Reflections Enroute » temples

Time-Lapse China

corinne — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:22:33 +0000

One of the reasons I think people travel, is to get out of their comfort zone. There is no place better to do this than China. I’ve been to China on numerous occasions, and it has never failed to show me something new and exotic. Very much like the U.S., China is so big that you cannot really get a sense of it unless you travel further than just Beijing. Like in most capital cities, Beijing is crowded, busy, and used to seeing foreigners. There is plenty to see and do there, but getting out and meeting the people will make all the difference in a trip.

The first time I went to China was summer of 2003. I went with my two teenage daughters, and really had to do some travel soul-searching beforehand trying to determine whether or not I should take a tour to this scary communist country. Three females traveling alone, without much of an itinerary, playing it by feel, or taking the easy route and have someone else do all of my planning; I argued both sides for a couple of days before realizing that stopping longer at the cloisonne factory than at the Temple of Sun would just about kill me. We delved into the unknown once again and booked our tickets. We stayed in Beijing for a week, then onto Xian for four days. We liked it so much that we’ve been back a number of times to other parts of the country, but there is still so much more to see.

We wouldn’t be the tourists we are unless we visited as many tourist sights as we could in the time allotted, and for the most part China does not dissappoint. The temples are ornately decorated, well-attended, and serene. The museums exhibits are large, interesting, and usually have English placards. The Great Wall is, well, great! We didn’t go to the busier site, Badaling, but instead to Mutianyu. You can definitley get a feeling of the length and impact a wall like this would have on an enemy. Hiking the wall will keep you in good shape as well. The shopping is a blast. There are plenty of opportunities to make a good deal. Buying pearls, shoes, knock-offs, food, just about anything is a way to hone our bartering skills. I think we did pretty good, too. So, as a tourist destination, it’s a must.

China-isms that made an impact on us:

1. Taxi drivers. They can be a challenge in just about any country, more so before they started putting GPS systems in cabs, but no taxi drivers can compare with those in China. We had one who refused to take us where we were going. We had numerous ones that just like the Amazing Race were empty, but didn’t stop to pick us up. We had some that took us only so far towards our destination, then kicked us out. And we had many that not only didn’t understand our English (this I can forgive), but could not make heads or tails out of the tourist maps with pictures of the sights that we wanted to see. I’m not kidding. We would pull out our trusty map, point to something like the Summer Palace, and the taxi driver would suck in his teeth and rock his head back and forth making a huge show out of how hard it was to understand us. We also had many, whether they spoke English or not, laughed with us and tried to do as much as they could to help us out.

2. Foot massages. You often hear about the excruciating foot massage. I’ve had a few; in fact, I search them out as often as I can. I love them! One time, we were ushered into a room and given green tea and cherry tomatoes to snack on while a Chinese rendition of Beauty and the Beast was on TV. The attendants came in as a well-trained army to take us on. At one point, after much conferring and intakes of raspy breaths, I was informed of the “bad things” on my feet. Would I like them to use a (very scary, handmade, Neanderthal-looking) knife to fix it? Um, no. They pleaded, and swore it wouldn’t hurt. I buckled. It didn’t (hurt) and my feet were much more soft and supple than they had been for years. Another time, after our foot massage, we were laid down on a massage table and for the feng shui of it, got watch our very own goldfish swimming under the table and they beat us to a pulp. I love it!

3. People as numbers, not names. While traveling, we try to be as friendly and open to people as we can, especially wait staff or hotel staff, people that we easily come in contact with. At one cafe, we were enjoying a cup of coffee and started talking to the waitress. We tried to read her “name” tag, but could not figure it out. It only had a number 18 on it. We asked her what it was and she said that all workers went by numbers, not names. We started looking around and found that everyone was “tagged” with a number. How sad.

4. Food. Chinese cuisine is touted to be one of the best in the world. There are all types of regional dishes as well as a long list of food items that I would never have thought to include in my kitchen reperatoire. We tried many new things, but the food we enjoyed the most was Peking Duck. All over the city, there are restaurants and hotels that specialize in it. It was an amazing experience, watching the cook cut and prepare the bird at our table, then show us how to eat it. Delicous!

5. The love of red bean paste. After living in Japan, we were well-versed on red bean paste as a sweet. I’ve never really been a fan, but I don’t have an aversion to it either. One of our best experiences was in Xian where, after having run out of tourist sights, we girls decided to get pedicures. In the beauty shop we met two college professors and their daughters. Only one of them spoke English, but we spent the next few hours having a great time discussing children, education and the differences in our two systems. At one point the non-English speaker ran out of the shop and came back about five minutes later proudly offering us red bean popsicles. She had gone to so much trouble! Yes, we ate them.

5. Pollution. It has gotten worse and worse. Over the five year span that I had been visiting China, I was also living in Korea for most of that time. Both places have a very big pollution problem. Call it “yellow dust” or “Gobi dust” or whatever; it is pollution. On most days, you cannot see any color in the sky, and some days it is a disgusting yellow turning to brown. It just can’t be healthy. I have also seen numerous television broadcasts and newspaper articles about the pollution. I think they know they have to do something, but is it too late? I really hope they can get this fixed…and in the not-too-distant future.

Time-lapse…Cambodia

corinne — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:00:58 +0000

We stopped in Cambodia for four days as we were leaving Vietnam. We really only wanted to go and see Angkor Wat. I know that many people also go to the Killing Fields and the museums devoted to it in Phenom Phen, but we weren’t planning on hitting too many depressing points on our trip.

I love countries where you can not worry about getting your tourist visa ahead of time. Upon arriving in the Siem Reap airport, you are able to pay and provide your photos right there to get your visa. As with many airports where this is a possibility, it was a little chaotic, but we expected that.

We took a tuk tuk into the city and found our hostel. It was located across from the big hotel and only a few blocks from Angkor Wat, our destination.

Filling her gastank with blackmarket petrol, this lady could not afford legal gas.

As you enter the Angkor Wat park, you must buy a pass. You can buy a one-day pass or for the price of two days, a three-day pass. Everyone had suggested the three day pass, and we felt it was well worth it. The officials even took our digital pictures and put them on the passes. All said and done, they make pretty good souvenirs to boot.

Our hostel set us up with a tuk tuk driver that we paid by the day, for about $10 per tuk tuk. We hired two for the first two days we did the temples, and we are glad we did. They knew all the places to take us and didn’t care how long we spent at any of the spots. Our driver used to be a teacher. It was a pretty tragic story. He had worked as a teacher and could barely make ends meet. This in itself is not unusual, because many teachers in the US are also underpaid.

His school did not have any supplies or textbooks; he had to supply everything he used. Many of the teachers charged the students for materials, but of course many of them couldn’t pay either. Then because the teachers have too many students and no materials, the schools can only do so much with the kids.

He made more as a tuk tuk driver in a couple of days (not including tips) then he did all month as a teacher. He was able to send his own children to private school, where he felt they were getting a much better education.

Because he was a teacher, he began to tell us many things about the temples, buildings, and customs of the country. We enjoy wandering around by ourselves and just taking it in, but it was nice to get an overview of the place as well.

The highlights of Angkor:

1- Angkor Wat at sunrise and any other time of the day. The biggest temple and the one most photographed with the three towers is just gorgeous. Even upon it’s approach, the gardens and out-lying parts of the temple is awe-inspiring. As you wander through, you can see some very steep steps that Jim climbed, but since then I heard a tourist died and now no one can climb the steps anymore. I hope it’s true, because they were extremely treacherous.

2- One of the temples I didn’t expect and which I really enjoyed, was the Bayon in Angkor Thom. Before entering the gate, you are faced with 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara, a pretty impressive sight. Also there you can rent elephants for a quick ride around the temple—cheesy, but fun.

3-Ta Prohm, made famous by Angelina during the movie “Tomb Raider” was pretty fantastic. I love trees. I love temples. I love ruins…and this temple has it all. Lovely.

4-One thing to do is watch the sunset from Phnom Bakheng Temple. You can either take an elephant up the mountain or walk. We chose to walk. Yes, it was hot. But yes, it was well worth it. Again here, you have to climb up some pretty steep steps when you reach the temple. It is quite a slog up the hill, so if you’re tired or infirm, take the elephant.

A couple of other things we did in Siem Reap were to go to the market in the center of the town and to take an excursion to Tonle Sap Lake. The market was cheaper than any Thai market I’ve ever been to, with basically the same items. A shopper could go hog-wild here. Bartering is always a fun pastime.

Tonle Sap, on the other hand, was a huge body of water that housed some refugees from Vietnam. There is a complete city on boats. We saw a church, school, many markets, farms, all kinds of things. I couldn’t believe that people kept their pigs on the boats, but where else were they going to put them? I was a little skeptical signing up for this tour, but felt it was well worth it.

All in all, Cambodia was a blast of a few days. I might try and get back there some day. I still have to do the other UNESCO World Heritage site, the Temple of Preah Vihear. It’s also so close to both Vietnam and Thailand that it’s cheap and easy to make it a quick add-on.

Time-lapse…Vietnam

corinne — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:59 +0000

All we hear about growing up in the United States is the Vietnam War, where our fathers fought. My father did, and I sat in front of the black and white screen of our t.v. watching Walter Cronkite every night waiting for him to mention my dad. He never did, thankfully.

At any rate, when I started hearing what a wonderful place to visit Vietnam was, I had to go. Call it morbid fascination, but I couldn’t wait. Of course entering any communist country is a little unnerving; at least before you get there. It’s the preconceptions and the unknown that gets you. Once you get your visa stamped and are through customs, you look around and you begin to realize what a friendly people and what a beautiful country it is.

We started in Hanoi and worked our way south. We hit a number of the big places to visit on the way, Hue, Hoi an, Nha Trang, and of course Ho Chi Minh City (still popularly known as Saigon). We traveled by public transportation and since everything was usually in a rather concentrated area, we walked. We took the train from Hanoi to Danang, and then it was a short taxi to Hue. The train had spectacular views. I’ve heard of many people taking the overnight trains as well, but we didn’t quite go that far.

Attractions:

Hanoi – A very provincial city, looking like some old European capital with a certain flair, Hanoi was the perfect place to begin our Vietnam holiday. We did the usual stuff: water puppets, Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, temples and markets. All good.

Hue—A wet city, it rained the whole time we were there. The hotel had loads of mold in some of the rooms and at first we feared we would have to find another hotel, but finally the concierge found us a suitable room and we were mollified. Hue is a host to many important sights in Vietnam, a series of which combines to make the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Complex of Hue Monuments. We visited the many areas and found that although the architecture was extraordinary and could have been quite majestic in their day, that at this time they were rather dilapidated. I’m hoping that being named a World Heritage Site and the continuing tourism that accompanies that prestige, that the powers that be will not only maintain the site, but do some much-needed repairs.

My Son is another UNESCO World Heritage Site, located up the famous Perfume River. The only way to get there is to take a day tour, but these are plentiful. The day we went, was one of the drier of the few we were in the Hue area, so it was quite satisfying walking around the temple complex. Everything was very overgrown, and very green.

Hoi an- Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was much cheerier than anything in Hue. Of course the major draw to this quaint town is the abundance of cheap tailoring. Everywhere you walked, there were tailor shops promising to make you a suit, coat, or any other type of clothing that you desired. And yes, it would be done when you pull out of town. We’ll have it to your hotel before you leave…and they did. What fun to have clothes made for you. Hoi an is a town where a lot of backpackers head and then hang out for awhile and there were plenty of good little hang-outs, all kinds of restaurants and bars.

Nha Trang- A resort town, Nha Trang is not someplace I would often head to, but the draw here was the little island that you can take a round boat made out of bamboo fronds to a fishing island. We never did find out what the island was called, but it was quaint and riding in the boats were a lot of fun.

We also visited Long Son Pagoda with its gargantuan white Buddha. It was also a home for orphans who would try to peddle their artwork to you. The best part of this was running into a young man who was coddling his prize cock. Boy, was he proud of that bird.

Our final stop was Ho Chi Minh City, which after the countryside and the charm of Hanoi just seemed like a money-grubbing metropolis. I’m sure there is plenty to see here other than the Continental Hotel made famous by the journalists during the war. We dove into the coffee shop out of a torrential rain. One thing we learned, going to Vietnam in December, is that I feel for those poor souls who had to trudge through the Mekong during those downpours.

To sum up our experience this mysterious country fraught with a sordid history that involves my own country, I loved it. Even though the sites were run-down and crossing the street was slightly hazardous, the food was delicious and the people were wonderful I would go back in a heartbeat!