Liver Damage and Great Pictures

Day: 245

Sometimes I think a hangover is the greatest way to get astounding night shots. I wasn’t up until 11am, followed by a couple of hours on the internet chatting with my Dad and blogging. I immediately chased that with a nap until roughly four. A waste of a day to be sure, but the tour I wanted to go on today was full and the skies outside gray.

Wandered the streets for a few hours, finding the shot above in the wrong light, and a few others photos; a couple that I liked, lots that I didn’t. Finally Simon and Amanda showed up, equally hungover, and we headed out to see what nightlife on a Friday night in Xi’an is like.

Once again it was extremely late before bedtime. Fortunately I choose not to be excessively bombed today. I do have to go see like 10,000 Terra Cotta Warriors tomorrow.

Oh, and I forgot to link it yesterday, but Simon’s blog is here.

Blog Convergence

Day: 244

I spent seven hours today in a hurling steel cocoon of death that weaved in and out of three lanes of traffic across the rain slicked road from Pingyao to Xian. My Ipod was shuffling through a playlist from my mother’s birthday party with classics like “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It made for some interesting daylight hours. Although not really interesting enough to take my camera out of my bag for. The bus is usually a place I avoid trying to flash my camera, I have heard too many stories about people drifting off to wake up and find things missing.

Getting into Xi’an with the setting sun I had a plan. It was pushing 7pm and I had an 8pm agreement to meet Simon, a fellow Bootsnall PhotoBlogger, out front of the Big Goose Pagoda (I wish we had the balls to give things names like that in the states). I grabbed a bed in a downtown hostel, dropped my bag, brushed my teeth and jumped another cab across town.

Now I have never met Simon before, but we have been following each others blogs for more than a year now with the occasional email asking each other for photo advice or to have questions answer about places one of us has been. It already seemed like I knew the guy. He’s on his seventh month traveling and is on his way north through China, I happened to be going south. Out front of the Big Goose Pagoda, we shot some pictures of a water show and exchanged the general travel getting to know you banter. For those of you that don’t know these include; Where are you from? Where are you going? Where have you been? How long are you traveling? and normally a name is not even asked until your travel-cred (like street-cred) has been established.

As expected we got along exceptionally well, and it was great to have someone to talk about photography with that I didn’t feel like I was teaching. A dumb founded look is the most common response to my mumblings about f-stops and magic hour, but Simon understood.

Making it back to my hostel the beer drinking ensued and didn’t stop until everyone involved was quite drunk and were pushing sunrise. Stumbling into my room in the middle of the night, I am relatively sure I woke everyone in the room.

The Last Wall

Day: 242

After yesterdays adventure I have been left spent for today. Waking up and showering before midday was an accomplishment.

This beautiful little town was well deserving of the few strolls I took throughout the day through its maze of brick buildings and grey stone streets. Amazing food and a very chill vibe, which I am sure the lack of cars has helped create. This was the perfect place to come for a few nights after the stress of Beijing during a holiday.

Pretty much all I did was eat and wander around, and it was my new Israeli friend, Naama’s, birthday. The night was filled with celebration, of course.

I did manage to crush my head more than once on the extremely low doorways after a few to many…

I would write more, But I am exhausted from the today’s events (my today, not the blogs today. More to come about my today, on the blog tomorrow). I will let you know that I have got some amazing pictures coming when I post again though!

Piinyaawwwooo!!!

Day: 241

I finally managed to sleep until 8am; so fully rested and ready to tackle the day I had a cup of coffee and an omelet before hitting the odorific streets of Beijing. Having already got passed caring about the usual morning smells of decaying trash and urine that seem to coat Beijing’s alleys, I was able to stroll right past to get into the city center. The only issue is that in that 500 meter stroll I realized that today is what we call in California a Level Red Smog Day, the type where teachers have to keep their students inside to avoid permanent damage to the children’s cardiovascular systems.

In the hope that I could find something to do in my completely lively state of rest and caffeine, I trudged onward. It didn’t take long and my contacts and eyeballs were battling it out to see who could itch more. My skin felt coated with grime and needless to say it was less than the ideal situation for taking striking pictures.

After an hour, I gave up and headed into my hostels lounge, only to find that most everyone else staying there was in the same predicament. Boredom became the day, complete with lengthy periods of interneting and card games with a horde of Israeli ex-army kids. This went on all afternoon, until me and the other five people on the way to Pingyao, set off to catch the bus in the early evening.

The most exciting part of this day was trying to figure out which of the buses was ours. We wandered from driver to driver saying “Pingyao” in my Standard American dialect. Only to have confused looks as a reply. Finally we just waved our tickets in everyone’s face until a mob of people in love with one of the girls blond hair took us to the appropriate bus.

“Pingyao?” I asked once again.

Same confused look. Followed by a look at the Chinese characters on our tickets, and him saying with some amount of zest, “Piinyaawwwooo!!!” (Try saying it out load and that is exactly how it’s supposed to sound. Complete with the exclamation.)

“Piinyaawwwooo!!!” I energetically mimicked. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up. We threw our bags in the storage hold and climbed onto this “sleeper-bus”. “Sleeper-bus” basically means instead of chairs the bus is equipped with beds, albeit very small Chinese size beds. I didn’t have my tape measure, but from my carpentry days I’d have to say about 18″ wide and 5’3″ long. Not the most comfortable, but at least I was getting away from Beijing’s death-filled air.

The night went quickly, with myself managing even to get some sleep thanks to the vibrating of the bus and the excessively long play list on my Ipod.

We only broke down twice; which both times took every Chinese man on the bus to get out and stand around the engine at the back of the bus smoking cigarettes. Each time after a considerable amount of repairs- which from my vantage point near the front of the bus sounded very like a pipe wrench being slammed repetitively into the engine- and at least a carton of cigarettes being smoked, on and off the bus, by an assortment of ten men, the engine would come to life and we would be on our way.

5:15am: The bus pulls off the highway into a rather desolate stretch of land and urban cityscape and the driver announces:

“Piinyaawwwooo!!!”

I guess the only passengers on the bus for Pingyao were the six of us, because everyone else stayed asleep as the driver’s assistant unloaded our backpacks on the side of the road. Not really knowing what our location was in relation to the classic Chinese city I read about, I whipped out my little language book. Through some amount of page shuffling the driver and I decided that if we walked north, I’d be to the hostel where I booked for the next couple of nights.

It was only a couple of kilometers and we came into the abandoned streets of the walled city of “Pingyao”. I found my hostel, woke up the night staff and found a bed. I didn’t feel exceptionally tired but, as soon as I closed my eyes I was out.

Empty Walls and Full Stations

Day: 240

Staring at the roof in my dorm room, it’s 5:30 in the morning again and I am wide awake. Too early to be sane but too late to fall asleep again, my alarm was set to go off in an hour. I get up and get to work, blogging, downloading pictures and playing on the internet for a while. When it begins to approach 7am I finally pack up my computer and mosey downstairs for a cup of coffee and a sandwich whilst I wait for my tour to the Great Wall to begin.

I had paid a few dollars extra over the “regular” (ie restored) Wall tour to be able to get to a more or less abandon section of the Great Wall which had fallen to disrepair. This also came with a price tag of a 2 ½ hour trip, each way, packed it a tiny minibus with eleven others, next to a pair of not so miniscule Canadian brothers. At least I had a window to hang my head out and breath the smog filled air that has constantly been burning my eyes and throat.

Arriving at a tiny dirt path that bisected the road, we meant our guide who took us on a half an hour hike at a mind-numbingly slow pace to get up to the Wall. When we finally crested the last hill and the Wall was in sight, he more or less let us off our leash and pointed us in the direction he wanted us to travel.

Just for everyone’s information, scrambling up and down a giant pile of rocks that once held off invading Mongol hordes, is just good times.

I took a grip of pictures, nothing I am too passionate about, and when we made it to the top of one particularly high tower, we found one enterprising Chinese man had set up shop to sell “I climbed the Great Wall” t-shirts, overpriced bottles of water, and Nescafe coffee drinks; The last of which I bought, partly because I was impressed with his ingenuity and partly because he was just a smiling mo-fo who posed for me in a couple of pictures.

From this peak (both in the day and the Wall) we headed down for lunch and another cramped minibus ride that couldn’t be beat.

Back at the hostel I decided it was time to get the hell out of Beijing. I checked my Lonely Planet and it told me there was a nightly train to Pingyao, a little town about 12 hours south. I left everything of value in my locker at the hostel and set off to brave the Beijing metro to get me to what I soon found to be the biggest train station I have ever been in; and even better, it being the last day of the May holiday (one of the biggest travel days in China), this place was packed. People sleeping on their bags everywhere waiting for their trains, yelling, line cutting, x-rays, and general bedlam was ensuing.

I saw one glimmer of hope shone for me, a ticket window with a sign that said “English Speaking Counter” and there were only two people in line! I queued up, giving the guy in front of me a little breathing room. Bad choice, the Chinese behind me decided this breathing room was my own indecision and two of them bumped past to start berating the sales girl with questions while she was still helping the last guy. She took it in stride and I stretched out my elbows, blocking anyone else from sneaking past.

At the window I asked “One for Pingyao tomorrow?”

“Standing only.” She replied.

My ass if I was standing on a 12 hour overnight train .

Unfortunately I didn’t have any second choices ready and I was pushed out of the way in my second of indecision. I thought for a moment, but now I was becoming flustered and overwhelmed by this whole place, and the mobs of people where crushing my personal space and I quickly retreated to a cab back to the hostel. I had given up.

Guess I’ll just have to figure it out tomorrow… I thought as I settled in for my first beer at the hostel bar.

Fortunately for me, as with most things in my life, alcohol solved this little problem.

After a few beers I was regaling a pair of Israeli girls with my story and they told me they had found tickets on a bus for tomorrow evening to Pingyao. I could even book at the hostel for an extra 30yuan ($3.50)! I didn’t even finish my beer and I was at the front desk having them call and get me a ticket. Done and Done.

I don’t know how I do it but things usually just work out.

Meaningless Wandering

Day: 239

With full intention to be completely over my jet lag, I rolled out of bed this morning to a breakfast of vegetable dumplings. The days intention was to see other sections of the city that I didn’t take in in my whirlwind tour yesterday morning (which is to say I didn’t see much).

I started in the direction of a couple of towers and was quickly distracted with the gardens that surrounded the Forbidden City. I wandered into a tulip show and spent the better part of the morning taking pictures of tulips and watching elderly Chinese do Tai Chi. After a couple more parks, lakes and crowded public areas, I was drifting off. I returned to my hostel for another nap, setting my alarm (on my new watch!) to be up in a few hours for some late afternoon pictures.

I really hope this is the last of the jet lag and I promise this will be the last day I bitch about it. After this I am just going back to calling myself a lazy S.O.B. I did meet an Aussie fellow who has slept the better part of 4 days, trying to get over his flight from New York.

I booked a tour to the Great Wall tomorrow, took a few walks and ate some dinner, finished with some beers and an early night. I think I am getting old…

The Not So Forbidden City

Day: 238

With the effects of jet lag in full effect I woke up this morning as the sun came up after only about three hours of sleep. I wanted to have a peek around, and since my body didn’t feel like sleeping anymore I headed up to Tiananmen square to see if I could catch anything good in the morning light. At barely 6am the streets were already filling up and I was headed through the center of the Chinese universe (literally) to the Forbidden Palace to see what time it opened up.

Unfortunately it wouldn’t be for a couple more hours until I could get in, so I settled for a bowl of noodles and little kids staring at me.The funny thing about this week is that just about everyone in China is on vacation and I’d say roughly a billion people made it into Beijing to look around. It also seemed like most the kids have never seen a big red head in sandals before. Most would stare, about half a dozen giggling little girls and one middle aged man came over and asked to take a picture with me, and one inquisitive kid who couldn’t have been more than 10 came over smoking a cigarette, to look over my shoulder at the screen of my camera and jabbered at me in Chinese for a few minutes until his cigarette was finished and he wandered off.

When the Palace finally opened the square out front was packed, and I being there so early was able to get in just after the gates opened. Unfortunately the idea of any form of solitude was quickly lost to Chinese tour groups waving flags and wearing matching hats so they wouldn’t get lost. The unimpressive grey, smog filled Beijing skies were rather disappointing, so I settled on trying to catch details instead of broad panoramics, which I could have bought postcards in the gift shop of anyhow.

I am pretty sure my favorite moment of the entire Palace is when I was meandering through one of the huge squares and I saw a sign the said “coffeeshop” and had an arrow. I was beginning to drift of to jet-lag-slumberland so I followed the arrow’s advice to pump myself full of caffeine. I wander into the corner of this Ming Dynasty building only to find a Starbucks! Coffees were still $3.50 (28 yuan to be exact), and just to give you an idea of how much that is in China, later today I would eat dinner of minced lamb, rice and a liter of beer and only pay 27 yuan. I still bought one though, mainly because I am a big fan of any company who can position itself inside a world heritage site!

Pushing 11am my body was starting to feel the international dateline I had crossed the day before (or was that two days ago?) and was telling me I had to sleep soon. I gave in after another half hour of wandering and settled in for what I hoped would only be a couple hour nap.

I woke six hours later.

I downloaded my pictures, ate dinner at the hostel, chatted with an English couple for a while, drank a couple of beers and forced myself back into bed at 11pm trying to get back on some form of a regular sleeping patten. I promised myself I would stay in bed for eight hours.

From 1am until about 7am I woke up every hour wide awake, forcing myself back to sleep. I hope it worked.

Two Day, Day

Day: 237

“Mr. Lobert Paetz please make known yourself at the gate.”

Funny pronunciation of my name aside, I had been slightly worried about making my next flight in Tokyo, we were running late and my connection time was slight, but obviously I had doubted the services of this Japanese airline. I don’t know why I would, after a 12 hour flight with constant attention from the flight attendants, free beer, hot towels, sushi dinners, little cups of Haagen Daaz and did I say free beers? This is the airline service that my departed Grandmother always told me about in her fairytales during my childhood.

This day actually consisted of two separate days (May 2nd and May 3rd) because of crossing the international dateline, but I lived them as one extremely long one and reading about me sitting on a plane all day is as exhausting for you, as it is for me to write.

Ill just keep this short and say I made it safely into Beijing, and after having the taxi circle the block three times asking around he finally found the little ally where my hostel was. I got a bed and the jet lag set in.

China is already an assault on my senses.

International Hot Sauce Smuggler

Day: 236

So with my trip to Belize winding down, I was left with only one question to answer today; should I smuggle my 5oz. bottle of the worlds most amazing Hot Sauce back in my carry-on luggage (all I had for this trip) and throw caution to the wind with the TSA’s restrictions on a maximum of 3oz containers in carry-on.

I am a man who likes to stare adversity in the eye (unless he is holding a doorknob), so I chucked it in my bag and we set off to find the water taxi to get us back to Belize City.

To make a long story short, other than lonely the Belizean X-Ray guy who manned both the bag x-ray machine and the people metal detector, who looked at me and said with a knowing look:
“You have a bottle of hot sauce in your bag.”

Which I replied to with the proper questioning look.

He just said “go on.”

And I was back in the states with my hot sauce! I still needed to get it through security once more in Texas though. The strong and powerful TSA with a virtual army of secruity agents, with their Patriot Act, making me take off my shoes, unpack my computer, show my one liter zip-lock with all my liquids, then proceeds to X-ray everything. The whole time all of them looking at everyone like a terrorist, didn’t see my hot sauce.

I think the USA needs to hire more Belizean TSA agents, at least they seem competent to catch hot sauce smugglers, and are grown up enough to know that it is only hot sauce and not worry about it.

Tomorrow is my day off at home, then its off to China! Regular updates should start again in a couple of days.

See you soon.

Liver Damage and Great Pictures

Blog Convergence

No Words.

The Last Wall

Piinyaawwwooo!!!

Empty Walls and Full Stations

Meaningless Wandering

The Not So Forbidden City

Two Day, Day

International Hot Sauce Smuggler

robertpaetz

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Liver Damage and Great Pictures

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No Words.

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