We spent less than a week in Thailand, and started to wonder at this point, if we should have just spent our entire 6 week vacation exploring all of Thailand. We couldn’t back out then, because all of our plane tickets were bought and paid for, so we woke up bright and early, made our way to the Phuket airport and flew to the LCCT Kuala Lumpur airport. The LCCT airport is about 90 minutes outside of Kuala Lumpur, so we took a shuttle bus into town. From the shuttle bus, it was one stop away on the transit rail to the center of town, where out hostel was. We dropped our stuff off at the Matahari lodge, then went exploring for food. 10 meters away from our hostel was Kasturi walk where we found plenty of food and handy crafts to exlpore.This is a mangosteen: the only fruit whose name was worth remembering to us. The exterior is thick and will dye your fingers purple, while the iridescent white, multi-lobed interior is reminiscent of a bulb of garlic. Its sweet, tangy, tart, and somewhat stringy flesh boosted our energy, so we bought some daily before we headed out to wander through the humid city. Nothing refreshes a sweat-sodden body like fresh fruit.

Enjoying the juice of this coconut and flesh of coconut daily. Wow, we sound like carnivores in this caption. 

This fish spa is a popular way to relax in Asia. Scores of small fish nibble at the patrons’ feet to remove dead skin. It makes your feet softer, improves circulation, and makes for some very entertaining videos of people squirming. The first 10 minutes were the hardest, but once we started to relax, we could even spread our toes and let the fish eat the skin in between. We have plenty of hysterical laughing photos.

High fives for Mao outside an art museum. 

The population of Kuala Lumpur is Malay, Chinese, and Indian. We decided that we were going to avoid Chinese food at all costs so we ate Indian food almost exclusively. We went back to this restaurant over and over because it was so delicious, and totally vegetarian. 

The next day we went to the Batu Caves to see the Thaipusam festival. The whole square below the staircase up to the caves was packed with people and trash, with loud music drowning out most other sounds. The Hindu festival culminates at the Batu Caves, they are the destination of a pilgrimage that is attended by over one million devotees. The Batu Caves are one of the most important Hindu sites outside of India and they are the focal point of the Thaipusam festival, which is devoted to the Lord Murugan (the Tamil name for the Son of Shiva). It was worth checking out, despite the overwhelming crush of people, because the religious fervor is an interesting spectacle- there were parades of people carrying offerings in bronze vessels on their heads, parades of men carrying platforms on their shoulders laden with figures of gods and bristling with bright green peacock feathers. Each of these platforms had thin metal chains coming down from the top which attached to the men’s backs, shoulders, and chests with large fish hooks that pierced their skin. Some of them had small silver spears that pierced both cheeks to prevent them from talking for the duration of the multi-day festival so that they can focus on God. Many of the participants fast for 48 days prior to the festival and then follow the 15 km long parade route that ends at the Caves. Many of the participants, particularly those with some kind of flesh mortification, looked like they were in some kind of trance, possibly stimulated by the focused religious devotion and the mouthful of leaves they were chewing.   The press of people filling into this relatively small area proved to be too much for us so we left after wandering for only about an hour. And by wandering I mean taking short shuffling steps because that was as fast as we could go in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.

After lunch and about an hour of reading and relaxing at the hostel, we went out again to check out the Butterfly garden in a very lush part of town. The area also houses an orchid garden, hibiscus garden, and the world’s largest free-flight aviary. We visited the butterfly garden and then walked up a hill to the aviary. The walk was lovely.

The street was quiet, the road lined with broad-leaved palms and other tropical plants, and the sky darkening for the afternoon’s downpour. As we walked toward the information desk of the aviary, we were greeted by a troop of monkeys that climbed over the gate to gobble up the small bananas that a family was throwing to them. There were a number of tiny babies clinging to their mothers (or trying to walk away only to be reined in by their tails) and larger males with shaggy beards.

It started raining on us on our walk back to the hostel. The feeling of cold rain drops in the thick humid air felt good, so we opted out of waiving down a taxi and continued our walk. Luckily our shoes were able to dry by the morning and we headed to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. Birds from all over south-east Asia flew around us. Some were in smaller cages, and some in larger enclosed areas, but the majority were able to fly around the 21 acre park freely.

We spent 4 hours wandering at the bird park, then an hour at the botanical garden. Upon leaving we realized how very hungry we were. The night before we researched all the vegan restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. The best rated and cheapest were always Indian restaurants which didn’t bother us at all. For most of our meals in Kuala Lumpur we ate off of a leaf for a plate. We wanted to use our hands to eat, but the lack of soap in all public (and private) bathrooms made us think twice about that notion. The restaurant offered us spoons without us even having to ask.

The remainder of the time we spent in Kuala Lumpur was dedicated to resting up for the next chapter of the adventure. After a couple weeks of exploring, we needed some down time. We chatted with other people at the hostel, ate plenty of Indian food, finished books and then traded them for new reads at the hostel’s book exchange. We remembered how good it felt to read and spent every spare moment of the rest of our trip with book in hand. 5 days after landing in Kuala Lumpur, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Leaving the Xi’an Airport to Thailand was expectedly more complicated than it should have been. When we arrived at terminal 2, we didn’t see any signs for international departures, so we asked a woman at the information desk. She said we had to go to Terminal 3. We walked to terminal 3 and again didn’t see any signs for international departures. Employees insisted that we would find the check-in at terminal 2. We walked back and stood in the Air Asia line but the man thought we were going to Taiwan, not Thailand. When he couldn’t find our information, he left the desk and asked another employee for help. He then came back and walked us to a very narrow, unmarked hallway that would take us to the international departure check-in. These types of organizational difficulties are all too common in China.The Xi’an airport had signs for their sleep boxes (¥150/hr), but no signs for international departure check-ins.We arrived in Bangkok very late, we took a cab to our hostel and went to find food. Just a few doors down we found a lovely restaurant with delicious curry, fried lemon grass, and Leo beer. Thai green curry is one of our favorite foods so having it in Thailand was a real treat!  We went back to the hostel and met a our only roommate, Sjur from Norway. We had so much in common that we became instant friends. The three of us stayed up late talking about everything from politics to our mutual love of the TV show Lost. We decided that we would go sightseeing the next day together. We took the subway to the train station to book tickets to Phuket, then hopped on a tuk tuk (a three wheeled auto rickshaw) for a tour of the city. The tuk tuk driver dropped us off at a small pier so we could go on a boat tour of the canals of old town Bangkok. We saw lavish temples every 100 meters which clearly took a lot of money to build and maintain. Surrounding these temples were dilapidated houses with children running in, out, and around, while the adults would happily smile at the tourists snapping photos of the disparity.  Every house has a mini shrine outside to protect their house and welcome fortune. Even though many of the houses were in tatters, the shrine was always immaculate. 

We then headed to the Grand Palace, which was built in 1782 as the residence for the Kings of Siam and later it was the residence for the Thai kings. The current king lives in a private palace, but this one is still used for special events and is open to tourists year-round.We see this kind of thing in China all the time so it was funny to see it in Thailand too.

This is a monitor lizard, the second largest lizard species in the world. They were everywhere in Bangkok, especially near the waterways. We found them basking in the sun beside the canals or sliding into the murky water to swim, their bodies oscillating like a snake. They have powerful limbs, long claws, and long necks, which makes their head resemble snakes, which are close relatives of the monitor lizards. Unlike most other lizards, monitor lizards are venomous, an indication that snakes and monitors share a common ancestor.  Relaxing in the park while Sjur worked out at the free outdoor gym. This gym was so cool- there were weights of all varieties, large mirrors, and other exercise equipment that were free for the public. We were disinclined to join him because the place was filled with really muscly guys who made us self-conscious. Plus, it was Thailand in the middle of the afternoon, so it was very hot outside. 

After visiting the Grand Palace, where we had to wear long sleeved linen shirts and pants, we decided to explore a little. Sjur really wanted to check out the Muay Thai boxing arena so we took a Tuk Tuk to the Lumpinee arena. There we discovered that the tickets for the night’s bout were $75 per person. Disappointed, we started to walk to find something else to do. We had walked for about 5 minutes when Sjur turned to us and said that he really wanted to see the match but didn’t want to go alone so he offered to pay for our tickets. Astounded by his generosity we objected until he convinced us that he was more than happy to buy our tickets because he could afford to do so and he enjoyed our company. The icing on the cake: he decided to go all out and buy us front row seats.

Muay Thai is a form of martial arts that is popular worldwide for its kickboxing technique that combines punches, elbows, kicks, knees, and foot thrusts. The most special part is the ritualized praying and dancing that occurs before each match, when the fighters are praying for victory as well as psyching out their opponent. At this arena, the fighting was accompanied by a special song that played during each match. Each match was five rounds and the matches began with younger fighters and progressed through the weight classes. Because the matches were each five rounds, the first few rounds were calmer and the last two were where the action happened. The spectators would place bets on whichever boxer had proven himself worthy in the first few rounds, and would become louder and louder as the match progressed. The fourth and fifth rounds were electrified with energy. Everyone screamed one word in unison for punches, and another word for kicks. We soon joined in choosing sides and screaming with them. Some of the fighters left the ring bloodied from elbows to the face and one was knocked out by repeated knees to the kidneys.

The next day we explored and slowly made our way to the train station to catch an all night train to Surat Thani, with the intention of catching a connecting bus to Phuket. Tuk tuks. We found this amazing vegan restaurant around the corner from the train station. Coconut curry served in a coconut! You can find it, and other vegan restaurants in whichever city you want, on happycow.net.The train ride was fun for the most part. Although it was old fashioned, with a wooden paneled interior, ineffectual rotating fans on the ceiling, and kind of rickety, we were amused by the prospect of traveling in this way. Less amusing was the fact that we were delayed by two hours because one of the train cars had to be changed because its brakes didn’t work, resulting in us missing our connecting bus into Phuket. We were shuffled from bus to bus by drivers who just wanted our money and who didn’t even look at our tickets. This took hours and was extremely frustrating. Plus, Mi’s ankles got really swollen from being on the train for so long. By the time we got to Phuket, we had been traveling for about 24 hours and just wanted to shower and sleep so we didn’t bother trying to find the hostel we had booked that was far out of town and went to a hotel in town instead. We met some Chinese girls who had booked a room at a nice hotel and were kind enough to let us tag along with them. We saw signs like these in most of the places we stayed in Southeast Asia. Apparently, durians smell really bad (and some locals told us that they also have the capacity to make you drunk). Not sure what the problem was with mangosteens because we thought they were delicious. According to the in-flight magazine on our next plane trip, mangosteens also have medicinal properties that have been used in traditional Asian medicine for centuries. “It is due to xanthones, that mangosteen has antibiotic, antiviral, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties. One of the most important mangosteen health benefits is its effect on the cardiovascular system. It is believed to be effective in preventing diseases, like arthritis, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, kidney stones, cataract, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s, neuralgia, and the list goes on! It is also said that this fruit can be effective in treating depression, aging, obesity, skin diseases, allergies, ulcers, diarrhea, fevers and pain. This website calls mangosteens the Queen of the Fruits!  The buses in Phuket were all open air, which we appreciated because it was hot. At another vegan restaurant in Phuket, one of the old women working there communicated by gesturing that we should eat these leaves with our meal to combat the spiciness. It worked! This is a sidewalk gas machine, which we thought was weird. It rained every night. And by rained we mean monsoon-style downpour. Sometimes when we went out for dinner we forgot our umbrella and got soaked.

We woke up early the next morning to make our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We will be posting the pictures next week.

We also want to give a shout-out to Mi’s brother and sister who are shaving their heads tomorrow to help find a cure for cancer. Mi’s sister Katie has really long, beautiful hair and has raised an impressive amount of money. You can check out her photo and help her reach her goal (She is 95% there!) by donating. You can also find Patrick’s donation page through Katie’s.

Way to go, Katie and Patrick Furlong!! Click Here to Donate!.

In China, the most important holidays of the year are the Chinese New Year and the Spring Festival, for which everyone gets a lengthy vacation to celebrate with their families and to perform the ritual of spring cleaning. All the English teachers at our school were granted six weeks of holiday leave and a travel stipend of 3,000 RMB each, or about $500US. For our holiday, Kelly and I decided to do a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia, including short stops in Xi’an, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Fortunately, our stipends paid for all of our airfare. In this entry, we will describe our visit to Xi’an.

Once we had finished teaching and submitted our grades we packed our bags and took off the next day for the train station. The train ride was a 13-hour affair during which we could admire the countryside, with its picturesque rice paddies beside factories beside hillside mining operations beside small family landholdings, from the comfort of our “soft sleeper” beds. Chinese trains have the option of “hard seat,” “soft seat,” “hard sleeper,” and “soft sleeper.” For such a long ride, the choice of soft sleeper was obvious because not only do you have a bed but also there are only four beds to a compartment with a door for privacy and to protect your belongings. We each traveled with a mostly empty (to make room for souvenirs) backpacking backpack.We set off at around 4 PM and arrived in Xi’an at around 5:30 AM on January 17th. It was still dark outside and the car we had arranged to take us to our hostel wouldn’t be arriving until 6, so we killed time by wandering around the bustling train station. There was some confusion with the taxi, though at this point neither of us were surprised, but after a few phone calls we met with the driver who took us to our hostel, the Han Tang House. The hostel was a very nice place, one of the best we have ever stayed in, with a helpful staff, western food (!), and elegant dark wood interior. Our room was an 8-bed room with comfortable bunk beds. We claimed our bunks, had breakfast, left our bags in the secured luggage area, and set off to wander.With map in hand, we struck out with a few destinations in mind: The Bell and Drum Towers, the muslim district, the city wall and the Wild Goose Pagoda. Unfortunately the Towers were closed for renovation for the Chinese New Year festivities so they were each covered in a green mesh screen.We stumbled upon the residential part of the muslim district where we found apartments, community mosques, and shops where the ingredients were sold to restaurants. Chinese dumplings and rolls are steamed in round containers like these, which were stacked impressively tall. Sorting through piles of meat while wearing fingerless gloves…We saw a fair amount of the city within the 1,500-year-old walls, which are the most complete in China. Built during the Ming dynasty, this wall is one of the largest ancient defensive military structures in the world, standing 40-feet tall, 40-46 feet wide at the top, and 50-60 feet wide at the bottom. The city has a gate on either side and each gate has three towers. The wall is surrounded by a moat which is crossed by bridges that were once suspension bridges that were raised and lowered from the towers. There are 98 ramparts that rise from the wall complete with sentry towers. Not only is it an impressive structure, but it makes navigating this large city a little easier.

Once we left the city walls we quickly became lost. We walked for hours and learned that our map was tremendously out of scale, and inaccurate. Tired of walking, we caught a cab to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This is a Buddhist temple that was built in 652, during the Tang dynasty. Over the years it has suffered through various collapses due to its original dirt construction and an earthquake in 1556. It has been extensively reconstructed a number of times and now stands at a height of 210 feet. After we walked around this impressive structure, we decided to take the bus back to the center of town to our hostel. We waited for a long time, then inadvertently got on a bus going the wrong direction but everyone else on the bus was kind enough to communicate our error by gesturing and pointing. Once we had righted ourselves, we went back to the city center to try to find the famous muslim commercial quarter. Foreigners and muslims have been a part of Xi’an’s population since the 8th century. Xi’an is the starting point of the Silk Road so it has long been home to foreign traders.

Today, the muslim district is a bustling commercial area with a myriad of traditional snacks, souvenirs, and family-operated stores. This soon became our favorite area and we came back for every meal. The narrow streets are lined with vendors and packed with people during any hour of the day. It is a place full of vitality: with people shouting, steam billowing from pots, a frenzy of smells, rows of bright colored food and wares, the beep and whir of electric motorcycles inching their way through the crowd, and hundreds upon hundreds of people. It felt like being inside the veins of some colossal beast, each person a cell weaving through a tide of other cells. Every inch is teeming with life.The next day, we got up early to take the bus to Xi’an’s most famous attraction, Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army. The discovery of the army of warriors and horses was announced in March of 1974, but actually it was discovered before that by farmers who were so terrified by the lifelike appearance of the painted figures that they didn’t share their discovery. Before they were exposed to light and air, each of the figures was elaborately painted, giving it the appearance of being a real person, so when the farmers first saw the army locked in their underground chamber they were convinced that they were ghosts.

This is one of China’s most famous cultural treasures and seeing them in person was incredible. The three unearthed pits containing the army are estimated to contain 8,000 soldiers and 670 horses.  Archeologists are still excavating and piecing together the broken soldiers. Many of them were broken when the original wooden ceiling collapsed, but also during the construction of some of the museum halls. They are waiting until x-ray  technology improves to ensure that no more artifacts are damaged during excavation.

Each warrior is different and is based on a real soldier from Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s army.They all have armor, different facial features, and mustaches (all men had mustaches except criminals who were forced to shave). After the terracotta army was completed, every worker and artisan was killed in order to keep the army for the afterlife a secret.  Our view from the bus on the way to the Terracotta museum. Kneeling archer with a crossbowMiddle ranking officer. He tummy is visible, but not like the high ranking officer. High Ranking Officer. He has the biggest belly and fullest cheeks because he is fed more and drinks more.Calvary man with his saddled war horse.

Each of the horses was fired with a hole in its side to keep it from exploding in the kiln. Each figure carried weapons that either disintegrated or were stolen. Standing archer.

Notice all of the warriors have different layers of armor. Young, and ‘expendable’ warriors have little to no armor. The longer a soldier lived and the more battles he survived, the more armor and rank he was awarded.This is a photo taken of some warriors moments after they were unearthed. Moments later, the paint disintegrated due to the exposure to sun and oxygen. Now we can see why the farmers were terrified when first they discovered these statues.Restorative artists have no shortage of work, as some of the pits are full of pieces they first label then put back together like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. Eventually, they return the artifacts to their original pit.The next day, we visited another museum about 12 miles outside the city. The Yangling Mausoleum of the Han Dynasty contains artifacts from the joint tombs of Emperor Liu Qi and Empress Wang. It is an underground museum on a large complex which includes a central mausoleum and 86 outside pits. There were more artifacts found at this site than at the Terracotta Army but the figures are 1/10th the size. The figures represent a wider range of characters also, including females, servants, concubines, eunuchs, villagers, and animals. After the museum, we went back to the city to see the Temple of the Eight Immortals, the largest Taoist temple in Xi’an. It is a beautiful place with brightly painted walls and statues. It is said to have been built during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).Then, we crossed the street to shop for Chinese baby clothes and found these:Then, we went back to the muslim quarter to feast again. One of our favorite snacks is this rice thing on a stick called Jing Gao or eight treasure rose mirror cake. It is steamed and then dipped in sugar syrup and nuts. Yum! Mi is eating the rice cake and Kelly is eating zongzi, a traditional rice snack for the dragon boat festival. The next day it snowed. We went to the Shaanxi History museum for the first part of the day. It is gigantic and we only covered a few thousand years of history before we got hungry. This is a mold used for making coins. 

We had a wonderful 4 days in Xi’an. We ate exotic foods, visited cultural landmarks, and met some cool people at our hostel. Stay tuned for our next entry! The next stop on our vacation is Bangkok, Thailand.

At the train station in Mianyang on our way to Chengdu

Our friend Ray (left) and her friend. Ray was our ‘”tour guide” for the weekend.

The countryside between Mianyang and Chengdu. Mianyang and Chengdu are the two biggest cities in the Sichuan province.

The train ride is almost 2 hours long.

The architecture in Chengdu is interesting.

Outside of Ray’s grandpa’s house. He lives in a retired teacher’s community.

Ray and her grandfather walking to a tofu hot-pot restaurant.

Ray and her grandpa at the tofu hot-pot restaurant. Every time we eat hot-pot (which is quite regularly), we must request special vegetarian soup because it is usually made with beef broth.

Chendgu is home to a number of buildings devoted to clubs. This one was called the Mango Club and it was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Being greeted by a band of boys in matching light-up name badges has a certain wo bu zhi dao shenme.

Hey, sexy ladies.

Yes, Gangnam Style is pretty popular here.

Mi posing with greeters in animal costumes.

Cool brick sculpture in the courtyard near the Mango Club.

A restaurant by the river.

View from the bridge before a night on the town.

Kelly “enjoying” a “margarita.” (bad tequila mixed with lime juice)

At one bar we went to that night, drinks were served like this: the whole bottle was brought to the table strapped to a huge sparkler. In true China fashion- any occasion is a good occasion for fireworks.

The next day, we walked through this narrow alley to the street where we caught a Chengdu taxi that took us to the Panda sanctuary.

Chengdu, like many cities in China, is rapidly growing and changing.

No strinding.

The panda center has these wonderful rope bridges that take you to the enclosures. Mi, obviously, was enjoying the Indiana Jones moment.

The first pandas we’ve ever seen in real life are babies!

Pandas evolved from being carnivores to subsisting almost completely on bamboo, a plant with virtually no nutrients, which means that they have to spend about 16 hours per day eating and not moving so they won’t burn the precious few calories they ingest.

Panda in Chinese is xióng māo, which literally translates to bear cat.

This panda is asleep in the moat that surrounds the panda enclosure. We are almost positive that it rolled over in its sleep into the moat and continued to sleep where it landed.

Smiles all around. Pandas are on the endangered species list because there are only an estimated 2,000 individuals left in the wild, and that is on the high end. There are about 240 pandas living in captivity in China and 27 in captivity in other countries.

This is a red panda. They are related to raccoons, skunks, and weasels. Like the panda, they are a vulnerable species with fewer than 10,000 mature animals in the world.

Red pandas have a waddling gait because their front limbs are shorter than their back ones.

Surprisingly, there are man-made holes in the chain link fences which allow the red pandas to move from one side of their enclosure to the other. This makes for some beautiful experiences.

This keeper walked through the enclosure handing out bowls of food (apple slices and what looked like ground beef) to the hungry red pandas. As she walked from feeding platform to feeding platform, she called to them in Chinese (Ray translated and she was basically asking them to come down from wherever they were to get their lunch). This was a particularly eager red panda that decided that it couldn’t wait for her to bring the food to the viewing platform.

This is where the newborn pandas are incubated.

We visited Ray’s high school which is the oldest school in the area dating back over 2500 hundred years.

A man getting his ears cleaned the traditional way.

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People’s Park is a happening gathering spot on the weekends. Families doing a variety of activities.
At the end of the day, we enjoyed some hot-pot. 
We will be going to Beichuan soon. Beichuan is where a 7.8 earthquake hit in 2008. The old town has turned into what the foreign teachers describe as a post apocalyptic amusement park. Stay tuned for the next post!

Greetings! It has been a while since our last entry. We are going to Chengdu this weekend to get more visa pages in Kelly’s passport, to visit the pandas, and more. We wanted to update the blog before then to show what we do on a regular basis. Enjoy!

Eating hot-pot with our tutor Erin (left) and our friend Ray (right). Ray will be our guide to Chengdu this weekend.

Kelly playing a gig for the grand opening of a hot-pot restaurant.

Local pedal powered taxis are eager to have their picture taken.

Our visit to the local gay bar. Too smokey and too loud, we probably wont be frequenting this establishment. None the less, it was nice to be surrounded by our community.

From left to right, the members of Kelly’s band, New World. Ding, Chad, Fish(not in band), Kelly, Allen, Shelley, Frank.

Jammin’ out!

This baby was dancing in his stroller for the entire show. It was adorable!

All the Children watching the New World show.

Some thought our music was too loud. Look at what this child’s sweater says. Kelly wishes she could have one of her own.

Everyone was curious, but only the children had the courage to talk to us.

The one-child policy has made what the chinese call only children little emperors. They are showered with love, attention and most of all, gifts.

When these children grow up, they will realize squatting is really uncomfortable.

A complimentary dinner for the band and their guests after out paid gig. They gave us more food and opened more cases of beer for us then any of us could consume.

Market Day

We go to the market every few days to pick up the food we will eat that week.

In China there is not as much of a disconnect between people and their food. In the United States everything is packaged and shipped in from all over the world. We have a closer relationship with food and can choose to buy sugar cane, sugar rock, or granulated sugar made right here at the market.

We can buy half a plastic shopping bag full of walnuts for the equivalent of $10 USD. We also buy pistachios, peanuts (to make peanut butter), almonds, and other nuts for very cheap.

We buy jars from a sweet lady at the market for $1-$2 depending on their size. We store beans, grains, homemade juice and peanut butter, leftovers, ect. in them.

We buy cookies from a lady who also sells animal cookies. These animal cookies have all the Chinese zodiac animals.

We don’t have an oven to make a pizza, but we buy this bread regularly for burrito wraps and to dip in the soups and curries we make.

Kids at the market jumping up and down together and laughing hysterically.

These taste similar to donuts. Fried Sweet Potato balls. They are delicious but if they were dipped in powdered sugar, they would be the real deal.

We buy fresh pasta that is done cooking in one minute, and dumpling “skin” to make our own dumplings.

Dozens of varieties of Mushrooms. We have tried all that this vendor has to offer. There are other types at other stands, but we like these the best.

Beans, Legumes, and Grains in bulk.

There are many ways to fold dumplings. We only know one style and it’s not as beautiful as this.

When we get home from the market we start devouring the fruit. This pineapple was about $2 and cut to perfection right when we bought it.

We tried Dragon Fruit, and it was okay, but not as tasty as other fruit around.

Making Dumplings.

We usually make 3-4 different flavors of dumplings. Our folding technique is getting better and better!

Erin and Ray have become our regular hot-pot buddies as well as best Chinese friends.

Another Show for the Student Association. The smoke machine was a drag, but the show was a blast!

After show laughs with the band.

Mustaches

Allen our drummer and “Crazy Lady,” one of our favorite restaurant owners. She is energetic and a champion yeller. Fish, our roadie, is on his phone probably translating a word. He is a champion talker.

These are some of the vendors and restaurants out the back gate. The back gate is always bustling with swarms of people, smells, noises, and visual stimuli.

Busted! What happens when Kelly is impatient and wants cold beer fast, and then forgets about it.

Kelly playing at the Halloween show on campus with her band “New World.”

On our way to the market, we take our moped to the closest village to an excellent market with everything we could possibly need and more.

Children playing in a pool filled with beans and toys. The ultimate sensory experience.

Stores filled with spices, beans, jars of oils, and sauces. We can ask “sweet, not sweet?” “Hot, not hot?” and “Meat, no meat?” to get a vague understanding of what we might be purchasing. It works very well.

So many colorful vegetables, we can buy a week’s worth of them for about $5.

This baby was so happy! The adults around him got him to wave to us over and over with hysterical laughter in between the staged photos.

Blow torching pigs’ feet. Yummmmm (barfffff).

Spices and More. We experiment with new foods, and the vendor helps us figure out what we are buying.

Ducks for sale. Although we don’t eat meat, we appreciate how local the entire process is.

We don’t eat meat but appreciate how local it is in China.

Buy Hao zi (fried buns filled with vegetables). One for 1 yuan (30 cents).

The vendor is very happy to let us photograph him and always happy to see us.

Fill you belly with bugs!

Many stray dogs roam the market streets.

Leaving the market to make our way home.

Stay tuned next week for another blog entry of Chengdu and the panda reserve!

The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, is one of the most important holidays in China. It is a celebration of the harvest and of the full moon so people celebrate by eating Moon Cakes and visiting their families. This year, the Festival fell on September 30th, which was the second day of our 9-day vacation. We have nine days off from school to celebrate the Festival and National Day, which is a government-sponsored extravaganza held on October 1st of every year. The National Day is marked by concerts, fireworks displays, and country-wide celebration of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. To commemorate these holidays, we went with our tutor-turned personal assistant-turned friend Erin to visit her family in Jintang, a county in the Eastern part of Chengdu City. The five days that we spent with her large and generous family were unforgettable.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon, Erin’s parents were out but had left us this magnificent meal, which consisted of nine different dishes that Erin’s mother, Zhen, had prepared for us. Each dish was delicious and it was all vegetarian, which is uncommon for Chinese meals but Erin’s mother made special efforts to accommodate us. After filling our bellies to the brim, we walked across the street to Erin’s father’s clinic. He is a traditional Chinese doctor who is a wealth of knowledge, kind, and gentle. After brief introductions, we walked about 100 yards down to the river where we met Erin’s mother, who we were told was assisting in a competition. Erin was vague about what kind of competition it was so we didn’t know what to expect as we approached the river where a large crowd had gathered. As we approached, a cheer rose from the crowd and when we got closer we were surprised and delighted by what we saw.

A potato (or in this case rice) sack race! Old women and police officers alike were jumping, falling, laughing, and cheering each other on as everyone took part in various games. Next came the three-legged race. 

The man in blue is a police officer playing the next game: a race dribbling a basket ball.

Erin is a loud, boisterous, and enthusiastic person who is quick to laugh. We quickly learned where she got it from when we met her mother, who was the team captain of the tug-of-war team. Naturally, her team won each bout.

After the competition was over, Erin led us on a walk along the river to see some of her favorite parts of her hometown. Old people were everywhere enjoying each other’s company, singing, dancing, and playing some of China’s favorite games, card games, Chinese chess, ping pong and má jiang. 

Periodically, we came across another common sight in China, outdoor exercise equipment. So, naturally, we joined the old people in their work out. Each implement is not only fun, but it is low impact and works your whole body.  

Singing appears to be a popular pastime. Notice the traditional Chinese Violin.

Playing Chinese chess. 

There are three rivers which converge in Jintang. Here you can see a clean one meeting a not-so-clean one. 

Walking along the river made for special and picturesque views. We saw courtyards designated for Tai Chi, old people singing into microphones for impromptu concerts, fishermen throwing nets into the water, ferries, birds, and butterflies everywhere. Below is a group of women singing and reading the lyrics from a large sheet of paper.

The Mid-Autumn festival is a time for celebrating the seasons and the moon by lighting lanterns, spending time with family, and chowing down on Moon Cakes.

We were so thankful to have Erin as our guide because we were able to indulge in many treats we would have been too hesitant to try and learned about things we would have just walked by, like this pot of brewing rice wine.

This is a common sight in Jintang as there are many streets devoted to selling fruit, vegetables, and snacks like barbecue, which the town is famous for. 

Playing games such as Wú zǐ qǐ (五子棋), or in English, five in a row, is a popular pastime that Kelly and Mi quickly learned. It is similar to Connect Four, but a bit more complicated. There are other games that can be played with these pieces and board, but Erin could not recall the rules, so we are supposed to Google the directions.

Erin’s mother treated us to our first Hot-Pot (火鍋 huǒ guō) experience. We had been warned by Kelly’s parents and the other teachers (who all eat meat) that it was terrible, but quickly found out that it is very tasty. We think that because we had vegetarian hot-pot, and avoided things like pig intestines and duck palates, our experience was much more pleasurable. It is now one of our favorite dishes. 

In traditional Chinese fashion, Erin’s mother re-filled our glasses at every sip and put 3 more bites of food in our bowls for every bite we took. Needless to say, our bowls were overflowing, and our bellies were nice and full. 

After dinner, we went on a walk to work off the 3-hour meal we had just devoured. We continued this routine after every meal of the day for the entirety of the holiday. Jīntáng is a small city (large to us) and Erin knew people everywhere we walked. We were pleased to meet the townspeople including this baby who makes the cutest kissy-fishy face. 

Everywhere we walked, games were being played including this one where you use a whip to keep a big stone top spinning. Everyone was happy to let us take part in their games. They didn’t even get mad when Mi broke the whip (thankfully it was quickly repaired). 

At night, cities are lit up everywhere you look. We learned that the government gives tax breaks to cities and businesses for installing LCD lights.

We were happy to meet lots of new people and experience new things. However, some experiences were better than others. We mentioned earlier that Erin’s father is a kind and gentle man and we soon learned that his generosity extended beyond the human world. He believes that everything born deserves a chance to live, so he and his family live in harmony with some unusual house guests, of the eight-legged variety. 

This is one of three or four massive spiders living peacefully in their home. We were reassured that they are not poisonous, but we were unnerved nonetheless whenever we had to use the WC and were eye to eyes with this fellow. After a few days of shying away from these behemoths, they mysteriously vanished, and we still don’t know if they had been removed for our sake or if they had just gone into hiding. Either way, we breathed a little easier. We still checked between the sheets before going to sleep though. 

Each morning we awoke to a different delicious breakfast that Erin’s mother had prepared for us. This is a traditional dish called Glue Pudding which consists of rice balls filled with sesame/peanut paste. Yum!

Our next adventure: climbing up Yún Dǐng Mountain to Cí Yún Temple with Erin and her friend Doris.   

This is the first of 6 long staircases that we laboriously climbed. At each level there is something new to see: a cemetery, farms, roadside restaurants, a school, and small villages. In total, we climbed 1922 stairs up to the temple (this does not include the stairs we climbed while we explored within the temple itself).

This is the name of the mountain. You read it in the old way, from right to left. The character for “mountain” looks like a mountain. 

This is our new favorite breed of dog, the Chinese Field Dog. Although they are very common here and can be bought for cheap (the equivalent of about $1.50 US) at many markets, we think they are lovely. 

Halfway up the mountain it started to rain. We were glad of it though because it kept the mosquitoes at bay (they were particularly ravenous in this area), drove away the fair-weather tourists, and kept us cool as we continued to march up the stairs. 

The tree was here before the road, so naturally the monks made sure that it had the same right to live, and built the road around it. 

At the temple, we had our fortunes told by a monk. We were instructed to kneel on an embroidered pillow before a huge Buddha statue, bow three times, then shake a box of carved sticks until one fell to the ground. Each stick has a number carved on it which the monk painted onto a slip of paper for each of us. We then went to a different monk who handed us each a paper that corresponded to the number. Each number has a fortune, which Erin read and interpreted for us. 

It’s good luck to toss a coin into the hole at the Buddha’s feet. We missed.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant where the food was not especially appetizing, but it was spicy and vegetarian. Plus, there was a family of dogs milling around that refused the noodles we tried to feed them but gobbled up the vegetables. 

We encountered crews repaving the road on our way down to the car where Doris’s boyfriend’s father was waiting to drive us back down to the city. We had to zigzag across the hot asphalt for a few hundred meters before we passed the front truck.

Later that evening we joined Doris’s family for another round of Hot Pot. Due to the rain, we took tripeds to get there instead of walking. 

Kissy-Fishy baby with his grandfather joined us.

Every night there were festivities for National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The next day, we planned to go to Chengdu for more sight seeing, but were deterred by the long line and the prospect of spending hours stuck in traffic. During the holidays, everyone travels. We decided to explore Jīntáng some more instead.

We enjoyed a relaxing day by the river front drinking tea and teaching Erin and her friends how to play “traditional American card games.” Their favorite was Bullshit, which kept them laughing hysterically for hours.

Erin had us taste every meat- and dairy-free snack around. This one was tofu pudding. One was sweet, and the other spicy. Unlike most of the things she had us try, these were not very tasty.

Kelly having her back adjusted.

Later that evening, we had barbeque. We chose the food we wanted and had it grilled to perfection. It was incredible.

This is one of the new snacks that we tried. It is called “ice noodle soup” and is basically molasses water with cubes of rice noodles that look like gelatinous ice-cubes served with green beans, peanuts, and fruit. Yum! The food must have been going to our brains as we became sillier with every bite.

After we pampered our stomachs, we walked to the closest pedicure shop to pamper our achy feet. This included a foot cleaning, and a foot and leg massage. We each spent over an hour in these chairs and it cost about ¥30 each.

It tickled but Erin did not believe us until it was her turn. Afterwards, we walked back to Erin’s home and fell to sleep very quickly.

The next morning we woke up with the sun to see the people by the river practicing different types of Tai Chi.

Upon returning to Erin’s home, her mother made us another delicious breakfast. This time, it was potato, tomato, egg, and noodle soup. Then we spent the rest of the day roaming around the town eating snacks and attempting to learn how to play mahjong.

Later that night, we went to another barbeque joint with Erin’s cousins and had some more scrumptious food. Kelly had fish for the first time in China and was happy to do so with Erin who knew exactly what to order. This was craw fish which Kelly loves due to her time spent in New Orleans.

Mi’s favorite was the lotus root pudding. One lemon flavored, the other strawberry. Both delicious. 

Later that night, after a shower, Erin’s mother blow dried Kelly’s hair again. It was very endearing. 

Then, it was time for another day of pampering. Earlier that week, Kelly received a back adjustment, Mi had a full-body massage, and we all had a pedicure. Lastly, it was time for facials and more massages. This spa is owned by Erin’s classmates’ family so our treatment lasted about 3 hours. 

For our final night in Jīntáng, we were treated to yet another hot pot. This time, the owners of the restaurant picked up the tab. We toasted the owner and her son numerous times to show respect and gratitude. Before our meal started, Erin darted out to a man on a bicycle who was selling soup. When she returned, we were surprised to find the soup was in plastic cups, and tasted more like sweet tea. The one on the left is silver ear fungus and the one on the right is green pea soup. They were both deceptively delicious. 

After dinner, we took our walk and stopped for exercises. We made it safely back to Mianyang the next day. We are now preparing our lesson plans for the next few weeks so we can take more weekend trips. 

Ē Mí Tuó Fó

 Now that the third week of classes has finished, we are really hitting our stride. The students are learning new words, becoming more confident, and seem to be on the right track. We even are beginning to learn the students’ names, no small feat as we each have almost 300 students under our tutelage.

Last weekend, we went down to the train station with Shelley and Amanda for a shopping extravaganza. Although we came away empty-handed, venturing out into the town is always a treat. There is order in the chaos, curiosity in every gaze that turns our way, and an indefatigable helpfulness from even the oldest of staff. We stopped for lunch at a stall outside the shopping “mall” and when we tried to order a vegetarian meal, we managed to draw a crowd of people eager to help or just to observe. This is a frequent aspect of our outings; whenever we try to communicate using the few Chinese words we have learned, and mime the rest, people surround us. Some try to help but mostly they just watch, each with an amused little smile that we know means, “oh those silly foreigners are at it again.”

On Thursday, we had to miss our afternoon classes in order to go to the government offices to get our work visas. Our visitor visas last for the first 30-days that we’re here, and then we have to get long-term ones. Unfortunately, due to poor planning on either the school’s or the government’s part, we had to miss yet more classes which we will ultimately have to make up at some point. At 2 o’clock, we headed over to meet with Christina, our liaison from the foreign affairs office.

She was in her office with her adorable baby boy, who has seen us enough times to no longer be afraid of us. At first, though, he, like many Chinese children who see us for the first time, was afraid and shied away. We must look like aliens or ghosts to them. Before we could leave for the government office, Christina had some business to attend to with the teachers from the Chengdu campus so she handed her baby to Michael, her bass-voiced counterpart. Before long, the baby, whose name we haven’t learned yet, began to squirm because he was out of sight of his mom. A moment later, we got the answer to a question that we had been asking ourselves for some time: what happens when a baby, who is wearing pants with a slit, has to pee while being held? The answer? Michael gets wet pants.

This amused Christina to no end. Usually, when you ask her how her baby is she will respond with an exasperated growl and the common Chinese idiom, “I kill him!” Quite a few of our Chinese friends will respond to pestering or frustration by shaking their fists and playfully shouting “I kill you!”, which comes out more like “I keeeel you!”

After a few laughs, we all jumped into taxis and headed down to the government offices where we spent a few hours filling out paperwork, getting our photos taken, and waiting.

Most of the time when we go somewhere we need the help of a translator. Although we have only learned a handful of words, our Chinese lessons are progressing nicely. Kelly sees fourth-year student, Erin, for lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while Mi sees third-year student, Victoria, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In addition to teaching us this difficult but intellectually stimulating language, which utilizes both halves of the brain, the girls have also suggested that they be our personal assistants as well.

We had originally intended to pay them 50 Yuan an hour, which is a mere pittance compared with the prices charged for language tutoring elsewhere, but they argued that it was too high to accept. They insisted that by tutoring us they also have the opportunity to practice their English, so they see the arrangement as more of an exchange. After some debating, we all finally agreed that 100 a week each was acceptable for tutoring and personal assistance. However, we insisted that if we were to pay them so little that we pay their way whenever we go on excursions.

Erin and Victoria are not only bright and eager to please; they are also delightful to be around. They are gentle and kind and boisterous. They are energetic, respectful, and make no demands- they even refuse water, snacks, and bathroom breaks during our lessons. The other day, Kelly asked them to help us label things in our apartment so we could begin learning the vocabulary, so now the whole place is plastered with green Post-It notes with Pinyin (phonetic pronunciations) and Chinese characters.

On Friday, our tutors/PAs guided us on a tour of the largest Buddhist temple in Mianyang, the Holy Water Temple. Their knowledge and assistance in translating was invaluable. They spoke with monks and translated their stories and instructions for moving through the temple respectfully. For instance, we could not take photos inside the buildings and we had to step over thresholds with our left feet first.

As we approached the temple, we knew immediately that it was a special place. We had seen it once before from the road, but standing at the base of the first of many staircases we could fully take in the powerful scene. The multi-tiered Holy Water Temple is situated on a hill above Mianyang overlooking the river and city. It sits among bright green trees and is still expanding up the hillside.

Train!

Erin on the left and Victoria on the right

Although, like many buildings in this area, it suffered damage in the massive, tragic 2008 earthquake, we saw artisans diligently rebuilding and retouching the immaculate sculptures that cover many of the temple’s walls. This is a relatively new temple, especially by Chinese standards, and it appears far from complete, as many of the structures need to be rebuilt after the quake. Behind the completed buildings stand the skeletons of new additions.

Erin and Victoria explained what each statue represents and how to address the monks. When greeting a monk, you are to hold your hands in a prayer position in front of your chest, bow slightly, and say “ē mí tuó fó,” which means may Buddha preserve us. Whenever we did this, the monks would stand and return the greeting, looking both surprised and pleased to hear a presumably ignorant Westerner respecting their customs. Each of the buildings houses at least one huge statue of Buddha, each at least 15-feet tall, beneath a ceiling painted in incredible detail.

Erin showed us a game where you spin around three times, close your eyes, and walk toward the wall with your right arm extended in order to try to touch the word, “Happiness”

People light candles and fireworks that represent wishes. They put their wishes into ornaments such as this elephant, and the smoke will poor out its side, mouth, trunk and rear-end.

The monks put food out for all living creatures that dwell on the temple grounds, including wasps.

Locks with people’s names and wishes engraved on them line the side of a pond.

Every surface displays incredible craftsmanship. Long walls are covered with hundreds of life-sized statues called luó hàn; each one represents a Buddhist fable, and is vibrantly painted. Erin told us that if you count the number of statues from anywhere you like up to your current age, you would find one that is pertinent to your life.

Mi found one called Bān Rè that is riding a donkey, with one hand in a fist, wearing red, and smiling. As we stood admiring the statue, a woman came by and offered to explain the story, for a price. Mi handed over 1 Yuan and listened as Erin translated the tale. The figure’s red robes are auspicious, the clenched fist means that he can hold onto any money that comes to him, the smile means that he will have much happiness in his life, and the donkey means that he will have assistance in carrying his burdens. According to the woman, who didn’t look like a nun but was associated with the temple in some way, this figure is the best one and the dreams of anyone who chooses it will come true if they do good things in their life.

We then moved on to admire the piece-de-resistance, the Sleeping Buddha. This giant statue is one of the highlights of the temple. This humungous statue is brilliant white with red lips and dark eyes. It is lying on its side wearing robes and the expression of someone who just woke from a satisfying dream. Its absence of color looks all the more pure in stark contrast to the vibrantly painted luó hàn at its base.

The rest of the day was spent shopping. We took the bus down to the bookstore in search of dictionaries to help our studies, but were unsuccessful. We found a few books in English and a few others of interest, including one with a big photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the cover. As we walked by it, Victoria pointed it out and mentioned that in high school she and her classmates were required to memorize and present the “I have a dream” speech in school. Learning that warmed our hearts and impressed us with how much of an impact King had, and continues to have, all around the world.

Next, we looked for shoes but that search was fruitless as well. All our hunting yielded one prize, though. We found a nice backpacking backpack to use for our upcoming travels. Our first trip with the new bag will be with our tutors as Erin and Victoria have graciously offered to show us around their hometowns.

Our students have all told us how much they love our hometowns and that they want to be our guides, so when Erin and Victoria said they would be happy to show us around they were both lit up like Christmas trees. They argued playfully about whose family cooks better food and their volume grew as they excitedly told us about the wonders of their hometowns. So for part of our break, which lasts from September 28^th to October 7^th, we will travel with Erin to her hometown. Then, we are on our own to see the famous Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei, which boasts 30 Buddhist temples inhabited by monks and monkeys.

Our weekend was spent in planning our trip and the upcoming week’s lessons as well as spending time with new friends. After brainstorming for a while at a student-run coffee shop called the 1991 Club, we found an Uno deck and proceeded to teach the students how to play. We played a few hands and were joined occasionally by other students who wanted in on the action. After much laughter, shouting, and Victoria threatening to kill everyone at the table who had foiled her efforts at victory, we called it a night.

The forecast calls for rain for most of this upcoming week so we are in for some wet toes, indoor dinners, and baseball-sized toads that hop across the paths when it rains. The rain may also offer us a rare opportunity to see the Tibetan Plateaus. Here in Mianyang, it is often humid and the sky is usually overcast – Kelly’s parents have described it as “living in a cloud.” After the rain, however, the sky is clear for a few hours. Because we live on the fourth floor, we can see above the buildings to the Plateaus in the distance. We have only seen them once but hopefully this week the clouds will open up for us again.