Half way there...

As crazy as it is to believe, today is the halfway point of our trip.  Tomorrow we leave Thailand and head to Laos.  That means in the first half of our trip, we've spent 2 weeks in Japan, 4 weeks in China, and 4 weeks in Thailand.

We're not sure what's crazier, though.

Is it crazier that we've done and seen so much and we're still only half done with our trip?  Or is it crazier that we still have the same amount of time ahead of us, in completely new countries for us?  Either way, this whole thing is crazy, and we're loving it.

We still have to visit Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.  All places that we're completely clueless about right now, and will hopefully have a much better understanding of in the next 2.5 months.  Crazy.

We still get to spend time Ho Chi Minh City with Lisa, Steve, and Luke.  We still get to tour Vietnam and Cambodia with my (now our) parents.  We still get to meet the child that Carmen sponsors in the Philippines and volunteer with his community.  Crazy.

Any way, hopefully you've enjoyed reading about our adventure so far, and we hope we have just as much to report on during the 2nd half of our trip.  And we hope you all are having a great 2010 so far.

And in case you missed them, click the following for the videos we've created so far...

Click for the Japan video.

Click for the China video.

All our love!
The Palumbos

Days 25-27 Tuesday – Thursday December 1-3, 2009 Chengdu, China

Highlights


- Chengdu is a mellow big city, full of mah jong players, badminton birdie swatters, and a community of people who love to dance in large groups together in public parks.  China's non-beach version of Venice, CA, if you may.
- Sichuan peppercorns will burn the hell out of your mouth, but will become an addictive part of your meals before you can ask for another glass of water.
- Yes, pandas are fat and lazy, but they are the damn cutest and most entrancing animals on the planet.

The "Looong December, When It's Easy to Believe" Version

Chengdu is the anti-Shanghai.  Even though it’s a large metropolitan city (app. 7 million people), it hasn’t been as influenced by the west as Shanghai.  The streets are bustling, high rises stand for as far as the eye can see, and one can shop ‘till they drop all day long (if that’s your kind of thing).  The big differences between the two cities is that the people on the bustling streets aren’t sharply dressed like models in Cosmo and GQ, high rises aren’t attempting to define what the future of architecture is, and shopping is done at Chinese brand stores, not the same Burberry, Gucci, and Prada stores that engulf Shanghai.  Therefore, it more obviously felt like a Chinese city, which we were waiting to feel.

The primary reason people come to Chengdu is to see the pandas, which we did, but we found other aspects of the city to be just as enthralling. 

Our first meal introduced us to the city’s famous food.  Spicy is the name of the game here, which is a game we’re happy to play any time.  Pork, beef, rabbit, chicken, veggies…all of it with a special Sichuan pepper that explodes with tremendous flavor, and sometimes a mouth numbing tang that takes a while to start enjoying.

Another enjoyable aspect of the city is its mellow vibe and attitude.  Horns are honked less.  People walk with a little less desperation in each step.  We enjoyed this relaxed atmosphere as we walked through quaint streets, stopping to peek into houses and shops, only to see the same thing inside every door…mah jong.  People playing lots and lots and lots of mah jong.  This wasn’t a surprise since what better way for such a stoner-like group of people living in a country that thrives on being a community to enjoy their time together by playing none other than the country’s most famous game?  Yes, some folks were playing cards, but the majority of these doorways revealed little old ladies and smoking old men shoving domino-like pieces around green felt laden fold-up tables.  This may not seem like a big deal, which it really isn’t, but we want to emphasize just how much of the population we saw were doing the same thing.  Even when we went into the city park, anyone who wasn’t dancing to a live band or smacking a badminton birdie around was sitting around playing mah jong.  So cool to see firsthand.

 

Any way, we did indeed spend an afternoon in the park watching huge groups of people playing badminton, singing karaoke, and dancing in synchrony to all types of music, ranging from electronic music blaring out of speakers to a five piece jazz band playing ragtown oldies that would make my great grandparents proud.   We sat along the lake and drank tea while Tania taught me how to play Frank’s card game called Dig the Hole.  We were really starting to get onto the same wavelength as the city.  After a nice dinner with Frank and Tim, we headed back to the hotel to crash, but only after Tania watched Brother Bear 2 for the second time that day.  In her defense, she was pretty sick and needed to get some R&R, so since that was the only English speaking program on TV, she had no other option, even though I don’t think she would have watched anything else had there been the normal 200 DirecTV (only spelled the way DirecTV wants it spelled because it’s still engrained in my head after 4 years at Deutsch.  Why can’t I spell it like a normal person?) channels to browse.

Now onto the primary activity to partake in in Chengdu…the pandas.  After spending a few hours watching them eating bamboo and, well, eat more bamboo, we can happily confirm that they are just as adorable in person as they are on video and in pictures.  Their fur coats look impossibly soft and their mannerisms scream of 1000 babies and bunnies.  Yes, they’re lazy as can be and don’t really do much, but they’re captivating to watch, especially considering that there are only 5000 left on the planet.  Because they used to be carnivores and still have the digestive tract of one, they pass the bamboo quickly after eating.  Therefore, they need to ingest a massive amount of bamboo just to give themselves enough energy to eat more bamboo, and so on and so forth.   No matter, it’s so interesting to watch them take their menial tasks at such minimal speeds.  After watching a video about their mating habits and birthing rituals (we could have done without the graphic birthing scenes in which the tiny rat, I mean panda is shot out and flops around the cold, gray cement Chinese lab floor as the first-time panda mother swats at the newborn because she has no idea what the hell just popped out of her), and after browsing yet another heap of every type of panda souvenir one could fathom, we headed for yet another train station, luckily for a day trip, not another over-nighter.

When we got to the train station on Thursday afternoon, Frank recommended that we spend 10 yuan (app. $1.50) to sit in the VIP area of the station so that we could actually have seats to wait on, and so we could get on the train first and get our bags situated before the masses stormed into the car, which we luckily did.  If you’re ever traveling by train in this country, we recommend you do the same. 

We snacked on ramen and played Dig the Hole during the 5.5 hour ride to Chongqing (pronounced Chong Ching).  The only exposure we got of Chongqing was the view from during kamikaze cab ride, but that’s all we needed to know that this megatropolis is filled with more high rises than we can describe.  For miles and miles in both directions, the skyline resembled a mountainous range, even though there are no mountains in the area.  It makes NYC look like Topeka.  Crazy.

We then boarded the Victoria 1 boat and got situated for our three day cruise through the Yangtze River and to get a first hand view of how the Three Gorges Dam has dramatically altered life along the shorelines.

Days 23-24 Sunday – Monday November 29-30, 2009 Xi’an, China

Highlights

- Secrets hide within the Muslim quarter.  When in Xi'an, make sure to spend the time to get all Indiana Jones and find those treasures.  And FYI, a Mandarin translator will help.

- If you ride a rented bike around the city's wall, make sure you have the world's strongest quads and are as in-shape as an Olympic athlete.

- The Terracota Warriors tell a mystical story of Chinese history, but visiting them feels more like a field trip to the local museum than it does a trip to a mystical land.  Souvenirs anyone?

The long way home version

Xi’an was more of a pit stop along our Chinese journey than anything.  Mostly, people come here to see the Terracotta warriors and then move on.  Yet, since our tour guide Frank is from and lives here, we got to know it a little more intimately than most.

After a lunch in the Muslim quarter, which by the way was so damn good we want to go back just for the meal, we walked over to the main entrance of the city wall.  In the olden days, the Xi’an residents occupied the land within these walls, and not outside of the wall and moat.  Nowadays, the city has expanded far beyond the water perimeter. 

Frank dropped us off at the wall on the way to see his son Eric, aptly named after his favorite musician Eric Clapton, and his wife.  The 8 of us rented bikes and rode around the top of the 13.7km/6 mile square shaped wall.  Let’s just say that even though my beach cruiser in Venice was a one-speed and got tough to ride around mile 2 due to it’s less than optimal engineering, my beach cruiser made this bike seem like the smoothest ride in the world.  So combining the world’s toughest bike to ride with the world’s stoniest and roughest road to ride on, you had the world’s hardest 6 mile bike ride.  Yet, like most inconviences we’ve encountered on this trip, we fought through it and enjoyed the funny times with the group and the fine views of the city provided from this higher vantage point.

What better to do after such a grueling bike ride than to get a foot massage?  As the group dispersed to different shopping and eating directions, Tania and I headed straight for a foot massage place that we noticed on the way to the wall.  It was only $10 for a 88 minute massage, and dear Lordy, it was worth it.  Not only did they rub out all tensions in our feet, they also spent some quality time on our arms and back.  And all in a private room with lounge chairs that would make Mr. Lazy Boy realize his chairs were rubbish (a new favorite word of ours after traveling with Linda, an Ausie who’s lived in London for a few years).  Such a great cure for the sore lower limbs.

We went back to the Muslim Quarter and grabbed some delicious street food (pancakes, hamburgers, and bao, all extremely different than the American versions you’re picturing now) before meeting the group for another round of karaoke.  This time, everyone joined in the fun and we belted out tunes until our throats could no longer last, especially since half our group was quite sick by this point in the trip, led by the ill efforts of Ali, Susie’s older sister.

The next morning, we hopped into our private bus and made the hour drive over to the Terracotta Warriors.  We had already been exposed to them last year in Atlanta where we visited the traveling exhibit with Roxy, Patrick, and the kids.  Even with that knowledge, it was still a site to be seen.  Broken into three different buildings, the first is the primary digging site.  Most of the pictures you’ve seen of the warriors were taken in this building, which is primarily filled with infantrymen and horses.  It was filled with natural light, a mistake by the government because they started to dig before building the structure, meaning the statues were exposed to enough sunlight to deteriorate the original vibrant colors.  Therefore, the two subsequent buildings were build next door prior to digging, with the necessary sun-blocking exterior.  It felt much more like a museum in the latter two, which delved into the cavalry aspect of the army.

Overall, visiting the warriors is a must for visitors of China.  I will say though, that I’m a tad skeptical of the authenticity of the whole thing.  Considering that this is the country infamous for creating dead-on knock offs, which will tell any story necessary to sell a piece of memorabilia, I can’t quite grasp the romantic history of this attraction to the extent that they’re selling it.  Call me a skeptic, but the whole site felt overly formulated to truly feel historic.  Maybe since I was expecting a work-in-progress plot of land filled with desperately excavating archeologists, but instead visited a comfortable set of museums predictably organized with the most well preserved statues right up front for the herd to photograph, and with most of the construction being done on the visitor’s exit area so that more stores filled with the same souvenirs one can find under any street underpass or market can try to cipher as much money as possible from said tourists, it just didn’t click for me as much as I had hoped.  But like I said, it was a must to do, so I’m glad I have the obligatory pictures of Tania and me and the warriors so we can say we had been there.

We then jumped back on the bus and headed over to the airport to catch a flight to Chengdu.  After a 5 hour delay, we boarded the plane for a quick flight and a quicker bite provided by the airline, a hot dog wrapped in tin foil like a backyard BBQ, topped not with relish or ketchup, but instead with a pickle and mayo.  Let’s just say it wasn’t horrible.