Richard's Travel Blog

I have unexpectedly got the time to post an entry. Right now we are in Dali, Yunnan, waiting till our bus leaves for southern Yunnan. It’s raining, so Myung went to the room to take a nap, and we will meet in an hour. It may stop raining by then. Or she’ll bring umbrellas. Whatever.
Few words this time, again. We went from Kunming up to Lijiang. 15 years ago when Myung first went there, it was something like 13 hours over dirt roads, so it was unspoiled. Now it’s a worse tourist ghetto than Fenghuang. I uploaded one picture. It’s cute enough there. It looks a lot like this in most of the places. There are a couple of main walking drags which are crammed with Chinese tourists of the geekiest sort.

Basically, the best thing to do is walk around there for about a day, then go to Shangri La (I forget the old name for it), and from there to Shangri La Grand Canyon (which we didn’t do), or tour through the high mountains (which we did do). Before you get to Shangri La, there is a beautiful place called Tiger Leaping Gorge. We decided to go on a tour, on a bus with 30 other tourists, all Chinese. Some of those trips are all party, singing and such. This one was fairly sedate, though there was some singing and lots of socializing. Here’s Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Most of us walked down to the river at the bottom of the gorge. Hmm, I thought I uploaded pictures, but I don’t see them. Oh well.
From there we went up to the high mountains. The pass was about 13,000 ft. There were nice spots along the way. If I had known I’d be here blogging, I’d have brought Lonely Planet so I could remember the names of places. This is the “first bend” of the Yellow River.

There are mostly Tibetans in there, as you can see from the stupas. It’s Tibetan New Year, so many people were getting ready to celebrate.

Here’s up at the top of the pass.

This is the view out our guesthouse window in the morning.

From there we went to a glacier. Myung chose to walk the 20 km up the mountain. I decided to spring for a horse.

It was quite nice up there, even though it’s evident the glacier is melting away.

Then it was back down. Oh, going downhill is hard on guys if the stirrups are too short.

On the way back was a village with a large gompa, that is, Buddhist monastery. This one is quite nice. To me it looks like a little Potala in Llasa. I haven’t been to Llasa, but I’ve seen a lot of pictures, especially now with Chinese TV heavily covering New Year and, of course, giving it’s version of Tibet’s liberation from serfdom.

Her are a couple of pictures from around there.

We kind of formed groups. Here’s our group having dinner after we got back.

About 8 km from Lijiang is a Naxi minority village. Quickly, here are some pictures of that place.

Okay, I have to0 go. Here are the last pictures for now. In one, I’m getting my spsring travel cut. The others are just nice photos. Be well, all of you.

Fenghuang is a very picturesque city in Western Hunan. It was developed as a tourist site about 8 years ago, so it retains some of it’s charm despite being thick with Chinese tourists. Along the lanes right next to the river there is loud music after 8 PM well into the night. During the day it’s halfway mellow.

That last one is of a local liquor store. Myung didn’t know exactly what was in those containers and we didn’t ask. It’s gotten almost boring to ask. Every region has it’s own firewater. A good alcoholic could have a field day, or a field year, just sampling all the liquor here and there.
The people living there are Miao, and many of them continue to where there traditional clothes. Also, the tourists like to see them in that attire. Naturally, many are getting in on the tourism business.

Fenghuang will keep your finger on the shutter button, for sure. Here are a few more of the dozens of pics in our cameras.

All that whaite? They are the sheets from guesthouses along the river hanging out to dry. Adds color, don’t you think? There is definitely no shortage of rooms to rent in Fenghuang, all with a view.

That last one was some kind of performance. Myung couldn’t understand them, so I don’t know what it was. Some kind of comedy. My not knowing what this was about underscores how wondeerful it is to have Myung around to educate me. She’s of enormous logistical assistance too, as you can imagine. China wouldn’t be that easy without her. Well, it’d be easy enough, in a way. I’d get along, but I’d be getting a small fraction of what I’m getting out of it. I’d be my usual dumb donkey self, trying to not get in a bad way somehow and understanding only this and that. She brings the Chinese perspective as well as communication skills. And she’s good company.
We left there for Kunming, Yunnan. As I feared, it took about two and a half days to get there. The good news is that it was a lovely bus ride. We learned later we could have taken a very long sleeper bus from near Fenghuang all the way to Kunming, but we would have missed a lot of scenery. Southeastern Guizhou and most of Yunnan are temperate, and spring has sprung.The most dazzling thing was kilometer after kilometer of these bright yellow fields of rape blossom. Rapeseed is a major source of cooking oil here and in Korea. They are a little out of focus because they were taken from the bus.

That just about brings us up tp date. Kunming is nice enough, from what I could tell, for a city of a million people. From there we went to Lijiang, another old city. That’s where I am now, in an internet place with Christmas music playing. Chistmas was evidently popular around here, judging by the Santa Clauses still up and the music. Valentine’s Day yesterday was popular, too. I’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible. I can get a visa extension here in Lijiang, so we’ll be in China for another month. Tentatively, we’ll go to Myanmar after that.
Tidings of comfort and joy to you all.

I’ll get straight to the point, which is to post all these pictures I was finally able ot upload and edit.
Shenzhen was our forst real stop. It’s not photogenic. There’s lots of steel and glass. Myung’s office was on the 14th floor of the structure on the right.

There aren’t amy fun pictures of Shenzhen. We went to a couple of parks. Whoopie. Then we went to Yangshuo, the town where most people base their wandering up and down the Li and Yulong Rivers. First, here are some pictures along the Yulong. The limestone karst is quite famous. It is likely you recognise the scenery from pictures and travelogues.

Here come some pics along the Li. This is where most of the postcard photos are taken, not to mention the engraving on the back of the 20 yuan note. This first is of where the boats take off if you’re going on a river ride from Yangshuo. There are big boats, little boats, and everything in between.

Rafts at rest.

The most famous terraces in the area are called Dragon’s Backbone, near Sanjiang. They are probably a beautiful green when the rice and other crops are growing. Right now it’s fallow.

But there are some interesting people there. Here’s a couple of pictures of Myung I like, and one of a street vendor (if you can call the lanes there streets).

The grub is really interesting. Here’s a typical cook, and here is typical grub, dried rat. People have asked “Do they really eat rat?’. Well, they do. You boil it into soup. And, yes, dog is quite popular. We’ve had it several times. I’ll spare they westerners the sight of that hanging by the pork and beef.

So far, we are still in Guangxi Province. The last stop there was Chengyang where there are many picturesque covered bridges in a cluster of minority villages. The villagers there are
Miao, or Hmong as they are called more oftenn in the West, and Ma’am and Yao. Here are pictures of bridges, of which there are 188 in Sanjiang County, and some villagers. The women are famous for their long hair which they generally never cut. They mostly keep it wound up on their head. They will let it down if you give them some money. We passed. Actually, I think they should let it down and wash it sometimes. I’ve never seen so much dandruff.

Talk about low tech. This is how they water their fields around there. I heard some dumb bell pundit on CNN say China may not have enough infrastructure left to develop, that they may be out of ways to stimulate the economy during the current economic recession. Sheesh.

There was a little performance for the tourist in the Ma’am village. It was way cute.

Make mo mistake, they are definitely up for selling stuff.

Next we went to Hongjiang old city, in Hunan Province. It’s a little off the tourist route, even though it’s in Lonely Planet. They would like to charge admission, but a guy said no one came, so they bailed.

I was really looking forward to getting to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, so I could utilize high speed connection to post pictures. I’ve run out of time to post more, however. Myung has already left on the night bus to Lijiang. I prefer to ride during the day, so I’m taking the 10 hour day bus tomoorow morning. It’s about 11 PM and they are closing the hostel internet place in a few minutes. So I’ll have to close for now. I hope now that I’ve loaded my pictures onto WordPress, the connection in ?Lijiang will be fast enoug to post the rest. I also hope I have time. I haven’t researched how to stay in China more, and we are tentatively planning to go to Myanmar nextt week. With all we plan to do and the travel time required for all this, I may not have a chance to stay caught up. I’ll try. Meanwhile, be well, all of you.

Greetings. I was hoping to find an internet place with a fast enough connection to post pictures, but that is proving impoossible. There aren’t many internet places in general in China. In the tourist ghettos there is often a compouter you cn use at the guesthouse or a bar. I tried in Yangshuo and Chengyang, but even uploading one or two pictures took about 15 minutes. Then I’d have to edit them and post them. No good. Maybe when Myung and I get to Kunming in a couple of days it will be possible.
We may be settling into a kind of groove. Making decisions together has necessitated rewiring of our brains a little bit, but the last few days have gone well. We have an agenda of sorts. Right now we are in Hwaihua, Hunan, waiting for a bus to Kaili, Guizou, about 4 hours away. It doesn’t leave for about 1 1/2 hours, so I figured a blog entry without pictures is better than none. We had hoped to take a train to Kunming, Yunnan, today or tomorrow, but there are no tickets. So we’ll bunny hop through Kaili and Guiyang. That’s not optimal, but it’ll be okay.
The reason we’re going to Kunming, so far away, is that I’ve basically agreed to limit our time in China, and Yunnan is supposed to be really nice. Myung was there about 15 years ago. We tentatively agreed to a change of plan. It’s wintery here, though it will be nicer in Yunnan, so we may just take the bus to Myanmar from southwest Yunnan and look around there while the wether is perfect there for travel. Then we may return quickly to China through Thailand and Laos, and resume travelling in China during the nicer months of March and April. Myung is really hot to go to Pakistan and Iran, then on to Turkey. I haven’t committed to that itinerary, but I’m warming up to it. Iran may be a problem because last I looked, they were allowing American tourists if they were on a tour. That sounds expensive and not my style. There is a chance we’ll go through Central Asia, i.e. Khyrgistan, Tajikistan, etc., but Myung thinks that will be boring. We’ll see how this all plays out.
Since I last wrote, we wrapped things up in Shenzhen. There is nothing much there, but it was interesting to see where Myung lived. I saw the condo high rise where she lived and the steel and glass office building where her office was. There are some nice areas, but not much to do. It seems to be all business around there, as it’s a Special Economic Zone right next to Hong Kong. Lots of money, by Chinese standards.
From there we went to the world famous Li and Yulong river valleys in Guangxi, the next province north of there. For sure you’ve seen photos of the dramatic limestone karst scnery. It was as stunning as they seem in pictures. It’s quite a large area, not just around Guillin and Yangshuo. We took some long hikes and a couple of boat rides.
From there we went to Chenyang, which is a picturesque cluster of tribal villages with famous covered bridges. Again, you’ll have to search it for pictures. I took many. Someday maybe I will get to upload them. I must have a couple hundred.
Then we went to Fenghaung, Hunan, a popular old town for Chinese tourists though very few foreigners. Oh, before that we went to Hongjiang which is also picturesque “old China”. these kinds of plces are disappearing. Fenghuang is rapidly becoming almost a theme park. Fortunately, Hongjiang is simply falling apart naturally.
That brings me up to the present. I know this was the quick tour. I have to go.
Be well, all of you.

That means “hello” in Chinese. I actually think I might be able to pick this up a bit. The word order is almost the same as English. And I just hear it better. I think Myung is half offended.
This is the first time I’ve been able to sit for any lengthof time at a computer since arriving in China. I don’t have such an interesting story yet, but wanted to write now, as my friend Renato, who babysits me through all my computer needs, may try to update this website to a newer edition. I may be out of commission for a while if I need to learn anything new. I’m an old dog and I never learned all the features of the old WordPress.
Next time I’ll put in some pictures. They should be nice, as we are in a very beautiful and famous place, Yangshuo, near Guilin in Guangxi Province which is one province west of Guangdong. If you want to look at pictures, you can search either Guilin or Yanshuo, or Li River or Yulong River. You’ll recognize the scenery from travelogues and such. It’s famous.
Let’s see, we flew to Guangzhou, north of Hong Kong, on the 23rd, I think. We went there because most of China is cold now, and it’s merely cool here. They are in the middle of a cold wave, so the high temps have been about 50 degrees F., or about 10 C.. Feels like Yangsan on a warm day. anyway, we only sent there because it was the cheapest destination in the area. We went to a place north of there as soon as we arrived, but didn’t do anything. There are nice temples there, but we weren’t in the mood to deal with going. So the next morning we went to Shenzhen, where Myung lived for years. I’ts just over the water from Hong Kong. You can see Hong Kong from there. There is little to do, but it’s Myung;’s old stomping ground, so we cruised around there for about three days. It’s a Special Economic Zone, so most of it is quite modern. There is a lot of steel and glass. The bloom is off the rose since the economic meltdown, but the shutters will probably come off the building fronts some day. I’ll post a couple of pictures next time but, really, it isn’t much. I saw the apartment building Myung lived in and the building where her office was. She flew pretty high back then. Nice digs. We went shopping and walked in a couple of parks. That’s about it. It was Chinese New Year, so things were a little slow anyway. Most everybody was with their families, or en route.
Chinese New Year wasn’t especially dramatic. You could go find dragon parades adn there were definitely firworks, but Diwali it wasn’t. I was fine just hanging out.
Now we’re in Yangshuo, having arrived this morning after taking the 11 hour night bus from Shenzhen. Ugh. Myung is sleeping it off. I’m getting this done before possibly updating the site. Who knows? I may not be able to operate the new one.
Renato put a new link for a map of Southern China on my homepage. I’ll try to keep up with it.
Until next time, be well, all of you.

I was beginning to doubt if we would ever leave Yangsan. There were no nibbles, much less bites, on our apartment. I was renewing my effort to learn and understand Korean, and hunkering down for the long haul. The only good part for me was that it’s cold now. Much of China is cold also, so travelling is less than desireable. This is especially true for Myung, who is temperature sensitive.
Well, the one person who the property manager brought by a week or so ago decided he liked the place. He’s all signed up and will be moving in on Monday, just four days from now. Just like that, we’re free.
Myung is reluctant to go. She likes it here and would like to figure out a way to make a living. She really thought about maybe not travelling anymore. This was going to break us up because I am not about to settle down, certainly not here, though maybe in some place with life, like Seoul or around Hong Kong. In the end, we have agreed to travel together for some undefined amount of time. This morning we mailed our passports to Seoul for Chinese visas and bought plane tickets to Gwangzhou for next Friday, the 23rd.
I don’t have anything to say about China yet. I really don’t know that much about the place. Well, maybe I do know more than the average Joe six pack, but hearing and reading about someplace is nothing like being there. I’m looking forward to becoming familiar quickly, guided by an old China hand like Myung. For those who haven’t been following this blog all along, Myung has lived near Hong Kong, in Shenzhen, for a long time. She speaks and reads Chinese well, and has travelled extensively there. She isn’t so excited about touring there, as she has seen much already. I hope she enjo9ys taking me in tow.
We’ll be staying in the south, as likely we will not be there for more than a couple of months and it’s cold in much of the north and in the mountains. Unless we stay well into the spring, Beijing and the Forbidden City and Great Wall will have to wait until another time. The two month timeline is because that may be all the government allows American passport holders to stay. Even then, I may have to go to Hong Kong or someplace to get an extension. At this time, it costs Americans $200/month for a Chinese visa. Ouch. Oh well, it’s the cost of doing business, as they say.
All that said, I am really excited about going. I hope Myung enjoys herself. Spring would be better, but circumstances are such as they are. I imagine my next post will be from Gwangzhou. Until then, be well, all of you.

Hi all. Last week we got out of Dodge and went to Jeollabuk Province in the southwest part of Korea. First we went to Jeonju (hometown of now Phillies pitcher, Chan Ho Park) and a temple near there. Jeonju has a nicely kept portion of the city where things are the way they were 50 or more years ago. Scenes like this are disappearing fast. Korea is doing what the US did for a long time, talk about valuing their heritage, but doing little to preserve what isn’t obviously cultural heritage material. Sure, old temples and natural wonders are easy to want to save, but neighborhoods of yesteryear are being torn down without compunction. Many of the old neighborhoods which remain are now chi-chi, with fancy restaurants and teahouses and prices to match. The old neighborhood in Jeonju isn’t too bad. At least the families from long ago are mostly still there and it feels pretty normal. I imagine that in the tourist season there is a boatload of foreigners there. It must be in Lonely Planet. Yes, for sure. There is a tourism office and maps of the area. We just walked around there for a couple of hours. The first picture below is of one of the lanes. The second is of a restaurant where we ate lunch. The room behind the well and tree was our private dining room. The next is of the spread, which as readers of this blog now know, is typical. The last is just a goofy “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” picture of me and the sweat band I need to eat Korean food.

After that we went to Byeonsan Peninsula National Park, most famous for Naesosa temple and Chaeseokgang Seashore. The temple was typical and I’ll spare you more temple pictures at this time. The coastline there is pretty, of course. The most famous of the “sites” is this striated cliff area.

Next we went to Naejangsan National Park. It was beautifully wintery. Here are some wintery scenes which speak for themselves.

We were only gone three days, so that’s about it. A cold snap and heavy snow was due, so we went home. It turned out that the cold snap is indeed here, but the snowfall in that area was about 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches).
We got a call from the real estate woman today. Tentatively, there is a guy who wants to rent this place. We’ll find out later today, maybe. It’s possible we will be out of here by next week. I’ll let you know.
Until then, be well all of you.

Happy New Year. Things have settled back into a routine here in Yangsan. It looks like we will be here for awhile unless we decide to walk away from our 3 million won (about $2400) deposit on this apartment. Myung’s not up for that. Plus, she’s fine staying here for at least the time being. Hence, the routine. We go here and there, sometimes for no reason other than to keep busy and not spend all day watching TV or sitting at the computer. Myung’s talked about maybe teaching English or something to bring in an income, but I doubt anything will become of that idea, at least not yet. Maybe we will be able to rent our apartment and get out from under the lease. Personally, I’d be willing to walk away from the deposit pretty soon. Stay tuned on this one.
Like everywhere in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter here. You’ve seen pictures of rivers and foliage in many past blog entries. The picture above is of the river near Tongdosa temple. You’ve seen that before, but wouldn’t recognise it now. Winter’s are relatively dry at this time of hte year, and the rivers are running low. It’s colder than the populated parts of California, but not too bad, usually about 40-something Fahrenheit during the day and 20-something Fahrenheit at night. This is the warmest area of Korea, a veritable banana belt. The rest of Korea is pretty cold. In Seoul, the highs are usually about 32 Fahrenheit and there is an unusual amount of snow. No snow is likely here.
We’ve had one out of town trip, with Gyung Ja, Il Hwan and their kid, Dong Yi. We went to some sites and a couple of temples near the south coast last weekend.

I get asked, “What do you do for New Year’s?”. Some people here ring it in. Koreans mostly ring in the lunar new year which is Jan. 26 in 2009. Myung says if you don’t stay up on New Year’s Eve, you’re eyebrows will turn white. Myung will have no part of any white hair, so we may have to try to stay awake. We made potstickers today. She says that’s traditional too. I like the beer bottle rolling pin in this picture.

Yes, we get all kinds of crud in this computer. You wouldn’t believe the compost I plowed out from between the keys yesterday. I should do a testimonial for Samsung laptops.

Il Hwan made a DVD of my and Myung’s pictures since I came ot Korea in May. For who knows what reason, I uploaded these to this website before sending it to my friend, Larry’s, for safe keeping. They are mostly just “family photos” and a little scenery. I probably blogged some of them before, but here’s what I’ve got.

That, of course, is me eating traditional Korean fare. It might be intersting to Westerners. Myung photographs Western food for her Eastern friends. She took this of a salad with, get this, RAW bean sprouts, mushrooms, broccoli and zucchini. Can you imnagine EATING this?! With olive oil and balsamic vinegar?!

I still think I’m the spittin’ image of Dick Cheney in this one. Boy, am I glad he can now devote full time to shooting trapped birds with his buddy, Judge Scalia.

I guess this is artsy. It’s of jugs of soy paste you see fermenting at all temples. They sit there for up to 100 years, but 30 is good and one year is adequate.

That’s about it for now, I guess. Again, Happy New Year, and be well, all of you.

For those of you who do not already know, things turned out far better for my brother than one could ever expect. He had a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, based on much empirical evidence but no biopsy, as this would have been invasive and almost certainly would have confirmed the obvious. Well, “almost” is the operative word. He had his pancreas removed, along with a length of intestine. Then the pathology report came back that none of the tissues showed evidence of cancer. We were told that happens roughly once every 150 pancreatectomies for presumed cancer. So, I stayed around for a couple of weeks. He was healing up fine from the surgery and learning to deal with no insulin or pancreatic enzymes of his own. I took care of some matters of my own and have returned to Myung and my apartment in Yangsan.
Happy Holidays INDEED!
So, I guess we are back to Plan A. When we get our apartment rented out, we will go to China. There is a glitch, in that it is proving difficult to find a renter. The real estate woman who got us into this place said it should rent out easily because of it’s good location, nice view and good price. Unfortunately, it appears nobody is moving around as expected. Maybe it’s the time of the year, or maybe it’s the economy which is crashing along with most of the rest of the world’s. Anyway, there have been no inquiries. I think we’re going to have to find someone ourselves.
That’s about all that’s going on. Myung and I are enjoying being back together. We’ve gone out a little, but are basically just hanging out. Maybe we’ll get a plan or something before we go stir crazy. This part of Korea is kind of the banana belt, with mild temperatures up to about 50 F. (10 C.), no snow or seriously foul weather. We could go somewhere. I don’t know yet.
I hope you are all well and having a happy holiday season, if you celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah where you are.

Until a couple of days ago, our plan was to go to China later this month. Sadly, my brother has taken quite ill, and I plan to go to the US the day after tomorrow to see him and help out any way I can. This happened quickly, so that’s basically all that’s decided. Myung may come join me if I have to stay. We may go from California to Mexico. Or I may return to Korea. Or China. It’s all up in the air. So, my next entry will likely be from the US.
Meanwhile, not much has happened since I last blogged. We were just waiting till the real estate people found a renter to replace us here, then we were out of here. I have only taken about 8-10 pictures. Here are three of them. It’s been a nice autumn.

Be well, all of you.