China Musings

Sunday morning we rolled into the Xiangfan Train station, ready for another trip out to Baokang, Alison’s hometown. Summer is the rainy season out here, and it shows in the mountians; green on top of green. The pristine blue-green lakes, the green rice paddies, and furry looking green mountains. The bus ride was a beautiful as ever, passing through these mountains and up the hills. We took the new raod that isn’t finished yet, with a very long tunnel, but it didn’t seem to save any time.

As always being in Baokang is about being with family. This time, we have a new arrival in the shape of a 3 year old fireball. He Feiyang’s little brother (under the one child policy, first cousins become brothers and sisters) Yuanyuan is staying with his grandparents (actually, great-aunt, but who’s counting). The last time I saw him he was a little ball of flesh bundled up against the cold during 2003 spring festival. At that time he seemed very quiet, and very lazy, taking in the world around him at his leasure. Now, he is a dynamo running around on newfound legs and getting himself into anything he can. He is pretty well behaved though, and listens when we speak to him. He really only speaks dialect, so I don’t really understand anything he says, but we get along well. I’m teaching him english, but I don’t think he’ll remember.

It has been raining here, for 2 days non-stop. The main street flooded yesterday and now it is full of mud. The river in the center of town is huge and rushing. The town is much the same, with a few new stores selling more “fancy’ looking things. Everyone seems to be doing well, and is happy to see us, which is a good sign.

We just got back from your first Hong Kong (HK) trip together. After living in GZ for three years, Alison finally got the right papers that allow her to travel to HK. We decided to take a weekend trip for our 3rd anniversary.

Hong Kong was a lot of fun. We stayed in a nice little hotel at the top of the hill in Tsim Sha Tsui. HK really is a shoppers paradise. We spent our first evening walking along the streets of TST, stopping in random stores and gawking at all the things to buy. I have been to HK several times now, but most of the time I am in a big hurry, and rush through without noticing anything. This time I was able to really see what there was to offer, and I was impressed with the variety.

We had dinner at my favorite Indian Restaurant, Branto’s, on Lock Road. I have been to this place almost every time I am in HK, and I am always happy with the quality of the food. It is pure vegitarian food, but eating like this makes it easy to forget about meat.

The next day we had a great 5 course French meal, the food was not the best I’ve had, but it was a very pleasant place and the service through 5 courses was a treat. There is something to be said about taking your time with a meal, it really lets you appreciate the food. So often I simply wolf down my food, I forget how nice it is to relax and let the meal happen at its own pace.

Then we took the ferry over to the Honk Kong Island side of the straight. I love the Star Ferry, and Alison appreciated the view of the HK skyline. One we got the Central, the finanacial district of HK, we were met with a onslaught of Tagalog. Apparently, Sunday is the traditional day off for all the Filipino Domestic helpers that live and work in HK. On Sunday, they gravitate to Central and hang out in the parks, the walkways - anywhere there is shade - to hang out with their friends, do each other’s hair, and eat each other’s food. I didn’t realize how many ex-patriate Filipnos were living in HK. They literally took over Central.

We ended up in IFC Mall, one of HK newer shopping extravaganzas. Surprisingly, I was able to find a fancy designer shop with clothes on sale that we could actually afford, sort of. There was a steel drum jazz band playing, tons of shops and tons of people, delicious smells coming from the bakeries and restaurants; I could certianly get used to shopping like that.

Finally we headed to Wan Chai, where we could hop on a bus back home to GZ. It was a really ncie weekend, and I hope we have more time to make similar trips in the future. I also hope next time we can actually offord to buy something!

Well, I know it’s been 3 years since I was there, but finally, I have posted my Everest Album. Most of the pictures inside were not taken by me, as I was using my trusty EOS Rebel on that trip. The fate of those photos (tucked away in a box, in a closet) is as good a case for me buying a digital SLR that I can imagine. I really miss my EOS, but it just isn’t practical. Anyway, about the pictures, I tried to write up as much about the trip that I can remember. I still have to create and post an album for the rest of Tibet. These pics are just from our 8 day Everst “trek”.

The story behind this trip was that we planned to do a full-on 5 day trek from a town called Dingri to the everest base camp. It was to be very difficult, and breathtakinly beautiful. We hired a guide and driver for the 2 day drive. Upon arrival at Dingri, however, it began to rain. Our guide told us solemnly, if it continues to rain, we cannot go, the rivers will be too high.

It rained all through the night. The net morning, our guide shook his head, and held his hand to his neck, “We will have to cross many rivers, because ot he rain, they are too big, we will die.”

He suggested that we drive to the camp, take some pictures, then head back early. We dicussed this at length, and finally decided to drive up and see what we could see. The first thing we saw was no rivers…

The second thing was that although we hadn’t hiked there, we still had paid for 8 days of car time, and we had 4 nights of camp food, our tents, and all the equipment. So, we just camped out on a patch of grass in fron of the Rhombuk Monastary. We ate our camp food, and spent our days walking around the valley and hanging out with the local kids. I for one had a great time. Our driver markedly did not, but hey, he was getting paid.

Finally, on the drive back, we took our time and went through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen, fantastic valleys, endless feilds of yellow flowers, shepherds movin their sheep across the hills, all this makes me want to come back someday and make the trek for real.

We traveled to malaysia on may 1, 2005. It was a lot of fun.

Please take a look at the pics.