i take claim to my week and scattered days backpacking in beijing and vietnam. it really wasn't much, compared to the other travellers that i had met in hostels and on buses. my trips weren't months of waiting for space on trains, bed space just to be next to impromptu lovers, fans of landscape that spand and spand and spand. for me, it was limited to weeks at a time.
like these travellers, i was looking for something. for me to go, literately, to the other side of the world was the extreme. i needed out for some reason. after years of deliberation and research, i found my way to the airport for the first time to go overseas.
teaching was central, a mode to pay for expenses and plant myself steadily for months at a time. however, i quickly learned that it was not only the experience of the ever fascinating "teaching overseas opportunity", but the access i had to see and experience more.
a month in living in Jincheng, Shanxi, we had our first trip to Xi'an. from there, it would start a series of planned small excursions. even just being in the city and visiting a friend's family home, or eating grilled Muslim food and drinking beer in the street with a local teacher (my favourite), or going to the park or shopping with students in the vasts selection of Chinese merchandise, enlighted and opened my eyes.
i should admit, i never realized that anything could surprise me. furthermore, the bug that had enticed me to leave home, was mostly initially just for air. who would have thought that the life we see at home, could not only look different but feel different.
i always recall the moment i got off the plane in Beijing from Toronto, i was almost paralyzed. i couldn't figure my way out. the way people move, was different. you'd immediately see this when you walk in another city.
the first time i backpacked was unfortunate, at least at the beginning, i made the bad choice of rooming with a friend who was in beijing for a different reason. we came to staying in a newly renovated, but badly planned space where to get a shower, we had to leave the main building. before using the shower, we had to call someone to turn on the shower water heater, wait a half hour, go to the shower room and hope that no one was looking through the window or walked into the door. that was the concern of a foreigner in a place like that, privacy stands tall for them. if you've been to china, privacy means something totally different. mosquitoes were also a killer in the room they provided us. after about three nights of that, i packed, wished my girl luck, and went to another hostel. that hostel was 35 yuan, that is $5.25 cdn a night.
i landed at a "foreigner-friendly" hostel. it was pretty cheap, but i quickly realized how they made their money. while their beds were $6 cdn a night, their service prices were way up there. for foreigners who've been backpacking for months, $4 cdn for a western breakfast was nothing. knowing the actual local costs for making western breakfasts, i am appalled how this hostel charges. in any case, i buy in 'cause i crave it. for living in china for over half a year, i deserve to treat myself to "home" food. however, the last time i was at that hostel, i found that they have increased prices for almost everything. they did this except for laundry where they had to compete against the new cleaners that were charging less for laundry a few steps away.
that was all the backpacking i did really in China, in Beijing. i met some hardcore backpackers who were all pretty interesting. some were interested in making friends, and others just mostly stuck to themselves. i did also meet a local friend there visiting a friend at the hostel. it was nice to meet someone who lived there.
my next and last backpacking experience was in Vietnam. i travelled from Saigon (south) to Ha noi (north) on a bus. it took two days one way, and because of the day trips i signed up for, i only ended up staying one and a half day in hostels. with backpack, i started from saigon. we spent evenings on the bus. i thought the charter buses in Vietnam were much better and roomier than the ones in Canada. i believe it depends on the company you go with. i should say that it cost peanuts one way, $24 cdn.
at every major city, we stopped for a few hours at the company office. the bathrooms were not spectacular, but what do you expect. on the way north, i met this lovely local girl from mid-Vietnam who was going to get her papers to study abroad in the big city. we had time in between buses, so we got to see parts of Hue. i had actually seen it already, but it was a treat for her. it was fun doing this with a local Vietnamese person, or even just another traveller. it was random and we weren't sure how safe we were on the back of these two motorbike taxis. she treat me to some nice local dishes and it was good.
there seems to be a great deal of trust when you are in the hands of another traveller. we both don't know where we are going, but we will get there by any means possible. i recall the time my new friend Thor and i were trying to get a taxi to drive us to a certain location in Beijing on a English-ridden map. there seemed to be no way getting there, especially after 4 taxis told us that they "just didn't know". i think back at how Thor was dealing, when i was negotiating with the driver. he must have realized to trust me, or there was no going to chill with other new friends at new hostel.
anyway, back to Vietnam. when i got to the north, i was frazzled. two days on a bus wasn't as bad as i had thought. later after dodging all the pesky motobike taxis, i thought i'd brave the map and navigate myself to my travel company office. however, that backfired and i worked the nerve to ask a driver to help me get there. i was warned about pricing, so i claimed a fixed price with him. i realized i was walking the wrong way.
navigating down the street with a bunch of knock-off agencies with my travel company's name and logo, i bumped into a sweet guy advertising a hostel to stay for about $10 a night. i knew i had an overnight stay out-of-the-city so i just kept the business card and continued on my way.
after registering at my agency, i decided to return to that $10 a night hostel and stay for the afternoon. i realized that i was beat and opt to stay and have a good nap. i did bargain with them, which was such a local experience, at least something i wouldn't do in north america for anything.
the evening i actually stayed in a hostel, i stayed at another "foreign-focused" location. they were cheap, but incredibly unfriendly. i didn't get to meet anyone really, however, i did talk to some guy who was at the bed at my feet, thanking him for turning on the light.
when i was there, i also did get to walk around the area. this was something i wasn't really keen on doing when i was in Vietnam the first time with a tour group. i walked right into a small shop and ordered a plum drink. it was great. i also got to talk to the local shop owners.
from the perspective of a South Vietnamese person, with family telling her that Northerners were not as friendly and to be careful, i terribly beg to differ.
in looking for a a net cafe near the hostel (the hostel had only two free internet computers), i bumped into a local young 20-something who helped me into some dark alley into a small internet show (with a bunch of kids). he then paid for it, too. i was fascinated and in total shock. this was one of many good encounters i had with people in Vietnam. i'll write more about the Vietnam trip in detail in another post.
okay, i lied. i did stay one more night in a various place when backpacking in Vietnam. i bumped into this girl when i was going south. we hit it off when we chilled in Nha Trang with a new local friend for a night. we stayed in the same hotel room, where our new friend helped us get a deal. he was a guy who worked in the travel company we were with. it was totally random.
now, with the backpacking episode done for a long time, i'm taking little adventures here in Canada. i wasn't sure as to what i should call it. i had inquired and taken rides from strangers between Toronto and Ottawa quite recently. i found these willing drivers from craigslist. after personally debating on whether this is hitchhiking or backpacking, i've decided it was more like backpacking. it was structured, a service, yet in some way random, sorta like the mediocre backpacking trips i had taken in Asia.
20071115
20070610
preview: restaurants, an incident
i actually can write a whole new site about restaurant service in china. since having worked in a resto in toronto for more than i year, i have an idea of the busyness that entails. of course, it's a little different here, -in many aspects.
i will just give you a preview, since i'm pressed for time. i'm leaving taiyuan tomorrow morning, and i have a dinner date with a friend in a while. and, i haven't collected all my thoughts on this topic yet. i will do so in full detail when i leave china, that day comes the end of this week. (on a tangent, i will return to china, but not anytime soon.)
an incident
about two weeks ago, i took my friends to a mall-ish food court to eat. as i was waiting for them to get their food, a overtly loud man is growing a fit, yelling at an employee. i look over, and at that instant, he pushes her from behind as they are walking to the food counters. no one flinches, but i.
i will just give you a preview, since i'm pressed for time. i'm leaving taiyuan tomorrow morning, and i have a dinner date with a friend in a while. and, i haven't collected all my thoughts on this topic yet. i will do so in full detail when i leave china, that day comes the end of this week. (on a tangent, i will return to china, but not anytime soon.)
an incident
about two weeks ago, i took my friends to a mall-ish food court to eat. as i was waiting for them to get their food, a overtly loud man is growing a fit, yelling at an employee. i look over, and at that instant, he pushes her from behind as they are walking to the food counters. no one flinches, but i.
20070511
in the "old country" & water
i lay on my friend's bed, tired and exhausted, watching her handwash her sweater. to us westerners, it's apparently something we would do if we couldn't do it in a machine. though, as i was there in my friend's bedroom, in about 10 minutes of her time, she is handwashes her sweater because that's what she has been doing for all of life, handwashing her clothes.
my girl, grace, does the same in toronto. of course, now i realize the absurdity of her not using a machine is not really absurd. grace is from malaysia, and i assume now that that's what people traditionally do there, as do people china, also. hell, they probably do it in some parts in canada, -i don't know. washing all your clothes by hand.. yikes.
i had mentioned this before.. about washing feet before you go to bed. it's customary for chinese people to do it in a small plastic tub. there's something more i gathered since being here. i had been in china for 14 months already. of course, being a foreign teacher, i have a 3 piece bathroom. in china, it's a luxury. bathrooms are luxury.
i had stayed at a student's home in a village where all they had was the village outhouse. i really couldn't use it, especially in the dark at night, and i'm sure smelly, so i just didn't. don't ask me how, but i relieved a lot later on.
i didn't wonder how they had to clean themselves then, but i found out a lot later on. on a walk to my favourite muslim grilled food in jincheng, my dear good friend wei chi explained to me that in some family homes, there is no bathroom. if they wanted to bathe themselves, they'd have to fork out money to go to the public bathhouse. if they want someone to help them scrub themselves down, they'd paid extra.
i recalled something else that i had mentioned in a previous entry. being at the community swimming pool, everyone was cleaning themselves down rigourously. and i had mentioned how ms. du asked me if i wanted a scrub? well. to me, i always prefer to shower at home. so i would wait, but these chinese ladies would do the whole works in the women's shower area in the centre. soap and shampoo and whatever.
having stayed at ms. du's when visiting jincheng two weeks ago, i understood more about the "phenomenon." for some people, they just don't have a modern shower at home. this was the case at ms. du's. actually, i lived a few nights there relieving myself in the outhouse in the back. it was humbling and i dare not sit. the outhouse wasn't as smelly as it could be, but it wasn't entirely comfortable half-way standing over a questionable modern toilet.
the sink i used was in the kitchen, which was just a room with a table. her produce was in the shelf under it. i didn't shower for a few days, until i returned to taiyuan.
for one of those nights, i stayed at a former student/girl friend's room. she had rented it for about 120 yuan (which is about $17 cdn) per month. i had actually seen a place like this before of another former student. it wasn't as nice, but it was only 50 yuan ($7.50 cdn) per month. anyhow. this traditional courtyard style home didn't have a full bathroom. it had a squat toilet room, but very well maintained. i still don't get how people clean themselves. probably in a way with warm water and a towel. it's very different here, in the "old country."
i had been to homes where if they had bathrooms, it would have a sink, a toilet, and a shower area. it is rare for a family to have a bathtub here. for me, the first city i was in, i was happy with the bathroom they gave me. now, in another, i'm stuck with a small room; toilet and shower. the bathroom sink is, for some reason, in another area of the house, but next to the washing machine. i have a separate kitchen sink which is good. in addition, the bathroom floor is unfinished. i just wear plastic slippers in there when douching. fun times.
my girl, grace, does the same in toronto. of course, now i realize the absurdity of her not using a machine is not really absurd. grace is from malaysia, and i assume now that that's what people traditionally do there, as do people china, also. hell, they probably do it in some parts in canada, -i don't know. washing all your clothes by hand.. yikes.
i had mentioned this before.. about washing feet before you go to bed. it's customary for chinese people to do it in a small plastic tub. there's something more i gathered since being here. i had been in china for 14 months already. of course, being a foreign teacher, i have a 3 piece bathroom. in china, it's a luxury. bathrooms are luxury.
i had stayed at a student's home in a village where all they had was the village outhouse. i really couldn't use it, especially in the dark at night, and i'm sure smelly, so i just didn't. don't ask me how, but i relieved a lot later on.
i didn't wonder how they had to clean themselves then, but i found out a lot later on. on a walk to my favourite muslim grilled food in jincheng, my dear good friend wei chi explained to me that in some family homes, there is no bathroom. if they wanted to bathe themselves, they'd have to fork out money to go to the public bathhouse. if they want someone to help them scrub themselves down, they'd paid extra.
i recalled something else that i had mentioned in a previous entry. being at the community swimming pool, everyone was cleaning themselves down rigourously. and i had mentioned how ms. du asked me if i wanted a scrub? well. to me, i always prefer to shower at home. so i would wait, but these chinese ladies would do the whole works in the women's shower area in the centre. soap and shampoo and whatever.
having stayed at ms. du's when visiting jincheng two weeks ago, i understood more about the "phenomenon." for some people, they just don't have a modern shower at home. this was the case at ms. du's. actually, i lived a few nights there relieving myself in the outhouse in the back. it was humbling and i dare not sit. the outhouse wasn't as smelly as it could be, but it wasn't entirely comfortable half-way standing over a questionable modern toilet.
the sink i used was in the kitchen, which was just a room with a table. her produce was in the shelf under it. i didn't shower for a few days, until i returned to taiyuan.
for one of those nights, i stayed at a former student/girl friend's room. she had rented it for about 120 yuan (which is about $17 cdn) per month. i had actually seen a place like this before of another former student. it wasn't as nice, but it was only 50 yuan ($7.50 cdn) per month. anyhow. this traditional courtyard style home didn't have a full bathroom. it had a squat toilet room, but very well maintained. i still don't get how people clean themselves. probably in a way with warm water and a towel. it's very different here, in the "old country."
i had been to homes where if they had bathrooms, it would have a sink, a toilet, and a shower area. it is rare for a family to have a bathtub here. for me, the first city i was in, i was happy with the bathroom they gave me. now, in another, i'm stuck with a small room; toilet and shower. the bathroom sink is, for some reason, in another area of the house, but next to the washing machine. i have a separate kitchen sink which is good. in addition, the bathroom floor is unfinished. i just wear plastic slippers in there when douching. fun times.
20070507
taking in the view by taking the bus
upon taking the bus to see my good friends in my first city in china, i thought that this would be nice to write about.
i remember my first bus trip in china. from jincheng, we traveled to xi'an in another province. it was a 9 hour long trip with washroom pit stops that would ward me off from long-distance travel in china forever. in any case, the scenery was beautiful. and, when i say beautiful. it was more than that.
traveling between montreal and toronto all my life, i didn't realize how beautiful land can be. especially, in that part where everything was mostly flat.
my trip between xi'an and jincheng was breathtaking. even though we would take quick turns along the mountainsides and almost fall off the mountain, we could see the majestic course that nature took all these thousands of years. "it is past bodies of water, that makes the ridges in the land like that." there would be layers and layers of earth with perfectly grown grass on each layer. and it would be land after land of this for miles.
there's more. i remember mud, lots of mud/clay homes. i wondered if people actually lived in them still. i looked for traces of life, but didn't find any. knowing now from what i have seen, i wouldn't rule it out.
in vietnam, the scenery was beautiful also. except, it was rivers and green everywhere. going north from saigon, near hue, palm trees filled the land. we went by beaches and through valleys.
travel like this is precious.
i remember my first bus trip in china. from jincheng, we traveled to xi'an in another province. it was a 9 hour long trip with washroom pit stops that would ward me off from long-distance travel in china forever. in any case, the scenery was beautiful. and, when i say beautiful. it was more than that.
traveling between montreal and toronto all my life, i didn't realize how beautiful land can be. especially, in that part where everything was mostly flat.
my trip between xi'an and jincheng was breathtaking. even though we would take quick turns along the mountainsides and almost fall off the mountain, we could see the majestic course that nature took all these thousands of years. "it is past bodies of water, that makes the ridges in the land like that." there would be layers and layers of earth with perfectly grown grass on each layer. and it would be land after land of this for miles.
there's more. i remember mud, lots of mud/clay homes. i wondered if people actually lived in them still. i looked for traces of life, but didn't find any. knowing now from what i have seen, i wouldn't rule it out.
in vietnam, the scenery was beautiful also. except, it was rivers and green everywhere. going north from saigon, near hue, palm trees filled the land. we went by beaches and through valleys.
travel like this is precious.
20070316
vietnam trip 2007 - part 4 - more on social poverty.
i should have written this in the last posting, but i forgot. triggered watching a friend's vlog on youtube about his time in india. the vid is called "hardest part" on www.youtube.com/zzolaman, if you're interested.
before i came to vietnam, i had already been told by my friend rita about the poverty there. she mentioned a story about a woman asking for money carrying a baby when she was there. of course, this was under the blistering vietnam sun. rita's immediate reaction was telling the woman that she should get the baby indoors, into the shade. probably anyone's first reaction.
so, that was the story that i thrived and regurgitated on when i talked to people about my then, impending trip to vietnam. now of course, seeing it for myself, including my own experiences mentioned earlier, the depth of this problem is apparent, it just burns a hole at the bottom, even further.
i had also seen the woman that rita spoke of. this time, her child was not a baby anymore. by the looks, probably 3 or 4 or 5, still breathing, i imagine, flung over her shoulder. skinny. malnutritioned. even if you give this mother money, it's evident, it's not going to her child. it's seemingly hopeless unless the people are educated or made to understand that you can't do this to a being. this child is used a prop. it's sad. and true, it exists in this part of the world.
before i came to vietnam, i had already been told by my friend rita about the poverty there. she mentioned a story about a woman asking for money carrying a baby when she was there. of course, this was under the blistering vietnam sun. rita's immediate reaction was telling the woman that she should get the baby indoors, into the shade. probably anyone's first reaction.
so, that was the story that i thrived and regurgitated on when i talked to people about my then, impending trip to vietnam. now of course, seeing it for myself, including my own experiences mentioned earlier, the depth of this problem is apparent, it just burns a hole at the bottom, even further.
i had also seen the woman that rita spoke of. this time, her child was not a baby anymore. by the looks, probably 3 or 4 or 5, still breathing, i imagine, flung over her shoulder. skinny. malnutritioned. even if you give this mother money, it's evident, it's not going to her child. it's seemingly hopeless unless the people are educated or made to understand that you can't do this to a being. this child is used a prop. it's sad. and true, it exists in this part of the world.
20070312
vietnam trip 2007 - part 3 - social poverty.
one afternoon, we went to a religious site. i really didn't know until i got there. my viet is pretty good, but when the tour guide goes into highschool level viet, i get lost. i'm not sure if i was the only one. after all, i didn't get an itinerary in paper form. basically, i was just following the guide around. anyway.
the religious site. the cathedral was one of two in vietnam. the other was in saigon. it was terribly mashed up during the war. there was this grand structure of this fantastic site. it was a tree. i forgot the name, but it was so strange. along with the middle part of the cathedral/tower, it was not destroyed. it has godly-like branches and stemmed out to mushroom like umbrellas. there was a service going on.
there was this bin of water that had the words "nuoc duc me." hey, to me it was funny. literately, that meant "virgin mary's water." it was in a solar power heater thing. ya.
this site was probably the poorest we saw the folk. not only poor but some had such physical disabilities. such as in pain staking, burns, inactive muscles, blindness.. this was where the people on my bus gave them money. it's not that i don't think it's a good cause, but i believe it's not anybody's responsiblity but the government's to take care of these people. i'm sad and slightly upset at this.
this stands next to the encounter of children working in the sand dunes at mui ne. immediately when we get off the bus, children come up and tell us if we want take a slide down the sand, we'd ask for them and donate for their plastic mat. before we got off the bus, the guide warned us about these children. they were young and giving them 5,000 dongs would suffice. that's 30 cents. another thing, don't give just for giving. there was this sweet girl, very smart alec. she tailed me and the aussie guy for a while. these children were from ages 6 to 14. basically, this is what they do on their time off, away from school, if they go to school.
i talked to a boy and that girl about themselves. they told me that 1 out of 10 children have the luck to go to school. i wasn't sure if they were exaggerating, but seeing that these children were out there, i doubted that less. we were near the best resorts in vietnam, and i can see that work in the resorts was totally the thing for everyone. everyone who lived here was part of that industry. these children will grow up to do the same.
the girl said that we can donate for services at any price. i was very relunctant. i don't think it's right, for some reason. anyway, she finally convinced the aussie guy to give it a try. which he did. apparently, a fellow child got angry that she got the money. and at 32,000 dong from the suggested 5,000 dong, that girl was extremely ecstatic. 32,000 dong is 2 bucks.
the religious site. the cathedral was one of two in vietnam. the other was in saigon. it was terribly mashed up during the war. there was this grand structure of this fantastic site. it was a tree. i forgot the name, but it was so strange. along with the middle part of the cathedral/tower, it was not destroyed. it has godly-like branches and stemmed out to mushroom like umbrellas. there was a service going on.
there was this bin of water that had the words "nuoc duc me." hey, to me it was funny. literately, that meant "virgin mary's water." it was in a solar power heater thing. ya.
this site was probably the poorest we saw the folk. not only poor but some had such physical disabilities. such as in pain staking, burns, inactive muscles, blindness.. this was where the people on my bus gave them money. it's not that i don't think it's a good cause, but i believe it's not anybody's responsiblity but the government's to take care of these people. i'm sad and slightly upset at this.
this stands next to the encounter of children working in the sand dunes at mui ne. immediately when we get off the bus, children come up and tell us if we want take a slide down the sand, we'd ask for them and donate for their plastic mat. before we got off the bus, the guide warned us about these children. they were young and giving them 5,000 dongs would suffice. that's 30 cents. another thing, don't give just for giving. there was this sweet girl, very smart alec. she tailed me and the aussie guy for a while. these children were from ages 6 to 14. basically, this is what they do on their time off, away from school, if they go to school.
i talked to a boy and that girl about themselves. they told me that 1 out of 10 children have the luck to go to school. i wasn't sure if they were exaggerating, but seeing that these children were out there, i doubted that less. we were near the best resorts in vietnam, and i can see that work in the resorts was totally the thing for everyone. everyone who lived here was part of that industry. these children will grow up to do the same.
the girl said that we can donate for services at any price. i was very relunctant. i don't think it's right, for some reason. anyway, she finally convinced the aussie guy to give it a try. which he did. apparently, a fellow child got angry that she got the money. and at 32,000 dong from the suggested 5,000 dong, that girl was extremely ecstatic. 32,000 dong is 2 bucks.
20070311
vietnam trip 2007 - part 2 - sites & beautiful children.
well. i knew before heading there for a month, that it would not be enough. i had planned this "homecoming" for about 4 years, since 2nd year university. initially, it was my destination for teaching abroad, but that obviously wasn't. i don't know if i will go there for teaching english, but i will definitely return to visit. hence, this july. re: i just came back spending all of february there.
i took a tour from saigon up to mid-vietnam/hue'. and. it was life learning. if you want to see ancient buildings that have not become "renewed" by paint, but are essentially dilapidated, mid-vietnam is the place to go. everything is just as is. very little is invested in the upkeep. i do have to say, it's pretty impressive for vietnam. where china has sites that are well sponsored by the government, vietnam has mausoleums that are quite unique. they probably exist in china, but i haven't seen them. not near beijing, nor xi'an.
there was the 2nd last emperor's mausoleum where the "house" above the body was completely made of porcelain. pieces put together, to make a beautiful colourful montage to every corner of the room. also, for an emperor that reigned closer to the beginning of the nguyen dynasty, i recognized the similarity of the tomb being on a mountain, but on this mountain, there was place for people to chill, and study. there were lakes and houses where folk would pose poetry and literature. of course, this was for the people of high status. but, to have this sort of thing just steps away from the buried dead, i thought was interesting. an answer was that death, was natural. it was common, buried, but exists around us. i really like that. i guess that has some spiritual relevancy.
when we spent our 3rd night of the tour at quy nhon, a small city somewhere between saigon and hue, i didn't expect to have such an impression. after inquiring about the internet at the hotel i was staying at, the attendent's answer of "$2 U.S. an hour", i snubbed and went out to take a look at the folk opera playing outside. (at the other hotels, it was 5,000 dong per hour/30 cents an hour.) i went out snapping pictures here and there, making lots of flashes, people were staring. i wanted the moment, and i did make a video. i will put it up sometime. it was in traditional viet, which was even harder for me to get the gist of.
there was a group of kids. they were so beautiful. they asked me a lot of questions. at that point, i really didn't want to say that i was foreign. i just said that i was from saigon, but teaching in china. this is what i can do, communicated to children in vietnam, since my viet vocab is just up to there. i don't like to take pictures of children if i don't have permission, but they begged me. they were really cute. they were so innocent. the eldest offer to visit my hotel room, which i explained was a big no-no. to visit a stranger in their hotel room is no good. another boy repeated after me that it wasn't so good. brings to show, if you tell kids, they'll learn and function with that. they asked me if i would return with the pictures. that boy says i could be in the lobby (sometime?) and they can come by to see them. how even more beautiful. unfortunately, i lost those photos, due to my stupidity with my camera the night after. the boy did asked me if i will visit again, the eldest knew i may not. i said i would, sometime in the future. for them.
well. more later on vietnam.
i took a tour from saigon up to mid-vietnam/hue'. and. it was life learning. if you want to see ancient buildings that have not become "renewed" by paint, but are essentially dilapidated, mid-vietnam is the place to go. everything is just as is. very little is invested in the upkeep. i do have to say, it's pretty impressive for vietnam. where china has sites that are well sponsored by the government, vietnam has mausoleums that are quite unique. they probably exist in china, but i haven't seen them. not near beijing, nor xi'an.
there was the 2nd last emperor's mausoleum where the "house" above the body was completely made of porcelain. pieces put together, to make a beautiful colourful montage to every corner of the room. also, for an emperor that reigned closer to the beginning of the nguyen dynasty, i recognized the similarity of the tomb being on a mountain, but on this mountain, there was place for people to chill, and study. there were lakes and houses where folk would pose poetry and literature. of course, this was for the people of high status. but, to have this sort of thing just steps away from the buried dead, i thought was interesting. an answer was that death, was natural. it was common, buried, but exists around us. i really like that. i guess that has some spiritual relevancy.
when we spent our 3rd night of the tour at quy nhon, a small city somewhere between saigon and hue, i didn't expect to have such an impression. after inquiring about the internet at the hotel i was staying at, the attendent's answer of "$2 U.S. an hour", i snubbed and went out to take a look at the folk opera playing outside. (at the other hotels, it was 5,000 dong per hour/30 cents an hour.) i went out snapping pictures here and there, making lots of flashes, people were staring. i wanted the moment, and i did make a video. i will put it up sometime. it was in traditional viet, which was even harder for me to get the gist of.
there was a group of kids. they were so beautiful. they asked me a lot of questions. at that point, i really didn't want to say that i was foreign. i just said that i was from saigon, but teaching in china. this is what i can do, communicated to children in vietnam, since my viet vocab is just up to there. i don't like to take pictures of children if i don't have permission, but they begged me. they were really cute. they were so innocent. the eldest offer to visit my hotel room, which i explained was a big no-no. to visit a stranger in their hotel room is no good. another boy repeated after me that it wasn't so good. brings to show, if you tell kids, they'll learn and function with that. they asked me if i would return with the pictures. that boy says i could be in the lobby (sometime?) and they can come by to see them. how even more beautiful. unfortunately, i lost those photos, due to my stupidity with my camera the night after. the boy did asked me if i will visit again, the eldest knew i may not. i said i would, sometime in the future. for them.
well. more later on vietnam.
20070310
vietnam trip 2007 - family in the native land.
it has been a while since i wrote. since last, i had a wonderful chance to go to vietnam for a whole month. mostly, i stayed at my aunts. we'd go into the city on her motorbike (very cool, by the way). we'd stop by her old house to park the bike and go grocery shopping. food galore. i was full every minute i was there in the country.
i got to see both my grandparents' old homes in saigon. i feel like everyone i know in china. i mean, in canada, we all live slightly oblivious to the history that our parents had when they were younger. how they lived, what they enjoyed, and the pains they took when they were our age. as a child to newcomers in canada, i finally got to see the life my parents left and brought upon them, the hardships that went on when they did so, even when they landed in canada. i love vietnam.
i met family that i never knew existed until recently. they lived in the same house my father did when he was young. it was humble and no new renovations, or any at all. they were working hard to make ends meet. i met two cousins that i didn't know existed. all in a world of their own. they had their problems and life, part of my family that i didn't know too much of. these aunts were very chatty compared to the rest of my dad's family in canada. which was real nice. and how my mom's side was very interlocked with my dad's side in vietnam. they knew each other pretty well.
well. that's just part 1 of my vietnam adventures. i loved vietnam. i will go again in july before i head back to canada.
i got to see both my grandparents' old homes in saigon. i feel like everyone i know in china. i mean, in canada, we all live slightly oblivious to the history that our parents had when they were younger. how they lived, what they enjoyed, and the pains they took when they were our age. as a child to newcomers in canada, i finally got to see the life my parents left and brought upon them, the hardships that went on when they did so, even when they landed in canada. i love vietnam.
i met family that i never knew existed until recently. they lived in the same house my father did when he was young. it was humble and no new renovations, or any at all. they were working hard to make ends meet. i met two cousins that i didn't know existed. all in a world of their own. they had their problems and life, part of my family that i didn't know too much of. these aunts were very chatty compared to the rest of my dad's family in canada. which was real nice. and how my mom's side was very interlocked with my dad's side in vietnam. they knew each other pretty well.
well. that's just part 1 of my vietnam adventures. i loved vietnam. i will go again in july before i head back to canada.
20070130
net bars in china.
i'm good now. at the net bar in taiyuan. it's actually in a tea house. a nice one. i was in a shitty one the other day. i set out looking for the net since the earthquake in taiwan had caused problems with the servers for weeks on boxing day. first, i went to the world trade hotel. after being discouraged by their absurd prices of 1.5 kuai a minute, i went to a nasty net bar for 2 kuai an hour. i can literally feel my skin burning off. i'm sure it was not only because i had this face wash thing done the day before, but it was just the nastiness of college aged bums and some nasty guy hacking beside me. i totally held my breath for the longest time. for my 2 kuai/30 cents worth of net time, i will never step into a net bar in china again. of course, this net bar is in a nice cafe, so it's okay. but man..
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