On our last day in Swaziland, Norman stayed in the house to prepare a big braai. We tried to get him to let us stay and help but Faith assured us that Norman would do best on his own and suggested that she take us around to see some of the sights in Swaziland.
We got into a different SUV than the Rexton with Faith and Naomi and headed out to House on Fire, a local performance space and restaurant. House on Fire hosts a big music festival every year that is world renowned (we just missed it by two weeks!) and also features a great shop called Gone Rural that features some of the beautiful crafts and products for which Swaziland is famous. My mom went totally nuts over the beautiful basketry, weaving and tinkery available and I picked up some bottles of marula oil which have miracle skin restorative properties. Faith told me that she used marula oil on her skin during all four of her pregnancies and has no stretch marks! That was enough of a recommendation for me. The marula oil in Swaziland is manufactured by Swazi Secrets, a company that is dedicated to sustainable harvesting and local organic co-ops so I was happy to purchase their product.
We wandered around the House on Fire performance space, which is sculpted in a very vibrant and whimsical manner by a local artist and enjoyed the warm sunshine and clear air. We had a wonderful view of the mountains which was a nice change from the haze of Johannesburg.
We then went to the Swazi Candle factory, which was packed with families visiting for the large mountain bike race that was held on Saturday. I didn't know what a Swazi candle was before visiting, but as soon as I walked in to the factory store I knew I had seen them before. You know those psychedelically swirled candles that are in every head shop and hippie house? They glow when you light them and are probably much more fascinating when accompanied by illegal inhalation? Well, they were invented in Swaziland and (of course) eventually stolen and mass produced by the Chinese. The factory store had candles in every shape imaginable, including African animals, as well as delicious smelling soaps. My dad was quite taken with some chocolate soap so my mom got it for him so he would stop exclaiming, "Wow, this smells just like chocolate!" The factory also has a worker who will mold the warm wax into any shape you want and it was fascinating to see him start with a random blob and make it into a pretty rose (per Naomi's request).
We got some delicious scones for breakfast at Linda's cafe and then drove around for more sightseeing. Naomi regaled us with a hilarious anecdote about her old riding instructor who always served beans for lunch, thus resulting in her unfortunate farts during trotting lessons. I found this to be an opportune time to engage in a little cross-cultural sharing, so I recited one of my favorite Bart Simpson poems:
Beans, beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So beans, beans, for every meal!
It was well-received, as I'm sure you can imagine.
WE ended up back at the house just in time for Norman's extravagant feast. He had prepared several kinds of barbecued meats (the ribs were to die for) as well as potkjie, which is a sort of lamb cabbage stew cooked in a Dutch oven, fabulous cabbage (boiled in broth, the secret to tasty cabbage), the sweetest carrots I've ever had and saffron rice. We ate entirely too much and loved every minute of it. Naomi also introduced me to cream soda that came in a violence fluorescent green color--it tasted the same as cream soda in the US but looked like Midori liquor.
After the fabulous lunch we somehow rolled ourselves into the car and departed for the drive back to South Africa, after thanking our hosts profusely. We had an incredible time and definitely experienced many things that we wouldn't have if we had visited ourselves.
The border crossing was as expected--leaving Swazi was friendly and easy, getting through South African customs was a pain in the butt. We had a classic case of lots of people cutting the line, which made it longer for people who were following the rules. Eventually we gave up and just cut the line and no one seemed to care!
We stopped to get gas and for a bathroom break right as it got dark at a rest area off the N4 but when we got back into the car my mom realized that my dad's backpack (which we had foolishly left in the back seat) was gone! We looked around and didn't see anyone with it so we decided to just keep driving. The thieves somehow got into our locked car and stole the bag, but left everything in the trunk. We know we had the bag with us at the border because it had the car's registration papers inside. It was a total mystery and kind of put a damper on the trip. The thieves got a really ghetto digital camera, my dad's Speedo and goggles, my dad's sun hat (totally unfashionable) and our registration papers which are useless as they have my dad's photo on it and I doubt that the thieves are elderly men with a gray mustache and a giant noggin (so they probably won't get use out of the hat, either). My dad ended up having to go to the police station to make an affidavit of the loss, and then to the local South African equivalent of the DMV (known as the Licensing Department) but that was taken care of later in the week without too much difficulty. My dad did report, however, that the employees at the Licensing Department were just as surly as their American DMV counterparts and that the system was typically bureaucratic and slow moving. Additionally, he tried to get a photo from a guy who had set up shop on the lawn outside the licensing department with an umbrella, digital camera and printer, but the printer was broken so he had to go elsewhere. A "This is Africa" classic!!
Showing posts with label FOOD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FOOD. Show all posts
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Mozambican Ferry Shuffle
As promised (or threatened?) by Norman, our day trip to Mozambique began promptly at 7am. All 6 of us piled into their Ssang Yong Rexton, a Korean SUV with a Mercedes-built engine. This car has a 100 liter diesel gas tank, so we were able to drive all the way to Maputo and back on one tank. We were joined by Norman and Faith's youngest daughter, Naomi, who is twelve years old. Her older sister Johanna stayed behind as she had to work at the pharmacy.
We drove through Ezulwini and then through Manzini, the industrial capital (such as it is) of Swaziland and then headed out further east towards the border. We passed an enormous sugar cane plantation with cane in various stages of readiness for harvest. When the cane is cut, it is first burned to get rid of the extra vegetation that is not needed for the processing portion. When the cane fires are lit, apparently all manner of creepy crawlies come dashing out of the plants, including many snakes such as the deadly black mamba! We could smell the sugar cane plant long before we could see it--the stench reminded me of the International Paper mill in Ft. Henry, NY. It stunk!
We reached the Swazi border with Mozambique after about an hour of driving and duly had our passports stamped for exit with no problem. However, we ran into a spot of trouble at the gate that officially let us out of Swaziland and into the Mozambique side of the border station. The Swazi guard didn't want to let us out because Norman only had the title of the Ssang Yong car, and not the registration. Norman argued in Swazi very agilely with the guard but he seemed adamant. I was quite stressed, as I definitely wanted to get to Mozambique, and it was so close! Finally the guard let us through, claiming that my father with his gray hair was too old to be kept waiting. Faith later explained that Swazis revere the elderly. I'm quite sure my dad was none too pleased to be counted among the elderly, but at least we got across the border!
The Mozambique side was considerably less organized than the Swazi side. Illegal money changers swarmed our car trying to get us to exchange for the Mozambique currency, the metical, but their rates were too low for our taste (4.2 to 1 SA rand). There were also hawkers advertising Mozambican car insurance. Norman bought some from a guy he knew as he explained that South African insurance companies often took a long time to process your claim, and you might have to spend the night in Mozambican jail, whereas if you got a local insurance company to handle it, your claim would be processed much quicker. I guess it is very much like driving your car into Mexico!
We all had to fill out embarkation forms, even Faith and Naomi who were traveling on Swazi passports, and our US passports were taken away so they could check to see if we were on Interpol and to issue the visas. They were very cheap at this crossing, only 130 Rand. Had we gone to the embassy in Pretoria we would have paid over $100, as they base the cost of the visa on what it would cost for a Mozambican to go to the US. What a deal! After waiting about 10 minutes, the guard came back with our passports newly stickered and stamped. We piled back into the car and headed out into Mozambique!
We took the road down towards Maputo and the coast that used to be called the "Hell Run" during the days of the civil war. Armed brigands would hide by the road and attack cars with RPG weapons. Norman said that sometimes he would hear that friends had gone to Mozambique for the day and just wouldn't come back as they had been killed. Cars would travel through this corridor in a caravan with armed escorts. It was mostly deserted and peaceful so it was hard to imagine such things happening. Norman also mentioned that once he was driving on this road and his bodyguard at the time pulled over to pee and stepped on a land mine. The explosion resulted in a leg amputation. Much of Mozambique is still peppered with mines and travelers must take caution when venturing off roads.
The drive to Maputo was very interesting. The land flattened out and we headed down towards the Indian Ocean. We saw a lot of flourishing business but also signs of the old Communist regime--statues of stars, hammers and sickles, ugly utilitarian buildings and even some bombed out buildings left over from the war. We also stopped for breakfast at a hotel near the border where I had some truly delicious coffee and a sort of cheese egg sandwich on a fluffy bread.
When we got to Maputo the early start caught up with me; I napped while we got stuck in a traffic jam. I missed our trip through the southern part of Maputo and awoke when we reached the ferry dock for Catembe Island. The ferry dock was an utter madhouse, as you can imagine. Our car was swarmed with vendors offering shoes, jewelry, clothing, watches, wallets, belts, CDs and DVDs. I smartly negotiated for a nifty pair of flip flop sandals with the Mozambican flag on the footbed as I had only brought my sneakers. Faith bought three counterfeit Bafana Bafana jerseys for her family and Norman insisted on a Timex watch that we were pretty sure had been stolen.
We waited in the ferry queue for about 30 minutes for the ferry to arrive, it seemed to take much longer loading on the other side than it did crossing the channel from the island. This would prove to be prophetic. I have traveled on car ferries before, but they are the kind where you drive into the cargo area and then the upper decks are passenger areas, such as the Jadrolina ferries that depart from Split to other Croatian Islands. Well, in Mozambique you get probably a 4th or 5th hand ferry that has been through the wars, literally, where 14 vehicles are crammed like the world's most busy parking lot along with as many passengers that could squeeze on while the ferry operators are performing their remarkable conducting dance to get all the cars fit onto the deck. We were amazed that so many cars could fit in so small a space! At last, a huge cement truck lumbered into the center space and we were off. The ferry tilted somewhat precipitously when the truck drove on, but I tried not to think about what would happen if we were to sink. Luckily, the channel between Maputo and Catembe is relatively narrow, and I promised my mom that I would help her swim to shore if it was necessary.
We climbed up to the deck next to the bridge for a nice breeze and a good view of the madness below. In order to access the top deck, we had to climb up into the passenger area and go through a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." The "authorized personnel" in the bridge didn't bat an eyelash when I climbed up in there, so I just went out the side door and enjoyed the fresh air. We got a great view of some traditional fishing dhows, with their bright paint and colorful sails, as well as the smaller water taxis that ferry pedestrians who don't care to wait for the car ferry to fiddle about with loading and maneuvering.
When we got to Catembe the unloading process was slightly less chaotic, although the passengers just streamed off the ferry with little regard for the cars so we moved at a snail's pace. The island seemed very untouched by the modern world, with small bungalows, sandy roads and tons of fruit trees everywhere. We drove around enjoying the view and tried to get to the opposite side of the island, but missed the turn off, so we ended up at Hotel Marina on the beach to get a late lunch. The hotel had a gorgeous view of the Maputo skyline (which is nice as it is on a peninsula) so we sat on the veranda enjoying a drink and the sunshine.
I climbed down to the beach, which had a fine sand and clean water. There were plenty of neat shells to poke through and even some ghost crabs scuttling about. Except for an old fisherman mending an enormous net and a young boy herding goats, I was the only one on the beach. A dhow looked to be making land just in front of me, and I wanted to see what they had caught, but then the wind changed so they had to make for another area of the beach to land. I went back up to the veranda of the restaurant just as much large order of buttery, lemony, spicy prawns arrived. Bliss! The restaurant also had some funny stray cats who hung around obviously expecting the scraps from our seafood feast. Eventually they were rewarded with some snapper from Naomi and some fish skin from me.
We got back in the car to try to make the 6pm ferry back to Maputo and we did make it, although there was quite a bit of excitement with the loading as there were several light trucks gumming up the works as well as a bakkie overloaded with furniture and a trailer. Eventually we made it across and were back in downtown Maputo just as the sun set. Norman gave us a great tour of the city, showing us Embassy Row, the fancier houses, the fish market, the coastal road, the Costa del Sol hotel and even a stop at a patisserie where we got some snacks for the long drive home.
We made the border with Swaziland around 10pm and had to rouse Naomi from the nest she had made in the far back seat of the Rexton. We all trooped into the border station where we had to fill out the exact same embarkation card we had in the morning. On the way out I found someone's Mozambican passport on the ground. Alas, I did not resemble the person at all (named Ignacio something or other) so I gave it to the man in the border station. He seemed peeved that I had potentially created extra work for him.
The Swazi side was of course much friendlier and they joked that we were guest of the king. I must give them credit, they noted that my father had driven in with a car registered in South Africa and why did we not have it with us now? Norman explained that he had driven us and that the car was still in the house in Ezulwini. We paid our 50 rand road tax and headed back into the night.
The road was foggy as it was so late and we had gone back up into the mountains. It was noticeably cooler as well. We passed the checkpoint for hoof and mouth disease where a soldier is supposed to check your car for illegal bush meat, but due to a recent incident where a disgruntled citizen put laxatives in the meat, which was then grilled and eaten by the inspectors who then had quite a bad night of it, the inspection has become much more cursory.
We made it back to the house quite late, around 11:30, and all tumbled into bed exhausted after a long day. I made sure to grab a quick bite in the main house, however, as Johanna had made a delicious creamy broccoli bake and some fabulous, spicy fried chicken. I'm normally not a big night eater, but the chicken smelled so good and I wanted to make sure I got some of it before it disappeared!
We drove through Ezulwini and then through Manzini, the industrial capital (such as it is) of Swaziland and then headed out further east towards the border. We passed an enormous sugar cane plantation with cane in various stages of readiness for harvest. When the cane is cut, it is first burned to get rid of the extra vegetation that is not needed for the processing portion. When the cane fires are lit, apparently all manner of creepy crawlies come dashing out of the plants, including many snakes such as the deadly black mamba! We could smell the sugar cane plant long before we could see it--the stench reminded me of the International Paper mill in Ft. Henry, NY. It stunk!
We reached the Swazi border with Mozambique after about an hour of driving and duly had our passports stamped for exit with no problem. However, we ran into a spot of trouble at the gate that officially let us out of Swaziland and into the Mozambique side of the border station. The Swazi guard didn't want to let us out because Norman only had the title of the Ssang Yong car, and not the registration. Norman argued in Swazi very agilely with the guard but he seemed adamant. I was quite stressed, as I definitely wanted to get to Mozambique, and it was so close! Finally the guard let us through, claiming that my father with his gray hair was too old to be kept waiting. Faith later explained that Swazis revere the elderly. I'm quite sure my dad was none too pleased to be counted among the elderly, but at least we got across the border!
The Mozambique side was considerably less organized than the Swazi side. Illegal money changers swarmed our car trying to get us to exchange for the Mozambique currency, the metical, but their rates were too low for our taste (4.2 to 1 SA rand). There were also hawkers advertising Mozambican car insurance. Norman bought some from a guy he knew as he explained that South African insurance companies often took a long time to process your claim, and you might have to spend the night in Mozambican jail, whereas if you got a local insurance company to handle it, your claim would be processed much quicker. I guess it is very much like driving your car into Mexico!
We all had to fill out embarkation forms, even Faith and Naomi who were traveling on Swazi passports, and our US passports were taken away so they could check to see if we were on Interpol and to issue the visas. They were very cheap at this crossing, only 130 Rand. Had we gone to the embassy in Pretoria we would have paid over $100, as they base the cost of the visa on what it would cost for a Mozambican to go to the US. What a deal! After waiting about 10 minutes, the guard came back with our passports newly stickered and stamped. We piled back into the car and headed out into Mozambique!
We took the road down towards Maputo and the coast that used to be called the "Hell Run" during the days of the civil war. Armed brigands would hide by the road and attack cars with RPG weapons. Norman said that sometimes he would hear that friends had gone to Mozambique for the day and just wouldn't come back as they had been killed. Cars would travel through this corridor in a caravan with armed escorts. It was mostly deserted and peaceful so it was hard to imagine such things happening. Norman also mentioned that once he was driving on this road and his bodyguard at the time pulled over to pee and stepped on a land mine. The explosion resulted in a leg amputation. Much of Mozambique is still peppered with mines and travelers must take caution when venturing off roads.
The drive to Maputo was very interesting. The land flattened out and we headed down towards the Indian Ocean. We saw a lot of flourishing business but also signs of the old Communist regime--statues of stars, hammers and sickles, ugly utilitarian buildings and even some bombed out buildings left over from the war. We also stopped for breakfast at a hotel near the border where I had some truly delicious coffee and a sort of cheese egg sandwich on a fluffy bread.
When we got to Maputo the early start caught up with me; I napped while we got stuck in a traffic jam. I missed our trip through the southern part of Maputo and awoke when we reached the ferry dock for Catembe Island. The ferry dock was an utter madhouse, as you can imagine. Our car was swarmed with vendors offering shoes, jewelry, clothing, watches, wallets, belts, CDs and DVDs. I smartly negotiated for a nifty pair of flip flop sandals with the Mozambican flag on the footbed as I had only brought my sneakers. Faith bought three counterfeit Bafana Bafana jerseys for her family and Norman insisted on a Timex watch that we were pretty sure had been stolen.
We waited in the ferry queue for about 30 minutes for the ferry to arrive, it seemed to take much longer loading on the other side than it did crossing the channel from the island. This would prove to be prophetic. I have traveled on car ferries before, but they are the kind where you drive into the cargo area and then the upper decks are passenger areas, such as the Jadrolina ferries that depart from Split to other Croatian Islands. Well, in Mozambique you get probably a 4th or 5th hand ferry that has been through the wars, literally, where 14 vehicles are crammed like the world's most busy parking lot along with as many passengers that could squeeze on while the ferry operators are performing their remarkable conducting dance to get all the cars fit onto the deck. We were amazed that so many cars could fit in so small a space! At last, a huge cement truck lumbered into the center space and we were off. The ferry tilted somewhat precipitously when the truck drove on, but I tried not to think about what would happen if we were to sink. Luckily, the channel between Maputo and Catembe is relatively narrow, and I promised my mom that I would help her swim to shore if it was necessary.
We climbed up to the deck next to the bridge for a nice breeze and a good view of the madness below. In order to access the top deck, we had to climb up into the passenger area and go through a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." The "authorized personnel" in the bridge didn't bat an eyelash when I climbed up in there, so I just went out the side door and enjoyed the fresh air. We got a great view of some traditional fishing dhows, with their bright paint and colorful sails, as well as the smaller water taxis that ferry pedestrians who don't care to wait for the car ferry to fiddle about with loading and maneuvering.
When we got to Catembe the unloading process was slightly less chaotic, although the passengers just streamed off the ferry with little regard for the cars so we moved at a snail's pace. The island seemed very untouched by the modern world, with small bungalows, sandy roads and tons of fruit trees everywhere. We drove around enjoying the view and tried to get to the opposite side of the island, but missed the turn off, so we ended up at Hotel Marina on the beach to get a late lunch. The hotel had a gorgeous view of the Maputo skyline (which is nice as it is on a peninsula) so we sat on the veranda enjoying a drink and the sunshine.
I climbed down to the beach, which had a fine sand and clean water. There were plenty of neat shells to poke through and even some ghost crabs scuttling about. Except for an old fisherman mending an enormous net and a young boy herding goats, I was the only one on the beach. A dhow looked to be making land just in front of me, and I wanted to see what they had caught, but then the wind changed so they had to make for another area of the beach to land. I went back up to the veranda of the restaurant just as much large order of buttery, lemony, spicy prawns arrived. Bliss! The restaurant also had some funny stray cats who hung around obviously expecting the scraps from our seafood feast. Eventually they were rewarded with some snapper from Naomi and some fish skin from me.
We got back in the car to try to make the 6pm ferry back to Maputo and we did make it, although there was quite a bit of excitement with the loading as there were several light trucks gumming up the works as well as a bakkie overloaded with furniture and a trailer. Eventually we made it across and were back in downtown Maputo just as the sun set. Norman gave us a great tour of the city, showing us Embassy Row, the fancier houses, the fish market, the coastal road, the Costa del Sol hotel and even a stop at a patisserie where we got some snacks for the long drive home.
We made the border with Swaziland around 10pm and had to rouse Naomi from the nest she had made in the far back seat of the Rexton. We all trooped into the border station where we had to fill out the exact same embarkation card we had in the morning. On the way out I found someone's Mozambican passport on the ground. Alas, I did not resemble the person at all (named Ignacio something or other) so I gave it to the man in the border station. He seemed peeved that I had potentially created extra work for him.
The Swazi side was of course much friendlier and they joked that we were guest of the king. I must give them credit, they noted that my father had driven in with a car registered in South Africa and why did we not have it with us now? Norman explained that he had driven us and that the car was still in the house in Ezulwini. We paid our 50 rand road tax and headed back into the night.
The road was foggy as it was so late and we had gone back up into the mountains. It was noticeably cooler as well. We passed the checkpoint for hoof and mouth disease where a soldier is supposed to check your car for illegal bush meat, but due to a recent incident where a disgruntled citizen put laxatives in the meat, which was then grilled and eaten by the inspectors who then had quite a bad night of it, the inspection has become much more cursory.
We made it back to the house quite late, around 11:30, and all tumbled into bed exhausted after a long day. I made sure to grab a quick bite in the main house, however, as Johanna had made a delicious creamy broccoli bake and some fabulous, spicy fried chicken. I'm normally not a big night eater, but the chicken smelled so good and I wanted to make sure I got some of it before it disappeared!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A Drive to Swaziland
My dad has made friends with a South African/Swazi couple named Norman and Faith. Norman used to be CEO of a guarantee fund who was one of USAID's local partners for my dad's project, and he and my dad got to be friendly. Norman was always inviting our family to visit their home in Swaziland, so we were lucky enough to be able to go this weekend now that I was in Africa as well.
Swaziland is a small kingdom, one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchies, located on the eastern edge of South Africa and bordering Mozambique. The kingdom is a small part of the ancestral Swazi land holdings, which used to reach through Mpumalanga province and part of Kwa-Zulu Natal as well. Even Maputo and the surrounding area used to be part of Swaziland. Now King Mswate III rules and famously has 14 wives, the youngest of which was 17 when they wed and the wedding took place during a 5 year sex ban for younger people in the country, in an attempt to lower the shockingly high AIDS infection rate.
I had a meeting in Sandton on Friday morning, so we left around 9:30am, and of course got stuck in morning traffic heading to Pretoria (after getting stuck in hideous traffic getting to Sandton, which resulted in me and my boss being late for our meeting). Once we got on the N1 towards eMahelene (can't they just say EAST??) traffic thinned out and we were treated to a long drive of rolling wheat fields and power lines. Yup, that's Gauteng province. Eventually we passed into Mpumalanga (my favorite province name!) and left the highway for two lane local roads. The last 50k or so before crossing the border into Swazi takes you through an enormous tree farm with acres and acres of pine trees and sawmills. It's pretty country, despite the uniform lines of trees marching across the horizon.
The South Africa-Swazi border is a pain in the ass to cross, mainly because the South African side of the border station is a pathetically crappy and depressing low-ceilinged corridor with not enough windows open. The line goes down the hall, out the door and into the road. Commercial truckers are mixed in with regular passenger cars and there is only one customs window open for SARS declarations, hence the long line. We had to declare our car and show the registration number as well as any electronics we brought in. I didn't feel like looking up the serial numbers of our cameras so I just made them up. Yeah, I'm a scofflaw!
Then, once your vehicles and electronics are declared, you then must shove into the masses at the immigration windows. The woman who handled our passports simply could not find my parents' long-term residency permits in their passports and had to call over her supervisor, who of course found them immediately. I guess she was confused by the Slovak and Croatian long-term residency permits which were also in their passports, as well as the multiple passport pages extensions. Once we cleared South African customs, we then had to get back in the car and drive across the no-mans land to clear Swazi customs, which were much simpler. The Swazi border station is a bright and airy room with friendly employees and only a 50 rand road tax, which seems fair. There is no visa fee to enter Swaziland and we all had our passports stamped with no issues.
We were pleased to note that the Swazi road system was excellent, with a large, divided multi-lane highway as well as well-maintained local two-lane roads. My only grump is that people tend to drive extremely slowly, 60km even in 120km sections. Even the minibus taxis drive slowly! After playing Gran Turismo: Johannesburg edition for so long, it was refreshing.
Central South Africa, including Johannesburg, is located on a high plateau. Swaziland is where that plateau begins to head down to the sea, although the country is decorated with many picturesque mountain ranges. Our hosts' house is in a down called Ezulwini, which means heaven. It is an apt name, as it is located in a mountain valley with two impressive mountain ranges on either side. They have a clear view of Execution Rock, which is where the old king used to push offenders off, including political activists who wished to do away with the monarchy!
Our drive took us six hours, so we were quite tired when we arrived. After a chance to nap and freshen up, Faith and Norman took us to their friend's Portuguese/Mozambiquan restaurant for dinner. We had a fabulous meal of prawns, fish, chicken, livers, pork sausage and spicy, spicy curries. We met the proprietress, Auntie Nan, a dynamic, hilarious woman who was wearing a very glamorous caftan sewn by King Mswate III's tailor himself and her enormous and quiet husband, Justin. Her restaurant was hopping with locals who all stopped by our table to say hello as well as plenty of out of towners who were in Swazi for the big mountain bike race to be held on Saturday. Faith and Norman call Swaziland "Smallville" because everyone knows everyone else with the population under 1 million citizens.
After our long dinner, fueled by much sangria consumption, we rolled off to bed with the warning that the day trip to Mozambique would start at 7am and we had to be ready and well rested!
Swaziland is a small kingdom, one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchies, located on the eastern edge of South Africa and bordering Mozambique. The kingdom is a small part of the ancestral Swazi land holdings, which used to reach through Mpumalanga province and part of Kwa-Zulu Natal as well. Even Maputo and the surrounding area used to be part of Swaziland. Now King Mswate III rules and famously has 14 wives, the youngest of which was 17 when they wed and the wedding took place during a 5 year sex ban for younger people in the country, in an attempt to lower the shockingly high AIDS infection rate.
I had a meeting in Sandton on Friday morning, so we left around 9:30am, and of course got stuck in morning traffic heading to Pretoria (after getting stuck in hideous traffic getting to Sandton, which resulted in me and my boss being late for our meeting). Once we got on the N1 towards eMahelene (can't they just say EAST??) traffic thinned out and we were treated to a long drive of rolling wheat fields and power lines. Yup, that's Gauteng province. Eventually we passed into Mpumalanga (my favorite province name!) and left the highway for two lane local roads. The last 50k or so before crossing the border into Swazi takes you through an enormous tree farm with acres and acres of pine trees and sawmills. It's pretty country, despite the uniform lines of trees marching across the horizon.
The South Africa-Swazi border is a pain in the ass to cross, mainly because the South African side of the border station is a pathetically crappy and depressing low-ceilinged corridor with not enough windows open. The line goes down the hall, out the door and into the road. Commercial truckers are mixed in with regular passenger cars and there is only one customs window open for SARS declarations, hence the long line. We had to declare our car and show the registration number as well as any electronics we brought in. I didn't feel like looking up the serial numbers of our cameras so I just made them up. Yeah, I'm a scofflaw!
Then, once your vehicles and electronics are declared, you then must shove into the masses at the immigration windows. The woman who handled our passports simply could not find my parents' long-term residency permits in their passports and had to call over her supervisor, who of course found them immediately. I guess she was confused by the Slovak and Croatian long-term residency permits which were also in their passports, as well as the multiple passport pages extensions. Once we cleared South African customs, we then had to get back in the car and drive across the no-mans land to clear Swazi customs, which were much simpler. The Swazi border station is a bright and airy room with friendly employees and only a 50 rand road tax, which seems fair. There is no visa fee to enter Swaziland and we all had our passports stamped with no issues.
We were pleased to note that the Swazi road system was excellent, with a large, divided multi-lane highway as well as well-maintained local two-lane roads. My only grump is that people tend to drive extremely slowly, 60km even in 120km sections. Even the minibus taxis drive slowly! After playing Gran Turismo: Johannesburg edition for so long, it was refreshing.
Central South Africa, including Johannesburg, is located on a high plateau. Swaziland is where that plateau begins to head down to the sea, although the country is decorated with many picturesque mountain ranges. Our hosts' house is in a down called Ezulwini, which means heaven. It is an apt name, as it is located in a mountain valley with two impressive mountain ranges on either side. They have a clear view of Execution Rock, which is where the old king used to push offenders off, including political activists who wished to do away with the monarchy!
Our drive took us six hours, so we were quite tired when we arrived. After a chance to nap and freshen up, Faith and Norman took us to their friend's Portuguese/Mozambiquan restaurant for dinner. We had a fabulous meal of prawns, fish, chicken, livers, pork sausage and spicy, spicy curries. We met the proprietress, Auntie Nan, a dynamic, hilarious woman who was wearing a very glamorous caftan sewn by King Mswate III's tailor himself and her enormous and quiet husband, Justin. Her restaurant was hopping with locals who all stopped by our table to say hello as well as plenty of out of towners who were in Swazi for the big mountain bike race to be held on Saturday. Faith and Norman call Swaziland "Smallville" because everyone knows everyone else with the population under 1 million citizens.
After our long dinner, fueled by much sangria consumption, we rolled off to bed with the warning that the day trip to Mozambique would start at 7am and we had to be ready and well rested!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Road Trip East Day 7: Schenectady, NY to Shelburne, VT
This morning I had breakfast with my brother at a diner called the Blue Ribbon. I had eggs benedict and he had a cinnamon roll. Their coffee was excellent. We chatted about school, classes and friends and it was nice to see him so animated and happy.
I drove him back to campus and then headed out of town to take I-87 north out of Albany. I took this road so many times to and from college that it was quite odd to be heading this way again. I even remembered where to exit (Ft. Anne, NY 149), then US 4, then VT 22A. The weather was sunny and clear and the drive through the Adirondacks and then with a clear view of the Green Mountains was beautiful.
The Aspen seeds are in the air in VT so the air seems to snow with fluffy white puffs. It was warm earlier this week, in the low 90's. I drove straight to my relatives' house and ended up talking with them and their friend named Ah Ha. Ah Ha is short and round, like a cannonball, and speaks very loudly. She is quite funny, so her name is very appropriate. She doesn't speak English so we conversed in Mandarin. My aunties insisted that I eat lunch, so I left quite stuffed.
I made it to the house and unloaded my car. I also drove to Champ's Car Care Center to wash off 14 states worth of bugs and road grime. Having the roof racks on the car makes it a pain to go to a regular touchless car wash so I did it myself. Champ's has this super high pressure water hose that amazingly blew all the bugs away! I think the car iscleaner than it's ever been!
I'm so glad to not have to get on the road tomorrow!
I drove him back to campus and then headed out of town to take I-87 north out of Albany. I took this road so many times to and from college that it was quite odd to be heading this way again. I even remembered where to exit (Ft. Anne, NY 149), then US 4, then VT 22A. The weather was sunny and clear and the drive through the Adirondacks and then with a clear view of the Green Mountains was beautiful.
The Aspen seeds are in the air in VT so the air seems to snow with fluffy white puffs. It was warm earlier this week, in the low 90's. I drove straight to my relatives' house and ended up talking with them and their friend named Ah Ha. Ah Ha is short and round, like a cannonball, and speaks very loudly. She is quite funny, so her name is very appropriate. She doesn't speak English so we conversed in Mandarin. My aunties insisted that I eat lunch, so I left quite stuffed.
I made it to the house and unloaded my car. I also drove to Champ's Car Care Center to wash off 14 states worth of bugs and road grime. Having the roof racks on the car makes it a pain to go to a regular touchless car wash so I did it myself. Champ's has this super high pressure water hose that amazingly blew all the bugs away! I think the car iscleaner than it's ever been!
I'm so glad to not have to get on the road tomorrow!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Road Trip East Day 5: Knoxville, TN to Charlottesville, VA
As I continued northeast out of Tennessee into Virginia, the landscape became even more mountainous and similar to Vermont. The highway passes entrances to Shenandoah State Park and also follows the Great Smoky Mountains. There is a byway of the same name that follows 81 north, but of course it is much slower.
Virginia looks a lot like Vermont with rolling green hills and little farms. I reached Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia, around 3pm. I had visited once when I was looking at colleges but that was a long time ago and I only remember the main campus plus a trip to Monticello. The interstate that takes you to Charlottesville, I-64, heads over a large mountain that has several scenic views of the Great Smoky Mountains and is very pretty. The weather was perfect, about 75, partly sunny and very comfortable.
I hadn't seen Smitha in person in about eight years so it was nice to catch up and hang out. We went to get an oil change for my car, since I didn't get one before I left, and then we ate crepes and sat outside enjoying the weather at a pedestrian mall that reminded me of Church Street. We met up with some of her friends from law school and chatted for a while and then she and I had dinner at a French place called Bizou. I have been craving vegetables and fresh food as I have had a lot of protein and heavy sauces the past few days! Bizou did not disappoint with a beet salad, blue cheese and walnut salad, tuna ceviche and shrimp and grits. To finish it off we had apple fritters.
I received a late message from my friend Grant who is staying with his family in Frederick, MD right now, so I will drive up there and have lunch with him. It's not out of the way so I might as well see him since he and I won't be able to meet up while he is in Africa this summer.
Virginia looks a lot like Vermont with rolling green hills and little farms. I reached Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia, around 3pm. I had visited once when I was looking at colleges but that was a long time ago and I only remember the main campus plus a trip to Monticello. The interstate that takes you to Charlottesville, I-64, heads over a large mountain that has several scenic views of the Great Smoky Mountains and is very pretty. The weather was perfect, about 75, partly sunny and very comfortable.
I hadn't seen Smitha in person in about eight years so it was nice to catch up and hang out. We went to get an oil change for my car, since I didn't get one before I left, and then we ate crepes and sat outside enjoying the weather at a pedestrian mall that reminded me of Church Street. We met up with some of her friends from law school and chatted for a while and then she and I had dinner at a French place called Bizou. I have been craving vegetables and fresh food as I have had a lot of protein and heavy sauces the past few days! Bizou did not disappoint with a beet salad, blue cheese and walnut salad, tuna ceviche and shrimp and grits. To finish it off we had apple fritters.
I received a late message from my friend Grant who is staying with his family in Frederick, MD right now, so I will drive up there and have lunch with him. It's not out of the way so I might as well see him since he and I won't be able to meet up while he is in Africa this summer.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Road Trip East Interlude: New Orleans, LA
I started my time in the Big Easy by wandering around the French Quarter. Since my hotel is on Chartres Street, I was well located to do so. I went to Jackson Park, where there is a huge statue of General Andrew Jackson (we are in the Deep South after all) in front of St. Louis cathedral. I also saw the gold statue of Joan of Arc but she's pretty shiny and sparkly. Wandering around the French Quarter is fun, the buildings are picturesque and pretty with their wrought iron balconies and decorations. Chartres Street is not as ticky tacky as Bourbon Street; there are a lot of cute shops and galleries. I did the requisite walk down Bourbon just to see it, there are a lot of bars with funny names, shops selling Mardi Gras beads and strip clubs.
I ate lunch at Cafe Maspero's, which is a New Orleans staple and is housed in the old slave auction building down by the Mississippi river. I had a muffaletta sandwich, which is a heart attack disguised as a sandwich with salami, ham, melted provolone, olives, garlic, anchovies and spicy sauce all on an italian roll. It is enormous, filling and delicious.
After my lunch I decided to take the street car to the Garden District, which has beautiful, tree-lined streets, a cemetery and is close to Magazine Street, which is a cool un-touristy shopping district. The street car stop is at the end of Bourbon Street at where it meets Canal, and then the street car continues west from that point. It costs $1.25 to ride one way and you have to get off at the termination point, no riding back. The street car is a real antique--it rattles and bags furiously as you clatter along and it squeaks hideously around turns. The inside is almost all lined with wood and the seats switch backs for when the car heads back the other way. The drivers are all funny and friendly and some of them even spout off random sayings. One of mine pointed out to everyone, "Life's not that bad, hunh? You're in New Orleans and it's a wonderful day!"
I got off at the 6th street and St. Charles intersection in the garden district and walked to Lafayette Cemetery. The houses in this area are all beautiful plantation and southern style homes with verandas, porches and little yards. They are all really cute and have a lot of character. I saw lots of really nice houses and I wished I could call one of them my own!
Lafayette Cemetery was founded in 1833 and is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city. Some of the graves looked familiar to me as scenes for the movie Interview With the Vampire were filmed here. Various interesting characters from area history are buried here and the cemetery is also said to be haunted. The atmosphere is certainly mysterious and a little sad, with the tombs above ground for all to see. It was very hot and humid, so I was sweating profusely as I wandered around the tombs just poking around. It was definitely a picturesque, although creepy, place.
After my time with the dead I walked to Magazine Street and got an iced sweet tea since I was so hot and thirsty. Magazine Street has some cool little shops and restaurants and is just a neat little funky neighborhood. I found a cool tshirt shop called Storyville (which is a nickname for New Orleans) so I bought two shirts. I could have bought half the items in the shop but restrained myself!
I then walked back to the streetcar and went back to the W to swim in their little pool and rest a bit before dinner. The afternoon thunderstorm did not happen, although a large thunderhead did build up and I heard thunder at one point. As I was sitting by the pool the sun came back out so that was nice. The pool was empty except for a pack of Frenchmen who sat in one of the bungalows and chatted animatedly in French whilst smoking. You can smoke in public (and in bars) in New Orleans, which is not so great, but at least I couldn't smell their smoke and it wasn't blowing onto me.
After my time at the pool I showered (this is a horribly humid place) and then made plans for dinner. I got several recommendations from friends, including several traditional New Orleans fancy places in the Quarter, such as Antoines or Galatoire's, but I wanted something less fancy and more jovial. Let's face it, when you are traveling alone eating by yourself at a fancy place is kind of boring and awkward!
My friend Matt, who went to Tulane, recommended a place called Jacque-imo's which has traditional New Orleans style food but in a very convivial atmosphere. It is in the Uptown district which is on the same street car line I took before but past the Garden District. Uptown is where Tulane is so it is another fun, non-touristy area. I got back on the street car and rode it almost to the end to Oak Street. Jacque-imo's is a couple of blocks west on Oak.
The place was very crowded and I was offered the chance to sit at the bar without a wait. I took it, of course. I ended up chatting a lot with the bartender, Chris, who was blown away by my solo cross country trip (he said it was "ballsy") and then even more blown away by my plans to go to South Africa for World Cup. I told him to look for me waving a big American flag on ESPN.
For an appetizer I had the famous Alligator and Crab "Cheesecake" which is really a crab cake made with alligator as well served in the shape of a cheesecake. It comes with spicy stewed beets and a delicious creamy tomato sauce. As you can imagine it was rich yet amazing! Chris kept laughing at my faces as I pretty much inhaled the whole thing. Then, I had a spinach salad that came with a fried oyster, which I did not eat, but the fresh, crisp spinach was a welcome change from my road food and lack of veggies. The salad came with two fabulous cornbreads that seemed to be mostly butter, but totally tasty. They had a spicy jalapeno salsa on top as well! For my main course I had the paneed duck with sweet potato and shrimp sauce with mashed sweet potatoes and more of the stewed beets. It turns out paneed is apparently a fancy creole word for "breaded and fried" but it was of course also very, very good. I totally stuffed my face and was extremely full, but very satisfied. I washed down my meal with a classy can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. I'm so glad I decided to take up my friend on his recommendation as the place was exactly what I wanted!
I then took the trolley car back to the French Quarter and walked from one end to the other to get to Frenchman Street, which is a relatively unknown to tourists section known for its bars and music venues frequented by real locals. I'm glad I went there as once you pass the road that marks the edge of the French Quarter the atmosphere changes and you see crowds of clearly non tourists hanging out in the street and outside of bars. There were even several people grilling hot dogs or selling bbq from their cars! I ended up at Cafe Negril where a band was performing bluesy rock, just what I wanted. After two songs, the drums player got up and the guy sitting next to me stepped in! It turns out that this band allowed people to sign up to come and play with them--how cool is that? It was like a giant jam session! I drank a tasty Abita Raspberry Wheat beer and enjoyed the show. At one point a guy showed up in a pith helmet and started playing blues harmonica along with the band! He brought his own amp and a special microphone that includes a handle so you can play the harmonica and hold on at the same time. He also had a box full of multiple harmonicas! How mysterious!
After about an hour of local music I was tired, so I intended to take a cab back to the hotel (as per local recommendations) but there was a large crowd of people heading back in the direction I was going so I followed them on foot. In the French Quarter, Decatur Street where we were is pretty safe, but I figured safety in numbers was a good idea.
I'm now about to go to bed after a wonderful day in New Orleans. I wish I had more time to explore this city further--I'll have to come back!
I ate lunch at Cafe Maspero's, which is a New Orleans staple and is housed in the old slave auction building down by the Mississippi river. I had a muffaletta sandwich, which is a heart attack disguised as a sandwich with salami, ham, melted provolone, olives, garlic, anchovies and spicy sauce all on an italian roll. It is enormous, filling and delicious.
After my lunch I decided to take the street car to the Garden District, which has beautiful, tree-lined streets, a cemetery and is close to Magazine Street, which is a cool un-touristy shopping district. The street car stop is at the end of Bourbon Street at where it meets Canal, and then the street car continues west from that point. It costs $1.25 to ride one way and you have to get off at the termination point, no riding back. The street car is a real antique--it rattles and bags furiously as you clatter along and it squeaks hideously around turns. The inside is almost all lined with wood and the seats switch backs for when the car heads back the other way. The drivers are all funny and friendly and some of them even spout off random sayings. One of mine pointed out to everyone, "Life's not that bad, hunh? You're in New Orleans and it's a wonderful day!"
I got off at the 6th street and St. Charles intersection in the garden district and walked to Lafayette Cemetery. The houses in this area are all beautiful plantation and southern style homes with verandas, porches and little yards. They are all really cute and have a lot of character. I saw lots of really nice houses and I wished I could call one of them my own!
Lafayette Cemetery was founded in 1833 and is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city. Some of the graves looked familiar to me as scenes for the movie Interview With the Vampire were filmed here. Various interesting characters from area history are buried here and the cemetery is also said to be haunted. The atmosphere is certainly mysterious and a little sad, with the tombs above ground for all to see. It was very hot and humid, so I was sweating profusely as I wandered around the tombs just poking around. It was definitely a picturesque, although creepy, place.
After my time with the dead I walked to Magazine Street and got an iced sweet tea since I was so hot and thirsty. Magazine Street has some cool little shops and restaurants and is just a neat little funky neighborhood. I found a cool tshirt shop called Storyville (which is a nickname for New Orleans) so I bought two shirts. I could have bought half the items in the shop but restrained myself!
I then walked back to the streetcar and went back to the W to swim in their little pool and rest a bit before dinner. The afternoon thunderstorm did not happen, although a large thunderhead did build up and I heard thunder at one point. As I was sitting by the pool the sun came back out so that was nice. The pool was empty except for a pack of Frenchmen who sat in one of the bungalows and chatted animatedly in French whilst smoking. You can smoke in public (and in bars) in New Orleans, which is not so great, but at least I couldn't smell their smoke and it wasn't blowing onto me.
After my time at the pool I showered (this is a horribly humid place) and then made plans for dinner. I got several recommendations from friends, including several traditional New Orleans fancy places in the Quarter, such as Antoines or Galatoire's, but I wanted something less fancy and more jovial. Let's face it, when you are traveling alone eating by yourself at a fancy place is kind of boring and awkward!
My friend Matt, who went to Tulane, recommended a place called Jacque-imo's which has traditional New Orleans style food but in a very convivial atmosphere. It is in the Uptown district which is on the same street car line I took before but past the Garden District. Uptown is where Tulane is so it is another fun, non-touristy area. I got back on the street car and rode it almost to the end to Oak Street. Jacque-imo's is a couple of blocks west on Oak.
The place was very crowded and I was offered the chance to sit at the bar without a wait. I took it, of course. I ended up chatting a lot with the bartender, Chris, who was blown away by my solo cross country trip (he said it was "ballsy") and then even more blown away by my plans to go to South Africa for World Cup. I told him to look for me waving a big American flag on ESPN.
For an appetizer I had the famous Alligator and Crab "Cheesecake" which is really a crab cake made with alligator as well served in the shape of a cheesecake. It comes with spicy stewed beets and a delicious creamy tomato sauce. As you can imagine it was rich yet amazing! Chris kept laughing at my faces as I pretty much inhaled the whole thing. Then, I had a spinach salad that came with a fried oyster, which I did not eat, but the fresh, crisp spinach was a welcome change from my road food and lack of veggies. The salad came with two fabulous cornbreads that seemed to be mostly butter, but totally tasty. They had a spicy jalapeno salsa on top as well! For my main course I had the paneed duck with sweet potato and shrimp sauce with mashed sweet potatoes and more of the stewed beets. It turns out paneed is apparently a fancy creole word for "breaded and fried" but it was of course also very, very good. I totally stuffed my face and was extremely full, but very satisfied. I washed down my meal with a classy can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. I'm so glad I decided to take up my friend on his recommendation as the place was exactly what I wanted!
I then took the trolley car back to the French Quarter and walked from one end to the other to get to Frenchman Street, which is a relatively unknown to tourists section known for its bars and music venues frequented by real locals. I'm glad I went there as once you pass the road that marks the edge of the French Quarter the atmosphere changes and you see crowds of clearly non tourists hanging out in the street and outside of bars. There were even several people grilling hot dogs or selling bbq from their cars! I ended up at Cafe Negril where a band was performing bluesy rock, just what I wanted. After two songs, the drums player got up and the guy sitting next to me stepped in! It turns out that this band allowed people to sign up to come and play with them--how cool is that? It was like a giant jam session! I drank a tasty Abita Raspberry Wheat beer and enjoyed the show. At one point a guy showed up in a pith helmet and started playing blues harmonica along with the band! He brought his own amp and a special microphone that includes a handle so you can play the harmonica and hold on at the same time. He also had a box full of multiple harmonicas! How mysterious!
After about an hour of local music I was tired, so I intended to take a cab back to the hotel (as per local recommendations) but there was a large crowd of people heading back in the direction I was going so I followed them on foot. In the French Quarter, Decatur Street where we were is pretty safe, but I figured safety in numbers was a good idea.
I'm now about to go to bed after a wonderful day in New Orleans. I wish I had more time to explore this city further--I'll have to come back!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The Middle of the World
Since we arrived so late on Thursday night to Quito I didn´t get to see much of the city. It is at quite a high elevation, 9500 ft., and surrounded on all sides by mountains. At this time of year they are green and treeless. Some of the tallest active volcanoes in the world, Cotopaxie and Pichincha flank the city on either side. One of our cabbies told us that Cotopaxie erupts every 100 years, and is currently overdue. If it were to erupt, almost 250,000 people could potentially be affected. Cotopaxie has snow year round, but we couldn´t see either volcano as both were wreathed in clouds.
We hitched a cab to the monument at the equator, which is about a 40 minute drive north out of the city. The monument is known as El Mitad del Mundo. It was built before GPS systems, so when the location was officially calibrated, it turns out that they were 250 meters off! Still, it´s an interesting place to visit with small tourist shops, a monument tower that one can climb for a good view, and plenty of funny photo ops featuring one straddling the equator. You can also get a souvenier passport stamp showing you´ve been to the middle of the world.
After jumping across the equator several times, we headed back to Quito´s historical quarter, which was built in the 1600´s when the Spanish ruled the area. The historical area is absolutely charming, with slightly run down but obviously well-loved European style buildings that made me feel as if I were in Slovakia or Croatia! The only difference, of course, was that everyone here is Ecuadorian. About 20% of the population is local indigenous people and the rest are mestizo, although they seem to trend smaller and browner than in Mexico.
Our cabbie was very chatty, so we engaged him to take us to a hill above the city where there stands a statue of the Virgin Mary standing on top of a serpent, symbolizing the evil in the world. After grabbing a good view, we got dropped off at the central square where we saw the Presidential Palace and several churches. We wandered through the city until we ended up at the city Basilica, which is Gothic in style although was completed in the 1920´s. Instead of saints, its outer walls are adorned with exotic animals including iguanas and tortoises!
We then stopped by a travel agency to try to arrange our hotel and tours in the Galapagos. We went to Happy Gringo, which I had been emailing with prior to our departure as well as came highly recommended by Lonely Planet. As it turned out, we were quite unhappy gringos by the end. We walked in and explained that we wanted to see if there were any last minute deals on Galapagos boat tours. We were told that there were two tours leaving that matched our schedules and that one was a midrange boat for $850 per person and the other was a luxury boat for $990 per person. We chatted a bit about the options, and were ready to go for the luxury boat, but then were told that the boat was now full. Then we were told that we had to pay cash, immediately. Since it was past 5pm and the banks were closed, there was no way we could get that much cash. It was also ridiculous that they would expect us to carry around that much money in US$, which is the currency here in Ecuador. We tried to get them to accept credit card, but they said they would charge us 6%, which was egregious as well. After a lot of arguing and back and forth, we decided to just walk and try to arrange something on the islands themselves.
We had received a dinner recommendation from a gingo in the immigration line (an expat) who said that if we wanted steaks we should go to Restaurante El Sur. We had the hotel make us reservations at 10pm (like many other parts of Latin America, people dine fashionably late in Ecuador). After a quick nap and shower, we headed over to the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal of Lomo steak, which is an Argentinean style tenderized and marinated very thin steak. It was fabulous! We also had a fine Chilean wine with it which complimented the meal perfectly. It was so tasty!!
Our flights were early, 8:30, so we had to get up early to make it to the airport. I was so full from dinner, I went right to bed. I was excited, however, as I knew we would be in the Galapagos the next day!
We hitched a cab to the monument at the equator, which is about a 40 minute drive north out of the city. The monument is known as El Mitad del Mundo. It was built before GPS systems, so when the location was officially calibrated, it turns out that they were 250 meters off! Still, it´s an interesting place to visit with small tourist shops, a monument tower that one can climb for a good view, and plenty of funny photo ops featuring one straddling the equator. You can also get a souvenier passport stamp showing you´ve been to the middle of the world.
After jumping across the equator several times, we headed back to Quito´s historical quarter, which was built in the 1600´s when the Spanish ruled the area. The historical area is absolutely charming, with slightly run down but obviously well-loved European style buildings that made me feel as if I were in Slovakia or Croatia! The only difference, of course, was that everyone here is Ecuadorian. About 20% of the population is local indigenous people and the rest are mestizo, although they seem to trend smaller and browner than in Mexico.
Our cabbie was very chatty, so we engaged him to take us to a hill above the city where there stands a statue of the Virgin Mary standing on top of a serpent, symbolizing the evil in the world. After grabbing a good view, we got dropped off at the central square where we saw the Presidential Palace and several churches. We wandered through the city until we ended up at the city Basilica, which is Gothic in style although was completed in the 1920´s. Instead of saints, its outer walls are adorned with exotic animals including iguanas and tortoises!
We then stopped by a travel agency to try to arrange our hotel and tours in the Galapagos. We went to Happy Gringo, which I had been emailing with prior to our departure as well as came highly recommended by Lonely Planet. As it turned out, we were quite unhappy gringos by the end. We walked in and explained that we wanted to see if there were any last minute deals on Galapagos boat tours. We were told that there were two tours leaving that matched our schedules and that one was a midrange boat for $850 per person and the other was a luxury boat for $990 per person. We chatted a bit about the options, and were ready to go for the luxury boat, but then were told that the boat was now full. Then we were told that we had to pay cash, immediately. Since it was past 5pm and the banks were closed, there was no way we could get that much cash. It was also ridiculous that they would expect us to carry around that much money in US$, which is the currency here in Ecuador. We tried to get them to accept credit card, but they said they would charge us 6%, which was egregious as well. After a lot of arguing and back and forth, we decided to just walk and try to arrange something on the islands themselves.
We had received a dinner recommendation from a gingo in the immigration line (an expat) who said that if we wanted steaks we should go to Restaurante El Sur. We had the hotel make us reservations at 10pm (like many other parts of Latin America, people dine fashionably late in Ecuador). After a quick nap and shower, we headed over to the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal of Lomo steak, which is an Argentinean style tenderized and marinated very thin steak. It was fabulous! We also had a fine Chilean wine with it which complimented the meal perfectly. It was so tasty!!
Our flights were early, 8:30, so we had to get up early to make it to the airport. I was so full from dinner, I went right to bed. I was excited, however, as I knew we would be in the Galapagos the next day!
South America, Here I Come!
Just a few days ago I was invited to join a friend on a whirlwind, last minute trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Since I have never been to South America and have always wanted to go (it is the last continent besides Antarctica that I had not yet visited) I jumped at the chance to join.
We flew from Phoenix to Miami, where we ate at a delicious Cuban restaurant in the airport. I was told that the restaurant is the only good thing about the Miami airport and I have to agree--it's pretty pathetic otherwise. I had the yuca frita (fries) and the sweet plantains and they were amazing.
Our layover was pretty long, 4 hours, and then our aircraft landed late coming in from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, so we took off late as well. The flight to Quito was only 3 hours and 45 minutes long, but we got to fly over Cuba just as the sun was setting! It looked dark and ominous. I waved hola to Fidel, even though I expect he is muerte.
We landed in Quito at 10:30pm and were met by the kind folks from the Sheraton, which is a great hotel. We were starving, so we headed out via cab to the Plaza Foch, which is full of fun restaurants and bars. We had tapas style dishes at Azuca Beach with the most delicious mojitos I've ever had in my life. It was almost 2am by the time we made it back to the hotel but I was glad we made it out before hitting the sack.
We flew from Phoenix to Miami, where we ate at a delicious Cuban restaurant in the airport. I was told that the restaurant is the only good thing about the Miami airport and I have to agree--it's pretty pathetic otherwise. I had the yuca frita (fries) and the sweet plantains and they were amazing.
Our layover was pretty long, 4 hours, and then our aircraft landed late coming in from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, so we took off late as well. The flight to Quito was only 3 hours and 45 minutes long, but we got to fly over Cuba just as the sun was setting! It looked dark and ominous. I waved hola to Fidel, even though I expect he is muerte.
We landed in Quito at 10:30pm and were met by the kind folks from the Sheraton, which is a great hotel. We were starving, so we headed out via cab to the Plaza Foch, which is full of fun restaurants and bars. We had tapas style dishes at Azuca Beach with the most delicious mojitos I've ever had in my life. It was almost 2am by the time we made it back to the hotel but I was glad we made it out before hitting the sack.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Back to Bejing
Jessica and I wanted to sleep in on Saturday morning, but we had many errands to run. We wanted to go to Yashow to complete souvenir/gift shopping, as well as visit the bag man one more time, I wanted to go to Beijing Glasses City again to get new glasses for cheap, and we needed to get a refund on Jess' top-up card from China Mobile. We also planned to have dinner at Morel's one last time.
I got up at 9am and ordered room service--how decadent! The Mariott makes a mean dish of lemon ricotta pancakes! I wanted to get a jin bim for breakfast, but I just didn't have time to run across the street to the hutong. We were on a schedule!
We headed to Yashow first, where I picked up some pretty pearl necklaces for Cheri, who's been watching my cat, as well as a fun coral necklace for her daughter. Jess got a bunch of necklaces for friends of hers as well, in addition to one more pretty translucent blue one that matches her eyes. We used the necklace stall that we always do, and got a good price as per usual. I got one pair of trendy jeans for my brother from my jeans girl (100 RMB per pair). Both the jeans girl and the necklace girl are so funny; they have us pay round the corner because they know they can get higher prices from their other clueless customers. We don't mind because they are just so clever--when we're bargaining they always have very clever counter arguments.
We also visited the bag man one last time. I got a gray leather Louis Vuitton handbag that is absolutely cavernous. It fits my laptop in its case in addition to all manner of things. Jess got a bunch of nice gifts for people, in addition to a gorgeous Hermes wallet. The bag man had gotten a huge new shipment of Hermes Kelly bags as well as a bunch of Ferragamo bags and the Stephen Sprouse graffiti for Louis Vuitton bags too. I was tempted by a pink graffiti bag but figured it was too seasonally dated. While we were in the secret room, there was a commanding sounding knock on the door. Jess and I were worried that the cops were doing a sweep, and that we'd never leave China, but it turned out that it was people looking for the secret room next door (I always wonder what else is up on the 6th floor of Yashow). Regardless, it was a sign for us to finish up our business and get out of there. Better to not tempt fate, you know?
Afterwards we picked up our purchases from the necklace girl and headed south on the 10 subway line to Beijing Glasses City. This is basically a huge market similar to Yashow but the only thing they sell is glasses. You can bargain and try on the millions of frames available, and then have prescription lenses made up in about an hour (much better than Lenscrafters!). The shops can read your existing lenses, so no written prescription or eye exam necessary (although most purchases come with free eye exam should you need it).
The market is a little overwhelming, with 4 floors of all little eyeglass stalls. There's even a 2nd Beijing Glasses City across the street! The first place we tried on glasses refused to bargain, and quoted ridiculously high prices (600RMB for each frame, which is near to US prices). The second shop was much more reasonable, posted 180RMB prices for the kind of frames I wanted (like Buddy Holly) plus 100RMB for the lenses. After some bargaining involving me waving a wad of 400 cash around saying that was all I had, I had my order in for 2 pairs of classes. They told me to come back in one hour.
Jess and I walked around looking for a China Mobile service center, and we found one. After explaining the story, they sent us down the road to another service center a couple of blocks away. They called ahead to warn the service center that we were coming, and I distinctly heard the woman tell them that we wanted a refund, not an exchange, because we were going to the US the next day. Of course, when we got to the 2nd service center, they refused to refund. They said there literally "wasn't a method" to do so. Typical. Jess and I were so sick of fighting that we just took the card. I think she is going to try to sell it at the airport.
The exchange took just the perfect amount of time so we went back to Glasses City (and yes, that's the actual translation of the sign out front) and got my new glasses. I wanted to make sure they were OK before I left, so I asked for a place to remove my contacts. They sent me across the alleyway to the lab where all the lenses were being ground. It was madness in there, people grinding away in the back (and probably plastic dust in the air, too), a hoard of people picking up glasses at the counter, and a tiny sink in the back for hand washing. I couldn't find a contact lens container, so I went back to the shop and had the girl come with me. She had to ask for one from one of the people working at the lens shaping. I removed my contacts and made my way back to the shop, attempting to not appear like I could barely see. Both glasses were great, my vision was clear and now I don't have to look super dorky in 9 year old frames (seriously, I got my old frames my freshman year in college!). Plus, who can complain about $25 glasses?
We took the subway back to the hotel just for kicks. We did some packing and then took a cab to our favorite restaurant in Beijing, Morel's. Monsieur Morel is a Belgian who opened a restaurant that happens to serve the best cheese fondue I've ever had (better than La Fondue Bourginone in LA). Monsieur Morel also likes Jessica and I, probably because he is a mildly lecherous old man who enjoys it when pretty young things come into his restaurant and praise his fondue vigorously. He also caught Jessica scraping the fondue pot last time, and told her that it's the best part of the fondue and sometimes he does it himself in the back, which explains his rotund stature.
The fondue was delicious, as expected, and we cabbed it back to the hotel to finish packing. Luckily we were mostly packed from before our little trip around China, so it wasn't a massive operation.
We woke up later than intended so there was a little bit of crazy running around in the morning. We got a cab to the airport, which of course tried to take the long way (I set him straight) and tried to charge us 50 extra yuan for the bags, which is complete horse$hit illegal and he knew it because he backed off when I laid into him in Chinese. We gave him 10 yuan for the return toll and I told him not to let the door hit his a$$ on the way out. Good times.
My Priority Pass card let me into the Air China 1st class lounge, where I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was really great. I boarded my flight (emergency exit row, woohoo!) and am now in San Francisco waiting for my connection to Phoenix. Stay tuned for entries from Africa this summer!
I got up at 9am and ordered room service--how decadent! The Mariott makes a mean dish of lemon ricotta pancakes! I wanted to get a jin bim for breakfast, but I just didn't have time to run across the street to the hutong. We were on a schedule!
We headed to Yashow first, where I picked up some pretty pearl necklaces for Cheri, who's been watching my cat, as well as a fun coral necklace for her daughter. Jess got a bunch of necklaces for friends of hers as well, in addition to one more pretty translucent blue one that matches her eyes. We used the necklace stall that we always do, and got a good price as per usual. I got one pair of trendy jeans for my brother from my jeans girl (100 RMB per pair). Both the jeans girl and the necklace girl are so funny; they have us pay round the corner because they know they can get higher prices from their other clueless customers. We don't mind because they are just so clever--when we're bargaining they always have very clever counter arguments.
We also visited the bag man one last time. I got a gray leather Louis Vuitton handbag that is absolutely cavernous. It fits my laptop in its case in addition to all manner of things. Jess got a bunch of nice gifts for people, in addition to a gorgeous Hermes wallet. The bag man had gotten a huge new shipment of Hermes Kelly bags as well as a bunch of Ferragamo bags and the Stephen Sprouse graffiti for Louis Vuitton bags too. I was tempted by a pink graffiti bag but figured it was too seasonally dated. While we were in the secret room, there was a commanding sounding knock on the door. Jess and I were worried that the cops were doing a sweep, and that we'd never leave China, but it turned out that it was people looking for the secret room next door (I always wonder what else is up on the 6th floor of Yashow). Regardless, it was a sign for us to finish up our business and get out of there. Better to not tempt fate, you know?
Afterwards we picked up our purchases from the necklace girl and headed south on the 10 subway line to Beijing Glasses City. This is basically a huge market similar to Yashow but the only thing they sell is glasses. You can bargain and try on the millions of frames available, and then have prescription lenses made up in about an hour (much better than Lenscrafters!). The shops can read your existing lenses, so no written prescription or eye exam necessary (although most purchases come with free eye exam should you need it).
The market is a little overwhelming, with 4 floors of all little eyeglass stalls. There's even a 2nd Beijing Glasses City across the street! The first place we tried on glasses refused to bargain, and quoted ridiculously high prices (600RMB for each frame, which is near to US prices). The second shop was much more reasonable, posted 180RMB prices for the kind of frames I wanted (like Buddy Holly) plus 100RMB for the lenses. After some bargaining involving me waving a wad of 400 cash around saying that was all I had, I had my order in for 2 pairs of classes. They told me to come back in one hour.
Jess and I walked around looking for a China Mobile service center, and we found one. After explaining the story, they sent us down the road to another service center a couple of blocks away. They called ahead to warn the service center that we were coming, and I distinctly heard the woman tell them that we wanted a refund, not an exchange, because we were going to the US the next day. Of course, when we got to the 2nd service center, they refused to refund. They said there literally "wasn't a method" to do so. Typical. Jess and I were so sick of fighting that we just took the card. I think she is going to try to sell it at the airport.
The exchange took just the perfect amount of time so we went back to Glasses City (and yes, that's the actual translation of the sign out front) and got my new glasses. I wanted to make sure they were OK before I left, so I asked for a place to remove my contacts. They sent me across the alleyway to the lab where all the lenses were being ground. It was madness in there, people grinding away in the back (and probably plastic dust in the air, too), a hoard of people picking up glasses at the counter, and a tiny sink in the back for hand washing. I couldn't find a contact lens container, so I went back to the shop and had the girl come with me. She had to ask for one from one of the people working at the lens shaping. I removed my contacts and made my way back to the shop, attempting to not appear like I could barely see. Both glasses were great, my vision was clear and now I don't have to look super dorky in 9 year old frames (seriously, I got my old frames my freshman year in college!). Plus, who can complain about $25 glasses?
We took the subway back to the hotel just for kicks. We did some packing and then took a cab to our favorite restaurant in Beijing, Morel's. Monsieur Morel is a Belgian who opened a restaurant that happens to serve the best cheese fondue I've ever had (better than La Fondue Bourginone in LA). Monsieur Morel also likes Jessica and I, probably because he is a mildly lecherous old man who enjoys it when pretty young things come into his restaurant and praise his fondue vigorously. He also caught Jessica scraping the fondue pot last time, and told her that it's the best part of the fondue and sometimes he does it himself in the back, which explains his rotund stature.
The fondue was delicious, as expected, and we cabbed it back to the hotel to finish packing. Luckily we were mostly packed from before our little trip around China, so it wasn't a massive operation.
We woke up later than intended so there was a little bit of crazy running around in the morning. We got a cab to the airport, which of course tried to take the long way (I set him straight) and tried to charge us 50 extra yuan for the bags, which is complete horse$hit illegal and he knew it because he backed off when I laid into him in Chinese. We gave him 10 yuan for the return toll and I told him not to let the door hit his a$$ on the way out. Good times.
My Priority Pass card let me into the Air China 1st class lounge, where I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was really great. I boarded my flight (emergency exit row, woohoo!) and am now in San Francisco waiting for my connection to Phoenix. Stay tuned for entries from Africa this summer!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Chengdu Redeemed, Sort Of
Last night Jess and I met up for drinks with our new British friends Matthew and Nathan. We met them at the panda reserve while we were waiting for Jessica's turn to cuddle the baby panda. They are working on a 5 part documentary on Chengdu and the pandas, for this presenter named Nigel Marvin. They are in Chengdu for 2 weeks and then are off to the wilderness at Bifengxia to try to find wild pandas.
We took a cab to their hotel and walked down the street a little ways to find a restaurant that was open. In China, especially in smaller cities, there are very few bars and pubs, if you are going to drink and socialize, you do it at a restaurant. We found a place and popped in. The proprietors were very excited to have some foreigners and recommended many Sichuan style dishes. I got some spicy beef and potatoes foe Jessica. Everythig came on a stick, it was spicy and very good! They also gave us lots of yummy tea and we got some Snow Beer for the guys, who had already eaten dinner.
It seemed that the guys didn't know anything about China; they didn't know you had to bargain (!!!!!!!!!) or about the concept of face so we immediately set them straight on that. We just had a nice time chatting about what we had done in China and I gave them tips on cultural scenery they could use to pad their documentary. Nathan told us about the cottage he owns in England, it's in a tiny village with no streetlight and only one lane and one road. Jess and I wanted to go there immediately!
The proprietors of the restaurant chatted with us a bit and asked to take photos with us; like I said, I don't think they got any foreigners popping in often... Or ever! We didn't mind the photos though, as they asked very nicely and posed in the pictures with us.
We knocked off around midnight; the guys had 6:30am photo call and we were tired from our day at the panda reserve.
The next morning we slept in and then took the bus to a big China Mobile store that we had seen the day before. Jessica had bought a top-up card in Beijing, but it ripped when she tried to scrape the foil off the pin number. She had been told by a China Mobile branch in Beijing that exchanging the card would be easy, she just had to go to a main headquarters. Serves us right for thinking anything in China would be easy!
Things were going fine until they realized the card was purchased in Beijing. Aparently the Chengdu and Beijing branches are separate subsidiaries and cannot exhange cards between systems. One hour later of escalating claims to supervisors and making people call the Beijing branch we left sans new card or refund. We will have to go in Beijing and demand a refund. So annoying! My Chinese is better from the arguing, however.
Jess and I are currently in a Starbucks checking email, then we will check out the Tibetan quarter nearby and then we catch the train to Xi'an! I'm excited for Terracotta Warriors!
We took a cab to their hotel and walked down the street a little ways to find a restaurant that was open. In China, especially in smaller cities, there are very few bars and pubs, if you are going to drink and socialize, you do it at a restaurant. We found a place and popped in. The proprietors were very excited to have some foreigners and recommended many Sichuan style dishes. I got some spicy beef and potatoes foe Jessica. Everythig came on a stick, it was spicy and very good! They also gave us lots of yummy tea and we got some Snow Beer for the guys, who had already eaten dinner.
It seemed that the guys didn't know anything about China; they didn't know you had to bargain (!!!!!!!!!) or about the concept of face so we immediately set them straight on that. We just had a nice time chatting about what we had done in China and I gave them tips on cultural scenery they could use to pad their documentary. Nathan told us about the cottage he owns in England, it's in a tiny village with no streetlight and only one lane and one road. Jess and I wanted to go there immediately!
The proprietors of the restaurant chatted with us a bit and asked to take photos with us; like I said, I don't think they got any foreigners popping in often... Or ever! We didn't mind the photos though, as they asked very nicely and posed in the pictures with us.
We knocked off around midnight; the guys had 6:30am photo call and we were tired from our day at the panda reserve.
The next morning we slept in and then took the bus to a big China Mobile store that we had seen the day before. Jessica had bought a top-up card in Beijing, but it ripped when she tried to scrape the foil off the pin number. She had been told by a China Mobile branch in Beijing that exchanging the card would be easy, she just had to go to a main headquarters. Serves us right for thinking anything in China would be easy!
Things were going fine until they realized the card was purchased in Beijing. Aparently the Chengdu and Beijing branches are separate subsidiaries and cannot exhange cards between systems. One hour later of escalating claims to supervisors and making people call the Beijing branch we left sans new card or refund. We will have to go in Beijing and demand a refund. So annoying! My Chinese is better from the arguing, however.
Jess and I are currently in a Starbucks checking email, then we will check out the Tibetan quarter nearby and then we catch the train to Xi'an! I'm excited for Terracotta Warriors!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Greener Pastures (and Mountains) in Guilin
Jess and I finally set off for our junket to southeastern China with great anticipation. We took a cab to the airport and checked in for China Southern Airways flight to Guilin. The flight was about 2 hours 40 minutes and the service was fine. They even had announcements in English.
Upon arriving in Guilin, we could already see some funny shaped mountains. The sky was noticably clearer compared to Beijing and the weather was pleasant in the high 70's. We took an airport bus for 20 yuan, foregoing the approximately 80 yuan taxi ride in. The bus dropped us off on the south edge of town so we decided to walk to the area where there were a few hotels recommended by the guidebook. The tourist map we had gotten was just terrible, with no recognizable landmarks. The fact that there are very few street signs compounded the problem. Finally we got a bike rickshaw driver to take us, he said it would be 10 yuan. However, the jerk only took us about 2/3 of the way and then said it would be an extra 40 yuan to keep going! I was so pissed we just gave him 10 yuan and got out, but I gave him a piece of my mind first. He was unconcerned.
We walked the rest of the way but it was pleasantly shaded and by the riverbank so it wasn't too bad. We had planned to look at a hostel behind the Sheraton, but I saw an Eva Inn right next door that looked nice. Eva Inn is a Taiwanese chain and I figured we would get decent rates. Their posted standard rate was 688 yuan (ha!), they quoted us 488 yuan, and then when we did the old walkaway trick they went down to 280. The room was spacious, clean and was on the top floor so we were happy.
We booked our riverboat cruise through a travel agent next door. The river is still a bit low so you have to be bussed downstream about 20k and then the boat journey begins. The price is 250 for Chinese language boat, 450 for English language boat (includes lunch). I'm sure I don't need to tell you which one we picked (Chinese boat)!
As the sun was setting we hiked up Elephant Rock, a large rock formation by the river that looks like an elephant taking a drink. The entry fee (25 yuan) included a little park too. It was pleasant by the river, watching people fish and punt by.
We were super hungry, so we walked around looking for a good place to eat. We found a street with a bunch of restaurants with great big buckets of live fish, crabs, crayfish and turtles, as well as cages with chickens, rabbits and ducks. I felt bad for the turtles (who kept blindly trying to push through the netting covering their baskets) and Jess felt bad for the rabbits and ducks so we kept going. We walked down a hutong with more restaurants, almost all featured outdoor seating. We picked one place that was hopping, but they didn't have English menu or a big picture menu so we pressed on. We then came upon a cluster of restaurants with plates of fresh ingredients out front that you could point at to choose. They had crayfish (what I really wanted plus Jess eats fish and shellfish) as well as tons of fresh veggies. We got the crayfish, along with eggplant and broccoli. When the food came we were so happy; it was delicious! The crayfish were fried in a garlic soy sauce, the eggplant was sauteed so it was kind of squashy and the broccoli was nicely steamed. Yum!
Our neighbors were a group of Chinese who were playing a Cantonese drinking game that involved toothpicks, hand signals and shouting numbers (which was how I knew it was Cantonese). Jess and I just could not figure out the rules! Interestingly, they were not Cantonese because when speaking otherwise they used Mandarin. Odd!
After eating, we strolled along the town's main drag checking out the night market. I had foolishly left my hat in Beijing so I was hoping to find a hat of some kind (preferrably Boston Red Sox to match Jessica's) but was out of luck. There weren't even any Yankees hats to be found (not that I would have bought one), surprising since they are the world's most recognizable sports brand. Jess did find some fake Kappa socks, however.
We stopped at a supermarket to get some food for the boat ride the next day and then walked back to the hotel.
We weren't that tired so we stayed up playing playing cards (we were mildly entertained by a sort of Iron Chef competition, but for manicurists). We played Crazy Eights, poker and blackjack, wagering with my collection of perfume samples), it was pretty fun. We went to bed at midnight, since we had to catch the bus to the boat at 8am.
Upon arriving in Guilin, we could already see some funny shaped mountains. The sky was noticably clearer compared to Beijing and the weather was pleasant in the high 70's. We took an airport bus for 20 yuan, foregoing the approximately 80 yuan taxi ride in. The bus dropped us off on the south edge of town so we decided to walk to the area where there were a few hotels recommended by the guidebook. The tourist map we had gotten was just terrible, with no recognizable landmarks. The fact that there are very few street signs compounded the problem. Finally we got a bike rickshaw driver to take us, he said it would be 10 yuan. However, the jerk only took us about 2/3 of the way and then said it would be an extra 40 yuan to keep going! I was so pissed we just gave him 10 yuan and got out, but I gave him a piece of my mind first. He was unconcerned.
We walked the rest of the way but it was pleasantly shaded and by the riverbank so it wasn't too bad. We had planned to look at a hostel behind the Sheraton, but I saw an Eva Inn right next door that looked nice. Eva Inn is a Taiwanese chain and I figured we would get decent rates. Their posted standard rate was 688 yuan (ha!), they quoted us 488 yuan, and then when we did the old walkaway trick they went down to 280. The room was spacious, clean and was on the top floor so we were happy.
We booked our riverboat cruise through a travel agent next door. The river is still a bit low so you have to be bussed downstream about 20k and then the boat journey begins. The price is 250 for Chinese language boat, 450 for English language boat (includes lunch). I'm sure I don't need to tell you which one we picked (Chinese boat)!
As the sun was setting we hiked up Elephant Rock, a large rock formation by the river that looks like an elephant taking a drink. The entry fee (25 yuan) included a little park too. It was pleasant by the river, watching people fish and punt by.
We were super hungry, so we walked around looking for a good place to eat. We found a street with a bunch of restaurants with great big buckets of live fish, crabs, crayfish and turtles, as well as cages with chickens, rabbits and ducks. I felt bad for the turtles (who kept blindly trying to push through the netting covering their baskets) and Jess felt bad for the rabbits and ducks so we kept going. We walked down a hutong with more restaurants, almost all featured outdoor seating. We picked one place that was hopping, but they didn't have English menu or a big picture menu so we pressed on. We then came upon a cluster of restaurants with plates of fresh ingredients out front that you could point at to choose. They had crayfish (what I really wanted plus Jess eats fish and shellfish) as well as tons of fresh veggies. We got the crayfish, along with eggplant and broccoli. When the food came we were so happy; it was delicious! The crayfish were fried in a garlic soy sauce, the eggplant was sauteed so it was kind of squashy and the broccoli was nicely steamed. Yum!
Our neighbors were a group of Chinese who were playing a Cantonese drinking game that involved toothpicks, hand signals and shouting numbers (which was how I knew it was Cantonese). Jess and I just could not figure out the rules! Interestingly, they were not Cantonese because when speaking otherwise they used Mandarin. Odd!
After eating, we strolled along the town's main drag checking out the night market. I had foolishly left my hat in Beijing so I was hoping to find a hat of some kind (preferrably Boston Red Sox to match Jessica's) but was out of luck. There weren't even any Yankees hats to be found (not that I would have bought one), surprising since they are the world's most recognizable sports brand. Jess did find some fake Kappa socks, however.
We stopped at a supermarket to get some food for the boat ride the next day and then walked back to the hotel.
We weren't that tired so we stayed up playing playing cards (we were mildly entertained by a sort of Iron Chef competition, but for manicurists). We played Crazy Eights, poker and blackjack, wagering with my collection of perfume samples), it was pretty fun. We went to bed at midnight, since we had to catch the bus to the boat at 8am.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
天壇 - Most Auspicious Harvest Prayers at Temple of Heaven
Today dawned fair and sunny, so Jess and I decided to go to the Temple of Heaven with Ben Malki. Because of the Labor Day weekend, we were worried that it would be crazy packed with people, but it was pleasantly spacious inside the temple park.
Jess and I took the subway, because the temple was pretty close to our hotel and Ben was coming from Haidian (pretty far away). Jess and I saw that the pearl market was right next to the temple, so we went in to browse around while we were waiting for Ben. I had been wanting to get a big, long strand of black pearls for a long time, so I was able to find a stall with some pearls I liked. They sell them on these pre-strung strands, and then when you pick the ones you want they knot them for you. The girls are so fast at knotting, it's really impressive. Jessica makes her own jewelry, so she got the girl to teach her how to knot the pearls. Knotted pearl necklaces are preferred because if the strand breaks, you'll only lose one pearl instead of the whole lot.
I got what I consider to be a good deal on the necklace, 225 yuan. For a giant long strand of 11 mm baroque pearls that's a pretty good price (divide by 6.8). Jess and I will likely go back to get gifts for friends, and Jess wants to get some loose pearls for herself.
Ben arrived just when my necklace was finished, so we went into the temple. We thought it would be nutty crowded, but it was actually not. I guess everyone decided to leave Beijing for the weekend--the better for us!
There were lots of people just hanging out in the park doing all kinds of stuff, chess playing, singing songs, dancing, etc. It was really interesting to see what people were getting up to on their days off.
The temple is kind of interesting, not as spectacular as the Forbidden City I would say. I'm glad I went, as I didn't see it the last time I was in Beijing. It has an interesting style of architecture. We enjoyed just being outside in the park, which didn't feel polluted as the rest of Beijing, plus it was a nice clear day.
After wandering around the temple grounds, we exited from a different gate than where we entered. We saw a little hutong (a REALLY little one--only wide enough for bikes to pass) and Ben wanted to check it out. We found a niu rou mian dealer, who was making the noodles fresh and cooking them right there. I knew I wanted a bowl right away, I love niu rou mian! The noodles were predictably delicious. The cook would take the dough and swing it up and down like a jumprope, and then twist it up. He would keep doing that until the noodles were skinny enough (like spaghetti). The broth was really good, too, almost minty, with lots of fresh parsley on top along with dried beef on top. Delicious! Ben had a kind of meat sandwich thing that he enjoyed. Jessica tried these deep fried sweet potato balls that she loved, so everyone got something good.
We went back to the hotel and Jess and I went swimming in our FABULOUS 25m lap pool. It's very posh, of course. The pool is more like a fancy spa, with a gorgeous locker room, separate sex jacuzzi, sauna, etc. The pool was empty, like the rest of the hotel. The jacuzzi even has a big screen TV in it so you can surf channels while you soak. Over the top!
Jess and I took the subway, because the temple was pretty close to our hotel and Ben was coming from Haidian (pretty far away). Jess and I saw that the pearl market was right next to the temple, so we went in to browse around while we were waiting for Ben. I had been wanting to get a big, long strand of black pearls for a long time, so I was able to find a stall with some pearls I liked. They sell them on these pre-strung strands, and then when you pick the ones you want they knot them for you. The girls are so fast at knotting, it's really impressive. Jessica makes her own jewelry, so she got the girl to teach her how to knot the pearls. Knotted pearl necklaces are preferred because if the strand breaks, you'll only lose one pearl instead of the whole lot.
I got what I consider to be a good deal on the necklace, 225 yuan. For a giant long strand of 11 mm baroque pearls that's a pretty good price (divide by 6.8). Jess and I will likely go back to get gifts for friends, and Jess wants to get some loose pearls for herself.
Ben arrived just when my necklace was finished, so we went into the temple. We thought it would be nutty crowded, but it was actually not. I guess everyone decided to leave Beijing for the weekend--the better for us!
There were lots of people just hanging out in the park doing all kinds of stuff, chess playing, singing songs, dancing, etc. It was really interesting to see what people were getting up to on their days off.
The temple is kind of interesting, not as spectacular as the Forbidden City I would say. I'm glad I went, as I didn't see it the last time I was in Beijing. It has an interesting style of architecture. We enjoyed just being outside in the park, which didn't feel polluted as the rest of Beijing, plus it was a nice clear day.
After wandering around the temple grounds, we exited from a different gate than where we entered. We saw a little hutong (a REALLY little one--only wide enough for bikes to pass) and Ben wanted to check it out. We found a niu rou mian dealer, who was making the noodles fresh and cooking them right there. I knew I wanted a bowl right away, I love niu rou mian! The noodles were predictably delicious. The cook would take the dough and swing it up and down like a jumprope, and then twist it up. He would keep doing that until the noodles were skinny enough (like spaghetti). The broth was really good, too, almost minty, with lots of fresh parsley on top along with dried beef on top. Delicious! Ben had a kind of meat sandwich thing that he enjoyed. Jessica tried these deep fried sweet potato balls that she loved, so everyone got something good.
We went back to the hotel and Jess and I went swimming in our FABULOUS 25m lap pool. It's very posh, of course. The pool is more like a fancy spa, with a gorgeous locker room, separate sex jacuzzi, sauna, etc. The pool was empty, like the rest of the hotel. The jacuzzi even has a big screen TV in it so you can surf channels while you soak. Over the top!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Ted's Birthday Junkett
One of my finance group members had his birthday on Friday, but we had 9am class the next morning so we decided to have the party on Saturday night instead. We then found out that another classmate's birthday was Thursday, so a big joint celebration was in the works for Saturday night. We had some hiccups in planning, including a joke for dueling birthday parties that went terribly awry (one person didn't get the joke) but at last the plan was settled to eat pizza at the Kro's Nest, a delicious and very non-Chinese style pizza joint near Beida (it's owned by an American, so that makes sense) and then head to Vics for some partying.
The dinner was a huge success, with pizza pies all over the place, and plenty of beer and gambeis. We managed to get almost everyone to come out to Vics with us, even the non-drinkers (a real surprise, but a nice one). We had a table and were able to have a really good time just hanging out and dancing. One of the birthday people, Ted, was running on 3 nights of partying (as was I) because we had all finished up our Finance midterms on Thursday night at midnight, and gone out for a drink to celebrate. I went home at 1:30, and Ted went home around 2:15 or so.
The next night, our French friend Dorothee came to visit (she was in Shanghai for her spring break) so we all went our for fondue and then went to a bar for a concert. Ted joined us at the concert; it was Cordell's British friend's indy rock band called "Girls Are Waiting To Meet You." Long name, but a decent band, actually. After the band finished up, we went dancing at Propaganda down the street due to Dorothee's request for dancing. Propaganda is this basement dance club in the student area Wudaokou and it's just as you imagine: dark, sweaty and full of drunk college kids. The music is good and it's always a giggle to go inside and see the ridiculous get ups people are wearing and just feel like you were 19 again.
As it was, the joint party was a great success, it seems like the bad feelings were smoothed over and Ted had a great 3rd birthday wearing a Superman shirt with a light up logo in the front (Yashow special!). What more could a guy ask for?
The dinner was a huge success, with pizza pies all over the place, and plenty of beer and gambeis. We managed to get almost everyone to come out to Vics with us, even the non-drinkers (a real surprise, but a nice one). We had a table and were able to have a really good time just hanging out and dancing. One of the birthday people, Ted, was running on 3 nights of partying (as was I) because we had all finished up our Finance midterms on Thursday night at midnight, and gone out for a drink to celebrate. I went home at 1:30, and Ted went home around 2:15 or so.
The next night, our French friend Dorothee came to visit (she was in Shanghai for her spring break) so we all went our for fondue and then went to a bar for a concert. Ted joined us at the concert; it was Cordell's British friend's indy rock band called "Girls Are Waiting To Meet You." Long name, but a decent band, actually. After the band finished up, we went dancing at Propaganda down the street due to Dorothee's request for dancing. Propaganda is this basement dance club in the student area Wudaokou and it's just as you imagine: dark, sweaty and full of drunk college kids. The music is good and it's always a giggle to go inside and see the ridiculous get ups people are wearing and just feel like you were 19 again.
As it was, the joint party was a great success, it seems like the bad feelings were smoothed over and Ted had a great 3rd birthday wearing a Superman shirt with a light up logo in the front (Yashow special!). What more could a guy ask for?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Our Favorite Hutong
On Thursday night, after Mike's run-in with the local po-po, he and I headed out to our favorite Chinese-only hutong for some Beijing style hot-pot and meat grilling. It's about 5 stops east on the 10 line, the subway stop is called Mudanyuan. The alleyway is bigger than your average hutong, it's always crowded with vendors, restaurant stalls, taxis, deliveries, trucks, etc. It's a really interesting neighborhood, and of course, you know how we love that it's totally white-man free.
We started out with a very typical Beijing type restaurant: communal hot pot. Basically you all sit around large burbling pots of a sort of soy/broth based thing with many, many sticks in the pot. You grab what you want from the pot and at the end they count up the sticks that you have finished off. Most of the stuff was amazingly tofu or veggie based; a lot of different kinds of tofu, noodles, mushrooms, etc. My favorites were those skinny white mushrooms that Japanese love that go in hot pot all the time, vermicelli noodles, fresh greens, and wood ear mushrooms. We also had plenty of beer. We chatted with the proprietor a bit, he asked where we were from (Beijingers always ask "what country are you from?" even though it seems perfectly obvious to us that we are American. Probably because there are so many whiteys in Beijing...). We told him that our mom is Chinese (to make matters easy, Mike and I just say we are related, big brother and little sister). He complimented our Chinese, and we used the classic Asian deflect a compliment by playing it down. We told him our mom is from Guangdong province and he asked if we knew any Guangdonghua (Cantonese). I joked that all I knew was fai di sic la, which means "Hurry up and eat!" My performance was much appreciated.
After dropping a whole 20 kuai at the communal hot pot place, we hit up an "everything on a stick grill" place, which is also very Beijing. We sat outside, since the evening weather has finally gotten really pleasant. We had a great time just taking photos (subtly) of people, eating, drinking, etc. The chicken hearts were delicious!
We made it back on one of the last trains, and I rolled into bed. I woke up when Jessica came home from Passover Seder, which turned into clubbing (very holy, eh? We had a good laugh over it!). Overall it seems that Thursdays always turn into great days, probably to make up for the pain of having Accounting quizzes in the morning.
We started out with a very typical Beijing type restaurant: communal hot pot. Basically you all sit around large burbling pots of a sort of soy/broth based thing with many, many sticks in the pot. You grab what you want from the pot and at the end they count up the sticks that you have finished off. Most of the stuff was amazingly tofu or veggie based; a lot of different kinds of tofu, noodles, mushrooms, etc. My favorites were those skinny white mushrooms that Japanese love that go in hot pot all the time, vermicelli noodles, fresh greens, and wood ear mushrooms. We also had plenty of beer. We chatted with the proprietor a bit, he asked where we were from (Beijingers always ask "what country are you from?" even though it seems perfectly obvious to us that we are American. Probably because there are so many whiteys in Beijing...). We told him that our mom is Chinese (to make matters easy, Mike and I just say we are related, big brother and little sister). He complimented our Chinese, and we used the classic Asian deflect a compliment by playing it down. We told him our mom is from Guangdong province and he asked if we knew any Guangdonghua (Cantonese). I joked that all I knew was fai di sic la, which means "Hurry up and eat!" My performance was much appreciated.
After dropping a whole 20 kuai at the communal hot pot place, we hit up an "everything on a stick grill" place, which is also very Beijing. We sat outside, since the evening weather has finally gotten really pleasant. We had a great time just taking photos (subtly) of people, eating, drinking, etc. The chicken hearts were delicious!
We made it back on one of the last trains, and I rolled into bed. I woke up when Jessica came home from Passover Seder, which turned into clubbing (very holy, eh? We had a good laugh over it!). Overall it seems that Thursdays always turn into great days, probably to make up for the pain of having Accounting quizzes in the morning.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Fondue For You and Me
While most Chinese dishes are quite tasty, the diet leaves some to be desired in the way of dairy products (which are nonexistent beyond aloe-flavored yoghurt, tasty though it may be) and MSG-free food. Jessica and I were having cravings for cheese, so we decided to get fondue, a real Swiss fondue with Emmenthaler and Gruyere. We googled the Swiss embassy and called them to ask for a recommendation, and they suggested Morel's, a Belgian restaurant in Liangmaqiao near the US Embassy. We invited a few friends to join us, and set out for a fondue adventure!
The restaurant was a bit further of a walk from the subway station than we originally anticipated, so everyone was putting up a stink and whinging about the length of the walk. We did finally find the place, so we had built up a good appetite at that point.
The fondue was everything we wanted it to be, cheesy, delicious and thick. The fondue came with a really yummy salad as well, so we did get our vegetables in. Ben and Panos ordered a sausage dish to dip in the cheese as well, so everyone got their meat in who wanted it. At the end, I had some fresh strawberries and whipped cream to finish it off. Jess and I even met the owner, Monsieur Morel, who was flattered that we had enjoyed his fondue so much.
Afterwards we took a cab to Houhai to walk around the lake and have a few beers, but we called it off pretty early. It was a very filling night!
The restaurant was a bit further of a walk from the subway station than we originally anticipated, so everyone was putting up a stink and whinging about the length of the walk. We did finally find the place, so we had built up a good appetite at that point.
The fondue was everything we wanted it to be, cheesy, delicious and thick. The fondue came with a really yummy salad as well, so we did get our vegetables in. Ben and Panos ordered a sausage dish to dip in the cheese as well, so everyone got their meat in who wanted it. At the end, I had some fresh strawberries and whipped cream to finish it off. Jess and I even met the owner, Monsieur Morel, who was flattered that we had enjoyed his fondue so much.
Afterwards we took a cab to Houhai to walk around the lake and have a few beers, but we called it off pretty early. It was a very filling night!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Hawaiian Culottes, Cuban Lounge Singers and Naked Time: 浪淘沙 Bathhouse
After getting back from the Great Wall, Jess and I were tired, grubby, and sick of our tiny hotel shower. We decided to check out a Chinese bathhouse, which we read about in our super awesome guidebook, "The Insider's Guide to Beijing." There were only a few listed in the guidebook, however, so we took to the internet to get more research. The term "bathhouse" certainly brings up some seedy connotations so we wanted to make sure we went somewhere legit and women friendly. I put a post up on the Beijinger.com asking for recommendations and someone put up a link to this place, 浪淘沙 or Langtaosha. It did say that it's on the more expensive side, but it was clean and friendly and that sounded perfect to us.
We took a cab and went in to the opulent lobby. The desk girls spoke some English, so we were able to figure out the cost (188 yuan) which included shower, spa, sauna, steam room and buffet dinner. Extra treatments are additional cost, as well as massages, private VIP rooms and alcohol. We were pretty desperate for a bath so we said yes, lead us to the showers!
Upon entry, each person is issued your standard Chinese style molded plastic slippers (one size fits most, not me however; ladies get pink and gentlemen get white and blue) and you go to the locker room and change. Er, rather, you strip off all your clothes, throw them in a locker with a unique key that you keep the whole time and get bathing. They did have Hello Kitty wraps which I used as a towel (oops) but this is definitely a clothing free zone. The bathing areas are single sex, so it was just Jess, myself and a bunch of Chinese ladies. There were about 5 other women in the bathing area with us, some younger and some older. Everyone first takes a shower before getting into the soaking tub, shampoo, soap, conditioner and even toothpaste and packaged toothbrushes are provided. They also provide shower caps if you want.
After the shower we went in the soaking tub for a while, which was sort of lukewarm, and then the steam room. Jess decided to get a "body scrub", which entailed a woman taking a fresh scrubby mitt to Jess's body and essentially rubbing off a layer of skin. According to Jess, this woman left no part of her body unscrubbed (hilarious). These ladies (attired in employee issue black bra and black granny panties set) also can give you a la carte oil rubs, cupping, sugar scrubs, milk baths and other things that I didn't know in Chinese (only some things provided English translation, and the translation wasn't great, i.e. "Ginger scrub to vitalize the area"). Next time we come back I think I will try one of the scrubs.
While Jess was getting her skin rubbed off, I sat around in the sauna and the soaking tub, plus did a number on my feet with a pumice stone. They have the little sit-down (you sit on a polished marble cube) showering stations for use after the steam room, sauna or scrub treatment. The decor inside the bathing area is classic nouveau riche tacky, sparkly tile, huge fake flower displays, marble and gold. It kind of looks like the pleasure planets that the Starship Enterprise visits on the original Star Trek, when they didn't have that much money for sets. The place was clean, however, and the staff friendly (even though they hang over your shoulder in the locker room, which is sort of odd). After some sauna and more soaking, Jess and I decided to hit up the buffet. We were issued some incredibly unflattering culotte scrubs with a loud Hawaiian print. We also got some pink granny panties to wear. Everything was one size fits all, so they were more bermuda shorts style on me of course.
The buffet was on the 4th floor (unsure what was on 2 and 3) and was coed. We passed by people getting clothed massages, as well as a lot of people lounging around on chaise longe chairs watching movies on flatscreens with headphones. Everyone is in the little culotte outfits. The men had a slightly different Hawaiian print. There were also a few families around.
The buffet was pretty expansive, with seafood delicacies (I stuck to the boiled head-on shrimp), fried cicadas, meats, veggies, cold dishes, steamed dumplings, various baos, hand pulled noodles and soups. They also had a delicious dessert tray with many bean stuffed delicacies and a really tasty tapioca soup that Jess and I snarfed. The clientele in the dining room was about 75% male, 25% female. There were no foreigners at all. We got some bemused looks, but no stares. There were quite a few businessmen making business deals, smoking and drinking. The dining area also featured a lounge singing act, with a very sharply dressed Chinese man playing the piano, a bored looking Chinese singer, and a white girl singing. Jess and I were fascinated by her, and we wondered what brought her to China to work in a Chinese bathhouse. When she started singing some Shakira songs, we realized she must be from a Spanish speaking country because her accent was excellent. We made sure to clap enthusiastically when she finished her songs, which she appreciated.
After the buffet, we went back to the bathing section to re-bathe, since it was smoky in the dining area. While we were in the shower, the lounge singer came in and said hi to us, clearly having recognized us from earlier. We were chatting and it turned out she was from Cuba. Jess was very excited to hear this, since Jess went to Cuba recently while doing her semester abroad in Mexico. The lounge singer said she came to China 4 years ago to work, and that she works 6 days a week, for only 3 hours at the bathhouse, but this is the only place she works. Jess and I later discussed it and we figured that there must be some sort of additional "work" she does, if you know what I mean. These bathhouses, even the most high-class ones, have special services for gentlemen clients--it's standard operating procedure in pretty much all Asian countries.
We had such a fun time at the bathhouse we definitely plan to go back. We will likely go during the day, however, to take advantage of the 1/2 price special. One can even spend the night at the spa and stay until 5pm the next day, not a bad deal--all you can eat buffets included! They have beds available either dormitory style or private room (private rooms cost extra, of course). Since we only would take advantage of the buffet and wash area, that stuff didn't appeal to us. It was a perfect, relaxing end to a sweaty and active day!
We took a cab and went in to the opulent lobby. The desk girls spoke some English, so we were able to figure out the cost (188 yuan) which included shower, spa, sauna, steam room and buffet dinner. Extra treatments are additional cost, as well as massages, private VIP rooms and alcohol. We were pretty desperate for a bath so we said yes, lead us to the showers!
Upon entry, each person is issued your standard Chinese style molded plastic slippers (one size fits most, not me however; ladies get pink and gentlemen get white and blue) and you go to the locker room and change. Er, rather, you strip off all your clothes, throw them in a locker with a unique key that you keep the whole time and get bathing. They did have Hello Kitty wraps which I used as a towel (oops) but this is definitely a clothing free zone. The bathing areas are single sex, so it was just Jess, myself and a bunch of Chinese ladies. There were about 5 other women in the bathing area with us, some younger and some older. Everyone first takes a shower before getting into the soaking tub, shampoo, soap, conditioner and even toothpaste and packaged toothbrushes are provided. They also provide shower caps if you want.
After the shower we went in the soaking tub for a while, which was sort of lukewarm, and then the steam room. Jess decided to get a "body scrub", which entailed a woman taking a fresh scrubby mitt to Jess's body and essentially rubbing off a layer of skin. According to Jess, this woman left no part of her body unscrubbed (hilarious). These ladies (attired in employee issue black bra and black granny panties set) also can give you a la carte oil rubs, cupping, sugar scrubs, milk baths and other things that I didn't know in Chinese (only some things provided English translation, and the translation wasn't great, i.e. "Ginger scrub to vitalize the area"). Next time we come back I think I will try one of the scrubs.
While Jess was getting her skin rubbed off, I sat around in the sauna and the soaking tub, plus did a number on my feet with a pumice stone. They have the little sit-down (you sit on a polished marble cube) showering stations for use after the steam room, sauna or scrub treatment. The decor inside the bathing area is classic nouveau riche tacky, sparkly tile, huge fake flower displays, marble and gold. It kind of looks like the pleasure planets that the Starship Enterprise visits on the original Star Trek, when they didn't have that much money for sets. The place was clean, however, and the staff friendly (even though they hang over your shoulder in the locker room, which is sort of odd). After some sauna and more soaking, Jess and I decided to hit up the buffet. We were issued some incredibly unflattering culotte scrubs with a loud Hawaiian print. We also got some pink granny panties to wear. Everything was one size fits all, so they were more bermuda shorts style on me of course.
The buffet was on the 4th floor (unsure what was on 2 and 3) and was coed. We passed by people getting clothed massages, as well as a lot of people lounging around on chaise longe chairs watching movies on flatscreens with headphones. Everyone is in the little culotte outfits. The men had a slightly different Hawaiian print. There were also a few families around.
The buffet was pretty expansive, with seafood delicacies (I stuck to the boiled head-on shrimp), fried cicadas, meats, veggies, cold dishes, steamed dumplings, various baos, hand pulled noodles and soups. They also had a delicious dessert tray with many bean stuffed delicacies and a really tasty tapioca soup that Jess and I snarfed. The clientele in the dining room was about 75% male, 25% female. There were no foreigners at all. We got some bemused looks, but no stares. There were quite a few businessmen making business deals, smoking and drinking. The dining area also featured a lounge singing act, with a very sharply dressed Chinese man playing the piano, a bored looking Chinese singer, and a white girl singing. Jess and I were fascinated by her, and we wondered what brought her to China to work in a Chinese bathhouse. When she started singing some Shakira songs, we realized she must be from a Spanish speaking country because her accent was excellent. We made sure to clap enthusiastically when she finished her songs, which she appreciated.
After the buffet, we went back to the bathing section to re-bathe, since it was smoky in the dining area. While we were in the shower, the lounge singer came in and said hi to us, clearly having recognized us from earlier. We were chatting and it turned out she was from Cuba. Jess was very excited to hear this, since Jess went to Cuba recently while doing her semester abroad in Mexico. The lounge singer said she came to China 4 years ago to work, and that she works 6 days a week, for only 3 hours at the bathhouse, but this is the only place she works. Jess and I later discussed it and we figured that there must be some sort of additional "work" she does, if you know what I mean. These bathhouses, even the most high-class ones, have special services for gentlemen clients--it's standard operating procedure in pretty much all Asian countries.
We had such a fun time at the bathhouse we definitely plan to go back. We will likely go during the day, however, to take advantage of the 1/2 price special. One can even spend the night at the spa and stay until 5pm the next day, not a bad deal--all you can eat buffets included! They have beds available either dormitory style or private room (private rooms cost extra, of course). Since we only would take advantage of the buffet and wash area, that stuff didn't appeal to us. It was a perfect, relaxing end to a sweaty and active day!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Laverne & Shirley, Beijing Style [Jessica & Ginger's Adventures in Chaoyang]
Part I: My Tax Dollars At Work!
I plan to travel to Cambodia and Vietnam after the Beijing program ends, so I knew I would need to get more visa pages because both those countries use full page visa stickers. Luckily, getting new visa pages at the US Embassy in Beijing is incredibly easy! You can make a reservation online, so Jess and I signed up for 3PM and 3:30PM respectively. The embassy is located convenient to Liangmaqiao Station on the 10 line, which is the same one that is near our hotel. We hopped on after finishing up some accounting work, and made our way to the embassy. The embassy is located in a cluster pod of many other embassies; we saw South Korea, Germany, Brunei Darussalam and Israel. The US Embassy is a brand new modern glass and concrete monstrosity, not a shocker there. To reconfirm my print out map, I asked a policeman for directions and he gave me very clear and helpful ones--I'm glad that Mike and I went over a directional dialogue last week! It's been very helpful in cabs and in walking around the city.
Getting into the US embassy was surprisingly pleasant and easy. You do have to go through a metal detector and surrender your cell phone, but the staff are helpful and friendly and the process is very smooth. It's very different from the US consulate in Cape Town where you get the nth degree of inspection and questioning. The x-ray revealed a USB flash drive in my wallet which I had forgotten, but it was politely pointed out and I put it in my little tray along with my cell phone.
There was no line at American Consular Services, again a total surprise how easy and friendly this whole process was. I had to fill out a form (typical US Gov't, the form is two pages long, the first page is instructions and is removed and thrown away afterwards--seems like you could take one set of instructions, laminate it, and hand it out! Oh well...) which required my local address and my US address. I wrote out my hotel address in Chinese, thinking I was being helpful, but then was told by the consular services lady that I couldn't write it in Chinese. She went through a lot of rigamarole whiting it out with the little tape white-out thingy, which ran out so she had to find more! While she was looking, another woman came over to investigate the delay and crossed out the remaining Chinese characters, but my lady came back and insisted on whiting out the rest! Bureaucracy!
Jessica also needed new visa pages, but her passport is so old and tattered that they refused her request! Her passport is one of the old ones with the laminated photo page, and the lamination is separating and you can access the photo at one point. No wonder they didn't want to add more pages. The consular services lady suggested that Jessica apply for a renewal passport right here in Beijing. Here's the secret, people, renew all your passports overseas! It costs less ($75) and takes way less time, only 7-10 days. You keep your old passport, and then when you get the new one you just take it to a local office and request a visa transfer. No big deal! Jess opted to get the renewal, so she had to run over to a conveniently located photo shop across the street from the embassy.
Sidebar: Jessica wore her Obama YES WE CAN shirt to the embassy. This morning she asked me, "Do you think it will be weird if I wear my Obama shirt to the embassy?" I responded with, "Uh, I can't think of a more appropriate place to wear your Obama shirt!" So, her passport picture has an Obama shirt and the consular ladies really appreciated it.
So, new passport applied for Jess and I got my visa pages (the super tacky new pages that are FUGGGGGGG-LY!) all for just a 2 Yuan subway ride from our hotel! Bonus!
Outside the embassy we ran into a bīngtáng húlù (冰糖葫芦) vendor and finally decided to dive into this springtime Chinese candy delicacy. Bingtang hulu is candied hawthorn on a stick, often combined with strawberries or baby oranges. It's coated in sugar syrup so it's not good for your teeth, but MAN it tastes good! A full hawthorn one is only 1 yuan, the hawthorn/clementine one is 2.50. Hawthorn is sort of like a crab apple, but sweeter, and a little bit squashier. It's the primary ingredient in Haw Flakes, my favorite Chinese flake candy, as well as the more mysteriously named "Haw Soup", which is like fruit leather, individually wrapped (mysteriouser and mysteriouser). I want to eat one every day, which I would if it weren't sugar central. Jess and I hopped on the train to Sanlituan, to go back to Yashow market to get some faux jeans.
Part II: Down the Rabbit Hole of Bag Fakery
Yashow, if you recall, is the enormous 6 floor market next to Sanlituan Village (check out the real goods there, then head to Yashow for the knockoffs) that Jessica and I visited last week. We didn't buy anything because we were completely overwhelmed, but we felt prepared and better equipped this time. We first looked at some jeans stalls, and I found a nice pair of True Religion brand that were long enough and looked decently real. My problem in China is that there aren't any dryers so my jeans in particular are getting stretched out. I wanted to get some crappy knock-offs here so that I can beat them up and not worry about wearing out my good ones. I bargained down the lady to 250 Yuan, which is a huge savings on the US cost, which is about $250 and up!
We were tired and needed a pickmeup, so we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate some delicious burritos. Food was surprisingly authentic and tasty, although they did not give you endless chips and salsa, which I felt was sort of stingy. This is China after all! I guess I can't complain about the Mexican food. We were just pleased they allowed Jessica to order a bean quesidilla instead of a meat one.
After eating our fill at the Mexican place, we went back to Yashow to find more jeans. Jess wanted to go downstairs to look at sneakers, however, because she wanted to get some comfortable ones for the Great Wall hike the next day. The bottom floor of Yashow is all shoes and bags, so we were kind of browsing around when this very energetic shopgirl called us in and started showing us these really fake looking Prada bags. She was irrepressibly cute, but totally giving the hard sell "You like, you like, I give you best price!" She showed us that the Prada bags were real leather by waving a lighter over the surface of the bag--it didn't catch! She then took a fake leather bag and actually lit it on fire (melting and smoking!). She was really funny. Jessica asked her if she had any LV or Louis Vuitton bags, because she has been looking for the Neverfull bag for a long time. The shopgirl promised that she did have LV, and showed us one bag that wasn't actually the Neverfull, and it looked OK, not amazing. Her boss came over in the middle of our discussion, and after listening to use go on about better quality, he gave her the key to a storage room and told her to take us there. We got very excited, as we knew that the better quality fakes would be in the storage room.
She took us to the basement of the market, and opened the door to a room full of fake bags! LV, Prada, Chanel, Coach, Bally, everything was in there. She showed Jessica the large size Neverfull, but Jessica wanted the small one. While we were poking around and kind of dithering, the boss showed up with a black trash bag and pulled out a really spectacularly real-looking medium Neverfull. When compared to the fake large we were looking at, it had many differences. The lining was correct, the leather details were right, the printed monogram canvas was a better color, this was totally either "off the back of a truck" or "extra production runs at night" quality stuff. We bargained quite a bit and settled on 1500 yuan for the bag. Expensive yes, but the real one costs $700.
I had asked the boss if he had a specific Gucci bag that I've had my eye on for a couple of years, ever since I went to a tour of the Gucci store in LA. When I asked him about the Gucci again, he said, "OK, you come with me." He took us to a different secret room on the 6th floor of the market, this one was crammed full with more of the "fake" (yet real??) bags like Jessica's. He showed me the Gucci bag and it was impressive. Real black leather, correct lining, metal and bamboo accents all authentic looking. Having handled the bag in the store myself, I know what the real one looks like and this one was essentially the same thing. After a lot more bargaining (all this was done in Chinese, by the way), we settled on 1700 yuan. Spendy, yes, but I figured I deserved it, especially after landing an internship in January as well as getting a 3.875 GPA last module. I was even able to put it on my credit card (which I pay off every month, duh).
Jessica and I were high on our success, so I told the man that we had many friends who wanted to also buy bags. He gave me his number and told me to call him anytime for bags. I will likely go back in a few days with another classmate who wants to buy a bag for his girlfriend.
Jessica did manage to pick up a pair of shoes for the Great Wall (fake Converse sneakers, very cute) and used the old "I only have this much money" trick, but this time it was real! We were exhausted at this point, and decided to go back to the hotel.
Part III: A Light at the End of the Supermarket Tunnel
On the way back (lugging our illicit loot in a huge black plastic trash bag) we remembered that we needed to bring breakfast and lunch for the Great Wall tomorrow. We toyed with the idea of going to Carrefour, but that was too painful to contemplate. Instead, we opted to check out the Wal-Mart Supercenter three stops before our hotel stop. That station is where we change trains to go to Wudaokou, so we had seen the English language signs for Wal-Mart. Luckily the store is right next to the station, and there is a handy exit marked "Wal-Mart Supercenter".
Wal-Mart in China is fabulous. It's large, spacious, has helpful and friendly staff and very low prices. The food section in particular is very Chinese style, with all manner of dried and fresh odd vegetables, meats and other produce for sale (giant dried carp, sliced in half and hanging as well as turtles and deep fried baby ducklings). We stocked up on some bread, apples, kiwis, cheese and peanut butter. We made it to the checkout line but got in trouble with the checkout lady because we hadn't weighed our fruit downstairs in the produce section so as to get the sticker (they don't do it at the cashier like in the US--I should have remembered this from Croatian supermarkets). Luckily, the cashier told me I could cut the line once I got back with the fruit, so I ran off, let the fruit ladies weigh my fruits and put a little sticker on them (Job creation! This is China!) and then made it back to the cashier.
Jess and I FINALLY made it back to the hotel after a very long day. We let Hunter Kim inspect our illicit merchandise, since he's very in to luxury goods, and he gave them the thumbs up, said they looked really good. Also on the way back on the subway, we sat next to a girl with a large Neverfull that was either real or Jessica's quality fake. We also looked on the Gucci and LV websites and couldn't see anything on our bags that were a tipoff of fakery. All in all it was a day that started out crappy thanks to Accounting, and then got much, much better!
I plan to travel to Cambodia and Vietnam after the Beijing program ends, so I knew I would need to get more visa pages because both those countries use full page visa stickers. Luckily, getting new visa pages at the US Embassy in Beijing is incredibly easy! You can make a reservation online, so Jess and I signed up for 3PM and 3:30PM respectively. The embassy is located convenient to Liangmaqiao Station on the 10 line, which is the same one that is near our hotel. We hopped on after finishing up some accounting work, and made our way to the embassy. The embassy is located in a cluster pod of many other embassies; we saw South Korea, Germany, Brunei Darussalam and Israel. The US Embassy is a brand new modern glass and concrete monstrosity, not a shocker there. To reconfirm my print out map, I asked a policeman for directions and he gave me very clear and helpful ones--I'm glad that Mike and I went over a directional dialogue last week! It's been very helpful in cabs and in walking around the city.
Getting into the US embassy was surprisingly pleasant and easy. You do have to go through a metal detector and surrender your cell phone, but the staff are helpful and friendly and the process is very smooth. It's very different from the US consulate in Cape Town where you get the nth degree of inspection and questioning. The x-ray revealed a USB flash drive in my wallet which I had forgotten, but it was politely pointed out and I put it in my little tray along with my cell phone.
There was no line at American Consular Services, again a total surprise how easy and friendly this whole process was. I had to fill out a form (typical US Gov't, the form is two pages long, the first page is instructions and is removed and thrown away afterwards--seems like you could take one set of instructions, laminate it, and hand it out! Oh well...) which required my local address and my US address. I wrote out my hotel address in Chinese, thinking I was being helpful, but then was told by the consular services lady that I couldn't write it in Chinese. She went through a lot of rigamarole whiting it out with the little tape white-out thingy, which ran out so she had to find more! While she was looking, another woman came over to investigate the delay and crossed out the remaining Chinese characters, but my lady came back and insisted on whiting out the rest! Bureaucracy!
Jessica also needed new visa pages, but her passport is so old and tattered that they refused her request! Her passport is one of the old ones with the laminated photo page, and the lamination is separating and you can access the photo at one point. No wonder they didn't want to add more pages. The consular services lady suggested that Jessica apply for a renewal passport right here in Beijing. Here's the secret, people, renew all your passports overseas! It costs less ($75) and takes way less time, only 7-10 days. You keep your old passport, and then when you get the new one you just take it to a local office and request a visa transfer. No big deal! Jess opted to get the renewal, so she had to run over to a conveniently located photo shop across the street from the embassy.
Sidebar: Jessica wore her Obama YES WE CAN shirt to the embassy. This morning she asked me, "Do you think it will be weird if I wear my Obama shirt to the embassy?" I responded with, "Uh, I can't think of a more appropriate place to wear your Obama shirt!" So, her passport picture has an Obama shirt and the consular ladies really appreciated it.
So, new passport applied for Jess and I got my visa pages (the super tacky new pages that are FUGGGGGGG-LY!) all for just a 2 Yuan subway ride from our hotel! Bonus!
Outside the embassy we ran into a bīngtáng húlù (冰糖葫芦) vendor and finally decided to dive into this springtime Chinese candy delicacy. Bingtang hulu is candied hawthorn on a stick, often combined with strawberries or baby oranges. It's coated in sugar syrup so it's not good for your teeth, but MAN it tastes good! A full hawthorn one is only 1 yuan, the hawthorn/clementine one is 2.50. Hawthorn is sort of like a crab apple, but sweeter, and a little bit squashier. It's the primary ingredient in Haw Flakes, my favorite Chinese flake candy, as well as the more mysteriously named "Haw Soup", which is like fruit leather, individually wrapped (mysteriouser and mysteriouser). I want to eat one every day, which I would if it weren't sugar central. Jess and I hopped on the train to Sanlituan, to go back to Yashow market to get some faux jeans.
Part II: Down the Rabbit Hole of Bag Fakery
Yashow, if you recall, is the enormous 6 floor market next to Sanlituan Village (check out the real goods there, then head to Yashow for the knockoffs) that Jessica and I visited last week. We didn't buy anything because we were completely overwhelmed, but we felt prepared and better equipped this time. We first looked at some jeans stalls, and I found a nice pair of True Religion brand that were long enough and looked decently real. My problem in China is that there aren't any dryers so my jeans in particular are getting stretched out. I wanted to get some crappy knock-offs here so that I can beat them up and not worry about wearing out my good ones. I bargained down the lady to 250 Yuan, which is a huge savings on the US cost, which is about $250 and up!
We were tired and needed a pickmeup, so we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate some delicious burritos. Food was surprisingly authentic and tasty, although they did not give you endless chips and salsa, which I felt was sort of stingy. This is China after all! I guess I can't complain about the Mexican food. We were just pleased they allowed Jessica to order a bean quesidilla instead of a meat one.
After eating our fill at the Mexican place, we went back to Yashow to find more jeans. Jess wanted to go downstairs to look at sneakers, however, because she wanted to get some comfortable ones for the Great Wall hike the next day. The bottom floor of Yashow is all shoes and bags, so we were kind of browsing around when this very energetic shopgirl called us in and started showing us these really fake looking Prada bags. She was irrepressibly cute, but totally giving the hard sell "You like, you like, I give you best price!" She showed us that the Prada bags were real leather by waving a lighter over the surface of the bag--it didn't catch! She then took a fake leather bag and actually lit it on fire (melting and smoking!). She was really funny. Jessica asked her if she had any LV or Louis Vuitton bags, because she has been looking for the Neverfull bag for a long time. The shopgirl promised that she did have LV, and showed us one bag that wasn't actually the Neverfull, and it looked OK, not amazing. Her boss came over in the middle of our discussion, and after listening to use go on about better quality, he gave her the key to a storage room and told her to take us there. We got very excited, as we knew that the better quality fakes would be in the storage room.
She took us to the basement of the market, and opened the door to a room full of fake bags! LV, Prada, Chanel, Coach, Bally, everything was in there. She showed Jessica the large size Neverfull, but Jessica wanted the small one. While we were poking around and kind of dithering, the boss showed up with a black trash bag and pulled out a really spectacularly real-looking medium Neverfull. When compared to the fake large we were looking at, it had many differences. The lining was correct, the leather details were right, the printed monogram canvas was a better color, this was totally either "off the back of a truck" or "extra production runs at night" quality stuff. We bargained quite a bit and settled on 1500 yuan for the bag. Expensive yes, but the real one costs $700.
I had asked the boss if he had a specific Gucci bag that I've had my eye on for a couple of years, ever since I went to a tour of the Gucci store in LA. When I asked him about the Gucci again, he said, "OK, you come with me." He took us to a different secret room on the 6th floor of the market, this one was crammed full with more of the "fake" (yet real??) bags like Jessica's. He showed me the Gucci bag and it was impressive. Real black leather, correct lining, metal and bamboo accents all authentic looking. Having handled the bag in the store myself, I know what the real one looks like and this one was essentially the same thing. After a lot more bargaining (all this was done in Chinese, by the way), we settled on 1700 yuan. Spendy, yes, but I figured I deserved it, especially after landing an internship in January as well as getting a 3.875 GPA last module. I was even able to put it on my credit card (which I pay off every month, duh).
Jessica and I were high on our success, so I told the man that we had many friends who wanted to also buy bags. He gave me his number and told me to call him anytime for bags. I will likely go back in a few days with another classmate who wants to buy a bag for his girlfriend.
Jessica did manage to pick up a pair of shoes for the Great Wall (fake Converse sneakers, very cute) and used the old "I only have this much money" trick, but this time it was real! We were exhausted at this point, and decided to go back to the hotel.
Part III: A Light at the End of the Supermarket Tunnel
On the way back (lugging our illicit loot in a huge black plastic trash bag) we remembered that we needed to bring breakfast and lunch for the Great Wall tomorrow. We toyed with the idea of going to Carrefour, but that was too painful to contemplate. Instead, we opted to check out the Wal-Mart Supercenter three stops before our hotel stop. That station is where we change trains to go to Wudaokou, so we had seen the English language signs for Wal-Mart. Luckily the store is right next to the station, and there is a handy exit marked "Wal-Mart Supercenter".
Wal-Mart in China is fabulous. It's large, spacious, has helpful and friendly staff and very low prices. The food section in particular is very Chinese style, with all manner of dried and fresh odd vegetables, meats and other produce for sale (giant dried carp, sliced in half and hanging as well as turtles and deep fried baby ducklings). We stocked up on some bread, apples, kiwis, cheese and peanut butter. We made it to the checkout line but got in trouble with the checkout lady because we hadn't weighed our fruit downstairs in the produce section so as to get the sticker (they don't do it at the cashier like in the US--I should have remembered this from Croatian supermarkets). Luckily, the cashier told me I could cut the line once I got back with the fruit, so I ran off, let the fruit ladies weigh my fruits and put a little sticker on them (Job creation! This is China!) and then made it back to the cashier.
Jess and I FINALLY made it back to the hotel after a very long day. We let Hunter Kim inspect our illicit merchandise, since he's very in to luxury goods, and he gave them the thumbs up, said they looked really good. Also on the way back on the subway, we sat next to a girl with a large Neverfull that was either real or Jessica's quality fake. We also looked on the Gucci and LV websites and couldn't see anything on our bags that were a tipoff of fakery. All in all it was a day that started out crappy thanks to Accounting, and then got much, much better!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
One Saturday's Odyssey in Beijing [Or, A Day of Expensive Cabs]
On Saturday, Mike, Jess and I joined Ethan Tseng to visit his aunt and uncle's Taiwanese restaurant in the industrial area by the airport. They are industrious Taiwanese businesspeople, with several investments in China and Taiwan. They were in Beijing for a few days, so they invited us to come and sample their dishes. Ethan is also from Taiwan, and is ethnically Hakka (we had a good laugh about how Hakka women are traditionally supposed to be husky and do most of the work around the house and on the farm).
We were supposed to meet Ethan at the line 10 stop where you transfer to the airport train at noon, but getting out of bed and ready to go took longer than anticipated so we decided to take a cab. The cab took longer than anticipated because there was a stall on the 4th ring road, which caused a traffic jam. Our cabbie was very confused as to why 3 people were taking a cab to meet 1 person, and Mike and I tried to explain that we were meeting him at the subway, and then continuing on to another location by the airport, but we weren't sure the message was really communicated.
Once we got to the subway station, Ethan was waiting outside, so we had just paid our cabbie when he hopped in and directed him to the next stop: the restaurant. We headed northeast on the airport expressway and then exited about halfway. We found ourselves in an odd neighborhood that reminded me of Southern California or Glendale... generic strip malls, McMansion style housing estates and industrial complexes. It was a little unnerving, because these monstrosities were usually right next door to a typical little Chinese style strip mall that looked just like Duo Buay or the road to Swatow.
Luckily, Ethan's aunt's place was very nice inside, with trendy and unique decor. They serve traditional and popular Taiwanese dishes which we absolutely delicious. We had sweet pickles, bitter melon with salted egg, little steamed bread sandwiches, steamed bream, tripe soup, fried tofu and many other tasty things (that I can't remember).
After stuffing our faces, we caught a cab back to Beijing. Ethan suggested that we go to Beihai park, which was supposed to be really beautiful. The cab ride was quite long, so we napped and arrived refreshed (albeit still very stuffed). Beihai is a park just north of the Forbidden City, and is famous for its white pagoda on top of a hill which gives a nice view of the surrounding city, as well as a pretty lake with boat rental available. We paid 15 Yuan for entrance, which included access to the hill area with the white temple portion. I'm glad we paid the extra amount, because the temple area was less crowded and more peaceful, although you can never escape the crowds in Beijing. The people visiting were overwhelmingly Chinese tourists; we saw almost no foreigners.
Inside the park by the lake we saw a lot of old men practicing calligraphy with brushes using lake water as ink on the stone walkways. They were using traditional characters, which was nice to see. Jessica especially was very excited to see the calligraphy in action. I recognized a Li Bo poem that I had to translate in college--it's about drinking alone (of course... Li Bo did a lot of drinking alone and then wrote about how much it stinks).
The temple grounds were peaceful and provided much inspiration for photography. The temple had a thick bamboo grove so I was reminded of the bamboo forest in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I suggested that we start taking some wacky Wushu master photos--the Prague module and the Beijing module have a sort of informal contest going to to see who can post the best pictures up on Facebook. Right now Beijing is blowing Prague out of the water because all their photos are of people drinking. Ours are much more creative. I figured with kung fu photos we would triumph hands down. Many creative shots were engendered, such as jumping up in the air and kicking, hanging from rocks and fighting, and even fake pushing off railings and Jessica "breaking" a stone (there was a whole one and a broken one, so we employed some trick photography). Most of the photos were taken by Ethan, who has a SLR digital camera with multi-shot technology. I am waiting for him to give me the photos in class tomorrow, and then will post them. They are truly spectacular.
The pagoda thing (confusingly called a dagoba, which is incidentally the name of the swamp planet from Empire Strikes Back where Yoda has been hiding out from the Empire and Luke visits to learn the ways of the force) was kind of ho-hum, but the hill did give a nice view of the city and the setting sun provided some pleasant light for portrait taking.
After leaving Beihai park Ethan split off to go have dinner with the Indian crew and Jess, Mike and I headed to Sanlituan to find pizza. We ate at The Tree, which was ok, not AMAZING like Mozza (truth: nothing is as amazing as Mozza) but thankfully not oily unlike almost everything else in this city. After The Tree we went to the Smugglers Hideout, which features 2 x bottles of Beijing Yanjing for only 15 yuan. We then caught the last train to Wudaokou, back on the west side of town to make a classmate's birthday afterparty at a bar called Pyro. Pyro is every college bar in America with just a higher proportion of Asian people inside--smoky, sweaty, beery and full of empty pitchers and loud rap music. It was fun to hang out with the crew, however, since I have been leaving them behind in the dust as Mike, Jess, Ethan and I explore the city.
We were supposed to meet Ethan at the line 10 stop where you transfer to the airport train at noon, but getting out of bed and ready to go took longer than anticipated so we decided to take a cab. The cab took longer than anticipated because there was a stall on the 4th ring road, which caused a traffic jam. Our cabbie was very confused as to why 3 people were taking a cab to meet 1 person, and Mike and I tried to explain that we were meeting him at the subway, and then continuing on to another location by the airport, but we weren't sure the message was really communicated.
Once we got to the subway station, Ethan was waiting outside, so we had just paid our cabbie when he hopped in and directed him to the next stop: the restaurant. We headed northeast on the airport expressway and then exited about halfway. We found ourselves in an odd neighborhood that reminded me of Southern California or Glendale... generic strip malls, McMansion style housing estates and industrial complexes. It was a little unnerving, because these monstrosities were usually right next door to a typical little Chinese style strip mall that looked just like Duo Buay or the road to Swatow.
Luckily, Ethan's aunt's place was very nice inside, with trendy and unique decor. They serve traditional and popular Taiwanese dishes which we absolutely delicious. We had sweet pickles, bitter melon with salted egg, little steamed bread sandwiches, steamed bream, tripe soup, fried tofu and many other tasty things (that I can't remember).
After stuffing our faces, we caught a cab back to Beijing. Ethan suggested that we go to Beihai park, which was supposed to be really beautiful. The cab ride was quite long, so we napped and arrived refreshed (albeit still very stuffed). Beihai is a park just north of the Forbidden City, and is famous for its white pagoda on top of a hill which gives a nice view of the surrounding city, as well as a pretty lake with boat rental available. We paid 15 Yuan for entrance, which included access to the hill area with the white temple portion. I'm glad we paid the extra amount, because the temple area was less crowded and more peaceful, although you can never escape the crowds in Beijing. The people visiting were overwhelmingly Chinese tourists; we saw almost no foreigners.
Inside the park by the lake we saw a lot of old men practicing calligraphy with brushes using lake water as ink on the stone walkways. They were using traditional characters, which was nice to see. Jessica especially was very excited to see the calligraphy in action. I recognized a Li Bo poem that I had to translate in college--it's about drinking alone (of course... Li Bo did a lot of drinking alone and then wrote about how much it stinks).
The temple grounds were peaceful and provided much inspiration for photography. The temple had a thick bamboo grove so I was reminded of the bamboo forest in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I suggested that we start taking some wacky Wushu master photos--the Prague module and the Beijing module have a sort of informal contest going to to see who can post the best pictures up on Facebook. Right now Beijing is blowing Prague out of the water because all their photos are of people drinking. Ours are much more creative. I figured with kung fu photos we would triumph hands down. Many creative shots were engendered, such as jumping up in the air and kicking, hanging from rocks and fighting, and even fake pushing off railings and Jessica "breaking" a stone (there was a whole one and a broken one, so we employed some trick photography). Most of the photos were taken by Ethan, who has a SLR digital camera with multi-shot technology. I am waiting for him to give me the photos in class tomorrow, and then will post them. They are truly spectacular.
The pagoda thing (confusingly called a dagoba, which is incidentally the name of the swamp planet from Empire Strikes Back where Yoda has been hiding out from the Empire and Luke visits to learn the ways of the force) was kind of ho-hum, but the hill did give a nice view of the city and the setting sun provided some pleasant light for portrait taking.
After leaving Beihai park Ethan split off to go have dinner with the Indian crew and Jess, Mike and I headed to Sanlituan to find pizza. We ate at The Tree, which was ok, not AMAZING like Mozza (truth: nothing is as amazing as Mozza) but thankfully not oily unlike almost everything else in this city. After The Tree we went to the Smugglers Hideout, which features 2 x bottles of Beijing Yanjing for only 15 yuan. We then caught the last train to Wudaokou, back on the west side of town to make a classmate's birthday afterparty at a bar called Pyro. Pyro is every college bar in America with just a higher proportion of Asian people inside--smoky, sweaty, beery and full of empty pitchers and loud rap music. It was fun to hang out with the crew, however, since I have been leaving them behind in the dust as Mike, Jess, Ethan and I explore the city.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Beijing Glasses City Leads Us to Restaurant #9
In our awesome Insider's Guide to Beijing Guidebook Mike and I read about this magical place called "Beijing Glasses City", in which shoppers can peruse 4 floors of glasses frames at bargain prices. Seeing as how the last time I got new frames was freshman year in college, I was really excited to get some new glasses up in here. Mike, Jessica and I hopped the gold #10 train line to the other end. Unfortunately, we did not check the guidebook and realized upon arrival around 5:55pm that Beijing Glasses City closes at 6pm. :( We hopped across the street and looked at a few glasses shops that had some frames that appealed to me, however at US$50 they were a little pricey compared to what the guidebook promised. I did find out that slightly cat-eye type frames actually look really good on me. We decided to return to Glasses City tomorrow after the group tour of the 798 Art District.
We decided to check out another glasses store listed in the guidebook, which promised "superfly frames". The store was on a street that was next to the CBD (Central Business District). The street was actually this really funky and cute neighborhood, with hutongs off the side and trendy clothing shops that cater to Beijing's fashionable. We never found the eyeglass store, but we did find the most awesome restaurant.
We found a little hutong and wandered down it, and noticed a neat little restaurant called #9. We asked to see a menu, and it had plenty of vegetarian options for Jessica so we decided to eat there. The owner was quite solicitous and was very attentive. We ordered an incredible amount of food, including a tofu dish that mimicked scallops, a huge fried shrimp dish, pork ribs, fried potatoes and Chinese bacon, scallion pancake and fried green beans. The food was AMAZING, and we got the owner to share a beer with us. We had a nice chat about Mike's and my Chinese moms and how we were studying at Beijing Daxue. The total was so incredibly cheap and the food was so delicious that we absolutely plan to return!
We also were celebrating the fact that we got our Accounting problem set done this morning about 13 hours early. All the other fools in our class are cranking away right now and Jess, Mike and I are free and clear. Tomorrow we are off for a tour of the 798 Art District, which is supposed to be amazing.
We decided to check out another glasses store listed in the guidebook, which promised "superfly frames". The store was on a street that was next to the CBD (Central Business District). The street was actually this really funky and cute neighborhood, with hutongs off the side and trendy clothing shops that cater to Beijing's fashionable. We never found the eyeglass store, but we did find the most awesome restaurant.
We found a little hutong and wandered down it, and noticed a neat little restaurant called #9. We asked to see a menu, and it had plenty of vegetarian options for Jessica so we decided to eat there. The owner was quite solicitous and was very attentive. We ordered an incredible amount of food, including a tofu dish that mimicked scallops, a huge fried shrimp dish, pork ribs, fried potatoes and Chinese bacon, scallion pancake and fried green beans. The food was AMAZING, and we got the owner to share a beer with us. We had a nice chat about Mike's and my Chinese moms and how we were studying at Beijing Daxue. The total was so incredibly cheap and the food was so delicious that we absolutely plan to return!
We also were celebrating the fact that we got our Accounting problem set done this morning about 13 hours early. All the other fools in our class are cranking away right now and Jess, Mike and I are free and clear. Tomorrow we are off for a tour of the 798 Art District, which is supposed to be amazing.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Noodle Show in Wudaokou
After the hell hole horror that was Carrefour/家乐福, Mike and I decided to get some nice comfort food. Hot pot had just been decided upon as the desired food when Mike's friend Cordell fortuitously called us and invited us to hot pot with his friends! We hopped on the subway (the nearest station to us is Suzhou Rd, which I find kind of funny since we are not in Suzhou) and jetted northeast to Wudaokou, which is kind of a fun student area plus Koreans. Chadd, Rob and Hunter joined us; Hunter was very excited to learn that we were going to a Korean area.
We met Cordell's friends, who were somewhat taken aback at the size of the group, which I guess was understandable, but they were still a bit sour about it throughout the meal which was tiring. Luckily the food was delicious, so we could concentrate on that. We had three different types of broth, a chicken stock type broth, a medium spicy broth and a Sichuan style super spice broth that was YUMMMMM-Y! We ordered beef, lamb, tongue, tofu, veggies, fish balls and noodles to cook in the broth. You also got to make up your own sauces from many options, plus tasty peanut sauce. The noodles were very interestingly prepared, they came in large flat blocks and are pulled apart by an enthusiastic waiter right in front of you, twirled around, and fed into the burbling pot. The spicy Sichuan broth got everyone, and we downed plenty of water and Harbin Lager beer (shades of Global Strategy, where Hunter and I had to actually do a 30 minute presentation on Harbin Lager).
After the meal (which came to 50 yuan per person), we went to a local bar called Red House, with 5 yuan draft beers. The bar was full of trendy local Chinese kids drinking and talking loudly, as well as some British expats (Cordell's friends were British as well). A good time was had by all, and we made it back by 12:30, not too late for the next day's company visit.
We met Cordell's friends, who were somewhat taken aback at the size of the group, which I guess was understandable, but they were still a bit sour about it throughout the meal which was tiring. Luckily the food was delicious, so we could concentrate on that. We had three different types of broth, a chicken stock type broth, a medium spicy broth and a Sichuan style super spice broth that was YUMMMMM-Y! We ordered beef, lamb, tongue, tofu, veggies, fish balls and noodles to cook in the broth. You also got to make up your own sauces from many options, plus tasty peanut sauce. The noodles were very interestingly prepared, they came in large flat blocks and are pulled apart by an enthusiastic waiter right in front of you, twirled around, and fed into the burbling pot. The spicy Sichuan broth got everyone, and we downed plenty of water and Harbin Lager beer (shades of Global Strategy, where Hunter and I had to actually do a 30 minute presentation on Harbin Lager).
After the meal (which came to 50 yuan per person), we went to a local bar called Red House, with 5 yuan draft beers. The bar was full of trendy local Chinese kids drinking and talking loudly, as well as some British expats (Cordell's friends were British as well). A good time was had by all, and we made it back by 12:30, not too late for the next day's company visit.
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