tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60031928191415290982024-03-12T20:25:28.053-07:00VagabondeurThe Words of ThoughtsJayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-35829730662981510852009-07-06T01:20:00.000-07:002009-07-06T06:33:47.322-07:00China Again<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I'm Back.. in China!<br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, fantasy; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">* </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, fantasy; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Chinese line budding, pushing and general behavior is just driving me nuts. I think the perfect story (out of hundreds) for this is when XiaoYu and I were returning from SuZhou to Nanjing via train. This is China’s version of Acela or better put: Acela is the US’s crappy imitation of China’s ‘Dong’ (Very fast) train. To set the story, we have a 8:20 train to Nanjing, there is a 8:05 train to Nanjing as well; they run very often. It’s raining sideways outside because of a massive thunderstorm and the platform is covered by a roof exactly the width of the platform; so if it’s raining sideways, you are gonna get soaked. They call the 8:05 train, people push and shove. They call our train 15 minutes later and we slowly work our way to the ticket check and terminal. It’s 20 minutes to the arrival of our train and it takes 5 minutes to do tickets and walk to the platform. Yet people are pushing and shoving. I make a comment to XiaoYu that the train is going to be late and the platform is gonna be soaked because of the rain. We get to the outside waiting area and the station staff has us cordoned off, so all the 8:20 train people are patiently waiting. Suddenly these two people (young man and old woman) duck under the cordon. With grins (like kids on Christmas Day), they look for the train and join the crowd of 8:05 people LEAVING the station. A couple of steps later they realize the crowd is exiting, they turn around and start running towards the train at the platform (still grinning). Now anyone who stopped and thought about it would realize it’s the 8:05 train on the platform, cause:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal"> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal"> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">it’s only 8:10, trains are never early, only late.</span></span></li> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">it’s the train staff that has us cordoned off.</span></span></li> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">everyone waiting has an 8:20 ticket.</span></span></li> </ol> </ol> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At this point people realize these two jumped the line and start following them before the station staff gets everyone behind the cordon again. The 8:05 train leaves and everyone surges towards the platform. We wait cause this is the only dry spot. As we walked along the platform (after the crowds had surged past) towards our car, people are standing exactly on the line between the wet/dry spot where a burst of wind easily soaks them. The kicker for all this is the SEATS ARE ASSIGNED ON THE TICKET and if you didn’t purchase a seat you are standing ANYWAY!</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">* I have never wanted to lose my temper so many times and wanted to start a fight with someone as I have in the past few months. All the pushing and shoving is just getting on my nerves. We were in line in the Pearl of the East Tower in Shanghai for 1 hour. The couple behind me kept stepping on my heels every time we moved. Every time they do this I look back and stare at them. Finally I took half a step forward, waited half a second and then stepped down hard on my heels catching one of their toes. That finally did the trick. Or the other time while in line to pay, this girl kept edging into me, I was so tempted to turn around and ask her "If she was attracted me... and if she was, I was already taken, my wife was standing right beside me. If she wasn't attracted to me than did she think touching my ass every few seconds would make the cashier move any faster?" I swear I haven't had my ass touched/groped as much as I have in the past few months in China, just crazy. It could be an empty bus and they stand right beside you and bump into you. It's the opposite of personal space: the lack of physical contact with strangers just drives them nuts!</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">* The wedding. I guess this is the one you've all been waiting for. So I proposed to XiaoYu on May 14th after dinner at a nice sushi restaurant. She accepted. Two days later while I was sleeping in, I found out that they've (relatives and parents) been burning the lines since we announced our engagement. I was told in my still groggy state that the wedding was on for June 21st. This is where some of you might have gotten the impression the marriage was arranged. It just happened that in late June EVERYONE (I mean everyone, my dad, mom, cousins, grandmother, her cousins) who had all been overseas were all going to be home. So June 21st was chosen cause the restaurant for the reception only had that date available. On the date of the wedding I left from my 'home' (basically a hotel) with relatives and my best man (my cousin) to pick up the bride. This involved cajoling and bribing her relatives by stuffing red packets of money (1 USD bills) under doors and between cracks in the window. After passing two doors, the bride was in the last door guarded again by relatives and the bridesmaid. Questions had to be answered (birthday, favorite food, shoe size...), more red envelopes passed and promises made (Like who was doing the dishes and who was in charge of the money...). Then we toasted her parents with tea at which point I had to call them Mom/Dad, they gave us red envelopes (big ones...). Then we toasted her grandparents, mom's side who were 90+ years old and dad's side, more red envelopes were received. I carried her outside to the car and I gave her a pair of brand new shoes and we took off my parent's home (again hotel...). Tea was toasted again, she called them Mom/Dad, more red envelopes were received. Afternoon was full of photos and video taking. Dinner reception at night was basic, similar to a western wedding. No first dance but we had to toast every table. Tradition says we have to drink with everyone, so XiaoYu's dad took a rice wine bottle and filled it with water, we toasted with that. Luckily no one challenged what was in our cups, that would've been interesting after 25 tables. At the end of the day that was it. My cousins, sister, my wife, her cousins and bridesmaid all went out and got drunk that night.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Anyway, that's it for now. I'm heading home on July 26th. See you all soon!</span></p></div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-38679231949128738362009-05-11T21:26:00.000-07:002009-05-11T01:17:14.586-07:00Land of the KiwisSo what is a Kiwi, I ask? It turns out it's either a fruit, a flightless bird, the New Zealand Dollar or a person from New Zealand. And you thought the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ozzies</span> were odd, at least they aren't simultaneously a fruit, a bird, a coin and a person.<br /><br />* One thing I learned in Alaska was keep half of tank of gas in your car at all times, cause you don't know when/where the next gas station is. This was reinforced in Australia cause the next gas station you get to may be closed and since they don't have pay-at-the-pump, you are screwed... Now after all this, you'd think I'd learn... After coming down Fox Glacier we passed a gas station, I made a mental note to gas up. We stopped by the outfitter, changed our boots, said bye to the guides, etc... Called my next hostel to get a room (the guy yelled at me, another story...). I drive to the gas station only to find it closed at 8pm. Says next gas station 140km, I look at my odometer, it reads 350km (or so), I knew for a fact that there was enough gas until the thing read 500km... so I drive.. mountain coastal roads... drive drive.. then I realize the odometer is wrong. It's reading 480km and the signs are saying 40km to the next town (where I assume the next gas station is...). Now this being New Zealand, there isn't anyone on the roads and I've only passed 3-4 houses... So at this point I'm being careful with the gas. At 500km the gas light has been on for at least 30km... and we are going up and down mountain coastal roads... every wide shoulder I see (and there aren't many of them).. I'm making a mental note on how to pull off in the event I run out of gas... I do make it to the next gas station... again to find it closed! I drive 500m to a motel (the ONLY motel) to find it fully booked. I ask the person where I can sleep as I don't have enough gas to make it far... She suggests a secluded beach about 2km down the down... I'm staring at the gas indicator and being easy on the accelerator all the way to the beach. Spend the night alone on a gorgeous beach, clear sky, no moon.. all the stars and the Milky Way and forget my troubles. Wake up the next morning... gas up and on my way. The odometer read 530km or so... In the end, a great adventure!<br /><br />* So the getting yelled at part. This has happened several times in my trip both in Australia and New Zealand. People calling me crazy for driving in the dark. I understand it's dangerous, but that's life and driving. This guy at the hostel said "You are an idiot", exact words. Never had someone who wanted my business call me that before...<br /><br />* During the Kepler Trek I met a Spaniard, an Italian Swiss, several Germans, a Liechtensteiner, an American and a crazy Kiwi. So some background, the Kepler Trek is about 70km long and about 1000m elevation difference between the start and the end of the trek. I was carrying about a 15-20kg pack, heavy by most standards. My packing list was: tiny stove, 1 small fuel canister, 1 set of UK military cooking/eating set, 1 ultra-light down sleeping bag, 1 set of full winter (read: blizzard proof) cloth, 2 sets of cool weather cloth and 1 set of warm weather cloth, full first aid kit, 3L of water, and other small trinkets (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">iPod</span>, GPS, solar charger, etc...). This guy... first day we show up at the lodge, a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">bunch</span> of us are sitting around chilling and next thing we hear is loud club music coming out of these speakers by him. 30 minutes later, he pulls out a 15inch <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Macbook</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Unibody</span> and starts playing movies on it. The next morning, we wake up and I walk by his bunk. It's a mess! Chips (crisps for you English...) all over the bed, random trinkets (wallet, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">iPod</span>, etc...) sprawled out all over the bed like he's been there for 1 week, not one night. Later talking to him we find out he has fresh tomatoes, 5kg of potatoes and a 5 person tent (for himself...). After he packed his bag, I tried to lift it. I can usually lift up to 25kg without having to struggle too much... man.. his bag had to be at least 30kg. That night after doing what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">should've</span> been a 4-6 hour hike in 8-10 hours he tries to setup his tent in the dark. Having never done it before he discovers his stakes are larger than the stake holes... he just shoves the stakes through the tent... The next morning he found out he left his jacket with his car keys at the summit of the track.. about 1000m back up and at least a 20km trek... Never ran into him again...<br /><br />* One of the better War <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Memorials</span> I've seen was at Auckland. The War Memorial on the top floor had dedications for fallen soldiers, listing names and wars they died in. In one section the wall was completely empty and on the bottom of the wall these inscriptions: "Let this remain unfilled." Also from a dedication to WWI soldiers, a colonel to his men before they disembarked in Wellington said "Remember, you are not Heroes, those are buried in France."<br /><br />* Hillary's Axe was on display in the Auckland <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">museum</span>. Just so cool to be inches away from history like that.<br /><br />* Australia had many small roads. Reminded me of driving in West Virginia all the time. New Zealand was even more gorgeous. Winding small roads, country driving, towering mountains... What I found hilarious was the one lane bridges... You'd be driving on this nice road and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">bam</span> one lane bridge, and then another one lane bridge. This would be found on all the highways, even the national highways. You can see this in the new X-Men movie, the old couple driving on the road crossing the bridge then coming onto a two way road with arrows pointed on it. Notice they pull into the wrong side. That was New Zealand....<br /><br />* Swine Flu hysteria hit while was flying from Australia to China via Japan. We had to wait on the plane in Tokyo for the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">health</span> inspector only to find out he only checks US inbound flights. In the airport a lot of people were wearing surgical masks, so were people on the flight. This is where it cracked me up. So you are in a sealed space, and you wear surgical masks.. makes perfect sense. However, what do you do when you eat? or drink? Obviously you take it off. This is what I noticed everyone did when the food and drinks came around. Then afterwards, they just put the mask on like they never took it off. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">WTF</span>? 5 minute exposure to 'dirty' air is the same as a 2 hours exposure...<br /><br />Anyway in China now. Engaged... excited... nervous... and out of my depth.... Will blog about that later...Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-51660886702868165502009-04-14T01:33:00.000-07:002009-04-21T02:17:57.425-07:00Out of Oz and into Kiwi landNo luck finding a job in Oz, so giving up! Using my remaining savings, tax returns and borrowed money to finish up in New Zealand (in search of the One Ring) and China. Should be back in the states by end of May.<br /><br />* So I've turned into something of an alcoholic. Drinking almost every night and going out. Really don't have anything else to do and it doesn't help that most bars give free first beers, so if you go bar hoping you can get 2-3 beers for free. As a consequence of this, Good Friday, we (fellow alcoholic backpackers) went searching for booze only to find that all bars closed at 10pm. We had already knew that no bottle shop sold alcohol on Good Friday. Everything was closed! Walking around we did finally find one store that sold beer. As expected, it was a Chinese own convenience store owner who didn't even have a liquor license. Thank god for the Chinese! They don't close on any holiday and will sell you anything you need!<br /><br />* Job hunting is difficult. The Queensland Department of Health was looking for a Workbrain technical expert for 3-6 months. Fit my qualifications perfectly. I called up the recruiter, turns out they had at least two people who had 5 years (vs mine 2.5 years) experience. So no luck, heading home soon.<br /><br />* So daylight savings was in March. So being March, I figured spring, and in Spring you 'Spring Forward' and add an hour. However in Australia March is Fall, so you are supposed to 'Fall Back.' Needless to say, because of my error we showed up at the train station 2 hours early at 4am. Life.<br /><br />* After traveling for a year, I'm sad to say I'm jaded. I don't feel the same excitement I used to feel when I get to a new place. Ever where I go, I think that reminds me of Alaska, reminds me of Capetown, that looks like West Virginia, etc... etc... etc... sad sad....<br /><br />Anyway in Kiwi land now, will update more later.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-33745043660018150852009-03-14T22:14:00.000-07:002009-03-15T00:48:15.980-07:00AustraliaBeen in Oz for about a month now and really enjoying it. Here are some thoughts<br /><br />* <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Kinnari</span> and I decided to rent a car and drive around Oz. The original plan was to go from Sydney to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Airlie</span> Beach and down to Adelaide, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne and back to Sydney. This trip in time would be equivalent of driving from Anchorage, Alaska to Miami, Florida. Distance wise, it would be New York to LA. Australia roads have lower speed limits, even for major highways and when you leave those major highways you are lucky if the road is paved. That plan changed as we drove, it ended up being from Sydney to Cairns, down to Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Blue Mountains and back to Sydney and we had to add two days to make it all work. When we had to drive, we averaged 12 hours a day. Crazy, but a good trip.<br /><br />* Frasier Island is a really cool place, a bit expensive. The only really cool attraction is Lake McKenzie. Picture water as clean as your bathtub (even cleaner for some of you...) <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">surrounded</span> by white sand beaches and tropical rain forest. The lake is fresh water, it's got a mineral bath feeling and when you come out, you feel so clean. The water is crystal blue, one of those must see before you die places.<br /><br />* Whitsunday Islands is as beautiful as I remembered it. Crystal blue water <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">surrounded</span> by Islands, full of fish and life. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Whitehaven</span> beach is just magical, white sand, blue water, fish swimming in the shallows and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">aggressive</span> sea gulls.<br /><br />* In Melbourne we <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">discovered</span> the "Melbourne Right Turn". So you thinking what? Remember in Oz they drive on the left side, so a right turn in Oz crosses on coming traffic and a left turn doesn't. This Melbourne Right Turn makes a New Jersey jug handle look like child's play. So to make a Melbourne right turn, you get on the LEFT side of the road, drive INTO the intersection, STOP halfway in the intersection and than WAIT for the other light to turn green, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">ie</span> wait for your light to turn red and the crossing light to turn green and then you turn right. Essentially you make a right turn from the left side of the road when your light is red.<br /><br />* <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Kinnari</span> bought a hair dryer and she blew it on the first night. Her dryer was for 150V-200V, Australia is 240V. I come into the room and she goes 'Do you smell smoke?' and I reply yes and she tells me her hair dryer burned. Now, I've never appreciated a hair dryer before, just extra weight, wasted money etc. But with long hair, I can sorta see why you would want one. Waiting for your hair to dry is a bit annoying. This brings me to my next point. My hair is long enough to put it in pony tail. So I had to buy hair ties. I walked into Target and they had many hair ties. Purple, Pink, Yellow, Orange, etc... After much consternation, I decided on Black...<br /><br />* You know you've been traveling a long time when:<br /><ol><li>Your cloths are becoming thread bare and are disintegrating.</li><li>Your boots fall apart.</li><li>You've gotten used to living out of your backpack.</li><li>Home is where you make it and 'home' is just a concept in a far far awayland.<br /></li><li>When other travelers ask you for advice on where to go.</li></ol><br />Well, that's it for now folks!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-13684226368610106152009-02-11T19:14:00.000-08:002009-02-10T19:53:55.275-08:00China WrapupWell, finally, I'm leaving China. I left China proper two weeks ago, but some people consider <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Macau</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hong</span> Kong part of China, so I guess I'm really leaving today. Didn't really expect to stay this long but it's been awesome. Here is a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">wrap up</span> of stuff I've left out, obsessed about and random tidbits.<br /><br />* Guess that brings up my first point. For me to enter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hong</span> Kong and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Macau</span> I just need my passport. For <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">XiaoYu</span>, a Chinese Citizen to enter another part of China she needs a special permit. This permit is basically like a visa, limited stay and limited entry. In fact her permit only allowed her in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Macau</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Hong</span> Kong each one time and only allowed her to stay 7 days. On the other hand, a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">LaoWai</span> (Foreigner) like me got 30 days and 90 days <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">respectively</span>.<br /><br />* The fireworks display in China is just awesome and scary. They fire everything and they do it everywhere. In the streets, throw it at cars, in their backyards, off their balconies, etc... So between New Years and a week after New Years it's pretty much constant fireworks and firecrackers. Nanjing sound liked a war zone, firecrackers echoing off the office buildings, fireworks illuminating the night AND day sky. Just crazy. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Macau</span> had an official firework zone and from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">XiaoYu's</span> cousin's place we could see and hear both of them. Firecrackers started about 3-4pm in the afternoon, fireworks started as soon as it got dark and went on until about 2am. Just crazy and awesome, took some pictures and posted them. If any of you have been following the news, a brand new hotel burned down in Beijing because CCTV (the official Chinese <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Television</span> company) illegally set off fireworks in their own compound and burned their new hotel down.<br /><br />* I was called '<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Shu</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Shu</span>' for the first time and really felt like strangling the kid for some reason. '<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Shu</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Shu</span>' means uncle; a male of your father's generation, more specifically a male of your father's generation younger than your father. This was one of the kids China Climb had over from Shanghai and I was the group leader. It's like being called 'Sir' for the first time, but in that case it meant you were an adult. This meant I was old <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">enough</span> to be the kid's dad. Crazy...<br /><br />* <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Macau</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Hong</span> Kong are just EXPENSIVE (compared to China). Before I rant, for reference 1 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">USD</span> = 6.82 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">RMB</span> (China) = 7.99 MOP (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Macau</span> ) = 7.75 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">HKD</span> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Hong</span> Kong). Now the smart people in the streets of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Macau</span> decided that 1 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">RMB</span> = 1 MOP = 1 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">HKD</span>. You realize how bad a trade that is, for every 100 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">RMB</span> you lost 15 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">RMB</span>, for a 100 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">HKD</span> you lost 5 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">HKD</span>. Some schmuck at a restaurant gave me change in MOP when I paid in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">HKD</span>, didn't fight (but argued) with him cause it was 1am and he was the only place open. Anyway, back my point, EXPENSIVE (compared to China). A full meal that would fill me up in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Macau</span> was costing me about 70-80 MOP, or 10 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">USD</span> (reasonable....), but in China that same meal would cost me about 30 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">RMB</span>, or 34 MOP. So in China when I had 1000 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">RMB</span> (146 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">USD</span>) in my wallet, it'd pretty much last 3-4 weeks; in other words I spend $146 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">USD</span> in 3-4 weeks - no plastic. In <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Macau</span>, 1000 MOP (125 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">USD</span>) left my wallet in 3 days. Granted in China I cooked more and wasn't sight seeing as much, but still! Can't wait until I get to Oz and see the sticker shock there!<br /><br />* I've been to China many times, been to Thailand and Vietnam. I'm pretty sure I ranted about this the last time I was in Thailand and Vietnam, but here it is again. It's CROWDED here! People have no respect for personal space. You'd think that if you were afraid of pick pockets you'd give space. Instead these people crowd, shove and butt in lines! At both Disneyland and Ocean Park in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Hong</span> Kong people pushed and shoved like it was the end of the world! So you are standing in line and the person behind you either bumps you every time the line moves and stops, tries to casually edge past you, or if you leave anything more that 3 foot of space between you and the person in front of you, tries to shove into that space or yell at you to move into that space. Look, you are in line, even if I leave the whole queue <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">in front</span> of open, you still have to wait for me to go before you can go, the open space doesn't matter! What is with this bumping and pushing? Is being 1 foot closer to me going to make a difference, make the line go faster? That some how bumping me will make the line go faster? That like electrons, they can bump the one in front and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">create</span> a current? I was standing at the airport in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Guanzhou</span>, I had all our bags and was waiting for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">XiaoYu</span> to come back from the bathroom. I stood 15 feet (3 meters) away from the luggage <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">carousel</span> and the space behind me was empty - nearest wall <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">was</span> 60-70 feet (20 meters) away from me. This guy pushing a luggage cart <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">going</span> around me, runs over my foot! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">WTF</span>!?!? All the open space and he runs over my foot? What don't you just make a little wider turn! Why the tight turn? Was he practicing for his F1 race and need to make tight turns to save seconds??? By the way, he was 60+.<br /><br />Thanks for reading my rant guys. Hope you are all doing well!<br /><br />PS, Sis: I do miss you.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-27282159980264330672008-12-24T08:05:00.000-08:002008-12-24T23:58:44.492-08:00Happy Holidays from ChinaIt has been a while since I've posted anything. It's been a combination of being busy and too lazy to write anything. But I figured I should write something for the Holiday and catch people up. I'll probably break this up into parts for easier ready and writing.<div><br /></div><div>* Climbing in YangShuo is world class. As good as anything in Thailand and Spain but cheaper. Finally went Trad climbing again and this time we found good rock. Hard to find but the rock was worth it. By the time I left YanghShuo I had redpointed a 12b, China Whit, was comfortably redpointing 11ds and onsighting 11as. So my climbing strength and ability had improved a lot. I say 'had' because I've been in NanJing for the past week sitting on my ass doing nothing and being sick. So any of you want to go climbing in China, YangShuo is it.</div><div><br /></div><div>* ChinaClimb makes most of it's money from International Schools in China. These essentially meant a week of rich spoiled kids under our charge for a week. Some of these kids just drove me nuts and some of these kids would never have survived a US Middle School/High School. I was belaying a bunch of these kids around Baby Frog Crag. There a small ledge with a slope between climbs and kids had to negotiate this ledge between climbs. So this boy negotiating this ledge dropped his shoes down the slope. He stands there looking at me and I look back at him and shrug, he looks at his shoes, then me, then the shoes... etc... Then one of the girls just says 'I'll get it' and he lets her go down the slope for HIS shoes. WTF!?!?! He was 12 years old, he should be getting his own shoes!</div><div><br /></div><div>* So why am I in Chin and not on some tropical beach in Thailand? That is because I met a girl and she's in China. I'm staying around here for a bit and see what happens. Also trying to look for a job here, which isn't going very well.</div><div><br /></div><div>* Christmas in China has been interesting. It's a truly commercial holiday. There is no religious aspect to it at all. It's all about Sales! Sales! Sales! There are tons of Santas and no Mangers. I guess this is China after all, not too surprising. Christmas Eve is a shopping bananza, the stores and restaurants are packed and the local Wal-Mart is open until 2am.</div><div><br /></div><div>* Got a Christmas gift from my mom. Orbitz gum, surprising but none the less awesome. Cause gum in China is like chewing melted rubber; it's either too soft and disintegrates in your mouth or too hard and breaks your teeth. Orbitz is just good old American Gum. Thanks mom!</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, just a few thoughts for now. Happy Holidays all!</div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-69032955594281328822008-09-21T05:57:00.000-07:002008-09-23T05:59:51.411-07:00YanShou CrazyWell since my last posted I've had an interesting two weeks. Here are some highlights<br /><br />* Our first school group arrived after training and I was assigned to work Tyrolean. This is basically a zip line or fly fox with a rappel/abseil in at the end. To do this we usually have 4-5 guides, one sends, one receives, one back up rappels by attaching a top rope, one lead guide who sets the kids on rappel and talks them off the cliff and one doing the fireman back-up on the bottom. I was assigned to receive the kids. They were all given the safety briefing by the send-off guide and the first kid was ready to go. Everyone was cheering and clapping and off goes the kid. He's screaming! We are screaming! Then I realize he's screaming in fear and really freaked out! The zip line doesn't have enough height difference for you to make it all the way to the end without pulling yourself over hand over hand (really easy...). The kid is stopped halfway through the line and doesn't want to move and is really freaked out. I'm like "What do I do?", this never happened in training. Finally one of the lead guides yells "Hey, get your friend Jay to pull you over!" At this point I realized I have a line attached to his zip line device for retrievals! I start hauling and getting him calmed down, he was pretty cool when I got him over. In fact after everyone had gone, he went again and had no problem. After this kid I had my hand on that retrieval line for every kid and hauling in rope and giving them a little slack to make sure I wasn't pulling them. Was a bit freaked myself as it was technically my first hour on the job.<br /><br />* I went Trad climbing here one day. Not recommended, more like adventure climbing with dirty rock, no rap anchors and questionable gear. Supposed there are some semi-decent places around here but I haven't seen it yet.<br /><br />* We had a Bathroom Party here at ChinaClimb. This is basically we turn the whole bar into a bathroom. Everyone comes in their bathroom gear, which in this case meant swimwear covered by towels. We sprayed water and beer all over the place. We were dumping water out with 5 gallon buckets. We were hosing people from the bar and people were just dumping beer on each other. When I showed up I went upstairs and left my shoes there and went down to the party. After a while we gathered good tourist attraction in front of the bar forming a semi circle. At this point a few of us ran out and randomly grabbed someone and pulled them into the action. Later in the night we started throwing water out the door too. Real crazy. I ended up tending the bar that night to help out with the crazy business. Towards the end of the night 2amish, I went up looking for my shoes and found them missing; someone had worn my shoes home and there was broken glass ALL over the bar. We shut the bar down around 3amish and I walked home barefoot only to find my shoes in our dorm room, one of the staff/roommates had worn my shoes home!<br /><br />* The next day I had agreed to help one of the main guides setup the Tyrolean to help train some new people who showed up late. I get up at 8ish still groggily and slightly hungover. I dress and walk over to work, finding it surprisingly cleaned up... There I find out there were three customers who had signed up for Day Guiding and were waiting for a guide. The person who signed them up wrote Friday the 20th. Friday is the 19th, 20th is Saturday. So the main guides assumed it was the 20th and no one was assigned to guide that day. So 9am after a night of crazy partying, no one was up. After some discussion I was assigned to guide the three along with another staff who really doesn't guide but used to guide a little. Now, up to this point I've followed a main guide who's done this many times and knows everything down to the T. Here was I was about to be the lead guide a day after a crazy party, and still groggy... crazy! So the three clients knew of our party, they were sitting nearby watching the craziness and even told me they hoped their guide wasn't too hungover. I tried to be diplomatic, and that I would be awake in a few and all would be cool. Then I find out that one of them used to run a ropes course and has climbed in the Gunks before with REAL guides. If they were newbies I could BS my way through a lot of shit, but the fact that at least one knew what she was doing meant I had to be careful in what I BSed... In the end everything went off without a hitch, a slightly later than usual start but everything went as planned. We went swimming afterward and they even tipped, which for those who don't understand Chinese customs, NEVER happens in China. You are not required to do so, this was the first of 3 groups I've guided that have tipped.<br /><br />* One of the crew, slightly new to climbing had been bought up to speed really quickly. He led his first 5.10a and was set to clean the route. He calls 'safe', I call up 'Belay Off' and give him some slack. I watch him, people come up, I chat, I watch him, I chat. Next thing I know I'm yanked off the ground and him screaming 'Wow!'. Turns out he had released himself from his personal anchors and back onto the rope without calling 'Take'. Lucky for him, when I said 'Belay Off', I really didn't take him off belay, I just gave him a lot of slack but kept my hands on the rope, so when he sat back down on the rope he didn't fall far... lucky him. I think he's learned the lesson of weighting the rope before he takes himself off the anchors.<br /><br />* Climbing here has be just awesome. Easy to get to, quality routes and tons of stuff. Been hitting it hard at 11d or so, aim to hit the 12s in a few weeks.<br /><br />* Three of the crew set up an Urban Adventure race. This involved swimming, climbing, leading the blind through a park, making a PBJ, bouldering, running, biking, tubing, drinking beer, riddle solving and taking pictures. The rules stated that 'Sabotage was encouraged.' We were divided into 4 teams of 4, Blue, Red, Black and Yellow (my team). To start the race off I decide to disassemble of the bikes from the competitor team. This didn't get very far as we didn't start until 15 minutes after I did this. We biked to a nearby bridge where we each swam a leg of a 4 person relay. At this point out egg was stolen; each team was given an egg to protect for the day, by the judges as we later found out. Then we biked to the climbing place. At this point the sabotage has begun full on, I stole a few seats, a few tire were deflated, etc... From climbing it was to a park where 2 members were blind folded and the two others were to lead them through the park with only their voices. We finished the course as the Black team caught up to us. One of their members left her bag un-attended so her egg was stolen. When they found out about this I was targeted and wrestled to the ground. At some point someone yanked my dry bag off of me and smashed it against the ground breaking 2 water bottles in the bag with two cell phones, both soaked. One cellphone survived and is working. The other, mine is dead, a brand new Motorola V3.... Going to see if I can get it fixed cheaply. The race continued with little incident... In the end we (Yellow) won the race. During this race we were also given a sheet for picture taking, points were given for taking a picture with a hunchback women, with 5 random people, 10 random people, 20 random people, mooning a bus, everyone's left butt cheek, climbing a tree, etc... We did manage to do most of them. Over all great day.<br /><br />* I had Tyrolean duty again for the school group in this week. Pretty much went well until the last kid. He completely freaked out. Took him 30 minutes to walk 4 steps to the edge, had to back out and let the teacher go first, then after the teacher went, another 30 minutes for him to take the remaining 3 steps. I had to patiently talk him off the cliff, everyone was so bored watching us... He even cried a few times during this 'ordeal'. He was Korean and from what I've heard from the old guides they are the worse; their parents are very over protective. One kid was allergic to heat, dust, dirt and cold. WTH?? That is saying a lot from a group of kids who have led very sheltered lives. A normal steep hike for most of us was grueling for the kids. They show up with Canon/Nikon SLR cameras worth more then $1000 USD. They all have cellphones, iPods and PSPs. I heard some of them saying their monthly allowance was in the 2000Yuan range (about $300USD). I got $5 every time I mowed the lawn!<br /><br />* My lens is at the manufacturer getting fixed. It had spent a week in postal limbo because the shop I had purchased it from was closed. Looking forward to getting it back soon! Pictures will be taken and posted then!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-50769099578228696392008-09-07T05:08:00.000-07:002008-09-07T05:24:16.010-07:00YangShouBeen in training for China Climb (http://www.chinaclimb.com) for a week and it's been blast. The place has it's own cook who cooks breakfast and dinner Monday to Saturday. Really good authentic Chinese food. They have free beer, orange juice and Sprite upstairs (surprisingly the OJ and Sprite runs out before the beer). Monday was a biking and water rescue course. We rode tandem bikes, which was a first for me, didn't help my confidence that 10 minutes into the ride one of the staff's bike broke in half. Tuesday was first aid in the morning and caving and kayaking in the afternoon. Wednesday was Tyrolean, learned to set it up and then Orienteering in the afternoon. Really funny part of Orienteering was I paired myself with a local who lived in the area we were Orienteering. He just looked at the map and the marked flags and didn't consult the map again. We found some of the most random trails to get all the flags; the only group to do so. Thursday was a bike ride in the morning in the mud and rain and afternoon climbing. We got so muddy my underwear looks like I shit in it. Really fun! Friday was a hiking and camping trip, a day hike out and camping in the meadows. We had a surprise exercise on Wilderness First Aid on the way in. One guide broke his neck and back, one his arm and the other his knee. We managed to stabilize them after much confusion. The vista here is just awesome! Hiking through the valleys just awesome; through the rice paddies and among the rounded limestone cliffs. Just Google <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Guilin</span> and/or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">YangShuo</span> for pictures. I'm dying to get my lens fixed so I can take pictures of this place!<br /><br />Anyway, mostly caught up on my photos, so go check them out!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-65471709522569205032008-08-26T22:08:00.000-07:002008-08-26T22:29:13.499-07:00Back in Civilization and Hating it.Arriving in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Hong</span> Kong from China really did feel like leaving the jungle and back into civilization. The chaos, the neon lights, the commercialism is just crazy! And I hate it, not sure what it is, but something about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hong</span> Kong is just off. I used to like this place every time I visit, but now... there is something missing. Maybe after seeing what the rest of the world has to offer, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hong</span> Kong isn't as exotic as it used to be.<br /><br />* I had issues at emigration and immigration with my passport. Leaving China, I think the Chinese border guards thought my passport was fake. They examined it under black light, flipped through all the pages, bent and examined the cover and even wanted my US drivers license. They also kept questioning on where I lived, where the passport was issued (as the US passport unlike other passports, namely my Canadian does not specify which city it was issued in), etc.. finally they waved me through. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hong</span> Kong side again held me up, but they wanted my name in Chinese, not sure why. I think a '<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Jie</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Zhang</span>' has made it onto <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">someone's</span> watch list; whoever you are... cool!<br /><br />* The visit to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Hong</span> Kong was not a total failure, I managed to get my lens mailed off to Japan. Walked into a South African Airline ticket office to cancel what was supposed to be an already canceled ticket from Cape Town to Frankfurt. Yes, you read correctly, South Africa to Germany and I'm in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Hong</span> Kong. I thought I had canceled the ticket in Cape Town but it turns out I did not. Or as the ticket agent explained to me, I probably did cancel the ticket but I didn't refund it, seems there is a difference. I guess once they have your money they want to keep it.<br /><br />Anyway, heading back into China today, we'll see how the passport thing goes.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-9986863643900708302008-08-22T08:28:00.000-07:002008-08-22T08:30:22.757-07:00Home Sweet Home... Sort Of..Been a while since I posted something. Just been so busy having fun that I haven’t found the time to write. So finally have a few spare hours sitting at Beijing Airport heading back to Nanjing for a few days. Here are some highlights.<br /><br />* Arriving in China has been a big change from traveling in Africa. People here actually care about their jobs. I don’t quite get it but it’s so weird. They don’t get tips and the the service people get yelled at, yet they run around doing whatever you ask them to do. It is so common to see people telling their waiter/waitress’ to hurry up the food only 5 minutes after ordering it. I’m sitting there just enjoying the company and patiently waiting for the food and my relatives are telling the servers to hurry it up. I’m so used to waiting 5-15 minutes for food, but they usually expect food to arrive within 5 minutes. It’s not a crazy expectation as I’ve seen that happen regularly. When you ask for your server they show up within 5 seconds, crazy service and they don’t get tipped! When you enter a restaurant you are greeted and when you leave they wish you a good day and hope you come back again. Every restaurant does this!<br /><br />* China has changed a lot since the last time I came here. Especially Nanjing as the last time I was in that city it was 2004 and I don’t even recognize the place. There are new skyscrapers, they’ve cleaned the streets up and they built more roads. It’s like walking into Baltimore and finding out they expanded 695, added 5 more buildings, each taller then the other and then tore down the row houses and built modern apartment buildings.<br /><br />* Beijing Airport was hectic and yet very well organized. They had greeters and users everywhere to get you to where you needed to be. They had special olympic lines for the athletes and teams. Organized Chaos would be what I would call it, aka China.<br /><br />* The pushing and shoving still gets to me. I push and shove just as well as the next person but I won’t push and shove women, children and old people, yet these people have no problems pushing and shoving me. As I got onto the subway heading back towards the airport I was carrying my huge backpack. This women and her kid pushes her kid right in front of me and butts in line for the train and then when the door opens pushes past me to rush to a seat. So I stand for a few stations and then half the train exits, so I mosey over to several open seats, turn to drop the bag and three people rush to take the seats. At this point I’m pissed and I’m carrying a 40kg bag, and you really don’t want to piss someone carrying that heavy of a bag as they are likely to drop it on you. So I drop the bag onto the open seat smacking both guys (yes two men, who rushed the seat...) slightly. Then on the airport train, it’s packed so I rest my bag near the door and I lean on the door the whole ride in. As the train enters station, I pick up my bag and get it on. At this point this kid edges past me and blocks me from the door with his roller luggage. I motion to him that the door is his and head to the door on the other side, which is the side you exit from... I think it’s poetic justice that he got stuck behind all the other people lined up behind him on the wrong side of the train while, me giving up my spot and moving to the other side was the first one off.<br /><br />* On a variation of this pushing and shoving is the rush for seats. I’ve seen everyone do it, old, young, male, female, frail, fit, etc... they all rush for the seat and when they get the seat they all have this look on their face that they’ve just won the lottery! WTF?? I can understand old, frail and children but grown men? Sort of in their defense, they do give up their seats for old, frail, children and women with children.<br /><br />* As I said before, the service here is awesome! I’ve gone from the American Gold Standard, to the non-existent Africa standard, to the Silver Dubai standard to the platinum Chinese standard of service. I’m so glad I went from Africa to China, cause if I went the other way, I’d gone nuts expecting food to show up within minutes of ordering. In fact my clock has started to speed up again. I grow impatient if I have to wait more then a minute for the check. Or if I’m ready to order and there is no server nearby.<br /><br />* Traveling with Brian has been an experience onto itself. First of all Chinese people are fascinated by tall white people, so Brian stands out. Doesn’t hurt that Brian has a serious bout of Yellow Fever. So he’s going around staring at all the pretty girls that walk by and going “Ni Hao, Wo Ai Ni” or “Hello, I love you”. He’s also has a serious crush, in the creepy stalker way, on American Softball pitcher Cat Osterman. He’s been trying to get tickets all week. In fact he made a T-Shirt that read “I need USA Softball Tickets”, Chinese on the front and English on the back. Then he shows up at the stadium shouting at Cat “Ni Hao, Wo Ai Ni” Repeats this to all Chinese softball players and the volunteers in the stadium. As if this wasn’t enough while at the Temple of Heaven he got one of the costume dress-up people to paint him as a famous Chinese Opera star, a female role. He dresses in drag and gets his picture taken. Then doesn’t wash off the make-up and walks around town in it. The line he feeds the locals is “Wo Shi Piao Liang De Mei Long Fang” or “I am the beautiful MeiLongFang (female opera singer)”. Then I teach him “Wo shi feng zi” or “I’m crazy.” He does this with a serious face and really bad accent. So everyone is just staring at him laughing. Except one woman who looked at him and addressed him in the same tone as you would a child “Hao, Hao, Hao..” or “Ok, ok, ok...” and kept walking.<br /><br />* Olympics is just awesome. The organization is great, the stadiums are packed and the crowd boisterous. Part of me understands that this is a world event but while I’m at the games, the place feels so small. The softball and hockey seats place me less then 15 feet (5 meters) away from the edge of the field. Most of the time you can hear what the players and coaches are saying. I’ve never sat this close to a field of play before and never expected to do so at the Olympics of all places. Just awesome!<br /><br />* It took 10 days for Canada to get it’s first medal. In the meantime failed countries like Zimbabwe were racking up golds, silver and bronze medals. What the is going on? On day thirteen Canada is ranked 13 on the total medal count and 19 on the gold count! Behind countries some smaller and poorer countries. What is going on?!?!?!<br /><br />* We only got 4 field hockey tickets before we arrived in Beijing. However in town we were able to score some tickets to softball, baseball and diving. The interesting part was going to the stadiums and listening to outrages prices for tickets. Tickets whose face value (printed on the ticket) were like 50, 80, 150 RMB going for 800, 1000, 1500 and even 2000 RMB. Some for events that already started. Crazy!<br /><br />* We managed score three diving tickets on the last minute for free. Family connections rock; as a note we did give a comparable gift for those tickets. We got to watch Guo JingJing win the Gold medal that night, really awesome experience. Then we got to walk around the main Olympic grounds. Just spectacular, the pictures and videos cannot do the place justice. Another note, the main Olympic complex which includes the Main stadium (Bird’s Nest), Aquatic Center, National Gymnasium, and a few other small stadiums are surrounded by security and fences. The only way you get past the fences and walk around these buildings is to have a ticket to one of the events. So scoring these diving tickets was a double bonus as we were able to see these stadiums up close.<br /><br />* Brian and I decided to go to the SiMaTai section of the Great Wall on our last day. There are four main sections of the Great Wall open to tourists near Beijing. BaoDaLing is where 80% of the tourist go and therefore the most packed. It has also been recently renovated and so is not the original bricks. SiMaTai is almost 150km away, and most of the stone are original and it’s not easy to get to. Brian had some outdated information and there wasn’t much online. So we tried Brian’s info and took public transportation to MiYun (a town 60km from the wall). There we were supposed to find another public bus to SiMaTai. First off, we were supposed to go all the way to the terminal bus station, however the ticket agents tries to get us (and a bunch of other tourist) off 1 stop early by a bunch of unmarked taxies who wanted to charge us 400 RMB to SiMaTai. After saying there was no bus to SiMaTai, she says there may be no bus. We get back onto the bus to the Bus Terminal. There we meet the same bunch of taxi drivers hassling us... I push past them and head into the bus terminal. Where we find out there two public buses to SiMaTai, they run 7am and 2pm, which meant we had to leave Beijing at 6am. The 2pm was not an option as it was another hour to the Wall and it takes about 3 hours to hike it and another 2 hours back to Beijing, with the last bus leaving at 7pm. So Brian and I walk back to the taxi drivers and find them negotiating with the other white tourists. Once they figure out I can speak Chinese they start negotiating with me. One guy says he has a minivan and can fit 7, me trying to be helpful tell the French group of 6 to go with him and the remaining four of us will split a smaller car. Now there are three drivers there, if we only take two cars, one driver is left out. So minivan guy starts making excuses on why he can’t take 6, and I keep pointing out that he was the one who offered to take 7. We argue for a bit, he insists that we take 3, and I tell him it doesn’t make sense for us when we can get 2 cars for 600 (300 each, roundtrip), why pay for 3 cars? At this point someone points out to me that the French made a separate deal with the other two drivers. So, I was like ok, let’s go. On the way to the car one of the French guys smiles and says to me he got two cars for 800. I was confused for a second then I pointed out that we had already agreed to 300 per car, so he should be paying 600, not 800. I yell at his driver saying it’s 300 per car not 400. His driver acquiesces and it takes the French guy a few more seconds to realize his mistake... SiMaTai was an awesome end to the trip. The Wall raises stunningly steep and there were very few people. In fact the attendants were saying how busy it was that there were about 30-40 people there that day.<br /><br />* The story of my broken camera lens has been an epic. First I find out that the warranty is only good in Japan. Then I find out that China Post will not mail any electronic equipment because of the Olympics and probably won’t be able to until October. The guy handling my warranty repair won’t accept anything but Post, no DHL, Fedex or UPS. So I’m probably going to drop by Hong Kong on the way to YangShou to mail off my lens. I’m so pissed that I’m in Beijing at the Olympics and all I have is a basic point-and-shoot and my super-telephoto lens!<br /><br />* Security has been a mish-mash of feel good gestures to TSA style pat downs. The feel good stuff has been first tier airport and subway. The subway one is what makes me laugh. Before you enter the subway you have to put your bags through the X-ray but they don’t check your person. So they say no knifes or weapons, but my knife is in my pocket and not in my bag, so x-raying my bag doesn’t do anything. They have a hand-held metal detector but I’ve only seen it use it on each other never on a passenger. Also the X-rays are not at choke points in the entrance, they are usually to the side, so you can theoretically walk into the Metro without X-raying your bag. In an empty station that is hard, but during rush hour traffic I can easily see that happening. On top of that, on my last day in Beijing on the way to the Airport I had my big bag packed and had my pocket knife in the check-in bag. I put it through the X-ray and they flag it (as it has a few pieces of climbing gear as well...). They show me the picture on the X-ray and ask what it is, and I go.. I don’t know.. let me see. and I open my bag and start pulling things out and go ‘is this it?’ and ‘or this?’ They get frustrated and tell me there is too much stuff in my bag, and give up and just tell me to go... What type of security is that!?!? The TSA version has been getting to the Olympic venues. Their medal detectors pretty much go off on everyone, I emptied my pocket expect my passport (which I always keep on me and which has never set off a medal detector), it set the walk-through one off and the hand-held one as well. After that incident I didn’t bother to empty my pockets. I just carried everything in my hand, walked through the detector, set it off and showed them what was in my hands, got patted down and sent in. Crazy security!<br /><br />Anyway, Beijing has been awesome. Will be in Nanjing with relatives for a few days and then heading to YangShou for some climbing, may drop by Hong Kong.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-63590499459422107692008-07-28T07:14:00.000-07:002008-08-03T22:40:47.671-07:00Egypt and Dubai* If anyone is looking for a guide I’d recommend my guide as a no frills climb. He picks you up at the airport, drops you off at the hotel, takes you up the mountain, and back down and is cheaper then everyone else. However it is no frills, really basic tent, sleeping conditions and food, BUT professional.<br /><br />* Dave needed a ride to the airport so we asked around for a taxi. We got a guy who didn’t speak English very well so we got our hotel doorman to translate. Dave got the guy to agree to $40 USD and to pick him up at 5pm. Come 5pm the doorman shows up with his own car to take Dave to the airport. The taxi guy and doorman started a tug of war with Dave’s bags. Dave eventually got into the taxi but according to him he still had to ‘re-negotiate’ his rates again.<br /><br />* That night after Dave left, I went out to the only tourist restaurant in town and had dinner. They were packed so I got placed at a table with two Dutch girls. We had a good conversation going until my Kilimanjaro guide showed up drunk. He then proceeded to monopolize the whole conversation and even had a business proposition where I would send him clients from the US. Really annoying, yet memorable. I would still recommend him in that he's cheap.<br /><br />* The hotel staff in Moshi tried to charge me twice as much as the cost of the room. First they told me the rate changed ‘last week’ and then proceeded to tell me I was in a double when I obviously had a single. For the first two days I overpaid them so on the last day I told them I only owed 1/3 of the cost cause I paid too much the first two nights. This took 1 hour because the ‘rates changed’ and then I had a double room not a single.<br /><br />* Cairo International Airport is the worst airport I’ve ever flown through. By far, nothing else even comes close. People complain about long lines and long waits at US airports, but at least at those airports you can eventually figure out what the process is and know that everyone else has the same wait as you. Not so in Cairo. First I arrive at immigration, I look at all the forms and they are in Arabic except one which has a few words of English I understand so I fill that one out. I get in line for passport control. When I get to the guy, he says it’s the wrong form, gives me another one, and tells me to get in the back of the line. I get back in line and 10 minutes later with 30 people still in line they shut the booth down and move me to another line. At this point I start noticing that random lines are being opened and closed. About 30 minutes later my line closes and they move me to another line, and at the end of it too. Finally getting fed up with this process I notice the ‘diplomatic/crew' line was empty and that people we just walking up to it. I decide to give it a shot and that was what finally got me into Egypt. <br /><br />* On the way out of Cairo I took a taxi to the Airport and the driver asked me which terminal. I told him I didn’t know but I was flying Egypt Air to Dubai. Now there are three ways I’ve seen airports organized. One is terminals are separated by airlines, by international/domestic or by airline and international/domestic. In either of the three cases they usually have signs telling you which terminal you need to go to. Cairo on the other hand has no signs, simply Terminal 1 or Terminal 2. The driver asks a guard and the guard says ‘Terminal 2’, which is where he drops me off. Turns out it’s the wrong one. I ask for the bus for Terminal 1, they point me to the shuttle system up front, simple right? Nope the buses that run every 5 minutes only go to the car park and back to Terminal 2. This I found out by waiting at the car park for 30 minutes, now I only have 1.5 hours before my flight. I decide to head back to Terminal 2, at which point the information guy says just to wait up front. 1.25 hours before my flight and I’m still at Terminal 2. I get to Terminal 1 at 1 hour before my flight. At this point I realize there are 3 buildings at Terminal 2. I guessed building 2 and somehow ended up in building 1, but they are all Egypt Air counters but the building is just packed with people, barely enough room for you to move around. After much pushing and shoving and asking questions I get pointed to building 2. I arrive there only to find that there is a security line before check-in and it’s long! This is where I put in my casual line butting skills to work... I get into building 2 only to be surrounded by Delta Airline signs. I ask around and everyone gives me the casual just get in line... So get in line, I picked lane 2 with 45 minutes to go before my flight. The tiny room was fully packed wall to wall with people and luggage. They are shouting at each other in Arabic and being very angry. Also none of the counters have any signs, other then the ones behind me, which again said Delta Ailines. I noticed that in lane 1 (to my left) a guy at the front of the line was shouting at the guy behind the counter and making hand gestures to the lack of signs and the guy behind the counter just points him to the another line. Two minutes later I noticed that they put up ‘Business/First Class’ sign in lane 1. At this point the whole lane 1 erupts and starts shouting and gesturing. Thirty minutes before flight and I still haven’t checked in yet. Lucky for me I realize the two Egyptians in front of me, who speak very good English, are on my flight and they didn’t look worried. When I get on the flight I find out that for some reason Egyptians don’t care for seat assignments. On the way to my seat in row 42 I found 4 people in someone else’s seat including mine. Cairo Airport is absolutely the worst!<br /><br />* Cairo Taxis are old and crazy! The taxi from the airport to the hotel was a 1971 Peugeot. The rear hatch door popped open in the middle of the ride. And we saw many broken down cars along the road, seems to be a regular occurrence in Cairo. The driver tried to tell me that my hotel was shut down for health reasons. I told him I had just called them and he smiled and kept driving. <br /><br />* I got scammed in Cairo. I’m still embarrassed to get into details. Suffice to say I walked into it eyes wide open. I don’t even have the excuse that in 20/20 hindsight I could have avoided it. In fact I knew every mistake I was making while I was making it. All the things that you are never supposed to do in a foreign city, I did. I even had a few opportunities to walk away and/or mitigate my loss but I didn’t do anything. I’ll tell you about it face to face, so next time you see me and are curious, just ask...<br /><br />* Pyramids are just awesome. Not sure how else to describe it. There have been many books written about them to make several Great Pyramids and enough photos to examine every stone one by one. However just being there makes a huge difference. So if you guys really want to know what the Pyramids are about, come check it out!<br /><br />* City of the Dead is an interesting place. For those who don’t know about it, it’s basically two cemeteries where people live. These people live in the mausoleum, they play in them and even play chess over the graves. In return for the free lodging the people take care of the mausoleums. They only part that was a bit of a let down is that the mausoleums are built like houses so it really doesn’t look like a cemetery.<br /><br />* Tamer, a Canadian Egyptian I met at the Canadian Hostel, along with Jolin from Taiwan, we went to the Pyramids together. There Tamer tried to trade a $20CAD for 200E£ (Egyptian Pounds) with one of the water hustlers. In reality the $20 CAD was worth 107E£. He managed to change it for about 130E£. We were about half way around the Great Pyramid (of Cheops) when the hustler caught up with us and wanted his money back; his mother was in the hospital. Would have been poetic if Tamer pulled it off. On the way to the pyramids we had many people shouting at us to ‘come this way to the Pyramids,’ just a lure to get you into their stable or shop. I almost fell for one if Tamer hadn’t asked the guy in Arabic what he wanted, which was to come see his shop.<br /><br />* Dubai is hot, hot, hot HOT! It’s 42C outside and the wind is hot too. Just crazy! Don’t know how else to describe it. I tried walk around town but it’s way too hot. I caved in and spend money on a taxi to get me around. Dubai’s efficiency is refreshing after 2 months in Africa. Things are done quickly, everyone is attentive and everyone goes ‘yes sir’, ‘no sir’ or ‘please sir.’ The airport was a breeze, 30 minutes from curb to gate.<br /><br />* Dubai is a whole world onto itself. It's full of foreign worker who do all the work. The locals do all the white collar work, such as stamping your passport.<br /><br />* Mall of the Emirates is a sight to behold. I've never been to the Mall of America but I don't think the Mall of America can compare. The Mall of the Emirates has an indoor ski slope in the middle of the desert! I didn't ski as I didn't want to spend the money or time.<br /><br />* Anyway just a few thoughts as I'm waiting for my flight to Beijing.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-14657616026335458192008-07-26T05:50:00.000-07:002008-07-26T06:17:40.584-07:00I'm a walking talking ATM.So everything has gone a little too smoothly so far, so something bad was bound to happen and as they say: "When it rains, it pours."<br /><br />*After <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sipi</span> Falls we head west past Kampala and into western Uganda, near the Congo border. There late at night we arrived at a town near Queen Elizabeth II National Park, about 30km from the Congo border. There at a local hotel called "The White House" we stayed the night. A few things about this place, one there was an UN convoy parked outside, two there were no westerners and three there were no women staying at the hotel except Kim. The interesting thing about the UN convoy, as explained to me by Kim, it was a peacekeeping supply convoy; the letters were black not blue. Also the next morning we wanted to leave early, 5:30 am early. At this point we realized that every door was bolted and locked; there was no way for us to leave. At 6am we were able to get someone to open the door to the courtyard. After loading the truck we noticed that they had misplaced the keys to the gate. At this pointed they were using the butt of an AK (Yes, a machine gun) to dislodge the lock. We (Dave, Kim and I) made a point to stay away from the pointed end of the gun in case it went off. In the end they managed to pry the lock off with a crowbar; a much safer option.<br /><br />* Arriving at sunrise in Queen Elizabeth II National Park, we immediately saw a lioness. It was laying in the road when we showed up and moved herself into the tall grass as we stopped and stared. Throughout the morning we spotted many more animals. After the early morning game drive we had an expensive late breakfast at a safari lodge. At this lodge we had breakfast outside, which was beautiful and full of birds. And it was the birds that started my slide into a deep abyss. First they shit on my food and then on my camera lens. It was either because of this shit or the car shaking that later broke the lens. So as of now I do not have a wide to medium view lens. I only have an old point and shot camera and a 300mm to 800mm (super telephoto) lens. I am currently in the process of trying to get it fixed; not sure how that will work.<br /><br />* The second incident happened after breakfast and we were heading back out of the park. The road was a hard dirt bed covered with gravel. I was taking a nap and was woken up with the SUV swerving and Dave shouting "Solomon, step on the gas...". The SUV started fishtailing out of control, spun around, hit a ditch and flipped over. While upside down in a ditch we accessed our situation. We realized the passenger side (driver's side in the US) was buried in dirt. Dave, behind the driver, had his window closed. Then we realized the driver's window was open and clear. Our driver climbed out, after kicking me a bit. I followed him and Dave followed me and Kim came out last. I suffered some scratches trying to exit through a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">briar</span> patch. Dave and Kim seeing this simply climbed over the car back onto the road, which I had to do because the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">briar</span> patch was very thick. We dragged out all our stuff, found that only Dave's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">camelbak</span> was busted. We physically had no injuries. With the help of locals driving by we flipped the car back over. Solomon changed the flat tire, we pushed roof back up and the driver drove it to the nearest police station. Dave, Kim and I hitched a ride with a ranger and went to the Safari lodge where we paid $400 (yes, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">USD</span>) for a room. The next morning Solomon returned with another car and we drove to the police station to make a statement. The statement consisted "It was 2:30pm, we blew a tire and the car flipped over. We are all <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">OK</span>." and then left for Kampala.<br /><br />* Dave and I flew to Tanzania with minimal issues. The only weird part was our flight was 2 hours early, which is really weird considering it was a 45 minute flight. Not sure what happened. Dave and I were a little nervous about our <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kilimanjaro</span> guide as he should up with a Toyota Corolla to pick us up but everyone else was being picked up in Land Cruisers and buses. To top that off the Corolla initially wouldn't start.<br /><br />* The climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro was awesome. The first day was muddy and below the clouds. Once we passed the clouds we were greeted by a sea of clouds. Mt. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Meru</span> was barely peaking out of the horizon, a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">thoroughly</span> breath taking hike. It got the point when we'd get another beautiful vista, I'd go "Yea, what's new?" The final push to the summit was a grueling 24 hours. You wake up 6 am on day four and you start a hike up and down to 4200m from 3900m for lunch. You continue the hike up to 4600m for dinner at 6pm. You sleep for 5-6 hours, and wake up at 11pm for tea and biscuit and the hike to the summit at midnight. This involved what I call the 4-count-2-step-breathing hike. You move one foot, breath in deep for 2 seconds, move the other foot, breath out for 2 seconds and repeat for 6-7 hours until you reach the summit. Reaching the summit was memorable. On one side the sun is rising, on the other side the moon is setting over Mt. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Meru</span>. The view of the glacier and the thought that you just <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">summited</span> the tallest mountain in Africa is just overwhelming.<br /><br />* The picture I'd paint for this part of the trip again involves bodily functions. This time taking a piss at 4am. The sky was cloudless, the moon had set and the Milky Way and stars were so bright across the sky that you didn't need a flashlight to walk to the toilet. Then as you finished your business you catch a few minutes in the cold night enjoying the stars and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Kibo</span> peak before scurrying back into your warm sleeping bag and tent.<br /><br />* After climbing Kilimanjaro Dave and I went out to the local <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Indo</span>-Italian Restaurant where we met two women from Germany <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Mika</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Anika</span> (who come into play later...). Dave then arranged to have his flight leave the next day. The next morning I found out that I had left my ATM card in the ATM machine (incident number 3). Too bad for me it was Sunday and the bank wasn't open. I worried about it all day. Later that afternoon I got contacted by a friend of my Kilimanjaro guide who suddenly had a safari going Monday, previously he had one leaving Sunday and Tuesday but none Monday. Dave and I joked that was <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Mika</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Anika</span> because they had been thinking of doing a safari and the schedule fit theirs and it was last minute as well. Now, for those who've travelled in third world countries you know that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">USD</span> is gold, everything is priced in it and they prefer to be paid in it. So for the safari trip they wanted <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">USD</span> upfront and I didn't want to pay <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">USD</span>. So I decided to pay in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">TZS </span>but I didn't have enough cash on me and my main ATM card was missing. Long story short I paid 2/5 in <span style="color:#ffff00;">TZS </span>1/5 in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">USD</span> and then 2/5 the next morning when I could withdraw money again.<br /><br />* The 4 day safari to Serengeti and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Ngorongoro</span> Crater was awesome. We saw so many animals in all sorts of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">environments</span>. It got to the point where we went oh, another zebra, giraffe, elephant, lion, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">wildebeest</span>, hippopotamus, etc.. etc... The only truly rare animal was the leopard and rhino. We saw a leopard sleeping in a tree and when the wind blew you could see the back of its head. The rhino was also a tough spot, as it was lying on the ground and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">every time</span> it shifted you could see the horn moving around. Otherwise even the cheetah which is supposed to be rarest animal to see, we saw it three times. So the story behind <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Mika</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Anika</span> is that they were on the safari and it was them that decided last minute to join a safari.<br /><br />* I saw this commercial that was really funny. It was black and white, a scrawny kid about 6 years old, going after scrawny looking 6 year old girl. He gets her flowers, cards and gets beaten up by bullies to protect her. Then you hear him say "I believe in starting investments early and watching them grow into it..." On screen the girl is introducing the boy to her mother who is definitely a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">hottie</span>. And it was for a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">investment</span> management company.<br /><br />* A few small things. I've realized that I'm really annoyed that people assume I'm Japanese. There isn't anything wrong with being Japanese. However when you walk down the street and the touts shouting 'Hey you, Japan.' it gets on my nerves! I deal much better with 'Hey friend, where are you from?' I've also discovered that I'm a walking talking ATM machine as everyone assumes I have money to spend on something...<br /><br />That is it for now folks...Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-39325649478005497632008-07-19T08:52:00.000-07:002008-07-19T12:18:42.471-07:00Uganda gives me hope for ZimbabweI wrote this in Uganda and just posting this now, will post stuff on Tanzania and Kilimanjaro in a few days...<br /><br />* So the Apple Pie reference in Zimbabwe was because I was getting Apple Pie for desert. The food portions were not enough for me, for several reasons... So I didn’t need another full entree but I needed more food. So I usually ordered dessert and no matter where I went, they had a list of deserts of which they only had Apple Pie with Ice Cream. So I had a lot of Apple Pie in Zimbabwe.<br /><br />* Uganda has recovered so much from the days of Idi Amin and his successive dictators who looted and destroyed this country and it’s people. Today Uganda is full of hope. I see roadside stalls selling food, cellphone minutes, cloths and other trinkets. I see people out late at night drinking with friends and family. I see smiles and not flies on kids faces. I see joy and contentment in the people as we drive by. This gives me hope for the rest of Africa. If Uganda can come back from Idi Amin, imagine Zimbabwe in 10-15 years! I hope that when I return to Zimbabwe, and I will return, in a few years I will notice a considerable change.<br /><br />* One thing I never thought I’d ever do was white water kayaking the Nile. I figured if I learned to white water Kayak, it would be some place closer to home like Great Falls or New River Gorge. No, the first white water kayak experience I get is in the Nile in Uganda. It was an awesome experience, though I did spend as much time under and out of the boat as I did in it...<br /><br />* We arrived in Sipi Falls during a power failure. As I’m writing this blog, it’s the only power I’ve seen in this region in the past 48 hours. Every outlet in this lodge is plugged in and every piece of electronic equipment is being charged. Crazy how dependent on power we are. Can’t say I was suffering the past few days, but definitely a bit anxious and worrying whether I’d be able to charge my camera, my GPS and my laptop. And now we are out of power.... Back, 30 minutes later we are power again and there now another mad dash to re-plug everything back in.<br /><br />* We managed to find some short bolted routes in Sipi Falls. Dave decided to take the first climb. All geared up and ready to go, half way up the climb he got stung by a wasp. Now, those who know Dave, Dave is allergic to bee stings. So he immediately took some Benadryl and we kept an eye on his swelling. After a few hours of climbing we returned to the lodge for Dave to call Marty. Dave asked about the max dosage for Benadryl he could take and took it. The problem was it as all the Benadryl Dave, Kim and I had. So we had to look for more anti-histamines. Now the good news was the Benadryl stopped the swelling from creeping up Dave’s arm and at times even decreased the swelling. However, we still needed Benadryl in case the swelling came back up. As you can imagine, you can not get Benadryl in Uganda, so we had to find another anti-histamine. The first clinic gave Dave pain meds, the second clinic/hospital required prescription and there was a massive line for the doctor. So we decided to hit the roadside pharmacies. Showing them our empty Benadryl containers we asked for ant-histamine and allergy medication. All the answers were we don’t have that until, we hid the Benadryl containers from view and simply asked ‘What do you have for allergy meds?’. This question bought out two possible pieces of medication of which only one had an indication sheet. We purchased extra tablets and again made a phone consultation with a Doc back in the states. Dave as of writing this blog is still alive. Doctor says if it doesn’t kill you in the first 90 minutes, you are usually fine.<br /><br />Dave is fine now, we are in Tanzania.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-45353297553574623372008-07-03T05:51:00.000-07:002008-07-05T04:01:20.001-07:00Crying for ZimbabweI was going post this as "Nothing says Zimbabwe as Apple Pie.." but thought better of it, I'll explain the alternative title later...<br /><br />My main point of this post is to explain the life here in Zimbabwe and I've only seen the 'better' part of it. As I mentioned in my other post things here are terrible and as I have met the locals, things here are dire. I'd like to share some stories with you all.<br /><br />* Ndooga was my river guide for my canoing (really a raft...) trip down the Zambezi river, the river that feeds Victoria Falls. This guy was funny and smart, knew almost everything there was to know about the river and wildlife. Though because of him we got charged by an elephant, but again that is another story. The point of mentioning Ndooga was during our lunch break we started talking, one thing led to another and then I noticed he was crying, or at least brimming on the verge of crying. I paused and realized we were discussing the finer points of rent prices in London and New York how a 'small' room costs $1500 to $2000 to rent. Here was a man struggling to feed himself and his family. How absurd was the topic, I really didn't know what to do at that point, what do you say to a person like that? It will get better? Always hope for the future? Tomorrow is another day? We talked about other issues, but I was surprised to see a grown man cry. In the end I gave him a 100Rand tip, but that was probably more to assuage my guilt more then anything else.<br /><br />* Roy is the night watchman at my hostel. He's 70 years old, gray haired, hunched and missing most of his teeth. Yet he has so much stoicism and yet sadness. This is the only second grown man brim with tears in a very long time. This time we were talking about Zimbabwe, it's people and his family. Again what do you do? What do you say?<br /><br />* Phillip was my waiter at Mama Africa (in Victoria Falls), he was so skinny I wasn't sure he had a decent meal in years. How does a person eat thinking about that? And then there is a Mama Africa itself, set up like a dinner party expecting guests that will never come. All the gas lamps, the silverware, the napkins and place mats, all laid out and I was the only guest there.<br /><br />* Then there is the chef at the hostel where I stayed. At one point he tells me he doesn't have a receipt book and would like me to pay him cash and we all keep it hush hush. The way this place was supposed to work was I ordered food, I got a receipt and the carbon copy went to the bosses and I paid the bosses on the way out. So him asking for cash was basically stealing from his boss. I knew he had a receipt book or that he could've just walked 15 ft to the office to get another one. At first I agreed with him, handed him $5 CAD in cash (as all my USD was in twenties and RAND in hundreds). After eating the food, it didn't settle very well knowing that just helped someone steal from his boss. So in the end I asked him for a meal slip and told him to keep the cash. Later in the day he made a page from a regular ledger and gave me that as a meal slip; not sure if he was covering his tracks or what... But how desparate does a person have to be to steal? Risk his job?<br /><br />* At the airport I decided I wanted some Zim Dollars as souveniers. I went to the exchange office and got $2 USD changed into into 30 367 407 992 Zim Dollars. It was a 1 USD to 15 183 703 966 ZIM Dollar exchange rate. Now the messed up part was when I arrived the exchange rate was like 1 USD to about 12 billion Zim$. That is a 3 billion dollar or 20% increase in 5 days. Talk about inflation. One of the guys at my South African hostel was in Zimbabwe in November and it was 1 RAND for 100,000 Zim$, now it was 1 RAND for 1.3 billion. Adding on top of that, the exchange rate wasn't consistant. In Victoria Falls the rate ran from 13 billion to 15 billion for 1 USD in Harare it was like 40 billion for 1 USD. The Victoria Falls owner to cover his basis would phone multipe banks to get the best exchange rate. Also prices for some items were subject to change on an hourly basis (if quoted in Zim$).<br /><br />Anyway, that is the serious part of this blog. I figured if I can't do anything about there or anywhere else, I'd at least tell you all about it. Hope that you tell everyone you know about it and maybe, maybe we reach the right people who CAN do something about it. In the end I ate the food, in fact I've never cleaned up my more then I've cleaned my plate in Victoria Falls, and those who know me, KNOW I usually CLEAN my plate. I also tipped very well, hoping a little here and there would make some difference.<br /><br />* I took a canoe trip down the Zambezi river, the river that feeds Victoria Falls. During the trip we ran into an Elephant on an island. The guide beaches his canoe and goes ashore, I do the same as does the American couple on the trip. I make sure to keep the guide between me and the elephant. When we got about 30 ft away, the elephant decided to charge us. We all turned an ran, I stoped at the shore, the American couple ran into the water and fell face first into it. The guide at that point turned around put up his arms and the screamed, the elephant stopped about 20 ft away. The guide approached the elephant again, and again the elephant charged, stopped and then walked away... a very interesting experience indeed.<br /><br />* I say that British tourist are as bad as American tourist, key here is differentiating tourists and backpackers. Tourists are short-timers. I was on a lion walk with a bunch of English tourist, one of the guys was dressed in typical safari dress and one of the women had a wide brim hat you'd commonly see the Queen wear, and it even had a faux flower on it. Lions like all cats yawn here and there. At one point the hat woman goes 'Can you make him yawn?' I was astounded! I was annoyed the lions were as well trained as they were, but here she goes 'Can you make him yawn?' WTF!?!<br /><br />Anyway time is running out, photos are being uploaded, this blog will be proof read later.. I hope..Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-1925267792468635322008-07-01T01:21:00.000-07:002008-07-01T05:07:15.707-07:00Canada Day in ZimbabweHello from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, here are a few thoughts from the past week...<br /><br />* I rented a car in South Africa and did some driving. Surprisingly it didn't take long for me to learn to drive on the left side. The stick on the left wasn't so bad either; just have to give the left hand some practice with it and all is well. The joke going around was you weren't comfortable driving on the left side until you <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">accidentally</span> pull into the wrong side of traffic. This is because until you are comfortable, you concentrate on driving on the left side.. once you are comfortable.. you let your guard down.. and poof... back on the right side again.<br /><br />* I've been meeting so many people people out here... it's crazy... I'm trying to keep <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">everyone's</span> names and faces straight. Talking about travelling or discussing the finer details of international politics over some wine... just priceless. It is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">also</span> very exhausting... but well worth it.<br /><br />* I did a township tour in Cape Town. It was interesting, superficial but interesting. The people there seem so optimistic and hopeful. This is not to say they are not suffering or down in the dredges of life... but they believe that tomorrow will be a better day, it's so refreshing. They do not ask what the government can do for them, they do for themselves what they need. They start their own businesses selling sheep heads, corner fruit stands, trinkets for the tourists or giving a tour of your own room to the tourists; all to make a living.<br /><br />* Zimbabwe is a mess. I've met a few locals asking for money or trying to trade stuff for cloth or food. One kid who walked with me for a bit in the end begged me for a pair of socks... I would've given him some if I had more then two pairs on me.... I walked into the local supermarket and the shelves were empty. Even with all the foreign currency I had on me, I couldn't buy what I wanted... I had dinner out last night.. as I was eating my food I felt <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">guilty</span> looking outside; some of those kids outside probably hadn't had a bite to eat all day. All those poor, starving African kids that your parents used to threaten you with if you didn't finish your food, were not an ocean away... they were right outside.<br /><br />* Victoria Falls is just awesome. There is no other word: Awesome. The water is loud, the mists high. On the flight in you could see the flume of mist flying into the air at least 100km away. When you are by the falls, the mist being blown back up just pours down on you like a thunderstorm.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-14329704363143321612008-06-23T03:17:00.000-07:002008-06-23T03:21:01.527-07:00Look Right First* I guess the simplest, yet also the hardest, thing to get used to here in South Africa is you have to look right first when you cross the road. They drive on the left side of the road here, so look right or get run over. The other ‘odd’ thing is it s winter here. So I have pictures of late fall trees; yellow leaves and such.<br /><br />* The other title of this post I had would have been ‘Orange Diplomacy’. I went climbing with a transplanted Oregonian (more later on that..) up north where it’s warmer (yea...). On the way back we dropped by a fruit stand and I bought a bag of oranges, about at least 30 of them, all softball size or larger. I got the bag for 10 rand, which is $1.25USD. Yes, that is one George bill and a George coin. So I’ve been walking around and giving them away to anyone who wanted one. One week later, I finally got rid of the last one. And yes, I did eat at least 1-2 oranges a day to help this process along. Great way to make friends and meet people.<br /><br /> * Climbing in South Africa is awesome. Most of the approaches are short and there are no lines for 5-star classic climbs. Even when it’s sunny at the crag and raining in Cape Town. Chris, the Oregonian, is here with his wife and kids. His wife is here on a Fullbright teaching exchange, he’s just chilling around and climbing. So we got a car for a few days and went up north and did some climbing in Montagu and Cederburg.<br /><br />* Russian football was awesome! Go Russia! We went out to The Dubliner, a local Irish Pub, to watch the game between Russia and Netherlands. After we settled down, all these Dutch showed up in their Orange. So my buddy, Hanif, an Iranian from Sweden, decides we are cheering for Russia. We had some fun there until halftime, when we headed back to the hostel. We later regretted this decision as we weren’t there to rub the loss into the face of the Dutch. To my Dutch friends: I’m sorry.. I had to cheer for Russia... However... you HAVE to admit Russia played an AWESOME game, absolutely outstanding!!<br /><br />* Robben Island is the place where the Apartheid government imprisoned their black political prisoners, most famous one being Nelson Mandela for 18 years. The tour was eye opening. I’ve never been to any European concentration camps so I don’t know what that would be like. At Robben Island, one thing you can get is a tour from a former inmate, and the stories.. wow! They showed how the dog kennels were larger then the prisoner cells. How the prisoners weren’t given a bed, just slept on a concrete floor. How even in prison they segregated the Asians, Colored (which in South Africa means mixed raced) and Blacks.<br /> <br />* The weather here has just been awful, rain every day. I've been up Table Mountain twice now and both times I've started out in clear blue sky and summited in the pouring rain. Most mornings I wake up late knowing that there will be rain in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. So it's been late mornings and late nights out. Cape Town has a blast none the less, and yes it's safe here. Very Safe.<br /> Those are just some thoughts for now. May post more later.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-40885361978650087302008-06-10T05:56:00.000-07:002008-06-10T06:17:33.316-07:00Time Zone Dissonance48 hours after taking off in LA I've landed in Cape Town. The city is charming, I'm sure, but I have no idea right now. The people at the hostel forgot about my meet and greet at the airport, however I'm not upset at all, in fact I'm suffering from so much sleep deprivation that I'm detached...<br /><br />* If any of you plan to fly through LAX, please note that there is not a single mailbox in the airport. You have to leave the airport to get to one. This I found out as I was on my way out of the country and I needed to mail off some last minute stuff to my parents... I'm still holding onto this stuff, I'm thinking of hiring a carrier pigeon...<br /><br />* I found out 1 hour before my flight to Cape Town from Frankfurt that I need a return or onward ticket to get into South Africa. Needless to say this caused me some worry... However the ticket agent at the gate was very nice and helpful, only charged me 1,800€ for my return ticket... he says it's fully refundable.. I haven't checked yet... cross your fingers...<br /><br />Just some initial thoughts from Cape Town.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-24321846949696689242008-06-05T12:17:00.000-07:002008-06-05T12:22:30.680-07:00I Dream of Jeannie...Nothing too much to report the last few days. Been at Cocoa Beach and doing the standard beach stuff: wake up late, go to beach, walk, eat, drink, sleep, rinse and repeat....<br /><br />* One of the more exciting stuff to report was the Shuttle Launch, we weren’t close enough to get our bones rattled by the take-off but we could still hear the rumble about 1 minute after take-off. I’ve posted pictures of the launch and our day at the beach.<br /><br />* The other good story was how I got here. I was scheduled to fly from Anchorage to LA, with a 10 hour lay-over and then from LA to Frankfurt to Cape Town. However Thursday morning, 16 hours before my flight Navid messages me that he would be in Florida for his launch (<a href="http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/">GLAST</a>). Somewhere in the conversation it gets mentioned that I could be there; you know flying over the US, I just grab a parachute and jump... Figuring nothing ventured nothing gained, I called my travel agent to see what could be done. After some calls it turns out it’ll cost me $1600+ to rebook my Cape Town flight, I’d get $650 back for my current flight and I’d still have to buy a ticket from LA to Florida, about $200. After a day of hiking I realize I don’t need to cancel my flight, just reschedule it. So I call that afternoon about 7 hours before my flight to see what it would cost to reschedule my flight. My agent tells me that she’s leaving for the day but it would be $225 (what the airline charges) and $50 what they charge plus the cost difference. She tells me to call her in LA the next morning. This I do, landing in LA 7 am PDT I call her. She searches and finds out that it would cost me $304 total to reschedule my flight, I find a $400 round-trip ticket form LA to Jacksonville...<br />So Rescheduled flight: $304,<br />Roundtrip tickets: $400,<br />Spending a week with friends in Florida for a once in a lifetime satellite launch: Priceless. <br /><br />* In the end, Navid’s launch has been delayed at least a week, no point in rescheduling my flight, and they aren’t staying either...<br /><br />Heading to Cape Town June 8th.<br /><br />PS: Navid's servers are down because of the storm, should be back up in a few days.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-23303250595095170532008-05-29T13:33:00.000-07:002008-05-30T10:39:36.637-07:00Here Kitty, Kitty...After stocking up in Anchorage we headed to Denali. We stopped for the night in Talkeetna, a small drinking town with a climbing problem. Arriving in Denali the next day we planned out our backpacking trip. We got zones 6 and 7, and planned to hike through zone 8 and get picked up by the bus there. Now, Denali is divided into 80 some odd wilderness zones and they limit the number of people who are allowed to camp in the zone at any given time. This number ranges from 2 to 8 depending on the zone. Before you do anything you have to show up at the backcountry office and reserve your zones and figure out a basic hiking plan. After consulting the ranger and a topo map we figured out our basic route: zones 6 & 7 and hike out of 8. Here are some thoughts on the trip<br /><br />* Walking on tundra is best experienced by going to a mattress warehouse and lining up random beds and walking across them; some are extra soft, some are hard, some higher, some lower, some are dry, some are soaked and some are little islands in a very wet bog filled. You never know what you are gonna get until you step on one.<br /><br />* It hailed (yea, it seems hail follows me everywhere...) and snowed while we were hiking in Denali. This caused us to call the trip two days short, as Dave put it "I'm prepared to survive this weather, but I'm not prepared to enjoy it."<br /><br />* We saw tons of animal tracks: moose, bears (brown and black) and a few other unidentifiable animal. We also saw a lot of Snowshoe Hare fur, most with the feet nearby; we assume killed and eaten, not shed. Along the riverbank we found pieces of a caribou, first the jaw, then the skull and finally the antlers. This is where the comment "Here Kitty, Kitty..." comes in. In dense bush where you don't have a clear view you are supposed to make noise in case there is a bear nearby. One of the worst things to do to a bear is to surprise it, as it will react unpredicabily. The other two are to mess with its cub or disturb its food source. So you make noise to alert the bear you are there and it will most likely move away. "Here Kitty, Kitty.. come and get your food..."<br /><br />* The picture I'd paint for this part of the trip would be: It's 11pm at night, it's snowing and I'm in my tent reading a book. I'm stripped down and ready to sleep but I need to take a piss. So, I decide to crawl out of my warm comfy sleeping bag and run out into the snow storm in my boxers, t-shirt and Chacos, and take a piss in the tundra. It's still very bright, like late summer afternoon bright and there is snow blowing all around me...<br /><br />* Dave, Marty and I hiked up to the famous Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. There is a hill there that everyone slides down; it's about 300ft long at least. So Dave on the way up thinks it's too steep but I know he wants to do it. We asked the other hikers about the slide and everyone says they've done it but no one will do that day. Finally Dave meets a local who decides she'll go first, cause Dave said to her "It's not OK to kill the tourists." So after seeing her, her friends and her two dogs make it down fine, Dave and I decide to slide down. Boy was it fun, we were giggling non-stop like schoolboys the whole way down and on the hike out. Would recommend everyone to do it!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-70814823125803371732008-05-24T20:24:00.000-07:002008-05-24T20:25:15.124-07:00Land of the Midnight Sun (Sort Of, more like the land of Midnight Twilight)* The Sun here plays games with your internal clock. People who live in a place for a while can generally tell the time of day by the sun, ie early morning, late afternoon or late evening. When you get someone from the Maryland and have them to tell time in Alaska, that person is usually off by 3-4 hours. When we think it’s 5pm,- the sun is a couple of hand-width above the horizon,- it’s actually 8-9pm. When you see the sun setting over the mountains, it means it’s 11:30pm, not 8-9pm. This has been playing havoc with my sense of time, I can usually tell what time it is down to the 30min-1 hour range without looking at my watch, here, I’m usually off by at least 2-3 hours.<br /><br />* Kayaking in Aialik Bay in Kenai National Park was a blast. Dave and Marty had dry suits and I had my basic synthetic clothes. We were dropped off in Bear Cove and the water was so clear and calm. This was awesome because the previous day we were practicing in 2 foot waves and choppy water. We kayaked and enjoyed the scenery and arrived at what was supposed to be our first stop, the Aialik ranger station. However the beach on which we were supposed to camp was covered by 5-6 foot of snow and the Ranger Station was still boarded up. We did find this flat spot that we were sure was above high tide and had minimal snow. However in the process of moving our gear, Marty noticed bird eggs in the middle of the rocky beach. We debated whether we should setup camp there or not; whether the birds had already abandoned the eggs. We decided to go a ways a bit and eat lunch and see if the birds came back. If they did, we’d move on and find another spot, if they didn’t we’d have poached eggs for dinner. The birds, which we later found out were endangered Oystercatchers, did return to their nest. Because of that we decided to head to our 2nd night spot a day early, the Aialik Cabin. This cabin we found buried under 6 food of snow and still boarded up. The outhouse was completed covered with snow and was un-useable. Upon examining the heater we found that the thermostat was busted but Dave managed to jerry-rig the thing with a safety pin making it stay on the whole time and thereby making the cabin unbearably hot. That night (10pm in broad daylight..) Marty had to return to the kayak to fetch something for Dave, on the way there she surprised a black bear less then 30 feet away from her. They both freaked out and the bear ran away as Marty slowly backed away towards the cabin. The three of us returned to the kayak a bit later and found the bear 200-300 yards away foraging for food. The next morning I went out to dig a hole and lose some weight... on the way back I noticed tracks in the snow that crisscrossed mine. On the way out, I was sure that I had the only tracks in the snow, upon examination of the tracks I realized they were bear tracks; so I had a bear walk less then 50 ft away from me while I was taking a dump... That day we explored the area and glacier. We even kayaked through the mini-icebergs, termed growlers. We watched the glacier calve while we had lunch. We had a blast over the next two days, as we had to be picked up a day early because of inclement weather; they weren’t sure they’d be able to pick us up if we didn’t leave a day early...<br /><br />* There are two pictures I’d paint that would define this kayaking trip. One is me at 11:30pm walking out of the cabin in my boots, pants and t-shirt to brush my teeth. I walked up to the edge of the snow as it met the beach (6-7 ft drop-off as the tide washed the rest of the snow away..). Standing there brushing my teeth, I watched the sun set behind the Aialik Glacier, watched the birds swoop in and out and a random seal poke it’s head out of the water. Then I’d rinse my mouth with filtered snow-melt and then walk back to the snow covered cabin and go to sleep in daylight. The second picture I’d paint is the three of us would be kayaking and we would notice at least 1, if not more, seals would be stalking us. They would play this game of peek-a-boo; they’d poke their heads up just long enough for you to notice and the disappear back under the water and they would do this for a fairly long time and distance before they’d leave. They were also especially interested in Marty; we’d joke that Marty had a stalker.<br /><br />* Our kayaking adventure wasn’t exciting enough we decided to have a gas adventure, this is where you run the gas tank down to the fumes in Alaska. According to my GPS the was only 1 gas station between us and Anchorage and that was a 10 mile detour off the highway to Whittier. We arrived at the junction exit and our uber-smart car told us we had 10 miles left in the tank. Then on the way into Whittier we found out that you have to pay a $12 toll to use a single lane tunnel that is also sometimes used by trains. The ironic part is the gas in Whittier costs $4.60 a gallon and the reason we didn’t fill up earlier was because all the stations we passed charged $4.30 a gallon and I knew Anchorage at $3.87 gas. So instead of saving money we had a 10 mile detour, paid 30 cents more per gallon for gas and had to pay a $12 toll. Dave has instituted the half-tank rule; we must fill up when the tank is less then half full.<br /><br />* Food here is just expensive, a basic house salad (in most places would be considered side salad) costs $3.00, a cup of soup $3.00 and a bottle of Moosejaw beer $4.00, making a very light dinner $10.00 plus tax and tip. A full dinner in Alaska has been easily costing me $30, just crazy!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-22394104180707021062008-05-17T14:34:00.000-07:002008-05-23T00:09:56.198-07:00Sunny in SeattleSeattle is a very beautiful city, especially when it's sunny. So far, the weather has been awesome for me everywhere I've been so far, even with the brief 30 minute hail storm. The 3 days I spent in Seattle was the best weather they've had for a while.<br /><br />* My first flight was when I was 5 and a half year old from Beijing to JFK. I still remember how I marveled at the experience even though I at the time couldn't grasp the great distance, both physically and psychologically, that I traveled that night. I still remember the empty 747, the stewardess who gave me toys and the search for the empty window seats. To this day I still marvel at modern transportation. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic">world's busiest airport</a> boasts 89 million people a year, or 244,000 people a day. Assume an average of just 1/5 for the rest of the airports we are talking about 40,000 people passing through an airport a day. Just think about the number of people we aren't on the ground at any given time... Anyway this thought came up because as I was walking through Seattle-Tacoma, I marveled at the fact I had woken up that morning at 6am in Yosemite, and in three weeks I had gone from Baltimore, to Montreal, to San Francisco to Seattle and in a few more weeks from Anchorage to South Africa.<br /><br />* In Seattle, the Pike Market Place is an INTERESTING place. Blind yodelers, hula-hooping guitar players and flower painted ninja warriors. Fish throwing and the world's first Starbucks. Alex took me on some cool hikes and then an awesome BBQ party.<br /><br />Anyway, this is my short post from Anchorage, will post more after my Kayaking trip.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-61930600374213054112008-05-11T06:24:00.000-07:002008-05-14T23:30:49.034-07:00Hotel CaliforniaIt's a been a while, I'm sitting in the preverbal Seattle Coffee shop, catching up on my photos and blog.. here are a few thoughts and happenings...<br /><br />* I had been living out of my tent for the past bit and it has been beyond awesome. I'd wake up in the morning and look at a map and go 'Where do I want to spend the night tonight?' and the only constraint was that I had to pick up Patrick in San Diego Wednesday, May 7th. I had 3 and a half days to work with, it was fun! Spent one night in Big Basin SP, one in Big Sur SP (agressive squirrels), and one night in Jalama Beach, camping one dune behind the beach.<br /><br />* I went into LA to check out the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood sign. I drove down to where Vine met Hollywood Blvd. Found a parking spot nearby and parked, had 1 hour parking. Walked real quick, took lots of pictures and I headed back to the car. About a block away I saw a traffic cop writing me a ticket. So I ran over as fast as I could and talked to him. I knew I was under 1 hour, so I asked him what was up. He said I was parked illegally, but I pointed out the 1 hour parking sign and the white T's on the road for the parking spot. He said it was a Red Curb (which means no parking) and a bus stop. $300 fine he says, we argue a bit, finally he agrees to write it down to $70 and tells me to take pictures and go argue my case with the courts. Take a look at the picture and tell me what you think... I personally think it's scam by either the cop or the city...<br /><br />* I saw some elephant seals basking in the down the California Coast. It's something I heard about but never experienced, and never would've thought I'd see. A beach full of seals, take a look at the pictures, even my best description can't match that.<br /><br />* Joshua Tree is so otherworldly. I've had it described to me before but seeing it is just different. Even pictures have difficulty capturing the weirdness of it. The best description I've heard is "it's like a Giant's Sandbox, where the Giants stacked rocks on top of each other in the most bizarre way." That is just the way Joshua Tree is, you have some of the most precariously balanced boulders I've ever seen; someone must have placed it there.<br /><br />* Yosemite was just packed. Patrick and I got tired of Joshua Tree, our hands were raw from climbing sandstone so we figured we'd give Yosemite granite a try on a Saturday night. Turned out it was a bad idea. Every campsite, every hotel, every motel within 20 miles was booked for the night, we were really lucky that we did find one that had vacancies, for $129 a night. Even with the crowds I'd highly advise everyone to visit this place; the valley is just beyond-BEYOND gorgeous.<br /><br />* Patrick and I (yes Patrick, we BOTH made a decision) to climb Snake Dike (5.7R) on Half Dome on our 2nd day. It's a 8 pitch 800 ft climb. With a 3-4 hour approach, 6 miles and 2500 ft in elevation change, 3-4 hour climbing and a 3-4 descent at 8 miles. So at a minimum it was a 9 hour day, to probably an average a 12 hour day. For us, it was a 16 hour day. We started hiking from the car at about 7:45, 4.5 hours later we arrived at the base of the climb at 12:30 or so. This was after some strenuous bush whacking as we could not find the trail the first time. We had a party ahead of us just starting to climbing, some people who worked for Google in Ireland. Now, the day started sunny and beautiful, by the time we got to the base of the climb it was partly cloudy and windy. Half way up the climb it started hailing on us, about small bead size hail... Lucky for us, the R sections of the climb was 5.4 so I didn't have too much issue leading it, but it didn't make me happy. I was also underdressed for the hail storm... However, as the theme of the trip has been so far, close to disaster but in the end, everything works out. Cause in the end, we summited in clear blue skies. We descended via the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Dome#Hiking_the_Cables_Route">cables</a>- however the uprights weren't there, so it was a bit hairy. So, in summary in 16 hours we climbed Half Dome in a hail storm, Patrick led a pitch of it, scrambled 800 ft to the summit, and hiked 8 miles back to the valley. Over all a good day.. ;)<br /><br />* The day after Half Dome Patrick and I took it easy and did the tourist drive. We were so sore, the old ladies were looking at us weird while hobbled up and down the stairs. So at night we dropped by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahwahnee_Hotel">Ahwahnee Hotel</a> to check the place out. The place, in my mind, is the ORIGINAL high end wilderness lodge. All those resort lodges you see in all those ski resorts are just wannabees. This hotel is just stunning- big fire places, uniquely and originally decorated rooms and even the faux candles added to the atmosphere rather then detracted from it. The dining room was full of people in dinner dresses, high heels and sport jackets- who brings high heels to Yosemite? The dining room itself reminded me of the vaulted dining rooms of old English castles; the whole place was lit by faux candles, which again made it even more tasteful. On top of that each room costs at least $439, Patrick and I paid $5 each for a campsite at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_4_%28Yosemite%29">Camp 4</a>.<br /><br />* So in the theme of close calls. We had 1-ish flights from San Francisco. It's 180 miles from Yosemite to San Francisco, so we figured 3 hour drive and we budgeted to be there by 10am, giving us 3 hours... First we started late, instead of 7am, it ran into 7:30. Then Yosemite had road construction, some of the roads had 35mph speed limits and then we hit traffic. We got to the car return place at noon, got to the terminal at 12:30. So we were both very worried about catching our flights, Patrick's was 1:10 and mine was 1:30. Lucky for Patrick, his flight was delayed to 1:30 and for me, there was no line at the check-in or at security, so we had more then enough time to catch our flights. So again with the theme of things, close calls but all is well in the end.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-83392951681498483052008-05-04T17:55:00.000-07:002008-05-04T17:56:38.965-07:00Random thoughts...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vos-yR_dUsU/SB5bNUdAzCI/AAAAAAAAAFA/nFucShlK3VE/s1600-h/05-03-08_2155.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_vos-yR_dUsU/SB5bNUdAzCI/AAAAAAAAAFA/nFucShlK3VE/s400/05-03-08_2155.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196691304418954274" border="0" /></a><br />So I can't write much about the last week, suffice to say it was a blast! Though I do have a few thoughts to share...<br /><br />* If any of you have flown over Quebec and then over Western Canada or the US, you'd notice something interesting about the farm land. In Quebec the land is divided into long rectangular tracts while land in the US and Western Canada is divided into mostly square tracts. There is a very good explanation for this, the French vs the English. You'd find the same difference in land if you were to fly from France to England. The French divided their land into long tracts extending away from the river, the English into square blocks. When the settlers came to the New World they each bought their own customs along and that is how it is. Haven't we learned something new today Boys and Girls?<br /><br />* In the past week, I've had a lot of time to contemplate life and such. I have no new wisdoms to pass on but... I have some old ones to rehash. For some reason I thought this trip would change me almost immediately; I'd wake up one day and there be the new me in the mirror (and not that the old me was bad). Like everyone else, there are always a few things about yourself you'd like to change, it may be physical or psychological but there is always something. You always wake up with the sense of dissatisfaction with something, yet you can't always tell what it is. Well, just say that I've decided that whatever it is, it'll come. Life is a journey, an experience and all things come to those who wait. As an example, on one of my flights, I asked for a window seat in the back of the plane. The attendant nodded his head and said ok. He gives me my ticket and I head off. Upon reaching the gate I look at my ticket and it's 9D, an aisle seat at the front of the plane. Lucky for me, the plane was virtually empty and I just moved to an empty row and got what I wanted anyway.<br /><br />* Was in Montreal for Game 5 between the Canadiens (the Habs) and the Fliers. Was at a sports bar when the game was going on. As we were in line to get in, all the riot police with all their gear were getting into place (the bar was 2 blocks from the actual game). The bar was loud and rowdy and so were the cops. We were sitting by the window and the Habs had just scored a goal and the cops walking by outside were smiling and waving, I guess they figured if the Habs won tonight, there be no riot. I have a grainy shot of the cops in gear, didn't bring my camera to be bar. By the time we got back to the house, it had started raining so didn't get a chance to go out and look for the riot... j/k... sort of.<br /><br />Anyway folks, this blog has been bought to you by the letter C and the number 5. Have a good day!Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-35576825181123774852008-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:002008-04-25T18:02:44.645-07:00Signs and OmensI'm not superstitious, but in statistics there is a concept known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_probability">conditional probability</a>, the probability of event B happening given that A has occurred.<br /><br />* So what does it mean when your duffel bag rips while you are trying to pack it? In my case I just went to REI and bought another one. Good sign or bad?<br /><br />* I got picked up by Super Shuttle from Minh's at 5am, guy took us around town and to National (DCA) and my flight was out of Dulles (IAD). Driver tells me my reservation is from DC to Reagon (which it is, I just checked, I must've selected the wrong airport). He says I'm in luck because he's headed out there anyway. At this point he's ambivalent on whether he can get me there on time, it's 0600 and I have a 0850 flight. We pick up two more people and head over to Dulles, whole time I'm worried about lines, closing of check-in and missing my first flight. He gets me there at 0650, I pay him the extra fee for Dulles and run into the airport. I find the Air Canada line empty and try to check in my bags. I get an error, saying something about itinerary change... I hand the agent my passport and he goes over some info and hands me back my ticket. I got put on another flight, I had got bumped to an earlier flight of 0830. Either the other one was cancelled/recheduled or something else happened. I had checked the status of my flight the night before and it showed no changes. The whole check-in and security thing took less than 20 minutes. Was at the gate with time to spare. Does this mean I'm to expect close calls but spectacular finishes? A lot of worrying for nothing?<br /><br />* I was on my laptop at the gate and this girl beside me asked if they had wireless in the airport. I told her they had, she was worried cause she had limited batteries and didn't want to waste it checking for wireless if there wasn't any. I pointed out to her that there are random outlets around the terminal and she tells me she forgot her power plug. Earlier I had noticed she had an Macbook, so I offered her my power plug. She thanked me and took off looking for a power outlet, leaving her bags in her seat. I waited for a bit and then they started calling for boarding for my flight. I had assumed she was going to be on my flight because she had this cute French accent, so figured she'd be back before my flight left for Montreal. After a bit of fretting on my part, she comes running back and hands me my power plug and I board my plane as the last passenger (no she wasn't on my flight, wish we had more time to talk...). I guess another sign of close calls?<br /><br />So ripped bags, wrong airports, changed flights and last minute power plugs, what does it all mean?<br /><br />PS: I over heard an United employee at Dulles excitedly telling another one it was Aloha Friday, anyone know what that means? Do they all fly jump seat to Hawaii and party on Aloha Friday?Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003192819141529098.post-17977124156563786702008-03-06T22:25:00.000-08:002008-03-06T22:50:32.919-08:00I Resigned My JobReally crazy! But I did it today, handed in my resignation, last day will be April 23rd, 2008. I'm really nervous and in an unfamiliar situation. The closest thing I can equate it to is cliff diving. Before I quit it was like standing on the edge of the cliff looking down 30 ft to the water. Quitting is like jumping off... Now I'm mid-air falling towards the water. The joke around here is 30 ft is just long enough for you to change your mind. I know in the back of my mind that once I hit the water I'll feel ALIVE.<div>I guess right now, I'm waiting for the water. :)</div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03316607422354497583noreply@blogger.com0