Richard's Travel Blog

I hope you all had a happy holiday season, had an opportunity to be with friends and family, had fun, and could share food and good will and hope for the new year.
Man, this year went quickly. I know everyone always says that, but for me it’s difficult to imagine it was December of 2009 when Myung and I rented that apartment in Buenos Aires. Maybe it’s a function of being busy, but considering the slow pace of my life in Chongqing, I don’t think that’s it. Getting older? Maybe. In any case, here’s to life and phase two of lumpy gravy.
Now, why did that Frank Zappa reference pop into my head? That one is even more tangential than usual. In the spirit of blogging in one take, I’m keeping it, on principle. Is it just aging or am I leaving the world? For some reason Zappa has been in my head for a little while. Thinking about it… Maybe it’s because I have become quite a news junkie. I look at the developments in the US, a safe distance from Tuscon and Wall Street, and remember Zappa singing in 1973:

It can’t happen here
It can’t happen here
I’m telling you, my dear
That it can’t happen here
Because I been checkin’ it out, baby
I checked it out a couple a times, hmmmmmmmm

And I’m telling you
It can’t happen here
Oh darling, it’s important that you believe me
(bop bop bop bop)
That it can’t happen here

Who could imagine that they would freak out somewhere in kansas…
Kansas kansas tototototodo
Kansas kansas tototototodo
Kansas kansas
Who could imagine that they would freak out in minnesota…
Mimimimimimimi minnesota, minnesota, minnesota
Who could imagine…

Who could imagine
That they would freak out in washington, d.c.
D.c. d.c. d.c. d.c. d.c.
It can’t happen here
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
It can’t happen here
It can’t happen here
Everybody’s safe and it can’t happen here
No freaks for us
It can’t happen here
Everybody’s clean and it can’t happen here
No, no, it won’t happen here
I’m telling you it can’t
It won’t happen here
(bop bop didi bop didi bop bop bop)
Plastic folks, you know
It won’t happen here
You’re safe, mama
You’re safe, baby
You just cook a tv dinner
And you make it
(bop bop bop)
No no no no

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/it-cant-happen-here-lyrics-frank-zappa.html ]

Oh, we’re gonna get a tv dinner and cook it up
Go get a tv dinner and cook it up
Cook it up
Oh, and it won’t happen here
(no no no no no no no no no no no
Man you guys are really safe
Everything’s cool).
Who could imagine
Who could imagine
That they would freak out in the suburbs
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool.

And they thought it couldn’t happen here
(duh duh duh duh duh)
They knew it couldn’t happen here
They were so sure it couldn’t happen here
But…

Suzie…
Yes yes yes–i’ve always felt that
Yes I agree man, it really makes it…yeah…
It’s a real thing, man
And it really makes it
(makes it)

Suzie, you just got to town,
And we’ve been, we’ve been very interested
In your development,
Since you first took the shots.
Forget it!
Hmmmmmmmmm
(it can’t happen here)
(can’t happen here)
(can’t happen here)

I may have diverged from the spirit of good will and hope for the new year.
I was going to talk about how it’s going in Chongqing. This is definitely a new phase. I haven’t been so stable in one place for over 4 years. If the first six months of 2010 in South America seemed to go quickly, these last six in China have gone even more quickly. Myung’s cosmetics shop is up and running, though rather slowly here at the beginning. That was keeping her busy and me somewhat occupied. Now, it’s almost on autopilot. At first, Myung was spending all but two hours of her 10-9 open hours there, doing the myriad things you can easily imagine she had to do starting up. In English, you might say I was a “go fer”. Here we joke that I’m a “pang pang”, which is that guy you’ve seen in the travelogues who balances a load in two parts at the ends of a pole across his shoulders. Now, Myung either opens it up and stays till about 1 PM, then comes home until about 7, then leaves it with her employee, Shao Jhang. Or, she lets Shao Jhang open up, then goes in about 11-something, comes home till about 7, then stays till closing time. Any way, it’s quite settled. On Monday’s, Shao Jhang’s day off, Myung goes all day. I make some one pot hot dish for lunch and dinner and bring it to her.
When Myung’s at work or occupying herself at the computer in the the from bedroom, her office, I spend a lot of time hanging out at my computer. I am now the consummate couch potato. There is no heat in this apartment, so it’s about 40-something degrees Fahrenheit in here during the day. I curl up on the couch with a blanket over me and an electric heating pad under me, and cuddle my notebook computer. I cruise the news and all that, do emails and every day do something, however little, at my Mandarin lessons site. I used to cook more, but now that Myung is home more, she cooks, too. I still do most of the shopping. This and lots of other life details get me out of the apartment.
Christmas and New Year’s has come and gone since I last blogged. Christmas is well known in China, and is a minor celebration. The TV has specials on educating people about what it is and showing videos of people singing carols, riding in one-horse open sleighs, decorating trees, giving presents and a few are adoring the baby Jesus. The store, which like anywhere, needed no excuse to have promotions. Myung decorated her place. There is a little gift giving, but Chinese do that anyway. Besides, Chinese New Year of the rabbit is coming up Feb 4. People are gearing up big time for that. Bunny this, Babbit that, everywhere. All kinds of groups are practicing dance routines, traditional dragon parade stuff, singing, etc.. It’s all starting already, almost a month ahead of time. The train ticket offices are stuffed all day beginning at 6:30 AM, selling tickets to people who traditionally return to their hometowns and families at this time. This included the couple of hundred million migrant factory workers who get to have a good long holiday at this time. It’s a zoo, trust me. The crowds at the stations are, as I often say, “real India”.
I’ll be in Myanmar during New Year, from Jan 22 to Feb 19. I go to Kunming on the 12th, two days from now, so I can get a visa into Myanmar at the consulate there. It takes them 5 working days to issue a visa. I haven’t decided on an itinerary for either place yet. Myung and I went to Kunming and Yunnan Province a couple of years ago. We liked it and I have some fairly vivid memories of the city, the countryside, and all the minority people. I booked a bed in the same hostel we stayed in before. When I get there, I’ll play it by ear. Same goes for Myanmar. I booked a place in Yangon through the Lonely Planet website. I’ll figure out what’s up via the backpacker grapevine there, then head out after getting my return visa to China. The general plan is to head north but I might go south. On Feb 17 or 18, I must return to Yangon, as I have a flight out of there to Chongqing on the 19th. For at least several weeks, I won’t be a couch potato anymore.
Learning Mandarin is turning out to be a bit harder than I had hoped. It’s coming along. More and more I’m picking up what is being said around me. When I have the vocabulary, I can translate it. The is that, by then, they are three sentences on and I’m left smiling my nice have pity on me smile. I also talk 98% of the time with Myung in English and I’m lazy about letting her do the talking when we’re out. Also, I can understand her Chinese pretty well, the same way she understands my English. Faced with a Chinese person I struggle mightily, a bit like Myung does when she tries to understand someone else in English. One day, though, I have hope things will coalesce.
You may notice there are no pictures in this blog post. I haven’t taken any photos since last entry.
I think that will do it for now. I will likely write again after returning from Myanmar.
Be well, all of you.

May all of you in the States be having a happy Thanksgiving, and may the rest of you be having times you can be thankful for.
November has been good to Myung and me. The Giants won the World Series. After waiting since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, I am happy, let me tell you. I was able to watch the whole postseason on the internet. The other good thing is that Myung has opened her cosmetics shop. I have a new appreciation for anybody who has done something like that. It was especially arduous for Myung, of course. She worked every day for at least two months and much of the time since we got to Chongqing.
It took the longest time just to find a good location. You can see the walking street the shop is on in my last blog. Here are pictures of the place before and pictures of it now.

She decided to be a franchisee for Kalakala, which is a Korean owned cosmetics company with 160 stores in China selling “Korean” cosmetics manufactured in China. Chinese people love just about anything Korean, and Myung is told that almost all of the other stores are quite profitable. Hers is the only one in Chingqing. Her hope is that there will be more Kalakala stores in Chingqing, all hers. For now, she would like this one to be profitable. It’s been open a week and the signs are promising. She’s already paying the rent, the utilities and the help, plus a little profit. With luck, it will grow from here. She already hopes to make enough to live on as well and start taking bites out of her capital expenses, then open another. Yes, yes. first things first. Right now she’s working out the kinks. Some things are easy in China. The bureaucracy for opening a business is easy, even for foreigners. Getting things done right isn’t. In general, workmanship here is shoddy. In general, “good enough” is all Chinese expect. A lot of things aren’t built to last. That doesn’t work for Westernized people. She’s had to compromise on some things but, all in all, things are adequate now.
This adventure hasn’t been a drag. It was fun in many ways. I’ve had a good time doing it with Myung. Looking for a location was interesting, up to a point, as going around town considering locations not in the area we live showed me much of everyday Chongqing. And it was a learning experience, learning about property values, rents, consumer traffic, etc.. She finally, and I think wisely, settled on this place walking distance from our apartment. Figuring out what was to be the interior and how to get it done was another learning experience. Working out the kinks is another ongoing concern.
Here are some more pictures. First is Myung and the company rep from Beijing who came down for a week or so to get this off the ground.

Here are more.

That make up corner has proven very popular. customers can come in and get their faces done for free. Myung has a laser/ultrasound/massage machine they really like. Sometimes they want to buy that, but it isn’t made in China and is expensive even in Korea. Importing it would be prohibitively expensive for all but the upper crust Chinese. Myung is looking into trying to figure out how to bring them into the country somehow. Often they like the products, so after trying the stuff, they buy something.
At first, Myung hired two young women to work there. The first one didn’t work out. The second, Jhang, is working out very well so far. She gets to use all the products she wants and comes in early to get dolled up. She likes that. Besides, she is a good worker. Myung is thinking about giving her a raise already.

Enough of that. You’ll be hearing more. It’s what we do now. Myung is there or doing something related 11-12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I go there and back, bringing her food, a running errands or hauling something. I do what I can whatever suits my talents.

The pictures of the front with the mops and brooms, was before we put up the grand opening gala balloons.
When I’m not doing something in connection with the shop, my main endeavor is learning Mandarin. Oh, it ain’t easy getting old. I used to have an aptitude for languages. That went wherever my memory went. But, if I stay here long enough, it’ll come along. I hope. I’m also kind of a house husband. I shop, cook and clean. It’s alright. I get time to myself and it’s got to be done.
So, that’s about it for now. Maybe not so much time will pass before I blog again. Maybe I’ll actually ramble about something else. Until then, be well, all of you

“Ni hao” is Mandarin for “hello”. I don’t think I can safely say my Mandarin is coming along. I wish I could say it’s coming along well, but it’s slow process for my aging brain. That said, I am beginning to get the sentence patterns, am slowly learning some vocabulary, and am understanding a little bit more every day. A very little bit, but it is improving perceptively. In about two years maybe I’ll be able to function on some kind of meanful level. I work on it every day.

China is feeling like home these days. I have a yearning to travel more, but for now I’m enjoying making a home here. Hey, Mt Rushmore is in a park across the street, so why go back to the States?

Okay, it’s a petit Mt Rushmore, but I cannot think of a place more like South Dakota than Chongqing, can you? There’s also a mini David, a normal sized Aphrodite (I think), a mini Notre Dame and more beyond this neoclassical park entrance.

And now that we have a near proper kitchen with a toaster oven, I can make some of the foods we eat back in the States. I’ve made oatmeal cookies and pizza so far. The other day, our friends Pi Pi, Xue Xue and their baby girl, Meow Meow, came over for some meatloaf with Heinz ketchup, rosemary potatoes and salad with thousand island dressing. Of course there was kimchi, too. And since it was just after China’s mid-autumn festival, or harvest day they call it in Korea, we had scrumptious moon cakes they brought. Everybody, and I mean everybody, eats these at this time of the year. They are basically pastry sweets with traditional designs molded into the top. Yum.

I wrote last time that Myung is starting up a business. She’s going to have a store selling Korean cosmetics. Korean stuff of any kind is very popular in China. The rage hasn’t maxxed out the market out here in Chongqing, so we think she has a good chance of succeeding with it. She’s been busy with the planning. On October 6 she is going to meet with the distributor in Beijing, then go to Seoul to make further arrangements and pick up some stuff to bring back. The store front is nothing to look at now, but she’ll have it remodeled. She wants me to wait to show a picture of it till it’s done, but here is the pedestrian mall area in which it will be located and the typical stores around where she is.

In the following picture, her place is the black K-3 place. K-3 is a popular Japanese backpack brand. It’ll look a lot different when she’s finished.

She’s hoping to be able to advertise in the space above where the dance studio currentlly has that big display. I think it just might work, especially with a real Korean running it.

Now that she has settled on a location, we aren’t running around all over town looking for a place. She’s doing her own thing now. My days pass routinely. We get up and have instant coffee and breakfast together, usually western food like oatmeal or fruit with meusli and yogurt or eggs and toast (from our toaster oven). This morning we had Korean food, though, squash porridge. We watch some morning TV news, then look at the computer. Then usually we go somewhere, often just the store. Then she does her work on the computer while I study Mandarin. Then there’s the continuing effort to clean up the crud around this apartment. Lunch and dinner happen. For me there is a lot of down time. Myung usually goes out for a walk. Evenings are whatever. Exciting, eh? What a homebody I’ve become. It doesn’t bother me, though. I’ve been active enough for the past four years. I don’t mind hanging out.

That’s about it for now. I’ll write again when there is something to talk about. Be well, all of you.

Hi everybody,
Well, we decided to stay. Myung is seriously working on her business plan, so we leased an apartment for a year. It’s over the railroad tracks and down a block from where we were before. It’s a much better place, as you would expect for taking a lease, a little under $200/mo. It is about 100 sq. meters, about 900+ sq. feet, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms (a sit down toilet and a squat, whichever way floats your boat, and one has a tub and shower.), a nice living room, a better kitchen, a balcony, a washing machine, and is fully furnished. What an improvement! The downside is it’s a little noisier, it’s not right in the middle of the main shopping plaza, and it is pretty filthy. Chinese fry everything and often never clean up the grease. This was the case here, but after maybe 10 hours of work we got the kitchen so you feel like cooking in there. There are still a few days work ahead but, as I always say, I’m not that busy.
Most Americans would go ho hum at this place, but I’m looking forward to staying put for a while. If I stay a year, it would be the longest I’ve stayed anywhere in four years. The next longest was seven months in Yangsan, S. Korea from July 2008 to January 2009. The only other place at all was Buenos Aires for two months. We bought some decent kitchenn stuff and will get a toaster oven. How domestic, eh?
Here are some pics of the place. Here’s the living room and entrance by the dining area.

Here’s the kitchen. It’s rather big by Chinese standards. You can’t see to the left, but there’s big refrigerator, which you don’t often see.

Here is the big bedroom in the backwhere we sleep. There is a nearly wall length closet to the left.

Here is the little front bedroom which is our office, where I am typing this now. Check it out. More closet space.

Now, here’s a little commentary. You always hear how the Chinese are building up their infrastructure and accumulating foreign reserves while increasing the standard of living for the people. Quite amazing, to be sure. But they have a housing bubble that’s going to burst worse than the one in the US did. They are having all the same bubble symptoms the US had. So when growth slows, like when they can’t export as much and the government decides not to blow all it’s reserves on stimulus, the people will need to access their wealth or at leastnot be upside down. Here’s a problem they have. US property is of much, much higher quality. Even the worst built houses thrown up during the boom and sold for big bucks will hold up probably 50 years if they aren’t in an instant slum. The best places here start falling apart in 10 years, are barely habitable by our standards in 20, and are tear downs at 30. Not only are the properties poorly made, sometimes without even thought about, say, access to the pipes for plumbing work later on, but I’ve noticed the Chinese seem alergic to doing the maintainance they could do. If the hot water doesn’t work, no problem, cold is alright or they’ll rent it out and make their payments. When the properties no longer have intrinsic value, they will be stuck with slummy buildings with no water, etc.. That will exacerbate the bust. Of course the Chinese media is all about how great things are, like when the US was going to balance it’s budget during the Clinton years. And the other thing is, the Chinese really don’t see anything coming in that regard. They’ve only been in a market economy for 30 years and think everything just goes up and up.
Take this place. It was built in 2002. The water in the back bathroom sink doesn’t work. The landlady says, no problem, it works in the front bathroom. And she’s not about to spend any money on repairs because she gets enough to cover her mortgage from us. That’s one reason it’s cheap. Also, the faucet that you turn on to add water to the front squat toilet doesn’t work. No problem. You just fill the bucket and pour water down it like out in the country where most of them came from, so they see nothing wrong. And you can’t get to the pipes to repair it because they are behind walls with no access. You see that kind of thing again and again. When the wheels come of the real estate boom here, it will be ugly.
Whew, that was long. And all I wanted to do was introduce my pictures of the views outside. Here is one to the left as you look out from the living room balcony. This building is identical to ours. Looks okay, actually, from the outside. The fountain doesn’t work anymore, of course, but I did see a couple of guys there fiddling with PVC a couple of days ago.

Here’s the view off to the right. That building in front is probably 15 years old.

Likely some of those apartments’ water doesn’t work at all. No problem. They are used to carrrying water. Most rural Chinese do.
Out our little kitchen window is this building. It’s probably 20 years old. Yes, it’s by the railroad tracks but it is typical of thousands and thousands of other residential buildings all over China. The garbage piles are probably 10 years old!

I think I have now offended any of my Chinese friends who may read this blog. To my Chinese readers: Remember, the bottom line is as I have always said. I like Chongqing. I really do. Myung and I have been in many cities and towns in many countries. For all the reasons I have given before, we decided to give Chongqing a whirl. Myung thinks it will be a good place to make money. I agree. Opportunities are all over the place. It’s not jaded about foreigners like in many other cities. If I wanted to be around Westerners, I’d choose someplace else. People are more genuine here than in most cities. The nice people we met that drew us back here are still our friends and still nice. Now we know a few more people. It’s even less expensive than in most big cities. It’s good here. At least is is for me so far. And no, obviously, I did not get swept away in the floods.
So, what am I doing? I wonder a little bit myself. The days pass quickly, I know that. This last month has been so hot, I ventured out of our air conditioned apartment as little as possible. Myung and I walk around, ducking frequently into air conditioned buildings. There are a couple of English language shows on TV we watch. I’ve read a lot. I’ve started to do an online Mandarin course, but I must admit I’ve been lazy. It’s a bit daunting. That said, at least I can hear it most of the time. Little bits are making sense to me just because you will never hear English here on the street. One curveball is many people here speak Sechuanese. EvenMyung struggles with their accents sometimes when they try too talk in Mandarin. After cleaning this apartment some more for a few days, I’ll get going. Really. I have to. Our Chinse acquaintances are trying to get me to tell them what I’ve learned. It’s about time.
Oh, since I stated this blog entry, our new high quality Korean pot and pans set got delivered and Myung used them to make dinner. We are almost officially domesticated. When we get the toaster oven, I plan to use that as much as it’s possible to bake things. Baked stuff one of the things I miss in Asia. I think Myung is getting a little tired of cooking dinner, anyway, though I usually make breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in usually oatmeal or fruit meusli (expensive import) yogurt. With one of our new flat frying pans I can fry eggs. We only had a wok before. Myung still likes the sandwiches she got used to in Africa. She’s now almost an honorary American. Well, almost. She eats them her way sometimes.

Remember, there is a show about Chongqing in CCTV (China Central TV). Click on my CCTV link, Click on “Travelogue” and enter “Chongqing”. If I can remember how, I’ll adjust my map of southern China so you can see where Chingqing is. If I can’t or don’t do it right away, go to the map and just move it down a little. Chongqing will be in the upper left.
Be well, all of you.

Hello again from Chongqing. Myung and I were here in March of 2009. If you want to see pictures of Chongqing and some of the people we have met here, click on the March 2009 link on the right side of my home page, right to the right of where you are reading now. Of course, other China pictures will be in the surrounding months, if you are interested in that.

Also, I still suggest you click on my Chinese television link to CCTV, the government TV network. Though the news is hard to swallow, there are loads of interesting things on that site, including a program on Chongqing in the “Travelogue” section. Or just Google “CCTV” some other time. Wikipedia on Chongqing is interesting too.

One last thing about communicating, Facebook and YouTube are still blocked here, and likely will remain blocked for the foreseeable future. Anybody who reads this and wishes to contact me through Facebook should email me instead.

Western mouths should just pronounce Chongqing as Chong ching . It was formerly known in the west as Chungking because it’s the home of the fantastic canned delicacies which used to come with a pastry on top of the can you could ladle the contents onto. Just kidding, of course. Chongqing, formerly Chungking, is a city of about 10 million in south central China. It used to be part of eastern Sichuan Province but in 2007 it became the center of a small “municipality” of it’s own. By “small” I mean the municipality has “only” 30 million people. It’s most famous for being the WW II capital of the Kuomintang government, which ruled much of China from 1928 to 1949. There are interesting sites here, for the WW II buffs or if you are interested in this being the place where the southern Song dynasty held out for 32 years against the Mongols in the 13th century. Other than that, there is not much here for the average tourist other than it’s sort of on the way between southern China’s tourist spots and Chengdu, Sichuan, and it’s pandas. Chengdu is about 3-4 hours west of here.
We’re here because we liked Chongqing before and met some friends here. You can see some of them in that March 2009 post. Since then, Pi Pi and Xue Xue have had a little girl. Here are Pi Pi and Myung, then Myung with Xue Xue and her daughter, then Xue Xue’s father, grandmother and daughter.

We’ve met some other people, but I don’t have any good pictures of them. Here’s a bad one I took at a restaurant. There are the usual suspects. To Pi Pi’s right is Lu Lu. He’s been great help to us in getting organized here in this apartment, especially with some internet glitches we had. The two Europeans are an Austrian/Slovakian couple we met in Gyongju. They are now traveling around China and came here to visit and start their Three Gorges river tour from here. Oh yeah, that’s the other reason people come to Chingqing.

We’ve rented an apartment here, right in the middle of the main plaza of one of the districts of Chongqing, called Shapingba. Myung’s thinking about maybe doing some business here, so it’s cheaper to rent a place than to stay in a hotel all the time. If we stay longer, we’ll probably get cheaper digs than this, but this suits us for now. It’s certainly centrally located. Here’s the view out the window and from the plaza below.

Here’s the place inside. It’s newly renovated, but like many things in China, they don’t get it about some of the basics. One thing is they put a western style sit down toilet in, but the shower drain is higher than the middle of the room. Asian bathrooms often don’t separate shower from the toilet/sink area. This I can deal with (reluctantly), but why create a lake? My only guess is that the lake used to be around the squat toilet and one was to push the shower water down that. But the drain on the side surely isn’t new. Who knows? Welcome to China. Also, the walls are new, the place is nicely though minimally furnished, including an HD digital TV, but they didn’t do anything about the microscopic kitchen, with it’s little sink and one burner gas burner.

Oh well, it’ll do for now. We may be getting another place in 2-3 weeks anyway. Here’s the rest of the inside.

Here’s the grub Myung was making. Because of the kitchen situation, prep has to be done on our little table. Here it is served on our little table. Stir-fried black mushrooms with minced pork with garlic oyster sauce, stir fried green beans with maybe the same sauce, I can’t remember, and rice. Fortunately, we have a rice cooker. Myung does almost all of the cooking now. She has skills with the food that’s available here, at least at a areasonable price. This layout cost no more than a dollar. We can both do without my cooking, for the most part.

Here are some shots of the plaza below. For the most part, it’s a six square block pedestrian walkway. We live on the 17th floor of the tall building in the center of this first picture.

The rest of the pictures are of various areas within a couple of blocks.

Underneath all this is underground shopping. This is air conditioned and a nice route to go here and there when it’s 40 degrees (over 100 F.) outside. Usually, under those multistory department stores, malls, office buildings and condos are two basement floors of shops and garages. They build down as well as up.

What are I doing here. Well, I’m enjoying the rest from backpacking. Only in the last week or so does it feel like my body has recovered from the grind. I often wondered if traveling like that would add years to my life or take them away. It’s true I have gotten loads of exercise, a reasonable amount of which was aerobic. And I’ve generally had good nutrition. And I am at peace with where I am in life and have healthy company in Myung. But… I’ve learned my body can only take so much. You see and hear about all kind of older people who can do phenomenal things with their bodies. I’m pretty good for my age, but I can tell I’m going to have to take into consideration what is possible for me. Building up so that I can do what the young guys do doesn’t seem possible in my case. Some things, like my knees especially, are wearing out. My other joints feel the stress, too. There are other things, too, like my balance is even worse than it ever was. I’m thinking, like father like son, I’m going to kill myself in a fall, only I won’t be 93 when it happens. I’m having to be more and more careful not to injure myself rock hopping over creeks or hiking along ledges. Shoot, I’m already the absolute slowest walker down an uneven surface. Anyway, finally my knee and right middle finger are feeling nearly normal after my bicycle mishap on “The World’s Most Dangerous Road” in Bolivia, (and I wasn’t even going that fast, like the extreme riders I was with.) I’m fine with kicking back right now. While myung is doing her thing, I may really try to learn Mandarin and write my memoirs or something.

I guess that about wraps it up for now. Next blog will probably come when we decide what we will do next, if we stay here or go somewhere else. That’ll be in a couple of weeks. Until then, be well, all of you.

Just a quick update. Myung and I are going to Chongqing tomorrow. She’s laid some groundwork for doing business there and it’s time to do some stuff on that end. Why Chingqing? Well, we just liked it there and we know a couple there. That’s about it. There is nothing etched in stone, and this may turn into nothing, but it’s not a problem for us. We may just drift along and seize the first opportunity that comes along. Or not. Whatever. Maybe this will be like the nail art business in Buenos Aires, and it won’t get off the ground. Maybe it will. I’m not even going into it till something definitive happens. I’ll write again when I have something to say.
Be well, all of you.

Hi, everybody. It hardly seems like I’ve been back in Korea for over two weeks. Myung and I have basically been kicking back, first in Seoul for a week then in Gyeongju until now. We’ve done the social circles, taken care of a little business and walked around like tourists. I’m fine with doing nothing. It’s time I rested. One thing I noticed is that my knees were getting really sore almost all the time. With rest, they are returning to their usual mediocre selves, which is tolerable. I’d like to say we’re doing something, but we are really just hanging out. Myung’s still looking into things she might want to do, but nothing is decided. She does feel like there will be more opportunities in China, so it’s likely we’ll go there, likely Chongqing. That may happen in the next few days, in fact. That makes now a good time to blog.
As many of you know, we were in Korea from about May of 2008 till about January of 2009. You can click on those links on the right for pictures from then and what was on our alleged minds. There are pictures in there of Seoul as well as Gyeongju. I really like Gyeongju and could stay here if Myung wanted to. So’s not to repeat myself, I’ll post some different pictures, like of a traditional village near here. There are few of these left. This one’s structures are kept up at government expense, but it’s a regualar place with regular people with regular jobs. It isn’t touristy. There are no souvenir shops or anything like that. It just shows how charming Korea can be.

These are lived in places. It’s very traditional in this part of Korea. These jars are for storing food. The people whose place is in the first picture rent out the room Myung is standing by, if you want to spend the night.

Here is an interesting, gnarly, 600 year old Chinese cypresss tree.

There are, of course, many temples. They are almost always photogenic. I know I loaded up this site with temple pictures last time, but here’s one I like.

And here is a 1500 year old Buddha relief up the hill behind that temple.

Oh, as long as I’m at it, here are a couple of pictures you may have seen before. The first is a random shot of part of the large amount of open space in Gyeongju. One of the things I like about Gyeongju is that there are many kilometers of walking areas like this around. You wander all around burial sites and other historical areas from the 1000 year long Silla period of Korean history. Gyeongju was the Silla capital from the 1st century BC till the 10th century AD.

Here is a royal ice house from about the 8th century.

And here is east Asia’s oldest existing observatory, from the 6th century, I think.

And here is a typical golden Silla crown, which is in the national museum here.

I thought I’d try it and the power on for size. It suits me well, don’t you think?

Um, you may have guessed I didn’t get to put on the real crown. Our guesthouse had some traditinal clothes and a tin hat for the tourists to put on and pose for pictures.

We’ve spent a faiar amount of time hanging out with Myung’s friends. She’s from around here and knows people. Her best friends are Young He…

…and Gyung Ja. She’s known them since high school.

Let’s see, what else have uploaded. Here’s me at an ancient site,

There’s a bronze hand in the water of the beach in Pohang.

That’s about it. It’s not unlikely that the next time I write, it will be from China. I’m hoping we settle in one place there for a while. I’m for being a homebody. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do. I think, for one, I will really knuckle down and learn whatever language is used where we setle. Mandarin would be the language in China. I don’t know if my tired old brain can handle it, but at least it’s easier than Korean. I may even write that book I’ve been mulling over for a couple of years, even though it would be unpublishable. Maybe we’ll think of an occupation together. Who knows? The story of my life, eh?
Be well, all of you.

Puno itself is nearly nothing of interest. Most people who go there go to see the Uros people. The Uros live on islands they have made out of the reeds that grow in Lake Titicaca. As the reeds decay, they pile up more on top. These days they have electricity, schools and other infrastructure and, most importantly for them, a thriving tourist industry. I saw it in it’s less touristy state about 8 or 9 years ago. Given my time considerations, I chose not to go out there this time and to preserve my memories. I overnighted in Puno, skipping the several worthwhile Inca and pre-Inca sites around there, and headed for Cuzco.
My original plan (Why do I even think about planning?) was to spend maybe a day around town, go to Macchu Picchu and maybe the Sacred Valley, then go to Nazca and a park north of Lima. What happened was there was a transportation strike here and a pilot’s strike at the airline I am taking to Los Angeles for my connection to Seoul. Both of those are resolved, but the timing of all that prevented me from going to Macchu Picchu or getting to Nazca. It’s a long story, but the gist of it all is that I’ve hung around Cuzco for 6 days and later today am taking a bus to Lima where I will hang out till my flight leaves in three days.
On the bus from Puno I met a Swiss woman, Marita, who has been traveling 13 years.

I am authorized to tell you she got a terminal cancer diagnosis 13 years ago and decided to check off the items on her bucket list rather than prolong her previous life with cancer treatments. Seems like an obvious call to me, but you know how it is. Most people stay home. The cancer disappeared and she’s still traveling. Too bad she doesn’t have a website. She’s done some amazing stuff.
We’ve been pretty relaxed here in Cuzco. There are far worse places to be stranded. We went on a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Here are pics of that area.

That last place was Moray. We didn’t have a guide, but it is sure interesting how they decided to build those terraces on a circle like that. The terraces they built are interesting, but NOTHING compares to those in China

Here is the 16th century church in Chinchero.

As I said, we didn’t get to Macchu Picchu. It’s comforting to have been there before, though. For sure you’ve seen pictures of that place. If you haven’t, there are millions of pictures better than I could have taken to be found online.
Cuzco has changed since I was here before. It’s more modern, cleaner around the center, and touristy. Not that it wasn’t touristy a mere 8 years ago, but it’s got upscale stuff all over the place and a McDonalds right on the Plaza de Armas. Here’s the plaza.

It’s been wierd around here. Well, actually it’s probably been normal for Peru. There was a transportation strike, supported by many businesses not bothering to open. One of the reasons for the general shutting down and shuttering of windows was the threat of violence. All this was right in the middle of one of Cuzco’s biggest celebrations. During the winter solstice, they have traditional pageantry celebrating their Inca and Quechua heritage. Many hours of parades and music were to be interrupted by this labor action. It was thought this might last two days, which would have disrupted a lot of planning. Plus, violence would have ruined the vibes. As it turned out, nothing untoward happened. The protests died out by midafternoon and festivities resumed. You see in the previous pictures how it looked around the plaza during the happy part of the gathering. I didn’t think taking pictures of the riot police would be such a hot idea, but it was cute to see the bulls leaning on their shields, helmets at their feet, chatting on their cell phones, no doubtedly with their wives and friends about each others kids parading around them in their costumes.

These festivities will be going on for a couple more days. Those pics were of the parade of the kindergartners. All ages, groups and what not are in on it. I’ll put more parade pictures up when I get the wide angle pics copied onto DVD in Korea.
Speaking of Korea, I’ve got to get out of here and have some lunch before taking the bus for Lima this afternoon. Maybe I’ll have a chance to blog again before my flight three days from now. Until then, as always, be well all of you.

Hi, y’all. I’m going to try to get off this and another entry before leaving Cuzco, Peru, in about two hours for Lima. These pictures are of Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, and of a lovely island out in the lake, Isla del Sol. For the most part, Copacabana is a tourist town now. The only thing to actually look at is this moorish style church.

Other than that, about the only thing worth doing there is to eat the lake trout which are among the biggest trout in the world. I had my fill of trucha for awhile.
Here are some pitures of Isla de Sol. The views from along the shore here and on the Peruvian side might have you to think the views from the island are less than dramatic, but it really is nice out there. I went for two days and a night. The thing most tourists do is take the two hour boat ride to the village at the northern end of the island, look at the Inca sites there, and walk for about 4 hours to the southern end. That’s where all the hostals are. You reward yourself at one of the ubiquitous trucha/pizza joints and have a drink.
This is the look as you pull up to the dock at the northern end.

And here is part of the town itself.

Though this island is an important Inca location due to their belief that their main god was born here, the ruins are less than exciting. I didn’t think any of my pictures were blogworthy. So here are some pics along the ridge where you do most of your walking.

When you get to the end, there is a town where most people who stay overnight stay. It’s very mellow. I liked the view out my window. I especially like that the room to myself was only $3.

After that, I just went back to Copa, spent the night, and went the next day to Puno, Peru, about two hours west of there. I’m going to separate Bolivia from Peru by writing about everything over there in the next blog. Hopefully I can get that posted before having to leave this internet place I’m in. See you in a bit.

Hi, y’all. This is all out of sequence again, but internet connections were really slow in b
Bolivia. The above pictures are of La Paz. One is obviously a shot of the city from high ground. The bus pic is the view of the street I stayed on, and the other one is right around the corner tothe right. La Paz isn’t all that photogenic. It has some nice colonial architecture, like so many other cities. I hung around there a bit to take care of some things. The best thing was a huge, 16 hour parade and street party they had for Bolivia’s bicentenial. I have pictures, but for some reason I can’t upload pictures taken in wide screen on my camera. What’s that about? Maybe when I get these all put on DVD I can upload them. Also, once I’m in Korea, I can download the picture program CD that came with the camera.
After La Paz, I went to Bolivia’s savannah wetlands, which they call pampas but aren’t anything like what the Argentines call pampas. It’s low wetland, full of alligators, the biggest rodents in the world called capybaras, birds, snakes and more. I saw literally hundreds of alligators and their relative the caimans, and capybaras.

The only way to do this, really, was to go on a tour. The pampas tour is generally three days. I also went on a jungle tour for three days. I booked them in the only town of any size for 300 km, Rurrenabaque (pop 13,000). You can get there by going five days downriver from La Paz, taking a chicken bus overnight for 16 hours on dirt roads, chartering a four-wheel drive for about $50 each which does it in only 12 hours, or you can fly in only 40 minutes for $60. Call me lazy in my old age, but I flew. The drawback to that method is they cancel the flights if it rains and renders the dirt and grass landing strip useless. It’s didn’t rain for me.

Here’s Rurrenabaque.

One of the things that is part of the regular tour is slogging through the marsh looking for anacondas. This kind of walking is a little fatiguing. There’s quicksand, too, but reality is you only go down about a foot, at least here. It’s still a wierd sensation.

The snakes are there. We saw three. This little one was the biggest we saw, about 3 meters long, and way strong. It did NOT want to be pulled out of the weeds.

The sleeping arrangements were pretty good, really. On the pampas tour, I shared a big dorm-like room with only two German women. There were mosquito nets and decent food by the cook. What else could your ask for? We even had this companion on a post outside our door.

That’s a tarrantula, by the way, if you didn’t know. They are about the size of your hand and are harmless.
The other good thing is the river dolphins. At times we had really good looks at them, but I have no pictures. The babies are pink and very cute. Take my word for it. They are not rare here. You go out on the boat, jump in and swim with them. God only knows what was in that water, but it was worth it. I remember a couple of years ago Myung and I went a long way to see river dolphins in a stretch of the Mekhong River between Cambodia and Loas. And in Bolivia you can sit on the porch and watch them while you are having your morning coffee.
You can take a jungle tour for as long as you want, but most opt for three days because otherwise it’s about trekking. Call me old again, but I bagged that option. My knee was still hurting from a bicycle mishap a week before, anyway. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. The jungle is to the west of Rurrenabaque and the pampas is to the east, so you have to return to Rurre. That trip wasn’t as good, but it was jungly. Many boars, a few birds, and a couple of cobras. Everybody liked my oft told story about eating these at that refugee camp in Thailand.

This is the sleeping arrangement and the food at that camp. I paid a little more and was rewwarded with being in a small group of five the first night and only three the second. I got the cabin on the left all to myself.

That all brings me up to about four days ago. I flew back to La Paz and immediately got on a bus for Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at about 13,000 feet, 4000 meters. I hung out around there for a couple of days and went to a lovely, archeologically important Inca area, Lago del Sol, for a couple of more days. That’s for another blog entry, though. Today I went to Puno, Peru, about three hours from there. I’m just spending the night to break up the trip between Copa and Cuzco. Cuzco is interesting. I was there about eight years ago. It’s interesting in it’s own right, but it’s also the jumping off point for Macchu Picchu. I plan to go there again, though this time I’m taking the train which gets you to within an hour and a half walk from there. It’ll take about seven to eight hours to get to Cuzco, so I’ll do that walk the day after tomorrow.
I’m not used to scheduling my time. I leave for Korea on the 22nd. That’s only 10 days away! I can barely wrap my mind around that. It’ll go fast, in a sense, but on the other hand I’m in spring fever mode. I’m looking forward to seeing Myung again. It’s been a couple of months. She’s still scoping out ways to make money. We’ll work on that together when I get there. Maybe we’ll go try something in China. There is absolutely nothing definite yet. We’ll see how it goes. The upshot is that I may be more or less relatively stable for a while. Probably we’ll get a place to call home. Frankly, I could use a break.
It looks like Peruvian internet connections may be fast enough to upload more pictures. So it’s likely I’ll blog again at least once before getting out of Dodge. The only thing is I’m plannig to wind down in a remote area of the Andes north of Lima for the last few days. So, I hope to be in touch, but if I can’t, see you in Korea.
Be well, all of you.