Eva birthday chocolate cake

Paul Theroux says...

"Overland travel is slow and a great deal more trouble, but it is unconfortable in a way that is completely human and often reassuring."

Recommended lecture, any of his travel books.

Clarifications

You might be thinking (as I read from a friend) that we are not enjoying the trip, as the last few post about China were negative. Traveling is not only about enjoying things, but mostly discovering things. We have been discovering that most of China cities are unbearable because of pollution, way of driving and lack of respect among others.

However today we did 8 hours of bus to arrive to a 50% Tibetan village at 2600m altitude where, for the first time, we can see the sky and breath some fresh air. Before here we have been discovering most known villages of China, using public transports, being in environments where the mob of Chinese people just suffocates you (and we are not talking about India, where we believe it is much worst). This does not give pleasure of traveling. However at same time you want to discover, you want to feel, you want to visit world heritage sites which are near big cities like Beijing or Xi'an.

We are enjoying the trip and no way to return soon. Just that there are parts of the world where you loose your patience because things are difficult to handle and, in tight budget together with long trips it makes heavy. It is the "and again, and again, and again syndrome".

Another friend wrote yesterday that for most people travel is: way of escape; way of distraction (holidays); way of laziness; way of avoidance (of reality).

Long travel for me is, however, a way of continuous reborn; way of confrontation with the (others) reality; way of getting lost and way of rethinking about life and, a way of true freedom. Enough. And argh, I cannot see the youtube videos of the Portuguese party leaders being joked by commediants... Eva cannot access and update her facebook.

(the picture, if it appears in the blog, it is Chengdu downtown. The weather was fine and it was day. The gray is not fog, it is the pollution).

Photos from China

Two pandas - eating
Originally uploaded by eva_p

Blogging is more difficult in China because of censorship. You will have to wait for the "spicier" stories for another couple of months, but you can already see some of my photos on flickr (which, miraculously, is not blocked):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photos-eva/sets/72157622402530708/

I will try to update the photo site whenever possible.

I took this picture today at Chengdu Panda Reserve. We saw a lot of very cute pandas eating and sleeping. Why do we find pandas so cute? Well, they seem to have big eyes and big ears due to their colouring, and they grasp food and objects just like humans.

Pandas

Today we went to see several of those pandas. Yes, they are cute and you just keep staring at them as they eat the bamboo.

Travel moments of indecision

Today we are in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, near where one year ago there was the huge earthquake that killed 65 thousand people. The hostel where we are is a bit the hub for travellers who come from Xi'an to visit Sichuan or that come to China to go to Tibet. There are dozens of travellers organizing their trips, deciding where to go, trying to find travel colleagues to make the rent of a jeep cheaper, etc.

When I hear all those people my mind came confuse, I don't know where to go, I don't want to loose places to visit but at the same time we cannot go everywhere. But it makes me fell dizzy just to think, should we go to Tibet, should we go to that national park, should we go left, right?

But well, this is life. Anyway what I want more is to get rid of non respectful chinese. They might have a different education, but is quite low in a big majority. Yesterday when we enter our compartment in the train there was a guy sleeping in one of our beds. Seeing our tickets he goes to his bed. But no shame. And the driving skills or lack of them is still making our road crossing a big adventure every time. No car stops, no matter of the color of the light for the pedestrians. Well, we see that chinese pedestrians might be color blind, as they cross in the middle of the crazy traffic in red. Then is the pollution. You can hardly see more than 200m far in the cities, behind is thick gray.

Well, our next stops will be to see pandas tomorrow in a reserve and then to go on the South Tibet highway, which is a road that goes up to more than 4000meters to Tibet. Near the border we will turn South to Yunnan province, as we don't have Tibet permits (which are expensive or a hassle to get).

Well, time to go to sleep. Anyone knows anyone in Hong Kong who can host us for 3 or 4 nights? :-) We should also be trying Couchsurfing again. Let's hope.

Breakfast

Trial of breakfast western in a chinese hotel: orange juice made with hot water; coffee 3in1 (coffee, milk and sugar); powder cereals; yogurt but there are no spoons.

Paracetamol

After visiting the Terracota warriors and being mislead by a tout to take a slow bus, Eva feels bad. For couple days she has some headache. Overdose of China, she may lack some strength to support the chinese bad education (or "lack of", or "different", whatever you may call it). She asked me to buy Paracetamol but in the pharmacy they did not knew what was it. After a non-sense phone call from the lady in the pharmacy which did not speak any english to someone who speak but could not understand english and after understanding that there was no book (or computer) in the pharmacy where she could look what "paracetamol" is (I had written in a paper), she sells me some headache medicine all written in chinese in the box. After going out the pharmacy I open the box and see it is "Ibuprofen" which Eva specifically said she did not want, and which I specifically said in the pharmacy I did not want. Going back to the hotel and I ask at the reception to check on the internet how to write paracetamol in chinese. The lady in the pharmacy eventually gives me something which says clearly in the box in english "Paracetamol compound". Eva asks me to know the ingredients, as she took already a good dose of Ibuprofen. Back to the reception for translating the chinese from the box... It is a medication for children... Eva cannot anymore from China at that moment. She rests while I go eat at hotel's restaurant. After, I look around for another pharmacy but again the only have the "compound" thing, which is almost no paracetamol but mostly aspirin. Luckily the headache is gone.

Finally in Chengdu (17-Sept) we find a pharmacy where they have simple paracetamol. Eva is happy now.

No sense

Still in Pingyao, making time for the 00:09 train. When thinking that paying 1.5euros for a beer at the backpackers restaurant/bar is expensive we feel no sense. But in the chinese restaurant around the corner would be 40cents. In the shop maybe 20cents. But we were craving for wester food. Two cheesburgers please. They were good and came with french fries. Yeah, we arrive the backpackers paradise. From youth hostel with snooker table for free paying 10euros for a double room, to this kind of bars were raggae comes after a CD of the Beatles and the full meal costs, for two, always less than 6euros.

In China however the backpackers had its debuts (in Dali) but it is not yet fully in place, or it can't be. Beijing or Shangai will always be more expensive cities where living under 20euros/day/person is difficult.

And here our fights with the net continue. Yesterday google maps worked, I managed to update the map of our trip. But the blogger is always censored and using proxies I cannot do everthing I want. Eva is feeling as a terrorist as she cannot login in facebook, banned in China since July. On the hostel we stayed the internet works a day over two. The day two, they explained, is a penalty because of too much bandwidth used the day before. China.

Eva wants some cookies. A group of chinese is buying them, the women gives them 5 and they pay with a 1yuan bill. Eva shows also a 1yuan bill and she gaves only 2 cookies. With a smile a 3rd one. Well, we know the world is not the same for everyone and that is the reason why we are travelling already for 5 months while a chinese could not even dream about it.

Time to go back to the table where Eva is alone drinking the second euro and half Snow brand beer. Local they say. Probably full of pollution. The fog is thick here, its cold, they start to use charbon to heat the houses. We read that 16 of the 20 most polluted world cities are here, in China.

Great Wall and Pingyao

The other day we went to the China Wall which, indeed, is an amazing construction. We went to Samatai area of the wall with a pseudo-taxi which drove real chinese way. As far we understood the chinese way means that there ar no rules. The lane in the middle of the road is to center the car, then does not matter if it is continuous or not, you can overpass. Also, you can always make close bends on the oposite side, it will never came a car across. Fortunately it didn't, but Eva called so many names to the driver in french and then said 'no money' if he continues to drive like this and it calm down for 5 minutes. but then it continue. There was an accident somewhere and a few kilometers queue of trucks but he managed to go all the way on the oposite side, like few other cars, until the accident place. It was just a truck who broke one axe of wheels. then he manage to scream to the policeman there (the only one) and make them to move another truck so that we could cross the accident area. Eva swears that she will not take other taxi in China...

Then we come in a night train to Pingyao. We arrived at 5:30 in them morning. There were the common guys trying to offer taxi, but we refused. we did not manage to buy train tickets again because of this parallel system of tickets, so nothing is available apart if you pay a 4euros commision in the hotel (per ticket that costs 9euros). Pingyao is a very nice ancient city, enclosed by walls. In the morning we were almost the only ones walking with the mist. We spend already 2 days here and we are in a lovely hotel with a stone courtyard. Tomorrow night we will move to Xian (night train again).

Sorry for not updating the map, but here not even that proxy thing to go around the censorship works, so no map update.