Hot Air Balloons, Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Trip Start
Mar 16, 2009
1
20
47
Trip End
Jul 22, 2009
Beijing,
China
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
So on Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn, 6:30 AM, to go Hot Air Ballooning in Yangshuo. I was so incredibly excited, as you could probably tell by my last post. Oh man, I had every reason to be excited.
Waiting for the balloon
So we arrived at the balloon site around ten to 7, and we were supposed to take flight at 7:00 AM. Frank, our guide, is a little afraid of heights, but since all four of us were going and we asked him to come along, he decided he would grin and bear it. Well, sort of. He called his mom and asked for her permission. She told him it was up to him, so he decided to be brave and try it out. I think he was happy he did.
Pretty Morning
When we got to the launch sight at 7:00 am, we saw a lot of elementary school children on their way to school... Turns out they were all a bit late. School begins at 7:00 and goes until 5:00 PM. The first hour is "independent learning," without a formal instructor, just a supervisor. Can you imagine that in the States? No wonder these kids are so smart.
Getting going
It was a good thing Frank was there when we got to the balloon because no one spoke any English, and for some reason we weren't taking off. I guess they needed to do a safety check or something, but yeah, we didn't get up in the air until about 7:30. I was, of course, anxious and impatient, but actually when we took flight the weather could not have been nicer. It was kind of funny that no one really spoke any English because Frank tells me that ballooning is something only Western tourists do...the Chinese like to stay firmly planted on the ground when on vacation. "The Chinese go on vacation to sit and eat and drink, not to fly," he told us.
Earlier balloons
I am absolutely hooked on hot air ballooning now. I will take any and every opportunity to go ballooning from now on, because it is just about the awesomest coolest thing in the world. I suggest you take the opportunity as well.
Just after takeoff
The balloon had a basket that was about 3 feet by 6 feet, so it was very cramped with the 5 of us and the balloon operator.
from the air
As we tookoff we were told to bend our knees, which was about the only English our operator knew. As we started climbing the view just got more and more spectacular.
Self Portrait
The brochure had said that we would reach heights of 500 meters, but we far and away surpassed that (the highest I saw on the gage was 958 meters). We looked down at the limestone rock formations that are like mini-mountains, that I said look a lot like Milford Sound. We also looked over countless farms and farmland.
From the air
The water-filled rice paddies looked like mirrors dotting the landscape. Looking almost directly into the sun, a light haze hung over the limestone formations that made for some terrific and fantastic photos. I snapped 170 photos during our 1 hour ride! Maybe I was a Japanese tourist in another lifetime or something.
Not a lot of space
The views were spectacular for 360 degrees. Other than rice paddies, terraced farmland created speckled patterns on the ground. There were also other balloons up in the air, which made it really really cool. A lot of our pictures feature those balloons as well. There are a number of pictures of us, but most are self portraits holding the camera at arms length because there was so little room to manuever. It was just spectacular though, and some of my self portraits came out really well I thought.
Wow
Even more Wow
More Wow
Kristen and I loved it. I think Frank loved it despite his slight fear of heights. I got some great shots of him doing the typical Asian tourist expression, a goofy smile and a peace sign, or a V for Victory sign if you will. I like Frank, he's funny.
Gorgeous
Mary certainly loved it. Allison got a little scared the higher we went...but even she did ok. Allison commented that she doesn't like situations in which, if she were crazy or depressed, or both, she could in an instant kill herself...
Looking over the edge
It's a funny thought to have, but certainly true in a balloon. But that danger is actually part of what makes it so wonderful; you are up so very high with almost no protection and with no barrier between you and the sky. I mean, you really are flying...only you look out in the open air, not through a window from a pressurized cabin.
Wow
You drift in the balloon as the winds blow, more or less, and we had good wind, which, while calm, blew us over 20 kms, so we got to see a lot of landscape in our hour in the sky.
Self portrait
I was happy we were up there for a full hour...I didn't want to come down! On our descent, Allison asked the age of our balloonist who looked about 12. Frank had to translate, and we found out first that he'd been flying balloons for 3 years and second that he was 22.
pretty
Our landing was what one might call a "third world landing."
Frank
Yep...we had a crash landing that was oh so entertaining. Don't worry, no one was hurt! As I said, basically the balloon landing is up to the wind.
Mirrors
So we were coming down over people's farms (yelling Nehou from 300 meters on down) and we were pointed in the direction of a tiny road that would serve as our landing strip. I think everyone in the balloon suspected we weren't going to end up there...
Mirrors
Now in Jackson Hole they have balloons and I have applied to work on the "balloon catching team." The "balloon catching team" was not yet in place when we came down. We skipped off the road and up onto the road bank, crashing the balloon into the trees and landing right next to a tomb...yes, a tomb... There were holes ripped in the ballon that was now caught in the trees... and we were stuck in deep weeds up on the road bank.
Nice
Finally the "team" arrived and the two catchers and the woman in charge of the ballooning had to pull us off the road bank. Frank was asked to jump out first and snapped a funny picture of the whole experience... It was a hoot, really quite entertaining.
Crash landing!
But the funny experience didn't end there. From there we hopped in the van, leaving our balloon captain sitting with the now punctured and deflated balloon on the side of the road...with some somewhat puzzled local farmers. Now we were off to find another balloon that had taken off with a group shortly after ours. We drove on back roads as the driver and assistant radioed the balloon captain. Of course, they weren't totally sure where the balloon had landed, so as they drove around the towns and country side they stopped repeatedly to ask people which direction they'd seen that balloon flying in.
Other balloon
At one stop, one of the balloon catchers jumped out and stopped to talk to a guy on the side of the road with a motor bike with a back basket full of vegitables. Allison, asking always about every veigtable or crop she sees, asked Frank what was in the back of the bike. At that exact moment, seconds after the man had left his bike resting to talk to the balloon capture guy, the bike began to slowly tip and came crashing down, spilling the vegitables everywhere. The balloonist immediately jumped back in the van, slammed the door shut and told the driver to get the heck out of there. The reaction was hilarious, and we took off. Poor man with vegitables.
Balloon
After countless turns off the highway, and several stops to question the locals, we finally found the other balloon, lying on the ground with a crowd of 15 intrigued locals checking it out. An old woman examined the balloon very carefully and inquisitively. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the ridiculous scene. It was beyond amusing.
Frank Demonstrates
We picked up three eastern European tourists and headed back to the hotel...completing a 2 hour scenic van journey, twice as long as our scenic balloon flight. Oh man, it was an experience. The ballooning was spectacular, the landing hysterical, and drive almost funnier.
Landscape
After packing up our disaster of a room (living out of a backpack is getting harder and harder) and having lunch, we drove to the airport in Guilin to fly to Xi'an. It was interesting to see all the signs on the major roads are now both in Chinese and in English. Frank says that is a recent development, mostly occuring in the lead up to the Olympic Games, to make the country more Westerner friendly. It's really funny though because there is definitely something lost in translation on many of the English signs in the country. The airport signs reported that it was a "Civilized Airport." The handicapped seats were for "The old weak sick disable and pregnant only." On the way to the plane we were told that "Safet is a priority." It's pretty funny.
Nice
We unfortunately had to say goodbye to Mr. Deng at the airport, which was sad, he was a terrific driver. He said he hoped we'd all make it back to China soon.
The "Dreyers incident" occurred at the airport. There was ice cream for sale. The Chinese ice creams cost 10 yuan... the American Dreyers cost 35 yuan...a major overcharge. Kristen picked up the Dreyers not realizing how much it cost, and then bought it anyways! Jeez Louise, 35 yuan can buy you a feast in this country (in fact dinner in Xi'an was 53 for the both of us and it was a lot of food). Mary says I should stop giving Kristen a hard time though...she paid more for her coffee. (Totay Kristen had a coffee for 25 yuan...I had a diet coke for 4 yuan... and my coke was bigger... and later we shared a 600 ml beer for 4 yuan...come on!)
The epitomy
Frank says that the vast majority of Chinese travel by train rather than flying, as flying is a lot more expensive. It was interesting, though perhaps not surprising, that the airport was the part of China we have been to so far with the highest concentration of foreigners.
On the China Southern Flight to Xi'an they screened a film...the Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton. There were no headphones given out and I really couldn't hear the sound. Everything had Chinese subtitles, so it was unwatchable for me. I just thought it was very funny that on a China Southern domestic flight they screened an American movie. Hollywood's reach is endless.
We were very lucky at the airport in Xi'an as our bags were among the first to come off the plane. I had been a little nervous, there are just so many absolute horror stories. We were picked up by a new driver and driven a little over an hour into Xi'an, the ancient capital of China.
The van had Snoopy pillows in it and the seat belts, which the driver and Frank didn't bother wearing, of course, had Elmo coverings. I joked to Kristen that the driver "must have kids," to which she responded, "But he can't." She's right. We actually spent quite a bit of time in the airport talking about the one child policy and it's implications. I'm not a sociologist, but I would like to commission some sort of sociological study of the effects of the one child policy on Chinese culture. I think it's really interesting to think about studying not this generation but the next generation. That generation will grow up not only without any siblings but also with parents who grew up without any siblings. Or even a generation after that when siblings will be even less common. Can there be brotherly love in a society without brothers? I am an only child and I've always told people that and gotten a response along the lines of "That doesn't surprise me" or "I can tell," whatever the heck that means. The implication is that people think, rightly or wrongly, that being an only child produces a different result. I don't think that I'm that different from people with siblings though, because even though I haven't grown up with that experience, I have interacted with people who have had that experience, and I sort of relate to it, even if it is not my own. But think of a society in which no one has had that experience, how will people change in such an environment? Add in the fact that China is incredibly populous and in many parts very poor and very rural (800 million of China's residents live outside the city), and one wonders if society will see increased competition or less positive interaction...or at least that's what I wonder. Then again, Frank says they have a saying in China that holds so true in many other cultures: "A good neighbor is better than a good relative." Maybe the absence of siblings will not have much effect on society as a whole, who knows.
But back to the trip... For dinner we tried a local kabob place that was just scrumptious. Xi'an is more touristy than Yangshuo because it is the gateway to the Terra Cota warriors, but we were in a totally local restaurant. Very cheap, the bill for all 5 of us was about 120 yuan, and very good. Frank was worried about taking us there because our stomachs might not handle the local food, but ironically he was the one who was sick the next day, weird.
From the local restaurant we walked to the center of the city to the old bell tower and drum tower of ancient Xi'an, which was the capital of China until I think the 1300s. Actually the city wall built in the 1600s is still entirely intact. Around these old relics however, is now loads and loads of modern shopping places and cafes, including that wonderfully awful American institution: Starbucks... It was also interesting to see glamour billboards with exclusively Western models. Strange simply because there are so few Westerners in China. I don't think it's weird to see a diverse array of models in a billboard in the States (though they are not diverse enough...) because there are large non-white populations in the States (and in fact they will outnumber whites very very soon). But to see exclusively white notions of beauty in an area with very very very few white people was pretty strange.
Past the drum tower there is a terrific night market in the Muslim Quarter of the town. China has an enormous Muslim minority that approaches 100 million I believe. I think there are more Muslims in China than in Saudi Arabia. It was interesting to see Chinese women and men in traditional Muslim garb and to see Chinese women wearing the Hejab.
Once again, don't be fooled by the "communist" label of China. Chinese capitalism is alive and well, and it feels like everyone is trying to, ready and willing to make a buck. The books in the bookstore at the airport were especially telling. They included American books translated into Chinese such as "How to be Rich," a book on "how Wall Street took over the world" (ironic), and Sam Walton's (founder of Walmart) 10 rules to live by. Interesting.
We stopped at a supermarket on the way home to buy traditional goods for our picnic at the Terra Cotta warriors the next day and for our sleeper train to Beijing. The guy tried to overcharge me, but Frank came to the rescue when I noticed a discrepancy. People love to pull those tricks on foreigners.
We had a bit of a sleep in and checked out of our hotel at 9:00 am, leaving our bags in storage. The warriors are about an hour outside the city, give or take the traffic. Traffic was awful, and is always awful, in Xi'an, a city of 6 million with no subway system...though they are building one.
The Terra Cotta warriors are really a sight to be seen. It is amazing to think what went into building a fake army for a dead guy. The man power, the man hours. The time and patience. I can't imagine. And all this happened 2200 years ago. There have been roughly 8000 warriors unearthed. Almost all of them were destroyed by grave wreckers in uprisings after the death of the Emperor Qin, but archeologists have painstakingly put them back together again and lined them up as they once were. Unfortunately exposure to light has decreased the paint on all the soldiers as well. Every single face is different, as the workers generally put their own face into their warrior. It's all just remarkable.
When you arrive, almost everyone goes into Pit 1. It is the largest pit and holds nearly 6000 warriors. I thought it was just remarkable. There are also horses and the warriors used to all hold bronze weapons.
The warriors were unearthed in 1974 by four farmers who were digging a well and pulled up terra cotta remains of the lost warriors. One of those farmers is still alive, he was there when we went.
I wanted to get a shot of Kristen in front of the warriors, like she got a shot of me. She had her backpack on with two waterbottles in the outside pockets. As she pushed up against the railing for the picture, she accidently dislodged and dropped one of her waterbottles over the railing...which I didn't even notice at first, and asked for a second picture.... YIKES. Luckily there is a landing in between the spectator location and the pit itself...a confused guard picked up the waterbottle. That landing is for the VIPs. There is a great picture of the Clintons in 1998 actually standing inside the pit with the warriors. Pretty cool.
After exploring pit 1 we went to watch the informational movie. According to the audience composition, they choose to show the movie in Chinese or in English. We got lucky, the movie was in English. It was kind of strange though because I thought Chinese tourists vastly outnumbered foreign tourists... I guess they didn't need to watch the movie.
Next we moved onto pit 3, where the center of the "army" and all the "generals" were found. It's much smaller, but there are great pictures on the walls of what the warriors looked like when they were first unearthed and still had their color.
We stopped for lunch after that. I saw a kid trying to take a self timer photo off a trash can and offered to take the picture for him. Of course he threw up the peace sign...all Chinese tourists seem to do it...
Pit 2 is pretty large but most of it is still being excavated. The warriors are terrific, they are also a constant work in progress. It just makes you think how long it took them to be made as well. In pit 2 they have some of the best preserved warriors in cases, including a kneeling archer that still has some color left on its back. The detail is remarkable, right down to the grip on his shoes.
Finally we stopped in at the bronze chariot museam, which featured two bronze chariot replicas unearthed. Very cool. But the funniest thing was in the lobby there are two gigantic marionets, one of a terra cotta warrior and one of a little girl, that were used in ceremonies during the Beijing Olympics... They were sponsored by the Chinese government...and Johnson and Johnson... Amusing.
Emperor Qin's mausoleam is in a man made hill near the warriors pits, but the Chinese government refuses to open it for fear that treasures may be lost... Oh man, I want to see those treasures.
Back in Xi'an, we climbed up the bell tower for a view of the city... It was probably the first thing we've done that was pretty dissappointing. But we still got some good views from a 400 year bell tower and there was a nice little museam inside with pottery from the Ming Dynasty. It was funny to hear Fur Elise emanating from the mall next door... Man that Beethoven was good, huh?
On our way to the Muslim Quarter so that I could buy some of the delicious dried fruit that Allison had gotten the night before and shared with me that morning, I snapped a picture of Kristen in front of Haagen Daas, the shopping corridor, and the 400 year old drum tower, one of the tallest in China. She threw up the peace sign. I don't know but I feel like the picture really sort of symbolizes what I've observed in China. East meets West. Modernity meets ancient tradition. The result can be darn right goofy... I feel like the peace sign or V for victory sign is something that used to be cool among Westerners...now it's cool among Asian tourists, who add the thumbs up as well...using both to perhaps partially mimic Westerners, only their imitation has passed Westerners by... but I don't know. It's just funny.
We left Xi'an for Beijing by sleeper train... Oh man... that was an experience...
So first off, the ladies planned to share a bottle of Great Wall wine on the train to help them fall asleep, but I had originally planned to forgo alcohol, as I would have gone for a cold beer, but that wasn't going to happen on the train... But in the supermarket they had some sort of clear 45% alcohol for 5 yuan for a bottle...I figured why not get it, mix it with some OJ and have a drink or two to relax...
I'm still not sure what it was... it stings the nostrils from 50 feet away though....
Anyway, so Frank told us we would be in a berth of 6, with one other person. I was thinking, ok, 3 bunk beds in a room, not ideal but whatever. Well, actually they were triple bunks... They were also not in a room... The sleeper car is a series of triple bunks. The clusters of 6 have a table in between the bottom two bunks that creates about 2 and a half feet of space between the bunks... The beds are about wide enough for a person, but about half the size of a normal standard twin bed... There is no door, the bunks are not walled off. Instead there is a corridor about 2 and a half feet wide past the bunks...
I was on the bottom bunk, meaning my bed was the sitting point for half our group... We shared our wine, mystery alcohol, peanuts and cups of noodles and laughed the night away, mostly about the situation... It was not what we expected or pictured... Luckily our 6th bunk mate was a nice guy, he even spoke a little English. He told me I needed to go to Tibet. I would LOVE to go to Tibet...Nepal will have to do. Kristen and I also wrote post cards to our friend Liz, whose birthday is coming up on the 28th, happy birthday early Liz!
Kristen and I were also asked the age old question by Allison that we'd been avoiding: "How old are you?" She was a bit taken aback to hear the answer, though Mary didn't seem surprised in the slightest, as she shouldn't have been, we're not very good at hiding how young we are. Allison is 33 and Mary is 55. Kristen and I are babies at 22 and 23 on this trip. But we were the perfect age for New Zealand... Whatever, we're all having a good time. Frank is also 33.
But, oh man, was it an experience. There were two bathrooms on either end of the car with probably 10-15 cells sharing... Oh, and they were traditional Chinese pit toilets, not too pretty.
Lights went out at 10:00 PM and I fell asleep until about 1:30, I guess that's as far as mystery liquor got me. I remembered that my big bag was stuffed on the rack above the corridor, as it did not fit into the cell (not that we had a door anyways...). I began waking up after every sound to check that my bag was still there. It was... success.
The train arose around 5:30, and we were off the train by 6:30 am. It was actually all quite efficient. We left on time, got in on time. Several times before lights out a person came by to sweep our cell (which got quite dirty unfortunately due to the peanut shells). And when the train pulled in we all got off pretty quickly. A short cab ride took us to our nice hotel five minutes walk from Tiananmen Square (I can't remember how to spell it... nor can I look it up on Chinese google...). After a short break we had a traditional Chinese breakfast of dumplings and rice congee. Yum.
We walked to the GAP office to pick up mountain bikes so that we could do a short ride through the city. We walked down a major "walking stree" thoroughfare with a huge Yao Ming statue on one of the sides of the buildings. Pretty cool.
Our ride was nice, but very difficult. Beijing traffic is crazy, as one might expect. But that being said, so far Beijing has totally defied my expectations. It is very very spread out and the buildings are not tall. It is in someways the antithesis of Hong Kong. It feels like a very very big city, but not necessarily like a crowded one (except for the cars). The center of town is not unlike DC, where certain buildings are held in high esteem and are the only buildings allowed to be a certain height. In the city center, nothing is taller than the imperial palace, for instance, and Tiananmen Square is a huge flat expanse, the biggest city square in the world, so it feels extremely open (though it is always full of people).
Our bike ride took us through some older parts of town that had traditional Chinese architecture. Then we did a lap around the square and saw the brand new theater center shaped like an eggshell, among other things (such as the People's House, kind of our equivalent of the capital). We also passed one of the major shopping thoroughfares that features shops in old syle Chines buildings and with an old style trolley running though the area. Of course it also features a major H & M billboard in the center of its entrance... Another East meets West thing.
After dropping our bikes back at the office after a lazy yet mentally grueling 2 hour ride, we walked to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is the locals' name for the imperial palace last rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty 400 years ago. Only the Emperor and his cohorts were allowed in the imperial palace, whilst the locals were shot when they tried to enter it; hence the name "forbidden city." sitting on 75 acres, it is enormous and quite impressive. Boy, those Emperors had a huge huge house. And half of it is restricted to only the Emperor, his women (the emperess and his concubines), and his Eunichs... Really, the whole north of the palace was a one man place. Frank gave us a great tour of the forbidden city, ending in the Emperor's garden to at the North end. The emperor was worried his palace was a little too boring and so he had a garden build as yet another place to go and rest. The garden still features trees planted in the time of the Qing Dynasty 400 years ago. Just amazing.
The whole thing was very nice and very impressive, only there were just too many people. I mean seriously, there is nothing I could not learn about shoving from the old women trying to see inside some of the rooms of the palace. I tried to look in one of the rooms when I was bumped in the waist several times. I thought I was being pick pocketed, but no, it was just a couple 70 year old women giving me some shoves. I guess in a country with 1.3 billion people you have to learn to shove a little.
We saw a lot of cute little kids...they too held up the peace sign in all the pictures taken of them. Mary, who is quite a world traveler observed that whereever you go, whatever the culture, whatever the place, kids will be kids. They do the same things, make the same faces, cry about the same things, have the same rosy outlook most of the time. At one point we saw a little boy content to examine every trash can... who knows why... but he looked to be entertained for about 15 minutes. Oh man, to be young and easily entertained again.
After the Forbidden City we took a walk through Tiananmen Square... I got a picture with the famous picture of Chairman Mao. I kept thinking of the Beatles song "Revolution," one of my favorites. The line "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you aint gonna make it with anyone anyhow" is certainly not true in China where he is a national hero, or even a national treasure. Frank asked us if there was an equivalent in our countries. Mary couldn't really think of one for NZ, but she suggested it might be Churchill for Britain, where she lives now. I said Lincoln, definitely Lincoln if anyone comes close... But I don't think Lincoln has the singular power of Mao. It's more like a great triumverate loved by almost all: Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. I personally would throw in Roosevelt and Kennedy...but half the country would disagree. Outside backward regions of the South (also known as "most of the South"), Lincoln reigns supreme, and no one would argue with Washington or Jefferson, though I think Lincoln sort of takes the cake for keeping the country together. Who knows.
This evening we went to see the Beijing Acrobatics Troupe perform. WOW. That's really all I can say. It was in a dingy little theater and when we arrived 25 minutes early I really can't say from the theater I was expecting much, but it was spectacular. My favorites were the two acts performed by the men's troupe, the "Lost Boys" I called them because their first act reminded me of Peter Pan. Kids from ages probably 7 to 25 did back handsprings and flips across the stage in rhythm and through rings, including a ring about 10 feet high. It was sweet. I felt bad for the big guys though, because even though their tricks were more spectacular, the show was stolen by the little guy. Kind of like little Michael...haha. They also did an act jumping between two beams. The girls did a nice Diablo routine and spun drums on their feet. Also quite impressive.
After the show we went to yet another local restaurant. I love these places...cheap as heck and the food is out of this world! The Keebobs wer great. I did not expect to have keebobs in China, but they are spectacular. I ordered too many dumplings for the table, but oh well...the 16 I ate were terrific.
I'll have to walk them off tomorrow when we head to the Great Wall! Very exciting. Off to bed.
--Jimmy
