Into the countryside: Hoi An

Our next stop was Hoi An, a smaller town along the central coast of Vietnam known for its tailor shops, where Guillermo and I spent more than a few hours pouring over fashion magazines and books, picking out fabric and getting measured for a few made-to-order suits and jackets (after all, I will eventually need to get a job!). As fun as this decadent, sartorial tour was, it does not make for gripping storytelling -- or photos.

However, I did take a bike ride into the surrounding area, which was a gorgeous mini adventure. Winding my way around the raised earthen roads that ring the marshy, and amazingly green, rice fields, I met a family of water buffalo and countless small children who eagerly ran out of their houses waving and practicing their English. "Hello." "Heellloo!" "Hellloo-oo!"

For those of you who love small fuzzy animals as much as I do, you can find lots more photos of the baby water buffalo here. Please note that he puts the "cow" in cowlick. Holy hair swirl batman!

Ha Long Bay

Just a few photos of our day trip to Ha Long Bay, which is a few hours northeast of Hanoi. The bay is famous for its limestone karsts -- literally thousands of the rocky formations (shown in the picture on the left) jut out of its waters.

We spent a day on a tour boat weaving our way around the karsts, which are huge and tower over everything. It's always hard to capture the scale of things with a camera, but if you notice the boat in the middle of the two large karsts -- right in the center of the photograph -- that boat is a small rowboat with a man standing inside. That should give you a better idea of how big these things were. (Yes, its there. Tiny, but there). The huge scale of the karsts, combined with the slight bit of misty fog that covered the bay, really made it seem almost other worldly.

In addition to the majestic scenery, I also really loved the small boats laden with fresh tropical fruit that sidled up to us in hopes to sell their wares.

I bought a fresh coconut from this lady in homage to my good friend Kate (who downed countless of these on our adventures in Guatemala and Costa Rica). In order to enjoy the juice inside the coconut, the woman hacked a small hole into the top of the coconut with a large knife and placed a straw in the new opening for me. Now that's a tropical cocktail. Yum.

Urban Aggolmeration

Planners often use the term "urban agglomeration" to refer to a metropolitian area that is actually a collection of several smaller cities and towns that have grown together to form one large urban entity. Los Angeles is a perfect example of this. For example, you might live in South Pasadena, or even -- gasp! -- the Inland Empire, but you still belong to the urban agglomeration that is LA.

Sometimes I like to think about the term "urban agglomeration" in another way -- where the "agglomeration" refers to collections of like things within the urban environment, not simply the cities themselves. I used to contemplate this quite a bit when driving up and down a stretch of Robertson Avenue near my old apartment in Los Angeles, where there are over five stores selling fancy, imported Persian carpets and rugs in a matter of mere blocks. (I guess you need something to cover those gorgeous hardwood floors!).

It's fascinating to think about all the reasons that certain types people, shops and businesses gravitate towards each other. There of course are economic factors: proximity to customers, employees and materials; transportation costs & technologies; etc. And then of course there are cultural and historical reasons for these agglomerations too (though historic factors are usually just economic and political factors from previous eras).

Hanoi's historic old quarter is a perfect example of the past's effect on modern day life and the layout of cities, and wandering through this area was definitely a highlight of my visit.

In the old quarter there are whole streets and areas dedicated to selling or making one type of product. For example, on one series of streets nearly all of the store fronts are selling shoes, and in the next block only towels and fabrics, or in the next only candles and other religious supplies. And the streets aren't just limited to finished goods either -- there was a block with metal works shops (welding and the like -- right on the street!) and another dedicated to engraving headstones (replete with photo-style portrayals of the deceased).

Acording to my guidebook and a bit of online research, the agglomeration of these merchants is a holdover from the artisan guilds which began to form in the early 13th century.

Craftsmen from villages came and settled together in the quarter, generally choosing to live with other crasftmen from their home village. Eventually they formed guilds and developed cooperative systems to transport merchandise from their village to the Old Quarter. Thus, staying close together (or agglomerating) in one geographical area just made this transportation process easier, and because each village generally had a special craft or trade, these areas often focused on one type of finished product or trade.


The photos included here are from Long Ong Street, which is dedicated to spices and herbal medicines. If I had to pick a favorite section of the Old Quarter -- this would be it. Cinamom sticks the size of small baseball bats (pictured above), piles and piles of aromatic herbs, and jars of special medicine with various snakes, scorpions and snakes holding scorpions in their mouths -- it kept me entertained for hours.

Goodbye China, Hello Hanoi!

I'm missing a few photos from my last days in China due to some unfortunate circumstances, but once Guillermo gets around to posting his pictures from our last few adventures in China (a trip north to the Deqin area near the ominous -- if gorgeous -- snow-capped mountains in Fa La Si and a short jaunt through Kunming), I'll add some here.

We arrived in Hanoi safe and sound, if a bit exhausted. Our journey from Kunming, China to Hanoi, Vietnam took over 24 hours and included an overnight sleeper bus from Kunming to the border of Vietnam, a 3+ km walk across the border and to the train station, and then another 8 hour train ride to Hanoi.

The train ride to Hanoi was a bit of an adventure on its own since we didn't get regular seats, but rather were smuggled onto the staff car. Hard-core travelers might purposefully seek out this option in order to save a bit of cash and meet some locals, but I can assure you -- we are not that hard-core. I would assume that if one wanted this sort of arrangement, you would discretely ask the porter, or some other official, while simultaneously waving a bit of cash around. Surely, if you walk up to the official ticket counter at the train station and ask to buy a ticket you can be assured that you won't be stuffed into the last dingy car on the train (luggage and all) with 4 to 5 curious and giggling staff members and then escorted like contraband through the back gates of the train station in Hanoi (with nods and winks from the complicit guards). Or maybe, inexplicably, you will.

The train ride ended up being a lot of fun -- after we got over an initial bout of grumpiness and stopped mooning over the posh sleeper cars ahead of us. The staff brought us noodles, showed us pictures of their kids, and taught us how to count to 10 in Vietnamese. We also managed to have a very basic conversation using the small language section in the back of our guidebook.

The photo above is from the streets of Hanoi's old quarter, and I think it does a good job of capturing the motion of the city. Motorbikes, bikes and cyclos are everywhere here and there are very few traffic lights to actually stop the flow of traffic. They move forward like water -- finding the path of least resistance (yes, even if that means the sidewalk), avoiding stationary objects (i.e. tourists frozen in the middle of the street), and slowing down to negotiate cross traffic. It is an improbable ballet of chaos.

Herding Yaks

While having a hot chocolate the other day, we were lucky enough to meet Eleanor, an Australian woman who lives here in Shangrila and works for an NGO called the Eastern Tibetan Training and Language Institute (ETLI). As part of their mission, ETIL runs a school that teaches English and other hospitality-focused skills to a growing number of local children (about 50 this year).

Not only did Eleanor invite us to a great birthday party at the bar later that evening, but she also invited us to visit their school, have dinner with a local family, and -- herd yaks!

It was wonderful experience. We took a short bus ride out of the city center and then walked about 20 minutes through a small village and grazing fields to a wooden home that the family uses in the warmer months (so they can be close to the herd of yaks). The farmer gave us handfuls of salt powder to pour on our hands and lure the yaks in for the evening. He also taught us the herding call, which sounded something like "Nyn-yhh, Nyn-yhh", but the salt was far more effective.

We then had a nice dinner of beef (yak?), tomatoes and eggs, cabbage, rice and the signature drink in these parts -- yak butter tea. I wish I could say that I love it, but it really does taste like a stick of salty butter was melted and poured into the cup. Rich is an understatement.

After dinner we went to the school and met with the kids who eagerly showed us around their school and practiced their English -- once they got over their initial bout of shyness.

A Dog's Life

Meet Shi Lo (Chinese for "small deer"), the lanky mutt with incredible ears that is the Director of Goodwill for the Raven, the bar across from our guest house. I have already enumerated Shangrila's many other charms, but the arrival of big dogs is yet another one. There are huskies and golden retrievers and all flavor of other large mutts that have replaced the small lap dogs, toy poodles and chihuahuas that dominated Beijing.

Anyway, even though I love big dogs (according to my mother I've been introducing myself to random, large dogs on the street since I was at least 3 years old) I would not have posted anything about them except that Shi Lo's story is just too good not to share.

Most of the time we would see Shi Lo out on the porch of the Raven -- regally overlooking the cobblestoned street in front of her, indulging the occasional pat on the head, and barking at any strange dog who wanders by. One day, Guillermo noticed that she left and came back with a half eaten sausage. Well, we found out later that day (confirmed twice), that she has a tab at the small food shop about 3 blocks down. Apparently she wanders down to get a sausage when she feels like it, the shopkeep adds it to her tab and her owner pays it off once a month!

I was amazed when I heard this story -- especially since most dogs I know would be at the shop getting sausage all the time. But, when I asked someone this ("Why isn't she there all the time?"), he just looked at me and said simply, "Have YOU had Chinese sausage"?

Touche. I have not. It looks gross -- but apparently just edible enough for Shi Lo though. On occasion.

Shangrila Monestaries

Shangri-la is on the edge of Tibet and a good place to get the feel for Tibetan Buddhism if you can't make the trip all the way to Lhasa (at least that is what we are telling ourselves).

So far we've visited two monasteries in the area. One, the Songzanlin Monastery, is a large and famous complex of several temples built slightly outside of Shangri-la. The other was a smaller temple we spied on up on a hillside near Old Town.

I couldn't take pictures inside the temples of Songzanlin, which has amazing brightly colored murals and huge golden Buddhas draped with silken katas, but here is one of the outside of a temple (prayer wheels shown above):


The second, smaller temple was not nearly as elaborate as the Songzanlin complex, but the hike up to it was pleasant -- hundreds of colorful prayer flags draped from high points fluttering in the wind and some gorgeous clouds in the sky -- and the location was fantastic. The small temple is on ridge with a view of Old Town on one side and a valley with a small farming village, fields of crops and livestock on the other. On the way up we hiked through a field of fresh mint, which smelled amazing as we crushed it beneath our sneakers (mojito, anyone?).

On the way down we ran into three older men who were guiding their yaks in for the night and singing as they went.

Street Dentist?

I don't really know what to say about these photos, because I'm not really sure why this little table of mouth impressions, tooth veneer color samples, and jars with dentures was there. Marking for a nearby dentist? Leftovers someone was trying to sell to locals or tourists with strange collections? A museum (mouth impressions of your favorite communist party members of years past)?

The table on the street corner was unmanned, so I guess I will never know.

Good Cheese Comes from Happy Yaks

More proof that Shangri-la is indeed a paradise of sorts: cheese! While China may have loads of good food, cheese -- particularly western cheese -- is hard to find. So I was ecstatic when we stumbled onto The Shangri-la Cheese Shop.

Inside the small shop there were just a few tables and loads of literature and posters on the wall about the properties of yak milk versus cow milk. They even had a Venn diagram (fuzzy picture to the right) showing how western cheese-making methods meet traditional Tibetan cheese making methods to create a unique expérience de fromage.

I am here to tell you that the combination is delicious. We had cheese sandwiches one day, and then came back for a cheese platter and a glass of Yunan red wine. So delicious. One was a softer, smelly cheese and the other a firm, buttery one.

Yet, I think the icing on the cheese had to be one of the photos boasting the cheese -making expertise of the shop. They had hired guns from WISCONSIN help create their signature cheeses. It shouldn't be too hard to pick out the woman who is the "cheese professor" from the photo on the below.



For those of you who ever find yourself here and want a cheese platter the address is:

Old Town, Chang Fang Jie #22
13988700916 (phone)

Shangri-la: Western Paradise

Were are now in Shangri-la, a city about 6 hours north of Lijiang and one of the last cities before the province of Tibet. The city was formerly known as Zhongdian, but the Chinese government recently renamed it to increase tourism -- directly referencing the idyllic valley described in James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon. Like the fictional place, Zhongdian, is near the Kunlun Mountains and close to the Tibetan region of China. According to my guide book, the government even commissioned a report which collected a series of facts to prove that Zhongidan was indeed Hilton's Shangri-la (one of them being a real life plane crash in the area in the 1930's).

Either way, Shangri-la truly is a paradise for me. The streets of Old Town are just as enchanting as LiJiang, though the grid is smaller and more manageable (i.e. I'm not nearly as lost all the time, the food is amazing (several places specialize in Indian and Nepali food), and Tibetan temples and prayer flags are everywhere. But, probably what I like most about Shangri-la is that it reminds me of a Chinese Colorado.


Huge, snow capped mountains watch over the city, yaks and pigs wander freely through the streets (outside of Old Town), and there are plenty of cowboy-esquse items to be found in the markets (saddles and saddle blankets, cowbells, boots, and -- of course -- longhorn / yak skulls). Chinese cowboy boots and yak skulls shown in the photos.

Tiger Leaping Gorge: Three Days of Amazing Views & Important Life Decisions

Not very many travelers, particularly backpackers, make it to this region of China and miss the pilgrimage to Tiger Leaping Gorge (TLG). Reason number one: its gorgeous. And number two: the handful of delightful guest houses that are sprinkled along the path provide pleasant places to stop for tea, lunch, or the night during your multi-day hike. We did the trek over three days (dumping our larger packs at the start of the trail) and meandering (ok, huffing and puffing at points) our way along the path above the gorge.

Our hike was mostly up above on the high path, but on our last day we walked down to the lower section, near the river to the point where an old legend claims that a tiger jumped across the gorge in order to evade a hunter. This point is still a hearty 80+ feet across and shown below (the tiger purportedly jumped from about where I am standing).

On our way down to the river and the leaping point, we were greeted with the following sign. Sometimes the simplicity of English-Chinese translations in signs are brilliant, and this one has to be one of my favorites so far (outside of my growing collection of instructional signs in bathrooms).





The "dangerous ladder" is shown on the left, and for those of you who might be wondering: we split the difference. We took the "safe path" on the down and the "dangerous ladder" on the way up. Moderation in all things.

Lijiang: Cobblestones, Yaks and Mountains

We arrived in Lijiang -- a small mountain town in the Yunan Province -- by plane, and it's a world apart from Beijing and X'ian. Driving in from the airport we were greeted by an amazingly clear sky full of stars and clean, crisp air (almost COLD). As well, even though the small, cobblestone streets of Lijiang are crowded with pedestrians there is nary a car in sight (in the Old Town part, anyway).

Lijiang is definitely a wandering city, since the small, winding alleys of Old Town are the perfect recipe for getting lost. When we weren't asking locals for directions and seemingly getting led in circles, we also took an excursion out to the base of Jade Dragon Mountain with Peter and Jenny (who also happened to be here -- via Shanghai).

My little point and shoot camera hardly did the mountainside justice, but I was able to capture a few good shots of the yaks in the appropriately named Yak Meadow (after a local farmer lured them closer to us with an apple) and one of the farmer's family.

X'ian Highlights

We were lucky enough to have local friends who showed us all around X'ian -- including the famous terracotta warriors. It was a whirlwind tour since we were only there for 2.5 days, but here are just a few photo highlights. (old city wall at night and the terracotta warriors below.)

The army was created to accompany an emperor into the afterlife and consists of over 7,000 warriors (plus various horses, carriages, etc). Apparently he was expecting quite a battle. Each terracotta warrior in the army is slightly larger than life size and reportedly eaxh one is unique with different clothes, hairstyles, body types, etc. It really is amazing what one can do with slave labor!

Goodbye Beijing!

We packed up and left Beijing (headed to X'ian) by an overnight train last night.

Crowded and bustling does not even begin to describe the station (see photo below of the line of passengers boarding our train) -- but once we got through the initial ticket check it was nearly magical. The train was waiting in a cavernous and misty station, with a porter stationed at every car (hat and all). It felt straight out of an old Hollywood movie, a'la Casablanca.




This, unfortunately, was where the magic ended, as Guillermo and I had only been able to procure a hard seat and not a sleeper ticket. So, we spent the next 12+ hours trying to get some sleep in super straight back chairs (which reminded me of the pews in church -- even if they were upholstered). The fact that our fellow passengers regularly ignored the non-smoking signs, the car lights never dimmed and at least one guy near our seat did not know how to use his inside voice, only made it harder to get some sleep.


We finally made it to X'ian, where my former office mate, Song, met us at the train station and took us to a few sights before she had to run off to an afternoon class. G-mo and I thankfully returned to our hostel and took a long, long nap.

The adventure has begun!

Public Spaces

One of my favorite parts of my life in Beijing has been being able to spend more leisurely time in public spaces -- local parks, squares, markets and streets -- rather than rushing to and from tourist sights. I love how vibrant many of these places are and marvel at the wide variety of activities I've seen in these spaces. I think I have listed several of these in previous posts, but I also wanted to share a couple more in detail.

Impromptu Singing / Music at Tiantan Park (Temple of Heaven)
Signing and music in U.S. parks, in my experience, is generally limited to 1) the BBQ variety (familial renditions of "Happy Birthday" or music blasting from car windows/boomboxes) or 2) the musician trying to make a few extra bucks. However, on my visit to Tiantan Park a few weekends ago, there were people gathering together all over the park to sign, play music and dance together -- apparently just for fun. I took a few videos, but the one below is by far my favorite. There were easily 40+ people gathered and signing songs together. Later, my friend He Wei Dong said they were famous old patriotic songs about China. Link to YouTube video here:



Park Equipment
Nearly all the small neighborhood parks that I have run across have these ingenious exercise equipment which requires only your own weight or movement to operate. The pieces are brightly colored and seem to double as exercise equipment for adults and seniors as well as play equipment for young children. (Just a few photos below of Guillermo modeling some of the equipment)



I totally love these pieces, and was thinking that these would be great in the States as a way to combat our growing obesity crisis -- and it looks like there is a least one park in Los Angeles that just installed similar equipment -- yay!

And, one last note on equipment. Ping pong is huge here, and therefore in addition to basketball hoops and soccer goals, it is also quite common to see ping pong tables installed in parks (see photo at the top of the post -- apparently these tables can also double as a small climbing toy for children too).

For the Foodies (1): Roujiamo

I know there are some foodies are out there, so I will try to highlight the best and/or most memorable food I had in Beijing in the next few posts. Of course the crispy-skinned and incredibly rich Beijing/Peking duck was scrumptious (I love nearlyall foods that involve their own bread product for burrito type wrapping), but here are some of my other favorites.

Oh, roujiamo. How I love thee. It’s a simple dish. Chunks of slow cooked pork that is falling-apart-tender mixed with chopped spicy green peppers and fresh cilantro and then tucked inside a small round, flat loaf of leavened bread that is still warm from the skillet and oven. It’s somewhat like a taco (see note below) and somewhat like a sandwich – two of my favorite food groups.

There is also a breakfast version, which uses the same tasty bread but includes slices of ham and a fried egg instead of the pork mixture.




This one gets top billing for a handful of reasons.

1) It’s street food. Of course, street food gets points for value (read: cheap), but I love the thrill of finding deliciously simple food on the streets, in moving vehicles (yay, taco trucks!) or in hole in the wall restaurants. (Price 3Y for the pork, and 2.5 for the breakfast – less than $.50)

2) Service with a smile. The vendor near our office was always excited to see us –- perhaps because we had lunch there about 3 times a week. (Shown in photo)



3) Mexican food stand-in. As many of you know I ate as much Mexican food as I could before leaving on my trip, because I knew that it would be hard to come by in China. I do still miss it, but roujiamo does seem to make me miss it less.

For the Foodies (2): Dai Food

Dai refers to an ethnic minority in located in the Yunan province in the southwest of China, and their food has a distinctive set of flavors (many are spicy and vinegary) and many ingredients, such as bamboo and pineapple, reflect their more tropical region.

There were several Dai food restaurants close to our apartment, and we ended up frequenting one more than the others. Here are a few of our favorite dishes:

1) Fried potato balls. Small balls of mashed potatoes fried and then served with a light and savory sesame vinegar sauce for dipping. (Guillermo was an especially big fan of these. See photos!)
2) Pineapple rice. Sweet and super sticky white rice with bits of pineapple mixed in and served in a pineapple!
3) Eggplant. Now normally I can take it or leave it, but this one is covered in a sauce consisting primarily of ground beef and other tasty spices. A little spicy, but not too strong.

For the Foodies (3): Chicken on a stick

This one falls again into the hole-in-the-wall category, and without the help of my Chinese friends I never would have found this place. Wong Wei arranged the whole culinary adventure – researching the place on the Chinese version of Chowhound and making the reservations nearly a week in advance. All I knew before going was that we were going to have some famous Beijing fried chicken (and it was not KFC, which is everywhere here!).

The restaurant tucked away on a narrow hutong and was tiny and unassuming – big fire barbeque pits lined the entry courtyard and the three dining rooms were furnished with simple wooden tables and low-slung stools.

There were 2 main food items on the menu: chicken wings on a stick and bread, also on a stick. The chicken came in three flavors: not spicy, medium spicy (one side covered in red pepper flakes) or super spicy (both sides covered). Each tier of chicken started with the same base marinade, which featured Sichuan peppers. I tried all three, though I have to confess I was only able to eat one of the super spicy ones – my lips were on fire!

The bread was delicious as well – still steaming from the fire, crusty and crisp and a touch oily on the outside and super soft and warm on the inside. I also noticed that the women making the bread would flavor the bread by whacking it with some of the chicken skewers. Yum.

Photos of the chicken platters – served in seemingly unending heaps – and the aftermath. Note that Peter’s pile of chicken bones is not quite as expertly cleaned as He Wei Dong’s, one of the Chinese interns.