Can Tho floating market, Mekong delta, Vietnam

Fruit, fried insects, lemongrass tea and other local delights

So I was on the airplane headed to meet my parents in Saigon when I broke off a piece of paper from the vomit bag and began jotting down thoughts and instances that have brought a smile to my face, an AHA! moment or a big question mark in my expression.

Not only have I discovered that green papaya salad is my all time favourite food these days, but that my favourite passtime is finding a fruit stall that will sell me a bag of freshly cut pineapple in the evening so I can stick it in the communal fridge at Walai House and have it nice and cold for breakfast the following day! I swear, if eating fresh pineapple every morning for breakfast is not a luxury, I don´t know what is. Fruit vendors are EVERYWHERE...even in the most remote and deserted streets and alleys where you figure these people mustn't earn much of a living... well still, their senseof commerce is pretty well developped so they must have their niche in the neighbourhood and I seem to have become one of the regulars at this one place behind the YMCA and Buddy Internet near Walai. Ever since I tried Guava here (which incidentally tastes a bit of nutmeg or clove or something like that YUMMY!) that has become my afternoon snack.... but get this, you get a back with sugar and chilli to dip the fruit in. It's actually REALLY GOOD! My chilli tolerance is definitely increasing. I've also tried other very tasty local delicacies such as Maracuya (or Liliquoy - spelling? - as they call it in Hawaii), a fruit that on the outside looks like a massive dinosaur egg, only pink and with fish scale looking things.....but then you open it and it's like a white pear with black sesame seeds (this is all imaginative description)....I don't know what it's called. Sapodilla is REALLY good and the lychees and other fruits in the same family like longan and such are also really good. So my breakfasts are becoming very exotic to say the least!

On occasion, in the evenings, I come across what look like mobile hot dog vendor or night-time ice cream cart...only what's for sale is quite a wonderful (and I mean that literally) array of fried insects! I admit curiosity got the best of me a couple of weeks ago so I requested a sample for tasting (I'm not ready yet to spend Baht on full bags of the stuff). So I tried the really small ones that look like a centipede kind of thing only smaller (they looked pretty safe) and actually, didn't taste of much. A bit grainy and mushy. Then the other night, I ventured for what looked like a thinner and crunchier version and actually, they'd fried it in honey so it tasted a bit like crunchy crisps. I enjoyed it. However, I don't think I'll be trying the beetles or the huge insects where the naked eye can actually see the wings as well as other fine details of the face way too clearly. I still have some money in the bank and it doesn't look like I'll be going hungry anytime soon so for the time being, my taste adventures will only go thus far with fried insects.

I've also discovered that lemongrass needs to be boiled to infuse a nice drink. Then mixing it with a little bit of honey and cooling it in the freezer is my favourite style! We were offered one such glass at the nearby celadon factory while we looked at the arts and crafts on display. I do not think I have ever met people as friendly, cordial and genuinely nice as the Thais. I also recently realised that the reason ginger tea here is so strong and slightly spicy "hot" is because contrary to our tea bag culture, here it is made by literally peeling the entire root and boiling it in water! I was served the mug with the whole root in it the other day! THAT was an "aha!" moment. My latest discovery in Vietnam is cold lotus tea....gotta add that one to my list of faves. The ginger, I've decided to have as a dry snack in the afternoons. They sell it in the markets here thinly sliced and coated in sugar. It's yummy, still strong, and very good for my tummy.

I could go on forever..... my little airplane stream of thought exercise delivered front and bag jots on the piece of paper bag but I think I'll write about them slowly but surely on the next blog. In the meantime, I am preparing my next entry about our trip so far in Vietnam, my skinny dipping last night in the resort swimming pool and the visit to the floating market this morning, but more on the next one cause it's late and I gotta wake up at 5 AM tomorrow to catch a flight up to Hanoi. In the meantime and to whet your apppetite, there's some pics of Vietnam hot off the camera today in my shutterfly page.

Love & Ego

Well, before I forget, Happy Holiday's to everyone.

The last few days have been a bit sad because many great friends have parted. I now also understand what is meant by the "cool season" here. Our friendships are so close we have even got cuddling friends for our cold beds at night. I feel like I am back in College. Walai House hosts mostly students of the local massage schools, of which I am one again. After much encouragement from a variety of people who have received "Teba's improvised massage", me and my so called "healing hands" have gone back to school. Thank you Sean for this gift. I guess I have known for a while in my heart that the gift of healing through massage is something I enjoyed giving but I have been actively resisting going to school.... I think I realise that deep down I did have a feel for it and that if I confirmed my suspicions, and proved others and myself right, it would be yet another reasons to reconsider my path in life so far.

Well, it is all true. Now I realise the more I have resisted doing something, the more I needed to pay attention to that feeling...the more I needed to listen to my heart and understand the real reason behind it all. My friend Sean and I went on our motorbikes to the beautiful Doi Inthanon National Park last week. As we drove there, with the wind on our face and nothing but green dense forest and a blue sky before us, I realised how free I am and how much opportunity lies ahead of me. I am in such a special place right now...in my heart and in my spirit. Life is full of possibilities. It's time to stop wondering what I am going to do with my life or what my real calling is. I spend so much time doing that that I forget about the gift of today... the "present" and how each moment is a chance to try something new, to jump in the deep end and experiment with anything I can. Life will unveil itself to me....I shan't keep worrying about what'll happen to me tomorrow, because the truth is I haven't got a clue and the mystery is nice that way. I know every corner I turn will bring some new and amazing experience, some new opportunity to meet another soul, to connect with the energy around me, to experience a new adventure, story.... the best is yet to come and the thought of that brings me peace.

I have been training on professional massage for the past 2 weeks. I am enjoying it now. I don't know what will become of it all, but I know I have yet another door open to me. I have made some truly enriching friendships in the past 3 weeks and I feel that to have allowed Mata, Sean, Shawn, Aun, Yo and Jib into my life is the best gift I could have given myself and they could have given me. Thank you.

And so to finish, here's the latest from Sean...my source of inspiration. It was written by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:

We are not responding to this instant
if we are judging any aspect of it
The ego looks for what to criticise
This always involves comparing with the past
But love looks upon the world peacefully and accepts

The ego searches for shortcomings and weaknesses
Love watches for any sign of strength
it sees how far each one has come
and not how far one has to go

How simple it is to love
and how exhausting it is always to find fault
for every time we see fault
we think something needs to be done about it
Love knows that nothing is ever needed but more love
It is what we all do with our hearts
that affects others most deeply

It is not the movements of our body
or the words within our mind that transmit love.
We love from heart to heart.

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... captured moments

a place called Pai

SO...I know I haven't written in a while. The truth is I have started to "live" here. Chiang Mai was a place that I was going to visit for 2 weeks. Tomorrow will be my 5th week and this morning I went to the Immigration office to extend my visa. I am not quite sure I can possibly describe what is happening to me out here. I am blessed with what I have and those around me and that gives me a freedom to reconsider EVERYTHING in my life and consider ANYTHING from here on after.

Well, before I get too philosophical, (which I will, but not in this post cause I haven't got much time) I will tell you about a place called "Pai". It used to be a stopover town in the hills north of Thailand on the Mae Hong Song Loop for those heading to trek. It has now become the chill out and hippie hangout that one visits and wants to stay in. The town lives from the hand made jewellery and hill tribe garments for sale on the streets. The town is full of cool haunts where you can find anything from banana pancake, thai rum, coconut and pineapple shakes to a good old thai green curry or the odd variety of deep fried insects! Then of course, you may get invited to the back of some bar to sit on the floor around a home bonfire, to smoke some home grown ganga, eat roasted corn cobs and listen to the world view of your rasta host. I guess in many ways it is the typical hippie town that may seem like a bad imitation of what hippie towns must've been like in the 60's and 70's, filled with young foreigners trying to live in consonance with nature, but there aren't as many posers as one would think and people just wanna hang out like we did, surrounded and enjoying the nature, watching time and life pass by hanging on a hammock, atop a bamboo hut, while you watch the sunset or the sunrise.

I am glad we ended up staying one more night than we had expected and hanging at the Ting Tong Bar where I bought one of my favourite pieces of jewellery made by the owner. It's a Ting Tong Leaf wrapped in leather. You'll see it in the picture below. We went white water rafting (and our raft capsized!!! ...it was the BEST part of the decscent!) and soaked in natural hot springs. But by far what I most enjoyed was seeing the locals re-build Pai which was badly flooded 2 months ago. We experienced the building of a bamboo foot bridge over the Pai river and enjoyed contributing to the welfare of our guest house owner who was re-building every single one of her huts which had been swept away by the waters. I will be loading pics of this and more tomorrow. In the meantime I leave you with a few images.

A saying I learnt...

Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
today is a gift ... that's why they call it "present"

I hold my "present" dearly. It's where I live now. I am still in Chiang Mai... the place takes a hold of you and doesn't let go. The smallest things of today build up into the mysterious and wonderful things of tomorrow, like the conversation I had one night with Yo and An from Walai House (the owners). I wanted to go trekking for a few days and to see hill tribes that were remote and non-touristy and what began as simple questions evolved unexpectedly into a trip to Yo's friend's hill tribe in mountains of Fang.....120Km north of Chiang Mai. It also turned into a Walai House field trip.... so 6 of us packed up into Yo's pickup truck and headed north, accompanied by two trunks full of Thai herbs and foods of sorts from the market that Yo and I had visited that morning to cook for our crowd. Yo says the green curry with chicken was his favourite and that I can now set-up my own Thai restaurant. He's a sweetheart! I tried my best not to poison anyone....especially cause we arrived almost at 9 PM and spent the best part of 3 hours chopping galangal, lemongrass, garlic and chillies among many other things, and preparing 3 different dishes + rice for everyone in a dark kitchen lit by candles. It was in fact an unforgettable night.

That night was spent cooking, eating on the deck overlooking the mountains and gathering around a fire to keep warm! We slept in bamboo huts surrounding a toad filled lake... with their "toad chat" to accompany the crickets and the smell of the bamboo hills. I got to open my sleeping bag that night and can happily say it kept me very warm. The following day we woke up in a completely different place.... there was so much light it felt like we were in the sky. There were clouds below us so all we could see was what surrounded us at ground level. Sean cooked us fresh pineapple and banana pancakes and we slowly woke up while Yo went off to the lake to fish for our lunch feast. The vibe was wonderful. The group who had gone up clicked very well. Wile Mata sang, and Yo fished, Ryoko gave Reiki and Little Sean gave Thai Massage. Big Sean went out to pick Maracuya fruit from the nearby trees and then cooked us pancakes in a wok, while Yuki discovered the newborn puppies nearby and played with the local kids.

We then took off to visit the locals. For the first time, we were all invited into their hut. We gathered in a circle around the hearth, and awaited a cup of their locally grown tea while we asked about their life and their customs. The hut was a two room affair where the entire family of 6 slept in the room next door to where we were sitting. They had 3 pigs sleeping below the raised hut, and a few dogs and cats to keep them company. The tea was very good, but what was superb was seeing the wife, the local healer, give us all massage....and realise how she "felt" and intuitelvely knew what most of us had to pay to learn. It was fascinating. We spent nearly 2 hours there, looking, feeling, smelling and mostly trying to see life from their eyes and from the place where they sat. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking and cooking, eating, and talking, enjoying each other's company and smelling the hills around us, before heading back to Chiang Mai.

Elephant Nature Park

I am slowly approaching my destination quietly seated inside a 9 people van, attempting to advance through a pretty steep, pot-hole filled, deep orange coloured dirt road...dangerously avoiding the edge of the road that overlooks a green field filled with palm trees, and overgrowing flora. We pass many an elephant trekking camp where these animals are employed to "entertain humans" be it by drawing flowers, performing acrobatics of some sort or simply allowing humans to ride them atop elephant seats. We later learn how this is at a huge cost to their livelihood and a rather bizarre contadiction; in Thailand elephants are sacred beings, long revered and used in numerous iconography across the country. In Thailand, the elephant population (wild and "tamed" has diminished by 95% in the past decade only!). There are now only 2500 elephants left in Thailand and most undergo a horrendous "taming" process to allow them to be enslaved for trekking camps, logging or for begging in large cities and temples. It is rather disturbing...particularly when you watch it live or on one of the many documentaries that has been made on the subject; National Geographic 2002.

So we slowly make our way into the "Elephant Nature Park" of Thailand, a vast flatland on the banks of the Mae Taeng river, surrounded by bushy trees, fields of cotton and only 60Km north of Chiang Mai. Lek, a Thai woman, owns this camp and has fought for the past years to rescue elephants from dangerous situations and bring them to this haven of peace. The Park is a sanctuary, a place where you go to relax, learn about elephants and mostly, to live among them and learn to appreciate their greatness close up in a humane and positive atmosphere of freedom. Although you may visit the park for one day, once you set foot onto the dirt you feel the need to remain there for a much longer period of time. Peace floats in the air. Volunteers who stay longer sleep in bamboo huts that overlook the river. But everyone is able to take part in the daily ritual of feeding and bathing the elephants. They eat anything from 250Kg of cucumbers, pineapples, bananas and/or pumpkins daily! They get bathed and scrubbed down twice a day in the river and once a week, they get taken up to the hills to roam free for one night in what is called the "Elephant Haven"...and those who are lucky to go with them, sleep on a large tree-house.

I stayed for 3 days (2 nights) and the experience was truly unique. I loved my bamboo hut.....nothing fancy, and yet, all the wonders of the world.... I woke up to elephants roaming free below my hut every morning! My bathing ritual involved a large tub of water and a saucepan type thing to help scoop the water out and drop it over my head. The water, of course is cold. The shower is in fact a bamboo hut in the middle of a field. (You're lucky there's a light switch!) . My room was simply a mattress, a mosquito net and two large windows overlooking the place. I walked with the elephants in the mornings as they fed on nearby bamboo, grass & leaves of sorts. All the while, we would carry orange ribbons cut from Buddhist monk robes that had been blessed. These ribbons would be tied around the trunks of trees to "save" them from being culled. In Thailand, there is now a ban on logging..... but this practice reinforces the "sacred" nature of trees to anyone Buddhist (nearly everyone here) attempting to cut the tree down.

We would then return for some chill-out time before lunch.....a feast of 15 dishes to choose from, prepared on the spot by the local folk working in the bamboo hut known as "the kitchen". Then after lunch, it would be bath time. Off to the river with buckets and brushes to scrub down the animals. If one didn't have enough with this 40 minute water fest, there would be another chance later on at 5Pm to try it again! Not without before viewing the National Geographic Documentary or taking a nap. Then off to the bath again....and then a short walk at dusk before enjoying another feast under a thatched roof at night, with the sounds of crickets or the odd dog coming up to keep you company. Then, the mahouts would light a fire to keep the 3 "old ladies" (80+ year old elephants) warm at night and we would make ourselves hot cocoa and play a game of cards or two.... or simply enjoy the darkness of night, reading a book under a torch to keep the mosquitoes at bay!

I was surprised to find I didn't really have to work much at this place, as the locals are employed to take care of everything. In fact, after the 1st day, where everything felt like a novelty, I started getting a hang of the schedule and did as I pleased! It's very chilled. On the 3rd day, I went off walking in the forest and one of the most marvellous things happened. Much like seeing snow for the 1st time when one grows up in a tropical climate, for me it was happening upon a cotton field. I had read many books where these fields were named and described but the sight of seeing it live was amazing to me. I neared it and grabbed a stem and realised the stalk had a ball that had "flowered" into 4 parts and each part was a cotton ball, with seeds and all, but a cotton ball nonetheless. I treasure these moments.... when you get to see where things really come from, and how amazing it is to think that that same thing you are looking at, when spun and threaded, can become the clothing that protects you! On my second day, I insisted in helping cook (I couldn't keep away) and learnt a thing or two as I mashed over 50 green bird-eye chillies in a wooden mortar and tried to sign my way around the kitchen.

Feeding the elephants is quite amusing. You place 3 or 4 cucumbers in the tip of their trunk and they roll it in and dunk them into their mouth. On some occasions, you get to stick half a pineapple into their mouth (which looks like a massive tongue really). Apparently they have molars to crush the food...you never see them though! They don't really smell (nothing like horses or cows if you know what I mean) which makes approaching and patting them so much more enjoyable. Although they have a habit of pooing in the river while they bathe, the crap floats and looks like a big green ball of hay so it's pretty funny!

I didn't make the trip up to the Haven.....maybe next time when I return. In the meantime, all I can say is that I haven't slept this long in a while, and the peace of being surrounded by nature, pure clean air, the sounds of crickets, or the rustling of the tree leaves is so soothing to the human soul, that my return into Chiang Mai last night was rather distressful! It took me a while to fall asleep, amidst the sounds of motorbikes, cars and the odd booming stereo. I miss the elephants, the cats, dogs and the wonderful people who have dedicated their life to preserving these special animals...a total of 22 older elephants and 3 young ones who have luckily made it to this sanctuary. THIS is what I call eco-travel and all included for only $299/week where you know exactly where every cent of your money is going.

Walai House crowd and Porn Hair Studio

30 hours later....Certified Masseuse!

Ladies & Gentlemen...YES, I am now a certified reflexologist. Reflexology is the art of healing through foot massage. (oooh that sounds beautiful!). Anyway, after 3 days of full time, full on, full one- on-one practice, I did my test today and got my certificate, with a very nice picture of my "not so bald anymore" head. I got this picture taken at the local photo studio and they air brushed it! First, he got rid of the awful looking zits on my chin (nice!) but then he proceeded to eliminate the marks on my forehead, which are kind of "me" you know?....and then, for the cherry on the icing, he started making my skin paler! I had to stop him there. I'd been putting blush on profusely, prior to the picture, so I had to let him know that in my book, dark tanned skin is actually attractive! Anyway, that reminds me that it is nearly impossible to get regular SPF cream here....they're all "whitening creams"....urgh! (YES, I have been to the local drugstore...for a little snoop around....it's all miniature, which is fun and great for travelling!). And about the hair, I admit that it's growing back fast and I am having mental debates as to whether I should re-shave it a bit....especially since I found "PORN HAIR STUDIO" around the block from Walai House. Last night I dreamt it grew back really long below my shoulders and it looked crap and I was craving having it shaved off again. Hmm, food for thought.

Anyway, I am now a thai cook and masseuse...so I have decided to venture out into the jungle for 3 days and try my skills on the local fauna...ELEPHANTS! Apparently, I will be employed to bathe them (and with them), feed them tons of food and sleep in bamboo huts atop trees beside them. Sounds like fun. The place is pretty well known here. So after that, I'll be heading off to the hill tribes up north for a couple of days of walking, getting to know the local hill tribes in a completely secluded non touristy area (the owner of Walai House knows a spot and there's 6 of us going out there) and seeing some waterfalls.

I'll be sending some pics today as well....I mentioned to you the owners of Walai House are a lovely couple who have made my stay wonderful....and that of Colleen and Michael, another lovely couple I was lucky to hang out with and who left yesterday. They organised a goodbye dinner out on the porch/lounge of the house, and of course, since I cannot keep away from the kitchen it seems, I decided to make my famous bomb cake (the one with the whipped cream, FRESH pineapple and ladyfingers) with hot chocolate drizzled over the top! It was great! And the fresh pineapple and very thick Thai cream really did make quite a difference. We managed to eat it all up!YUM!

Thai baby spicy

1 week in Chiang Mai. Needless to say time flies by. And yet, it feels strangely like home....like with the warmth in the air, the smiles on people's faces, or all the pick up trucks I see on the road. I know I said China was a place of contrast...well the contrasts evolve but somehow remain. A little bit like life, I guess. Nothing is ever one colour, is it, and sometimes the sun and the rain coexist and form a rainbow. I guess that's a bit like what it feels like here. I ventured out on the bike today again (I'm getting hooked on the 2 wheels!) and decided to loose myself in the city and one of it's many markets... this time it was the one for the "locals". (I thought my phrase book would make up for my crap pronunciation). Now here's a thought: How many times has a foreigner come up to you asking directions in a language you didn't speak, and yet, since you knew a friend who did speak that language (german, for example), you phoned them up on your mobile so that they could talk and understand each other? Well, that's what happened to me today. Some old lady took out her mobile and dialled someone who apparently spoke English. I never got around to speaking to that person cause he/she did not seem to be in. But still, you get my drift.

I was looking for dried Kaffir Lime leaves and dried Galangal to send home for my upcoming dinner parties. So I've learnt the word for dry...and it took me 2 hours to find a place that sold them to me dry. In the meantime and beginning to despair, I buy the fresh stuff and wonder whether it'll make it past customs. ...just in case. Well, now that I found the dry stuff and negotiated it for half the price on the tag, I'll be scattering the fresh kaffir leaves all over my backpack cause they smell sooooooo good!

Anyway, markets... the thought that crossed my mind today was that if this was called the "cool" season in Thailand, Iwhat must July be like!??! I loved seeing an old lady thumping away chillies, garlic and what not on her stone mortar for green curry paste, or smelling fresh ginger being peeled and shredded. I also amazed at watching a woman lift some live fresh water fish from a rubber pool beside her stall, drop them on the floor and give them a good clubbing! She then quite nonchalantly lifted them up onto her wooden chopping log and began cleaning them out in prep for display. I have never seen so many variations of rice, dried fish or sweet stuffs in my life! It's like a candy shop, only you come up close and realise there are fins on the things! The market is fascinating. It goes from large inner covered warehouse looking spaces, to little alleyways. The light there is orange and red and green as the sunshine traverses the paper parasols covering the food. Sensational. And then I spot a monk, coming through with his orange robes, with orange light shining on him and eating what looks like an orange pomelo, and as I step aside to let him by and near the chilli stall, a thai old lady with wrinkles under her eyes attempts to sell me a bag of red bird-eye chillies.....ha! ... The image is surreal and I wish my eye were a constant camera taking snapshots. I find time flies by in the smells and sensations of the market. The floors are wet, and filled with pot-holes so I have to mind my step in an attempt to keep my feet relatively dry. There are flies everywhere, mostly on the meat. And the smell around the beef stall is pungent and distinctive. I learn how to spot good meat from bad, and I subconsciously move away...inching slowly towards the fish stalls where the smell is fresh and for a split second, I am transported to a rock by the seaside. I think back to the shiny, plastic trays with insipid foods sold in western supermarkets and wonder whether we're so obsessed with microbes and hygiene that we're missing out on all the rest. Surely, if Thai people eat this and keep happy and healthy, so can we, right?

My favourite phrase is the one the cooks at the cookery school ask when they're about to drop chillies into a mixture. They ask whether we want Thai spicy (7 chillies) or Thai BABY spicy (3 chillies). It turns out, babies here are fed spicy food pretty early on. Do we really need to take so many precautions? And precisely at this moment, my idealistic traveller "questioning our habits in the west" phase is rudely interrupted like a scratch on a vynil record cause I gotta get to a toilet NOW! and I am in the middle of the market and haven't a clue where to go. After being refused at a nearby 7Eleven (they're everywhere) and told to go to the market toilet (yeah like WHERE!!!!???) I eventually find my way, quickly and nervously dig out 2 baht from my bag, and re-enter the world of squat toilets and water fountains, JUST IN TIME! ....Can I say one thing? THANK GOODNESS for the water fountains, hahha, yeah, I laugh now cause I made it by the skin of my teeth, but you know, wipes just aren't enough sometimes! Water fountains...that's the way to go. So there I am, squatting in true Asian fashion, with my left hand holding my purse, the dry f***ing kaffir leaves and galangal, AND my thai pants (they're brand new for goodness sakes!) which I've managed to roll up over my knees to prevent them from getting wet cause the floor all over this toilet is wet like they'd left the tap open, and then my right hand finds it's way onto the wall....just to hold myself in place cause I'm totally unbalanced here and scared I'm gonna splip on this floor, fall inside the aquat hole and disappear! And with all that, I somehow manage to hold my head at one stage and exhale! I lack the photo....but I think you get the picture.

So yeah, maybe our hygiene precautions with food in the west ARE worth something....or maybe I just got carried away with adding 7 chillies to my food yesterday and it's come back to haunt me!

Pics of people

Chiang Mai: Typical street with a Bat in the cente
The Cooks : Teba, Gai, Deb & Susan
The Thai Adventurers: Cesar & Roxane in front of a Wat
Missing: Cindie & Lola.....in a few editions, hopefully.

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Phad Thai & Thom Yam Goong

So here's what I can confidently say I'll cook fopr ya when I return:

1) Phad Thai - Thai Fried Noodles (featured in the picture)
2) Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai - Green Curry with Chicken (featured in the picture - bowl)
3) Tom Yan Goong - Thai Hot & Sour Prawn Soup
4) Tord Man Plaa - Thai Style Fish Cakes (yum!)
5) Gaeng Garee Gai - Yellow Curry with Chicken
6) Hor Neung Plaa - Steamed Fish in banana Leaves (yummm!!!!)
7) Gai Phad Med Mamuang - Chicken with Cashew Nuts
8) Plaah Goong - Spicy Prawn Salad North Eastern Style (yummmm!)
9) Kluay Buad Chee - Bananas in Coconut Milk
10) Tab Ti Grob - Water Chestnuts in Syrup and Coconut Milk
11) Nam Prik Ong - Minced Pork Northern Style
12) Phad Siewe - Fried Big Noodles in Sweet Soy Sauce

...then come another 6 dishes I'll cook in wednesday's class. We do 6 courses per day. Today I followed my friends' advice and saved most of each and brought it back to the hotel. I've offered it to the owners of this place, that feels like home. I sit out here on the porch, in their chaise longue and love to just hang.

So I decided not to got to Laos. It would've been too stressful...cause it's 7 hours on a bus only to the border...plus another couple of hours to the town where we were gonna stay (and you know how I feel about that....my chinese night bus ordeal is way too recent in my mind still!). So I'll be keepin' in touch with my 3 Philippine ladies. who knows....I may extend my travels just so I can go to their resorts on what are considered the best island beaches on earth!

I start reflexology on Thursday! I'm thinking I may become a natural medicine & massage healer or something. I may even take a Reiki course nearby.

The smell of Thai aromatic rice

Amidst the car exhaust, the sound of sam lors, the swarms of Thais on scooters and the views of the river and moat in this city, smelling Thai aromatic rice on the streets of Chiang Mai is an experience in its own. Chiang Mai, although a city, has the feel of an island. The entire place is an array of small wooden houses and a few 2/3 storey buildings surrounded by blooming vegetation. Although it is landlocked, it has a moat surrounding the old town in the form of a square, and a river running through it so it is very easy to get used to cycling around the place. Life, once again, is on the street, and the selection of eateries is superb. Most everyone seems to own a barbecue and have cooking skills. The streets are filled with grilled fish and satay chicken, banan leaf parcels of sticky rice & banana, bags of fresh fruits and soaring daytime and nightime markets, where you can get anything from Thai trousers to a 30 minute foot massage for only 2 euros. There are plenty of lit huts with live music na drinks and most Thais speak some English which makes life SO MUCH EASIER!!! Of course, one makes the effort to master some key phrases but the fact that Thai is a tone language (like Chinese) means half the time I'm either saying something unintelligible or completely wrong!

Anyhow, I LOVE this place! Cindie, you were right!!!! So, what have I been up to? Well, first off, I met 3 girls in my guesthouse who are really cool. They all live in the Philippines, but only one of them is from there. The 2nd one is an American, raised in Hawaii and the 3rd one is half Japanese, half Austrian, raised in Australia and living in the Philippines too! How about that for cultural diversity! Anyway, we met in the guesthouses and did yesterday's cooking class together. They're off to Laos tomorrow and I am probably gonna go with them for 7 days to experience that. Everyone I've met is on their way to Laos. Looks like quite the place to visit among the traveller's network. Anyway, it's only a few hours away and it'll still give me time to come back to continue on my excursions. I've decided 2 days of cooking school is enough. You eat soo much that I am scared of doing 5 days, quite frankly, unless I am prepared to balloon and fall inside the wok. However, I will tell ya that I have, in just 24 hours, become an expert Thai cook and look forward to delighting you all with an array of local curries, steamed fish in banana leaf parcels, prawn salads, mango salads and other local delights like tom ga kai soup. The class is held in the restaurant owner's home in the Chiang Mai's countryside, in a bamboo pagoda area surrounded by mangroves! It is awesome and you eat everything you cook....if you want, of course! And you get the cookbook to go with it too!

So when I return from Laos, I'll do the second class, followed by my 3 days reflexology course. Then I plan on heading out 1 hour away to the Elephant Conservation Centre, for a 3 day home- stay where you bathe, feed and learn about these well revered animals and sleep in bamboo huts in the forest with them. You also get to ride them bare back on their neck, their strongest area (unlike the elephant chairs which dangerously sit in one of the elephant's weaker back areas). After that, I'll head down to Umphang to do a 5 day trek along the Mae Khlong River, (with rafting), camping by hot springs and trekking alongside typical Karen villages and visiting the Tee Lor Su Falls (200m high and 400m wide). I'll eventually make my way south to Khao Sok National Park where you sleep on treehouses, and then to do some sea kayaking in Krabi....and maybe some well deserved sunbathing and diving off the cost of Ko Phi Phi and Ko Tao islands. Thailand has so much to see this is just a start! Phew! I may have to stay here a bit longer when I return from Vietnam!

I've uploaded some links to some websites of interest for ya. Take care and keep reading!

Glorious Chiang Mai

Cindie, you were RIGHT! I LOVE THIS PLACE! I haven't even been here 24 hours and it's already made it's way under my skin! For starters, the warm air as I walked off the airplane, the smiles of the Thai Airways staff and the flowers everywhere..on their uniforms, in the airport, in the city....they've enchanted me. PERFECT TIMING! Last night, as I arrived, it was the night of Loy Krathong, a full mooon festival at the end of November that celebrates the ending of the rainy season. It is a festival that honours the spirits of the water at a time when all the fields are flooded and the rivers are overflowing. To honour the goddess of water, Thais put flowers in the waters of the river (basket floats made of banana leaves) and send paper ballons up into the air so the sky is filled with tea light looking dots. There are fire crackers and fireworks going all night long. It is magical.

I arrived last night and the first thing I did was join a group of girls staying at the hotel (Japanese, Aussie, Philippino and American) with Yo, our hotel driver and helper and went off to the moat (on the hotel pick up truck) to experience the festival 1st hand, light a ballon and walk around the night bazaar! I LOVED IT!!!! My hotel, a small guest house north of the old city, is a wonderfully laid back place, with a terrace on the bottom floor looking onto the street with laid back sofas and free internet. You have breakfast there and the people staying here, as well as the staff, are truly adorable. So I'm gonna head off to get my bearings and explore the city a bit. Tomorrow I begin a 5 day Thai cooking course at what is considered the best school in Chiang Mai....the owners of the "Wok Restaurant" hold the course in their restaurant as well as at their rural home in the outskirts of the city! (the latter in my case!)

Then I've had the best tip-off for an awesome local school to learn reflexology massage...my next activity. Looks like I'll be settling down here for a while!

Leaving friends behind...

First it was Pablo & Jerome...then it was Lola and Cindie. It is sad when you meet such great people and ither they or you move on with your travels. And yet...it is a blessing to encounter such marvelosu people along the road. WhenI first set out travelling I was TERRIFIED of doing it on my own, but it is people like these who make your trip worthwhile and enriching. Pablo and Jerome allowed me to tag along to their journey to Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge (probably the best part of my travels in China). They ensured I was watered and fed properly along the way so as not to wither away on the 28 bends....and of course they captured many of the wonderful moments on their lenses. Mostly, they made sure I was kept warm at night, well entertained with Johnnie Walker during the day and filled with hilarious conversation. Thanks guys!

Then There was Lola, my mexican girl...who came and went along the path to Lijiang but with whom there was a quick connection. A shame you're going back home Lola.....it would have been wonderful to do Thailand with you. Thanks for making sure I felt at home in the Kunming dorm...and that I survived the "bike tour" up to the Bamboo Temple in Kunming!! hahahaha, thatb crysanthemum tea and the on the spot cuisine was awesome!

Then came Cindie, my american idol! She dropped her job and her car 4 years ago and took off on a bike with her husband Tim...and they've been travelling since. They live off the profits of their website and their book and boy has shee got some great stories, tips and insights into the world and what makes people tick. Thanks Cindie for the 24 hours we spent together.....and for making sure I slept soundly to recover form the cold. I'll never forget breakfast at City Cafe with Lola and you, and your help getting 8 kilos outta my rucksack and into a post office box on its way back home. You're a star! It now weighs 20Kg instead of 28!!! (according to the airport scales). I am publising your website here as I am sure many of my friends and family would love to log on and take a look. http://www.downtheroad.org

Thank you all for making my tavels up to here unforgettable! Please keep in touch!

Chinese Sleeper Buses

Oh...the joys of bus travel in China. I have never liked travelling by bus, even on smooth "western" roads...so imagine what this was like. We boarded at 19h a bus that basically had three rows of beds running lengthwise....lower and upper levels. They were comfy enough in that they were soft, had a complimentary pillow and duvet (with a disney motif on it!) However, the highlight of the trip had to be the smell of feet, the cigarette smoke (cause people smoke freely) and the regular sound of spitting. I spent quite some time laughing hysterically! Probably the nerves of thinking I would have to put up with this for TEN HOURS!! The worst part was the road....it was bumby as hell, so there was very little sleeping going on and a lot of holding on to the bars on the side of each berth to avoid hitting my head on the roof of the bus! Needless to say, the existence of these bars, whilst enabling me to keep some part of my body in touch with the mattress, also meant I had to lie down like I was in a coffin, cause they were so narrow! Then after 2 hours of calming music, my iPod ran out of battery so I had no option but to look out the window and attempt sleep. Unsuccessful. I spent a few hours talking to a Dutch couple from Utrecht who were vacationing in China for 3 weeks and sleeping below me. They were equally astounded at the experience of the overnight sleeper bus. I arrived in Kunming this morning andas I stepped off the bus, I felt like I was gonna puke my brains out! Instead, I ended up getting a rather long run around town by a local cyclist with a push cart who was trying to take me to the hotel (but had no clue where it was). I got some fresh air, which made the qeuasiness subside...but then I had to jet to the nearest toilet....Oh lord, the toilets in this place are nothing short of a nightmare....particularly if they are public and on a 2nd floor above some street stall. I think the snails I ate yesterday in Lijiang, mixed with the bumper ride on the bus were a perfect cocktail. Thankfully, I made it to glorious Camellia hotel and slept for a few hours in the same dorm room as the last time. It felt like home, let me tell you. Welcome to the world of travel in China! Overall, a good experience to have. Wait till you see the pictures of the bus!

Baisha

This is a Naxi traditional village 15Km outside Lijiang. I went there by bike yesterday to spend the day and check things out. It is a rural community, mainly living off cultivating corn, keeping some livestock and mostly selling their crafts to tourists. It was a nice but rather long uphill bike ride there....and then I just strolled aroud noseing into people's courtyards. The Chinese build like the houses we have in Andalucia....few windows to the outside but a main courtyard in the centre. The doors are always open though....all of which kind of defines theChinese somehow. I've seen a lot of corn and chilli drying outdoors. The stgrawberries here are DELICIOUS! In fact, the other day, Jerome and I in one of our mishappen breakfast ordering sagas, ended up eating inly the strawberries we'd bought off a wandering naxi woman. People here follow you everythwere to sell you things..whether it be fruits, socks...etc.

You'll also see the picture of a child wearing that interesting outfit I remember describing previously.....the slit up the bum to allow them to urinate more easily (or that's my guess cause only a certain age kid wears them and my phrasebook seems to have missed the chapter on "questions of interest regarding local habits".

Other interesting things....women here sing away. There is no worry about whether they sing well or not. Everybody sings out loud on the street, in their shop, in their hotel, while on the internet etc. It's actually quite nice sine it is usually the traditional folk songs.

It continues to be cold here. Some random dude in the dorm the other night made me change rooms yesterday. I ended up paying for a single in the bottom floor and to my wondrful suprise, it had a heating blanket! I was over the moon. Only this morning, the hot water wasn't working so I had to go out and use the communal showers...which is fine cause they're usually quite good, very hot and have lotsof power. All fun and games. The best is yet to come though. Tonight I take the overnight sleeper bus back to Kunming (10h drive). These are apparently like sleeper trains but in bus format...i.e. you have beds. I'll let you know what that's like. I'm not keeping my hopes up cause Jerome toldme a nightmare tale of his journey...a lot of feet smells and cigarette smoker smells..an lots fo snoring. Oh well....you gotta try it all, eh?

Anyway, I leave you with some pics rom yesterday. Many kisses. Teba

Black Dragon Pool Park Lijiang

I saw this picture in the Lonely Planet guide to China, soI decided I was coming to this place....alors me voila!!

The Gorge - trek day 2

Day 2: nothing to do with day 1!!! It was pretty much flat and downhill. But the fun only began once we decided to go down and trek on the paved road to the ferry. We trekked for 2 hours until we got to Tina's Guesthouse for a Naxi sandwich lunch - in all honesty, more of a western concoction than anything exotic; a sandwich is a sandwich. We then took off towards the ferry. When we asked how long it would take, we got varying replies. However, we had to be in Daju, the village on the other side of the ferry crossing, by 18:00h to catch the 3 hour bus that would take us back to Lijiang.

We were told that it was 17 km, then we were told it would take us 7 hours! Incredulous, we started off on foot. And after 2 hours walking pretty quick down the road and not having gone that far by the looks of things, we decided to hitch a ride to the ferry post. At the rate we were going, we'd still be walking to the ferry post three days from now. Below is a picture of the guys who picked us up. We were sitting on the back of a random vehicle, atop bags of wheat and rice, or so we think. We must've saved about 2 hours walking. 30 Yuan poorer, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere and assured that crossing the fields, we would eventually get to the ferry crossing and eventually Daju. hmmmm....

Not believing a word and starting to plan our night camping in the middle of the fields, we managed to make ourselves understood via sign language with the local field workers, who assured us we were following the right path. We eventually got to the edge of the cliff overlooking the river and saw the ferry at a distance......METRES AND METRES BELOW! We had to make our way down the steep path to the edge (not too bad) where we met with three locals, their 2 cows and their spare donkey, also waiting to cross. The crossing was spectacular, if not my own personal nightmare inside cause I was getting closer to the other side where I would have to trek BACK UPWARDS what I had descended previously. Not only that but on a time watch cause we only had 20 minutes to spare before the bus!!! One of the 80year old locals and his donkey passed me on the way up - embarrassed at my obvious lack of fitness, I thought, surely, he must do this everyday!!! I was still mortified. I did make it somehow. The human body, the human spirit and the need to survive prevailed like never before in me at that moment!

But when we got to the top, the bus had left ... many hours before!! and there was no other bus until the following day. Pablo signed his way with a local who led us for another 45 minute walk up to the town to figure out either a place to stay or a rather expensive chartered taxi ride back to Lijiang. After much negotiating and a few hundred Yuan less, we managed to get a guy to drive us up the "snow mountain cliff" to Lijiang. Now this van was also something else.....I'll spare you the details but just picture a 2.5h drive at 50km per hour uphill on a gravel road climbing a mountain.

Mom....you called me when we were already safe on the main road and only 20 minutes from Lijiang! It was wonderful to hear your voice! We made it safely and decided to get all dressed up and celebrate our magnificent adventure, and survival!

Tiger Leaping Gorge - trek day 1

The first pic is the view during our 1st day of trekking. The 2nd pic is the path on the 2nd day!!

Tiger Leaping Gorge is much more than what "the book" described. We did it in 2 days because Pablo had to catch a flight back on Saturday. Most people, the wise ones, do it in 3 or 4.

I thought I was fit for it and as it turned out, I am not sure whether the lack of sleep and the hangover from the previous night are to blame. But on day one I felt like I was a Ducados chain smoker with altitude sickness trying to climb the Himalayas. Of course I don't smoke, I am in China and this wasn't high enough for altitude sickness. We were at 2600m trekking alongside the 1st bend of the Yangtze river. We were really lucky cause the weather was awesome. However, day one was a 5 hour long trek, non stop!!! AND, it was all uphill. But wait, not just a bit of an up hill trek. It was a pretty steady up/hill slope for 3 hours. AND THEN, when you thought it couldn't get any worse, IT DID! We came across a local Chinese man who rents his donkey for those about to perish from exhaustion, and asked where we were on our obviously off-scale map. We thought we'd already passed the 28 bends - the trail turns into a 90 degree steep-as-hell winding path with 28 bends, although I think it was more like 128 but whatever - and alas, he made it quite clear we hadn't even started the 28 bend climb. I thought I would lose it and was pretty close to calling my International SOS card rescue number to request a helicopter airlift outta that place! As it turns out, Pablo, my knight in shining armour, helped me make it, by carrying my little rucksack, which only weighed about 4 kilos but felt like it weighed 40! He also trekked more slowly so I wouldn't feel so unfit and like I was holding them back on their pace. I also met Erin, from Wisconsin, along the way. She's teaching English and had decided to trek with her colleague Jesse, who had passed us 5 minutes before. I was relieved to find she also stopped for breath every 9 steps uphill.

I cannot even begin to describe to you the feelings and thoughts going through my head...in that spectacular scenery that I couldn't quite enjoy as much as I would've liked on the 1st day. Instead of looking around me and taking in all that beauty, all I could look at was the floor, the space for my next step and think about my pounding heart that seemed like it would break free through my chest. Of course, when is started getting dark and we had but 40 minutes left to arrive to our mid mountain retreat, the Tea Horse Guest House, things all of a sudden turned on the bright side, we got to the summit and then it was pretty much straight and partially downhill from there. 6 or 7 lines doesn't do the climb justice but I'll have to tell you the tale in person when I see you next. We arrived at Tea Horse, exhausted, only to find Erin & Jesse, Eric the Swede, a 70 year old Canadian bloke, and a few others, smoking the fresh marihuana that was growing wildly everywhere!!!!! I confess I couldn't even move by the time I got there and my chest was so worn from the heavy breathing and pounding heart, that the thought of smoking anything was the last thing on my mind. So I put it in my tea instead!!! I don't think I put enough in there for a proper effect, or maybe I was too tired to notice it. I did however manage to take my dusty, sweated, originally white but now turned dark brown socks and sweater off to shower in a hut in the middle of the forest! It had a solar panel so I managed to somehow survive the 5 minute clothing removal process before I succumbed to the glorious haven that is a hot shower in moments like these. OH THANK GOODNESS!!! So then I had a warm bowl of apple and banana rice porridge, which tasted like heaven.....and off to bed.

Waking up the following morning was nothing short of bliss. We were in the middle of the forest, surrounded by fresh air, mountains, marihuana smell galore and a blinding sun to welcome us to our glorious trek on day 2.

3 MUSKETEERS

OK, so here are my two bodyguards: Pablo & Jerome!!! And we are the 3 Musketeers, or at least that's the name on our bottle of Johnnie Walker at the bar in Lijiang!

We met in Kunming, at the Camellia Hostel, and the rest is history. We all flew to Lijiang to face the Tiger Leaping Gorge together! It was amazing and thank goodness they were there to keep an eye on me and hold my hand through the dangerous cliffs otherwise "methinks I wouldnee be heeah to tell the storee!"

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LIJIANG

Bueno...AL FIN PUEDO METER FOTOS!!!!!!!

No he logrado darle la vuelta a esta otra porque estan las instrucciones en Chino, ni puedo poner acentos, pero bueno, os haceis una idea. Al fin he encontrado la China tradicional que buscaba. Lijiang es un pueblo antiguo en las montanas del sur donde viven muchas minorias etnicas chinas. Una de ellas, la Naxi, es la mas predominante aqui. La cultura Naxi es tradicionalmente matriarcal. Tienen una cosa que se llama el "walking marriage". Es decir que no se casan sino que son libres de escoger a cuantas parejas quieran a lo largo de su vida. El hombre elegido pasa la noche en la "alcoba" de la mujer Naxi, y a la manana siguiente se vuelve andando a casa de su madre a seguir son sus tareas del dia a dia. Por eso lo llaman "walking marriage".

Oops I just realised I had written all that in Spanish! Since some of you only read English I will continue in English. I have posted some links on my blog (right hand navigation bar below the members/contributors list, where you can read up some more on the Naxi ethnic minority from this part of China. It is VERY interesting.

OK, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I HAVE PRESSED BUT NOW IT'S ALL IN CAPS AND CANNOT GET RID OF THEM. I'M HERE FOR A FEW DAYS, IN THIS IDYLLIC MOUNTAIN TOWN CALLED LIJIANG, WHERE I WILL BE CHECKING THE WEATHER BEFORE HEADING UP TO DO THE 3 DAY TREK OVER TIGER LEAPING GORGE. I AM DOING IT WITH 3 OTHER PEOPLE I HAVE MET ON MY WAY...JEROME, LOLA AND PABLO. I'LL WRITE MORE SOON!!!

RAIN

You guys! I have so much to tell I could spend all day writing! Many of you want to know more about the feeling of being here: smells, sights, sensations. Others want to know more about the shopping experience. I'm gonna try to go into more detail on all this and more, getting a bit more into the nitty gritty of what I've seen so far. Don't start reading this unless you have a good 20/30 minutes to spare cause this promises to be a lengthy tale.

Xiushi market was hilarious!! No, they don't take credit cards, it's cash only, so you have a wad of bills to negotiate with. You have bills for half a yuan (5 cents of a Euro), 1 yuan (10 cents of a Euro), etc. up to 100 yuan which seems like a fortune (and yet for us it's only 10 Euros). However, the bills are red, which in my head is associated to danger so anything nearing this amount must be looked at carefully, particularly in China, where everything is so cheap. We got caught in the excitement of the first stall by the entrance on day one. They had imitation Custo shirts of all kinds. We hadn't walked half a metre and were already negotiating prices. We couldn't try them but even so, I ended up buying 3 shirts. As it turns out, when I tried them on, I didn't like how they looked so I had to go beg for an exchange the following day. I got a Polo imitation sweater in black in return, for about 12 Euros. Hilarious cause the sweater says "100% cashmere"... what a nerve!!! You touch the thing and it's at least 50% polyester!!! However, I couldn't really see anything else I wanted so...

Then we moved on upstairs to the jacket ssection. I was reminded of my friend Marta, who travels here quite often and once told me I'd be able to buy and entire new set of ski clothes for a bargain price! I didn't really need another ski jacket, but I couldn't get me eyes off a grey & light pistachio colour green one with an inside zip off fleece, imitation of North Face. I haggled it down from 1800 Yuan (180 Euros) to 400 yuan (40 Euros). But then, I was very jealous to see Maica, super negotiatrix, haggle hers down to 300 yuan! Damn, she's good!! You should have seen her! We walked into another place one day that also had stores but that wasn't the haggling type place, and she wanted out claiming it felt like, the people didn't really want her custom! hahaha.

Now, a bit on China and how this place feels. I have to say, so far, the GREAT WALL climb has been the most exhilirating adventure. China is somewhat different, but terribly similar to what we know the west to be. It's striking to be walking down an alley here. The street, although paved, is full of dust and stone where the buildings are literally falling apart, where everything is dirty, the lighting is dim, and there are pot holes everywhere. Then you look up and across that same street, on the other sidewalk, is a bright, neon-lit skyscraper with pristine glass windows, at least 40 stories high. It's like being in Kosovo and NYC all at once. It's not all like that, but those kind of contrasts are apparent everywhere.

I am not sure how to describe China. At times I find myself in the most developed street, with 6 lane wide avenues, tall modern buildings and nice landscaped gardens lining the sidewalk. Here I feel like I could be anywhere in a US city (cause European streets are never that large). But then, I turn into a small street, more like an alley comparatively, and I enter the land of smoke, where I pass by 1001 stalls selling snacks and dumplings, where the steam of the kitchen slowly penetrates your skin and sinks through to your tummy. The dragon in my stomach awakens with a growl here; everything looks sooo good, despite the dirtiness of the walls and floor surrounding the place. There are bamboo steam pots everywhere, all cooking up dumplings and other delicacies. The street is lined full of huge brightly-coloured signs in Chinese leaving the meaning to my imagination. The roof of these places is low, and here I feel like I am transported back 60 or 70 years. Many of the buildings are a mix of 70's style soviet blocks and London tenement housing from the 20's, or so it would seem based on the films I've watched. The streets are full of rusty bikes, cooks in their uniforms, children playing with whatever they can find on the floor, and the odd dog. NO cats though..hmmmm I wonder where they are!

China is polluted as one cannot imagine. I never thought I would be able to fully understand what that feels like until I got here. When you are in the towns - well, not really towns as such since most of them are larger than Barcelona - you breathe in a mix of dust, carbon dioxide from the truck exhaust pipes and steam from the nearby dumpling restaurant! I've had to resort to my allergy medicine on a daily basis and a good wad of tissues to keep my black boggies at bay. I know this is disgusting, but you guys asked for the details. Now, about the spitting: yes, it's true, people spit ALL the time. Thank you Marta (again) for warning me about this. I do believe that the pollution causes this as people seem to have phlegm on a perennial basis. I have followed the Spanish saying of "allá donde fueres haz lo que vieres" so I indeed have done a bit of street spitting myself!!! hahaha I think I've still got a bit of practising to do though, cause most of the time, I end up with the stuff on me!! ("must project further, must project further"). I have tried to capture the sight of even the oldest of ladies spitting right beside me, but somehow I can never catch someone doing that roaring gurgle sound pre spit at the time I am filming. My camera is suffering here. I am not sure whether it is dying on me or what, but I am considering getting another one. I am hoping some of what I have captured in the past few days will make it safe and sound.

I've managed to catch a cold, don't ask me how. I think the 3 hour trek up to the Bamboo Temple yesterday did it. It wasn't cold but I hadn't gotten much sleep the past 2 nights. I met this really nice Mexican girl at the hostel and so we rented two bikes, more like two pieces of rusty metal creaking at every turn of the chain and without gears - surprising in a country like China where so many people ride. As per usual, we ventured on a 16km ride that we thought would be a breezed of flatland, only to find it was a 3 hour uphill trek. For those who know, this would be like climbing up Valvidrera mountain in Barcelona, but remember the equipment we had hired! Needless to say, we had to dismount and walk uphill dragging the so called bikes with us. I do feel very fit with all this walking though, and I felt like I earned my lunch at the Tibetan temple. My ass, on the other hand, is not too fond of these events. I think I may be developing a permanent bruise and blister on my ass! I dare not look at my rear in the mirror at nights. Instead, I observe how rapidly my hair is growing back, and wonder whether it is true I will eventually shave it again in a few weeks.

I cam across the saddest sight last night. Upon returning the bikes at 7PM and getting our 100 Juan deposit back, we walked past a McDonalds and Carrefour in what looked like London's Picadilly Circus; a square full of neon lights, large colourfully-lit advertisements of cosmetics and clothing and beautifully landscaped gardens - yes I am still in China. As we walked further down the sidewalk, and the light grew dimmer, we happened upon two children, no more than 4 years old, kneeling down on the sidewalk, with their faces turned to the cold stone, begging. For what? I don't know. I couldn't read the sign that lay before them, nor could I hear their voices. They lay still, in the cold evening air. And I stopped and stared and looked around and wondered what I could do? Whether I could get them some warm food or a blanket. What could I do? I began to cry, at a loss for words or action, like paralised. Lola, my Mexican friend explained how giving them food or clothing would only perpetuate their begging....and so unwillingly, I walked away, feeling like a piece of shit, actually, and realising how spoiled we are and how unfair things can be in this world. We commented on how the parents were probably using the children as bait for the more affluent who felt pity, and how horrible that was. Nothing so far has touched me like the sight of those children, not much older than my nephew, at their own risk, or maybe at the service of some pimp, begging on the street on a chilly November evening. Thanksgiving will have a far deeper meaning for me this year, and I will forever wonder whether I did the right thing by walking away.

Today it's raining and I have stayed in, taking some meds and dedicating some time to all those of you who patiently read my blogs with interest. I have bought my ticket to Lijiang for tomorrow where I will be trekking the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and where I hope to find a more traditional piece of China where the Cultural Revolution has not completely erased tradition, customs, architecture and history, like it appears to have done everywhere else I've been to.

Xiushui Market, bargains and anecdotes

We spent the best part of our last 3 days in Xiushui market - a covered building with 5 floors full of stalls selling everything from shoes, to silk PJ's, to Louis Vuitton bags to Custo shirts to North Face Ski gear & luggage...the list is endless. Most everything is a knock-off and the law of the land is "haggle, haggle, haggle!"....so we did! Maica has become the world's best negotiator. She had a whole system going, with some very funny set phrases she soon realised did the trick to get her silk robes reduced from 1800 RMB (180 euros) down to 125 RMB (12.5 euros!!!) Incredible. I have to say the fact that my bag was packed to the rim and that I am traveling for 3 months was a shopping buzz killer, otherwise I would've ended up with half the market packed in various suitcases. This is the only place we could actually make ourselves understood. We shopped to the anxious cries of sales girls, most under 18, enticing you to their stall via comments such as "Hola amiga, balato balato for you amiga. You very sexy amiga...very nice". Ha!!! I got my butt felt up by various women on various occasions and Maica had a girl literally pulling her top up to take a good look at her boobs!!! It was pretty funny. They were soo cute and they spoke so many different languages that one couldn't help but feel comfy around them.

The Chinese are the most industrious people I have ever known. They work non stop all day, every day. And EVERYONE works...men AND women, unlike some other countries I've visited. I believe there must be at least one restaurant and one clothing shop for every 5 people in this city. You're spoiled for choice. The fun starts when you land yourself in a place where the staff not only speak ONLY Mandarin, but where the menu is all Chinese characters. Take the mandarin phrase book out, attempt to pronounce and see what happens: usually, a look of "what on earth did you just say?". However, the Chinese people we've come across are REALLY patient and very eager to help. So eventually, you end up getting more or less what you thought you'd asked for ... well most times.

So, here are some anecdotes about things that have surprised us. Aside from how friendly and hard working they are, the Chinese love to advertise everything in large, colourful banners, and always have red lanterns outside their stores/restaurants, without exception. They drive like mad and the car is king, so even if you are on a bike and it's your turn to cross, beware of the left turn drivers who ignore their light completely. We did find however that it was OK to drive against traffic on the bike lane. Nobody says anything, not even the police. Little kids are super cute. We did find some of them with a rather peculiar attire: a pant outfit that had a slit right up the butt. I wonder whether it is to allow them to pee more comfortably? I don't see a lot of diapers around here and this is, after all, a more natural and eco-friendly way to potty train. Public toilets ... ah, the public toilets!! Hey, at least they're everywhere, especially in the 'hutongs' or traditional neighbourhoods, so we gathered it was because there were none within the households. Your average toilet is a squat toilet; not much of a surprise after my trip to India 2 years ago. And, I've been told squatting is the body's natural way of , ahem, 'releasing' , if you know what I mean, so all good. We taped a hilarious video one night when Maica got stuck in one of these. Anyway, thanks to the sage advice of my Mother and my friend Heather, the wet wipes have come with me everywhere. Whereas in India at least there was a faucet handy, here, there is just the hole... looking straight at ya! Wipes: I cannot think of a better invention for the modern day traveler! I went to the Temple of Heaven Park today and saw a choir of Chinese men and women singing traditional song in the middle of the afternoon on a very cold but sunny November day. They were surrounded by 50+ men and women playing chess, cards and other board games. There was a whole section beside one of the paths that recommended healthy lifestyle through a series of large banners spanning about 500m length. I don't read Chinese but the pictures were quite telling. Eat healthy, cut down on wine & cigarettes, run or walk daily, etc. We also get to see staff in restaurants and other places doing jumping jacks on the side walk, early in the morning and dressed with their uniforms. At the end of the day, the staff eat from the restaurant leftovers. We were privy to one such event in Datong. They all brought their tin pots and chopsticks out, gathered en masse around a huge table and picked from their favourite dish.

Anyway, my taxi is here to take me to the airport. I fly out to Kunming tonight and will be staying at the Camellia Hotel: Mom: here's the number> +86 0871 316 3000 Many kisses to all. Will write more soon.

DATONG

On Wednesday we ventured into the country by way of a 5 hour sleeper train to Datong. The train was quite comfy, with excellent duvets and pillows!! We made the terrible mistake of trusting the station restaurant before boarding. I thought I had ordered a broth/soup but instead got hot water with raw tomato and curd floating in it! Rocio's rice had too much "chopped de gato" and tasted like it had been cooked last week. So we figured we'd splurge on the cafeteria on board ... only to find it was closed. We purchased what we thought was a bottle of red wine - for consolation - but it turned out to be sickeningly sweet grape juice, perhaps bottled in 1982! So we ended up munching Ritz crackers and Donettes which we had bought by chance at a street stall a few hours before. The following morning, we arrived in Datong and decided to go to the nearby hotel for a continental breakfast buffet. I think we ate half their food supplies! Maica had the best fried egg and bacon sarnie she's ever eaten. It was breakfast from heaven. I ate 5 pieces of toast, half a plate of fruit and loads more! While the city of Datong itself is truly horrible - coal mining city = everything balck, including the boggies coming out of our noses all day!! However, the reason for our visit were the magnificent Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery 1 hour away by bus. I have never seen anything like this before. A Qing dynasty wooden monastery carved out on a rock overlooking a dam. It was built as an offering to mother nature for it's ever so frequent floods. It has survived numerous earthquakes and floods and lies solitary in a canyon of overturned rock. It is spectacular. The caves, on the other side of town, were the location where several dynasties carved out Buddhas during the Ming and Qing dynasties. You walk into a cave and all of a sudden you are standing at the feet of a 60 metre high statue of a Buddha with carvings surrounding it all over the roof and sides. There are 55 caves like this in the entire area and they have been named a National Heritage site. Another wonder of human art. (I have pics of all this....will load asap). That night, we went to what we understand is the region's best restaurant and indeed, our Lonely Planet guide did not lie. We enjoyed the best stew yet, with noodles like only Jenny used to make back home when I was 11 years old (pansit) and some amazing dumplings! We continued in our quest to find a bottle of drinkable red wine. This time it was "Great Wall of China" wine.... aged5 years. Dare I say it tasted like its name would have you think it tasted! ...yeah...the Chinese don't do wine. (I may end up becoming a fan of beer. The beer here is really quite good).

BONZ's Travel Antics

mi pequeno saltamontes.....no nos escribes nada y nos tienes aqui en ascuas!!!!!!! que es eso de estar tres dias sin saber cuantos escalones mas has tenido que subire!!!! no podeerrrr esperarrrrrr.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Ohhh ... what we experienced today was out of a movie - not sure if thriller, sci fi, comedy or maybe all in one. We took a 3 hour long taxi journey to a remote location of the wall for a 10Km trek to Simatai. The trek takes 4 hours. We took 5! But only cause we were so in awe of the place. There were 30 watch-towers to climb and let me tell you, the Lonely Planet guide (which we didn't pay much attention to) was right. This is not for the faint hearted! After tower 5, the wall is derelict in most places and has uphill, uneven steps at 90 degree angles and over 60cm high!!! I'm not kidding ... AT ALL! We were chased by Mongolian farmers who trek daily attempting to sell you water, postcards, books and t-shirts. Most are over 50 years old and carry the stuff on their back. It is surreal and somewhat sad. However, their insistence - for which they deserve a prize - pays off, 'cause after 2 hours of trekking uphill and outta breath, you've drunk all the water you were carrying with you so you're ready to pull the wallet out. These men and women even help you up parts of the wall! Not so sad after all. Of course, you end up buying a bottle, or two, some postcards and whatever else these people have pulled up here for you. The sight from the Wall is unbelievable! You're at nearly 3000m above sea level at one point. Forget the documentaries you've seen! The Wall is mostly in ruins and full of stairs; none of those rolling stone paved paths. Anyway, my camera has been playing up for 2 days so I'm getting a new one. My tow friends who are only here for a few more days will help me post the pics. They are astonishing! So we got back at 20:00hrs and got a 1hr Chinese foot massage that revived the hell out of our tired and shaking legs. It was totally worth it. More soon. Love y'all!　

1st days in CHINA

Firstly, it's a miracle I navigated myself into this page cause this PC is all in Chinese!!! Beijing is amazing! The people are ALL soooooooo nice and patient, it is unreal. Nobody speaks English really, and most of the signs (if not all) are only in Chinese, so it's tough getting around; it takes about 5 x longer. However, everybody is happy to help, even if they do not understand you. Not sure my bad Chinese pronunciation helps but....
We are getting fabulous weather - 18 degrees C - in the daytime and lots of sunshine. Today we saw the Forbidden City: a city indeed!! No wonder the Emperor and his concubines & wives never left the place! It took us all day to get around, and we still hadn't seen it all. It is over 270,000sq m and dates back to the 1400's. I'll try to download the pics at some point. Our booties hurt from biking our way around the city and burning down the Peking duck we ate before going to the Beijing Opera & acrobatics show in a traditional tea house. Beijing has the largest avenues I have ever seen; 12 lanes wide! And the bike lane is like 2 Barcelona car lanes put together! Driving is mad. Spanish driving is a breeze compared to this, but we quickly got the hang of it. :-) More news after we climb the Great Wall in Simatai tomorrow!

Overnight in London

Well, unfortunately, I got delayed leaving Barcelona today so I missed my connection to Beijing. Fortunately, my brother Luis was there keeping me very good company. I'm on tomorrow's flight! (Yipee) So now I am in the airport hotel writing away on my blog cause I'm addicted. I'll be hitting Kensington High Street tomorrow for some treats before I board my flight at 4PM. BA gave me a lovely overnight care pack with some very much needed smellies and creams (stuff girls love). But the Rochas shower gel and the clean t-shirt have got to be by far the best thing in there! I don't even think burning my current t-shirt would get rid of its stench! Ciao

BON VOYAGE

HOLA SOBRINITA!!!!
COMO NO TIENES Q LLEVAR NI BLOW DRYER, NI CEPILLO Y LACA PARA CARDARTE EL PELO.........HABER SI ME LLEVAS PARTE DEL TRAYECTO???????
I AM NOT REALLY SURE HOW THIS BLOGGIN WORKS, I'M A VIRGIN AT THIS......
WELL, JUST WANTED TO WISH YOU ALL THE BEST, PLEASE STAY SAFE........AND KEEP US POSTED......
CUIDATE MUCHO
BESOS
LA TIA BUENA

3 days before departure

Hey everyone!
Most of you probably know by now that I shaved my hair off! But just in case you didn't, here's a picture for ya! It's a great idea for my trip; no need to take the blow dryer, worry about dry hair or dark roots. Mostly, I'll get to grow my own true colour hair back in full splendour. And you know what? I've got no room in my backpack for anything other than a mosquito net, an insect repellant, my camera and my travel books! I'll keep checking my e-mail but this is the spot to look at if you want to follow my travel antics!
Beijing here we come!

Shaved head!

Here it is! Shaved head to "1". All of a sudden, my white hairs seem to be very visible! You like?