Back from my Central Asia Silk Road trek! I kept a really detailed journal during my trip, so I plan to retype a good deal of that onto here. This may take me a few days to do, although I will be abridging a bit. So, pretend you're reading the entries in real time, because I won't be changing any tenses. I think I've figured out how to back date them, so hopefully they'll appear the way they would have if I had time to spend at wang ba's all up and down the Road. I wont know if it works, since China wont let me look at my own blog, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Enjoy, and keep me posted on your lives!

~L

Hard Words: Australia, Track and Field, Handsome.

Xiahe Day 3

7:30 Breakfast
8-11:30 Teaching English at a Middle School
12-2 Lunch
2-6 Bus, boo
6:30-8 Free time
8-9 Huanghe Visit
9:50 Train

We had to wake up pretty early for breakfast because we had to make sure we made it to the middle school on time. I still regret not getting up just a bit earlier to circumambulate the monastery with the pilgrims. So far this trip, that's my biggest regret.

For the first 45 minutes of class (8:10-8:55) we observed a Tibetan middle school's English class being taught. The teacher's accent was horrible, and at times the words were really wrong. It was also obvious that the kids really didn't understand much of what was going on, despite their frequent affirmative responses. It was fairly frustrating.

After a short break, we took over class (from 9:15-10). Our theme was Olympic sports and countries. I started out by taking several minutes to teach them some major countries and what to call people from those countries (which is significantly more difficult than just saying 中国人, think about it). Then the boys taught them some sports vocabulary (track and field was particularly hard to say) and after we attempted to play charades with the vocab. This went as well as could be expected, considering that Chinese classrooms are never interactive and the kids didn't know what to expect (plus charades is a hard game to explain if you don't really speak Chinese and your students don't really speak English - or Chinese. I really don't speak Tibetan, at all). For the last portion of class we broke into three small groups and just tried to chat with them. That's when we realized just how bad their English really was (despite their supposedly high level). We eventually had to give up on English and resort to Chinese conversation and showing them pictures and songs on Sean's computer. They loved it.

At the end of class the kids kept asking us to come to recess and play basketball with them. It took us a few times, but we finally agreed to 5 minutes (b/c we didn't know if we could stay). However, when word leaked out to the rest of the groups about what we were doing they joined us on the playground for about a half hour. The boys played basketball, and the girls had to join the Tibetan girls in a circle game that was similar to hot potato, but without the challenge. One person would skip around the circle singing a song that went something like "找，找，找朋友， something something " and then when we got to a certain part of the rhyme they stopped, turned to whoever they were in front f, shook their hand and said "你是我的好朋友， 再见！” When you said zaijian, they waved goodbye and that person became the new skipper. Basically the most boring game ever. I'm too competitive for it.

After the Zhao Peng You game the girls taught us a dragon game (I missed the full name of it - just caught dragon). Everyone lines up conga style and grabs the shirt of the person in front of them. These people are the dragon. There is one person who is it who is trying to catch the tail of the dragon, but the dragon tail avoids them while the dragonhead tries to catch them. It's like crack the whip - sorta. It was really fun though - a massive improvement on Zhao Peng You.

Then we tried to teach them some American games. Duck duck goose went pretty well, although it was exhausting - I'm clearly incredibly out of shape (and a favorite goose). Freeze tag did not go so well. That game is much harder to explain than one would expect. A few of them got it well enough in the end though. Playing with the kids was really fun and rewarding. I hope they continue to play the games we taught them.

We met up with B2 for lunch at the same place we went to the day before. It was so bad, though! Incredibly disappointing, considering how amazing that apple soup was.

Following lunch we embarked on a lovely 4-hour bus ride. It was relatively uneventful and uncomfortable.

When we arrived back in Lanzhou, Terra, Taylor, Reggie, Van and I went out for dinner. The boys got the beef noodles that Lanzhou is apparently so famous for (our tour guide Kiki/Candy is OBSESSED with food!) and we went with my old favorite: maladofu. After dinner we went on a quest for moon cake, since it was the mid autumn festival that day.

Got on the train around 9:30 after visiting the yellow river and this statue of a "graceful lady and a lovely lovely boy" that "represents China's relationship with the River." Note: Terra crowd-surfed in a bush here.

The train was more horrid than usual - I had a top bunk and discovered that I'm pretty badly claustrophobic, since I just freaked out and hyperventilated every time I woke up. Actually, I shouldn’t think about claustrophobia, because I can’t spell it, and I'm on the train now, and I'm starting to get pretty panicky just writing about it.

~L

So we like jumping on giant mushrooms...what are ya gonna do about it?

Xiahe Day 2

8am Breakfast
9-12 Grasslands
12-1:45 Lunch
2-3:30 Free Time
3:30-5 Burial/Cremation Visit/Hike
5 -> Free Time

The grasslands hike was absolutely beautiful. I took soooo many pictures. All the hills were covered in wildflowers, mostly these wicked pretty blue ones, although purple ones appeared near the top. It was pretty difficult to climb, mostly because of the altitude, but it as most definitely worth it.


At the top of the first ridge we climbed was a Tibetan prayer flag set. Each of the flags represents a different family. On the next ridge there was a set of huge arrows. Our tour guide did explain the arrows to us, although I didn't really underestand much except that during some holiday Tibetan men carry arrows up the mountain and drive them in while for 15 days the women can only eat one meal per day before sunrise.



The grasslands hike ranks as one of my favorite activities on the trip (along with tianshan and the camels). It was just so so so beautiful. There aren't really that many words besides breathtaking (which also applies quite literally, altitude makes things so much more fun - the oxygen pillows came out today).

For lunch I had the most delicious soup. It was mostly apple and really sweet, but it also had ginger, carrots and cucumber. Mental note: figure out how to make apple soup.

During our free time, most people took naps but I wasn't tired, so while yla slept I watched Chinese soap operas with subtitles (in characters of course) and no sound. But then, randomly, Kyla woke up, walked over to the TV, UNPLUGED it, and pluged in her cell phone. When I ave her a what-the-hell-was-that?! look, she just looked at me and said "I need to charge my phone" and went back to sleep. So I, clearly offended, decided it was probably time to go for a walk instead. I waslked about a mil up and down the street checkin stuff out. It was really hot, but nice to get out and move.

At 3:30 we met our grasslands uide again to walk up to a place where Buddhists are cremated. It was really sad. I can't imagine having my final resting place being in such a dismal lace. It wasn't particularly pretty, especilly for the are, and there was a ton of trash/litter all over the place. We also walked past a freshly burned area where our guide told us that some babies had been burned that morning. There was a skull in the pile of ashes, it was so sad. The only encouraging thing was a trail of white prayer flags leading from the site to the top of the mountain to help lead the souls to heaven.

A lo more encouraging form of burial that we learned about is called sky burial. In sky burial they pack the body under clay for 3 days. Then they break it out and cover it with ghee (yak butter), chop it into several pieces and take it to the top of the mountain. At the top they burn wood and incense for the protective smoke I talked about earlier, and then leave the body, after which eagles and hawks eat the body and in dowin so carry the soul to heaven. Besides the chopping part, I find this to be a bit alluring and very romantic.

After visiting the cremation site, a couple of us decided to climb up the neighboring ridge and we afforded a georgous panorama of the city and monastary. Labulengsi is huge! Terra and I found a small cairn on an outcropping, so we added to it - it felt appropriate.

Wen we got back everyone went on a mass shopping spree, followed by dinner on your own. I got several souveniers for people. I also got monk boots. How many people do you know that can say they have boots made for them by a tibetan monk? They look pretty ridiculous, but they're incredibly comfortable, and they have that sweet back story.

For dinner we went out for western food at this place called the Everest Cafe. My dinner was fine (and super tasty - I miss sandwiches like you wouldn't believe), but Savanah got yogurt with hair (copious amounts!) in it twice! When we complained, they informed us that it was yak hair (in yak ogurt) and therefor nothing to worry about. I can't really put into words how or why this was funny, but I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Afterwards everyone was oing to this "bar with performances" that the tour guides reccomended to us. We were supposed to leave at 8:30, so my dinner group made it just in time. It was only just across the street, thought. The bar pretty much blew. The performances included traditional Tibetan singing, which was more painful than impresive, and Kevin had his toenail ripped off, which was vile. We had to wake up early anyways, so I left fairly soon.

~L

Labulengsi and Yaks Galore

[[note: blogger is having pictures issues - the rest from this entry will be up soon]]

9/23/07
9:30 am Get off the train
12:30 pm Arrive in Linxia for Lunch
4:00 pm Tour Labrang Monastary
8:00 pm Buddhist Talk

Got off the train and onto the bus. Our tour guide IS Candy (in a few years) - it's absolutely uncanny.

We had lunch in the Hui Muslim capital of Linxia, at a restaurant called the Red Garden. We had a spectacular peppered onion and carrot dish. I also ate lilly root for the first time - not bad.

We finally pulled into Xiahe around 4. Something I should have mentioned earlier is that everything here - from Linxia to Xiahe is gloriously green and mountainous. The mountains themselves are covered with rice paddies and goats. For this reason alone, Xiahe is my favorite spot so far. It really is just absolute beauty as far as the eye can see.

We toured the Labrang Monastary for the afternoon (Yellow hat sect). We weren't allowed to take pictures indoors, so I'll have to see if I'm able to find some postcards because it really was quite incredible. Everything was amazing. Every inch of the interior of every building was absolutely covered in teh most colorful artwork imaginable. We first ent into a chanting hall. It had rows of carpets for the monks to sit and chant on. It also had statues of several Buddhas, including the living Buddha who founded the monastary, Siddhartha, the Buddha of Wisdom, etc. There were even a few statues made out of yak butter, to represent transience. They were incredibly detailed. And made of butter. Just think about it. I'll post pictures down below - by the new years statue paragraph. Connected to the chanting hall was a stupa room. It contained the remains of all the living BUddhas of the monastary, as well as some of the favored teachers.

Next we went into a hall that was filled with monks chanting. I think our guide said it was part of the medicinal college. Labrang monastary has served as a university (with several colleges) for thousands of years. The chanting monks were all wearing ornate headresses. In the back was a room containing a huge Buddha statue (the medicine buddha), some pictures of living buddhas associated with he field, and some medicinal mandalas (as well as the typical artwork and silks everywhere).

Next we went into a building containing another giant buddha, although no chanting hall. From the outside you would never expect that these buildings contained such beautiful, colorful and intricate art. This buddha was the buddha fo knowledge, and we were informed that students seek inspiration from him when they're having difficulty studying.

Next stop - a room filled with yak butter statues from each new year. They were in various stages of melting. Apparently a new one is made for each new year celebration. These statues are so intricate, you would never believe that they were made of butter! This picture is of BUTTER. It blows my mind. Luckily, we were allowed to take pictures there, so I can share this phenomenon with you.

We made a quick jaunt through a small museum and then went to watch the students have a "debate." This involved a group of students asking one or two others questions about sutras etc. If they got it right they would clap in their faces, wrong and then would smack them on the head. I have pictures and video.


Our last stop at Labulengsi was the home of a monk, where a former monk who used to live there and speaks English spoke to us about monk daily life. He also spoke about how he left the monastary for what he thought was love and then had his heart broken and now he eternally regrets leaving since he can never go back. It was really sad.

At 6:30 we headed off to a Tibetan home for dinner. The layout was much the same as the monks. They have a stupa in the courtyard where they burn wood each morning because they believe that the resulting smoke with protect inhabiting spirits.

If I wasn't aquainted with yak before this visit, I am now. On the dinner menu: Fresh bread and yak butter, yak milk tea, yak buttermilk tea (totally different), beef noodle soup (what?), yak meat dumplings, yak yoghurt, and this amazing stuff called somba. Somba is about 2 tbs. yak milk tea, a dollop of yak butter, 2 tbs barley flour, 1 tbs crunchy stuff [[I thought it was millet, but was informed later that it was yak cheese]], and a tsp. of sugar. You then knead this mixture with your fingers in a small bowl and eat the dough it produces. I really liked this dish, although the majority of our group did not.

After dinner we checked into our hotel which is amazing. It's like a glorified garage, and it's just so colorful! There's even art on the ceilings! I'll post some pictures but they will not do it justice. When we first checked in they draped white silk over our shoulders in the traditional form of Tibetan greeting (very similar to being leid in Hawaii, but with textiles and Tibetans). This happened to me several times in Xiahe.

From 8-9:15 we had a research expert give us a talk on Tibetan Buddhism. It was really quite facinating. Among the interesting things I learned: 1. Population growth can be explained by the fluctuation of the distribution of spirits throughout the different realms (spirit, half spirit, human, animal, demon, hell). Population is up because there have been good things, so spirits are being reincarnated as peple. 2. Mahayana looks down on Hinayana because they are individual and not group focused, and Hinayana doesn't accept Mahaana because they added more scriptures to what the Buddha originall offered.

I'm going to wake up at 7 tomorrow for my first hot shower in about 5 days, and a promised "western breakfast." I'll let you know if there's spam.

I love beautiful Xiahe!

Of Camels and Cotton

9/21/07

Dunhuang Day 1

10:40am Arrive
11:00am Hotel - Broken
12:00pm Lunch
1-5pm Mogao Grottos
5:30-9pm Camels
9-11pm Night Market
11-1am Hallway Chess

We got off the train at about 10:40 am. I hate riding on overnight trains. It's the most unpleasant experience ever. Hot, cramed, dirty, loud, smelly. It blows.

We got to the hotel around 11, and were told we had an hour to shower etc. (Important stuff, since no one had been able to shower since before climbing the sweaty flaming stairs of death). However, upon arriving at our rooms, we realized that about half of us had no water whatsoever, and those that did had freezing cold water only. These problems were not fixed unti 11:50, eliminating the nice shower possibility. Nothing spells relaxation like a 3 minute shower. In addition, our toilet was incapable of flusing and was backing up for no reason (we hadn't even used it). They kept telling us that this was normal for that toilet, and didn't fix it until midnight. Basically, the hotel was miserable, and I wouldn't reccomend it.

In the afternoon we went to the Mogao Grottos, a series of caves filled with Buddhist art and sculpture dating back to around year 0, athough most of the art was from the 14th century. It was all pretty spectacular. We weren't allowed to bring cameras in (they were incredibly strict about it) so I bought a pack of postcards. But you should google image this place. It's wicked cool.

Before they allowed us to tour the grottos, Ai Laoshi told us he had a "special treat" prepared. This turned out to be a 1 hour and 15 minute speech (in Chinese and translated by Ai) by the head of the research institute on the history and preservation of the grottos. This was at times interesting, but mostly excruciating, and if you looked around you could see that most of the students were sleeping.

After the grottos, we stopped at the hotel for a few seconds to change, and then went to the edge of the desert to ride camels. It was awesome! The dunes were just like in the movies. I'll post some pictures. We rode up to the top of one on our camels, and watched the sunset. At the top we paid to ride a slide part way down, which was expensive but pretty cool (although very sand intensive). Then we rode the camels back down adn over to an oasis called Moon Lake. It was dark by then, so most people didn't venture out to the lake, but Sean, Drue and I did. It wasn't really worth the trek, but walking barefoot in the desert sand was pretty incredible.


When we got back we went out to dinner (and I had the best ma la doufu ever) and then to the night market. The night market was the classiest market we've been to yet. I bought some apricot and xiangfei fruit. Xiangfei fruit is really sweet (I think it might actually be a flower), you just have to get past the fact that it's called xiangfei. We met up with Lila, Saskia, John, Kim and Dan in the Laduzi Market (which is what I've pet named the weird cafeteria/food stall area) and walked back with them. When we got back I complained about our toilet again, and while I waited for them to fix it a bunch of us hung out in the hallway and played Chinese chess - much to the amusement and excitement of every Chinese person who walked by. I think I might buy a set here and attempt to master the game. The pieces are much more fun than normal chess - there's a cannon that can only capture by jumping peices, and an elephant that is the only piece that can't cross the river because he's too fat (except for the pieces that can't leave the castle - they obviously can't cross the river either).

9/22/07

Dunhuang Day 2

11:30 Wake Up (so late!)
12:00 Checkout
12:30 Western Lunch
2-3 Wangba
3:30 naan and bus
4-5 cotton picking
5-6:30 Dinner/B2 anger
7:20 train
8-12 hearts

We were free till 3:30 in the afternoon, which everyone was pretty bitter about, since once again, B trip proves to be better. However, I somehow managed to sleep till 11:30, which is so late. Usually I like sleeping in, but this was extreme, especially for a trip that I should be awake for so I can experience everything.

After we checkout out of the hotel, a ton of us went out for a Western stye brunch. It was fabulous. I had 咖啡， 法试面包， and 面包跟米饭 - coffee, french toast, and toast with honey. 15 kuai worth of satisfaction.

After lunch, Terra, Savanah and I went to a wangba - internet bar. 2 kuai and hour seems to be the going rate throughout China. I was able to catch up on some email, which was wicked nice.

At 3:30 we went cotton picking. I'm not sure how they expected us to do that without overwhelming amounts of slavery jokes. The bus broke into a "swing low/follow the dipping gourd" medley on the way there. Our tour guide LOVED it. No one had the heart to explain American slavery and cotton picking to her.

Cotton picking was not as hard as I had expected. Don't get me wrong - it was backbreaking work and I can't imagine doing it all day, but it did not hurt to pick. I had expected prickles galore, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a very soft experience. I kept a handful of the cotton we picked, and I intend to research the process that goes into making cloth. I'd also ike to look up how many bags slaves in the states were required to pick, since I now have some perspective. It took us about 30-40 minutes to fill one in a team of three.

After cotton picking we met up with B2 for dinner and the rivary resumed. Then we rushed to the train station - time was pretty cramped and I've never eaten so much so fast in my life. I think that's what resulted in my horrific stomach cramps later that night which was more miserable than it should have been since I was on the stupid train. This train was a bit different than the other. All the bunks had much more headroom (although this didn't matter much to me, since I had a bottom bunk this time and lived like a queen), and the bathrooms were a bit nicer. It was still a fairly cramped and unpleasant experience though, and this train was really rocky. I learned how to play hearts on the train and had a wicked long game. It lasted like, 3 hours. I got second place, which I figure was fairly respectable, but I fully intend to beat my score (47) next time. I'm now addicted. [[note: a few days later I did beat this score, my best is now 10]].

Seafood restaurants in Central Asia make me nervous.

Just a quick hello from a wangba in Dunhuang...

I'm about halfway through my trip. It's pretty awesome. I'll be posting a ton of stuff when I get back - I'm keeping a pretty detailed journal.

Keep sending me emails! I miss everyone, and I do get internet now and again (even if I do have to fight world of warcrafting monks for it).

~L

Jackie Chan could hook you up with drugs..I mean, he might know people

9/20/07

Day Three in Urumqi (rhymes!)
7:25am Fuyuan knock
7:30am Breakfast
8-11am Driving
11-2pm Hike Flaming Mountain
2:30pm Lunch
4-7 Grape Valley Tours
8:30-9:30 Dinner
10:30 -> Train

Our wake up call was suppoed to be at 7, but it never came and we woke up to the fuyuan pounding on our door and yelling “吃饭下楼！” So we got ready in 5 minutes, literally. Thank goodness we showered the night before.

After breakfast we took a three hour bus ride out of the city to Turpan. Turns out that inflatable neck pillow was an excellent purchase. I felt a little ill after breakfast, so I spent that whole time sleeping.

We finally drove up to this really awesome sand dune town. If I were talented, I could replicate the entire thing on the beach. It even had giant statues of Buddhas and Chinese dragons. I'm really mad I didn't get a picture, but I was sleeping on the way in and bandaging on the way out.

Anyways, we pull up to the flaming mountain which is actually a gigantic sand dune with a rickity staircase leading to the top. I fondly christened this staircase the "flaming staircase of death." I'll post a picture that you can see it in. From the bottom this did not look intimidating. However, about a couple hundred incredibly steep steps in I was corrected. I was still feeling pretty nauseous from breakfast and I hadn't had anything to drink in the morning because I was sleeping/paranoid about having to pee on the bus ride, so I had to make a system where I stopped every 50 steps to stop myself from puking (and to catch my breath). It didn't help matters that it was about 90 degrees out.

Once we finally reached the top, however, it was pretty awesome. Despite my pathetic performance, I still was in the top five to reach the top. The view was incredible, and (like some of the boys pointed out) it really did look a lot like Tatooine (minus the whole two sun thing). I did manage to hurt myself immediately though. I tried to scramble onto this final ridge, but ony stepped onto the very edge, so the sand crumbled beneath me and I scraped up my shins pretty badly. Here's a picture of me I'd like to call victorious death. Notice the lovely sunburn, despite extreme sunscreen reapplication.

At the top of the dune we climbed you looked out at a parallel dune that was covered in all sorts of messages and phone numbers in both Chinese and Arabic. They were huge messages - the letters were at least 10 feet high, if not drastically higher. So, of course we had to write A2 (our group's name) in the dune so the other group would see it once they reached the top later on. A handful of us (the first few to reach the top) wen't over to do it. Obviously we also realized we had to write some smack about B2 (the other group) which Drue suggested that we write on the dune we had originally climbed so they would see it only as the went to write B2 on the writing dune or desecrate our A2. This is confusing - so there is an illustration in my journal - but I don't know how to draw on the internet. I'll post a picture of the dune with all the writing. It's kind of hard to see, so I tried to mess with the contrast a lot. Hopefully you'll get the idea. For scale, there are two little people over there carving A2 into the dune.


After the flaming mountains we went to lunch, and then took a tour of the Grape Valley. First we stopped at Amanti's house. Amanti was like the Robin Hood of the Uyghers. Here's the story of Amanti: A man walks by a restaurant and smells the food, then tries to continue on, but the restaurant owner stops hims and demands that he pay regardless because he smelled the food. Frustration ensues. Amanti then comes up and shakes his monkey bag saying "I will pay for this man." The restaurant owner agrees to this, but then Amanti starts to walk away. When the owner complains, Amanti shakes his bag again and says "you heard my money, therefore I have paid."

Next we went to a model Uygher village - no comment, I've seen the real thing.

Next was ancient Jiaohe. Jiaohe was a city that was huge in the 5th-8th century, and was eventually abandoned by the 14th century. The name means "where two rivers meet" and that's exactly where it is. It's on a raised plateau between two rivers, so when you look down from the edges of the cities, you look into lush green valleys (which seem so odd because it's such a deserty location). The houses were dug into the earth, cave/hobbit style. Military defense was a huge priority, and the fortifications were everywhere. However, because the city was built on a high plateau, there wasn't a conventional city wall, just gates over the stairs that cut tunnel like down to the regular ground. Each gate opened up into a foyer type area, so if the enemy broke in they would be jammed up in this foyer which was surrounded by archers. There was also a pretty impressively preserved Mahayana temple on the grounds. The central pillar was still standing, but most of the statues had eroded away.

Our last stop in Turpan was to learn about the irrigation system in the grape valley. They get the water from snow runoff from Tianshan. The flaming mountains make a natural dam for all of this underground water. The people discovered this by making a shaft well at the foot of the flaming mountains. They then conducted the water to the grape valley by digging a series of shaft wells and connecting them with underground aquaducts. It was immensly impressive.

Finally, we got on the overnight trian to Dunhuang. I had a middle bunk. The overnight train is absolutely not as glamorous as it seems. I hate overnight trains now. Even thinking about them makes me feel clausterphobic and freaked out. Ugh.