TravelStream™ news feed for member baphometdemon on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/baphometdemon en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:37:08 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523692/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523692/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523692/tpod.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:37:08 -0500 Life In China

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Tanggu, Tianjin, China

We chose to visit the nearby port Town of Tanggu where is located the economic location stimulus known as TEDA (basically a lot of westerners and big companies who are drawn in by paying less taxes).

I always like to see anything new, but I found that Tanggu really has nothing to offer and is quite boring. In fact, it was really a comedy of errors one after the other on the Saturday.

First we visited the very famous "Exotic Goods" market close to the train station. The market was quite nice with a lot of goods I couldn't find in parts of Tianjin, however the prices were high and none of the 'western' things were really Western at all. Regardless I bought some gifts and some leather mittens. Afterward we had jiaozi at a nearby chain restaurant, and a little skiff with the waitress when she brought and charged us for a dish we didn't order.

After, we took a taxi to the Haihewaitan park at the end of the Haihe river. The park was a basically a series of modern art projects that cover most of China and was actually quite nice if nothing to see. We passed by the famous Orient Princess ship where they run KTV and walked down the river towards a 'Chaoyin temple' I had read about on the map. After rechecking the map and realizing that we had, in fact, been walking in the right direction, however there was no bridge crossing the river, we grabbed a taxi to take us out to the temple.

The temple was out in the middle of nowhere, and we asked the taxi to wait for 30 mins but he said it was too long. The entrance fee was only 2rmb and that itself should have been a warning. The temple seemed to be not a tourist attraction but an actual functioning temple where believers come to pray for this or that. As such, it was rather boring, very small and not really worth seeing. Also, I took pictures on my phone that were (unbeknown to me) tiny and in black-and-white. After the 10 minutes at the temple, we walked 30 minutes in the biting cold back to a main road so we could grab a bus into the town.

We took a taxi into the TEDA district to look around (she took us to the wrong spot) and, after walking around to look at some less than exciting buildings, we went into an Irish Pub and had some coffee to warm up. The coffee was served cold, but the beer was OK and we played some cards for a while.

Originally, I had wanted to spend a whole weekend here, seeing what there was to see, but after just a Saturday here we decided there was nothing left and headed back. There would be more to do in the city the next day. At least now I can say I've been there, but really not much to go back to and I'd hate to live there.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523609/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523609/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1258523609/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:56:43 -0500 Life In China

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Tianjin, Tianjin, China

A couple of months have past since our last little adventure and the throes of a day to day job have enthralled me for the moments. I do feel, however, the often little tug to wander streets I haven't walked and to places I have not yet gazed. And so, for this weekend, the two of us decided to go to the close coastal city of Tanggu to see there what it had to offer. Of course, between the last and current posts I have had plenty of travels within the city and taken many pictures, I'll add only a few here of the area of the city close to the river.

With the passing of time, the gilding wears off and the truth of things come forth, but, as I've said before, I feel this city is close to me and I am connected to it - at least as much as an expat could expect to be. There's no regrets, but only a wish that I had more time to wander the little crevices and feel the mood of the buildings more often. In time I suppose, and also in time I will be able to travel away from my comfortable little zone of China I have created and to wherever the winds of change may call me.

Pictures added, taken Nov. 17.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1255002107/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1255002107/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1255002107/tpod.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:33:28 -0500 Life In China

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Tianjin, Tianjin, China

National Day in China is celebrated on October 1st, and this year is a big one since it's the 60th anniversary of the PRC. Added with that, the fall festival fell close enough to national day this year that I ended up with 8 days off. 'Course, I had to work the Sunday before and the Saturday after the time off so it's not really that much time off, but great for a trip.

For this trip I traveled to Chengde county to stay with my gal's parents and see the mountain's of China.

Wednesday night after work I took the bus out to Tianjin city and we went out to dinner and packed for the trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426268/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426268/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426268/tpod.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:31:15 -0500 Life In China

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Jixian, Tianjin, China

The morning of the first (National Day) we were picked up by a friend of my gal's from High School who was also traveling up to Chengde County for the vacation, and luckily they had a car. The drive through northern Tianjin Mun. was rather uneventful, but a good chance for me to start to see some new landscape in China, and we also spotted out a big hot-spring resort in Baodi that we decided to come back to later when we had more money.

In the town of Jixian, we stopped to have a big Chinese lunch with family of our driver. As usual, the topic usually revolved around me and my few bits of Hanyu I can actually manage to say. It's often a curse to be the center of attention, and as much as I enjoy being in an exotic foreign location, I really don't enjoy being an exotic foreign thing to everyone I meet. Regardless, the lunch was delicious (big pot in the middle of the concave table with boiling fish in it), though our hosts perhaps had too much sake.

Jixian itself is nice, if a bit small. But there is a view of mountains here, which is more than I had seen anywhere around Tianjin. There is also a famous mountain with a pagoda on it close to Jixian called Panshan that I will have to come back to visit some time.

After food we were off again and up through the terrifying and treacherous mountain roads into Hebei and Chengde Prefecture.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254426400/tpod.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:49:52 -0500 Life In China

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Xiabancheng, Hebei, China

Well, I'll keep the personal bits of this leg of my trip to a minimum. Let me just say that this was the first time I met with my gals parents and family (basically all of whom were home for the holiday), with which we stayed for 7 days all while taking in the sites and new experiences of the surrounding lands.

The rest of the drive from Jixian was very fun and I took a lot of pictures of the 'rural China' towns as we passed through. Unfortunately, they were with my cell phone camera since my camera didn't have new batteries yet and so they turned out quite poorly.
The county level town of Xiabancheng (aka Chengde County), is built much like Jinghai. By that I mean, it's a small town with relatively few people yet it is very compacted and so the town center is built up with 20+ story apartment buildings and busy market streets and department stores. Even small towns in China have a way of becoming quite busy and prosperous compared to my quite 'villages' back home in Oregon.

The many family lunches and dinners aside, I'll just list off some of the most memorable experiences and let the soon to be posted pictures do more talking.

The day after we arrived, we traveled to a village nearby (and owned by the town), for some authentic rural apple picking. A new fad in China apparently (as many rich business-men were doing the same) to go to the villages, and fill your own basket of apples straight off the tree (at a higher price than the market of course). Regardless, it was loads of fun, and I have a big bag of delicious apples.

The next day was mostly spent on some very long meals and with meeting of people, but in the evening I was able to take a nice hike up the mountain behind the town. Here there are a series of pagoda's and tomes below the tree line that give an increasingly picturesque view of the town. At the top (a summit I was graciously suggested to attempt alone :P), there is a very large pagoda overlooking the town of which I took some great photos.

The following day, and day after we took the bus to Chengde city for some sightseeing and adventure. At our return in the night in between, I had my first taste of Mahjong and had to read up on how to play. I love board games, and this and Go seem to be all that's played here, so I better learn and get a board, just need to avoid playing for money.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254772201/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254772201/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/5/1254772201/tpod.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:48:33 -0500 Life In China

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Xiabancheng, Hebei, China

After the pair of days spent sightseeing in the city, I had expected a bit of a relief day to come before the end of the vacation and the return to Tianjin. As usual, my expectations were poorly founded, and early on the morning of the 6th, before I knew what hit me, I was on a bike with my gal and a friend of hers from school heading towards a mountain village.

Biking in itself was an adventure for me, I didn't even like biking when I was a kid, and the last time I had done it was last summer in China - before that was many, many years. But, lucky me, I didn't get killed by a truck, just rode, eyes plastered on the road ten feet in front of me, and my skin pale and clenching tightly to the lifeline of the handlebars.

We biked for about an hour, far off the main highway through small farming and factory villages, past a field full of goats and along a meandering river. The destination, I discovered only upon arriving, was a waterfall from a small creek passing into the river we had been following. The amazing part of the waterfall was the way it came out of the cliff-side far above and fell over a series of ledges before settling.

I took the stone-steps to swaying metal-steps to rickety-half-missing wood-steps, path to the top alone. Halfway up, I stopped and a small pagoda and took pictures of the wonderful views of the rural valley in both directions. The views of the valley were even more beautiful than the falls to me. Further up I ran into a Chinese woman who fancied herself and English speaker and quickly locked me in generic conversation. I did my best to humor her but she ended up thinking I was born in Tianjin, then asking me how I got here (bus or car). I said bike, she said no...

Anyways, past that little sub-adventure, above the falls there was a little stone hut with the creek running under the middle of it. Further up I found a couple of Buddhas with offerings in front and a little donation box (religions really are all the same). Out of respect (the kind of respect learned by having one too many Chinese yell at me) I didn't take any pictures of the statues, even up here where the were no other people. I guess they've trained me well.

After our return to the city, we spent much of the rest of the night doing some much needed shopping at the local, underground department store. I got myself a coat, pair of pants and a shirt and a new, small suitcase for these little trips that don't need my massive fly cases I came to China with. I got my gal one of the same and a sweat-coat with the big buttons. Since we spent above a certain amount of money we got a rice-cooker for free (China is strange), I won't fight it since I need one, but it was really a pain to carry back.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248457064/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248457064/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248457064/tpod.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:43:18 -0500 Summer Oregon Trip

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Wildwood, Oregon, United States

We found a camping site in the Umpqua Forest.

We went to a nearby trail to a waterfall.

We built a fire and roasted marsh-mellows.

In the morning we went to another nearby trail and walked to another waterfall.

We drove back to Oakridge.

We went to a second hot springs near 58.

We drove back to Eugene then north up I-5 to Beaverton.

We stopped in Salem and drove to the Oregon Capitol building.

We looked at the hotel we stayed at previously, it was full.

We found a hotel in Troutdale (most were booked).

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248543508/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248543508/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248543508/tpod.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:33:57 -0500 Summer Oregon Trip

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Troutdale, Oregon, United States

We spent the last few days relaxing.

We went to The Rhinelander again.

We walked on the Columbia river again.

I took her to the airport.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248370558/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248370558/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248370558/tpod.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:13:14 -0500 Summer Oregon Trip

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Eugene, Oregon, United States

We drove down the center of Eugene.

We met a friend of mine from college.

We got pizza.

We watched Bruno in theaters.

We went to a bar and had some pitchers.

We slept at my friends house.

We drove on 58 towards Oakridge.

We went to a hot spring.

We drove out towards Wildwood.

We got a camp site.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248284110/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248284110/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/baphometdemon/6/1248284110/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:38:30 -0500 Summer Oregon Trip

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Newport, Oregon, United States

We came into Newport and had lunch at a little fish stand.

We went to a post office to mail post cards.

We went to the Library.

We went to the Wal-mart to use the phone.

We went to the Oregon Aquarium.

We met an old friend of mine and walked on the beach.

We went to the Rogue Brewery but it was closed.

We got a room on the south beach.

We walked to a nearby bar for food, it was karaoke night - she sang.

In the morning we went to a 'pirate cove' shop.

We walked on the beach.

We drove on 20 to Corvallis.

We stopped in Corvallis and hiked on Bald Hill again.

We drove south to Eugene.

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