR
2007.06.24 India train ticket Mughal Sarai-New Jalpaiguri(703km) 21:20-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S3, Seat 58(MB), Route 4084 (Mahananda Exp), 289INR
2007.06.27 India bus ticket, Bhutan Transport Service, Siliguri-Jaigon 14:00-? 60INR
2007.06.30 India train ticket New Jalpaiguri-Guwahati(425km) 18:15-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S6, Seat 16, Route 5610 (Avadh Assam Exp), 204INR
2007.07.01 India bus ticket, Assam State Transport Corporation, Guwahati-Agartala 10:00-?, Seat 33, 460INR
2007.07.02 Bangladesh train ticket ?-Dhaka, 45BDT?
2007.07.06 Bangladesh American Recreation Association Independence Day Dinner & Dance Party 700BDT
2007.07.07 Bangladesh bus ticket, Green Line, Dhaka-Banapole 22:00-?, Seat H1, 550BDT
2007.07.08 Bangladesh exit tax 300BDT
2007.07.08 India bus ticket, Green Line, Petrapole-Calcutta, 120INR
2007.07.08 India metro ticket Calcutta, 1 Zone, 1 Ride 4INR
2007.07.11 India metro ticket Calcutta, 1 Zone, 1 Ride 4INR
2007.07.15 India train ticket Howrah JN-Chennai Central(1663km) 23:45-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S3, Seat 4(LB), Route 2603 (HWH MAS Mail), 469INR
2007.07.19 India train ticket Chennai Central-Ernakulam Town(689km) 20:00-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S3, Seat 50(MB), Route 2623 (Trivandrum Mail), 293INR
2007.07.20 India train ticket Ernakulum JN-Thivim(914km) 19:55-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S4, Seat 9(LB), Route 6338 (Okha Express), 324INR
2007.07.22 India train ticket Madgaon-Mumbai CST(765km) 16:45-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S3, Seat 36(LB), Route 0112 (Konkan Kanya Exp), 303INR
2007.07.26 India train ticket Bandra Terminus-Jaipur(1148km) 15:45-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S9, Seat 12, Route 2979 (Jaipur Superfast), 385INR
2007.07.28 India train ticket Jaipur-Agra Fort(241km) 02:00-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S13, Seat 65(LB), Route 2308 (JU HWH Supfast), 167INR
2007.07.28 India train ticket Agra Cantt-New Delhi(195km) 11:30-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S2, Seat 45, Route 8507 (Hirakud Express), 131INR
2007.07.28 India train ticket Delhi-Kalka(303km) 22:00-?, Class Sleeper, Wagon S8, Seat 44(LB), Route 2311 (HWH DLI KLK Mail), 157INR
2007.07.29 India train ticket Kalka-Simla(96km), Class 2nd Class Seat, 35INR
2007.07.29 India bus ticket, Himachal Road Transport Corporation, Shimla-Manali 20:20-?, Seat 10, 206INR
2007.08.01 India park entry Manali 5INR
2007.08.02 India bus ticket, Himachal Road Transport Corporation, Manali-Amritsar 15:30-?, Seat 10, 273INR
2007.08.04 India departure card
2007.08.04 Pakistan bus ticket, New Khan Metro, Lahore 14PKR
2007.08.04 Pakistan bus ticket, New Khan Metro, Lahore 6PKR
2007.08.06 Pakistan bus ticket, Daewoo, Lahore-Abbotabad, Seat 16, 550PKR
2007.08.06 Pakistan bus ticket, Mashabrum Tours, Mansehra-Gilgit, Seat 20, 550PKR
2007.08.08 Pakistan Khunjerab National Park 240PKR
2007.08.08 Pakistan bus ticket, Northern Areas Transport Corporation, Gilgit-Kashgar 05:30-?, Seat 9, 44USD(in PKR)
2007.08.12 China hostel 4 nights at 30CNY per night
2007.08.12 China train platform entry ticket Kashgar, 1CNY
2007.08.12 China train ticket Kashgar-Urumqi, Class Hard Seat, No Reserved Seat, Route N888, 192CNY
2007.08.14 China train ticket Urumqi-Hankou, Class Hard Seat, Wagon 06, Seat 100, Route T194, 303CNY
2007.08.23 China Wuhan Pathfinder International Youth Hostel 40CNY per night 100CNY deposit
2007.08.23 China train ticket Hankou-Guilin 17:02-?, Class Hard Seat, Wagon 05, Seat 020, Route 1627, 92CNY
2007.08.26 China train ticket Guilin-Beijingxi(got off at Hankou) 19:20-?, Class Hard Seat, Wagon 16, Seat 014, Route K22, 238CNY
2007.08.28 China train ticket Hankou-Beijingxi 11:05-?, Class 2nd (high speed train), Wagon 03, Seat 048, Route D122, 207CNY(discount from unused portion of ticket above)
2007.08.28 China train ticket Beijing-Shenyang 23:55-?, Class Hard Sleeper, Wagon 06, Seat 002, Route K95, 172CNY
2007.08.29 China round trip flight Shenyang-Pyongyang receipt
2007.08.29 China flight Air Koryo Shenyang-Pyongyang, Seat 6C, Flight JS 156
2007.08.29 DPRK Tourist Card
2007.08.29 DPRK Arirang Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance Pyongyang, Third Class, 50USD
2007.09.01 DPRK flight Air Koryo Pyongyang-Shenyang, Seat 20F, Flight JS 155
2007.09.02 China train ticket Shenyang-Shenzhen 18:05-?, Class Hard Seat, Wagon 16, Seat 69, Route T188, 320CNY
2007.09.10 Hong Kong flight Korea Air Hong Kong-Seoul, Seat 15J, Flight KE 608

China, ticket 12CNY
China, Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple 10CNY
India, Calcutta, entry ticket for Victoria Memorial Garden 4INR
India ferry ticket? 4INR
India bus Madras-Pondy 95INR
India bus Pondy-Madras 55INR
India bus ticket? 3.5INR
India bus ticket? 2.5INR
India ferry ticket? 3.5INR
China, Beijing bus ticket 1CNY
China, Shenyang bus ticket Shenyang-Airport 10CNY x2
DPRK, Pyongyang metro ticket 5?KPW

Appendix II: Exchange Rates (2007.07.01)
Code USD/1 Unit Units/1 USD Currency
BDT 0.01486 69.96200 Bangladeshi Taka
BTN 0.02256 44.42000 Bhutan Ngultrum
CNY 0.13150 7.62350 Chinese Yuan Renminbi
EUR 1.35460 0.73880 Euro
GBP 2.00920 0.49800 British Pound
INR 0.02455 40.73500 Indian Rupee
KPW 0.00714 140.00000 North Korean Won (Official rate)
KPW 0.00100 1000.00000 North Korean Won (Real rate)
KRW 0.00109 923.36100 South-Korean Won
MNT 0.00086 1164.00000 Mongolian Tugrik
NPR 0.01573 66.08800 Nepalese Rupee
PKR 0.01653 60.48000 Pakistan Rupee

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All material copyright 2004-2010 by Loren Everly.