Arrived at 6:30am in Qingdao, made the dubious decision to hoof it to the hostel,  altogether too much junk strapped to my back. Alas, i’ve been waiting for someone to check out for 4 hours now and i’m bored, dirty and irritbable after the 18 hours surrounded by noisy people, on, around and above my bed. Happy to have arrived, but very much reaqdy for a shower.

So I kept meaning to sit down, upload my photos, tag them all properly, and in order, post on my travels with jeff. As you can tell, this did not occur. My bad. Then, every time I wanted to post anything, I would think, “no, no. post about the summer, then you can post about now” Well, summer posting never happened and now here I am in Bangkok and I’m ready to update. I’m not going to talk about the summer, that can come at a later date when I have time. I don’t care that it’ll be out of order. Blah to that!

So Bangkok. I thought China was making me addicted to street snacks and I’d be depressed when I got back to the states. Yes, but…..Bangkok is making it worse! If you put street snacks in China and Mexico together you still wouldn’t have the density you find in Bangkok. Every two feet it’s another stall or push kart and they’re all different! If this is any indication of the rest of SE asia then I might top 2 bills before the month is out. Jenny Craig anyone?

So the plan for now is Bangkok -> N Thailand -> Laos -> Hanoi -> Ho Chi Minh City -> Siem Reap -> either Bangkok again or S Thailand for diving (depends on how tired of travelling I am).

Anyone with SE Asia experience,/knowledge: advice and suggestions welcome.

email if you’re interested in my thai cell number.

Went to the summer palace (颐和园 yihuyuan) the day before yesterday (July 6th). Having been there before, I highly recommended it to Jeff, though it was in place of Prince Gong’s mansion, which was also quite cool. The dowager empress Cixi misused country funds to refit the palace grounds. It’s absolutely decadent, and wandering around, one can picture how great it would be to be on top.

I can safely say that the tour I previously took of the summer palace did NO justice to the place itself (see previous flickr photos…though the ones going into the blog now, will be edited, cropped and adjusted later, this is just a rough guide). We hiked all over, instead of 1 hour on the grounds we were there 4 hours and ended them, sore and beat down. We wandered over a huge hill (small mountain?) up to the temple of Buddha, down to the long corridor and stone boat.

We went a fair bit along the causeway which boasts many bridges and circles the lake at the center of the grounds (a very large lake, indeed), consulted the map, and realized we were only 1/4 of the way around and it was quite late in the day. We wandered back to the north entrance to get the 808 bus back (I say wandered bcs we, by no means, found a direct route…again lack of map consultation). Upon arriving back in the center of Beijing, we worked our way via subway to Wangfujing (王府井) to snack a bit for dinner. Jeff took all the pics as I was completely absorbed by the foodstuffs.

Confidential to Ya Ming: I ate the smelly tofu……and it was good! who knew?! Also eaten: fried balls of dough (tasted like popovers), fried potato balls filled with cabbage- with that weird chinese icing (would be improved by lack of icing), lamb kebob type sandwich( Uighur food, good but it lacked seasoning),tanghulu (candied fruit on a stick, the worst i’ve ever had….they burnt the sugar!), a wrap of a crepe, some bean sprouts and a hint of spice, the best thing we tasted that night!

word of warning: this Uighur thing must be getting bad, because over the course of the time I’ve been typing tonight, gmail, google, flickr have all stopped working. So I think it must be a matter of time before Jeff and I can no longer update our wordpresses/answer email. We will continue to try as much as we can. I’m sure China will chillax soon….ish.

Well “social networking sites” are fingered as part of this riot in Urumqi and now twitter and facebook are blocked. I’m also having trouble with my flickr. Jeff should have more luck with his picture uploads since he doesn’t use flickr so check there. Very well in fact, because foxyproxy and gladder. Grr. Luckily this blog isn’t blocked yet.

Yesterday Jeff and I climbed the great wall. We started at 金山岭(Jinshanling) and hiked 10 km to 司马台 (Simatai). The hiking was not difficult, and the view was nothing short of breathtaking, but it was hot hot hot. 35 degrees and counting and blue, sunny skies, which was a nice change from the last time I was on the wall at 八达岭 (Badaling) with Chen Na, and it was super hazy. We couldn’t see a thing!

Anyone thinking about the great wall: I highly recommend the hike, it’s worth the trouble. Far, far fewer people and Jinshanling is largely intact but unrestored, unlike Badaling.  This rave review is not to say we didn’t have our share of troubles. For one thing Lonely Planet (henceforth refered to as LP) told us we would find a 7元 minibus from Miyun to Jinshanling, whereupon we would hike to Simatai and from there either coax a tour bus going back to 北京 (Beijing)  to let us pay for some open seats, or to catch a minibus back to 密云(Miyun). We get to Miyun and the bus’s conductor informs us that there are no minibuses to 古北口 (Gubeikou)- (still not sure I believe this) so we get a taxi and bargin him down from 280 to 200 (when his friend suggested er bai I gasped “er bai” before he could write it down on his pad-which prompted much laughter - ta shoade “er bai”) to 160. We finally relented, took the taxi and promptly got stuck in 2.5 hrs of traffic. the 40 km trip took almost 3 hours. At one point I saw a sign that said 41 km to Gubeikou and more than 1 hour later the next sign said 30 km. We wandered  about the cab. Our driver gave us water and mimed/told us about the lake nearby, from where Beijing’s drinking water comes.

We had planned on arriving around 10 am, giving us 6 hours to safely do the 4 hour hiking route, leaving us plenty of time to wander the wall and take many, many, many pictures and still arrive in Simatai to find a tour bus or some other way home. Unfortunately the traffic gods were not kind. We arrived at 1pm, after the grueling journey and not once did we see a major wreck, avalanche or any other disaster causing such traffic. Just a case of bad infrastructure I guess.

So arriving at Jinshanling, our driver is convinced we will not find a cab back to Miyun or any other transport and with time tight (it takes over an hour to get from Simatai to Miyun and the last bus back to Beijing is at 6:30) we decided, ok we’ll take him up on his offer to meet us at Simatai. Unfortunately having agreed to 160 we were in a bad place to argue for the 200 total round trip price, though we could have bargained harder had we been thinking.

So we pretty much speed hiked the wall, worried that we wouldn’t make the last bus. Jeff’s knee hurt and I think he was pretty dehydrated by the end. He didn’t drink enough water, and refused to have some of the 包子 (baozi -filled steamed buns) we had brought for lunch.  I felt bad pushing us to walk at a normal speed,  but I was pretty worried about getting stuck in Miyun, also I’m kind of a “just keep swimming, just keep swimming” kind of girl. We did take a lot of small breaks, and Jeff was being (of his own admission) pretty macho, macho about not letting me carry all of the water.

Anyway we made it, and we’re both stronger for the journey. It was beautiful and I’d do it again in a heartbeat: tomorrow, if I could. The thing I’d do differently is leave A LOT MORE TIME, maybe plan on staying the night, or sleep nearby the night before, get an early start and go the wrong way from Jinshanling then double back and go past the Simatai entrance as far as possible then come back. Get the most of it, spend the whole day and really see what it’s possible to see. Also take my time with picture taking and what not.

Word of warning, be really aggressive, even rude, to Mongolian women who follow you. Don’t give them an inch, we did and it was a mistake, though they were sorta fun to hike with. They’ll teach you a couple words of Chinese, be really friendly, take your picture, but ultimately, as you suspect, will give you a sob story about their children and their children’s education and get you to buy a dumb souveneir. The Canadian couple ahead of us got guilted, along with the cute couple behind us, not to mention us as well. They’re Masters.

That’s it for our great wall adventure. Pictures to come when I have ample flickr access.

 Jeff came to China on June 25th. We noodled around Harbin for a few days. We had dinner with my friends in Harbin: Philip, Ya Ming, Huihui and Chen Na. Hot pot at the place near the school. Someone said that there is a Chinese saying for how Jeff eats “he has the stomach of a bird” Ha! I have the same sentiment.

We went the to the Siberian tiger park. It’s basically you locked in a cage driving through large enclosures with a bunch of tigers. They let you buy hunks of raw beef (10 kuai) or live chickens (100 kui) or even ducks and cattle if you have the cash. When you feed the tigers the beef you stick it out through the cage and they stand on their hindlegs and put their (huge) paws on the car and go for the meet. It’s really cool. Then we wandered by the tiny enclosures where the sick, pregnant or old tigers are kept. That was pretty sad. They even had some ligers. The more exotic animals were kept in cages so you can see them. The siberian tiger was huge as was the african white lion. There was supposedly a cheetah but I didn’t see him, but the jaguars were playful. Pics will be on flickr soon.

After Harbin we took a day (ugh!) train to Beijing and we’re staying at the Far East International Hostel. It isn’t half bad. Beds are clean and 4 beds to a room. There’s a sink in the bedroom which is nice. Our roomies are 1 dutch dude who’s about to go do the Transiberian Rail, sounds like a GREAT trip and a scottish kid (no more than 19 tops), who arrived the same day we did, but stayed up all night plastered and spent yesterday sleeping only to go out drinking again yesterday. This morning a tour guide knocked on our door bcs he overslept for his trip to the Great Wall.

Yesterday we did the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, Front Gate and some hutongs. We had delicious Peking duck at Li Qun with insanely overpriced beer. Last night we tried to go out, though the bar scene is really more of a club scene here and paid too much for drinks, ah just like home.

Today’s plan is Summer Palace and maybe the underground city. Tomorrow the Great Wall.

warning: discussion of food ahead.

This time it’s the culinary works in my very own kitchen. I managed to produce something that tastes like I could have had it at any restaurant in Harbin. It was delicious and more importantly, very easy. The inspiration was this cabbage dish I really want to like at the dining hall, with a slightly vinegary taste, but unfortunately mostly SALTY! You probably all know how much I like salt. I will grab a pinch of kosher salt and eat it. Repeatedly. So yes, I like salt, but this cabbage dish is so salty I CAN’T EAT IT. I’ve tried 3x. I know, you’re thinking “fool me once, shame on- shame on you, fool me - you can’t get fooled again” But it was a good flavor only utterly destroyed by salt. So the first couple times I thought, it’s a dining hall so who knows..god knows things got salty at BMC, but after 3x, I think we’re done with that dish. In my defense, it’s not like I’m throwing that much money away. The dish is only about 25 cents.

This morning, stumbling my way through the vegetable market, I saw some cabbage and I thought I might try to make a tastier/less high blood pressure-inducing version of said dish. It turned out delicious and exactly as I had hoped, a little salty, a little sweet, some vinegar highlights and somewhere between crispy and soft cabbage. I’m not the only person who loves cabbage am I?

Northern Chinese style Cabbage and Mu Er

Ingredients

6 oz mu er (jew’s ear in english…i’m sure other mushrooms, or maybe sliced carrots would be good as well)

1 small head of cabbage
2 (what looks like) Anaheim chiles
1 clove garlic

Soy sauce
white rice vinegar

Soak the mu er in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse, be sure to get them clean. Then cut as needed into 2-3 inch pieces.

While the mushrooms soak, chop the cabbage into 2 in by 2 in pieces, slice the chiles and mince the garlic.

Heat wok on high. Add 3-4 tbsp oil. Add chiles, cabbage and mu er. Cook, shaking wok often, for 1-2 minutes until cabbage begins to soften. Add the soy sauce and vinegar in equal parts (about 2 tbsp each). Add 2 tsp salt and the garlic. Keep shaking wok, and flipping until the cabbage is softened fully (about 2 minutes). Drizzle a (very) small amount of sesame oil over the top and serve. For a more authentic Chinese style serving let it cool, but I recommend hot for Westerners. It tastes better that way.

Here in Harbin there was no mention of the date except from Philip the day before. Thought I’d share this as a lover of passive agressiveness (passiveagressivenotes.com anyone?) h/t Jeff.

I was perusing the xkcd blag today and I discovered this awesome discussion of a problem I myself have struggled with these nigh 27 years. Trying to fall asleep reading! You know, you either have to hold the book up too high which makes you tired, or you rest it on your stomach and then it falls and wakes you up, or you have to lie one one side with your face in the pillow and one eye closed which makes the other eye too tired. The problems are endless.

But finally this bane of humanity can be vanquished and Randall has a great post about the problem and solution thereof. Pictures and everything! This should be part of the Kindle’s advertising campaign. Too lazy to hold a book while lying down? We’ve got your solution! They can advertise like the Snuggie: You took the problem of reading in bed for granted just as you assumed you would always have to struggle to get a hand out of the blanket to use the remote. The Kindle has now become a part of my fantasy for a perfect life, alongside having a real Coca-Cola machine in my house and some implant that lets me access wikipedia instantaneously.

A student contacted me about the exam date, I wrote back telling her the date. This is the reply:

Thank you! May I could have a nice mark. I will try my best. Sarah

Honey, try your best for sure, but my intuition is saying, don’t cling to false hope.

probably late to the party bcs of the whole china thing, but DH gave me the heads up on this and it made me laugh so hard I snorted my soda through my nose.