Category: travel

Five days in Shanghai is too much –unless you’ve got family or friends to visit, business to conduct or serious shopping to do. There is not much for the Lonely Planet toting backpacker. A few small pockets of the China all westerners long to see –tea houses, pagodas, temples and beautiful gardens. Most of Shanghai is filled with modern high rises –a testament to the waking dragon’s economic powers– spotted between older communist building projects, many now little more than slums. Here and there you can still see a bit of the past.

The Bund [wikipedia.org] is still lined with western buildings in ‘Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux Arts, and Art Deco’ styles –if you are an architecture lover it’s worth the visit. Filled with western tourists and business men it’s not that interesting, but good for it’s reverse culture shock –you feel like you’re in London more than Shanghai, until the hawkers spot you– and it’s bars and pubs. The night life is alive and well along the Bund so if you’re up for some partying; have at.

I stayed in a small hotel on the southwest side of Shanghai. My room was on the third floor over looking a small but busy street. I had a large window to look out on the city. The view was not beautiful; smog was constant and construction was omnipresent. Highrise cranes filled the skyline, almost as common as telephone poles. From my little hotel room I explored the local neighborhoods for at least a few hours every day. One of the first things that was obvious was the juxtaposition of housing. In a few blocks you might pass a 20+ story modern western style apartment block, a multi-story dilapidated communist housing unit, and older low level concrete housing which amounts today to little more then rubble and ruins.

The people who lived among the ruins seem to be the major entrepreneurs of the city selling anything you want; food, drinks, clothing, bikes, parts, you name it. There was a lot of great street food and these vendors seemed to be the most friendly of the people I met in China on this trip. They would yell ‘hello’ and wave me over to see what they had. Pointing out what I could buy in broken English. The most persistent at this were the pirate DVD vendors –which appeared every night when the sun went down and were as common as bikes. There was at least 2 or 3 guys selling DVDs on every block.

China says it is doing all it can to tackle the piracy industry, but I don’t buy it. A few hundred cases and few hundred arrests? In one night a few hundred police in Shanghai could increase that number by at least an order or magnitude. On the other hand given the booming business that these pirated DVDs (and other goods) do I expect that if China really cracked down on this industry –even only enough to drive it truly underground as opposed to the current in-plain-sight state– the economy might grind to a halt causing a major problem. The only thing is the communists can’t admit that publicly, they can’t say “we are not in a position to stop the street vendors, it’s too much of a risk, the problem is too big, it could cause a major recession. Instead we are going to go after the root of the problem; the factories, the sweat shops and the organized crime. Thereby driving the street vendors away from the piracy industry in a more orderly fashion preventing any major negative economic consequences.” Oh well, the Party is never wrong I suppose. Piracy is, and I suspect will remain for some time, an endemic problem in China’s big cities.

After a couple of days in the concrete jungle of Shanghai I decided to head out of the city for a day trip. After looking over the options presented in the guide book I decide to head to Hangzhou [wikipedia.org] to see the famous West Lake [wikipedia.org]. This turned into a nightmare. First I got up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready and head to the train station –a 45 minute journey from my hotel by Metro/walking– as the first train passing through both Shanghai and Hangshou departed at 7:00. Once there I was confronted with the utter and complete chaos of the ticketing system. Twenty or so windows server tickets at the Shanghai railway station but not a one had anything resembling a line at it. Instead it was a push, shove, kick, and scream your way to the front and then do whatever you can to get the attention of the ticket seller; yell, shove money under the window, knock on the window. Do whatever you can. Chinese have no concept of a queue, twice now –in Beijing and in Shanghai– I have witnessed this lack of basic common sense and twice I have been utterly defeated by it.

After battling my way to the ‘English speaking’ counter it closed. Right in front of me. So I had to battle my way to another counter. Where I said ‘Ye. Hangzhou’ which means (kinda) ‘One. Hangzhou.’ The attendant looked at me. Typed something. Shook her head. Typed something else. Shook her head. Typed once more. Shook her head and looked at me saying ‘Bu’ which means ‘no.’ Then she pointed back down the row of windows and said ‘Engahrish.’ So I dodged and weaved my way back towards the only English speaking window in the station. By now it was 7:00. Missed that train.

Meanwhile at the English speaking window the old haggard looking woman who had closed the window in my face had been replaced by a young fresh lady with a big smile. After swatting away several hands full of money belonging to others trying to get tickets while I was at the window I managed to tell her I wanted to go to Hangzhou.

“No tickets for 7, no tickets for 8:30. Standing room only for the 11:30. You want,” she asked.

‘Shit, there goes my day,’ I thought, “yes,” I said, “and return tonight?”

“Only 5 PM. Standing room.”

“Um. Ok.” ‘It’s a two hour trip so I’ll still have 4 hours or so’ I thought.

At least the tickets were cheep. I think I paid like US$3 in total. And I got exactly what I paid for… The train to Hangzhou was close to an hour late leaving Shanghai and was two hours of smoke between-the-cars and two-feet-from the nasty squatter toilet hell.

So by the time I got to Hangzhou it was 2:30. Then I had to take a cab to the shores of the actual West Lake… 30 minutes. This means I only had about an hour and 15 minutes to walk around the impressive and large West Lake –the lake the grounds of the Summer Palace [wikipedia.org] outside Beijing are based on– if I wanted to safely make it back to the train station, just in case my train was on time.

The whole reason I went to Hangzhou over some of the other sites in the guide book was to see the ‘ten attractions’ noted by the Emperor Qianlong: Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway (苏堤春晓), Listining Orioles Singing in the Willows (柳浪闻莺), View Fish in the Flower Harbour (花港观鱼),Lotus in the Breeze at the Winding Courtyard (曲苑风荷),Evening Bells at the Nanping Mountain (南屏晚钟),Autumn Moon over a Calm Lake (平湖秋月),Evening Sunshine over Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰夕照),Three Pools Mirroring the Moon (三潭印月), Melting Snow on Broken Bridge (断桥残雪), Twin Peaks Piercing the Clouds (双峰插云). Of which I managed to see exactly none.

And then back to the train station for another late train and two more hours of stale smoke and shit smells. West Lake was beautiful and very peaceful if a little too much over ‘turistified’ by official renovations to exploit the tourists. But overall I’d say my trip was a waste of a day. The lesson of all this: make your ticket reservations days in advance.

That was about the end of my running around. I had an afternoon flight on Sunday so I did a little shopping and tried to get a good day time photo of the Bund and Pudong skyline (failed, too much smog.) Then a very long ride to the airport and a relaxing Singapore Airlines flight back to the clean, orderly, non-chaos of Singapore. Yes the nanny state has it’s great advantages.

After visiting some of my family in Paris, Candice and I flew to Japan to meet up with J███████, K██ and J██ in Japan to rain havoc on ‘the island nation.’ Of course J███████ and K██ arrived some days before Candice and I so the three of them had headed to Kyoto before us and it was up to Candice and I to navigate the train system from Narita airport to Kyoto.

It wasn’t too bad actually Japanese efficiency being what it is. And meeting up with our co-conspirators in Kyoto was easy —look for the crazy Gaijin in front of the train station. From their we settled in our friendly little Ryokan and hit the sack so we could begin our adventures early in the morning.

Early in the morning it was snowing! Which is very cool because part of the reason for going to Paris and Kyoto in the dead of winter (aside for it being the best time to meet everybody’s schedules) was to get some cold weather in —it doesn’t snow in Singapore and possibly never has.

We spent a week exploring (or re-exploring in the case of J███████, J██ and I) Kyoto. We visited most of the major sites: Nijo-jo [wikipedia.org] where the Shogun [wikipedia.org] use to play, Ginkaku-ji [wikipedia.org] the Silver Pavilion and Kinkaku-ji [wikipedia.org] the Golden Pavilion. We revisited Heian Jingu [wikipedia.org] and visited a new (to us) site; Fushimi Inari-taisha [wikipedia.org].

We also ventured outside Kyoto to Uji [wikipedia.org] to visit the Byodo-in [wikipedia.org] a site J███████ and I neglected with S██████ on our previous trip. Also outside Kyoto we visited Himeji [wikipedia.org] to visit it’s famous castle [wikipedia.org]. And we returned to Nara [wikipedia.org] to revisit the Todai-ji [wikipedia.org] to see the big Buddha.

Of course all this visiting of various things in and around Kyoto was second to the big thing I did in Japan—I asked Candice to marry me and she said yes as already covered here [confusion.cc]. Done in the beautiful afternoon light at Kinkaku-ji.

After all this running around Kyoto we returned to Tokyo for a few days and visited a few places; Meiji Jingu [wikipedia.org], Sensoji [wikipedia.org] and all the famous streets, train stations, etc. Mostly we were in Tokyo to shop and meet up with some of Jim’s local friends so we could drink ‘sake’ and ‘beeru’ and eat much pub food. Unfortunately Jim doesn’t drink more than a few mouthfuls anymore—it messes with his concentration when he is meditating!

All in all a wonderful trip (even aside from getting engaged!) Can’t wait to do another trip with these guys. Travel is most fun when you’re with a bunch of like minded fools!

After more than three years away I made it back to Paris with my digital camera. Ever since I got the 10D I have wanted to return to Paris—and the rest of Europe that I visited prior to my digital upgrade. Last time I was in Paris one of my younger sisters was with me, this time the other younger sister was with me, and my older sister, and my mom, and, most importantly, Candice.

We visited many of the same places that I took my sister last time. There was, this time, as before, a lot of steps. There were steps at the Towers of Notre Dame [wikipedia.org]. There were steps at Montmartre [wikipedia.org] and some more at Sacre Coeur [wikipedia.org]. There were steps at the Arc de Triumph [wikipedia.org]. There were steps everywhere, except at the Eiffel Tower [wikipedia.org] which I did not make them climb to the top of.

As usual we did a lot of walking, though we did more Metro riding than I have done on most trips. Too cold outside and too many people to make them walk all over the city. As a result of not walking as much and eating way too often in the Latin Quarter I don’t think anyone lost any weight this time. That’s too bad losing a few pounds is the best side effect from walking miles a day—even eating all that fatty street food.

All in all a good trip. I like Paris better in the late spring or early fall but at least there were almost no tourists this time. It only took 30 minutes to get into the Eiffel Tower! I took a lot of photos though as usual some of the shots I thought would be best did not turn out well. I even managed to clean the photos up and post them in under two months!

In the more pictures that I have neglected to upload you can now find these photos from Washington DC (and Arlington VA.) This photos were taken when Candice and I were in DC at the end of August.

Nothing spectacular here but a few nice shots of Arlington National Cemetery [wikipedia.org] and of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial [wikipedia.org]. There are also a few nice Flower pictures. Enjoy

The first thing you notice about Beijing (aside from ‘there’s a billion Chinese people here!’) is the smog. I’ve read about the smog and I’ve seen pictures of the smog, but trust me, it’s worse than all that. After walking around for just 30 minutes you become covered in a fine layer of grit. Just rubbing your hand across your forehead is like using one of those facial washes with ‘micro beads.’ I know that Mexico City has a serious smog problem, but I can’t imagine much worse than Beijing, walking down the street and breathing is akin to being in a smoky pub. Mexico City’s problem is compounded because the city sits in a bowl and the wind can’t blow the smog away. Beijing is on an open plain and visibility was often less than 2 miles.

After you make it past the smog—and how frustrating the fog makes photography!—Beijing is an interesting city. Like Bangkok [confusion.cc] and Kuala Lumpur [confusion.cc] Beijing has thoroughly westernized sections filled with billboards, shopping malls, traffic jams, fast food and typical consumerism (only everything is well, Chinafied). Knock-offs are, of course, everywhere in this communist consumer wonderland but there are a lot of genuine western products mixed in. Other parts of Beijing are more like Ho Chi Minh [confusion.cc], they are still recovering from their enforced isolation from the forces of globalization, but you can still get your McMao burger—you just have to walk further.

The big touristy attractions of The Forbidden City (紫禁城 / zǐ jìn chéng) [wikipedia.org], the Summer Palace (颐和园/頤和園 / Yíhé Yuán) [wikipedia.org], the Temple of Heaven (天壇 / Tiān Tán) [wikipedia.org] are a must. They are tightly controlled, you have to pay entrance fees and often you have to pay again for specific parts (or make sure you get the ‘inclusive’ ticket at the main gate) and everything seems to close early—5:00 or 5:30. I guess that’s socialist work hours and communist work hours have something in common. The Summer Palace and Forbidden City merit all day if you don’t get burned out, and the Temple of Heaven and surrounding park and building can kill most of a day too.

For a bit more local color—and, watch out, smell!—the hutongs [wikipedia.org] that surround the city center are the place to head to. There are so many layers of living history in the maze of hutongs. From shops selling Mao buttons and patches, to fantastic noodle shops, barbers in the street, and local markets, every corner turned presents a new character. The classic hutongs of Beijing are disappearing but the large number of new ‘public toilets’ that I saw seems to me to indicate that the government has admitted that they won’t be able to wipe them out before the 2008 Summer Olympics [beijing-2008.org]. It’s both disturbing and fascinating to see people living in (basically) the same style and buildings that their ancestors lived in 800 years ago. I think I saw the source of some of that grit in the air while Candice and I explored the hutongs Southwest of the Forbidden City; a man on a flat bed bike delivering charcoal briquettes for cooking.

Of course half (at least) of the reason for going to Beijing was to see the Great Wall of China [wikipedia.org]. With a little help from a colleague at work who lived in Beijing for a time and the Lonely Planet [lonelyplanet.com] Beijing [lonelyplanet.com] guide book, I decided to avoid the touristy and totally rebuilt section of wall at Badaling (八達嶺 / Bādá Lǐng) [wikipedia.org] and hike the 10 or so kilometers between Jinshanling and Simatai (sorry no links on Wikipedia).

The hike was great. The 10 or so kilometers between Jinshanling and Simatai becomes about 12 by the time you hike up to the wall and back down. We started at 6:30 in the morning and there were already people on the wall. I was fairly certain we would be the first at the Jinshanling end as we woke the ticket collector up. I wanted to be on the wall for sun rise but a miscommunication somewhere along the line while booking the ride ended up causing us to miss sunrise by 40 minutes or so (that after getting up at 3:30 and leaving at 4:30—Jinshanling is ~110km from Beijing.) But it was still beautiful.

The hike is fairly easy when you get up to the wall at Jinshanling, but that’s misleading as a the first kilometer or so has been restored for the tourist taking the cable car up and hiking back down to the parking lot. After you pass the guard tower that is the end point for the cable car the wall undergoes a sudden shift from easy well maintained to not maintained since the Ming Dynasty. The means the wall is in various stages that range from a little weathered to no side walls, bricks reduced to gravel, to almost no wall. The steps are steep and uneven, when there are steps, and in some places you need both hands free for climbing. It can be quite harrowing on the sections with no side walls to keep you from falling and a smooth 60 degree downward slop.

In the end we made it with only sore feet and ankles and bit of a sun burn (I left the sun screen on the bed in the hotel – d’oh!) but it did take us 6 hours. I took hundreds of photos, and even at the wall—110+ km from Beijing the smog was a problem. I took photo after photo because I don’t think I will ever be back to that section of wall. I might, if I’m lucky, do part of the Great Wall again one day but if the choice was mine I would visit a section I did not see this time.

The Great Wall is one of the places near the top of my must see list of historical sites. The Acropolis in Athens [wikipedia.org], Stonehenge [wikipedia.org], the Great Pyramid of Giza [wikipedia.org], Angkor Wat [wikipedia.org], and the Taj Mahal are the others [wikipedia.org]. I’ve done three now, three to go. Hopefully I can do Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal while I am living on this side of the world.

All in all Beijing was a great trip. Too short by far, but a great trip. Between all the touristy things I got to see a lot of everyday life—flying kits in the part, shopping at the market, road side noodle shops. I didn’t get to see anyone doing Tai Chi or other martial arts but maybe next trip to China.