Journal Entry 8

August 18th, 2002

"Trans-Asian Northbound Express"

 

Been a while. Not sure where to start, or what to include, but here
goes:

If my life since my last message had a soundtrack, the William Tell Overture would be fitting. I have barely stopped for a breath since then. Being completely rested up after Yangshuo, I made a conscious decision to move somewhat quickly through my next several destinations. And I did...

I left off in Yangshuo, surrounded by limestone karst landscapes, and Longsheng, the site of beautiful, sculpted rice terraces. Highlight there was when Benjamin (French guy) and I found one of the most amazing landscapes in the world, sat on a rice terrace, and sipped a plastic bottle of homemade rice wine.

From there, we continued on to Sanjiang, where we visited some small villages. Hitched a ride to a nearby village, and walked back via trails across rice fields. Saw lots of people harvesting rice. Ate at some dude's place.

Up to this point, things were at a relaxed pace. Here's where that changed:

Near Sanjiang (still in southern China), a bartering session (over a cloth I liked) with some old women led us to miss our bus. Fortunately, another bus left that day at 8pm, arriving in Liuzhou at 1am. When we arrived, many people opted to stay on the bus in the station parking lot. This seemed a great idea, so we followed suit and slept for free on the bus.

There, good news: got train tickets to Chongqing. Bad news: leaves at 11pm (it was then 7am), it's a 24-hr ride, and only seats available are hard-seat, the lowest class. So, killed a day in the sweatbox of Liuzhou, preparing for our impending journey.

The train ride? Hard-seat actually has cushions, though thinner than a mouse pad. The seat backs are vertical and don't recline. They are bench-style. And no seat is unoccupied. We arrived in Chongqing in one piece, though exhausted.

There, our first order of business (at 11pm) was to secure boat tickets down the Yangtse River. That done, we found a hotel, and slept till 11am the next morning. Walked around, ate. Boat left at 7pm.

Boat journey was about 50 hrs, 3rd-class. Bunked with 6 people in a room. One other Westerner on the boat. Periodically, stopped for a few hours in cities along the river. While everyone else went and saw the "tourist sites" at these stops, Ben and I explored the cities themselves, typically eating questionable food on stools down dim alleys.

The boat journey was wonderful. I often thought of Mark Twain and his fascination for riverboat travel. My schedule? Sleep. Eat. Read/write, leaning against the deck rail, watching the shore pass by. Take a walk around one of the other decks. Nap. Repeat.

It was interesting to watch the shoreline. The 3 Gorges Dam (will be largest dam in the world) is being built downstream of where we traveled. The river in this area is expected to rise by 100m or something, displacing 2 million people. So towns near the water were slowly being phased out/moved up. It was actually a bit eery to see a bridge, and then another bridge right beside it, but 100m higher, in preparation for the flooding that starts next year.

Anyway, passed by the 3 Gorges, basically where cliffs rise off on both sides of the river. Then reached the site of the dam's construction. Arrived in Yichang late at night. Found hotel. Next day, bought train ticket to Xi'an. Killed a day in Yichang. Ate a lot. That night, boarded train for 17-hr journey, again hard-seat-class, this time alone as Ben was headed to Shanghai.

This was not a fun ride. Slept even less than the last time. Cramped. Dirty. Smelly. However, a guy who spoke very little English told me some valuable information, if I understood him correctly:

1) Yichang (where I just came from) is where the electric oscillating fan was invented. I actually doubt this.
2) He wrote my name in Chinese characters. It roughly translates to: Cloth Come Help. I interpret this as a feeble distress call, as I doubt that cloth has the ability to help out many dire situations.

Arrived in Xi'an in the morning and gave in to a tout, who directed me to the closest hotel to the train station. Showered, slept. Got up late afternoon, visited and ate in the Muslim Quarter.

Next day, went to see the Terracotta Warriors, one of China's main attractions. A lot of statues over an area the size of an American football field. A couple thousand years old. It was okay. Returned and again hit the Muslim Quarter, this time having a big dish that included chopped up pieces of an entire chicken. I tried the head, but failed to find anything of nutritional value in it. The brain was the only thing that seemed edible. Also tried one of the feet. Again, after chewing for a while, determined that it really isn't worth the time.

Next day, I was off to Tai'an, a 16-hr rail journey. For this trip, I scored a sleeper-seat with A/C! It was amazing. I slept about 75% of the trip, arriving early in the morning in Tai'an. I loafed for a while, then headed up Tai Shan, China's holiest Taoist mountain. In typical Chinese style, steps have been built all the way to the top. 15ft/5m wide, 6600 steps! So the options are: (1) Walk to the top, or (2) Pay a few dollars for a cable-car ride to the top. The choice was obvious.

After 5-6 hrs, a lot of sweating, and a thunderstorm, I arrived at the top. The common thing for the Chinese to do is to walk to the top overnight, watch the sunrise, and then head down. Well, I started at 11am, arrived for sunset, chilled out for a while on the edge of a cliff, and then headed down the mountain around 11pm. I took my time, took some naps on rocks, endured a rain storm, and was back at the bottom around 6-7am. It was fun, because not only was I the only white person on the mountain, I was the only person headed down overnight when everyone else was headed up.

Back in Tai'an, I caught a bus to Qufu, birthplace of Confucious. Upon arriving, I promptly went to sleep. Between my arrival there and the next morning, I slept about 17 hrs. Nice. Saw some tourist things there (Confucious' family's abode and his temple), then took a 3-hr bus to Ji'nan the next day. Called up a Chinese guy I met on another train. He showed me around, took me out to eat with his wife, absolutely insisted on paying for everything. Set me up with an overnight sleeper train ticket to Beijing.

Wheww. I arrived in Beijing early in the morning. My first day in Beijing cannot be called a blazing success. First, the hostel was mislabeled on the map; I walked around for an hour with my big backpack until I found it, about a mile from its expected location. I went to get my Mongolian visa. The embassy was closed by the time I found it. I went to pick up a package that my parents sent to the post office. It wasn't there.

Anyway, I spent a week or so in Beijing. Visited the obligatory tourist sites--the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace. Also saw a great Salvador Dali exhibition. I rejoined an Australian I met in Xi'an and we had an interesting and amazing time on the Great Wall that I think would qualify as 'unique'.

Back in Beijing, walked around a lot, bought a sleeping bag for the next stage of my trip (as I left mine at home), stocked up on books (in English), ate a lot, celebrated my birthday with Beijing (Peking) duck and some beer.

Beijing, unlike most Chinese cities, is huge and horizontal. Most are somewhat compact and vertical, even if they have a population of several million people. So it takes a long time to get from Point A to Point B in Beijing. I was looking forward to relaxing for a day there before departing, but found that I couldn't in that city. It was a good stop for my latest round of film-developing and package-sending though. For three days running, I said I was leaving tomorrow, but I never got around to it. But finally...

I departed Friday. Most people I met bound for Mongolia take the Trans-Mongolian Express. It is a link in the Trans-Siberian Express, and takes 30 hrs to reach Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. It seemed very convenient, too much so I guess. I opted for Plan B. I took an overnight bus to a Chinese border town, where I heard you could cross over. It was a sleeper bus, but it was jam-packed. My sleeping position between two Chinese men could be classified as border-line spooning.

I arrived the next morning, and eventually crossed the border with 3 Mongolians in a Russian jeep, after a long argument with a Chinese guy based on mainly on principle, and a meager sum of about $3.50. I had to spend the day at the Mongolian train station waiting for my evening departure. It was pleasant enough, as I was in the company of some nice Polish folks.

Last night, I crossed the Gobi Desert by train (lowest class again)and I arrived in Ulaan Baatar this morning. It's a flat, dusty city, with half of Mongolia's population, and even so, it isn't too big.

So that's roughly where I'm at, despite a few great stories between the lines that I've omitted for the time being. Maybe later...

Have no real plans for Mongolia, a couple ideas, that's all. Excited to be here. The word 'Mongolia', like 'Transylvania' and 'Patagonia', is one of those words that conjures fantastical images in my mind.

A few thoughts:
Overland travel from Hong Kong to Ulaan Baatar was wonderful. I would do little different if I had to repeat it. It was cool to cross the continent, seeing both the landscape and the people slowly transforming as I went. Only drawback is all the night arrivals I had. Nothing is more challenging than arriving in a new place, disoriented, at night, when bus lines are no longer running, and no one speaks English...

In China/Mongolia, when people get on a long-distance train or boat, they are not passengers, they are tenants. They move in. Personal stuff, food, etc is unpacked, hung on the walls, placed on the floor and tables. Trash is everywhere. Quite amazing. And since you don't pay a deposit, you leave the mess behind you when the journey ends. Convenient.

'Jack and the Beanstock' and 'Flash Gordon' would be great movies. Hollywood should get to work on some remakes.

I didn't bring a watch on this trip. It's quite nice. I have an alarm clock that I set for mornings when I need to wake early, but for the most part, I have only a vague idea of what time it is.

Knowledge and Cleverness tend to concern themselves with the wrong sorts of things, and a mind confused by Knowledge, Cleverness, and Abstract Ideas tends to go chasing off after things that don't matter, or that don't even exist, instead of seeing, appreciating, and making use of what is right in front of it. (-Benjamin Hoff)

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