We arrived in Xi'an this morning at about 9:00AM. We left Tianjin yesterday at about the same time. It was pretty sad leaving Elizabeth and Kevin and the kids. Our time in Tianjin was so wonderful and we really didn't want it to end. Joseph, being one of the most caring kids on Earth, was devastated by the whole affair. I kept telling him we'd probably see him in a year or two, but he wouldn't accept it. The girls and Izaak seemed to be okay with it. I don't think Izaak really clued in though because he kept pulling me away from the door to play wheels. Elizabeth packed us a whole duffle bag full of delicious breads, fruits and other assorted snacks, which was thoroughly enjoyed on the train. The train was an experience... Sitting crammed in for 22 hours just doesn't really work for us Canadians. We are used to having personal space and one just doesn't have any in China.
Our nationality became a point of discussion for what seemed like the entire carriage that night. Everywhere around us we could hear: "Blah blah blah Chanada! Ooo eee! Chanada! Chanada? Blah blah Chanada blah blah." It was pretty funny and I could still hear people mentioning us even at 4:00 AM. The fact that I was awake then was not so humourous though...We didn't get much sleep on account of the uncomfortable nature of the train as well as a certain loud-talker in the next row.
Xi'an is, from what we can gather, the epicentre of Spring Festival. The train station was packed and the ticket booth line-ups were probably four hours long, so we didn't bother. We opted for a sleeper bus to Chengdu, the bus station being much less crowded. Still, the concept of the queue does not exist here, as you may well know. Everyone just pushes in a huge mass and screams at those at the front to hurry up. The street life is marvellous and we walked around taking photos for a long while. I sat down next to some old ladies and asked if I could take their picture. They consented and after I had taken a couple shots, I showed them how digital cameras worked. They were enthralled. It was just shortly before this that I was called over by a friendly-looking woman, who then asked if I wanted a "massage." I know very well that these massages are of the extremely comprehensive variety, so I quickly said "no" and walked away. Laughing, she then grabbed my shirt and pulled me towards her! I pulled away and part of my shirt ripped. She was really apologetic but I still walked away very quickly. So now I have to find someone to mend my shirt...
Tomorrow we will be renting some bikes and riding around the city walls of Xi'an. Afterwards, we will probably take the bus out to the Terracotta Warriors.
Hope to hear from you all,
Will
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Another Tianjin Tuesday
Hey everyone,
I am afraid I don't have any photos to post at this time. I have been mostly taking videos and I may put them on Youtube. We have had a very eventful few days, including a very noisy Chinese New Years. After Kevin and Elizabeth came back from Guangzhou, we decided to go into town to see the fireworks. Everywhere you looked in the sky, there were fireworks. On the ground people were lighting insane amounts of firecrackers. I still have a headache from all the noise. This isn't the end of the celebrations. Austin and I are currently in the midst of the largest movements of human beings in a short time in the world. Around 2.2 billion visits will be made by the end of the Spring Festival, which starts on the 17th and lasts about two weeks. We had no idea that it would be this crazy. The British couple we met on the train, James and Liz, were stuck in Shanghai for a week because all the tickets were booked and if there were any left, they were way too expensive. Kristin and Johanna missed visiting Guilin because the trains were booked solid for a week. We are hoping that we miss it somehow...but it's quite possible we will be here in the Beijing/Tianjin area for a few more days.
I am afraid I don't have any photos to post at this time. I have been mostly taking videos and I may put them on Youtube. We have had a very eventful few days, including a very noisy Chinese New Years. After Kevin and Elizabeth came back from Guangzhou, we decided to go into town to see the fireworks. Everywhere you looked in the sky, there were fireworks. On the ground people were lighting insane amounts of firecrackers. I still have a headache from all the noise. This isn't the end of the celebrations. Austin and I are currently in the midst of the largest movements of human beings in a short time in the world. Around 2.2 billion visits will be made by the end of the Spring Festival, which starts on the 17th and lasts about two weeks. We had no idea that it would be this crazy. The British couple we met on the train, James and Liz, were stuck in Shanghai for a week because all the tickets were booked and if there were any left, they were way too expensive. Kristin and Johanna missed visiting Guilin because the trains were booked solid for a week. We are hoping that we miss it somehow...but it's quite possible we will be here in the Beijing/Tianjin area for a few more days.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Tianjin on Valentine's Day
Here are a couple photos of the kids as well as Kevin and Elizabeth. On the far right we have a photo of all the kids, minus Anneliese. From left to right we have Hannah, Izaak, Esther and Joseph. The second photo is of Izaak on the way back from the Great Wall. I have been laughing about the third photo for the last three days. I still can't believe some of the translations here. They usually have impeccable spelling (is impeccable spelled right?) but use some really odd words and the overall feel of the sentences produced are really strange. We have seen some great ones including a few signs at the Forbidden City:
"A Single Act of Carelessness Leads to Eternal Loss of Beauty."
" Perilous Hills, No Climbing Please."
" Perilous Hills, No Climbing Please."
Of course "Hot Surprise" takes the cake. The fourth photo was taken from the bus stop outside of the community where we are staying. The smog was especially thick that morning. The fifth photo is of Kevin, my cousin. He is sporting an awesome beard. This photo was taken by Joseph, who loves taking photos of everything, especially canned goods! The last photo (but not least) is of Elizabeth and Anneliese.
Keep posted for more photos and stories. Thanks for being patient for the last few days as I have been quite lazy with my blogging.
Will
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Tianjin
Here are a couple photos, the first being some of the friends we met on the train. On the left is Johanna, the coolest Fin I've ever met! On Austin's right is Sergei, who will probably win the Nobel Prize one day because he seems to be a genius. On the far right (of the picture, not the political spectrum) is our Green Party representative from Sweden, Kristin. We hung out with them pretty much from day 2 of the train until we got to Beijing. We hope to meet up with them soon. The second photo is of the ger camp we spent the day at.
We are now in Tianjin, the little-known town of 12 million next to Beijing. We are staying with my cousin Kevin, his super-smart, ultra-nice wife Elizabeth, and their 5 kids. Esther is the oldest (I believe) and she really likes to read and seems to be pretty darn smart. Joseph is the next oldest and is the sweetest kid. When we first met at the train station he immediately gave me a big hug. He couldn't quite figure out why I had red spots on my face, and after I told him about acne and all that, he said, "It's okay William, I love you just the way you are." Hannah is six years old I believe, and she is also really sweet. She's a little bit shy sometimes, but has the cutest way of talking, with words like "Pow-den" for "Pardon." Izaak, who just turned four on the 5th, is absolutely hilarious. He will talk on end about stuff that doesn't make any sense, or start sentences off with, "When I was 16..." And he will do it with the most serious face. Annaliese is only a couple months old but she seems to be deeply concerned with the world around her and maybe a little bit worried.
We spent a couple days exploring Tianjin with Kevin and went to Beijing yesterday with the whole family to see the Forbidden City. It's pretty massive. Afterwards we had some incredible Indian food at the Asian Star restaurant. The only downside to China that we see at this point is the awful air quality. My throat is hurting a little bit and Kevin tells me it probably has something to do with the smog.
Thanks for all the comments,
Will :)
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Trans-Siberian
So we finally arrived in Mongolia today, after four days on the Trans-Siberian. To our surprise, it wasn't really the scenery that was the highlight of our trip. This can partly be blamed on the dirty windows of the train, which we tried multiple times to clean, with little success. The highlight was really the interesting characters we met on the train.
Our first night, we shared a place with Andrej and Oxana (I think that's spelled wrong) from Kirov. After we were settled in, they started bringing out all sorts of food and really treated us. We had biscuits, bread and caviar (which I really didn't like, a bit too salty.) Afterwards they tried for hours to teach us some Russian, which was somewhat successful but I don't think I retained much. At about 1:00AM we were getting really tired but Andrej kept going. He was really adament that we learn some Russian. Eventually they gathered from our yawning that we wanted to sleep a little. Andrej got up at once and started making our beds for us! He went on about how he was in the army and that he knew how to really make a bed well. We slept well that night, despite the intense heat of the cabin. I thought the carriages were going to be cold but they were really hot.
If my memory serves me right, it was the second night that we met our most-awesome Scandanavian friends. Johanna is from Finland and Kristin is from Sweden. We hung out with them pretty much the whole day, if I remember correctly. I read a bit of my Brothers Karamazov, but not much. We had a warm beer in the restaurant car, and were forced to pay for pistacios we didn't want.
It was the third day that we met Sergei. However, we first met grumpy Dmitry. He barged into our room at 10:00AM at one of the stops and demanded the bottom bunk that Austin was sleeping on. Because he did have that on his ticket he was able to get it. We learned later that he was only on for a couple hours, so he was just being a big baby. He was really unfriendly, but later warmed up just a little. He even gave us some old Soviet money. We said goodbye to him and hello to Irina. I don't recall what stop we picked her up at but she was on her way to a small town in northern Russia to visit her daughter. She was really sweet and even left us some chocolates the next morning! Anyway, Sergei was a really cool guy. At 16 years old, he seems to me to be a genius of some sort. He is studying physics at Novosibirsk University and was on his way to visit his parents in Ulan-Ude. He tried at one point to explain some time travel concepts, the topic generally not for beginner English speakers and did an alright job. You could tell his brain was moving very fast but he was unable to get everything out at once. We kept the piece of paper he wrote some formulas on because we are fairly sure it will be worth millions one day.
The fourth day was as well interesting. We had some New Zealanders on board and talked to them about all sorts of things. They had started their travels in Finland and were going to Asia and then to South America and on and on.
This morning we arrived in Ulaanbaatar and were greeted by Idre from Idre's Guesthouse, where rooms go for about $5.00. The service is probably much more than what you could normally get for $50. The coolest thing is that we're basically staying in their home. So as we are walking around, Idra's little son is running around and his daughters are singing and laughing. It's a really neat environment. The city itself is quite impressive too. We met up with Lawrence and Susan Savage, who are working as missionaries in Mongolia. After being treated to tea and cookies, we drove around town (driving is insane) and saw some Ger towns and a large Soviet Monument which looks over the city.
Tomorrow we are going out of town to do some horse-back riding and such in the national park nearby. It should be quite fun. I would fully recommend staying at Idre's when you go there for the obvious reason of a nice place to stay, but also because he can organize tours very, very inexpensively. Tomorrow's tour, which includes horse-back riding, hiking, gas (it's 70km from UB) and a driver, only costs about $20 each.
Thanks again for reading,
Will
Our first night, we shared a place with Andrej and Oxana (I think that's spelled wrong) from Kirov. After we were settled in, they started bringing out all sorts of food and really treated us. We had biscuits, bread and caviar (which I really didn't like, a bit too salty.) Afterwards they tried for hours to teach us some Russian, which was somewhat successful but I don't think I retained much. At about 1:00AM we were getting really tired but Andrej kept going. He was really adament that we learn some Russian. Eventually they gathered from our yawning that we wanted to sleep a little. Andrej got up at once and started making our beds for us! He went on about how he was in the army and that he knew how to really make a bed well. We slept well that night, despite the intense heat of the cabin. I thought the carriages were going to be cold but they were really hot.
If my memory serves me right, it was the second night that we met our most-awesome Scandanavian friends. Johanna is from Finland and Kristin is from Sweden. We hung out with them pretty much the whole day, if I remember correctly. I read a bit of my Brothers Karamazov, but not much. We had a warm beer in the restaurant car, and were forced to pay for pistacios we didn't want.
It was the third day that we met Sergei. However, we first met grumpy Dmitry. He barged into our room at 10:00AM at one of the stops and demanded the bottom bunk that Austin was sleeping on. Because he did have that on his ticket he was able to get it. We learned later that he was only on for a couple hours, so he was just being a big baby. He was really unfriendly, but later warmed up just a little. He even gave us some old Soviet money. We said goodbye to him and hello to Irina. I don't recall what stop we picked her up at but she was on her way to a small town in northern Russia to visit her daughter. She was really sweet and even left us some chocolates the next morning! Anyway, Sergei was a really cool guy. At 16 years old, he seems to me to be a genius of some sort. He is studying physics at Novosibirsk University and was on his way to visit his parents in Ulan-Ude. He tried at one point to explain some time travel concepts, the topic generally not for beginner English speakers and did an alright job. You could tell his brain was moving very fast but he was unable to get everything out at once. We kept the piece of paper he wrote some formulas on because we are fairly sure it will be worth millions one day.
The fourth day was as well interesting. We had some New Zealanders on board and talked to them about all sorts of things. They had started their travels in Finland and were going to Asia and then to South America and on and on.
This morning we arrived in Ulaanbaatar and were greeted by Idre from Idre's Guesthouse, where rooms go for about $5.00. The service is probably much more than what you could normally get for $50. The coolest thing is that we're basically staying in their home. So as we are walking around, Idra's little son is running around and his daughters are singing and laughing. It's a really neat environment. The city itself is quite impressive too. We met up with Lawrence and Susan Savage, who are working as missionaries in Mongolia. After being treated to tea and cookies, we drove around town (driving is insane) and saw some Ger towns and a large Soviet Monument which looks over the city.
Tomorrow we are going out of town to do some horse-back riding and such in the national park nearby. It should be quite fun. I would fully recommend staying at Idre's when you go there for the obvious reason of a nice place to stay, but also because he can organize tours very, very inexpensively. Tomorrow's tour, which includes horse-back riding, hiking, gas (it's 70km from UB) and a driver, only costs about $20 each.
Thanks again for reading,
Will
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Moscow
Hey everyone,
I have responded to the comments on the last three posts, so be sure to check that. Sorry for not having time to post in the last couple days. We have had trouble finding internet.
Leaving St. Petersburg was quite tough as we had really gotten close with Marina and her family. They took such great care of us and it was an incredible experience. On the last night they told us all about Russian history and places to see, as well as the history of their family. Marina's grandmother showed us old photos of her relatives and an old sketch of a soldier that was her father (I presume). Afterwards we showed them photos of Calgary and Banff and so forth. It didn't make me feel homesick, but rather made me really happy to be from Canada, and I think it renewed in me a desire to explore my own country. Hopefully this lasts and I will be able to travel a bit more around Canada. We will definately be keeping in contact with them and when they come to Canada, we can return the favour.
We left Piter (St. Petersburg, as it is called by the locals) on the night of the 22nd and arrived in Moscow on the 23rd at 10:00 AM. Austin didn't have much luck sleeping but I slept quite well. I think I got about 6 or 7 hours. We took the cheap train which is called the hard-sleeper. I'm sure many of you know what this is all about, but this trip is my first experience with trains. Hard sleepers are slightly padded, but not very well. If I slept this well on the hard-sleeper, I am confident I will sleep quite well on the soft-sleeper of the Trans-Siberian train.
When we entered Moscow we were met by Alexander, a friend of Austin's mom, Lori. He first took us to our host's place which was actually quite easy to get to. The Moscow underground, once you get a bit accustomed to the Cyrillic alphabet, isn't too difficult to navigate. The St. Petersburg underground was much, much busier because it's not quite as extensive. Our SERVAS hosts are a lovely couple by the name of Leonid and Valentina. When we arrived we were greeted with a hot cup of tea and sandwiches. Valentina is a geologist and Leonid is a biologist. They had been on many expeditions to remote places of the earth and so we talked about these adventures of theirs.
We met up again with Alexander and visited Moscow State University as well as Red Square. Getting to Moscow State University was interesting and we got somewhat lost. On the other side of the Moscow River there is a large hill and we climbed up that. We stumbled across what looked like a ski hill at one point...Red Square was also quite impressive, but like everything, is much smaller than you would think. The Lenin Mausoleum was closed that day so we decided to return the next day. Afterwards we said our goodbyes to Alexander and went back to the home of our hosts. We had a delcious dinner and talked about Russia and Canada and other topics.
The second day we decided to get our tickets for the train. It was an interesting experience in that it was the first time in a long time that my French actually came in handy. We found the office of the ticket agency but couldn't get inside. There was a big metal door with a number-lock (not sure the correct name). We went into the grocery store next door and asked if anyone spoke English. Nobody did, and we couldn't understand what they were saying to us in Russian. Finally, a young Russian guy came in and could speak a little English. He said something about pressing 2 on the lock on the door. Austin and I proceeded to thank them and walked out and back to the ticket agency. We pressed 2 and someone said hello. We said that we didn't speak Russian and tried saying "Bilet" which means ticket in Russian. Finally, she asked, "Parlez-vous Francais?" Relieved, I asked her where I could pick up my tickets and she let us in. It turned out she wasn't actually the ticket agency, but was the neighbour, so she knocked on the next door and there, finally, was the ticket agency. Afterwards we went and visited the Lenin Mausoleum which was interesting.
Anyway, I am running out of time and will post later. We are going on the train tonight at 23:00 and should be in Mongolia in about 5 days. Talk to you then!
Will
I have responded to the comments on the last three posts, so be sure to check that. Sorry for not having time to post in the last couple days. We have had trouble finding internet.
Leaving St. Petersburg was quite tough as we had really gotten close with Marina and her family. They took such great care of us and it was an incredible experience. On the last night they told us all about Russian history and places to see, as well as the history of their family. Marina's grandmother showed us old photos of her relatives and an old sketch of a soldier that was her father (I presume). Afterwards we showed them photos of Calgary and Banff and so forth. It didn't make me feel homesick, but rather made me really happy to be from Canada, and I think it renewed in me a desire to explore my own country. Hopefully this lasts and I will be able to travel a bit more around Canada. We will definately be keeping in contact with them and when they come to Canada, we can return the favour.
We left Piter (St. Petersburg, as it is called by the locals) on the night of the 22nd and arrived in Moscow on the 23rd at 10:00 AM. Austin didn't have much luck sleeping but I slept quite well. I think I got about 6 or 7 hours. We took the cheap train which is called the hard-sleeper. I'm sure many of you know what this is all about, but this trip is my first experience with trains. Hard sleepers are slightly padded, but not very well. If I slept this well on the hard-sleeper, I am confident I will sleep quite well on the soft-sleeper of the Trans-Siberian train.
When we entered Moscow we were met by Alexander, a friend of Austin's mom, Lori. He first took us to our host's place which was actually quite easy to get to. The Moscow underground, once you get a bit accustomed to the Cyrillic alphabet, isn't too difficult to navigate. The St. Petersburg underground was much, much busier because it's not quite as extensive. Our SERVAS hosts are a lovely couple by the name of Leonid and Valentina. When we arrived we were greeted with a hot cup of tea and sandwiches. Valentina is a geologist and Leonid is a biologist. They had been on many expeditions to remote places of the earth and so we talked about these adventures of theirs.
We met up again with Alexander and visited Moscow State University as well as Red Square. Getting to Moscow State University was interesting and we got somewhat lost. On the other side of the Moscow River there is a large hill and we climbed up that. We stumbled across what looked like a ski hill at one point...Red Square was also quite impressive, but like everything, is much smaller than you would think. The Lenin Mausoleum was closed that day so we decided to return the next day. Afterwards we said our goodbyes to Alexander and went back to the home of our hosts. We had a delcious dinner and talked about Russia and Canada and other topics.
The second day we decided to get our tickets for the train. It was an interesting experience in that it was the first time in a long time that my French actually came in handy. We found the office of the ticket agency but couldn't get inside. There was a big metal door with a number-lock (not sure the correct name). We went into the grocery store next door and asked if anyone spoke English. Nobody did, and we couldn't understand what they were saying to us in Russian. Finally, a young Russian guy came in and could speak a little English. He said something about pressing 2 on the lock on the door. Austin and I proceeded to thank them and walked out and back to the ticket agency. We pressed 2 and someone said hello. We said that we didn't speak Russian and tried saying "Bilet" which means ticket in Russian. Finally, she asked, "Parlez-vous Francais?" Relieved, I asked her where I could pick up my tickets and she let us in. It turned out she wasn't actually the ticket agency, but was the neighbour, so she knocked on the next door and there, finally, was the ticket agency. Afterwards we went and visited the Lenin Mausoleum which was interesting.
Anyway, I am running out of time and will post later. We are going on the train tonight at 23:00 and should be in Mongolia in about 5 days. Talk to you then!
Will
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Just when you thought I couldn't get any cheaper...
Here are some photos:
The first is a Lada, which is a Russian car th at I'd never seen before but heard about on the Simpsons. The second is of the church called: Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. It was named this way because on the place where it was subsequently built, Alexander II was mortally wounded there in 1881. The third photo (of terrible quality) is of the main square in St. Petersburg where the Hermitage is located. The fourth photo is our train compartment on the way to St. Petersburg from Riga. The last photo is the spot where Roskolnikov, a character in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", lived.
Here are some tips I have learned from my time in St. Petersburg.
1: The free morning breakfast should definitely be taken advantage of. If you eat as much as you can in the morning, you can skip lunch without too much trouble. This saves you many rubles!
2: Spam isn't that bad. There is Spam served with breakfast here as well as some Russian cheese spread. Due to my inherent Dutch nature, I was unable to see free food and not take full advantage of it, so I made two Spam and Cheese sandwiches and stuffed them into my pockets in a bag for dinner!
3: Bring a student card or some type of ID! We have saved ourselves many rubles by pretending our Driver's License is a student card. The Hermitage was free. St. Isaac's was half-price.
Will
The first is a Lada, which is a Russian car th at I'd never seen before but heard about on the Simpsons. The second is of the church called: Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. It was named this way because on the place where it was subsequently built, Alexander II was mortally wounded there in 1881. The third photo (of terrible quality) is of the main square in St. Petersburg where the Hermitage is located. The fourth photo is our train compartment on the way to St. Petersburg from Riga. The last photo is the spot where Roskolnikov, a character in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", lived.
Here are some tips I have learned from my time in St. Petersburg.
1: The free morning breakfast should definitely be taken advantage of. If you eat as much as you can in the morning, you can skip lunch without too much trouble. This saves you many rubles!
2: Spam isn't that bad. There is Spam served with breakfast here as well as some Russian cheese spread. Due to my inherent Dutch nature, I was unable to see free food and not take full advantage of it, so I made two Spam and Cheese sandwiches and stuffed them into my pockets in a bag for dinner!
3: Bring a student card or some type of ID! We have saved ourselves many rubles by pretending our Driver's License is a student card. The Hermitage was free. St. Isaac's was half-price.
Will
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