Special Post: Warm Regards to Japan

Dearest Japan,

Our visit with you seems like a distant memory. We are already many days into our trip to China, your rival neighbour to the west.  We miss your cleanliness and anal retentive ways. You have left a void in our lives that simply cannot be filled by the Chinese. Everything was always so clean and fresh, from your toilets to your streets, to your people and your food. Our time with you was special. We learned a lot considering our short time together of only 18 days. Let us reminisce about some of the fond memories we shared.

Favourite Spots (ranked):

1. Hiroshima - Memorial Museum and Atomic Bomb Dome
   No trip to Japan would be complete without a trip to Hiroshima. It’s a place you have to see with your own eyes to in some small way grasp the horror of war and nuclear weapons. Thanks for touching us with your stories.
2. Kawaguchiko - Mount Fuji
   The mountain with 100 moods; we can’t help but smile when we think of it. Bursting out of the ground in a perfect cone, it stands alone both literally and figuratively. It’s no wonder the mountain has been worshipped for as long as there have been people to admire it. 
3. Tokyo - Tsukiji Fish Market
   An enormous, stinky, chaotic mess, yet a thriving business. The Japanese sure know and love their seafood. What an art! We needed to master our fear of blood and guts to enjoy this one.
4. Sandan - Sandankyo (Sandan gorge)
   A pleasant surprise! What a little gem. When we ventured out of our comfort zone into rural Japan we never expected to experience such stunning scenery. Nature at its finest. We loved every second of it.
5. Kyoto - Ginkakuji Temple
   If only we had lived during the prime of this bad boy’s existence. Hundreds of years later, this place still serves its purpose as a sanctuary of peace and serenity. Never calling attention to itself, both simplicity and modesty are its key virtues and only enhance its beauty.

Favourite words and phrases (spelled phonetically):

1. Arigato gozaimasu - thank you very much
   Our most-used phrase. It’s nice to be able to say this simple pleasantry, even if it’s the only thing that can be said! 
2. Konnichiwa - hello
   2nd most used word! 
3. Kumanikku and banikku - bear meat and horse meat, respectively.
   They were just fun to say outloud.
4. Sumimasen, ego ga hanase mas ka - excuse me, do you speak English?
   We used this far later into our trip, but it came in handy several different times.
5. Gommenasai wakarimasen - sorry I don’t understand.
6. Kudasai - please.
7. Osusumedeska - what do you recommend? 

Some things we learned about the people (keeping in mind these are generalizations):

1. They will look after your every need. They think of your needs even before you think of them yourself! Surprisingly, they have even invented ways to meet needs you didn’t even know needed meeting.
2. People in the big cities are extremely polite and reserved in their actions, and at the same time proud and flashy in their appearance.
3. No matter how many people there are in any given space, you can practically hear a pin drop. 
4. They show the utmost respect for their surroundings.
5. They love shopping: whatever your heart desires is just around the corner.
6. They are extremely efficient and helpful and expect the same in return. If the same efficiency is not reciprocated, they can get impatient!

We love you Japan! We hope to return with our kids to climb the jolly Mt. Fuji and visit Hiroshima again…. Much better dressed of course!!

See you next time!

Patty and Jeffy

Post #25 – November 5, 2012 – Pingyao, China

Jeff here. Today was a pretty lazy day in Pingyao. We woke up around 11 am, but didn’t actually leave our room until 1:30 pm. We were in no rush to leave the relative warmth of our room and enter the frigidness that is Pingyao. But, alas, our stomachs eventually drew us out of our warm little lair to seek out lunch.

Unfortunately, we had to do laundry, but there is no dryer at our hostel. Because we were wearing most of our warm clothes when we got sprayed by the bus in Beijing, we wanted to get that all washed before wearing it again. So, we handed over our warmest clothes to get washed, which wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow morning. At least it was slightly warmer than yesterday. Even still, we were cold! Here’s a view of the streets of Pingyao:

On our way to find food, we stopped at a little shop on the street and bought some gloves for both of us. We paid 35 Yuan for both pairs, which is less than $6. We had initially planned to eat at a restaurant specializing in soups, but after wandering around on the street it was supposed to be found on for quite some time, we gave up and went to another recommended restaurant.

Unfortunately, we’re beginning to realize that all the restaurants recommended by our Lonely Planet book KNOW that they’re recommended. So I think they’ve all upped their prices accordingly. Our lunch was pretty tasty, but one of the most expensive meals we’ve had in China. Keep in mind it came to about $14, so there’s not too much to complain about, but this is Pingyao. We got cheaper meals in Beijing!

Anyway, after our lunch we went to the tower in the middle of the old town. It only cost 5 Yuan to climb up and it provided some pretty neat views of town. While we were up there cars in a wedding procession passed along the street below us, so it was neat to see that. The truck leading the procession was dropping fire-crackers out of the back. Unfortunately for people standing at street level the fire-crackers let out quite a bit of smoke that I don’t think many people on the street appreciated! Here are some pics:

After this we wandered around some more looking into small shops for souvenirs. We saw some pretty neat stuff, like hand-made shoes and scarves, but we didn’t buy anything. We were freezing by this time and decided to just head back to our hostel. We got back and just curled up under some blankets. I fell asleep while Patty was looking into the best places to shop in China. The city’s air seems pretty polluted and I think it’s been getting to both of us. Then, the power went out, again! We were both convinced that the power was going to stay out until morning, so we both just went to sleep. We were wrong, though, and the power came back on a couple hours later. I think the cold weather is making us both feel like hibernating!

It wasn’t until around 9:30 pm that we decided we wanted something to eat. Unfortunately, almost everything was closed by that time. There was practically no one on the streets, but we found a local coffee shop/pub that was still open that was recommended by our book. Of course, the prices were high, so we ordered a beer and chocolate cake with ice cream. The dessert was delicious. Not much of a dinner, but I guess it’ll do.

The tower we climbed earlier in the day is lit up very nice at night. I tried to take a couple of pictures of it, but they didn’t come out that nice. Here’s what it looks like:

After our meal we basically sprinted back to our hostel it was so cold. The south cannot come fast enough. Checked the temperature in Hong Kong today and it was 28 degrees. Looking forward to that!

Anywho, time for bed. Good night! 

Messages

Hey guys,

We can't respond to your messages right now because we don't actually have access to our blog site here in China. But, we wanted to tell you we appreciate your messages so much. It feels great knowing people are reading our blog and relating to some of our experiences. It also makes us feel so much closer to home. So thanks for the all the encouragement and please keep em' coming.

Love, Patty and Jeff

Post #24 - November 4, 2012 - Pingyao, China

And our misfortune continued into most of the next day...

It's Patty writing from our lovely private room in Pingyao. The sun is shining brightly through the big windows of our room, signifying that the sun will come out tomorrow even after a wretched 48 hours of life.

We got into Pingyao at about 7:30am yesterday morning. We were woken up by some very cute old locals who were yelling at us by the only thing they knew about us "Pingyao!". These same old men offered us their dinner the night before and we're doing their part to help us get acquainted with the whole sleeper train protocol in China, which I must say was an awesome experience even after going to bed in filthy/partly damp clothing. Once we got off our train we were greeted by something very familiar; sub-zero temperatures, which made Pingyao immediately remind us of home.  But that's where the similarities between here and home ended. It was frickin cold, probably about -10, and we were not dressed for the weather. We found the inside of a train station and talked with a local standing next us who was also escaping the cold, to see if he could direct us to our hostel. After 5 mins of trying to explain where we needed to get to, I think he finally understood. Then, this random guy came inside and and told us he was the driver for Harmony Guesthouse which is where we are staying in Pingyao. Not knowing whether to buy it, Jeff looked at the local and asked if it was alright to go with him and he nodded yes. I was still very skeptical that these guys were trustworthy, but especially skeptical when we got inside of his unmarked motorcycle with a wagon thing for us to sit in. It even took the guy 3 different tries to get the engine going on his bike! Fortunately, after 5 mins and paying the guy 20 Yuan we made it safely to our Guesthouse. The clever little guy, even dropped us off around the corner so that he could advise us that we owed him 20Yuan for the ride. At this point though, we were cold, desperate, and just happy to be alive so we paid him even though he also gets paid by the Guesthouse. So really the ride should have been free. But whatever.

Upon arriving at our Guesthouse we immediately paid for our 3 night accommodations and were told our room was not ready yet. The owner brought out a menu and we ended up having an unimpressive and relatively expensive breakfast. Once done, she told us the devastating news that the power was out! But, that our room was ready. We got to our room and pondered what the hell to do with ourselves. Our plans for the day were completely shot. We wanted to shower, do laundry, and book the next two weeks of our trip. This tells you how much we rely on power because we could do none of these things. The water would have been freezing for the shower, plus we had no clean/warm clothes to get into afterwards, the washing machine requires electricity, and so does the internet. Not to mention our room was frickin cold. We were stuck in our filthy clothes from the day before which had been showered in Beijing street juice. And we just couldn't escape the cold or our own stink, so what did we do? We literally sat in a corner of our room as self-proclaimed third class citizens, all in order to preserve the cleanliness of our warm, clean, king size bed. We didn't want to get near our clean bed with a ten foot pole. So two hours ticked by. If those 2 hours had been a movie you would have seen us in 3 positions, huddled beside the remnants of heat coming from our furnace and trying to read up on China and South East Asia. We did have a few good laughs about the ridiculousness of our luck, and funny enough, we reminded each other that before we set out on this journey we said to each other that we didn't want it be easy all the time. Stuff like this builds character and makes you realize what princesses and princes we all are back in North America.

It was around noon when we decided we had enough of sitting in our room and decided to venture out to find a restaurant the book recommended. We found it somehow operating with no electricity and walked in. It too was freezing cold, but the food turned out to be delicious! So, not every part of the day was sh$$.

We made it back to the Guesthouse after lunch hoping and praying the power was back on, but something told us this was going to be a long, crappy day we would just have to ride out. And it was. After lunch we went back into our room which was increasingly colder and did the same thing - sat around and read our books and also snuck in a nap. It started to get darker and colder and we were actually very worried we would have to sleep in the same clothes again, in our clean bed and possibly freeze our bums off that night. We went back to the main reception area of the Guesthouse and decided we should have some drinks. It would have been pitch black in there if it had not been for candles lit all around. But, amidst all the discomforts, we managed to feel comfortable and relaxed and we even kind of savoured the moment because all in all, it wasn't so bad. Things can always get worse, and in the end we're lucky to be alive and be on this trip at all. It was as if something was trying to teach us a lesson, because just as our bitterness had turned into appreciation for the experience we were told the power was back on in our rooms. This was at around 7 pm which was just in time to shower and get ready for bed.

Hopefully that's the last of nights like those, but if not, we're ready for them, and we'll greet them with a smile. It's about the experiences after all. And this was one we won't soon forget.

Have a good day back at home.

Patty

Post #23 - November 3, 2012 - Beijing, China

Jeff here. Today nothing went right. OK, well not EVERYTHING. Some things went right, most things went wrong. And when they did go wrong, they went really wrong.

Our day started around 8:00 am. We were meeting my friend Dale around 10 am and had a few things to do before he arrived at our hostel. We were leaving Beijing today for Pingyao, so we had to pack, but more importantly, we wanted to send a bunch of our stuff home, including some of the things we'd bought while in Beijing. The post office was about a 20 minute walk away, so we hurried there, muddled through a couple conversations, and ended up shipping our stuff home by boat because it was about half the price of shipping by air. Expected delivery time: two to three months. At least it'll get home before us!!

We ran home to our hostel to find Dale waiting for us. We were only a couple minutes late, but still had to pack. I hate making people wait. Thankfully we didn't have too much to do and were out the door in a couple of minutes. The plan was to take the fast train to Tianjin, which is about a 30 minute ride east from Beijing. If you can believe this, the combined populations of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin is 33 million! That's about as many people as in Canada!

We took a bus to the subway, then the subway to the train station. It was when we went to go buy tickets that Dale realized he didn't have his passport on him, which he needed to buy a ticket (in fact, he had no idea where he had left his passport, but updated me later that he had found his passport at his work on a photocopier!). So he approached a random gentleman and got him to use his ID to buy him a ticket. OK, so Patty and I bought our tickets, we went through security, and sat in a McDonald's waiting for our train to leave. When it was time to go, we got in line to pass through another round of security when we realized that the ticket had our ID numbers on it (in our case, our passport numbers; in Dale's case, the random guy's ID number). The ID shown had to match the number on the ticket, so Dale couldn't go. We said a quick goodbye (the train was leaving in a couple minutes) and hopped on the train.

Both Patty and I felt pretty sad about leaving Dale behind. It just didn't feel right, but we had already bought our tickets and Patty did want to experience a fast train. The train ride itself was pretty cool. We maxed out at about 290 km/h which is the fastest I've ever traveled over land. The ride was also incredibly smooth. Besides those things though, the novelty wore off pretty fast. Once we arrived in Tianjin, we realized that we really didn't have that much time to get back to our hostel and catch our own train to Pingyao, so we just hopped back onto the next train bound for Beijing. I fell asleep and Patty was doing some research on Pingyao. We are definitely over the fast trains.

The train station we arrived at is attached to the metro so we didn't realize it was pouring rain until we exited the train station to catch a bus back to our hostel. We also didn't have umbrellas. It was a couple minutes of walking before we found our bus stop. While waiting for the bus underneath a small shelter from the rain, a random stupid taxi zoomed by us and drenched everyone waiting there with water. Patty got water in her mouth. I luckily saw the taxi coming and turned slightly, so I didn't get any on my face but both our clothes were sopping wet. It was probably one of the most disgusting things that has ever happened to either of us.

We then decided to wait inside a nearby store for the bus! Anyway, we made it home without any other incidents, although it was still pouring. When we got inside, a staff member let us know that we should leave immediately for the train station since it would take a while to get there. Great! So, we had no choice but to continue on in our soaking wet clothes to the train station. This time, however, we took some plastic poncho-like covers that the hostel provided for us. These proved fairly useful, although flimsy. The rain had slowed slightly, so we made it to our bus no problem. Our stop was the last on the bus' route, which was supposed to be at the train station. The ride was about an hour, but when we got off at the final stop, there was no train station in site. I tried to ask the bus driver where the train station was, but he had no idea what I was talking about.

By this time, of course, the rain had started up again, so we hurried over to a main street where we found a subway entrance and went through. We had no idea what to do at this point, so we asked a gentleman hoping he could understand us. He told us to take the subway one stop and that would lead us to the right train station. We corroborated this with a couple other workers at the subway station, and were on our way. We assumed we wouldn't be needing our rain-ponchos again, so we removed those. That was short-sighted. It turned out that the subway just took us close to the train station and that we had a good 100-150 metres of open air to run through before arriving at a gate (outside of the station) where we needed to present not only our tickets but also our passports.

Now, getting anything out of our money belts while our backpacks are on is nearly impossible. We are carrying money belts around our waists, which is above where the hip clips of our backpacks lock into place. I think this is the first time I've shown someone true annoyance at being asked to do something. I just thought it was incredible that they were making people take out both their ticket and ID outside while it was raining. There was some roof cover, but the line extended out beyond the roof. I was pretty miserable at this point. I think Patty was taking it all better than me, but you'll have to ask her.

Once inside the train station, we wanted to find out where our train left from. We figured this out by asking some young-ish looking guys. Thankfully, they spoke some English and directed us to our gate. Once we had found our gate, we decided to grab something to eat. The McDonald's looked like our best option so we headed there. We ordered no problem, but there were so many people in the McDonald's and the train station itself that there was nowhere at all to sit. So we actually just stood around waiting in the McDonald's for about 15 minutes for someone to get up from their seat.

When one person finally left a two-person seat and motioned that we could use his seat, we assumed that the person he was sitting with was his friend and that they were leaving together. This was incorrect. They must not have known each other at all and were just sitting together because of a lack of seats. Basically, we stole some guys seat. He did leave a bag at the table indicating that he was still sitting there, we just thought that perhaps he had forgot it or was coming back to pick it up before leaving. Anyway, it was a little awkward when he came back and saw his seat taken, but he just joined another table. We offered to move, but he just shook his head. I think he was mad. Oh ya, and the three girls sitting next to us thought the whole ordeal, from us standing waiting for a table to taking the guys seat, was just hilarious. They kept laughing and staring at us. Patty and I wanted nothing more than to ram their heads through their table.

After eating McDonald's for the second time that day (yes, we ate earlier with Dale at the train station) we went back to our gate and found that most people had already boarded. So we hopped on and I, at least, was pretty surprised with what I saw. We had bought hard sleeper train tickets, so if you can imagine a very thin aisle on one side and three bunks stacked on the other all the way down the strain car. It also didn't look like the cleanest of places, but neither were we, so, hey, we made a perfect match.

Turns out that some very nice people ride those trains. We had a couple nice conversations with some young girls, one who was leading a tour group composed of Chinese tourists and the other who was a university student. There was also a young couple with a super cute baby. Honestly, the train ride was something else. It was completely unexpected. The people were friendly, it wasn't scary, and the beds (ours were at the top of the three levels) were pretty comfy. They came with pillows and a blanket, all of which were much cleaner than we were. All in all, both Patty and I really quite enjoyed the trip and got one of our best sleeps of the trip so far! Who would have thought?

Here are a couple of fuzzy pics of the train:

Yes, those top ones were ours! :)

Hope all is well back home!

Post #22 - November 2, 2012 - Beijing, China - Summer Palace, Silk St

Patty here.

Just finished up dinner at our hostel again tonight. The food is too good, cheap, and convenient to pass up here. It was our third night eating here at the hostel. Dinner was under $10 again, which was a good thing after another pretty pricey day. 

We woke up at around 9 am and ate breakfast at the hostel. We had to decide which sight we wanted to go to that morning. We narrowed it down to choice between the Summer Palace or the Temple of Heaven. We ended up choosing the Summer Palace because according to our book, the Summer Palace is "virtually as mandatory a Beijing sight as the Great Wall or the Forbidden City [and] easily merits an entire day's exploration." .... pause.... unless we were in the totally wrong place, and the sign outside saying "Summer Palace" was a typo, this is simply false. But, even though the "Summer Palace" can be easily confused with the "Old Summer Palace" which is located in a totally different area of the city, we were definitely in the right place. We wandered through the Palace grounds in under 2 hours and were left pondering what the book was referring to. The only thing the Summer Palace had in common with the Great Wall or Forbidden City was the number of tourists. 

The Palace served as a holiday retreat spot for the Imperial Court back in the latter part of the 1700's. The grounds are made up of temples, gardens, pavilions, a large lake, and corridors which no doubt must have been really impressive in their prime. The view from the main hilltop structure was quite something and the various levels of steps that arrived at hilltops that led to the grander one created a very interesting landscape. However it took us a total of 2 hours by bus and subway to get to and from  it and we just felt that our time would have been better spent elsewhere.

We decided to head back to the hostel to drop off our camera and grab a quick bite before heading back to the Silk Market for another shopping day. We arrived at Silk Street at around 4pm and went right to it. Jeans were first. A great way to barter a better price is by buying in volume so that's what we did. As Jeff mentioned, yesterday our first purchase was a pair of Diesel pants for me at $30. This was the benchmark. So, when we got them down to about $25 on a pair of Dolce e Gabbana Jeans for Jeff, we said we would buy another pair if they lowered the price to $20. Then they through in another pair in and we got all 3 pairs for $58. We also got Jeff two Quick Silver T-shirts for $12, me two blouses for $27, and another pair of Armani pants for $13. So, we did a lot better today. But the bank is now closed and will remain so for the rest of our time in China! It's no wonder, the Chinese economy is growing at cheetah's pace. 

Tomorrow we're meeting Dale at 10 am to take the fast train over to an island nearby. Since we're skipping Shanghai and therefore the Maglev train, Dale suggested we take this train trip with him instead. It won't be the Maglev but it should be pretty cool. According to Dale this train can travel up to 350km/hr. The whole trip should take us all morning/afternoon. It's already our last night in Beijing. We're off to Ping Yao tomorrow night!

Patty

Post #21 - November 1, 2012 - Beijing, China

Jeff here. Today was a fun and mostly relaxing day. After the Great Wall hike yesterday Patty and I definitely needed a good sleep in. Our day didn't start until around 10:30 am and it truly began slowly. We meandered down to the courtyard of our hostel and ordered breakfast. Patty began writing yesterday's blog while we were waiting for our breakfast and I looked into some places to go to shop today. A worker at our hostel recommended going to a mall called Silk Street, so we decided to head there. First, however, Patty had to finish the post, and we didn't actually leave our hostel until about 1:00 pm. This blog can be frustrating at times!

We hopped on a bus a couple minute's walk from the hostel and were on our way. Happily, the bus dropped us off right outside Silk Street about 30 minutes later. The mall is basically a flea market. It is several floors of shops with workers calling out to people to come look at their wares. Before starting off on our shopping excursion, however, we decided to head down into the basement where there are a bunch of different restaurants to eat. I got a chicken, rice, and vegetable dish, while Patty got a noodle soup of some sort. My meal was pretty good, I don't think Patty enjoyed hers very much. Anyway, back to shopping.

Being very unfamiliar with the barter form of shopping, it's slightly awkward at first and somewhat intimidating, but I think by the end Patty and I got the hang of it. We were told to offer about 30% of the price that was initially offered to us. The first store we went into, this did not go so well.

It was a jean store and Patty picked out about three pairs of jeans and then we picked out two for me. The first price they offered for the five pairs of jeans was pretty outrageous -- about $300, which was to be expected. However, our bartering technique left much to be desired so we ended up humming and hawing and really pissing off the workers. In the end we were basically booted out  of the storing for being so annoying! We had a good laugh about this.

In some of the next stores we had some more luck, and began forming a general strategy for attaining the lowest prices. It's funny, it's like a game. It's very psychological. One strategy we liked was to show a moderate amount of interest in one item, then walk away. A worker would then begin yelling increasingly lower prices at us. Patty bought a light Nike jacket for less than $15, a cool dress for $15, a North Face jacket for about $22, and a pair of "Diesel" jeans for about $30 (our worst purchase, but in our defense, the first thing we bought). I also bought a pair of "Puma" swimming trunks for less than $9. All in all, it was pretty fun. The best was actually when Patty bought her dress. Originally the worker asked for about 1600 Yuan, which is more than $250. Patty kept saying no and the girl kept pulling her back and offering less. Patty ended up paying 90 Yuan, less than 6% of the original asking price!! Man, that's just crazy. If that's the kind of mark-up we were dealing with, we still probably got screwed! Oh well, we got some nice stuff that hopefully doesn't fall apart the second we put it on!

After shopping, we jumped back on the bus and headed home. We were meeting with my friend Dale again for dinner. We had a nice dinner at our hostel tonight and talked mostly about traveling. The guy has so many insights on where we could go in China that we've re-thought our entire travels here. We are now considering ignoring the east coast and heading down to Yunnan and Guangxi. We discovered tonight that we could actually have experienced some true Tibetan culture and seen the Himalayas in Yunnan had we been traveling in the summer months. Unfortunately, it seems a little too cold to do those things at this time. We will stay further south and to the east of the mountains, but the region is supposed to be beautiful, nonetheless.

We will need to do some more research regarding how we will switch up our itineraries, but we will try to keep you up to speed on any decisions we make. I'm really glad that we've decided to go a different route, since I wasn't really crazy about our itinerary in the first place.

Tomorrow I think we are off to the Summer Palace and will do some more shopping. Hopefully that all goes according to plan. At least we are done the blog relatively early tonight! Now let's see if we actually go to bed! Bye for now :)