the daily(ish)

I guessed this bathroom was for the elderly…

Which meant I totally waited in line to use it.  Elderly usually equals a Western style toilet and that is worth all the wait in the world for me! Move over, Granny!

the daily(ish)

I think they may have got this one backwards…

Or maybe not.  Maybe impossible is nothing? Deep, very deep.

the daily(ish)

Our lunch with the family from Inner Mongolia…

Click the picture to read the story on our food blog!* 

 

*I realize I should have just had one blog to share both our gastronomic and regular adventures, but I didn’t…and now it is round 6 of our last year, meaning I’m just going to keep nudging you over there. Just humor me, people- we’re in the 11th hour of this thing

Xi’an

The Terracotta  Warriors of Xi’an are kind of a “must-see” when in China.  So we saw them this weekend…

In 1974 four farmers were digging a well and came across fragments of this long buried clay army and by 1979 they were open to the public.  They were built by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.  They believe there are about 8,000 of them, each one completely different from the next and with details as minute as fingernails and earlobes.  The site is still a working archeological dig and we couldn’t decide what was more painstaking and impressive- building them in the first place or putting them all back together now…

 

They are an incredibly impressive sight by an apparently cruel, but also undeniably impressive emperor.  He was also the one that began the Great Wall.  Not bad for someone who ruled for less than 20 years. 

We even got to meet one of the last surviving farmers who found them…

After the warriors we  went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda that was built to house the Buddhist relics brought back by a monk from India as well as the site where he translated Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. 

The more you rub the happy Buddha belly the happier you will be!

We caught a cultural show that evening centering around the Wang Dynasty, the most prosperous period in China’s history.  It was interesting how this music and dance has survived over 1000 years both from written records and being passed down orally. 

We unfortunately had an early flight Sunday afternoon and missed seeing the city wall that encompasses Xi’an or any of the other sites.  As predicted by a few of our friends, Xi’an was a must, but not the most thrilling of weekends.* 

China weekends letting you down a bit?  Me too.  But, don’t despair- I really think the best is yet to come.  I mean come on, next weekend is Chengdu and ****HELLO**** we get to see and hold baby pandas!!!  Oh, and there is this Buddha the size of a mountain there too.  Yes, yes, I’m excited about the Buddha, but he’s sharing the weekend with #2 on life list, so it’s a little difficult for me to get that pumped about him.  Sorry, giant Buddha!

Pics from the weekend…

 

 

 

*Although, I’d say it was pretty exciting to finally get to see our friends from Argentina! Best of all, after this week they are in Shanghai!!

In Memorandum

I can hear in my head what my Aunt Terri would say seeing this- “Hmmph…you don’t need to do that!!”

She was a humble woman.  She was a woman who didn’t require and rarely received thanks for the many things she did to help others.  She was that mom who always put everyone else’s needs well ahead of her own.  In a family chock full of strong-willed and overly opinionated women, she was the peacekeeper, the gentle one.

When I was barely able to walk, I managed to pull down a wooden chair on top of myself.  It landed directly on my face,  literally splitting my nose from my lip.  I had to have surgery on my then tiny face and to keep my toddler hands from ruining their handwork, I had to have my arms strapped down crucifixion style, out to the sides.  I was a baby, had just had surgery, was in a strange place and was apparently wailing like no other.  I was inconsolable, until that is that my Aunt Terri realized what I was missing most- my thumb.  I was a fierce thumb-sucker practically until I went to preschool and had been since the womb. I had little white marks on my arms and hands when I was born where I had sucked in utero. Since my thumbs were out of my reach my aunt sucked one for me and I was immediately calmed and asleep in no time.  She did it for me every single night I was in the hospital.

I was told that story a million times growing up and I know it is the reason I never once questioned my aunt’s love for me.  I was her sister’s child, the first girl of the next generation and no matter the distance between us as I grew up, she would always, always love me.

When I was home visiting my Grandmother last year, my aunt met up with us while we were out at a mall.  I hadn’t seen her in many years, but as soon as her arms were around me I could immediately feel that intense love, just as I had when I was a little girl. 

The last time I saw her, she was walking across the mall parking lot waving and yelling to me and my grandmother “Love you, bye!”  over and over.  This is my family’s signature departure line whether you’re on the phone or in person.  We never part without saying it to one another.

It would be just months later that she would be diagnosed with cancer. She would survive a surgery the doctors never thought she would, go through round after round of chemo and endure countless radiation treatments over the next painful 18 months.

She passed away peacefully this Sunday morning.

Terri was and will always be a beloved daughter, sister, wife, aunt, mother, grandmother and friend.  She will be missed by all those who benefitted from having her in their lives and I’m beyond grateful to have been one of them.

Love you, bye, Terri.  Love you, bye.

the daily(ish)

Sofi and I wandered into the Chen Xiang  Monastery  the other day while looking for the God City Temple.  We never found that temple, and I could have cared less. 

This is only the second time I’ve heard Buddhist prayers being sung.  The first was in Japan when we stayed in the monastery and got to listen to the resident monks one morning, so it was really freaking awesome that this time I got to hear nuns…

 

I’m not sure how long they had been praying, but it didn’t last too long after we arrived.  Timing really is everything.

flashback friday

Happy Friday, everyone!  Hope you’ve all got a great weekend ahead of you. 

Today, we’re flashing back to our trip to the sacred Mt Koyasan in Japan last year during round 6.  There is a group headed to Japan today and as much as I’m thrilled to be going to China, I can’t help but be a little jealous.  I’ve never loved a country or culture more than my own, but Japan came very, very close to completely winning me over.

This weekend was one of those weekends where we were just in awe of our life, our luck and our incredible blessings.

 

Monday, November 8, 2010

Mt. Koyasan

There’s something about Japan that seems to allow a multitude of experiences to be somehow stuffed into a relatively short period of time. Each time I attempt to get my thoughts together about a weekend, a day or even just an afternoon I’m overwhelmed with how much actually happened, how much we saw, and how much I need to write about to really get it all out there. I’m going to really try to do justice to our first weekend outside of Tokyo, but it’s going to be an uphill battle so bear with me.

Our final destination was Mt. Koyasan, but Friday we were headed only as far as Osaka via the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train that goes over 160 miles per hour. Getting to the Shinkasen on time proved to be tough and we’d continue this "narrowly avoiding disaster" theme for practically every single dang train/cable car/subway/taxi we had to take all weekend. Being late is at the very tippy-top of my pet peeve list so how this happened I’m not sure, but each time my insides were a tangled mess of anxiety and frustration. I am always telling the Wife that God will continue to give her opportunities to work on her patience until she no longer lets things exhaust it. Apparently God really wants me to get over this being late thing. That or we just couldn’t get our shit together this weekend, but...

“WE MADE IT!!”

The bullet train was…well, fast. Like a bullet. And they serve beer. Score.
After wandering around the streets by our hotel we finally all admitted that we really didn’t want anything Japanese or even remotely Asian for dinner. In preparation for our vegetarian meals in the temple in Mt. Koyasan we decided on burgers. After which we went for a nightcap at a place called Beering Bon. I don’t know what were expecting, but we got a lady singing the Carpenters and a table full of insanely drunk businessmen who could barely stand. It was a perfectly Japanese night.

We had the next morning in Osaka and chose to see the “castle”…I had a huge problem with this place being called a castle. Why? I don’t know, but does this look like a “castle” to you?

I’m just saying. Castle or not, it was a beautiful day and the grounds around were lovely…

and fun…

and because it is still bizzaro world Japan, even had a random parrot…

It took us a few hours to make it up to Mt. Koyasan with the train and cable car from Osaka. It’s one of the most sacred places in Japan and home to over 100 Buddhist temples. Immediately upon stepping off the train you feel a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the cities and are overcome with a sense of peacefulness.

We were staying at a Buddhist temple for the night just outside the entrance to the ancient cemetery where over 200,000 followers of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism are buried. There are like 50 or so temples that offer up lodging which I suppose is a good source of revenue for the monks.
I don’t know how to explain how serene it was, but just passing through the gates we all became hyper aware of ourselves, our voices, and our actions. We immediately started whispering, tiptoeing and swiftly lifting our rolling bags and their seemingly roaring wheels off the ground. We quietly checked in and were escorted to our rooms. This was when my peaceful, quiet, temple staying self escaped me.

You have to remove your shoes before entering any temple and there were slippers provided at each door. Well, those “slippers from hell” as I later deemed them came flying off my feet as we were going up the first flight of stairs and I had a case of the giggles like no other. The more I tried to stop laughing about it the more I laughed. I was mortified, but the laughter only got worse. I seriously was crying I was laughing so hard. I’m laughing right now just writing about it. Let’s just say that I carried my slippers around most of the time instead of wearing them and never once attempted to wear them on the stairs again.

Our room was crazy traditional and looked out onto the beautiful gardens…

We took a brief walk around before our 5:30 dinner time. We ate alone in a private room and were served by one of the monks. It was strange in the most wonderful way and an experience I’ll never forget or really be able to describe because we could identify about 3% of the food items…

After dinner we headed out for a dark walk through the cemetery. Usually night + not well lit cemetery = no go in my book, but it was really peaceful and we walked all the way to the temple at the end before heading back to our rooms. They ask that everyone is in their rooms by 9:30 so it was an uneventful night after the walk which was a good thing considering our 5:30 wake up time.

Morning prayers were held by two resident monks Sunday morning at 6 and we were allowed to watch. I struggle to find the words to describe what it was like to bear witness to something so sacred. I suppose it’s the indescribable aspect that makes it so extraordinary anyway. I will say that it is moments like these that I’m most grateful for our life and for how insanely blessed we are to have this opportunity.

Breakfast was served in the same manner as dinner, except we weren’t really in the mood for cold tofu and unidentified objects that early in the morning. This is when you're most thankful for Japan's vending machine culture.
I wanted to go back to the cemetery in the light for photos so we made our way through the majestic cedars and moss covered tombstones one last time. It was the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever seen and truly one of the most special places I’ve ever visited. Truly breathtaking…

Traditionally bibs are places around statues of the Jizo to protect lost children in the afterlife and to pray for the long lives of living children. The practice has evolved and there were all sorts of robes and hats on the statues throughout the cemetery...

After the cemetery we spent the rest of our morning in the town visiting other temples and just enjoying the gorgeous fall colors…

I’ll refer to the second paragraph instead of going into detail about our harrowing experience trying to navigate the many modes of transport back to Tokyo. Let’s just say getting to the hotel in Tokyo never felt so good.

We’re still up in the air about our plans this weekend. After all the back-to-back travel weekends in Europe we’re feeling sluggish and living in such an incredible city like Tokyo makes it hard for us to want to leave in the first place. Maybe we’ll take a day trip; maybe we’ll stay and hit a cat café. You just never know.

the daily(ish)

Yuyuan Gardens in the old town of Shanghai is a really lovely place to spend an afternoon…

Aside from the tourists it is quite serene and best of all no smoking allowed- and they actually mean it.  I can’t tell you how funny (read: ridiculous) it is to me that in March a ban on smoking in public buildings was enacted and NO ONE complies. 

There is a lot of spitting going on around here and although I originally thought it was the pollution, I am convinced it is because all the men smoke like houses on fire.

the daily(ish)

Apologies for the lapse in daily photos.  My first VPN got blocked in China and it took me a bit of time to get another one set up.  So, without further ado…

These names of the places at Yuyuan Gardens made me laugh…

I suspect there are going to be a lot of posts with signage in our future. 

Inner Mongolia

Oh, how high my hopes were for our first weekend in China.  When we first find out where we are headed we buy a travel book.  We’ve learned through the years that the books are more of an inspirational starting point and try to buy the one with the most photographs.  When we actually start planning and booking we use the interweb- it always has more up-to-date info and reviews are seriously your travel planning best friends.  Our Chinese friend had gone through our book with us and pointed out the hot spots we should visit.  But one day as I was flipping through, I spotted these photographs from Inner Mongolia and I was determined to go. 

I started looking into it online and found that we could go out into the grasslands to meet  Mongolian families, eat mutton, watch them wrestle (they wrestle, it’s a Mongolian thing), watch them race horses, ride horses ourselves and even sleep in a yurt (traditional Mongolian tent, albeit a modern version).  I emailed a few travel agencies and found one that promised all of the above and a tour of the city’s temples and museums for Sunday.  I got the team onboard and we were all off Friday night to the city of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia.

We stayed in the city that evening and met up with our guide, Tom, the next morning to make our way to the grassland.  As soon as we started the drive Tom started saying we may not want to stay in the yurt because it was so cold in the grassland.  I had asked the agency about this and clarified 3 times that it was okay to stay in the yurts this late in the season.  I was told it was cold, but okay as long as we dressed warmly.  It was only going to be just at freezing and we would have a heater in the room.  Tom was making me nervous though.

Then Tom announced that although our “luxury” yurt did indeed have bathrooms, but they didn’t work.  “No worries” he says “This is grassland, everywhere is toilet”. I’m now officially nervous. 

We keep telling each other we’ll just check it out and if we need to, we’ll just go back to Hohhot that evening after all our awesome Mongolian activities.

We arrive at our destination and pulled up to a simple house with a number of rundown looking yurts in the front yard.  There is trash everywhere, chickens roaming around and a couple cows.  Tom introduces us to our host and we check out the yurts.  No way, people.  No way. Actually they weren’t that bad and certainly not the most basic place we’ve ever stayed, but when Tom said the everywhere in the grassland was a toilet, he meant it.  There is cow, horse, chicken, camel (yes- camel) and who knows what else kind of poop and litter all over the ground.  I’m not about to wander outside in the freezing dark to go to the bathroom here.  I’m no sissy, I can pee outside- but this was a no-go. No. Go.

We talk to Tom and tell him we aren’t comfortable staying, but we’d like to enjoy our day out there and then after the campfire dinner with the Mongolian dancing and singing we can just go back to Hohhot.  We had already talked to him about how we were going to pick out a lamb for a traditional lamb roasting.

Tom then confesses that well, there won’t be any wrestling, or songs, or dances, or campfire or anything.  We can ride horses and that is extra, but the rest of it isn’t available in October.  What the what?!?

Guys, can I tell you how grateful I am for the laidback people we had in the group?  I can?  Okay- I AM SO GRATEFUL!!!

We’re there,  it is what it is, so we decide we’re going to hop on some Mongolian horses and ride out to the alboa, a place to make sacrifices and wishes for good luck.

Jules hasn’t been on a horse since a very bad horse buggy accident that happened when she was a little girl.  I love to ride, but haven’t been on anything other than that crazed donkey in Petra since we’ve been together.  That’s almost 10 years.

Lucky for us, Mongolians are little people and their horses are to scale…

Our horse guide, named Butter (yes, Butter which means hero in Mongolian) got us all saddled up and we were off…

The grassland was actually very pretty.  Although I was riding a horse so picture taking wasn’t so easy.  I actually don’t have one photo of myself from the entire weekend, but here’s a view from my horse…

I named his Snowball and he pretty much sucked.  He was lazy beyond lazy and only picked up his step when Butter came up behind to grunt and shoo him.  I tried to American-style “HE-YAH” him, but he didn’t speak English, although Butter thought this was hilarious.  Actually, the whole ride was hilarious.  We were all trying to mimic Butter’s horse language to get our horses to go which was a high pitched “HE” and a whispering “shhooo, shhooo”.  So we’re all out there, 2 Americans, an Argentinian and a Mexican on top of these tiny horses in the middle of nowhere Inner Mongolia sounding like kids playing with lasers guns. 

Once we got back it was time for lunch and this was really an incredible experience.  Apparently during the tourist season (you know, when all the stuff is actually available) they eat at large restaurant type places, but our only choice was to eat in the family’s home.  Butter’s wife prepared our meal (details to come on the food blog) which was amazing.  We were the only foreigners they had ever met and they treated us with immense warmth, unwavering hospitality and a bit of curiosity.  If you have ever watched that show “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain, that was exactly what is was like and it was beyond awesome.   Their baby was more interested in her lunch than us, but she did take time to make some faces at us…

After lunch, the Grandfather pulled out some Mongolian “wine”- aka grain alcohol that will about kill you…

and then marveled at my wedding ring.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was the fake one I travel with.  Butter was more interested in Julie’s green eyes and seemed to really be asking why in the world were they that color.

This was by far my favorite part of our weekend and I think it would have been even if that had been singing and dancing and wrestling.  I mean, look at the pure beauty that emits from these faces…

 

Upon returning to Hohhot the battle began with Tom, his boss and the agency in Beijing about all this tour business.  It lasted 4 hours and no side was too thrilled with deal that was finally reached.   The guys and Julie spared me from it, although I am usually a hardline negotiator, I was too in love with the family that hosted us and felt bad for poor Tom because he was just the local guide.  I wasn’t going to help the situation, at least not for us.

As part of the compromise, Tom and our driver took us to eat hotpot.  We were the only ones in the restaurant and clearly the only foreigners they had ever had because the entire staff just sat down at a nearby table and marveled at us eating.  The food was pretty good and Tom made a peace offering of a bottle of Mongolian “wine” that reminded me of a much stronger version of moonshine.

Somehow, we then agreed to go out to a bar.  We haven’t been out dancing since last year in Tokyo and seriously I just don’t have the desire anymore.  So much so that people don’t even ask us to go out anymore.  They know we’ll never go.  Well, seems like the trick is Mongolian “wine” because there was no arm twisting involved. 

The bar we went to was packed, had a handful of dj’s spinning great music and absolutely no foreigners.  We were like celebrities and although a bit blurry, I remember having an absolutely amazing time.  We danced with everyone, drank with everyone, some table sang a song to me and presented me with a rose and I somehow convinced the manager to let one of the dj’s let me scratch the record during a song.  My 22 year old self would have been so proud of me.

However, it was my 33 year old self that I had to answer to the next morning and let me tell you, she was not a happy camper.  She refused to even get out of the bed before noon and therefore missed the touring of Hohhot on Sunday.  She’s such an old curmudgeon!

So there is was- our first weekend in China.  Not what we expected, not what we hoped for or what we paid for, but with some pretty cool surprises along the way. 

This weekend we’re off to X’ian to see the terracotta army and finally get reunited with our friends from Argentina!  Can’t wait!

 

Pics from the weekend…more to come when I can get them from Nachito…