Varanasi, India - Delhi Belly, Election Day, the ghats

I finally managed to eat something or catch something that didn't agree with me and spent the day in the hotel room. I have no idea what it was, because almost all the food I had eaten in the last day was the same food that the others I was traveling with had had. I started taking Cyproflaxin tablets that had another ingrediant in them for intestinal problems. The main symptoms only lasted for about 12-hours, thankfully.

It was election day. All the stores and shops were closed. We were advised to stay near our hotel but Vince decided to walk several kilometers to the ghats (several areas with steps leading down to the Gangas River). He described to me that it was a very different experience of Varanasi, with no motor vehicles on the roads. There were many groups of kids playing cricket in the streets. He witnessed an impromptu battle bewteen two bulls, horn to horn, in the middle of a street, with the spontaneously formed crowd cheering them on and throwing water on them to keep them going at it. He also saw a large number of police and crowd gathered around an area, nearly blocking passage. He heard from a bystander that someone had been shot near the election area. That was later affirmed by the owner of a travel I was at.

He walked the entire length of the ghats. Ghats are areas of steps leading down to the Ganges where people pray, offer flowers, light candles, bath, swim, and wash clothes. They are called "the Life of India". There is one area he visited where they burn bodies wrapped in saris on wood pyres.

Agra to Varanasi - slow Train and fast Autorickshaw

We went to the train station at 8 p.m. on the 29th to catch the 9 p.m. train, which was late and didn't leave until 1:00 a.m. on the 30th. I slept on the train until about 7 a.m. when the others woke. We were in the same room as three Indian girls and a Canadian lady. The three Indian girls were very friendly and hospitable, sharing tea and food with us. They were on their way to attend a law school in Lucknow, India. One of the girls said the train was always late and predicted that the train would be delayed more on route and would probably arrive in Varanasi about 4 p.m.

I started a conversation with the lady from Canada, Susan, and we ended up talking for hours. She was facinating to talk with, which helped, since the train took 23-hours to arrive in Varanasi instead of 12, finally pulling into the station at 7 p.m. in the evening.

The train station at Varanasi seemed like a war zone with incredible amounts of noise, traffic, people, intense smog and touts hounding us for business. We checked a hotel and didn't like it, so we took an autorickshaw to another hotel. The traffic was incredibly snarled, so the kama kazi driver took us on a route through very narrow alleys between buildings that are supposed to be off limits to these vehicles. The ride was a like a chase scene from a Bond movie. The ten inch wheels of the autorickshaw bounding over half foot high bricks and rocks and bashing into potholes.

Agra to Varanasi, India

We rose at 6 a.m. to visit the Taj Mahal. It is quite impressive, but somehow I thought it would be a lot whiter than it looks in the morning. It is made of marble, but not pure white marble. The geometry and symmetry is awesome. The size is quite impressive. Beneath the domed, vaulted ceiling of the memorial a tour guide was speaking to a group and from the other side of the room and it sounded like a mystical cacophony of sounds. Outside we saw the unescapable band of monkeys strolling along the perimeter.

In the holy river below the Taj people were performing morning rituals, including two white robed persons standing in the middle of the river, apparently praying.

Security was very tight entering the Taj Mahal area. You were only allowed to bring a wallet, camera (no extra batteries) and water. I really curious to know what the concern is.

We also drove by a nearby fort, but by now we've been pretty forted out, there's only so many of those suckers that you can see...

This evening we take the overnight train at 9 p.m. to Varanasi. Surprisingly, this will be my first train journey since beginning this around the world trip. Call me a wimp, but I like flying and it's been pretty cheap compared to US airfare prices.

Ranthambor to Agra

We loaded on a 20-person "Canter bus" to visit the Ranthambnor Tiger Reserve in hopes of seeing Indian Tigers. The bus is open topped and just barely fits through stone gateways, trees and bushes lining the trails in the park. Leaves and branches hit my head several times, and this was one time when "keep hands and elbows inside the vehicle" was not just a caution, it was essential to avoid bruises and possible amputations to your appendages.

The terrain reminded me a lot of game reserves in Kenya, dry grassland and thorny bushes. We saw some of the same animals you would see in Africa as well, monkeys, antelope, deer and wild boars, but alas, no tigers.

We returned for another meal prepared by B.K.s friend at the local restaurant. We ate inside their house this time. The meal was chicken, with what was supposed to be a mildly spicy sauce. The sauce was as hot, if not hotter, than the previous evening. Beads of sweat were pouring off my forehead at the end of the meal. I can't complain though, it was very good.

After the meal we started heading for Agra. Just to lighten our day, B.K. told us there had been an accident in Rajisthan the previous day between an overloaded jeep and a bus. 11-people were killed and 14-people were seriously injured. An overloaded jeep probably means there were close to 20-25 people in a six passenger jeep. Later in the day we saw a bus that had just run into another vehicle blocking one lane of the road we were traveling on.

Jaipur to Ranthambor - Raj Palace Hotel

We traveled from Jaipur to Ranthambor, which is not a long ditance, about 90-kilometers, but because of the bad road conditions it took 4-hours.

B.K. was great in telling us about the local customs and cultures and how they change by time and by region. The birth of a male child is still considered much more important and valuable than a girl. When a boy is born, the father gives out candy to his relatives to celebrate. When a girl is born, many relatives express condolences and candy is not offered by the father. The father of a girl, in a village community, is responsible for many expenses and gifts when she is married. But if the a daughter is educated in private schools, she can obtain good employment and pay for her own wedding expenses. This relieves the family of expenses that can often leave them with no savings at all for their own future.

When a parent dies, it is the responsibility of the oldest son to burn the body. This is usually done at a local cemetary. After 2-3 days the immediate family members gather up the leftover bones, teeth and nails for ceremonial disbursement into the nearest holy river.

Our driver, B.K., bought some goat meat for dinner. He had it prepared at a local (3-tables) restaurant. The sauce was very spicy. The goat meat in spicy sauce tasted very good, although we were a bit on fire by the end of the meal.

Pushkar to Jaipur - Rajisthan, India

We journeyed from the laid-back, small town of Pushkar to the bustling city of Jaipur. One of it's most famous attractions is the Amber Fort. We arrived later in the afternoon, which was a great time to catch the awesome views from this fort. It's built on the top of a large hill. Ways up to the fort included elephant and jeep rides. Our driver knew the way, so he managed to take us to the top without incuring any extra fees.

From the upper parts of the fort I thought I was back in China for a second, because across the valley there are the ruins of a wall that looks much like the Great Wall of China. There are also monkeys on this fort, it seems like we've seen monkeys at every temple and palace that we visited in India!

The fort has an incredible maze of stairwars and rooms. I actually got lost and had to ask a guide to find my way back out again. There is a large lake below the fort where the mahouts were bathing their elephants. The elephants had just finished their tourist hauls to the fort for the day.

Pushkar, India - Sajjan Bagh Resort

We woke up to cool, misty morning. We had a breakfast buffet for a dollar which included pancakes, toast, butter, jam, mellons, pineapples, cereal, yogurt and tea or coffee. Not bad!

We opted for a two hour camel ride in the nearby desert area. It was much more comfortable than I had been told. I was able to take a lot of pictures from the camel. My camel was kind of cranky and made lots of noises in protest to being mounted or when encouraged to go faster. I never noticed that before, but camels have really huge hoofs. I guess big hoofs are quite helpful in soft sand.

We did the "throwing flowers in the water" ceremony by the lake. I was disappointed that it was even more commercial than I anticipated. While explaining the process and the prayers, my "priest" asked what I did for a living, a clear clue that he was attempting to evaluate how much he might squeeze out of me for a donation. He mentioned donation figures like $100 to $1000 dollars. I gave him two dollar and fifty cents and felt I overpaid.

I took a couple hour nap and then headed up to the top of a nearby moutain to watch the sunset. It was a healthy hike up the mountain, but the views from the top were great. Unfortunately the battery in Vince's camera was exhausted and I discovered I had left my camera's memory card in the laptop PC back at the resort, so no photos.

We had a dollar buffet for dinner that wasn't too bad. It is really cheap to eat in India!

Part of the constant atmosphere in India is being hounded to look at and buy things. On the way back from the mountain a little girl grabbed my fingers and tried to drag me to her mother's shop for about 200-yards.

Udaipur to Pushkar, India - Sajjan Bagh Resort

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and had some excellent spicy dahl, potato and onion curry, nan bread, rice and chili sauce followed by a thin, sweet sesame waffer. Near Pushkar we stopped to photograph black faced monkeys. We have our own cottage at the Sajjan Bagh Resort. The swimming pool is being filled as I write. We saw a beautiful sunset at a sacred lake in the middle of Pushkar. Vendors were, as always, walking about selling their wares. One a cute 10-year old boy, spoke English very well and was quite persistent, but funny. We were warned of "priests" selling flowers to throw into the lake, offering to pray for you and then requesting $100-$150 dollar donation to the local ashram, not for themselves, of course! We avoided the temptation. Pushkar is home to the Camel festival, which will be in full swing in four days.

Ranakbur to Udaipur, India - Hotel Raj Palace

Today we drove through the countryside - crossing over a mountain pass, cool morning air, herds of sheep, goats, camels, a cow drawn water wheel and kids asking for pens.

The city of Udaipur, a half million people, is again like the intense crowded streets and busyness of Delhi. We had lunch at a rooftop restaurant with a great view of the city. I had some very, very green stuff that included mushrooms, onions and other vegetables. It was quite good. I also had a mixed fruit lassi, which is yogurt blended with fruit. It was incredibly rich, but quite tasty as well.

We visited the City Palace where the entrance fee was a dollar but the camera fee was five! It was nice, but not too much different from the things we had seen at the other palaces we had visited. The best part was the views of the Lake Palace and Jagdash Temple across the lake.

We were both tired for some reason and just crashed for a couple of hours before going to dinner on the hotel rooftop. I enjoyed watching the DVD "Himalaya", a French movie on Tibetan people in the Himalayas on my PC before going to bed.

Jodhpur to Ranakbur - Roopam Hotel

In the morning we went to Jaswant Thada, the White Palace, built in 1906 out of white marble as a memorial to Maharajah Jaswant Singh II. It was quite beautiful, peaceful and also provided a great view of the nearby Mehrangarh fort.

Mehrangarh Fort was built in 1459 and sits on top 125-m high hill. It is called the Citadel of the Sun and was never taken in battle.

Chaumukha Mandir (Jain Temple)
In the late afternoon we visted a Jain temple in Ranakbur. "A complicated series of 29 halls supported by a forest of 1,444 pillars, no two alike. The interior is completely covered in intricate knotted carvings... built in 1439" - description from Lonely Planet India.

This is the most beautiful temple I have visited in India to date. We visited it in the late afternoon on a day when dramatic, puffy cumulus clouds were set against a bright blue sky. The late day sunlight entering the temple bathed the columns and carvings in gold. Immediately on entering the temple you felt peaceful, calm and in awe of the cool majesty of the surroundings. Others around you were struck dumb, mouth agape, starring at the carvings and columns in every direction. There were a multitude of openings to the surrounding hills and the sky. You were inside, but never felt enclosed. The gardens and palm trees nearby were also quite beautiful.

After visiting the temple, we stopped and photographed some black faced, long tailed monkeys and a baboon that were poised along the road near buildings just outside the temple.

Bikaner to Jodhpur, India - Havali Hotel

We visited the Junagarh Fort constructed 1588-1593. It has 986-meter long walls, 37 bastions, a moat and two entrances. Inside are rooms and courtyards of sandstone and carved marble. Many of the rooms had stained glass windows, furniture, clothing or weaponary from the earlier periods. Examples of furnishings are the king and queens beds, an exquisite baby swing inlaid with gold, large guns mounted and fired from a camel, another from an elephant and a German Fokker 1st World War aircraft.

Karni Mata Temple (Temple of Rats at Beshmok)
According to a 14th century legend, Karni Mata, a Hindu God, had all storytellers reincarnated as rats after the Hindu God of death refused to grant a request to bring a storytellers son back to life. This was believed to have deprived the God of Death the souls of these people. The rats are now cared for and worshipped by some followers of the Hindu religion.

We had to remove our shoes to enter. The rats are everywhere and they are fed milk and corn meal. If one walks over your foot it's considered very auspicious. If you see the white rat you are considered very lucky. I guess we weren't either of these as all I noticed was the gritty feel of scattered corn meal and who knows what else as we traversed temple.

We reached Jodhpur and after being shown several hotels, chose one in the old city that was in a great location and had an incredible rooftop view of the city and a nearby huge fort built on a hill (Mehrangarh). It was the evening of the Diwali Festival when we arrived. One of the aspects of the celibration is fireworks, which could be seen and heard throughout the city for 5-6 hours. Our hotel had it's own fireworks, which we were invited to participate in igniting. As I suspected, safety was not a serious consideration, and one round fell over and went off towards all of us who were watching. Fortunately no one was seriously injured.

Bikaner, India - Rajasthan

I was able to join Vince, a Canadian, on a 9-day car tour he had booked to explore the Rajasthan region and then visit Agra. It worked out well as he had paid more than he wanted to booking the trip. Splitting the costs made it much more affordable for both of us. This is a region I had wanted to visit, but preferred to travel with someone, so having a traveling partner and a car is golden! It is the two of us with our own driver and we can change the itinerary as desired.

This trip started on the less travelled roads toward Bikaner. We saw hundreds of camel drawn carts, donkey carts, sheep, cows, goats, autorickshaws, trucks, buses and people on the road on our journey there. We stopped at a small village and walked around and were immediately escorted by four local kids who spoke surprisingly good English. They, as nearly everyone I have met in India so far, were looking to get a little money, in this case as unofficial tour guides. They were fun to be with, guided to a place to get water and bananas and we gave them a few rupees. The main street of the village chaos. Trucks, buses, cars, people and animals moving through incredibly narrow streets in the middle of a marketplace, women in beautifully colored saris, fruits, vegetables, sweets for sale all assalted our senses.

Part of the road was about the wide of a bike trail. We would careen head on towards an approaching vehicle and then, at the last minute, brake and swerve off the pavement to avoid collision. We encountered seemingly untangleable traffic jams in narrow streets, but somehow they managed to untangle them in a few minutes. After dark most of the approaching traffic would keep there high beams on, blinding our driver and necessitating us coming to almost a complete stop. Apparently it's just a matter of money to get a license in India, some of the drivers may not have even known rules about headlights and approaching cars. In addition, there was still every kind of conveyance on the road, many with no lights at all, such as the camel carts and people on bicycles. We only ran over one already dead goat and I was thankful that was all.

Our lodging for the evening, the Sagar Hotel was very nice and affortable, we split a twin room for about $4.50 each. It even had a hot water shower! After the nine hours on the road we both sleep like logs.

Delhi, India

I arrived at 2:00 a.m. on the 18th, got a little rest and spent most of the day doing errands and then some sightseeing with Andy, a guy I met at my hotel whose from England. The sightseeing was to the Red Fort. Delhi is all that I expected it to be, very crowded, noisy, smelly and full of life. Just going down the street to get a bite to eat is exposing yourself to being run over by rickshaws and motorcycles.

Today I spent the morning selecting pictures for posting from the China photos and in the afternoon taking my PC to a shop to get the English version of Windows re-installed on my PC, replacing the Chinese version I have been using since a system crash in China a month ago. I'm hoping to join a Canadian I met tonight on a 11-day car/train trip to Rajistan and Varanasi.

Beijing, China - The Great Wall

I headed out to visit the Great Wall at Mutianyu today with a minivan load of people from the Red Lantern House. The smog cleared some as we approached the area. We had a forty minute hike up to the wall. The wall at this section is actually smaller in width than I expected and a lot steeper. We headed to the furthest point on one end of this section and found a steep staircase heading to an even steeper one at the top. The view at the top was quite fine, though still hazy. I hiked with an American couple from North Carolina, Tom and Kathy, and had some great conversations with them.

After 3 1/2 hours of hiking I decided to take the 1,500 meter tobaggan run back down to the parking lot. The run consists of a steel half tube negotiated by little carts with rubber tires and a brake stick connected to rubber pads to slow you down as needed. The only instruction was to "lean into the corners". You can purchase insurance for the ride for another 12-cents, but I'm not quite sure of the extent of the coverage. There were attendants stationed at corners to advise you to slow down or pick up the carnage if you didn't. Being in China, I knew this was not a Disney ride, so I took it pretty cautiously until near the end. Once I got the hang of it, I found it quite exhilerating. I just wish I could have afforded to do it again after what I would consider was a "practice run".

Tom and Kathy invited to join them for dinner. Tom found a restaurant on a nearby street that looked clean and even had items listed in English as well as Chinese. We ordered six dishes, three beers and nearly finished it all off. All this for $2.50 each! More great conversations, including one about sustainable growth for all countries in the world.

Beijing, China - Forbidden City & Acrobats

Today I caught a very crowded local bus (like phone booth packing) to Tianamen Square to go to the "Forbidden City". Fortunately it is no longer forbidden. It is huge, 140,000 square meters (a meter is about a yard in length). A lot of it is under restoration, but it is still impressive.

In the evening I went to an acrobatic show. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was definitely a different entertainment experience. Some of the acrobatic feats were amazing (a man doing a one-handed handed stand on top of another man's head), but the auditorium was not full and the audience was not all that enthusiastic. Maybe during a sold out night it would have been quite different. It also seemed that the performers pushed themselves to the limit and beyond. Pushed to the extent that there were a couple of falls. Neither of them appeared to cause any injuries, but it let you know that these people were really at the extreme extent of their (and probably any human's) abilities.

Beijing, China - The Beijing Zoo

Hardy and I decided to visit the Beijing Zoo, old Summer Palace and Black Bamboo park today. We caught the local bus (fare is 1 Yuan or about 12-cents) to the zoo. We started with the giant pandas who were goofy, cute, lazy and feeding, as usual. We saw a couple of Indian elephants that seemed to be doing a little dance step of their own accord. I'm not sure, but it may have been part of a mating ritual. Things seemed to come up after the dance and the zoo keeper let them into an area hidden from tourists after that. Speaking of mating, a male giraffe was obviously quite excited about the nearby female that was separated from him by a fence. He was doing all he could to get her attention and show his affection, but alas, they were separated by the fence and visitors were offering food to her. The monkeys were enormously entertaining as was the interaction of Chinese tourists feeding grizzly bears who had learnd to sit and beg for food. They could catch food food very adroitly in their mouths. One fat black bear merely lay on it's back with its feet to he wall to get fed. If they missed his mouth, he would wait until a little pile accumulated and then turn and eat it. Both of the feedings took place at the area that had a big "Do not feed the bears for their health!" sign. We decided not to go to the acquarium, which was an additonal $12, but opted for the penguin exhibit tht only cost a dollar extra.

The zoo is quite large and after tromping around for four hours we decided to call it quits, our feet were sore and it was time to head on. On exiting the zoo we found it was getting quite dark and cold. We spotted the only restaurant nearby, a Pizza Hut and decided to duck in and get some food. This was the first western type place I ahve eaten since entering China. It was very nice and they asked us to take a seat in the waiting area while they checked for a table. I've never seen that in the USA! We split a large vegetarian pizza, which was quite good. We had time for our weary legs and feet to recover. Due to the weather we decided to return to the hostel.

Beijing, China - Sightseeing...

I met a German guy, Hardy, who was traveling by himself and talked to him about sightseeing together today. We met for breakfast and planned to visit four places, two of them a bit out of the normal sightseeing circuit.

We started out taking a bus to Tianamen Square. Hardy wanted to see the body of Mao in the memorial to him on the square, I was not interested in seeing another famous dead body after having viewed Lenin's in Moscow in a previous trip. We found the line and went to join it but were immediately approached by a uniformed officer, who pointed at my camera and backpack, and said they were not allowed. He strongly insisted that we follow him. We followed him across the street to what turned out to be a check room for such things. I decided not to visit after all and planned to meet Hardy at the exit of the memorial. Hardy checked his things for 5 Yuan and then the uniformed officer demanded 20 Yuan (about $2.50). Hardy tried giving him less, but he uniformed like a military officer and quite insistent. Afterwards Hardy said he thought it was a waste of money. You couldn't get very close, you could only see his face and he looked basically waxlike.

We next tried to find the "Underground City". Between 1969 and 1979 the entire Beijing population dug extensive tunnels beneath the city for shelter in case of attach from the Russians. We were told about two entry locations that foreign tourists could visit. We spent several hours finding the first one, located in a carpet factory. The factory had closed three years earlier and the carpet sales had moved to another location, which we eventually found. The owner told us that entry had been closed at the time of the closing of the factory.

We then took a taxi to look for the other location. He dropped us off on the wrong street. We found the correct street but couldn't find the street number. As noted in the Lonely Planet, street numbering in China is a randon affair. Street number sequences may start from both ends of the street and meet in the middle, numbers often being repeated within the same street. We wandered a bit and then found a bicycle rickshaw driver displaying a sign for the "Underground City". We hired him for 20- Yuan to take us about 1000 feet, but it was worth it. He knew where it was, and we didn't. The entrance fee was 20 Yuan but that included an English speaking guide. The most fascinating part of the tunnels, aside from the fact that they were built at all, was the pictures and posters displayed along the walls of the tunnels. The posters were of classic Chinese Communist sentiments from that period. The photos were of military airplanes, tanks, soldiers, commanders and of Mao Tse Tung.

After the tunnels, we took a bicycle richshaw over to the Temple of Heaven. This is a large park with several beautiful circular and rectangular temples.

Our fourth destination was to the Marco Polo bridge. We tried taking a bicycle rickshaw to the nearest subway station. We thought the driver understood our destination and had agreed on a price. On the way, we found out the driver was confused. He finally dropped us off at a bus stop halfway to a subway stop and demanded twice what we had agreed on. We refused to pay him more than we had agreed on and indicated take it or leave it. He would refuse to accept the lesser amount and we would walk away with the money and say he would get nothing. He finally called after us and accepted the original amount, but then tried to kick Hardy in the butt. Transportation in Beijing is a bit of a challenge!

We walked the rest of the way to the subway station and took a train to as near to the Marco Polo bridge as we could. We then hired a car to drive to the bridge for 30 Yuan. The bridge was over grassland at this time of the year. It had hundreds of stone carvings of lions on it's side posts, all slightly different. It was quite interesting, but the most bizarre event was seeing a young boy riding a camel along the grasslands under the bridge. I had not thought I would see a camel in Beijing! Other interesting sights were stone carvings depicting how the bridge was built and who had used it. There was also a sign for the "anti-Japenese" statue, which we think we saw at a distance, but did not have time to explore.

The ride back to the subway was a bit more expensive, 50-Yuan, as it was during rush hour. It was a great day, but exhausting. We not only got to explore the sights, but also explored parts of the Beijing transit system.

Beijing, China

The usual annoynances in traveling in China, I got a taxi but I wasn't sure the driver knew exactly where I wanted to go, even though it was in Chinese on a map. I was going to where you catch the express bus to the airport which is near a hotel. I think he was trying to convince me to have him take me to the airport instead, which would be about 10-times more expensive then the bus. He dropped me off at the hotel name I had asked for, but it was part of the hotel that was on a back street, not the main road. I had to ask directions to find the main street and locate the bus to the airport. It all worked out.

The 2 1/2 hour flight to Beijing was pleasant, they served lunch, as they tend to feed you on third world airlines as opposed to USA airlines where you get almost no food. Beijing was pretty smogged in, which I hear it is a lot of the time. The only impression I had driving through Beijing was the immensity of some of the buildings and plazas. We went by Tienamen Square, which appeared to be enormous.

I'm staying at another cozy hostel called the Red Lantern House.

Chengdu, China - Just hanging out...

I must admit I needed a break after traveling in western Sichuan and this has been the place for it. Sim's Cozy is an oasis for wearied travelers. I have met several cool people over the last few days here, enjoyed many meals, visited the nearby Wenshu Temple and it's vegetarian restaurant twice and generally relaxed in preparation for Beijing and the upcoming chaos of India. Lately I've hung out with two other Chris's, one from England and the other from Poland. Chris from Poland has been living in Beijing, learning Chinese and teaching English. Chris from England has been traveling for a couple months in China, is heading from Tibet and then back to England for work. He is job hunting through the Internet as I write.

I head for Beijing tomorrow. I'll miss this place. It and the people staying here have been amazingly peaceful and restorative. I think I'm ready to hit the road again!

Chengdu, China - Pandamonium

I booked a tour of the Panda Center on the outskirts of Chengdu. We gathered at 7:30 and took a minibus to the Center. Fortunately we saw 10-14 pandas being their goofy selfs in the fairly large reserve. One was sitting up and looked at times like he was meditating, another was sprawled out on his back sleeping - everything akimbo, another sleeping in the fork of a tree, others were moving through the trees and bushes, another was scratching it's butt on a tree limb and some were feeding on bamboo shoots. This was morning feeding time and the attendants provided bunches of bamboo shoots to the bears. The bears stripped the outer rind and chewed the inner, juicy parts of the bamboo. They didn't really care what position they were in when they were eating, somtimes sitting and somtimes laying on their backs with their fat bellies covered with bamboo shoot husks.

We also saw the incubation area for the babies. They were very small and very cute! Fortuntely they were not newborns, as the newborns are hairless, pink and kind of ugly.

The Panda museum had some interesting information about the pandas, such as:

- pandas are only found in China (other than in zoos)
- they eat about 16-hours a day
- in the wild they tend to be solitary and mark their own territories
- they have twins 45% of the time, but in the wild cannot take care of two babies and one will usually die through starvation or be crushed
- they love water and will travel to find it, but otherwise don't move around too much, except when they are young
- they don't have dens, but will sleep in caves, trees or on the ground
- of the 60 kinds of bamboo they can eat, they really only prefer twenty kinds
- it is estimated there are about 1,600 pandas left in the wild.
- scientists have come a long way in breeding and keeping pandas alive in captivity, but on a very limited basis

The museum also had some of the most pitifully stuffed animals I have ever seen in diaramas. Sometimes it was to the point of the stuffed animals being unrecognizable. It gave me a greater appreciation for the artistry involved in taxidermy.

The giant pandas aren't quite as giant as I thought, though I wouldn't want to tangle with one.

Kangding to Chengdu, China - Return to my comfort zone...

I escaped from Kangding today and took the 6-hour trip to Changdu. I met one other westerner on the bus to Chengdu. He is a medical doctor studying Chinese medical practices. He said one of the things he learned was that the Chinese have developed an herbal treatment to add to chemotherapy for cancer patients that counteracts a lot of the bad side effects.

When I arrived in Chengdu it was raining and it took me two hours to get a taxi from the bus terminal to my hostel, Sims Cozy. A young Chinese guy came to my aid to get a taxi during the Chengdu rush hour and instructed the driver where to drive to. The Chinese can be proud of the kindness of of the many people here who have helped me during my trip.

The hostel, Sims Cozy, is very comfortable and clean. There are a lot of westerners here. I watched a USA movie in the restaurant, "50 First Dates", starring Adam Sandler. I hadn't seen it before and enjoyed seeing something other than Chinese TV, the most boring television programming in the world.

I'm looking forward to recovering from the trauma of Kangding. It is the worst place I have been during the 8-months I have been away. Chendu is a major city of 10-million people. It is quite a contrast to the places I have been in the last 15-days.

Kangding, China - Trip to the Mugecuo Hu Lake 3700m

I managed to take a shower without electrocuting myself despite the power strip dangling from water tank next to the shower head. For breakfast, I had heard dumplings are a common Chinese breakfast food, so I tried the yak meat dumplings. They were quite good. They gave me nine of them, which was far too much for one person.

I dropped by a outdoor store to see if anyone had expressed interest in a trip to Mugecuo Lake and no one had. I walked up to the Black Tent guesthouse/cafe and found a guy, Jason, from the USA was waiting for the minibus to pick him up to go to Mugecuo lake. I aksed him there was room for one more and he thought there was. A few minutes later I was on my way to the lake with Jason and a young Chinese couple. We had been informed it was about an hour to the lake.

Our minibus driver must have been training for the Indy 500 as he passed every vehicle we encountered and hit potholes at breakneck speeds in the process. The road is quite treacherous, but we managed to avoid the other cars, trucks, buses, tractors, pigs, donkeys, motorcycles, people and shear cliffs. How our driver did that at the speed he was going, I do not know!

He dropped us off and we found we needed to take a bus to the rest of the way. The price of the bus was included in the $10 entrance fee to the park. We took the big bus further up into the mountains and were dropped off again. At this point we needed to take a smaller bus to the lake. The driver was eating lunch so things got backed up for a while. A Chinese tourist waiting on the bus was yelling at the driver the whole time.

We finally arrived at the lake, which was mostly covered with fog. We decided to hike to another area and were badgered by locals offering horses for the journey. Jason was recovering from a previous 3-day horse trip and numerous bus rides and wasn't interested. The locals dogged us dropping the price from 50 Y to 20 Y. I couldn't keep up with Jason (he's 6' 4" and in better shape!) and decided to rent a horse. These are small horses and I think the one I had was rather old. He was none too pleased with me riding him, but the local guide had the reins and walked alongside. Jason kept up with us.

There wasn't too much of a view with the fog, but the jounery was pleasant and the countryside was pretty. It is autumn in this region and the fall colors were out.

After returning to the lake we took a beautiful walk alongside a cascading stream running from the lake down to the 2nd bus stop. I had yak meat on a stick on the way down, good, but very spicy! Some Chinese tourists asked to have their pictures taken with us on the way down and we obliged. I enjoyed some good conversations with Jason as we descended.

The minibus ride down was just as thrilling as the one up. I kept wondering, who was chasing us? We made it back in one piece, just slightly bruised.

I would not recommend Kangding as a place to visit. It is more a place to go to other places from. It is rather ugly, despite being nestled in a deep valley, surroundeded by mountains and having a river raging through the middle of it. There is construction everywhere, electric towers, cable car towers and just general clutter. I haven't found a peaceful, outdoor spot in Kangding yet. There have been more scams here than any other place I have visited. I have not found the people to be particularly friendly. If I don't find some people to share expenses for excursions out from here, I may head for Chengdu earlier than planned.

Litang to Kangding, China - a day of embarrassment...

I had booked the bus (only 1-bus that leaves at 6:30 a.m., 6-hr. trip) to Xingduqiao planning on taking another bus once there onto Ganzi (10-hr. trip). It was pitch dark, none of the buses are named or numbered, and asking different people I got different answers about where the buses were going. Welcome to the Chinese bus system!

I finally found the correct bus (the driver even agreed it was the correct bus!) and loaded onto the fully packed vehicle. It held about twenty people and all of them, except me, were Chinese, and spoke no English, inlcuding the driver and attendant.

I had been drinking tea, trying to keep hydrated as the altitude tends to dehydrate you, before coming to the bus station. In the confusion there was no time to use the facilities before getting on the bus. About 2-hours into the trip I could wait no longer and had to use sign language to indicate I needed to pee. The driver was kind enough to immediately stop the bus and allow me to step onto the three foot shoulder next to a stream and pee in front of the entire bus load of Chinese tourists. Chinese are not a bit shy about starring.

Later in the day we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant. I pointed at one of the dishes someone else had ordered and that went fine, they brought me the same thing with rice (I think it was yak meat with potatoes). I then heard the bus horn and saw it leaving the parking lot with some of the passengers onboard. I ran out and tried to flag it down. All the others in the restaurant laughed. They gestured that it would returm. I think it must have been going to get gas and the people who weren't eating at the restaurant just stayed onboard. I'm always happy to amuse the locals.

As I journeyed towards the juncture where I would get off to travel to even more remote regions, I decided that might not be the best plan. For me it felt too hard to travel to a place where people spoke even less English and where there were even less western travellers. I decided to try to go onto Kangding, which was the destination of the other passengers. Before getting to the juncture, Xingduqiao, I tried unsuccessfly to communicate to the driver by change in plans. I then remembered that the word "mayo" (like in mayo-naise") meant "no" in Chinese and used it successfully negate the city I was originally going to go to and then showed some money and said, "Kangding" and they got the point. The extra fare charge was only $2.50. By now I'm sure they thought I was a totally crazy foreigner.

Along the way we saw the typical things that happen in any country, but a little more in these more remote regions with the rough roads they travel. We saw a backhoe that had toppled on its side right next to the road and broke an electric pole in the process and a large truck that had overturned. We also saw a small hotel on fire in one of the villages. Lonely Planet had said it might be good to bring your own smoke detector, and now I see why!

I found a room and negotiated a daily rate from 80 to 65 Y. The odd and annoying thing was, they wouldn't give me a key. Whenever I want to go in or leave I just ask the young girl in the lounge right next to it to unlock and lock it. If she's a sleep I just knock on her door, a room nearby. We'll see how well that works...

I talked to a few westerners already, hoping to find people to share trip expenses for something around Kangding, but they were all leaving on trips already or going to a different city. I'll continue the effort tomorrow.

Litang, China - The road to Sacred Mountain

Bastian, Ivonne and I had requested a minibus trip to the Sacred mountain through contact of the Crane hotel where we were staying.

The person we had spoken to arrived 1/2 hour late and we discussed the trip, 3-4 hrs. driving there, a little walking/hiking around and return and the price would be 250 Yuan ($30). we followed her out to where we thought her minibus was and found out she only guided and expected us to pay for the minibus separately. This was not going to fly with us and we finally agreed to pay 260 Y if she took care of the minibus fee. She then stopped at the market and said she had to buy her food for the trip. She was gone a very long time and we were already frustrated with her, so we walked off and looked for another guide/minibus who could take us there. The only problems were that we didn't know where "there" was and almost none of the minibus drivers spoke English. We ran into our "guide" again and decided to risk a trip with her. She then said we were going to drive for 30-minutes to a place and then hike for three hours. That also wasn't going to fly us.

We started on the road to the Sacred mountain area and the views were gorgeous. It had snowed the night before and the mountains were sparkling and awesome.

We reached the top of a pass and decided to climb to the top of the nearest peak. It was covered in snow. It was a short hike, about fifteen minutes, to the top. It was a great place for photos!

We continued driving and stopped at a plateau to view the mountains and walk around a bit. We could see parts of Sacred mountain, but the clouds continued to envelope the rest of it. We convinced our guide to continue further.

We stopped at another area near a herd of yaks and decided to climb a hill (no snow)to get a better view of the mountain range, including Sacred peak. The hike up was beautiful. We walked right next to the yak herd of about 50-animals. We had a peaceful stay near the summit and were rewarded with a clear view of Sacred mountain on the way down.

When we arrived back at the minibus, our driver, our guide and a local yak herder were engaged in a local game played with stones. We waited until they finished. It was another gorgeous ride back out, but now most of the snow on the mountains had melted. Where we had hiked to the summit by the highest pass was completely free of snow.

We made it back to town and paid our guide the 260 Y and overheard the driver complaining, she had given him only 100 Y and pocketed the other 160 Y. Her part in the process was knowing where the road to Sacred mountain was (not at all hard to find if you're acquanted with the area, I'm sure the minibus driver knew where it was) and more importantly, knowing enough English convince foreigners that it was worth it to pay her for this knowledge.

It was a great trip, but we were fairly exhausted from dealing with our "guide" all day long. After returning, Bastian, Ivonne and I had a 3-entree meal at a local Chinese restaurant where the food was quite good (tasty Kung Pao chicken!). There were no leftovers.

Litang, China - Life at 13,000 feet!

Litang is at an elevation of above 13,000 feet and it certainly let's you know it!Some people have headaches and fever. I generally experienced it as a "surprise" shortness of breath when doing something that normally wouldn't tax my breathing.

I decided to take a walk down to the far end of one of the main roads in Litang. I found one group of Tibetans working on the stone foundation of one of their traditional houses while another group, working on another house, were planing and cutting the timbers. A person from each group invited me over, and, after asking permission in sign language, I took photos of them and their work. I showed them the pictures on the viewer on my camera and they laughed and pointed.

Further on a Tibetan invited me into his house for tea (not yak butter tea, thankfully!) and I was able to take photos of him, his children, his wife and their beautiful home. I spoke no Tibetan and they spoke no English. The Tibetan people in the country seem to be very friendly!

Later that evening I met up with Bastian and Ivonne, two Germans traveling together in China, for dinner. We split three dishes along with individual servings of rice and the bill came to about $1.25 each. We talked some about the minibus trip we had "arranged" for tomorrow.

Daocheng to Litang, China

I was a bit sleepless and decided to get up early (for a traveller) about 7:15 a.m. I just finished a shower when the manager, Big John, informed me he had found a taxi to Litang with three others and when could I be ready? Feeling some urgency in his voice, I told him in fifteen minutes. The taxi arrived a bit late, I loaded my bags, sat in the taxi for a few minutes and then was informed they would be leaving at 10:00 a.m. instead. Oh well, at least I was on time!

I shared the taxi (really a boxy little minibus) with four Tibetans, one being the driver. They were all very polite but did not speak a word of English. The scenery was beautiful and not near as dangerous as the trip from Zhongdian to Daocheng. Most of the countryside was rolling mountains and river valleys. We stopped a couple of times for pee breaks and once so I could take photos. One of the Tibetans wanted to buy my digital camera (new $400) for about $12. I was forced to decline. It was a very pleasant three hour trip.

Litang is much smaller than Daocheng, but lovable. It took me about 20 minutes to locate the hotel recommended by a friend, the Crane Hotel, and I'm glad I waited to find it. I had checked out a couple of other places along the way and their sanitary facilities weren't very sanitary. The section of the Crane Hotel I stayed in looked brand new. I got a private room with a nice, clean bathroom including hot water and a flush-style squat toilet. The room had large windows looking out at the mountains, a comfortable bed and a TV (not necessarily a plus, Chinese TV is the most boring I have ever tried to watch.) Even so, I was in heaven!

Nearby a restaurant owner had shouted "hello" and spoke some English before I reached the Crane Hotel. I decided to go there for lunch. I had chicken with green peppers, peanuts and a "yellow sauce" and it was excellent! The owner was very friendly and had a hand drawn map of Litang with points of interest, locally and in the surrounding areas, marked out. I decided to visit the monastery up the hill.

It was a 15-minute walk to the monastery. I arrived just as a bus unloaded a group of Chinese tourists. I mingled in and was included in a tour of the monastery led by the master monk. It was quite fascinating and beautiful. At first we were told not to take pictures, but a little later on they said "today" we could take pictures. I didn't understand a word of the what the master said in Chinese, but occassionally one of the young Chinese tourists interpreted for me. Later we visited the master monk's residence and were given a gift of a string necklace along with a blessing.

This monastary did not have any entrance fees (as many now do) but there were numerous and obvious locations to donate money along the way. I appreciated the "give as you feel" approach.

After leaving, I thanked the young man who had interpreted for me and found out he and three of this friends were not part of the tour either, but were students on holiday from Beijing. One of them wanted to talk to me further, as the others stopped to look at items in a store. He spoke English very well and was very smart. We covered subjects from A-Z, customs, movies, politics, cameras. He was then kind enough invite me to eat with him at a local restaurant. He confessed, he had never eaten with a "foreigner" before. He chose a plate of tasty dried beef that you dipped in a dish of dried chili, stir fried vegetables, and a chicken-mushroom soup. All of it was very good. He was able to get a doggy bag for some of the left over beef, only because they had given us so much. He insisted on paying for the dinner. We exchanged email addresses and I hope to be in touch with him in the future.

I copied the photos from my camera to the computer and sorted through them, as I usually do. I decided to venture out and find an Internet cafe, but was unsuccessful. Along the way, I heard some club type music and followed it upstairs to a local club. I later found that all the staff and clients were Tibetan. They were very friendly. I tried some of the Tibetan home brew by accident. I had asked for "Tibetan Beer" and they poured me some hard, home brewed alcohol out of a thermos instead. It's tough not speaking the language. The brew was pretty intense and had a strange taste to it. I managed to down about an ounce or so. I was invited to table of Tibetans and sat and drank with them. Later on we danced as a group and it was a lot of fun. Never thought I'd be partying with the Tibetans in Litang!